Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (7 page)

No!

“Nolan!” I choke out, willing the stinging to stop. The ground’s rocking under my feet, and my legs won’t stand up. I use both hands to push myself upright again.
Come on! You’re Transcendent, for God’s sake.
I stagger through the fog, coughing at every breath, the pain in my neck getting worse with every step.
Nolan…

He lies very still. Unnaturally. Limbs splayed at odd angles. Blood under his head. Did he hit it? Get knocked unconscious? Or… dead?

A screech reminds me of the fiends’ presence. I’m too slow to back away when one dives at me. Feebly, I raise my dagger, but it easily pushes me back, claws leaving bloody grooves in my arms.

Flashes of another scene break across my vision. A room underground. Same room as last time. Lines dug into the walls as though a human fingernail had scraped at them—

No! Not now!

I scream, more in anger than pain, and lunge at the fleeing fiend. My feet leave the ground, and for a split-second I’m airborne, sailing far further than any human could jump. I slam my dagger into the fiend’s leg, pulling it down. The dagger slides free, and I stab it again, this time in the back. It has a thick layer of scales all over, unlike any of the other fiends I’ve seen, but my knife cuts it like paper. It flails, wings splayed, and I duck under one of them, dragging my blade over the fragile membrane. It screeches, blood flying everywhere.

I stab its other leg, and it drops to ground level. I can reach its heart.

“Tran—scen—dent.”

I freeze. My hand won’t move. The dagger’s inches from its heart, but I can’t move, can’t inflict the final blow.

“What are you doing?” A coughing fit takes over, and through watering eyes, I see the fiend’s mouth stretched in horrible smile. Teeth bared.

Kill it!

“You—can’t kill us, Transcendent.”

The sound of beating wings overhead.

Too slow, I try to dodge, but claws close in either side of my. I close my eyes and brace myself for pain, but it doesn’t come. The claws grasp both my arms and I’m lifted into the air, above the dying fiend, above Nolan’s body.

I’m fighting, kicking out at the air—falling won’t hurt—but the claws are too strong, and I’m limp and fading fast.

One last thought leaves a trail of questions through my mind—
why am I so weak?

And then, there’s darkness.

CHAPTER SIX

Dreams and reality alternate like a slide show, and I can’t tell one from another. A firestorm, pieces of burning metal raining down from the sky. Like the meteor showers that hit during the first attacks—and my mind grabs that train of thought and tugs on it.

I’m back in the classroom at school, the day after we saw the report on the news, the theories about the end of the world. Sitting tensely in class, glancing up at the clock, wishing time would pass so I could go and find my sister and get us both home safely.

Like being at home would create a cocoon of safety around my family, keep away the chaos outside.

The sirens. The fire alarms going off in unison, like a well-timed prank. Screams and cries, the sounds of heavy objects falling outside like cars being thrown about, pieces of the roof falling off.

Running to find my sister. Leaping through the school window, feet hitting the ground, twisting my ankle but running on regardless. Clambering through the rubble which had once been the school’s entrance. Pelting down the road, to the primary school. There are kids in the playground, behind the gate, screaming, running in circles. A smoking crater lies where the main building was.

Screaming Lissa’s name, clawing at the gates which have turned the playground into a prison.

And she’s on the other side, hand grabbing mine through the bars, her nails digging into my hand.

A quake rocks the world.

It feels like the ground is alive, cracks opening in the road to swallow cars, even buildings. The gate buckles and gives way, crushing people underneath it. Lissa’s hand’s torn from mine. I fall, knees scraping the ground, but stand up immediately. My sister climbs towards me over the twisted remains of the gate—and something’s pulling on the end of it.

Fiends crawling out the crater, ugly and twisted like something out of a nightmare. Lissa’s screaming and crying, hand reaching for mine. My fingers close around her wrist and I pull her towards me, and we run.

Fiends. Grabbing people, ripping them to pieces before my eyes. I see it all in flashes as my sister and I flee. We’re fast, but too late. A fiend lands in front of us, tusks bared. Lissa panics, and her hand breaks free of mine—she runs, and the fiend lashes out and tosses her aside like a limp doll.

I jump over rubble and run to her, heedless of my own safety, but the fiend has already lost interest in me and lumbers over to another poor man fleeing the ruins. Lifting him into the air, the fiend clenches its meaty fist and crushes his skull.

Swallowing back nausea, I concentrate on reaching my sister. The fiend’s tooth caught her and tore deep gashes in her arm. She groans, her head flopping back, as I lift her. I’ll carry her away from here even if it kills me.

I’ve run a few metres when a sudden vibration strikes through the air. Everything shimmers before my eyes, and a thick burning smell fills my nostrils. The fiends howl, running away. The ground shifts… Lissa screams my name…

***

I wake, gasping.

Too real. That felt too real.

Shuddering, I let my head fall back. It strikes against metal, alerting me to my surroundings. I’m indoors, as far as I can tell from the lack of lighting. I’m not tied down, and it’s a bed I’m lying on, but the walls feel too close.
A cell,
I think, instantly awake. I sit up, bracing myself against the onrush of dizziness. My head swims as I remember. The fiend picked me up and brought me here.

There’s one person who would have ordered that. Jared.

I slide from the bed, noting that I’m dressed in nothing but a thin shift, and more to the point, that someone’s removed my dagger.
Crap.
I’m defenceless. I feel a slight twinge of pain in my neck where I was burned. Not completely healed, then. I can’t have been here long.

I stumble through the dark, hands outstretched. Even Pyros can’t see in total blackness. My hands find warm stone, proving that I’m in some kind of cave—or underground. It’s stuffy in here, so warm the air appears thick. Deep underground, maybe.

The image of Cas talking to Jared in my visions comes to mind.

Cas. Maybe he’s here.

I trace my hands over the wall, mind whirring. There has to be a door somewhere.

A
clang
makes me spin around on the spot, blinking rapidly as light floods the room. A metal door has opened on the other side and the person in the doorway hit a light switch. Sickly-white fluorescent light shines on an all-too-familiar face.

“You,” I croak, and before my mind’s quite caught up with me, I throw myself at Jared and fasten my hands around his throat.

“Guards!”

Cold stone-like hands grasp my arms, yanking me back and pinning them to my sides. I struggle, glaring daggers at the man who ruined so many lives, who tortured Cas.

Where is he?
I have to force the question back. I’m not admitting weakness in front of this man.

“Hold her,” he commands, dusting himself off, not looking the worse for wear for my almost throttling him. In fact, he’s almost glowing, and not just because of the bright lights. He’s practically
beaming
at me.

I spit in his face.

A pause, an endless second stretching out. I brace myself for pain.

None comes. He pulls out a handkerchief and wipes his face calmly, studying me with an almost pitying expression.

“Leah, Leah,” he says. “I am sorry for what has happened to you.”

Like I believe that for a second. I glare and struggled forward, but the guards’ grips are like iron manacles.

“And for your friend,” he continues. “It’s always tragic to lose another soldier.”

Nolan. So he’s dead. Anger mixes with an odd sense of regret.
He’s dead.
I suppose he did stick around and fight, in the end.

“Were the two of you close?”

So he’s trying to gauge my weakness. Like I’d say
yes,
even if it were true.

“Of course not,” I say. “He was the only survivor.”

A beat. “I beg your pardon?”

As if being overly polite will get him anywhere. I continue with what I’ve planned to say ever since I got the idea for Nolan accompanying me. Murray has everyone inside the mountain. I don’t know how long I can keep up the ruse, but I won’t put the others in danger if I can help it.

“They’re all dead,” I say, tonelessly. “Your fiends killed them. Nolan was our prisoner, and he escaped.”

“Really?” Jared’s face creases in a frown. “My brother is dead?”

“Yes.” I meet his eyes, without flinching. He can’t read my mind. And I know how to wear the same deadened expression as the other survivors.

“And you’re the only one left,” he says, softly. Does he believe me?

“Looks that way.” I swallow. “Are you happy now? You’ve killed him—killed everyone. And now you have me prisoner.”

“Prisoner?” Jared shakes his head. “You’re not a prisoner, Leah. I want to extend an invitation to you. Join
my
army. We aren’t like Murray’s. We intend to engage the fiends in battle, and we intend to win.”

“You’re joking, right?” I shake my head, disgusted. “You think I’d agree to help you?”

“I thought you would want to avenge your friends. The fiends are responsible for their deaths, and for countless others. We need to rid the world of their plague.”

“So why’d you try to kill me?”

“Kill you? I have never hurt you, Leah.”

A wild laugh escapes me. “You as good as tortured me before.”

His placating smile disappears. “I do apologise for that. I overestimated your capabilities.” He looks me up and down. “But now… now I think you’ve advanced a stage. The same weapon would have no effect.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I meet his stare defiantly. He
did
hurt me before—just by
touching
me. Now, he has the perfect opportunity to torment me. So why not use it?

“What I did to you before was a modified version of the tattoo-links, if you want to use crude terms.”

Like there’s nothing crude about
torture.

“And what?” I challenge. “How am I different now?”

“Your blood has… evolved.”

I resist the urge to flinch away. He took my blood while I was unconscious? The sick madman.

“You’re no longer susceptible to the method I used to subdue you last time,” says Jared. “I’m sure you’ll cooperate with me willingly without the need for it.”

Wait, what? Does he mean when our weapons touched and I collapsed in pain?

“Yeah, right.” I glare at him. “Your fiends killed Nolan and almost killed me, too.”

“Leah, any fiend which attacks you is not under my watch. I would never order one to hurt you. The fiends helping me are as much your fellow soldiers as the other Pyros.”

“What the hell?” I struggle against the guards’ grips, but they hold me still. “I never said I’d help you. You as good as admit you’re working with the enemy. I’m not fighting on the same side as
any
of those monsters, whether you think you can control them or not.”

We stare each other out. The corner of his mouth lifts in a smile. “I am glad to see you haven’t lost your fighting spirit, Leah. Despite your… condition.”

I freeze.

“You fought on,” he says, softly. “Admirable that you can defeat your enemies when crippled with another person’s pain.”

Despite my efforts to stay strong, the resolve starts to seep out of me. He knows about my bond with Cas, knows we feel each other’s pain. He saw it affected Cas when I cut my arm.

Damn.

“I’m not fighting for you,” I say. “Whatever your purpose.”

“I see you’re going to take some convincing.” He sighs, running a hand through his greying hair. “I don’t want to fight with you, Leah. There’s been too much fighting—too much loss. My brother…”

Come on. This has to be an act. He almost killed Murray once already.

“There is much I need to tell you, Leah,” says Jared. “Time, unfortunately, is not on our side, but I have no doubt that you will be fully recovered in a few hours. Such is your wonderful ability.”

His gaze drifts to my left arm. The scar’s almost faded already.

“I wonder…” He meets my eyes again. “You came back from near-death recently, didn’t you, Leah?”

What does he mean? When I returned from the fiends’ world? He can’t know about that. He was barely alive. I’ve no idea how he survived. But it was only hours after I supposedly killed him that I fought one of their leaders. Turned them to ashes.