by J. L. Weil
I made a noise in the back of my throat. It was louder than I meant it to be.
She tilted her head to the side. “Do you have a problem with that?”
My chin lifted, meeting her eyes defiantly. “Only if you hurt him.”
“That’s not how we do things in Icecaster.”
“Sorry, if I don’t believe you.”
“It’s time for you to go before you bring more trouble than we need.”
This was one of the most bizarre kidnappings I’d had to date, and I hoped to God that it would be my last. “I thought we were just getting to know each other. Now you want to kick me out?”
A mischievous glint radiated in her icy eyes. “You’re perfect for the Slayer.”
“So I’ve been told,” I said. “How do you know Dash?”
I didn’t like her frigid smile. “We’ve met, and I’d rather not repeat the encounter.”
Smart.
The boy curled into her arms, shivers racking his small frame. I remembered all too well what it was like to wake up after being asleep for over a hundred years. The body and mind were in a frail state. “My sentinels will escort you to the gate. Your sister will be waiting for you there.”
I turned to leave but then paused. “Why didn’t you just ask me for help? Why kidnap and threaten me? I’m not a monster, you know.”
Her lips formed a hard line. “Haven’t you learned anything about this world? You can trust no one until they’ve proven themselves worthy.”
“And have I?” I asked.
She nodded, her eyes warming a fraction so tiny it could have easily been overlooked. “For the moment.”
Good enough for me. I turned, moving back through the structure, not bothering to see if her two sentinels followed me. A light shower of snow fell from the sky as I stepped outside, and as I lifted my head up, a flake landed on the tip of my nose.
Leaving the holding house behind me, I continued down the path, my mind brooding on what I had done. I couldn’t get the little boy’s face out of my mind. Would his features haunt my memories forever? Was it a byproduct of what I’d done, or simply because he had been the first I’d intentionally woken up?
Wait until my father found out about this. His army was almost in his grasp.
Dread pitted in my stomach.
I could always refuse, but would I be damning mankind?
A dark shadow zoomed overhead, and I caught the flash of a black wing from the corner of my eye.
Ryker.
It had to be him.
And if the shifter was here, Dash was close by.
He came!
Of course, he had come. It was stupid to think an argument would change the way he felt about me or his nature to save me.
My pace picked up. I was eager to get outside the gated community. Ember stood at the entrance looking pissed off and ready to unleash hell on Earth. Her hands were secured behind her back by one of the sentinels. She was definitely plotting how many ways she could kill him once we were set free.
She scowled at me. “What the hell, Charlotte? Took you long enough. All you had to do was kiss the poor bloke.”
“Glad to see you too, Sis,” I mumbled as we waited for one of the sentinels to open the iron gate.
The scruffy man holding Ember shoved her through the opening, not too gently either. Ember turned around, walking backward so she could stare at the guard. “You know you’re going to miss me,” she said, blowing a kiss to him.
He gave her a smirk right before he tossed a small silver key on the ground near her feet.
“Must you antagonize everyone you meet?” I said, bending down to scoop up the discarded key before it got buried in the snow.
“Yes,” she said, turning up her nose at me. “Now get these damn things off me so can I blow some shit up.”
“Dash and Ryker are nearby,” I told her, wrapping my fingers around the metal bracelets.
Her foot tapped impatiently while waiting for me to release her. “A little too late, huh?”
I lifted a brow. “This might hurt.”
She angled her head to the side, a wicked grin on her lips. “I’m no stranger to pain.”
Sadness came over me that she prided herself on being a survivor. Pushing aside feelings of guilt, I shoved the key into the hole and turned it. Click. Well, that was anticlimactic. Ember wrangled the bracelets off her wrists and tossed them as far as she could. I watched as they sunk into the snow. Then we both turned back to look at Icecaster. My mouth dropped open. “Where the hell is it?” I blinked, but it didn’t help. The spot where an entire community had once stood was now an open field. It had just vanished, as if it had never been there.
“Fucking glamour,” Ember cursed.
Much to my sister’s chagrin, it appeared she wasn’t going to get her chance at revenge after all, assuming she didn’t know how to see through the glamour. I surely didn’t.
“Freckles.”
The sound of Dash’s voice crashed over me. Spinning toward an opening in the snowcapped trees, I ran straight into his arms. They wrapped around me, lifting me up and hugging me tight against his chest. I clung to him, burying my face in his neck and breathed deeply.
My heart constricted. “Dash…”
“I’m here,” he whispered directly in my ear.
“Where the hell have you been?” My voice was muffled against his skin as I inhaled the familiar scent of him.
“Riding a unicorn in Neverland. Where do you think I’ve been?” His warm hands came up to cup my cheeks. “You’re okay?”
“I am now,” I answered, my face still buried against his neck. I didn’t want to let go. Not ever.
He set me down on my feet.
“I’m sorry.” There were a thousand things I wanted to say to him, but only three words came out. “I love you.”
His gaze smoldered with a pure silver fire. “I love you too.”
I trembled, sweet relief dancing inside me. We were going to be fine. If there was one thing I was sure of, it was Dash and me. Nothing could tear us apart. Not the Institute. Not the Forsaken. Not my parents.
My fingers clutched the material of his black shirt, needing to hold him. I smiled despite the tenseness between us. “What took you so long?”
He chuckled. “You did happen to be in an invisible city.”
His lips pressed against mine before I could reply, and I melted into him. Our connection vibrated in the air with his mouth branded on mine, washing away the days we’d been apart and taking our anger with it.
Ember cleared her throat. “Don’t forget to breathe,” she taunted.
My lips curled against Dash’s. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
“You, yes. But not Ryker or your parents,” he added. His hands rested on my shoulders as he inspected my body. “Did they hurt you?”
Ryker, who perched on a nearby branch, squawked, and I knew Dash would never have found me without him. I shook my head.
“You were kidnapped. Again.”
My feet shuffled over the white powder on the ground. “Well, there was that little hiccup.”
His scowl deepened.
“It wasn’t a big deal. I gave her what she wanted and she let us go.”
He wasn’t buying my nonchalant response. “Then what is with the shadow in your eyes? It wasn’t there before.”
“Some things in this world are harder to swallow. Like children being monsters. Sometimes it all feels hopeless. How can we possibly go up against the Institute and the Forsaken? I don’t even know who I’m trying to save anymore.” I burrowed into him.
Starlight burned in his silver eyes. “It’s not hopeless. You saved me.”
I shook my head. “We saved each other.”
A sniffing noise came from behind me. “Let me wipe the snot from my nose. As touching as this reunion is, I want to blow crap up.” Ember’s fingers were glowing.
“Some things never change,” Dash muttered, turning toward Ember. “You�
��re going to have to save your craving for revenge. I’m getting Charlotte out of here.”
“Your priorities are always screwed up,” Ember replied, her flames flickering with her volatile emotions.
I opened my mouth to tell her to take a chill pill but Frost barged through the gate that had suddenly reappeared, interrupting me, and lunging straight for me. For a split second, I thought she wanted to attack me, but her subzero hand only wrapped around my wrist. Eyes wide, she held my gaze, showing me her first genuine emotion.
Fear.
It wafted through the air, thick and stagnate. “They’re coming,” she said, her voice trembling.
I didn’t have to ask who. It was written on her face. The Forsaken.
They had found me.
And Frost knew about them.
I looked to Dash, who was already reaching for his bow.
Frost’s fingers tightened on mine. She was definitely going to leave a mark. “You’re the only one that can help. You’re the only one that can stop it.”
“Stop what?” I asked in confusion. The Forsaken? The Institute? A war? What the hell was she talking about?
Multiple sets of obsidian eyes landed on us from all directions.
“Shit,” Dash said.
Chapter Seventeen
“Frost,” Dash hissed. “You kidnapped her.” He accused in a way that said he couldn’t believe a maybe thirteen-year-old could have gotten the jump on Ember and me.
The teen’s chilly gaze landed on Dash as if noticing him for the first time. “It was necessary, but we have bigger problems. You need to get her out of here. She isn’t ready yet. Dash, you must see that she is safe before it’s too late.”
Before what is too late? My mind screamed.
Ember sized up the zombies and Frost, uncertain of whom to light up first. “For the love of God,” she complained, “Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”
She took the words right out of my mouth. I didn’t like putting my trust in a girl who had kidnapped me, but Frost was the only who seemed to have any idea what was going on right now.
“We’ll hold them off. Go!” Frost urged, a line of her sentinels forming beside her—spears and shields in hand. It was a formidable sight, even with someone so young as their leader.
Dash didn’t need to be told a second time. Ember, on the other hand, was still trying to decide if she should set the world ablaze. I grabbed her arm, dragging her with me. We bolted down a narrow pathway lined with spiky evergreens as sharp as razors. Not getting cut added to the challenge. Wrapped in shadows, we ran, and I could feel the heavy weight of zombies approaching.
The sounds of the fight we left behind slowly faded, drowned out by our heavy breathing.
“Tell me you brought the ranger,” Ember asked Dash, panting.
The tunnel of pines gave way to an opening. Ember and I both sighed in relief at the sight of Ryker sitting inside the ATV with a devilish grin on his handsome face. “What took you so long?”
“Shut up and drive,” Ember ordered him, swinging into the passenger seat.
Dash and I jumped into the back.
I peeked through the rear window of the ranger to see a mob of glowing green bodies break through the trees. There was more than I’d ever seen at once, and it frightened me to the depths of my soul. They were coming for me—stronger, more determined—and they were bringing their friends. Apparently, word of mouth spread like herpes in the zombie community. They were quick too, far faster than a normal human.
“Do those damn things multiply like fleas?” Ryker punched the gas, lurching the ranger to its maximum speed.
I prayed it was enough.
In a suicide move, one of the zombies threw itself in front of the ranger. Ryker didn’t flinch and never took his foot off the accelerator. “Hang on. Things are about to get rough.” The ATV hit the Forsaken head-on, jerking me forward and then throwing me backward against the seat, jarring my brain cells.
“Now I have whiplash,” Ember muttered, glaring out the shattered windshield.
Ryker drove like he was racing in the Indy 500, with daring speeds and equally bold maneuvers. He ripped up the emergency brake, sliding the ATV to the right. “They don’t give up, do they?” At least ten zombies stormed behind us.
“How do we know we’re not driving straight into a trap?” Ember asked. She had a hand pressed to the ceiling for stability.
“It’s a little too late to change course,” Ryker said, keeping his concentration on getting us out of here alive.
Dash started to get out of his seat. “Keep it steady. I’m going to up our odds of getting these assholes off our tail.”
My hand went to his arm. “What are you going to do?”
He raised his dark brows. “What I do best: kill.”
That wasn’t true. I could think of a hundred things Dash did exceptionally well that didn’t involve death, but that wasn’t what he wanted to hear at this point in time.
Collecting his bow and a stash of arrows, Dash hung out the window and took aim. One after another, he picked off the stark raving mad creatures coming at us, with a kind of hunger I couldn’t begin to understand.
Dash always allowed his warrior instinct to guide him, and that was what kept him alive. Between Dash’s skills and Ryker’s insane driving, we were able to lose the throng of zombies. We made it back to the Institute sometime in the middle of the night. I was eager to check on Star, but she found us as we arrived back in the garage of the Diamond Towers. And she only had eyes for Ryker.
Ooo la la. What happened while I was gone?
I glanced up at Dash to see how he was reacting to the Staryker development. He wasn’t exactly scowling, but he definitely wasn't smiling. Ember snorted in disgust and took off without a word.
Star eventually gave me a hug. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, hugging her back. “What about you? And when did that happen?” I asked, waggling my brows at Ryker who was pulling supplies out of the ranger.
She shrugged. “I’m better now that you guys are back. I hate being here alone.”
It didn’t escape my notice that she hadn’t touched the Ryker question. I’d get the details out of her when we were alone and I wasn’t so tired. “Nothing happened while I was gone?”
“Only the normal crazy stuff. You look exhausted,” she said, studying my face intently. Concern shone in her soft eyes. She had a motherly quality to her.
“Next time my sister asks me to accompany her, make sure I say no.”
“How about you and I keep a low profile?” Dash suggested, draping an arm around my shoulder.
Ryker wandered over, and Star dazzled him with a smile. “I don’t think that’s in your skill set,” Ryker replied, grinning.
“You’re probably right,” Dash agreed as he walked us to the elevator.
Star and Ryker got off a few floors before we did. When we had brought Star back with us, we all agreed she needed to stay with someone who could watch over her. I had thought nothing of it when Ryker volunteered. But now I wondered…
“She’s fine,” Dash whispered, turning me so I was in his arms. He pressed his lips to mine in a comforting kiss both of us needed. “We should talk.”
His suddenly serious expression extinguished the glow from his kiss, and I desperately wanted to hang on to that warm fuzzy feeling, not talk about complicated matters. “Do we have to?” I kissed him again. “I’d rather do this instead.”
His arms slipped around my waist as he backed me toward the doors. I was too absorbed with him to see what his hands were doing behind me until the elevator stopped moving. He had hit the emergency button, locking us inside.
“Distracting me won’t work. Tell me why Frost would need you. She would never expose Icecaster unless she had a damn good reason to.”
Curiosity weaseled its way past my desire for him. “How do you know her?”
“We met during my vigilante days. After I escaped from the Institute,
I let my anger get the best of me.”
Aka his “dark” period. Dash rarely spoke of it, and I didn’t push.
“I was consumed with making the commander, the council, and your father pay for what they did to me. Death was too easy of a punishment.”
I understood. “You wanted them to suffer.”
He nodded. “More than just making them suffer, I wanted to destroy them from the inside out. In a way, I still do.” His gaze lifted to mine. “Maybe even more now.”
Emotion rose inside me. We’d both been hurt by the Institute. He didn’t have to say it, but the implication was clear: he would hurt people, kill them, if it was what I desired. That kind of power was dangerous.
He moved to lean a shoulder against the elevator wall. “There were four of us who managed to get out of the dungeons. I wasn’t alone. And together, we took the Institute’s most priceless weapons from them.”
I looked down at the floor. “Frost was one of them.”
He sighed. “She was just a girl.”
“Frost isn’t a child anymore. They took that from her.”
“From all of us. She refused to join our little gang, never wanting to step anywhere near Diamond Towers again. Who could blame her? But little did we know she had her own plans for revenge.”
That seemed to be a theme for anyone who had been under the Institute’s thumb. How could they not see how much more damage they were doing than good? “Frost had me awaken a little boy,” I confided in Dash.
His eyes turned a lackluster gray, and I knew he was thinking about his own little brother, the one he still hadn’t located. “She has one of the best cloakers the Institute has ever seen—someone who can create illusions. It’s how she is able to keep Icecaster off the grid, and has done so for almost an entire year. As far as I know, today was the first time she has lifted the cloak… for you.”
“What are we doing?” I asked, throwing out my hands in exasperation.
“Do you mean at this moment, tomorrow, or the big picture?”
“Here. What are we doing at the Institute? I can’t shake the feeling that this is wrong—us being here. Why are we helping the very people who have hurt so many? And I’m not buying the ‘It’s for the greater good of the world’ crap.”
