Half Wild (30 page)

I scramble back to Marcus, keeping low to the ground. I have to pull him behind the crates. His wounds are bad but they’re not fatal. And this is Marcus: his healing powers are huge. He’ll be all right.

“You can keep yourself alive until we get back to Van,” I tell him.

Marcus coughs. “I’m not sure how you’re going to get me back there. Back anywhere.”

It’s true: most of the Alliance members have fled now but if some of them go back to the cut, and the Hunters find it, all will be lost. There are four or five bodies of rebels on the ground and I see a straggler fall in the distance. And it hits me that this has all been well planned. The Hunters will have watched to see where the cut is; our camp may already be in their hands.

Nesbitt crawls over to join us. He says, “Most of the Hunters have followed the foragers but we’re surrounded still.”

Gabriel helps Nesbitt drag some wooden crates over to form a makeshift barrier to one side of us. The cases of guns are by our feet. Gabriel goes through them and tries to fire them. None of them work. They’re all broken in some way.

We’re trapped.

Greatorex, Claudia, and Sameen are nearby, hunkered down behind some other cases. I can see Olivia’s body close to them. Everyone else has run.

Nesbitt offers his flask to Marcus. “It’s just water,” he says.

Marcus takes it but his hand is shaking.

“Any bright ideas, anyone?” asks Nesbitt.

Gabriel says, “We need to get away as soon as we can. I make out sixteen Hunters around us. But the others will be back.”

“There might be more,” I say. “I think these are the ones with Wallend’s tattoo. I think they can all go invisible.”

“Shit!” Nesbitt says.

“Yes,” Marcus agrees. “Shit!”

“Can you run, Marcus?” Gabriel asks.

“I don’t think—” Blood bubbles out of the corner of his mouth and he coughs. I can see he’s healing, and his healing is strong but it won’t last. “I don’t think I can even stand at the moment. These bullets are bastards, aren’t they?”

“Can we cut them out? Like you cut mine out?”

“One is in my lung; if you cut that out I’ll die anyway.”

There’s more shooting and I know Marcus certainly won’t be able to outrun Hunters. I look around. I’m not sure
I
can outrun them.

Nesbitt and Gabriel have crawled farther away and are shooting at a group of four Hunters who have crept up on us.

Marcus says, “I haven’t much strength but I think I can help you to get away. I can slow time enough. It probably won’t last more than a minute, maybe not even that. But it should allow you to get past the Hunters around us.”

“And what about you?”

“I stay here.”

I shake my head. “I’ll carry you. We’ll get you out.”

“No. That’s not what happens. I’ll be too slow. You have to get away.”

“No.”

“I can’t heal these wounds. I’m dying, Nathan. You have to fulfill the prophecy. You know that, don’t you? This is what I saw in the vision.”

I shake my head. “No. I can’t.”

“You can. The Fairborn will help you. It’ll want to cut me. Pull open my ribs. Eat my heart. Do it as a human. That is how it is in my vision. Take my Gifts. Take them all and use them.”

I have a feeling that everything in my life has led to this point but I don’t want any of it.

“It’s the only way, Nathan.”

“I can’t do it.” But I can see Marcus is determined for himself and for me.

Gabriel crawls back to us and Marcus says to him, “I’m going to tell you the plan. I want you to make sure Nathan does it and escapes safely. I think I’m still strong enough to stop time for about thirty seconds, maybe a little more. It’ll be enough for you to run. Kill as many Hunters as you can in that time and meet up at the far side over there.” He nods in the direction away from the cut. “Nathan will stay with me. When he’s ready to go you must cover him. If there are any Hunters left alive draw them away from Nathan.”

I shake my head but Gabriel says, “Yes. I’ll make sure he’s safe. I’ll tell the others.” And he crawls off to where Greatorex and Nesbitt are.

Marcus reaches up and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Nathan, I’m glad I got to know you briefly. Maybe too little and too late. I wish it had been more.” His hand drops and he pulls the Fairborn out of his jacket. “I’m dying, Nathan. But I don’t want to die for nothing. I want you to have my Gifts.”

I shake my head. There’s no way I can kill him, never mind eat his heart.

“You’re strong. You can do it. Kill me and then kill Soul and the rest of them. Kill all of them.”

He pushes the Fairborn into my hand. “Will you do this for me, Nathan?”

I look into his eyes and see black triangles moving slowly, too slowly. I know there is nothing I can do to save him. I have to do as he asks.

I take the Fairborn out of its sheath, feel its desire, and tell my father, “I’ll kill them all.”

“Always remember that I wanted you to do this. I’m proud of you.” He coughs again. “Doing the spell is tiring. As soon as time speeds up again I will be weak, unable to heal any more. That is when you have to use the Fairborn.”

He rubs the palms of his hands together, making circular movements that go faster and smaller. He stops. Takes a breath and starts again. Then stops and starts again. This time he stops and raises his palms to the side of his head. He looks at me then and I can see the spell must be working and he’s concentrating but it’s hard for him. It’s taking his energy. His hands are shaking. He says, “Tell them to run.”

I look over to Gabriel. I can tell from the stillness that time has stopped. I shout to him, “Run!” though I’m not really aware of anything now.

Gabriel, Nesbitt, and the others charge off. There are some shots. I see a Hunter fall. And another. And then all too quickly the world speeds up.

The next thing I do is the worst thing.

If it wasn’t for the prophecy I couldn’t do it and not without him telling me to and with his eyes on mine the whole time. He says, “I love you, Nathan. I always have.” His eyes are black, the empty triangles tumbling and turning slowly to a stop.

I do it while I stare into my father’s eyes. The Fairborn is keen to go in and sever everything. It helps me. I pull my father’s chest apart and eat him and watch the triangles in his eyes fade to nothing as I taste him and swallow his heart.

I’m not sure exactly what happens after I kill my father. I’m aware that there are Hunters around still but Greatorex and the others are attacking them now. The change in their position has confused the Hunters, at least enough for me to get away. I leave my father’s body. It’s hard to do but once I get up and start to move my legs just carry me.

I see Gabriel ahead and run to him. But really all I see is my father looking at me and his eyes staring and the triangles fading to nothing. The taste of him is strong in my mouth. I’m on the verge of gagging but I’m determined not to.

“Nathan, look at me,” Gabriel says. I realize he’s grabbed my arms. “Look at me!”

I do as he says. But I’m not sure what I see. I can’t focus on him.

He says things to me. I’m not sure what. I’m remembering my father saying he loved me. I’ve hardly known him. And now I’ve killed him. There was so much blood. So much blood. My knees feel like they’ll give way and Gabriel pulls me up and shouts at me. “Nathan!”

Nesbitt runs up to us, sees me, and stops, exclaiming, “Shit!” He didn’t know what I was going to do.

Greatorex and the others arrive and stare. I know I’ve got blood all over me: my face, my chest, my hands.

Greatorex says, “We need to go. More Hunters are coming.”

Gabriel is pulling me along now. Pulling me by the arm.

Greatorex and Sameen are ahead of me, Claudia to the right, Gabriel close to my left.

Running helps. I’m feeling more like myself. But we’re not fast enough. The Hunters are after us. We keep going, and the more I run the better I feel, the stronger I feel. I’m in the lead now. There’s another shot and a scream and I turn to see Sameen fall. She’s not dead. Gabriel slows and stops and I go back to him. Sameen is twenty paces behind us.

I tell him, “Keep going. Stay with Nesbitt and I’ll catch you up.”

He shakes his head. “No, she’s my partner. I told your father—”

“No! I’m faster than you. I can get away. Go. If I don’t catch up with you in a few minutes I’ll be at the meeting place, as we agreed. But the longer you take the more danger I’m in now.”

He points at me; he knows I need to be alone. “The meeting place, as we agreed.”

“Yes. Go.”

He runs off.

I go back to Sameen. I’ve still got the Fairborn in my hand.

I kneel by her. She’s been shot in the back but blood is coming out of her mouth and nose. I say, “Sorry, Sameen.”

She doesn’t say anything, just looks at me. I slit her throat.

More blood. Blood everywhere. My hands are dripping.

I stand and look back at the Hunters, making sure they see me. There’s one of them whom I notice not far from the front. I just get a glimpse of her. But I know it’s her. My sister, Jessica. It was her trap.

I know I can outrun them. I’m in shock but my body’s strong, stronger than ever. I don’t need to think when I run. I don’t want to think. Just run. I break to the left. Going hard and fast away from Nesbitt, Gabriel, and Greatorex, drawing the Hunters after me.

You can’t let yourself think too much about numbers; how many are dead. There’s a lot. There always seems to be another one. You can’t let yourself think about much really. You need to just keep walking. But every time you think there won’t be any more bodies you come across another. A woman, a man, all members of the Alliance, all dead, usually shot in the back.

You’ve ended up in a gentle valley and a few rebels must have run down here. There are bodies lying in clumps, as if they surrendered but were then shot, some shot in the head—executed. You count them. It’s the only thing you can do. Nine of them.

If Marcus had been alive, if Annalise hadn’t shot him, most of these people would be alive too. Marcus would have been able to slow the Hunters enough. Kill enough of them. These deaths are on Annalise’s head.

Still, you need to get out of the valley or you’ll be dead too. The Hunters will come back this way to check they haven’t missed anyone.

It starts to rain as you climb up the side of the valley and into the next one, down its steep side and through the old trees. Between the trees are rounded, moss-covered stones and the floor is deep with ferns: it’s a lush, green, and beautiful place. You sit, too tired to go on. The ferns arch over your head and the rain patters down. You rub your face. And inside you feel on fire. Marcus’s heart has already given its Gifts but it has exhausted you and it’s doing something else to you too.

You bow your head and the rain runs off you, rivulets of red, to join the mud and the blood around you.

You want to sleep but when you close your eyes you see it all again: Annalise pointing the gun at Marcus, the Fairborn going into Marcus, cutting into his skin, you pulling his ribs apart and all the blood and everything that you had to do.

You would never have had to kill Marcus, would never have had to do all that, if it hadn’t been for Annalise.

You lie in the rain. Going over it again and again. There’s nothing else you can do today. But tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow you go after her.