I glance back into the pulsing world of green, so at odds with the rest of this sterile, cold underworld.
“Jacinda.” Will tugs my arm. “We have to go.”
“Fine,” I say, “let’s just get out of here before he realizes the doors are open.”
We flee the room. No one asks for further explanation, and I guess everyone is just satisfied that we’re finally on our way out. I slide Cassian a glance. He runs with one hand wrapped around Miram’s arm, as if he’s somehow afraid he might lose her again.
Then an awful screech tears through the air. It’s a sound I recognize. Was it only hours ago that I heard that sound, convinced I might die?
The gray one is free.
“This way!” Will shouts without having to be told that the unnatural sound comes from a creature we do not want to face.
We run down another corridor, feet and shoes slapping hard on the tile. I glance at Tamra. Her white hair looks red in the glow of emergency lights suffusing the air. The way it used to look. The way I look.
Ahead there’s an open threshold and just beyond it a set of wide concrete steps.
“The stairwell,” Tamra shouts, a smile splitting her face. The first one I’ve seen from her since I persuaded her to join us on this journey.
I smile, too. We’re almost there. We’ve made it.
Then the alarm cuts off, along with the automated voice blaring from above. An eerie silence descends—the only sound that of our crashing breaths as we near that first bottom step. The first step to our freedom.
The sudden plunge into quiet forces us into slow motion, makes us all pause. I hesitate, looking around uncertainly.
A mistake. Suddenly a large steel door slides shut before us, walling off the stairwell.
And sealing us in.
6
It seems that no one says anything for quite some time, but it can’t be more than thirty seconds. We just stare in a sort of stunned disbelief at the spot where there once were stairs. Stairs that are supposed to lead us out of here.
“Where’s the elevator?” Tamra blurts, spinning around, her gaze searching as if she’s going to suddenly find it right behind us.
It’s the only reminder we need. There’s another way out of here. Risk or no risk, climbing into an elevator is our only chance.
We hurry down the wide halls, our shadows dark and fluid shapes on the red-tinged walls. Draki and human—the combination strikes a chill to my heart, especially in this environment where draki and human don’t blend.
And then I feel guilty, because I know what I am. I know what Will’s not. And I already decided it didn’t matter. I believe that.
I shake my head and concentrate on the path before me, the steady pound of my feet, ignoring the whisper in the back of my head. The voice that reminds me those five minutes are almost up.
We pull to a stop at the elevator. The doors are shut, the silver panels sealed tight. Will pushes the button, hitting hard two times. Nothing. No light. No sign that it’s working at all.
“They’ve locked the place down,” Cassian announces grimly.
“What do you mean? What are you saying?” Tamra looks wildly at each of us. “We can’t get out? Like … ever?”
“It must be procedure to shut everything down when something goes wrong—like us infiltrating,” Will explains. Even without understanding Tamra, he can guess the gist of our conversation.
“So we’re stuck?” I ask, shaking my head, refusing to believe that. “For how long?”
“They don’t want to risk any of us escaping,” Lia announces.
I growl with disgust. We shouldn’t have gone back for the gray one. We would have made it out of here like the other draki, all of whom are probably flying home right now. If we had just kept going, we’d be free. But now we’re stuck down here. With him.
The flesh at the back of my neck prickles and I shiver, glancing around as though he were there. Ready to pick up where we left off. It’s all in my head. There’s nothing behind us but a hazy red-infused hall. When I turn back, my gaze finds Lia.
She gives a small shrug of apology, reading my mind perfectly. Yeah. Now she wishes she hadn’t pushed that button to free him.
I open my mouth, deciding I better warn the others exactly what we’re up against—that there’s a seven-foot gray draki capable of butchering someone with a single touch. That a brush against him can sever a limb.
Only a new danger appears first.
The thin tubing running along the edges of the ceiling comes to life and spurts out a cloudy mist with a faint hissing sound—like the starting of a sprinkler.
Will points, his voice hard: “They’re gassing the facility!”
“With what?” I growl, even though he can’t understand me. My thoughts lurch as I stare at that growing fog. I don’t think the enkros will kill us—not when we’re valuable to them alive.
Cassian shakes his head, squinting at the faint spray. “I don’t know … maybe it’s something to knock us unconscious.”
I nod. That makes more sense than their gassing us to death and killing every draki captive. They’d lose their entire collection before getting to fully conduct their experiments.
Tamra attacks the elevator’s lightless button as if it might somehow start working. “Whatever they’re trying to do, we’re pretty much screwed if we don’t get out of here!”
Lia hugs herself and falls back against a wall as if her legs suddenly can’t support her weight. “I’m sorry. We’re not going to escape, are we?” she whispers, shaking her head and sending her blue-streaked dark hair tossing around her small shoulders.
And the sight of this small, helpless girl does something to me.
She shouldn’t be here. None of us should.
Something twists and squeezes tightly inside me. I press four fingers to the center of my chest but it doesn’t help. The pain doesn’t go away and I inhale deeply—then stop abruptly, catching myself. I glare at the fumes circling high above us. Eventually those fumes will make their way down to us, eat through us—and do whatever it is they are supposed to do. A sudden calmness comes over me. I drop my hand from my chest and look from my sister to Cassian and then Will, realizing this might be it. And if it is, I know whose arms I need to feel around me as I draw my final breath.
Will looks at me then, as if reading my mind. He holds my stare for several moments before looking away again, back to the tubing spitting out its fumes. I shudder at the thought of what they will do with him when they find him in here with us. If they discover that he’s not really like them—not quite human, not quite draki—but something in between …
The idea of that physically pains me. I suck in a deep breath. I may feel Cassian, but I want Will.
I step toward Will. He’s still busy studying the piping, determined to figure out a way to save us, doubtlessly contemplating a way to stop the gas from wreaking its damage. But there’s no way. Time is fading and I won’t have my last moments wasted.
I touch his face, my fingers firm on his jaw, angling him to look back down at me. We don’t have words right now. I can’t demanifest. I need to stay at my strongest. And I’m strongest as a draki. But I’ll have him see me, hear me in his heart.
His eyes are intent and worried, bright with a fever to do something, to save us. Me. I know he’s more worried for me right now than for himself. Because that’s so like him. So Will. Good, caring, self-sacrificing. It makes me feel all the worse for dragging him into this—into my world.
I smile at him and brush my thumb across his lips. Something flickers in his hazel eyes, understanding. His head swoops down and he kisses me swiftly.
I tell myself if this is how it all ends, it’s not such a bad way to go. I slide my fingers around his neck, caress the soft skin there, so much cooler than my own, and don’t care that we have an audience. I tune them out, focus only on Will. On this. I won’t let any of the other stuff take this from me.
His lips are coo
l, too. Dry and chilly as they move against mine. That doesn’t faze me—not the differences, what I am, what he is, what we aren’t—none of that matters anymore.
Frustration wells up inside me, irritation … and a vague ache starts humming inside my chest. I try to focus on Will, on the taste of him. It’s never been a hard task before. I try but that vague ache grows, becomes sharper, more acute. I pull back, rubbing my fingers at the center of my chest again.
“What is it?” he asks in concern.
I shake my head, feeling dazed. I gasp. Pain. The discomfort coincides with a sudden banging. I blink against the world of red, looking around, spotting Cassian a few feet away, now fully manifested.
He’s pounding his fists into the wall until his knuckles gleam wet with purply blood. I wince, cringing as the cement buckles and cracks beneath the pressure, chunks falling to his feet. I’ve always known he was strong. Onyx typically are. My father was.
But seeing Cassian like this, feeling this …
I curl and uncurl my hands, the echo of his pain vibrating in my bones. His anger reaches me, toxic as venom. For a heartbeat I worry it’s fueled by me and Will … watching us kiss. I’ve made my choice, but still, that doesn’t mean I want to hurt Cassian. Especially in this, possibly our last moment. I don’t want to cause him pain.
I probe deeper, feel him there inside me … reaching for whatever it is driving him to act so crazy. Did he just snap? Miram shouts his name, wringing her hands. Fear is all over her face, and I’m quite certain she’s never seen her brother so out of control before. Cassian has always been the steady one, calm and strong.
Then I realize his only thought is wrapped up in survival, in breaking free.
I watch as he attacks the wall, his muscles straining as he works, hints of dark charcoal rippling beneath the surface of his flesh like winks of dark night.
He punches and tears at the cement in a frenzy. As foolish as this method might be, he doesn’t care. His desperation seeps into me and I slide forward half a step … as if I am about to join him in his madness.
I stop, shake my head. This is where it gets confusing. Separating his feelings from mine.
“What are you doing?” I shout. “You can’t break through the wall. We’re underground!”
I move to approach him, but Will clamps on my arm, holding me back. He’s probably afraid I’ll get caught in one of Cassian’s savage swings.
I wave an arm. “What are you going to do? Tunnel through the ground?”
He sends me a quick glare and continues hitting the wall. Dirt and bits of loose rock fly. A sharp pebble hits me in the cheek. I press my hand to the spot. The cement starts to give way to hard-packed earth, a dark brown soil that smells loamy and rich.
“That sounds just about right,” he snaps as he continues his attack.
And then I realize he’s serious.
The spraying mist starts to descend closer to us now.
Sporadic coughs hiccup through our group. I wave at the air before my nose as if that will disperse whatever effect the fumes wield.
“Can we do that?” Tamra asks. She squeezes her hands anxiously in front of her as if praying this might be a true possibility.
“If anyone can break us out of here Cassian can,” Miram supplies, her fear gone now, replaced with total confidence that her older brother can solve anything. I roll my eyes and resist snapping that even Cassian can’t claw a path to freedom. We’re buried too deeply underground.
“I can do it,” Will says in a low voice, watching us all intently, absorbing our exchange even without understanding everything. Then he announces again, “I can do it.”
At his vehemence, Cassian hesitates. He pulls back his fist, blood dripping thickly from his shattered knuckles to the tiled floor.
“Will,” I murmur, and even though the sound of his name on my lips is different, more a growl than actual speech, he turns his head to stare at me. One look in his hazel eyes and I know. I understand what he means. I see him again as I saw him fighting with Corbin, earth shifting and flying at his command.
“Stand back,” Will commands.
Surprisingly, Cassian does.
We all watch, trying to keep our breaths small and sparse, as if we can somehow not inhale the air that’s becoming more and more tainted.
Will faces off in front of the busted wall. Miram starts hacking, covering her mouth with both hands. Soon, Lia joins in. The sounds of their coughs only make everything more tense, more urgent. I wince in sympathy as Cassian folds Miram into his arms. What if we were wrong? What if this gas is meant to kill us?
With both hands poised in the air in front of him, Will focuses on the wall. I stare at his wide flat palms, willing them to do something, to possess the same power I’d observed before when he took on Corbin. His hands start to tremble, but nothing. The gouged wall doesn’t show any sign of movement.
Cassian grunts with disgust.
I shake my head. I don’t know what I’d been expecting. To see something miraculous? That he could perhaps do something more? Something even the earth draki of my pride couldn’t do? Ridiculous. This isn’t like my dream where he can sprout wings and take to the skies with me.
Then suddenly there’s a thundering crash. A huge cloud of smoke billows into the hall, temporarily blinding me. For a moment, I think it’s a sudden influx of gas shooting from the tubing above us. No more slow and lingering death.
But then I realize it’s not just smoke everywhere. It’s debris too. Particles and bits of wall cover every inch of my skin and sting my eyes.
I look back to the wall and gasp to see that not only is it gone … but a crude hole several feet deep takes its place.
Will did it. He’d actually manipulated earth to create a way out. Of course, he needs to do it several more times for us to actually escape.
“How did you know …?” My voice fades in wonder. And of course, what would be the point in asking? He can’t understand me.
Will meets my bewildered gaze. He must read the question there because he shrugs. “I don’t know. I just knew I could do it. A feeling … impulse came over me.”
“Nice job,” Tamra says approvingly, stepping inside the ragged hole that Will just created. “Can you do it some more?” She gestures forward.
The rest of us follow, stepping into the fissure in the wall one by one … but something gives me pause. The prickly feeling at the back of my neck is back. The tiny hairs there tingle and vibrate. I turn and look out at the corridor.
Behind me I hear the others urging Will for a repeat, to do it again and tunnel us an escape path out of here. But not every voice is there. Cassian’s isn’t.
Will obliges, and another boom shakes the air, radiating from the ground and up my legs. A giant wave of wind, dust, and debris hits me in the back. I stagger for a moment before catching my balance.
Still, I stare out at the corridor from where we made our escape and find Cassian standing amid the possibly toxic spray, looking off to his right, his attention fixed on something. He coughs, covering his mouth with his hand. He needs to get out of there, but he’s lingering for some reason.
“Cassian? What is it?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. Something—”
He doesn’t finish the rest of his sentence. Suddenly he’s gone, ripped out of my sight by a streak of gray.
The one we let loose.
“Cassian!” I scream, plunging after him, knowing what I’m about to face … and knowing that this time there won’t be any enkros to tear us apart.
7
I dive from the crater back into the poisonous corridor.
“Jacinda!” Will’s there, grabbing my hand, stopping me from going any farther. His expression is earnest and desperate, willing me to stop, stay. Stay with him. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. But I can’t. Not now.
“We have to help Cassian,” I rattle off in draki tongue. Will pulls my hand harder to follow him back inside the tunnel.
I shake my head with a growl, remembering he can’t understand. And yet I can’t leave Cassian. I can’t abandon him. Even now, in the space of the heartbeat that I look back at the others, I feel the deep pain radiating through Cassian’s body. It almost bends me over at the waist.
I inhale a hissing breath and force myself to move through it, reminding myself that it’s not real for me. It’s not my pain. It’s his. And I have to end it.
I yank my hand free from Will and charge down the hall to a T-junction. I look left and right—spot Cassian tangled at the end of the corridor with the gray draki. They’re a blur, moving much too fast; I can already smell the blood on the air. I don’t need to see his wounds to know that it’s Cassian’s blood I scent.
I take off toward them, half running, half flying. Gray on black, they fight, tangle with each other wildly. It’s hard to distinguish between the two of them. I cry out as a spurt of blood arches across the air, narrowly missing me.
I have to stop it. I can’t let this go on. There won’t be anything of Cassian left.
I focus my attention on the largest area of gray I can detect and release a gust of fire, desperately hoping my aim is accurate.
I make contact. The draki roars and tears free from Cassian. I focus on the gray one, fire dancing on my tongue, preparing to let loose another blast of heat on him.
His knifelike scales shake and make a strange whistling sound. The protruding scales on his shoulder retract and flatten. His fingers tenderly test the charred flesh of his shoulder, growling as the flesh slides and slips between his fingers like melted wax.
The sight of this—of what I can do, the damage I can bring to my own kind—makes my stomach twist sickly.
“Jacinda!” Will arrives breathlessly at my side, coughing from the increasingly smoky air. His stare swings to the gray draki and he lets loose a curse.
The gray one drops his hand from his shoulder and squares off.
“He looks pissed. You do that to him?” Wills asks amid a coughing fit.
Hidden: A Firelight Novel Page 5
