Phoenix (28 page)

ASH

THE GUARDS GRAB US,
pushing us roughly to our knees. The bags fall off my shoulders, spilling their contents
across the stone tiles, including my mom’s keepsake box.

“Get off me!” I growl.

“Call the Sentry guard,” Bezier orders.

“Elijah, stop this!” Natalie pleads.

He doesn’t look at us as he leaves the chamber, shutting the doors behind him.

I struggle against my captors, but they’re too strong. They roughly pin me against
the stone floor.

“Take them down to the vault and tie them up until our guests arrive,” Bezier says.

“Father, must we really do this?” Acelot interjects. “They’ll be killed.”

“That’s not our concern,” Bezier replies. “It’ll prove to Purian Rose that we are
loyal to him.”

“Until we get hold of the Ora, at least,” Rowanne adds.

Bezier smirks. “These two will buy us some time.”

The Bastet guards drag us out of the room. The siren birds squawk at us as we’re hauled
across the atrium and down a flight of stone steps leading into the basement. I twist
around to make sure Natalie is okay. She kicks, spits and scratches at the guards,
even managing to bite the hand of one of them. In retaliation, he punches her, knocking
her unconscious. Venom floods my fangs, and I thrash some more, but it’s hopeless.

The vault is cold, damp and dark, with stone pillars holding up the domed ceiling.
A few torches light the chamber, casting long shadows over the walls and sodden earth.
They bind my hands and ankles, then chain me to one of the pillars before doing the
same to Natalie. She’s still unconscious, her head drooped. There’s a lump on her
head where the guard hit her.

The instant the Bastets leave, I try and free myself, but the binds are too tight.

Natalie’s eyes blink open, and she groans.

“Where are we?”

“In the basement,” I say.

“You take me to all the best places,” she replies.

“I’m going to fragging kill Elijah when we get out of here.”

Natalie sighs. “I can’t believe I fell for his lies. I feel like such a fool. He’s
been manipulating me this whole time, making me feel sorry for him, making me
trust
him.”

“He conned us both,” I say.

“What do you think is going to happen to us?” Natalie says quietly.

“I think Rose will have us tortured, then publicly executed,” I admit. There’s no
point in sugarcoating this.

“That’s what I thought,” she says.

Time seems to pass slowly down in the vault. Every minute stretches into an hour;
every hour feels like ten as we wait for the Sentry to arrive. I spend most of my
time trying to free myself from the chains until I’m exhausted with the effort. It’s
no good; the binds are just too tight. I let out a frustrated howl. We’re never going
to get out of here. Natalie just stares off into the distance, subdued and tired.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“Not too good,” she admits.

The door to the vault opens and Acelot appears, carrying a tray of food. There’s some
soup for Natalie and a glass of blood for me.

“What’s this? Our last meal?” I say to him.

He gives me an apologetic look. “I thought you might be hungry.”

“I’d rather starve,” I spit.

He puts the tray down on a nearby wooden crate and scratches the back of his head.
He seems nervous. Acelot’s much taller than Elijah, but less broad in the shoulders.
At a guess, I’d say he’s about nineteen years old. His sleeves are rolled up to his
elbows, and his nails are bitten down to the quick.

“I’m sorry about this,” he says, gesturing toward our binds. “For the record, I don’t
agree with what they’re doing.”

“Then why are you going along with it?” Natalie says tiredly.

“Because we don’t have much choice. When we found out about the Tenth from Lucinda’s
letter, we knew it was only a matter of time before the Sentry came for us.” Acelot
perches on the edge of the crate, his tail brushing against the dirt floor. “Elijah
told us what he’d discovered about the Ora. The senate saw the opportunity to get
their hands on a powerful weapon to defend ourselves with, but we needed a backup
plan.”

“Let me guess; you’re intending to hand us over to the Sentry in return for your lives?”
I say.

“Pretty much,” Acelot admits.

I shake my head disbelievingly. “You’re fragging crazy if you think the Sentry’s going
to agree to those terms.”

“I’m not convinced they will, but we don’t have many options,” Acelot replies.

“You could’ve joined the rebellion,” I say.

“That’s what I wanted.” Acelot sighs. “I just couldn’t persuade the others to work
with the Darklings.” He leaves the tray and heads upstairs, briefly pausing on the
steps. “I truly am sorry.”

The door closes behind him. As soon as he’s gone, I slump my head back against the
pillar, my temples throbbing. I shut my eyes, trying to block out the headache.

* * *

The sound of siren birds wailing wakes me up. I blink a few times, trying to adjust
to the dark, and glance over at Natalie. I don’t even remember drifting off. How long
have we been asleep? She turns her head toward me.

Overhead, we hear footsteps marching through the atrium toward the senate room.

They’re here.

Fear spikes in me.

“Ash!” Natalie says, hearing the footsteps too.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” I say.

There’s a clamor in the senate room above us. Chairs scrape back. Footsteps march
across the room. I recognize Garrick’s distinctive gait.

“Where are they?” he says gruffly, his voice muffled through the ceiling.

“Downstairs,” Bezier replies.

“Go get them, then,” Sebastian orders.

More footsteps cross the floor. Shortly after, the door to the vault opens, casting
a shaft of sunlight into the room. I expect the Bastet guards, but instead Elijah
appears. A set of keys jangle around his shackled wrists. He hangs his head slightly
as he stands in front of us.

“How could you betray us?” Natalie says.

He raises his eyes. “What would you have done in my place? I was just following orders.”

“You make it sound like you didn’t have a choice in this,” she says.

“I didn’t!”

She fixes him with a hard, unforgiving look.

“I
didn’t,
” he insists, subconsciously playing with the gold bands on his wrists. Bands just
like the ones the guards upstairs wore.

“You’re a servant,” I say, understanding.

Elijah nods slightly.

“So Bezier
isn’t
your father?” Natalie says.

“He is,” Elijah says. “But when Rowanne found out about his affair with my mom, and
that they’d had a kid, she demanded that I work as their servant, to punish my mother.”

“Is this the bit where we’re supposed to feel sorry for you?” I say.

“No,” Elijah replies. “But maybe you can understand that I didn’t have a choice. He’s
the Consul; I have to follow his orders.”

Natalie rolls her eyes. “Whatever. You were just trying to impress him.”

Elijah flushes.

“We could have
helped
you,” I say. “With the Ora, the rebellion might have succeeded. Now there’s no chance.
You’ve condemned us all.”

Elijah sits down on the damp earth, his shoulders slumping. “I’m so sorry.”

“Pardon us if we don’t believe you,” Natalie replies.

“I mean it,” he says. “I care for you. I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Give me a break,” she says. “It was all make-believe.”

“It wasn’t! It
isn’t,
” he says. “I wanted to confess to you a million times—”

“Then why didn’t you?” she challenges.

“I thought I was doing the right thing for my people,” he says.

Natalie glares at him.

“And I wanted to impress my dad,” he admits.

“I’m glad that worked out well for you,” I retort, looking at his gold shackles.

He rubs his wrists, a frown on his lips. “I did hope—”

“What? That your dad would suddenly accept you into the family if you delivered me
and Natalie to him? You’re an idiot,” I reply. “You’re not even a person to him. You’re
just a tool to be used and tossed away when he’s done with you.”

Elijah rakes his hands through his mane. “I don’t want it to end like this.”

“It doesn’t have to. You can release us,” Natalie says.

“I can’t—”

“You owe me,” Natalie says. “I released you from the Sentry HQ, remember?”

“Sebastian will kill my dad and brothers if I don’t hand you over,” he says. “You
know he will.”

I glance at Natalie. I have to get her out of here; it’s her only chance to live.

“Leave me behind. I’m the one Sebastian wants anyway,” I say to Elijah.

“Ash, no!” Natalie says.

“Please, Elijah,” I say. “If you truly care about Natalie, then set her free.”

Uncertainty crosses his features.

“
Please,
” I say.

In the room above us, I can hear Sebastian and Garrick pacing around the senate room,
getting impatient. Elijah looks up at the ceiling, then at Natalie. He briefly shuts
his eyes, clearly conflicted. Finally, he gets up and unties her. Relief crashes over
me; there’s a chance she’ll escape, a chance she’ll live. That’s all I need to keep
me going.

“Thank you,” I say to Elijah.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he says, surprising me by removing my binds. “I still have to
get you both out of here.”

I scramble to my feet, confused about why he’s letting me go.

“Why are you doing this?” I say to him.

“Because someone has to save my people,” he says. “And I don’t think my father’s the
man to do it. Promise me you’ll protect them.”

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Natalie says.

He shakes his head. “I need to stay and defend my family.”

“You’ll be killed,” she says.

A sad smile crosses his lips. “Don’t worry about me, pretty girl.” He looks at me.
“Do you promise?”

I clamp a hand on his shoulder. “I promise.”

We race up the stairs into the atrium, but skid to a halt as we spot the two Bastet
guards from earlier, patrolling the corridor. They’ve got their backs to us, so they
haven’t seen us yet. We quickly slink back into the shadows just as one of them peers
over his shoulder. My muscles tense, waiting to see if he’s spotted us. My body relaxes
when he turns away.

The Bastet guards pace down the hallway, then enter one of the rooms on the left.
As soon as the door shuts behind them, Elijah emerges from our hiding place and whistles
the four-note tune to silence the siren birds. He beckons us forward, and we follow
him. We hurry past the large rosewood doors leading into the senate room.

“I haven’t got all day, Bezier,” Sebastian snaps from the other side of the closed
doors. “Bring them to me
now.
”

“My servant has gone to get them,” Bezier replies. “Now, about our terms—”

There’s a gunshot, followed by the sound of a body hitting the stone floor.

Elijah spins around, his face ashen. “Dad!”

Pandemonium instantly breaks out in the senate: people scream, more gunshots are fired,
bodies hit the floor. The doors burst open, and the Bastet senators run out of the
room, tripping over one another in their haste. There’s a smattering of gunfire, and
they fall into a heap on the mosaic floor. My nostrils flare with the scent of their
blood.

Through the open doorway, I see Acelot and the other Bastets fighting the Sentry guards,
while Marcel takes cover under the table. Donatien lies lifeless on the floor beside
his mother and Bezier. In the center of the melee are Sebastian, Garrick, Sasha and
two other Lupines.

The loud noises startle the siren birds, and they begin squawking. Sebastian turns,
drawn by the sound, and catches my eye. Surprise briefly registers on his face, and
then it hardens into a snarl. He barks an order at the Lupines.

Garrick and his pack bound toward us, followed by Sebastian and a pair of blood-soaked
Sentry guards. The Lupines leap over the pile of dead senators, barely breaking their
stride as they chase us down the corridor, although Garrick has a definite limp as
he runs. The agitated siren birds wail as we dash by, their cries echoing around the
atrium.

We burst out the front door, into the main plaza. Parked on the far side of the plaza
is the Transporter that Sebastian and his men took to get here. The hatch is open.
We race toward it, knowing it’s our best chance of escape. I risk a look over my shoulder.
Garrick has reached the front door. He charges toward us, closely followed by Sasha
and the other two Lupines.

“Hurry!” I cry out.

Natalie gasps as her injured leg buckles beneath her and she slams to the ground.
I turn on my heel and run back for her, but I know I’m sealing my own fate by doing
so. I reach her at the same time as Garrick. He knocks me out of the way, grabbing
Natalie. I hit the ground, hard. The two guards grab Elijah, while Sebastian draws
his sword on me, a triumphant look on his face.