I got up and walked around the table. He was strapped down with metal bands. I used the same technique as with the door, starting with his ankles. One touch and a gentle jolt of electricity, and the restraints sprang open.
When his wrists were free, I helped him sit up. He crunched his eyes shut, breathing heavily, struggling to stay conscious. Where the steel bands had touched his skin, he sported an angry rash that looked agonizing.
I held him upright as he sagged against me. “How long have you been here?”
“I do not know. They never turn the light off. They ask me questions I cannot answer, over and over again. Then they punish me.”
“What do they want to know?”
“How to return to Faerie.”
“Why don’t you tell them?”
The glance he threw me glittered with suppressed rage. “Because I will not be the one leading an invasion force into my world.”
He knew where the portal was. Excitement fizzed through my veins. “If I promise upon my life and my honor to never reveal the secret, would you tell me the location?”
His expression morphed from surprise to suspicion.
I added hastily, “I want to return and save our friends. Then we’ll leave. I promise.”
His thoughts chased across his face like dark clouds driven by strong winds until he came to a decision. “That is an honorable intent. I will make the deal. You help me return, and I will take you with me.”
A huge load lifted off me. We were doing it. We were getting out of here and rescuing our friends in the Fae realm.
We? Or I? Will they come with me?
I squashed the tiny voice of doubt forcefully. Of course, they would. They loved me.
“Is the portal far from here?”
“No, but we have to leave this place and step outside. No portal can exist inside a human habitation.”
Shit. Once I stepped outside the compound, the FBMA would come after us. I needed my Quint with me when we made our break.
“I’ll have to come back for you.”
The look of dread on his handsome face made my chest ache, but I couldn’t help it. I hastened to reassure him. “I won’t be long.”
His shoulders dropped as the alarm drained out of him. “I will wait. Please bring some food and drink. I fear I have lost much strength.”
So they hadn’t fed him, either. “Of course. When was the last time they came to see you?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say, “tortured you.” But Bleddyn knew what I meant.
His mouth twisted in distaste. “Recently. They will not return for a long while.”
My brain was whirring with apprehension. His Fae heritage was unmistakable. Apart from his pointed ears and weird eyes, he wore a tight moss-green jacket and black tailored pants.
Not only did he look like he’d stepped out of a nineteenth century painting, his clothes were torn and bloodied. No way would he pass for a modern-day human. We’d be caught immediately if we tried to walk him through the compound.
Then I remembered my ex-roommate Beth. She was half-Fae, but I hadn’t known until much later because she was able to disguise herself. “Can you alter your appearance?”
“I can conjure a glamor, yes. But I am not strong enough to hide my clothes.”
I thought quickly. “One of the guys will have something that fits you.”
He found it hard to swing his legs up on the table, but with my help, he moved back into his previous position. I placed the metal fastenings over his wrists and ankles, making sure they didn’t touch his bare skin. Unless you stood right next to him, you couldn’t tell they weren’t locked.
Bleddyn stared up at the ceiling, but his eyes couldn’t hide his discomfort and fear. I placed a hand on his biceps. “Bleddyn. I will come back. I won’t leave you here.”
He inclined his head just enough to qualify as a nod, but the groove between his eyebrows never relaxed. His fists were clenched so hard, the muscles in his lower arms trembled.
His skin had morphed from a rich chestnut brown to a mud-colored, sickly hue. Whatever demons he was fighting, I couldn’t help him other than return as quickly as possible.
19
Without another word, I rushed out of the room, making sure to close the door to the lab. I ran as fast as I could until I hit more foot traffic. Vibrating with impatience, I forced myself to walk at a leisurely pace. The last thing I needed was to arouse suspicion and be reported to Hennessy.
By the time I got to our quarters, I was primed to go off like a Fourth of July fire rocket. I burst through the door and announced, “Guys, we need to move out.”
Kiernan and Lance jumped into action immediately. It didn’t take them long to grab a change of clothes and stuff them into their duffle bags.
I did a sweep of the room, knowing we wouldn’t return if everything went to plan. There were the transcribed pages under my pillow, a small bag of grapes, and some candy bars. I threw everything into a sports bag the agency had handed us, originally filled with FBMA-branded T-shirts and sweatpants.
Julian was a little slower. His movements were heavy, as if his body was stuck in treacle. But eventually, he moved into action. He picked up a beige manila folder and stuck it in his bag together with his few other belongings, ready to stand by my side.
My chest bubbled with pride at their trust in me. Despite all the arguments and fights, they still had my back. There was only one man missing.
“Where’s Macha?”
“He’s probably meeting his agent friends.” Julian said it quietly, as if he didn’t want to provoke an argument, but his words whipped through the silence.
Every day, I buried the fear of being betrayed deep inside of me so it wouldn’t seep through the cracks in my exterior. Because once I said it out loud, there was no taking it back.
So I schooled my voice carefully. “What do you mean?”
Julian’s gaze moved in a zigzag pattern, following something only he could see. “I noticed him the other day. He was very chummy with a senior agent.”
Suspicion and fear pushed into my words. “What are you implying?”
Kiernan’s eyebrows pulled together, wrinkling his forehead. He was listening intently, clearly alarmed by my question.
Julian still wasn’t looking at me. “I’m not implying anything. But don’t you think it’s odd that Macha keeps disappearing?”
Not as strange as Kiernan putting the moves on a female agent.
The familiar bitterness of distrust crept through my veins. I took a deep breath, pushing everything away that didn’t belong to this moment. Now was not the time or the place to fight.
I was keenly aware of the day slipping through our fingers. Macha would show up. He always did. But the waiting tore on my nerves, making me feel unsettled and tetchy. I paced while Kiernan and Lance waited, their faces expressionless.
Lance was the first to break the silence. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on?”
I couldn’t. Not yet. If I told Lance we were crossing the portal today, I wasn’t sure how he’d react. But maybe, if he saw what the FBMA had done to Bleddyn, he’d change his mind about working for them.
I picked up my bag and opened the door. “I will. But I need to show you something first. Let’s go.”
As I lead them towards the secret hallway, the tension was like the moment before a thunderstorm when there wasn’t enough air to breathe. It would have to erupt sooner or later.
Because today, I’d find out if I was going to Faerie with my Quint or alone.
We were attracting some curious glances. Soon, Hennessy would know where we were heading. I broke into a jog. We’d have fifteen minutes at most once we reached the hidden corridor.
I checked one last time to make sure we weren’t followed, then I pushed open the door to the lab. The guys were lined up behind me, covering my back.
Lance inhaled sharply when we entered the torture room. Bleddyn lay on the steel table exactly like I
’d left him.
When we entered, he blinked rapidly, and relief washed over his face. He sat up and swung his legs to the ground.
“You. You’re the bastard who got Julian killed.”
Kiernan’s voice sounded as if he wanted to rip the guy’s throat out. He rushed to attack the Fae warrior, and I barely caught his arm. “No. Stop. We need him.”
Kiernan glared at me, but allowed me to hold him back.
Bleddyn didn’t flinch under Kiernan’s ire. “You know I was under orders. I had no choice but to obey my King’s demands.”
“Bollocks,” Kiernan snarled. “Was it ever right to lock people up who never did any harm to you?”
“Guys, please. You can slug it out later. First, we got to get out of here.”
Kiernan grumbled, but his biceps relaxed under my grip. He stepped forward and helped Bleddyn off the table. The warrior took one step before his knees buckled.
“I got him.” Lance put his arm around Bleddyn’s waist to prop him up.
What had they done to him? There were no obvious wounds, but sweat dotted his hairline, and he winced when Lance dragged him out of the lab room. I checked outside the door to make sure Hennessy wasn’t waiting to clap us in irons.
Then I remembered Bleddyn needed to lose his old-fashioned clothes. “Lance, you’re about his size. Give him your jacket.”
Lance didn’t hesitate and slipped off his leather jacket while holding on to Bleddyn. He wrangled him into it, and right away, the warrior looked more like a human from this century.
He seemed to get stronger by the second, but still needed Lance’s support. In the hallway, Bleddyn lost his footing, and nearly took a tumble.
“Watch it.” Lance dragged the Fae back on his feet.
Bleddyn grabbed his arm. “We cannot leave yet. There is another person in the next room. I heard her screams.”
The same questions running through my mind were written on my men’s faces. Who else might be hidden? Did we have time to find out? Probably not, but if I left somebody else to be tortured to death, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
Mind made up, I strode to the second door and blasted the security mechanism. I crossed the anteroom, followed by Kiernan, and stopped in my tracks. A body was strapped to a steel table in the same position Bleddyn had been.
A curtain of green hair hung off the edge, brushing the floor.
Kiernan was the first to speak. Well, not speak exactly. More like swear in increasingly colorful Irish terms.
Because the girl in front of us was somebody we’d thought was safe in a Canadian lake with her family. At least, that’s what a former teacher had told us.
But then, it had been the same teacher who’d handed us over to the FBMA after pretending to drive us to freedom. Had anything Mrs. Palmer had told us be true?
My chest hurt as the disappointment slithered through my ribcage and wrapped itself tightly around my heart. I inhaled deeply to loosen the knot.
Then I approached my former roommate. Sharon’s face was so pale, she looked like a corpse. But she was breathing, so at least we weren’t too late.
“Sharon. Wake up.”
The nixie groaned as her eyelids fluttered open. Revulsion crept over my skin like cold, wet river algae. Intellectually, I knew Sharon was not human, much like Beth or Kiernan. Something different from what I’d known all my life. But instinctually, I didn’t want to touch or be near her.
My stomach rolled in and out of nausea as I catalogued her alien features. When I’d last seen her, she’d looked normal enough to fit in with the Academy students. I’d never realized she’d disguised herself, but here, under the bright lights, I wondered how I’d ever mistaken her for a human.
There were parallel slits, like knife slashes, behind her ears. They were white, edged with pink and light green. Gills, most likely.
She opened her eyes, and where before they’d been unremarkable, they now glittered bright green, with upright, narrow pupils. She blinked, and a thin membrane slid over her eyeballs. A second eyelid, my disbelieving brain supplied.
“For God’s sake, get a move on.”
That was easy for Kiernan to say. He’d grown up with magical folks. I hadn’t. But he was right. I closed my eyes briefly to gather the strength I knew was coiled inside of me. Then I sent the fizzling burst into the restraints and popped them open.
I was so focused on what I was doing, I didn’t see Sharon’s hand coming.
20
The slap jerked my head sideways. “Ow. What the hell?”
I held my burning cheek and glared at her. The fish bitch had some power in her, despite her miserable appearance. “What was that for? I’m only trying to help.”
Sharon fell back. Socking me in the face must have drained her of her remaining strength. “It’s your fault I’m here. You sat me into Palmer’s car, and she dropped me here.”
“We’re running out of time.” Kiernan’s urgent tone emphasized his words.
I released Sharon’s ankle restraints, and Kiernan helped her off the table. I took a deep breath and forced myself to get over my revulsion, pulling her arm over my shoulder. “Time to vamoose.”
I turned us toward the exit, and that’s when everything went to hell.
Callahan stood in the open doorway.
I froze midstep. So did the guys. We held our collective breath, staying motionless, suspended in the vain hope our handler wasn’t actually there.
I was the first to recover. “Get out of the way.”
Callahan’s eyes were dark with sorrow, but he shook his head. “I can’t do that. If I let you go, they will hunt you down. You know that.”
“Come on, man. You can’t be okay with what’s happening here. Look what they did to Bleddyn and Sharon.”
His eyes flicked between the Fae and my former roommate. His Adam’s apple jumped behind his regulation tie as he swallowed. He was wavering, and I pushed ahead without mercy. “You owe us your life, Callaghan. I’m calling in my debt.”
Shock cracked through his customary neutral expression, allowing me a glimpse of how torn he was. But then he straightened, and his face went back to neutrally blank. “If I let you go, we’re quits. I don’t owe you anything after this. Agreed?”
Relief loosened the hold on my eyelids, and I closed them to stop my eyeballs from burning. “Agreed.”
“That’s lovely. But I didn’t agree.”
A familiar voice punched the air out of my chest. Callahan whirled around, and his hand reached behind his back under his jacket.
“Don’t bother, Callahan. I’ll deal with you later.”
Assistant Director Hennessey waved him aside with a black handgun before pointing it straight at us.
“Ma, what do you think you’re doing? Put the gun down.” Kiernan’s voice clipped the higher registers.
Looking into the barrel triggered a tsunami of emotions inside of me. There was fear, disbelief, but above all, rage. Yet again, somebody tried to get in my way, threaten my lovers, stopping me from what I knew to be right.
My blood pulled towards my middle, leaving my extremities cold and shaking. I didn’t fight the feeling. Instead, I welcomed it, channelling it into my tone. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
Kiernan’s voice was raging at his mother, but it was far away, like at the end of a tunnel. I had no trouble tuning him out. There was the steady thump-thump of my heart, the ever-present glow of our bonds, and the white-hot ball of lightning in my stomach.
I was distantly aware that I was welcoming the looming battle. Because somebody who tortured helpless prisoners was no better than the Fae scum who had our friends.
And I was tired, so tired of being the victim.
Today, I would leave this government prison with my Quint and Sharon and Bleddyn, and nobody would stop me.
I took a step towards Hennessy, and another one. She wasn’t worth it, but I would incinerate her if she tried to harm a hair on my lovers�
�� heads. Except for Lance. I snickered, and to my surprise, Hennessy’s hand shook as she stepped back, trying to keep out of my reach.
“Stop. Don’t come closer. I’m warning you.” She trembled through her words, diminishing their meaning until they fizzled out like firework duds.
Sharon’s skin rolled with shivers under my fingertips, and I read the fear on her like Braille. Ignoring her, I sank deeper within myself. Kiernan pulled Sharon away from me, but I barely noticed. My entire focus was on herding Assistant Director Hennessy, who kept at least six feet distance between us.
In the hallway, the walls were too close to us. If I flung lightning at her, it was likely to bounce and hit us instead. I had to think of another way to disarm her. The tendrils of the Soul Weave glowed deep red, like embers at their hottest. I recognized the variations—the bright-red anger was Lance’s. The duller red was Kiernan’s disappointment.
Did she know what the Soul Weave ritual had done to us? I doubted it. There were the tiny vibrations of a power buildup, like plucking a string, running through the bond. Even Julian’s black connection was pulsating in angry waves.
He stood on the corner, his dark eyes projecting defiance and hatred, boring into Assistant Director Hennessy’s back. She was alone, but I had no doubt there were other agents on their way.
It didn’t matter. I could take them. We could take them. But I still had to consider Bleddyn and Sharon, who were in no condition to fight. Was there a way to walk out of here without risking their lives? My gaze swept around the area, looking for a solution.
And I found it.
Behind us was a lab, full of equipment that must have cost millions. No matter what Hennessy’s game was, she wouldn’t be happy to lose all that. Like a curtain hiding my true feelings, I forced a relaxed smile onto my face. “All we want is to step outside the compound.”
Hennessy’s shrewd eyes tightened. “You committed a federal crime, Amber. You released two dangerous non-humans.”
She actually thought she’d won the game. Her voice strengthened, and her hand was steady. “I want you to surrender those two individuals and then return to your quarters and stay there. You’re under house arrest until I’m ready to deal with you.”
Second Chance Doom: a paranormal romance adventure (Second Chance Academy Book 5) Page 9
