I lifted my chin and squinted at the setting sun. Perhaps I could see Marcus again. I had no clue how he’d react, after we burned the levees. There was a way into the city, access few had knowledge of. The underground aqueduct, the channels and sewers would take me to him. I could still navigate them to gain access before the rains came, but I doubted he’d want me now.
Worse, I would have to go into zones that were patrolled day and night to slip into the underground. It was best I remain outside the city and out of enemy sectors.
I tipped my chin down, studying the ragged image before me, weighing my choices and the possible fallout. I’d matured these last few months, learned not to jump without putting thought into how I would land, and what would come of my actions. I might be older, but I was also a wiser Olivia.
I reached out and drew pictures in the water with my finger. How had I gotten to this point? Even if I snuck into the city, would he recognize me, still want me with the way I looked? I was no longer Marcus’s beautiful traitor. Axel had made certain of that.
But I was still his wife, and that had to count for something.
I slapped the water and screamed. How could I think about going back to him? I tilted my face up and eyed the darkening sky through the canopy above. A storm approached.
Would Marcus take me in? Would he harbor me in the city? Doubtful, but I had nowhere else to go. I rose from where I sat and began to tear the bottom of my shirt into strips and wrap my feet. I was a survivor and not ready to die. My heart was broken, but it would heal. I had no idea I’d feel this way. You never did until the one you thought you didn’t love anymore was gone. Finality had a way of making the hard facts sink in and stick.
As long as I moved forward, I would not get lost in the past.
I was the Iron Bee.
7
“I see her.”
I’d stopped for only a moment to pull some water from the well and wash my wounds. An enemy soldier in black walked into the clearing. I spotted him first. He saw my backside as I scrambled for the cover of the forest. A bolt fired. He’d missed.
The chase began. For an hour, I’d run. My body ached, and I strained to catch my breath. If not for my new heart, I’d have collapsed long before. Sometime during his pursuit, four or five others had joined him. I stayed in the forest. They stayed on foot, unable to get gliders through the dense growth. But the longer I ran, the closer to the city I came, and it didn’t take much to figure out they were herding me toward a trap.
I had no choice but to go toward enemy territory and hope I could squeeze into the underground unobserved. I’d planned to backtrack and come through the secret passages and up into the winter palace, where I knew I could find Marcus. Thirty feet, perhaps. I circled it for twenty minutes, waiting for an opportunity that refused to show itself.
“There!” Another bolt exploded near me. The noose continued to tighten, making the simple task seem impossible. I needed to keep moving, and, eventually, I’d have to abandon the escape route. They’d soon figure out I didn’t want to leave the area, and the last thing I wanted was to expose the secret channels and underground world.
One more pass. Leaping over a fallen column, I ran as fast as I could. The sounds of soldiers behind me drove me away from the safety of the forest and into a familiar plaza.
My cloth-wrapped feet left a bloody trail behind me. Bits of twigs and rocks stuck to my wounds, each step sent shooting pains up my legs. I didn’t know how much longer I could go before I bled out or collapsed from exhaustion.
I often thought about stopping, letting them catch me. I’d lost everything I cared about. My trip to a new world, Axel, my friends and family. Everything. But I wasn’t a coward. So I ran for my life, trying to draw them away from the entrance to the underworld. No matter how exhausted, how much pain I endured, I would survive this.
“She’s this way. Follow the blood.”
I paused and glanced back; shadows danced along the side of a building. I dodged behind the corner of a partially collapsed wall and sank down, hiding in an alcove, doing my best to disappear. My chest rose and fell, but my heart didn’t quit as it would have in the past.
Because of this, I decided I’d fight to survive. I’d run. I’d hide. I’d do whatever I had to, to find my way back to Axel and my clan, and restore my place among them. The enemy soldiers were getting too close. I couldn’t slip into the underground with them watching, and realized too late I was flanked. In moments, they’d spot me.
Bolts slammed into the ground off to the side, across the abandoned plaza of the old city.
“There’s another. Get her.”
Another? Here, in daylight? I peeked around the corner, to see a young woman with bright-red hair emerge from the forest into the clearing. She glanced right and left, a panicked look on her face. Only one reason she’d be here, caught in this predicament. She’d followed me. Why?
I sucked in a breath and backed away, staying low and stepping in a mud puddle, coating my feet in hopes of sealing them long enough to mask my retreat.
“No!” the woman screamed.
I took cover behind another partially demolished wall and peered through a hole in the stucco, watching as five soldiers dragged the woman into the open. They looped cords over her wrists and fired their grappling clamps into a building and a tree on either side of her. They’d touched her?
Shit. Maybe my interaction with Marcus had caused more damage than I thought.
“Little Iron Bee, I know you’re out there. Show yourself!” a man that looked a lot like Axel called out and turned around in the clearing. Could it be Marcus’s brother, Pilot? My gut clenched. Yes.
The cords snapped tight, yanking the woman’s limbs straight. The sounds of cracking bone and shrieking filled the clearing. The force of the cables lifted her feet off the ground, suspending her in midair by the wrists. Blood poured from cuts around her hands. She threw her head back and howled.
Had he seen me? I bit my lip.
“Help her out. Give yourself up. You’re not going to reach him, so just come out and make this easier on yourself—on your friend here.”
I swallowed, sick to my stomach. I knew the woman. She had a child, was the widow of one of the men killed by Marcus. All my fault. Had she been following me, hoping to finish me off when Axel ordered my exile instead of execution?
“Don’t do it. They’ll kill us both!” That didn’t sound like a woman who wanted me dead. I swallowed, ready to stand and give away my position.
“Shut her the fuck up,” the man who looked like Axel said. “You come out and you’d better do it now. Every second you delay, you make it worse for the clone.”
One of the soldiers ripped her shirt down the front and tore it from her body. He balled it up, grabbed her hair, and yanked her head back, stuffing the wad into her mouth.
“Come on, sis, come out and play. Let’s cure my brother’s little obsession with you.” He cupped his hand over his mouth. “Come out, come out wherever you are…” He dragged the barrel of his laser down the woman’s body, sliding it along her flesh. “Do you know what I’m going to do to your friend?”
I froze. Yes. He more than made it clear his intent. I was in deeper shit than I’d thought. What should I do, lure them away, stop them, or step into the open? I wouldn’t make it across the clearing, and they’d likely kill her if I ran.
Skin stretched tight on the helpless clone, showing the disconnected joints, enhancing the ball parts of the woman’s sockets. The pain must be unbearable, but she didn’t fight. She didn’t kick or make any attempt to stop the direction in which the situation traveled.
“Do you suppose they really are soulless?” a soldier asked, sticking the tip of his laser under her jaw.
“Fucking animals. Of course they’re soulless. They don’t even have mothers.” Pilot turned around again. “Where are you, Olivia? You know you want to save her—can’t help yourself, can you? You don’t want another death on your conscienc
e, another notch on your new heart.” He pursed his lips and whistled a ballad from my handfasting party, the ball I hadn’t wanted to learn to dance for. The song let me know he’d been there, knew exactly what I looked like. “You give him hope. I won’t have that, sweetheart. I can’t chance he’s right, that you can bring Aeropia back together—not when my father worked so hard to take it apart.”
The woman’s eyes watered, but she did her best to look brave, unaffected. She made eye contact with me and gave a slight shake of her head.
Pilot strode up to her and grabbed a fistful of hair, wrenching her head back. He turned and pressed his lips to her ear, staring in the direction she’d been looking moments before. I froze. “What do you see out there? You see our girl? Tell me where, and I’ll cut you down.”
She gave another shake of her head.
“She must be close,” Pilot said. “Spread out. Find her.” He turned back to his captive, and a chill raced down my spine, as he spoke up, making sure I heard every word he said. “I say we have some fun. There’s nobody here to stop us, and I know you don’t use that virus anymore. I had a little fun at the levees. Your soldiers bled like stuck pigs when I gutted them, and I live.” He thumped his chest with both fists. “Not a sign of the infection. What do you say?” Pilot let go of her hair and grabbed her breast, giving it a hard squeeze. I lost my breath. “Shall we fuck your friend—test out my little theory that you don’t have that scary-ass virus to protect you anymore?”
Pilot unbuttoned her pants and yanked them down, using his knife to cut the fabric away, leaving her hanging naked, except for her boots.
“Pretty, for a clone.” He shoved her, and she swung back and forth on her dislocated arms. I cringed. Even though pilot had gagged the woman, I could still hear her cries. They are going to do it.
Pilot reached for his belt, and a blue bolt flew past him, hitting the woman. “Shit!”
He stumbled back and fell to the brick that paved the courtyard. The hanging woman lit and disintegrated, leaving only a pile of ash. The cables whipped loose through the air. One slammed into the building next to where I hid. Plaster exploded by my head. I dropped to my knees and covered, hoping the action didn’t draw attention in my direction.
“What’s going on here?” That voice. My chin snapped up. Marcus walked into the clearing, pointing his laser at his brother. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you want to trigger a plague?”
“We were about to torture her for information.”
“That’s not what it looked like to me.” Marcus swung his arm around and fired on one of the soldiers accompanying his brother. The man jumped back. “I should have you all executed. Now, does one of you want to tell me what was really going on here?”
Pilot shrugged. “We were having a little fun.”
“Were you?”
One of the soldiers opened his mouth, and Marcus spun on him before he got a word out. “Rape. Use your brains. You know they carry disease. We don’t have the antidote.”
“We were…” When Marcus turned back to his brother, Pilot raised his hands. “Easy there with that blaster, brother.”
Marcus kept his aim steady, the red bead of light dead center of Pilot’s body. “You were going to rape the wretched creature.”
“So, maybe we were.”
Marcus grabbed a fistful of his brother’s shirt and yanked him nose to nose. “You are under direct orders not to have contact with them, and here you are, preparing to rape one of their females and put us all in danger.” More soldiers entered the clearing, surrounding the group. “Do you know the penalty for this? For even touching one of them?”
“You had no issue with me interrogating the bastards before.”
“You didn’t interrogate. You killed them. If my memory serves correct, you were ordered not to do that as well. No blood. I could have bathed in the mess you left behind.”
“Shit happens.”
“You didn’t address me as sir.” Marcus raised his laser and pressed it into Pilot’s chest, shoving him back. “I’m tired of cleaning up after you. I don’t tolerate disobedience within the ranks—from anyone within the ranks—you included.” He glanced over at the cable attached to the tree. “String them up like they did the clone. I want a visual reminder for those who think they can make their own laws. They’ll hang for forty-eight hours. Once they’ve served their punishment, cut them down. Maybe they’ll think twice about following orders that are against the mandates I set. Bring my brother along. He can sit in a cell until I decide what to do with him.”
Marcus spun on his heel to leave and stopped cold. His gaze locked onto mine, and his expression became murderous, not that of the man I’d met before. I knew then he wouldn’t pass by, pretending he hadn’t seen me. The look he gave told me more than words ever could. I was certain he thought I had something to do with the assault on the levees and the deaths of his men. It didn’t take a genius to put it all together. “Hello, dear. So nice of you to drop by.”
8
One set of boot steps, with purpose to the stride. Shouts of attention echoed down the corridor. Marcus approached. I didn’t have to see him to know. In the short time I’d known him, I’d learned a lot. Whatever he had to say, he wanted to say it alone. No others accompanied him. The thing I wasn’t certain of—had Marcus come to speak to me, or did he plan to visit his brother?
The spikes embedded in the soles of his boots clicked against the stone tile in the detention center corridor. They were the boots that kept him and his men on their feet in the muddy terrain of the forest. I’d seen them on dead soldiers and had eyed them with envy, never able to find a pair in my size, and when Marcus finally gave me a pair, they were confiscated by Axel before they ran me off. Now, they served as an ominous warning. I reached up and touched my lips, remembering the kisses we’d shared, and shivered at the thought of what it would be like on the wrong side of his temper.
I was exhausted and barely able to focus. I’d been up all night trying to block Pilot, who seemed to get off on tormenting me. “Olivia,” he’d sung out. “What are you doing?”
“None of your business.”
“Are you crying?”
“No.” I’d wiped the tears from my cheek, horrified he’d guessed right. “I never cry.”
Laughter. “Do you want to know a secret, Olivia?”
“Leave me alone.” I plugged my fingers in my ears, not wanting to hear what Pilot had to say, certain it wouldn’t be anything good.
“Marcus is using you to get to the clone. He doesn’t care about you. He’ll fuck you. Use you, but, eventually, when he gets what he wants, he’ll execute you.”
I bit my lip, not willing to believe it. He couldn’t, wouldn’t do that. I’d seen something in his eyes. Perhaps if I ignored Pilot, he’d shut up. “That’s not true.”
“Spy. You are a spy, and I will prove it.” He began to list traitors and incidents of treason, going so far as to tell me what happened when they were caught. Chopping off their heads, crushing them under a heel. He went through every manner of horrible death I could imagine and then some I hadn’t. All left ugly images in my head like a bad aftertaste. On and on he went, until I thought I’d go mad. “Do you know what a guillotine is?”
“No.”
Laughter. Creepy cackling that had me rubbing my arms. “You wouldn’t be the first wife to have her head removed.”
“Shut up!”
“Do you know what else you are, Olivia? Oh, I know a secret. Daddy’s deep dark secret he thought he’d kept hidden. Do you want to know what it is?” He chuckled.
“No,” I whispered. Whatever that man had to say would certainly be a lie. I’d heard enough through the night. “Leave me alone.”
The boot steps stopped outside the door to my cell. “Open it and leave us,” Marcus’s voice rang out from the other side, letting me know I’d run out of time.
As I’d suspected, he hadn’t come to see Pilot, he’d come to see m
e. I sank onto the metal bench that served as a bed and pressed my hand over my heart to steady the beat.
Clunk, the bolt opened. The door swung inward with a groan. I squinted, adjusting to the bright lights in the hallway, for a moment feeling as though I lived in Eva’s story.
“Hello, Olivia.”
“Marcus.”
“Let’s chat.” He stepped inside, and the door shut behind him with a thud, the lock slid home, and we were alone.
I stared at him, not sure what to say, nor had I known him long enough to read him. The entire situation frightened me. I wanted to crawl inside myself and hide from those penetrating eyes. Regardless of what he wanted to talk about, I would not cower. I rose to my feet, lifted my chin, and didn’t break eye contact. Let him bring it.
“So…”
“So,” I said right back.
“I’ll just get straight to the point. Were you behind the ambush that took the lives of my men or the attack that destroyed the levees?”
“Now, that’s the question that’s on everyone’s minds, isn’t it?” Pilot called from his cell, clearly eavesdropping. “Do tell, Olivia.”
“Why should I answer you?” I asked.
“This isn’t trivia. It’s a life or death question. I suggest you be as honest as possible with me.”
“He’s not kidding, little bee,” Pilot interjected.
“Shut it, Pilot, or I’ll have you removed to the lower levels and forget you’re there. Now, where were we?” Marcus studied me. “I believe you were about to answer my question.” He didn’t raise his voice, but I couldn’t help but hear the warning buried in his words. He meant what he said. If I gave him the wrong answer, it would mean my death.
“No, I was behind neither.”
“You buying that, little brother? She’s nothing but a clone’s whore.”
Marcus growled. “One more word from you…” He scanned me from head to toe and nodded, satisfied with my answer. “Did my men—my brother do this?”
The Book of Olivia Page 10
