Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by hamilton, rebecca

  Methodical and murderous, the Sentinels never gave up. Maddox dove into the tunnel and began crawling, the water rushing over his fingertips and sending chills down his back. He and Allana had to get out of the city as quickly as possible, and with as little noise.

  As he moved forward, his backpack hit the roof of the tunnel and occasionally his head would bump against the concrete. Dark and musty, he couldn’t tell how much farther they had to go, only that they needed to keep moving. If the Sentinels entered the tunnel they were in, he and Allana were done for. His heart slammed in his chest and he huffed from exertion, imagining he heard things scampering behind him, but daring not to look for fear of slowing down.

  A slow target was a dead target.

  He moved as quickly as he could, his knuckles scraping the concrete and burning from the peeled flesh. He and Allana crawled till his hands and knees ached from cold and exertion and yet they continued. The tunnel seemed longer than it had in training. Allana didn’t complain or make a peep. She moved like a crab, crouched and scuttling to escape through the half-darkness.

  “If we make it out of this,” Allana huffed as she edged through the pipe. “You’re going to have to tell me why you chose this job. No way I could do it. Not even to help Verity.”

  “You tell me why you’re an assassin.” He watched the silhouette of her hips sway.

  “Fine.”

  “Then you’ve got a deal.” He grinned, knowing that if she saw him, she would scowl. He hadn’t known her long, but he’d known her long enough to figure out she didn’t like to be on the short end of a joke.

  He switched to lead with the other leg, giving his dominant leg a rest.

  From his training, he knew the tunnel was about five hundred yards long, and then they’d reach the end and have to remove the last grate and dive about twelve feet into the small lake the water emptied into. Surely they’d made it at least halfway by now, but there was no way to check though his knees ached like he’d crawled a marathon. The cold trickle of water numbed his limbs and he shook his hands to try and regain feeling.

  “Are they behind us?” Allana didn’t slow down. “I’m afraid to look.”

  “I don’t hear them.” He moved hand over hand. “I don’t want to stop and look.”

  “Are we almost out?”

  “I hope so.”

  Suddenly the tunnel went black. Allana’s muffled protestation filled his ears.

  “Allana?” He looked down the tunnel the way they’d come. All the biolumen strips were dark. How was that possible? All he could see was the Sentinel’s light bouncing in the distance.

  “We’ve got to move,” she whispered. “Faster, somehow. They’re getting closer and they’re going to catch up. Oh, my god, it’s so dark.”

  “Calm down.” He used his most peaceful voice.

  “I am fucking calm.” She bit the words out. “We need to hurry.”

  “We should almost be to the grate at the end of the tunnel. It can’t be far. Keep going. Hurry but don’t panic. We’ll be okay.” He started crawling, the cold water sloshing against his hands and knees. If the Sentinels had listening devices on, they’d surely be able to figure out which tunnel he and Allana were in. With a methodical search, they’d be located in no time.

  Allana stopped and he bumped into her back, his pack straining against his shoulders.

  “What is it?” He strained to see in the dark. “Why’d you stop?”

  “Look!” She raised her whisper. “Can’t you see it?”

  He tried to peer around her, but she took up most of the tunnel space. “What? All I see is darkness.”

  “I think I see the end, but it’s night outside so it’s hard to tell.” Her voice lifted. “It looks different. Blue, instead of black. What do we do now?”

  “Should be it. Crawl!” His heart rattled and he pushed to get to the end of the tunnel. It’d be a tragedy to die at the grate leaving the city.

  So close, yet so far from freedom. No, he was intent on escaping.

  A couple of minutes later, they reached the grate.

  “Let me get by.” Maddox maneuvered around Allana and pulled the tools to release the grate from his backpack. He worked as quickly as he could in the dark, feeling for the right tool, and then loosening the plugs, one by one.

  “Almost done?”

  “Yeah.” He grunted to loosen the plug. “Some of these are pretty tight.”

  Good thing his training had been so thorough. The Sentinels were bound to be close and at least one was likely in the same tunnel by now. Maybe he should get out one of the Lancers, but then it would be ruined when they jumped into the lake.

  “Good thing because I hear the Sentinels!” Allana grabbed his arm. “Hurry! They’re close.”

  Sure enough, sloshing, though distant, echoed through the tunnel.

  “Shhh! We don’t want to give away our position.” He wiped his face with his other arm. “I’m almost done. One more. Get ready to jump. Hope you aren’t afraid of heights, too.”

  She punched him in the arm. “No.”

  He smiled and worked at the last plug. It took every bit of his strength to pull it, and it creaked as it released. The plug pinged as it bounced onto the pipe then settled into the water.

  “Got it.” Maddox braced his shoulders against the wall and kicked at the grate with the heel of his boot. It fell away into the water below, its splash coming a couple seconds after the third kick knocked it free.

  “What now?”

  “We jump.” He dropped the unneeded tools out of the pipe and grabbed his pack, zipping the waterproof layer and securing the flaps. “You go ahead.”

  “This, I can do.” Allana wriggled to the edge of the pipe then jumped, her splash a small sound below the pipe out of the tunnel.

  Maddox secured his pack and stared down the long tunnel. In the distance, the lights from Sentinels bobbed. They were coming.

  He closed his eyes, scooted out, and hurtled into the lake, arms crossed over his chest, feet first. The cold water washed over his head and he struggled to move in the dark, get to the surface with his laden wet clothes and pack. He kicked, propelling himself upward through the muffled world. He popped up into the night air and gasped for a breath, his boots and heavy clothing making him feel like he weighed ten times more than he did. He kicked slowly to conserve energy, aware that exhaustion seeped into every cell of his body.

  Allana swam closer, her face barely visible in the half-light. “I can’t believe it.” She smiled. “We made it out of the city! We got away from the Sentinels!”

  “Well, we made it out of the tunnel.” He coughed and treaded water, waving his arms to and fro. “We still have to get out of this lake and get you to Verity. Until then, no celebrating. Too many things could go wrong.” He scanned the shore for any signs of Sentinels.

  “Yeah, but we’re out of those damn small tunnels. No more tight spaces.”

  “I know that makes you happy.”

  “Incredibly.” Allana swam next to Maddox and put her arms around his neck. “Let’s get to the bank so we can meet up with our contact.”

  He tried to stay afloat with her weight and the backpack on top of him, but his boots pulled him under and he kicked with extra effort. Raindrops splashed on the surface of the lake and made concentric circles on the dark water. Overlapping, the pattern was a dizzying array.

  “Yeah, let’s get to shore before my boots weigh me down too much and I can’t lift my feet to swim.” He hugged her to him, her firm body relaxed in his grip for the first time since he’d met her. “I knew you could make it through the tunnels with a little nudge.”

  She shook her head and leaned back. “Nothing like a Sentinel lighting a fire under me to get me to move. I think anyone could move under those circumstances, Maddox.” She pushed his hair off his forehead. “I hope I never see another one. Ever.”

  “You could’ve done it without all the excitement. I can tell you’re a strong woman. The Sentin
els just made you move faster.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe I needed your support.”

  Her mouth opened in question and he leaned closer to kiss her.

  Green beams of light split off the surface of the water, snapping into angles as they hit. The firepower whizzed and bleated as it echoed through the darkness.

  Fuck! Lancers!

  “They’ve spotted us!” Maddox looked up to the pipe’s edge, a black circle in the night. “We’ve got to get out of the water. Hurry. This way.” He spied the silhouette of a Sentinel peering from the pipe. “I don’t think they can see us very well, even with their superior vision. Otherwise, we’d be dead already. I think they’re aiming and hoping for a hit.”

  “Go. I’ll follow you.”

  He swam with all the energy he had left in his drained muscles, trusting Allana was keeping up. Lancer fire played around them as the Sentinels took turns shooting from the tunnel. Thankfully, there was only room for one at a time to get a shot off. If the guards jumped to the water and hunted them on land, he and Allana would never escape.

  He didn’t hear any of them jumping into the lake. Why didn’t they leave the pipe?

  Maddox swam, hoping the darkness and rain provided enough cover to keep them from being detected. Allana stayed alongside him, her swimming prowess far greater than his own, her deft strokes cutting through the water with seemingly little effort. His own thighs burned and his back knotted.

  He fought the urge to cough, but tucked his chin and kept swimming. How much farther? Good thing he’d taken that stimshot or he’d be a dead already.

  A bright green Lancer blast struck the water within a foot of his shoulder and the smell of ozone hit his nose like a burnt soufflé.

  Could’ve been my head.

  He pushed harder, kicking his boots against the exhaustion and lactic acid that flowed through his muscles as they screamed with effort. He and Allana had come this far; they had to make it now.

  They would make it. This was his job and he would see to it that it was done. For Meera. For Allana.

  He swam, the Lancer shots popping around him, lighting up the air and sending clouds of hot ozone across the water top like fog. Where was she? He couldn’t tell—only hope she was nearby and keeping up. The lake wasn’t large and he pushed harder to get to the edge. She gurgled beside him and he smiled.

  She was tough. No wonder Verity wanted her as assassin.

  By the time they dragged themselves on shore, his breath came in gasps and his limbs knotted like heavy stones in wet sacks. If he never had to swim again, it would be okay. The Lancer fire had dwindled to a shot or two every thirty seconds. Maybe the Sentinels were giving up. But that didn’t make sense, did it? They never gave up. Maybe they were waiting on reinforcements, or maybe they had a plan to regroup and attack.

  Allana leaned on him, her breath coming fast and hard like his own. “I’m beat.” She gasped for air. “Where to now?”

  Maddox tried to take a deep breath but it hurt. “We aren’t going to be able to hike to the rendezvous point, that’s for sure.” He paused and scanned the darkness. “It’s so dark, I don’t think we’d find it. I’ll send a message. Verity knew it was possible we wouldn’t make it tonight.”

  “Agreed.” She bent over, palms on her knees. “We’ll have to meet them tomorrow.”

  He adjusted the wet pack higher. Quick-drying, the pack was already getting lighter. “Let’s move away from this area and see if we can find shelter in the lower cliffs somewhere, or the forest. If those Sentinels do come looking for us tonight, I don’t want to be an easy target. We need to hide.”

  Allana stood and fisted her hands. “I thought they didn’t leave the city. Ever.”

  “That’s what I’ve been told.” He set his jaw. How much should he tell her? Verity really didn’t know exactly how far outside the city the Sentinels ventured and he certainly didn’t know. “But I don’t want to find out the hard way. If they do leave, I don’t want to be in their path.”

  “Agreed.” She rubbed her arms and shivered. “So let’s move. As far away as you think we need to be to be out of their reach.”

  He peered into the forest. Dense with trees and underbrush, it was difficult to imagine Sentinels traipsing around there, but he didn’t want to test his theory. Better safe than sorry had probably saved a lot of lives. They’d need to move farther into the forest and set up a perimeter they could defend to some extent, and they’d need to be well rested and ready to leave in the morning. He turned to Allana. She rubbed her arms with her hands.

  “Are you cold?” He knew he’d just asked the dumbest question of the year, but what else could he say?

  “Yes.” Her teeth chattered and she sucked in a breath. “You have a blanket in that pack?”

  “I do. And some biolumen sticks, once we get away from shore. Here isn’t a good spot to be indicating our position. We need to hike in a good distance so that if the Sentinels do come looking, they don’t find us.” Pulling her to him would be the quickest way to warm her up, but they really needed to get away from the shoreline.

  As much as he trusted the information he’d been given, if the Sentinels did leave the pipes, he and Allana were as good as dead already. They needed to get far away from the lake quickly. The slow sprinkling of rain had picked up to a steady drizzle and a breeze sent bursts of wind across the lake and over them every few minutes. They needed to get to somewhere dry.

  “Glad you have a blanket. I can wait though. Let’s move.”

  Maddox looked up at the city on the mountain above him, pipes jutting out at odd intervals and draining the rainwater away like the city was bleeding out. The fractured skyscrapers silhouetted against the sky like a broken crown—the wall blocked most of the view. The perimeter fence on top of the wall blinked red dots of light. Warnings against those who might come seeking a shelter unlike anything they’d ever seen. Not a happy place, the city. And once you got in, you stayed.

  Did the Confessor let new people in? Maybe he had. New workers. Laborers for the open greenhouses on the lower west side. Or tidal pool fishermen for the south end where the sea met the city. Some of the worst jobs were in textile mills where people powered the giant treadles that wove fabric and stoked fires that heated vats to dye the fabric. Even the machines that sewed fabrics to make garments were people-powered. That’s why the city itself kept its workers.

  Guarded. No one left. And yet, he and Allana left. Meera hadn’t lived to see them leave, but she would’ve been proud of him and he hoped that sometime in some moment of her drug-induced dreams, she’d escaped too. After all, that was why she’d done Koo to start with. To escape reality. Find another one. Too bad the one she found had been incongruous with the real one. He shook his head.

  “If we don’t find a place to sleep soon, I’m going to pass out standing up.” Allana stomped her feet. “And I’m freezing.”

  “Sorry. Let’s find a place to camp. You’ll feel better when we’re moving.” No time for daydreams and regrets. No time to ponder the remains and relics of a city past its prime. Now was his chance to make a difference and prove to Meera that he, too, fought for freedoms.

  Freedoms that everyone enjoyed. To work in the textile mills if chosen, or as an artisan if that was the choice. Freedom to study the same things as male or female. The war had set time back several hundred years and Verity was intent on changing that.

  Maddox headed to into the thicket of sprawling trees opposite the city’s mountain. In the dark forest, the air barely felt like it was raining at all, though it smelled like rainfall and wet earth. The deep recesses of rotting wood and soggy leaves slithered through his senses and dampened his thoughts. The dense tree canopy blocked out most light, too, and he was sure that even in daytime, the forest was dark. He pulled out the biolumen sticks and clasped them to his belt with metal clasps then reached for Allana’s hand.

  Her hand was small and soft. Not what you’d expect from one of Verity’s assassins but
that was the point, he supposed. She held on tightly and they walked.

  “Maddox?”

  “Yes?” He peered at her, her black hair curling in longish waves.

  “What made you join Verity? I mean, I know I had my reasons, and I guess you do too. I can’t figure out why you would want to.” She squeezed his hand. “I wondered what those reasons were. It’s a risk to join the entity not in power.”

  They walked a few more feet, Maddox staring up at the darkness. He debated not telling her, then figured, why not? He wasn’t going to see her after he turned her over to Verity anyway. And holding her hand was damn nice.

  “Several things, I guess.” He took a deep breath. Should he tell her about Meera? What was the point, if he never saw Allana again? But then again, Meera would live on in another’s memory. “For one thing, I didn’t know much about Verity till they came to me to see if I would join. And it was kind of a surprise they would even want me at all. But their pitch was pretty convincing.”

  “Yeah, same here.”

  “I find that hard to believe. You’re quick and strong and you can think on your feet. Great assassin material.”

  “Thanks. And you’re obviously a brain.”

  Maddox laughed. “I don’t think that’s why they needed me. They promised to help my sister if I helped them with one mission. You. I was a chemist working in pharmaceuticals, nothing special. There are a ton of us. I guess they figured I was smart enough to hire as a guide out of the city.” He brushed his hair out of his eyes. “And I had something to lose. But I do believe in Verity’s mission to bring the city back to its pre-war days where everyone has choices. What they do. How they live.”

  “And your sister? What happened to her?” She put her hands on her hips.

  “She’s dead.” He looked away, aware his voice had given away his emotions. He really shouldn’t be getting into all the details. For someone who wouldn’t share information with him, she sure was interested in his secrets. It distracted him from the mission and that wasn’t good. He needed to focus.

  “Oh!” She stepped closer and put her arms around his neck and hugged him. “So many families have been torn apart. So many lives lost.”