Severed by Sarah Alderson Page A

against his side. She did it every so often, as if checking he was still there. His fingers tightened around hers. He was there.
    Vero was the first to speak. ‘You know my sister? Risper?’
    ‘Yes,’ Evie answered.
    The girl’s bottom lip trembled. She tried to hide it. ‘What’s happened to her?’ she asked.
    Evie swallowed audibly beside him.
    ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ Vero asked in a rush.
    Neither he nor Evie said anything. Evie made the slightest movement of her head. A nod.
    ‘How?’ Vero asked in a small, broken voice.
    Evie took a breath. ‘We were trying to get away from the rest of the Brotherhood. Risper was with us,’ she said quietly.
    Vero’s jaw tensed, her nostrils quivering. ‘What happened? What killed her?’ she demanded.
    ‘A Thirster.’
    For a second Vero stood there unblinking and they watched a landslide of emotions rush across her face. Evie’s hand started crushing his own. And then Vero turned her back, her shoulders heaving, and Ash stepped forward in the same instant to catch her. She fell against him sobbing, her head buried against his chest. His arms wrapped around her, and Ash half carried her out of the room, murmuring to her softly as they went. Her cries reverberated in the high space long after they’d left.
    Cyrus stalked over to the window, pausing to kick the sofa on his way. He rested his head against his fist and leant against the glass.
    ‘So they’re sisters,’ Evie finally said.
    Cyrus turned to her slowly. ‘Twins.’
    It was the first time he wasn’t wearing a smirk on his face.
    ‘Oh, God,’ Evie murmured.
    ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Cyrus said quietly, his eyes on Lucas.
    Lucas ground his teeth and forced himself to stay silent. Cyrus gave him one last glare and then strode past the sofas towards an open-plan kitchen at the far end of the room.
    ‘They hadn’t seen each other in a while,’ he remarked as he opened the fridge. He was waiting for one of them to ask why but Evie didn’t say anything and Lucas wasn’t about to fill the silence either.
    ‘They fell out,’ Cyrus explained as he walked back over holding two water bottles in his hand. He gave one to Evie, pointedly ignoring Lucas, and then went and dropped onto the nearest sofa, kicking his feet up onto a plastic block that seemed to serve as a coffee table.
    ‘What did they fall out over?’ Evie asked.
    ‘Over you,’ said Cyrus holding up his water bottle as if toasting her.
    ‘Me?’ Evie asked.
    ‘Yes. Risper and Vero were both part of the original Hunters. They were only kids when Victor found them – fifteen or so – hanging out at a skate park in Baltimore.’
    ‘Victor? You know Victor?’
    ‘I don’t know him. I know of him.’
    ‘Risper and Vero – what happened?’ Lucas asked suddenly. ‘How did they fall out over Evie?’
    Cyrus glanced up at him. ‘They fell out over the White Light. Victor expected them both to protect you,’ he said, his eyes lingering on Evie. ‘To train you. But Vero didn’t think they should risk their lives protecting something – someone – who she didn’t believe in.’
    Evie’s head flew up.
    ‘What evidence was there that it was you?’ Cyrus shrugged, taking a swig from his water bottle. ‘Vero thought it was a suicide mission. But Risper wanted it to be true. She wanted it to be true badly – she’d had enough – she wanted out and thought that if they’d found the White Light the end was in sight. So Vero walked away alone. She found us – joined us.’ He put the bottle down on the table. ‘For the last three years we’ve banded together in LA, trying to keep an eye on the way through, trying to limit the numbers of unhumans coming through. Waiting, I guess.’
    ‘Hold up,’ Evie said. ‘Vero walked away? She left? Just like that? And Victor didn’t come after her?’
    ‘No.’ Cyrus shook his head.
    ‘But Victor said no one ever left. He said no one ever got away.’ Her fingers were gripping the