Half-Born (Half-Blood Chronicles #1) (The Half-Blood Chronicles)

by Ivy Baum

  “To find out what happened. What if there are survivors? Hostages?”

  Junie said, “Then we’d be in no position to help them.”

  “We have to know. We have to find out.” Sol turned to Deo. “Don’t you want to know?”

  Deo smiled faintly, ironically. “This isn’t a democracy. Whatever you say goes.”

  Sol looked to Junie.

  She gave a half-shrug. “I say we get out of here. Sanctuary’s gone. The sooner we accept it, the better.”

  “And then?”

  What would we do, with Sanctuary gone? Our one safe place—gone.

  But Junie took it in stride. “We do what we’ve always done. Survive.”

  This entire time, Clover had been as quiet as me. I wondered if she was in shock.

  Now she said, “Does it matter who did it? It’s gone.”

  She looked eager to get out of there.

  We sat for a few moments in silence. Out here, in the tranquility of the forest, I could almost convince myself that nothing was wrong. That Sanctuary was still in one piece.

  At last, Sol said, “Come on. Let’s check out the back door.”

  No one argued. We followed him along a parallel path to the camp until we arrived at another, smaller clearing, where a single building sat.

  It was an outhouse—the rustic, wooden kind you never saw anymore. It even had a little crescent moon carved over the narrow door.

  I glanced at Sol. “Is that really what I think it is?”

  He smiled. “When people are trying to kill you, it’s a good idea to have a back door…”

  “…That looks like a toilet,” Junie finished, in the tone of an old joke.

  Deo said, “Either they don’t know about it or they decided not to bother with it.”

  Sol’s expression had grown distant again, and I saw Junie give him a worried look.

  She said, “I still say this is a bad idea. We have no idea what we’re walking into.”

  Sol caught her eye. “But are you willing to just walk away?”

  Junie pursed her lips. The answer was obviously yes.

  But Deo narrowed his eyes. Sol had apparently convinced him.

  I glanced at Clover. She looked as terrified as I felt.

  “Well?” Sol posed the question to no one in particular.

  This may not have been a democracy, but he wasn’t a dictator.

  Junie sighed and pulled a flashlight out of her backpack. “Might as well get this over with.”

  Moments later, I was standing in the outhouse doorway.

  Except that instead of a hole for a toilet, I was peering down into a narrow spiral staircase. It was surrounded on all sides by dark earth—and plunged deep into the ground.

  In fact, I couldn’t see where it ended. It simply went on until it was swallowed by darkness.

  Maybe it’s better that I can’t see the bottom.

  I could no longer make out the light of Junie’s flashlight, whose progress I had been following down the stairs.

  Deo had been the first to go, followed by Junie and Clover. I had watched with increasing trepidation as all three of their flashlights had disappeared.

  Sol, who was behind me, angled his flashlight into the shaft. “Better get started. It’s a long way down.” He gestured for me to step aside so that he could enter.

  I swallowed. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Stay close. Those had been Sol’s only instructions. And so I did exactly that.

  The others, however, would be splitting up.

  Sanctuary, I had learned, was basically an underground cylinder, with multiple levels going deeper into the ground.

  Level Seven, the top level, was the Mess. Five and Six were the Lower and Upper Barracks, respectively. Four was the Recreation Deck. Below that were the levels not generally “open to the public,” as Sol had put it.

  The very last level was not One, but Zero. It housed Security—and less savory things, Sol had suggested—and officially, it didn’t exist.

  We wouldn’t be going any lower than level Four, the Rec Dec. On this point, Sol had been stern—and unmovable.

  It was a huge place, and we didn’t exactly want to spend a lot of time here—hence the plan to split up. Junie and Clover would search the Mess and keep an eye on the exit. Deo would take the Barracks.

  I was with Sol. I was pretty sure I’d been paired with him because he viewed me as a liability—and therefore his responsibility.

  This is Recon only, Sol had told the others. No heroics. If you see something, just get yourself back to the exit in one piece.

  No one argued.

  The stairs seemed to go on forever. Though they were surrounded by rock on all sides, they were modern and utilitarian.

  Corrugated steel, maybe. Nothing magical about that.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Sol stopped. Behind him was a steel door marked 7.

  “The Mess Hall.” He gestured down to the next level of stairs. “Come on. We’ve got three more floors.”

  We kept going, passing two more doors on the way down. Finally, the bobbing of Sol’s flashlight stopped.

  I hurried to catch up with him, relieved to see that he was standing in front of a door marked 4.

  Our destination.

  I looked for another set of stairs leading down to the lower levels, but there were none.

  Sol caught my eye. “They used to go all the way down. I’m told that after the Second Blood War, the leaders revised their security policies.” He put his hand on the door. “Ready?”

  I nodded. My mouth had gone dry.

  “Stay close. Right behind me, okay?” And with that, he pushed open the door.

  Chapter 25

  I was looking at something that should have been impossible.

  Blue sky.

  I craned my neck upward, goggling at the sight. A vista of sky stretched overhead. Wispy clouds moved on a gentle breeze.

  Then I saw one of the clouds shudder and reverse itself, repeating the same motion over again in the same track of sky.

  Of course. It wasn’t real.

  And then the rest of the illusion became apparent. The grass beneath my feet was astroturf, the trees too still. If I looked hard enough, I could even make out the boundaries of this place, though the walls had been artfully hidden behind the foliage.

  Sol met my gaze, grinning. “Welcome to the Rec Dec.”

  I shook my head. “How is any of this possible?”

  “This is fixed magic. Very rare—and irreplaceable, once its creator is gone.” He shrugged a little. “This one’s gotten glitchy in the past few decades.”

  “Magic can be glitchy?”

  He nodded—but he was distracted now. “Come on. We don’t have much time.”

  Time for what? But he was already striding ahead of me, and I had to hurry to keep up with him.

  As I followed, I noticed the strange shape of the room. It curved around, and I soon realized that it must have been donut-shaped.

  “A torus,” Sol supplied. “That’s the official name for the shape, or so I’m told.”

  What, I wondered, was in the middle?

  Sol’s footsteps had slowed, and I finally managed to catch up to him.

  “What is it?”

  He shot me a sidelong look. “It was built to keep people sane. Turns out we’re not meant to live underground. One of the founders built it. Now we do our best to maintain it.”

  He stopped in front of a stand of trees. His expression was one of deep concentration.

  “What are we—”

  “Shh.” He held up a hand, never taking his gaze off the trees.

  He seemed to be looking for something. Which was news to me, because as far as I knew, this was just a Recon mission.

  Sol started forward, then knelt in front of a tree.

  I came up behind him. He was peering down at a small flower bed in front of the tree.

  “I left something here. Something important.
”

  He began to dig.

  I was surprised to see actual dirt come up. I knelt next to him and touched a flower.

  Real—and alive. If a bit worse for wear.

  “People are always trying to get stuff to grow down here. It’s a pain in the ass, but they do it anyway.”

  I wondered what would happen now. Would everything die?

  Sol stopped digging.

  I looked and saw that he’d hit some kind of concrete floor. There had only been about two feet of dirt.

  I peered closer, but didn’t see anything.

  Sol cursed under his breath.

  “What—?”

  But he wasn’t listening to me. He’d started to go through the dirt he’d already displaced. After a few minutes, it became clear that whatever he was looking for wasn’t here.

  “Dammit.” He frowned at the empty spot. Touched it with his fingers.

  “Maybe if you look somewhere else…”

  Not that I wanted to stick around any longer than we had to. But I felt unaccountably bad that Sol hadn’t found whatever it was that he was looking for.

  “No. It’s the right place.” He seemed to contemplate that empty spot a moment longer. “It’s gone.”

  He began to fill in the hole. I wondered if I should help him. But he seemed to want to be left alone with his task—and his thoughts.

  When he was done, he started back toward the place we’d come in. Or so I hoped. I wasn’t entirely sure where the door was, and now I couldn’t find it among the trees and foliage that disguised the walls.

  Eventually I worked up the courage to ask, “What was it? The thing you were looking for?”

  He glanced over, as though just now remembering my presence.

  “Something important. Something I swore to protect.”

  “You think someone took it?”

  “Only one other person knew where it was hidden. And she’s supposed to be dead.”

  Just then, Sol froze. I didn’t know what was going on, but I took the hint and stopped. He cocked his head as though listening—though I couldn’t hear anything.

  After a second, he narrowed his eyes. “We’re not alone.” His gaze locked with mine. “Run for the door. The one we came through.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll find you later. Go!”

  I started to move, not entirely sure whether I could find the door, but spurred on by the urgency in Sol’s voice.

  But I was too late.

  As I started to turn back, I saw movement. Two armed men leaped out from behind a stand of trees.

  In a heartbeat, Sol was next to me.

  “What do we do?”

  He put a hand on my arm, and I got the message. Be quiet.

  I didn’t know what I’d expected to see—but this wasn’t it. The men who approached were dressed in some sort of paramilitary garb. And they were armed.

  The first man threw his arms wide. “Welcome to Sanctuary! I’m Jax. And you’re…trespassing.”

  Beside me, I felt Sol bristle.

  “When our scouts reported that there was activity at the back door, I thought it must have been a deer or something. Anyway, Sanctuary is under new management now. Your kind is no longer welcome here.”

  Sol’s eyes narrowed. “You’re no pureblood.”

  “No?” His smile widened mockingly. “What was your first clue?”

  “Other than the fact that you’re packing heat instead of a stupid ceremonial sword? The tattoo gives it away.”

  I followed Sol’s gaze to Jax’s arm, where the tip of a yellow flame peeked out.

  It was the same as the one I’d seen at party. I wracked my brain until I remembered the name.

  Blood Right.

  These were the same guys—only now we didn’t have Nev to show up and kick their asses.

  Sol scowled. “What happened to fighting the Capitol?”

  “Oh, it’s still our official motto. This is more of a side-project.”

  “What happened to the half-bloods who lived here?”

  Jax smiled again. “Let’s just say they don’t live here anymore.”

  Something shifted in the air—there was an invisible pull now, and it was coming from Sol.

  I glanced over, and saw that his eyes had grown darker. The whites were shrinking.

  Right. His Cipher power. Maybe we had a chance of getting out of here after all…

  But in the next second, I felt a horrible sensation—like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. I opened my mouth, tried to gasp for air, only to find that I couldn’t.

  I fell to my knees.

  Sol was shouting, and through my darkening vision, I heard Jax’s cold, calm voice.

  “I’ve heard about your talents, Solon. A half-blood Cipher—who’d have imagined?”

  “Whatever you’ve done—” Sol’s voice was like a growl.

  But dark spots were dancing in my vision, and Sol’s voice had grown distant.

  “Oh, it wasn’t me. This is his work.”

  He was talking about his companion, whose face was now blurring.

  “Your pretty little friend there? He’s stolen her air, and only he can give it back. If you kill him, she’s as good as dead.”

  I’d been clutching my throat, but now I felt my hands fall away.

  And then I could breathe again.

  I spent several moments gasping for breath. Then Sol offered a hand, and with his help, I got shakily to my feet.

  Jax wore a superior smile. “That’s better now, isn’t it? I trust you’ll behave from now on?”

  Sol was staring daggers at him—but nodded.

  From around the next corner, three more men appeared.

  “Oh, good. The entourage is here.” He snapped a finger at one of the approaching men. “Can we get some Damping action on the girl?”

  I didn’t feel anything, but saw one of the men focus on me.

  Of course, I wasn’t about to try anything, anyway. I could breathe again, and wanted to keep it that way.

  Jax winked at me. “Wouldn’t want any fireworks on our trip down to Zero.”

  Zero. I didn’t dare look at Sol, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stiffen.

  We were going to the bottom floor, and once we were there, our chances of escape seemed pretty close to…well, zero.

  Jax smiled almost cordially at us. “Normally, I’d just kill you both. But under the circumstances, I’m going to have to bring you to the Big Boss. He can decide what to do with you.”

  Chapter 26

  We followed them—or rather were pushed and prodded—through a separate door.

  It was on the opposite side of the Rec Dec—the inner ring of the donut—and led to a gray concrete hallway.

  Sol was now flanked by two muscled soldiers, but that didn’t stop him from trying to engage Jax. “Why attack Sanctuary? You’re going to have a hard time recruiting more half-bloods once they find out you guys invaded our last piece of territory.”

  “Who, us?” Jax seemed to be enjoying himself. “We had nothing to do this. I mean, invade Sanctuary? That’s the kind of stuff purebloods do.”

  “You can’t expect to keep something like this a secret. People will talk. They’ll ask questions.”

  “Maybe. But by the time they do, it won’t matter.”

  “It won’t?”

  Jax laughed. “Oh, you want me to launch into an evil monologue? Tell you all our plans? Sorry, no can do. For one thing, Tacitus would kick my ass.”

  He seemed to realize he’d made a mistake the second the words were out of his mouth.

  The name meant nothing to me. But Sol obviously recognized it.

  “Tacitus,” Sol said. “Is he the one waiting for us in the basement?”

  Jax’s good cheer evaporated. “Enough talk.”

  His men had come to a stop in front of a heavy door. Jax gestured at the man next to me. “Bring the girl.”

  Sol was instantly on alert. “Wh
at are you doing?”

  Jax grinned. “Time to give your girlfriend a proper tour of this place.”

  One of his men yanked open the huge steel door. Jax shoved me through it.

  I stumbled clumsily to the other side—then froze.

  I was standing on a narrow catwalk. A vast, empty space loomed before me, and the only thing that kept me from a four-story drop was a low railing and about two feet of steel flooring.

  Heart pounding, I pressed my back into the wall and screwed my eyes shut tight.

  There was some unkind laughter behind me, and I heard the rest of them shuffle through the door.

  Sol had explained Sanctuary to me as a cylinder shape—like a giant grain silo, only buried underground.

  So far, I’d seen the outer slices of it—the donut ring.

  Now I knew what was in the middle—nothing.

  The catwalk on which I now stood ringed the interior wall of the cylinder, and it was all that kept me from four stories of empty space.

  Hope you’re not claustrophobic, Sol had said.

  Well, I wasn’t claustrophobic. But I did have a fear of heights.

  On our eighth grade trip to the Hancock Tower in Chicago, I’d earned an afternoon of scorn by being the only one too scared to go out on the observation deck. At the time, the very idea of it caused me to burst into tears.

  I opened my eyes to find Jax leaning over the railing—a sight that made my knees feel as though they’d turned to jelly.

  He caught my eye. “What? Don’t you like the view?”

  Sol had come in beside me, still flanked by Jax’s men. He shot me a concerned look.

  Don’t look down.

  We weren’t even on a solid floor. The walkway on which we stood was more of a metal grate—the kind you could see right through. All the way to the bottom.

  I forced myself to look up—and saw an identical catwalk ringing the level above us, and the one above that. A quick glance downward confirmed that the lower levels were the same.

  In the very center of the empty space was a thick concrete cylinder. It took me a second to realize what it was—a staircase.

  A really impractical staircase, actually. From what I could see, it went straight from the top to the bottom, with no way of accessing the middle levels.

  Jax’s hand was on my arm, but I was too focused on the drop to care.