Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (23 page)

My heart sinks. I should have considered those monsters never would have fit down the stairs I escaped through last time. Another way out… but last time I ran in this direction, I ended up lost in darkness.
Wish being Transcendent meant I could see in the dark,
I think, as we run through another corridor. Doors are open on either side. Labs. I risk a quick glance in either direction, and can’t see any weapons. But there’s no time to search. A shattering roar strikes, accompanied by the screech of metal.

I shoot Cas an alarmed look. Elle’s curled up in his arms, whimpering. Blood soaks her left arm. The tattooed one.
Oh, God.
I have to get that marking off, but we can’t stop.

And then we’re in darkness so absolute, it’s as though a hand drops from the sky to block out the light. The chill of recognition settles on my shoulders. This is where I collapsed and had the vision of Cas in pain.

Flickers at the corners of my eyes tell me I’m in danger of the same thing happening again.

“Where the hell are we?” I ask loudly. At least I’m not alone this time.

Never thought I’d be glad of Cas’s grumpy reply, “I haven’t a damn clue, but at least even that bastard can’t see in here.”

“He can’t?”

“Not unless he gave himself enhanced sight, and he won’t have got that from the fiends.” I move closer to where his voice comes from, so I don’t lose him in the dark. I assume we’re in a corridor, but it’s impossible to tell. The smooth floor turns to spongy earth. I’m guessing this is a newer tunnel he never bothered to decorate and add lights to, but that doesn’t explain what it’s for.

“Well, that’s something,” I say. The easiest way not to lose each other is to keep talking. But at the same time, we can’t risk walking at top-speed without knowing what’s ahead. One wrong step and Elle could get hurt. I brace my hand against the nearest wall and feel my way along. The soft pad of footsteps beside me tells me Cas’s doing the same.

“Have you been up here before?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says.

“Helpful,” I say, when he doesn’t qualify that with an explanation. “I ran this way after I cut Jared’s arm off, but I got lost somewhere and… I have no idea how far it goes. There must be an exit somewhere, right?”

“It’s the only way,” says Cas. “I’ve searched every inch of the place, and this has to be it. Question is why he left it dark. He must
really
want to keep this place clear. Even fiends don’t have a tendency to wander into dark places. Especially enclosed ones.”

That detail gives me pause. They always hunt at night, but on open ground. Not in forests, or near similar places. Except that one time I was attacked in a forest… wait a minute. The winged fiends are Jared’s. Did he do something to kill their natural instincts?

“They must have been pissed when he brought them this way. How’s he controlling them, anyway? Same tattoos?”

“Blood control,” says Cas’s voice, from my left side. “Same as the tattoos, except he didn’t inject himself… though now I think about it, he probably did.”

“He said
my
blood made him Transcendent,” I say. “But he’s mutating, turning into a monster. So are the others…”

“Because he gave them fiend blood,” says Cas. “He said he wanted to give them a boost, the moron. You’re not the same, you had
my
blood.”

Is he trying to reassure me I won’t mutate into a winged, clawed monstrosity like the fiends? Before I can wrap my head around it, my left foot reaches out and meets nothing but darkness. No ground. “Stop!” I say quickly. “There’s a drop here.”

“Damn,” says Cas. “We can’t turn back. Is there nothing on your side?”

“No…”

I squint ahead into the darkness, where shuffling noises make the hairs stand up on my arms and my heart quake in my chest. This is it. We’re trapped at a dead end with monsters on one side and the unknown on the other.

The shuffling continues. I freeze, and Cas swears under his breath. There’s no doubt the noise comes from behind us, and it’s either stick around and get caught, or…

Cas’s hand grabs my wrist and drags me to the left. “There’s a path. Don’t step to your right, or you’ll fall.”

Encouraging. Cas holds onto my wrist, pulls me to the left again, and lets go. From the way he brushes past me, I can tell he’s directly in front of me, leading the way.

I’d better hope I don’t lose him in the dark.

The path is soft underfoot, but after a few slow, tense minutes, it turns to rock, and slopes upwards.
Aboveground,
I think, with a barely-suppressed flicker of hope. A faint breeze comes from the right, and my skin crawls for some reason. There’s no noise close behind, and we’re moving further from Jared’s trap by the second. So why do I feel like claws are about to close around my throat?

Yet, I can definitely feel something I couldn’t before—the faintest breeze, not air con, but the suggestion of fresh air.

And the smell of burning on the breeze, accompanied by a tugging under my skin, a pull in this direction.

My heart beats frantically, like it might leap from my chest. My vision turns to red spots, the darkness dissolving into a blur of colour.
No.
I grip the wall on my left with my hand, fingers digging in, trying to steady myself in the present. If I black out, I’ll fall.

Focus, Leah.

One foot in front of the other. Only the faint sound of Cas’s breathing, and Elle’s, stops me losing the plot completely. The breeze grows stronger by the second. There
must
be an opening soon.

As the thought crosses my mind, Cas stops so suddenly I walk into him.

“What’s going on?” I hiss.

“Dead end.”

“You’re joking.” My heart sinks like a stone.

“You think?”

I jerk back as a thud comes from ahead.

“What in the world was that?”

Elle moans. “Put me down. I can stand.”

I jump, having forgotten she’s there. “Elle, are you okay? I’m sorry. I should have asked.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Cas snaps. “If you’re absolutely sure, I can put you down here. Leah, back up a bit. I’m gonna break the wall open.”

“Is that really the only way? What if there’s another drop?”

A noise, which makes me think Cas’s ironically laughing at me. “We’re screwed either way. Back up.”

So I do. Seconds later, arms wrap around my waist. Elle.

A thud shakes the ground we stand on.

“You might have asked if
I
wanted to break down the walls,” I say, but my words are lost in an avalanche of falling rock. I stand stock-still, not daring to lean on the wall in case it gives way. I damn well hope Cas knows what he’s doing. For all I know, I can bore straight through the wall like a human drill, but there’s no realistic way to take Elle along for the ride without her getting hurt or killed in the process.

My vision flickers. I grit my teeth and dig my heels into the ground, but quickly realise this isn’t a vision. Light streams through gaps in the collapsed rock wall. Even as I watch, the lights turn into orange-red beams, like the sun.

Except this isn’t ground level.

Crash.

Elle and I cling onto each other tightly as a final tremor rocks the earth, and bright lights explode before my eyes. And then it stops.

The smell of burning takes over, so strong it becomes difficult to breathe. Like standing close to an energy blast. But there can’t have been one down here. Which means…

The light dims enough to see. Cas brought down a wall at least a metre thick, but it looks as though he uncovered part of a hidden set of stairs, leading up to a platform. Caution disappears and I walk ahead, climbing the short way up to the platform, which ends on the edge of a cliff. The beams of light
are
sunlight, shining directly down onto the platform. A cliff faces us, like the one we stand on.

We’re inside the divide.

For a moment, I stare, convinced I’ve walked into one of my visions. Jared’s tunnel comes out partway down the side of the cliff. I step forwards, squinting at the opposite edge.

“Crap,” I say. “Well that explains how no one’s got out.”

The other side of the divide lies several metres away. The air shimmers above the edge, and the ground’s scorched red. Not as much as a blade of grass grows on their world anymore.

“There’s not a—bridge, is there?” I whisper to Cas. I can’t see one like last time. But here, the two cliff sides almost touch.

Cas shakes his head. “No, but his spies fly right into fiend territory. That’s why he always knows what they’re up to.”

My heart sinks like a stone. I can’t see any fiends on the other side, but this close to the divide, nothing’s certain. A semi-transparent veil hangs over the air, with two scenes transplanted on top of each other. In one, the Burned Spot continues, but in the distance, there’s the shape of hills and dark green patches that suggest surviving forests on our side. In the other, the barrenness goes on, and on. And there’s another collection of shapes in the distance, gathering on the horizon like storm clouds.
No. Those can’t be fiends. There can’t be
that
many.

Cas grabs my arm and pulls me back.

“Get inside. They’ll see you.”

Mutely, I step back, into the darkness. The red sky above looms tantalisingly close.

“Did you know about
that?”
I whisper, my voice hoarse. I can hardly believe it. Perhaps it was a trick of the light… But somehow I know. It’s an army.

“I guessed, but that explains why Jared made so many new Transcendents.”

“Does Murray know they’re so close?” And there are so many?

“I have no idea.”

A roar thunders through the air.

“Hell,” I whisper, again. “We’re in trouble.”

No sooner have those words left my mouth than a dark shape flies overhead. I duck down, but it’s already turned around to come this way.

One of Jared’s fiends.

Cas spits out a curse and grabs me around the waist, and jumps down the stairs. We land a few metres down, the impact jolting my legs, but the fiend spots us and dives, clawed feet splayed, ugly face twisted in anger. Claws swipe at us, catching me on the arm.

“Transcendent. You should not be here!”

“Bit late for that, you pathetic excuse for a spy,” Cas snarls, and spears the fiend through the neck with his sword. One flick, and the fiend’s ugly head goes flying.

“Great,” I say. “How the hell do we get to the surface?” I didn’t see any stairs from the platform. With his winged fiends, I suppose Jared doesn’t need them. I move forward, past Cas, who doesn’t appear inclined to respond. The short platform juts out from under the overhang, but even when I walk right to the edge, I can barely make out the top of the cliff above. Up there, somewhere, the others have made camp. But we can’t reach them.

A screech rings out. I freeze, glancing behind me in panic. The cry came from above.

Which means Jared’s fiends are hunting again.

Just what we need.
I glance at Elle, mentally calculating our chances of climbing the cliff unscathed. The odds aren’t good.

Pain stabs my left arm, without warning. My legs wobble, and only instinct makes me brace myself against the wall to keep from falling.

I push myself upright, head spinning. But my body doesn’t move. My limbs are like water.

I’m not in control of my own body anymore. My left arm pulses with white-hot agony, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Cas fall to his knees. Elle clings to the wall, shouting my name, her voice oddly muffled.

Claws dig into the cliff front, and the monstrous shape of a mutated fiend pulls itself up to our level.

Shit. Shit.
I can’t move. Cas lies flat on his face, Elle’s shaking him, shaking me. I’ve slumped into a sitting position by the edge, my arm a torrent of agony. My head hits the ground as I fall sideways.

Move. Move, Leah.
I’m not going to let the fiend get at the others.

But I’m paralysed, and another image threatens to overwhelm my mind. The clash of weapons fills my head, along with the image of Pyros fighting fiends. A familiar battlefield scene.

Stop!

This time, I think I scream out loud. Talons pierce my shoulders, and my eyes fly open to find the fiend’s grabbed me, pulling me towards the cliff’s edge.

“Leah!” Elle’s shout breaks through the clamour of fighting. But I can’t reply. The fiend lifts me from the ground, and, wings spread wide, carries me into the sky.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“This is it.”

The voice is familiar, but I can’t place it. I blink, and the world rearranges itself. I’m crouched behind a rock. The smell of burning hits me, and as I glance up, it’s obvious why. The sky is on fire. Not just the burned red colour it is now, but a blazing orange inferno that hurts my eyes to look at. Directly beneath is yet another familiar sight: a jagged rip through the centre of the Earth.