I arched a brow toward him. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Trust me.” The Hunter kept glancing toward the building, waiting for the enforcers to burst from the doors. We didn’t have much time.
I closed my eyes and stretched my awareness. Luka’s hand grew warm in mine, but my skin did not blister. My power roared to life in a heady mix of vanilla and ash. My eyes flashed open and I stared at the Hunter.
“Quickly,” he said.
There was too much glass and steel. It would take more Magic than either of us had to burn it. I wove a golden rune in my mind’s eye. I drew on Luka’s power and felt it snake up my arm and settle beneath my breastbone. It was hot and light, so unlike my own. I bundled it together with the scraps of my own Magic. They melded into something stronger than either on their own. The rune clicked into place and I threw my good arm toward the building. The ground beneath us groaned. I dragged more and more Magic from the connection. My skin was on fire, but I ignored the pain. His grip stayed firm on my hand. The only thing that mattered was the feel of his calloused hand against mine. Squeeze. Tap. The stones beneath our feet begun to shake and a giant split formed and chased toward the building. The first glass panel shattering snapped me to the present.
Luka had taken a knee, and his eyes were half-lidded.
“Where are we going?” I shouted over the sounds of shattering glass. The building would fall soon. Luka caught his weight and lolled his head back to look at me. “Luka! Where are we going?” I tried to pull him to his feet, but he was too heavy. His eyes were glazed. I looped my arms under his armpits and pulled. He managed to get his feet under him enough to stand mostly on his own.
“Square…The Square.” He pointed toward a corridor.
“Come on,” I groaned and shouldered most of his weight. The building behind us began to scream as steel beams twisted and protested against the Magic. We stumbled toward the dais and I prayed to whatever God was listening that the collapse of the Headquarters had killed the enforcers chasing us and everyone else within it.
We stumbled toward the Square, but the dais where I had watched a young Blood Mage be slaughtered only a year ago was no more. The only things that remained was a pile of rubble and eleven mannequins hanging by their neck from a noose. I halted and Luka collapsed to his knees. Each mannequin was clothed in white rags and the sigil of the rebellion drawn in red, dripping paint across their chests.
Useless, futile hope welled in my chest. The rebellion had been dealt a blow, but they would survive. Luka motioned toward the pile of rubble and I dragged us toward it. Our travels were achingly slow and I resisted the urge to turn back toward the Elect’s building. We reached the old stage and I saw where Luka was taking us. There was a small opening that looked like it had once been under the stage. I shoved the twisted steel and debris out of the way. There was a ladder that I couldn’t see the bottom of.
“Can you climb down?” I asked the Hunter. He grunted in some sort of assent. It would have to be good enough. “I’ll go first.”
It was stupid to think I could save him if he fell. The only thing I would be was a trophy he collected before we both smashed onto the ground. I still went down first. My hands were slick with blood and I hung onto the rungs with all my strength. Luka’s grunts of agony echoed through the shaft as he started his descent. After what felt like hours, my boots finally touched solid ground. The passage was pitch black, but my Magic still hadn’t returned enough to be of any help.
Luka had stopped grunting, but his breathing was fast and laboured when he touched down a few minutes later.
“Rina?” he wheezed out.
“I’m here,” I said, grabbing for him. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a passage up ahead. It’s just a little further and then we can rest.” It sounded like he was convincing himself more than me. I threw his muscled arm over my shoulders and grabbed in the darkness until I found the tunnel. Luka had to duck his head to get through.
“On the left.”
Just as he said it, the wall disappeared. I turned us around and we both stumbled over a large threshold. My hands and knees hit soft bedding. Luka cursed.
A match was lit and the tiny space was revealed under the warm light of a lantern. It was mostly taken up by the mattress, but supplies were squirrelled away in the nooks and crevices in the walls. Luka collapsed onto the bedding. Almost all of his olive skin was coated in blood. I grabbed some bandages and began yanking them from their packages. He let me wrap the the wounds without complaint. There was no potions in the poorly put together first-aid kit. They wouldn’t have kept well underground. When I had completed the dressings, I lay back onto the mattress. My head ached with the beginnings of power backlash. Blood caked my whole body and dried in my hair. My borrowed clothes were soaked and heavy against my skin.
“I need a drink.”
Luka’s rumbling laugh bounced off the walls.
“We can rest here until morning. Loral and the others are hiding out in Kirkland. They will meet us outside the city in a few days.”
For a moment his words didn’t compute, and all I could do was stare uselessly at the ceiling. “I can’t go back.”
“They knew I was getting you out. You put a wrench in the plans, performing your avenging angel ploy. But it’ll still work.”
“You…You were talking to the others?” I couldn’t even manage to push any heat into my accusation.
“Of course,” he said the words as if I was the fool.
“I’m not going with you.” I said the words with force.
“Why?” He pushed himself into a seated potion, genuinely puzzled.
“I betrayed them. I don’t deserve to be…” My voice cracked. “…apart of anything.”
“I told them everything. It’s okay, Rina. We can go back.”
“I won’t.” I shouted too loudly. His face fell. I rolled over and faced the wall, curling in on myself. My chest felt too exposed. I could feel the cold air ripping through my internal cavities. I blinked back tears. It was shame that snapped the invisible wounds shut. The slick emotion reminded me of my malignant Magic. I shuddered. It welled within my chest, coating my insides with oil. I squeezed my eyes shut, but it did nothing to soothe me. The Hunter did not attempt to offer any comfort, for which I was grateful.
After a few hours of terse silence, his breathing evened out. My tears had long since dried. I crawled out of the hole and back toward the direction of the ladder. The underground was suffocating.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I stood outside the gates of Lucia’s compound.
The heavily-warded perimeter was at least ten-feet tall. The top was lined by poisoned barbed wire, enough to keep even the most adventurous of thieves out. The gates groaned as they opened. The barracks looked achingly familiar. The wooden building stood like an abandoned barn.
I slipped inside the gate before it had a time to completely open. Most of the fighters preferred to train outside in the night time air. They didn’t stop when I came in. Lucia would have their hide if they did. She would be seated in her room at the top of the barracks overlooking training, occasionally screaming out commands. I eyed the fighters wondering if I would see anyone that knew me.
The dirt underneath my feet felt familiar.
For most of my life this had been my home, the place I had cured my grief and tendered to the worst parts of myself. It was the only place I belonged. I had thought that revenge would bring me peace, how many enforcers lay dead at my feet?
Fifty?
One-hundred?
It didn’t matter. My mind was like a raging storm. If vengeance wouldn’t heal my soul, I would return to the only place that had ever felt like home.
Arina Bluebell was no longer. She was the girl left rotting in the Elect cells.
Lucia came toward me, her fangs peeking out from her full lips.
“Welcome back Imelda.”
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Crooked Cat Books
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Sanguine Door Page 26