Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (28 page)

Cas’s eyes narrow. “No, because freaking giant fiends are a normal occurrence in our world.”

The sarcasm startles me. I didn’t even notice we’d gone for so long without him belittling me in some way, and the reality-shock reminds me just how dire our situation is. That moment of vulnerability feels like I imagined it.

“Okay, you’re the expert,” I say. “So, are we just going to hide in here bickering, or do I get to take down that giant monster? It’s not immune to Transcendents, is it?”

I’m only half-serious—the idea of tackling the beast isn’t exactly an appealing one, and I’d be happy to leave it to destroy what’s left of Jared’s lab. But at the same time, there are innocent people in its way, and if there
is
another bridge, then God only knows what other monsters are out there.

“I have no idea,” Cas says, coldly. “If you really want to die here rather than saving everyone back at the base, go right ahead.”

A pang hits my heart for Elle, for all of them.

The trees around us start shaking, and a tremendous roar sounds from the building. The ground vibrates with heavy footsteps, and Cas pulls me out of the way as a gigantic shape crashes through what’s left of the wall we broke through, sending bricks and dust flying everywhere.

The giant roars again, and we run.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

We don’t get far before the trees start falling down. Branches fly everywhere as the giant shoves its way through, and several times, I’m hit by falling limbs which would stop a normal person in their tracks. Cas and I run flat-out, dodging amongst the trees, but we haven’t a hope of out-running this monster.

The forest ends abruptly at the edge of a cliff. Cas grabs my arm and pulls me back, just in time. It’s not a cliff. It’s a deep trench in the ground, so deep you can’t see the bottom, like it reaches the core of the Earth itself.

The divide was closer than I thought.

Oh, hell.

Trees fly, and the giant explodes out of the forest in a flying leap. Cas grabs me roughly and pulls me to the ground, and I’m so surprised I drop automatically to my front. The giant sails over our heads and right into the trench. I expect to see it falling, but the trench is suddenly a river of lava, and I can’t see anything for the thick, swirling fiery liquid. The giant has gone.

I breathe out, gripping the cliff’s edges with my hands. That was too close, far too close. I turn to Cas, biting back a whimper. Maybe I’m not ready to die, after all.

Cas’s wide eyes meet mine; for the first time since I’ve known him, he genuinely looks stunned.

“It’s a bridge, all right,” he says. “Right into the infernal gulf. I’ve not seen that place since the first time…”

I start as I realise I’ve grabbed onto his hand without even knowing it. Was it when he pulled me down? I unfurl my fingers. He doesn’t even look at me.

A deep, horrible sadness pulls at me—so sudden and out of place that tears well up in my eyes.
Dammit.
I blink furiously and turn away. What’s the matter with me?

An image flashes before my eyes. A person kneeling at the edge of a gulf—looking into the lava—

“Leah!”

I blink again and my vision clears.
Crap. Not again.
Am I seeing Cas’s memories? Now’s not the time to get distracted.

“What’s happening to me?” I ask, in a whisper.

“I’m sorry.” Is it just me, or is that devastation coming from his own voice? Or is it my own emotions influencing what I think I hear? I shake the feeling away, but it clings on, relentless. Pushing myself to my feet, I stare at him.

“When?” I ask. “When will I… go mad? Is that what’s happening?

“I don’t know. I never saw any of the others.”

Oh, God.

“Never mind.” My own voice sounds oddly distant. “We need to go…”

But my vision’s blurring again, faster than I can blink.

***

My vision clears, and I’m in a field of scorched ground. There are people all around me, wearing red. Faces blur past, but one stands out, and it takes me a moment to realise it’s Cas. He stands apart from the group, in front.

I can hear voices but not understand them, like they’re speaking another language. I watch, an outsider, as Jared pushes his way through the crowd to the front. Like a camera zooming out, now I see the whole scene from above—

Oh. My God.

Now I can see the divide, and there are fiends swarming over the edge, more than I can count. From here, the small group of people look like tiny insects, organised into a formation with Cas at the front. But it’s too far to make out any other faces. My vision blurs again.

The scene changes. Bodies litter the ground. A few survivors are scattered, weapons in hands and determination etched on their faces, but there are far more fiends, too many. The scene zooms out again. Now I can only see tiny dots moving around.

Far away from the divide, another confrontation’s taking place. The camera zooms in, and once again, I’m dragged along with it. A small group of people stand at the top of a hill, surrounded by fiends on all sides. Cas is one of them. Jared’s another. All hold daggers up to the sky, which is now an angry red. By the way they stand, I can tell the earth is shaking.

A flash of light. Screaming so loud—the earth shakes—bodies fall…

Without warning, the scene changes again. Now I’m inside a lab. Someone sits across from me. Murray. My arm’s held out in front of me, not my arm but someone else’s—male, muscular, and with a dark red symbol carved into the wrist. A flame.

Murray’s voice fades in and out, like a radio with a bad signal.

“Nothing I can do… it won’t fade, but Jared’s gone. It won’t hurt you.”

But who am I? I try to move, but I’m not in control of my actions. Just a bystander watching the scene from the view of the person in the chair…

“I get it.” Cas’s voice.

I’m Cas.

And that tattoo means he belongs to Jared, too.

***

I snap back to reality with a gasp. Cas hasn’t moved; he stares at me, looking almost helpless.

My hand reaches out and pushes up what’s left of his sleeve. The ugly red mark is the same as Nolan’s.

“Surprised?”

Cas and I both start at the other voice coming from the forest. A smooth, impossibly familiar voice.

Jared steps out of the trees. His coat’s torn and he’s covered in dust, but otherwise looks unharmed.

“You,” growls Cas.

“Me,” says Jared. “I hoped you both got away unscathed. I expected you to, but you can never be sure of anything.”

“How did you escape?” I ask.

“I have a trick or two up my sleeve. It looks like you had a close call,” he adds, indicating the still-flowing lava river below us. “Fior has opened, and the first bridge is already in place. Pity Murray and the others… they have no idea. The fiends will catch them unawares.”

My chest tightens.
No…

“How are
you
alive? Why did the giant run away?”

“Because it’s weak,” says Jared. “All fiends are. They were never warriors, certainly not at first. The two of you are to come with me,
now.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You’re joking.” My heart drums. I want to kill him—but I can’t risk the others.

“I’m serious, Leah. I need you both. You’re immensely valuable to my research.”

“There’s a bridge to the fiends’ world on your doorstep,” says Cas. “I’m pretty sure your
research
can wait.”

“We need soldiers. Too many lives were lost, but if the two of you can create more Transcendents…”

“Not happening.” I fold my arms. “I’m not working for you.”

“I’m not dying because of the likes of you,” snarls Jared. “The invasion’s started already, don’t you understand? If the two of you die, then that’s it.” He snatches up a branch, and I tense into a fighting pose, ready to defend myself, but instead, he throws it over the edge of the trench. It soars over and into the lava—except I never see it land. Instead, it ignites, dissolving into ashes.

“That’s what we’re up against,” Jared hisses. “Our world versus theirs, and in case it’s escaped your attention, we’re at a significant disadvantage. Even if you survived the journey back to Murray, you’d be on the losing team. He might have the numbers, but none are Transcendent.”

“Neither are yours,” says Cas. “And I told you, I’m never being your weapon again.”

“Apparently, you need a reminder.” Jared sighs, theatrically. “I always liked you best, Cas. I never wanted to hurt you.”

Cas raises an eyebrow. “You had a strange way of showing it.”

“Discipline is a necessity,” says Jared. “Always. But it hurt me to hurt you, Cas. You could have been so much more.”

“Yeah, if I didn’t have a useless healing power,” he snaps. “I’m
not
doing it. And yes, I do remember the pain. But the answer’s still no.”

Another sigh. “So be it,” says Jared, pulling something from his jacket. A knife, almost identical to Cas’s. He lifts it to point the tip at the sky, lifting his other hand to stroke the edge of the blade. Cas makes a strangled noise.

I don’t think, just throw myself at Jared, my own dagger in my hand. I barrel into him, knocking him off his feet, and we crash to the ground with a solid
thump.
He gasps.

My dagger-free hand reaches for the blade crushed between us, trying to grasp the edge. It’s wet and slippery, and I can’t get a grip on it. Jared gasps again, going limp beneath me. Warmth soaks my front.

Wait… no!
Heart thrumming in my ears, I pull back.

My dagger’s buried in Jared’s chest.

I back up further, my breath coming short. I killed him.

His blood soaks through my clothes. Bile rises in my throat. I let go of the dagger, but it stays attached to my hand, and slides out of his body as I fall back.

Dazed, I can only lie there, stunned.

“Leah! Come on!” Cas tugs on my arm, pulling me to my feet. “We have to go,” he says.

“Is he…?” I can’t look at him.

“He’s dead. Come on.”

I’m shivering despite the heat radiating from the dagger in my hand.

Go back to the others. Make sure Elle is safe…

He’s dead. He can’t hurt them anymore.

Relief battles disgust and shock. Cas and I run through the forest, and I hope he knows where he’s going, because my mind’s a blank at the moment.

“Jared’s dead, he can’t hurt them,” Cas says. “They’ll know we’re at war, but if another of those giants got through, there’s nowhere for them to run. Even the base won’t hold.”

“Damn.” I can’t see a solution. All I can do is keep moving, keep running.

Keep fighting.

I can’t lose them.

We run until another part of the divide cuts off our path. Cas pulls me back from the brink of a cliff where the forest ends abruptly, trees tumbling down the cliffs into the trench.

“Damn,” Cas says. “They’re still breaking through. If the bridge isn’t closed, then what’s left of our world will be wiped out.”

“Hell,” I whisper. “Is there anything we can do?”

“Close the bridge,” Cas says. “We did it once before, two years ago. This isn’t a full invasion like last time. But we need to find where the bridge
is.”

He sounds so calm. I glance back at the deep scar in the ground as we turn away and try to find another path. My mind whirls. I killed Jared. His blood is still soaking into my skin.
He deserved it,
a voice whispers in my ear, but it doesn’t make me feel any better.

Fallen trees bar the way, and the smell of burning grows so intense I have to cover my mouth. Eyes watering, I look up at the canopy and see smoke pouring from somewhere nearby.

“There’s a fire!” says Cas. “Crap. We’ll have to get out of the forest, it’ll spread fast.”

He doesn’t say it, but the forest is the only thing giving us cover from the fiends. Whenever there’s a gap in the canopy, I see dark shapes too big to be birds. Jared’s twisted creations are still out there. Smoke pours onto the path, obscuring the way, almost blinding. I keep my eyes open at a squint and we run, ducking under tree limbs and hacking through undergrowth with our weapons. Finally, we reach a gap in the trees and push our way through, out of the forest.

Hell awaits us. The scarred ground is cracked and small fires have sprung up everywhere. Cas and I look at each other.

“Which way?” I ask, my voice hoarse from the smoke.

“Right over…” He trails off. “There.”

The divide cuts a deep trail out of the forest and towards a line of hills, closer than I expected. Rising up into the red sky, the tips of the mountains look like they’re ablaze.