by T. A. White
Ryu settled a hand on his shoulder before he could get more than a few steps and steered him toward Tate. “Tyne will go first and then me. She’ll kill me if you get a scratch on your baby face.”
Dewdrop’s mouth popped open in outrage. “Hey! My face is much more mature now. I’ve even started growing a beard.”
Tate and Ryu paused to give him identical expressions of disbelief.
“It’s true.” Dewdrop said defensively.
Tate grabbed his chin, turning his face this way and that as she studied his jaw. “I’d like to see this so-called beard. Can you point it out to me? All I see is a bunch of baby smooth skin.”
“Here. It’s right here.” Dewdrop pointed to a spot along his jawline. Tate squinted but still didn’t see anything. Making an irritated sound in the back of his throat, Dewdrop planted a hand on her face and shoved her away before hurrying several steps into the tunnel. “You don’t need to verify it. It’s there.”
Tate nodded as she started after him. “Uh huh. Sure, it is.”
“Fascinating group you’ve aligned yourself with,” Tyne told Ryu.
“You’re alive so we can use you as bait.” Ryu grabbed Tyne’s shoulder and shoved him forward. “Get to walking before I change my mind about your usefulness.”
Tate and Dewdrop brought up the rear as Tyne took the lead, Ryu slightly behind him keeping a careful watch on the other man. The dark embraced them as they moved deeper into the connecting tunnel.
The passageway widened and narrowed at unexpected intervals, forcing them to go single file at certain points. It wasn’t long before they left behind the faint light of the Deeps in favor of almost complete darkness. Another sign of how different this tunnel was from the original.
In the past, Tate thought the glow that normally emanated from the walls of the labyrinth tunnels was a natural phenomenon. A feature belonging to the black rock they were built from. Only, the tunnel they were currently in burrowed through the same type of rock, yet there was no glow to light their way. There was no way to tell why there was such a difference between the two tunnels. More evidence pointing to how much was lost after the deaths of the first few generations.
Tate extended her senses as far as they’d go, prepared for an attack at any moment.
No one spoke as they felt their way blindly. One minute passed into the next, Tate’s nerves pulled to the breaking point. Dewdrop’s breath shortened, becoming faster and more labored the longer they walked.
After a much shorter time than she’d expected, a faint glow greeted them in the distance, marking the beginning of the original tunnel sections.
“Hold,” Ryu ordered in a low voice. There was a vague impression of Ryu’s face in the darkness as he stopped and listened, only the sound of their breathing keeping them company.
“I smell more blood.” Without waiting for a reaction, Tyne ghosted forward on quiet feet.
“Your friend seems to know a great many things,” Tate observed in a neutral voice. “Why is that?”
A long silence answered Tate as Ryu kept his gaze trained forward. She waited, knowing that pushing wouldn’t get her the information any faster. Judging by the way the two interacted she had a feeling they had a complicated relationship. The knowledge made her all the more interested in Tyne’s history.
“Tyne is dragon-ridden,” Ryu finally said, following the other man before Tate could recover from her shock.
Dewdrop moved closer to Tate. “That’s unexpected news. Did you know about this?”
If she’d known, did he think she would have asked?
“I didn’t think it was possible to contain a dragon-ridden in a prison,” Dewdrop said.
Tate was silent. She’d known that those dragon-ridden who couldn’t control themselves were either killed or shut away, but she’d been under the impression that all of them were sent to Devos. What one was doing in the Deeps was a mystery that would have to wait to be solved.
“Why is it this information doesn’t make me any happier about his company?” Dewdrop asked when Tate didn’t speak.
“Because you’re smart.” Tate followed Ryu, so many questions bubbling in her brain. But now wasn’t the time to ask.
Dewdrop heaved a sigh before chasing after Tate. Visibility grew better with every step forward, their eyes quickly adjusting to the growing light.
They caught up to the other two where they’d stopped at the intersection of the two tunnels, their gazes fixed on something on the ground of the tunnel to their left.
“Tate,” Ryu said softly as she moved up to his side.
She didn’t respond as she caught sight of Christopher lying in the middle of the corridor on his side, his back facing them. Ryu grabbed her arm when she would have started forward.
“It could be a trap,” he warned.
Tate’s gaze swept over the area, carefully checking for anything that didn’t belong. Nothing stood out but that didn’t mean this wasn’t exactly what Ryu feared. A trap intended to lure her in. It wouldn’t be the first time Christopher had done such a thing.
She tapped his hand. “I know. I’ll be careful.”
Whether it was a trap or not, they needed to know if that was Christopher.
“He’s still alive,” Tyne said abruptly.
Tate shook Ryu’s hand off and started forward ignoring Dewdrop’s, “Careful.”
Alert for any possibility, Tate advanced the ten feet to Christopher’s side. She circled him, looking for any traps she hadn’t noticed. Finding nothing out of place, she glanced around. Besides her companions, whose faces were tense—except for Tyne who simply looked intrigued by the situation—the corridor was empty. No sign of Peter or anyone else.
Finally, Tate dropped to one knee and reached for Christopher’s shoulder. He flopped onto his back with a groan, revealing a pool of blood under him.
Tate stared at the wound in his chest. For something so small, there was so much blood. Enough that the skin had turned waxen and his lips pale. Pain carved deep grooves into the skin around his mouth and eyes, and the knowledge of his death lurked in his gaze.
Tate put her hand over his chest wound, even knowing it would do little good. “Damn it, Christopher.”
Why couldn’t he have listened to her? If he had, he wouldn’t be dying.
Tate couldn’t say that she and Christopher had ever been friends. In truth, they’d been closer to enemies. Despite that, she’d felt a connection to him that made her reluctant to see him go. In a way, they were two sides of the same coin. He with memories of the past he shouldn’t have and her without the memories she should have. It left her with the feeling of kinship.
He groaned as she pressed down hard, trying to stem the blood.
“Hold on. We’ll get you help. You’ll be fine.” Tate knew as soon as she said it that it was a lie. He wouldn’t be fine. Christopher was dying and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
Tate had enough experience to know the wound he had was mortal. Maybe if they’d gotten here sooner or didn’t have a long trek to the surface and then another to find a doctor or healer, he could survive. As it was, it’d take a miracle she didn’t have.
Tate went still. That gave her an idea.
“Ai, are you there?” Tate raised her voice. “Ai, I need your help. Please.”
Ai controlled the pace the sleepers awakened in. It stood to reason she could put someone to sleep too. From what little Tate knew, the sleepers hadn’t all gone into rest at the same time. Tate was living proof of that. She’d gone into the sleep well before the final battle with the Creators.
Maybe. Just maybe, Christopher could be put into the sleep too. It would be like hitting pause. Not quite alive but not dead either. His injuries could heal in the same way Tate’s mind had healed. It would take a long time. Centuries possibly, but right now it was the only plan she had.
As stupid as it was, she didn’t want to see him die. There had been enough of that in Tate’s life.
>
Christopher struggled to speak, his words no more than a soft whisper.
Tate leaned forward.
The barest hint of sound reached her. “If one Aurelia rises, the other falls.”
Tate didn’t have time to puzzle over the meaning of his words. Quick as a snake, one of Christopher’s hands shot up, his palm meeting her forehead, fingers spread on her head.
Images invaded her brain. Faster than she could catch them, forcing their way in. Pain splintered her temples as her mind fractured from the overload.
Distantly, Tate recognized this scene. It was when Christopher became the person he currently was. Only instead of Christopher and an unknown creature, the roles had been reversed with Tate standing in for Christopher.
Ilith hissed and heat flared in her chest. The pain that had threatened to fracture Tate’s conscious eased. The flow of images remained the same, still fast and unrelenting, but the mental strain associated with the sudden influx retreated.
Tate calmed. No longer fighting the surge or trying to make sense of what was happening. Simply letting the images flow as they would.
Her breathing slowed as understanding settled in. At first microscopic, almost unnoticed among all the other sensory information. As if a missing piece was being slotted into place after an eternity of absence. One she had not even realized was gone.
As abruptly as the flow had started, it stopped.
Tate wobbled, disoriented at the sudden change. Christopher’s hand was forcibly yanked from her forehead and Ryu’s face appeared in her view seconds later, concern in his eyes as he mouthed something.
“—alright?”
Tate blinked at him, knowing he was speaking but having difficulty adjusting to a world outside the data stream.
“Answer me.”
She touched his hands. The feeling of detachment was fading but not quick enough. She started to assure him but then stopped, her gaze moving over his shoulder to a woman standing twenty feet away.
She looked familiar, Tate noted distantly.
Her hair was long, nearly reaching the middle of her back. Emotionless ice blue eyes considered them from a face that would have been sweet looking if there’d been an ounce of human emotion in her features.
“Ai?” Tate whispered, not quite able to bring herself to believe it.
She looked like Ai. But more mature. The way Tate would imagine Ai to look if the other could grow as a human did.
But that was where the resemblance ended.
There was a sense of disquiet emanating from the woman similar to the feeling the sentinels had given off. As if Tate and the others had brushed up against something outside their understanding. Not evil but not good either.
There was an inhumanness to her as if she was incapable of empathy. The Ai Tate knew at least pretended at emotion. She wasn’t this cold or remote, still containing a sense of curiosity. Sometimes even loneliness.
Tyne’s stance widened as he raised his bone weapon with a hissed curse. “Creator.”
Ryu drew Tate back, his gaze focused on the Ai lookalike. The movement shook Tate out of her detachment. She looked down, catching sight of a message scrolled in blood next to Christopher.
Occupied territory.
Tate’s forehead furrowed, feeling as if understanding hovered just out of reach.
“What do you want to do?” Tyne asked, not dropping his guard. “We stand no chance in the tunnels. She’s invincible in her own territory.”
His words gave Tate the last piece of the puzzle she needed to guess at a part of Christopher’s intentions. Not everything. That would have to come later when she had time to decipher what had happened.
For now, it was enough.
Tate rose. “Nathan, are you having fun?”
There was a chuckle and the wall to Ai’s right glitched as a man materialized out of thin air. Eyes of pale gray, the color of ice against the northern sea met Tate’s. Cruelty lurked behind the strong lines of his features. A darkness that Tate could see in the twist of his lips and the flat look in his eyes.
At some point Nathan had been broken. Only instead of trying to repair the damage, he’d decided to embrace it, descending deeper and deeper into the darkness, a part of him unable to be satiated by others pain.
“Death bringer,” Nathan said in greeting. “Or are you going by Lady Fisher now? It’s impossible to keep track of all your pseudonyms.”
Tate didn’t speak as she considered the danger of their situation. It was only ten feet to the connecting tunnel and safety, but it might as well have been a hundred. Tyne hadn’t exaggerated Ai’s strength. In this place she might as well be omnipotent. If she didn’t wish it, it would be impossible for Tate and the rest to escape safely.
“You’ve managed to take control of the minor goddess.”
Surprise reflected on Nathan’s face. “Is that what you call her? You, of all people, should know the appropriate term for her kind.”
Tate glance at Ai’s face, finding no more emotion there than before. Her features looked as if they’d been carved from stone.
“A doll. Nothing more than a machine created to fulfill the Ijiri’s orders.” Nathan brushed the back of his fingers against the bare skin of Ai’s arm. Through it all, Ai didn’t react—as if she was really the doll Nathan called her.
“I have to confess; this new Tate is very different from the last.” Nathan focused on Tate again, not paying any attention to Ryu or Tyne, as if the other two didn’t even register in his view.
Mistake. An arrogant one only an ancient with no experience of the current world would make. Tate was more than happy to take advantage of it.
She took a step toward Nathan, one hand moving behind her back to make a gesture toward the connecting tunnel; Tate hoped Ryu and Dewdrop understood. They had one chance at this. Fail and they were as good as dead.
“I like this new version,” Nathan said in a lazy tone. “The old you would have hunted me down long before now. I would never have gotten the chance to implement my plans.”
“You mean raising the Creators.”
There was a moment of startled silence before Nathan tipped his head back on a roar of laughter.
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” Nathan asked when he could finally speak through his amusement.
“Isn’t it?” Dewdrop asked.
Tate twitched in unhappiness. He was supposed to be taking advantage of her distraction to edge closer to safety. Not drawing more attention to himself.
The air stirred as Ryu drew closer to her. Another one who wasn’t following instructions.
Tate gritted her teeth, a feeling close to despair filling her.
A light touch on her back shook her from her thoughts. Rath’s voice spoke in her mind. We will not leave you behind even for our own safety. We go together. You would be the same.
Ryu’s finger etched out two words on Tate’s back. Trust us.
A memory of another time when she’d stood in a similar situation with no clear outcome flashed before her eyes. Only that time the people she’d called friends had left her behind without a second thought.
She hadn’t blamed them, then or now. They’d done exactly as she instructed. Nor could she deny the warmth lodged in her chest from Ryu and Dewdrop’s actions.
Tate’s shoulders trembled before she suppressed the emotions that threatened to shake her. Wordlessly, she jerked her chin down in a nod.
Nathan bared his teeth in a ruthless smile. “I guess you could say that.”
Tate’s expression tightened.
Before she could say anything, Nathan flicked a look at Ai. “I’m tired of this. Dispose of them.”
Tyne closed the distance in a swift lunge, swinging his bone blade at Nathan’s neck at the same time as a stream of fire poured past Tate’s shoulder.
Nathan swore, dodging Tyne’s attack but unaware of Ryu’s. Fire washed over him seconds before black armor boiled from his skin.
Tyne was alre
ady retreating as Ryu yanked Tate back, pulling her toward the connecting tunnel.
Dewdrop stood his ground, his mouth opening in a piercing scream as Nathan recovered.
Blood trickled out of Tate’s ears and nose as she reached Dewdrop. Before she could grab him, Ai appeared to his left.
Tate sucked in a breath to warn him, her relic already forming a shield as Ai raised her hand.
Pressure built.
Tate dove, wrapping Dewdrop in her embrace as Ryu yanked them in the direction of the exit. Tyne was already out.
A shock wave erupted from Ai’s hand, punching Tate in the back and sending them spilling into the connecting tunnel.
For a moment, Tate lay there stunned, her brain screaming at her to get up. Finally, her body obeyed as she lifted her head to find Ai standing at the threshold between the old tunnel and the connecting one.
Nathan appeared beside her, looking furious. “Kill them.”
“That is no longer possible,” Ai responded in a calm voice. “I have no authority outside of my domain.”
Nathan’s expression tightened with rage for a split instant before smoothing into an expressionless mask again. “Once again, your luck holds. I’ll see you soon, Tatum.”
He walked away, leaving Ai behind. The expression on her face didn’t shift before she disappeared in the next instant.
Some of the tension ran out of Tate.
They were alive. Somehow.
Tate stiffened when she caught Tyne’s contemplative gaze trained on her.
“How fascinating the company you’ve begun to keep in my absence.” Tyne stretched his arms above his head as he headed into the darkness, his voice trailing after him. “It will be good to see the surface again now that the end of the world is nigh.”
“Tate, I know I’ve said this before, but he’s very creepy.” Dewdrop staggered to his feet, holding his arm carefully to his side.
Seeing his face almost blanched white with pain, Tate couldn’t help fussing over him. “Next time, I say run. You should run.”
If he had, he wouldn’t be like this now, struggling to remain upright even as he leaned against the wall.
Alive and in pain was better than dead but it didn’t make Tate happy.