Before the Raging Lion (Mortality Book 4)

by Everly Frost

  Olander frowned. “She did that to herself?”

  “Yes, Mr. President. I’m sure she’ll do worse if given the chance.”

  Olander glanced at Sarah, seeming to chew over his choices. “Very well. Sarah Watson can go with you for now. But she doesn’t leave Evereach.”

  I frowned at that, wondering what he meant. Maybe he thought I’d try to get Sarah to Starsgard somehow.

  With a grunt of disgust, Alexander threw Sarah down so hard she cried out. Aaron raced to her, helping her to her feet before Olander changed his mind. Alexander retreated to the back of the room, pacing as he watched us leave, resembling the lion whose coat he’d worn.

  Up five staircases and through five doorways, we exited the same way we’d come in. Once again, they blinded me, but I didn’t bother telling them I knew exactly where we were. Once we reached the darkened hanger where the transporter waited, the octopus deposited me into the vehicle once more.

  Olander spoke to Mr. Bradley and then he and his personal guard disappeared. With everyone inside, the transporter closed and we were on our way to the Terminal.

  It was only when Sarah strapped me to the pallet, quietly attaching another line to my arm, that I realized Aaron had left his dart gun behind. He sat on the seat opposite me, staring at me while Sarah worked.

  As she bent to check the floating monitor one last time, she whispered, “Thank you, Ava.”

  She headed to the front of the transporter with Mr. Bradley while the autopilot switched on.

  Aaron said, “You could have escaped. You could have swum out of there, but you freed the children.”

  I hoped with all my heart that the children had found a safe place at the edge of the river, that they would head north like my shadows had told them to—like Michael and I had done. That Olander wouldn’t find them like he’d promised.

  Aaron continued. “You could have left Sarah there too, but you didn’t.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand you, Ava. I never understood Josh either. I’m grateful for what you did. But I can’t forget that you killed my brother.”

  “I don’t expect you to.” I focused on the line, dripping medicine into me, willing it to work faster. I needed to be strong. I might not have my powers anymore, but I wasn’t fragile like I used to think I was.

  Turning away from Aaron, I clung to the knowledge of one thing: there was no more raw nectar. Alexander couldn’t force me to hurt anyone.

  When we landed in the hanger at the Terminal, I expected to be met by a horde of soldiers, but we were alone. My strength took time to return and my legs wobbled as I slid off the pallet.

  I snagged Mr. Bradley’s arm as we exited the vehicle. “Why have they left me alone with you? I could run to the edge of this platform and jump off it if I wanted.”

  Mr. Bradley’s expression didn’t change. Once again, he focused on a point past my shoulder. “What makes you think we’re alone?”

  “I don’t see any cameras or drones…”

  He sighed. “Did you know that some sea creatures have the ability to camouflage themselves so completely that you’d never know they were there?”

  I studied the hanger around me, assuming he meant that there was such a creature nearby at that very moment. The wind rushed in from the open end of the landing pad. Other than the transporter, the hanger was empty. I had difficulty believing there was anything concealed anywhere.

  “When Cheyne gave Olander my research, he gave him everything.” Mr. Bradley took my arm, helping me walk. “There’s a lot of technology that people aren’t ready for. We live such long lives that we already see too much change and the older we get, the more resistant we are to it. Take these transporters for example: people call them flying cars, they like the idea of them, but they don’t want the chaos they create. Evereach isn’t like Starsgard—the people here are stuck in their ways. The world isn’t ready for much of what I’ve invented. And much of what I’ve invented … should never be let loose upon the world.”

  He stopped, seemed to make a decision, and turned. “See that wall? There’s a creature there that disappears into the background, but it will follow us everywhere we go. It was in the transporter with us the whole time—and down in the Basher cells. It detects your body heat and your heart rate and it knows that if your heart rates picks up you’re about to do something stupid. Trust me, it can move fast if it has to. Come on.”

  I stared at the blank space. “How do you know it’s there?”

  “It leaves a trail, sort of like a snail, slightly silvery. Look. There. Do you see it?”

  I tilted my head. At the right angle, I detected a slight sheen across the floor, sort of like someone had smeared it with water, but nothing more. Whatever the creature was, it was clever at concealing itself.

  He led us to a door at the side and into the Terminal. Sarah and Aaron remained close behind. I estimated we were high up since it would make the most sense for an aircraft to land there. We entered an anteroom with a number of elevators before us.

  Mr. Bradley said, “Do me a favor, please, all of you. When I tell you which elevator to enter, follow my hand and not my voice.”

  I frowned as Mr. Bradley tapped the console several times and to my surprise, all three elevator doors opened at the same time.

  He said, “Left one please.” He headed that way, but he pointed to the elevator on the right instead.

  “Quickly now.”

  I stepped to the right as Mr. Bradley continued to veer left as though he was going in a different direction. Aaron and Sarah stuck with me.

  The light caught the distant floor and I noticed the silver trail, but it stopped five feet away. Had the creature paused? At the last moment that our elevator’s doors were closing, Mr. Bradley darted in with us.

  The doors closed and he breathed a sigh of relief.

  “The only good thing about the invisible spy is that I designed it, so I know how it works. It gives priority to verbal cues over visual ones. It also took a moment to process whether it was more important to follow me than you. Just long enough to evade it for now. It will find us again.”

  He pressed the elevator controls. “Ava, there’s a lot I need to tell you and not much time to speak freely. Olander intends to put you on display for all of Evereach tomorrow morning. I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Once you leave the Terminal, you won’t return. But there’s something you need to see before you go. If I don’t show you now, I’ll never get another chance.”

  His focus turned to Sarah and Aaron, pinning them with an intense stare. “What you choose to do with what you’re about to see is up to you.”

  Aaron frowned. “Where are we going?”

  Mr. Bradley didn’t answer. The numbers above the elevator counted down from 140. When they reached 110, the lights on the ceiling flashed—once, twice. The elevator kept descending for another moment before it slowed, stopped, and the indicator above the door went blank.

  The elevator opened into a small entrance. On the opposite wall was a single door.

  Mr. Bradley said, “This is a level of the Terminal that doesn’t officially exist. Arachne helped me erase every hint of its existence in every database. She worked for me before she became one of Alexander’s special children but she never told him about this place. I believe she was forced to do a lot of things, but she never compromised this information. She’s the only other person who knows about it. But only I can access it. I’ve fitted the surrounds with mortality serum in a gaseous form strong enough to kill anyone who tries to break in.”

  Again, he stared pointedly at Aaron and Sarah.

  I shuddered at the idea of mortality in a form that could be inhaled. During the battle in Starsgard, Councilor Naomi had told me that they’d considered using their powerful slumber plant to create a gas that could be dispersed through the Evereacher army; but once it was airborne there would be no way of controlling it.

  Michael’s father sighed, taking my hands. “Ava, I to
ld you earlier today that I had to risk one thing to save another. By working with Olander, however reluctantly, I’m able to keep one piece of knowledge to myself. I’m able to break in all ways except one—to protect what’s inside this room.”

  To my shock, his eyes filled with tears.

  His show of emotion filled my heart with sudden dread.

  “Ava, I’ll open the door, but you need to go in first.”

  The lock clicked open. As I pushed against it, the indent of my palm squished into a substance covering the surface and my name flashed across its surface.

  Beyond, there was a room with a pallet in it much like the one I’d rested on in the transporter. Metal plates floated mid-air above the pallet, attached to it by lines. Air screens hummed and beeped above the plates, one of them showing a jagged line that zigzagged across the air in rhythmic pulses.

  Someone lay on the pallet, connected to the machines.

  My heart stopped in my chest and a sob tore from me.

  They’d never released his body.

  We never knew what happened to him.

  My brother’s heartbeat weaved across the air like fireflies.

  Chapter Ten

  I DIDN’T KNOW how I made it across the floor to his side. “Josh.”

  Aaron was right behind me but Sarah stayed at the edges, her eyes wide, and her hand covering her mouth.

  Aaron raced to Josh’s side, the most animated I’d seen him since he tried to keep Sarah away from Alexander. “He’s alive!”

  Mr. Bradley shook his head. “He’s … unresponsive. I’m sorry. These machines are keeping him alive. But if I switch them off, he won’t breathe on his own.”

  Aaron wasn’t about to let it go. “That’s not good enough. I can see him breathing. You have to bring him back!”

  I reached for Josh’s hand. His dark hair spread across the pillow in black strands. He’d inherited Dad’s looks while mine were closer to Mum’s. His eyes were closed. A thin line rested across his cheek connected to a transparent device beneath his nose—some sort of breathing apparatus. His chest rose and fell like he was sleeping. He was … quiet.

  In many ways, Josh had had a greater impact on my life in his death than he had before. In life, my brother had been distant from me for many years. His secrets had done that. Just like Mr. Bradley’s secrets kept him apart from Michael.

  I closed my eyes, wishing for things I couldn’t have. “Please, Mr. Bradley. There must be a way.”

  Tears streamed down Robert Bradley’s cheeks. “Ava, you have to understand that Josh was like a son to me. I’ve tried everything to bring him back. Everything. Even raw nectar, but nothing works. I’m keeping his body alive, but his mind…”

  “Even raw nectar? Are you sure?”

  Mr. Bradley turned to the wall and pressed his palm against it. A small drawer slid out and he returned with a vial. It was just like the vials that I’d found on the roof of my house right after Josh died—the vials of synthetic nectar with scorpions drawn on them in gold pen.

  Except that this vial didn’t have a scorpion on it at all.

  This one had a lion.

  I backed away from it. “Who drew that?”

  “Josh did. He drew the images on all the vials.”

  “But … why a lion? The other vials had scorpions on them.”

  “The other vials were synthetic nectar. This is raw.” Mr. Bradley’s eyes pinned me. “Josh called it ‘the raging lion.’ It was what he saw when he took raw nectar.”

  Just like the lion I’d seen in my vision above Starsgard—the one in which I saw my death.

  I shook my head in denial. “No, that can’t be right. The first thing we see is the scorpion. We see the scorpions that protect the tree. It’s the same for all of us. That’s what we see…”

  “Not for him, Ava. He told me he saw a lion and he said it ripped his soul apart. He feared it more than anything else.”

  I pressed my hand to my heart. “Then he saw his death.”

  Killed by a lion and the lion had to be Alexander. He wore the lion’s skin. Which meant he was going to kill me too. I already knew there was nothing I could do to stop him. I couldn’t stop his regeneration. I couldn’t stop his heart from beating.

  Mr. Bradley said, “Josh accepted synthetic nectar in his ampule, but he wouldn’t touch the raw stuff. And for good reason. You know that every mortal has a unique reaction to the Tree of Life. You and the others exhibit physical reactions—ice, strength, flame … but Josh’s reaction was emotional.”

  I wondered for a moment whether that described Pip, too. His strength was in his empathy—his ability to understand how someone was feeling. “What kind of emotion?”

  “Josh exhibited rage.”

  I did a double take. Not like Pip at all…

  “Over time, to protect Josh, I gave him six vials of synthetic nectar to keep on hand as well as the implant in his back. He told me he was going to take three of the vials with him on the night of Implosion. I swear to you, I thought he was safe. But when he died, I found none of the vials on him and his implant had been removed.”

  Aaron had been quiet, but he spoke up then. “Alexander took them. He searched Josh right before we attacked the Implosion room. Josh didn’t even fight him. He was … so quiet that night. It was like he knew he was going to die and he accepted it.”

  My legs wobbled. I gripped the side of the pallet to keep myself upright. I remembered the moment before Josh died, before Michael unknowingly killed him. Josh hadn’t fought back. The expression on his face had been so strange: resignation and peace.

  My mind whirled. Had my brother known about Michael protecting Sarah? He must have known he could trust Michael to protect me against Alexander. He must have known I’d be safe from that moment on, that Michael would fight Alexander to his last breath. By not fighting back, Josh had handed me over to Michael, but that also meant accepting his own death.

  I bent my head over my brother’s chest, whispering. “But what about you, Josh? Who was going to keep you safe?”

  Mr. Bradley stood beside me. “Josh believed in the beginning that his vision of the lion meant he had to defeat Alexander. It’s one of the reasons he asked to infiltrate the Bashers. But then he met Arachne. He helped her escape the Basher cells but she was captured before she reached Starsgard. I don’t know for sure, but I think that in order to secure her release, Josh revealed his mortality to Alexander—he traded himself for her.”

  Aaron nodded. “That’s how it went down.”

  “But by then, he was in too deep and communication between us was short and far between. He was being watched 24/7. I didn’t hear from him for months—until he told me about the planned attack on Implosion and asked for codes to get through the Terminal. He was right to believe that nothing he said was secret anymore. I gave him the codes but Cheyne changed them. He sent Josh to the room where Michael was waiting for the final fight of the night.”

  I pulled myself upright. Many times, I’d wanted to change the past, but none more than now.

  Mr. Bradley said, “I made a lot of mistakes, Ava. The worst one was not being able to be in two places at once.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was here in this room when Officer Reid…”

  He stopped and glanced at Aaron before continuing.

  “I was trying to save Josh when Aaron’s brother, Douglas Reid, took you into custody at the recovery center. I would never have given you nectar but Alexander was bent on finding his angel of death, and Douglas Reid and Cheyne were working for him. I made them release you, but by then you distrusted them completely—and me by association.”

  “And when they hurt Michael?”

  His shoulders slumped. “I was here. These machines weren’t working properly and I was terrified I’d lose Josh. I couldn’t leave him. I didn’t realize the extent of Cheyne’s betrayal at that time. I learned of it after you escaped from the Terminal. And by then … the damage was d
one.”

  He said, “I haven’t given up hope that I can bring Josh back. But if I can’t, it’s not my right to turn off these machines. Only you can make that choice. It’s my hope that you can find a way through this.”

  He shook himself. “There’s one more thing you need to know before you go. You need to know … that it’s possible to make an unlimited supply of mortality weapons from your blood.”

  I froze. “No … Cheyne said right from the start that the mortality serum has a shelf-life. Olander’s running out of bullets. He needs more of my blood to make more weapons.”

  “Because I engineered it that way. I built in a failsafe. Power can’t be limitless.”

  I was still reeling from this new information, but he glanced regretfully at the time stamp on the wall. “We have to go. They’re expecting us downstairs.”

  “Wait.” It was Sarah. She peeled herself away from the wall for the first time. “Is this place really secure? They really can’t see us or hear anything we say?”

  Mr. Bradley nodded. “Yes, Sarah. You can speak freely here.”

  “Then I need to tell you something. Something I couldn’t tell you before. You see … I’m infected.”

  I startled, backing away from her, but she reached out to me.

  “Not in a bad way. In a good way. I mean … I hope you’ll think it’s good. There are little bots in my blood. Nano-bots. Organic ones that Evereach can’t detect.”

  I frowned at her. “But only Starsgard has that technology.”

  Mr. Bradley folded his arms. “What are you trying to say, Sarah?”

  Her words were matter of fact. “I’m a Starsgardian spy. Everywhere I go, everything I see, is communicated to the Starsgardian Council. I’m a walking, talking broadcast.”

  I stared at her in disbelief. I’d known that Starsgard was getting its intelligence from somewhere inside Evereach, but this? “But … why you?”