Shattered

by Mari Mancusi

  “Scarlet,” he rasped. “Where’s Scarlet?”

  Then he collapsed onto the truck bed.

  PART 6:

  SHATTER

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The Surface Lands—Year 189 Post-Scorch

  “Oh yeah, baby! That’s how it’s done!”

  Caleb gave out a loud whoop as the wind thundered across his ears and then blasted him full in the face as he and his dragon, Trinity, tore across the burnt-out ruins of the Surface Lands. She dove low, skimming the top of the world, then pointed her nose to the sky, wildly chasing the sun. At Caleb’s command, she even performed a few barrel rolls, and his stomach lurched in a mixture of excitement and pure, radiant joy with each and every one. But it wasn’t just the adrenaline rush that had him grinning like a loon. It was the freedom.

  For the first time in his life, he was free.

  Finally, they landed on the side of a cliff, a narrow ledge leading to a shallow cave. Caleb gathered firewood into a pile then looked up at his dragon. “Would you do the honors?” he asked with a grin.

  Trinity bounced her head in affirmation and he laughed. For such a majestic creature, she certainly had a silly side. Just like her namesake, Trinity Foxx, was supposed to have had back in the old days with her own dragon Emmy. Caleb watched as his Trinity pulled back her mighty head and let loose her flames, torching the wood and creating a fire that would make any scout proud.

  “Nice one,” he praised, reaching into his pack and pulling out the leg of lamb he’d brought with him. Carefully, he set it down into the fire and soon it was bubbling with heat. Trinity let out an excited whine and shook her head, splashing Caleb with a gob of drool.

  “Ew, keep it in your mouth, girl,” he scolded playfully. “The food will be ready soon enough.”

  After dinner, the two of them curled up by the fire as they’d been doing every night that month, Caleb working to clean the grime out of the dragon’s scales. It was a daily job—and not an easy one—but he found the process soothing all the same. And Trinity seemed to love it too, always purring and grunting the whole time he worked.

  “This is all we need, right, girl?” Caleb asked with a happy sigh. “You, me, some undercooked meat—and the rest of the world can go to hell.” He looked out over the vista, trying to remember a time when he’d been so happy. He couldn’t.

  Everything was right with the universe now. His lifetime of failure was behind him. He was a member of the most powerful group on the planet, the Dracken, and they had entrusted him—the one everyone always said was no good—with his very own dragon. And what a dragon she was! One look at her shining teal scales and sparkling eyes and suddenly Caleb found himself wanting to be a better person. The best person in the world—just to prove himself worthy of this magnificent gift that Darius had bestowed upon him.

  And after tomorrow, they would be together forever. The bonding between them would be complete and their lives would be intertwined. After tomorrow, Caleb would never have to be alone, ever again. He’d live his life with someone who loved him and cared for him—who would gladly die for him if need be—always by his side.

  It was the ultimate dream come true. And he had to keep pinching himself to believe it was really his life. The no good, forgotten, bad seed Caleb. The one everyone had written off. He would be a dragon guardian forever.

  Even better, because of him, his mother would live. Three days ago, Trinity had offered him a priceless gift—the healing blood from her one soft scale. The blood that would cure his mother of her cancer. At first he’d been scared—he’d heard stories of people trying to use dragon blood for healing, only to have it kill them instead. But Darius had explained this blood was special and secret and in limited supply. And if given willingly by a dragon, rather than harvested against their will, it could do almost anything.

  The dragon nudged his hand, a warm blast of air tickling his fingers. He laughed and gave her a hug. “You’re just sweetening me up for a second course, aren’t you?” he teased. “You know I have that other bone in my bag.”

  But before he could serve his dragon her dessert, he heard a scraping noise behind him. Puzzled, he turned to find none other than his twin himself climbing up the side of the cliff. When Connor reached the top, he held out his hand. One of those bouncers the Council had invented flew up, settling in his palm.

  Caleb scrambled to his feet. What was he doing here? He motioned for Trinity to back into the cave, where she wouldn’t be out in the open, exposed. Had Connor come alone? Or had he come here with his dragon-hunting team?

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, hating how shaky his voice sounded. He crossed his arms over his chest, scowling, as he stepped in front of the cave’s mouth.

  Connor didn’t answer. He looked past Caleb, into the cave. “So it’s true,” he said in a resigned voice. “God, I was hoping you were lying to her.”

  Caleb shot an involuntary glance at Trinity, who was pawing the ground nervously, eyeing the stranger.

  Who is that? she asked. He looks like you.

  He’s no one, Caleb told her. Just let me get rid of him, okay?

  He turned back to his brother.

  “Connor, go home,” he snarled with as much bravado as he could muster. “Once again, this doesn’t concern you.”

  “How can it not concern me?” Connor demanded, not stepping down. “My brother is cavorting with monsters.”

  “She’s not a monster!” Caleb protested, losing his cool despite himself. But still! He wasn’t about to let anyone talk crap about his dragon. “Look at her. She’s beautiful. Majestic. Powerful. Wild.”

  And she chose me, he added silently. Out of everyone on the earth, she chose me.

  Connor’s face twisted with anguish. “Are you even listening to yourself?” he asked. “We’re talking about a dragon. The same creature that killed our own father.” He gritted his teeth. “Look, I know it’s not your fault. Dragons can be very persuasive. They can put humans under a spell. You don’t really want to be with this thing. You just think you do because it’s screwed with your head.”

  “No!” Caleb protested, shaking his head vehemently. “That’s not true! That’s just what the Council says to keep people from discovering the truth about dragons. Trinity is loyal and brave and completely devoted to me. She’s more like a sibling than you ever were.”

  Connor’s face paled. “Caleb, you don’t mean that,” he protested.

  “I certainly do. Now get the hell out of here before I have her blast you to kingdom come.”

  He waited, praying his brother would just leave. He didn’t want to have to kill him, after all.

  But of course, this was Connor. And Connor never stood down. “I’m sorry, Caleb. But you leave me with no choice,” his twin said resignedly. And then he opened his mouth…

  …and started to sing.

  “No!” Caleb cried. He ran to his brother, trying to cover his mouth with his hands. But Connor was too strong, shoving him backward, sending him sprawling. Caleb hit the ground hard and rolled off the cliff. Only his fingers, clutching a hanging root, kept him from plummeting to his death.

  “No. Trinity! Don’t listen to him!” he cried as he strained to pull himself back on the ledge, his whole body breaking out into sweat. “Blast him with your fire!”

  But the dragon seemed not to hear him. She was stepping out from the protection of the cave, her eyes glazed and her tongue lolling from her mouth.

  “No!” Caleb begged as his feet kicked uselessly against dirt sides. “Please, Connor, don’t do this! She’s all I have in the world.”

  Connor turned, leveling his gaze on Caleb. “Then you don’t have anything at all,” he said.

  And then, with one quick movement, almost too fast to follow, he reached for his gun-blade, plunging it into the dragon’s soft scale, like a hot knife thro
ugh butter.

  Trinity screamed. And Caleb screamed with her. He flailed and almost fell. But it was his brother who ran to him. Grabbing him by the hand and yanking him back onto the ledge. It took him a moment to regain his senses. Then he ran to his dragon.

  “No. Please, Trinity, no,” he cried, his voice choked with tears.

  The dragon looked up at him with watery eyes, filled with pain. She stretched out her neck, then licked him on the face, her rough tongue scraping his skin.

  I’m sorry, she said.

  Then her muscles failed and she fell to the ground with a loud crash, one last heartbreaking, shuddering sigh assaulting Caleb’s ears. Then she lay still.

  “I’m sorry,” Connor said. “But it had to be done. You’ll thank me one day.”

  Caleb looked up at him. He opened his mouth, trying to speak. But the words wouldn’t come. In fact, at that moment, he wasn’t sure they’d ever come again.

  And he wasn’t sure if he cared if they did.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  “Trinity…no, please. Connor, don’t… Please don’t!”

  Trinity sighed as Caleb screamed again, his face twisted in anguish, then watched as he fell back into unconsciousness. She dabbed his sweaty forehead with a cold, wet cloth, studying him closely to make sure he didn’t go into another seizure. All night he’d been seizing and vomiting and she hadn’t been able to get much fluid into him to replenish the electrolytes he’d lost. His skin looked almost shriveled now, as if he were a man at the end of his life, instead of the beginning.

  “How’s he doing?”

  Trinity looked up to see Connor, hovering in the doorway. Tall, strong, stone faced. These days, a stranger would never believe the two of them were identical twins.

  “I don’t know,” she confessed, her heart aching as her eyes roved over his shivering body. “No better, no worse, I guess. I keep hoping he’ll wake up so I can get some Gatorade into him.”

  “He’d probably just throw it up anyway,” Connor said with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Trin, but we need to be realistic here. That last trip he took to the Nether? That was one trip too many. I’ve seen it before, back home. It’s that one last trip…”

  Trinity stared down at Caleb, tears welling in her eyes. “I should have never left him behind.” She looked up at Connor. “Either of you.”

  Connor shook his head vigorously. “No,” he said. “You did what you had to do. To keep the promise you made to Emmy.” He gave her a rueful smile. “That stubborn little dragon,” he said fondly. “I still can’t believe she went and did that. Sacrificing her one chance at happiness to save my life. Seriously, the whole thing—it just goes against everything I know about dragons.”

  “Maybe you don’t know as much as you think,” Trinity replied, giving him a wry look.

  “Yeah, I’m beginning to realize that.” He looked down at his brother mournfully. “If only I’d listened to him from the start. He tried to tell me what dragons were really like. But at the time, I was so locked up in my own hate and fear…” He looked up at Trinity, his eyes filled with anguish

  “I almost killed you, you know,” he added flatly.

  “What?” Trinity stared at him, confused. “When?”

  “When you were in the Nether, trying to find your mother. I was this close to killing you in an effort to end it all,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “But Caleb talked me out of it. He told me there could be a better way.” He sighed. “For all my grand plans and soldiering, at the end of the day, I’m pretty sure he’s the smarter twin.” His mouth twisted. “If he wakes up, that’ll be the first thing I tell him.”

  “When he wakes up,” Trinity corrected, determined to stay positive as she looked down at Caleb’s pale and sweaty face, her heart aching. “Poor Caleb,” she whispered, reaching down to trace his cheek with a finger. “I hope you’re at least getting some good dragon time in.”

  She could feel Connor’s stern gaze. “We’re going to get Emmy back, Trin.”

  “Yeah, I know,” she said flatly. “And once we do, maybe she and Scarlet can give you that lesson on dragon 101.”

  She didn’t try to hide the bitterness in her voice. She knew she’d done the right thing. The only thing to save Emmy’s life. But that didn’t mean she didn’t still feel incredibly sad about it all. Whatever Scarlet was facing now, she was facing it with Emmy by her side—an honor and a privilege Trinity would never have again.

  Connor reached out, squeezing her hands in his own. “Don’t talk like that,” he scolded. “Emmy will still love you when she returns. Just because the two of you are no longer bonded doesn’t mean—”

  “Stop.” She pulled her hands away, holding them out in front of her, the lump in her throat making it difficult to breathe. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. I’ll deal with whatever it is once she’s back safe. That’s all that matters now.”

  Connor nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Actually that’s what I came to talk to you about.” He shuffled from foot to foot, looking nervous.

  “What?” she asked, her heart fluttering in her chest as she recognized his unease. “Don’t you think we have a good plan? Everyone else seemed on board with it.” They’d had a team meeting earlier that afternoon, going over the details. The Potentials, her father (who had not only survived the ordeal but was recovering nicely from his leg injury), and the new Dracken kids.

  “Yes…no…” He wrung his hands together, sputtering. “I don’t know. I mean, it seems solid enough. The soldier in me says it’ll probably work.”

  “But?”

  He drew in a breath. “It’s just…too close for comfort, I guess. I mean, Emmy locked away in some secret government lab. You joining forces with a group that calls themselves the Dracken to break her out…”

  “But it’s not the same Dracken,” she reminded him. “I didn’t form the group like the first time around. They found me. And Emmy wasn’t even captured yet when they did. Also there was no Scarlet the first time around. And it was years later.”

  Connor met her eyes. “I’m not arguing that the ripples are different. But what if they build to the same tidal wave?”

  His words sent a chill of fear tripping down her backside. Truthfully it wasn’t anything she hadn’t thought about herself a thousand times. But at the same time…

  “We can’t do this without them,” she said flatly. “They have the hacker skills we need to infiltrate the facility, disable the security system, all the rest of the things we talked about.”

  “We could come up with another plan. Another way—”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I may not be the Fire Kissed anymore, but my priorities have not changed. And when it comes to rescuing Emmy, I don’t have the luxury to turn down help. We’ll deal with the larger implications later, once she and Scarlet are safe.”

  Connor raked a hand through his hair. “Did anyone ever tell you how stubborn you are?”

  “Maybe once or twice.” She gave him a rueful grin. “So what do you say, Connor? If you don’t want to join us, I’ll understand. I’d never force you to go against what you believe. All I ask is you don’t try to stop us.”

  For a moment he said nothing, and her heart squeezed at the torment she recognized on his face. He looked so lost, so scared—a little boy playing soldier. It took everything inside her not to throw herself into his arms to try to comfort him now, to tell him everything would be okay. Even if she had no idea if it were true.

  “Of course I won’t stop you,” he said at last. “Hell, when have I ever been able to stop you at anything? And yes, I’ll do whatever you need me to do. After all, I’m still part of Team Dragon, right?”

  A slow smile spread across her face. She rose to her feet, wrapping her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. She could feel his long exhale as he allowed himself to melt into
her embrace. He may not be okay with the plan. But he was okay with her. And that was all that mattered for now.

  “We can do this,” she whispered as they held one another tight. “You’ll see.”

  “Oh, I know we can do it,” Connor replied in a voice so low she could barely hear it. “I’m only afraid of what will happen once we do.”

  Epilogue

  The monster was back.

  Somehow Scarlet could always tell. As if she had a sixth sense, warning her when she was near. A hint of antiseptic, tickling her nostrils, the sound of stilettos echoing through her ears. An uneasiness prickling at the back of her neck as her pulse throbbed in her throat—her consciousness gearing up for the inevitable fight or flight that was sure to come.

  Should she face her this time? Or was it better to run?

  But this time, there was nowhere to run.

  The door creaked open and the monster stepped inside, flanked by two of her regular guards. Though on the surface she looked more like an angel than a devil, with long, beautiful blond hair and serene glowing eyes, Scarlet had learned all too well of the ugly beast that lay just beneath the surface.

  “How are you feeling?” the monster asked, stepping toward her and giving her a careful once-over.

  When she first arrived, Scarlet probably would have retorted something smart-assed back to her. But now she was just too weak. They’d taken blood—so much blood—over the last few days that she could barely stand anymore.

  She’d been here six days, by her count, though it was becoming harder and harder to keep track. She was passing out so frequently now, and there were no windows in her cell to offer up any clues. Only the routine they went through each day gave her some sense of the passage of time. They’d show up, all smiles, escorting her down to Emmy’s pen and ushering her inside, locking the door behind her. Then they’d leave them alone, retreating behind their obviously one-sided mirrors to observe from a distance.

  At first Scarlet enjoyed this part of the day. As much as she could enjoy anything in this horrible place. She got to spend time with Emmy. Got to curl up with the dragon and not feel so alone. And at first Emmy would speak to her, telling her how her day had gone and what she’d had to eat. In turn, Scarlet would describe the rescue that would be coming, using her own imagination to fill in the details. Trinity had promised she’d come for them, Scarlet would assure Emmy silently. It was only a matter of time.