The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (81 page)

“I’m so sorry, Hayli,” I said, pressing my forehead to
hers.  “For all the lies, and all the deception, for the pain and every way
I’ve failed you.  And for what I’m about to do.”  My lips brushed hers again,
like a sad refrain of music, and I murmured, “But this was always truth.”

She kissed me fiercely and didn’t say a word, and when I
stepped away I didn’t look at her again.  I swallowed, and turned to the door
and the knot of guards staring at me like they’d seen the end of days.  The
sparks danced across my chest and spread over my other arm, the crackle of its
power molding the rhythm of my heart to match.  I drew one long breath and the
sparks faded into my skin.

“Stand down,” I said to the guards, wishing my voice were
stronger.  Wishing I didn’t sound like I was about to die.  “This is your last
chance.  Stand down, or I will kill every one of you.”

Some of them moved.  A few laughed, as if they were blind to
everything I’d just done.  I breathed out, and the web of lightning breathed
out of me, twisting into a tangled net around me.

Somewhere, somewhere past the hiss of static in my ears, I
heard Hayli say,

“Shade.”

I closed my eyes and pushed out with all my strength.

Chapter 14 — Hayli

“Shade!” I screamed.

The web of lightning chased over the fallen bodies of the
guards, slithering up the metal beams around the door, flickering away over the
rafters and down the fallen walkover with a noise like the devil.  Then there
was silence.  Silence, and darkness.  No one moved.  No one screamed or cried. 
We all just stood paralyzed, because no one could believe we were still alive.

When the last finger of lightning finally vanished, I
thrashed against the chains that held me, again and again until I could feel
the blood on my wrists from the chafing metal cuffs.  I paused, reaching with
my fingers, brushing over each wrist.  Slick, slick with blood. 

I twisted my wrists, slow now, trying to spread the film of
blood over as much of my hands as I could.  Then I folded my fingers tight, and
pulled.  My hands, always too small, slipped in the metal rings.  I tugged
hard, biting my lip to stifle my scream of pain, and fell to my knees as my
hands pulled free.

I ran straight to Shade’s side.  He lay flat on his back
with his arms spread wide at his sides, that enormous black coat pooling around
him.  A faint shaft of light splintered past the door and fell across his
face—his skin white as smoke, his lips parted like he meant to say something.

I collapsed beside him, grabbing his shoulders with my
bloody hands and laying my head on his chest.  Nothing.  Not even the faintest
prickle of static.

“Come on, Shade!” I cried, too loud in the silence.  I
choked in a breath, tears streaming down my cheeks.  “This isn’t fair!”

I shook him roughly, then laid my hand against his cheek and
pressed my lips against his, the sobs tearing me apart.  And he didn’t even
respond to that. 

“Hayli,” someone said, coming up behind me.

I froze in the middle of all my tears, because that voice
could only belong to Derrin.  But that was impossible, because Derrin hadn’t
even been captured.  Still, when I glanced back he was there, crouching in the
sliver of light where I could see his face, his hands free and unshackled at
his sides. 

“Derrin!” I gasped.  “What…”

He just measured me quietly, then his gaze fell on Shade. 
“We have to get him to Doc,” he said.

“Where is Doc?  I haven’t seen him…”

“He got out with Rivano before the coppers came rounding
everyone up.  Hayli, Kantian’s dead.  Jig killed him.”

I thought maybe I should be stunned, or horrified, but I was
so numb that I couldn’t even bring myself to comprehend.

“How’ll we get him out of here, though?  We’re kind of
locked in.”

“I can go for help,” he said, getting to his feet.  “Just
hang on a bit longer.”

He stopped when he realized I was still staring at him. 
“Derrin, I just said, we’re locked in.  How’re you ganna get out?  How did you
even get in in the first place?”

“I’m sorry, Hayli,” he said.  “We all had our secrets.”

He backed up a step, and then he was gone. 

He just disappeared, the way only a Ghost could disappear.

“
Derrin!
”

Everything inside me froze with horror.  I knelt there,
staring at the blank space where Derrin had been, while everything shifted into
place in my mind.  All the secrets.  All the lies.  The whole tangled web.  I
saw it all, but I couldn’t comprehend.

From the corner of my eye, I caught a bitty little
movement.  Shade’s finger, twitching.  All my breath shattered out in a sob and
I dragged him off the cement floor, cradling his torso against my legs because
I couldn’t move him any more than that.  Barely, just barely, I felt the
faintest prickle of static when I took his hands in mine.

“Oh, God,” I said, and tipped my head back, trying to fight
away the tears.  And then, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me, I bent and
whispered, “Derrin can never know.  I’ll never let him know.”

We sat that way for so long, minutes or hours.  It felt like
a lifetime.  I kept letting go of his hand and then taking it again, just to
feel the spark of energy that was all I had to tell me he was still alive…and
because I’d imagined for so long how it would feel, holding his hand. 

It isn’t even really his hand
, the crow whispered to
me. 
It’s just a Mask
.

Shut up,
I told her. 
Shade isn’t just a Mask…he’s
who Prince Tarik wanted to be.  He is Tarik.  I always wondered why he felt so
familiar.

And suddenly I wasn’t sure which one I meant, Tarik or
Shade.  Now that I knew the truth, it made such perfect sense…I couldn’t
understand how I hadn’t seen it from the very beginning.  He’d always been
just…Shade.  So many memories flashed through my mind—how surprised, or amused,
Shade had been when the lads teased me about Tarik, how he’d never wanted to be
an anarchist, how he’d mocked Tarik so ruthlessly.  How surprised Tarik had
been when we met in the Science Ministry…

How many times he’d come so close to death.

And Derrin?  Oh God, Derrin.  He couldn’t possibly be the
Ghost.  Not my Derrin.  But it occurred to me suddenly that I’d never touched
him either, except the time when he carried me to the Hole, but I’d been so out
of sorts then that I wouldn’t have noticed if he’d been breathing fire.

I was blind not to have seen that, too.  The way he could
disappear into the shadows, the way he was always coming and going…oh, stars. 
He was the Ghost, and he shot Shade’s father.

That thought made me frown.  Trabin…King Trabin…he couldn’t possibly
be Shade’s pop, not unless he was a mage too.  But why would a mage be sent to
kill a mage king?  And why would a mage king let his own kind be targeted like
this?  But if he wasn’t Tarik’s father, then who was?

It was all so complicated, such a tangled knot of lies and
secrets.  And I had no one to explain any of it to me.

The door of the warehouse clanged.

Some of the folks cried out, but they were all chained so
good and tight that no one even tried to move.  The door clashed again, then
slowly, slowly it began to creak open.  Blinding daylight streamed across the
warehouse floor, drowning me and Shade in the midst of it.  Four silhouettes
appeared to our blinded eyes—two with guns, two tall and sturdy, both wearing
hats and long coats.  A minute and I saw that the two tall men were Zagger and
the bald man—Dreyden Kor, who’d been ratting out the mages—and the two with
guns were royal guards.  I wondered what had happened to the four guards who’d
been on post outside the door, until I saw their bodies, fallen where they’d
stood, somehow downed by Shade’s lightning with the rest. 

Zagger was the first to move, I suppose as soon as his eyes
got used to the hazy darkness.  He ran toward us and dropped on his knees in
front of me, Kor close on his heels.

“Is he dead?” Kor asked, harsh.

I bristled and flared, because that traitor, that filthy traitor
shouldn’t be anywhere near us…but Zagger caught my eye and gave me such a
pointed look that I swallowed my anger.

“Dan’ you touch him!” I shouted, holding Shade tighter. 
“Stay back!”

Zagger pressed his fingers against Shade’s throat, and I
read real fear in his eyes—fear and desperate hope.  If aught could endear
Zagger to me, it was the depth of his utter devotion to Tarik.  He swallowed
hard and glanced up at Kor.

“Alive,” he murmured.  “Barely.”

“Good enough.  The King wants this one brought in for
questioning.  Get him up.”

“No,” I hissed, suddenly alarmed.  Maybe Zagger had been
fooling me—maybe they really meant to turn him in.  “You can’t!  He’s ganna
die!”

“King’s orders, miss.  Back away.”

“Please,” I whispered, so soft that only Zagger could hear
me.  “Please dan’ hurt him.”

His gaze flickered up and held mine briefly, then he grabbed
my hands and dragged them from around Shade’s body.  Before I could fight back,
he’d swept Shade up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of flour, and
he and Kor were retreating toward the door.  Something shiny fell from Kor’s
pocket as he turned, but I didn’t dare move closer to see what it was.

“Get this place locked up again,” Kor told the two guards. 
“Wouldn’t want the specimens to escape.”

He opened the door of the motorcar for Zagger while the two
guards turned obediently to lock us back up.  Then, without any warning, Kor
and Zagger both spun around and lamped the two guards, taking them out faster
than I could follow.  The guards fell like bricks, and Zagger rushed around to
the cab of the motorcar.  Just before he turned to get in the car, Kor turned
and gave me a smile and a wink, and nodded at the shiny thing on the warehouse
floor.

And then, in a roar of steam and a rattle of wheels, they
were gone.

I waited till the dust had settled, then I crept forward on
my hands and knees until I could see what Kor had dropped.

For a few moments I just knelt and stared down at it, then I
sat back on my heels and laughed.

It was a lockpick.  Kor had left us a scarzy lockpick.

I picked it up and turned to the mages.

“Can anyone here pick a lock?” I asked, holding it up.  “I
can prob’ly manage one or two, but if we dan’ want to be here a month, someone
else better do this.”

They stared at me.  I couldn’t tell if they were hopeless,
or maybe just stunned, but it took near five seconds before anyone made any
motion at all.  Then an older man shifted forward.  I recognized him—he was the
blue-tattooed man from my train car.  Now that I had a better goggle at it, I saw
that his tattoo wreathed his heart.

“I’m brilliant with a pick,” he said.  “Bring it here.”

I grinned and made my way over to him.  “You’re a Sculptor,
right?” I asked, nodding at his tattoo.  “Shift people’s emotions?”

“That’s right.  Tag’s Lute, because I play on people’s heart
strings, and because that’s what I look like.”

He puffed out his chest and I stifled a laugh, because it
really was true. 

For a few moments I fumbled over the lock on his cuffs,
biting my tongue to focus, and finally, finally managed to free him.

“Not bad, lass,” he said, rubbing his wrists.  “Little
practice and you’ll be good as me.”

“Here,” I said, smiling, and gave him the pick.  “I’ve got
somewhere I need to be.”

“Go find that boy of yours,” he said with a mad grin.  “I’ll
get these folks free.”

I nodded my thanks and stepped into the middle of the
floor.  “Oy, listen, everybody!” I shouted.  “Lute will get you free, and then
you gotta clear out of here fast.  More guards’ll come, I’m sure, and I dan’
think they’ll play nice next time.  So find somewhere safe and stay there. 
Stay out of sight!  Help is coming, but you’ve got to hang on.”

“You’re one of Rivano’s, aren’t you?” someone asked.  “What
if we don’t like what he stands for?”

I shook my head.  “Then do as you like.  Not my job to
change your minds.  But you might find someone worth standing with, if you keep
your eyes open.  Just stay alive for now.  That’s what matters most.  And
remember.  You lot are mages.  Let’s not get captured without a fight again,
right?”

I hopped down and turned back to Lute.  “Good luck.  Make
sure they get out safe.”

He nodded and held up his hand, thumb and forefinger spread,
Wake’s symbol.  I grinned and mirrored it, and turned around to Shift, but
found myself face to face with Derrin again.  I gulped and lowered my hand.

“Derrin.”

“Good, you’re getting everyone out,” he said, watching Lute
work.  “Kor came and got Shade?”

“Yeah,” I said, uneasy.  “He did.”

How do you know Kor?

“Right.  I told him to take Shade to Rivano and Doc.  They’re
holed up in an abandoned mansion on Misting Row.  Not sure why they wanted to
hide out in the high streets, but I’m sure Rivano’s got a reason.”