Arise (Cruel and Beautiful World Book 3)

by L. Stoddard Hancock

“He’s not manipulative!” shouted Fiona. “He loves me!”

  Bronson smirked. “Point proven.”

  “Then I’ll kill him,” said Quigley. “Even after they release Fiona, I’m not going anywhere. Not without -”

  “No one fucking wants you here! Don’t you get it?” shouted Bronson, his burning eyes filling with tears. “You were my brother! The only family I’ve ever really had! And, because of you, I’m going to lose everyone that’s important to me! You’re already lost, and Ruby and Deryn are going to die! I don’t even care about myself anymore, but them! After everything they’ve been through, they deserve to be happy! And you’ve taken that away from them!”

  Bronson turned away and walked to the back of his cell. He ran his hands through his hair, desperately craving a cigarette.

  “Bronson ... it’s not over -”

  “I don’t want to talk to you anymore!” Bronson sank down against the wall. Deryn sat down next to him.

  The door upstairs opened and several more sets of footsteps pounded down the stairs. Deryn watched as Saevus stepped off of them. He returned her cold stare as she held Bronson’s hand. Elvira and Soren walked up behind him. Elvira looked at them and raised her eyebrows.

  “So you do enjoy female companionship.” She grinned.

  “He is not yours just yet, Elvira,” said Saevus, looking at Quigley. “You’ve done well, boy, and you’ve earned the freedom of one of your friends.” He motioned to Fiona and Bronson. “Which one shall it be?”

  Quigley lifted his eyes and stared at Bronson.

  “Don’t fucking look at me. I’m perfectly fine staying right here.”

  He moved his gaze to Fiona.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “I want my sister,” said Quigley.

  Saevus nodded. “As you wish.”

  He motioned to Soren, who stepped forward and unlocked Fiona’s cell.

  “No!” she screamed as he walked over to her. She flung herself at his feet. “Master, please! Please, don’t let him take me!”

  “I am not your master anymore,” said Soren, pressing his thumb to her collar until it blinked red. He tore it off and tossed it aside. When Fiona didn’t move, he grabbed her arm, dragged her from the cell and dropped her at Quigley’s feet. “Get her out of my sight.”

  “Master, no! Please! I love you!”

  Fiona screamed and cried, thrashing around wildly as Quigley grabbed her under her armpits and dragged her up the stairs.

  “Stop it, Fiona!” he shouted.

  “No! I hate you! I hate you! I fucking hate you!”

  “Aw, the sweet sounds of family,” said Saevus. His eyes landed on Deryn. “And now you, Deryn. Only one hour till sunrise. We should wait for Xander upstairs.”

  Deryn glanced nervously at Bronson before standing. He did not want to let go of her hand.

  “I’ll be okay, Bronson. I promise,” she said, kissing his cheek that was pressed against the bars.

  He released her.

  Soren opened the cell door and bound her again.

  “This is it,” said Soren, stroking her cheek.

  Deryn recoiled.

  “The moment Xander walks through the door, you become mine again. The president has already confirmed it.”

  “Not forever, Soren,” Saevus reminded him. “Her execution is imminent. Never forget that.”

  When Soren glanced away, Deryn bit the finger that was still touching her.

  “AH!” he screamed, pulling back his hand and slapping her.

  Deryn barely flinched. “I told you when I slit your fucking throat that you would never touch me again and I meant it!” she spat. “You will never have me, Tash! No matter what you try to pull, I will never be yours!”

  Soren moved to strike her again.

  “That’s enough, Soren,” ordered Saevus. “She has far less control here than she thinks she does. It’s time for us to wait upstairs for our guest of honor. Elvira, fetch my other Guardians.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Elvira, hurrying up the stairs.

  As Deryn was led out of the prison, she stole one last glance at Bronson.

  She was trying hard to mask her fear, but she knew she was failing. Because nothing scared her more - not even death - than once again belonging to Soren Tash.

  • • •

  Xander stood in the forest, close enough to see Utopia’s gates but not so close that the cameras would catch sight of him.

  April descended from the sky and landed beside him. “Looks like he has guards on duty from here all the way to the tower.”

  “I knew he wasn’t going to make this easy for me,” said Xander.

  “Seems like he never actually expected you to come alone,” said Dakota, who was standing on his other side.

  Xander nodded. “You sure you’re up for this?”

  “Yes. I’ve been waiting years for this day to come,” said Dakota. “Are you ready to finish this once and for all?”

  “I’ve been ready, Trigger.” Xander looked at Dakota and smiled. “Let’s go get our girl.”

  Dakota returned his smile. He took something out of his pocket and handed it to Xander.

  Xander’s heart fluttered as he recognized Deryn’s knife.

  “Chelsea grabbed it before evacuating.”

  Xander’s fingers circled around the hilt. Against all odds, that knife kept coming back and fighting, just like Deryn.

  “Good luck,” said Dakota.

  He turned on his gravpack and flew through the trees with April, ready to start phase one of their plan.

  Xander closed his eyes. He took one last deep breath while picturing Deryn’s smile. He would see that smile again.

  His eyes snapped open and he took those last few steps out of the safety of the forest. The war would end that day and Deryn would finally be free. And this time she would be free forever.

  CHAPTER 48

  When Xander reached the gates of Utopia, they were already open for him. He glanced up as he entered, eyeing the rotting heads of anyone who’d dared to help him. Sewick was the only one who didn’t give him that heavy pang of guilt in his chest. Xander had never trusted the bastard, and when he’d shown up with Soren it was no different. Sewick should have known better.

  But Anan. And that woman who gave him the chip. And Lona’s wave, who he hadn’t even known was executed. Even Wyatt was up there and he was completely innocent.

  Xander lowered his eyes and continued his stride, holding his Element at his side. He knew Saevus was watching him and refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was affected by the presence of those heads.

  The streets of Outer City were abandoned, which wasn’t completely out of the ordinary. It wasn’t even dawn yet. But it still didn’t sit right with him. Something was off.

  The buildings around Xander were old and crumbling, the same dull gray as the rest of the city but somehow more alive. Perhaps because these buildings had housed generations of Utopians while the buildings in Middle and Inner City were new, boxy and bland with no story to tell.

  That was how his life had been.

  Bland.

  Storyless.

  But not anymore.

  For the first time in his life he had someone to fight for, something more than just his mother’s memory urging him forward. He had a future.

  Something shifted in the air.

  Xander stared down one of the streets, catching a glimpse of movement in the shadows.

  Without a second thought, he lifted his Element and fired. Someone on a far-off rooftop groaned before dropping three floors to the ground. If the shot hadn’t killed him, the fall had.

  So guards were around, probably keeping the citizens in line. It wasn’t a surprise, considering the majority of Outsider sympathizers lived in Outer City.

  While Xander didn’t like the idea of these people being held prisoner, he also didn’t have time to stop and help them. He needed to get to Deryn before sunrise. So he walked on, s
hooting any guard who hadn’t mastered the art of camouflage.

  The gate to Middle City was already open and he marched on through. It snapped shut behind him.

  Xander stopped.

  He closed his eyes and listened.

  Something was coming.

  He knew the zip of those wings anywhere.

  S.U.R.G.E.s. Three of them.

  The first one zipped around the corner, its wings fluttering as it zoomed toward him. S.U.R.G.E.s were virtually indestructible, which was why the Resistance had created a weapon to take them down.

  And why Deryn had been eager to create a more practical way to destroy them.

  Xander lifted the hand that held her knife, waited until the top of the S.U.R.G.E. opened and its gun emerged. When it was ten feet away, he pressed a stone Deryn had placed on the bottom of her knife’s hilt and swiped. A laser zoomed forward, lighting up the sky, and slicing the S.U.R.G.E. in half.

  It landed in two clean pieces on the ground.

  Xander had said it before and he would undoubtedly say it again. His girl was fucking amazing.

  Another S.U.R.G.E. turned the corner and he sliced it just as easily. Then the third arrived and Xander barely even slowed his steps to take it down.

  That was the beauty of Saevus’s predictable strategy to send robots. They didn’t have brains to use critical thinking. A human would have known better than to come charging when a comrade was already taken down so easily. Most humans, anyway.

  The street Xander was on led straight through Utopia. He walked down the center of it, his steps quick as he glanced around for some other means of transportation to get him through Middle City. But, again, the streets were quiet. Even trams weren’t running, which was definitely out of the ordinary.

  April had said she’d seen guards, but where were they?

  What was Saevus planning?

  Three S.U.R.G.E.s could hardly be considered an attack.

  Then he felt it.

  The ground shuddered beneath his boots.

  Xander stopped.

  Something was coming.

  But from where?

  He closed his eyes and focused.

  The vibrations were coming from his right. He looked but saw nothing.

  Xander started to walk again but stopped when the vibrations intensified.

  What was -

  Something suddenly appeared on the narrow street where he’d just been looking. His eyes widened as a machine stomped toward him. It was slick and metal and traveling quickly on eight legs. It looked like a spider but it was large. Almost as tall as the buildings around it.

  “The fuck?”

  The spider leapt into the air and Xander didn’t need to see the shadow cover him to know exactly where it planned to drop.

  He bolted, getting out of the way a second before it landed. He ran behind it.

  The spider moved much slower when it had to turn around.

  He made a mental note of that as he ran into the nearest alley, much too narrow for the damn thing to follow.

  But it did anyway, leaping onto the roof and scurrying after him.

  So Saevus had been preparing for a war against the Resistance after all. Hopefully he only had one of these damn things.

  People stared out of their windows as Xander ran down the next street. Some tried to open them but they appeared to be locked. Just like their front doors, he guessed.

  He finally spotted two guards chatting casually by the next alley.

  Xander ran past them. Their eyes followed him, not even noticing as a giant metal spider jumped off of the adjacent roof and crushed them as it charged after Xander.

  Another handful of guards were on the next street. They lifted their Elements, prepared to fight him but stopped when they saw what followed.

  Did Saevus not even warn his guards about that fucking thing? Where had he even been hiding it?

  As much fun as running was, Xander needed to formulate a plan.

  He stopped in the center of the street and turned as the spider moved clumsily to face him. Its two front legs had claw-like hands, eager to grasp him and carry him to the president as his prisoner. The other six were like knives, ready to pierce through anything that had the misfortune of ending up beneath it. A gun sat atop its head.

  But the spider wasn’t firing. It had been programmed to keep him alive. Although it seemed Saevus’s guards were not lucky enough to be considered.

  Xander lifted Deryn’s knife and swiped as the spider approached, curious to see what it would do.

  While the laser cut the spider, it didn’t slice through it as easily as a S.U.R.G.E. He swiped the blade again, this time at the legs. The front left leg fell from the body it was no longer attached to.

  Good to know.

  Xander lifted his Element and fired a blast. Just for fun.

  Nothing happened. As to be expected.

  The metal spider charged again on seven legs.

  Xander groaned. He put away his Element and took out his Resistance-made grappling hook. It was small and connected to his belt buckle. He aimed at the closest building and fired. A wire shot out and a hook emerged. It clung to the building and pulled him off of the ground.

  A roof wasn’t exactly safer than the ground when being chased by a giant robotic spider who could easily leap onto it, but Xander needed time.

  Saevus wanted to embarrass him by having a giant fucking spider carry him to the tower, and he’d be damned if he let that happen.

  Xander looked back at the street once his feet were planted firmly on the roof. The spider leapt into the air and he swiped Deryn’s knife, taking off two more legs on the right side. Three down, five to go.

  He ran across the roof and, when he reached the edge, leapt to the next one over.

  The spider wobbled as it landed but managed to gather its bearings pretty damn quickly. It charged across the roof and followed him.

  Xander looked over the side of the roof and noticed another ten guards, three of them with hover-bikes. He could certainly use one of those, especially since he was getting so off course from Inner City’s gate.

  He climbed down the fire escape, something the spider couldn’t seem to process. It tried to follow but failed, getting one of its legs caught in the stairs.

  Xander looked up and swiped his blade again, taking off the trapped leg.

  Halfway there.

  He decided to skip the last flight of stairs and jumped over the edge.

  The guards all turned, their eyes widening as the spider leapt over Xander and landed in the street beside them.

  They screamed.

  The ones on foot bolted down the nearest alley.

  The three on hover-bikes prepared to ride away.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” shouted Xander, sprinting toward the closest guard. He swiped the blade as the man rode off, successfully taking off the guard’s head. It only seemed right that he killed Saevus’s followers in such a manner.

  The bike skidded before crashing into a wall.

  Xander ran for it, ducking down as the spider leapt into the air again, landing where he would have been had he not stopped. He went to its right and reached the hover-bike, kicking off the headless body and mounting it. Luckily, the crash had only damaged the body of the bike and it ran fine.

  If the spider still had its front legs, it probably would have succeeded in snatching him in that moment. But, without them, it didn’t seem to know what it was supposed to do.

  Xander had the bike on and moving before the spider tried to grab him with one of its knife-like legs. As he turned the bike around, he swiped the last two legs on the left. The spider collapsed on its side. Then Xander circled around and swiped the two legs on the right.

  The lump of legless robot spider sat in the street, still making zipping noises as it tried to figure out what to do.

  Xander parked his bike and climbed on top of the thing. He took out his Element and blasted the gun off the top of its head before it c
ould realize it had the option.

  But the damn thing was still alive. There had to be a soft spot.

  And then he saw it, a tiny hole on its head and a glowing green light. He poked Deryn’s knife in the hole. The spider shut off, its body no longer humming beneath his feet.

  Xander put his weapons away and stared up at the sky. While gray still dominated the clouds above his head, dark purple streaks were rising behind distant buildings.

  Feeling eyes on him, Xander noticed a little girl watching him through her bedroom window. He winked at her. Noticing several more faces watching, he flashed a dazzling smile and waved.

  He jumped off of the spider and walked to his bike with a cocky strut. He had to admit, he enjoyed being watched with such awe. Even the nearby guards didn’t dare approach him.

  Xander mounted his bike, searched the horizon for Saevus’s tower and drove off. It was time to get his girl.

  • • •

  Shades of orange and pink filled the sky by the time Xander arrived at Saevus’s tower. It had begun to rain, probably because the president was annoyed that Xander had destroyed such a fine piece of machinery.

  The guards at the doors opened them for him when he stepped off of his bike.

  “Good day, fuckers,” he said, saluting them as he entered the tower.

  Xander headed straight for the parlor. Which was, of course, where everyone was waiting for him.

  “You couldn’t have just sent a car,” Xander said to Saevus as he stopped in the entryway, hands on his hips.

  Saevus gave a small but effective smile.

  A Guardian standing near the fireplace scoffed. “All of this for a piece of toxic trash.”

  Xander’s jaw clenched. In a flash, he had his Element out of its holster and blasted the man’s head off.

  “Watch your fucking language.”

  The few people who’d been hit with the man’s blood stepped away, but no one bothered to touch him.

  Xander turned back to Saevus, his gaze darkening as he took in those around him.

  President Saevus stood in the very center of the room, his Guardians gathered all around him. Elvira and Soren stood faithfully on one side, Wenton and Barath on the other. Luka and Finley were farther back, and Lona stood bloody and bruised beside her father Arron. Xander would make sure to kill him for that later.