23
MARKULA
Where the f**k is she?
“Claire!” I scream it at the sky, and my voice booms through the canyon and vibrates the thunderheads that are now creeping over the horizon. Claire’s group is here, surely they are, but perhaps if I speak to her before they’ve figured some way around the traps, before they sacrifice their first and second waves to the many rows of spring-loaded razor wire, I can talk sense into her. I’ll tell her our plan to defy the prophecy and turn Dawn without bloodshed — without killing our race.
But what if Claire is not lying? What if she meant what she told Era?
That possibility chills me to the core. Yes, she might have wanted to speed the prophecy along, get us to turn on one another, but Kain’s doing enough of that on his own. Besides, Claire would know I’
