The Last True Hero (The Burned Lands Book 2)

by Bec McMaster

  Vex put a fresh cigarette between her painted lips, and lit it. She shook out the match, and then drew deeply on the cigarette. Adam swallowed. Come on. He knew he needed to play to either her vanity, or her future plans. Preferably both.

  "Done," she said finally, blowing out a cloud of smoke as she turned to the handlers. "Make them the last fight, just in case the general arrives. He's already late. And oil them up or something. I want to see those muscles gleam." She shot one last look at Adam. "The general might not even make it tonight. But I've got a sudden hankering to see your blood on my sands tonight."

  Adam sighed with relief as she strode back through the door.

  "You stupid son of a bitch," Colton spat, as the reivers swarmed the pair of them with long poles with collars on the end.

  Adam ignored him as they collared him through the cell bars.

  He had a plan.

  Vex's stronghold first.

  Mia's heart thundered in her chest as she put her back to the gate that led to the courtyard. Jake ducked against the other side of the gate, meeting her eyes. Both of them held shotguns. Bethany and Sara hid in the nearest doorway, holding each other's hands. Neither of them would be much good here.

  All of their group were running on pure adrenaline, and the choice had been hard. The slave pens were easier to hit, and they'd have numbers on their side if they freed the people held there, but Vex wouldn't be away from her stronghold for long. Even now, the moon shifted in the sky overhead. The war games kept Vex and her coterie of reivers away, with only a light guard on rotation at her stronghold. It was the best chance they'd get.

  And both Sage and Thea were held here.

  "Where's Ellie?" Mia whispered.

  "Here." A shadow ducked out of the night. "Let's do this."

  Ellie went first, unarmed and wearing the slave collar. Inside the gates, a man's voice coughed appreciation. "Hey now, darlin', what are you doing out here all on your lonesome?"

  "There's someone out there, across the street," Ellie cried, milking terrified young maid for all she was worth. "They were stealing something from Vex's jeep out front."

  "What?" The guard strode through the gate, his shotgun in his hand. Instantly, Jake stepped up behind him and clapped a hand over his mouth and chest. He dragged the reiver back into the shadows of the arch, where he cut his throat.

  "It's clear," Ellie hissed.

  One heartbeat. Two. Mia's gaze roved the street. Nothing moved. She took a sideways step back through the gates, aiming the shotgun into the corners before nodding. "We're good, Jake."

  Jake hauled Zarina in through the gates. He'd gagged her again, and Zarina glared bloody murder at them. "Where's the other guard?"

  Vex's handful of reivers weren't like the others. Reivers were lazy, vicious, and cared only for themselves as a rule, but Vex's men looked more like vicious guard dogs, than street curs.

  "There should be two on the gate," Jake muttered. He passed Zarina off to Ellie, who grabbed her by her bound wrists. "Watch her."

  Stepping forward, he trained his pistol around the courtyard. In the distance feet hammered in approval and hooting hollers filled the night. Someone was either dying in the arena, or bleeding.

  Mia swallowed. Not McClain. She had to keep telling herself that. Right now she needed every ounce of focus she could muster, or she'd end up with a bullet between her eyes.

  A shadow pushed out of the bushes, struggling to zip up his fly. "Yaris? Is that you?"

  Jake flipped a knife through the air, and the reiver died with a gurgle.

  "Nice throw," Ellie muttered, fetching the blade from the reiver’s throat and wiping it clean on his clothes.

  "Thanks." Jake took it back. "Courtyard's clear."

  Upstairs. Mia's pulse began to tick a little faster. They were so close now. Her hands began to shake as adrenaline pumped through her.

  Another guard appeared out of nowhere upstairs. Mia pumped the shotgun, and blew a massive hole in his chest.

  Jake shot her a look. "There goes our element of surprise."

  Her hands shook. "Sorry." Instinct.

  Jake swore under his breath, then started running as boots pounded on the concrete floors. "Get Sage and Thea out! I've got this."

  Two more reivers spilled out of the stronghold. Jake shot one, and the other slammed into him, taking him to the ground.

  "Jake!" Mia pumped the spent cartridges out of the shotgun, then paused.

  "Come on!" Ellie cried, dragging Zarina down the corridor. "Jake knows what he's doing. You two stay here with Jake!" she told Bethany and Sara.

  Cursing, Mia charged after her. McClain had sat them all down that afternoon, and drawn a detailed map of the stronghold out of sand. She knew where her sister was being kept.

  There was one more guard in the dark interior. He looked up as they burst into the hallway, and Ellie shot him before he could blink. "Jesus," she whispered, as the body hit the floor. "I just killed him."

  "Better him than us." She knew exactly how the other girl felt. She'd been there a couple of nights ago. Mia hauled her and Zarina along. "This way!"

  They found the entrance to the women's cells. It was locked, a small electronic device winking at them from the door. A glass device rested on the pad, with green light leering through it.

  "What the hell is it?" Ellie asked, poking the box. "Is there a code or something?"

  "If Sage were here, she could probably work it out." Sage knew electrics, and ran a thriving electronic salvage business. Mia slid her hands over the steel door. No handle. Nothing to grip. She shoved the door.

  Nothing.

  "No wonder Vex wasn't worried about anyone escaping," Ellie said softly. "She knew no one could get through this door. What do we do now?"

  "Stand back?" Mia aimed the shotgun at the door, near where the hinges ought to be.

  Zarina made a gurgling sound behind the gag.

  Mia pointed the gun at her face. "Shut up."

  Zarina bared her teeth around the gag, then tilted her head

  "I think she's trying to tell us something," Ellie said hesitantly.

  Mia jerked the gag from the other woman's mouth. "What?"

  "If you untie me, I can get you through that door," Zarina panted. "All you'll do with that shotgun is invite ricochet. It's bulletproof. I'd rather not die from your stupidity."

  "Mia," Ellie murmured, grabbing her by the wrist.

  She didn't take her eyes off Zarina, but she nodded. The other woman's motives were unclear, and she certainly wasn't acting as Mia had expected. Zarina wanted something. She just had to find out what.

  "You make any sudden moves," she warned, drawing the knife at her belt, "and Ellie will shoot you."

  The ropes cut off the circulation in the other woman's hands. As soon as Mia sliced through them, Zarina stifled a groan, trying to rub her hands together. Color flooded into the pale skin. "I had my doubts when you first called on my mother, but now I know you're not here to buy slaves. You're here to rescue them."

  "That's my sister in there," Mia told her. "And Ellie's girlfriend. The two girls are from our town."

  "And the others with you?" Zarina asked, "They're not wannabe reivers either."

  "Bounty hunters," Mia muttered. "Jake's my brother-in-law. Why do you care?"

  Zarina looked at them thoughtfully. "You're going to get yourselves killed. The general's two hours away, and he's got fifty men riding with him."

  "Then we'd better get out of here quickly," Mia countered.

  There was a tense moment.

  "I can open the doors," Zarina said. "And help you get out."

  "Why would you do that?"

  Zarina rubbed her hands, loose strands of hair framing her face. "There is a condition."

  That made more sense. Mia lowered the shotgun. "What?"

  "You take me with you," Zarina replied, quite seriously.

  Silence. Both she and Ellie looked at each other.

  Mia didn't understan
d. "You want to come with us? Why? Is this a game?"

  "Do you think you're the only one who wants free of this toxic dump?" Zarina snarled. "I want out and I am willing to do whatever it takes to escape. And if you take me with you, I can show you how to get out of here without getting killed. Vex's got warning systems in place. The second she finds something is out of place she's going to turn the sirens on. That pack of rabid dogs out there isn't smart enough to find their way out of a wet paper bag, but they'll hunt at her call, and there's enough of them to make sure you don't get three miles away from here. They'll be tripping all over themselves to bring you back. Though you might not survive. Or you'll wish you didn't."

  Warning alarms. It made sense. Mia froze. She'd thought Vex seemed complacent about leaving this place virtually unguarded. "How do we know that we can trust you?"

  "That warg skin my mother wears? It belonged to the man I once loved," Zarina replied, and a flash of anger lit over her features. "She made sure he was infected, and then she skinned him alive in front of me. For daring to disobey her."

  Jesus. Bile burned in her throat. She couldn't even imagine....

  "I want to see her fall," Zarina continued in a dangerously soft voice. "I want to see this hellhole burn. And I want out. Vex controls everything that comes within her radar, especially me. She's decided she wants her legacy to continue, which means she wants to offer me up to her favorite reiver until I fall pregnant. That was Rykker until a few hours ago, provided he brought her a new haul. I can't live like this anymore. And as far as I can see, you're my best chance at getting out of here. I knew you were up to something the other night, when I saw you and that tall one, McClain, hovering around Vex's stronghold."

  "You saw us?"

  Zarina rolled her eyes. "I wanted to know more about why you were here. You didn't look like reivers, and Vex was suspicious."

  "Enough talk. I trust her," Ellie said, "and we don't have the time to question her motives further. Open the door, and you've got my vote."

  Zarina strode toward the door with predatory grace, and pressed her thumb down on the glass pane. The green light blinked, and then the door opened up.

  Both Mia and Ellie gaped.

  "It's keyed to Vex and me," Zarina explained. "Biometric tech the General's men use to pay for black market slaves. They throw something fancy at Vex every now and again to get her salivating."

  "You don't seem impressed."

  "There's one thing I hate more than my mother. And that's men who pretend they're morally upright citizens, while they're keeping slaves in dark holes."

  "Didn't hear you protesting before," Mia pointed out. "When she was talking slave trades in your parlor."

  Zarina shot her a dark-eyed look. "You have met my mother? The last time I tried to run she whipped me bloody. I'm her only surviving offspring. That means she won't kill me. It doesn't mean she won't hurt me, and if I push her too far she'll have me bred, and then she'll take the child and I'll become collateral damage. I'm as powerless here as anyone else."

  "Let's do this," Ellie said, stepping through the doorway first.

  "You in front of me where I can see you at all times," Mia said, and pushed Zarina in the back with the shotgun.

  There were five doors with the same fingerprint scanner inside the narrow hallway within.

  "This one is your sister." Zarina pressed her finger on the panel. The door blipped again, and then opened.

  Mia's heart suddenly pounded in her ears. She stepped closer.

  Sage faced the door, her hands curled into fists, and her whole body quivering. Her mouth fell open when she saw who was standing there. "Mia!"

  Sage slammed into her, and Mia curled her arms around her sister. She couldn't squeeze her tight enough. All this time, she'd been focused on marching toward this moment, but a part of her had doubted if she'd ever see Sage again.

  McClain had done this. Without him, they'd have never gotten this close. Tears leaked from her eyes. "You're safe," she said, over and over again.

  "I can't believe you guys came," Sage whispered, drawing back. She rubbed her face dry. "Are you stupid, or what?"

  "Definitely stupid."

  Sage hugged her again.

  "We've got to go," Mia said reluctantly. She held Sage's hand, leading her back into the hallway. "Jake's fighting off the guards."

  "Is he okay?" Sudden concern turned Sage's voice dark.

  "Don't know." She wouldn't lie to her sister ever again. "He might need backup."

  Ellie and Zarina reappeared, with Thea behind them. Thea sobbed quietly, as if she couldn't quite believe it either.

  "We've got to move fast," Mia told them. "I know you've both been through one hell of an ordeal, but this isn't over yet. We need to hit the slave markets and get the others out, and then we still have to escape. Questions will have to wait until later, got it?"

  Both women nodded. Sage held out her hand, and Mia realized her sister wanted the spare pistol tucked in her belt.

  "I'm not being defenseless ever again," Sage said, when Mia hesitated. "And I won't let them take me if this goes to shit. Not alive."

  She could understand that.

  "Let's go rescue Jake," Mia said, nudging Zarina ahead of them.

  Twenty-Four

  THIS TIME ADAM knew what to expect when the reiver guards dragged him toward the arena.

  The crowd pounded their boots on the timber stands above him in an almost tribal rhythm, dust whispering between the cracks in the floorboards. BOOM. BOOM. CLAP. BOOM. BOOM. CLAP.

  Light flashed as certain reivers hauled the domed lights in slow circles, taking in the leering faces, the pumping fists. Every sound was interspersed with the occasional shouted scream for blood, for flesh.

  Adam shivered, the nerves in his body trembling. The moon hovered in the east. He could feel it in his veins now; the monster whispering in his ear. It could smell the blood, taste the bitter sweaty scent of the reivers’ hunger for violence on his tongue. Adam swallowed, his fingernails digging into his palms as he forced it back down. With his medallion back he was in charge of the monster again. But he could never forget how easily it had taken him in the cell, or the look on Mia's face when it did.

  "You stupid son of a bitch," Colton muttered, on the other side of the silver mesh that kept them apart in the tunnel until they entered the ring. "They were going to play you against one of the weaker wargs. I can’t believe you volunteered, you dick."

  Adam merely focused on the ring. The mesh fence surrounding it was still at least twenty feet high. There was no way he was getting over that.

  Not without help.

  His lips pressed together. He didn’t want to involve Colton. Adam sure as hell didn’t trust him, and there was an ugly part of him that simply didn’t want to extend any kind of olive branch at all.

  But he wasn't ready to die yet.

  And maybe Mia wouldn't come back for him—a part of him hoped she wouldn't—but there was enough doubt there that he wasn't sure. She knew what he was now. There was no future between them. But he'd seen her stand up to her townsfolk and push herself into dangerous situations in order to rescue others.

  Mia was the type of woman who wouldn't walk out of here without coming back for him, if she thought she owed him.

  And he couldn't let that happen.

  "Only one of us walks out of this alive," Colton muttered. "I’m not going out of here on a stretcher so they can throw my body to the pigs. I paid my debt to you in that cell. I saved your life. So I don't owe you anything anymore. Fuck you, McClain. You had an option out."

  "Maybe I didn’t like Vex's option."

  Colton flexed his fists, jumping up and down lightly on his feet as he watched the spectators howling. "You got a better one?"

  The metal gate in front of him sprang open, and someone behind him prodded him with one of the poles—wrapped in barbed wire—that they tended to carry around here. "As a matter of fact I do," Adam shot over his shoulder as he
staggered forward into the arena.

  There was blood spattered on the sand at his feet. As he and Colton waited, he’d seen some of the reivers dragging a body out by its heels. The crowd had barely been glutted by the warm-up act.

  Nerves chased themselves in circles in his stomach. The monster shivered through him. Blood. Flesh. So close to warm human flesh…. After years of wearing the medallion, he'd become complacent. But had the medallion ever controlled the monster within him, or merely found a way to suppress it as it lurked hungrily inside his body? He thought of Luc Wade, who’d once told him that fear wasn’t control.

  You have to face that bastard head-on, Luc told him once.

  "And here we have our challenger!" boomed the voice of the violet-haired announcer. Scars bisected her cheeks. "Captured only tonight, in the bowels of Rust City itself! I present to you, Scythe."

  The crowd roared. Maybe they liked the look of him, or maybe it was just the fact that he had at least two inches on Colton, which might give him an edge, or predict a longer fight. His oiled-up muscles gleamed under the hot lights, and someone had at least found him a pair of jeans, though they’d paired that with a leather collar that offended him on all levels.

  He knew now what it meant to lose everything: his name, his freedom, his humanity. Adam’s lip curled up in a silent growl that was barely human as he glared back at the crowd defiantly.

  "And facing him in the ring for the first—and most likely—last time is the mighty Rattlesnake!"

  The crowd lost control as Colton appeared with a shove. Some of the female reivers grabbed at their crotches and hooted, shouting down offers at Colton. Some of the men did too.

  Across the arena, their eyes met, and he knew that Colton felt the same sickened feeling as he did. For the first time, he truly understood what it felt like to be considered nothing. To not even have his name.

  Vex Cypher held up her hands as the crowd chanted and stamped their feet. “And what do we say to the monsters, my pets?”

  “Die!” someone screamed.