Chamber H remained sealed, and everyone beyond it was safe.
We’d won.
I caught Emory’s eye as he forged through the crowd, his eyes bright with unshed tears, his mouth a thin line. I made a move toward him, and he shook his head and then turned and vanished into the crowd. His mother was dead…he needed a moment. He needed to be with his fathers, of course he did. My heart ached for his loss.
Lyrian and Micha broke through the dazed crowd, leaving the Lupinata on our side to round up the traitors. Their expressions were anxious, almost guilty. What was this? Why were they looking at me like that? I cracked open the door inside me and was blasted with fear.
“What’s wrong? What am I missing?” I looked from Lyrian to Micha.
“It’s Gem,” Micha said. “They took Gem.”
Chapter 25
Where was Bane? Where was Ryker? I needed someone in charge. I needed them now.
“Echo.” Micha reached for me, but I brushed him off.
“Find me someone in charge. Please.” I implored him with my eyes, my heart beating so hard it made me want to be sick.
Lyrian appeared a second later with Orin in tow. Thank God.
“Where is it?” I asked Orin. “Where is the door, or hole, or whatever to get below? They have my sister. They have humans.”
Why was he looking at me with pity? Why was he looking at me as if I’d lost someone? Gem was down there. She was down there, and we had to get her out.
“The main access is still sealed. It looked like Carmach found an alternate way into the lower levels. He was involved in the building of the Hive. He worked on the schematics with Emory. We found the access behind Bunty’s bar along with several dead nephilim who’d been unfortunate enough to be day drinking.”
“So, we go in.” I made to step past him, but Orin gently gripped my arm. “No. I’ve sent a team down. They’ll be eradicating the remaining suckers.”
“And finding the humans.” I scanned his face, where a revelation waited.
“Councilman, please …” My stomach was quivering, my knees trembling. “Don’t …”
Orin exhaled heavily. “The humans’ bodies were piled with the dead neph. It seems the Sanguinata brought them up with them when they emerged, and … And there was a child. A young girl.”
A raw sob crawled up my throat and lodged there.
Orin’s eyes were misted as he looked over my shoulder, reminding me that he’d lost someone today too. He’d lost his lover, his partner.
“Today is a day of loss, Echo,” he said. “But we won’t let it be for nothing.”
No. He was wrong. He had to be. I turned and ran.
The outside of the bar was being cordoned off, and armed guards stood waiting to go down into the hidden level to wipe out whatever was left, but I didn’t care about that. I needed to know … needed to see her with my own eyes.
“Echo.” Micha appeared at my side.
“We’re with you,” Lyrian said softly.
Oh, God. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t.
The tables had been pushed back, and the dead had been laid in a neat line. Protectorate wandered up and down making notes on pads. Identifying the bodies, no doubt for the Hive census.
Lyrian grabbed a passing guard. “Where’s the child?”
The Protectorate officer’s mouth pressed in a thin line as his gaze flicked to me, pity shimmering in its depths. “Over there. We put her on the table by the wall.”
My feet carried me, one step at a time, as the world around me faded, leaving only the small form on the table in my sights. Dark hair spilled over the edge of the table, a slender, pale hand dangled off the side. They’d put a sheet over her, but even before I pulled it back, I knew … I knew what I’d find.
Gem lay silent, cold and pale. Don’t look …. Don’t look at her neck. But I had to. I had to see.
A low moan filled the air followed by a keening sound. Me, but not me. Because I was fracturing. A part of me was there, by the table, pulling my dead sister into my arms and rocking her, rocking her as if I were putting her to sleep, and another part of me was rising to look down on the scene. To memorize it. To remember this grief, this pain, and vowing that it would never happen again.
Wrong decisions. Wasted time, lies and secrets had led to this, and I was done. I was fucking done. The detached me watched as the big sister broke and cried, as her guys held her and shared in her grief, and my heart … My heart turned to steel.
Bry sighed softly in his sleep, and I smoothed back his hair. He’d cried for hours until he’d been too exhausted to cry anymore, and then he’d fallen asleep in my arms. I’d slipped into sleep with him, and for a few brief hours, the nightmare had stopped.
But with consciousness came reality. Gem was gone.
Leaving Bry asleep in my bed, I padded out into the lounge, and the muted conversation halted.
Deacon, Lyrian, and Micha looked over from their respective positions around the room. They were here, they were all here except Emory. He’d just lost his mother, and the Protectorate … they had their own grief to deal with. They had their own pain.
“We need to talk.” I walked over to the head of the coffee table and stood looking down at my men. My guys. “Gem died because of the lies and the secrets. She died because of a cover-up. All the deaths today could have been prevented if the council had been forthcoming with information. It could all have been prevented if they’d warned the humans, told them the truth and locked down the chamber as soon as the first human went missing. If they’d just acted in a transparent manner.”
No one argued with me.
“You see, you can’t protect everyone all the time. You just can’t. You need to give them the tools to protect themselves, and truth is one of the most powerful tools there is. There are humans out there looking for answers. Looking for direction, and Carmach may have gone about it the wrong way, but he was right about one thing. Things need to change, or none of us will make it.”
“What do you propose?” Deacon said softly.
The girl who’d wanted to hide in the Hive, who’d wanted to remain safe and snug underground, was dead. The woman who’d wanted nothing more than to be a heart keeper, love a Lupinata, and provide for her siblings was dead. Hiding wasn’t the answer. It never had been. Tris had been right. She’d understood the need to fight, to make a difference, and now, so did I.
I raised my chin. “We know the truth, we know that Genesis is coming, and they tried to cover that up too, and for what? For more time trapped down here in a waiting game? Genesis isn’t the kind of entity to just roll over and die. He’ll come at us hard, and he’ll keep coming at us because everything he is rides on him finding us. Maybe before, when he had his pick of souls, the search for the Hive wasn’t so important to him, but now? Now, he’s desperate and wounded, and there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded predator. So, what do I propose?” I scanned their faces. “I propose we tell the people the truth. I propose we use the scuttler to find his location, and I propose we get everyone who can help on board. I propose we find his location, and we strike while he’s weak and scrambling for souls and shut him the fuck down, once and for all.”
Lyrian stood up. “I’m with you.”
Micha joined him. “Count me in.”
Deacon rose slowly. “You have one councilman on board.”
But we were going to need more. Much more. The Echo of a few hours ago would have been anxious, would have been daunted by the task ahead, but that Echo had died with Gem. This Echo wouldn’t be taking no for an answer.
Chapter 26
Hunter
There are sounds in the gray, whispers drawing me close. How long has it been? There is no concept of time, and yet it feels like forever. Echo … Echo needs me. I need to get back to her.
Anger races through my phantom veins, and then I hear a voice that sends terror skating down my spine.
“What are you?” The voice is deep with a sof
t mechanical edge. Real, but not real. “I can feel you, but I can’t see you? What are you? Are you like me?”
The thing, whatever it is, is getting closer.
“I feel your energy. It fills this void. I need it. Come … come closer, and I will free you from this wasteland.”
There is hunger in that voice now. Hunger and sadness.
“Please … we can wake up together … maybe we can wake up together,” it says.
Silver tendrils shoot out of the gray, reaching for me.
No. No. I can’t let it have me.
I can’t.
Continue the journey in Dead End. Grab it HERE now!
Other books by Debbie Cassidy
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Jasmine Walt
Marked by Sin
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin
The Witch Blood Chronicles
(Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)
Binding Magick
Defying Magick
Embracing Magick
Unleashing Magick
The Fearless Destiny Series
Beyond Everlight
Into Evernight
Under Twilight
The Chronicles of Midnight
Protector of Midnight
Champion of Midnight
Secrets of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Savior of Midnight
Chronicles of Arcana
City of Demons
City of the Lost
City of the Everdark
City of War
For the Blood
For the Blood
For the Power
For the Reign
For the Hunt - Novella
Heart of Darkness
Captive of Darkness
Bane of Winter
The Oblivion Heart
Deadworld
Deadworld
Dead City
Dead Sea
Dead End
Planet Athion
Rogue
Rebel
Survivor
Novellas
Blood Blade
Grotesque – A Vampire Diary Kindle World book
About the Author
Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Fantasy, and Reverse Harem. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy. Or sign up to her Newsletter to stay in the know.
Dead Sea Page 14