by Jaye Wells
She shook her head.
I pushed Carmina across the opening. Bravo was so busy catching her, she couldn’t stop me from swooping down to hit the mechanism to unhook the cars.
A hiss sounded.
The car pulled away from the one where Bravo and Carmina watched with growing horror as I fell behind.
I reached out a hand to wave goodbye.
Twenty-Seven
Meridian Six
After Bravo caught me and I turned to see Zed messing with the coupling, a spurt of anger and adrenaline transformed me.
As he raised a hand to wave goodbye. I jumped forward and grabbed his wrist.
For a heart-stopping moment, gravity captured me and pulled me toward the blurry ground.
But then hands clamped around my waist and my body went taut from the opposing forces—Bravo and the others pulling me toward the train and Zed’s arm stretching as he fought to dislodge my grip.
“No!” he shouted. “Let me go!”
His eyes widened as he stumbled forward off the retreating car. I fell to the platform at the back of the train and he fell toward the ground.
Bravo and the others hauled us backward. Zed’s eyes went wild from fear as his legs kicked uselessly against the air.
The arms around my waist made breathing difficult. Zed’s wrist slipped a fraction of an inch in my hand. Moving my injured arm was torture, but I needed to give him something to grip. He took a quick look at the wrist I offered him, clenched his jaw, and grabbed on. White fire shot up my arm and the pain made me gag.
The bodies behind me pulled all their weight backward. I sobbed freely and screamed my rage.
It wasn’t right.
None of this was right.
Even though I’d grown up in the Troika’s bleak world, I couldn’t believe we’d get this close to freedom only to die at the gates. But I also knew that if we didn’t get Zed inside and brace ourselves, the train’s collision would kill us all.
“Bravo!” I shouted. “On three, we all fall back.”
“Three,” was all she said. Behind me, I heard the word echo down the line.
“One.” I planted my feet on the ground.
Zed tightened his grip.
“Two.” I bent my knees.
He looked up into my eyes, his own hard with determination, and nodded.
“Three!” I flew backward.
Something slammed into my front. Cushion of bodies braced us from behind.
The terrible scream of metal on metal. Bodies flung around. Gravity reversing and then doubling. Pain everywhere.
But then, a miracle. Despite the pain and the echoes of screaming, the train continued to move forward.
I peeled open my eyes to see through the open rear door. The gates, now bent and twisted, grew smaller in the distance. Something solid moved underneath me. I looked down to see Zed’s face, his expression dazed and filled with pain.
“Are we dead?” he groaned.
I lifted a trembling hand to point to the rectangle of light. “Look.”
I rolled off him and we crawled together to look.
He took my hand as we watched the prison’s walls grow smaller behind us. Unfortunately, we also saw vampires crawling over the rubble of the ruined gates to give chase.
“They won’t stop coming,” he said. “Tuck’s dynamite didn’t wor—”
A tidal wave of heat and sound launched us backward. By the time we recovered and pulled ourselves upright, the entire camp had erupted into a series of fireballs.
A cheer rose up in the crowded car.
Zed and I exchanged astonished looks. My entire body felt like a wound, but I’d never felt better in my life. We’d done it.
I don’t know who moved first, but next thing I knew we’d fallen into each other. We sort of just collapsed together, holding up each other’s weight, as we’d held each other up throughout the entire rescue.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into my ear.
I shook my head against his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But killing him was your ticket, right?”
I pulled back to look at him in shock. “How’d you know?”
He looked sheepish. “I told you, I eavesdropped that night.”
“It doesn’t really matter. I was a fool to think Saga would honor any agreement. Now that we’ve managed this victory he’ll only double his efforts to use me as the poster girl for the rebellion.”
“Of course it matters. I saw those posters. You’ve never not been used by someone. First it was the Prime and now it’s Saga and Icarus, right?”
My eyes stung, but it had nothing to do with pain or the smoke from the explosions. “Saga would be a fool not to use me—us, actually—as symbols to encourage other humans to rise up. I get it. I really do. I just wish—Well, what I wish doesn’t matter much, does it? As long as the Troika is in power none of us will ever really be free.”
Zed looked back over all of the people in the car. They were hugging and crying openly. His gaze lingered on Bravo and the kid we’d gone to save.
“We could run away.”
I frowned at him. “What about your youngs?”
“Bravo will look after them. And Matri.” He nodded toward Matri and Bravo, who were hugging. I’d noticed tension between the women when I first met them, but I guess all of that got sorted out sometime between then and almost dying. I glanced at Zed. Funny how almost losing everything realigned one’s priorities.
“We can help dig Tuck and the others out of the mines and then sneak off to make our own way.”
I thought about all of those hopeless faces. The humans who’d been imprisoned in this labor camp. There were others—more camps, more prisoners, more tragedies waiting to happen. How could I run away knowing there was so much work left to be done? I’d spent so much time longing for my own freedom as some sort of payment for the ills I’d suffered, but there were so many others who needed help.
“Thanks for the offer, but running away isn’t my style.” I squeezed his hand. “I don’t think it’s yours, either.” And that was one of the things I liked most about him.
“But—”
I shook my head. “I don’t love Saga and Icarus’s methods, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong about needing to overthrow the Troika or the role I need to play in that. Before I came on this mission, I was ready to walk away and never look back. But now?” I looked around the car at each face, once so bleak, barely more than walking corpses. Now, for the first time in years, they were smiling, daring to hope for their future.
I smiled at Zed through tears of my own. “Now, I understand that this is worth fighting for.”
He tilted his head and squeezed my hand.
When he kissed me, it was soft and quick, a promise instead of a demand.
And for the first time in my life, I allowed myself to hope for my own future.
Also by Jaye Wells
The Uncanny Collection: Tales of Mayhem and Magic
Prospero’s War Series
Dirty Magic
Cursed Moon
Fire Water (Novella)
Deadly Spells
Sabina Kane Series
Red-Headed Stepchild
Mage in Black
Violet Tendencies (Short Story)
Green-Eyed Demon
Silver-Tongued Devil
Blue-Blooded Vamp
Rusted Veins (Novella)
Fool’s Gold (Novella)
Meridian Six Series
Meridian Six
Children of Ash
Jaye Wells Writing as Kate Eden
The Hot Scot
Rebel Child
About the Author
Jaye Wells is a USA Today-bestselling author of urban fantasy and supernatural crime fiction. Raised by booksellers, she loved reading books from a very young age. That gateway drug eventually led to a full-blown writing addiction. When she’s not chasing the word dragon, she loves to travel, drink good bour
bon, and do things that scare her so she can put them in her books. Jaye lives in Texas.
Find out more about Jaye Wells and connect with her on social media:
@JayeWells
AuthorJayeWells
www.jayewells.com
[email protected]
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