Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (6 page)

I head over to another tree at the other end of the clearing and sit down. I’m not particularly bothered about not having a fire. I’d rather not do anything that might draw the fiends to us. Sighing, I lean back against the tree trunk, peering up through the branches at the stars winking in the tainted sky.

“Sorry,” says Nolan, who’s come over to join me. “Guess that wasn’t the right time to make fun of you, right? I thought it’d distract you.”

“Never mind.” It was an honest effort, I guess. Plus it stopped me thinking about Cas for about five minutes, which is something.

“I started a real fire,” he adds.

The smallest flicker of flames dances in the centre of the clearing.

“Thanks.”

“And I set up some traps. We could catch a bird or two. I know you Transcendents probably don’t need to eat, but…”

“Thanks,” I say, again.
You Transcendents?

“Unless you have any tips? You survived out here for two years after all.” His expression is open. Not quite a smile, but curious.

“Yeah,” I say, slowly. He’s right, of course. I’m out of practise, but I get to my feet anyway. Maybe my extra-sensitive sight could be an advantage in stalking down prey. “You have traps? What did you even bring with you, anyway?”

He digs his hands into the pockets of his coat and pulls out coils of rope, a water-flask, even a hunk of bread. Slightly mouldy. He breaks off the greenish parts as I stare at him.

“Where did you get that?”

“I picked it up from headquarters.”

“Practical,” I comment, and he shushes me, indicating the bushes a few feet away. A small animal’s wandered into one of his rope traps—a rabbit.

Its feet are already ensnared, and Nolan steals towards it with his knife. I turn away, hating to see him kill it—stupid, really. The number of days I had to help Randy set traps in the wilderness should have numbed me to this, but two years ago, rabbits were common domestic pets. Lissa wanted one.

I shake the thought away, annoyed with myself.

Nolan shows more of the practical streak I never even knew about, cooking strips of rabbit meat over the fire. It tastes pretty nice, especially seasoned with herbs. Which he also stashed in his pockets.

I’m painfully aware that I’m under-prepared for this.

Not that it matters. I never intended to spend too long out here anyway. Tomorrow, I’ll find Jared and get Cas back. Tomorrow.

But I can’t help relaxing into the moment all the same, sitting beside the fire with Nolan opposite me, watching the embers of the fire.

It’s so peaceful here, you could forget what’s happening out there. And, just for tonight, lying under a safe leafy canopy, I do.

CHAPTER FIVE

The shrieks of birds in the trees wakes me. I jolt out of a jumbled dream involving my sister being chased by one of Jared’s fiends. Her terrified face flashes before me, and I press the heels of my palms into my eyes, like I can push the image away. It as though my mind’s still berating me for failing to save her. But that doesn’t mean I can’t save Cas. It’s not too late for him.

Nolan’s already awake. He kicks out the remains of the fire and tosses me a dry strip of rabbit meat. I catch it in one hand, with a nod of thanks. Maybe I can get used to us being allies. For now.

We stay inside the forest but keep moving towards the divide. The forest comes to an end soon enough, and we head back to the coastline. Without the trees for cover, I feel exposed, and the sight of the divide on the horizon doesn’t help. It’s like an ugly scar, cutting so deep into the earth that the sea’s turned into a waterfall, the water running towards it. Unnatural.

I know we won’t find anything at the site of the ruined lab, but I can’t help wanting to look. Even though I destroyed it myself, the first time I accidentally unleashed my powers. Thanks to that fiend.

My sharp eyesight picks out the Burned Spot where the laboratory used to stand—a mile-wide stretch of ground bare of grass. Where no life will ever grow again. Slowly, one piece at a time, the fiends are turning our world into a mirror of their own.

I wonder if grass ever grew in their world, if it was ever any different. When I never knew if I’d survive to see another day, there was no time for questions, even about the strange red-cloaked people we sometimes saw around towns when we stopped by for supplies. They were rumoured to be in league with the fiends, but Jared said that was because people tend to mistake us for the fiends’ shape-shifting leaders. Those fiends didn’t look like the brutal but brainless killers, but apparently, like
us.
The idea seemed ridiculous to me, at least until I met one.

And killed him. It.

It’s easier to think of them as
it, them, other.
Not human. Even though fiend’s blood is what makes me Transcendent.

No way am I ever telling Nolan
that
.

There’s nothing to see at the end of the road except the divide, and picking a fight with fiends isn’t the plan. So we veer off to the right. I can vaguely remember walking this way with Cas. Talking. Closest to friendly we ever were.

Just before Jared took us, before the earthquakes hit and everything fell into chaos.

Would things have been different if we’d refused to leave? If we’d stayed with the Pyros? Murray could have found his cure and saved us if we’d waited. If only we hadn’t tried to be heroes.

But there’s no escape. As long as the fiends are here, this world isn’t ours. As long as we fight, there’s hope. Even if it costs us everything.

I just have to hang onto that as we walk into the tiger’s lair.

I can trace our path by the cracks in the earth showing where the earthquakes rippled out from the divide. Nolan and I have to cross them like stepping stones, skirting around as best we can, always alert for fiends. The ground isn’t even moving now, but seems to shift with the echo of the tremors from before. We come up to the place where we hid, and Jared ambushed us and the fiends carried us to headquarters. I’ve never walked all the way there before, and I’m not positive Jared will even be there now. But it’s the one place I know. Nolan doesn’t have any better ideas, and he at least knows where he’s going, so I let him take the lead.

It’s too quiet. Not so much as a faint birdsong. No signs of life but tree stumps, and those come to an abrupt halt when we cross into another Burned Spot. The smell of burning is intense—this one must have struck recently. Very recently.

The hairs stand up on my arms, and I feel like we’re being watched.

“It’s close,” I whisper. “So much closer than I thought.”

Because this Burned Spot used to be a forest. The same forest Cas and I fled through, right on the edge of the divide.

The memories threaten to overwhelm me along with the thick smell of smoke and burning. Running from the monster. Jared cornering us. Me stabbing him. Running, running for our lives…

It’s unrecognisable now, but I’ve already passed the place I last saw Cas. I pivot around on the spot all the same, looking for—what? Bloodstains? A sign? I left him writhing in pain from the tattoo, powerless against fiends and Jared alike. God knows what hell he’s been through in the past few days.

It feels longer than that.

“Leah?” Nolan gives me a quizzical look, noticing I’ve stopped.

“It was here,” I say, my voice rusty from lack of use and the smoke in the air. “Here’s where Jared…”

Which means…

I’m sprinting across the cracked, barren ground, but I already know the old headquarters will be gone. An energy blast must have struck, maybe when the Fiordan came through the divide. Did Jared lose all his warriors? He’s alive somewhere. If the visions were showing me what Cas is experiencing right now. But what if it was all a lie? What if Jared wanted to lure me back? He knows more about the bond between Cas and me than I do…

“Wait!”

Nolan catches up to me as I skid to a halt in the middle of the Burned Spot.
Nothing…

There’s nothing left at all. What did I expect to find? Rubble? Bodies? A farewell note?
Don’t be such an idiot.

The flat, lifeless ground stretches into the distance. A hundred metres to my left, the divide carves a sharp line in the earth. Before, it shimmered, transparent flames covering a view of the fiends’ world. Now, it’s blank as the empty ground.

“Dammit,” I mutter. “I could have sworn… I thought there’d be a sign.”

“Well, there isn’t,” says Nolan, kicking at the torn-up ground. “Great. We walked all the way out here for nothing?”

“Any other places Jared liked to hang about?”

“You think we stopped for a friendly chat?” Nolan raises an eyebrow. “We should leave.”

“Leave.” I let out a humourless laugh. “I’m Transcendent. Wherever I go, they’d find me.”

He chews his lip, thoughtfully.

“What, you want to go?” I curse the smallest pang of betrayal I feel at the thought. What does it matter to me what Nolan does? “Not much around here, but there was a town a mile or so back. If the energy blasts didn’t take it out.”

Nolan turns away, but not before I see a flash of guilt in his eyes. Wait, he’s really considering ditching me?

“Go right ahead,” I say, turning my own head towards the divide.

One of Jared’s fiends hovers above the trench in the ground, silently watching us.

“Crap.” I step back, pulling out my dagger. I nudge Nolan, but he’s already seen it. He curses under his breath, drawing his own weapon—no, Cas’s.

How long has it been there? Fiends aren’t usually that quiet.

A warning bristles along my spine. The word
trap
travels through my mind, but the fiend’s already spotted us, and there’s nowhere to run.

With a screech like car tyres on tarmac, the fiend flaps its wings and launches itself towards us. I stand at the ready, my anger at Nolan turning to rage at the monsters who caused this mess. The fire returns like an old friend, wrapping around my blade.

But the fiend flies over our heads, too high to reach. I duck as its clawed feet snatch at my head, and pinwheel around to face it again.

Nolan swings his sword wildly, trying to reach it, but misses. It’s toying with us.

Anger buzzes, a rhythm beating beneath my skin.

Come on.

Another screech rips through the air.
Crap.
Of course there’s more than one of them. I look wildly around, while keeping the fiend above within my gaze. It continues to circle us like a bird of prey.

I can do this.
I reach for the fire, but the fiend moves in a blur. It dive-bombs us again and I stab upwards, but once again, its claws barely clip my head.

“Get down here and face me,” I snarl.

“Leah!” Nolan grabs my arm. In the brief second I was distracted, no fewer than
five
fiends have appeared above the divide.

Stupid.
Of course they were inside there the whole time.

The fiends’ cries echo around us. Instinctively, I brace myself. One fist clenched, the other holding my weapon. Out the corner of my eye I watch the fiend above, while waiting for the others to strike.

They take flight in unison like a flock of geese, even forming a V-shape as they soar over our heads. What’re they playing at? I refuse to give into the impulse to jump, trying to reach them, because it’s impossible even for me to jump that high. I imagine Jared laughing at me somewhere and feel another surge of anger.

The six fiends circle, one slightly ahead, followed by two, then three at the back. Like gigantic, ugly vultures, except packed with so much muscle it should be impossible for them to fly. How Jared created them, I have no idea.

“Get down here!” I shout, exasperated.

“Leah!” Nolan hisses, moving in a way that suggests he’s going to make a run for it. But he wouldn’t do something that stupid. Right?

I’m wrong. Without warning, he legs it across the Burned Spot, away from the divide and towards the unknown. Cursing, I follow him, but it’s hard to keep up speed and watch the fiends at the same time.

“What are you doing?”’ I demand.

“It’s harder to hit a moving target,” he gasps out between breaths.

I open my mouth to argue, and something strikes me between the shoulder blades, sending me sprawling. I skid forward on my knees, but the sturdy Pyros uniform doesn’t rip. Cursing, I spin around—not for the first time, I’m grateful that my weapon’s impossible to drop—but there’s no one there. The fiends circle high above.

The smell of smoke is thick in my nostrils, and, now I’m getting my breath back, I feel a stinging sensation on the back of my neck where I got hit. I reach back with my left hand and the bare skin stings at the touch. No,
burns.

Too late, alarm rings through me.

“They’re throwing fire!” I shout at Nolan, who’s way ahead of me by now. I sprint to catch up, running in a zigzag pattern to make myself less of a target. A burst of flame drops from the sky, hitting the ground in front of me with the force of a small bomb. I’m thrown backwards, my ears ringing, my vision clouding over…