Dropping his vials of green paste into his rucksack, Chace poured a bucket of water on the last pile of ash and headed for the stairs.
Outside, he took several turns through the streets before entering an alley. After checking around, he opened a manhole cover and jumped down, weaving through the stone underground. He had to travel several miles before he reached his exit. It was already dark out and he was barely in the center of Middle City.
Chace hurried through the streets, ducking into alleys every time he saw a S.U.R.G.E. buzzing along. His feet quickened the closer he got to their hideout. He knew he shouldn’t have risked getting the plants, but he really thought they could be an asset to the Resistance’s cause. And he was tired of sitting on his ass all day. He wanted to help.
Finally, he reached the alley that would lead him to the street where their old, brick hideout resided. The sun was long gone and the gloomy, gray clouds in the sky were nearly black. The moon managed to glow through one of them, his guide home.
He couldn’t wait to see Kemp’s face when he showed him -
Chace stopped.
He stood frozen, his insides flowing like unsteady liquid as he stared at the van parked in front of their hideout. It was a slave trade van, and it wasn’t alone. Several cloaked Guardians stood around their hover-bikes.
The front door - which had been boarded up long before any of them had arrived - was caved in. No lights were on inside but screams rang through the closed windows. The voices were muddled but they were there.
Shit.
Chace ducked back into the alley, keeping his eye on the door as a hooded figure dragged someone out. From the faint glow of the streetlamps, he could see it was Anan, bloody and beaten as he had obviously tried to play the hero.
After him came Ulric, still fighting as they shoved him into the van beside a barely moving Anan. Kemp came next, cooperating but yelling back at someone behind him.
It was Miki. She was carrying Ronan, claiming him as her own. Like they’d always planned.
And last.
Whispers spread amongst the Guardians as Del exited the building, her head held high as someone pushed to the front of the group.
Chace was too far away to hear anything, his heart was beating too fast, too loudly to focus on anything but his growing fear, but he just knew that Guardian was Elvira. Her stance wasn’t as confident as usual, her hands jittery. She was nervous.
For whatever reason they’d come to that building, she hadn’t known they would find her mother there. The mother she was supposed to have killed.
Pressed against the alley wall, Chace reached into his rucksack and pulled out his unregistered Element. Staying hidden in the shadows, he aimed it at Elvira, his hand shaking as he urged it to pull the trigger. The world would be a better place without her. While President Saevus pulled the strings, she was the one who performed his heinous deeds.
There were a good ten Guardians gathered around Elvira. If he killed her there was no chance he could get out of this alive. Still, he knew it was worth it.
But Chace couldn’t do it.
Not with Del there.
No mother should have to watch her child gunned down in front of her. No matter how vile of a human that child was.
“Who’s there?”
Chace’s eyes left Elvira and found the Guardian who’d spoken. It was Stuart Scout, and he was looking right at him.
Chace looked back at Del, her eyes wide and pleading as she suddenly shouted, “Run!”
With a heavy heart, Chace did just that.
He didn’t look back, the sound of boots following behind him.
He knew he didn’t have long to lose them. It would only be a matter of moments before a S.U.R.G.E. was on his tail, and then it would all be over. His only chance would be to enter one of their secret doorways to the underground without his pursuers spotting him.
A beam of light shot by his left arm, grazing his coat and sending a great pain shooting through him.
Shit, they’d been aiming for his heart.
Seeing a horde of people, he ran straight into them and through the front door of a bar, moving too quickly for the doorman to stop him. He darted through the crowded room, sliding under tables and across the floor on his knees. People began to part as three Guardians entered with their Elements raised.
There was a door near the back. A woman wearing a server’s apron pretended not to notice the commotion as she opened the door, holding it for just a moment longer than was necessary. Chace burst through it.
He had a small window of opportunity when the door closed. He used it to dart right and then left, ducking into an alley with a vent beside a dumpster. He tore off its caging, jumped inside and carefully closed it behind him. Seconds later, a S.U.R.G.E. zoomed by, three Guardians hurrying after it.
Without waiting to see if they noticed where the trail had gone cold, he turned and climbed down a ladder that was just behind him. Once he was down, he hurried deeper into the tunnels. There was only one place he could think to go and he was lucky he knew how to get there.
It was a good thirty minutes before Chace came out the other side. He’d run across two S.U.R.G.E.s in the underground but, luckily, neither had caught sight of him.
Before emerging from the manhole, he slipped on a pair of goggles from his rucksack that would allow him to detect all security cameras in the area. The last thing he needed was the president discovering where he’d gone. Then even more people would be in danger.
The goggles in place, Chace threw his rucksack back over his shoulder and climbed the ladder, gently lifting the manhole cover and peeking out. The alley was clear.
He stepped onto the street, only one block from Xander’s old building.
There were cameras all around the front of it. He already knew that entering through the front door wasn’t going to be an option. So he headed for the back of the building.
Several cameras in the area spanned from right to left. He made sure to time it so he was never seen, his dark hood up so, even if he was seen, only a shadowy figure would be visible.
He reached the back of the building. No cameras were watching it and why would they? Xander had always used the front door, even when he took Chace and Deryn outside.
There was a drainpipe that ran along the back of the building, mere feet from the third story balcony. His destination.
With a breath of confidence, Chace began to climb. It wasn’t easy, his fingers aching as he hoisted himself up over and over again. He’d never been a heights person and repeated in his head, don’t look down.
When he was level with the balcony, he reached his arm out and was just able to grab the ledge.
“What the -”
He started when a woman who’d been crouched down suddenly shot up. She looked familiar but he couldn’t place her. His grip on the pipe slipped as he met her wide eyes and he swung into the side of the balcony, hanging by one aching hand.
“Shit,” he said as quietly as he could. The neighborhood was mostly abandoned but he wasn’t taking any chances.
He heard the glass door slide open. “Bronson!” the woman called.
A shadow covered Chace as someone glanced over the balcony. He looked up and tore off his goggles.
“A little help here!”
“Chace?”
Bronson grabbed his arm and hoisted him up. The woman came to his side and helped, along with another man Chace didn’t recognize. Once they got him over the edge, all four of them collapsed to the floor.
“Chace, what the hell are you doing here?” demanded Bronson, sitting upright.
Chace stayed on the floor, gasping for air as his heart finally caught up with him.
He’d made it. He was here. And he was alone.
His gasps quickly became sobs.
They were gone. All of them. Del. Ronan. Kemp. Miki. Anan. Ulric.
The president had been on a rampage lately. His friends would not survive this.
; “Chace ...”
Bronson’s comforting hand rubbed his shoulder as he cried.
It hurt. He was supposed to be there with them. But instead he’d left them all behind. He’d wanted to get off his ass and help, but in the end all he’d done was run.
• • •
Finley stood against the wall in the president’s parlor, watching him as he sipped a glass of brandy in his armchair. His eyes were trained on the golden flames hissing in the fireplace.
Saevus had gone completely off his rocker.
Finley realized he’d never been the most stable of men, but his obsession with Xander had consumed him. He’d barely slept since Xander’s escape, spending his days watching old security footage of his Guardian throughout the city.
Saevus had pinpointed the moment Xander and Deryn’s paths had crossed. Made everyone watch it and then punished Wenton Pace and Gordon Mackey for being there but not recognizing that something was amiss.
Gordon stood against the wall opposite Finley, his skin ashen and body shaking as he forced himself to stand up straight. After receiving twenty lashes, he’d been denied any sort of treatment. Wenton wasn’t much better but he’d still been sent off with Elvira.
Over the course of the last few months, Xander had been seen sneaking around the back of an old building just outside of the Shopping District several times. Elvira was sent there with nine other Guardians to investigate. A ridiculous number for following a hunch that very likely wouldn’t lead to anything.
Fuck, Finley hoped it wouldn’t lead to anything. Maybe the building was just somewhere Xander had gone to train in private.
During one of the visits, he’d brought Luka with him. The timestamp indicated that it was shortly after Luka’s mind-control chip was installed. That was the reason President Saevus had ordered Elvira to go.
If there was anything important hidden inside of that building, Luka showed no indication of knowing what it was. He leaned casually against the wall beside her, silent and stoic, just like everyone else in that room. Except Finley. While she may have been silent, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
The front door opened.
President Saevus stood as several Guardians entered the parlor.
“Sir, you’re going to want to see this,” said Barath Voclain, glancing at his son with untrusting eyes.
Screams sounded down the hall as people were dragged inside. The first was a teenage boy, bloody, beaten and barely conscious.
Two other men were dragged in after him, still fighting for their lives. Finley thought she recognized one of the men. Possibly from guard training but she wasn’t sure. She’d paid so little attention to Outsiders back then.
Then there was a woman, who Finley also thought she recognized. She carried a small child, hiding his face as he cried into her shoulder.
“There’s one more,” said Barath.
Everyone watched as a woman walked in. Finley didn’t look at her at first. Her focus was on Elvira. She was pale as a sheet. Normally, she’d be proud of such a find, her head held high as she looked to her father for the approval she would never receive.
But not this time.
The room had gone eerily quiet.
Finley finally looked at the woman they’d brought in. It took a moment to register why she looked so familiar, but once it did she understood why Elvira was so terrified.
This was Adelaide Saevus. President Saevus’s wife. Elvira’s mother. A woman who’d vanished without a trace five years earlier and was presumed dead.
Shit.
Just how many secrets did Xander hold?
“Hello, Collin,” said Adelaide, looking far more confident than her daughter.
President Saevus dropped his glass of brandy. It shattered at his feet. A wave hurried out of the shadows to clean it for him.
Saevus stepped forward, crushing the bald woman’s hand into the broken glass. But she didn’t scream. She barely even winced.
“Adelaide. What a surprise it is to see you here. Alive.”
He glanced at Elvira, an electricity traveling between them. Elvira jerked as if she’d just been shocked.
“Show me your right hand, dear wife.”
Adelaide took a deep breath and lifted it. The hand was made of metal, all stiff and wiry. Not something Utopia would have made. It was too primitive.
“I’ve been betrayed by people in my life, but I never thought I would be betrayed by you, Elvira.” Saevus turned away from his wife and walked toward the fireplace. “Kill her.”
Elvira sucked in a breath. “What?”
“Kill your mother. You have thirty seconds to comply.”
“Or what?”
Saevus looked coldly at his daughter and said, “Do you really want an answer?”
Elvira’s eyes drew to the floor. She swallowed. Then she looked at Adelaide, the woman’s mouth taut as she fought back tears.
Elvira took out her Element.
She stepped forward.
Her finger moved to change the setting.
She raised her weapon and -
“NO!”
The whole room turned toward the scream as it rang through the parlor. The small child was fighting the woman who held him, shoving her away as he kicked and screamed.
“Ronan, please,” said the woman, trying to calm him. “You need to -”
“No!” he screamed again, clawing at her arms until she was forced to drop him.
“Ronan!”
She tried to grab him but he was too quick for her. He dashed across the room to Adelaide and clung to her waist.
Adelaide’s color drained. She grabbed Ronan’s shoulders and shoved him away.
“Ronan, you need to go and be with Miki now, alright? You need to be with your mother.”
“No,” said the boy, crying and shaking his head. “No, Mommy. I don’t want to pretend anymore. I want to go home!”
All air sucked out of the room. Everyone was silent.
Finley grabbed Luka’s hand.
Shit.
President Saevus had turned back around, his eyes locked on the small boy. He was clearly gaging the age of his wife’s child. They all were.
Saevus marched forward, grabbed Ronan’s arm and twisted him around. The frightened boy looked up at him with familiar green eyes. The same as his.
“What have you done?” Saevus glared at Adelaide, his hand still squeezing the life out of Ronan’s small arm. “You bitch, what have you done?”
Ronan screamed as he was tossed aside, landing on his hurt arm.
Saevus raised his fist, knocking it hard into the side of Adelaide’s head. She fell to the floor.
“You fucking bitch!”
He grabbed a fistful of her hair, holding her head high enough for him to hit again and again. Several teeth flew across the floor, her nose twisted and broken as her face was destroyed.
“Father, stop!” shouted Elvira, running forward and grabbing his arm.
Saevus dropped Adelaide and swung at his daughter instead, knocking her back a few steps.
“You knew!” he yelled accusingly.
Elvira shook her head. “I didn’t know. I swear -”
Saevus had already turned back to Adelaide, bringing his boot down on her head as she struggled to sit upright.
“Father!”
Elvira raised her Element.
Knowing what Elvira was about to do, Finley ran across the room, scooped up the screaming child and hid his face in her shoulder. Elvira fired a shot at her mother’s heart. Adelaide thrashed around wildly before collapsing onto the floor, her body becoming eerily still. She was dead.
Saevus growled toward the ceiling before turning on his daughter.
“You dare show her mercy?”
He tore the Element from her hand and switched the setting, something he shouldn’t have been able to do. It was Elvira’s Element. How the hell did he access it?
With a flick of his wrist
, a streak of light shot out and chopped off Adelaide’s beaten head. With a roar, he kicked it straight into the fireplace.
“What the hell are you doing?” shouted Finley, unable to stop herself as she forced Ronan to keep staring at her shoulder. The president’s eyes moved to her but, for the first time in her life, she didn’t fear him. “That woman’s child is right here! How dare you do that in front of him!”
She could feel Luka and Lona’s frightened stares, but she didn’t care. This was wrong and someone needed to say it.
“There is a thin line between angry and insane. Stop letting Xander push you onto the wrong side of that line and lead.”
Saevus cocked his head as he stared at her. His eyebrows raised, though she wasn’t sure if it was out of curiosity or if he was plotting how he might chop off her head next.
“Elvira, take the boy upstairs,” Saevus ordered without taking his eyes off of Finley.
Elvira, who’d been staring at her mother’s burning head, stepped forward. “Where -”
“You know where.”
She reached for Ronan but Finley stepped away.
“Give him to me,” said Elvira, a sharp warning in her voice.
Finley hesitated, for the first time really looking at the crying boy in her arms. He clung to her now, not wanting to let her go. She gave him a squeeze. “Stay brave,” she whispered so quietly she wasn’t even sure if he’d heard her.
Ronan released the fabric of her coat. Elvira took him in her arms and awkwardly carried him away. He stared over her shoulder at the others he was leaving behind, whimpering as he disappeared from view.
“Well,” said the president, still staring intensely at Finley, “It seems I lost my head there for a minute.”
He laughed. Everyone else attempted to join in but even his most loyal followers had to force it.
Finley turned away from him and stepped back in line with the others. Atticus was watching her from across the room, his face tense.
“It appears I’ve accidentally destroyed our latest head to leave on the gate for Xander. Of course, that means I will need another.” He finally stopped staring at Finley and looked at their prisoners instead. “The question is, which head?”
Arise (Cruel and Beautiful World Book 3) Page 33
