Toxic Heart Read Online Free Page A

coming from the house.
    “Faster,” Shannon hisses. “Faster!”
    Instead, I stop for a moment and turn around. The house is still standing, but not for long—the fire inside is unstoppable, bursts of red and orange and black shooting out of the windows, licking the walls and roof like an angry tongue. Suddenly, a soldier catapults through a wall like a cannonball and collapses on the ground.
    The blond mystic Sylvia follows through the hole in the wall, which she must have made with her energy. Backlit by flames, she blasts the fallen soldier with rays of electric green energy. I can hear the crunching of bricks and smell the sizzling of human flesh.
    I’m relieved to know that some of the mystics are still fighting.
    An image of Frieda strikes me. Did she make it out of the house?
    Then, over the battle, I hear it: a child’s voice.
“Mama!”
    “Come on.” Shannon’s eyes gleam against the blackened sky. “Why did you stop?”
    “Mama!”
    That voice—I recognize it. Markus. Sweet face, floppy brown hair. He was so nice to me. And he has no mother to keep him safe.
    The right thing to do is to keep running. To escape. But how can I leave him? “Markus is still in there,” I tell Shannon. “I can hear him. And there are others—”
    “This is no time to be a martyr, Aria. It’s them or you.”
    “This attack is my fault,” I say. “It’s happening because
I’m
here. I have to help.”
    “If they haven’t gotten out by now, they’re goners,” Shannon says urgently, grabbing for my arm. “There’s nothing you can do to help. There’s nothing—”
    But I can’t hear her anymore.
    Because I’m leaving her, running back toward the house.
    The mask I’m wearing blocks the smoke as I enter the kitchen. I can barely see an inch in front of me. There’s less screaming—itsounds like most of the attackers have moved outside and are battling the remaining mystics on the lawn.
    “Markus?”
    No response. My hands begin to shake, and I move forward slowly, knocking over a ceramic bowl. It makes a high-pitched crash as it shatters on the floor.
    Then I hear it.
    “Mama! Mama!”
    He cries again, and I follow his voice. I feel my way through the kitchen along the cabinets, heading for the dining area.
“Mama!”
    I drop to my hands and knees, creeping across the planks until I find a leg of the table. “Markus? Is that you?”
    I see him a few feet away from me, curled into a tiny ball under the table. For a second I see a flash of floppy brown hair through the smoke.
    “It’s me, Aria,” I say. “Hold out your hand. I’m going to help you.”
    The smoke has overtaken us again, and I grab for him. I feel nothing but air—until I make contact with a set of fingers. I clasp his hand and tug. “Crawl. And close your eyes,” I tell him. “Come to me.”
    He does, and then I have one arm draped over him, edging him out from underneath the table. “Stay down, Markus. And follow me.”
    Softly, I hear him say, “Aria.”
    I rip off my mask as soon as we’re outside and place it over Markus’s head. It’s too big for him, but it’s better than nothing.
    As we run, I hear a series of pops that sound like fireworks, but I know better. The field echoes with gunshots, with shouts and hisses, as the attackers who have come for me search in vain.
    “Burn it all down!” I hear someone call.
    “I said
alive
,” someone screams back. “We need her alive!”
    I doubt they’ll rest until they find what they’re looking for.
    We’re not moving fast enough. I see the apple trees in the distance. No Shannon. Markus is too slow. I stop and lift him onto my back. “Come on, guy. Hold on.”
    I hope Shannon is hiding in the trees, waiting for me. “Shannon!” I call.
    There’s no answer, and I keep moving. My arms tire. Markus is getting heavier.
    Just then, I see glistening white—a pair of eyes.
    Only they’re not Shannon’s.
    “We’ve found her!” A man who is nearly twice my size and