by A. S. Oren
I sigh. “Okay.” I walk over to him and hold out my cuffs. He taps them. The magic flows into it and dire fills me. As he lowers his hand, it leaves again. If I could, I would let out a sigh of relief if I could.
‘See you tonight, Clementine.’
“I’ll see you two tomorrow,” I say as I leave the room to go to my next class. Tonight will be interesting.
Recruiting
“Fire, we didn’t even finish dinner. Where are we going?” I pull him into a passage. I only went to dinner long enough to be registered as attending. I pull Dante through a passage. I persuaded him to walk with me back to my dorm before the end of dinner to get a jacket. I then took him into the passage near the dining hall.
“We’re going to break Bullock out of the dungeons and go to the Cabin. Perlow gave me a chip before Maverick died and we need to figure out what’s on it. Bullock knows how to access it.”
His hand tightens its grip on mine. “Shouldn’t we be bringing the others with us?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t fixed, them and I don’t trust Minos.”
“I don’t either, but don’t you think we should have some sort of back up for this?”
“Probably would be a good idea, but Lusk is in the dining hall and the others are warped.”
“Mirren’s not warped? When did you start calling him Lusk?”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know. I guess it stuck after I was warped. And Yes. Bullock, Lusk, and . . . Maverick never were brainwashed.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” But I think it has something to do with the handprints on their backs.
Kaliyah comes flying from my pocket and shifts into her human form. “I can have Mirren find us if you want him to come along. I can contact his P.A.”
“But he can’t come with a P.A. We’re going to the Cabin,” I say. “As it is, I’m going to have to leave you somewhere.”
She shakes her head. “You don’t have to worry about that. The passages block all P.A. communications to the Watchers. We’ll be using them all the way there.”
“How can you call his P.A. then?” asks Dante.
Kaliyah lifts an eyebrow. “I said the passages blocked the Watchers. I didn’t say I couldn’t get around them. I’m good at what I do, hon. Do you want Mirren here?”
I nod. “It would be good to have back up.”
Her eyes flash with a green light. “He should be here soon. You two aren’t that far from the entrance of this passage.”
Not even two minutes later the door to the passage opens and closes, filling the tunnel with the bang.
“You called?” Lusk says as he walks up to us.
“We’re breaking Bullock out of the dungeon and heading to the Cabin so he can look at what Perlow left for us on the chip he gave me.”
Lusk moves a hand through his hair. It’s not slicked back like it normally is. It’s odd seeing his hair in its natural form. “Well, we better get moving then.”
“Can you take us to the dungeons, Kaliyah?” I ask.
She gives a nod. “Of course.”
Dungeons
We’ve walked for at least an hour now. I knew the Dungeons wouldn’t be just a hop, skip, and a jump away but I didn’t think that Spearwood went down forever. If there’s a hell, I’m sure we’re closing in on it by now.
Kaliyah comes to a stop in front of a dead end and bends down. She pushes on the wall and it travels forward, moving out of the way. “Come on, Bullock!” She calls. He comes crawling through the hole.
Bullock looks to Dante. “I need you to make a clone of me.”
Dante gives a nod and places a hand on Bullocks shoulder. “I need to get a feel for your magic, so I can create an accurate clone.”
He gives a nod, crouches down, and opens his mouth. Molten silver spills onto the grown and moves through the passage opening. I crouch down to watch it. It goes to the end of the cell and starts to build onto itself. Forming a mass and taking the shape of Bullock. Colour seeps into his clothes and skin. It lies on the ground, breathing slowly, looking as if he’s asleep.
“Damn. That Master level silver magic,” I say. It makes me wonder again, where he got his training. He’s as strong as Maverick and Paden. Did Edgar train him?
“We should get a move on,” Bullock says.
“It’s going to be another hour or two walk,” Kaliyah says.
Spearwood Underground
The walk has been long, just like Kaliyah warned. She stops in the middle of a passage and holds up her hand. “Do you hear that?” She asks.
I close my eyes and focus on my hearing. Just in the distance the faint clanking of machines. “Do they have things down this far?”
“I don’t show anything on the map, but it might be hidden, even from me. Do you want to keep going? Who knows what we’re going to run into.”
“We don’t have much of a choice. We’re just going to have to try. We’re far too close to turn around now and we can’t just walk up too it like we used to,” Bullock says.
Kaliyah looks to me and I nod my head. “He’s right. We need to see what’s on that chip. Is there anything we can do to make us invisible to whatever we run into down here?”
I can cloak us with the air. They won’t be able to see or hear us, but if they run into us, they will feel it,” Bullock says.
“Do it,” Dante says.
Bullocks looks to me. “Do you want me to?”
I nod. “If it doesn’t wear down your magic.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Bullock swirls his hands forming a tight ball of air. He expands it out until it engulfs us on in the sphere. I blink. I can gaze through the air swirling around us just fine. “Stay within the sphere. Anything can see you otherwise.”
We all huddle together, the guys forming another barrier around me: Bullock and Dante at my sides and Lusk standing behind me.
We continue. The clanking of machine growing ever near. Soon we come to a door; the clanging of the machine nearly deafens me. I reach my hand out and push. It opens. Why isn’t there a type of security on this? Are they not worried about someone breaking in down here? Is it too underground for them to care? A blue glow shines from the beyond. I swallow hard. “Let’s go.”
Not even thirty feet inside and something comes around a corner. We all stop. It’s a small thing, barely four and a half feet. Hunched over. Tribal tattoos travel over its blue skin and give off an iridescent glow. The eyes are what take me off guard: bulbous and a milky white. Like an elderly elf.
“Do any of you know what that is?” I ask.
“It’s a Watcher,” Lusk says.
“How do you know that?” Dante asks.
Lusk clears his throat. “I woke up one night before a survival test. They are the things that move us while we’re sleeping.”
“Are they slaves?” I ask, noticing the golden cuffs on its wrists. They look identical to mine.
“I don’t know,” Lusk says.
It moves closer to us. We move against the wall, pushing our backs up against it and staying as close to each other as possible.
“I detect more in that direction. I have heat signatures for a lot of them,” Kaliyah says.
“You couldn’t have told us that before?” asks Dante.
“The door was blocking things.”
We inch along the wall.
“Triton’s down here,” she says suddenly.
I grab her hand to keep her from running to him. She looks to me. “You can’t leave the sphere.”
She sighs. “I know. He could help us though.”
“Well, let’s find him then.”
“He’s behind the first door around that corner.”
She inches along the wall faster, making us have to keep up with her so that none of us falls out of the sphere.
The door opens as we come near it. Triton walks out. What a coincidence. Kaliyah reaches out and pulls him into the sphere. A Watcher walks by, but doesn’t act
as if anything has happened. If they’re blind, why are they called the Watchers?
He looks at us all with wide eyes. “What are you all doing down here?”
“We need to get to the Cabin. We wanted to use the underground passages to get there. We didn’t know any of this was here, or we would have figured out something else,” I say.
He sighs. “There’s only one way to get there. You have to go through the underground waterfall stream and into a lake. The lake ends up at another passage that has an elevator up to the Cabin.”
“That doesn’t sound complicated,” Lusk says before crossing his arms.
“We trust you now?” Dante asks.
“It’s not his fault what happened. He awoke Kaliyah. We wouldn’t be here without him,” I say.
Triton hugs Kaliyah before saying, “I’m going to step out of this barrier. Follow me.”
He steps out of the barrier and steps around a Watcher. We inch along the wall after him, until no Watchers remain in the area, but a new sound fills the halls. Growls, howls and roars. He takes us through another door. Blue no longer makes up the colour of the halls. Cell after cell lines each wall ever few feet. Fluorescent lights buzz from overhead and flicker. I have to cover my ears to block out the crescendo of unreal animal noises.
Inside the cages—twisted creatures. Some of have extra limbs, or eyes. I can’t even tell what they were at some point. It’s as if someone took figurines of all fantasy creatures and smashed them together to reform crude creatures.
I rush with the others to make it out the room, but Triton stops at the last cell. Why did he stop? I keep my hands on my ears and turn to look. I fall into Lusk.
I stand on the other side of the glass, in the cell. The me shifts in and out of my gold dragon form, as if stuck on a loop. Lusk rights me. How can this be?
Triton continues to walk ahead and we finally make it out of the horrible room.
After three more blue halls, the floor turns into dirt and we go down a long hill. I welcome the sound of rushing water and the scent of moist dirt and rocks. The small water greets us with the same glow as the water next to the Cabin. Triton stands next to it. “You can take the shield down now. No one will see you down here.”
Bullock sucks in the air around us, making the sphere disappear. “What was that room and why was I one of the things in there.”
“Roseman has been trying to create hybrids for a while now. They’ve also been trying to clone you the memories they recorded from you and your father Edgar.”
“Do you know where they are keeping him?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I tried to find out for you, but the files have been wiped.”
“Why?” Dante asks.
“I don’t know. They don’t share things in front of me.” He points to a hole just above the waterfall. “Go down that passage. It will come out at a lake. Swim the lake to the other side and take the elevator up. It will come inside the Cabin.”
“How do you know all this?” I ask.
“How do you think I escaped yesterday? They haven’t figured out how I did it yet. I think there may be wards blocking them from finding the elevator.”
He steps up to Kaliyah and gives her a kiss. “I wish I could come with you, but I need to stay here. I’m stopping them from realizing you’re all gone.”
Kaliyah hugs him and gives him another kiss. “We’ll be able to be together soon, Tri. I swear it.”
“Take care of Avalon,” he says, looking to Dante, Bullock and Lusk.
They each give a nod and he leaves back up the dirt hill. I look to the hole above the waterfall. This should be fun.
I shift my wings. This keeps getting easier and easier. I just have to put the pain at the back of my mind. “We are going to have to fly into it,” I say.
Bullock shifts his wings next and I look to him. “You couldn’t do that during the survival challenge.”
He lifts an eyebrow at me. “I made you think I couldn’t. Spearwood doesn’t need to know what all I am capable of.”
I hold out my hand. “It will be easier to carry you if you’re in card form.”
She nods. “Yeah, I know. See you at the Cabin.”
Her black card lands in my hand, and I put it in the pocket of my shirt.
I look to the guys. They all have their wings out. “Okay, let’s go.”
Dante moves in front of me. “Let me go first. We don’t know if Lennox is trustworthy or not. He could’ve been lying out his ass.”
I follow Dante up into the passage, with Bullock and Lusk behind me. We’re going to have to crawl. Not even I’m short enough to fit in here. I shift my wings back into me. They skimmed the rock around us.
Dante comes to the end of the passage. “Shit!”
“What?” I ask.
“I found the lake. We’re going to have to fall into it.”
“It can’t be that bad,” Lusk says.
“You’ll find out.” Dante moves until he is sitting on the edge. He slides off and falls. He yells just before he hits the water with a splash.
I crawl and reposition myself to sit on the edge. He wasn’t kidding. I’m almost afraid of my skin obliterating from hitting the water at this height. I don’t have a parachute to slow me down.
Dante resurface. “C’mon, Fire! Jump. You’ll be fine.”
I close my eyes and let out a breath, before filling my lungs with air. I slide of the edge and let myself fall. I cross my arms over my chest and wait for my body to hit the water. The water hits me like a wall and I stop my gasping as the cold rushes over me.
I open my eyes and kick my legs until I break the surface. Bullock lands in the water next to me and Lusk follows. “Oh Shit!” he screams. I swim out of the way, as he hits the water where I was floating.
“If you shift your arms as feet, you will be able to swim faster,” Lusk says.
I shift both my arms and legs and begin to swim. My eyes widen. I cross the lake in mere minutes. I wish I would’ve known that during the trial. I could have been across that lake in no time.
I crawl onto land and look an ancient elevator. We gather around it. It’s a crank elevator. “I’ll operate it,” Lusk says.
We get inside and secure the lock on the door. Lusk grabs the lever and begins to crank it. The thing rumbles to life and I hold onto the wall. I hope this thing doesn’t kill us.
After about ten minutes Bullock takes over for Lusk and then Dante takes over ten minutes after that. Finally, we come to rest in an all-dark room. My night vision comes on automatically. An all dirt room surrounds us. I go to the only door in the room and open it. The Cabin’s living room greets me.
Nausea washes over me as I move into the room and the guys follow.
Bullock goes to the couch and lifts a cushion. “You put the chip in this one right?”
I stare at the couch until my vision blurs with tears.
“I’m so glad I have you through all of this. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t.”
Maverick smiles and leans over to kiss me. It doesn’t even take me a second to return it. I straddle his lap and his hands go to my sides and brush my shirt up. The warmth of his fingers fill me with an all-over heat.
I run the tip of my tongue over his lower lip and pull with my teeth. He opens up for me, and we fight for dominance. He growls, and his grip on my waist tightens. My hands move to explore his chest through his shirt, and his go under mine . . .
“Avalon, is this where you put the chip?” Bullock asks again.
I nod and swallow hard. “Yes. I. . . I need sa-some air,” I stutter as I stumble for the door.
Attacked
The cool air rushes over my skin as I stumble outside. I lean against the wall by the door and take in a deep breath. I close my eyes and turn my head to the side so I don’t have to see the spot where Maverick died. I open my eyes only to look at the windows. I gasp. Maverick’s mug still sits on the windowsill where he placed it just before his death.
“Shh…I know this is hard. Just breath, you will get this. I’m here.”
“I miss him so much. You have no idea.” I press my cheek against his chest.
A whistle sounds off in the distance and I lift my head. “What’s that sound?”
“What sound, Fire?”
I stand. The pitch grows louder. “You can’t hear that?”
“No.”
An orange ball of fire blasts up from the distance. Dante moves to cover me as the ground shakes and a wash of hot air moves over us.
“What was that?” I move out of Dante’s arms and shift my wings. I fly to the top of the tree. Spearwood crumbles in flames.
“Amr!” I scream.
The Slayers made the first move.
To be continue.
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Mortal in Time Square
(Minma Chronicles, #1.5; Elle, #1)
By Zether
Chapter 1
Emma’s hyperventilates on the way to the door. I find this ironic because I told her and showed her everything I did to prevent this sort of reaction, and here she is about to pass out. She may not be a real schizophrenic, but her doctors have brainwashed her into believing she is. For her, separating reality from fantasy is a daily activity that takes her mind on a tailspin when anything doesn’t make sense. That’s why she labels everything and everyone. It’s a coping mechanism of sorts. Yet, when she can’t fit something into a box, this is her reaction.
"Zack, you know what to do."
He turns her toward himself and blows out a light mist of white sparkly air. To a mortal, like Crystal, it looks like nothing more than frosted breath, which isn't hard to fathom with snow on the ground, but an immortal, like myself, sees it for what it is: sleeping breath. How much is inhaled will affected how long the person is knocked out. Emma breathes in a light dosage, so it’ll be an hour or two at most. "Let's get her to the room," I say. "I want you by her side until I get back."