Steel Lily (The Periodic Series)

by Megan Curd

  I didn’t realize how badly I’d injured my wrists until I pushed off the ground with them. Pain shot from my hands to the tips of my fingers up to my elbows. I managed to stand, but not without great anguish. “I don’t have to understand the world to know that you’re evil.”

  He hurried back to the door, glancing in both directions. “Avery, I’m not the man you think I am.”

  His calligraphic scrawl in Jaxon’s journal came to mind. “Then why would you use your son as a lab rat?”

  “Because Xander threatened to kill him, my wife, and my other son if I didn’t!” Riggs shouted. “Because I was trying to save what I had left of my family!”

  Most people will do anything for their loved ones, Xander had said. It’s manipulation at its finest. He’d manipulated Riggs. Used him. Broken him.

  I could see he was a broken man. He walked toward me, his eyes brimming with tears. “Now, while I have your attention, I need to inform you of some things you’ll need to pass onto my son.” He stuck his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small rectangular object. “This is a flash drive. Sari and Jaxon will know what to do with it. There are a series of videos on here that will explain everything I’ve done and why I’ve done it. I hope after he watches this, he’ll understand I’m not the evil one.”

  I gave him a stony look. “And all the journals, the information in them, is he supposed to believe those were a product of you keeping him safe?”

  “Journals?”

  “The journals you wrote about Jaxon’s experiments.”

  Color drained from his face. “I’ve never written in a journal. I kept all of my information on the flash drive I just gave you.”

  “Then who…? Jaxon said Xander gave him your journal. He’s been mad at you this whole time because of what you wrote, how you didn’t care!”

  Tears streamed down his face. “I cared, Avery, I did. Xander wouldn’t let me near Jaxon after the experiments. The only time I saw my son was when I conducted tests on him.”

  He turned back to the grey metal door. “Another good faith payment to you.” He opened the door, revealing my parents standing outside.

  Mom screamed and ran in, grabbing me in her arms and touching every inch of my face she could find. “Avery! Dear God, I thought we’d lost you again. Riggs said that Jaxon would keep you safe, but no one ever makes it through the plagues.”

  I coughed as she crushed me in a hug. “The plagues?”

  “The fire rain, tornado, earthquake, et cetera,” Dad said as he walked in, his face as white as chalk. He carried my messenger bag with him and set it down beside me. “It was a miracle that you and Jaxon made it back to the academy. I owe that boy more than I could ever repay for keeping you alive.”

  “I thought you didn’t think anyone here was good?”

  Dad glanced from Riggs to Mom. “I’ve seen differently in the past few days.”

  This wasn’t making any sense. “What are you talking about?”

  Mom gripped my shoulders, her face intense as her eyes bore into mine. “Riggs isn’t with the Resistance. He’s been trying to get everyone out of here.”

  I looked at Riggs, shocked. “Why bring more of us here if you want to get people out?”

  He stepped forward, but I noticed a limp in his step. “Because I needed to make sure that my son would be protected, that the people here I wanted to save would have an opportunity to escape and not be thrown to the wolves when they left. With you and your mother at the helm, we finally have a chance.”

  My eyes searched his, hoping to find some truth in his words, but he’d lied to me repeatedly, not to mention kidnapping me.

  I turned to Dad. “You trust this man?”

  “Completely.”

  “And you, Mom?”

  She stared at Riggs. “Prove it to her, Atticus.”

  He stood there wavering for a moment. Mom went and put a hand on his side. He winced.

  “Atticus escaped from Xander’s holding cell to get us from our room, then we came for you…but not before he was attacked.”

  She lifted Riggs’s shirt to reveal his side was bloody, claw marks penetrated his flesh as though a wild animal had torn through a piece of meat. I gazed in horror. “What did this?”

  Riggs flinched when Mom put his shirt back down. “My son.”

  “He’d been ordered by Xander to guard his father’s cell.” Mom’s eyes were brimming with tears. “The boy doesn’t even know what he’s doing. He’s not himself.”

  My mind raced to the burned man. So he wasn’t quite human. I shuddered. “Why didn’t you tell me Riggs was safe if you knew, Mom?”

  She picked up my bag and took my hand. “I would never do anything to cause you more pain. All I’ve ever done is try to keep you out of the Resistance’s clutches. When Riggs came to me with his idea, I had to trust him. I couldn’t tell you he was good—that he was helping us—because I didn’t now if you could keep it from Xander. We were going to tell you when the plan was ready, but with everything that’s happened, that plan got thrown out the window.”

  Riggs stepped forward and extended his hand. “Bringing the people I needed to the enemy’s lair, to have them close so that I could free them, was the only thing I could think of. This has been in the works for a long time. I planted the idea to use the underground tunnel in Jaxon’s mind. I’m glad he’s at least taken to thinking the way I do. It may be the only good thing I’ve taught him.”

  Dad put his hand on Riggs’s shoulder. “He’s a good young man, Atticus. He got that from you, even if he doesn’t know it yet.”

  My mouth hung agape as I tried to connect the dots in front of me. “So you’re saying…”

  “That I’ve been planning this since your mother arrived and spoke of you,” Riggs explained, “But I had to have Xander’s trust before I put anything into motion.”

  “Xander’s trust?” I repeated.

  “Yes. He’s the one that wants to build the army. The videos explain everything.” He put the flash drive in my hand and cupped both of his around mine. “Keep this safe. I want with you because you must survive. If anything happens to me…I want to make sure Jaxon knows the real me.”

  I pulled my hand from his and stuffed the flash drive in my messenger bag, which already held the sketchbook and my father’s pocket watch. My hand grazed the spot where my mother’s teapot usually resided.

  It was gone.

  Loss surged through me. “Mom, your teapot, it’s not in here.”

  She looked at me as though I’d lost my mind and pulled me toward the door. The lights in the hallway flickered. “Now’s not the time to be worried about that, honey. We’ll get you another teapot.”

  I looked at Riggs. “You took it.”

  He shook his head in earnest. “I assure you I did not. I did, however, restore the pocket watch I found in your house.”

  Violation colored my vision as I imagined Riggs rummaging through my room, Alice unknowing in the other room while I was out. “You had no right to go there!”

  “I needed to know what I was up against,” he said apologetically, all the while holding his side. “When I saw the memorabilia you still possessed from your parents, I wanted to restore the watch to its former beauty for you. I’m sorry.”

  How could I stay mad? Words evaded me as I turned back to my mom, who now pulled me along the dingy corridor. We followed behind Dad, and Riggs took up the rear. Our pace was furious. Dad’s head was turned toward the cell doors, where I noticed the rusted numbers. Some weren’t even nailed to the doors anymore; only their shadow lingered to reveal the numbers.

  Dad called back, his voice intense and focused. “Which number did you say that Jaxon was in, Riggs?”

  “Twenty-two. He’ll be at the very end.”

  “And Sari is where?”

  “Number five.”

  “Hmph. Complete opposite ends of course. Xander isn’t foolish.”

  “I had to do what he told me.”

&n
bsp; “We’ll make it work,” Mom said, pushing ahead of Dad to reach the door marked twenty-two.

  Rather than wait for a key card, she placed her hands on the door and closed her eyes. The hinges heated to a fiery red and melted. She kicked the door in with a loud clang. Her eyes shined bright with pride as she turned to us, swaying slightly from her exertion.

  “Who’s the welcoming committee?”

  Dad’s eyes were filled with resolve. “Let me go in first,” he said. “Then you’ll know what you’re walking into.”

  Riggs held his arm out to stop him. “Let Avery go in. Jaxon trusts her. She’ll give us time to explain.”

  What condition would he be in? Fear of being the first one to see him crept into my thoughts.

  Riggs looked at me sadly. Age lines I hadn’t noticed before defined his forehead, making him appear much older than I’d imagined. “I need you to do this. Not for me. I know you won’t do it for me; you have no reason to trust me, nor do I expect you to. No, I’m begging you to do this for Jaxon. He’ll listen to you. There’s no time to spare, and we need him. I need him.”

  His voice was layered with the same compassion and desperation my own mother’s had carried earlier. I didn’t trust him, but I wouldn’t leave Jaxon alone to suffer.

  “You’re right, I’m not doing this for you,” I said as I pushed through the group. “Let’s get Jaxon and keep moving.”

  The light from the hallway bled in enough for me to make out Jaxon’s still figure in the back of the room. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see more. I found the light switch and flicked it on. The same blinding light hung in the middle, filling the room with its fluorescence.

  Jaxon’s arms were manacled as mine had been, but his chain was bolted to the ceiling. He hung limply from it, his knees barely scraping the ground. His shoulders hung awkwardly out of their sockets, and his torso was bloody. Lacerations that looked like whip marks wrapped around his sides. His chest rose and fell weakly as he tried to open his swollen eyes. His face was a bloodied and bruised canvas; no part of him was unscathed.

  I screamed in horror as I sprinted the short distance between us and tried to unclasp the manacles. “Jaxon! Oh my God! What did they do to you?”

  His face contorted into what might have been a smile had his lips not been cracked and swollen. “Just another day in paradise.”

  Riggs ran in behind me, cursing, and Dad followed behind, coming to my side with the set of keys Riggs must have used to undo my chains.

  “Atticus, get ready to catch him when he falls,” Dad said. “He’s too weak to carry his weight.”

  His father’s name seemed to awaken Jaxon, who began to thrash in his bonds. He pushed himself to a standing position as the chain held him aloft and jerked his hands above him.

  “Get away from me! Don’t touch me!”

  “Jaxon, it’s okay,” I said as confidently as I could, scared to touch any part of him. “He’s not going to hurt you. He got me out of my cell. My mom and dad are here to help, too. We’re going to escape.”

  His already puffy eyes narrowed, and he continued to writhe against his chains, making it difficult for Dad to untie him. “You can’t trust a word he says. You know that, Avery.”

  I put my hand on the one spot of his chest that wasn’t battered, just below the hollow of his throat. “Trust me, then.”

  He stilled and watched my dad finally lodge the key in the hole of the manacles. “Riggs, catch him.”

  He stepped forward, but was halted by Jaxon’s firm voice.

  “No. I’ll walk on my own.”

  When the manacles loosed his weight, his body crumpled, and I jumped forward to catch him, trying to hold him up.

  “Help me, please,” he whispered to my father.

  The sadness in Riggs’s face was evident as my father and I helped Jaxon to his feet, each of us trying to support his weight with his arms draped over us. He winced as his displaced shoulders ground against their sockets with the motion.

  “You’re too injured to walk,” Dad said as he scooped him up and lifted him over his shoulders like a wounded soldier. “I’m sorry, but we need to move.”

  “Thank you,” Jaxon murmured as he opened his hand in search of mine. Blood dripped from a gash along his ribs and covered Dad’s neck. “Thank you for coming for me.”

  “Riggs came for both of us,” I said, wanting to give him credit where he was due.

  Jaxon simply let his head hang limp as Father carried him from his cell into the hallway.

  I watched the people before me as they ran down the hall—Mom, Dad, and Riggs—and I realized they were a team. “What do you have planned?” I called out.

  “We’re getting Sari,” Riggs said, “and by then I’m hoping Asher has retrieved his friends and Alice. If that all plays out, we’re going to escape. All of us. We’ll make a plan to come retrieve the rest of the students here after we’ve rendezvoused with the Alliance.”

  Confusion riddled my thoughts. “I thought the Alliance was broken?”

  “There are pockets that hide outside the domes.” Riggs said between heavy breaths, the tails of his coat scraping the ground and his dress shoes thumping louder than anyone else’s. “When you and Jaxon realized that the earth wasn’t completely ruined, I knew we had to act fast. Xander wouldn’t allow you to have that knowledge. He told me to put you in the cells, and said he would dispose of you.”

  My body went stiff, causing Mom to trip over herself. I whipped around to face Riggs. “Dispose of me? Of Jaxon?”

  Riggs’s expression was severe. “Xander will get rid of anyone who stands in his way. Knowledge is dangerous, and he’ll take out anyone who finds out more than he wants them to.”

  “What about you?” I spluttered. “You’re the one who runs this place!”

  He laughed harshly, pointing a finger to himself with eyebrows raised. “Me? I’m a means to an end. I’m a dead man walking.”

  RIGGS’S WORDS RATTLED around my mind as we ran through the dingy hallway. Every step we took resounded against the narrow walls, and I felt the panic that accompanied claustrophobia edging into my senses.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “What used to be Ramsey County Jail,” Riggs explained as my father slowed to a jog. “Xander modified it to his tastes. It used to be much more humane.”

  Jaxon’s shoulder popped audibly. Mom gasped in horror as he screamed in pain, but Riggs held up a hand. “We don’t have time,” he said sternly as he took the lead and ran down the hallway. “I’m afraid we’ve taken too long. We need to find Sari and get to the tunnel to meet Asher and Alice.”

  “Are there tunnels everywhere?” I asked as he ran.

  “Of course. Xander wanted this place to look as though no one inhabited it. It’s why the dome doesn’t have a true barrier. Alliance members might accidentally come upon it, but they’d never get out.”

  The thought made me sick to my stomach. If all of this was true, Xander was more maniacal than I’d ever dreamed Riggs of being. And Xander was the one we’d aligned ourselves with—shared our ideas, our plans.

  There was no way we were going to get out of here alive.

  The numbers on the doors began to go downward as we passed them. Eighteen, seventeen, sixteen… Jaxon’s head lolled back and forth with each step Dad took. It pained me to see him so weak, and I wondered if we’d ever be able to fix his wounds.

  The windows on these cells were larger. I searched for Sari, but only found bloodstained walls and one lone man curled in a corner, his arms wrapped around his knees as if to shield himself from the horrors he’d experienced. Then I saw his arm.

  His mechanical arm.

  “Legs!”

  My scream stopped our procession, and Riggs spun around. “Who? We don’t have time to waste!”

  “We can’t leave Legs behind! He came for Alice and me, to save us.”

  “We don’t know if he’s friend or foe.”

  “I don’t know if you’re fri
end or foe!”

  “Avery!” Mom chastised me.

  I turned toward her. “All I know about Riggs is that he kidnapped me. The past week and a half I’ve seen him hurt and intimidate people. Forgive me for not believing he’s a knight in shining armor.” I extended my hand for his key card. “Get me in, and I’ll meet you in a minute. I’m not leaving Legs behind.”

  “You’re so like your mother,” he muttered as he pushed past me and swiped his card.

  I noticed Mom’s smile as she nodded her approval.

  The door clicked, and Riggs turned to start back down the hall. “We can’t wait for you. Get him and come quickly.”

  As they retreated down the hallway, the flickering lights made them look ghostly. I watched for a moment before entering.

  Legs was relatively unharmed, but his tired eyes were red-rimmed, and the side of his face held a bruise outlining a hand. Someone had slapped him hard. He looked up at me, a spaced-out smile playing across his face.

  “The cavalry’s arrived.”

  I fought the searing pain in my arms and helped him up. “Something like that.”

  “You look like hell.”

  “You should see Jaxon.”

  “He always looks like hell.”

  I chuckled in spite of the situation. “Well, he’s more hellish than usual. Why weren’t you chained in there?”

  I heard the cogs in his new arm work to execute a shrug. “I don’t know. Xander put me in there and said it was for my own good.”

  The rest of our group was outlined in the ghostly light down the hall, and I took off toward them with Legs in tow. He labored to stay with me. “Where are we going?”

  “Getting the rest of our group. Don’t try to kill Riggs when you see him. Apparently, he’s helping us escape.”

  “You don’t sound too confident.”

  I tried to keep the doubt out of my voice. “I’m not, but he got us out of our cells, so I have to at least trust that.”

  We skidded to a halt as Riggs emerged from the last cell and pulled the black pillowcase off Sari’s head. She fought his grasp, but Mom tried to assuage her fears.