“What’s a Super Mag doing down here?” A.J. whispered, clearly sharing my thoughts.
“There’s something wrong with that person’s mind,” Michael said in an urgent voice. “I can’t—”
“Shut yer trap!”
The foreman tromped down the line toward us. The hooded figure retreated back into one of the tunnels, their cloak undulating behind them like a wraith.
The children around us shrank back as the foreman approached. They stared at him with dread in their hollow eyes.
Almost as one, my friends and I stepped forward. None of us wanted the foreman to take out his anger on the wrong target.
“Huh,” the foreman grunted, looking us up and down. Kaira kept our slave children illusions in place, but it was obvious the foreman could tell we didn’t belong. His mouth moved as his beady eyes flicked down to the other end of the line. “What the—there are seven too many of you’s.”
Well, so much for the wait and see approach.
I did the only thing I could. I threw myself at the foreman.
There was a harsh clang as our metal skin collided. The baton flew from the foreman’s hand and struck Michael. If he’d actually been the scrawny little kid he was illusioned to be, the metal bat would have hit Michael’s chest. With the way he groaned and crumpled in on himself, it had clearly connected with a more delicate part of his anatomy.
Michael stumbled to the side, his head striking against an overturned cart’s metal wheel. His whole body went boneless as he slumped to the ground.
Yutika screamed.
I checked to see that Michael was breathing, and then I left my friends to focus on him. I turned all of my attention on the foreman.
I slammed my fist into his face.
The blow should have been enough to obliterate his skull. Instead, he just shook his head and came back for more.
The foreman struck back.
The fact that we were having a Steel-on-Steel fight right now defied every law of magic I knew. The fact that I was titanium to his copper meant I was the stronger Mag, and yet, his skin was still metal.
What the hell?
Something was definitely wrong with my magic. The foreman barreled into me, shoving me back several steps. Normally, I was completely unmovable.
The foreman blocked my next blow with his elbow. He spat out a stream of tobacco juice, which landed on my shirt.
“Pig,” I snarled, wrenching his arm aside and head-butting him.
The foreman staggered back a step. One measly step…and then he was back for more.
“Little fucker,” he huffed as he delivered a kick to my stomach.
“Where are the rest of the kids?” I demanded, strangely out of breath as we circled each other.
I was never out of breath in my titanium form.
“What you blabberin’ about?” The foreman tried to kick me again.
This time, I ducked.
“All the kids you stole from the hospitals.” My fists pummeled his copper shoulders. He slid back a few steps but was otherwise unaffected. “Where are they?”
Where is Lilly?!
“I don’t answer to you!”
Clang. Crack. Thump.
We collided over and over again. No matter how hard I hit him, I couldn’t get the upper hand. We were evenly matched.
Impossible, my mind shouted. He should be a mess of blood and shredded flesh on the floor.
As we continued our brawl, I became aware of a strange feeling inside me. It felt like a weighted blanket had settled over my insides. It was kind of like when Diego had injected me with the temporary Magical Reduction Potion, except this time, I could still reach my magic. It was just…dampened. I was still stronger than I would have been in normal human skin, but it was nothing compared to my usual titanium strength.
My friends must have realized something was wrong with me. With the exception of Yutika, who crouched protectively over Michael’s crumpled form, the rest of the Seven joined the fight. Graysen, Smith, and Kaira grabbed onto the foreman, doing their best to pin his limbs while I pummeled him. A.J. used his telekinesis to throw sharp objects at the foreman’s head.
“Don’t just stand there!” the foreman bellowed. “Get them!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the kids surround us. They yanked my friends away from the foreman. When I couldn’t be manhandled so easily, they began to hit me with their metal fists.
“I’m trying to help you,” I yelled. “Get out of the way!”
The kids ignored my pleas. They continued to hit, kick, and shout at me. The foreman stood just out of reach, panting and spitting brown tobacco juice onto the floor.
“I don’t know where you seven came from, but I’m gonna find out,” the Foreman growled. To the kids, he yelled, “Get them into the isolation chambers. Now!”
The kids swarmed my friends and me.
“Not good,” A.J. murmured, swaying a little from the force of one kid’s kick to his shin. “Not good at all.”
If Michael had been awake, he would have resolved this whole shitshow of a situation in just a few words. Since he was still out cold, that left us with two choices. We could fight the kids, or we could give up and let them lock us up. Since none of us was going to raise a hand to a single one of the children, we submitted.
“Now,” the foreman said, smiling nastily at us as he twirled a key between his dirty fingers. “Let’s see how brave you are after a week in the isolation chambers.”
CHAPTER 22
Ihad no idea how long I’d been sitting on the mud floor of my prison.
After we’d been herded onto the elevator, the slaves had escorted us up to the next level of the mine. When we got off the elevator, I saw a rusted sign with the words Level 4: Isolation Chambers. There had been nothing else to see except metal stalls set up along a dirt-packed corridor. The slaves had locked each of us into our own cell.
I’d shouted myself voiceless before concluding that the cell was sound-proof. After that, I heard nothing except the drip, drip, drip of water on the metal wall and my own harsh breathing.
I had spent God-knew how long pounding at the door and walls of my prison to no avail. The enclosure was titanium, but even so, I should have been able to break through…or at least dent it.
I wasn’t sure if it was my inexplicable weakness, or some other magic at work, that made me helpless to escape. After exploring every inch of the small chamber, which was four steps in length and five in width, I’d finally accepted there was no way out.
There was a thin slot in the door that was too narrow to even get my hand through, which I guessed was meant for passing food to the prisoners. No matter how much pressure I applied to the opening, I couldn’t use it as leverage to break open the door. The cell was sealed tight around me.
I peered into the blackness, even though I couldn’t see anything except the silver glow of my own skin. Finally, I just buried my face in my hands and did my best to hold onto the tattered remains of my sanity.
All my life, steel had been my ally. Now, it was my cage. It felt a little like being imprisoned in my own body.
I understood why all the children dreaded being put inside one of these chambers. I’d never felt more alone and helpless.
There was nothing for company except the dripping water and a bucket in the corner that I stayed as far away from as I could get.
My magic churned restlessly inside me. I still felt weak in a way I never had before, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. All I could think about was the children who were forced to live and work in this nightmare of a place. I thought about Lilly.
Plunk. A silver tear hit the mud. Plunk, plunk.
My tears sparkled, looking like silver jewels nestled in the mud. Scowling, I kicked at the solid tears until they were buried. I blew on my fists, transforming myself back into regular skin.
I hated crying in general, but it was worse when I was titanium. The tears stuck around as permanent reminders o
f whatever had caused them in the first place.
I’d spent the last five years putting on a brave face so my family wouldn’t have to deal with my grief in addition to their own. But I was alone now, with no one to see or hear me. So, with my tears dissolving into the mud, I cried.
There was a grating of a metal hinge. It was so soft I wondered if I had imagined it. Then, a tiny rectangle of dim light appeared as the food slot opened.
“Is that you, cariño?”
I leapt to my feet in the squishy mud.
“Diego?!”
“Shh,” he hissed.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper-shouted.
So, it hadn’t been my imagination when I smelled cinnamon before we stepped onto the flying train car. Sneaky bastard.
I could just make out the gleam of Diego’s eyes through the food slot’s opening.
“You followed us,” I said. I was so relieved to see him, rather than the foreman, that I couldn’t summon the energy to be annoyed.
“And aren’t you lucky I did?” he replied. “I don’t see anyone else busting you out.”
“There’s something wrong with my magic,” I said, feeling the need to explain why I was stuck on the wrong side of a door I should have been able to tear apart with my bare hands.
“I like the damsel in distress look on you,” Diego said. He sniffed loudly. “Although, I didn’t imagine you smelling so foul while you did it.”
“Can you get me out of here, or not?” I demanded. My relief at seeing him quickly morphed to my usual urge to start hitting things whenever he was around.
In response, Diego dangled what appeared to be the same key the foreman had been holding earlier through the food slot. Before I could reach for it, he snatched it back.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“Nabbed it off the foreman,” Diego replied.
“Good for you. Now, stop talking and put that key to work.”
“If you want out, it’ll cost you,” Diego said in that mocking tone I loathed.
“I don’t have time for games,” I seethed. “My friends are locked up, and I have someone I have to find.”
“Lilly.” His voice softened. For some reason, that pissed me off even more than his cockiness.
“Get me out of here, or I swear—”
“Not until you promise to do something for me.”
“What?” I asked, wary.
“One favor. Whatever I ask, whenever I ask. You’ll say yes.”
“I’m not having sex with you, Diego.”
A deep, male chuckle.
“Oh, I’ll happily take that bet. But we both know I won’t need to call in any favors for that.”
“Diego—”
“Do I have your word?” All his teasing was gone. “Bri, look me in the eye and swear to me you’ll keep your word. Whatever I ask, you’ll do it.”
“I won’t kill anyone,” I told him. “Or do anything that will hurt my friends.”
“I’m not a monster,” Diego replied.
I wasn’t so sure about that. I thought of his bathtub full of MRP and those handwritten Super Mag files.
“So, do we have a deal?” he pressed.
I nodded before realizing Diego probably couldn’t see me. I took a deep breath. “We have a deal.”
CHAPTER 23
Even though the tunnel was only dimly-lit, it hurt my eyes after the blackness of the isolation chamber.
“Can you walk?” Diego asked.
“I’m not an invalid,” I snapped back.
“Jesús, sorry.”
I took the key Diego offered me and quickly unlocked my friends’ cells. Their voices were as hoarse from screaming as mine.
“You okay?” I asked Michael when I got to his cell, noticing the streak of blood across his temple now that he was no longer illusioned.
“Nothing Oliver won’t be able to fix,” he replied, referring to Smith’s Mender father.
Graysen and Kaira were holding each other like they would never let go, but neither of them seemed hurt. Smith, Yutika, and A.J. seemed fine, too. Aside from bumps and bruises, I didn’t think there would be any lasting damage.
“Is everyone okay?” Yutika asked, hugging Michael.
“Never better,” A.J. replied. He cocked his head at me. “What took you so long to get us out?”
I looked around at my friends. “Are any of you feeling…weaker than usual?” I asked. “Your magic, I mean.”
My friends all shook their heads.
So, it was just me. Before I had a chance to consider what that might mean, my friends caught sight of the eighth person in our group.
“What is he doing here?” Yutika demanded, still holding onto Michael as she glared at Diego.
“Long story,” I muttered. “But he’s the one who got us out, so we have to play nice for the time being.”
Diego gave me an angelic grin.
“Okay,” Kaira said, giving Diego a suspicious look before cutting him out of the conversation. “We need a plan.”
“What’s to plan?” A.J. asked. “Michael tells the foreman to step off a tall ledge, we get the slaves out of here, and then we tear this place to the ground.”
“Not gonna happen,” Diego said. “While you were all twiddling your thumbs, I did some recon. The foreman is the least of your problems.”
“What are you talking about?” Graysen demanded.
“The foreman answers to someone else. I don’t know who, but I can tell you there’s a whole operation going on here that’s bigger than just the slaves. There are people with serious magic in here that you won’t want to go up against.”
“Care to elaborate?” Graysen asked.
Diego shrugged. “Not really. I just felt a shit-load of magic and saw some scary dudes in cloaks.”
I thought about the figure who had been following the foreman around during the roll call.
“Super Mags?” I asked.
Diego nodded.
“Alright.” Graysen ran a hand through his hair. “We have to go back to Boston and regroup. We won’t be any good to those kids if we get ourselves locked back up.”
The others nodded.
“I’m not leaving,” I said in a quiet voice. “Not until I find out about Lilly.”
Before my friends could insist on staying with me, I said, “You all need to go back to Boston and figure out how we’re going to rescue the rest of the slaves.” With my filthy clothes and titanium skin, I could blend in without needing Kaira’s illusion.
“We don’t leave people behind,” A.J. said. “Ever.”
The rest of the Seven nodded in agreement.
“I’ll stay with her,” Diego said, interrupting the tense face-off.
Kaira scoffed. “Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better. And as soon as we get back to Boston, you’re going to jail.”
Diego crossed his arms and gave Kaira a bemused look. “Then, I guess you’ll never find out what I learned snooping around in here.”
“We could make you tell us,” Graysen said, his voice dangerous.
“You could.” Diego met Graysen’s glare with one of his own. “But then you’d be no better than the last Director…taking what you want without any regard for civil rights.” He smirked. “I’ll escape wherever you try to lock me up, and then I’ll make sure all of Boston knows how you treat Super Mags who don’t play your little games.”
Graysen’s nostrils flared.
“You ass,” Kaira spat, but she didn’t say anything else.
I didn’t know how I felt about Diego holding his own against my friends. I didn’t know how I felt about him, period.
“You’re right,” Graysen grated out. The words seemed to cause him physical pain. “But once we have a handle on this,” he swept his hand around at the dark tunnel, “we’re handing you over to the cops. You’ll get a fair trial, but you will be tried.”
“I’d be honored, your majesties,” Diego said, bending over i
n an exaggerated bow.
“And don’t you forget it,” A.J. huffed. To the rest of us, he said, “Look, how about we split our group in two. Yutika, Smith, Kaira, and Graysen can head back to Boston and start dealing with this mess on the home front. Michael and I will stay here with trouble and double-trouble.”
He was referring to me and Diego. Or maybe Diego and me…I didn’t ask for clarification.
Kaira opened her mouth to argue. After taking one look at my face, she sighed and shook her head. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.
“Positive,” I replied. “Now, go. We’ll meet back at the mansion as soon as I figure out what’s going on here.”
And find some proof about Lilly…one way or another.
“I’ll send the train car back for you as soon as we get to Boston,” Smith said. “I’ll leave you a note talking you through how to make the thing run.”
Kaira jabbed a finger in Diego’s chest. “If any of my people don’t make it back in one piece, I’m holding you responsible.”
Unfazed, Diego gave her a salute.
We split off at the elevator. Kaira illusioned her group into slave children who waved to us as they got on the elevator. They headed down, back to the lowest level of the mine. The rest of us would be going up to Level 3.
“Allow me,” Diego said, giving me a wink.
I sucked in a breath as Diego, Michael, A.J., and I turned almost invisible. Whenever one of us moved, there was a slight flicker as Diego switched our appearances to make us blend into our surroundings.
“Okay, that is kind of spectacular,” A.J. said grudgingly.
We waited until the elevator returned, and then we headed up.
“Stay close,” Diego whispered. “And follow me.”
“Where are you?” I hissed back, trying to follow the sound of his voice.
In answer, Diego took my hand in his, threading our fingers together.
A jolt of heat spread up my fingertips. It unnerved me how natural it felt to hold his hand. I quickly fumbled for Michael or A.J. with my other hand to remind myself the contact was just about staying together…nothing more.
“Where are we going?” Michael asked in a low voice.
Mags & Nats 3-Book Box Set Page 86
