Page 70 of Dawn of Hope
I hope Edmond and Tila and Brynne know how much I love them.
I hope Dane finds the cure.
I hope they remember me.
Suddenly, fingers wrap around my free hand and hold them tightly.
“Lennox! Hang on!”
Mara.
She’s come for me.
She didn’t have to. Minutes ago, she hated me, and after we talked, for all I knew, she barely even liked me. It would be easy to let me fall and let the island claim my death. It would mean less competition for her, not only for the cure, but for Dane, too.
But she didn’t.
Her fingers move to grasp my wrist and she commands me to do the same.
“I got you! You need to let go and grab my other hand.”
“I can’t let go!” I yell at her, panic lacing my screams.
“You don’t have a choice!”
I look down at the monsters below me and know she’s right. Her grip tightens as I release the board, turning my hand to clasp her arm. She jolts forward, all of my weight and my life in her hands. She pushes both feet against the knots in the rope before she leans backward, pullingme up and over the edge. I clamber up and away from the hole, my chest heaving and heart pounding furiously.
“We need to get off the bridge,” Mara yells as she glances over the side, watching the monsters still jumping and snapping at us.
Scrambling to my feet, I take off behind her, neither of us taking our time like before. Our only goal is to get off this bridge as fast as possible. I am stumbling. My body is not fast enough to keep up with my mind, but I will my feet to keep moving and beg the bridge to hold.
The second my feet hit solid ground, I throw myself onto the floor and roll to my back, gasping for air.
“That was fucking terrifying,” I pant. I can see Mara out of the corner of my eye, hands on her knees and head hanging, also sucking in her breaths.
“I saved your ass,” she says between breaths. “Leave it to the newbie to get herself into trouble like that on her first day out.”
I point back at the bridge. “That was not my fault. Why would you want to cross that death trap?”
“It’s been fine for years. The planks have never broken before.” She straightens and rests her hands on the top of her head. “Guess you’re just lucky.”
“If that’s lucky, I don’t want to find out what unlucky is.” My breathing slows, and I stare up at the bright blue sky, trying to work up the courage to ask Mara a question.
“Why did you come back for me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I say as I push myself up, sitting with my legs still sprawled out in front of me. “You could have left me there. You could have let me fall. It would have been easy, and I wouldn’t have been in your way anymore.”
She sits quietly for a moment, thinking. “I almost did,” she admits. “But I thought about my mom, and I know that isn’t the person she raised me to be. I’m not cruel. You needed me, so I helped. Plus,” she adds, “Dane would have killed me if something happened to you on your first day and that definitely would have ruined my chances with him.”
I burst out laughing and catch a smile spreading across her face.
“Way to lighten the mood,” I say with a smile.
“It had to be done. Besides,” she replies as she stands up, brushing the dirt off her pants. “We don’t hurt our own.”
She reaches a hand down to me and pulls me up. “We still have a lot of day ahead of us, so no use dwelling on all of this. That won’t help us find the cure.”