~ ZEV ~
Zev looked back as Sasha shook her head and dragged him to a halt on the trail. They stopped, looking at each other.
"That's enough," she said, though her voice was gentle if disapproving.
"Sash, I'm not trying to—"
"I know you're not, but I'm refuse to let you think you have to… what… stay alive as long as you can because it's just burning hell from there?"
Zev took a deep breath. He didn't answer, because he didn't want to say yes. But the truth was, he'd seen enough in those books—and in the things he'd learned and seen about what people like Nick and Nathan could do in this world to know that those old histories were absolutely real.
Sorcery, they called it back then.
Science, they called it now.
They still didn't understand it, but the results were the same. Things. Creatures. Some accidents, some failures, some triumphs. But always an element of something that could never be explained.