by Amy Braun
Mournfully, he looked at Claire. “I’ll look after Abby.”
Claire swallowed her tears. She nodded quickly, fearing to speak. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed the button to descend, the second one that Claire had pushed earlier. I held her close and looked up at my friends until their tear-streaked faces were vanished from view.
My death was close. It wouldn’t be quick or pretty. But at least I had one perfect moment to hold onto.
Chapter 22
Claire
I twisted in Sawyer’s arms, wrapping my arms around the back of his neck. I was careful when I touched his face, wishing I could take each bruise and cut away. My fingers stopped at his lips. He gently took my wrist and placed a kiss on my palm. His hand slid into my hair and I wiped the blood from his lips. Then I leaned upward to kiss him.
I poured everything into it. All my gratefulness and love, the comfort and warmth I felt only with him. How I would give anything to make it last. I memorized his taste. The feel of his tender lips. The way he filled my heart and sent butterflies into my stomach.
I let him know he was my everything. He would be until the very last second.
When we finally parted, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his chest. I listened to his heartbeat. It was quick with fear, but it soothed me. Sawyer’s hand stroked the back of my head, trailed down my neck, and rubbed my back. I tightened my arms around him.
“Sorry I couldn’t keep my promise,” he whispered softly into my hair.
A lump built in my throat. I swallowed it quickly. “You’re here. That’s all that matters.”
Sawyer’s shoulder sagged. He pressed a lingering kiss on the top of my head.
The elevator jolted to a halt, jerking us apart. As I drew my hands away from Sawyer, they brushed along the hilt of his pistol. I glanced at it, frowning at the strange blue glow.
“What is that?”
Sawyer plucked it from his belt, using his free hand to pry open the elevator. He stepped outside and held his hand out for me. I took it and followed him. His tawny eyes blazed with the fire I loved so much.
“It’s an ultraviolet gun,” he explained. “Instead of shooting regular bullets, it fires rounds of light that are similar to the intensity of the sun.” A playful grin crossed his face. “One shot with this, and the Hellions turn to ash.” He showed me a switch on the side of the pistol. “But you press this button,” he pointed it out to me, “and it fires every round like it was coming from a blunderbuss.”
My eyes widened. Whoever made this had serious talent. “Where did you get this?”
He holstered the gun, the playfulness starting to fade. “This is probably the worst time to tell you,” he announced with a look that was half a smile, half a grimace, “but I found her, Claire. I found your mother.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. “She’s alive?!”
He nodded, smiling sadly. “Abby’s with her. They’re safe. I made sure of it.”
Hot tears sprang into my eyes. For once, they were tears of happiness. “I love you, Sawyer.”
His face softened. Even with the cuts and bruises, he was beautiful to me. “I love you too, Firecracker.”
I laughed, an awful choked sound. “I’d forgotten about that stupid name.”
“It’s not stupid,” he said, drawing me closer. His hands rubbed up and down my arms. “It’s you.”
Sawyer kissed me again, warmth and love filling my every breath. I closed my eyes and absorbed it all.
He pulled back and slipped his hand in mine. We quickened our steps, walking toward the power room. Sawyer’s hand tightened the closer we got to the formidable area. We passed through the doorway, coming to a halt once we entered the room.
The pillar of red lightning and wispy smoke writhed like a trapped snake, spitting sparks and tiny bolts of energy in the ring of onyx stalagmites and stalactites. The black cables continued to pump energy into the transference machine and its slots. I shuddered to look at them, knowing that they’d been used to revive the dead and turn them into Hellions–
Metal shrieked and groaned as something heavy landed on top of the elevator. I clapped my hands over my mouth to cover my scream. Sawyer shielded me with his body, drawing his cutlass and holding it in front of him. His second hand slipped into his coat and retrieved the modified pistol. Without turning, he held it behind his back. I grabbed it and held it tight.
Sawyer tensed in front of me. I peered over his shoulder.
Shadows shifted in the elevator’s doorway. Whatever had landed on it had plunged straight through, shredding the metal cage.
The Vesper peeled out of the darkness, moving slowly and purposefully. I shuddered at the sight of him.
He always looked formidable, but the Palisade’s electricity had done terrible damage to him. His bloody robes were covered in charred black holes. The crown of bones was brittle and looked ready to disintegrate. His shockingly pale skin was puckered and red with burns. His hair was singed all the way to his chest and in a wild disarray. His eyes continued to bore into me like bloody voids.
Sawyer placed his hand on my stomach and slowly pushed me back.
“Not looking so good there, Vesp,” taunted Sawyer. My heart hammered in my chest, working its way up to my throat in a terrified scream. “Maybe you should go back and finish baking.”
The Vesper didn’t stop walking. He marched straight toward Sawyer. I stepped back, hurrying to the transference machine–
Agony exploded in my head as the Vesper plunged into my skull. I screamed and dropped to my knees. Icy fingers gripped my brain and started to tear it apart. I clutched my head, wishing it would stop, begging it to stop, make it stop–
The pain shut off abruptly. I convulsed and gasped, wincing at the throb building in my skull. I lifted my head and saw that Sawyer’s muscles were bunched. He’d plunged his sword straight into the Vesper’s chest.
The Hellion King looked down at the blade sticking out of him. He didn’t even flinch. Instead, he swatted the back of his hand against Sawyer’s face.
The blow happened so quick and so sharply that I barely saw it. But I saw the blood spray from Sawyer’s mouth. The painful way his neck twisted. The way he crumpled onto the ground in pain.
“No,” I screamed.
The Vesper shot me a deadly glare. I raised the gun to shoot him in the chest.
The Vesper closed distance easily, grabbing my hand and crushing the bones in it. I screamed again, the sound cut off as his other hand closed around my throat. He picked me up like I weighed nothing, and drew me to his face.
“You destroyed all I have built, all I have worked to achieve,” he hissed. The smell of blood made my eyes water. I was so close I could see the bright red veins cracking his eyes.
“Now you will watch as I take everything from you.”
The Vesper hurled me against the wall. My back slammed against it. I landed hard on my chest, the wind knocked from me as a fresh bruise bloomed along my cheek. I groaned and looked at the gun in my hand. The metal barrel was dented from the Vesper’s crushing grip.
But the shells were still intact.
I pushed up to my hands and knees, watching in horror as the Vesper closed in on Sawyer. The marauder crawled along the floor, reaching for his sword. The Vesper grabbed his shoulders and threw him into the wall. Sawyer winced as he struck it, then swung out with his fist. The Vesper grabbed his outstretched arm and pinned it. He used his claws to slice violent lines down Sawyer’s chest.
His scream shattered my heart.
The Vesper whirled Sawyer around and threw him onto the ground. He almost cut himself on his sword.
The first thing I wanted to do was fight. Do whatever I could to save Sawyer. But I couldn’t. The whole reason we came down here was to lure the Vesper after us. I wouldn’t lose the only chance I had.
No matter how much this fight was breaking my heart.
My eyes cut to the ultraviolet bullets in my ha
nd. I looked at the machine, thinking about the Volt inside. I knew what I had to do.
Steeling myself, I got up and ran toward the transference machine, fighting the pain rolling around my skull like a boulder. I found the siding I’d left loose just days ago and pulled on it. Metal cut into my fingertips as I tried to rip the door free. As I fought the door, I looked up to see the Vesper bearing down on Sawyer again.
He managed to find his footing and held his sword. He was unsteady on his feet, but he didn’t back away from the Hellion King. The Vesper closed in like a cat preparing to play with a mouse.
Sawyer swung the cutlass at the Vesper, both of his hands tight on the hilt. The Vesper casually stepped to the side, letting the swing go wide. He hooked his arms under Sawyer’s, catching his arms and raising them high. Sawyer’s chest was completely exposed. It was easy for the Vesper to stab his claws deep into Sawyer’s stomach.
He screamed again, and I felt another piece of myself die.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as I pulled open the control panel. Sawyer let out another sharp wheeze of pain, but I forced myself not to look. I worked through the wires with shaking hands, finding the Volt and prying the magnet from the siding. Using the transference machine’s anatomy, I began the switch.
The Volt was still charged with electricity, but the ultraviolet bullets were easily magnetized to the center of it. The entire device now looked like a wheel helm with shorter spokes, but it would still do the trick once the electricity broke the small glass casings–
“Claire.”
My heart skipped a beat when the Vesper said my name. It stopped completely when I looked up and saw Sawyer trapped in the Hellion King’s grasp.
He was on his knees, face pulped and bloodied. Blood coated his chest and stomach, soaking into his filthy clothes. The Vesper had a firm grip on Sawyer’s hair. He pressed the sword to Sawyer’s chest, near his heart.
“You have not been paying attention.”
I trembled, barely able to see the horrible situation through my tears. “Let him go.”
“I have no reason to.”
Sawyer looked up. He was delirious with pain, but the agony stopped when he looked at me. Unspoken understanding went through his tawny eyes. He knew what was going to happen. He wasn’t going to blame me for it. I knew this, because he gave me the smallest smile. The one that showed me how much I meant to him. How happy I made him.
The smile that made me fall in love with him.
“If you take his life,” I said, my voice shaking, “I will do more than take yours. By the time it’s over, there won’t be a scrap of you left. You’ll have nothing. No legacy. In ten years, no one will know you ever existed.”
The Vesper didn’t blink. Sawyer smiled at me. He believed in me. He always had.
Just as I believed in myself. For the first time, I felt complete clarity. I knew what I had to do. I knew how to do it. I understood the cost it might come at.
“I do not think that will happen, Claire,” remarked the Vesper. “Your death starts now.”
While he was uttering his threat, I pushed the button down on the Volt. The electricity began to burst and snap through the transference machine. Sparks flew, the intense heat and pressure cracking the glass casing of the bullets.
Bright ultraviolet light flowed through the cracks, pressurizing as the Volt amplified its brightness.
The Vesper roared and pulled his hand back to spare his eyes from the intense blue light.
But not before he stabbed Sawyer in the chest.
With the metallic snaps and cracking glass mingling with the Vesper’s cries of pain, I barely heard my own scream. But I felt it wrench out of my throat, as ravaged as my heart was when I saw the blade pierce Sawyer’s chest. The shocked look of pain in his eyes before the Vesper withdrew the sword and let him collapse.
The Vesper staggered back, shielding himself from the violent light searing his skin. He stumbled, not sure where he was going. I sprinted out from behind the transference machine and raced for them both. The red lightning pillar began to writhe more violently, shifting back and forth as the transference machine lost control of it.
The Vesper sensed me approaching and grabbed my arms. I screamed as his claws ripped open my skin. He opened his jaws, revealing jagged teeth. I was nearly frozen by the sickening display.
Holes were burned in the Vesper’s face, flecks of ash falling off from where he’d been ignited by the ultraviolet flares. The wild red pillar snapped back and forth behind him. The rage in his eyes as he aimed his fangs at my neck.
But instead of freezing, I fought.
I kicked him in the chest, screaming again as he shredded my arms. He staggered back toward the pillar, the back of his feet striking the stalagmites that surround it.
The Vesper fell backward into the pillar, and burst into flames.
The ignition happened so quickly that I barely saw it. The moment his body was torched, he became a flash of black dust. Then the pillar consumed even that.
The Vesper was gone. Not a single scrap of him left.
Just as I promised.
The transference machine began to erupt from the pressure. Snaps of electricity coiled around it, scorching the metal and melting the interior wires. The glass case imploded, unleashing a current into the room. The entire place was about to become a conduit of deadly energy. I had to get us out before the discharge found us.
I ran for Sawyer, heart in my throat as I saw his limp form in a steadily growing pool of blood. Violent sobs wracked my body as I knelt down and pulled his arm over my shoulder.
“Come on, Sawyer, wake up!”
My legs trembled as I stood up, lifting him with me. I grunted and panted with exertion. But I wouldn’t let him fall.
His head lolled against mine. I felt his warm breath tickle my neck. The sticky blood of his chest brushing against my arm. He was awake, and conscious enough to hear me. I dragged him with me, heading for the elevator.
Or what was left of it.
The Vesper’s descent had all but folded the elevator in on itself. There was no way we could go up. We were trapped.
The pillar of electricity smashed violently against the walls, cracking the stone. It didn’t have an outlet anymore, so it was going to make one.
Knowing there was nowhere else to go, I dragged Sawyer behind the broken elevator. It was the best protection I could offer him. Our best chance to be shielded from the madness in the power room. I kept away from the metal elevator and lowered him onto the ground. I half fell on top of him, but regained my balance and hauled him into my lap. I cradled him there, bending my head and telling him how much I loved him. How I would never stop loving him. I would stay with him until the very end.
The walls began to crack, dark dust splitting off the edges as the lightning dashed against it. A great shiver rumbled through the room as the pillar fought for freedom. A blast of lightning crashed into the elevator. I yelped at the blinding light and held Sawyer closer to me. I protected him as best as I could, but I was shaking.
Just when I thought the crashing couldn’t get any louder, the pillar warped and bent to the left. A monstrous detonation tore through the walls. I heard stone splinter, shatter, and smash into the ground. The entire floor shuddered. Rocks bashed into the top of the elevator, denting it sharply inward. Violent wind whipped into the room. I no longer heard the lightning. I leaned back, risking a glance past the elevator into the room.
