The Wandering (The Lux Guardians, #2) by Saruuh Kelsey

not. ” Olive scowls mutinously at
Yosiah. She huffs dramatically and stomps off, dropping onto the
road a few metres away.
    Miya explains to
Yosiah what we found in the Port of Hull, her brother’s face hidden
by her stomach, tanned arms clinging to her. She flattens his hair
absentmindedly.
    Yosiah passes Miya her
jacket. “What were you doing in there?” he asks.
    “It was Honour’s
idea.”
    “What? I didn’t—I
said—”
    Miya smirks. She was
right—she really is the worst.
    Miya’s mouth opens to
speak, and I ready myself with a quick rapport—
    But everything stops,
tips on its side, hushes.
    The next thing I know,
my face is pressed into the road, my arm throbbing violently. I can
hear nothing but a shrill ringing that’s getting steadily louder. A
solid weight is pressing me into the ground.
    I can’t move.
    I don’t
understand.
    A prolonged second
passes before the weight lifts from my back. I sit up, rubbing the
ache in my elbow. Horatia staring at me with huge, frightened eyes.
My body moves without my mind, pulling my twin into my arms. Her
fear is my fear, and mine passes between us, multiplying.
    I look outside the
bubble of fear and family we’ve made and now I understand. I know
what happened. People lay on the floor, some conscious but others
not. Others possibly dead. My stomach turns over.
    I gather myself
together and find my legs, helping Tia up with me. Most people
clamber to their feet like my sister and I, gaping at the
collapsed, fiery structure that was, minutes ago, the Port of Hull
building. Other people never get up. Smoke filters into the sky,
light grey against charcoal. Orange tinges the air around the blue
wreckage, unseen flames devouring.
    I can’t breathe.
    I start forward,
forgetting my arms are around Tia. She holds me back by the collar
of my shirt. I’m gasping, guttering, falling apart.
    Alba was in that
building! Guardians were in—
    My next thought is
wrenched from my mouth. I don’t recognise the scream that rips the
air in two.
    “Dalmar! ”
    Horatia can’t restrain
me any longer. I’m fighting too hard, too desperate, too scared,
too frantic. I lurch in a thousand directions because I don’t know
what to do, where to go, how to do anything ever again. My breaths
wheeze from my lungs and my head starts to spin as I start up the
base of the hill, my whole body shaking.
    I only stop when I’m
held back by someone too strong to fight. Cold hands frame my face.
I can’t see through the film of my tears to who they belong to.
    “I’m
here.” That voice reduces my gasping cries to shattering sobs.
“ I’m here. ”
    My fingers become
claws that grip and tear at his shirt and Dalmar talks to me in
hushed tones as he crushes me against his body.
    Gradually, I regain my
senses, my vision clearing.
    Eventually, I accept
that Dalmar is here, that he’s alive, nowhere near the building
that exploded.
    I blink until my eyes
clear and look him over. He has a scratch above his eyebrow but
he’s in one piece. “God,” I rasp, stepping back. “I thought—”
    Dal
grabs my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye, steady blue-green
on panicked brown. “I am here , Honour. I’m okay.”
    I nod and nod and nod.
He’s okay.
    A gentle hand brushes
over my hair. I don’t have to look to know it’s Hele.
    “Dal? Is Alba—?”
    “She was inside.” His
mouth is a thin line. “She’s gone.”
    I drop my eyes to the
floor. “Sorry.”
    Tia finds me, an arm
snaking around my waist to comfort me even though I have no right
to be upset. I barely knew Alba. I only met her days ago. If I were
thinking with logic, I might worry what will happen to The
Guardians now that Alba is dead, but logic might as well not exist
right now. All I’m worried about is Dalmar.
    Hele holds out a hand
to him and he stumbles into her arms, his eyes holding more fear
than pain. Hurt and grief, I know, will come later.
    Tia and I huddle
around him until the four of us are all parts of