Henrick pulled my body against his side and glared at Park. “Listen to me, you pompous and very literal son of a bitch.” His voice was a growl, and his eyes were daggers. “You might have lived your entire life with no one who would dare call you on your garbage, but you’re not in the center anymore. That castle is very far away from you now. You’re not a prince out here, and you’re not going to tell anybody what to do, least of all this woman—who has given everything she has, has suffered more than any living person should have to, and has done it all only because the psychopathic woman who gave you life has a distaste for the effects of aging.”
“I’m not trying to tell her what to do,” Park answered flatly. “I’m telling her what she should do. I’m telling her what will happen if she doesn’t do what she should do, and, lest you forget while you’re attempting to paint me with the broad brush of privilege, I’m not just the prince of this sector. I’m also the Beacon. I’ve singlehandedly fought more and done more to help the downtrodden people of this sector—more than anyone else who has ever lived.”
“Have you?” Henrick asked, stepping away from me now to walk forward and confront Park. “Or do you just have the best PR team around? Because I, for one, would have figured that someone who has supposedly done as much good as the Beacon would have been better at the whole endeavor by now.” He shrugged. “But that’s your problem. Maybe you’re just not as good as you claim to be.”
“Say it again,” he said through clenched teeth.
Henrick’s own power surged. “Gladly.”
Energy surged around Park, the white webbing of the Beacon. I didn’t think anyone had actually seen the Beacon in action before we had, but now that I’d seen what he could do, his magic was as distinct as a fingerprint. If anyone ever saw him use his magic, they would know Park was the Beacon. That would explain the level of secrecy, but it also meant that him using his magic where it could be witnessed was infinitely more dangerous.
“That’s enough,” I screamed, finally able to wrap my head around everything. “The both of you need to stand down before I make you.”
With a deep breath, I sent out a bright blue frosted energy that created ice around the ground where I was standing. “I don’t need to be told what to do, not by a prince, the Beacon, or the leader of some resistance pocket,” I said, glaring them down. “I’ll decide what’s best for me.”
Park spun toward me, his mouth starting to open as if to say something, but I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t react if he said something stupid, so I cut him off before he had the chance.
“I get that you guys expect girls to do whatever you want them to, but that’s not gonna fly with me. I make my own choices.”
“And what choice would that be?” Henrick asked, folding his arms over his chest. Once again, I saw the slightest flicker of admiration in his eyes, and it filled me to the brim with pride.
Still, I blinked hard. I hadn’t thought about what my decision would be beyond the fact that it would be mine.
But there was only one thing I could do. Even though I hated the idea of pulling at this thread any further, of unraveling my life even more than it had already been unraveled, I had to do what was right.
I wasn’t the only one at stake here. It wasn’t just me on the line. It was all of us; it was everything. Heck, it was the whole sector, if things got bad enough.
I couldn’t leave it like this. Not now.
“Park is right,” I said, sighing loudly and looking between the men. “I have to get to the bottom of this…regardless of how painful it might be for me personally. There’s a reason why native blood is the only thing capable of cementing the transfer for Brula, and whatever that reason is, I have to find out. Because that’s the only way I’m going to be able to use it.”
Henrick’s expression fell. “Use it how, Razz?”
“However I have to,” I said. “Now get yourselves together. We’re leaving in ten.”
I sent Gemma back with one of the people Park had brought along with him. I didn’t trust them, but I did trust Park. Given the good things he told me about his band of resistance fighters, I figured my little sister would be better off holed up in some safe house than she would be traipsing around woodlands that had remained uncharted since the founding of the sector.
Gemma, however, was as stubborn as Father and me. She wanted to be part of this. In the end, it was only seeing how upset I was that touched her enough to do what I asked.
There were no guarantees that any of us would ever step foot outside of these woods once we walked into them, but I knew that what little chance I had would shrink significantly if I had to spend my time worrying about her.
She knew that, too. Better for her to be concerned about me from relative safety than for me to be worried as I shielded her from regent knows what in those woods. That would just put us both in more danger.
I told her I would see her again—a promise we both knew I had no business making and no way of knowing whether I could keep it.
Once she headed off with Park’s resistance, I turned to the two men.
Henrick was the light of the working class. He knew what it really meant to go face to face with a ravager with nothing more than wits and a thin layer of energy for safety.
Meanwhile, Park had a front-row seat to the regent’s lunacy. He knew the high echelon of the sector and the way things worked in the heart of the center.
At their core, they seemed to have so much in common, and yet, it was clear they didn’t care much for each other. There was something simmering under the surface, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on that was driving a divide between them.
Whatever it was, they were going to have to put it aside, because this forest was a dangerous beast. Even younglings knew that much.
The fables spoke of the creatures that may or may not have once truly existed within the forest—carnivorous bears with rounded noses and glowing eyes, giant rats with strong legs and pouches that hid evils the likes of which no man had ever lived to speak of, and water fowl that would take a head off as quickly as they could fly by.
If any of that was true, or if the forests held horrors of an entirely unreported sort, one thing was for sure—Henrick, Park, and I were going to have to work together if we wanted to make it out of there intact.
“Are you ready?” Park asked, moving toward me. He had on a vest with the royal sigil and held an energy cannon in his right hand.
Henrick was much more modestly prepared, but I imagined that probably had more to do with all of his supplies being blown up in the attack. That left him with only the weapon he carried on his body, which was a blade he kept stuffed in the crease of his belt.
“Can I trust you boys to play nice?” I asked, arching my brows and looking from one to the other.
Park gave me a sly grin. “That depends on just what that entails.”
Henrick practically growled at him. “We can manage,” he said, shooting Park a withering glare. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Chapter 22
In my entire life, I had been three places—my farm at home and the surrounding areas of the Dustlands, the circle and the torture that lay in those dungeons, and the safe house where Henrick, Gemma, and I intended to start over with our lives.
Now I could add a fourth destination to my rapidly growing travelogue—the forests.
They were unlike anything I had ever seen. In school, the teachers taught us about their density, about how unimaginably blinding they could be at night, about all the creatures and mysteries that likely hid behind the forest’s many twists and turns.
But, in all of my teachings and the things I had dreamt up in my head, I never imagined they’d be like this.
I marched, sandwiched between Henrick and Park, on our way to the location Mother spoke about in that blasted letter.
I had always figured the canopy of leaves in the forest would afford shade, that it would be cooler beneath their branches. Bu
t I was chokingly wrong.
The heat was unbearable, the air nearly too thick to breathe. Everything seemed wet, even though it hadn’t rained in days, and my entire body felt heavy and sluggish.
No wonder people never went into these things. The forest’s sheer atmosphere was more punishing than the entire first week I spent in the center dungeons.
“Are you okay?” Henrick asked me, looking back over his shoulder.
It was sweet, and I totally understood what he was going for. But it upset me nonetheless. As if keeping me in the middle like I was some sort of precious glass vase that could be shattered by the smallest touch wasn’t enough, now he was checking on me.
I mean, I didn’t see him asking Park if he was all right. Maybe that was just because Henrick hated his guts. Or maybe because Park was a guy it meant he didn’t need to be checked up on like a girl would.
“I’m fine,” I snapped, perhaps too intensely.
Henrick narrowed his eyes. “You sure don’t sound fine.”
“Would you stop it?” Park said from behind me. “She said she’ll make it, and after everything I’ve seen her go through, I’m inclined to believe her. So, if you wouldn’t mind treating her like an actual person instead of some petulant child, maybe we can actually get something done.”
Henrick leveled his gaze at Park. I could feel the heat pouring off Henrick—rage in its truest form. “I’ve had about enough of you, Prince.”
“Stop,” I said as firmly and dispassionately as I could muster. “I won’t deal with this, not from either of you.” I turned to Park. “The way Henrick does or does not treat me has absolutely nothing to do with you, and Henrick, I will ask for your help if I need it. And I didn’t ask for it, did I?”
“No,” he said, scowling. “I suppose you didn’t. Though, in all honesty, I didn’t think you had to.”
I sighed. “That’s not what I meant. You know I appreciate all you’ve done for Gemma and me. But this has been a lot to deal with. People are trying to use me, to hollow me out. Everyone sees me as weak, as something to be grabbed and mounted on a wall like a trophy. I feel like I don’t have a say in things. Even in who I am, who my father is.” I looked down. “I need to feel strong right now, and I can’t have you thinking I’m not. Not you. Do you understand what I mean?”
“Of course I do.” His hand brushed mine. “And just because I’m worried about you doesn’t mean I think you’re weak or anything less than spectacular, because I don’t. I think you’re the strongest, most impressive woman in the entire world.” His fingers entwined with my own, and I didn’t stop him. “I know you can take care of yourself. But the thing is…you don’t have to do it alone.”
My mother’s words flashed through my mind. A truly strong woman has nothing to prove. She takes care of herself when she needs to, and she lets others help her when they wish. That’s the kind of woman you need to be, Razz. Pride will only push away those who love you, and I’ve never met a person who was made stronger by doing that.
Mother was right. I didn’t have anything to prove. They knew how strong I was, and I knew how strong I was. This wasn’t about proving anything to anyone. This was about saving my life, and there was no weakness in working together on that.
And instead of calling me out for being prideful and foolish, Henrick told me I was the most impressive woman in the entire world.
My heart skipped a beat as I looked up at him, and his eyes, as intense as ever, bore deep down into me.
“Are we done now?” Park asked. I dropped Henrick’s hands and stepped back, and Park seized that opportunity to step between us, looking down at his compass. “Judging from the coordinates, we have around a mile to go, and it’ll be dark before—”
An unearthly and terrifying sound boomed through the woods, and my body contracted instinctively, the power inside of me surging to the surface.
“What in the sector was that?” I asked, cold rushing from me in torrents.
Henrick moved closer to me. “No clue.” He looked to Park. “Any ideas?”
“Me?” he asked.
“You’re the one with the royal education,” Henrick said. “Let’s see what it’s worth.”
Another roar, this one even louder, shuddered against the trees.
Whatever was making the noise was close, and it was getting closer with each passing second.
“Judging from the octave and our general location, it could be any number of things,” Park said, the white webbing of his Beacon magic sprawling outward from his fingertips. “None of them good.”
“Yeah, things growling in the distance usually aren’t good, but thanks for the clarification.”
Another roar. This one closer than ever.
“I don’t think this thing is so distant,” I said.
The tree beside us went lopsided, crunched, and started toppling down. I lifted my hands, wincing as the ice power shot from my palms. The blast collided with the tree trunk, freezing it instantly but not slowing it down.
I watched helplessly as the now-frozen chunk of tree rushed toward me.
The instant before it was scheduled to slam into me, crushing me beneath my own ability, a bright white energy net caught it.
The breath returned to my body, but it didn’t stay there for long.
Looking beyond the hanging frozen tree, I saw the thing that was the cause of all of this destruction. A creature I’d never seen before, huge and covered in hair, stood before us.
It wasn’t anything I had ever seen or heard of in class. I’d never considered that any other kind of beast might exist beyond the ravagers…but this…this was something inhuman, but different.
And it was going to kill us all.
Large canine teeth jutted out from its mouth as it ran toward us, its hind legs supported by long arms that steadied itself on the ground.
“Henrick,” Park said through gritted teeth.
Looking over, I saw that he was straining, the weight of the tree lying heavy on the net, which was connected to him on a psionic level.
“Get her out of here.”
“No,” I said, throwing my hands in front of me. “I’m not leaving anyone here to die for me.”
Ice flew from my hands and cascaded toward the creature. The monster seemed to sense it coming as it dodged the blast, barely breaking stride as it lumbered toward us at an even faster speed.
But I wasn’t out of tricks just yet.
Remembering what I did back at my housing quarters, I moved my hands downward, icing up the ground beneath the monster’s feet.
It slid, falling forward and losing its balance.
With a huff, Park let go of the energy net, letting it disappear. The three of us jumped out of the way, but the hairy beast wasn’t so lucky. It tried to move. Instead, it just slipped around on the ice until the frozen tree crashed down, killing it on impact.
I breathed heavy, a sliver of hope peeking into my heart.
But it was short lived.
Another roar echoed through the woods. And then I realized that what I thought was an echo was more roars coming from every direction.
Another beast made its way into view, followed by an even larger one. Soon, a swarm of beasts stared at us, fangs bared and fists pulled together tightly.
We couldn’t beat them. There wasn’t enough ice in the sector. There wasn’t enough webbing.
“Henrick,” Park said again. This time, he didn’t even look over when he spoke.
“I’m on it,” he said, and before I knew what was happening, he’d begun to pull me away.
I yanked back. “We face this together.”
“You need to go,” Park said as the beasts began to circle us, forming a makeshift barrier between us and the rest of the sector. “Now.”
“We’re all leaving, or none of us are.”
“Listen,” Park said. “If anybody could fight her way through this thing, it’d be you. But no one can. This is suicide, Razz. And we can’t lose you, not wh
en you might be the key to ending this.”
“Take Park first,” I said, looking back to Henrick. He had his arms wrapped around my waist.
“Not a chance.”
“Then take us both.”
“I would,” he said, his breath falling against my ear. “I swear I would.”
“Too much weight,” Park said, and it wasn’t a question. He knew why he couldn’t come along. He was staying behind so I could live.
A tear slipped onto my cheek, but Park just shook his head. “It’s okay, Razz. I’m the Beacon. If these things want to skin me alive or whatever it is they do, they’re going to have to earn it.”
His body convulsed, and his webbing shot out from every inch of him. The energy crashed into the beasts, but I could see them breaking through it already.
“Henrick,” Park screamed. “Go now!”
Henrick was already around me, the energy pulsating off him like an engine. Then the world rushed away, and, with it, any chance of saving Park. He was gone now. The crown prince of the sector would die alone in the woods, eaten by beasts, the truth of who he was and who he had been never revealed.
It was such a waste.
“Hold on!” Henrick yelled over the boom of his powers.
As quickly as we had ascended, we began to fall.
Fast.
The ground rushed toward us, and then Henrick turned. He whipped himself around, so that his back was to the approaching ground.
He was going to take the brunt of the hit.
For the second time in the span of a minute, a guy was likely going to die to save me.
And what would it be for?
“Henrick,” I yelled. “I want you to know something.” Tears began to well up in my eyes. “I want you to know—”
Under: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 5 (The Othala Witch Collection) Page 16