“Mother!” I gasped. “They’ll come for her. For her and Father.”
“It’s taken care of,” Merrin answered. “I sent them toward the Council chambers through an out of use back channel that the newer generations don’t really know about. It pays to have a historian as a father sometimes.”
“You’re glorious,” Sevie-or the person that used to be Sevie- said, looking her up and down. “You really married up, Big Brother.”
“I shine in an emergency,” she answered, wiping the blood off her blade with the man’s own shirt and sticking it back into her belt.
“Well hell if you weren’t born into just the right life then,” Sevie smiled.
“I said we need to move, and I meant it,” Merrin said, and didn’t waste any time getting toward the woods.
I struck off behind her with Sevie right at my heels. It was amazing how quickly she moved now, especially considering that just yesterday she had been hooked up to machines in the Medic Bay. It was as though she had made a full recovery in the span of three hours.
A lesser guy would have probably felt really cocky about his prowess, given her quick turnaround. Okay, so maybe I did feel a little bit cocky. But a lesser guy would have admitted it.
“The Council said that reinforcements would be sent westward to meet us,” I said, bridging the gap between Merrin and me and struggling to keep pace with her as she darted through treelines.
“They better move quickly,” she answered, sounding barely even winded as she chugged along. “Before I left, I heard shouts about the insurgents breaking into the Holding Facilities.”
“Fate’s hand!” I stammered. The Holding Facilities were the one place inside all of the Hourglass that held many of the contemporary products that needed to be studied and understood, but that the Council deemed had no place within the walls of the Breaker sanctuary. If they had gotten into the Holding Facilities, then they have found semi-automatic weaponry, explosives and even motorized vehicles. “That means they’re mobilized,” I shuddered.
No vehicles existed within the Hourglass. They were unnecessary and took away from the lifestyle with which we were trying to build, or at least that was the load of garbage we got sold every time we asked if we could see a real live car.
But they did exist within the Holding Facilities and, if the insurgents found them, it was akin to them having wings.
We were sitting ducks.
“We’re running ducks at the moment,” she corrected me, “And if we can meet up with those reinforcements, then at least we can put a line of bodies between you and the people who want you dead.”
“That doesn’t sound like a great option,” I admitted, thinking about what might happen to that line of bodies as they stood up for me.
“Life seems full of ‘not great options’ these days,” she retorted without breaking stride.
We ran for what seemed like hours, barely stopping to catch our breath. It had all come up so quickly that we had been forced to leave with nothing. No food, no water, not even a compass to make sure that we were going in the direction we needed to.
But we had also managed to steer clear of any of the insurgents. We hadn’t heard as much as an errant footfall as we made our way toward…wherever it was we were supposed to be going.
We decided to break in a clearing. The curvature of the land worked to our advantage, pitching up o that we could see for miles in either direction. Though it gave me comfort-knowing that nothing dangerous was on the horizon- it also confirmed that we were deep within these woods. Nothing but greenery and trees stretched out as far as the eye could see.
And it would be dark soon.
The sun was maybe two hours from dipping behind the Great Wall, and we were more than that from getting out of these damn woods. It’s like it had tricked us. Sure, we had run for hours, maybe as much as six (Thank Fate for Breaker endurance). But from the looks of where we were, it was as though the forest was expanding from the inside out. It was like we were days away from getting out of here.
“Are you okay?” I asked, looking at Merrin as she leaned against a tree.
“I’m fine,” she answered, and really sounded like she was, which I couldn’t believe.
“What about you?” I asked, looking over at Sevie.
“I could use a glass of water, but otherwise, I’m amazing.”
“Maybe I can find a stream around here or something,” I suggested, feeling more than a little guilty for putting them through this.
“There’s no time for that,” Merrin said, her arms crossed as she leaned against the tree. “We have to keep moving.”
“To where?” I asked, running my hands through my hair. “We have no idea where we’re going!”
“Of course we do,” Merrin sighed. “We’re going westward toward reinforcements.”
“We’ve been going westward for hours. It’ll be dark soon, and then what will we do? Even if we find reinforcements, what does that mean? Are we really going to start trusting the Council now?”
“I’m not sure what else you’d have us do, Owen,” Merrin glared at me. “We are where we are, and all that’s left foor us is to do what we think is right.”
I slid down the trunk of a nearby tree until I was resting on the ground, bark scratching my back on the way down. “I’m not even sure what that is anymore.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Merrin answered, looking down at me. “The way I see it, you’ve been doing what you had to this whole time. Whether or not Cresta and the others would agree with you is beside the point. You’re a good man, Owen Lightfoot and, regardless of what happens next, you’ll continue to be a good man. That’s what matters.”
I looked up at her, stumbling as I tried to find the words to answer that. Was I a good man? Was I really? Or was I a boy running around in his father’s shoes trying to put fires out with my bare hands?
Before I could answer that, Sevie’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“Do you hear that?” My brother asked, standing to attention. His eyes widened as he took the sound in. “It’s a rumbling. They’re coming.”
The sound reached our ears an instant after Sevie’s words did. A motorized humming the likes of which had probably never been heard inside the Hourglass beat through the air.
“Dammit,” Merrin said, her body straightening up. “Can you tell which direction it’s coming from?”
“It sounds…” I swallowed hard. “It sounds like all of them.”
As if on que, a sea of headlights appeared on the horizon…on all of the horizons. Somehow, the insurgents knew where we were. They were descending on us and, in seconds, we’d be surrounded.
Chapter 28
Definitely Even
The roar of the approaching insurgents ripped loudly through the air now. The y were coming from all sides. And they were getting closer with each passing seconds.
“They must be in small vehicles, perhaps motorcycles,” Merrin said, settling beside me with her knife in her hand, for whatever good it would do against an army. “I don’t see any other way they could get through the forest so quickly.”
“What are we supposed to do now?” Sevie asked, looking to me for guidance. For the first time since Cresta turned the moon red, I saw an echo of the brother I used to have.
“I have no idea.” I admitted. “They obviously know where we are. They won’t have left us an escape route. They’re Breakers, after all. This is what they do.”
“We can’t just give up,” Merrin said, tightening her grip on the hilt of her knife.
“I don’t intend to, but I don’t see how fighting them would do any good.”
“Well, you can’t talk to them,” she balked. “Even though you’d be truthful when you told them you had intention of killing Cresta, I doubt they’d see that as enough insurance to let us live. Like you said, they’re Breakers.”
“I’m not talking to them either,” I answered, looking straight ahead. Something came up
over the far hill. My eyes widened as I took the sight in. Merrin was wrong. They weren’t in motorcycles. They weren’t in small vehicles at all. And that wasn’t how they were moving so quickly through the trees.
“Fate’s hand…” I murmured. They were in tanks, huge, green, army issued tanks. And they were tearing through the trees like tissue paper in the rain.
“So what exactly is your plan then?” merrin asked me, looking slackjawed at the line of tanks.
“Remember the night the bloodmoon rose?” I asked.
“Of course!” She gasped.
“I’m missing something,” Sevie said.
“It’s because you were in a coma then, but your genius brother created a huge dragon made of fire, and we used it to take flight.” Merrin beamed.
“Of course he did,” Sevie answered. “So that’s our plan, fly away on a magic dragon?”
“It sounds stupid when you say it out loud, but it’ll work,” I said. I took Merrin’s hands in mine, the way I did that night, and dug deep into myself, into the place where the fire lived.
“Not to burst your bubble, Big Brother. But your stupid idea is going to sound a whole lot stupider in about five seconds.” Sevie’s eyes narrowed.
“What?” I turned to him.
“I suppose you don’t hear that either.” He pointed upward.
Exactly five seconds later, a freaking helicopter came into view.
A helicopter.
“Well then…” I said, looking up at what I was quickly considering to be the instrument of my destruction. “Any chance that’s on our side?”
A flurry of bullets rained down over us. I grabbed Merrin and together, we rushed into the brush. Thank Fate, Sevie was right behind me.
“Doesn’t look like it,” he admitted, running just as fast as we were.
Of course, regardless of how fast we ran, we couldn’t outrun a helicopter. Bullets nipped at our heels and, though we were running straight for a line of tanks, we knew better than to slow down even a beat.
“This won’t work!” I screamed over the sounds of gunfire. “There’s no way out of this. The only thing we can do is-”
A whistling sound cut through the air. With a whoosh and a boom, we watched as the helicopter exploded into a thousand pieces of metal and fire.
“Take cover!” Sevie screamed as debris fell like deadly snowflakes all around us. I pushed Merrin up against the trunk of a tree and covered her with my body.
“Are you alright?” I breathed into her ear, the heat of her pulsating against me.
“Owen, look behind you,” she answered.
I turned to find a bazooka hanging there in midair. It fell to the ground as my mouth fell open.
With a shimmer of light and a bend in the world around her, Flora came into view. “Follow me,” she said, motioning in the direction of the tanks. Her voice was flat and emotionless, and I remembered what the Council- what Chant- did to her. He took her mind away, replacing it with something bland and empty. “And if you’re going to say goodbye to him, do it quickly.”
She pointed backward and, following the direction, I saw Sevie struggling to his feet, a shard of metal sticking straight through his gut.
“No!” I screamed, rushing to him. “No. No. No. No.” I scooped his arm over my shoulder and looked at him. Blood poured out of the wound, way too much blood. My stomach turned as I spoke to him. “You-You’re gonna be okay, Sevie. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“A little late for that. Don’t you think?’ He answered weakly.
“Don’t!” I yelled, putting my arm against his waist. “I’m not going to let you die here. You’re going to be fine. Just come on.” Tears poured uninhibited down my face.
“Stop blubbering,” he said. “I’m going to die, Big Brother.”
“No you’re not!” I screamed.
“I am,” he insisted. “But it’s okay.”
“How is it okay?” I pulled him forward now and, to his credit, he was moving along with me better than I figured he might, given the fact that he was basically skewered.
“Something’s happened to me,” he started. “It might be because of what Cresta did to the moon, or because it's so close to the end. But I don’t die the way I used to.”
He wasn’t making any sense. The blood loss must have been getting to him. “Whatever you say.” I motioned for Merrin to help me. She grabbed his other side, taking the pressure off of him as much as possible.
“We haven’t time for this!” Flora yelled, and I could hear Chant’s voice all over her.
“We’re making time!” I screamed.
“Owen,” Sevie coughed. “If I don’t see you next time, I want you to know that-”
“You’re not going to die!” I screamed.
“I am,” he answered. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll be gone. I should have been gone the last time. Only that, if I am-”
“Sevie, just save your energy, okay? Please. For me,” I pleaded, basically carrying him toward Flora and a line of tanks.
“Owen Lightfoot!” He screamed. “You are not listening to me! I do not die the way that other people do. I am one of the Constants. Now I understand that you don’t know what that means. Ideally, I wouldn’t either. But ideals have fallen by the wayside now. If I die, you need to keep track of my body. Don’t let them bury me, and for God’s sake, don’t let them cremate me. Not for one year. Do you understand me?!”
Flora lunged forward and punched Sevie right in the face. He hung unconscious in our arms.
“Are you insane?!” I screamed, wanting to rip her head off.
“Practical,” she answered. “We need to make haste, and this back and forth won’t get us where we need to go.”
“And where’s that?” I screamed. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re still surrounded.”
“There,” she pointed. It was nothing. It was a bare clearing in the trees.
“Oh good,” Merrin scoffed. “Absolutely nothing. We’re saved.”
“Look again,” a familiar voice sounded. Light shimmered again, and Luca James stood in front of a newly appeared log cabin with a red door that had a crescent moon etched into it.
“Reinforcements?” I asked.
“Reinforcements,” he answered.
We scurried toward the cabin. The door swung open as we neared it. When I entered, I saw this place was fully furnished, but completely disheveled, like people had to leave here in a hurry.
I laid Sevie across a couch, whipped off my coat, and pressed it against his wound.
“He’s the least of your worries,” Luca said, standing over me.
“Shut up or I’ll kill you,” I growled.
“What is your name?” He asked.
“What?” I answered.
“Say your name.”
“Owen Lightfoot,” I responded, not in the mood for games.
“No. Say the words ‘I am’, and then say your name.”
“Luca, I don’t care-“
“Just do it!” Luca yelled.
“I am Owen Lightfoot,” I said quickly, taking absolutely none of my attention off my brother.
The entire room began to shake. Pictures fell off the walls, the couch Sevie lay on began to move and, just when I was about to shout, something burst up through the floor.
It was a giant metal wheel cut into five segments.
“What in the world?!” Merrin asked.
“It’s for you,” Luca said. “This cabin was built over a century ago by a particularly powerful seer. It’s remained hidden for all that time, even while housing the Bloodmoon.”
Cresta was here?
“And this instrument,” Luca continued. “Was built by that same seer. And it was built for all of you.”
A man came running into the room. I tensed up until I saw that it was Echo.
“What the hell is he doing here?” I asked, hatred spiking up inside of me.
“I’m here to help,” he said, maimed han
d in front of him.
“He’s a traitor,” I spit.
“We’re all traitors to something,” Luca answered indifferently.
“You’ll change your mind once you see who she really is,” Echo answered.
“Shut up, you trash!” I screamed.
“All of shut up!” Luca said, and his words reverberated through my mind. “This cabin was built for this night. It was built to house you, it was built to house this machine,” he motioned to the metal disc. “And it was built to be destroyed. And it will be destroyed, in three minutes when a tank rolls over it.” He disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room. He wasn’t actually here. Like the Council had been, he was an apparition. “Now you all have a choice, you can stay here and die, or you can climb up on that machine and let it do what it was built for.”
“And what’s that?” Merrin asked.
“To take you where you’re supposed to be. Consider it an escape pod of sorts. It’s your only way out of the Hourglass, your only way to escape certain death. But all of you have to do it.”
“I won’t go with him,” I glared over at Echo. “And Sevie’s too injured to travel.”
“All of you!” Luca repeated. “The machine was built for the five of you specifically. Owen, Sebastian, Merrin, Flora, and Echo. Unless all of you are on it, it won’t work.”
“Put me on the machine,” Sevie said. His teeth were ground together. His face was paler than pale.
“Sevie, you can’t,” I said.
“Put me on the damn machine or I’ll climb on it myself!”
A loud boom shook the cabin.
“That’s the tree beside you,” Luca informed us. “You have fifteen seconds.”
“Owen, we don’t have a choice,” Merrin said, looking over at me.
I shook my head. Scooping Sevie up, I laid him across the metal wheel. Blood stained my shirt, my brother’s blood. I laid across it myself in the space next to Merrin. Flora and Echo climbed on and instantly, the wheel began to spin.
“Where?” I asked Luca as the wheel spun faster and faster, turning the world into a bright white blur. “Where is it sending us?”
The Breaker's Resolution: (YA Paranormal Romance) (Fixed Points Book 4) Page 23