Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  Sam sighed heavily. ‘Like I said, we struggled, he fell. Hit below. Killed him instantly.’

  Tollin blinked in surprise. Samantha had managed that? He found himself wishing he’d been there. Of course, if he’d been there, it wouldn’t have happened at all.

  ‘Feel awful about the whole thing,’ Sam confessed. ‘I didn’t want to kill him. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that image of him out of my mind…I doubt I’ll ever forget any of it.’

  Tollin traced one of his fingers along the metal wall, watching the faint trail they left behind. ‘Yeah,’ he flicked at the wall absently, ‘I know how you feel. Death is never pleasant, no matter how many times you’ve seen it.’

  He could feel Sam’s mind racing. She was struggling with something. He waited. Sam wouldn’t be able to keep it to herself for long.

  ‘Tollin, the other day, Marus took me up to a spot on the mountain.’

  Tollin raised his eyes to the dark ceiling. A black wave of jealousy rose in him. Sam wasn’t his—of course—and could do whatever she wanted, but he hated the fact he was trapped here while his brother was enjoying his time with her. If it was someone else besides Marus, perhaps he wouldn’t feel as envious as he did now, but Marus usually only had one thing on his mind, and he was good when it came to getting it.

  He found it took a considerable effort to not say his next words through clenched teeth. ‘I’m sure that was pleasant.’

  ‘Ugh, shut up. It wasn’t like that. I’m not that easy.’

  He grinned at her vehemence. ‘Right. Sorry. So, what did you see up there, then?’

  Sam’s voice was practically twitching with a flirtatious smile. ‘You’re getting ahead of me. But you’re right, I did see something. I had a good view of the Myrmidon headquarters. I could see that generator of theirs, it was pretty normal and then it started to glow, really, really bright. Then this ribbon of something came down from the sky into the dome.

  ‘And then the glowing went back to normal. It was kind of like it was downloading something. I’m sure you’ve noticed there’s been a lot of seismic activity in the area. Do you think the two are connected in any way? Any idea about what it’s all about?’

  Tollin crossed his arms beneath his head and lay back, stretching out. ‘Look at you, using your brain!’

  Sam gave a little snort. ‘I’ve been known to, from time to time.’

  Tollin mulled over Sam’s words for a moment, absently chewing on his lower lip. ‘I think you’re right. They are connected. What you saw up on the mountain was a connection forming—a weak one, but it’s clearly growing stronger if it’s visible now. When it reaches its strongest, even without the second stone on your ring, it will form an unstable bridge and the force of that thing will be enormous. The generator won’t be able to handle it.’

  ‘Whoa, wait, what? But you said if that happened then it would wipe out all of the cities around us!’

  Tollin pressed his palms to his eyes. ‘I know.’

  ‘But we have to do something!’

  Tollin groaned. ‘I’m afraid it might already be too late.’ He winced as he said the words. They felt alien in his mouth. ‘Best we can do now is warn the cities. They probably won’t listen but we still need to try. Get Arkron to try and send out warnings over the radio stations, should be easy enough to hack in to. Have them evacuate as many people as possible. We’re almost out of time.

  ‘Look, Sam, it looks like something I was relying on seem to have fallen through, so we need to start making plans for your getaway. I’ve got to be worrying about you now—’

  Sam almost visibly straightened in his mind. ‘Oh, no you don’t! Why does no-one listen to me on this? I’m staying here! I’m part of the problem and I need to help fix it!’

  ‘Warn people; that’s the best thing you can do now. The earthquakes should be evidence enough for some people to know something is coming. Even if you can just get one person out that will be better than none. Tell them to go to Whitehall for holiday or something, just convince them to leave!

  ‘And you need to be careful. The Myrmidons are so disorganised I can hardly begin to guess at what they’re planning, the ones left at the base are the radical ones and they’re no doubt desperate. They’re going to be going to extreme measures and you’ve got to keep an eye out. Once you’ve done all you can to warn people, get out of here. Jump to some small Realm, Arkron will take you, or take a train, get as far away from here as possible, is that understood?’

  Sam’s resistance was surprisingly strong. She had an impressive will. ‘Shut up! I am not leaving you!’

  Tollin’s face grew stony. ‘You will do as I say, Samantha. I know it’s hard now, but I think the connection between us will weaken considerably once we’re in different Realms. We probably won’t be able to feel each other at all. You just need to get clear and stop worrying about me. I’ll figure something out; they can’t keep me in here for ever.’

  Sam was clearly not listening. It was aggravating, if slightly flattering. ‘Not gonna happen.’

  Tollin groaned in frustration. ‘Sam! Just obey me and get out. I can’t think about myself and worry about you! I will get out, I promise!’

  He could tell Sam didn’t believe him. He wasn’t sure he believed it himself, but if she was gone to some safer Realm they’d all be better off. Getting that ring as far away as possible was the top priority at the moment. If that caused new problems, if the Daemons managed to break free, well, so be it. Only then could he start worrying about his own situation without having Sam as a distraction.

  ‘Trust me on this, Sam. It’s been…interesting, this experience with you, but it can’t last for ever. The sooner we’re free of each other, the safer you’ll be. Arkron should be able to figure out a way to get that ring off of you in a more advanced Realm. Just go with them and try to forget any of this even happened.’

  He cut the connection before Sam could protest and leaned his head back against the wall, thumping it in a gentle rhythm. What were the chances she’d actually obey him? He didn’t know. It was odd, how attached she—all right, they—had both become to each other over the brief time they’d had. Oh, the wonders of a mental connection with someone.

  He was distantly aware that he’d not asked her if she’d communicated with the Daemons in her ring or not. He’d run out of time. Now, he supposed, a little morosely, it didn’t matter.

  His eyes grew heavy. Though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever see Samantha Turner again, he was sure of one thing: he was going to get out of the Myrmidon headquarters. It was with that thought that he finally drifted to sleep.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Sam dropped down from her bed to the floor and grabbed her dressing gown. Her conversation with Tollin had the exact opposite effect on her that he had no doubt intended. The fact that the generator was going to blow only fuelled her desire to get Tollin back. No matter what he’d said, she knew he wasn’t going to escape on his own.

  And so with that thought she carefully crept down the hallway till she reached the computers where Marus had been studiously working over the past few weeks.

  As Sam woke the machine up she prayed it wasn’t locked. To her surprise—and disapproval—it wasn’t. The bright blue screen illumined Sam’s face as she went about searching the files on the computer. She finally found the one she was looking for: the floor plans to the Myrmidon headquarters. She smiled grimly as she studied them and turned her small copier on. It was going to be a long night. She had work to do.

  It had taken her some time to download the plans and while the device was working she’d noticed a file on the computer labelled: GOVERNMENT CONTACTS. When she’d clicked on it, she’d found a list of government agencies and their contact numbers and addresses, including direct lines to the Head of Security and the Head Minister himself. Arkron certainly had friends in high places.

  Sam didn’t know if it was a smart idea or not, and her stomach clenched up at the idea of communicating with so
meone so official, but Sam found herself typing out a message. She sent off several, to all the officials on the list that looked promising, warning of the coming disaster and reassuring them that she would do everything in her power to stop it. She hadn’t bothered signing it, and prayed the notes would be taken seriously. It was all she could do at the moment.

  An hour later, Sam surveyed herself in the mirror, trying to steady her nerves. She decided she was ready, well, as ready as she could be. If there was something Sam had overlooked, she couldn’t think of what it was. She slipped Tollin’s knife into her rucksack, feeling her resolve harden as she did so.

  Now she had other more pressing issues at hand.

  It was mad, Sam knew. Even the idea of going back to the Myrmidon headquarters was stupid. Going back and trying to rescue their most valuable prisoner? Yeah, mental. Yet, there was a determination in her that she could only describe as one thing: Tollin. She was becoming him, and Sam was strangely okay with the fact.

  Sam stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked towards the weapons closet. She bit her lip. Sam wasn’t sure she’d be able to shoot another living person. But the Myrmidons had made it clear they didn’t think twice about such things.

  She stood still in the hallway, indecisive for a moment. Then she remembered. When Marus had trained her to shoot, they’d practiced with several weapons. One of which had been a stun gun, which shot out an electrical charge that supposedly knocked most people out with one shot.

  A wry grin twisted Sam’s lips and she dashed to the weapons closet, waving her small torch around, directing the beam over the vast supply till she spotted the one she was looking for. With a triumphant smirk, Sam pulled it free and stared at it. It would do. She slid it into her rucksack and closed the doors back as quietly as possible.

  Now she was ready.

  It was a thirty kilometre journey to the Myrmidon headquarters. Sam had already pocketed a forged passport from Marus’s supply and several Myrmidon keycards Arkron had. She hoped they would do the trick. Since Arkron hadn’t shown up for work for several days there was a chance her privileges had been revoked. She could only hope.

  As strangely confident as Sam was feeling, she knew what she was doing was next to impossible on her own. Even if the majority of the Myrmidons had fled the headquarters, she was still just one person. And though she felt like she could take on the entire base by herself, it would go terribly wrong. She’d be captured in an instant…unless she had a distraction.

  And that was why she wasn’t headed to the headquarters. That was why she was going to Miol Mor.

  There was still one person who’d do anything she asked. Yes, the idea of using that devotion for her own made her feel guilty, but Sam pushed it aside. She didn’t have time to agonise over if her decision was a good one or not. She was out of time. The Guide had said it was up to her to save him and that she’d have to use her influence over others to do it. It was the only thing she could come up with.

  Sam made her way out the front door. The shock from the cold air hit where it could find and she broke into a hurried run, hoping to leave the chill behind. She made her way to the shed and after a quick search in the dark, Sam spotted the bike lovingly parked to one side. She determinedly squared her shoulders and circled the machine. She’d watched Marus turn it on, but when it came to actually riding the damn thing, that was another thing.

  ‘So, you’re finally going.’

  Sam whirled around, heart hammering. ‘What?’

  Standing behind her, glowing in gentle, golden light, was the Guide. Her vague facial features were lit up into a proud smile. Sam relaxed. She was glad to see her. At least it meant she was doing something properly.

  ‘Am I doing the right thing?’

  The Guide’s expression was a gentle flicker of understanding. Sam wasn’t worried about going herself, but the idea of taking Darius with her was drowning her in guilt. ‘You don’t seem to have many other choices,’ she said.

  Sam nodded. ‘I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me.’

  The Guide walked out of the shadows. ‘You sound like him.’

  Sam bit her lip. ‘Yeah, well, guess that’s becoming a habit for me nowadays.’ She glanced at her handheld. The time read a quarter till midnight. She needed to get moving. But there was one thing nagging at her. Something she was still kicking herself for not telling Tollin in their last mental conversation. ‘The thing in this ring and in Roth isn’t a Daemon. It called itself the Darkness and it’s spreading across every Realm. Do you know what it is?’

  The Guide glanced away from Sam, her gaze resting on the shrinking form of Scrabia in the sky. ‘It is the Great Hunger.’

  Sam wrapped her arms around herself. For some reason the idea of it sent an animalistic fear through her. Like she was being faced by some great, primordial hunter she couldn’t escape. ‘What is it?’ she asked again.

  The Guide glanced back to her. ‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about it.’ Her gaze grew firm, but there was something there, perhaps the same fear that Sam felt. ‘It is the greatest enemy Tollin will ever face.’

  Sam swallowed. ‘But he can defeat it, right?’

  The Guide sighed. ‘He doesn’t even know it exists.’

  Sam blinked. ‘But how is that even possible? Tollin has to know everything!’

  The Guide smiled. ‘He certainly likes to think so. Tollin has fought the Darkness before…he has for a very long time.’

  Sam frowned. ‘So, what happened?’

  ‘He’s forgotten.’

  Confusion whirled through Sam’s mind. ‘How? Why?’

  ‘Something made him forget. It blocked his memory of the incident. If he tries to remember, he can’t. Even being confronted with the Darkness face to face, as he is now, he’s unable to see the truth of what it truly is. He’ll continue to think it is nothing more than a Daemon because his brain will not allow him to accept another possibility.’

  Sam shook her head. ‘That’s impossible. What could make him forget that, what could be powerful enough to completely block that from his mind, and why would it want to?’

  The Guide, to Sam’s aggravation, didn’t answer.

  ‘So, if I tell him about it—’

  ‘He won’t believe you,’ the Guide finished.

  Sam puzzled for a moment. ‘I’ve heard that trauma can do that to a person’s brain. If they experience something so bad their brain just completely shuts it out, but Tollin seems too strong for that! What could have happened?’

  The Guide shook her head. ‘I can’t say anything more than I already have. But you must understand his blindness. It is the greatest puzzle of him, the biggest flaw of his entire being. To understand him you have to understand this: You both are tied together now. You are the same, but you have something he does not. Now you know his greatest weakness. You both would not survive if you did not.’

  Sam suddenly felt the true awfulness of what the Guide was telling her begin to sink in. ‘How can you defeat something you don’t believe in?’

  The Guide stared at her steadily, silently. She didn’t need to reply. Sam already knew the answer. With sick certainty, she got what the Guide wasn’t saying. How do you defeat something you don’t believe in?

  You don’t.

  Sam swallowed, aware of the noisy click her throat made. ‘Look, if I am going to do this, I’ve got to go.’

  The Guide nodded. ‘Keep your head clear, trust your instincts, don’t doubt yourself and you’ll do fine.’

  Sam smiled wryly. ‘Right.’

  She slung her leg over the side of the bike. It took her a moment to get her balance, the thing wobbled like a log in water but after a bit of a struggle, Sam got the hang of it.

  Bravery flooded through her, practically glowed through her skin. Her heart beat with an eager urgency. She wanted to do this. She was actually excited to. The world was open to her, anything felt possible. This was all Tollin’s emotion. She was sure of it.<
br />
  She looked up to tell the Guide she was ready. That she’d never felt so ready in her life. Yet the Guide was gone. She should have known. But Sam didn’t need her now.

  Sam glanced back down at the control panel and frowned at it for a moment, then hesitantly placed her palm on its flat centre. The circle lit up a pale blue and the bike hummed to life. She grinned in triumph. Sam leaned over the side of the motorbike, swiped up a helmet and strapped it on.

  ‘Well, I suppose it’s now or never,’ she muttered to herself.

  With that, she experimentally squeezed the handles and the bike shot forward at a breakneck speed into the darkness.

  She arrived in Miol Mor making good time. Passing from Druid land to Tartan borders hadn’t been an issue and there wasn’t much traffic on the roads. Sam supposed she should have been hoping for more. That would have meant people were responding to orders to evacuate.

  She pressed her lips together in a flat line. Perhaps no-one had taken her messages seriously. Perhaps no-one had even heard. Nothing she could do about that now.

  She wove her way through town, down the familiar, congested streets till she found a good quiet place to meet. She pulled the bike off to the pavement and cast a look round.

  It was a large square, surrounded on one side by Miol Mor’s library and on the other by the Natural History Museum. At the centre of the square was a large fountain, which was almost the only sign of life around. She frowned, eyes roving for the familiar red shape and finally spotted one at the far end of the square. She trotted across to it, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible for the cameras.

  Sam dodged inside the contact booth and quickly punched in the number to Darius’s mobile, surprised she actually remembered it. His handheld rang an aggravatingly long time. It wasn’t that late, Sam confirmed, glancing up at the clock tower looming over the square. It wasn’t half an hour past midnight. And it was a weekend. Darius had to still be up and about.

  Finally, he answered the phone. ‘H—hullo?’ There was a lot of background noise, loud music, cheering. He had to be at one of the pubs, watching a match.