by B N Miles
Jared turned right and headed to the building. The teams of soldiers moved left, toward what he had to assume was Nikki lobbing hand grenades. Another explosion and more screams.
A small detachment of soldiers noticed them, but they didn’t survive long. Lumi slaughtered them with hardened air, a modified form of the shields, ripping them into pieces with scything motions. Their blood soaked the earth as Jared hurried toward the first door he spotted.
More shouting came as more men saw them. Lumi killed those, along with Allie, the Demon’s magic turning their skin into a black, bubbling mess. Jared ripped the door from its frame, not bothering with subtlety, and stepped inside.
The girls followed, Lumi bringing up the rear. They walked down a short hall and through another set of doors, which brought them into what looked like a calm, quiet lobby. Ten feet away, a fountain gurgled, and calming smooth jazz played over a PA system.
Jared closed the doors behind them and used fire to melt the locks together.
“What the hell is this place?” Lumi looked around, blinking, and Jared joined her.
There were doors all over, doors leading to unknown places. The ceiling stretched up to the roof, and the other two floors were visible behind railings. Jared stepped into the empty lobby and glanced around, trying to find someone, anyone they could use as leverage, but the place was empty. Another explosion sounded outside, and more screaming.
He hoped Nikki would get away.
“Come on,” he said, marching toward a door at the far end. “This way.” He had no clue where he was going, but he figured anywhere would be better than this.
They stepped into another hall line with more doors. He opened one and found an empty conference room, the table pristine and empty. The next door held what looked like a classroom, desks lined up, whiteboard on the far wall. He went door to door and found more classes, even what looked like a science lab, but no people and no sign that there had ever been any.
The hall ended in a T junction, and Jared went left. More doors, more silence, and the sounds of fighting outside faded to almost nothing. He went deeper into the maze, the girls staying close behind him, searching every room, finding nothing and no one—until they turned another corner and came to a stop.
Allie pushed to the front with a curse. “Cells,” she said. “Prison cells.”
She was right. Each door was heavy and barred, and a single, lone guard sat at a desk at the far end. The rest of the rooms snapped into focus: they were likely built for the Meta girls, classrooms to teach them, labs to experiment. But the rooms all looked empty, like they hadn’t been touched in a long time.
Jared rushed the guard. The man barely had time to react. He gasped in surprise as a rush of ice shot up around him, forming a sort of cage, with a single spear focused on his throat. He was an older guy, gray hair, chubby face. His eyes went wide and he didn’t move a muscle as Jared leaned down to look into his face.
“What’s your name?”
“Trevor,” he said.
“Okay, Trevor. Are there people in those cells?”
He went to nod and stopped himself. “Yes.”
“Do you know where the power system is for the wards outside?”
His eyes went wider. “I don’t know—”
Jared pushed the ice tighter against his throat. Trevor groaned as a single drop of red dripped down the ice.
“Try again.”
“Basement. I don’t know exactly where but it’s down there.”
Jared nodded. “Good Trevor.” He turned away and watched Allie pry open one of the doors—then she stopped and stared inside with surprise.
She turned to him, mouth moving, like she wanted to form words but couldn’t find any. He walked to her, looked inside, and stopped in his tracks.
The girl was emaciated and filthy. He was used to finding abused and broken women in these facilities, but the woman in that cell was more a skeleton than a living being. She lay on her side on a cot and didn’t even bother raising her head to look at them.
“What’s going on here?” He turned and stared at Trevor. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Study got shut down,” he said, blinking rapidly. “We’ve just been keeping them alive and—”
Jared walked to the man, rage storming through him. “You call this alive?”
The man didn’t answer. Sweat dripped down his forehead.
The ice speared through the man’s throat in one smooth, quick motion. It pulled back and blood gushed from the wound. He gagged, choked, and slumped to the side, kicking, fighting to breathe, before he went still.
“He could’ve been useful,” Lumi said. “But I don’t blame you.”
“Get the doors open.” He looked at her. “We have to help them.”
“They can’t even move,” Allie said as she pried open another door, then another. “Look at them. We need Bea’s team if we’re going to extract them.”
Jared paced down to the end of the hall then back again. He saw the look of worry in Cassie’s face.
“Alright, we need to get to the basement,” he said. “Allie and Izzy, you stay here, help these girls as much as you can.”
Izzy nodded and ducked into a room. Jared felt her healing power immediately wash out into the hallway.
“We shouldn’t split up,” Lumi said. “We need to stay together.”
“No choice. We can’t leave these girls behind. Allie, protect Izzy while she does her best to heal.”
Allie nodded once. “I’ll die before they take her.”
“I know.” Jared took a sharp breath then turned away. “Everyone else, with me. We’ve got a power supply to destroy.”
He moved down the hall with Lumi at his back, and he heard the others join. He knew this wasn’t an ideal situation, leaving Allie and Izzy behind, but Allie was a capable fighter, and Izzy could heal those girls enough for them to escape—if they were lucky. If they weren’t, then they’d have to wait for Bea and her team to infiltrate.
The plan was already crumbling down around him. Nikki was gone, and now Allie and Izzy were left behind. Jessalene, Lumi, Cassie, and Penny stayed close, and he told himself he wouldn’t part from any of them, no matter what happened.
25
They reached a stairwell at the end of a series of doors that led into more exam rooms, more labs, and several mess halls and latrines. The concrete steps had a sticky, damp feel to them. Jared stepped forward, then tentatively began to descend. The girls followed, Lumi right on his heels.
“Can you feel that?” she whispered, her voice soft and echoing in the dim space.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Listen.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “The magic.”
He slowed his pace and reached out, probing around him with his senses. Priori left a mark on the world, an indelible splotch that was all but impossible to remove. Metas left a similar mark with their powers, but their mark moved around with them—their aura was a manifestation of the priori, in the same way that a Magi mark was the manifestation of the physical ramifications of using magic. The world around them took on marks as well when magic was particularly concentrated, and it was possible to feel those spaces, like sensing the brush of a Meta’s aura.
He felt a tingle then at the edge of his limbs, a buzz in the back of his skull, a groan in his fingers. “There’s a lot of power nearby,” he said.
“Exactly what I was thinking.” She let out a breath, and he couldn’t tell if that was worry in her voice.
They continued their descent, down several flights, down further and further, passing more floors than he would’ve guessed, and all the while the buzz got louder and stronger. They reached the bottom, and a pool of standing water lingered toward the back of the stairwell, kept away from the door that terminated their trek. Jared reached it and touched the push bar, then swung it open.
He half expected an alarm, but nothing happened.
The room be
yond was humid, like the belly of a ship. The lights glowed a strange reddish orange, and he heard the girls crowd in behind him. Lumi strayed forward beyond the group, her hands held out, fingertips splayed.
“I feel them,” she said. “Gods, I feel them. There’s so much of it.”
Jared felt it too. The power pulsed in his skull like a headache. He felt Cassie press up close.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“There’s a lot of magic down here,” he said. “Way more than I would’ve imagined.”
“You look pale.”
“Sometimes it’s like getting assaulted by a thousand auras all at once.”
She nodded and frowned back at the others. “We should get moving.”
“You’re right.” He took a breath and stepped forward. The floor was bare concrete, and the walls were cinderblock and covered in what looked like a white waterproofing material. Channels were dug into the side of the floor, he guessed for more water control. Ahead, the short tunnel ended in a second door with a red light glowing above it.
Lumi prodded the door then reached a fist back, wrapped it in what Jared figured was hardened air, and smashed it forward. The door bent, then broke off when she slammed her other fist into it. It scattered into a room filled with pipes, electrical wires, and an enormous, glass-enclosed pedestal standing in the center.
The ceiling and floor were a patchwork of iron grating. Jared walked forward and his steps echoed around him. Steam buzzed from some of the machinery, and he saw a bank of computers along the left wall. Penny walked right for them, her head down, a frown on her face.
Lumi walked toward the central pedestal. It was wrapped in electrical conduits and wiring, the wires streaming up toward the roof and the walls, falling into enormous steel cylinders and drums.
“Look,” Lumi said, pointing.
Jared joined her, leaned forward, and let out a grunt.
Eight batteries were arrayed in a circular pattern on the pedestal. He walked around the enclosure, fingers running along a metal railing that kept him away from the batteries. He stared at them and could feel their pulse, their wild power.
“They’re packed full,” he said, shaking his head. “That must’ve taken hundreds of magi.”
“At least,” Lumi agreed. “It feels like the power of an entire family.”
“Where does all of this lead?” Jessalene asked, prodding at a wire.
“You probably shouldn’t do that,” Cassie said.
“Maybe we could start destroying it all.” Jessalene shrugged and went to yank at a conduit.
But Penny spoke up. “Don’t touch anything,” she said, leaning over the computers.
Jessalene stopped and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. I guess my first instinct is to smash.”
“Not the worst in the world,” Cassie said.
Jared walked over to Penny and looked over her shoulder. He couldn’t quite tell what he was looking at, but he recognized a shell program and a command prompt. Data streamed past, and Penny seemed to understand at least some of it as she typed more commands into the computer and made little annoyed sounds.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s a control system for an electrical grid,” she said. “The facility I used to work at had one just like it. These batteries feed the wires, the wires feed those huge drums, and the drums convert the raw magic into electric power. I think the batteries are powering this entire facility, although I have no idea what they need it all for.”
“I do,” he said, jaw tight. “The ritual.”
She glanced back at him and paused. “You’re probably right.”
“We need to stop all of this.” He gestured back at the batteries. “Can we break it? Would that help?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Might cause an overload. Those batteries are practically on fire with how much power they contain. I’m not sure what’ll happen if you just start unplugging wires.”
“Can you bring down the wards, at least? I assume these batteries are powering them.”
She nodded once. “I can definitely do that. Well, I can probably do that, I just need some time.”
“Do it,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“But we don’t have time,” she said, looking up at him. “You need to find Wade.”
His eyes narrowed. “Penny—”
“Leave me here. I can work on bringing down the system.”
“I’m not doing that.”
Jessalene drifted over and leaned up against the computer workstation. “I’ll stay with her and make sure she’s safe.”
“Absolutely not. We’ve left too many people behind already.” He stared at them, feeling a wild pulse. He couldn’t keep losing bits and pieces of his family.
“Jared,” Jessalene said softly. “We have to do it. This is what we’ve been working for, isn’t it? We’ve sacrificed so much to get here, and now we need to follow through.”
He grunted in response and paced away. He knew she was right and he hated it, hated how this was going. They were supposed to stick together while Bea’s team broke in from the other side and kept the soldiers busy. That was the plan, but now it was crumbling around him, and he didn’t know what to do.
“You’re right,” he said softly. “Fuck, I know you’re right.”
Jessalene walked to him and kissed his cheek. “I promise, we’ll be okay. We’ll bring the wards down and do whatever else we can, then come and meet up with all of you.”
He hesitated, wanted to argue with her, wanted her to stay with him, but he nodded once. “Alright. Do what you can.”
She smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I think you’re fine,” Penny said, waving a hand in his direction.
“Yeah, yeah, love you too, Pen.” He smiled and let out a breath.
Cassie and Lumi drifted in his direction. He felt like they were in the bowels of some monstrous robot, its guts and heart only a few feet away, and if only he could rip it into shreds, then maybe it would die—but if it went down, it would bring them with it.
He wasn’t willing to take that risk.
“We’ll find Wade,” he said, “and you two better hurry. I bet Bea’s getting impatient.”
Penny typed more commands. “I’m on it, don’t worry.”
Jessalene smiled at him and waved him on. He hesitated, then turned and walked back the way they’d come, moving into the tunnel, then down into the stairwell. Cassie and Lumi followed, neither of them speaking.
He reached the stairs and hesitated. Lumi started climbing, but Cassie lingered at his side. She took his hand and squeezed it.
“They’ll be okay,” she said. “I promise. Remember when we first met Jessalene?”
“I remember,” he said, a little smile on his lips. “She was pretty badass.”
“Don’t forget she can still fight. Just because she doesn’t have super magic power, doesn’t mean she can’t take care of herself.”
“I know.” He nodded to himself once. “Let’s get up there and start making these fuckers pay.”
Cassie grinned, and he started up the steps. Her fingers slipped from his and she trailed after him.
The three of them climbed, ascending row after row—
Until a shout brought them up short. It echoed down to them, and Jared couldn’t be sure how far away it was. Sound became tricky with so much concrete.
More shouts, and more footsteps. He crept up close to the railing and spotted a squad of black-clad soldiers coming down toward them. He looked back at Lumi with a vicious smile.
“We’re up,” he whispered.
Cassie took a few steps back as Lumi clenched her fists, a smile on her lips.
“After you, big boy,” she said.
“Ladies first. I’m a gentleman.”
“Suits me.” She walked forward, hands spread, and turned the corner as the soldiers came to a sudden halt.
Jared felt the b
last of fire on his skin. The men screamed as the lead soldiers were consumed by the fire instantly, their bodies burning to ash. The men behind them began to retreat, and some returned fire, but Jared deflected their attacks with well-placed shields. Lumi shot more flames, arcing the magic around his shields, burning the soldiers as they fell back. The stairwell became an inferno, an oven of death and screams and blood, and Jared put out the fires as Lumi started and they advanced upwards, following the retreating soldiers.
What remained of the squad dropped back through a door with an enormous “1” painted in red. Jared lingered outside the door then burst through it, shields wrapped around him, as gunfire exploded all around. He grunted, forced back by the sheer weight of the bullets, but he felt Lumi at his back. Their magic joined together, and he shoved his shields outwards, making a small pocket of protection for them. Lumi joined him in a tight corridor, rooms on either side, soldiers at either end, and grinned at him as she stretched her hands out and released an enormous pulse of lighting.
It arced, bounced, and shattered the men. They screamed in horrified pain, dropped to the ground and convulsed, then went still as the electricity stopped their hearts. Jared turned left and Lumi turned right. He killed with ice, slicing through bodies, through retreating, screaming men, and he felt his anger rise as the floor became slick with blood. Soon there were only corpses and groaning, incapacitated bodies, and he turned to give Lumi backup.
But she stood in a small mountain of fallen men, a smile on her lips.
Cassie stepped from the doorway, looked at Jared, then looked at Lumi.
“Holy shit, guys,” she said.
Jared laughed. The Need gnawed at him, but he didn’t care. It felt good to kill the Medlar bastards, it felt good to do something active for a change. Lumi grinned back at him and Cassie only shook her head. The place stank like death and cooked bodies as Cassie picked her way toward Lumi.
“I think it’s this way,” she said, reaching the end of the hall.
“Why’s that?” Jared asked.
“More soldiers down here. And this.” He stopped in front of a large, steel door with a reinforced steel frame.