Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (11 page)

A year. The idea of spending any longer down here, even a day…
No. I won’t do it. I’ll get answers one way or another.

“Tell me where the labs are,” I say.

“Huh?”

“I’m serious. Tell me where I can find Jared’s research.”

“What’s the point? You know what he’s researching.”

“Er, no, I don’t,” I say. “Fiend experiments, yeah, but not what he did to me.”

“If you value your own life,” says Cas. “You won’t go poking around. Jared doesn’t forgive, but he let you in here even though you tried to kill him. He thinks you can defeat the Fiordans.”

No way. That can’t be it.
Jared knows the link between Cas and I will kill me eventually. He
must
have another plan. If he thought I’d willingly cooperate, surely he’d at least do his best to make sure I won’t keel over and die on the battlefield. He wouldn’t put faith in me, and he can’t control me. So what’s his game?

“I’m not fighting for
him,”
I say. “Did Cas die and leave a cowardly replacement behind? You’re seriously letting him take control? Or is it just your lab-soldier issues talking?”

Cas’s fist rises, and I brace myself for pain. But he lets it fall to his side. No fight.

I brush past him, my heart sinking as I realise Cas has no intention of being rescued, and now we’re in an even worse bind than we already were. Forget Cas. I have to get out of here.

CHAPTER NINE

I’ve stormed through five corridors before I admit to myself that I’m lost. There’s no one around, making me wonder if I’ve trespassed somewhere out of bounds. Or maybe gone somewhere that’s no longer in use. The few doors I come across lead into bare, empty rooms, more cave-like than anything. Nothing sinister or even remotely interesting. Some contain beds, furniture, like my room. Maybe there were once hundreds of people living here. That idea makes more sense than these rooms being abandoned.

Or perhaps it was intended to be a shelter, in case the fiends invaded. Before Murray found out how twisted his brother was, and took the rest of the Pyros to the mountain.

God, I wish I was back there now. I’d rather have Cas act like he did back then than act like he’s given up. My chest aches as if his words physically hurt me.
Inconvenient enough to die for.

I never asked how many other Pyros died after being healed with his blood, too. I’m just another one. But he’s made the mistake of getting to know me. Maybe that’s why he can hardly bear to look me in the eyes now.

I walk, wishing I could shut off my thoughts. Cas isn’t Jared’s, but he may as well be. There’s no one else here I can trust. I’ll have to find a way out myself.

I don’t have time for this.

Frustrated, I break into a run, my feet slapping the earthen floor. I want to breathe the air again, even if it’s tainted with the smell of burning, even though the sky is horribly, horribly wrong.

The fiends ruined our world.

Like my thoughts are a trigger, the cry of a fiend echoes from up ahead, raising the hairs on my arms. I grip my dagger tightly, feeling the same odd tugging sensation under my skin as before. I’m more than ready for a fight.

I walk stealthily towards the corridor’s end and around a corner, mentally bracing myself. One step after another. Turn the corner.

Barred doors greet my eyes, lining the corridor on both sides. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s behind them.

It’s so quiet, but I can hear living things shuffling about behind the doors. I walk right up to the nearest, a recklessness springing to the surface. I could break the door down, throw myself into a real battle. I could even set them free. Flush Jared and his minions out into the open. Force Cas to come with me and re-join the Pyros so we can take Jared down.

A scraping, like something being dragged across the ground. A low-pitched growl. I imagine hot breath on my hands, claws scratching at the door.

“Come on,” I mutter through the door. “Come and get me.”

A faint growl.
Did it hear?
I wonder, and then laugh at myself. “Of course you can hear,” I say. “But you don’t care, do you? You don’t understand human speech. You’re a thick-skulled, empty-headed monster. You don’t know about a thing except killing, and killing some more. And crushing everything in your path.”

A faint cough.

“What’s Jared doing to you in there, I wonder? Taking your DNA? Bleeding you dry, to make more monsters?”

My dagger goes hot. I lift the blade up and see that it’s glowing slightly, like burning coals.

Like it’s reacting to something.

A faint noise on the other side of the door. I pull away, remembering the time a fiend touched me, awakening me as a Transcendent.
Idiot.
Like freeing them would do anything other than cost lives. Jared wouldn’t die. The bastard would sacrifice anyone to spare his own life.

“Tran—scen—dent.”

I freeze. The voice is garbled, barely recognisable as English—but it came from the other side of the door.

I’ve heard Jared’s fiends speak before. But how can it know who I am, if it can’t even see me?

This is beyond creepy.

I hesitate, torn between caution and curiosity.

“Tran—scen—dent.”

A thudding noise like something heavy hitting a wall.

Oh, hell. Is it trying to break out?

Thud.

I back away from the door.
The fiend must be restrained somehow, or it’d have smashed through the wall already. I don’t want to stick around and find out if that’s true.

The desire to fight has gone. Now I’m creeped out. I take a few steps down the corridor, past more doors, and stop as I see one that’s open.

It’s a laboratory. The glass cases speak for themselves. Despite the prickling at the back of my neck, I lean my head around the door. No one’s in there, but it’s clearly in use. There are weapons in some of the cases, racks of test tubes full of blood, and…

I recoil, hand over my mouth. A fiend’s
arm
is in one of the cases, hooked up to some kind of machine. The skin gleams dark red, and the fingers twitch slightly.

More evidence of Jared’s depravity. Feeling sick, I back away towards the door.

And slam right into Jared.

“Dear me, Leah, I thought you weren’t going to cause me trouble.”

Heart beating fast, I turn to face him. The corners of his mouth are turned down in disappointment. My nerves shake with adrenaline.

“What were you hoping to find?” he inquires. Hand resting on my shoulder.

“I don’t know.”

‘Perhaps the means of freeing your friend?’

My heart beats loudly, and I’m sure he can hear it, too. I don’t answer, though.

“I’m afraid I must disappoint you, Leah,” he says. “There is no escape for him. He has belonged to me since I gave him life.”

“He’s a person,” I say, hardly believing what I’m hearing. “He doesn’t belong to you, or anyone else. You’ve no right to do that to him.”

“No right? Rights don’t exist. Which side are you on, Leah? Those who killed your family and destroyed our world—or those who would win this war?”

“That has nothing to do with it!” I say. “Nothing. You don’t have to mark Cas to make him fight the fiends. This is about you wanting control over everything that crosses your path.”

“When the time is right, you will both lead my army to war,” Jared tells me, no longer wearing the expression of false kindness. “I offered you the chance to walk away, Leah. Now it’s time for you, too, to bear my mark.”

“Oh no.” I back away. “No freaking way am I letting you tattoo me.”

Jared sighs, and reaches for something lying on the desk. A needle gun.

Horror uncoils inside me.

“It’ll be quick, Leah. That, I can promise.”

I raise my dagger, heat rushing through me.
Kill him.
This time, I’m going to make damn well sure he doesn’t come back to life.

“Leah, I wouldn’t do anything you’ll regret. If you use your Transcendent powers, Cas will die, and so will two hundred innocents.”

He’s trying to put me off. And it’s working.

“One last chance for a peaceful surrender?”

“Hell no.” Fire ignites around me.

Jared lunges forward, quick as a flash. I dodge to the right and stab wildly with the dagger, but he’s too fast. The tattoo gun grazes my arm, but not enough to draw blood.

The enclosed space doesn’t make it easy to move around, and I’m backed against a wall. But I’m fast, too. I strike first, leaping at him with a cry that hardly sounds like me. He moves to the right, stabbing with the tattoo gun, but I’ve already moved out of the way. A spray of blood tells me I caught his wrist with the dagger’s edge.

Cursing, he grabs at me, his other hand closing around my left wrist and forcing it upwards.
No. Stop. No.
The tattoo gun moves towards my exposed skin. I kick at his right leg, and he misses. Too close.

I jerk back, but his grip is like iron. I counter the tattoo gun, striking it with the side of my blade, and his eyes widen.

Part of the gun falls away, cut cleanly in two. Fire consumes it and he lets the other half fall to the ground, eyes narrowing.

“Ha.” I kick at him again, and he drops my wrist, knocking me off-balance.

He moves back and grabs a syringe. He’s planning to sedate me? He goes for my arm again, and I duck, holding my left arm close to my chest and stabbing at him with the dagger. Fiery light flares, and a sheaf of papers on the desk ignites.

I kick him towards the flames. My feet are like solid concrete, but he’s a Pyro, too. Without my Transcendent power, we’re evenly matched.

“You shouldn’t have lied to me, Leah,” he says softly. “I admire your nerve, but my brother is alive, and so are your friends. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about them.”

He stabs at me with the syringe. Too slow. I catch his arm in my left hand and force it away, giving it everything I have.
I won’t let him hurt the others, not again.

This time, I won’t hold back.

My wrist screams. I move the dagger and aim for his heart.

Jared dodges, and I catch him in the arm instead. My dagger digs through skin and flesh and bone, and his body goes slack when my blade comes out the other side.

I’ve stabbed him right through the arm, which lights up along with the blade, incandescent, golden-red.

Then the dagger comes away in my hand, and I fall back, gasping.

Jared’s severed hand lies a few feet away from his body.

He falls back, mouth open in a silent scream.

I don’t move for a good minute. Then I drop alongside him. He’s still. Completely still.

No heartbeat.

I back away, thinking of the guards. And Cas. I need to find him…

Dizziness rises within me and I stagger against the wall, the world tipping sideways. Light flashes across my vision, and white-hot pain pierces every part of my body. I’m barely aware that I’m falling before the darkness claims me.

***

I’m crying out in pain, but I’m not me. My left arm burns, and the agony radiates throughout my body. Like a branding iron has been placed on my arm, turning me into a creature incapable of sense, of reason, only pain and the desperation for it to end. I can’t see or hear anything. I’m reduced to the barest minimum.

Piece by piece, the world comes back, remaking itself, like a jigsaw of sensations and noises and impressions. Images come into my mind, separate from the pain. Jared falling to the ground, cradling his stump of a wrist. Cas falling, screaming in pain.

A metallic taste in my mouth. Something wet and sticky dripping onto my leg. My eyes flicker open a fraction. I’m still holding the dagger, and I’m covered in Jared’s blood. I’m still in the lab. But Jared isn’t here anymore.

A choked cry escapes me and I scramble backwards, away from the blood soaking the floor. Did his guards take him away?
That can’t be right. They’d have killed me.
Surely. But wait—Jared had them under his control. Does that mean they’re free?

I can’t have killed him that easily.
He survived me stabbing him once before. And what about that vision? Cas, in agony again. Not the past, but right now. I think. In the vision, he stood in the corridor by the fiend cages. Where I was, only a few minutes ago. Did he follow me?

A sob rattles my chest like a monster trying to escape.
Pull yourself together! You can’t stay here.

Slowly, too, slowly, I push myself to my feet. I feel like Cas’s pain sucked the energy out of me, and the world’s barely staying the right way up. I’m shivering, too, even though my skin—not to mention the dagger—is burning hot.

Certainty grips me with every step. Cas is being tortured right now. I need to find him.