Sacrificed (The Ignited Series)

by Dantone, Desni

  Alec scoffed. “I’d say their plan has been working so far.”

  My eyes flicked to Micah’s, and he met them with a wary smile, as if he knew the risk he had taken in getting close to me, and he accepted it. Even if that meant his own death.

  I shook my head as I looked away.

  “It’s not because of the curse,” Nathan added. Now, his gaze settled on Micah. “They know that if Kris does this, if she kills you, there will be no going back.”

  “They’re trying to coerce me into going Skotadi?” I whispered.

  “And staying Skotadi,” Nathan added.

  Sure, nothing like murder to seal a deal with the forces of evil, right? They knew my soul would never bounce back from that. I knew I would never bounce back from that.

  If that had been their intentions—to get me close to Micah, so that I would ultimately kill him in a moment of Skotadi-rage, and never come out of that rage—then I was determined to beat them at their own game. There was a way, and I would find it.

  They would lose. I would see to that.

  I just hoped the cost wasn’t too great.

  It was probably two hours before they returned to beat on Nathan again. This time, we all knew what was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch. Or hear.

  I kept my eyes closed most of the time, unable to watch the abuse he was taking, but I had no choice but to listen to each flesh-pounding, bone-cracking strike.

  Lillian hadn’t lied earlier. It was worse this time.

  Tears fell faster and harder as my cries for mercy fell on deaf, uncaring ears. Only Lillian paid me any attention, and only to urge me to do something to end Nathan’s suffering, urge me to do the last thing I could do.

  Somehow, I funneled my rage down, buried it, as I stared unwavering through her. I didn’t make eye contact, not because I was afraid of her, but because I was set on showing her that I would defy her.

  “Do you want me to kill him?” she whispered to me. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the beating going on behind her. “I think another five minutes might do it.”

  “Stop,” I seethed between clenched teeth, though my fierceness wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t do anything to her, not now, not tied up.

  “You end it,” she countered. “Do as I ask.”

  I gulped, fighting back the tears. How could I do this? How could I go on letting Nathan suffer like this? After all he had done for me…

  But I couldn’t kill Micah. I couldn’t.

  “Coward.”

  Through all the commotion, one word reached my ears. It came from across the room, and I looked up to see Alec glaring at the big Skotadi looming over Nathan.

  For the time being, he stopped pummeling Nathan, but then, from the look in his eyes, I feared he would go after Alec next. “What did you call me?” he barked.

  “A coward,” Alec repeated unflinchingly, nodding his head in Nathan’s direction. “It’s so easy when he can’t even defend himself. You’ve got him tied up. That makes you a coward.”

  The giant had been advancing on Alec as he spoke, but now turned his furious gaze back to Nathan. He took swift strides toward Nathan, angry determination in his eyes, and I wistfully wondered if Alec had managed to trick the Skotadi into letting Nathan loose. From the smug grin on Alec’s face when he looked at me, I knew that had been his intention.

  Too bad, from the looks of him, I didn’t think Nathan would be able to mount much of an attack on his own. He could barely hold his own head up, let alone beat the Skotadi and rescue the rest of us.

  I feared that Alec might have sealed Nathan’s death by trying to help.

  Part of me was relieved when Lillian blocked the Skotadi’s path. “Are you really that stupid?” she demanded of him. “You can’t let him go. Ever.” Her tone made it clear that she knew very well what Nathan was capable of, injured or not. She pointed a threatening finger at Alec. “You, shut up or you’re next.”

  Alec’s response was a smirk that suggested he didn’t really care, and I shot him a warning with my eyes. It definitely wouldn’t help us to have both of them hurt. With Nathan injured, we’d need Alec at the top of his game to make up for the slack.

  If we ever managed to get out of this room.

  For the time being, they were leaving us—leaving me with time to stew over my impossible decision—and we had to use that time to come up with some sort of plan. And if we couldn’t, then what?

  Kill Micah, or they killed Nathan? Ruin the world’s hope of peace, or ruin mine? When put that way, the decision should have been obvious. Micah needed to survive this. For the better of everyone. If Nathan died, only my life would be ruined.

  And if I killed Micah and released the Skotadi within, my life would be ruined anyway—with or without Nathan. Either way, I was doomed. But I wouldn’t let everyone go down with me. They had a chance to live and be happy. I had to find a way to spare the ones I cared about most.

  “Nathan?” I croaked, gazing worriedly at the top of his head. At my voice, he lifted his chin off his chest. One of his eyes was nearly swollen shut now, and the other was red with blood, but the fact that he was able to make some amount of eye contact was a relief.

  “I’m fine, Kris,” he said softly. Then, he contradicted his words by lurching forward to spit a mouthful of blood on the floor. Rolling his head back, he tried to hide the pain I knew he was in. “I can go all day.”

  “No,” I responded immediately. No, he couldn’t. Not like this, and definitely not if it was going to get worse, as Lillian threatened.

  “They’re going to kill you,” Micah said from his seat, as if scolding Nathan for letting them do such a thing.

  “Oh?” Nathan glared across the room at Micah. “Would you rather Kris kill you instead?”

  That response shut Micah up, for now, and if it weren’t such a painful truth, it might have been funny. But I was in no mood to laugh.

  “Nathan?” I said again, unable to force my voice much above a whisper. When his eyes reluctantly rolled to me, I spoke to him softly. “I can’t let them do this to you.”

  His response was immediate and stoic. “You have to, Kris.”

  “Not if we can get out of here,” Alec interrupted from his corner. I looked at him and noticed that his eyes were fixed on something beneath Nathan. As I followed his gaze, he asked, “See it?”

  “What?” Nathan asked. He didn’t have the view Alec and I had, and didn’t see the shard of wood splintered from the leg of his chair. It hadn’t been there before, and must have been caused by the most recent assault.

  “By your right foot,” Alec explained slowly, like he feared Nathan might have brain damage or something. “If you can get the rope on your ankle higher, you should be able to rub it against the splinter of wood there. Might saw through.”

  The splinter was about an inch above the ropes. As we all watched helplessly, a weak and bleeding Nathan pushed down on his toes, managing to raise the rope just enough for it to slide over the sharp piece of wood. He would have to work on it for some time, but it just might work.

  Unfortunately, from the angle he had, he couldn’t see what progress he was making, and had to rely on Alec to guide him through it—when to change direction, where to shift his foot, and when to saw away. After a few minutes, Nathan said, “It’s getting looser.”

  That was the first time since I’d woken up in this room that I felt a glimmer of hope. We might make it. If he could get through, somehow get the rest of us free…

  If anyone could do it, Nathan could.

  Five minutes later, he proved me right, and slipped his foot free of its binds. Then we were faced with the problem of figuring out what to do next. It wasn’t as if he could do much damage with one foot against a roomful of Skotadi.

  “Can you break the splinter off?” Alec suggested.

  Nathan blindly maneuvered his free foot against the leg of the chair. He glanced at Alec, who nodded. With a brisk swipe downward, Nathan broke the
splinter from the chair leg. We all stared at it, amazed that this was working so far.

  But then, I didn’t know what we were going to do now. None of us could reach the splinter, and it would be in clear view of the Skotadi when they came back. In retrospect, breaking it loose might not have been smart.

  Only Nathan appeared to have a plan. As he wrestled the sliver of wood with his foot, and managed to position it on top of his foot, I couldn’t help but wonder what his plan was.

  He looked at Alec pointedly. “Can you turn your chair around?”

  Alec shuffled in his seat, managing to turn his back partially to Nathan. For Nathan, it was easier to scoot forward and meet Alec. Once they were lined up, Nathan lifted his foot and dropped the splinter into Alec’s waiting hands.

  After the successful exchange, they wordlessly scooted back to their positions. It had gone smoothly, and the Skotadi would have no idea that Alec was busy working on freeing himself behind his back.

  All we had to do was wait for him to succeed. Hopefully before they returned and noticed that Nathan had one foot free.

  We quietly discussed strategy as Alec worked. First, he would free Micah since he wasn’t injured, then the two of them would free Nathan and me. After that, we only speculated as to what our next move would be.

  There were no windows for us to sneak out of, and what awaited us outside the door was a mystery. Lillian was accompanied by four Skotadi that we knew of, but we couldn’t be sure how many more were nearby. We didn’t even know where we were. It could have been another underground compound that we’d have no way of knowing how to navigate, or a hut atop the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains.

  The only thing we knew was that we had to do something.

  I worried about Callie, and how we would find her. If she was nearby, at all.

  She had gone through so much with me, suffered so much because of me. When we got out of here, I would find a way to get Callie back to her life, and keep her safe. That was a vow I was determined to see through, even if I doubted she would accept it.

  She deserved better than this life—one of running and fighting and fearing the future. A girl like her should be looking forward to her future, not dreading it.

  Not like I did.

  Micah’s warning interrupted my thoughts. A moment later, the door swung open and Lillian entered, along with her usual entourage.

  I glanced frantically at Alec, who gave me a barely discernable shake of his head.

  He wasn’t through the ropes yet.

  I felt Lillian’s heavy gaze on me, and I turned my eyes away from Alec, but refused to look at her, despite her eyes boring into the top of my head.

  “You going to make us do this again?” she eventually asked.

  “You don’t have to do this, Lillian,” I said softly.

  With a snort, she turned and waved her hand at the big Skotadi that had made Nathan his punching bag all night. As he closed in, I spoke to Lillian’s back, “You used to love him, you know? You remember that?”

  She spun to me, her face empty, eyes cold. “That was someone else. Not me.”

  “Only because the Skotadi changed you. Against your will, right?”

  Her jaw set, and I knew I was on to something. I just wondered how far I could take it. “They helped me,” she insisted.

  “They used you,” I returned, feeling suddenly brave. “To get to me. You were a pawn, and you still are.”

  “I’m a commander! And I am sick of waiting for you to do as I demand!” Her golden rings surged as she turned away from me in disgust. She held her hand out to the Skotadi standing by the door and he handed her a shiny black pistol. With her eyes leveled on me, she turned the gun on Nathan.

  “No!” I screamed. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”

  “I don’t believe you,” Lillian smirked and looked down the barrel of the gun at Nathan.

  His eyes closed in anticipation.

  “If you kill him you’ll never get what you want,” I threatened. “You’ll have no leverage on me.”

  “No, but it would temporarily bring out your other half. The half of you that will happily do what I ask.” She settled her sights on Nathan again. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

  “I already said I’ll do it!”

  The blast was like a bomb going off, echoed through the room, striking my heart with a hollow dread.

  No, no, no…

  Nathan was still. So still that I wondered if I imagined the shift in his eyes. It wasn’t until he finally blinked and lifted his head to Lillian, her smoking gun in his face, that I realized he was alive.

  And Lillian had shot the wall behind him.

  She turned to me expectantly. I knew I was surging—I felt it in every fiber of my body—and, from the look of triumph on her face, she knew it too.

  “Cut her loose,” she ordered the Skotadi closest to me.

  My eyes remained on Lillian—the source of my anger—until the knife was placed in my hands. I turned it over, examining it, remembering how it had felt in my dream-hands. When I looked up again, I avoided Alec. I could feel his eyes on me, and knew that he would try to talk me out of doing what I had to do.

  What a big part of me wanted to do. The other part of me was along for the ride as I slowly approached Micah where he sat restrained in his chair.

  Should be easy.

  So why were my hands shaking? Why were unwanted thoughts of freedom and love and happiness washing over me? And why was the boy sitting in the chair at my mercy smiling at me like he understood why I was about to kill him?

  My hand wavered, and the knife dropped to my side.

  “Do it.” I glanced over my shoulder, saw Lillian hovering over Nathan with the gun in her hand.

  Nathan was watching me with uncertainty, like he really hoped I had a plan. And Alec…the look he gave me meant something else. Something that I was supposed to understand. Something important.

  His hand moved behind his back like he wanted me to see something, but his hand was empty.

  Empty, but free.

  Lillian gave up her post by Nathan and crossed the room to me, the rage on her face growing with each step. “Do it now,” she seethed, coming to a stop beside me.

  Where she stood, it would be easy to spin around and catch her in the stomach with the knife. But then, I had another idea. A better one. One that trumped my desire to see Lillian evaporate into nothing.

  I lunged for Micah.

  CHAPTER 23

  The knife sliced through the ropes around Micah’s wrists. As he lurched forward and slammed a fist into Lillian’s side, I dropped to my knees and slit the ropes at his ankles. He came to a stand as a stunned Lillian retreated a step.

  Alec grabbed one Skotadi by the waist before he could rush Micah, while Nathan landed a kick into the stomach of another.

  “Kris!” Alec shouted. “My ankles!”

  I clambered across the floor on my hands and knees, avoiding the growing scuffle around me, stopping only long enough to sever Alec’s bonds before moving on to free Nathan. I slashed the rope around his ankle first, then crawled behind him to saw through the rope at his wrists.

  In a flash, he was on his feet and joining the fight.

  It had all taken only seconds for us all to be freed, but we were still outnumbered, five to four, and though I had the diamond-coated knife, Lillian had a gun and…

  And she had Micah lifted off the floor, pressed against the wall. Standing a safe distance from him, she held him there using nothing but a hand held out in front of her.

  Levitation.

  Lillian was levitating Micah off the floor.

  Lillian was an Incantator?

  “Oh, shit,” I muttered.

  The big Skotadi stepped in front of me, the jeer on his face exposing the rotten teeth in his mouth. His eyes were enflamed with fury. “You’ll never be one of us.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” I returned as I held the knife out in front of me. I
met his eyes, daring him to make a move.

  “She says we need you, but I don’t think we do. I’m going to enjoy killing you…the one,” he taunted, feinting to the right.

  I didn’t take the bait. Apparently, practicing with Nathan had paid off. I was in a real life fight, holding my own. Granted, the diamond in my hand was doing most of the work for me, but still. I was holding off a Skotadi three times my size.

  Over the Skotadi’s shoulder I glimpsed flashes of Nathan and Alec as they fought together, mirroring each other like they’ve been covering each other’s backs for years. My heart swelled with pride for a moment before I glanced beyond them, to Lillian, who continued to hold Micah in the air, while barking out orders to the rest of the Skotadi.

  What I gathered of her commands was that they were to spare me and Micah, but kill Nathan and Alec.

  Preoccupied with watching them, she hadn’t noticed Micah’s hand moving slowly toward the charm around his neck. It looked as if every movement took a tremendous effort on his part, but I knew what he was trying to do. If he could get the charm off, he would no longer be blocked.

  Same went for me.

  I yanked at the charm from around my neck, breaking the string, and tossed it at the Skotadi in front of me. It bounced off his chest and fell at his feet. He didn’t look like he cared, and I wondered if he realized what the charm had been doing, if he knew what I was capable of without it.

  My hand shot out with a blast of fire that hit him in the chest, showing him just what I could do. He stumbled backward, flailing at the flames that engulfed his shirt.

  Behind him, Lillian half turned to me, while keeping one hand trained on Micah. He was closer to his charm, but not close enough.

  “Take her out!” Lillian screamed.

  I scoffed. No one was listening to her. One Skotadi was desperately trying to remove the shirt that was partially melted to his skin, two more were preoccupied with Nathan and Alec, and another was…gone. He must have been dissipated at some point.