Dawnbreaker: Legends of the Duskwalker - Book 3 by Jay Posey

lights were all off, and a single red emergency light cast the room in a sinister hue.
    The others had been here long enough now that the initial wave of energy and emotion had passed. Cass had missed that part, but she could imagine it. The overwhelming relief, the shock of survival, the guilt. But they’d been here a few hours and now, though a few slept, mostly the rest just sat in stunned silence. Gamble had put them on tight noise discipline, so there was hardly any conversation, save the occasional hushed whisper. One man, Cass didn’t know who he was, sobbed softly in the corner. No one tried to comfort or quiet him.
    They were all wounded, dirty, exhausted. They’d hardly had time to process their losses, and none at all to grieve them. Though she’d never had time to count them, Cass guessed they’d had around thirty people altogether during their flight from Morningside, holed up in that tiny building to make their stand. Gamble and her team. Lil and her warriors. A few Awakened and a handful of citizens who’d somehow gotten joined up. Over half of them were gone, and even now Cass wasn’t sure who had been lost.
    Lil, at least, was still with them, and that was something of a victory. She had welcomed Cass warmly, though they had exchanged few words. Lil had been busy tending to others, as was her way, checking their wounds, encouraging them. The exhaustion had finally caught up with her though, and at the moment she was curled up on the floor in one corner of the room, dozing lightly.
    Kit, too, was alive. Upon Cass’s arrival, Kit had greeted her with a bear hug so tight it nearly stole her breath. Now she was sitting cross-legged by the bunks, on the other side of the wayhouse, staring down at her hands in her lap. Cass watched her for a moment, watched as she spread her fingers and curled them into fists slowly, over and over. Kit had always been full of fire, but Cass doubted the young woman had ever faced the kind of ordeal she’d just come through. Though, then again, as an Awakened, there was really no telling what she may have experienced during her time as an enthralled Weir. Cass knew whatever else Kit was dealing with, her thoughts were almost certainly drawn to Wick. The two had become surprisingly close in a very short amount of time. Cass couldn’t help but wonder whether that budding relationship had been cut short.
    Sky and Gamble had left almost half an hour earlier to link up with the others, though neither had given any indication about Wick’s status. She hadn’t expected them to be gone so long and naturally her imagination ran to dark places. If she’d reunited with them only to lose them all again...
    Cass was so lost in the spiral of her own thoughts that when she heard a noise at the hatch, her body automatically tensed, ready for combat. The hatch shifted above her. Her claws extended. So far had her fears taken her, even when Sky’s face appeared at the entrance, it took her a moment to recognize him and for minutes afterwards, her heart continued to race with adrenaline.
    “We’re back,” Sky said. He quickly swung himself around and came down the ladder so fast Cass almost didn’t have time to get out of the way. She retracted her claws and clenched her fists, hoping no one else in the wayhouse had seen them. “All right...” Sky said, and then stopped when he saw her. “Hey, you OK?”
    Cass nodded. He gave her a look that said he didn’t quite believe her, but there was no time to waste.
    “You set?” a voice said from above in a harsh whisper. Male; Mouse or Finn, though Cass couldn’t tell which. Sky looked at her, and she nodded again.
    “Yeah, go ahead,” Sky called back up, his voice low. Moments later, Wick’s limp form slid into the entryway and dangled in midair. She could hear the grunts and struggles of those doing the work of lowering him. Somehow those above managed to get Wick low enough that Cass could grab him around the knees. Cass held