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I set the clipboard on her nightstand next to a small lamp lighting her sleeping form. She looked so small, most of the damage appearing on her left side.

An eye patch covered her eye, and where her arm used to be, a stump now ended at her shoulder, covered in white bandaging.

Leo’s cloak fell from around us.

“Sarah,” I whispered, running my fingers through her lovely midnight hair. “It’s me . . . It’s Bryn.”

Sarah stirred, slightly opening her good eye to peek at me. “Bryn,” she squeaked out my name, her voice broken with sleep. “You’re alive . . .”

“I am.” I wiped the tear running down my face. “I can’t explain everything right now, but I’m okay.”

Her pupil widened from the low light of the lamp as she peeled her right eye fully open to take me in. Then her gaze shifted behind me. To Leo.

Sarah attempted her best flirtatious voice. “And who do we have here?”

“Um . . .” I looked over my shoulder at Leo standing tall, his arms crossed over his chest.

My stomach did a little flip at the sight. “This is Leo.”

Sarah leaned in close, a giant grin spreading across one side of her face, the other side paralyzed. “Please tell me you’ve climbed that man,” she whispered.

“Sarah!” I shrieked. There was no way Leo hadn’t heard that.

She laughed, grabbing my hand. “I’m so glad you’re alright. Connor will be so relieved to see you. He’s been with Kyle on perimeter guard since the attack.”

“Sarah,” I said urgently. “I can’t stay here. No one can know I came to see you, it’s dangerous for you.” I glanced at Leo, then back to her. Telling her the truth about everything would put her at risk with The Nine, but I didn’t want Leo to alter her memories. She was my best friend. It wouldn’t be right. “I need you to trust me. Can you do that? Can you keep this secret?”

Sarah gave Leo a cross look, then frowned at me, but nodded. “Promise me you’ll come back and tell me everything?”

“I swear it. I’ll come back as soon as I can. But right now, I need you to tell me where Hunter is. I need to let him know I’m alright.”

Sarah winced in discomfort. Not from her condition, but from what she needed to tell me. “Bryn . . .”

My body locked up, preparing me for her blow. “Sarah, where is he?” I’d never spoken so harshly to my friend before, but I needed her to answer me.

She didn’t say anything, only offering me silence.

A wall of night shot out around us as the tether on my anger snapped. “Where is he!” I yelled at her. “Tell me, dammit!”

Leo stepped close behind me, his cooling shadows trying to soothe my anger.

“He’s gone, Bryn,” she said quietly, choking on her sobs. “We ran into a group of creatures, different from the rest.” She grabbed my arm, shaking me. “They were more human-like. They were black with . . . I don’t know how to describe it . . . their bodies . . . they were composed of some sort of exoskeleton . . . and they walked . . .” She sucked in a big gulp of air. “They walked on their hind legs. Used their arms like ours. Had these guns I’d never seen before that melted through half our group. The liquid got my arm, took my fucking eye, Bryn.”

I stared at her, confused. How the fuck did Deks get their hands on Mag-Guns?

Sarah continued, “Hunter was brilliant, he was able to kill three of them, but there were too many. After I was shot, he got me to a safe spot to hide until backup came. But he went back out, back into the fight.” She covered her mouth, holding in a sob. “I watched as a group of them descended on him. There wasn’t a body left once they were gone.”

I hugged her fiercely as her sobs grew frantic, rubbing her head gently.

I shouldn’t have yelled at her.

What happened to my brother wasn’t her fault. My brother would be proud knowing his life replaced another’s from death.

But it didn’t feel fair.

I wanted to see his body. I wanted to know this was real.

But I’d seen what the Decodons had done to the people in the streets, to the soldiers on base, and to poor Niall. There would be nothing left of Hunter for me to see. No brother left to cling to and cry on.