Aiden brushes by me, gazing downstairs at the ruined room below. Then his eyes move to the pile of bones in the middle of the stairway.

“You really did,” he says to himself. “You killed one.” Then he heads for the tunnel. “Let’s get out of here.”

After I finish explaining that Maci told me the Highers had been there, the six of us stand in a circle outside, trying to figure out what our next move is.

“We can’t just leave,” Ryder says. “This is our home.”

“Was our home.” He points his knife at the hillside, open, and lined with fires. “But it’s not safe for us to stay here anymore.  The Highers know where it is and so do the Day Takers.” His gaze briefly flicks to me. “And they’ll come looking for us.”

“No, they’ll come looking for her.” Ryder glares and thrusts her finger sharply at me. “They want her. Not us.”

Despite my dislike for her, I agree. “She’s right. I think maybe I should stay behind.”

“Don’t be self-sacrificing.” He says it without looking at me, as if he’s angry.

“Let’s all stay,” Greyson interrupts, popping his knuckles and his neck. “If they come back, then we’ll fight them.”

“Only a Higher can kill another Higher,” I point out. “And the Day Takers are too strong.”

Another dirty look from Aiden. “Kayla’s right. There’s too much risk staying here.”

“Yeah, and we don’t want to be burned like the others,” Maci says and all our eyes move to her.

“What do you mean, burned?” Ryder asks, stepping toward her.

“When they came, the Highers and the other guy with the white hair stood out there and talked,” she says, pointing to the section of the ground between the hillside and us. “Then they gathered everyone together and burned them.”

All our eyes land on the fires encompassing the desert land. The smoke rises to the sky, spilling its ashes into the sand.

“No, no, no…” Ryder falls to her knees, her head tipping down. Then she throws up.

The bodies are burned beyond recognition. There’s nothing left but ash. It’s a tragedy that no one understands, but we pull ourselves together and pack what we can salvage, which isn’t much. The Highers trashed almost everything, and what they didn’t destroy, the vampires did.

“I can’t believe there gone.” Ryder picks up an old red sweater of the hillside floor and hugs it against her chest, breathing it in, as water floods her eyes.

“We’ll get through it.” Aiden pats her shoulder and scoops a bottle of water from off the ground. “We always do.”

I pick up a can of food and something rolls out from under it. A vial, only it’s cracked and empty. I pick it up, wondering if it once held minte.