“Believe it or not, you helped me when you got the Fyean away from us. You broke the lift, injured a few guards. I was able to convince my superiors the situation in Miroc was too unstable and that the project should be moved. Several other Desavris locations are fighting for the project right now. It will be months before it’s back up and running.”
“Plenty of time for you to figure out how to break it again.”
“Terrel will go with it, wherever it ends up. It will become his problem.” Seana stood and came around her desk. She reached down and cupped her fingers under my chin. “I like being Seana. She has a sense of purpose. You can’t imagine what it was like for us, what we lost when our father stopped speaking to us. It feels good to be her, to feel her confidence, her conviction.”
Her hand moved up to stroke my cheek. I closed my eyes and thought of Seana, the real Seana. I had to remember her, focus on her, and not on the creature wearing her skin. If this was to work…
Her voice was soft, intimate, close. “You were her greatest regret, that she had to give you up. And I understand, I do. You shine with that same conviction. And it’s selfish of me—it would have been selfish of her—but I want you here. I want you with me. The others, they hate you and fear you because you know the truth about us. They can’t see that that’s precisely why I need you.”
A rustling sound and her hands were on my legs. I opened my eyes to see her on her knees, face-to-face with me. “I’ve been alive—half alive—for so long. No thoughts of my own, no needs, no wants. Only obedience and secrecy, and one life after another that wasn’t mine. But I want a life. I want to feel and be and know, and I want someone at my side who understands the whole of me.”
She leaned forward until her lips were a breath away from mine. “Who loves the whole of me,” she whispered.
The shadow had it all down, the voice, the look, the way Seana moved. But the words were all wrong. Every one of them. Seana would never have compromised her ideals, her people, not for anything. Not for love. Not for me. It was the truth that had come between us. And now it was the truth that helped me do what I had to do, despite the face of the woman I loved pleading for me to stay.
I closed the distance between us, pressed my lips to hers. I kissed as though it were a promise. I didn’t trust myself to speak the lie. Kaifail was a convincing liar. I wasn’t sure I could be. Not about this.
I counted to ten in my head, then pulled back, forged my best smile. “This would be easier if my hands were free. I swear I’m not carrying any weapons.”
She breathed a soft laugh. “Even if you were, it’s not as if you know how to use them.” She reached around behind me, touched some hidden latch, and the restraints fell away.
I lifted my hand to her cheek, ran a finger over her smooth skin. So many times I’d done this before. Nights together, Seana and I. I remembered the way she’d lean in to me, the way her eyes would not quite close. The soft sigh as she’d relax—truly relax—and for just a little while focus on us instead of her omnipresent employer.
Seana and I. I locked the images in my head as I leaned in for another kiss. I slipped one arm around her, pulling her close. The other hand behind her head, holding her against me. Seana and I. Memory and emotion. The truth of us. Our hearts, our souls.
The magic I’d used to save myself from the shadow, the power-fueled determination to stay me. I focused that power on her, my mind and heart full of my sense of us, of her, of the Seana I knew rather than this broken copy in my arms.
She felt the magic as soon as I released it. She tried to pull away, but I held her tight. She struggled against me, bit at my lip where I held her in the kiss. I fed the power through us. Everything I knew that was Seana—the real Seana. It burned through her, refining, purifying.
Seana and I. The hope I hadn’t dared voice. Syed’s claim that their hosts didn’t die when the shadow invaded, but only when it left. If I could hold on to Seana, if the magic could hold her, re-create her, burn her clean the way it had me—
If I could save her.
The shadow fought back. It tried to move into me, like ice against my skin, my hands, my lips, but I held my sense of self as solid in my head as I did my sense of her. I soaked in the magic, let it define me and re-create me the same as I was doing to her.
“Ash, please! Don’t. I can’t. I’ll do anything.”
Seana would never have begged. I flared the power one more time, felt it race through me, through her.
She moaned, struggled. In my heightened awareness, I knew the shadow, felt its separate presence inside, felt it trying to flee.
My power was a cage. Seana, the shadow, and I. I held it inside her as the magic burned it from the inside. Her hands clenched on my arms. My power flared through the both of us. Seana and I. Only Seana and I. I opened my eyes, saw the clear gray of hers. “Ash!”
The shadow was gone.
And Seana was…
She gave one last gasp, and went limp in my arms.
Lifeless.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Shock
I eased Seana’s body onto the floor. I was numb from the effort, from the sadness, from the shock.
I hadn’t saved her. Hadn’t even bought myself the time to make a proper goodbye.
One shadow gone, but two more were still out there, hunting my friends. I had no time to mourn.
Seana’s desk. Seana’s computer. I poked at the touch-screen, searching for some kind of familiar directory. I’d watched her do this; I just had to remember. For the first time in days, I found it a blessing rather than a curse that all the technology I was used to had first been Jansynian designs.
Too long. This was taking way too long. Where were the other two shadows? Had they reached the lab already? Were Iris and Spark and Vogg already…
There. The screen switched over to the view of the lab. The still-empty view of the lab. Which told me Syed, at least, was still in the game.
Volume controls at the bottom of the screen, both muted. I moved both sliders up, hoping I was right and this was the intercom. “Hello? Iris? Anyone?”
“Ash!” Iris’s yelling voice and the sound of gunshots. Surreal and disconnected from the video feed showing a still-empty lab. “Where are you?”
“Seana’s office. She’s been…I’m alone.”
“Nothing works! Nothing’s hooked up. There’s no way for Spark to get into the system. You need to get down here. We need to—”
“No.” Spark’s voice. “Wait. You may be able to…hold on.”
More gunfire. A crash. “Iris? Spark? What’s happening? I can’t see.”
The video feed flashed, and Syed’s veil dropped away. I took in the situation as fast as I could.
Piles of chairs, tables, cabinets, and even computers blocked the three doorways leading into the main room. One of those doorways held a solid metal door that looked to be holding, but the other two entrances had windows built into the doors. Windows that had been smashed out and had Jansynian security shooting through them.
Vogg crouched behind a desk in the central work area, returning fire. A wall divided the central space, and Syed and Iris were behind that wall, standing up on tables so they could also shoot back. Both of them had obtained Jansynian weapons.
Spark poked her head out from one of the side offices where she was huddled on the floor. She looked up at the camera through which I was seeing the room. That must have been where my voice came from. “You need to reconnect us!”
“How?” I winced as an explosive projectile blew a hole in the wall of the desk Vogg was using for cover. He swore and squeezed off three quick shots in the direction it had come from.
Spark dragged her bag out from the office and fished out her NetPad. She lay on the floor, typing furiously into it. I waited, powerless, separated from the action once again.
Vogg’s ears were flat against his head, a determined grimace on his face. Iris was still Jansynian, but her hair had gone wild, with end
s of angry red. Only Syed still seemed calm, taking one careful shot after another. “Have you seen the other shadows yet?”
“Not yet,” Iris answered, ducking a sudden shower of chips from the damaged ceiling.
“Only two left to deal with,” Syed said.
“How did you know?”
Another explosive hit the wall directly behind Syed. He didn’t flinch. “I felt her die.”
Streaks of red spread up Iris’s hair. “Can you feel the other two? Do you know where they are?”
“No,” he answered. Then, after a pause: “But they will come to us. Never doubt it.”
“I’ve got it!” Spark cried, excited. “Ash, if you can get me into the system, I should still be able to make this work.”
I pulled in closer to Seana’s computer. “How do I do that?”
“It’s just security. I need the right permissions is all.” She was still typing away without looking up.
Not that she had a camera into this office, so she couldn’t see me staring helplessly at the screen. “You’re going to have to talk me through this. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Quickly,” Vogg said through clenched teeth.
#
It wasn’t quick. Neither Spark nor I knew the system well enough for her to be able to talk me straight through it. I opened folders and ran programs and sifted through layers I didn’t even know existed, reading screen after screen out loud as Spark shook her head to all of them. While the firefight continued.
Vogg took a shot to the head. It knocked him back, shattered one of his horns. He crawled back to his feet, slower, but still moving. Still shooting.
Syed got shot as well. A bullet tore through his shoulder. He didn’t seem to notice.
“There, that’s it!”
My hand froze over the blinking line of text I’d just read. “That’s what?”
Spark looked up towards the camera. “That’s me. That’s my signal. You should be able to just tap me and give me access.”
I did as she said, tapped the line of text and was given a menu of security options that seemed to be in ascending order of access. I picked the very top one. “Are you in?”
“I’m in.” Her attention was back on her work. “Now I just need to…you’ve done all you can, Ash.”
“Could use another hand down here,” Iris added impatiently.
“I’m on my way.”
I shut down the computer. No reason to make it any easier for anyone who came in after me to see what we were doing. I paused at Seana’s body, hesitating too long before I took her gun. Guilt twisted my stomach—guilt for everything—but there simply wasn’t time to let it slow me down.
Spark had talked me through the route from Seana’s office to the lab before we split up. I didn’t run. That would have drawn all the wrong kinds of attention. I did walk as fast as I possibly could.
No more security got in my way. I heard no alarms. Saw no signs of trouble. Seana had wanted to keep this quiet, and now Spark was inside the system, making it work for us. I moved fast as I dared through the empty halls, preparing myself for the inevitable confrontation.
Or so I thought. Instead, what I did was run directly into an ambush.
I’d seen the security shooting into the lab, keeping my friends cornered. I hadn’t thought to scan the hallways outside, to get the lay of the land before I rushed down here. Too many things going on at once. I’d been picturing the Jansynian teams all crowded up by the doors, their backs to the hall, an easy target to approach. I hadn’t thought it through.
I came round a corner, still two hallway intersections from the lab, when one of the guards grabbed me by the wrist and twisted. Both startling and painful, and I dropped my gun. She shoved me against the wall and held me there. “Drake is neutralized.”
I was close enough to her earpiece I could hear the command that came back. “Bring him forward. He’s useful as a hostage.”
Shit shit shit. I tried to pull away, but she twisted my arm up until all I could think about was the pain. After that, I went quietly. I’d have to think my way out of this one. And quickly.
Except it got worse. The third shadow, Terrel, waited in the hall with the rest of the team. His eyes narrowed as he saw me. Of course he’d be able to see I was still me, and his next question would be—
“Seana?” he asked softly. Not to me. He listened, his head tilted towards his earpiece. “Director Seana, please respond.
“What did you do?” That question, full of venom, was definitely directed at me. He grabbed me by my shirt and threw me into the wall. “Little human pissant, what did you do?”
I was tired of being pushed around, of being afraid. I rippled the magic through me, felt its hot pulse. “Would you like me to show you?”
He grabbed me again, shook me hard enough to break my concentration. He was strong, much stronger than me. I didn’t know if that was his Jansynian body or the shadow giving it life. I just knew I couldn’t break away. “This ends now,” he said.
Holding me in front, he pushed his way through the guards in position around the door. From inside, I heard Vogg yell, “Hold fire!”
“No!” What mattered was Spark, that they not get to her.
But it was too late. My friends weren’t going to shoot me. That gave the Jansynians the cover they needed to push through the door.
Terrel and I breached the doorway first, with the security team streaming in behind. Vogg had fallen back. I could just see the top of his head over the divider wall. I placed him in the doorway of the office Spark had been hiding in. I didn’t see Syed.
Iris launched herself from the office on my left, gaining weight and size as she moved. Even Jansynian discipline faltered at the sight of a bear inside their space. In the moment before they could get their bearings and shoot at her, she drove her claws deep into Terrel’s back. He let me go, stumbling. But his shadow-driven body didn’t fall.
The lights went out.
No, it was more than that. I’d seen this office with the lights out. Blinking panels on the walls, dim glows around the light switches, and soft emergency lighting meant it was never pitch-dark. Except now it was. One of the shadows, or Syed? Did this work for us or against us?
A door slammed. Vogg. The darkness was against us if it meant they could get to Spark. How long would one office door keep the shadows out?
The shooting had stopped, the Jansynians as thrown by the darkness as the rest of us. I crept forward, trying to find a wall to put at my back. My eyes watered, straining to adjust, but no matter how much I blinked I couldn’t make anything out in the unnatural blackness.
A roar, and gunfire erupted. Iris taking advantage. Bright pain seared through my thigh. One of the shots meant for her. I scrambled forward on a leg that wanted to collapse. “Iris!”
A hand grabbed my shoulder, dragged me back against a woman’s body. A familiar voice whispered in my ear. “You don’t need her. I want some time together, just you and me.”
Amelia. Her cold fingers wrapped around my neck. I tried to shout again, but she squeezed, cutting off my breath. “Quiet, now. We have unfinished business.”
I’d fought this one off in the warehouse, when it had been Micah. And now it was in Amelia. I didn’t know her as well as Seana, but still well enough to use the magic, to drive out the assaulting shadow.
If only I could breathe.
“What, no clever remark? No arrogant taunts?” Her fingers were like ice, the shadow pressing against my skin, but it wasn’t trying to get in. Not yet. It had learned. As an invader, it was at a disadvantage. Like this…
Another gunshot, close and deafening.
The lights came back up. Dimmer than before. Or maybe that was my own vision failing. I could see enough. Terrel at the door that led to Spark, his midsection a bloody mess. Syed, ten feet away, holding one of the Jansynian guns.
Terrel slid down and the shadow seeped free of his body. Towards the door.
&nb
sp; Vogg wouldn’t be able to see it.
Amelia, too, had turned towards the shot. Which meant she saw Syed’s gun turn on her. She threw me at him.
I choked, dragging air through a throat that felt full of glass. I couldn’t keep my feet under me. I fell towards Syed.
He jumped to the side, but the momentary distraction was enough for shadow-Amelia to draw a gun of her own. And shoot.
Bloody red holes blossomed in Syed’s chest, his stomach, his throat. His eyes went wide. The gun fell from his hand.
I had no time. I had to get to Spark.
I had to block out the sound of Amelia’s laughter, of Iris’s pained roars, of Syed’s gurgling breath as he staggered back. I had to ignore my bruised windpipe, my torn thigh, my reeling head. Shadow number three was seeping through the door that led to Vogg and Spark. I was the only one left who could stop it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Out of Time
I knew how to fight off a shadow trying to invade me. I knew how to fight off a shadow that was already inside someone with whom I was close. What I didn’t know was how to fight one that was floating free, how to stop it from getting to Vogg, to Spark. How to kill it before it took another life.
Magic. That was their enemy. I’d been told—what felt like years ago—that was the key. Kill the body. Magic away the shadow. But what did that even mean? What was the pattern? What was the technique? I couldn’t just throw raw energy, raw change at it.
No, that wasn’t true. I could. It was simply everything I’d been taught not to do. It would be dangerous. Maybe suicidal.
I’d run out of time. I’d run out of options.
“Vogg! Cover!” I yelled. Hoping it was still Vogg in there. Hoping I wasn’t too late.
I closed my eyes and summoned power. I didn’t try to define it. Didn’t try to control it. I anchored the energy in myself and sent it radiating out. Power. Energy. Change. Light against the darkness. Chaos against the stasis.
City of Burning Shadows (Apocrypha: The Dying World) Page 26