Dark Reign

by Rachel Jonas

  I heard him loud and clear, but I also heard the hellhound, and he was coming up on my left side, meaning I’d have to push right.

  “No can do, Fe. I’m going rogue.”

  “R—rogue?” he stammered. “Cori, that’s insane! Just stick to the plan.”

  “Can’t. I’ve got a hound on my heels.”

  Instinct told me to turn, told me to see if I was about to be this thing’s dinner, but wisdom screamed for me to do the opposite. Turning would slow me down and that was the last thing I needed.

  The sound of rushing water to my right called out to me like a beacon. As if she knew what I was thinking, tonight’s transport began panting in my ear, anticipating my next move even before I veered that way, before I snatched her from my back and uttered two quick words.

  “Trust me.”

  That was it, all that time allowed. The very next second, as I took those final steps before the plunge, I pinched her nose and clasped the other hand over her mouth.

  And then … we went under.

  Icy water covered us and we sank. Stretching my toes toward the bottom I didn’t fight the feeling of my weight lowering us even deeper. In my arms, a small body fought against me as I all but drowned her. Bubbles rushing to the surface would give our position away, and we couldn’t have that, so I kept my hands locked tight to hold in her breath.

  An elbow to my ribs, poorly-kept fingernails clawing at my neck—I ignored it all, tightening my grip around her. I even managed to ignore the swift heel to my shin as we reached a new depth. The water was murky here, darker than the surface, even colder.

  Thirty more seconds, Cori. Thirty more seconds.

  The muffled sounds in my ears—rushing water and gurgling—were merely a brief intermission from the terror that lurked above. While, yes, the hellhound was a clear and present danger, it wasn’t the only danger. The woods were known to be crawling with roamers—second-generation Ianites who rejected formal assimilation into society, the ones who chose to exist on the fringes and make their own rules. If HIN-016565 and I were unlucky enough to cross paths with a hive, that would be the end of it.

  The end of us.

  Fifteen seconds.

  She was going still, losing consciousness quicker because she fought so hard. I admired that she didn’t go down easily, even if what I’d done was only to save her life. To her, I was sure it seemed I aimed to do the opposite.

  Slowly, I allowed myself to float toward the surface, noting the faint light as we drew nearer to it. When I broke through, I didn’t gasp for fear of alerting nearby predators, but I needed that air, swallowed huge gulps of it as I brought my transport above as well. I kept a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound as she took in greedy breaths, surprising me when she didn’t splash around like an octopus.

  Maybe she did realize I wasn’t trying to kill her.

  I scanned the area, searching for that menacing, red stare that had driven me to jump into this lake in the first place. I saw nothing, heard nothing.

  Using one arm to keep the girl close, I pulled us toward the water’s edge with the other. I lifted her out slowly to minimize the noise, and then hoisted myself out as well. We were soaked, both pushing dark strands of hair aside as they clung to our faces. With the added weight to our clothes, we’d be slow if we had to run again. So, as I lifted the transport onto my back like before, I sent a silent prayer it wouldn’t come to that.

  From here, it would be a long, crucial walk to the van. The hound was, no doubt, still lurking about, and likely a few roamers, too. Each step was tense. Every time I accidentally broke a twig beneath the sole of my shoe, I felt tears well in my eyes. So many thought I was fearless, but that was far from the truth. I felt fear, I simply chose not to let it stop me.

  A solid, white line illuminated by the moon was the first indicator we’d reached the road, the second was the red sedan that passed us.

  But there was no van.

  “Hop down,” I whispered, needing to catch my breath, get my bearings.

  The transport’s bare feet crunched leaves gently beneath them, too quiet for anyone else to hear. I knew not to creep to the road’s edge for a better look, but I desperately wanted to. With my com down, thanks to the unscheduled dip into the lake, I was flying without wings.

  Some Blackbird I was.

  It was possible I’d come out at the wrong extraction point. I never saw the shed Felix spoke of, so … it was possible I’d … messed up.

  Don’t freak out, Cori. Keep it together and figure something out. You always do.

  I was getting dizzier by the second, feeling the strange jittering in my limbs that came before the real show began—convulsions that left me sore, tired, and disoriented sometimes for hours. It’d be just my luck to fall down right here, scaring the kid half to death until her screams told our pursuant exactly where to find us.

  I had to do something, and fast. Standing still wasn’t an option, so we walked near the road, but out of sight to passing cars. The longer we walked, the more it wrecked my nerves. This—being lost in uncharted territory, now with several on our trail, including the orphanage’s resident huntsman and his pack—was about as bad as it got.

  My vision was starting to blur, my steps staggering despite an attempt to keep to a straight line.

  “Look!”

  A small voice to my right made my drifting lids widen when she pointed. A set of high-beams blinked on and off as a large vehicle crept along the tree line.

  It had to be Alex. He was looking for me.

  I hurried toward the pulsing lights, but not by my own strength. The little one I’d carried this far was now urging me along.

  “This way,” she chimed excitedly, never forgetting to keep her voice down.

  My vision dimmed to a slender tunnel, leaving only her soaked gown as a directional marker. I ambled along, feeling my limbs become leaden as the sweetest sound I ever heard suddenly filled my senses—that of a van door sliding open just before two bodies hustled closer, flinging my arms over their shoulders for support.

  “We’ve got you, kid,” Alex mumbled close to my ear as I was lifted inside.

  At the feel of carpet beneath my cheek and a blast of vented heat warming my chilled skin, I breathed deep and let the darkness take me.

  It was a near miss, and I’d cut it dangerously close with this episode, but … we made it.

  HIN-016565 was one step closer to freedom.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Julian

  “Rise and shine, Your Highness.”

  The high-pitched tone of Ellenore’s voice sent a sharp pain shooting through my head, reminding me why I hadn’t had alcohol in months. Had it not been for the three who showed up on my doorstep uninvited, I never would’ve broken my fast. However, they insisted we celebrate, noting that publicly accepting my birthright was as good a reason as any.

  With her light footsteps headed toward the far wall of my bedroom, I knew what Ellenore would do next, but I was too slow to request that we leave the curtains closed this morning. And I was never slow—another downside of drinking.

  Bright light exploded into the room and I groaned, mumbling inaudible words into my pillow.

  “If you didn’t still have guests, I wouldn’t have disturbed you,” she explained, “but the others are already up and about, and we wouldn’t want them to think we’re poor hosts, now would we?”

  “No … I suppose we wouldn’t want that,” I sighed, knowing she hadn’t missed the sarcasm as I rolled onto my back.

  I glared as she fluttered about, picking up the clothes I’d tossed to the floor when I stumbled into my room the night before. She was always like this—perky, upbeat. I suppose being an A.I. with infinite energy had something to do with it. Although, with the snappy comebacks and those judgey stares of hers, I sometimes forgot she wasn’t ‘real’ in the widely accepted sense of the word.

  She disappeared inside the walk-in closet to take my things to the hamper, but was unch
aracteristically quiet when she returned.

  “What is it?” I asked, finally shoving the covers aside.

  I still hadn’t gotten an answer even when I made it to the dresser to grab a shirt. Ellenore wasn’t one to be at a loss for words, so her silence had me stumped.

  “If I … overheard something,” she began, “something that might upset you … would you still want to know?”

  I glanced her way after slipping the shirt over my head, laughing a bit.

  “Overheard something?” I asked. “Perhaps, because you were eavesdropping again?”

  She had a habit of overhearing a lot that she shouldn’t have, when left to her own devices.

  “Well … I … it’s just that Prince Silas has a tendency to whisper loudly, and I happened to be nearby when he mentioned something to the others.”

  I passed her on my way to brush my teeth, knowing she’d follow.

  “Ellenore, I’m certain whatever Silas told Roman and Levi has nothing to do with me, and if it does, they’ll fill me in,” I assured her.

  I continued with my morning routine while she observed, noting that she still seemed troubled. Ignoring things that bothered her never just blew over, so …

  “This thing you overheard, how can you be so certain it’ll upset me?” I asked, bringing the toothbrush to my mouth.

  Ellenore peered up, blurting it the next second. And with the short statement that followed, I suddenly understood why she’d been hesitant.

  “There’s been another breach.”

  The sound of water running in the sink was the only thing that interrupted the silence. I stared at her through the mirror’s reflection while she stared back.

  “Do you wish I hadn’t said anything?” she asked, the words leaving her mouth with childlike innocence.

  “Was it roamers?” I asked instead, ignoring the question.

  They’d always been a problem, but had grown to be an even bigger issue in recent years. As second-generation Ianites who’d chosen to resist formal assimilation into our societal system, they dwelled in the darkness, on the fringes of Dynasty borders, wreaking havoc.

  “No,” Ellenore answered solemnly.

  That only left one person who’d even think about disobeying the Bylaws—Blackbird.

  I finished in silence and never responded, never shared my suspicion. Returning to my bedroom, I opted not to join the guys right away. I needed to think, to clear my head. They’d definitely be eager to discuss this despite the incident not taking place in any of their quadrants. Blackbird was not their immediate problem. She was ours, the Eastern Quadrant’s.

  As I scanned the property, watching a pack of our huntsman’s wolves prowling about, I prepared myself for the inevitable fallout.

  “It was another child,” she explained reluctantly. “They snuck in a few hours before daybreak.”

  “Is there proof it was her?”

  Ellenore stepped closer, knowing of whom I spoke. “Well, no, but … based on my analysis of what Prince Silas shared, considering Blackbird’s modus operandi, and similarities in technique, I’m 97.6% positive it was her.”

  I lowered my head, feeling my entire body become warm. There was no question whether Ellenore had already detected the spike. With her being equipped to pick up on even the slightest atmospheric changes, I knew this hadn’t slipped past her.

  “You’re angry,” she concluded.

  She was right, but not for the reasons she likely assumed. With tonight’s State of the Dynasty Address falling on my father’s shoulders, the last thing he needed was another distraction, one more incident for which he’d have to answer to the media, the people. If it wasn’t the concerns about the ever-growing population creating a blood shortage, it was the increase in contaminated donor lots, which we now knew to be responsible for a mysterious sickness that had taken the lives of thousands of Ianites.

  And now, there was this.

  The territory of the East Quadrant was, technically, his main jurisdiction, but as Ian Percival’s first convert, he’d also been chosen to reign as Presiding Emperor over the four combined quadrants. Meaning, the others were powerful, but none more powerful than him. For this reason, the world would be expecting an explanation from him, and only him.

  There had always been opposing factions, but none were as effective at getting under my father’s skin as Blackbird. She, alone, had undermined his authority, brought more scrutiny and heartache his way than any other incidents throughout his five-hundred-year reign combined. For this reason, when my turn came … I had very detailed plans to eradicate our pesky bird problem once and for all.

  I sighed, gathering my thoughts, and turned to face Ellenore. “Has this hit the public yet?”

  “After overhearing Prince Silas’ statement, I did a quick media search, and from what I can tell, it hasn’t. I believe he must have come into this knowledge by way of his connections,” she explained.

  On more than one occasion, Silas having contacts in the media had proven helpful. My guess was he had something to do with the slow info leak, but with some reporter’s claws likely deep in this story already, he could only hold them off for so long. It was only a matter of time until the entire world knew the same thing I did …

  Blackbird had embarrassed this Dynasty yet again and had to be stopped.

  By any means necessary.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Silas

  A helping of freshly prepared frittata was offered and I accepted a slice. Julian’s staff was always accommodating whenever any of us ventured into the capitol of the Eastern Quadrant. This time, the purpose of our travels had been to celebrate his good news—the formal acceptance of his birthright.

  For him, the decision to forego charting his own life path to follow the one laid by his father had been long and grueling. Even now, I was almost certain he’d only chosen to be the successor of the throne to avoid the backlash of declining it. He carried a sense of duty and responsibility the rest of us didn’t when it came to bearing the crown. For the most part, we settled on the idea of being elevated within the Dynasty since childhood.

  Although, for a while, we weren’t so sure about Roman.

  His personal tragedy made abandoning his father’s legacy seem possible, choosing to disassociate himself with the Dynasty altogether. Instead, going off on his own in an attempt to self-destruct—an attempt none of us would have ever allowed. All our lives we’d been more like brothers than friends. When we were young, our families kept us close. Once we were of age, we secured our own bond, made our own memories.

  Some of which were illegal and so reckless we vowed to never speak of them again, for fear of bringing shame on our family names.

  It was this bond that caused us all to keep Roman close during the dark days. From week to week, we’d made certain he wasn’t alone. We rotated our time with him for an entire year. With the distance between him and the other members of his father’s kingdom, we were all he had. And we each shared his loss, the hurt, nearly as deeply as he felt it.

  At the thought of Roman, I peered across the table to where he sat, methodically swiping his finger down a tablet. Being dark-natured and introverted had been his default setting for a while now, but we had hope he’d resurface soon.

  “Thanks, Love,” Levi crooned in a sophisticated accent reminiscent of the old world.

  I turned just as he bit into a muffin, a wide grin spreading across his face as he eyed the curvy server who’d just waited on him. She wasn’t much to look at by my standards, but I’d choose her company versus Julian’s bot, Ellenore, any day of the week.

  It’d been nearly a decade since she was gifted to him and, even as a man of science, the thing still creeped me out.

  I turned to Roman again as I reached for a fork. “Not eating this morning?”

  He peered up, scanning the spread that had been laid before us. When his stare settled at the center of the table, I followed it to the crystal pitcher filled with thick, dark li
quid—fresh blood.

  “Suppose I’ll have a drink,” he replied, reaching to pour himself a serving.

  “I’ll have a bit of that as well,” Levi chimed in, extending his hand toward a glass, but never touching it. Instead, he easily lifted it into the air with a mere thought.

  I chuckled at the show of his unique ability as the glass hovered before Roman, waiting to be filled. Once he obliged and blood nearly sloshed over the rim, Levi’s fingers beckoned for the cup to return. With it secured to his palm, he took a sip. The evidence of his approval after sampling the quality was an obnoxiously satisfied sigh.

  “Still warm. Just how I like it,” he crooned.

  I ignored the comment and turned back to my plate instead.

  “So, any thoughts on the latest Blackbird debacle?” I asked, reviving an earlier conversation. Before, I was pretty sure the bot was listening in, so I killed the discussion until now.

  Levi reared back in his seat, still wearing the expensive, gray suit from when we ventured into the city the night before, the red tie undone around his neck. He propped an ankle on his knee, swirling the contents of the glass he held.

  “I, for one, say we reach an agreement here and now, gentlemen. When we catch this scourge,” he offered with a menacing grin, “we sentence her to a unique concoction of our most inventive punishments. She deserves to taste the harshest of deaths each quadrant has to offer. A mere hanging in the square is too lenient.”

  Each of us nodded in agreement as Levi continued.

  “First, we’ll leave her in the iron maiden for a day in honor of the South,” he laughed, pointing toward Roman as he spoke of his region. “Then, we’ll lend her to the Judas chair to satisfy the West. After that, she’ll be drawn and quartered per the law of our brothers in the North,” he added, nodding toward me when my father’s territory was acknowledged. “And finally, once her limbs have been pulled from their sockets and she’s reduced to little more than a limp pile of tattered flesh, we’ll watch her boil in a vat of oil and feast on her charred remains to the sound of a celebratory festival and grand parade.”