“Lucky for him,” I muttered.
“Don’t you think you’re being a little bit hypocritical?” she said, pulling back the sheet that covered the traitor. She wisely started at his feet. No reason to see the mess that was his head unless absolutely necessary. Instead of replying, I began searching one leg while Kat started on the other. She didn’t stay quiet, though. “Your mother and your girlfriend, have both opened a Gateway. You’re not mad at either of them.”
“Ember did what she did to save us, and my mother… At least she owned up to her mistake and did what she could to fix it.”
She jerked her chin in the direction of the body. “Maybe that’s what this guy was doing. He could have opened it again, you know. And without Ember here to help, we’d have been screwed.”
“Just keep looking,” I said.
Didn’t she understand? I had to be mad at someone. Had to blame someone besides just myself. And I couldn’t be mad at Ember—not now when I might never—
“Here,” Kat said, and my eyes shot to where she pointed. She’d lifted his shirt to just past his navel, and there, on his side, was a Mark.
“Not a Daemon,” I said, unsure if I was glad or disappointed.
“A Center,” Kat said. “That means this Institute has only three left.”
“It also means that any Keeper now has the potential to be as dangerous as a Daemon,” I said. “The Elders know—why aren’t they doing anything?”
Kat shrugged. “Maybe they are. It’s not like they tell us everything. Or anything.”
That was true; even Master Dogan had been iced out recently. A troubling thought wormed its way into my brain.
“If the Root was the one who’d convinced Antonio to open the Gateway, wouldn’t he have been fine once Ember killed it?”
Worry darkened Kat’s face. “Right. Which means that even lesser demons are now powerful enough to turn a fully trained Keeper into a Red.”
“Maybe not just any Keeper,” I said. “This Mark is pretty faded. The same thing is happening in Los Angeles.”
“So if this can happen here…” Kat didn’t need to finish the sentence.
“We need Ember back,” I said. “And we need to get home.”
10
Ember
That night I dreamt of Taren doing something he would never actually have done in real life: meditating. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his room at the Italian Institute with his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm.
It was an absurd image—Taren would rather train hard for five hours than sit still for one—but he looked so peaceful, even with his jaw set in grim determination. I love you, Taren. I’m coming back, I promise you.
And then someone was mentally knocking on my shield, pulling me away from him.
I beat my fist on the floor of the cave in frustration at being woken from what was finally a pleasant dream.
I’m up, I’m up, calm down. What is it? Another drill?
It’s not a drill, Sadah’s sending was as slender as thread, but urgent. I need you.
What’s going on? I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
Close your eyes and watch.
I did as she asked, and was instantly transported to Cole’s war room. Through Sadah’s eyes I saw seven soldiers—four men and three women—gathered around Cole, who studied one of the several maps on the floor. The mood was definitely tense.
“I want to come with you,” Sadah said, and all eyes swiveled toward us.
“I will take care of this, sister,” Cole said, going back to the map. “Your place is with your son.”
“You may be our leader, little brother, but you will not tell me my place again,” she said, her voice steely.
“Please, Sadah,” Cole said, his voice softening, “if the worst were to happen, Grae cannot lose both parents.”
Lose parents? What’s going on? Where’s Aryn?
For a moment, the entire room held its breath, but then I felt Sadah nod. “I will remain behind, but promise me that you will bring Ember.”
“I will make no such promise,” Cole said. “And you know why.”
"I know you must save my husband, and to do that, you need Ember. ‘We must do whatever is necessary,’ isn’t that what you always say? That's what you said about Zoe."
I felt the air being sucked out of the room.
"You will leave us now,” Cole said, his voice harder and colder than I’d ever heard it.
“I will not,” Sadah said. “I—”
"You will leave us, or you will be removed." The threat in Cole’s eyes matched his tone, and it was no wonder Sadah moved toward the doorway.
“Save him,” she said, pausing at the curtain to turn back. “Do what is necessary.”
Once outside, she ducked into a dark crevice. I was about to speak, but Sadah stopped me.
Listen, she begged, so I tamped down my questions and remained quiet.
Cole’s voice was muffled by the curtain when he said, “Seven hours ago, Aryn and two others went to patrol this region.” I imagined him pointing to something on the map. “We’ve had some skirmishes there recently and have upped patrols so that the demons don’t discover our emergency shelter.”
I knew that place. One of our drill marches had ended there. If the Oasis were ever attacked, that was the last storehouse of supplies. It was also the meeting spot if we got scattered.
“Twenty minutes ago, we received a distress call. All three were forced to cross the river here,” he said.
When Cole had first told me about the river that cut a wide swath just a day’s walk from here, I’d been shocked; when I’d first landed and limped and crawled my way through the wasteland, I’d have given anything for a river. But then he’d told me what was in it. If the poisoned water that ran at a near boil didn’t kill you, the demon Piranha would.
“Aryn was able to slow the tide enough to sprint across where it’s most narrow,” Cole continued.
Aryn is hurt, Sadah said. Each of them suffered serious burns, but Aryn also has two deep bites, here, and here. With her sending came two light flicks on my calf and thigh.
“And now they are stranded,” Cole said. “It’s only a matter of time before the tide drops on its own, and when it does, the demons will be upon them.”
“Can’t they escape here?” one of the female soldiers asked.
“No,” Cole replied. “The amount of power it took to cross the river was like a flare, showing every demon for miles right where they are. Even if they weren’t injured, they would never find cover before the demons swarmed them. We need to go and get them. Gather your weapons and meet back here in ten minutes. We’ll leave through the chute. Tell anyone who asks that the situation is under control.”
I knew what he meant by the chute. A small passageway branched off right near where Sadah hid, eventually joining with the main path out of the mountain. Cole wanted to avoid seeing anyone before they left—maybe me most of all.
Cole is right, Sadah said. I cannot leave Grae, but—
I understand, I said. I’ll do everything I can.
I sprang from where I sat, moving silently. Opening my eyes broke my connection with Sadah, but I knew all I needed to.
I hadn’t known Cole long, but sharing thoughts with a person let you know them pretty well, and something told me that even he didn’t have much faith in his plan, whatever it was. Cole hadn’t let me touch the Chasm since I’d come, so I had no idea if I’d actually be able to wield its power, but if it came down to it, I’d have to try. These people had lost so much. They wouldn’t lose any more if I could help it.
As I crept past the war room, I heard Cole pull his broadsword from the wall and slice the air with it, making it sing. Then I darted toward the chute.
I had less than a ten-minute head start, but if I could reach the area where this narrow passage met up with the main passage, I could hide as they passed me and then follow. But the way was dark and narr
ow, and each time I tried to run I ended up tripping. I heard footsteps in the distance and when I turned back, saw the faint glow of torchlight. I wasn’t going to make it. If Cole found me, he’d send me back, and somehow I knew that would be disaster.
Think, Ember, think!
I scanned the area for a place to tuck into, but the walls were too narrow. Desperate, I looked up and saw an area where even the growing torchlight didn’t illuminate. On tiptoes, I reached up and felt a space. With no time left, I swung my legs up onto the ledge, and found that the space was even bigger than I’d hoped—big enough that I could curl myself into it.
I held my breath as Cole and the seven others passed quickly below me. When the final soldier went by—a young archer named Sarah—I reached out ever so gently and plucked a thought from her mind. I might not have learned to use the Chasm, but I’d definitely been getting better with my telepathy.
I didn’t like intruding, but once this passageway met the main passage, there would be several paths they could take. I had to know which way to follow or I’d end up lost and useless.
I counted to thirty before I let myself sigh with relief. It was a testament to how worried Cole was that he hadn’t felt my presence, however well I’d shielded it. I was about to swing down when a rustling sound above me caused my hairs to stand on end. I peered into the darkness and saw that I was surrounded by glowing red eyes.
11
Taren
I was dreaming of Ember again. She was moving quickly down a dark passageway, stumbling as she went. Her expression was one I’d seen more than once—fear mixed with determination.
I tried to call out, but I’d barely made a sound when the alarm went off, waking me.
I cursed the light and covered my eyes, needing to go back to the dream—to where she was.
Willing myself didn’t work, so I forced myself from the bed and stumbled to the shower.
I rested my forehead against the tiles and firmed my resolve. I would find a way. I would find a way because I had to. Ember had been in the demon world for eight days, and no matter how smart, how capable, how beautiful…
I spun the temperature knob, blasting myself with water cold enough that, for a split-second, I was free of all feeling—even guilt.
I’d just put on a clean shirt when I heard loud knocking, followed by Kat saying, “Open up.”
I poured myself a glass of orange juice and took a long swig while her knock grew more insistent.
I opened the door, saying, “I’m perfectly capable of getting myself—”
“Shut up,” she said, thrusting a piece of paper into my hands. “Shut up and look at this.”
Reading the document did anything but keep me quiet. “They can’t be serious.”
“Very,” she said. “We all got them—even Master Dogan.”
Our walking papers. Or, more to the point, flying papers.
“Screw them,” I said, crumpling up the tickets. “What are they going to do, force us to get on a plane?”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but the note that came with those tickets said we would be accompanied off the grounds tomorrow morning at six a.m. They might not be able to put us on a plane, but they certainly can kick us off their property.”
For once I didn’t waste time cursing, just stalked from my quarters and toward the main hall.
We arrived to find that Master Dogan had beaten us there.
“You underestimate her,” he said emphatically. “Time and again this young woman has done the seemingly impossible.”
Elder Nicolas, seated on the dais along with the other Elders, remained unruffled as he said, “Your attachment to the girl is understandable. But the fact remains, the longest a Keeper has even been in the demon world is four days. Four days, and that Keeper wasn’t there in the flesh.”
“You don’t know her,” I said, taking long strides and coming to stand next to Master Dogan.
“Steady, son,” he whispered, “They don’t respond to threats.”
“I got this,” I muttered between clenched teeth.
“You are all complete freaking hypocrites,” I said, and Master Dogan groaned softly. “Without her, your Institute—your whole country—would be overrun by demons. You’re only alive because of what she can do. What she did do—for you.”
Elder Nicolas’s expression had turned dark as I spoke, but he quickly hid his anger behind the placid expression I’d grown to hate.
“I am sorry,” he said, and whether he was sincere or not, I wanted to throttle him. “While we owe Ember a debt for what she did for us, the fact remains that even if she were alive and somehow returned, she would not be the same person. You must accept that she is lost forever.”
Things only went downhill after that. I told them I’d never accept that she was gone forever, and they told me to leave their meeting hall. Which I did, flipping them off on my way out.
“This is bullshit,” I said to Dogan, who’d followed me out. “You know that, right?”
“I don’t know it,” he said, but before I ripped into him he added, “but I do believe it.”
“So now what?” Kat said. She’d hung in the back of the hall and remained quiet, but the look in her eye told me she was as pissed as I was.
“Now we think,” Master Dogan said, which was the exact opposite of what I was going to suggest.
“Think about what?” I said, irritated.
“That’s one of the things I need to think about,” he said, as if that wasn’t an infuriating answer.
But when he turned toward his quarters, I followed, swallowing angry bile the whole way.
12
Ember
I was frozen in place. These weren’t Birds—Birds didn’t have eyes, let alone red ones. Rats? Bats? Any demon this close to the Oasis was very bad news.
I was about to reach out to Cole—screw being found out; if even one of these demons escaped, they could lead others to the Oasis—when they shrieked and beat their leathery wings. Then the Bats were upon me, and I tumbled out of the crevice and onto the stone floor. I cried out, but it was lost in the cacophony. I crouched, covering my neck and head, curling tight into a ball, but the attack didn’t come. Instead, with a great whoosh, the Bats flew down the passage.
“Incoming!” I heard one of the men yell. “Bats.”
A second later, Cole—who was the only one powerful enough to do it—slammed them all to the ground with a thud.
Relieved, I dusted myself off and pressed on.
The way grew steep and, with no light, treacherous. My newfound athleticism proved its usefulness once again, and I found myself able to keep up reasonably well. After what I gauged to have been about two hours, the path leveled out and I heard voices. I stopped where I was, listening to Cole and the others make final preparations.
“You won’t have much time,” Cole was saying. “I’ll clear as many of them as I can, but you’ll need to fight your way out.”
There were murmurs of agreement and some shuffling of feet. The soldiers had the same bad feeling about this mission that I did. It was only after they’d exited and I chanced a look at what lay below that I fully understood. Aryn and the others were stranded on a pile of boulders. On one side rushed the deadly black river, and on the other swarmed thousands of demons.
13
I didn’t follow as the soldiers wound down the final way to where the demons were amassing. I understood Cole’s plan now. The river offered no escape.
Cole stopped on a ledge a third of the way down while the others continued their descent. The minutes stretched, and my eyes were drawn to the hundreds of Dahraks in loose formation, with many more advancing toward the rock outcropping where Aryn and his men were trapped. Birds circled overhead but didn’t attack. The men might be near helpless against the Dahraks, but they could certainly kill any Birds that came for them. A loud caw pulled my eyes to the south, and I realized just how wrong that assumption was. A swarm of Birds—thousands at least—fl
ew toward Aryn and the rest.
My heart pounded in my chest. What was Cole thinking? His entire tribe wouldn’t have been a match for what they faced.
But you are.
I was. Or I was supposed to be, anyway. I mean, when you got down to it, how did I know if I could use the Chasm? Alexander had said so, but he was a psychopath who’d said a lot of effed up stuff. Cole seemed to believe it, but he never let me actually touch the Chasm, so maybe he was full of it too. Maybe once I’d gotten here, he’d realized I don’t have any power, but didn’t want me to know my coming here was useless, so he just pretended—
Get it together, Ember.
I couldn’t afford doubt. I’d made a promise—a promise to help Cole and his people escape. If he and half of his soldiers died right now, I’d have failed. I had to at least try.
Think like a soldier, I told myself. Not that I had any idea how soldiers thought. I searched my brain for anything that might prove useful. Always deal from a position of strength, I’d heard Taren tell some Guardians-in-training. OK, check, I’ve got the high ground.
Never underestimate your opponent’s ability to underestimate you, Cole had told me. My opponent didn’t even know I was here, so I filed that one away for some other time.
Before I could think of anything else, the Dahraks below began howling and beating at tiny flames that grew larger once they hit their oily black flesh.
It was Cole—clearing a path for the others to race through. Crouched low behind a rock, he’d lit a small fire and was busy dipping balls of cloth—two-inch wads—into what I assumed was the moonshine some of the soldiers drank. Then he fired them at the Dahraks. It was a good plan—the tar-like substance that dripped from the Dahraks apparently was flammable.
Like you were going to be able to save the day when there are real Daemons around, I told myself. Cole didn’t need me. To convince the Italian Institute to open the Gateway, maybe, but not to save him from some demons.
The Gateway Trilogy: Complete Series: (Books 1-3) Page 43