Embers (The Slayer Chronicles Book 2)

by Val St. Crowe

  “Lock us in?” said Celia. “How?”

  “Well, with the batteries,” I said.

  “You stopped to take those off Doyle’s body?” she said. “Because I didn’t.”

  Damn it. I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to think.

  “Clarke, maybe you should give me the knife,” said Naelen softly. “Maybe that would help.”

  “Oh, sure,” I said. “Fine. Here you go.” I fished it out of my pocket and handed it over.

  “Why don’t any of us have weapons?” said Foster. “You don’t want us to die, but you don’t arm us.”

  That’s not a weapon I gave him,” I said. “It’s a magical object. It’ll make him more powerful. Just don’t worry about that.”

  “I want to be wherever you are,” spoke up Celia. “I think we’re safer with you.”

  “Kinsie wasn’t safer!” I said. “Or Doyle or Rose or Shay.”

  “Still, I don’t want to be on my own,” said Celia. Her hand strayed to her stomach. “What Beverly said before? About having something of him now that he’s gone? It’s true. It’s a good thing to have. And I have to protect this baby. So, I’m not letting you leave me.”

  I bit down on my lip so hard I nearly drew blood. “Damn it,” I muttered.

  Beepbeepbeep. “Self-destruct in two hours.” Beepbeepbeep.

  We all jumped.

  “Come on, Clarke,” said Naelen. “We’ve got to keep moving. The self-destruct has a time limit, and we’ve still got to go all the way back up after we get the power on.”

  “Right, but we could use the elevators,” I said.

  “Let’s go,” Naelen said. And he took the lead.

  The others trooped after him.

  I brought up the rear.

  * * *

  The room where the dragons had been kept was lined with cages. All the doors stood open now, and each of the cages was empty.

  In fact, this entire floor seemed deserted, as if the dragons had fled their imprisonment and never looked back.

  We walked together between the cages, a winding path that ran through the room like the queue at an amusement park ride. We had to go through here to get to the place where the fuse box was.

  Worst design ever. As usual.

  I was actually thinking that if we ever got out of this, not only was I going to make Naelen blacklist the designer, but I was going to demand an introduction, so that I could give the bastard a piece of my mind. Near as I could tell, there had been not one nod to safety in the construction of this place. Not one.

  We were almost through the room, and we’d made it without any more casualties. I was especially terrified that something was going to happen to Celia. I didn’t know what I thought about her as a person. She didn’t have the firmest of morals, I had to admit, considering she’d slept with a married man and all. But if she died and her baby died too, I would never forgive myself.

  Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I could forgive myself if I lost any more of them.

  It seemed so recently that we’d crouched together in that stairwell between the laboratory floor and the recreation floor. I had begged them to stay put, and Kinsie had insisted they come along.

  And then, they had all just started dying. Four dead in such a short span.

  And that wasn’t even counting all the other deaths.

  Annika. Beverly and Jack. Jameson, assuming Doyle was telling the truth, and why would he lie? And then others—people whose faces and names I hadn’t even known. They had died right after the dragons had been set loose.

  This place was now a huge, dark tomb.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be horrible to blow it all sky high.

  It would get rid of the dragons, after all.

  But not if it meant losing any more lives.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen.

  I wasn’t.

  Movement. Out of the corner of my eye.

  “Stop,” I said.

  Everyone stopped.

  I pointed. “Over there. Lights over there.” We’d decided it wasn’t much of an advantage not to have our flashlights on. The dragons couldn’t see us, but we couldn’t see them either. And this floor had seemed so empty.

  The dragon was in the back of its cage, but it was lunging for us.

  “No!” I screamed, grabbing three arrows and letting them all loose as quickly as I could, one right after the other.

  But I wasn’t fast enough.

  The dragon was already moving.

  It flew at Nicole. It sunk claws into her belly and flapped up to the ceiling, dragging her with it.

  Something fell out of her pocket and clinked on the ground.

  “No!” Nicole reached for it.

  I let loose another arrow.

  The shot was good. It burrowed into the dragon’s head. The dragon dropped Nicole.

  Naelen reached out and used magic to catch her in midair. He also caught the dragon. Slowly, he lowered both to the floor.

  I rushed forward. “Nicole!”

  She pointed. “Keys.”

  Foster scooped them up off the floor. “What are these? Why did you have them?”

  “They’re Ezra’s. It’s sentimental. Give them to me.” She was practically hysterical.

  Probably focusing on something else, anything else besides the fact that she’d been wounded.

  “How bad did it get you?” I said. “Let me see.”

  “I’m fine,” said Nicole. She reached out. “Give me the keys!”

  Foster handed them over.

  Nicole pushed herself to her feet. She was bleeding badly. Her shirt was soaked.

  No, no, no. I couldn’t let her die.

  I grabbed her by the arm. “You’re bleeding. Let us bind the wound. Let us do something.”

  She shoved me off. “I’m fine.” She staggered away from me, heading in the complete wrong direction.

  “Nicole,” I called after her.

  “I got her,” said Naelen. “You get to those fuse boxes, okay?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “Higher. Shine it higher,” I said to Foster. “No, no, no…”

  “What?” said Celia.

  “The fuses,” I said. “Look, the wires going out have all been cut.”

  “Damn,” said Foster, shaking his head.

  “So, what’s that mean?” said Celia.

  I dragged a hand over my face. “Okay, look, when we talked about the snowmobiles before, there were seven of us, but there are only five now. Maybe we can all fit on them.”

  “The keys,” said Foster. “The keys that Nicole has. That’s where I’ve seen them before.”

  “What?” I said.

  “She has the keys to the snowmobiles,” he said.

  I ran back out after Naelen and Nicole. They were across the room. She was struggling with him. I kept running. As I got closer, I could hear them talking.

  “…in shock right now,” Naelen was saying. “Calm down and let me help you.”

  “I don’t need your fucking help!” Nicole snarled. “I need to get away from you. Get away from all of you.”

  Celia and Foster had followed me. They were right behind me.

  I stopped short in front of Naelen and Nicole. “Why?” I said in a hoarse voice. “Why didn’t you leave when you had the chance? You turned off all the power and hit the self-destruct, why didn’t you go then?”

  She twisted in Naelen’s arms and seethed at me. “I tried. I couldn’t get out. Too many damned dragons. I figured I’d be safer with you until I figured a way to get to the snowmobiles.”

  “You said it was a whiteout. You said we couldn’t navigate in that storm,” I said.

  “You probably can’t,” said Nicole. “But I grew up out here. I can manage.”

  “Wait,” said Naelen. “You are the killer?”

  “He betrayed me,” said Nicole. “He deserved it. When he told me that he was going to leave me for Celia—whiny Celia—well, I just lost it. I let the dragons out. I
figured it was appropriate that he die by his stupid dragons.”

  “You’re awful,” said Celia. “I loved him.”

  “You don’t know what love is. You’re a child,” said Nicole.

  “Well, that explains Ezra,” I said, “but what about everyone else?”

  “I never meant that,” she said.

  “You didn’t? But you set the self-destruct.”

  “That was only after everyone was onto me,” she said. “All those accusations… no, I couldn’t chance it that the secret would come out. I shouldn’t even have been here. I didn’t leave the facility afterward because I felt guilty about the dragons being on the loose, and I was trying to get them back in their cages, I really was. But then people just started dying left and right and… then, then… Well, then it was me or you sad sacks. And I chose me. But now it doesn’t matter.” She gestured to her stomach, where she was bleeding. “You can rest easy, Clarke. I’m getting what I deserve.”

  “No, you’re not,” said Celia. “Think of all the loved ones, all the families of the people you killed. You’ve destroyed more lives than I can count.”

  “Well, I regret it now.” Nicole was starting to cry. “I wish I hadn’t killed him. I was just so angry. Now, he’s gone, and… and I miss him.”

  “Fuck you,” said Celia,

  Nicole looked at her. “I do. I miss him. And it’s all your fault.”

  “How dare you?” said Celia and she grabbed one of the arrows out of my quiver.

  “Celia!” I leaped after her, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  Celia dove at Nicole, screaming in rage. She began stabbing the other woman with the arrow. Once in the chest. Once in the neck. Once in the eye. She jammed the arrow in and out, and blood splashed everywhere.

  I should stop her. I should grab her. I should—

  Then Foster pulled Celia off Nicole.

  Nicole didn’t move.

  We all backed away from her bloody, ruined body. Her one remaining eye gazed blankly at the ceiling.

  * * *

  “Get it off me, get it off me,” Celia was saying as she rubbed her hands against her pants and shirt. “Her blood is everywhere.”

  I snatched her by the arm. “Shut up.”

  She hiccuped and gasped, but she stopped making noise.

  “Listen to me, Celia. You’re the one who decided to stab a woman to death. You deal with the blood.”

  “But she—”

  “I know what she did,” I said. “I don’t blame you. She deserved worse than what she got. But your voice is way too loud. The dragons are going to hear you.”

  Celia’s lower lip trembled, but she nodded.

  We were all quiet.

  “Well,” I said. “There’s only four of us left. I guess we fit on the snowmobiles.”

  “Guess so,” said Naelen.

  We walked away from Nicole’s body and headed back down the winding room of empty cages.

  No one said anything, but Celia sobbed quietly.

  Eventually, Foster put his arm around her. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I got you. It’s okay.”

  Honestly, I felt like crying too. I looked up at Naelen, imagining him comforting me in that way. I almost went to him. I almost leaned into his hard body and wrapped my arms around his waist.

  But I didn’t.

  It wouldn’t be fair to him. I had to face the fact that Naelen and I were never going to work, and I needed to stop the confusing messages that were going back and forth between us.

  If he could only understand, once and for all, that there was no way that anything could be between us, then things would be easier. I couldn’t go to him for comfort. Not now.

  But when I looked at Foster and Celia, it looked nice.

  At the door to the room, we were met by two dragons.

  I reached for my arrows, but Naelen raised both his hands and twisted them in the air. The dragons’ necks broke, and they fell to the ground.

  Naelen let out an audible breath.

  I touched his shoulder. “Okay?”

  “Fine,” he said. “I can handle this power if it saves our lives.”

  “How long do we have until the self-destruct kicks in?” I said.

  “At least an hour,” he said. “We’re good. Let’s get to those snowmobiles.”

  We hurried through the hallways. Finally, we stopped in front of a circular sliding door. I remembered it. This one opened onto a long hallway that ended with another circular door. Those two doors and the hallway between them were all that stood between us and the outside world.

  Well, except for the dragons that were in that hallway.

  The circular door was half open, and the dragons had gotten in there. There were lots of them. Maybe as many as fifteen. They were all jostling into each other, breathing out fire when they ran into each other and growling. They were taking up all the space in the hallway. We could maybe make it to the alcove where the snowmobiles were kept if we were quiet and careful, but making it to the door would be impossible without their seeing us.

  “Shit,” I breathed.

  “Hell,” said Naelen.

  “What?” said Foster. Then he saw. “Damn.”

  “Oh, God,” said Celia. “We’re going to die here after all.”

  “No,” I said. “We’ve got to make it. Maybe… we’ll run through them fast. Naelen can use magic to keep them off us.”

  “There are too many of them,” he said. “And if we open that door, they’ll all get out.”

  All of those dragons flying out of the facility, taking to the air, disappearing into the snow storm. I couldn’t release them on the world.

  “So…” I swallowed hard. “What do we do?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Look,” said Naelen, “the facility’s going to self-destruct anyway.”

  “Yeah, but we don’t want to be in here when it happens,” I said.

  “What if we timed it right?” said Naelen. “Waited until just before the self-destruct kicked in and then made a break for it?”

  I considered. “We wouldn’t make a break for it until it was five minutes before the self-destruct was going to happen?”

  “Yeah,” said Naelen. “Some dragons still might get out, but the bulk of them would be killed.”

  I nodded slowly. “I guess it’s the best plan we’ve got.”

  “I guess we do have to kill the dragons, don’t we?” said Celia. “Otherwise, they’d be chasing us out there.”

  “Yeah,” said Foster. “It’s as good a plan as we’re going to get.”

  “So, we get in position and wait?” said Naelen.

  “What are we going to wear into the snow?” said Celia.

  “Good question,” I said.

  “I saw some coats back here in the closet,” said Naelen. “I’ll get them. You guys stay here for a minute.”

  I didn’t argue with him.

  He ducked out for a few moments and then reappeared with an armful of fur and fleece.

  “Yeah, this is where we all kept our gear,” said Foster. “Should work.”

  “Now we wait,” said Naelen.

  “Yes,” I said. “We wait.”

  We waited for some time, until we heard the message. Beepbeepbeep. “Self-destruct in one hour.” Beepbeepbeep.

  “An hour,” muttered Foster. “Can we make it that long?”

  “We can,” I said.

  And wait we did. We pressed ourselves against the smooth walls, and we watched the dragons warily. The dragons milled around the entrance, moving slowly like dinosaurs in a swamp, lazily lording over their kingdom. The dragons didn’t know we were there. As long as the dragons didn’t touch, they seemed fine, but if one of them jostled the other, there would be a snarl and a shoot of flame. A few times, I thought a big fight amongst two of the dragons was imminent, but the full-out fights never did materialize. There were only a few small skirmishes.

  “Why do they do that?” Celia asked. “Aren’t they o
n the same side?”

  “It’s not about sides to the dragons,” I said. “They’re aggressive and violent. End of story.”

  She hugged herself. “And you’re sure it’s okay to kill them? Positive that there aren’t people trapped in there, that they’ll never be able to shift again.”

  “Yes, I’m positive,” I said. “They’ll never shift again.”

  We were quiet again.

  Naelen sorted through the coats and boots he’d found. He tried on one of the coats, but it wouldn’t fit over his shoulders. He handed it to Foster instead, who got it on pretty easily.

  Naelen tried on another of the coats. This one didn’t fit either.

  “Are there others?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” said Foster. “I know where they are. I’ll go look.”

  “Not by yourself,” said Celia, standing up too.

  “I won’t let you two go off on your own,” I said.

  “I can do it,” said Naelen. “Just tell me where they are.”

  “It’s easier if I go,” said Foster.

  “No, it’s easier if I go,” said Naelen. “Then I can try on the coats there and I don’t have to lug more than one back here.”

  Foster considered. “Okay, well, if you go back in there, then you make your first right, and you’ll be in this tiny narrow hallway. Follow it back until it forks, and then take a left, and—”

  “Fine,” said Naelen. “You go.”

  “I’m going too,” said Celia.

  “No,” I said. “I don’t like this. Naelen, you go with Foster, and I’ll stay here with Celia. We shouldn’t get separated.”

  “Then let’s all go,” said Naelen.

  It wasn’t as if we were doing anything else pressing.

  We followed Foster into a big closet with racks on all three sides. The racks were empty except for a long hanger containing a bright orange scarf. There was a narrow hallway under one of the empty racks. Foster and Celia squeezed down it.

  “I’ll stay here to stand guard,” I said.

  Naelen stayed too.

  “I thought you were going to need to be there to try on coats,” I said to him.

  “I don’t want to leave you here by yourself,” he said.

  “I can take care of myself,” I said. “They can’t take care of themselves.”