Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (12 page)

Cas’s hand lands on my shoulder again. “Get out of here,” he snarls.

“Why?” I say. “Don’t you think Murray needs to know about this? Or does he already?”

Did they capture a fiend? Keep it imprisoned, maybe to study it? That can’t be right… or can it? How long’s this place been hidden?

“Go and tell him,” says Cas. “I’ll stay and keep an eye out here, make sure none of them come back.”

I hesitate. But there doesn’t seem to be anything else in here, living or otherwise. “What, leave you alone?”

He gives me a hard stare. “What did I just tell you to do?”

In that moment, I can’t decide who scares me more, him or the creepy skeleton. But I don’t dare argue. I scoot back up the path, feet slipping in the dirt, until I reach the walkway. The cave entrance is half-buried by rocks, and I look around, convinced I hear something falling, but the air’s still. No fiends, no falling rocks. A screaming sense of
wrongness
zings through my veins. I run through the tunnel, almost colliding with someone.

“Leah!” Tyler grabs my arm. “Jesus, don’t run off like that again. You could have fallen to your death. Even we couldn’t survive the drop.”

“I have to get Murray,” I say. “There’s something… Cas and I found something weird.” My voice shakes too much to continue. I have to get moving before my legs collapse under me.
Why’s this happening?
Why do I feel so lightheaded? My vision swims, and a strange image, the outline of a flame, flashes before my eyes again.

That same symbol…

We catch up to the others halfway down the tunnel. I spot Val, tending to someone’s wound. She catches my eye and mouths something, but I don’t catch it. I push past, ignoring people’s questions, and don’t stop running until I reach headquarters.

Murray’s already there, hovering outside his office. I skid to a halt, panting for breath.

“What’s happening?” he asks, urgently.

“There’s someone out there. Dead.” I cough, my throat dry from inhaling so much dust. “The fiends attacked us, but they’ve gone now. Cas and I found this cave, there’s a skeleton…” My vision’s flickering again, a strange feeling washing through me. Like the echo of remembered pain.
What’s happening to me?
“You have to go there. Now.”

“I’m going.” He glances back into his office. “Elle, stay in there. Could you keep an eye on her, Leah?”

I want to argue, but I can’t let Elle go after him either, not if there might be more fiends about. I nod, and Murray sweeps off into the tunnel.

Elle comes out of the office and throws her arms around me. “I was so scared for you! I heard the noise from the tunnel. I thought the roof was going to come down!”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t,” I say, grimly. “We killed the fiends, or drove them off, anyway.”

“I’m sorry that happened.”

The way she says this strikes me as odd, or maybe I’m still on edge.

“Do you know anything about it?” I ask.

She shakes her head, trembling. “I don’t know. It’s scary. They might be coming back.”

I’m assuming she means the fiends. I can’t reassure her, because I’m not sure we killed all the fiends, either. I only drove them away; I never made any kills. And what if they find another way in?

I ask Elle as much.

“No, there aren’t any other passages. The front entrance is sealed to anyone but us. Now the defences are back up, you have to spill your own blood on the rock to get in.”

“Blood?”

“Only the Pyros can get past. Not fiends, or anything else. It’s fool-proof. I never thought they’d be able to get in the back, I’ve been going out there for years.”

“You couldn’t have known,” I say, moving back towards the tunnel entrance, wondering what’s taking the others so long to return. Visions of fiends tearing their way through the walls hover at the edge of my mind, and I get the momentary feeling of being trapped, like in my old town when the fiends attacked it from outside. A town under siege. We can’t get out if they block the caves.

Stop that,
I tell myself. Panicking will get me nowhere, and I’m more than accustomed to being cornered. We have a room stocked with enough weapons for a thousand people, and we’re practically weapons
ourselves.
I don’t have to worry about being alone anymore. Maybe part of me still hasn’t accepted that.

Tyler runs out of the tunnel and almost crashes into me.

“What happened?” I tense instantly as he stumbles back, rubbing his elbow. “Are they getting in?”

“Gone. We think. Val’s set up a boundary.”

Elle appears behind me, sees Tyler, and squeals, throwing her arms around him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he says. “Really. The others are coming now.”

“What about Cas and Murray?” I say, thinking of the twisted skeleton, the strange, yet familiar, symbol.

“I dunno. I didn’t see them, but it’s dark in there. Val says the tunnel’s not going to collapse but you never know.” He shivers. “That was some scary shit.”

“I know,” I say. My mind whirls, wondering what it all means. How the fiends got this close—and more to the point,
why.
I hang back by the tunnel entrance, as the others start to appear.

Val comes up to us. “We owe our thanks to you three for warning us. If you hadn’t, things could have been far worse.”

“Is the tunnel safe?” asks Elle. “It’s my fault for not telling anyone about it.”

“It’s not your fault, Elle. The fiends shouldn’t be able to get this close to us. The water should have scared them away. In any case, the cave is now secured against entry.”

The image of being trapped pushes to the front of my mind again. I rub my hands over the goose bumps on my arms. It was an illusion to think I was safe here. The enemy was outside all along.

“What about Cas?” I ask. “Are he and Murray still out there?”

“I didn’t see them,” she says, “But I’m sure they’re fine. They’re more than capable of looking after themselves. You two should come to the hall with me. I need to spread the word of the attack to the rest of the group.”

“But my dad,” says Elle, biting her lip. “I want to see him.”

“I’ll wait here with you,” I say, and she looks up at me gratefully. But it’s not the two men’s safety I’m worried about. I want to know about that cave. I want to know what it all means. And I have a feeling there’s something happening here that people don’t want me to know about.

CHAPTER TEN

After an hour, the waiting bores me. I suggest to Elle that we go back to Murray’s office, but she shakes her head.

“I don’t want to miss him,” she says.

But I’m restless. I pace around, walking across to the railing over the lava pit and back again. Tyler’s gone to tell Poppy and the others in our dorm what happened. He didn’t understand why I wanted to stay so badly. But every time tiredness tugs at me, demanding that I chill out, I think of that strange symbol, and everything else I’ve observed comes bubbling to the surface. The way people avoid certain topics. Like Cas healing me. And now this.

Finally, the sound of two voices raised in conversation reaches my ears and I tense. Cas and Murray emerge from the tunnel, and seem to be having an argument.

“…just covered it up. What was he thinking?” That’s Cas’s voice.

“He wasn’t,” says Murray. “It was too much for him. You must know something about what that’s like.”

“Shut up,” says Cas. “I’m going looking for them later. They might still be out there—hell, of course they will be.”

“Are you implying they’re working together? I told you, we can’t assume—”

“No, I’m implying they’re going to try and kill us again, because that’s what they do,” Cas says. “And you, old man, need to face facts.”

He turns the corner and sees Elle and me standing there.

“Dad!” Elle shrieks, and throws herself at Murray.

“What happened to the—?”

Cas cuts me off before I can finish my question. “Gone,” he says, curtly, and stalks away without another word.

“Hey—what?” I turn to Murray. He hugs Elle back, saying something I don’t catch, and goes after Cas.

I look at Elle. “What was that about?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I think we should go back to the dorm.”

No way am I doing that after waiting so long. I let her go ahead, then double back. Murray and Cas will probably have gone into his office. I walk that way swiftly, relieved that there’s no one else about.

The office is empty, though. Just dust and stacks of papers on the desk, and a closed door at the back I didn’t notice before. Curiosity gets the better of me and I try the handle, but it’s locked.

Have they gone back outside, through the tunnel? Surely not, after our close call earlier. Still, that’s the only other place I can think of. So I take off in that direction.

Sure enough, I hear voices. They’re not too far inside the cave, so I press myself to the wall just by the opening. That way, I can see if anyone’s coming.

“I shouldn’t have let her go outside,” Murray says.

I stop, hands pressed to the wall. Is he talking about me?

“She’d have found a way even if you’d stopped her. She’s annoying like that.”

“Really? I haven’t heard you actually talk to any of the novices… ever,” says Murray. “Yet you saved her.”

“Don’t remind me.”

My heart drops sickeningly at his tone. Why does it bother me? He’s nothing to me.

“I’ve asked Nolan to keep an eye on her,” says Murray. “But she seems to be fine. Nothing unusual.”

“You can’t know that.” A pause. “You think you’ve found your Transcendent, don’t you?”

Your what?
I edge closer, as much as I can without making myself conspicuous.

“We can’t know for certain,” says Murray. “But… well, you saw her fight, not me.”

Another pause. “She’s undisciplined,” says Cas. “Besides, she asks too many questions.”

“An enquiring mind isn’t a sin,” says Murray. “But I admit I haven’t quite figured out how much to tell her.”

“What, you’ll just say it outright?” Scepticism tinges his voice. “She’ll run.”

“I don’t think she will. She needs us as much as we need her.”

“You’d risk it?” Cas makes a derisive noise. “You’re putting an awful lot of faith in her.”

My mind’s whirling. I want to burst in there and demand to know what they’re talking about, but I know that’s not the best approach. Murray seems sure whatever it is won’t make me run away.

Not that that’s a comforting thought. I inch around the wall, ready to ambush Murray when he comes out the cave.

A hand touches my shoulder. “Leah,” someone whispers, and I turn so suddenly, our heads almost collide.

It’s Val.

I stare at her. No way to disguise the fact that I was eavesdropping.

“Come on,” she whispers, beckoning me.

She’s not going to tell Murray? I hesitate, surprised. But Cas and Murray have gone quiet. If they’re on the way out, they’ll find me instantly. I take my chances and follow Val.

She walks with me into another corridor, just beside Murray’s office door. I’m not sure where this one leads. I haven’t memorised the way around yet, but it seems deserted.

“That was a close one,” she says, with a relieved laugh.

I blink. “You’re not going to give me a lecture?”

“Of course not.” She smiles mischievously. “I spent my first six months here snooping around. Murray won’t be mad, it’s Cas you have to watch out for. But I suppose you knew that already.”

How much did she hear? She’s looking at me like she expects me to speak. Can I trust her? Murray’s words spin around my head. I thought I could trust
him
. What could be so important that they had to discuss me behind my back? I’m just a child, in their eyes. Do they really think I’ll lie down and accept the grown-ups’ secrets are beyond me? It’s ridiculous. Cas is only two years older than me, after all.

“Leah, you don’t have to look at me like I’m the enemy.”

“I’m not. Did you hear any of that?” I decide to bite the bullet. “They were talking about me in there.”

Val shakes her head. “I didn’t, but I can hazard a guess. Did you hear the word Transcendent?”

I nod, wary. So
she
knows, too.

“It was only a matter of time.” She sighs. “Honestly… I was all in favour of telling you right away, but, well, I was outvoted. There are some Pyros who are different, who have certain abilities that others don’t. Stronger ones. We call them Transcendents.”

“Transcendent?” I say. Even more than
Pyro,
it sounds foreign. “And Murray thinks I might be that?”

“It’s too early to tell,” Val says. “But yes, that’s what Murray was hoping. The way you fought today made it pretty clear your instincts are better than some of the seasoned warriors’. But we have yet to find a Transcendent. Every case has been a false alarm.”