Severance (The infernal Guard Book 3)

by SGD Singh

  Lexi took his face in her hands, and kissed him before he could say anything else, before either of them could think about even thinking.

  “But nothing,” she whispered.

  Nidhan's kiss was urgent, his strong arms around her again in an instant, making her breathless. But too soon he dropped his arms and stepped back. His eyes filled with tears, and Lexi felt her own vision blur.

  “You can't bully me into marrying you,” Nidhan said.

  “I—what?”

  “Do you think I don't know how miserable you were when you thought Zaiden was gone for good?” Nidhan was almost shouting. “Even though you sent him away yourself, out of some kind of, I don't know, misguided, stubborn loyalty.”

  “It's my life,” Lexi said, trying not to shout herself.

  “Well, it's my life, too!” Nidhan really was shouting now. “How happy do you think I would be, married to someone living in righteous misery all her life because she was pigheaded enough to break her soulmate's heart? Huh? Does that sound like happiness to you?”

  Lexi took the Eternity Mark out of her pocket and held it up. Nidhan's blood shone like rubies within the metal.

  “I'll be the judge of my own happiness,” she said, pulling her undershirt over her head with one hand, and throwing it at his feet.

  “Lexi…” Nidhan paled as all the blood left his face, his expression pleading. “Please… don't…”

  Never taking her eyes from his, Lexi brought the device to her heart and pushed down on its center with her thumb. As Nidhan's eyes widened in horror, she felt the Eternity Mark heat, sending a shiver through her as it seared her skin with his blood, binding her to him for as long as he lived.

  “Marry me or don't marry me,” she said. “I've decided who I love. I decided a long time ago.” She brought his hand to rest over the mark, his touch cool against the mark's sharp pain, and Nidhan trembled, closing his eyes.

  Lexi whispered, “And now? Now I can't marry anyone else.”

  She stepped back, and Nidhan fell to his knees, disbelief clouding his features as he stared at the cement floor.

  She snatched her shirt and jacket up and turned to leave. “Now both of you can stop with the self-sacrificing martyr bullshit.”

  Chapter 27

  Are you sure? Aquila turned to Asha, meeting her still-bloodshot eyes. She refused to heal them out of some kind of mourning statement. No way. She wouldn't…

  They both watched Lexi, who sat with Ursala and Ariella in the mess hall, playing what looked like some kind of contest that involved throwing knives at a steel pillar ten feet from their table.

  The hell she wouldn't. Asha returned to her meal. She did.

  The Eternity Mark? But what about Zaiden? She can't just…

  Well, she did. Asha took a sip of hot cinnamon milk. If there were a personification of Destiny, I think Lexi would tell it to go fuck itself.

  Lexi turned to them as if she knew they were talking about her. She blew them a kiss, winking as she threw her knife without looking at the target, and laughing as Ursala and Ariella both shouted in protest.

  Aquila started eating. Well, that explains why Zaiden keeps taking every new lead Jax finds. I thought he was just highly motivated.

  It also explains why Kelakha's delivering Nidhan's meals to him in the Forgery.

  Shit.

  Kelakha and Jax joined them then, sliding onto the metal bench and blocking their view of Lexi.

  “Are we waiting for the whole place to empty out?” Kelakha demanded, glaring at Aquila. “What exactly are we waiting for, yaar?”

  Aquila took his time chewing, then took a sip of kale and ginger juice. He lowered his glass slowly and tried not to smile at Kelakha's fierce glare. “What we are waiting for is the mission that gets a reaction from Asha and Silas. Until that happens, it's not the one for us.”

  Jax leaned forward with that eager genius smile she got whenever she'd just learned something new. “I think this one might be the one.”

  “That's what you said about the last five,” Aquila pointed out.

  “And the five before that,” Asha said.

  Jax waved them aside, then slammed a piece of paper onto the table with a resounding smack. Within seconds, Lexi, Ariella, and Ursala joined them.

  “That's a map,” Ursala said, crossing his arms. “I don't do maps.”

  Aquila pulled the paper toward himself. “It's Svalbard.”

  “What's a Svalbard?”

  Lexi snatched the map from Aquila's hands and scowled at it. “It's a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole,” she said. “It's got frozen, remote nothingness, abandoned and working coal mines, and,” Lexi's eyes widened as she turned to Jax, “the Global Seed Vault.”

  “Very good,” Jax said. “Is there anything you don't know?”

  “Lexi knows everything,” Nidhan said, and everyone turned to him in surprise. “Isn't that right, Lexi?”

  Lexi flipped her hair over one shoulder and smiled brightly at Nidhan while everyone fell into an awkward silence.

  “Okay.” Jax cleared her throat. “I should have thought of Svalbard a long time ago. It shouldn't have taken freakin' civilian pilots reporting a strange darkening of the Northern Lights to catch my attention.”

  Asha sat up straight, and Aquila sensed her eager dread. He said, “Ursala, get Silas. Now.”

  Ursala sprinted for the door, and Nidhan sat next to Asha, studying the map he'd taken from Lexi. Aquila noticed his hands were still smeared with soot, as was his shirt and dumala, and wondered what had prompted him to join them now, after so many days.

  “It's nice to see you, brother,” Asha told him. “Have you already eaten?”

  “I… what?” Nidhan glanced at her, then did a double-take at her eyes. “Yeah, I've eaten. I was headed to the showers, and… just thought I'd see what's up.”

  Oh, shit. Aquila nudged Asha with his shoulder, and she shoved back. C'mon. He sensed Lexi's reaction to the map. You know what that means.

  Shut up. It doesn't necessarily mean that. He could've been just walking past the door.

  Oh, the door between the Forgery and the showers? That door? He's got The Mark too and you know it.

  Lexi squinted at them in suspicion, and Aquila sat up straight-er, returning his attention to his plate.

  Lexi leaned across the table to get in Asha's face, but just then Silas entered the mess hall, followed by Ursala, Wei Feng, and Kenda, and everyone turned to the Seer, including Lexi.

  “I want to head up the team to Svalbard, Silas,” Lexi said.

  “Done.” Silas sat across from Asha. “The Seed Vault was cleared out weeks ago, in anticipation of the famine.”

  Aquila saw the Seer's eyes begin to glow, and he felt his own excitement increase. This was it.

  “The darkness,” Silas began, then closed his eyes. “It's… Asha?”

  Asha reached her hands across the table to his, and Aquila felt it just as their hands touched.

  Death.

  He jumped up, pulling Asha back, but it was too late.

  Silas and Asha each twitched as if an electrical current ran through them, and their eyes flared white before they fell to the floor, both still.

  “Somebody get Prabhnoor!” Aquila heard himself scream, vaguely aware of people rushing from the room around him, of Nidhan scooping Silas into his arms and disappearing through the door.

  Aquila held Asha, smoothing her hair back as he waited for an answer to his thoughts.

  Asha, please answer me. Oh, Jesus, Asha, please don't…

  He realized he was rocking her back and forth, that tears were leaking from his eyes, and Lexi was holding his shoulder in a painful grasp.

  “We have to get her to the infirmary,” she was shouting. “Aquila! She's not dead. Let go of her.”

  Aquila shook his head and kept rocking.

  Lexi pointed her revolver at him. “Now.”

  He closed his eyes, holding As
ha's limp figure to his chest. Some part of him was aware he was losing his mind, but the rest of him didn't care.

  “Sorry, Desai,” Lexi said. He heard a pop, and Asha left his arms as Aquila felt himself shift.

  Aquila leapt to his feet, back in human form in time to see Lexi sprint from the mess hall carrying Asha's limp body.

  Kelakha blocked his way. “Give Prabhnoor a minute, yaar.”

  “That's my wife,” Aquila growled through gritted teeth, his hand itching for his weapon. “Move.”

  Kelakha stood firm, meeting Aquila's glare with unblinking dark eyes.

  Ursala rushed back into the room, coming between them. He put a hand on Aquila's shoulder and shook him once. “Prabhnoor says it's like the other times, only a stronger dose of Seer-Drain. They'll be fine.” He slapped Aquila's shoulder once. Hard. “She's gonna be okay, yaar. Jesus. Calm down.”

  Aquila heard the words, knew Asha would be fine, but the relief didn't come. The memory of her seemingly soulless in his arms persisted, haunting his mind to the point of insanity.

  He pushed Ursala's hand aside, and, slamming his shoulder into Kelakha's chest, Aquila left the room.

  Chapter 28

  Jax joined Kelakha and Ursala in the sitting room outside the hospital suites.

  “What the hell happened?” Jax asked Kelakha, eager to break the silence that seemed to hang over the entire safe house.

  “Some kind of blocking spell? Who knows.”

  “Pretty crappy blocking spell,” she said. “Now we're pretty much sure Svalbard is where the Witches are. It makes no sense.”

  “Unless the Witches wanted us to know,” Ursala said. “I mean, they are nuts. Maybe this is their way of sending out a Seer SOS?”

  “That's messed up,” Jax mumbled, but had to admit that his explanation held a certain kind of twisted logic. Except there was no reason the Witches would expect The Guard to rescue them. They would expect them to kill them. Witches would call on them only if they saw death as a relief compared to their current situation.

  Jax shuddered, letting Kelakha take her hand.

  The hospital waiting room was depressing, with folding plastic chairs stacked against one wall, fluorescent lighting, and a bare cement floor. As Jax studied the rings on Kelakha's perfect hand, Lexi and Ariella joined them, soon followed by Nidhan, Kenda, and Koko.

  Aquila refused to leave Asha's side.

  “There's nothing else we can do here,” Lexi said. “So let's get started.” She turned to Jax. “What are we looking for?”

  Jax wasn't prepared for this. Even with Asha and Silas uncon-scious—again—the rest of them still expected to go to Svalbard. Most of The Guard was already spread around the globe following Jax's previous leads, and the remainder were either recovering or keeping the civilians distracted with busy work and entertainment.

  Still, Jax didn't want to be the one to explain to Chakori and Barindra when they returned from checking out the suspicious airport in Singapore, that they'd been left out of the real mission.

  It wasn't as if the other Seers would back her up. She'd gone to see Inala and Yoki earlier, but when she tried to report her findings, Inala wouldn't stop his meditation to speak to her and Yoki seemed more bored than usual when he told her to bother Asha instead.

  Jax collected her thoughts and tried not to feel intimidated about briefing six scary Jodha and one very pissed-off-for-no-apparent-reason Tvastar.

  Snuggling with Kelakha would have to wait.

  Jax leaned forward, and the rest of them followed suit in unison.

  No, this wasn't intimidating at all.

  “Okay,” Jax began, clearing her throat and sounding more confident than she felt. “Here's what I learned from the satellite information and the local mine and police computers.”

  Jax unfolded a map of Svalbard and spread it across the floor, dropping from her chair to sit at Kelakha's feet.

  “There's a darkness spreading here, like a black hole, blocking out the sky. There's no daylight that far north this time of year anyway, obviously, so it took a while for anyone to notice. But now the darkness is getting larger by the minute. One of the locals called it an oil spill in the air.”

  Nidhan raised his hand. “So they plan to block out the sun? Kill everything and everyone by causing another ice age?”

  “We know Witches can create darkness clouds,” Ariella added. “We saw it ourselves in Arizona.”

  “That's what it looks like, yeah,” Jax said. “Ranya told Silas that at least fifty Witches were captured. It sounds unlikely, but… maybe given the right spells, the right help… maybe it's possible to create a shadow across the planet? Something that would block out the sun enough to cause a global famine.”

  “Okay, then.” Ursala stood. “What are we waiting for? Let's get geared up for the frozen tundra or whatever the fuck it's called.”

  Jax raised a hand. “If you leave now, any backup will be at least ten hours away. Most Jodha are in Southern Chile and—”

  Nidhan interrupted. “The longer we wait, the less likely it is that we save the Witches. Didn't Ranya say they're being tortured? Let's go.”

  “Not so fast.” Lexi stood and faced Nidhan. “Silas put me in command.”

  “And?” He challenged, taking a step toward her. Ursala looked from one to the other and took two steps back.

  “And you stay here,” Lexi said.

  The silence dragged out, and Jax was pretty sure no one breathed.

  “Say that again,” Nidhan said in a voice Jax didn't recognize.

  Lexi stepped toward him until they were almost touching. “We have six Jodha,” she said. “Stay here with Silas and Asha. That's an order.”

  Nidhan opened his mouth to speak, then shook his head.

  After a long moment, he whispered, “Do you really want those to be the last words you ever say to me?”

  Jax watched Lexi pale to an almost paper white, and she wished the two of them would go somewhere they didn't have an audience. Lexi reached a hand to Nidhan's cheek, and Jax wondered in horror if they would all have to pretend not to be there while she kissed him.

  But instead, she dropped her hand and shouted, “Gear up, people! We leave in twenty minutes from hangar four.”

  No one moved, and she whirled on them. “Now! Let's go!”

  Jax turned to Kelakha, and he nodded. “C'mon,” he said, offering her his hand. “Help me with my gear?”

  “Sure,” Jax said.

  “Twenty minutes?” Ursala said thoughtfully, then pulled Ariella against him, kissing her neck with exaggerated passion. “Help me with my gear too, sugar lips.”

  Jax punched him in the stomach and he staggered back dramatically before wrapping an arm around Ariella's waist and leaving the room with a backward wave.

  Jax glanced back as she left the room, but Lexi was already entering Asha's room, presumably to tell Aquila the plan.

  Nidhan stood alone in the center of a circle of empty plastic chairs.

  Chapter 29

  “It's cold as fuck here, yaar,” Ursala grumbled, tightening his hood around his face and hugging himself.

  Lexi succeeded in not slapping the back of his head. “That's because it's the fucking North Pole, you fuddu.”

  Kelakha laughed, sounding surprised at Lexi's knowledge of Punjabi curse words, then slapped the back of Ursala's head himself as he fell in on Lexi's left. The six of them climbed a hill of frozen rock, following a set of mostly destroyed train tracks along the frozen ground.

  The night felt lifeless and too dark, as if the sky were filled with black ink, and Lexi was grateful for her night-vision glasses.

  “I expected more snow,” Ariella said.

  “Me too,” said Kenda.

  “We get out of this alive, I'll take you guys to one of those fancy ski resorts,” Lexi told them. “You can have all the snow you want.”

  “Pass,” said Ursala. “I'm going back to Asha's wedding island and never leaving again.”
/>
  “Sounds like a plan,” Ariella told him. “Let's adopt a no clothes policy for the rest of our days.”

  “You got it.”

  “That island's definitely out for me, then,” said Kenda.

  “Maybe Sashi enjoys fancy ski resorts,” Koko told him, leaning out of reach as his brother took a swing at him. “I'm going wherever Silas says we need to start rebuilding. You guys can keep all this vacation crap.”

  Lexi pointed ahead, toward what looked like a dilapidated shack, the wood and metal warped with time. “There it is.”

  This was definitely the place.

  Jax had calculated the location based on where the center of the dark mass lined up with the earth. Thick black smoke oozed from the sagging structure, roiling like living coils into the sky. It spread over the land in a growing circle, bending toward the horizon in all directions and blotting out the Northern Lights.

  Lexi gestured with her hands, giving Kelakha the silent order to investigate the interior of the mine, and he jogged toward the building, shifting to a tiny nightjar, barely visible as he disappeared into the decayed building, and they waited.

  Minutes ticked by like hours as darkness continued to pour from the mouth of the mine, and finally Kelakha emerged, shifting from the nocturnal bird. “All clear,” he said. “It's weird. There are only Witches down there. And it's not pretty.”

  Lexi nodded at the frozen wasteland surrounding the mine. Everything felt too quiet. Too easy.

  She turned to the twins. “Kenda, Koko.” She couldn't tell them apart in the terrible light and their winter gear. “Inside or outside?”

  Both of them crossed their arms. “Are you babying us 'cause our brother died?” The one on the right said.

  “No,” Lexi lied easily.

  The other one took his hood off and tossed his hair. Koko. “Because that question gives me the distinct feeling that you're babying us because our brother died.”

  “Fine,” Lexi snapped, her impatience beginning to boil over. “You don't want the choice? Outside.”