by Alex Mersey
A corner of her mouth hitched, a smile grounded by sad truths. “I was so mad at you, always going rogue and busting all the rules, always thinking you knew better. As it turns out, you did.”
“I don’t know better,” Sean said. “Cassie, I’m just making this up as I go along.”
“But you’re making it up, not waiting to be told,” she said, an emphatic line spearing between her eyes. “They took your people and you got them back. Nothing else mattered, you just did what needed doing. You did something. And if you hadn’t succeeded, hell, even if we’d all ended up dead, at least we would have died trying.”
She rested her cheek on her knees, her gaze skimming past him. “I’m not stopping when we reach Colorado, Sean, I intend to keep going all the way to San Francisco. And maybe I never find my parents or my sister, maybe they didn’t make it, maybe they’re long gone, maybe I don’t even make it there alive, but I’ll know I tried. At least I’ll know that.”
The softly murmured words resonated with Sean, deep inside his chest. They had close on two thousand miles to cross by foot. Was that even possible? But they were going. He hadn’t even once considered not. He’d promised Williams. He would deliver Chris to his grandfather. He needed to get Lynn, Johnnie, Beth and Allira somewhere safer. Not to mention all the others. They all knew the risk, he’d told them in no uncertain terms, but that hadn’t seemed to put anyone off. The size of his party had already doubled and it wasn’t yet noon. He felt like damned Moses, leading the desperate out into the desolate wilds. Except without the magical staff and a host of angels watching over them, and they had to walk their way through an alien invasion.
But, like Cassie said, he would try.
He had to.
Because what else was there?
Thank you for reading Beasts of Byron and I hope you enjoyed the second book in my Silvers Invasion series. If you’re hooked and wondering what happens next, look out for the third book in this series coming soon, Road of Bones.
