Broken Skies

by Kay, Theresa

  “Hello there, pretty thing.” The raspy voice of a man in his forties.

  I grimace at the stench of his body odor as he leans closer and his bloodshot eyes travel up and down my bent legs with twisted desire.

  The other man is younger, maybe early twenties, and his clothes are cleaner and he’s not really looking at me. I focus my attention on him.

  “Hello,” I say. “Are you looking for someone? Just passing through? Do you need some food?”

  The now wiser part of my brain, knowing what’s coming, screams at my body. But it doesn’t listen. It’s an odd feeling to be stuck inside a dream, mind frozen in fear while your body acts out your greatest horror.

  “There’s something we need al’rght,” slurs the older guy, taking another step toward me until he’s only inches away.

  I take a step back, away from his reaching hand and toward the younger man. “I can give you a meal. That’s all I have to offer.”

  That was my biggest mistake, thinking that youth and hygiene meant that man was somehow safer.

  A calloused hand grips my bicep. “Oh no, little girl. There is so much more you have to offer.” His fingers dig in, hard enough to bruise.

  I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.

  Jace!

  That day I didn’t scream for my brother’s help for the first time until much later. But thankfully this is just a dream and my call is answered.

  “Jax!” Warm, strong arms wrap around my huddled form, the voice familiar and welcome. “What are you doing here?”

  I slowly open my eyes. The men are gone, their images scattered and sent back where they belong. Far, far away from me.

  When I meet Jace’s eyes, a sob rips out of my chest. I wrap my arms around him and bury my face in the side of his neck.

  Small soothing noises rumble in his chest as he rubs one hand in small circles on my back. “It will be okay.” A subtle warmth washes over me, comfort lapping at the edges of my frayed emotions and I relax into it.

  Then my breath catches in my throat and I pull away. “You’re doing it. The emotion thing.”

  His eyes widen and he averts his gaze. “You know then.”

  I smack his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why hide it from me?”

  “I wasn’t even sure that I was doing anything for a while. It just seemed to help you when I was nearby. Then there was one time with Flint and—”

  “With Flint? I thought it was an E’rikon thing. It works with humans too?”

  “Of course it works with humans.” His brow furrows and then I can almost see the realization hit him. “Wait a second. Too? Who the hell have you been spending time with that…isn’t human?”

  “How do you think I got here? Just waltzed up to the dome and said please?”

  Jace’s body goes rigid. “You’re here, actually here. In the city.”

  “Yes.”

  He stands and runs one hand down his face. “For God’s sake, Jax, why?” His hands shake as he takes two steps back and his expression morphs into utter despair. “Why?” He repeats in a whisper so soft I can hardly hear it and then my brother, my rock, the strong one collapses to his knees with his head in his hands. And all I can do is sit there with my mouth open and watch him fall apart. Finally, a deep breath shudders through him and he raises his head to look at me. “You shouldn’t have come.”

  “Did you think I was just going to leave you here?” Each word rises in volume until I’m nearly shouting the last one. Everything I’ve gone through to get here and he tells me I should have stayed away?

  “I hoped you would.” He flinches. “I knew… after everything, I deserve to be here, but this is not what I wanted for you. I wanted you safe and being here is anything but safe.”

  “What about what I want? Don’t you think you’ve made enough decisions for me?”

  “I was trying to protect you. I—”

  “No. If you were so worried about trying to protect me, you should have spent a little more time thinking about how I would handle life without you,” I say.

  “I did. I made Flint promise to do whatever was necessary to keep you safe.”

  “Flint? Your boyfriend was your master plan?” I slide closer to Jace and throw my hands up. “You knew about the emotional link, so obviously you’ve been calming me for a while, keeping me whole, chasing the nightmares away. Was Flint going to do that for me too? If it wasn’t for Lir…” My hand comes up over my mouth as the thought completes. If it wasn’t for Lir I would have fallen apart.

  Jace wasn’t the only one to feed me emotions. Whether Lir had used it to manipulate me or not, the link with him had kept me together in a way I could not have done for myself. It’s also the only way I could have ever made it here.

  “Who’s Lir?” My attention snaps back to Jace who seems to have regained some of his bearings.

  Good question actually. Who exactly is Lir? I struggle to find the right answer before landing on simply saying, “He’s my friend, the one who brought me here.”

  “And he’s E’rikon.”

  “Yes.”

  “You can’t trust them, any of them.” He paces, running an agitated hand through his hair. “You need to get out of the city. If they find out you’re here…” He shakes his head rapidly. “They can’t find out, Jax. There’s this whole ‘initiative’ they have. I don’t know much, but I know it involves wiping us— and I do mean human when I say us— completely out.”

  “The human initiative.” My stomach drops.

  “Yeah. I’m pretty good at playing a vegetable at this point, so they talk sometimes when they think I’m not listening. There’s a general guy or something—”

  “Vitrad.”

  He shoots me a quizzical look. “Yeah. He heads up their military division, but there’s this other group—”

  “The Council.”

  A pause. “The Council and it’s run by this one guy—”

  “Stellan.”

  Jace stops his pacing and crosses his arms. “Do you want to tell this story? How do you know all that anyway?”

  I shake my head mutely and he continues. “This is important information you’ll need to get to Flint once you leave. So the Stellan guy, it’s his family the Vastras, the Vantras…something like that…they are kinda like royalty or something and they’re related to Vitrad somehow. There’s some sort of power struggle going on with the Council against Vitrad, but the kicker is that Stellan’s son has sided with Vitrad in the whole thing because he has a vendetta….well, against me.” His shoulders droop. “I’ve done horrible things, Jax. Dane used me, my abilities, that non-human half of me, just as much as these aliens would like to do.” He curls his hands into fists and closes his eyes. “But that’s not the big picture here. The Council has been staying Vitrad’s hand, but it’s only a matter of time before the balance shifts. It’s already happening. And when the E’rikon make their move, it will be the end of us. They have things we couldn’t even dream up…”

  The fire in his eyes bores into me, vehemence lacing his words. “As much as they’ve…studied… me, they still have no idea what I’m capable of, what you’re capable of if you put your mind to it. You and I, Jax, we’re the only weapons, the only hope the humans have against the E’rikon. I’m not sure exactly what it is we’re supposed to be able to do, but the aliens cannot be allowed to figure it out. No matter what they’ve done to me, I’ve given them nothing. They figured out what I was when they landed in that clearing. If they find out about you, especially that you’re my twin…Get out of the city. Find Flint. Tell him about what’s going on and have him take you far away from here.”

  He jolts and cocks his head to the side. “They’re coming. I have to get out of here. Whatever happens, remember I love you.” He pulls me in for a hug and kisses the top of my head.

  “But they already know…” My protest too late, his shape has already dissipated and I’m left alone in my dreamscape. Getting out of here just became even more impor
tant. I’d always thought the E’rikon hadn’t attacked before because we were at least evenly armed or they just didn’t care. That illusion has shattered with my brother’s revelations.

  What would Jace think of me if he knew that I gave Flint the key to his own destruction and set him on a path directly here? And if he knew that all his pain and screams were for nothing, that they had me anyway, that I’d delivered myself here based on the promises of the very boy who was the catalyst for what could be the end to the human race? He’d hate me. My only hope to redeem myself is to get us both out of here before the sky falls down around us.

  TWENTY SIX

  When my eyes open the thing I most want to do is close them again. I’m still in the white room and I want more than anything for it to just go away. I raise a stiff arm to push my hair out of my face and realize that I’m no longer restrained and I’m dressed in a simple gray gown. A nervous feeling, a smaller, lesser cousin to hope, crawls into my stomach. They aren’t going to bring the light back, at least not right now. My sigh of relief puffs my lips out and I close my eyes again.

  The hiss of the door brings me to full alertness and my limbs tense in preparation. Preparation for what I have no idea, my legs are much too shaky to even hold me up much less allow me any sort of defensive position.

  The smell of bread wafts into the room and my stomach clenches and growls. Aching hunger brings me up to a sitting position and I curl over my still rumbling stomach. How long has it been since I’ve eaten? Is this a new form of torture, letting me smell the food? But no, a loaf of bread lands on my cot and I snatch it up with greedy hands. I don’t even bother looking up until the bread is gone and I am searching out the crumbs on my blanket with a wet finger. A disgusted snort brings my head up and my eyes narrow on Vitrad’ face.

  “You.” The word comes out in a snarl.

  “Save the theatrics for someone who cares Miss Mitchell,” he says. “You may have caught the attention of the Vestra family, but their allegiance is fickle as is their power here. Stellan may be swayed by his wife for now, but without results we will just have to go back to the way things were.”

  Vira did something for me. At least she bought me time.

  “I don’t know what you expect me to do. I don’t know what you want from me,” I say.

  “Yes. You do. You just refuse to help us.” He stops my retort by raising his hand. “At least that is the report I will present to the rest of the Council. How quickly do you think the people will turn on the Vestras when they find out that Steliro has bonded with a halfbreed spy who tricked her way into our city in order to get information on our defenses? Perhaps she even assisted her brother in the murder of my dear, dear daughter’s bondmate.” He makes an exaggerated swipe below his eye with one finger and raises his eyebrows.

  My next words catch in my throat. Vira was right. Vitrad is using this as an opportunity for a takeover. The level of deception and lies twisting and turning together leave my mind spinning. Who can I trust?

  He continues. “Both you and your brother have managed to keep us out of your heads, but you can only imagine how fascinated I was to learn that there really is some truth to the rumors that you are capable of something special, at least according to your brother’s pleas to keep that information from us. There is a weapon inside you Miss Mitchell and I want it.” The cold smile that slithers across Vitrad’s face sends ice through my veins. He laughs, a hard sound that screeches in my ears. “I can see the realization forming on your face. Yes, Steliro gave me this information. Did no one tell you that you cannot block out your bondmate?”

  Freezing Tendrils of dread and betrayal twist through me, twining around my stomach. Lir let him into my head? There’s no other way Vitrad could have known…

  “Such a passionate boy. So easily lead into hatred for the humans. Did you perhaps think Steliro was out there by accident? Mechanical problems? And such luck to come across your brother…” He lets out a mocking chuckle.

  Further conversation stops as a rumble works its way to my ears and the room shakes. The light flickers and in the stuttering darkness Vitrad’s brow furrows and he almost looks worried. The expression is gone quickly, replaced with a hard resolve.

  “This was not supposed to happen yet. Seems the humans have arrived sooner than expected.” He says the words under his breath, more to himself than to me. Then his full attention turns back to me and a cold smile crawls across his face to match the icy look in his eyes. “I look forward to continuing our conversation.”

  He spins on his heel and strides to the door. The sound of his voice shouting orders drifts in through the closing door, but it’s cut off as soon as the door slides shut.

  He didn’t put my restraints back in place. I’m alone and I somehow doubt that there’s anyone behind that mirror watching me when there’s much more important things going on out there. This is my chance.

  * * * * * * *

  It’s ten steps from one side of the room to the other. I’ve counted the 133 tiles on the floor at least five times…really slowly.

  After sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed, it took me a while to gather enough strength to rise to my feet. I promptly crashed back down on the bed. Stretching helped and so did flexing my muscles and rolling my ankles, at least enough that I was finally able to stand without my legs shaking out from under me. I don’t even know how long it took until I could take a few faltering steps. Gradually, I worked my way across the room once, and then again until my steps evened out and my legs stopped protesting at holding me up. It’s not like I had anything better to do.

  Now, it’s been hours and no one has even come to check on me. There hasn’t been anymore rumbling or shaking and it’s almost too quiet. Thoughts of Lir slip in and I push them away. I can’t deal with that right now. I finally have a hope of escaping and I’m stuck in this room pacing back and forth. It’s boring and monotonous, but at least if the door opens I’ll be able to run. Of course, there will probably be someone on the other side of the door trying to keep me in. What I really need is a weapon.

  The titles are all glued down, not even a broken corner to allow me to wiggle one loose. Smooth walls, unbreakable mirror….the bed frame is plastic. I make another circuit of the room. The light is too high. Unless… I shove the bed into the center of the room and stand on top of it, reaching for the fixture. Dammit. Still out of reach.

  Lying down on the bed, I let out a sigh of frustration and throw my arms out to the side. A sharp pain in one wrist brings my eyes to the restraint on my left. I focus on the large metal buckle and smile. It’s not much and it certainly wouldn’t be fatal, but if I pull the restraints off the bed and bundle them together somehow with the buckles on the outside, I might be able to cause enough pain to distract someone.

  I’m putting the final touches on my buckle bludgeon, three restraints balled up at the top with the fourth providing me a method of swinging it, when I hear a thud outside the door. I slink closer and press myself against the wall next to the door. There’s no way for me to hide in here, but I should be able to escape notice long enough to surprise whoever comes in.

  The hiss of the door opening is nearly drowned out by the pounding of my heart. This is it.

  He enters slowly— black boots, gray uniform, clearly E’rikon— and my arm swings forward. Just before my makeshift weapon makes contact with his head, he shifts sideways and the buckles fly by only inches from his temple.

  “Blazes, Jax,” says Rym. “I’m here to help.” I narrow my eyes and wind up for another swing. Rym puts his hands up and takes a step back. “Vira sent me. Well, really she told me you were down here and implied very strongly that I should come get you.” He eyes the protruding buckle prongs and then glances at me. “Resourceful aren’t you? That looks like it might be painful.”

  I nod and step closer, letting the warm coils of fury expand in my body.

  “I won’t hurt you. I’m not even armed.” He holds out his
empty hands palms up. “There isn’t much time….I know where they’re keeping your brother. I can take you to him.”

  I clear my throat. “Why should I believe you? Maybe this is all part of the plan?” Buried anger bubbles up and heats my words. “He twisted the bond, used it against me. He let that thing into my head!” I swing, he dodges and circles around. “He lied to me. He manipulated me. All to get me here.” Another swing, another dodge. “To use me.” Swing. “To break me because my brother is too strong.” Swing. “Joke’s on you guys, I was already broken!” My voice has risen to a screech and my arm swipes erratically through the air. The burn behind my eyes gives way to tears that blur my vision. Just one hit. I just want to land one.

  As if he understands, Rym stops moving and lets the buckle hit his chest. He flinches, but doesn’t back up even when I raise my arm again. “Lir didn’t understand what he was doing.” He peeks at me through one eye. I drop my arm and he continues. “He was sucked into my father’s delusions after Kov’s death and never even thought to question the reasoning behind my father’s plans. Yes, it started as a vendetta, but things changed. Lir changed. He’s done nothing but fight for your release… well, he did until he was locked up down here too.”

  “Then what was the agreement he made with Vitrad? What was he talking about at the meeting?”

  “He agreed to bring you before the Council so the request for your brother’s release could be made formally. Nothing more. Lir thought he was helping.” His shoulders relax and he steps forward, his eyes glued to mine. “What they’ve done to you… It wouldn’t be condoned if people knew. This is not what we are, this,” he gestures to the room around us and the restraints in my hand, “is what my father has twisted us into. I’m not asking you to forgive any of it, just let me help you.”

  He’s been quick enough to dodge my strikes and could have hurt me easily if he wanted to do so. Besides, I don’t really have any other choices. “Okay,” I say. “Take me to my brother.”