Benjamin Reed
The eastern ridge smelled like death before we even reached it.
Black smoke coiled upward from what used to be the old border watchtowers which were now just blackened skeletons.
The air tasted metallic, thick with the rot Mendoza had warned about. Lightning cracked overhead even though the sky was clear making my skin crawl. It was ducking horrible.
We moved in silence. Me at the front, Olivia tight to my left flank, Mendoza on her right, he was still pale,and limping slightly, but his eyes were cold again. Marcus and the elite guard fanned out behind us. No one spoke. There was nothing left to say.
Harlan waited at the crest.
He stood alone in the center of a wide circle burned into the grass. The mirror cracked, bleeding red mist…floated behind him like a diseased mo
