The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade

by A. P. Kensey

  Colton put his hand on her shoulder and she relaxed a little, breathing heavily. Strands of white hair clung to her sweaty forehead. She shivered constantly.

  “I miss Marius,” she said distantly. A moment later, her breathing slowed and she fell asleep. Colton readjusted the blankets and brushed her hair back from her forehead.

  It was rare for a Source and a Conduit who were meant for each other—true counterparts—to end up together. Corva and Marius were lucky in that regard. It saddened Colton to know that only a tiny fraction of those like him would ever find the person who could unlock the full potential of their ability. Those Colton knew who had yet to find their counterparts were not weak at all, so Colton supposed fulfillment was all a matter of perspective. Dormer had gone his whole life without finding his Source and he was the strongest Conduit Colton had ever met, aside from Bernam. But Bernam had been a Void—the strongest of his kind.

  Now the Void power resided in Alistair, who murdered Bernam so he could turn himself into a Nova. Colton stood from Corva’s cot and looked at the survivors from Bernam’s medical facility. They lay curled up and shivering, black veins crawling over their skin.

  How do you fight back against such a ruthless enemy? thought Colton. The voice in his head that answered was his mother’s: Any way you can.

  He tried to remember what was in his own dorm cell. It had been cleared of everything he might use to cause a problem for Kamiko and her lackeys. All he had left was a stack of wrinkled clothes and some pictures of his mother he had retrieved from his old house long ago. He had an urge to go back to his room and flip through them but decided it wasn’t the time for sadness and regret.

  Now he needed to focus.

  He went to the door and stood before it, studying the large, rusted wheel in its center. The wheel was connected to metal bars that went out to both sides of the door, sealing it closed. If he spun the wheel, the metal bars would shift inward a few inches, clearing the welded braces on both sides of the door.

  Colton spun the wheel and was completely surprised when the door swung inward without any sort of resistance. He poked his head out into the dark hallway, expecting one of Kamiko’s soldiers to come running at any second, waving his rifle at Colton and yelling at him to get back inside.

  No one appeared. The hallway was empty. Colton stepped out of his room and shut the door behind him. To his right was the end of the hallway and the sealed door to another dorm cell. To his left, the hallway continued, eventually passing the kitchen. Directly across the hall from Colton was the door to another room, and he stepped quietly over to it and rapped lightly on its metal surface. There was no answer from within, so he spun the outer wheel and pushed in the door. It made a soft squeak as it opened. Dormer and Adsen turned quickly to look at him. The two men visibly relaxed when they saw who it was.

  The dorm cell was laid out exactly as Marius and Corva’s, with several cots pushed closely together around the walls. The place had been sanitized: anything that could be mildly considered as a weapon had been hauled away.

  Dormer and Adsen sat in the middle of the room, hovering conspiratorially over a small wooden table that was covered with loose papers. At a quick glance, Colton saw building blueprints and what looked like molecular diagrams.

  “The doors are unlocked,” said Colton, unsure of what else to say.

  Dormer nodded. “They’re watching the end of the hall. They don’t seem to mind if we wander around this area by ourselves. For now.” He looked awkward sitting in such a short chair next to the table. He was a tall, thin man with slicked-back hair and a thick Adam’s apple that bobbed up and down when he spoke. Colton was often reminded of a bird; Dormer blinked often and moved his head in quick jerks when he was excited.

  Adsen was similar, yet much different. He sat across the table from his brother and carried the weight of a man who had endured much pain. Colton knew they were fraternal twins, yet Adsen looked decades older. His hair was thinning and the dark circles under his eyes bespoke the months of torture he endured at Bernam’s medical facility. Still, his eyes were keen and bright, and Colton saw a deep intelligence when the man turned to look his way.

  “Please, won’t you join us?” he asked. His voice had a slight British tone, very proper, and one that Colton had never before detected in Dormer. He wondered how much time the brothers had spent apart from each other as children. Colton found a wooden box crate next to one of the cots and pulled it over to the table. He sat between the two men and looked at the papers.

  One was a top-down layout of the entire Dome facility. Little black X marks had been scratched in various locations, and next to each was a duration of time written out in minutes, such as “:15” and “:40”.

  “What are those?” asked Colton.

  “Shift times,” said Dormer. “The duration a soldier stays in one location.”

  “You’re keeping track of their movements,” said Colton. Faint pencil lines followed one X to the other, and he realized that the lines were the exact paths the soldiers took throughout the Dome. Adsen and Dormer had meticulously tracked their schedules and movements down to the precise minute. His hopes sank when he realized the pattern in their timing. “Some of them only stay in one spot for five minutes,” he said.

  Dormer nodded. “They are infuriatingly efficient. Probably ex-military.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Adsen sighed. “We don’t know. Yet. But we’ve identified the perfect window of five minutes where we could do something.”

  “There are twelve soldiers,” said Dormer, “plus the evil Queen Bee. Without our abilities, a proper coup is impossible.”

  Adsen smiled. “A little optimism goes a long way, brother.”

  “You’re one to talk. They had you locked up in that medical facility for months, draining the life out of you.”

  “And I never gave up hope that you would get me out.”

  Dormer clenched his teeth and looked down at the papers. Colton remembered how angry Dormer had been when Elena and the others in the Dome would only go to the medical facility after Haven’s brother had been kidnapped. Adsen had rotted there for months, and Dormer had to endure that knowledge until he was finally able to go to his rescue.

  “What’s the rest of this stuff?” asked Colton. He lifted the edge of a sheet of paper and saw images taken through a microscope that showed bacteria of some kind. Calculations and long strings of chemical sequences were scribbled under the images in an unsteady hand.

  Adsen quickly plucked the sheet of paper away and tucked it into his pants pocket. “Something I have been working on for quite some time, and something I am not quite ready to share with the world.”

  “Kamiko wants me to make sure everyone cooperates,” said Colton. “She said she wants to leave here as soon as possible.”

  “Why?”

  Colton spoke in a near-whisper. “I think she wants to kill Haven.”

  21

  Adsen and Dormer were silent for a long time, lost in their own thoughts. Colton let them think, waiting impatiently. Eventually, Dormer looked up, clear understanding in his eyes.

  “Haven and Kamiko both share the blue flame.”

  “Yes…” said Colton, unsure about where he was heading.

  “Extraordinarily rare,” said Adsen, “for two Sources of the same color to find each other, let alone exist at the same time.”

  “Well, the colors aren’t exactly the same,” said Colton.

  “And for one to be hunting the other…” said Dormer. He trailed off, mumbling to himself.

  Colton suddenly understood. “Kamiko wants to make sure there is no one else who could inherit the Phoenix energy if she dies.”

  Adsen nodded gravely. “That hypothesis would seem to fit the facts.”

  “Would it go back into her if she died and there was no one else with blue flame? She would be immortal!”

  “We can’t know for sure.”

  “How many more are
there?” asked Colton. “Other people with blue flame?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” said Dormer. “Phoenix are always female, just as the Void is always male. We have no direct idea how many others like us are out there in the world, and for even two to have the same color flame—”

  “Three hundred,” said Adsen.

  “Three hundred what?”

  “That’s how many of us there are in the world. Give or take a few.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” asked Dormer. He stared at his brother in disbelief.

  “Although it shames me to admit it,” said Adsen, “population measurement of our own kind was one of my directives while I was a captive at the medical facility. It was tricky at first, nearly impossible, but then the patterns began to reveal themselves.”

  “What patterns?” asked Colton. He sat on the edge of his wooden crate, leaning forward eagerly.

  “Old patterns. Population booms in specific areas where…where terrible things would later happen.”

  “Not this again,” said Dormer dismissively. He stood up from his chair and crossed his arms. He paced around the room, shaking his head.

  “I didn’t believe it at first, either,” said Adsen. His face flushed with embarrassment. “But then the patterns grew too clear to ignore. Something terrible is going to happen, which is why there are so many of us in the world.”

  “Three hundred doesn’t seem like a lot,” said Colton.

  “Normally, you would be right. But three hundred of our kind? Just imagine all the laws of nature that were shattered to bring us into existence! It’s quite remarkable when you—”

  Dormer cleared his throat.

  Adsen’s face flushed and he swallowed hard. “Right, sorry. As I was saying, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there were less than fifty of us during peaceful times, but now, with something dreadful on the horizon…” His voice broke off and he shuffled through his papers. He muttered numbers and fragmented thoughts until he finally fell silent and looked as if he forgot what he was saying.

  “How did you find them?” asked Colton, trying to bring Adsen back from his own mind. The tall, lanky man shook his head and turned away. Tears welled in his eyes.

  Dormer took notice and recognized something in his brother’s face that Colton could not. He knelt down next to Adsen and rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

  “How did you find them, Addy?”

  Adsen closed his eyes and tears squeezed out. He clutched anxiously at his scraggy beard and his words tumbled out in half-sobs. “It was the boy. Bernam cut him open and he—he told me to figure out how a Nova could locate every Source and Conduit around the globe.”

  “You mean Noah?” asked Colton, “Haven’s brother?”

  Adsen shook his head gravely. “The one before him. The other boy. He was a Nova as well.”

  Dormer pulled his hand away from Adsen’s shoulder. The look he had recognized on his brother’s face, the look that Colton was just beginning to recognize, was shame.

  Adsen sobbed loudly but was determined to continue, to confess his dark sin. “With Noah, Bernam wanted to know how our kind worked, how we are able to do the things we do. He wanted a scientific reason for our existence. But with the boy he took before Noah, Bernam had a very specific method. The boy needed to be alive for me to tap into his ability to locate everyone like us. Every Source, every Conduit. Some Phoenix have that ability, but every Nova does. Every pure Nova, anyway. And Alistair is no pure Nova. That’s why it took him so long to find this place, especially after I stopped my work.” He took a deep breath and his body shook from his sobs. “When they brought Noah in, I refused to be a part of it. I was treated with vile cruelty, until finally I could no longer walk and they strapped me to a table and sedated me until near-death. That is where you found me, brother.”

  Dormer’s voice was low and full of disgust. “Well, now we know how they found us, don’t we? You could have warned us when you woke up. Instead you lied, and now look what’s happened. I can’t believe you did that, Addy.”

  Adsen lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Neither can I.”

  “What happened to him?” asked Dormer. “The other boy.”

  Adsen could not answer. He covered his face with his hands and wept. Dormer’s eyes filled with inky blackness, and the single light in the ceiling dimmed. Colton stood up, knocking back his wooden crate.

  Dormer still had his ability. Colton was about to ask how that was possible when the door quickly opened and a soldier stepped into the room. He aimed his rifle at Adsen’s head. The darkness faded instantly from Dormer’s eyes as he looked at Colton. He brought his finger to his mouth and made a shushing motion.

  Brightness returned to the overhead light as two more soldiers entered the room and aimed their guns at Dormer and Colton. The first soldier stepped forward and lifted Adsen from his chair by his shirt-collar.

  “Time to get to work, Doctor,” said the soldier. His voice came out as a garbled, mechanical growl—some kind of voice-masking apparatus was built into his rebreather.

  Dormer took a step forward and the soldier closest to him swung the butt of his rifle. It hit Dormer’s temple with a sharp CRACK and sent him sprawling to the ground. Adsen was pushed from the room and the soldiers retreated. The door closed behind them, leaving Colton and Dormer in silence.

  22

  Sand crunched under Haven’s shoes as she followed Bastian and Roku. They walked side by side, silent, heads down except for the occasional glance forward. The dim, black outline of a building had appeared in the distance, growing larger with every step. The compound must have been massive, for Haven could tell they were still a couple of miles away and the building occupied a sizable chunk of the horizon.

  Marius walked next to her, frowning in deep thought. He scratched at his unshaven neck; at the faint black veins that were slowly creeping over his throat. His balding head shone softly in the moonlight.

  “I wouldn’t worry about Corva,” said Haven, guessing at the thoughts that occupied his mind. When he looked over at her quickly, she saw she had guessed correctly. “She’s very strong, and she will wait for you.”

  Marius shook his head and looked down at his own feet as he walked. “Maybe not strong enough for this,” he said softly. “Marius is beginning to think he should have stayed with her.”

  “You can do the most good here,” said Haven. “With me.”

  He smiled weakly, but there was no feeling behind it. Ahead, Bastian squealed and there was a soft whumph of air from Roku’s fist. A circular patch of sand sank down into the ground, as if it had been suddenly pressed down by the foot of an invisible elephant.

  “Thanks,” said Bastian. He shuddered and continued walking. Haven passed the round depression and saw a flattened scorpion in the middle.

  “Where are you getting your energy?” Haven asked Roku.

  “Moonlight,” he said, and pointed up into the night sky. “Takes a while.”

  Bastian grinned. “Full moons are just perfect for that steady flow.” He looked around at each member of the group. “Strange for there to be just one Con in a crowd full of Sources. Bloody rare, is what it is.”

  “Why are there so many more Conduits in the first place?” asked Haven.

  “I was hoping you knew,” said Bastian.

  “Don’t you have a theory?”

  He grinned again. Haven wondered why his face hadn’t yet permanently frozen in that expression. “Who doesn’t?” he said. “I think it has something to do with balance. Sources actually create the energy out of nowhere, which violates the natural order to begin with.” He jabbed a thumb toward Roku. “All the Cons do is move that energy around. They just pick it right up and set it down someplace else. They’re not actually affecting much in the grand order of things. I think it takes a lot more for a Source to come into existence, so it doesn’t happen very often. It’s almost like a miracle.”

  “You believe in mir
acles?” asked Haven.

  “I’m hoping to see a few tonight,” he said. She thought he was joking until she saw the look of worry on his face.

  Before she could ask him what was wrong, Roku stopped and held up his arm for them to wait. Ahead in the darkness, a large truck drove on a dirt road next to the sprawling building. Its headlights flashed over them as it turned. They quickly ducked to the ground. The truck paused for a moment and the driver got out. He took a few steps toward them, squinting into the night. He unclipped a flashlight from his vest and shone it directly at them, but they were too far away and its beam was so weak that it died well before it reached their position.

  The guard lingered for a moment until another passenger in the truck spoke to him. The driver laughed and got back into the truck, then drove farther down the dirt road until all Haven could see was a pair of dim red taillights growing fainter until they finally disappeared.

  Bastian breathed out a heavy sigh of relief. “Close one,” he said.

  Haven eased forward and saw that they were sitting at the rounded peak of a long, low dune that ran all the way down to the dirt road next to the building. The structure itself was enormous, a collection of warehouses that had been roofed together to create a single Frankenstein compound. Black smoke belched from exhaust towers that stuck up from the uneven roof in all four corners of the palatial fortress.

  Armed guards stood watch at each entrance point. Bright halogen lamps illuminated every square inch of the compound, turning night into day. More trucks lumbered around the side of the building, some carrying large crates spray-painted with words like DANGER and POISON. Others carried huge tanks filled with sloshing liquid. Doors opened and closed all over the complex, admitting trucks and armed guards.

  From where Haven was sitting, the whole operation looked like a living, breathing organism.

  “Hmm,” said Bastian thoughtfully. “Might be a bit harder than I originally thought.”

  Marius looked at him with a scowl.

  “Alistair is in there somewhere?” asked Haven.