“Shut up, Celia,” said Foster.
“I won’t shut up,” she said. “Ezra kept testing and testing, thinking that the hormone would show up. It never did. And then he kept trying to inject it into the dragons, but that didn’t work. They just secreted it right back out of their systems. He knew. We all knew, and we stayed.”
“Celia, they’re going to hear you,” said Foster.
“We should have left,” she said. “Why didn’t we leave?”
“Celia,” I said. “It’s probably best if you don’t—”
“Why didn’t we leave?” she said again. “Now, we’re all going to die.”
We pushed through the door at the top of the steps.
“Back,” screamed Doyle’s voice. “Go back! There’s too many of them.” Doyle dove into the stairwell, flames hot on his heels.
Once inside, he slammed the door and jammed a small metal box against the lock. He pressed a button, and the lock lit up bright red.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“This engages the locks,” he said, pointing. “It’s a battery. I’ve got maybe three left.”
A roar from outside.
Doyle scrambled down the steps and shoved a battery lock on the door at the bottom. “There,” he said. “There, they can’t get in now.”
“No,” I said. “They can’t. Of course, we can’t get out either.”
“And the whole facility’s about to self-destruct,” said Naelen.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“I know, I know,” said Doyle, hands up as he began to ascend the stairs. “But there are too many of them out there. We can’t go out there. At the very least, we stay here, safe, and we try to make a plan.”
“Where did you go?” said Foster.
“What?” said Doyle, looking at him. “Foster? You’re okay? I thought you were with Jameson.”
“Where’s Jameson?” I said.
“Jameson’s dead,” said Doyle.
“Nicole?” asked Kinsie.
“I don’t know,” said Doyle. “I lost track of her.”
“Where did you go?” Naelen asked. “You were supposed to be keeping watch.”
“I was,” said Doyle. “And then I heard something. I thought it was a dragon breaking in, and I thought it wouldn’t be wise to go after it alone—”
“You were supposed to wake me up if that happened,” I said.
“I know, but you’d been through so much already, and the others were with me, and we all thought we’d just go and check it out, and then…” He rubbed his face.
“Did you engage the self-destruct?” said Kinsie.
“What do you mean, ‘Jameson’s dead,’?” said Shay.
“I’m sorry, Shay,” he said. “I really am sorry. A dragon burned him. He went up like a torch. I never saw anything like it.” He gulped.
“What?” Shay’s voice broke.
“There was nothing I could have done,” said Doyle. “And I thought you were there, too.” He furrowed his brow at Foster. “If you weren’t there, where were you?”
“I was looking for you,” said Foster. “I was completely cut off.”
“One of you did this,” said Kinsie.
“Let’s not forget Nicole,” said Celia. “She’s gone.”
“I don’t think this is the best use of our time,” I said. “We need to disengage the self-destruct. We need to do it before we all die.”
“What if Nicole’s still out there?” said Celia. “What if she just re-engages it after you disengage it?”
“She’s probably long gone,” said Rose. “She probably knew some secret way out of the facility.”
“Or maybe you know,” said Shay, pointing at Doyle. “Where’d you get those fancy batteries, huh?”
“I-I have them,” said Doyle. “In case of an emergency. I carry them.”
“Always?” said Rose.
“No,” said Doyle. “But after the dragons escaped, I got them.”
“What we need is a way out,” said Kinsie. “Can’t we just go out the front entrance?”
“Not with the way the snow is coming down out there,” said Doyle. “It’s a blizzard. We’d never make it. The roads are covered, and we’d freeze to death walking around out there.”
“What about the snowmobiles?” said Kinsie.
“There are two,” said Doyle. “Only two. So, who wants to stay behind?”
“Should we send someone for help on a snowmobile?” Rose asked.
“Yeah, like what kind of help could they bring?” said Shay.
“I don’t know,” said Rose. “Maybe… the army or something?”
“Oh, right,” said Doyle. “Because the army believes in rogue dragons. We kept this place a secret.”
“They wouldn’t get here in time anyway,” said Naelen quietly. “The self-destruct is going to go off in less than four hours.”
“We should all stick together,” said Shay. “We’re safer that way. If we send someone to the snowmobiles, we couldn’t even be sure they’d make it without being killed by a dragon.”
“So, we send one of them,” said Rose, pointing at Naelen and me.
“I’m not leaving you here,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” said Naelen. “We can’t get help in time.”
It was quiet.
Celia sat down on the steps. “I need to leave this room.”
“Well, you can’t,” said Doyle.
“I think I’m going to vomit,” she said.
Everyone suddenly gave her a wide berth.
She grimaced.
“What’s with you?” said Rose. “You were sick earlier too. You coming down with something?”
“Hell, maybe she’s pregnant,” said Kinsie. “Does it matter? What matters is that she shouldn’t throw up.”
Celia shut her eyes.
“Oh, God,” said Rose. “You are pregnant, aren’t you?”
“No way,” said Kinsie. “Because you’re not far enough along to have been pregnant before we got to the facility. And you’re the only one who didn’t sleep with Tate. Foster here wasn’t hooking up with anyone. So, who’s that leave? Only professors. Not Jack. He was still hung up on Beverly. Not Doyle. We all know he’s gay.”
“You all know?” said Doyle. “Not that I’m ashamed of it or anything, but I didn’t think it was obvious.”
“It was a professor, though, wasn’t it?” said Rose. “It was Ezra.”
Celia hugged herself. “We were in love. He loved me.”
“Right, which was why his wife knew all about you,” said Foster. “Jesus, Celia did it. She’s got motive. She killed Ezra.”
“I did not,” said Celia. “I wouldn’t have done that. I loved him.”
“You let out the dragons and killed him,” said Rose. “And then when you realized that we were onto you, you decided to kill us. You let out the rest of the dragons. You engaged the self-destruct.”
“How could I have done that?” said Celia. “I was with you in the lab.”
“Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t,” said Kinsie. “We were asleep until the alarm went off.”
Celia shook her head. “I didn’t kill him. I didn’t. I would never kill anyone!”
There was a banging sound on the door at the bottom of the steps. “Let me in!” yelled Nicole’s voice. “Let me in!”
We all quieted.
“I can hear you in there,” said Nicole. “Let me in.”
“Maybe it’s her,” said Rose. “Maybe she’s the killer.”
“This is stupid,” I said, stalking down the steps. It took me several seconds to figure out how to disengage the battery, but I managed it, and then I let Nicole in.
“Thank you,” she said.
I put the battery back on and turned it on. “Where were you?”
“I’ve been chased by dragons,” she said. “I managed to lose them. I went back to the lab. No one was there. Then I heard you in the stairwell. Doyle, you’re okay!”
“Yeah,” he said. “I am. And so are you.”
She looked at all of us. “What’s all this self-destruct business?”
“Did you turn it on?” said Foster. “Did you cut the power? What have you been doing all this time?”
“Why would I do that?” said Nicole. “Turning on the self-destruct hurts everyone, doesn’t it? Unless it’s just a false alarm or something. Tell me it’s nothing. Please?”
“No, it’s real,” said Naelen.
“Oh, God.” Nicole let out a sob.
“Look,” said Kinsie. “That self-destruct did not set itself. Those dragons did not let themselves out. The power did not go out on its own. Someone is doing these things, and we need to figure out who it is and stop that person.”
“No,” I said. “Not yet, anyway. The first thing we have to do is turn off that self-destruct.”
“I’m with Clarke,” said Naelen. “I agree it’s worrying that someone seems to be trying to sabotage everything, but we don’t have the luxury of playing detective.”
“Of course you’re with Clarke,” said Kinsie. “You do whatever she says.”
“Well, she’s generally right,” said Naelen.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“I agree,” said Doyle.
“You do?” I could hardly believe that.
“I’ve spent most of my time arguing with you since you got here,” said Doyle. “And now it’s become clear that my priorities haven’t been in the proper place. I can’t say we’ll ever agree about the nature of the rogues, but it is far too dangerous to keep this many dragons under one roof. They are vicious.” His voice broke. “So many have died.”
“Too many,” I agreed. “So, I think that Naelen and I should go alone to the control room.”
“No,” said Kinsie. “We’re not splitting up. That never turns out well.”
“You’ll be safe here in the stairwell,” I said. “You’re locked in. It’s secure.”
“Locked in with the killer,” said Kinsie, “who has shown a remarkable desire to end every single one of us.”
“Unless it’s Jameson,” said Foster.
“I’m sorry,” said Doyle. “He died right in front of me.”
“Maybe,” said Foster, “you and Jameson are working together. Maybe you’re secretly lovers. That’s why he wasn’t upset about Shay. She’s a beard.”
“Jameson is not gay,” said Shay in an even voice.
“Whatever,” said Foster. “Point is, we only have the word of Doyle that he’s dead, and we can’t trust anyone.”
“We can’t trust anyone,” said Kinsie. “That’s true. And that’s why we need to stick together. Because in a group, we can all keep our eyes on each other.”
I sighed. “Fine. We’ll all go to the control room together, then.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Doyle unlocked the door at the top of the steps and removed the battery.
I nodded at him, and then at everyone else. They all extinguished the lights on their phones. We were going out in the dark. I was taking the lead. Naelen was bringing up the rear.
One thing I knew about dragons was that they hunted primarily by sight, not by smell or anything like that. I wasn’t sure how good their night vision was, having never really hunted them anywhere except in the city, where there were a lot of street lights, but I was banking on it not being excellent.
Admittedly, I was banking everyone’s lives, but they were the ones who insisted on coming along instead of staying safe inside the stairwell.
I pushed the door open.
Utter blackness greeted me.
Yanking out three arrows and notching the first one, I stepped out of the stairwell and into the corridor on the third floor. It was pitch black. I couldn’t see anything, so I had to rely on my memory of the way the place was laid out to even know what direction to go.
We were headed to the end of the hallway, where the next set of stairs would take us to the top floor and the control room.
As I walked, I gripped my bow as tight as I could, but I had to admit I didn’t like doing this. Something about walking in the dark like this made me want to walk with my arms out, as if I was on a balance beam. I kept feeling as though I was about to lose my balance.
And then my right arm collided with something.
The wall. It was only the wall.
But my heart was beating out of my chest now.
I took deep breaths to try to steady my heart. Keeping my shoulder against the wall, I kept walking. The wall was reassuringly solid.
I continued for several more feet.
And then I tripped over something.
I let out a little noise.
“What?” said a harsh whisper at my back. Doyle.
I nudged the thing I had tripped over with one toe. It was flesh. It was cold. It was a body. Dragon from the feel of the scales.
“Take my hand,” I whispered to Doyle. “Get the hand of the person behind you. We have to go around a dragon corpse.” I reached back for him.
His hand found mine.
I waited for a moment, so that everyone could have their hands linked, and then I started forward. With one foot, I nudged the outline of the dead dragon. With the other, I walked forward.
I was worried about the noise we’d made. My little cry. Our whispered conversation.
But nothing had happened, so it probably meant that there were no dragons on this floor right now. Or at least none in the corridor. That didn’t mean that they weren’t close by, however.
We made it around the dragon, and then the wall was comfortingly against my arm again.
My arm was starting to ache from keeping the bowstring tense. I slowly eased it lax for a moment. Then I removed my hand and shook it out.
I put it back on the bow.
A thud.
I whirled, turning with the bow, my heart thumping, waiting… waiting…
“Sorry,” whispered Rose’s voice.
God damn it. I gasped for breath.
I tried to slow my heart rate again, but it wasn’t happening. We had to be almost to the door to the stairs by now, didn’t we?
I started moving forward again, my shoulder brushing against the wall, feeling around for the door frame.
But the wall just seemed to go on and on.
What if I was on the wrong side of the hallway?
No, that was crazy. This was the side. I was sure of it. If it wasn’t, surely Doyle would have said something to me.
Of course, I had told everyone to keep quiet. Not that we were really doing a very good job at that, but maybe Doyle was following my orders.
And then, the door. There it was.
I lowered my bow for a moment, keeping the arrows and the bow all in one hand while I used the other hand to open it.
It was dark inside this stairwell also. I couldn’t see anything in front of me. It was odd, because generally, in the dark, my eyes would adjust, but in here, there was no light at all, and thus nothing to adjust to. We were inside a mountain.
I had a flash then—a constricting feeling at my throat.
I can breathe, I snapped at myself, annoyed. I didn’t have time for that shit. Annoyed, I shoved at the fear. I hurried forward into the darkness.
And tripped, falling face first into the stairs.
Doyle, behind me, tripped too, falling directly on top of me.
I grunted.
He cried out.
A bright burst of flame from the top of the steps, illuminating everything for one horrible moment. There were dragons at the top of the stairwell, and they were all taking to the air, their wings flapping against the walls and ceiling.
One stood at the top of the steps, jaws wide, hurling flame at us.
I slithered out from beneath Doyle and brought up my bow and arrows.
The flame cut off. And we were plunged into blackness again, the sound of wings hitting the walls above us, the scent of smoke in the air.
> I let loose my arrow. And then another. And another.
A dragon cry. I’d hit one!
I started to scramble up the steps, yanking out more arrows as I moved.
Flames. Overhead. One of the flying dragons was breathing out a line of fire.
A high-pitched female scream.
I turned to see that Shay was lit up, her whole body in flames. The dragon’s fire had hit her squarely.
I shot it. Three arrows right in its midsection.
It screamed and plummeted.
The fire cut off, but we could still see… Shay was a human torch, screaming and flinging herself against the walls.
We scattered, moving out of the way of the falling dragon, of Shay.
“Drop and roll, drop and roll!” yelled Kinsie.
The dragon thudded against the steps inches from me.
I let out an audible breath.
Shay stumbled on the steps, shrieking.
I cringed.
And then she stopped making noise.
We were all flattened against the wall. The flickering light of the flames on Shay’s clothes was starting to burn low.
I needed to shoot these dragons while we had the chance. I took out more arrows. I let them fly.
One leg hit. Another arrow through a wing.
One in the neck.
That one started to lose altitude.
And then it halted in midair.
“I got it,” came Naelen’s voice. “I’ll hold them back with magic, Clarke. You guys go ahead.”
I debated having him freeze them while I shot each and every one. But I might need the arrows. I couldn’t get the ones I’d put in the one that had landed on the steps. It was lying on top of them. They were probably broken, anyway.
Decision made, I started running up the steps. “Okay,” I called back to Naelen. “Let’s go, everyone,” I said to the rest of them, and off we went.
At the top of the steps, I flung open the door, and we were greeted by darkness again. I stumbled out onto the top floor. We were supposed to be close to the control room. It was supposed to be on the left hand side, only a few feet away. That was what Naelen had said.
I stowed my bow and rushed in that direction, hands out, feeling for the wall on the left hand side of the hallway.
Embers (The Slayer Chronicles Book 2) Page 13
