We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Author:Tehlor Kay Mejia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

15

I will lay down my life, if required, in service of La Voz.

—La Voz Membership Pledge

“SOTA!”

The scream came from Dani, but Carmen thought she could feel it in her lungs, too. In her throat. They couldn’t stop, but when she looked to where she’d last seen him, there was nothing.

“We have to go back!” Dani said, pulling at Carmen’s arm, slowing them both.

But Mateo was so close they could hear him screaming at his men: “He’s down! Make sure he’s dead. We can question the others.” And Carmen knew, though the knowledge tore at every fiber of her, that this would be their only chance to escape.

She thought she had learned her lesson during Mateo’s speech, the one Sota had tried to explain to her just a few nights ago. About the cause and the individual. About fighting for the good of all even when the system was flawed.

Apparently the lesson wasn’t done with her yet.

Tears stung her eyes as she fought with Dani, who was still pulling her back, but Sota, though his cries could still be heard, didn’t call for help. He knew what they had to do. What he had to do. Now, while all of Mateo’s confused soldiers were running to the spot where he had fallen.

But still, Carmen hesitated, racking her brain for any way to save him without dooming them all. Without letting the knowledge they had just gained about Mateo’s plans die with them.

They were supposed to do this together, she thought desperately. Stand shoulder to shoulder between La Voz and destruction. The resistance had never needed Sota more than it did now. There had to be a way to save him.

Her thoughts ground to a halt when the second shot sounded. The third. After that, there were no more cries.

“We can’t go back,” she said, her voice hard even though her heart was splintering under the weight of her guilt. Her grief.

“What do you mean?” Dani asked, digging in her heels.

“I mean he’s gone, Dani. If we go back we’re gone, too. We have to get back to La Voz, tell them what happened. We have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice!” Dani said, but Carmen was through arguing.

“He’s gone, Dani. He’s gone.”

And they were out of time. If they wanted to take advantage of the opening Sota had left them, if losing him was going to mean anything, they would have to take their chance now. It was what he would want them to do.

It was what he would have done.

She pulled Dani as hard as she could, veering off the course they’d been on and into a dense tangle of trees, zigzagging through as Dani sobbed openly behind her. But she had stopped trying to turn around.

As they ran, Carmen prayed that he died quickly. That he wouldn’t suffer for her choices. The guilt would come, she knew; she could feel it threatening like the low growl of a deadly predator. But guilt was no use if you were dead.

For now, there was no time.

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