The Breakers Ultimatum (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 3) (10 page)

“Just hang on okay,” Casper whispered. His voice was shaky and he was over me now.

“It hurts,” I said through a clenched jaw.

“I know,” he answered. “Just hold on. They’ll be gone in a minute, and then…”

But his voice trailed off, and I knew why. He had no idea what came after that. Without Royce here to siphon off all the shade I had built up, neither of us knew what would happen. Last time I was unconscious for a month. This time… Well, this time I might not wake up at all.

I tried not to think about that, about the idea of leaving Casper behind, alone in this world he had no business being in. I tried not to think about never seeing Owen again. And most of all, I tried not to think about the celebration that would seep through the Hourglass as soon as they got the news of my death.

It was then, when I was trying to keep my mind clear of all those things, when I saw her.

A girl, tall and willowy, with way blond hair and eyes that were as silver as they were blue, stood behind the Breakers. Her hair, which hung well passed her shoulder, blew in a wind that I didn’t feel. The pain in my hand grew ever more severe than it had been the first time. I wanted to chop the stupid hand off, to throw it at them and run. But something told me that even that wouldn’t be enough. This energy building inside of me needed a release. And, what was more, it wanted to be released. I could feel it, the hunger peeking out up over the pain.

And all the while the girl stood there, staring ahead, staring at me.

Her clothes were strange, bright; form fitting and silver, nothing like I had ever seen anyone wear within the walls of the Hourglass. I wanted to speak, to ask Casper who he thought she was and if he thought she was looking at us, but I knew that if I opened my mouth, the only thing that would come out would be a scream.

The woman started toward us, her eyes pinned on me. Yes, she could see me. She moved around the Breakers with ease. For their part, the Breakers didn’t seem to notice her. Did they even know she was there?

She settled in front of me and knelt down her silver/blue eyes burning into my own.

“C-Casper,” I muttered through the pain.

“Just a little longer Cress,” he said, squeezing my shoulder. God, he couldn’t see her either. Who was this person, and what did she want?

A soft smile brightened her face, and suddenly she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I mean, this chick seriously made me feel bad about myself.

“I’ll see you soon Blood Moon,” she said. She placed a hand on my aching palm and pressed it hard against the ground. “In the strangest of places.”

The energy poured out of me like a faucet. It darted through the ground, searing the grass and burning it in a strange pattern.

“Fate’s hand!” The first Breaker exclaimed. They both began to move, hopping around the way one might expect when the ground suddenly catches fire underfoot.

“Edwin!” the second Breaker said. “Look! Look at what it says.” He pointed to the scorched earth and, as my gaze followed, my stomach began to sour. The pattern hadn’t been random. In fact, it had been very precise. The energy had poured out of me, and it had said the one thing I was hoping it wouldn’t. It had scorched the word ‘Damnatus’ into the ground…in full view of the Breakers.

The blond girl smiled at me again, and then she vanished.

“Oh no…” the second Breaker muttered. “You know what this means.”

Of course, he did. They both did, and now the Council would too. I had to stop them. I had to subdue them somehow, but how could I? Taking them out probably wouldn’t be much of an issue, assuming I could still use my abilities after what had just happened. But then they would know where I was, and allowing them to return wouldn’t be an option anymore. Could I do that? Could I stop them at all cost?

I slinked out from under Casper, surprised at how quickly the pain had subsided. He didn’t say anything. He just lay there staring at the ground, mouth agape.

“I have to stop them,” I muttered, tumbling to my feet. “I have to-“

“We have to get back. We have to tell the Cou…” A branched spiraled through the air, striking the man in the head and knocking him out cold.

Royce strutted from the brush, clapping dust from his hands. “Yeah, thing is, I can’t let you do that.”

Royce’s eyes were on me in an instant, studying my condition in seconds. Then, just as quickly, his stare darted away. I wasn’t sure what to do. Obviously, Royce thought these idiots couldn’t see me. Otherwise, he’d have rushed to my side rather than circle the remaining Breaker like a cat ready to pounce.

But did that mean they could still hear me, and what… could they even hear me in the first place? The anchors were supposed to protect us. It was their entire reason for being; to make sure that things like this didn’t happen.

“We need to get out of here,” Casper whispered, standing to meet me.

“But Royce,” I muttered softly watching the Breaker lift his gun slowly.

“He’ll be fine,” Casper said, but I could hear the doubt in his voice. You can’t outrun a bullet, no matter who you are. But that wouldn’t matter to Casper. Regardless of how cool he thought Royce was, his first priority would be to make sure I got out of here. The funny thing was, I knew Royce wanted the same thing.  Could see it in his eyes; his shielded, decidedly ‘unravenlike’ eyes.

Still, my feet didn’t move. Even if I was the type of girl who would run away and leave someone to fight my battles (which I wasn’t sure I was), I still didn’t know how fragile these anchors were. As far as I was concerned, there was a good chance that turning tail and running would break them into a thousand useless pieces.

“You don’t wanna do that, big boy,” Royce said with arched brows. “Trust me, you ain’t near quick enough.”

My mind flashed back to the day Allister Leeman died, to the first time I ever saw Royce. The thing he did with his eyes, the way they lit up and caused blood to pour from Ezra, was just about the most frightening thing I had ever seen. And I had seen a lot. More than that, it was fast; maybe fast enough to stop this Breaker from pulling the trigger.

“Death doesn’t frighten me. I’m a true Breaker!” the man shouted. “If fate’s plan is for me to perish today, then I’ll do so happily, taking all my secrets to the Council.” His eyes moved to the ‘Damnatus’ burned onto the ground. He was like Merrin and, like Merrin, if he died the information he’d gathered would be transmitted to the Council quicker than anyone would be able to stop.

I must say; I felt very Wile E. Coyote all of the sudden.

“First off, you wouldn’t know what a true Breaker looked like. Otherwise, you’d be really impressed with little ole’ me. Second, I ain’t planning to kill you, big boy. I’m just gonna shut you down for the foreseeable future.” His eyes started to glow, and I suddenly started to believe that this would be okay, that Royce would be able to keep the shit-storm that was brewing at bay; at least for now. And who knew what he had done closer to the Hourglass? Maybe he’d come across some information that would help us get out of here. Or, better yet, maybe he knew how we could get Owen back.

Royce’s fingers twitched the way they had before he took Ezra out. Soon this Breaker idiot would start bleeding from the eyes too. The Breaker cocked the gun. I flinched and felt Casper stiffen behind me. Royce, for his part, never reacted. His eyes brightened and, just as I thought something was about to happen, the Breaker turned the gun’s barrel toward himself.

“No!” Royce shouted and started toward the Breaker, his eyes losing their glow.

“Death to the Blood Moon! Long live the Council!” And with that, the breaker put a bullet into his own head. I spun, burying my head in Casper’s chest and sparing myself the sight of blood spewing out of the dying man.

“You friggin’ moron!” Royce’s voice was closer now. I turned to find him leaned over the man. Red warmth covered his hands and splashed up onto his chest and face. “You useless bastard!” The man gurgled a response. Royce grabbed his shirt, pulling the man’s pained face closer to his own. “She ain’t here! You hear me? You ain’t even close!”

He wasn’t talking to the man. He was speaking to the Council who would, in seconds, receive all the information this soldier had accumulated; including what Royce was now telling him.

“You can’t stop us!” He said, and there actually might have been tears in his eyes. “You sons of bitches can’t stop us.”  The man choked, shook, and then he was gone.

Royce dropped him, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. He sat on the ground for a moment, covered in someone else’s blood. His eyes shot up to me, down at the secret word now scrawled across the ground, and back to me again.

“You okay? He asked.

“Yeah,” Casper and I said in tandem.

“Good,” Royce answered, running a blood stained hand through his hair. “Because we got trouble.”

“Slow down,” Echo told me in his most calming voice. Not that it did any good. I had practically paced a groove into the floor since we had gotten back to the cabin. Royce and Casper took turns explaining what had happened while I interjected panicked color commentary.

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened!”

“They’re absolutely going to find us!”

“Is there a tank outside?! I think I hear a tank!”

Composed, I was not. But why would I be? We were dancing across a tightrope just by being here. And now, with the information those Breakers came across safely tucked into the communal consciousness of the Council of Masons, it was safe to say we were in freefall.

Dahlia came striding through the door. After we’d returned she went to where the ruckus had taken place so that she could use her unique abilities to try and glean something from the tainted surroundings.

“Dahlia.” All of Echo’s attention went to his wife.

“It’s complicated,” Dahlia answered, expecting the coming questions. “But first, let’s go over a bit of housekeeping. I managed to rid the ground of the ‘Damnatus’ scribbles and drag the unconscious Breaker far enough away from our boundaries to buy us some time. Now that the information the fallen Breaker saw is in the hands of the Council, they’ll come looking for us.”

I began to panic, but Dahlia raised a hand to still me. “I scanned the living Breaker, though. He had very little idea of where he was within these woods. If the dead Breaker thought similarly, then the Council will have to look for markers to find us.” She shook her head. “Which leads me to the matter of the quickly decomposing body lying at the borders of our territory.”

“I thought no one could see us here,” Casper said, his feet dangling nervously from his table top perch. “Isn’t that what the anchors are for?”

“The anchors hide this place from anyone who doesn’t already know it’s here,” Dahlia clarified. “That body might as well be a giant flashing ‘Vacancy’ sign.”

“I’ll handle it,” Royce said, his eyes pinned thoughtfully to the floor.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“It’s a body,” he snapped at me. “I’m gonna bury it.”

“Look, I get that you’re angry,” I started moving closer to him. Usually, the pull of my built up shade would draw me to him. But since the strange disappearing girl touched me, I felt strangely free of that.

“I ain’t angry. I’m worried.” His eyes traced the floor. “Best case scenario, the Council doesn’t find out where we are. But they still know about the Damnatus, and they weren’t even considering it before Cresta. I checked. It was forgotten until you went and-“

“Seriously! You’re seriously going to blame me for that?” My teeth ground together. “You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

“I got a lot of problems,” he answered. “And so do you.”

“Well then blame the people who are actually at fault Royce!” My feet practically stomped which, of course, was about the most mature reaction I could have had. “Blame the Council or the stupid Seers. Or, I don’t know, why don’t you blame the woman who grabbed my hand and caused the message in the first place?”

“I ain’t blaming you, and even if I was- wait, what woman?” He asked, his shielded eyes narrowing.

“The woman with the Breakers, the one that disappeared,” I answered. Royce glared at me for what seemed like a long time before his eyes moved to the others, looking at them like he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Cresta, there was no woman,” Casper said from beside me. Glancing over, I found his eyes deadly serious. This wasn’t a joking Casper, not at all.

“You saw her Casper,” I answered, confusion nipping at the back of my mind. “You were there the whole time. She walked right up to us. Tall, blond, sorta curvy. You had to have seen her.”

“I kinda wish I would have seen her,” Casper admitted. “But I didn’t. She wasn’t there.”

My mind started racing. This was Crestview all over again. This was me assuring everyone that Mrs. Goolsby existed and everyone else looking at me like I belonged in a straitjacket. But that was a long time ago, before my Breaker powers manifested. I shouldn’t be able to be fooled like that anymore. If there was shade in the area, I should be able to feel it.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I answered, sitting on a nearby chair, my head in my hands. I wouldn’t freak out like I did with Mrs. Goolsby. I was a different girl back then, and besides, I couldn’t afford to breakdown at the moment. “She was there. She touched me and all the shade I had been building up just sort of exploded out of me. That’s where the Damnatus thing came from. “

“I’ve scanned your aura, Cresta. The built up shade has left you, but there’s no other abnormalities present. It was a hallucination,” Dahlia said flatly. “One that we haven’t the time to indulge, especially given that Royce hasn’t told us everything yet.” She glared at him. “Your aura was much louder as it turns out.”

Royce fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of Dahlia diving through his secrets. “I was gettin’ to it,” he shrugged. Looking over at me, he continued. “It’s the Dragon.”

“Owen?” I said standing. Pieces of what I had heard those idiot Breakers say came flooding back to me. The Council was going to punish him somehow. Maybe they already had. “Is he hurt?” I asked breathlessly. “Is he okay?”

“In a matter of speakin’,” Royce answered. He cleared his throat, which might have just been a nervous tick but screamed of a stall tactic to me.

“Just tell me!” I yelled, my heart racing.

“My contacts say that he was held captive for over a month.”

“That’s to be expected,” Echo chimed in. His fingers had begun drumming against the kitchen counter.

“Yeah, it is. But what they did to him there is gonna take ya for a spin,” Royce answered. I was about to scream at him, to demand that he stop this nonsense and get to the point. But he did it anyway. “I got eyes in the dungeons and in the medical bureau.”

“Medical bureau?” I croaked. I was going to be sick.

“They ran tests, pushing his body to its limits in an attempt to unlock things about his powers.” Royce's eyes flickered raven for an instant before returning to their more humanlike hue. “If it’s any consolation, I’m sure they made him think he was somewhere else. He probably was never even aware of what was really going on, much less in any pain or anything.”

“Right,” I answered, biting my lip and beating back tears. They had ripped into him like a lab rat; tore through his flesh and God knows what else. And I wasn’t there to help him. There would be no consolation for that.

“Fate’s hand,” Dahlia muttered, shaking her head. “Is the boy alright?” Her gaze was careful to avoid me. “Is he alive?”

“He’s more than that,” Royce answered. “They did it. Whatever they were trying to get into with their tests and their torture, it worked. Owen set fire to himself and half a stage in the center of the square in full view of everyone. And not fake fire, not shade. This was real. I’ve got half a dozen accounts of what happened.” Royce leaned in closer, as though imparting some secret, even though he said it loudly enough for everyone to hear. “And the boy didn’t burn; not a hair on his head.”

My eyes narrowed and the breath that had been threatening to leave me since Royce opened his mouth finally fled.

“What does that mean?” Caser asked, seeing I couldn’t do it myself.

“It means there ain’t no turning back now,” Royce said. “The Dragon’s more dangerous than ever, and we gotta get gone.”

“It means we don’t know what it means,” Echo said, his fingers still drumming away. “Other than the fact that someone we care about has just been through a horrible ordeal.”

“I’m not sure that’s the path you want to go down, dear,” Dahlia said.

“What does that mean?” He turned toward her.

“Regardless of who he used to be, it’s clear now that Owen Lightfoot is the Dragon. He’s a tool of the Council, and thinking of him as anything else sounds like a dangerous proposition to me.” Her eyes slid over to me. “Especially given the nature of certain relationships.”

Okay, so Dahlia knows about Owen and me. Funny how that’s not such a big deal anymore.

“Dahlia!” Echo exclaimed.

“I’m just suggesting that we shouldn’t humanize him,” Dahlia said.

“He is a human!” Echo yelled.

“Tell that to the Council,” Royce butted in. “They don’t see a person. They see a big ol’ knife. And they’re busy sharpening it.”

“You stay out of this!” I moved toward Royce, finally finding my voice again. “This is none of your business!”