by Kevin George
“Love saved us all. . . he caught us from our fall,” she said with a smile. “He would not want this man to die. . . he would not want this girl to cry.”
The little girl remained back from the humans, but she still reached a hand toward James and Sally. Anger remained etched on Quinn’s face until he saw the rest of the Swarm staring at the little girl, nodding serenely at her words. A puff of steam escaped his lips as he crunched across the snow, kneeling in front of the little one.
“Listen here, BabyDoll,” Quinn said gently. “He is not one of us. He might bring danger to our home.”
BabyDoll’s eyes flitted from James to Sally, confused until another smile drew her lips taut over her large, sharp teeth.
“No, no, no, he is not one of us. . . but no, no, no, she is not one of us, too,” BabyDoll said. She reached out a tiny hand and placed it on Quinn’s cheek. “You are not broken, like all of us here. . . you are not broken, except for your fear.”
Quinn took the little girl’s hand in his own. “Child, you are not broken,” he said gently. “You just need more time to grow and develop. Consider how much your speech has improved since you’ve joined us.”
BabyDoll smiled again and pointed to James. “Yes, yes, more time is what we all need. . . but killing this man will not make us free. Like the men at the Mountain that made us all fly. . . we’d be no better off if we made this man die.”
The Swarm shifted forward as one and surrounded BabyDoll, several Aviaries kneeling around her, reaching their hands for her. BabyDoll smiled at them and lightly touched every hand she could reach. Sally found herself so captivated by the little girl that she nearly forgot James’ predicament and the worsening snowfall around her.
“We can’t make him fly. . . we can’t make him die,” the giant Aviary said.
BabyDoll took the giant’s hand and nodded. Several others squawked their agreement. The group parted as BabyDoll hobbled back toward the building. The little girl looked back at James and Sally and motioned for them to follow. James stumbled after her and Sally did the same, watching as the Swarm fell perfectly in step behind BabyDoll. Once inside, Sally hurried to catch up to her.
“Thank you for saving us,” Sally told her before turning to the others.
While she’d only noticed the deformities of the Swarm before, she began to see unexpected beauty among the faces staring back at her. Many of them were smiling, though a few glared with the same anger they’d held for the Mountain guard.
“Love showed us all the right things to do. . . now that you’re here I hope you’ll do right, too,” BabyDoll said.
Sally smiled. “I will. . . we will,” she said, looking to James, who nodded.
With the giant Aviary and most of the Swarm still beside her, BabyDoll passed through the lobby and headed for the hallways. Sally and James tried to follow, but their path was blocked by Quinn and his followers. A trio of Swarmers surrounded Sally while Quinn grabbed James’ arm.
“Just because you’re saved doesn’t mean you’re free,” Quinn told him. “You are our prisoner, not our guest.”
James opened his mouth to object, but Quinn squeezed his arm so tightly that James fell to his knees, groaning in agony. Sally tried to rush at them, but the Swarm blocked her path. Quinn didn’t loosen his grip as he turned to Sally.
“Will there be a problem with that, too?” Quinn asked.
Sally locked eyes with James, who’d lied to her, who’d saved her, and who’d been willing to sacrifice her life had it meant he could send his radio transmission. She hadn’t wanted him sentenced to death, but she’d basically been his prisoner since the moment he’d emerged from his ISU. For that matter, she had no idea what James actually did to Chad. She looked at Quinn and shook her head.
“No problem,” she said quietly, gathering pieces of the broken barricade so she wouldn’t have to see James being dragged away.
CHAPTER THREE
Paige Blake leaned against the elevator wall and slumped to the floor, a dropping sensation in the pit of her stomach as the elevator sped down. She hung her head between her knees and closed her eyes. She’d never had an issue with tight spaces—claustrophobia wasn’t an option in the City Below—but she’d also never known what it was like to see the infinite space of the world Above. Every moment she’d spent in the Dome of Life—or looking out at the White Nothingness—had filled her with dread, but she didn’t know how she could ever return to a life in the confines Below.
It didn’t help that the elevator was filled with the stench of blood, sweat and fear. Several dark-skinned guards stood nearby, panting heavily, as if their battle with the deadly beasts and displaced teens and the murderous Pelteds might not be over yet. Every person in the elevator had escaped death and Paige didn’t know if she could ever forget the tragedies that she’d just—
Paige lifted her head to see a pair of legs stepping in front of her. They didn’t belong to the only person—Is he an actual person? Or should it be a Sky Person?—that Paige wouldn’t have minded standing closer.
“Not hurt, are you?” sighed a deep voice looming over her.
Paige didn’t bother looking up at the cruel eyes of Ryo. She shook her head and continued to stare forward, not blinking until Ryo stepped aside to join his fellow guards. She barely paid attention as Ryo bragged to the others about returning Below as a hero.
Paige thought about Julietta, wondered what was happening to her, wondered if she’d survived this long, or if she’d run into any number of dangerous situations or people or beasts that might’ve already killed her. Had it not been for Julietta, Paige knew she wouldn’t have escaped and might not have survived. Though she may have been right thinking I’m the one heading into greater danger Below. . .
Fewer than ten guards had made it back to the elevator, yet Ryo spoke as if they hadn’t suffered serious losses in battle. The others remained quiet and somber. One guard shook his head over and over as he tried rubbing blood off his clothes, only succeeding in smearing it more. Paige didn’t know if Ryo’s excitement made her feel worse than the guards’ melancholy, but it was Love’s expression—the complete blankness etched on his face—that confused her most.
She wasn’t alone in that confusion. Love stood in the corner of the elevator and stared forward, wondering what he would find Below, focused on keeping calm despite being brought to the Descendant, for whom he’d been searching for years. He’d ignored the disgusted glares from Ryo and the guards but immediately sensed when the young woman looked up at him. Love turned to Paige and nodded, uncertain why her brow furrowed and her lips turned down. She appeared distressed, as if saving her life hadn’t been what she’d wanted.
Maybe The Board was correct about humans, he thought. Maybe they’re as cruel and irrational as I’ve been told. . .
That certainly seemed to be the case with everyone he’d seen in the Dome. Love smelled the blood on nearby guards, he saw their weapons covered in sticky red liquid and gore. He also smelled their fear. He had no doubt their leader was cruel, a fact that had little to do with the constant glares Ryo threw him. Love forced himself to focus on standing still, forced himself to fight off his intense natural instinct to lash out and destroy every evil human in the elevator.
Think of your mission, he reminded himself, his eyes no longer capable of stillness, flitting from man to man. Think about who you’re here to find.
“May I please know your names,” Love asked the group of men, receiving curious glances from the guards, a few shifting as far from him as they could move. “Preferably starting with your last names.”
Not a single man answered and most guards turned to Ryo for how to respond. The leader sighed and crossed the small elevator until he loomed inches in front of Love. The size difference between them was significant, with Love’s face on an even level with Ryo’s broad, barrel chest.
“If you knew what was best for you, you’d stay quiet,” Ryo growled, gripping his spear so tightly that his knuckles
turned white.
But Love did not show an ounce of intimidation, craning his neck until he looked eye to eye with the bigger man.
“You remind me of the man that killed my mother and made her fly,” Love said. “Maybe you’re a little taller, maybe you’re a little wider, but I never got a chance to punish him for what he did.”
“And you think you’ll take that out on me?” Ryo asked with a snort, though Love saw the slightest crease of concern in the corner of his eyes.
The rest of the guards held their collective breath, awaiting the inevitable attack from either Ryo or Love. Neither happened. Instead, a blur of movement came from the least expected person in the elevator. Paige scrambled to her feet and squeezed her way between the two potential combatants, neither of whom averted their eyes from the other. Paige tried to nudge Ryo away, but that caused the large guard to push forward, pinning her and Love against the side of the elevator, causing the entire lift to sway slightly as it sped hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface. Love inched his way to the side and looked away from the guard.
“Please, leave him alone,” Paige begged, finally getting Ryo to look down at her. “He saved me from being mauled by one of those beasts. . . he ensured your mission was a success.”
Ryo shuffled another inch forward, this time pressing Paige against the wall. She expected Love to intervene and protect her, but the Sky Person remained standing still, back to staring straight ahead as if he noticed nothing around him.
“My bravery ensured the mission’s success,” Ryo growled, turning his head slightly as he realized the other men were watching closely. “All of our bravery, that is. We got you past those bloodthirsty kids and out of the Dome, not that. . .”—he eyed Love closely, as if trying to figure out what he was—“. . . where are you from?”
Love did not budge beyond the slightest of grins. “I come from The—”
“Dome,” Paige interrupted, locking eyes with Love when he looked her way, shaking her head a single time. He accepted the unspoken warning and remained silent. “He was their prisoner, too, and he’s also hurt.”
Paige stepped toward him and reached for his bleeding shoulder, feeling the ripple along his back. Love took another step to the side, turning his head the other way.
“It’s okay, I can help,” Paige said. “I actually work as a healer Below. . . or at least that’s what I was training to become.”
She reached for him again, but Love shook his head more vehemently. He recoiled as she came closer, but Paige remained persistent, putting light pressure on the area where he’d clipped his wing on the underside of a Dome beam.
“The only help I need is learning their last names,” Love said.
“None of us made it here unhurt,” Ryo said, though he appeared healthiest and freshest of them all. “My kind are strong, though.”
The other guards muttered their agreement, their voices filled with pain and fatigue. Love started toward them, but Paige shook her head again and put more pressure on his wound, so much that he winced in pain and the back of his clothing fluttered. The elevator slowed to a stop, a sulfuric stench filling their nostrils the moment the doors slid open.
A squadron of One guards awaited their arrival and surged into the elevator with weapons at the ready. Ryo raised his own spear and yelled for them to back away, but the One guards didn’t listen and glared at their darker-skinned counterparts.
“We don’t take orders from you or your kind,” a One guard growled.
Paige tried to shield Love from potential danger, but the Sky Person did not appear worried. He stepped forward—even as numerous weapons were leveled at his chest—and stared from one guard’s face to the next, studying each man closely.
“Maybe you’ll take orders from this,” Ryo snarled, waggling his spear, “when I shove it straight up your—”
“That’s enough,” a calm, yet authoritative voice commanded from outside the elevator. “Everybody, stand down. I know it doesn’t look like it, but we are all on the same side.”
Ryo snorted in disgust, but his sneer faded when an older, distinguished guard stepped into the elevator. Paige gasped, uncertain whether she was relieved or mortified to see the man standing in front of her.
“Father,” she gasped.
Zander Blake’s eyes softened when he saw Paige, but only for a moment. His top lip curled and his gaze hardened at the sight of Love standing so closely to his daughter.
“I saved her. . . I brought Paige back,” Ryo snapped. “I did what none of you could have done.”
Zander sighed. “And you think that makes you important?” he asked, looking from Ryo to the bloodied, battered men behind him. “You think it makes any of you important to rescue some foolish girl who should’ve listened to her father and stayed away from this life.”
Paige expected to feel a burst of anger or shame or disappointment for her father and his attitude. Instead, she yawned, too exhausted to feel anything. She took Love by the hand and headed toward the whiteness of the Quarantined Zone’s hallway.
“I have to patch him up,” she said to nobody in particular.
Love allowed himself to be pulled away, but they didn’t make it two steps before Ryo scurried in front of her. He grabbed her wrist roughly, glaring at Zander Blake and the One guards as he did so.
“You’re going nowhere,” Ryo said. “I’m delivering you to King Edmond to fulfill our deal.” When the One guards stood at attention, Ryo glanced at the men behind him. “We’re all delivering you.”
The One guards looked to Zander for how to proceed, but the old man’s face remained an expressionless mask.
“It would be wise to unhand my daughter. . . immediately,” Zander said.
Love stepped around Paige. Ignoring the rising tension between both groups of guards, he approached Zander, his eyes studying the old man’s face.
“Can you please tell me your last name?” Love asked him. “As well as the names of your followers?”
Zander’s brow furrowed.
“Who the hell is he?” Zander asked Ryo.
Ryo loosened his grip on Paige and turned to Love.
“One of them,” Ryo said, his eyes glancing up.
“Looks like no Pelted I’ve ever seen. Why the hell did you bring him down here?” Zander asked. “Was that part of your deal with King Edmond?”
Paige tried to pull away, but Ryo tightened his grip. She winced in pain but still edged her way toward her father.
“He helped keep me alive,” Paige said. “I’m not sure if he’s from the Dome or somewhere outside, but Love made sure I got away from—”
Ryo yanked her back so suddenly that her shoulder felt like it wrenched out of the socket. Pain sucked all strength from her legs and it took all of her willpower to remain upright.
“He doesn’t need to know about what’s up there,” Ryo spat at her. “None of them do. King Edmond only trusted us to see that.”
Zander sighed, his top lip curling as he saw Paige favoring her injured shoulder. Love also looked down at her, confused to see her face etched in pain.
“Fine,” Zander said eventually. “The one from Above makes no difference to me. Kill him.”
Ryo pulled Paige aside, clearing a path toward Love, who didn’t budge as Zander’s guards approached, their spears at the ready.
“No,” Paige groaned, turning to Ryo. “Help him.”
Ryo shrugged. “Not part of my mission.”
Adrenaline surged through Paige, who lashed out and kicked Ryo in the shin, causing him to grunt and loosen his grip enough for Paige to pull free. She scurried in front of the One guards before they reached Love.
“You’ll have to kill me first,” she told the guards before turning to Ryo. “If they kill him, I’ll tell the Lord and Jonas what really happened Above. . . who was really responsible for saving me.”
“Enough of this,” Ryo said, stepping in front of the guards. “Nobody is dying right here, right now. I don’t care
what happens after we see the king.”
“And that’s your decision to make?” Zander asked with a condescending chuckle. “King Edmond is not to be interrupted while he consults the Lord and Jonas.”
Love suddenly stepped forward, bumping Paige aside, not stopping until the guards’ spears were inches from his face and chest. He did not seem to notice the immediate danger in which he placed himself.
“Jonas?” he asked.
“King Edmond Jonas,” Paige said, pulling him back a few inches. “Ruler of the City Below.”
Love’s eyes began to well and he whispered a single word. “Jonas.”
“If King Edmond is busy, we’ll take them to Prince Oliver,” Ryo said, glancing at Paige with a cruel smirk. “The prince has big plans for you and him.”
Paige shook her head, turning desperately to her father, who undoubtedly noticed her but made a point of avoiding her gaze.
“Please, I belong in the QZ,” she begged. “I returned Below so I could help people.”
“No, you returned Below because I brought you Below,” Ryo said. “Besides, you will be helping the prince.”
“Another Jonas?” Love asked.
“Yes, but none of you will be seeing him any time soon,” Zander said. “Oliver left One to play an important role in the Third and Fifth. A contingent of guards escorted him and Emma Weller to the Third, where they’ll be—”
Without warning, Love swung his right arm in a wide loop, smashing through all five spears still aimed at him.
“Jonas!” he yelled. “Descendant!”
Zander and Ryo recoiled, both men yelling warnings to calm down. The elevator was crowded and space became tighter as humans from both sides pushed and pulled at Love. Paige ducked low and looked up through the chaos, watching Love swat away any weapon jabbed in his direction. The guards tried to inundate him, but he pushed them aside with ease, his face twisting in fear and confusion, his clothes bulging near his back, threatening to rip apart.
