The first thing I heard when I threw open the warehouse doors was my niece’s screams. The air smelled smoky and sweet, with just a tang of something metallic underneath. Gloom floated heavy in the room. Black smudged the shelves, the concrete floor.

I looked left, then right. But as far as I could see, no one else was there.

“Quinn?” I called. “Where are you, baby girl?”

The crying grew to a wail. My heart hammered as I ran down rows and rows of charred oak barrels toward the sound. I skidded to a stop at the back wall and slipped, falling to the ground. With a groan I pushed myself up to find my hands warm and wet and crimson.

I lifted my head slowly. What I saw took the wind out of me.

Nolan lay in a puddle of blood.

Quinn sat beside him, whimpering softly.

A sob tore from my throat. I held a hand over my mouth, staining my face red.

“No,” I whispered, unable to fight back the tears. “This can’t be happening.”

“Daddy,” Quinn said, her voice soft, so soft, as she pushed Nolan’s shoulder.

I scrambled toward them. My brother’s chest rose and fell, but just barely. He held his hands over his sternum, where red spilled from beneath his fingertips.

“Nolan?” I leaned toward him.

His eyelids fluttered. “Irene?” he sputtered.

I pressed my hands against the wound, but it did nothing to slow the bleeding. Nolan’s face had lost most of its color. “I’m going to get help. We’ll get you out of here. You’re going to be okay.”

“Nate—” He winced. “He couldn’t… couldn’t make me forget…”

Tears dripped from my chin, splashed against my brother’s stained shirt.

“I love you,” Nolan said. “Make sure that Taylor… that Quinn knows how much I loved her. Both of them.”

“Don’t you let go,” I cried, my body shaking. “You’re not dying on me.”

“Tell Taylor…” Nolan rested his hand on mine.

He blinked once. Then he never blinked again.

I stared at him, unmoving. Blood pounded in my head, behind my eyes, raced through my veins.

Anger, rage, but more: my heart was breaking.

Cicadas descended from the sky. A swarm so big they covered the warehouse like a storm cloud. They made their way through the still-open doors, landed on barrels and concrete, filled every stretch of space save a circle around me and my family.

Quinn wailed. She crawled toward me. Blood soaked through her clothes. It dripped from her hands. I pulled her from all that red and stood.

My eyes burned. As much as I wanted to sit there and hold on to my brother, I had to warn the others. I was the only one who knew what Nate had done, the only one who might be able to stop him before it was too late.