“Yeah, I do. We’re going to be tired, hungry, and thirsty, but we’ll make it.”
Spider pressed his thin lips into a tight line. “For the record,” he said, pointing a finger at me, “I hate this plan.”
I nodded. “Duly noted,” I said, “Now, keep up.”
I broke into a jog, and after a moment’s hesitation, Spider followed, keeping a surprisingly quick pace. The run through the tunnels was quiet, filled only with introspection and the sound of our feet slapping the concrete. I thought about Jamie more than I had planned to, wondering where he was, hoping he was alright, but I also thought about the Guardians and what they had said to me, what they had done.
Spider suggested they had lashed out, and I was in a position to agree, now that I’d had time to think about it. These creatures had been imprisoned for several hundreds of years, their energy manipulated, stolen from them, and directed in a way that would keep people safe while stripping them of their freedom to know the truth about the world they lived in. I couldn’t blame them for attacking my mind the way they had. In fact, I almost felt like I could thank them.
They had shown me the worst possible outcome of my decision, the death of everything and everyone in the city, but it hadn’t really happened, and when I woke up, I felt… different. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly had changed, but something inside of me had shifted in the right direction. Whether they had intended for this internal change to happen or not remained a question I didn’t think I’d find an answer to, but despite the fact that they had immediately dissipated and abandoned me and taken away some of my ability to do magic, there was a big part of me that felt grateful toward them, thankful.
It was this energy that kept me moving, pushing through the long, straight, narrow tunnel of sewers that connected the city to the checkpoint at the very edge of the only world I had ever known. There wasn’t a doubt in our minds that we would make it to the end of the road, and even though Spider couldn’t create a telepathic link with anyone from the Order, we both had faith that they were all alive, well, and that they had made it out of the city on their own steam.
We would just have to find them when we got out, but that would be a bridge to cross when we came to it. Right now, we had a gate to deal with—a sealed, locked, tough looking gate, on the other side of which was freedom, and light; the way out of this old, unused, sewage outflow.
“Can you open it?” I asked.
Spider was hunched over the control panel next to the barred gate. “The control panel is fried,” he said, “I don’t know what’s happened to it.”
“Dammit.” I tried to push it open, but the thing wouldn’t budge an inch. “No way, not again. Do you know if there’s another way around?”
“I don’t know if I can walk any more today. We’ve been at this for hours and we’re right there.”
I shut my eyes, concentrated, and forced my magic to manifest, only doing so came with resistance. When my eyes opened again I saw my hand was sputtering with weak, blue light, not blazing as it had been. I ground my teeth, pressed my hand against the bars, and commanded the gate to unlock and open for us. I could feel the magic working, if only weakly, but the gate was stronger than my magic, and it refused to open.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Spider said, “But I can feel it too. Maybe the Guardians leaving changed something.”
I cursed loudly, and my voice travelled down the tunnel and out the other side. I let my head rest against the gate, shut my eyes, and sighed deeply. When I opened them again, I noticed a human figure breaking the light. I perked up and stepped away from the gate, hands tightening into fists. Spider noticed too, and he also backed away from the gate.
The figure at the end of the tunnel started to move in, and that made my heart start pounding. I thought about turning around and running, but whoever this was might have a way of opening the gate, whether they wanted to or not, and running was counterproductive to that goal. I swallowed hard and pulled one of my guns out of its holsters, checked the clip—three bullets left.
“Who are you?” I called out.
The figure didn’t reply.
I raised my gun. “Don’t take another step!”
The light around the person walking down the tunnel changed and warped, bringing his face into view.
“Jamie!” I yelled. I took a step forward, then stopped and brought my gun back up. “Hold it right there,” I said.
Jamie stopped and put his hands up. “Max,” he said, “It’s me.”
“How do I know that? How do you even know I’m here?”
He looked at Spider, then at me. “Remember before we set off for the Seelie portal,” he said, “Remember I hugged you?”
I narrowed my eyes, but said nothing.
“Check the back of your neck.”
Keeping my gun hand trailed on him, I used my hesitant free hand to touch the back of my neck. There was something there, something thin and stuck to me. I picked at it with my nails and peeled it off, then stared at it. What had been stuck to the back of my neck was an almost transparent film run through with circuits. I looked up at Jamie.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
“That’s the way the Faction was able to track Kim and Daliah. I saved it, modified it, and then I slapped it on you. I had a feeling you’d pull something crazy like this.”
“You put a tracking device on me?” I asked.
Jamie nodded, and slowly, a smile swept across his face. I laughed, as a flood of emotions spilled out of me all at once. I didn’t know what else to do but laugh. Jamie joined in a second later, then Spider, and soon the three of us were laughing in this dim, empty tunnel.
“Stand back,” he said, and he approached with what looked like a small black box dragging wires. He attached the wires to the panel on his side of the gate, pressed a button on the black box, and both panels lit up. Spider quickly moved up to the panel on our side, and after only a couple of seconds, managed to get the gate to click loudly, and unlock.
I pulled open the gate and threw my arms around Jamie’s neck. His lips found mine as he held on to my hips and pulled me further into his embrace, pouring his relief at seeing me alive into the kiss itself as I was to see him alive. When the kiss broke, he brushed my hair out of my face and smiled at me.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.
“Me too.”
Spider cleared his throat. “This is great,” he said, “But… can we get out of here?”
“Come with me,” Jamie said, “There’s something you need to see.
He walked us both to the edge of the tunnel. Above us was the checkpoint, which according to Jamie, he had found abandoned; not a trace of the Faction in sight. I tried not to question it and instead focused on reaching the light, and getting out of the darkness.
Finally, the bright dot of light gave way, and I saw as I stepped toward the edge of the tunnel, what the world really looked like outside of the shield that had been surrounding the city.
The land in front of me wasn’t green, or brown, but yellow. The earth was cracked, the mountains barren and devoid of trees. In the distance I spotted what looked like buildings, ruined and abandoned, nothing more than black, broken shells where humans may have lived a long, long time ago. Nearby I spotted a convoy of vehicles with people standing around them, the energy changing from suspense, to energetic excitement as soon as they spotted us emerging from the mouth of the tunnel. Abel was there, as was Aisha, and Charles, and the rest of the Order of Prometheus.
This wasn’t earth; it was hell. But we were alive, all of us, and that meant there was still something left to fight for. But the Order of Prometheus wasn’t the only thing left to fight for. There, on the horizon, was something I hadn’t expected to see. Something that chilled me. It was faint, but it was there. Jamie had been the one to first spot it when they had arrived.
It was another Angel Dome, and that meant
another city… and more enslaved Guardians.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading this book! If you’ve come this far, and you’re still reading, then it means you really care about my work, and that’s awesome. I really appreciate the time you’ve taken to go on this journey with me, and hope I’ve done a good job by you! If I have, please consider leaving a quick review for me on Amazon—reviews are what help other readers decide whether or not to buy a book, and your couple of extra minutes could really help me out.
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Katerina Martinez
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Also by Lee Dignam & Katerina Martinez
The Order of Prometheus Series
Book 1: Smoke and Shadows
Book 2: Cloak and Daggers
The Blood and Magick Series
Book 1: Magick Reborn
Book 2: Demon’s Kiss
Book 3: Witch’s Wrath
The Half-Lich Series
THE HALF-LICH BOXED SET
Book 1: Dark Siren
Book 2: The Void Weaver
Book 3: Night and Chaos
The Amber Lee Series
Book 1: True Witch
Book 2: Dark Witch
Book 3: Shadow Witch
Book 4: Red Witch
Book 5: Devil’s Witch
The Cursed and Damned Series
Book 1: The Dead Wolves
About the Author
Katerina Martinez lives on the Rock of Gibraltar with her husband, her daughter, and their three cats. Her “Half-Lich” Trilogy put her on the map back in 2016, and opened a number of doors to her that had been closed until then. Now armed with a much deeper understanding of the publishing business and with a firmer hold on her craft, she wants to deliver novels that not only have the power to make your skin crawl, but also make your heart swell.
She hopes you’ve enjoyed Cloak and Daggers, and thanks you for being a reader!
[email protected]
www.katerinamartinez.com
https://www.facebook.com/katmartinezauthor/
Cloak and Daggers (Order of Prometheus Book 2) Page 17