by Megan Curd
“No, Evan.”
“And they’re twins, right? How am I supposed to know which one is Evan?”
He shook his head. “You know what? Forget it. Just get our group ready—you, your parents, Sari, Alice, Gimpalicious. If I can round up the others, I will. If not…we’ll figure something else out. We don’t have time to waste. Our numbers aren’t great, but we can pull it off. Plus, I have an idea.”
“What’s that?”
“I know of a tunnel that runs out of here and into other domes.”
I gasped. “Then why haven’t we used it?”
“Because the oxygen level can be controlled. It makes the dome impossible to leave without permission, except for me. We’d have to make sure everyone had masks.” He stood as best he could and pulled me up. “We’re going to be heading to the slaughter no matter what plan of escape we use. You need to know that. Our chances aren’t good, but there has to be another way to live than this. If there’s not, well, it’s not a world I want to live in anyway.” He pointed to the tunnel leading back to the academy. “You going to be okay?”
“Yes,” I said confidently, grabbing his hand. I clenched my free hand into a fist and focused completely on fire. When I opened my palm, a small flame danced there, but instead of burning, it felt like the fluttering of a feather against my skin. “I’ll follow you into the dark, and we’ll make our own light.”
The flame danced in my hand as we crouched in the damp tunnel. I ran my free hand along the caked earth that surrounded us on both sides. A thick cable ran the length of the tunnel in the upper right corner of the ceiling.
“What’s that cable for?”
We’d been trekking the tunnel for what seemed ages, and it was beginning to take its toll on both of us. His answer came in short huffs.
“It’s a generator. A backup source of energy should the main breakers surge.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Only when a new elementalist comes in and doesn’t know how to control their abilities. Otherwise, this place is equipped for anything.”
It made sense Riggs would take every precaution. Another thought struck me. “Won’t he know we’re coming?”
“I doubt it. He expects us to return I’m sure, but from here? Probably not.”
Jaxon gasped in pain as he tripped over an uneven patch on the ground. I jumped forward to help him, but he waved me off.
“Just keep the light high enough so I can see the way.”
“It’d be easier if you let me lead.”
He laughed. “There’s no way you’re leading. If something bad is going to happen, I’m going to see it first, so you have time to run.”
He set off again, this time clutching his bad shoulder. The tourniquet only slowed the bleeding. He needed medical attention and the sooner, the better.
As our ascent up the tunnel steepened, make my thighs burned with each step. The sweat that had originated at the nape of my neck created tiny rivulets down my spine and soaked through my shirt at the small of my back. The tunnel lightened, and my eyes stung as I adjusted to the new light source—a light bulb dangling from its cord at the dead end of the tunnel.
“Jaxon, I thought you said this went to Xander’s office?”
“It does.” He rapped on the wooden plank in front of us. The sound was muted, and I wondered if anyone would be able to hear us. The wood began to squelch in the wet earth as it was pushed to the side. A moment later, Xander stood before us, disheveled and sweaty.
Jaxon stumbled through the new passageway and took in Xander’s appearance. “What the hell happened to you? You look like you got beat with an ugly stick.”
Xander was in his white medical coat, which was caked with dirt, refuse, and blood. His hair was sticking up on the side of his head. “You two don’t look so hot yourself, to be honest.”
I gasped. “Were you in the tornado?”
He smiled crookedly and crossed his arms, seemingly amused by us showing up on his hidden doorstep. “Trying to find you, as it were.”
Jaxon slumped over the examining table in the center of the room. He pointed to his maimed shoulder. “Well, here we are. Medical attention would be appreciated, Doc.”
“An intentional desire to keep yourself and your friends out of trouble would be appreciated as well,” Xander said sternly. Even so, the smile of relief that spread across his face revealed his affection for Jaxon. He undressed his wounds with a quick glance back to me as he pointed to the sleeve of my jacket. “Good job working with what you had at the moment.”
I shrugged. “It didn’t do much.”
He returned to Jaxon’s wounds. “It helped stem the blood loss. That’s something.” He ripped what was left of Jaxon’s t-shirt from the frayed collar clear down to the hem. Jaxon uttered a protest, but he stopped him. “You weren’t going to lift your arm over your head, were you?”
When Jaxon remained silent, I smiled. I looked for Legs in the small alcove across the room, but he was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Legs?”
Xander’s eyes never left the sutures he was now sewing in Jaxon’s shoulder. “I hid him when the dome threatened to cave in on itself. It seemed cruel to have saved him from that fate once, only to have it happen again.”
His hands moved deftly along Jaxon’s wounds as he fixed one laceration after another. I watched in amazement; Jaxon never once cried out or winced when Xander pierced his flesh time and time again with the small needle, threading the black stitches under his skin and back out the other side. When it became too much to watch, I moved to one of the lounge chairs.
Suddenly, Riggs burst through the doors, his face burning with rage and his eyes wild. Luckily, Xander was no longer in the process of stitching Jaxon up because they both jumped when the glass door slammed into the wall and shattered. Shards of glass tinkered across the floor and crunched under Riggs’s feet as he strode angrily toward Jaxon. When he reached the bed, he slammed his fist on the metal tray beside him holding the instruments used to piece Jaxon back together. A scalpel and tweezers went soaring through the air, the scalpel lodging itself in the wooden stand beside me.
“Jaxon Pierce, you have finally crossed the line.”
Jaxon squared his jaw and stared into the face of his livid father. “Funny, since you crossed the line with me long ago.”
“Jaxon,” Xander muttered under his breath.
Riggs grabbed Jaxon by his good arm, pulled him off the table, and gripped him tight. Jaxon seemed to shrink under his grasp. Riggs shook him but was careful to leave his mangled shoulder alone. “Do you know how worried I’ve been? How I’ve wondered if I would have to send people out to find your lifeless body under a pile of rubble? Do you respect me at all, Jaxon? Do you?”
“Not at all.” His emotionless tone broke my heart.
A spasm of pain crossed Riggs’s face. His concern seemed genuine; his love for Jaxon was visible for the first time since I’d met them. Then like a veil, anger clouded the distress and the Riggs I knew returned.
“You’ve broken my heart, Jaxon. Everything I’ve done, everything I’ve given you, and this is how you repay me.” He paced in front of Jaxon with stormy eyes, running his hands through his hair. Then his focus shifted to Xander, whose face was blank and impassive. “Fine. Fine. You’ve given me no choice.”
Sari burst into the room, breathless and wide-eyed. She stared at me, shocked. “Holy crap on a cracker! I got here as fast as I could when I saw you two on the screen!”
I tried to wave her off, but she continued on, her ink-covered arms waving in all directions.
“You know how I told you shit was gonna hit the fan? You have no idea what—”
A boy sprinted into the room and covered her head with a black pillowcase. She screamed as Asher or Evan—I couldn’t tell which—wrapped her in his arms and looked toward Riggs expectantly. “She’s the one, right?”
He nodded grimly. “You were supposed to get her before she made it here, Asher.�
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Of course it was Asher. He was the one that seemed to have a stick up his butt at the ill-fated breakfast.
He flushed as he struggled to keep Sari under control. “Sorry.” He dodged a flail from her and repositioned his grip. “She left her office so fast, it caught me off guard.”
Riggs scowled. “What’s done is done. Take her to my office. Bind her tightly.” He stalked over to Jaxon and pulled the all-access key card from his pocket. “You won’t be needing this any more. Asher, take this as well.”
He took it and dragged Sari, kicking and screaming, from the room. I had been in such shock that I’d stood there and let my friend be hauled away. The realization sprung me into action.
“You evil bastard!” I screamed as I ran toward Riggs.
He shoved Jaxon aside, where he crashed into the counter, sending a barrage of gauze and wraps tumbling from the cabinets. Jaxon crumpled, his hand covering his reopened shoulder in agony.
While I was distracted by Jaxon’s pain, Riggs took the opportunity to grab me by the shoulders. “Don’t you think for a second that you can talk like that. You and your mother aren’t that irreplaceable.”
Xander’s icy voice cut through the room. “I’ll take care of them.”
Riggs stopped cold and released me. “Alexander, this is what you hired me to do. To handle—”
“But you’re not handling it,” he said quietly. “I’ve seen what you’ve done, allowing Avery to meet her parents, leaving notes and hints in your drawers and on your computer for Alice and Sari to uncover the truth. If you’re unhappy with your lot, you could have said so. It would have kept your son out of it.”
My mind reeled.
Jaxon’s mouth was agape. “What do you mean, kept me out of it?” he asked as he pushed off the ground. He stepped between both of them. “Xander, what are you talking about?”
Riggs’s voice was hard. “Go ahead. Tell him, Xander. Tell him what a two-faced coward you are.”
Xander laughed. “You call me the coward? You’re the one who’s gone along with the lie his entire life.”
“What lie!” Jaxon roared.
Xander walked over to me coolly and lifted me to my feet. “That your father ran the academy. That he planned any of this. Chromelius Academy is mine, and you will follow my orders, just as your father has for the past eleven years.”
MY WORLD WAS upside down. Xander was the one running the academy?
We’d put our trust in the hands of the devil himself.
Run! my mind screamed, but as I tried to move, Xander put me in a headlock. I struggled to free myself, but his grip was iron-tight.
Riggs moved between Jaxon and Xander. “You will not hurt my son. That was our agreement.”
Xander laughed. “And you also agreed to unwavering loyalty. Your actions are treacherous at best. Get out of my way.”
“Over my dead body.”
“Don’t tempt me, Atticus.” He backhanded Riggs with so much force he crumpled to the ground.
Jaxon stumbled backward. “Xander, what are you doing?”
Instead of answering, he grabbed Jaxon’s bad shoulder, causing him to yell in agony.
Tears streamed down my face, and I kicked and punched every part of Xander I could reach. “Xander, Jaxon’s like a son to you!”
My words jolted Riggs. “Jaxon is my son and no one else’s!” He lunged at Xander once more, but he was too fast. He kicked Riggs in the face, and after a sickening crunch he lay still on the floor, blood pooling around his nose and mouth.
“Xander! What are you doing!” I screamed.
He covered my head with a pillowcase and dragged both Jaxon and I out of the room into the dark hallway. Still, I screamed and yelled and begged him to listen to me. My throat went hoarse, and tears soaked the collar of my shirt as the realization sunk in that the one person we thought we could trust betrayed us.
***
Blackness encompassed everything like a thick blanket. Where was I? Water dripped and splashed into a puddle somewhere nearby, and the smell of damp underground filled my nostrils. My hands were manacled behind my back. I attempted to call out, but a strip of bulky fabric gagged me. Panic filled my veins, freezing them in icy fear. Where was Jaxon? Sari? Anyone?
The cold metal cut into my wrists as I pulled against the bonds time and time again. The blood lubricated the restraints, spurring me to try even harder to free myself despite the pain. My wrists burned, and pain surged through my forearms. Still I fought.
After what felt like an eternity, I gave up on my plans of escape and instead began to examine what I could of my surroundings in the pitch-black darkness. The ground was rough and felt like cement. I grasped the thick, rusty chain that linked my hands to the cuffs, and followed it to the wall a few feet away where it was cemented into the ground, the thick circular end half sunk in the hard floor.
I slid to the floor in defeat. Whipping my head from side to side, I attempted to free my mouth from the gag, but the movements only made it sink further in. Choking fits seized me as the gag slipped further down my throat, and the chains to rattled and echoed through the room with each cough.
As tears of despair welled in my eyes, I heard a shuffle. Each footstep grew louder and echoed against the walls. I pushed myself into the corner, the chill from the damp walls seeping through my already ruined clothes.
Suddenly, light burst into the room, blinding me. I shielded my face against my battered shoulder, all the while wishing my arms weren’t restrained behind my back.
Xander stood in his medical jacket, hands behind his back. “Well, well, the spunky loner from Dome Four has finally broken. I thought it would take more than this, but maybe you’re not made of the caliber I thought. You mother certainly took longer to break,” he laughed as he kneeled down to my level and took out my gag. “Now do you understand why you’ll follow my orders? You don’t want to end up in a place like this forever, do you?”
“Go to hell, Xander.”
“If you’re not careful, that attitude will get your parents locked in the cell right beside you.”
I refused to let him see the terror I felt inside. I jutted my chin upward in defiance. “They would rather be there than follow any orders from you, from the Resistance.”
“Don’t act like you know the Resistance.”
“I know you’re part of them and that they ruined our world. My parents won’t have anything to do with that and neither will I.”
Xander shook his head in amusement. “Oh, I’m more than a part of the Resistance, love. I am the Resistance, and you will do as I say. That’s why I brought you here, after all.”
“I’ll die before I help you.”
“No, you won’t. I won’t let you. You may not help me physically, but I have your blood, which seems to be the key to creating more elementalists. I’ll keep you alive, chained here in this cell, fed through an IV if you refuse to eat. You see, you’re more use to me here than if I were to put you in harm’s way.”
He stroked my cheek, and I turned away. “Tsk. Such a beautiful face. Shame you almost always wear a frown.”
I spit in his face.
There was no time to duck. His open hand connected with the side of my face, setting it afire. I wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t let him get the pleasure.
“I’m not broken, Xander. You’ll never break me.”
“Everyone has their breaking point.” His breath made me shiver as he ran his lips down my neck. “I will find yours, your family’s, and that of everyone you love, starting with Jaxon.”
Without another word, he left, plunging me into darkness once more.
Darkness and fear.
What had Mom said? If you don’t know what you’d die for, you haven’t lived enough.
I don’t know how long I sat shivering in the corner of the cold room. All I knew was the pain in my cheek had subsided, I’d run out of tears, and exhaustion had replaced all other feelings but one—determination to save my friends
and family.
Suddenly I realized what I was willing to die for.
Footsteps echoed outside again, and I cringed. I didn’t want Xander to try to break me. Even more, I didn’t want to feel his lips anywhere on my body ever again. I turned my back to the door, too afraid to see his once reassuring smile. The lights burst to life again, and I curled into a ball as best I could.
“If I unchain you, can I trust you not to run?”
I turned around in surprise; the voice wasn’t Xander’s. The light was still assailing, but I forced myself to focus. Riggs’s face swam before me in a sea of tears.
He kneeled down silently with a stern expression. His nose was crooked where Xander’s foot had crushed it, and he sported two black eyes. He fished a handkerchief out of his long-tailed jacket and handed it to me.
“Please tell me Xander didn’t hurt you.”
Anger flared inside of me. “Hurt me? Riggs, you’ve lied since you brought me here, lied to your son. Xander hasn’t had enough time to hurt me as much as you have.”
“And that is something I can only hope you’ll forgive me for with time,” he said, sorrow in his eyes. He shook my bonds. “I need you to promise me you won’t run when I release you.”
“Trust begets trust, Riggs.”
“And I’m giving you a good faith promise by releasing you, little one.” He stood up and pulled me away from the corner of the room, which was not unlike the rooms I’d seen en route to see my parents. A massive orb-like lamp hung over a cot in the middle of the room, its fluorescence on the verge of blinding. On the wall were markings—groups of four with a dash through each of them. A tiny rusted bedpan sat in the corner of the room with flies swarming above it. A leaky faucet dripped into it, and dirty water splashed out.
Someone had lived in this prison cell.
Riggs’s voice ripped through the horror of my surroundings as the weight of the manacles dropped from my hands. “You did quite a number on your wrists,” he said with a sigh. “You’ll probably need to have those bandaged.”
As he walked around to face me, I shrunk away. He laughed tiredly and rubbed his temples as he spoke, each word more exhausted than the last. “You don’t know anything, and yet between you, Sari, and my son, you seem to know everything. Oh, to be sixteen again and understand the world.”
