The boy in the facility, the one I saw after my visit. I remembered smiling. Our first introduction was in a simple room with a purple rug. My father sat and took notes. “Someday, Addie. Someday, you will understand what it was like to be held down. To be used,” he sneered, voice faltering with emotion. “You were always the favored one.”
I didn’t want to know. Not anymore. But there was no choice.
My past was revealed to me. My father. That facility. The home my mother slapped me in. I remembered it all, and it floored me.
More laughter bubbled from Zane’s mouth, eerie and pained. “Or do you not remember?” he asked, pausing to hear any movements from me. “The orphanage. The one we were all taken from.”
I could see the building perfectly. Too perfectly. It was the one I had seen from the hostel window, with the big, green backyard. I would always search for bugs in that back yard, mind always one step ahead. To protect me.
I was abandoned. Who my real parents were, I’d probably never find out. Ladies and gentleman, I was floating in space. Floating, but I would not be broken.
I blocked it out. For so long, I lived my life putting together my memories with my father as best I could. He was absent, but so were a lot of fathers. I never thought he would lie to me. I was his little explorer. But now it was obvious why Zane wouldn’t leave me alone. He wasn’t just following orders. He saw a connection to me—perhaps not as I expected in the past. It was a deep-rooted anger, a thorn that drove into his side every single day.
My eyes widened. If I weren’t leaving with Zane, he’d terminate everyone and everything. He’d leave behind nothing. No trace. Well, I had met up my mind. I wasn’t leaving without the others.
His footsteps grew closer, despite the looming threat of being burned alive. I clutched Mag’s blade and said a light prayer. I was scared. Now that I knew the truth, I perhaps felt the opposite of what I should have. The horrors of the world sank in, and it only made me want to hold onto life more. It was so easy to fall into the negativity, to give up when it all felt so fucking hopeless. Hell, when your father uses you as a fail switch to destroy another realm, you’d think it would slow you down a little. But it didn’t.
Nothing would. If I was going to live, I was going to be stronger than the rest. My entire life, I sought to invent a purpose for myself. The three I met here taught me there was something already there, something trapped inside me worth a damn. Why didn’t I ever let it show?
I felt my strength bolster my spirit. I knelt down, but I was ready to come out and face Zane for the last fucking time. I put one foot out, carefully shielding the blade against my hip. I stepped out into the open, and my breath was stolen from me.
Zane. He took me from behind, twisting my wrist until I heard the snap. The pain followed like glass grinding down between the bones. The knife fell to the soil. As soon as he stepped onto it, it was lost from me.
“Snake!” he jeered.
“You broke my wrist,” I cried out, falling to the ground in rapturous pain. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. The shock was paralyzing me. The pain burned, and my hand felt limp and cold. Somehow, I managed to hold back the tears, but it was relentless.
He stood above me, laughing exactly like someone who was done searching. Well, I was done, too. He would end me. Surely, he would ruin me. I thought of the three men I’d left behind. How could I have been so stupid to think I could do all of this on my own?
I picked up my breathing and crawled against the soil with my free hand. I stopped at his boots and looked up with pleading eyes. “Zane. They’re human beings,” I said. “We can all live. Together. We can all do what’s right.”
“Right and wrong...” For a moment, he pretended to ponder what the two words meant to him. His smile never wavered, and he wasn’t backing down. “The good thing about this place is that no one will know what happened here, Addie. Your father did all that he could for us. We can leave this realm and the next, side by side.”
“Zane, stop. You sound—”
“There is no progress, goddammit,” he abruptly stated. “Not after this. Not after what happened.”
A life of servitude. I couldn’t imagine what he went through because he had been used so carelessly. But I had been used, too. We all fucking had, and it was about time people stopped crying about it.
Finally, he took Mag’s blade in his hand and eyed the stitching gracing the handle. “These people were human. I don’t doubt you had a connection to them. You are a scientist, explorer, and a good person through and through, but this is different, Addie. Sometimes... well, sometimes science fails. Sometimes, you have to shut it down. It’s time to deal with the reality. Come home.”
He broke my wrist. Why was I even listening to that son of a bitch?
He was wrong about it all. I wasn’t a scientist or an explorer. Not anymore. I didn’t have a god complex, no need for conquest, and I didn’t need to know what the structure of the universe meant. All I needed to know was myself. I needed to keep growing. That, and only that, was going to keep me satisfied.
I knew what I had to do now. If I didn’t accept Zane’s hand and step back into that portal with him, he would make sure to leave me behind. “Give me the knife,” I said, confidently. “I’ll go home, but you don’t get to own me. When we get back, I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Standing, he eyed me reluctantly. “If you come near me with it, I’ll be forced to injure you again.”
I kept my hand fixed around my wrist, holding steady through the suffering, throbbing agony. “I deserve some dignity, don’t I?” I asked.
The fire had spread to our standing and there was only one way out. Above us, there was a staircase that would lead to the roof. From there, we could possibly gain some higher ground, but we would still be stuck in the wildfire. In a fit of rage, he swiveled the knife outward and passed the handle to me. “Fine. I trust you,” he said. “Just get us out of here.”
He shouldn’t have given me the knife.
When I felt the leather handle, I made a split second decision to turn it all around, to end this madness once and for all. There was only one way out, and I had to act fast.
Gritting my teeth, I tried not to think about how badly my next actions would hurt. I sucked in a tired breath and wondered how bat-shit crazy I had to be to think of this as a good idea. I held my arms out, and drove the blade into my gut.
Red.
I fell to the floor, scared and trembling, the fresh black blood already starting to spread underneath me. I looked behind Zane to see a wolf-like beast, a real beast staring back at me, through the entrance. It howled, but I was not frightened. I howled back.
“Addie!” Zane searched with his eyes for a way out as he knelt beside me.
I let out a quiet laugh. I was slipping away. Hadn’t planned it to happen, but it turned out to be the only way I could convince him to free the men trapped here so long ago. The men of the Project Onyx. My lovers.
I rolled onto my back and jarred the blade from my stomach, wrist shaking in the air. My body felt so heavy, but every movement was weak. More blood fell from my mouth this time. My extremities began losing sensation.
Unexpectedly, Zane held my head upright. There was a strange amount of emotion stamped on his face, unlike his usual look of self-concern. He was more worried about the fact I was still alive, and I still had that detonation box safe in my bag.
I choked and coughed, but my eyes trailed his movements. His hands went through my pockets. He took my identification card, as well as the bag still hung around my shoulders. “I’m...” he cleared his throat. “Well, I’m sorry, okay? I tried to warn you.”
I could hear my men coming. As my vision started to twist, turn, and fade, I saw the bright flames spread through the ceiling. Purification. I would die for them, lie down and accept it so long as they got a life on the outside.
“I just wish you had known better,” I whispered, too exhausted to keep spea
king.
Zane leaned over me and felt my pulse. His expression turned from sadness to confusion. Why the hell wasn’t I dying? “Well, Addie. This is it,” he said. “You only get once chance to leave this place, and I have to make it out fast.”
What did he know about chances? It was approximately day three in this realm, and I had already learned so much with some help. I had more than enough tricks up my sleeve, and I sure as hell didn’t need anyone to tell me how to die.
“I just have one last request,” I whispered.
He gave a fake, but warm smile. “Anything.”
Quicker than any soldier in the field, I grabbed his collar and forced him close to me. His lips were right above mine. This was the last kiss he’d ever get from me, the thrust of a cold blade, tearing up and through his stomach lining. I drove so deep I was sure his guts might follow, so I rolled away and started to scream. I was horrified by my actions, but it had to be done. He wasn’t going to save them, but I would.
“In here,” I screamed.
Footsteps growing closer...
“Mag!”
Voice losing energy.
“Donovan.”
Eyes drooping. Feeling heavy.
“Cadma—”
Consciousness gone.
This place, if anything, was proof that the unexplainable could indeed exist. No matter what, my soul would rage on. But the ruin of space would offer one livid final flame.
13
Magnus
“Blood has been shed. I can sense it,” I said, sweeping across the mountainside. The rest of the guys kept their mouths shut, but they knew it to be true. The scent of rich iron was all over the place. The smell wasn’t as succinct as I would have liked it to be. My nose, for all it was worth, couldn’t pick up what body it came from.
I’ll murder every last human if she’s dead. I didn’t dare speak my thoughts aloud. They had already gone through enough. Losing her for a second time would be too much. Maybe I could handle it, but they sure as fuck couldn’t. If she had fallen prey to Zane’s traps, it would be the last straw on the camel’s back.
Zane found the source of our exit, the monolithic slab connecting the realms. The humming had grown much louder as we roved through the region. There were plenty of climbs and, for a second, I wondered just how far we were. It had been years since I had come back here. We’d tried to escape, but nothing worked. I stopped going back a long time ago.
But when we ran up the last hill, I saw the decimation burn spectacularly below. I nearly stumbled before sliding to a stop. “Donovan, don’t—”
I wanted to shield him before he could see the destruction, but it was much too late. His muscles flexed, eyes turning a malicious and targeted red. The three of us followed, diving back into the instincts that hadn’t yet let us down. We scanned the burning buildings, searching out the specific heat patterns humans emanate.
“There she is,” Donovan called out, pointing. I focused on her unmoving body, and I could not concentrate. “Greenhouse, number four. Fifty meters. She is hurt.”
“How bad?” Cadmar asked.
I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t want to hear those next words, but there was no escaping them. “She is... dying,” Donovan said, voice emotionless and robotic.
I glanced at his fists. They curled into tight balls, shaking with absolute and impenetrable rage. He abruptly cocked his head and searched for the one who had done this to her. That pathetic motherfucker. I would end him tonight.
I was no longer human. My DNA was so much more complex now. During heightened states of anxiety, I became an unnatural killer. It was what this landscape trained us to be. I dove down the hill, rushing toward the impenetrable flames that had now taken over the whole area Donovan had provided so much energy to maintain.
“Mag,” Cadmar called out. “Wait. There’s no way through the flames. You will die in there.”
But there was no reasoning with me anymore. He’d invaded our world.
But most of all, he wouldn’t stop harming her. I wasn’t the type of man to give himself to one woman. I just wasn’t. Before we lost contact, I could barely hold down a small security detail. I was erratic. I handled things the way I felt they should be handled. But when I saw her come back, it was like I had been playing a part in a play. Humility. Was that the right word? What did it matter when I couldn’t go back to living without her anymore?
I could feel my veins bulge with the effects of hormone secretion. With each step, I seemed to black out. Red. Pure fucking red.
I ran through the greenhouse, searching for Adeline. The underlying structure of the building was too weak. It was going to cave in at any second. “Fuck me,” I whispered and ran toward the back where more of the fire had damaged a section of the wall. Sprawled out on the soil, Adeline clung to life. A black pool had already begun to spread.
“My...” she coughed, teeth stained with blood.
I cradled her body and searched for the injury. It was a knife wound, and it was deep. She was losing blood. “Addie, we must get you out of here. Donovan will be able to help you.”
She weakly groaned and tried to move her arm. “My... fuck.” A tired breath escaped her lips. She was closer to death than I thought, and her eyes seemed to prove it. They wobbled before shutting. Her face was losing color. “My pockets... Encheon Root...”
Of course. Encheon root. Donovan’s pride and joy, his first discovery here. Another one of the gifts from the zone, one of many that could help humanity thrive on earth had they let us back.
Leaning forward, I grabbed her bag and dug through, easily finding the tight bundle of leafy roots. Quickly, I broke it up and spread it on her wound as the secretion of the leaves turned to a sticky liquid paste. It solidified and started to work its magic, but it was slower acting than I expected.
“Open,” I said. She ate slowly. Too slowly. I kept glancing around for some area of safety. There was nothing. Heat radiated around us. I searched more, squinting to see Zane’s body, and my knife left behind. Adeline had gutted him. He was dead.
I pocketed the blade. I should have celebrated his passing, but I couldn’t when there was a chance he could take Adeline with him.
I lifted my head and roared for my counterparts. I threw my body around Adeline, feeling the hot lick of fire against my back. I didn’t want to admit defeat. I needed to get her to safety.
“The detonation device,” she whispered. “My bag…”
“What?” I asked, confused.
The smoke spread around us. It was getting harder to breathe. Her wound wasn’t closing, and she had already lost a lot of blood. “Are we...”
“Don’t. Don’t fucking say it,” I growled.
“Going to die?”
A black cloud surrounded us. Adeline’s eyes closed, and her breath slowly ceased. Everything turned silent. The flames. The destruction. All of it came down to this moment. Even with the use of the encheon root, I couldn’t come to her rescue. Once again, I had failed everyone.
We lost. We fucking lost.
I thought I could go on without her. If things went south, I was supposed to be the strong one. I was so wrong.
I held my breath, ready to destroy the world she had been taken from. ”Adeline, I won’t leave you,” I said, choking down as many of my tears as I could.
Something inside me was changing. As tears slid down my face, my skin turned cold against the heat. Was this what death felt like? I accepted my fate, but I still shielded Adeline’s body as the fire finally washed over me like a bright new sun.
I held her close, my heart against hers. The building collapsed around me. The roof vent broke across my back. And then it happened.
The explosion took me by surprise. It should have fucking killed me. Debris was everywhere, but I was completely numb. A force field formed around my body, bright and luminescent blue. Power. Healing. Somehow, I could still hear. I could still speak. I was still fucking alive, and I had shielded her from m
ore harm to her body.
“Adeline,” I whispered. “Come back to me.”
The first time I laid eyes on her, I knew she’d be the one to save us. She was still going to, dammit.
A new energy swept through me, a power that solidified in the center of my chest. It was staggering to feel my new strength. I managed to prop us up with one foot. The pain was gone, but the threat was still imminent. Adeline. I was going to bring her back.
I took one last fleeting glance at Zane’s pathetic body, left burning and discarded like an animal carcass. As long as the realm was inhabited, his soul would stay in the ether of this place, designing new doors for us to get lost in. This place was a death maze. Lucky for everyone, we were leaving.
Slowly, I fought through the fire, skin protected by the reflective light. I walked back to the trail, cradling Adeline’s body. When we arrived at a burnt clearing of vibrant ashes, I dropped to my knees and set her against the soil.
I tore my hands through the dirt. I could hear the others coming, their wild steps rumbling across the land. Pain. It wouldn’t cease.
Shaking, I held my hand to her heart. “Feel me one last time.”
The two stood above me. Cadmar dropped his hand to my shoulder. “The gateway to the portal. It will close on us soon,” he said.
I shot back a furious stare. I was lost. Just so fucking lost. I didn’t want to leave without her. She was the only one who understood us. And me. To her, I wasn’t worthless. I wasn’t only defined by my outside strength and ability to fight. I was so much more, a human being deserving of a real life.
Unable to let myself give up, I kissed her cold lips. My skin was pulsating, and I felt my eyes shift. Alien and strange, a feeling I had yet to ever feel, my neck locked and drew back. My eyes opened, and my vision began to shake. A bright light poured out of me like an infinite sun. Fingers locked, I couldn’t let go of Adeline, and so I held her close to me. The words ran through my head: “She might be the one to save us, but I’m not giving up my life for some woman.”
Primal: A Dark Sci-Fi Reverse Harem Romance (Alpha Unknown Book 1) Page 15
