Darkness Wanes (13 page)

The only thing we had left for the day was dinner. It was supposed to be arriving…well, whenever they got around to delivering it. With only two prisoners left, the guards had become lazy. The only thing they remembered to do on time was take us down to the mines.

“Don’t argue with me. Get up,” she ordered.

The scowl on her face didn’t bode well. She usually only got that bad after I’d done something to make her angry, but I hadn’t seen her all day. Whatever had set her off, I didn’t have the energy to fight her. Not after the long day I’d had working. Every muscle in my body ached thanks to the grueling pace they’d been setting for Bartol and me. We could barely walk back to our cells after our shift ended.

I put a steadying hand on the wall and pulled myself to my feet, shuffling my way toward Dannia. An eighty-year-old could have moved faster. Even during my toughest military training, I’d never felt this beat up and sore. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises covered my skin from where stray rock had struck me while picking away at the stone walls.

Dannia’s scowl deepened as she observed my progress. If there ever was an ounce of sympathy in her body, she must have lost it long ago. She stepped back when I reached her, making room for me to exit the cell. Then she produced a set of shackles and fitted them to my wrists and ankles. I hated standing there meekly as she did it. Despite the fact I could hardly present a threat, she insisted on dehumanizing me further.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

Dannia gave me a cryptic look. “You’ll see.” She turned and banged on Bartol’s cell. “You, too. Get up!”

Unlike me, he didn’t argue. As soon as she opened the cell door, he shuffled out of it and stopped before her. She put a set of shackles on him, too. He stood there, golden eyes unfocused as if he didn’t even feel the cold metal being attached to him. Bartol had a way of turning his mind inward whenever he needed so that he could block out the world. It was a nice skill to have, but he couldn’t have acquired it without suffering a lot first.

“Aldous!” Dannia called down the tunnel.

The male guardian stepped into view from around the bend. He’d been hovering a short distance away for the past five minutes, along with three other guards. They marched toward us with staid expressions on their faces. Every one of them had a weapon strapped to their belts and appeared ready for battle. What the hell was going on? I prayed to God they hadn’t decided to execute us or send us off to some remote planet like they had with Yerik and Zoe. We were too close to being released.

“Where are we going?” I repeated my question.

Dannia ignored me and addressed the guardian. “You may take them now.”

With two guards in front of us and two in the back, Bartol and I shuffled down the tunnel. After a few minutes, I figured out the route we were taking. I’d been down this way a few times, but not for almost three months.

“Are we being released?” I asked.

Bartol shot me a sharp look, but he ducked his head back down before the guards noticed. Much like the cowardly lion, he needed to work on getting his courage back. Unfortunately, the poor guy would have to work through a century of suffering first.

“Yes,” Aldous said over his shoulder. He and another guard led the way.

“But it’s a day early.” Not that I really wanted to argue, but Lucas and Emily wouldn’t be expecting us. The Alaska portal moved around frequently and rarely opened close to civilization. Without a way to call anyone, it was going to be a long walk home.

“A forest fire broke out and it is advancing toward your portal. If we wait much longer, you could burn up if you go through it. The archangel sent the command a few hours ago that we let you go now,” he explained.

“Couldn’t we have at least gotten a shower and our clothes back first?” I should have let it go, but a mangy dog would smell better than me. Lucas would probably run for the hills as soon as he got close.

“I wish that had been possible, but by the time word reached me of your imminent departure it was too late,” he replied, frowning. That had to be Dannia’s doing, but Aldous was too noble to blame her. “It is nearly unsafe to let you go now—unless you wish to use a different portal and come out somewhere else in the world.”

Visions of being dropped off next to an active volcano or in the middle of a shark-infested ocean danced through my head. We could end up anywhere. “Uh, no. The Alaska portal will be fine.”

He nodded. “I thought as much.”

I continued shuffling along as Aldous led the way. The armed guards surrounding us seemed a bit much, considering they would be releasing us. “Why the big escort?”

“The guardian Dannia insisted,” he said, keeping his gaze forward. “She worried you might try something on your way out.”

I tripped over a loose rock and barely managed to catch myself. “Yeah, because I really want to extend my stay here.”

Aldous didn’t say anything to that.

It was a long walk through the tunnels up to the surface. The leg shackles hobbled our steps and our bare feet scraped against ice and jagged stone. If I’d known where we were going, I would have asked for my boots back. Now they sat useless wherever the guards stored them between shifts at the mine. Maybe that’s why Dannia wouldn’t tell me anything. She’d wanted our departure from this place to be as uncomfortable as possible.

Finally, we reached the top where shafts of sunlight filtered into the tunnel. The air warmed, helping my body thaw a little. The guards held us in place while Aldous lowered the magical barrier. It was a special ward designed to keep prisoners from escaping—not that it would have stopped me. I was immune to that sort of thing.

We stepped outside and squinted as the light from the blazing hot sun shone down on us. I’d forgotten how bright it could be, but it came back to me now. Purgatory was an odd contradiction. The tunnels underground were freezing, yet the top side of the island could reach temperatures of at least a hundred and thirty degrees. A shiver ran through me as my body tried to figure out whether it was hot or cold.

After giving us a minute to let our eyes adjust, the guards prodded us forward. Sand scorched my feet with every step and sunlight burned my bare arms and face. It was so hot my mouth turned dry in minutes. I struggled to take a deep breath and when I finally did the salty air from the ocean filled my lungs. The pungent scent turned my stomach, making me want to retch. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of home and how soon I’d get there.

They took us straight to the beach, almost to the water’s edge. Then we followed it for a while until we reached the portal location. It wasn’t open yet so I couldn’t see it, but I’d been here enough times to recognize the spot. There was a piece of driftwood nearby that I’d used as a marker before.

Aldous was the only one in our group who could open the portal. From what I’d learned, regular guards didn’t get that power. He reached out a hand, sending a tendril of magic forward. Despite being sore and exhausted, excitement and relief raced through me. Finally, I was going home.

The portal flared to life with fiery sparks shooting from its edges. The opening was only big enough for one person to step inside at a time. The guards removed my shackles first, letting the heavy weight of them drop from my limbs one by one. I rubbed my wrists and stretched my arms, trying to get my circulation back.

They worked to free Bartol next. I sensed nervousness and fear coming from him as he stood there with a stoic expression on his face. Who knew what thoughts ran through his head now that he’d finally be leaving the place where he’d spent a century of his life. When the guards stepped away, he cast an uncertain look at the portal.

“Take care, Melena.” Aldous put a hand on my shoulder. “Please don’t let me see you here again—for any reason.”

I gave him a teasing smile. “Only if you need rescuing from a certain female guardian.”

He shook his head and turned to Bartol. “I wish you well. Take care not to return to us, either.”

The nephilim gave him the slightest nod but said nothing. I was willing to bet Bartol wouldn’t believe he was really free until he planted his feet on Earth. Even then, it might take a while for it to sink in. I’d only been here three months, and I could hardly believe we were leaving.

I stepped into the warm ocean and hissed out a breath. The salty water burned the wounds on my feet. As I continued in deeper, it lapped over the cuts and scrapes on my legs. Why someone had put the portal in this spot, I’d never understand. Bartol followed behind me, muttering his own complaints under his breath.

I gave Aldous one final wave and stepped into the portal. With a roar, it sucked in my body like a vacuum cleaner. Colorful streaks flew past me, moving at the speed of light. I seemed to be gripped by some unseen force and couldn’t begin to draw a breath. The first time I’d used the portal, it terrified me, but now it gave me an adrenaline rush.

Was that a sun I passed? In the blink of an eye it was gone, replaced by some sort of nebula, but I zoomed past that a moment later as well. I was a tiny being dashing across the universe in my race to Alaska. How far did I have to go? It could have been millions of miles for all I knew.

A dark spot appeared up ahead, and I hurtled toward it. The next thing I knew my body flung out of the portal. Swinging my arms for balance, I stumbled forward a few steps. My feet pressed down on twigs and pine needles. For a moment, I stood there staring at them stupidly as if they were foreign objects. Such things didn’t exist in Purgatory. Neither did the towering trees surrounding me or the cloying smoke in the air.

Without thinking, I drew in a deep breath and went into a coughing fit as my lungs and eyes began to burn. Aldous hadn’t been exaggerating when he said there was a forest fire nearby. I just couldn’t pinpoint its location through the thick haze covering the landscape. My luck never seemed to end—of course the first breath I drew on Earth would be full of smoke.

Bartol came stumbling out of the portal. He made the same mistake I did and drew in a deep breath. It took him a full minute to recover from his coughing. Once he did, he moved away from the portal. It closed with a whoosh and a snap. Only the smoky woods remained in its place, with no residual signs a portal to another dimension had ever been there. Not even my senses could pick it up anymore.

He ran his gaze around us. “This is not good.”

“No, it isn’t,” I replied. “And I have no idea where we are other than Alaska.” There were no identifiable landmarks, but the towering spruce trees were definitely ones I recognized.

“The fire is that way,” he said, pointing to our right.

“How do you know?”

He gave me a fathomless look. “I can feel it.”

Every nephilim had their individual strengths when it came to magic. If Bartol could feel the fire, he must have had an affinity for it. Maybe that was why Kerbasi chose to burn his face. The guardian had wanted to use Bartol’s special talent against him in the most sadistic way possible. I made a mental note to punch Kerbasi in the nose the next time I saw him.

“Can you put out the flames?” I asked.

“If I had my full strength, I could stop a small forest fire. But right now?” Bartol shook his head, feelings of regret flowing out of him. “I’d be fortunate if I could douse a campfire.”

He needed time to recuperate and gain his strength. We both did. “Okay, so which way should we go?”

“There.” He pointed toward a small trail I’d missed. “It’s the safest way out.”

I patted the back of my head to make certain the braid was still tight. If we were going to walk through a burning forest, I didn’t want my hair getting loose. “You take the lead.”

“Stay close,” he said.

Bartol took off down the trail, moving at a quick pace. The smoky air made it difficult to see anything, but his vision must have been much stronger than mine after living for eighteen hundred years. His bare feet didn’t even seem to bother him. While I stumbled over rocks and fallen limbs, he moved past them easily. I struggled to keep him in my line of sight but didn’t dare ask him to slow down. There was no telling how fast the forest fire might spread or in which direction.

We walked for at least twenty minutes before Bartol came to a standstill. “There’s a cabin up ahead.”

I limped my way up to him, hating myself for being so weak. Even my senses had dulled. Only now did I notice the smoke had thinned to just a slight haze. I peered in the direction he faced, catching sight of a log cabin through a break in the trees. My internal radar told me who was inside. Under normal circumstances, I would have noticed the vampires there long before getting this close.

“I know that place. It’s Nik’s.” When Bartol lifted his brows, I explained. “He’s a master vampire—a friend of mine.”

“Would he welcome us?”

“Most likely,” I said, taking a few steps closer.

The cabin wasn’t very big. Having been inside before, I remembered it being about four hundred square feet at most. The master vampire and his lover had been living there for almost a year—since he lost control of Fairbanks to Derrick. Nik chose to leave the comfort and luxury he once enjoyed behind. All he’d wanted was a secluded place where people would leave him alone. Not that anyone could blame him after what happened.

I gestured at Bartol. “Let’s go. He usually doesn’t bite.”