Then I can no longer see her because I’m led to an empty cell. The Plexiglas slides open and I’m thrust inside. Several lab coats follow me. They stick me with a new prod and this one jolts me with an electrical current.
I drop, dead weight, choke on a scream. They make quick work of unbinding my wings and wrists as I twitch on the cold floor, able to see and feel but unable to control my movements. In short, hell. They leave the duct tape over my mouth, but I lack the strength to rip it free.
All of them leave my cell except one. He lingers, staring at me with mild interest. My pulse stutters against my neck as I endure his scrutiny, knowing he can do anything to me and I can’t lift a finger to help myself.
He bends down and strokes my arm with a slow drag of fingers that makes my stomach twist sickly. Scalding bile rises to the back of my throat.
Another lab coat appears behind him. “C’mon, Lewis.”
Lewis shakes his head, musing, “This one sure has pretty skin.” He watches me with cold curiosity.
“Yeah, and she breathes fire, so if I were you, I’d get out of here until we’ve studied her properly and know how to deal with this particular dragon. Remember the stories from those hunters who last captured a fire-breather?”
“Think this is the same one?”
“Dunno. Doesn’t matter. My point is she escaped them. Don’t underestimate this one. Now, c’mon.” The lab coat dispensing advice moves away.
Lewis continues to watch me, his head cocked at an angle. “Yeah. But you can’t do anything right now, can you? You’re harmless.” His hand glides over my belly. He palms my flesh leisurely before his fingers grab and pinch me, twisting my skin with swift savagery. “How does it feel to be defenseless? You’re at our mercy now. There’s no escape. Understand?”
After a long moment, he gives a satisfied nod and releases me. “See you later.” He steps back several paces until the Plexiglas slides shut between us.
Alone, I lie still and press my trembling lips shut. It’s all I can do not to scream.
2
I lie on the floor, shaking, my belly still throbbing from where the bastard hurt me. The effects of the electric jolt gradually fade from my limbs and I clutch my knees close to my chest, staring vaguely at the enkros moving back and forth outside my cell. Is this what happened to Dad? Was he here? I didn’t have time to see much before they forced me into the cell. If I called out “Magnus,” would he answer me?
The ghostly, white-coated figures shuffle around, preoccupied with their tasks. Minutes pass before I feel ready to move again. Uncurling, I push up with my palms, my muscles trembling from the effort.
I catch a voice, a draki whispering softly from somewhere to my right. I strain to hear beyond the faint clicking of computer keys and the hum of human voices at the observation table. Two enkros sit there, looking up occasionally. Sometimes at me, sometimes at the other cells. I would bet someone sits there at all times, watching, studying us for anything the cameras in the corners might miss. I hate this. That I can never make a move without being noticed.
I begin to piece together the words drifting through the wall. IwanttogohomeIwanttogohomeIwanttogohomeplease …
It’s a female draki, and I can’t help but wonder if she isn’t a little insane. Who knows how long she’s been here. How long any of them have been captives.
I shiver and quickly remind myself that I only have to survive one day. I can do this. Twenty-four hours and Will and Cassian will come for me. This reminder works—brings me back to my purpose.
I rise, ignore the eyes watching me, the camera lens recording my every move. My fingers grasp the edges of the duct tape covering my mouth and peel it free in one burning rip. I wince and drag in air through my tender lips.
“Miram!” I call hoarsely at first, then again, firmer, beating the glass with the flat of my palm.
The enkros watch me, but I ignore them, knowing that they can’t understand me.
“Miram, it’s me, Jacinda! Don’t worry, Miram. I’m here to rescue you.”
Nothing. Just the girl next door to me muttering her endless mantra. I stop myself from shouting at her to shut up.
“Miram, can you hear me? Please say something. Cassian sent me. He’s here, too. Just outside. We’re here to get you out!”
Nothing. I thought the mention of her brother would rouse her as nothing else could. That’s why I came in. Aside from being here so Cassian can locate us via his connection to me, I’m here to warn Miram … to prepare her for the breakout.
With these urgent thoughts in my mind, I press on. I have to try.
“Miram,” I shout. “You don’t have to answer me, but be ready. We’re busting you out of here. In the next twenty-four hours, we’re escaping. Be ready for it.”
Laughter carries from the cell to my left. Draki laughter. The lab coats on duty seem fascinated by the growling bursts of sound. They fall into a flurry of activity, documenting the strange sounds. Of course. They probably haven’t heard much laughter within these walls.
The sound grates. I press my hands against the wall I share with the laughing draki. “What’s so funny?” I hiss.
The laughter only continues.
I cover my hands over my ears. “Enough already!”
Suddenly the laughter stops. I lift my hands. For a moment, I think I won’t be answered; then suddenly the guttural tones of a male draki scrape the air. “That you think you’ll ever get out of here alive. That I find highly amusing.”
At these words my bravado wavers. I manage to snatch it back and demand through the wall, “So what? You don’t have any hope at all? You’ve just quit? Accepted your lot in here?”
“No, I haven’t quit.” He sounds indignant now. Better that than the draki on the other side of me that sounds half mad with incessant whispering. “I’m just trying to stay sane and alive down here. The friend you’re calling—Miram? She gave up a long time ago.”
I shake my head. “You’re content to live out your days here?”
“It’s living.”
“Hardly. We’re breaking out of here,” I vow. “Just watch.”
The grating laughter returns. “Well, if that happens, I’ll be close on your heels.”
I lower back to the cold floor, resting my legs that still feel as insubstantial as jelly. I eye what I can see of the room on the other side of the Plexiglas: the long observation desk, various cameras positioned at every corner. The few enkros in the room talk in low voices. They seem to be in the process of deciding something. One lab coat glances at his watch and motions to all of us lined up in our cells. Another lab coat looks at me pointedly and shakes his head, clearly disagreeing about something.
I lean to the side until my shoulder touches the Plexiglas. I try to decipher their muffled voices, sure that whatever they’re talking about has to do with me. I need to be ready.
More enkros arrive, and the ones behind the observation table practically bow and scrape before them.
I’m taking it all in, when another draki speaks, her young voice carrying from a couple cells over.
“If they don’t get you, the gray one will.”
She sounds just like a child, I think, angling my head. “What do you mean?”
“If the enkros don’t finish you, then he will.” She pronounces he like I should understand her meaning. “The gray one.”
“Who’s the ‘gray one’?”
“Oh, he’s mean. He’s been here longer than any of us.” She makes a sniffing sound. “Probably why he’s so nasty. You gotta stay away from him.”
“What is he?” I’ve never heard of a gray draki before. He must possess a talent I don’t know about. Instead of fear, excitement quivers through me … to meet other draki, learn about a draki I never even knew existed. It’s not something I considered coming here. Too many other thoughts consumed me.
“You better hope you don’t find out. Just stay out of his way. Hide.”
I’m about to ask when
I would supposedly meet this draki—we’re kept in these cells, after all—when a low siren begins to ring and a flashing red light suffuses the room.
“What’s going on?” I demand, looking around wildly.
Even from my cell, I can hear the draki scrambling to their feet. In the back of my mind, I wonder if Miram moves, too. Or is she still a lump on the floor of her cell?
“Get ready!” the male draki who spoke to me commands.
Ready? Ready for what?
Even so, my muscles tighten and bunch beneath my flesh. Suddenly the back side of my cell slides open. The wall isn’t a wall at all. It just drops down into the floor like a car window, revealing a lush world of vegetation.
There are several whooshes of wind as other draki flee through the air and disappear into the thick vegetation. They’re gone in a blink, ghosts on the air, lost in foliage humming with life, too fast for me to process them or identify if Miram is among them.
I edge forward carefully, not sure what to expect. As soon as I clear the threshold of my cell, it slides shut after me. No going back.
I release a breath slowly, flexing my bare feet in the soil. It’s just me. No other draki in sight. Not even useless curled-up-in-a-ball Miram. But I know they’re all out there, in this vast simulation of a forest.
What are the enkros doing? What are they hoping to accomplish? I glance around, scanning the thick press of trees, and that’s when I spot them. Cameras. Everywhere. Perched high in the leaves of a tree. In the knothole of a trunk. I doubt there is an inch of this mock forest they cannot see.
Which makes me wonder what they’re expecting to film. Us interacting? Because as far as I can tell, no one is interacting. Everyone is … hiding.
At this realization everything inside of me seizes up. I remember the warning about the gray draki.
Stay away from him …
Out of his way …
Hide …
Just like everyone is doing now. Except me. Suddenly I know I shouldn’t be standing out in the open like this. Too late, a growl rumbles across the crisp air, and a second realization steals over me.
I’m not alone.
He’s gray. Just like the draki girl described. A slate gray like liquid steel, quite possibly the largest draki I’ve ever seen. He stands taller than the onyx back home. He’s obviously strong. Maybe fast, too. His wings are leathery, but an ashy color, spearing the air high above his massive shoulders. I don’t think he’s old, but then there’s something about his eyes … that pewter gaze contains such cunning, a savage menace that seems ancient.
Suddenly, I wish I’d asked more questions, demanded more answers from the girl when she’d been offering her advice.
“Hi,” I say, holding myself still, unsure what to do. My fingers tap my thighs in agitation. I’ve never come face-to-face with a draki who didn’t belong to my pride before. Historically, prides are fractious, warring tribes. That’s what led to the last Great War.
The old texts chronicled several hundred prides, too many to know for certain. We learned about them in school. I’d even read about some of the history in our librarian Taya’s tomes, fascinated with the time before the wars when the prides were united as one great nation.
As I stare at him, I accept that it shouldn’t be a shock to meet a new draki. I’ve always known they’re out there.
But it is a big deal. Every fiber of my being pulses with the instinct to fight, to defend. It’s the same reaction I had when the hunters pursued me, but I never thought I’d feel this way around another draki. It seems somehow sacrilegious. We’re the same, after all.
Oh, sure, there are the troublemakers like Miram, and even those that make me feel intimidated like Severin and Corbin. But facing off with this draki … this is different.
Now, in this moment, I feel as though my next move will signify life or death for me.
He doesn’t respond to my greeting. Ash and char rise in my throat and my muscles twist tighter, ready to spring into action.
Facing him, I’m reminded of a prison movie I watched long ago, lodged deep in my memory. It’s a strange sense of déjà vu. Like I’m cast into that movie. I’m the new inmate, standing in the yard, squaring off with the established bully.
I try to remember what the newbie did to survive because, of course, he’s the hero who makes it to the end. Just like I intend to. Or at least through the next twenty-four hours until my friends break us out of here.
“I don’t want any trouble,” I say.
The draki makes a strange noise, a guttural rattling sound in his throat that I’ve never heard from another draki before, and I wonder if it’s some kind of battle call. As I watch him, his scaly flesh seems to undulate and shiver.
“W-what are you doing?” I ask, knowing it could be anything. I don’t know what power he possesses. Whatever it is, it’s enough to send other draki into hiding.
I slide back a step over the moist ground, my gaze fastened on him, afraid to look away.
Suddenly his scales flip up. Every inch of him is covered in sharp-edged disks perpendicular to his massive body. They glint razor-sharp and I know one brush against him will cut me to ribbons.
My stomach drops. In a flash of clarity, I know why the others fled the minute the doors slid open.
With a muttered curse, I swing around and push off the ground in one smooth move, deciding that the others had the right idea. I need to get away from this draki. Fast.
Instantly, I’m lost in the roar of wind as I whip through the bramble of trees. I hear him crashing behind me. I’m quick but so is he. Go, go, go, go pants from my lips in an endless mantra.
The idea of him catching me, slamming his razor-sharp body into mine, fills me with a fear so intense that fire builds in my lungs and coats my mouth. And I know there is no choice. I have to stand and defend myself.
I stop midair and twirl around, my wings great flapping sails behind me—but nothing like his that tear through the air, creating sharp drafts of wind that rip the leaves from the trees.
As he comes at me, I build and gather the heat inside me, knowing that no little warning puff of steam will suffice. For him, I need fire. Killing flames.
When he’s close—his face so near I can see the hard, relentless lines of his features, the ridged nose and flaring nostrils—I release the tremendous burn of heat from inside me.
It bursts forth in a maelstrom of angry, crackling flame.
He drops to the side and under me, narrowly missing the full brunt.
I spin, looking beneath me, and see him coming back, surging straight up. The gleam in his eyes tells me he’s not intimidated by my talent. If anything, it gratifies him.
Maybe that freaks me out the most. Fire doesn’t scare him? Does he want to be burned? Does he have a death wish?
Realizing I know nothing about how this draki will react, I dive, fly low to the ground, looking over my shoulder. And, yes, he’s behind me again, relentlessly pursuing me. I don’t stop this time. I shoot fire backward, over my shoulder.
He swerves in my trail, determined to catch me. It’s like there isn’t anything but the savage inside him, the dragon of old, not a shred of humanity. He wants to destroy me.
My teeth clamp hard in my mouth and I push myself faster.
My thoughts race. I know what I have to do. I drop until I touch down, and then I flip onto my back and wait, the smolder brewing inside me, the grass soft and yielding beneath me as I stare at the draki coming at me. Steam escapes from my nose. His gaze follows that steam before locking with my eyes. There’s satisfaction in that gleaming pewter … and I get the sneaking suspicion that this satisfaction is not because he’s convinced that he’s about to kill me. No. He wants me to win. He wants me to beat him. So he’ll be free of this place.
Just as he’s about to reach me, we’re swarmed.
The enkros invade the simulated forest, a dozen of them garbed head to toe in white suits that make them look like spacemen. I’m grabbed
by the arms and dragged away. I struggle—it’s my instinct to do so. Even if they are rescuing me from some hell-bent killer draki. Or rescuing him from me. I’m not sure which is the case.
“What are you doing?” I shout at them. “Isn’t this what you wanted? Don’t you want us to kill each other? C’mon! C’mon!” I thrash in their arms, blowing fire that does nothing as it bounces off their fire-resistant suits.
Several of them surround the gray draki. Even in their suits, they don’t lay a hand on him, and I guess it’s because he’d rip straight through the special material of their protective gear.
They stab him with a sharp stick—and then I realize it’s no stick. It’s an electric rod like the one they used on me. However it doesn’t seem to have any effect on him. Maybe it doesn’t penetrate? Or maybe he’s just too strong to care?
And it’s there, rising inside me, unbelievable maybe, but true nonetheless. Pity.
He snarls and growls, howling as they stab him repeatedly. Yet he never drops. He’s been Tased again and again and it doesn’t faze him.
God, what is he?
Then I’m back in my cell and the wall is sliding shut, sealing me in. I’m all alone, shuddering with great smoking breaths.
And I can’t see anything anymore.
3
“Hey, Jacinda!” The loud whisper penetrates my fog of thoughts. It’s the young female draki who spoke to me before. “You okay in there?”
Lying sideways on the floor, still dazed from my brush with death, I crack one eye open. The fight with a kamikaze draki left me shaken, inside and out. Physically drained. Mentally exhausted. And I haven’t even been here an hour. Or have I? Every moment drags on in agony.
I sit up slowly, rubbing the side of my face. “Yeah. I’m fine. What’s your name?” I ask, figuring it’s time I knew.
The voice calls to me again. “I’m Lia.” Even through the walls I can hear her youth and innocence. “I’ve never met a fire-breather before.”
I don’t bother pointing out that we haven’t actually met. “No? What kind of draki are you?”
Hidden: A Firelight Novel Page 2
