Bethany's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

Bethany stepped over Virginia's body and turned toward the gate. The blue light from Julius's device washed the yard. Outside, the Vael on the ridge were still coming, but they moved wrong now. They staggered. They turned in circles. Their heads snapped side to side like they had lost a scent. "It's working," Julius said. He held the device up in both hands. His arms shook from the weight. "They can't find us." "Then hit them while they're blind," Bethany said. She dropped the spear and grabbed her shotgun off the rack by the patched tent where Virginia had handed out weapons. She racked a shell. She had not fired a gun since before the camp fell. Her hands remembered. Harlen came around the side of the tent at a run. He was a stranger to her — a short, dust-caked man with a red-glowing rig strapped over his mouth. Elina's people had called him in from the wall. He did not look at Bethany. He looked at the gap in the gate. "Move," he said through the rig. Bethany moved. Harlen stepped into the gap and breathed. A cone of fire rolled out from the mask and washed three Vael at once. They shrieked and folded. The smell was oil and burnt shell. Elina dropped from the north tower without using the ladder. Her stained glass wings caught the blue light and threw color across the dust. She landed behind a Vael that had wandered close to the wall, and she cut it in half with the sharp edge of her left wing. She did not speak. Bethany braced the shotgun against her shoulder and fired into the gap. The first Vael's chest opened. She racked, fired again, dropped a second. "Julius, keep it on," she yelled. "I'm trying." She fired a third time. The four of them were working now — Harlen at the gap, Elina cutting outside, Bethany covering, Julius holding the light. The Vael on the ridge had stopped advancing. Some were running back. Then the blue light stuttered. It flickered once, then went dark. "No," Julius said. He slapped the side of the device. "No, no—" "It's out," Bethany said. She knew before he said it. The Vael in the yard had gone still, then their heads snapped toward Julius all at once. "It stopped!" Bethany screamed across the yard. "The device is out! Everyone — fight with everything you've got!" Elina's head came up. Harlen turned from the gap. Riley on the wall raised her gun. The Vael came again. Bethany braced. She fired into the closest one and racked the shell casing free. Beside her, Julius dropped the dead device and pulled a pistol from his hip. He stepped up next to her shoulder. "Together," he said. "Together," Bethany said. She fired again.