Wild Hunt (The Island Book 2)

by C. M. Estopare

  Ren’s arms felt like stones. Dragging them along the ground, she slammed them against the rusted bars. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the energy around her. Tried calling her fire. Tried killing the chill that rattled in her chest like a bad cough, but couldn’t. Every time flame sparked on her fingertips, a biting spark of electricity would curve up from the stone-like cuffs and zap her. Whip her fire away and punish her for even trying. She didn’t give a damn about the pain and the snapping, whipping, sensation. What made her eyes burn and her throat threaten to close completely was the fact that the cuffs wouldn’t even let her produce flame. The fact that the cuffs took away the only thing that made her special—that made her invincible.

  It took away her fire. It made her helpless.

  That’s what made her curse up a storm and drop her forehead against the corroded bars. That’s what made her flinch against the wet trail of tears that charged down her face and dripped onto her chest. That’s what made her give up.

  Failure. That’s all she’d ever be. Not even a goddess could change that simple fact about her.

  You should just go home. Run away again.

  But this time, there was no running. She had nowhere to go. At the mercy of the Paragon and her people, Ren could only imagine what they would do to her. The traitor, the runner, the Outsider. Then, there was the goddess and the probability that failing meant she’d change into one of those lurching things—a Nephilim. At least if she turned into one of those things she wouldn’t be able to let anyone down ever again.

  Ren’s eyes snapped open. It wouldn’t matter what she became or where she went—if she doesn’t open the Heart, the island will die. The earth will suffer. Knowing her luck, she won’t even have a place to sulk anymore. If the island dies, the entire planet goes with it.

  Ren had to get out.

  Her heart thumped violently in her chest as she stared at her hands, flames flickering on her fingertips in the darkness. I have to get out.

  They don’t understand why I left and that’s fine. Whatever. They don’t fucking matter—it’s the island I’ve got to save. The rest of them can fucking shove it.

  Footsteps. They stole her attention, making her stare out into the darkness of the world beyond. A soft white light lit up the hallway. Three pairs of footsteps echoed, the soft clicks of boots and loafers creeping down the hallway. Ren froze, cuffs against the bars, kneeling. She bit her tongue and waited for the soft light to shine on her.

  In the light, a face appeared. Grey dreadlocks slid over skinny shoulders broadened by a pronounced vanilla suit.

  “Fuck.” Ren clamped her lips closed.

  Morgan Black.

  Two other figures flanked him. Ren didn’t have to guess who one of them was, she already knew.

  Her grandfather leaned back, hands in his pockets, shoulders slouching. He was always so calm, so composed. Ren seriously hated him for that.

  “Sooooo, you’ve lied to them, right?” Ren couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “Got them on your side so you can finally get to me?”

  Her grandfather stared at her for a moment, his chest barely rising and falling. He tilted his head slightly, glasses glinting in the soft lantern light that dangled near his head.

  “You’re lucky,” he drawled, his grizzly voice barely above a whisper, “Much luckier than your grandmother.”

  Ouch. Ava. Nakato, as former shamaness of the Mesh, had murdered her once it became clear she was the Fire Scion. Ren stumbled along in her grandmother’s footsteps for a while, but unlike Ava, Ren had powerful friends. Chiefly, Kato and Lindiwe.

  Her grandfather was right. And damn, it hurt.

  The bars to her cell slid open. Her final bulwark of protection against her grandfather and his goons disappearing with a smash of steel against stone. Ren flinched backward, almost losing her balance on her knees. A hand shot out from the darkness and caught her by the tattered collar of her tunic. Within seconds, a man stood behind her and shoved her to standing, pushing her toward the space where the bars of her cell had been. Her skin prickled as his cold skin touched her.

  Xavier Hunter. She knew the shadow of her grandfather’s top goon.

  Morgan Black pressed his lips together and broke eye contact, looking at the ground. With deft hands, he undid her cuffs and let them crash to the ground.

  Ren’s fingers twitched, fear racing up her spine and holding her in place.

  He met her eyes once more. “I think it’s time for you to go.”

  34

  Dragged out into the sun, Ren didn’t even bother giving the cathedral a second glance. Something way more important waited for her.

  Cutting through the crowd, the roar of rotating blades kicking up a mountain of debris and dust threw her hair back and forced her to shut her eyes. Ren fought the sting in her forearms, the tears threatening to spill from her eyelids, and the deafening howl of the helicopter touching down right on the bridge between the Upper City’s cathedral and lower shopping district. As Xavier and her grandfather’s other goon dragged her through the parting crowd and onto the waiting helicopter, she found her mind wandering toward her friends. Kato. Chi Chi and Ekanna. Slate and Maka. She hadn’t bothered searching the crowd for them, her eyes were too bleary and her body felt like a rag doll being pulled apart by the hands of graceless children. Kato’s kiss found its way into her mind. Followed by Chi Chi’s smile and Ekanna’s devil-may-care attitude. Everything seemed so far away now. Stepping onto that helicopter, allowing herself to be strapped into a rear seat and the machine pulling off into the darkening sky. Once the ground fell away, everything felt like a dream.

  With the cuffs gone, she could control her fire now, but it didn’t rocket through her chest like it did before when she was pissed. It froze in her chest like a lump the size of a Scion crystal, and she smiled at the reference. Softly, slowly. If she had never come here, she would have never known what one of those things were. She would have never felt the power of being able to control a damned element and she would have never done…so much.

  Rotating rotors bled into her ears. Wind slammed into the sides of the helicopter the higher the pilot took them and as the helicopter began propelling itself forward, wind buffeted them from both sides. Shaking them like liquid in an aerosol can. Ren’s head shook from side to side violently as she dug her nails into either side of her thick, steel, chair. Her seat’s crisscrossing belt snapped and buckled with the sudden movements, straining to keep her from falling to her death.

  She couldn’t just run away.

  Ren opened her eyes.

  I could. The Upper City flew by below, jumbling together like a forest of timber and cobblestones. A black crowd swarmed like ants around the towering obsidian cathedral below, its steeple almost touching the clouds. Multiple gusts of wind rattled the helicopter, sending Ren’s head jerking, her neck cracked as whiplash radiated across the right side of her throat. Beside her, Xavier braced himself with the muzzle of his rifle pointed at the helicopter’s deck. In front of her, the helicopter pilot leaned into his controls, absorbed completely, shoulders high and tense. Ren let out a breath of air as her gaze turned to her grandfather, who simply stuck his head out of the window beside him and stared up at the sky.

  Darkness gradually fell, the gale picking up. Howling when it slammed into the helicopter and blew it off course. Soon, the Upper City vanished beneath them. The Great River wasn’t far. In fact, Ren was sure that they would cross it in ten minutes time. Then, she wasn’t sure what her grandfather would to do her. But she was sure of one thing: if she stayed with him after they passed over the Great River, the island—and the world—would cease to be.

  Ten minutes. She could go home. Go back to college. Avoid the hell out of her ex. She could take a shower and wash all this nonsense away—providing it was nonsense. Maybe Moira isn’t what people believe she is? Maybe she isn’t a goddess. Maybe she’s just some weird entity that thinks that the island is way more important than it ac
tually is. If the island was key to the entire planet’s survival, wouldn’t the military be all over this place? Wouldn’t…someone be in the business of preserving it?

  Ren tensed against another onslaught of wind and shut her eyes. Five minutes. The walls shuddered, she flinched when she heard a mechanical pop. Opening up her eyes, she slid her gaze toward Xavier. Hanging his arm from the bar above his head, he leaned out into the wind.

  That’s when Ren decided to kick him.

  Ramming her heel into the side of his ribcage, her skin bristled when fire swirled down her leg and exploded from her heel, charring Xavier’s body armor. Latex and plastic bubbled, the man’s face darkening as he spun around in his seat only to flinch once he found himself stuck to his seatbelt.

  Unbuckling her belt, the helicopter tilted to the right as she flung herself from her seat and wrapped both arms around the pilot’s throat. Biceps screaming, she choked the pilot, the man stuck between guiding the helicopter across the thousand-foot drop below and reopening his throat. Gasping, he kept one hand on the throttle and forced the other to dig beneath Ren’s clenched fingers. The moment his fingernails dug into her skin, fire spread across her forearm, searing him. A rough hand yanked at her shoulder from behind, and her eyes snapped open wider as swirls of fire raced across both of her shoulders. Burning Xavier.

  A blast of wind sent the helicopter spinning. Screaming, the pilot let go of the throttle and plunged both hands between Ren’s fingers and his throat. Freeing himself from her choke hold, Ren stumbled back and lost her balance as the cabin spun beneath her. The sky tipped over, the screaming gorge at the bottom of the Great River opening its arms as greasy waterfalls began showering them with gray mist. The sides of the Great River vanished in an instant as the helicopter careened over and fell, tumbling through the sky like a rock encased in steel. A cage.

  Crumbling against the cabin’s roof, Ren crawled against the gale raking lines across her face and clung to the bar hanging near the window. Rotors shrieking, a siren storm of beeps blaring from the pilot’s side, Ren shut her eyes as the gray river below opened wider and wider. Her stomach flew. Her heart stopped.

  Snapping her eyes open, she raked her fingers across the river and held her breath as a small patch of land jolted through the gray waters below to meet her.

  35

  Ren clutched wet land. Brought her face up and held her breath as a wave of greasy black came crashing over her head. She coughed, sputtered. Dug her fingers into the makeshift patch of land sprouting through the heart of the Great River and looked up. Face wet, clothing drenched.

  She couldn’t even see the helicopter. A column of smoke chugged up, meeting the inky sky before vanishing. Wind howled and wept, thin trails of drizzle illuminating her face. Cleansing it.

  Ren stood on shaky legs. Her knees knocked together as she made herself plunge into the water. Making her way to the nearby shore, she nearly fell over and allowed her hushed sobs to rack through her body. Instead, she froze in place, arms hugging her body.

  Had she killed him? The thought raced over and over through her head. Had she killed her last living family member? Her own grandfather?

  Murderer, murderer, murderer.

  Her stomach rolled. Keeling over, she vomited onto the dirt. Belly heaving, throat burning, eyes watering with so much rain. Had she killed him?

  Nakato. Ren could have really used a distraction right about now. Or, maybe some advice. But the same phrase came over and over, charging through her mind like a runaway train.

  Did I kill him? Did I kill him? Did I kill him?

  Did the island matter more to her than her own family? Did Moira matter more than her soul? Dammit. Ren dropped to her knees in the dirt and let her head fall, chin to chest. Her hands trembled as they flattened on the watery soil. She couldn’t even bring her hands to her face, they were stuck. Sick of her. Disgusted with her. She had meant to defy her grandfather, to stop him from mining the island if anything, but not killing him. Never killing him.

  A hollow pit opened in her chest. For a moment, she couldn’t even find the strength to stand and move as a rage-filled black wave came crashing over her back, whipping her with its icy tendrils. Ren shivered, snapping her eyes shut. A putrid sulfuric scent filled her nostrils and she scrambled away, clamping her lips shut as they tried opening in astonishment. She stood, turned around.

  The Great River—Ren’s eyes widened as she backed away slowly.

  It was black like ink, or a starless sky. It was greasy and thick and smelled as if every fish living within its depths had died.

  Was this all because of the tower?

  Thunder rumbled, spearing across the sky as rain peppered the black surface of the churning black waters. With her hand to the rock face beside her, Ren traveled up the shore. Moving toward the mouth of the Lower City, she ducked beneath waterfalls of silver and ink, wincing every time the putrid water stuck in her nostrils or tried prying open her lips. Ren’s heart hammered in her chest as another peal of thunder ripped the sky asunder, the clouds above churning like black ink bleeding through thin paper.

  Grandpa can’t be dead, she told herself as she traced the rock face with her trembling fingers, he’s invincible. Unkillable.

  And Xavier? The helicopter pilot? Seconds flew by as she froze. Did they deserve to die? Do you even care?

  Her heart soared into her throat, waterfalls from across the river spraying her as the earth trembled beneath her feet. Did she care? Her time on the island had taught her many things, but the one lesson above all that she has learned time and time again is that the island takes. It takes and takes and takes, but never gives. Any present she’s ever gotten from this damned place comes wrapped up in a serrated bow that cuts. That stings and makes her fingers bleed. Whatever the island gives, it’s always two-sided. A blessing and a curse all wrapped up in one.

  Ren moved, the earth trembling again, rocks moaning and dislodging themselves from their perches. Waterfalls zigzagging and the black water nearby spraying and splashing. When the mouth of the Lower City began to yawn open, curving into a massive archway of yellow and gray rock, the rock face began to shiver. The ground beneath her vibrated quickly, picking up pebbles and stones and flinging water in crisscrossing sprays.

  Tumbling backward, she held her breath as a deafening moan shattered the rock thousands of feet above the Lower City. A massive crack ripped through the rock face, spearing through the length of the wall. Splintering and cracking like a colossal board of rotten wood. Rock and stone gave beneath the weight of the Upper City, shrieking as it buckled. It’s dark groan echoing, silencing the rain of rocks and pebbles slamming into the surface of the Great River. Pelting Ren’s head, freezing her body in place.

  Thunder roared through the ground as Ren fell and scrambled up, her eyes unable to look away as earth buckled and collapsed. As the massive walls of the Great River crumbled like a bridge cracking in two. The mouth of the Lower City crumbled, a rain of rocks filling up the hole before a multitude of colossal boulders collapsed into the cavern.

  Screams. Ren’s eyes found the sky, and all she could hear were the screams.

  Right before droplets of rain froze.

  36

  A burning ball of white light cut through the cave, boulders parting as a silhouette formed. The frozen rain glittered in Ren’s field of vision, her eyes falling on the silhouette. Her lips moving before her brain could connect the dots.

  “Moira?”

  A body materialized. A face, limbs, fingers. A maternal smile splayed across Moira’s full lips as she stood with hands open, palms facing the sky.

  “There is no way you could have known,” the goddess began, smiling softly. Sadly. “But, as long as this tower stands, the island will fall into further ruin.” She brought her hands to her chest, “I am the Core.”

  The tower…Ren narrowed her eyes. “The…what now?”

  The Paragon had spoken about this. The Core was in Moira’s Heart. Ren was s
upposed to go into the Heart and somehow help the goddess after she had assembled the Scions, Godcallers, and Shapers. But, now, she was alone. Truly and utterly alone. She had failed. Would the goddess turn her into one of those things?

  Moira stretched out her arm and brushed it toward the collapsed cave. “Descend into the Heart and revitalize Her. I,” she brought her hand back to her chest, “have a similar mission.” And she began walking forward again almost as if Ren hadn’t said anything at all.

  Ren blocked her path. “So, you’re not a goddess?”

  “I am a piece of her.” She said head cocked. “I have given you your mission—”

  “Why me?” Ren leaned into her, flinching at the burning heat that reverberated from her dark skin. “Why not choose a—oh, I don’t know—someone who has lived here their entire life? Why choose a fucking outsider to do your bidding? Why choose a damn human at all?”

  The Core’s grin cracked, her eyes became glassy. “Is the truth of this world not yet apparent to you?” the palm of her hand met Ren’s forehead, heat seeping through it. Blazing through.

  Ren stilled. Focused. Clenched her fists at her sides and waited for something strange and stupid to happen.

  The Core flinched. “It seems you are not yet ready.” She pulled her hand away. “Do as I have told you. Open your mind to what Moira offers you, and perhaps you will finally understand.”

  The Core didn’t move a muscle. Instead, she clamped her lips together and slid her gaze over her shoulder. The entryway into the Lower City was gone, replaced with a wall of crumbling stone. If this lady expected Ren to somehow move rock, she was fucking insane.

  Oh…wait. She could use Nakato’s power. She could fight her way through, but how much of the Lower City had been destroyed? What if the entire passageway was flooded with massive boulders and a shifting sea of dirt? No matter how much energy she pulled, she wouldn’t be able to survive the entire passageway. Not alone. If she had Kato and the others here with her, she could use Kato’s air magic to get through, followed by Ekanna’s creation shaper power. But without help, she’d be swallowed by the deluge of rock.