The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (49 page)

Adsen quickly plucked the sheet of
paper away and tucked it into his pants pocket. “Something I have
been working on for quite some time, and something I am not quite
ready to share with the world.”

“
Kamiko wants me to make
sure everyone cooperates,” said Colton. “She said she wants to
leave here as soon as possible.”

“
Why?”

Colton spoke in a near-whisper. “I
think she wants to kill Haven.”

21

A
dsen and Dormer were silent for a long time, lost in their
own thoughts. Colton let them think, waiting impatiently.
Eventually, Dormer looked up, clear understanding in his
eyes.

“
Haven and Kamiko both
share the blue flame.”

“
Yes…” said Colton, unsure
about where he was heading.

“
Extraordinarily rare,”
said Adsen, “for two Sources of the same color to find each other,
let alone exist at the same time.”

“
Well, the colors
aren’t
exactly
the same,” said Colton.

“
And for one to be hunting
the other…” said Dormer. He trailed off, mumbling to
himself.

Colton suddenly understood. “Kamiko
wants to make sure there is no one else who could inherit the
Phoenix energy if she dies.”

Adsen nodded gravely. “That hypothesis
would seem to fit the facts.”

“
Would it go back into her
if she died and there was no one else with blue flame? She would be
immortal!”

“
We can’t know for
sure.”

“
How many more are there?”
asked Colton. “Other people with blue flame?”

“
Your guess is as good as
mine,” said Dormer. “Phoenix are always female, just as the Void is
always male. We have no direct idea how many others like us are out
there in the world, and for even
two
to have the same color
flame—”

“
Three hundred,” said
Adsen.

“
Three hundred
what?”

“
That’s how many of us
there are in the world. Give or take a few.”

“
How could you possibly
know that?” asked Dormer. He stared at his brother in
disbelief.

“
Although it shames me to
admit it,” said Adsen, “population measurement of our own kind was
one of my directives while I was a captive at the medical facility.
It was tricky at first, nearly impossible, but then the patterns
began to reveal themselves.”

“
What patterns?” asked
Colton. He sat on the edge of his wooden crate, leaning forward
eagerly.

“
Old patterns. Population
booms in specific areas where…where terrible things would later
happen.”

“
Not this again,” said
Dormer dismissively. He stood up from his chair and crossed his
arms. He paced around the room, shaking his head.

“
I didn’t believe it at
first, either,” said Adsen. His face flushed with embarrassment.
“But then the patterns grew too clear to ignore. Something terrible
is going to happen, which is why there are so many of us in the
world.”

“
Three hundred doesn’t
seem like a lot,” said Colton.

“
Normally, you would be
right. But three hundred of our kind? Just imagine all the laws of
nature that were shattered to bring us into existence! It’s quite
remarkable when you—”

Dormer cleared his throat.

Adsen’s face flushed and he swallowed
hard. “Right, sorry. As I was saying, I wouldn’t be surprised to
learn there were less than fifty of us during peaceful times, but
now, with something dreadful on the horizon…” His voice broke off
and he shuffled through his papers. He muttered numbers and
fragmented thoughts until he finally fell silent and looked as if
he forgot what he was saying.

“
How did you find them?”
asked Colton, trying to bring Adsen back from his own mind. The
tall, lanky man shook his head and turned away. Tears welled in his
eyes.

Dormer took notice and recognized
something in his brother’s face that Colton could not. He knelt
down next to Adsen and rested a hand on his brother’s
shoulder.

“
How did you find them,
Addy?”

Adsen closed his eyes and tears
squeezed out. He clutched anxiously at his scraggy beard and his
words tumbled out in half-sobs. “It was the boy. Bernam cut him
open and he—he told me to figure out how a Nova could locate every
Source and Conduit around the globe.”

“
You mean Noah?” asked
Colton, “Haven’s brother?”

Adsen shook his head gravely. “The one
before him. The other boy. He was a Nova as well.”

Dormer pulled his hand away from
Adsen’s shoulder. The look he had recognized on his brother’s face,
the look that Colton was just beginning to recognize, was
shame.

Adsen sobbed loudly but
was determined to continue, to confess his dark sin. “With Noah,
Bernam wanted to know how our kind worked, how we are able to do
the things we do. He wanted a scientific reason for our existence.
But with the boy he took
before
Noah, Bernam had a very specific method. The boy
needed to be alive for me to tap into his ability to locate
everyone like us. Every Source, every Conduit. Some Phoenix have
that ability, but every Nova does. Every pure Nova, anyway. And
Alistair is no pure Nova. That’s why it took him so long to find
this place, especially after I stopped my work.” He took a deep
breath and his body shook from his sobs. “When they brought Noah
in, I refused to be a part of it. I was treated with vile cruelty,
until finally I could no longer walk and they strapped me to a
table and sedated me until near-death. That is where you found me,
brother.”

Dormer’s voice was low and
full of disgust. “Well, now we know how they found us, don’t we?
You could have warned us when you woke up. Instead you lied, and
now look what’s happened. I can’t believe you
did
that, Addy.”

Adsen lowered his head and closed his
eyes. “Neither can I.”

“
What happened to him?”
asked Dormer. “The other boy.”

Adsen could not answer. He covered his
face with his hands and wept. Dormer’s eyes filled with inky
blackness, and the single light in the ceiling dimmed. Colton stood
up, knocking back his wooden crate.

Dormer still had his ability. Colton
was about to ask how that was possible when the door quickly opened
and a soldier stepped into the room. He aimed his rifle at Adsen’s
head. The darkness faded instantly from Dormer’s eyes as he looked
at Colton. He brought his finger to his mouth and made a shushing
motion.

Brightness returned to the overhead
light as two more soldiers entered the room and aimed their guns at
Dormer and Colton. The first soldier stepped forward and lifted
Adsen from his chair by his shirt-collar.

“
Time to get to work,
Doctor,” said the soldier. His voice came out as a garbled,
mechanical growl—some kind of voice-masking apparatus was built
into his rebreather.

Dormer took a step forward
and the soldier closest to him swung the butt of his rifle. It hit
Dormer’s temple with a sharp
CRACK
and sent him sprawling to the ground. Adsen was
pushed from the room and the soldiers retreated. The door closed
behind them, leaving Colton and Dormer in silence.

22

S
and crunched under Haven’s shoes as she followed Bastian and
Roku. They walked side by side, silent, heads down except for the
occasional glance forward. The dim, black outline of a building had
appeared in the distance, growing larger with every step. The
compound must have been massive, for Haven could tell they were
still a couple of miles away and the building occupied a sizable
chunk of the horizon.

Marius walked next to her, frowning in
deep thought. He scratched at his unshaven neck; at the faint black
veins that were slowly creeping over his throat. His balding head
shone softly in the moonlight.

“
I wouldn’t worry about
Corva,” said Haven, guessing at the thoughts that occupied his
mind. When he looked over at her quickly, she saw she had guessed
correctly. “She’s very strong, and she will wait for
you.”

Marius shook his head and looked down
at his own feet as he walked. “Maybe not strong enough for this,”
he said softly. “Marius is beginning to think he should have stayed
with her.”

“
You can do the most good
here,” said Haven. “With me.”

He smiled weakly, but
there was no feeling behind it. Ahead, Bastian squealed and there
was a soft
whumph
of air from Roku’s fist. A circular patch of sand sank down
into the ground, as if it had been suddenly pressed down by the
foot of an invisible elephant.

“
Thanks,” said Bastian. He
shuddered and continued walking. Haven passed the round depression
and saw a flattened scorpion in the middle.

“
Where are you getting
your energy?” Haven asked Roku.

“
Moonlight,” he said, and
pointed up into the night sky. “Takes a while.”

Bastian grinned. “Full moons are just
perfect for that steady flow.” He looked around at each member of
the group. “Strange for there to be just one Con in a crowd full of
Sources. Bloody rare, is what it is.”

“
Why are there so many
more Conduits in the first place?” asked Haven.

“
I was hoping you knew,”
said Bastian.

“
Don’t you have a
theory?”

He grinned again. Haven wondered why
his face hadn’t yet permanently frozen in that expression. “Who
doesn’t?” he said. “I think it has something to do with balance.
Sources actually create the energy out of nowhere, which violates
the natural order to begin with.” He jabbed a thumb toward Roku.
“All the Cons do is move that energy around. They just pick it
right up and set it down someplace else. They’re not actually
affecting much in the grand order of things. I think it takes a lot
more for a Source to come into existence, so it doesn’t happen very
often. It’s almost like a miracle.”

“
You believe in miracles?”
asked Haven.

“
I’m hoping to see a few
tonight,” he said. She thought he was joking until she saw the look
of worry on his face.

Before she could ask him what was
wrong, Roku stopped and held up his arm for them to wait. Ahead in
the darkness, a large truck drove on a dirt road next to the
sprawling building. Its headlights flashed over them as it turned.
They quickly ducked to the ground. The truck paused for a moment
and the driver got out. He took a few steps toward them, squinting
into the night. He unclipped a flashlight from his vest and shone
it directly at them, but they were too far away and its beam was so
weak that it died well before it reached their position.

The guard lingered for a moment until
another passenger in the truck spoke to him. The driver laughed and
got back into the truck, then drove farther down the dirt road
until all Haven could see was a pair of dim red taillights growing
fainter until they finally disappeared.

Bastian breathed out a heavy sigh of
relief. “Close one,” he said.

Haven eased forward and saw that they
were sitting at the rounded peak of a long, low dune that ran all
the way down to the dirt road next to the building. The structure
itself was enormous, a collection of warehouses that had been
roofed together to create a single Frankenstein compound. Black
smoke belched from exhaust towers that stuck up from the uneven
roof in all four corners of the palatial fortress.

Armed guards stood watch at each
entrance point. Bright halogen lamps illuminated every square inch
of the compound, turning night into day. More trucks lumbered
around the side of the building, some carrying large crates
spray-painted with words like DANGER and POISON. Others carried
huge tanks filled with sloshing liquid. Doors opened and closed all
over the complex, admitting trucks and armed guards.

From where Haven was sitting, the
whole operation looked like a living, breathing
organism.

“
Hmm,” said Bastian
thoughtfully. “Might be a bit harder than I originally
thought.”

Marius looked at him with a
scowl.

“
Alistair is in there
somewhere?” asked Haven.

“
Him, or someone who knows
where he is,” said Bastian.

“
What if he isn’t? You
said this place could lead us to the cure.”

Roku turned around. “Are we going to
sit here all night talking?”

Bastian smiled. “I’d like
to hear how you plan on getting inside the building. If you think
we’re wasting our time—” Roku stood up and walked toward the
complex before Bastian could finish. “Hey!” Bastian whispered
sharply. “
Hey!
”

But Roku ignored him. He crouched low
as he walked quickly down the dune toward the building.

“
What do we do?!” asked
Haven.

“
We go,” said Marius. He
stood and followed after Roku.