Violet Cross

The Divines may have taken our homes, our friends, our family, but what we had now we would fight to keep hold of.And if the Divines did decide to try and take it, they'd have a hell of a fight on their hands.

My sister and I both survived the apocalypse. But that day was only the beginning of our struggles.Three years later, and this is where I ended up, alone, bound and awaiting my surely unpleasant fate.And man, how I wished they'd just get on with it.

If these were Plumber's people, that would mean he knew we were coming. That we'd lost our element of surprise and we were walking into a trap.Which, you know, was obviously at the top of my to-do list today.

Ugh. I do not miss being your age." Sarah muttered, retracting her hand and wrinkling her nose. "It's like all teenagers have hormones coming out of their ears.

I wasn't one to judge others when it came to fashion choices, but even I knew he'd drawn the short straw in the apocalyptic wardrobe department.

Don't be cute." Luke murmured, amusement lacing his tone. He moved forward, leaning against the slice of wall at the other end of the floor to ceiling window. "I promise you, I wouldn't even know where to start.

When her voice cracked and tears started spilling down her cheeks, I panicked. I wasn't good at consoling people at the best of times, but even a trained therapist would have struggled in my shoes. What could you possibly say to a girl who'd dug for hours trying to rescue her family after they'd been buried alive?

Did you see them? They're kids, Nathan. Children, who ended up being in the wrong place, at the wrong time." I blew out a frustrated breath, tracking one of the angry young teens in topic as he was dragged kicking and yelling from the room. "They won't even consider switching sides. Plumber has them so scared, all they can see if the numbers advantage he has over us.""Numbers don't mean shit when you're fighters have the same level of skill as a two year old." He sniffed, shaking his head at the kid who was finally pulled from the room. "And that's insulting to two year olds.

Lacey?" He bowed his head until his face was inches from mine. His smile was still in place, and as his eyes swept over my face, it widened. "Uh-oh. Did you break?

You going to let me go now?""That depends." He muttered. "Are you going to try and nosedive down the stairs again?""Wasn't planning on it, but who knows how this might play out.

That was one thing the Divines had taught us: treasure every precious moment. Do the things you've always dreamed of doing. Spend as much time as you can with the ones you love, because tomorrow you might not get the chance.

Studying him then, it was hard not to notice how handsome Luke was, a fact that that most of the girls hadn't missed either. To their delight, his almost OCD obsession with having his hair no more than several inches long meant he regularly asked them to trim his sandy brown hair with nail scissors. An honour they held rock, paper, scissor tournaments for. It was all very serious stuff.