Phoenix (11 page)

“I didn’t think I’d be saying good-bye to you again so soon,” he says, referring to
the time we said farewell in my prison cell, just before my execution.

“Hey, on the plus side, at least I’m not about to be crucified,” I say. “That’s better
than last time.”

He chuckles, but the sound gets caught in his throat. He pulls me into an embrace,
and I wrap my arms around him, holding on for as long as I can.

“I’ll be okay,” I whisper.

“I know you will,” he says, releasing me. “I’m so proud of you, son.”

I smile. “Love you, Dad.”

He ruffles my hair. “Get on out of here.”

I join Natalie, Elijah and Garrick by the door and sling my blue duffel bag over my
shoulder; it contains our disguises and my mom’s keepsake box. Natalie and Elijah
each carry their own duffel bags filled with provisions.

I take one last look at my friends and family, and say a silent good-bye to them all.
Despite all our promises, I suspect we’re never going to meet again. As we walk past
the window, I peer up at the Destroyer Ships blocking out the starlight. I don’t think
I’m going to survive this war. I may have risen from the ashes like a phoenix, but
like the mythical bird, I know my fate is to die in flames.

ASH

CHANTILLY LANE MARKET
is deathly silent as we navigate the dark, narrow alleyways between the market stalls.
Even the colorful flags outside each stall are still, like the very city itself is
holding its breath. Every few hundred yards, Garrick carefully plants a bomb under
one of the stalls, targeting the shops with the most flammable merchandise.

“How long do we have?” Natalie asks.

I check the digital monitors on the buildings surrounding the market. The bright yellow
numbers of the countdown display read 24:10:00.

“Ten minutes before the factories blow up,” I say. “Let’s get a move on.”

We reach Mollie McGee’s Tavern—a popular drinking establishment with the Sentry guards—and
Garrick breaks down the door. We grab bottles of Shine from behind the bar and pour
it all over the floor before going outside and dousing the flags and market stalls
with the flammable liquid. It’ll help carry the flames to the other stalls, maximizing
the damage to the area. I plant the last bomb outside the tavern, and look at the
countdown again.

“Five seconds before first strike,” I say.

We watch the seconds tick away:

24:00:05

24:00:04

24:00:03

24:00:02

24:00:01

24:00:00

BOOM!

The explosion roars through the city, sending vibrations up and down our bodies. In
the distance, a plume of fire and smoke over a hundred feet tall soars into the air,
lighting the sky. It can mean only one thing: the Cinderstone factories are ablaze.
Beetle has succeeded.

We’ve barely had time to recover from the shock waves before the digital screens around
the city flicker and start broadcasting a live feed of Amy and Nick running through
the Park, their backs to the camera so you can’t get a good look at their faces. Everyone
will assume that they’re me and Natalie. We’re able to do this because we’re broadcasting
within the city limits, like they were doing with the “live feed” of Polly, so the
Sentry’s jamming signal doesn’t work, as that only prevents signals coming in or out
of the city bounds.

Nick and Amy deposit some explosives outside Natalie’s old family home, a derelict
white mansion covered in brambles, then hurry toward the manhole cover in the middle
of the street, dropping down into the sewers just as the bomb explodes and another
shock wave hits the city. A series of explosions take place in rapid succession as
the other bombs in the Park detonate. The old, dry wood from the abandoned houses
provides the perfect kindling, and that area of the city is soon an inferno.

Almost immediately, there’s another explosion to the west—this time a power plant—and
all the digital screens and streetlights start to pop out one by one, sending a rolling
tide of darkness across the city.

There’s a moment of stillness before all hell breaks loose. Air-raid sirens wail,
people scream, footsteps echo in the streets as citizens run for cover. Everything
is going according to schedule. Right now, I know Dad and Logan are leading the first
teams out of the ghetto under the cover of darkness. I say a silent prayer for them
all. We’ve done everything we can; now it’s up to fate to determine whether they get
out of Black City alive.

“Our turn,” I say. “You ready?”

Garrick, Natalie and Elijah all nod. Our bombs are on a time delay, so once I flip
the first switch, we’ll have just three minutes to get out of the market before the
first bomb detonates and sets the others off in a chain reaction.

I peer up at the sky. The first Transporters start to drop from the Destroyer Ships.
Some head toward the Cinderstone factories, others to the Park, where the bombs have
gone off. There’s no time to wait. I flip the switch.

The three-minute countdown begins.

We sprint through the market, tearing through the warren of alleyways, me leading
the way, as my eyesight is best in the dark.

Two minutes.

I turn a corner and immediately realize I’ve gone the wrong way when we’re confronted
with a brick wall. Fragg!

“Ash, this way,” Natalie says, guiding us down another passageway.

The colorful bunting around the market stalls flutters as we rush by. We pass the
fishmongers, the jewelry stores, finally reaching the clothing stores on the outer
rim of the market.

One minute.

We reach a crossroads.

“Which way?” Elijah asks.

“I don’t know,” Natalie says. “I always get lost around here.”

We don’t have time to waste. I just follow my gut and pick the passageway on the right.

Thirty seconds.

As we run down a narrow alleyway, Natalie’s foot slips on a loose cobblestone, and
she stumbles. Garrick roughly drags her to her feet.

Ten seconds.

“There! Look!” Elijah says.

A crack of light between two stalls.

We run toward it.

Five seconds.

We’re not going to make it.

Three. Two. One.

We burst out of the market just as the first bomb detonates.

The blast knocks us off our feet, and we crash to the ground ten feet from where we
started. My ears are ringing, and every bone and muscle in my body aches. Everything
sounds muffled, like I’m swimming underwater. I lie on my back and watch as confetti
rains down on me. Another explosion sends more colorful bunting and bits of flaming
debris up into the air. I try to move, but my body refuses.

Through the fog in my head, I make out the sound of marching boots against cobblestones.
It’s getting louder and louder. The Sentry guards are coming. A voice screams in the
back of my mind to get up, but my legs aren’t responding. Everything’s still in a
haze, and I can’t concentrate.
Get up, Ash. Get up, Ash. Get up—

“Ash!”

Natalie’s voice makes my world whoosh back into focus. I struggle upright in time
to see her being slung over Garrick’s shoulder, about fifteen feet away. For a second,
I think he’s trying to carry her away from the approaching Sentry guards, but then
I notice her fists pounding against his back, the fear in her eyes. My heart leaps
into my mouth. He’s trying to kidnap her!

“Let me go!” she screams.

I lunge for Garrick. He yells as I sink my fangs into his leg, injecting him with
a heavy dose of Haze. Startled, he drops Natalie. Elijah helps her to her feet while
Garrick staggers back, one step, two steps, before crashing to the cobbled ground,
grinning like an insane man as the Haze courses through his veins.

“Down here!” Sebastian calls out to his men. They’re in the street next to us.

“We have to get to the safe house,” I say.

We grab our bags and stagger out of Chantilly Lane just as the first guards approach
the market square. We hurry down the passageway, getting as far away as possible.

The streets start to fill with people as they evacuate their homes, carrying clothes,
food, pets; some even attempt to carry heavy paintings and other heirlooms with them
in their panicked state.

“Put up your hoods,” I tell the others.

We join the throng of people, using them for cover as more Sentry troops rush by.
Everyone is running in all directions, uncertain where to go. With the factories,
the Park and Chantilly Lane in flames, most head toward the Rise to take refuge there.

We walk for twenty minutes until we reach City End, where the safe house is. I’m just
grateful I never told Garrick our plan, that fragging traitor! I think back to the
first time I met him, after he’d brought Freya to the ghetto, and recall the slash
marks down her stomach. I’d thought they were made by a guard’s sword, but now I suspect
the Lupine was responsible. Was that what Freya was trying to tell me before she died?
We pass dozens of houses, searching for the right one, but they all look the same,
with black Cinderstone-brick walls and red doors.

“Which one is it?” Elijah asks.

I quickly check the top right-hand corner of each door until I find what I’m looking
for: a small burning rose carved into the wood.

“This one,” I say.

We enter the safe house, slamming the door behind us. It is small and cramped, with
dust on every surface and bedsheets covering the old furniture. The owner died a year
ago, and Humans for Unity has been using it as a refuge ever since. We head up to
the attic, as Roach instructed us to, and find a couple of sleeping bags, an oil lamp
and some tins of food. There’s no Synth-O-Blood for me, but I didn’t expect there
to be; everything in the attic has been here a while. My stomach growls, and I try
to remember the last time I ate anything. It’s been ages.

There’s a small round window in the attic, giving us a great view over the city. Infernos
rage in the three districts where we planted the bombs. Thankfully, the fires are
still contained within those sections, but it’ll only be a matter of time before they
reach us. We’ll stay here for as long as we can, then head to the station on the outskirts
of the city.

Elijah sits down on one of the sleeping bags and begins to groom himself, licking
the dust and blood off his arms, while I stalk about the room.

“I can’t fragging believe Garrick’s been playing us all this time,” I spit.

“Who do you think he’s working for?” Natalie asks.

“My money’s on Purian Rose,” I reply.

Elijah stops cleaning himself. “Then why tell us about the Tenth?”

“To gain our trust, so he could infiltrate the rebel headquarters.” I punch my fist
against the wall, making my knuckles ache. “Fragg! He knows
everything
! He knows where the Darklings are going and that we’re looking for the Ora.”

“At least he doesn’t know we’re going to Thrace,” Natalie says. “That’s something.”

I rake my fingers through my hair, trying to think of ways to warn the others, but
come up empty.

“Why did he try and kidnap Natalie, though?” Elijah asks me. “Wouldn’t it have made
more sense for him to kill you both?”

We all look at each other, trying to work this out, but none of it makes sense. It
would have been the perfect opportunity for Garrick to kill me, so why didn’t he?

“So what do we do now?” Natalie says.

“I guess we carry on with our plan,” I say. “Garrick doesn’t know how we intend to
escape the city; he’ll assume we’re already on our way out.”

“I hope he’s having a really bad Haze trip,” Natalie says, wincing as she sits down.

“Are you hurt?” I ask.

“It’s just that old bite mark on my leg,” she says. “Nothing to worry about.”

She opens one of the tins of soup, cooking it over the oil lamp, and we settle down
for the evening. I keep a close eye on the window, to see if the fires are spreading
in our direction. Elijah curls his lip at the soup when Natalie passes it to him.

“Fine, go hungry. I don’t care,” she snaps.

He quickly takes the soup and drinks it down. Honestly, where does he think we are?
The Golden Citadel? As the Bastet Consul’s son, he’s probably used to getting the
finest foods. I enviously watch them as they eat their dinner, my own stomach roaring
with hunger.

Another eruption rumbles across the city. Something else has just gone up in flames.

“Do you think the others made it out okay?” Natalie asks.

I nod, although I just don’t know. Pain balls up in my chest, thinking about Dad and
Sigur, not to mention Nick and Amy.

Natalie and Elijah finish their meager dinner while I triple-check the contents of
my duffel bag, making sure we have everything for our escape plan tomorrow: wigs,
contact lenses, veneers, makeup, clothes, Evacuation Passes. It’s amazing what Amy
managed to cobble together for us in terms of disguises in such a short space of time.
A lot of it was stolen from Black City School’s props cupboard and the makeup department
at Juno’s work. I’m concerned that we have only two Evacuation Passes—the bloodied
one Juno got hold of from a dead guy and the one Dad collected during the attempt
to rescue Polly. We still need a third pass, which is another item on the long list
of things that can go horribly wrong tomorrow.

Right now, our plan relies on the Sentry believing Natalie and I have already left
the city. With Garrick still out there, our chances of escaping have just gone from
bad to worse. I just pray Nick and Amy get out okay, for their sakes as well as our
own.

“Do you think the Sentry will still honor the Evacuation Passes?” Elijah asks.

“I think so,” Natalie says. “If Purian Rose evacuates those who have been loyal to
him, it’ll give other people around the country incentive to support him, rather than
join forces with us.”

“I hope you’re right,” he mutters. “I
have
to get to Thrace. My mom needs me.”

“We’ll get there.” Natalie touches his arm reassuringly, and I feel a twinge of jealousy.

When Natalie’s done with her meal, she climbs into her sleeping bag and drops off
almost instantly. Her skin is covered in a fine sheen of sweat, like she’s feverish,
and I wonder if she’s coming down with something.