Arise (Cruel and Beautiful World Book 3)

by L. Stoddard Hancock

  “In Saevus we trust,” said Asher as they reached the closed wall leading to his room. Izzy had managed to get his tower access reactivated.

  “Identification Confirmed. Asher Saevus. Access granted.”

  Dakota ran in while the others waited in the hallway on high alert.

  “Ronan! Ro, it’s time to go!”

  Finley and Luka’s citizen wristbands buzzed. Luka opened the message. A hologram of the president popped up.

  “Listen carefully. Finley Scout and Luka Voclain are traitors and should be killed on sight. Failure to do so will result in your immediate termination. Xander Ruby and Deryn Leon should also be killed on sight. Enough of these damn games! If the four of them are not dead within the hour, there will be consequences! Now, someone get up to the ninety-fifth floor and get me out of this fucking room!”

  “And here I thought he was too sophisticated for such foul language,” said Luka.

  He took off his citizen wristband and tossed it against the wall. Finley did the same.

  “Can’t wait to get this piece of shit off.” Luka stroked the spot where his guard wristband met skin.

  Dakota appeared in the doorway. “Ronan’s not here,” he said, his voice panicked. “I’ve checked everywhere.”

  “Did you check behind the fireplace?” asked April, running inside.

  “Yes,” he said, trailing after her. “I checked everywhere. He’s gone! He’s fucking -”

  His words caught on a sob.

  “Shit.”

  There were several loud bangs as April flipped the furniture.

  “Who has access to this room?” she demanded, marching toward Asher.

  “No one. Just ...” He stopped. “Elvira. She and Collin are the only ones with access.”

  Finley shook her head. “It couldn’t be her. She would’ve gone straight to her father to report you missing. Unless ...”

  The hallway became eerily quiet.

  “She wouldn’t hurt a child,” said Dakota, but he was met with silence.

  No one could confirm whether or not that was true. Not even Asher.

  “I hate to be that person,” said April, “but we need to get out of here while it’s still a possibility. The shield hasn’t been removed yet, so our only option is to head down through the tower. It doesn’t look like Sam’s going to get here on time for Xander and Deryn, and the two of them are no longer needed alive.”

  “But -”

  “Dax, the boy isn’t here. No matter how long we stand in this damn spot, he isn’t going to materialize.” April rubbed circles on her temples. “The time we gave Xander to be on that balcony is in seven minutes. We can either save them or search a maze for someone we might never find. You’re free to make your choice but I’ve already made mine.”

  She walked out of the room and pushed Asher’s chair toward the stairs.

  “She’s right,” said Luka, following her.

  Dakota stood frozen, every inch of him heavy as he searched for the right answer.

  “Xander has access to the security cameras.”

  He looked up and was met with Finley’s intense gaze.

  “Once we have him and Deryn, he can look back and find out where Elvira took Ronan. She won’t hurt him,” said Finley.

  “Do you really believe that?” asked Dakota, his voice barely a whisper.

  Finley sighed and said, “What other choice do we have?”

  She turned and walked away. Dakota watched her for a moment before giving in and following.

  April was standing at the top of the stairs stretching.

  “Here’s how this is going to work,” she said to Dakota. “You don’t have the skill with your gravpack yet to take two people down without plummeting to your deaths. Honestly, I’m hesitant to let you take one, but I can’t carry everyone and we need to do this in one trip. “Finley, you’ll hang onto my waist while I carry the chair. Dax, you take the new guy.”

  Dakota and Luka exchanged a look of disgust. Luka had just opened his mouth to say something when April jammed a finger against his lips.

  “I understand you’re a friend of Xander’s.”

  He nodded.

  “Then I imagine you have some snarky remark you intend to make, so let me save you the trouble. If you give me lip I’ll rip them off. Understood?”

  Luka’s eyes widened. He nodded obediently.

  “Good,” said April, squishing his lips like a duck. “Now quack for me.”

  Finley smacked April’s hand away. “I thought we were on a time crunch!”

  April laughed. “There’s always time to scare little boys with big pussies.”

  She took hold of Asher’s chair and ignited her gravpack. Once they were two feet off the floor, April ordered Finley to grab onto her, which she did as quickly as possible. The last thing Finley needed was to be forced to quack in front of everyone.

  Luka groaned as Dakota took hold of him.

  “I’m new to this, so I suggest you hold on tight,” said Dakota, tightening his arm around Luka’s back.

  “We tell no one of this,” said Luka as he wrapped his arms around Dakota’s neck.

  “Believe me, I won’t be bragging.”

  “What floor?” asked April.

  “Twenty,” said Finley, clenching her eyes shut and refusing to look down.

  “Got it. Dax, if you fall don’t expect me to catch you,” she called over her shoulder as she sped down the center of the stairwell.

  “She’s a real charmer,” said Luka as he and Dakota quickly followed.

  • • •

  Xander and Deryn were on the nineteenth floor, hiding in a white, padded training room while counting down the minutes on the clock.

  “Do you think Sam will be there?” asked Deryn while she paced in front of the door.

  “He’d better be,” said Xander, checking all of the security cameras on their floor.

  There was no getting out of it. They were going to have to fight their way to the twentieth floor. The place was swarming and they were lucky to have made it as far as they had.

  “We have three minutes,” she said, stopping beside him and checking the clock on Soren’s wristband. “We need to move.”

  Xander’s throat tightened. “I know.”

  “Xander.” Deryn slipped her hand inside of his. “We’ll be okay.”

  He nodded, though he obviously didn’t believe it.

  “Are you ready?”

  Xander pulled up the security cameras covering their route, taking one last glance. Their hallway was clear, but once they turned the corner all hell would break loose.

  “As ready as I’m going to be,” he said, clicking it off.

  He gripped her head and kissed her. They clonked their foreheads together, a collective sigh falling into each other’s open mouths as they prepared themselves for the worst possible outcome.

  “I love you,” said Deryn.

  “I love you, too.”

  They kissed once more, pulled away and linked hands.

  With one final deep breath, they opened the door.

  CHAPTER 52

  Xander and Deryn ran down that hallway at full speed. They had barely made it halfway when a guard turned the corner.

  The guard had just begun to call out when Xander raised his Element and fired. His head was blown clear off, blood and guts splattering against the wall behind him.

  As more footsteps approached, Deryn hooked her arm around Xander and kicked on her boots. They lifted into the air and sped forward.

  Two more guards turned the corner. Xander and Deryn were there to crash into them. Deryn grabbed one and used her knife to stab him in the heart while Xander headbutted the other. Xander tossed him to the floor and Deryn activated the laser on her knife to slice off his head.

  “Kill them!” someone ordered.

  They both looked. Arron Von was leading the charge against them with his Element aimed at their heads. He fired a blast. Xander put up a shield just in t
ime.

  “Shall we go right through them?” asked Xander.

  “Looks like we don’t have a choice.”

  Deryn kicked on her boots and sped toward them solo. She swung her knife and sent a laser straight across the front line of guards.

  Arron managed to put up a shield, but the two guards on either side of him weren’t so lucky. They both keeled over, bleeding to death as Deryn flew right over them, stabbing another guard in the neck.

  Xander sent a blast toward Arron while he was distracted watching Deryn, but Wenton appeared from behind and put a shield around both of them.

  Approaching them as their shield fell, Xander kicked them both against the nearest wall.

  A door beside the stairwell burst open. Deryn screeched as she was pulled inside.

  Forgetting all about the Guardians he was fighting, Xander ran toward the door. A blast came out of it and hit the approaching guards. Xander kicked what was left of them out of the way and ran through the open door. It slammed and locked behind him.

  Xander glanced over his shoulder and watched as his father faced him.

  “What are you doing?” Xander demanded, wrapping a protective arm around Deryn. “Locking us in a fucking room isn’t going to solve anything! The longer we stand in here, the more guards are going to come.”

  Atticus took out his Element. Xander shoved Deryn behind him and aimed his.

  “Relax, Xander. I would never hurt either of you.”

  Xander spit at him. “Fuck you!”

  Atticus smiled sadly. “The stairs are on the other side of that wall.” He motioned with his head. “I’ll make a hole that you can escape through.”

  Xander scoffed. “Element blasts have no effect on these walls.”

  “Yes, but this is no normal blast. I’ve been working on it for years and tested it throughout the tower. It works. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

  “We’re ready.” Deryn tried to step out from behind Xander but he wasn’t having it.

  “No,” he hissed. “This isn’t finished yet.” Xander raised his Element and pointed it at his father.

  “Xander, no!” shouted Deryn, grabbing his arm and moving so she was in front of his weapon.

  “Stop it, Deryn! He needs to die! He deserves to die after what he did to you!”

  “It could have been anyone!” she yelled.

  “But it wasn’t! It was him!”

  “Xander, I didn’t want to do it,” said Atticus. “You saw the footage. You heard the president. My life and yours were on the line. I couldn’t just sit back and -”

  “What about after?” spat Xander. “When the president offered her to you?”

  Atticus blinked. “What?”

  “He offered her to you! To keep! You could have said yes! You didn’t have to do anything with her, but you could have said yes and kept her away from the others! You let them have her! She wasn’t just raped by you that night, Father! They all fucking had her because you were too selfish to think of anyone but yourself!”

  “Xander, you’re deluding yourself if you believe the president would have let me keep her forever,” said Atticus.

  “I am not! I know he would’ve taken her away from you eventually! But the beginning ... it didn’t have to be so terrible!”

  Deryn closed her eyes, unsuccessfully holding back tears as she was brought back to that first night. It still haunted her.

  In her dreams.

  In real life.

  The memories were always there and she knew Xander was right. But she couldn’t let him do this. She couldn’t let him kill his father.

  “Xander, please lower your gun,” she said.

  He shook his head. “No. I won’t. I -”

  “Xander ... I’m sorry.”

  Atticus’s eyes flooded as he gazed at Xander. His son. His flesh and blood. The last of his family and the only person in the world who mattered to him. “I’m sorry I hurt you, and I’m sorry I hurt her. I have made so many mistakes in my life and, with them, I have hurt the only two people who ever mattered to me. You and your mother.”

  Xander’s Element dropped a couple of inches.

  “There are so many things I would change. And that day ... I never should have listened to Elvira. I should have killed her, or at least tried to. I should have avenged my wife and we should have run. Maybe we wouldn’t have lived for long but anything would have been better than this.” He swallowed. “I’m not blind. The things I’ve watched you do over the years have been killing you slowly. Only in these last six months have you become alive again. Your mother would be so disappointed in me. For letting this happen to you. For not fighting harder for you.

  “And you’re right. I was selfish that night. All I saw was my own grief and, when the president offered her to me, the only thing I thought about was how I had just betrayed my wife, and I couldn’t do it again. It didn’t even occur to me to keep her away from the others.” Atticus looked at Deryn. “I am truly sorry for what I did to you. I just wanted to save my son. He is the only piece of her that I have left,” he said, his voice cracking.

  Deryn took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “I understand why you did it,” she said. “And I want to forgive you but -”

  A loud blast shot against the door. It dented but did not break.

  “You need to go,” said Atticus, moving toward the wall. “I’ll hold them off for as long as I can.”

  Xander felt like an anchor was weighing him down as he processed what his father was saying. “But they’ll know you helped us and -”

  “Xander, I know,” said Atticus. “It’s my time. It’s been my time for many years. I’m ready to go.”

  Even though just moments ago Xander had been ready to kill his father, the idea of him actually dying hit him harder than he ever thought it would. “Father, no! I can’t let you -”

  “Xander!” Atticus marched forward. He placed a hand on his son’s shoulder and pulled him close. “You get her out of here. Fight with the Resistance and finish this war. So that the two of you can live happily. Understood?”

  Xander nodded, silent tears falling from his eyes.

  “When you find the one you love you never stop fighting for them. It’s not about you anymore, it’s about them. Her. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that and I lost so much because of it.”

  Xander looked down as Atticus slipped something into his hand. It was a golden lion ring with a jade stone in its center.

  “It’s never too late to start over.”

  Atticus wrapped his arms around Xander and hugged him tightly. It was only when he heard another blast that he finally let him go.

  Atticus raised his Element and fired at the wall. Blue smoke shot forward, wrapping against the metal wall and eating through it like acid.

  As soon as it was big enough, Deryn took Xander’s hand and pulled him through the hole. “Atticus,” she called.

  The two of them locked eyes.

  “I do forgive you,” she said before disappearing with Xander.

  Atticus smiled as he followed after them. He knew she said it for Xander and not him, but hearing he was forgiven gave him the peace he needed.

  Once on the stairwell, Atticus aimed his Element downward and used the blue fire to burn through the lower staircase, making it impossible for anyone to climb any higher.

  Facing the door, Atticus waited until it burst open. His blue fire was as loud as it was strong. As people started to swarm in, he raised his Element and fired a blast so powerful the people in the front quickly became nothing but flesh and limbs.

  Of course, Atticus wasn’t an idiot. He knew that firing a blast in such close proximity would not leave him untouched. Blood streaked with blue flames splattered on him, burning him.

  He was surprised when he was still alive after the flames died down. He believed he’d hit the stairs and was now lying across them, his entire body covered in blisters.

  He was only able to move his neck, which he lifted
slightly, watching as several silhouettes approached him through the dust and blood.

  “Leave him be,” ordered Arron, leading the charge up the stairs, making sure to step on Atticus’s burnt chest.

  Atticus dropped his head back down as everyone headed up the stairs. He closed his eyes for a moment, his hand brushing against something in his pocket. His wife’s necklace, which he always carried. A small reminder of the woman he’d lost.

  “Atticus.”

  When Atticus opened his eyes again there she was, sitting beside him and smiling.

  “Penelope ...”

  “It’s time, my love.”

  Atticus nodded, overcome with a wonderful feeling of serenity as he closed his eyes and joined his wife on the other side.

  • • •

  Xander heard the explosion but did not look back. The hole left in his heart after his mother died grew twice in size. Two parents lost in an attempt to save him.

  He wondered if he was worth it.

  As Xander pulled open the door leading to the twentieth-floor balcony, he and Deryn heard a loud commotion coming from several floors up. People were shouting, shots were being fired, but they had no time to stop and look.

  The moment they stepped onto the balcony, heads turned to look at them. They kept moving forward, Xander shooting blasts at the guards while Deryn used the laser on her knife to slice who she could.

  They could see flames on the horizon burning through Middle City. It wouldn’t be long before the Resistance reached the tower.

  Sam was nowhere to be found.

  As they made their way toward the edge, a loud crash sounded behind them. Metal clanged and guns fired.

  The door they had just come through burst open and April flew out, holding a wheelchair. Finley fell from somewhere and rolled across the balcony. Dakota and Luka ran out after them, firing at something over their shoulders.

  Dakota grabbed Finley’s arm and pulled her to her feet.

  Xander and Deryn were quick to turn around and fight their way to their friends.

  April stopped pushing Asher when they reached the center of the balcony. He called out to the guards, announcing who he was and ordering them to stop.