When Night Breaks by Janella Angeles

Author:Janella Angeles [Angeles, Janella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250204349
Google: a8z3DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2021-10-04T23:00:00+00:00

22

It was like walking out of a dream, when he exited the hospital building. And the first to wake him up the moment he stepped over the threshold was Lottie and the chaos that still wrapped around Glorian.

“Daron?” Lottie prompted. As if she’d asked him multiple times, with no response. “Where are you going? What happened?”

He could’ve asked the same of her, from her disheveled appearance. The dark knot of her hair flew apart in wild tendrils. Her prim tweed jacket, now dirtied and soot-smudged as her face. Somehow, she’d even managed to lose a shoe in the fray. No blood at least, which was about all he needed to see. “He told me nonsense.”

“No, he didn’t.”

The mayor’s drawings scratched in the back of his mind. If she knew where he was heading, she would stop him. Or worse, she would follow. “I don’t know when I’m coming back, Lottie.”

Lottie stared at him long and hard, and as another firework burst into the night, he thought he saw a glimmer of a tear at the edge of her eyes. “Be the one who comes back, please.”

His throat knotted, and before he knew it, he had pulled her into a hug. Weeks ago, this seemed impossible. But now, he finally understood why Eva had befriended her.

Daron drew away without saying goodbye, because it was easier that way. Because at least that wasn’t the last word said between them.

As he ventured through the town center, he marveled at what a battlefield it had become. Smoke rising, sparks flying. Flashes of white Patrons still being chased by fireworks, screams pitching high into the air. Daron covered his mouth with his sleeve against the swirling smoke. He knew this town well enough by now to walk through it with a blindfold and amused himself with the idea that when he’d first walked these streets, they didn’t make sense to him. No street signs, no signs at all. Just buildings of different shapes sharing roads that only those who’d lived long enough in Glorian would know them.

It didn’t take him long to quietly slink over to the entry gate of Glorian, the long stretch of road leading to the outside world.

“Daron?”

His heart clenched. He wondered if the Dire Woods had reached him already, before Aunt Cata limped into view a brief distance away. Between him and the gate, she somehow remained steadfast as ever in her pristine white uniform, marred with scorch marks and streaked with blood.

When she charged toward him, Daron ran.

It killed him, her crying out his name behind.

He did not look back. Not once.

His first steps out into the Dire Woods were hesitant, tentative.

He’d heard stories of what this forest could do to those alone and on foot. The only time he ever traveled through here was by horse carriage, and even that was enough to make him uneasy. The whispers still found him, even through the window.

They wrapped around him now like a snake coils around prey it intends to keep.

He didn’t know where he was going, just walked forward.

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