Above us, oozing gases have formed into ominous-looking clouds, dark and pregnant with destruction.
Attention, Recruits. Your trial will commence in one minute.
Cassius swallows hard. “Once the trial begins, I suggest we all head to the opposite end of the testing field and find cover as quickly as possible.”
Jeptha and Rios move into position beside Cassius. Jeptha gapes at the artificial storm clouds. “What should we expect once the field becomes active, Thorn?”
“The unexpected.” Cassius shrugs his shoulders. “No telling which of the myriad of final scenarios the short-circuited systems will unleash.”
Cole sidles up to him. “Are we going to be okay?”
Cassius puts an arm around him and squeezes. “Yes. I’m going to look out for you.” He looks up and his gaze locks with mine. “I promise you.”
The collar of my suit becomes too tight, and I look away. Deal Breaker shouts commands to Fontana and the rest of his crew, moving them into position.
“This is all Thorn’s fault!” Corin’s trembling with rage. “What the hell are we waiting for? Let’s waste this twisted son of a bitch right now!”
Deal Breaker cocks his weapon. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
“I’m your only hope for making it out of here.” Cassius sighs. “Kill me and the rest of us won’t have to behold that handsome mug any longer. Isn’t that right, Lucian?”
I turn to face the others. “We just need to make sure we keep Thorn alive long enough to guide us out of here. If he happens to lose a leg or an eye along the way, no prob. Less to carry.”
Cassius shoots me a look, a barely perceptible nod, sealing our unspoken bargain. He’ll continue to keep everyone in the dark about the whole Queran Embers thing as long as I ensure his survival in this trial.
Cage crouches, preparing to sprint. “And to think I thought my days of being a recruit and fighting my way through the trials were long over, mates.”
“I hear you,” Dahlia mutters, assuming a similar stance at his side.
“Twice in a lifetime is two times too many,” Drusilla chimes in.
“Quit whining, you guys.” I clench my jaw. “This makes Trials number three for some of us, if you count my brief stint as an Incentive.”
Digory moves in beside me. He stares straight ahead at the trial field, his face blank, emotionless. “Technically, that would be the second time you served as an Incentive, correct?”
His words, so casually and distantly spoken, break through my growing anxiety.
I place a tentative hand on the mound of his shoulder. “You remember? The first time we were both recruited? How we became each other’s Incentives?”
The containment field flickers and disappears.
This Trial has begun.
“Move out!” Deal Breaker roars.
In a split-second, we’re all stampeding across the trial field like a frenzied herd, with Jeptha and Rios leading the charge. I know this place is a minefield of unimaginable booby-traps, but I don’t have time to worry about myself. Through the blur of scrambling bodies, I catch sight of Cole, running hand in hand with Cassius. As much as it sickens me to see them together, I remind myself that Cassius is the only one in our group familiar with the layout of this hell-hole. And he’s all about self-preservation. Ironically, Cole’s probably safer with him than anyone else trapped in this mess.
I can barely distinguish between my pounding heart and the rumbling thunder. The artificial storm clouds are closing in on us from all sides. My muscles tense. Breathing quickens. There’s something about those dark, swirling masses reaching towards us like skeletal fingers that’s truly unnerving.
Sprinting beside me, Cage and Dahlia point at the gaseous nightmares and shout to one another. I can’t make out everything they’re saying over all the commotion, but they obviously sense what I do, too.
To my left, Digory shoots a look at the nearest cloud and then to me. There’s a touch of urgency carved into his stone-like expression. He turns away quickly, before I can figure out if it’s just my imagination. With his increased stamina and abilities, he should have already left me in the dust by now. Instead, he remains just a few steady paces ahead of me.
Up ahead, Corin stumbles. Arrah and Dru are at his side in a flash.
“No time for a break, Kid,” Arrah grumbles.
“I got this!” he yells back, his tone a mash-up of fear and annoyance.
Arrah and Dru each grab an arm and haul him to his feet, half dragging him along.
The rumbling gets louder. One of the churning masses breaks off from the others and descends, oozing toward the opposite end of the field, where Deal Breaker, Fontana, and the rest of their militia are just arriving.
Deal Breaker pounds the door with his fists. He turns to his people and jabs a thumb at the locking mechanism. “Open this sucker up!”
Fontana and the others move in with their gear, rigging the door with explosive charges. They’ll have it blown open in just a few and we’ll be home free.
Jeptha turns and waves us forward. “Step it up! We’re almost clear!”
Something’s not right. This is way too easy.
A thin veil of mist obscures my vision. The cloud approaching Deal Breaker’s crew lets loose a barrage of rain.
“C’mon!” Cole sprints forward, but Cassius freezes in his tracks and pulls him back.
Thin wisps of vapor form and rise where the droplets hit the ground.
There’s something in the rain.
“Wait up!” I lunge and tackle Arrah, Dru, and Corin before they can reach the exit.
“What the hell, Spark—?” Dru flings me off them, but Arrah grabs her arm and points at the mist rising from the ground where the droplets hit.
Beside us, Digory’s locked in a struggle with Cage and Dahlia, attempting to block their path. As soon as they, too, spot the vapor trail, they cease all movement and stare.
I cup my hands around my mouth. “Deal Breaker, move your people out of there now!”
He’s too focused on the door. Without even turning around, he dismisses me with a wave of his palm. “We’ll have this down in a—”
I spring to my feet. “There something in the rain, damn it!”
Deal Breaker whips around, just as the cloud reaches them and the droplets pelt him and his crew.
He shoots me a look like an angry dart and holds out a palm. “It’s just drizzling. You newer recruits are really a bunch of—”
Deal Breaker’s grin fades. His eyes grow wide. He opens his mouth in a silent scream. The vapor rises from his palm.
For a second, he’s as still as a statue. He tumbles backwards.
Fontana rushes toward him. “What’s wrong, DB?” She grabs his hand—and it shatters in into shards of crimson crystal.
“Liquid nitrogen,” I mutter.
As Deal Breaker gapes at his crystallized stump, more droplets splatter Fontana’s face. Her fingers tear at her jaw and cheeks, coming away with glass-like chunks of flesh and bone.
Deal Breaker collapses—and his body splinters into pieces.
Cage leaps forward. “Dad! Get out of there!”
Rios grabs Jeptha. The two dive and roll away.
And then it begins to pour.
Shrieks of panic echo through the field, accompanied by the earsplitting sounds of cracking bone. I’ve seen a lot of horrible things in my life, during these very trials. But the sight of writhing bodies tumbling to the ground and shattering like china dolls sets a new banquet for my nightmares to feed on.
In seconds, all movement of Deal Breaker’s team has ceased. Everything is silent, except for the hiss of vapor rising from the shattered corpses and obscuring the carnage.
Dahlia slumps against Cage. “What the hell did it do to them?”
“It froze them to death.”
Cassius, still holding Cole’s hand, joins our huddle. “The temperature of Liquid nitrogen is well below the freezing level.” He l
ooks at Cole. “Do you remember your chemistry lessons?”
Cole nods. “The boiling point of liquid nitrogen is the temperature of the liquid when it surrounds the much warmer body and goes from the liquid state to the vapor state. As it boils it pulls heat away from your body, causing it to freeze solid. So solid that if we dropped you, you would break into dozens of pieces… like those people did.” He looks up at Cassius, the way he used to look at me when I’d read him the story of the Lady. “Are we going to make it through?”
Cassius tousles his hair. “Yes we are. And you’ll make one of our finest scientists yet.”
Cole beams.
Part of me wants to throttle Cassius. The other part is too heartsick to even move.
The chaotic storm raging in my mind’s compounded by more rumbling and flashes of thunder.
“Look!” Arrah points.
The swirling black mass of deadly clouds has begun to move again—directly toward us.
Cage takes Dahlia’s hand. “Spread out people!”
“No, wait.” Cassius’ voice is calm, his eyes riveted on the approaching darkness.
“Like hell.” I step toward Cole, who shrinks behind him.
Cassius grabs my arm. “If we separate and make a mad dash, the cloud’s speed will increase and it will splinter, each segment hunting us down until it rains death on us all.” His eyes lock deep. “You wouldn’t want that for Cole, would you?”
I can’t bear to look into my brother’s eyes and see the hatred burning there.
Jeptha clears his throat. “So you already knew how this weapon operated but you said nothing to warn Deal Breaker and the others. You purposely let them die. You murdered them. But what’s a little more blood on your hands, Thorn?”
“Would you have believed me if I tried to dissuade your team from blowing up the exit in order to reach the control room? Somehow, I think not. Besides, I wasn’t positive the liquid nitrogen had been triggered. I had a theory but it needed to be tested.”
Arrah shakes her head. “So they were nothing but lab rats to you, then?”
“Had I not stopped you from approaching Deal Breaker and the others,” Cassius continues, “we’d all be crystallized corpses right now and you’d have no chance of ever completing your precious mission. The war would be over with your side being the unequivocable losers. I did you all a favor.”
For a moment there’s only the sound of heavy breathing. I don’t know about the others, but there’s a perverse logic to his words that simultaneously makes sense, and makes me disgusted and guilty to still be alive all at the same time.
“You’ve set us all up real good, Thorn. Time to do us all a favor and shut you up for good.” Rios lunges at Cassius, but Digory is on the General in a nanosecond, flinging him to the ground. Rios scrambles to his feet, glaring at Digory. He wipes blood from the corner of his lips.
I shoot both Digory and Rios a glare. “Enough.” Then I turn back to Cassius. “There’s not much time. What do you suggest?”
Dru shakes her head. “You’re not going to take advice from this asshole now, are you, Spark?”
“Yeah,” Corin spits. “I don’t care what he knows. He should be the first one of us to get a taste of what Deal Breaker and those others got!”
“Shut up! All of you!” I shout. “I don’t trust Cassius either. But one thing I do know is that this son of a bitch is too much of a coward to let himself die just to try and stop us from reaching that control room. And right now, he’s the only one that knows a way out of this shit. Once we’re out of here, you can do with him as you please. Agreed?”
A chorus of reluctant approvals is practically drowned out by the advancing storm.
I turn to Cassius, avoiding Cole’s eyes, those of a stranger. “What’s the plan?”
We all huddle around him.
He nudges his chin toward the instrument of our impending doom. “The liquid nitro clouds are motion activated. The faster you go, the quicker they pursue.”
“So we’re supposed to just stand perfectly still while those killer clouds hover over us, waiting to spit?” Dahlia snorts.
“She’s right,” Jeptha whispers. “What good will immobility do us? We’re running out of time to reach that control room.”
Cassius shakes his head. “I didn’t say we wouldn’t move at all. It’s how we move that matters.” His eyes find mine and he smiles. “Up for a game of Dodge Piss, Lucky?”
Dodge piss. The old childhood game we used to play in the alleys back at the Parish. Leave it to kids to make a game out of avoiding human waste raining down from above. For a few seconds I’m thrust backwards in time.
Cassius is ten, and I’m eight. He’s propped up on my window sill, legs crossed, proudly displaying the soles of his dirty bare feet. His green eyes peek through the scraggly auburn hair hanging over his face. We’re alone. Mom and Dad are both slaving away at the mines, and Cole’s still several years away. I’m cold but not lonely or afraid anymore now that he’s here.
My stomach’s rumbling. Haven’t eaten since breakfast and dusk is already eating away the remainder of the day. Cassius reaches into his pocket and pulls out something that catches the last of the sun’s rays and shines in the gloom of my hovel.
A shiny red apple. My mouth waters as he grins, cutting it in half with his pocket knife. When he reaches out and offers me the heart-shaped fruit, it’s as though he’s giving me his own. I curl up beside him, both of us munching away as he strokes my hair.
“I’ll always look after you. For the rest of our lives.” Then he wipes my chin and offers me his hand. “Up for a game of Dodge Piss, Lucky?”
“Lucky? Lucian?”
Cass’s Prefect voice jolts me back.
“You’re on.” I stare at the hand he’s offering and ignore it. “Something tells me this is going to be more like a game of Shit Dash.” But I can’t help but smirk. If those clouds move like he says they do, our childhood game may just save our asses. At least most of them.
“If we’re gonna move, we need to do it now,” Dru squeezes through gritted teeth.
Taking my cue from Cassius, I shush everyone. “Here’s the deal. When I give the signal, we all charge the exit as a group. The Cloud pursues. Once we reach it, one of us stays behind, perfectly still, while the others continue to run in the opposite direction, acting as bait. The lone recruit hits the detonator, blows the doors and escapes.”
Corin’s eyes flare. “Then we all just make a run for it, right?”
“Not exactly,” Cassius responds. “The explosion will redirect the cloud’s vector toward the opening. If we all try to rush the exit together, the Cloud will overtake the group before we can all make it through, ensuring certain death for some. A safer bet for us all is to once again, run, en masse toward the exit, until the cloud reacquires our movement. Then when it begins to pursue, another person stays behind, the rest of us move off, then so on and so forth.” He winks at me. “It’ll be just like the old days.”
“Except shit and piss wash off without taking your face off,” I shoot back.
“What happens to the last person?” Dru asks the question that seems to be on everyone’s faces.
I take a deep breath. “You let me worry about that.”
Cassius nods. “Of course. Our little Lucky. Always the martyr.” Despite the sarcasm in his words, his face is stern and worried.
The clouds are almost on our asses.
“Everyone remain perfectly still until the clouds pass over us. Don’t even utter a single word.”
The moment Cassius finishes his warning, the billowing mass of swirling maelstrom moves into position to hover above us, blocking out the overhead light and shrouding us in shadow.
My eyes dart around our circle. Arrah and Dru, arms wrapped around each other. Cage and Dahlia, backs pressed together. Stern-faced Jeptha and Rios flanking a wide-eyed Corin. Cole huddled against Cassius’s side.
Something cold and firm brushes against my hand. Dig
ory’s standing close beside me. His jaw’s rigid, his gray eyes examining the hovering mass above. I’m about to dismiss his touch as an accident, a mere reflex. Until it happens again. Maybe it’s a trick of the shadows, but I could swear his eyes just flit in my direction. But I blink and he’s staring resolutely at the cloud, with all the intensity of a scientist testing out a new hypothesis.
The cloud descends. This time there’s no mistake. Digory and I grip each other’s hands very carefully to avoid activating its sensors. Obsidian tentacles project from the oscillating center, weaving in and around our faces, our bodies. A cold trickle of sweat beads down my forehead. I tilt my head, ever so slightly, to stop its flow, unsure of how sensitive these things are to movement.
As the seconds turn to minutes, I sense tremors in the bodies huddling around me. My own leg cramps. If anyone should scratch and itch or fall…
After what seems like an agonizing eternity, the tendrils retract, and the cloud moves away, slowly at first, until it’s gliding across to the far side of the field—in the exact opposite direction of the exit.
“Now’s our chance,” Cassius whispers through clenched teeth.
“Go!” I shout.
We take off like a stampede. I risk a quick look behind me and see the blackness swerve and speed in our direction.
As we all approach the locked door, I shout, “Corin! You’re up first. Blow this bitch and start inputting Valerian’s codes!”
He catches the chip and huddles against the exit door.
The ominous shadow moves in, blocking out the light.
“Move out!” Cassius commands.
Like a flock of wild birds, we veer sharply to the right, the shifting shadows hot on our tails. Except there’s now one less of us.
I catch a glimpse of Corin pressed against the exit door. A stormy tendril zooms in—and moves past him. Then he inches toward the detonator, and I lose sight of him.
Just ahead of me, Cage trips in a pothole.
“Son!” Jeptha cries.
Cage goes down. Dru’s at his side in a second. He wraps an arm around her while she hauls him to his feet.
“Not leaving you behind, Mate!” She shouts. He half runs, half limps beside her.
The Raising (The Torch Keeper Book 3) Page 12