Authors: Amy Braun
“I suppose I could try again,” Mortis offered icily. “After all, you are my anomaly. I could attempt taking your gifts back by slicing into you again, and then dispose of you in a permanent fashion.”
He pressed the knife deeper into my skin. I gasped at the hot sting that burst from my chest. I glanced down, watching a small stream of blood oozing around the crystal blade.
“Hmm,” grunted Mortis. “It does not appear to be working. Should I try harder?”
The dagger sank deeper. The pain swept across my chest like wildfire, though the burn wasn’t the same, crushing agony I’d felt when he stabbed me the first time.
But that wasn’t a comfort. Because if Mortis pushed the blade any deeper, he was going to kill me.
“You cannot erase what you have become, Ava. You are no longer human. You will be a revitalized Stormkind until the day you die. And as troubling as you have become, I will not kill you.”
Mortis withdrew the crystal dagger from my chest. My legs wobbled and nearly gave way. Ferno jerked me upright. His leader drew closer.
“Make no mistake, Wild One. You will do as I command you. The consequences of failure will be worse than death.”
I didn’t see how. He’d already tortured me into creation. Unless Hadrian could feel the tether from three hundred and fifty miles away, no one was coming for me. At this point, there was nothing I could use.
I felt no shame when I looked into his eyes, scowled, and gave him a bitter, “Fuck you.”
Mortis stared at me, blinking only once. I could sense the barely controlled rage beyond his eyes. See it in the way he clenched the hilt of the dagger. He wanted to hurt me. He wanted me to be his perfect little monster, capable of genocide so he could take revenge for the Primordials he worshipped.
Guess he didn’t think his little pet project would be so insufferably human.
“Perhaps we should allow her to see the incentive,” rasped Ferno.
The way he said
incentive
made my stomach roll.
“Perhaps you are correct, Ferno.”
“
Perhaps
you should stop saying
perhaps
,” I snapped, still feeling my confidence on the rise. “It’s getting really annoying. Besides, there’s nothing you can do to me to make me help you.”
“Oh, I beg to differ,” Mortis countered. “You see, Declan knows what you value. He may have failed me as a new Stormkind, but he has his uses. He and Turve have likely returned with their prizes. I believe it is time for you to see them.”
Mortis stalked past me and walked out of the cavern. Ferno released one of my arms and whirled me around, dragging me behind him. I had to all but run to keep pace with him. I glanced left and right as we stormed down the corridor, but didn’t spot any exits or turn-offs. If there was a way to escape, I couldn’t see it.
That being said, it didn’t take us long to reach the end of the tunnel. Cool night air washed over my face. The smell of pine swirled around me. I glanced up and saw scattered stars gathering near a full moon split in half by slashes of clouds. I would have found it to be hauntingly beautiful, if not for the terror and confusion warring inside my head.
Ferno stopped abruptly and grabbed both of my arms again. He practically lifted me off the ground when he whirled me in front of him. Planted on my feet again, he crushed my biceps and forced me to look ahead.
As soon as I saw what was before me, I knew Mortis was right. There was no chance I would defy him. Not with this kind of weapon.
My family on their knees, with terror in their eyes and blades to their throats.
I sagged in Ferno’s grip. Even he couldn’t hold me up this time. Tears welled in my eyes and spilled down my cheeks as I looked at their faces in turn.
I’d allowed myself to fantasize about what would happen if I ever saw them again. Of feeling my father’s strong arms when he hugged me. My mother stroking my hair and telling me how proud she was. James tugging my hand and smiling when he wanted to show me something.
I hadn’t imagined the bruises on my father’s face, the cut on my mother’s lip, or the tears lining James’s cheeks.
Mortis stood behind my little brother with the crystal dagger. Declan had wrapped one of his fists in my mother’s hair, a short knife to her throat. Turve had his hand clamped over my father’s forehead, drawing it back and exposing his neck to a tempest-blade.
“How…” It was the only word I could get out.
“It seems they frequent the Missing Boards,” Mortis announced. “Declan knew where to find them. He recalled where you lived and where the local resource stations were.”
“Wasn’t hard, Ginger,” the bully announced with pride.
My eyes turned to him, finally seeing how awful he looked. I’d noticed the paleness before, but when I was captured on the road in Sanford, he was either behind me or I was too delirious with pain to notice his physical changes. Now I could see the utter transparency of his flesh, so thin I could see his blue veins beneath. The texture of his skin was uneven and almost wrinkled, like a burn victim.
Or the texture of a hurricane-Stormkind.
I wished I could feel the anger I was supposed to feel. That I wasn’t so overridden with terror I couldn’t even straight.
“Allow me to make this perfectly clear, Ava,” Mortis said. It was a monumental effort to drag my eyes from my kidnapped family to him. His expression was stony and empty. As if holding a dagger to a little boy was commonplace for him.
“You will strengthen your abilities. You will become our weapon. You will increase your strengths until I am prepared to unleash you. I will create more new Stormkind like you. If you do not agree to my terms, or if you attempt to contact the Precips, I will kill your family in front of you.”
He put his hand on James’s shoulder and squeezed. My baby brother winced.
“Starting with this one. If you do not agree, he will die now.”
My parents screamed. Declan and Turve shouted at them to be silent. James started to cry. Mortis stared at me. I felt my world begin to collapse.
“See what will become of them if you refuse. Ava? You will lose more than a brother. Your parents will be ruined. You will see it all, and suffer from a pain greater than any physical torture I could ever inflict.”
He paused, letting me listen to my parents’ tortured sobs.
“Or, you can swear here and now to obey me. To be exactly what I made you to be. You can say goodbye, and embrace your new life.”
I knew then that there was no painless choice for me. Either I would watch my little brother die and see my parents succumb to grief before they were killed, or I would agree and be forced to leave them forever. No matter what, Mortis would have what he wanted. I was his weapon. His experiment.
“Decide, Ava.”
James’s sobs caught in his throat. The tears I’d been trying to hold back spilled down my face.
“Please,” I cried, “please, he has asthma–”
“Decide.”
He wasn’t offering me a choice. He was giving me a command. The worst part was, I knew what my answer would be. I only had one. There would be consequences for it, and I would suffer regardless. Me and countless others.
“I’ll do it,” I whispered. Gathering my voice and letting go of my pride, I wearily met Mortis’s eyes. “I’ll do it. Just please, please let them go.”
Mortis stared at me for a long time, searching for some kind of deception or trick. I let him stare, because I had no tricks. I had no way of defeating the Mistrals.
Not yet, anyway.
Mortis released my brother, then looked at Turve and Declan. They let go of my parents and backed away a couple steps. My parents huddled together, keeping James between them and soothing him so his breathing relaxed.
“Release her, Ferno. Let her remember what she stands to lose if she fails us.”
The grip on my arms disappeared. I tore across the dirt and skidded to a stop in front of my parents and brother. I was amazed when they didn’t recoil from me, and even more stunned when they wrapped their arms around me and held me close. None of us could stop crying.
“Don’t do this,” my father pleaded. “Don’t give in.”
“I don’t have a choice,” I sobbed. “You don’t know what they’re capable of. If I don’t do what he says…” Tears choked my throat.
“We can’t leave you here,” my mother begged. James clutched my stomach like he would never let go.
I wanted them to stay with me. I dreaded the thought of being alone with these psychopaths. But I couldn’t risk my family again. I couldn’t lose control around them. Not when I’d witnessed the depths of their terror when I got that damn glow in my eyes.
So I lied.
“I’ll come home,” I whispered. “I’ll find my way back to the old house. I don’t know when or how, but I’ll be there. I promise.”
The words gagged me. My cheeks flared with heat and my eyes burned with tears.
My family believed me.
“You’re a strong, brave girl, Ava,” my mother told me, her blue eyes shining. “We’re so proud of you.”
The three of us embraced again. James’s words were muffled in my shirt, but I heard him loud and clear.
“Come home soon.”
I wondered if my tears were ever going to stop.
“The goodbyes have been said,” Mortis announced blandly.
Ferno’s rough hands grabbed my shoulders and yanked me back. My family wailed as I was torn from them. My father shot to his feet with his fists balled. I shook my head frantically, begging him not to risk his life and help me.
Defeated, my father turned to Mortis.
“March west. If you do not find a resource station, you will find the coast. Follow it south from there.”
That was it. No other advice, no supplies, nothing. If what Mortis told me about the forest was true, it was all but a death sentence, and it was the only thing he was going to give.
My father realized this. He slowly helped James and my mother to their feet. Wrapping his arms around their shoulders, he looked back at me.
I don’t think I had ever seen my father cry before.
“We love you, Ava. We love you so much.”
Then my father shuffled away with my family. I could feel my heart leaving with him, abandoning me to nothing but grief and dread.
Chapter 17
“You are about to witness something that no human has ever seen before.”
I stared at the ground, not caring one single bit about Mortis’s grand proclamation. I was exhausted even before we started the long walk across the forest. I hadn’t slept a wink last night, too busy crying and wondering if my family would make it would out of the forest alive. I had to believe they’d be okay. Even though I would never know, because I was never going to see them again.
Don’t think like
that, I scolded myself.
Figure out what the Mistrals want to do with you, turn it against them, then run.
That was the extent of my master plan. How I was going to accomplish it was a mystery, but I figured I would jump that hurdle when I came to it. Right now, I had to pretend I was curious about what the Mistrals wanted to show me.
It was cold here, and the spare sweater they gave me wasn’t doing much to keep the chill away. Wind whipped my hair, and I finally looked up. Half bent trees surrounded us, their splintered branches dangling over our heads like shattered bones. Toppled branches and twigs dug into the middle of my boots, and the smell of pine and cedar filled the night. The full moon’s light poured over us, a ghostly glow that sank into the ground and illuminated the tragedy of the ruined forest around me.
I hadn’t asked any questions since I said goodbye to my family. I hadn’t even tried to contact the Precips to ask for help. I could barely feel the cool thread from the tether in my chest. It was like it had been unplugged, separating me from Hadrian and any possible chance of rescue. I had no idea if I would still be able to use it in a fight, but if it came down to it, I would try. No matter how hopeless I felt right now, I refused to go down without a fight.
After what seemed like hours, Mortis came to a stop. Turve and Ferno stood on either side of him. Declan shoved his palm into the middle of my back and urged me forward. Not because I had slowed down– just because he was an asshole.
I turned to glare at him, maybe even give him a piece of my mind, when a flash of light shone across his scowling, transparent face. I turned and watched the flash again, like someone was wielding strobe light at the bottom of the hill.
I stalked away from Declan and stood on the top of the hill next to Mortis. I peered down the hill, seeing instead that it was a crater. It looked like some giant god had taken a massive spoon and scooped out a chunk of the earth. The curves of the walls were perfect and smooth, drawing my attention to the dozen cages clustered in the middle. One of them contained the harsh, blinking light, but there were other lights in the cages. Thinner lights, each one spread into five lengths that connected together like a…