Page 235 of Scarlet Wars
My stomach flipped so hard I had to breathe through my teeth.
Cara stood inside a building, dark, concrete, splattered with old blood that had dried in rusty streaks down the walls.There were puddles on the floor. Some with footprints dragged through them.
“Where the hell are you?” I whispered before I could stop myself.
Cara’s focus snapped straight to me. “You’re Emma Thompson.”
I nodded once. “Thank you for saving me a trip to the mirror. Now answer the question.”
Her jaw-muscle jumped like she was holding herself together by dental pressure alone. “We’re somewhere in South Africa. Let me show you what we found.”
The Nexus panned to the first room, and the smell got worse.
A metallic punch of blood and the sour tang of vomit, hitting us as if we’d stepped into the room with her.
Rows of beds.
Rows of women.
Human women.
All of them chained to their beds with cuffs that had rubbed their skin raw.
All of them visibly pregnant. Unnaturally synchronized in how far along they were.
Most of them crying. Some screaming. All of them hollowed out with terror while Cara’s men cut their chains and tried to soothe them.
A woman on the closest bed had dried blood between her legs.
Another had bruises around her throat like someone had held her down.
A third kept repeating, “Don’t take her, please don’t take her…” until her voice broke.
The whole scene hit my lungs like fire.
Hillary swore viciously beside me, one hand flying to her mouth.
Rachel’s grip tightened on her staff until it cracked.
Cara didn’t pause. She flicked her hand again, and the feed yanked into the second room, where the stench of torn flesh slammed into us all at once.
Ten more women.
Their bodies pulsing with unstable energy hazes that flickered and sputtered like dying stars.
Magae.
Every single one of them was pale. Shaking. Hooked to machines, humming with a sick, mechanical hunger.
“Is that…egg harvesting?” Hillary whispered as she stepped closer to the projection, tracking the tubes, the vials, the slow drip of glowing essence. “Holy fuck, they’re stealing theireggs.”
“They’re robbing them,” Cara said. Her tone was harsh now. “Over and over and over.”
Then she turned the Nexus back to herself. Her face looked carved from stone. Fury-stricken.
“We found a camp a few miles south of here,” she said. “We’re going to annihilate whatever—or whoever—we can find there.”
The image began to flicker; she was preparing to disconnect.
