A Citadel of Captives

by Bella Forrest

  We made a pretty good team, I thought.

  Elonora

  Nevis and I had our hands full with this particular Faulty. Unlike the three that had ganged up on Amane and Ridan, ours was double in size, loaded with muscles and sheer rage. Despite his ample proportions, however, the bastard was ridiculously fast.

  I had my soul-eater out and was eager to slice through him, but I just couldn’t catch a break!

  Nevis was equally frustrated. We managed to defend ourselves from his attacks, yet failed to hit back. The Faulty sneered, then darted around us even faster. That was their modus operandi, from what I’d learned—they dazed us with their speed and delivered short but devastating attacks.

  The retractable shields came in handy, though, making our defensive moves much smoother and putting less pressure on the arm.

  “Get frosty,” I said to Nevis. “I feel like skating.”

  Nevis gave me a brief sideways glance, then tapped his bare foot once. Ice spread out from under him. I stilled in my attack stance, watching the frost move outward. It had the desired effect, as the Faulty was moving so fast, he didn’t even notice the frost until it was too late.

  He slipped, and I had my soul-eater out to greet him just as he moved past me. I drew blood, and he yelped from the pain. He landed on his back, then jumped right back up and came at us even harder.

  Nevis instinctively reacted by putting an ice wall between us and the Faulty. The creature, of course, didn’t let that get in his way. He punched and clawed at the frost, working his way through it until he could reach us again.

  “Now I know how my soldiers feel when the enemy breaks through their ranks,” Nevis muttered, catching his breath. He lifted his soul-eater blade, giving it an appreciative smirk. “But this is an interesting toy.”

  “I know, right?” I replied, slightly amused. My adrenaline was pumping, but being around Nevis took the edge off everything. “Would you like to give it a try?” I asked jokingly.

  He smiled, and I nearly melted on the inside as he played along. “Why, yes, of course, I’d love to,” he replied. “Just let me know when. You’re far better at tracing the bastard than I am.”

  That was a compliment. Nevis, the friggin’ prince of Dhaxanians, his royal pain in my butt, had just complimented me. I was speechless, but kept my eye on the ball, nonetheless. I saw the Faulty darting around and delivering precise blows at the ice wall. It was going to come down soon.

  Nevis prepared to strike. Just as the Faulty stopped behind Nevis, I nodded.

  He rammed his soul-eater through the ice and managed to clip the Faulty in the hip. We both heard him hiss.

  “Okay, now. Time for the final blow,” I said, as Nevis and I got back to back.

  I had to admit, it was nice feeling his tall figure behind me. Despite the cold air he exuded by Dhaxanian nature, my insides were all warm and toasty. Focus, Lenny.

  “Almost there,” Nevis replied.

  The Faulty broke through the ice wall. As it all came down in wet chunks, however, he moved again, knowing he’d get cut if he didn’t. But the soul-eater had slowed him down. It gave me the opportunity to swerve to my right just as he came around. My sword went right through him, cutting through flesh and bone as if he’d been made of butter.

  He froze, his eyes wide with shock as he looked down at me.

  “You don’t screw with my kind, kitty-cat,” I whispered.

  I doubted he truly understood what I’d just said, though. The life was already draining out of him. Blood gushed from his wound and smeared my leather combat suit in crimson. He fell, limp as a rag doll.

  Nevis gave me an appreciative nod. “Well played, Miss Goode.”

  “You’re not so bad yourself, Your Grace,” I said with a grin.

  “Please. Nevis,” he replied, stifling a smile. “I think we’re past that stage in our relationship.”

  Whoa. He used the R-word.

  I shook the thought away as quickly as it came. The shift in our dynamic was obvious, but it couldn’t have anything to do with attraction. I was well beneath his royal level. Nevis would never consider me anything more than a teammate. Maybe a sparring partner. At best, a close acquaintance. Perhaps a friend?

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  I’d been staring and saying nothing. He probably thought I was glitching or something.

  “Nothing. All good,” I replied flatly, then shifted my focus onto the rest of our team.

  Vesta and Zeriel managed to take down their opponent, having no choice but to kill him. Dmitri, Ben and Rose were almost done with the last of the Faulties. I could see the deep cuts on the creature’s arms and shoulders. He’d slowed down, panting as he struggled to stay alert and one step ahead of the Novak twins. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “That poor bastard has no idea who he’s dealing with,” I said.

  “The siblings are good, I’ll give them that,” Nevis replied, as we watched the fight progress. “The half-wolf can hold his own, too. He deserves some credit.”

  Rose’s lips were smeared with blood. She’d even managed to take a bite out of the Faulty, from what I could tell. The creature was still a worthy adversary, though. He was now as fast as a vampire—therefore, not slow enough just yet. He took Ben by surprise when he made a sudden turn in the opposite direction and backhanded him hard enough to send him flying.

  Ben landed on his back, groaning from the pain, as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Within a split-second, he knocked Dmitri back, too, leaving just Rose standing. She growled as she tried to attack the Faulty, but the creature dodged her soul-eater and swerved around. His claws were out and headed straight for her side.

  I couldn’t send a barrier out without hitting her, too. Ridan rushed to help her but noticed movement behind the Faulty and came to a grinding halt.

  The Faulty stopped mid-swing, frozen, his eyes bulging. He was paralyzed.

  Behind him, just ten feet away, stood Kailani with her arm out. She’d just cast one of her stunning spells, from the looks of it. The Faulty grunted, unable to move or speak. Hunter caught up with Kailani, then ran past her to kill the hostile.

  Rose beat him to it and beheaded the Faulty with one swift swing of her sword.

  His head fell, then rolled into the firepit that Amane had been digging. The body dropped, arms and legs still twitching. Hunter stared at Rose, both eyebrows raised in a questioning manner.

  Rose shrugged. “What?” she paused. “Get your own Faulty.”

  Hunter chuckled briefly, then looked around, giving us a quick glance to make sure we were okay. “Glad to see you’re all still standing,” he said. “We got attacked not far from here. Sorry we’re late.”

  “Meh… As you can see, we managed,” I replied, mildly amused.

  Hunter then frowned. “Where’s Amane?”

  I looked around. My stomach dropped, but I was nowhere near as baffled as Ridan.

  Amane had vanished.

  The dragon groaned. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

  “Lenny, True Sight, please,” Rose said to me. “She can’t have gone far.”

  I nodded, then scanned the entire area. I spotted her less than a mile away, headed northwest. I pointed in her direction, but growls erupted to my right. We all turned our heads to find six more Faulties—these ones were different, a mixture of reptilian and feline creatures. They scowled at the bodies of their fallen siblings, then bared their freakishly long fangs and surrounded us.

  “Dammit,” Rose cursed under her breath, then drew her soul-eater sword again. “Get ready!”

  My instincts kicked into action again. I took a deep breath and prepared to release a powerful barrier—enough to knock the beasts back. I wanted to give Ridan an opening to go after Amane before she got too far away from us. She knew the land. She knew how to vanish. If we lost track of her, that was it. There were no second chances.

  Just as I exhaled and moved to release the barrier, a figure dart
ed behind the six Faulties. It moved like a flash, cutting and hacking as it broke their line and reached us. As soon as the creature shed its leafy mantle, my breath got stuck in my throat.

  “Kallisto,” Rose murmured, equally stunned.

  Standing between us and the Faulties was Kallisto. I thought she’d died during our melee with the Perfects, back in the diamond colosseum. She’d used that high-frequency scream of hers to temporarily disable Araquiel and his gang, giving us the window we’d needed to escape.

  “You’re alive,” I said.

  Kallisto smirked. “That Araquiel piece of trash won’t be the end of me. Ever,” she replied.

  Then I remembered her betrayal. She’d been the one to lure us into the colosseum to begin with. She’d sold us out to the Perfects, just so she could regain access to Ta’Zan—until the Perfects made it painfully clear that she was never going to get back to her creator, no matter what she did.

  I raised my sword, pointing it straight at her, while two of the Faulties she’d cut through managed to get back to their feet. Back to six hostiles once again, there was no time left for talking. They came at us, feral and desperate to take us down.

  However, despite her initial betrayal, Kallisto seemed to side with us, and she took one of them head on. Ridan dashed after Amane but was quickly intercepted by one of the remaining Faulties. The rest of us moved out and paired up again to tackle the other four. The fight was nowhere near over, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to get myself killed in this jungle.

  Not today!

  Rose

  I was surprised to see that Kallisto had made it out of the diamond colosseum alive. I also had mixed feelings about her presence here. That changed when she tackled one of the newly arrived Faulties. Ben and I handled one, while the others in our team moved to fight the others.

  Our shields and soul-eating swords were definitely helping—all it took was one cut to see a decrease in the creature’s energy. It was good to see that swamp witch magic still had an impact on our enemy. After the Perfects had found a way to breach our cloaking spells, and after they’d learned to disable Kailani’s teleportation abilities with their devices, I’d figured magic wasn’t going to be of too much help going forward. I was glad to see that wasn’t the case. Not yet, anyway.

  We’d yet to try our new weapons on the Perfects. That was going to be the real trial, not the Faulties. The latter were limited in numbers and were somewhat weaker than their winged brethren. They were still notable adversaries, but we were already starting to figure them out.

  “Now’s the time to use your singing voice, Kallisto,” Dmitri croaked as he dodged a Faulty’s attack. “Happy to cover my ears again!”

  “I can’t!” Kallisto replied, gritting her teeth as she ducked in front of her opponent, avoiding his claws, then sprang back up and delivered an impressive uppercut. I heard the creature’s teeth clatter together as it was thrown backward by the force of the blow. “It’ll draw Perfects. I’m one of the few with this ability.”

  Dmitri cursed under his breath, then used his soul-cutter to nick a Faulty’s side.

  Kallisto’s scream wasn’t imperative at this point in time. We handled ourselves well. After the previous fight, we’d learned a couple more things about our opponents. Yes, they were insanely fast, strong, fierce, and feral, but they were also dominated by their emotions. Their tactics were straightforward, and, despite the fact that they were quick learners, the Faulties appeared to be limited on an intellectual level.

  One by one, they came down, their blood glazing the soft ground and the green grass, the wildflowers and fallen leaves. When the last one fell, courtesy of Ridan, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I was covered in sweat, and I’d sustained some mild injuries, but I was okay. One quick glance at the rest of my team, and I wound up smiling. They’d done a fantastic job. I was fortunate to have each and every one of them with Ben and me on this mission. They were amazing, both on land and in water. They’d proven themselves, over and over, and, most importantly, they had no intention of giving up. We were taking this all the way to the end—whatever that was.

  Once the Faulties were taken care of, Elonora, Vesta, Nevis, and Zeriel pointed their soul-eaters back at Kallisto, who stilled, then slowly raised her hands in a defensive gesture. She didn’t look happy, but, then again, I couldn’t blame the crew.

  “You sold us out to the Perfects,” Elonora said, her tone clipped.

  “I helped you, just now,” Kallisto replied, gritting her teeth.

  “Well, thanks and all, much appreciated, yadda-yadda-yadda… But still, you sold us out!” Elonora said. “What are you doing here? How did you find us? What do you want?”

  Kallisto glowered at Elonora for a moment, then shifted her gaze to Ben and me. She sighed, then put her hands down, despite the swords still pointed at her.

  “I thought I was doing the right thing,” Kallisto said. “I thought that, if I handed you over to the Perfects, I’d see my father again.”

  “Case in point. You sold us out,” Elonora hissed.

  “Yeah. I did!” Kallisto snapped. “I was ready to do anything to get back to my father. My creator! I’m not sure you understand!”

  I put my sword away, then crossed my arms. I was ready to listen before I made any decision. “Okay. Explain it to us, then,” I replied.

  “We’re all wired to worship Ta’Zan,” Kallisto said. “He conditioned us to be this way, long before we even went into those pods. We don’t know any other life besides the one we spent by his side and in his service. That’s all I can say. It’s how I felt. I had to do whatever I could to get back to him.”

  “And now? Why are you here?” I asked.

  Kallisto thought about it for a while, choosing her words carefully before she spoke. “I’m angry. I felt broken and humiliated after my encounter with Araquiel,” she explained, her voice trembling. “It shattered me, but I could see the truth in the end. Ta’Zan doesn’t want me back. He’ll never want me back. And that… that makes me really angry.”

  “Why are you here?” Elonora repeated my question, adding weight to each word in that sentence. I knew she was angry. She had every reason to feel that way; however, we were in short supply of allies. We had to consider an alliance with Kallisto, provided we could protect ourselves in case she betrayed us again. First, she had to convince me that she was being truthful.

  “I want to help!” Kallisto retorted. “I know you want to find your people and get them out of here. I get it. Except that your people are with Ta’Zan, and I, personally, want to get to him. Not for a family reunion, though. Not this time. No. I want revenge.”

  She sounded determined enough. I briefly looked at Elonora, knowing she was reading the Faulty’s emotions as she spoke.

  “Define revenge,” I said. “Can you kill him?”

  “I don’t know how to kill him.” She sighed. “But I can make his life a living hell. I can get you in. I can try and reason with the other rogue Faulties out there. I can raise a mutiny and burn his project to the ground. Whatever I can do to piss him off, you can count on me.”

  “There are thousands of Perfects,” Ben replied. “By next week, it’ll be millions. What can we do, even with your help, to stop them?”

  Kallisto’s grin unsettled me. “You’ll need Amane’s expertise.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You’ll have to ask her,” she replied.

  “Why don’t you tell us?” Elonora demanded.

  “Because I’m not at liberty to say. I’m telling you, you need Amane for whatever it is you plan to do next. You will fail without her.”

  A few moments passed in heavy silence. The air was thick between us. I knew Elonora was itching to take Kallisto down, but I had to make a decision that would help us move forward. My parents were still out there, prisoners of Ta’Zan, along with the rest of our founders and the survivors of the fleet attack. Their lives depended on us.

 
; “Put your swords away,” I said.

  Elonora frowned but did as she was told. The soul-eaters went back in their sheaths.

  We gathered around Kallisto.

  “Okay. You can help us,” I said to her. “But if I get so much as a whiff that you’re trying to pull one over on us, I will kill you, and I will take my sweet time with it, too,” I added, baring my fangs to add gravitas to my statement.

  She took a deep breath, then nodded slowly. “You have my word,” she murmured. “I’ve learned my lesson. Helping Ta’Zan means helping those arrogant bastards who think they’re better than me. I’m done with that.”

  “Ta’Zan also thinks those ‘arrogant bastards’ are better than you. He’s the one who calls them Perfects. Keep that in mind, Kallisto,” Zeriel chimed in, pursing his lips. “Never let anyone make you feel like you’re not worth as much, simply because of your physical appearance and abilities,” he added, then pointed to his head. “What matters is what’s up here,” he said, moving to point at his heart, “and what’s in here. You do good with these two, and you’re well above any of the Perfects.”

  Kallisto took his words to heart. It was written all over her face. It saddened me to see that no one had ever treated her with kindness and encouragement. She, like the other Faulties, had been taught to believe that she was just a drone, dependent on Ta’Zan for everything, and worthless without him. That made me angry. How could Ta’Zan be so brilliant, create such fascinating specimens, and yet treat them the way he did? I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  “Kallisto is right, though,” Ridan said. “We need to find Amane.”

  “I think I know where she might go next,” Kallisto replied. “I found her lair and the dead Faulties you guys left behind. She’s got a few safe spots in the area. There’s one close by, about a mile and a half to the northwest from here.”

  “I saw her headed in that direction before you showed up,” Elonora said.

  “Good. We know where we’re going, then,” I replied, then motioned for Kallisto to take the lead. “Show us.”