Chapter 45

He spotted an abandoned rifle first and nearly tripped over it in the dark. When he looked down, dead birds littered the ground. Everywhere. Sparrows and pigeons and geese and other feathered creatures he couldn’t identify were burned to a crisp and scattered like neglected toys.

To his horror, he found Eddie lying in a puddle of melted snow and blood. Her body lay covered in char marks and burns. Her face looked swollen, with one eye forced shut, and her skin appeared papery. Chunks of her flesh and whole pieces of clothing were missing, along with her borrowed bird-calling talisman. Nausea crept up his esophagus.

But she wasn’t dead. Her body shook, and her teeth chattered, and the one eye that could still move opened as he approached. “D-Dakota,” she managed. “Dakota, help.”