Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3)

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Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) Page 6

by DelSheree Gladden


  I get that having someone sift through your thoughts would be disturbing, but why is she so determined to protect her memories of Hayden? Is she worried Sloane will see something she doesn’t want her to see? That Sloane might tell me something I don’t already know? I shake my head at that, but I can’t help wondering. I saw Hayden kiss Olivia that last time, but Olivia told me about the other two times they kissed, once the night the Sentinel attacked the house, and once while I was gone when Hayden was trying to convince her I wasn’t her only option. That was before he found out I was an Aerling, and I feel no anger against Hayden for any of those. So, why is Olivia so upset?

  I’m left wondering when Olivia’s eyes snap open and she yanks her hands out of Sloane’s. She stands and brushes the dirt off her pants without looking in Sloane’s direction. She turns to me, still agitated, and says, “He’s on the third sublevel in the west prison block, cell fourteen. I think he’s…” Olivia’s hard expression falters. “Hayden is hurt. We need to hurry.”

  Her eyes are pleading, forcing me to push away my other concerns and take her hand. “We’ll get him back. Sloane and I will be in and out with him before you know it.”

  “Wait, what?” Olivia demands. For a split second, I almost laugh, because she looks just like Evie did when we told her she couldn’t come. I think better of it, luckily.

  “Olivia, how would you ever be able to sneak in there? There are Sentinels crawling all over this compound. Whatever Hayden has gone through, it will be so much worse for you.” I doubt I’m telling her anything she doesn’t already know, but the pain etched in her features cuts at me all the same. “We’ll get him out, I promise.”

  Biting at her bottom lip, Olivia nods as a tear rolls down her cheek. “I know you will. I’m just so worried.”

  “I know you are. It’s going to be okay, though.”

  Olivia throws her arms around me, but pulls away just as quickly and begins pacing. She still won’t look at Sloane. Whatever is going on between them doesn’t stop Sloane from walking over to me and saying, “I’ll follow your lead. I’ve been in the Aerling world for a year, so I might be a little rusty at being, you know, invisible.”

  “I’m sure it will all come back to you as soon as we’re surrounded by Sentinels on every side.” I say it with as much confidence as I can, but her confession worries me. “Getting in shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It’ll be getting Hayden back out. Even if the Sentinels can’t see or sense us, we have no way of hiding Hayden.”

  Sloane’s eyes narrow. She reaches toward me, but I can’t help flinching away. Hurt by my mistrust, she pulls her hand back, but says, “I wouldn’t be so quick to limit your powers, Mason. You’re the heir of Tāwhiri. One of them, anyway. That counts for a lot in our world.”

  Not entirely sure what she means by that, I don’t really have time to puzzle out her cryptic words. I turn back to Olivia and wrap her up tightly. “Stay out of sight until we get back. If there’s any hint of Sentinel activity, get in the car and drive away. They can’t sense you, but they can track you like they would any other prey. I don’t want you to risk yourself for Robin, but we need her to repair the barrier. I don’t know if Tū knows we need her to fix things. Even if he doesn’t, Robin knows enough to cause more trouble.”

  “I won’t let them find either of us,” Olivia says. The heat in her voice makes me wary, and gives me hope at the same time. She turns her chin up and kisses me fiercely. “Be careful, and bring Hayden back to me.”

  “I…will.” I’ll do everything I can to rescue Hayden, but her phrasing gives me pause. Again, I don’t have time to ponder it, so I shake it off and return my focus to Sloane. She’s ready and waiting. A few seconds later, we’re both trotting toward the Sentinel compound.

  It looks like a prison, like the kind you’d see on some kind of prison break movie. Razor wire tops a ten foot fence. Armed guards are positioned in watchtowers that surround the compound. Every gate has secured locking mechanisms. It’s completely locked down, and I’m sure any human would have a tough time getting in here. Luckily for us, we’re not human. Sloane and I both call the air to us, using it to lift ourselves over the razor wire and set us back down in the barren courtyard.

  Sloane seems unsure of what to do next when we get to a door sealed shut by a key card access lock. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased with how fast I was able to call up a bit of lightning, short out the lock, and use Molly’s lock picking tricks to get us both inside. Deep into the early morning hours, we only encounter a few Sentinels patrolling the halls. No one sees the elevator door open on its own, and no one sees it open on the third sublevel, either. Making our way to the correct cell block and locating Hayden is easy. That’s where things start getting difficult.

  “What do we do now?” Sloane asks as we stare at a bruised and bloodied Hayden out cold on an old cot while a Sentinel guard stands watch right in front of the cell door. The intensity this guy is carrying around pretty much guarantees us there’s no chance of him falling asleep in the near future.

  It takes me a few minutes to answer, mainly because I’m trying to think up a plan. I feel completely stumped until I remember Cedrick’s last bit of advice on controlling Robin. It should work, but I need to make sure it won’t end up giving us away, first. Turning to Sloane, I say, “Check the surrounding area and let me know if there’s anyone close enough to stumble on a body and raise an alarm.”

  Sloane’s eyes widen by a small degree, but she nods and scurries off. She’s back a few minutes later, shaking her head. “Hayden’s the only prisoner in this block. There likely won’t be anyone coming down this way until the next shift.”

  “Good.” Sloane’s whole body tenses up as I walk over to stand directly in front of the guard, as close as I can manage without him sensing me immediately. I can tell by Sloane’s stillness that she’s holding her breath, which seems oddly appropriate given what I’m about to do. It’s times like these that I’m thankful to have the memory of an Aerling. Aside from the memories lost from the trauma of seeing my Caretaker family murdered in front of me, I remember nearly everything. Any memory having to do with power, it’s like it’s stored inside my mind in full HD.

  I bring back Cedrick’s instructions, the memory of it filling me to the point that it’s as though I’m there. I remember his every move, following it as I call up my power and bring the air in the guard’s body under my full command. I know instinctively how much I need to take for him to pass out, and with a flick of my power, I suck it right out of him. His eyes roll up before he can even process a single thought, and a few seconds later he’s lying on the ground.

  Sloane seems stunned at my display, but I don’t have time to calm her down. “Stand guard. It may take me a few minutes to wake Hayden up.”

  Nodding, she takes up position dutifully. The whole getting inside Olivia’s head thing is still bugging me, but I have no problem trusting Sloane when it comes to rescuing Hayden. That’s the whole reason she volunteered for this insane mission in the first place. Putting my faith in her to do her job well, I make myself visible and approach Hayden’s unconscious form. He doesn’t react at all when I put my hand on his shoulder.

  “Hayden,” I whisper. You need to wake up.” He groans when I shake him gently, but still seems determined to avoid the waking world. “Hayden, please, we need to get you out of here.” He groans again and pulls away from me. Sighing, I say the one thing I know will work. “Olivia is waiting for you, but you have to wake up.”

  Immediately, Hayden’ eyes flutter halfway open. “Olivia?” He looks like he’s either been drugged or simply exhausted, but he finally begins to struggle up to sitting. He only makes it halfway before I reach in to help him. He winces when I grab his arm to help keep him steady.

  “Where are you hurt?” I ask.

  “Pretty much everywhere. Don’t worry about it. Let’s just get the hell outta here.”

  I couldn’t agree more. Hayden leans on me heavil
y once I get him up to his feet and my worries about how we’re going to escape deepen. “Any grand ideas on how to get you out of here without getting caught by the Sentinels?”

  Hayden laughs, or tries to anyway. It’s too painful. “Would’ve thought you’d have figured that out before jumping in here to rescue me.”

  “Yeah, well, you know how our last brilliant plan worked out. We figured winging it couldn’t possibly go any worse.”

  A grin spreads across Hayden’s mouth. “That last plan sucked.”

  “No kidding. Let’s hope this one goes a little better.”

  Hayden starts to nod, but suddenly he digs up a bit of strength and grabs my arm, pointing over my shoulder. I whip around, sure a Sentinel has somehow managed to sneak up on us, but all I see is Sloane standing guard. “Hayden, what’s…?”

  “Shh!” he whispers. “There’s someone outside the cell. A woman.”

  I couldn’t have been more stunned than if someone dropped a bucket of ice water on my head. “You can see her?” I demand.

  “Of course I can! She’s standing right in front of us!”

  At that, Sloane turns around, looking equally caught off guard. “You can see me?”

  “Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Hayden asks. He tries to move away from Sloane, but his legs give out and I have to catch him. His eyes stay pinned on Sloane the entire time. “Who are you?”

  Knowing we can’t sit around chatting all night, I give Hayden the short version. “She’s an Aerling, Levi’s sister, to be specific. She came to help rescue you. Everything else is going to have to wait until we get out of here.”

  Even what little I just told him is enough to shut Hayden up for a good long while. He stares at Sloane in shock as I drag his barely functional body out of the cell. Sloane isn’t much better, but she has enough presence of mind to rush over to Hayden’s side and make dragging him around a little easier on me. Only the sound of our shuffling feet follows us through the empty hallways. The going is fairly easy until we near the end of the cell block.

  “Can you get to him through the glass?” Sloane asks in reference to the guard sitting inside the glass booth that monitors the exit. On our way in it wasn’t that difficult to short the lock and wait until he turned his back to slip through. That’s not going to happen while we’re towing Hayden along with us.

  Shaking my head in answer to her question, I know I won’t be able to maneuver my power through the small opening under the door with enough strength to suck the breath out of his body. My mouth turns up in a vicious smile as I realize I can certainly do the reverse, though. I can’t remember where I learned about oxygen toxicity, but the information was filed away in my brain somewhere and I dredge it back up now. Concentrating, I separate the bits of molecular oxygen from the surrounding air and start funneling it into the guard booth under the door.

  Oxygen poisoning can kill a human, but I know I won’t be so lucky with a Sentinel. It should be enough to incapacitate him for a while, though. Sloane watches raptly as the guard first seems to experience a high. As I shove more and more oxygen into his booth, things start to change. The guard stands, noticeably disoriented. We all watch as he stumbles about for a minute before dropping to the ground as a seizure overtakes him. We all look away then and slip out the door. I don’t feel any remorse for damage done to Sentinels, but that doesn’t mean I want to sit around and watch it either. Unfortunately, he’ll be fine once the seizure ends and the oxygen levels even back out.

  “Mason, two Sentinels, ahead to the right.”

  We all stop immediately, though we can’t see anyone yet. The elevators are down the same hall, and we have to get to them if we have any hope of escaping. This area is too conspicuous to leave a couple of bodies, though. I scan the hallway ahead of the intersection and spot what looks like a janitorial closet. Shoving Hayden into Sloane’s arms, I say, “Wait here.”

  Sloane fumbles, trying to get a good grip on Hayden, but she has him in hand by the time I step out into the hallway fully visible. It takes the two Sentinels a moment to process what they’re seeing. One reaches for a walkie talkie on his belt, but I zap it before he gets a chance to raise the alarm. The other guy doesn’t bother with an alert.

  He whips out a gun and has it pointed at me before I can blink. The muzzle flash lights up the dim hallway and I panic. The shield I used to protect Olivia that night on the river bank springs to life as an automatic response. The gale of wind I slam into the bullet drives it into a wall, instead of my head. Instinct takes over, then, and my anger sucks the heat out of the room. Crystals form on their lips before they realize what’s happening. Both fall stiffly to the floor, frozen from the inside out.

  Sloane must hear them fall, because she barrels around the corner to help me drag them away before they’re fully settled. She’s shaking her head as she reaches out to touch one of the Sentinels. “Are they…dead?” she asks.

  “No, but it’ll take them a while to recover from this.”

  Wordlessly, she helps me drag them both to the janitorial closet. I wonder how Tū managed to create humans that were indestructible to Aerlings, all but Wardens, anyway. What is it about them that makes it so hard for us to kill them? Other humans can kill them. Caretaker Officers don’t manage to take down one of their twisted counterparts very often, but Robin’s parents confirmed it was possible. I can only guess it’s Tū’s intimate knowledge of Aerling power that allowed him to create a being impervious to everything we can do but the weird dagger Olivia said I created to kill Alex, the Sentinel who attacked us at the house.

  I still can’t remember what I did that night, or what I did the night I gave the scarred Sentinel the mark he’s so easily identified by now. Tāwhiri brought back some of my early memories. It was just a few, the day I was born, the day he named me and claimed me as his heir. What he did is a mystery to me, but it was his power that repaired that broken part of my mind. I hold part of his power now, and as we haul Hayden into the elevator, I wonder if that means I can do what he did.

  “How do we know there won’t be Sentinels waiting for us as soon as the doors open?” Sloane asks worriedly.

  “We don’t,” I say, “but we’ll be prepared.”

  Sloane positions Hayden behind her and to the side of the door. I feel it immediately when she calls her power. For a moment, I’m surprised by the feel of it. Molly’s power feels like a buzzing bumblebee, which suits her perfectly. I’m still trying to get a handle on Sloane, but the soothing hum of her power is tough to reconcile with what I know of her so far.

  Before I have a chance to think on it any longer, the elevator chimes and the doors begin to slide open. Sloane’s gasp is the first alert. Hammers clicking back as the Sentinels begin to fire is the second. I don’t waste a second blasting my power out and away from my body. Bullets ping off metal and dig into drywall in a furious cacophony of sound. Anger fuels my next attack, lightning zapping out at every Sentinel within range. My shield zips back into place as another round of bullets fly.

  I feel strangely calm as I send another devastating blast of air out to one side to clear a path for Sloane. “Get Hayden out of here,” I command. She’s on her way before I finish my sentence. A couple of Sentinels try to break off after her, but she dispatches them with baseball-sized pieces of hail pulled together from the ambient moisture so quickly even I am impressed. The Sentinels don’t have time to be impressed, thanks to the hail crashing into their skulls.

  Feeling confident in Sloane’s ability to get Hayden back to Olivia, I turn my full attention back to the rest of my enemies. For a second, I can’t figure out why they aren’t attacking me. It’s not until I recognize the familiar feeling of ants crawling under my skin that I spot him approaching from the back of the group. His scarred face is twisted in a smirk as he stops at the front of the pack and crosses his arms over his chest.

  “Like a fly to honey,” he says.

  It was always a possibility that Hayden’s be
ing captured was a lure to get us onto their turf, but I don’t fully understand. “How did you know we’d come back to Earth?” I ask from behind my shield.

  “How could you not?” The smugness in his voice is infuriating, but I keep a careful hold on my emotions.

  “You knew,” I say as realization dawns.

  The scarred Sentinel laughs at me. “I knew? Of course I knew, little Aerling, little pathetic Aerling. It was my plan, and it worked perfectly. Robin got dragged along, right through the Aerling barrier, breaking it with no chance of repair except the Mother.”

  It takes all my effort not to show my fear in that moment. He knows why we’re here. He expected it from the beginning, planned for it even. “You won’t stop us,” I say.

  He laughs again, this time with a heavy layer of bitterness. “Who says I’ll need to stop you? Finding the Mother, it won’t be easy. Learning enough to find wherever that backstabbing woman is hiding will require finding the truth. When you do that, I won’t need to stop you from doing anything. You’ll do that all on your own.”

  Fears and doubts swim around in my mind. The fact that we know only a tiny portion of the true Aerling history hasn’t escaped me. Everything I thought I knew has been turned on its head so many times since that first run-in with Robin, it’s almost impossible to trust anything. This guy, though, everything that comes out of his mouth is poison. He killed my Caretaker family. If he thinks I’m ever going to trust him, he’s delusional.

  “I guess we’ll just have to see about that,” I tell him as I back away toward the exit.

  “Leaving so soon?” the scarred Sentinel mocks.

  I brace myself for another attack, but it doesn’t come. He just stands there staring at me, like he’s waiting for me to figure something out. “Why aren’t you trying to kill me? Your goons certainly gave it their best shot a few minutes ago.”

 

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