by Jessica Gunn
“I’ll teleport to the cave before I let them take or kill me,” Kara assured us. “They can’t track Lemurian teleports, no matter what other incredible abilities they have. I’ll be safe.” But as the words passed her lips, an alarm shrieked on overhead. It sounded like a wailing bird call. She pushed Ezra toward the opening in the floor. “Go. Get out of here. Now.”
Sophia turned and ordered Weyland to go down first. “Dr. Hill after him, then you, Chelsea.”
I shook my head. “No way.”
“Me either,” Valerie said. “I’m staying to fight. I’m not leaving you.” Her deep brown eyes churned with the same conviction I felt deep within my bones.
Someone banged on the throne room door. When it didn’t open, a solid something whammed against the stone. Hinges lining one side of the doorway buckled against the force of it. Above us, through the stained glass skylight, shadows of figures swarmed.
“Now,” Sophia growled. “That’s an order. Move.” She turned on Weyland, who hadn’t budged an inch. “We do not have time for your opinions. With Pike gone, I’m in command. Go.”
I bit my lip before thoughts became words and instead focused on Ezra kissing his wife goodbye and slipping down the hatch after Dr. Hill and Weyland. Then it came time for Valerie and me.
“This is dumb. She can’t fight them alone.” My gaze found Kara’s. “You might not be able to teleport out of here before they attack.”
“Then I’ll die knowing my husband made it home and stopped the White City from destroying reality,” she said. “Please, get the Lifestone. My life in exchange for that is worth it.”
“And what about your son?” Valerie asked. “If you die here, he’ll grow up without a mother.”
“If they’re able to use the Lifestone for themselves, he’ll grow up in a shattering universe,” Kara said.
“Chelsea,” Sophia growled as she came up behind me. “Don’t make me shove you down the ladder.”
“Kara,” I said. One last plea for reason.
She shook her head slowly and turned to face the stone door. “I will make it, I promise you. Go do your part.”
I swallowed back the looming sense of defeat that’d rooted itself somewhere in the back of my throat. I had to trust her. I had to keep moving.
Valerie hugged Kara in a rare show of emotion, and she followed me down the ladder. Sophia climbed down after, rung after rung, until we finally hit landing some amount of feet down. Twenty? Forty? I’d lost count of the rungs when my fear of tight spaces closed in, and all I could focus on until my feet hit the landing was taking in deep breaths at regular intervals.
Valerie and Ezra produced fireballs in their palms and we began our trek through the tunnel. Pressing on two-by-two was the only option given the width of the cobblestone tunnel, so we made the best of it. I stuck by Valerie, half-making sure she didn’t turn around and go back after Kara, and half-knowing I’d want to be by her side if things went down. She kept her eyes on the tunnel ahead, not even fazed by the fireball she fed with her powers.
I pointed to her palm, suddenly curious. “How does it work?”
Her eyes narrowed with annoyance. “What?”
“The fire. With water, I was always able to pull the molecules and stuff together from the air, or take the water from a source like a faucet or water bottle. Is it the same with fire?” I’d always wondered, especially since it wouldn’t really make sense if her abilities worked the same as mine had.
“This is so not the time, Chelsea,” Valerie said. “Shut up so we can hear if we’re about to be ambushed.”
If they planned to ambush us, they definitely wouldn’t be making any noise, but I didn’t expend the energy it’d take to point that out to her. “I’ve always wondered, that’s all.”
She sighed and closed her eyes for a quick moment, as if she’d needed to brace herself against the impatience of a child. “It’s complicated. Almost like actual magic, whereas the whole water thing is more like alchemy, if that makes sense.”
“Alchemy.” Along with all the other folklore I’d studied in college, alchemy was a big topic. Take a substance, break it down, and remake it—that was the basic idea. Valerie was right on that end. “Yeah. Even stuff like teleportation and telekinesis makes sense that way.” Moving the molecules around, that was all that was. “So you actually create the spark that lights a fire?”
She shook her head. “Yes and no. Like I said, it’s complicated and I don’t really understand it. I just hold my hand out and”—the fireball in her hand grew—“there it is. It’s innate, as natural to me as breathing. It’s like the fire abilities, the teleportation—all of it is nothing more than an extension of myself, another limb. Like my life is the spark needed for combustion. It’s also why so many Lemurians have issues with their powers at first. They emerge very suddenly and it usually ends with more than a few people as burned collateral damage. Trevor’s lucky he never developed any, in that respect.”
She paused, and I let the silence sit between us. Those were answers I’d wanted for a while now.
A few moments later she said, “I suppose, depending on who makes it out of this alive, I might have to be the one to teach Kara and Ezra’s kid how to use his powers.” Her voice shook. I’d never seen her this upset about anything, except Trevor and Charlie.
“She’ll be there,” I said. “We just have to follow through with our part of the plan, then we’ll go get her and the baby and get home.”
Valerie nodded and reset her gaze on a pinprick of light in the distance. The end of the tunnel. Not long now.
An explosion sounded from the entrance to the throne room. It stung my ears and heated my skin, and before I could wrap my head around what was happening, a massive wave of fire careened our way.
Valerie jumped in front of me, shoving me back with her arm, before throwing her hands in front of her as if she’d catch the entire wave. She did. As soon as the fire-wave got close, it stopped, as though flaming against a glass wall that’d suddenly been erected in the tunnel. Sophia and Weyland hopped in right behind Valerie, fishing water out of the air to douse the flames until it was small enough for Valerie and Ezra to dissipate it themselves.
“Let’s move,” Sophia declared. Fighting in a tunnel when we didn’t have to was suicide.
We scurried to the lit end of the passageway, and I prayed that the priests here were more of the classical variety rather than waiting at the door with weapons and earthen attacks at the ready. One part of the plan done, three more to go and we’d be free. Find a Return Piece, find the Lifestone, get home with the other Lemurians in tow. So freaking close.
The tunnel opened up at the mouth of an atrium in the monastery. No secret door on the other end, no curtain—nothing. Just as well. I supposed if they only ever expected royalty to come to this place, they’d never worry about other visitors.
“Spread out,” Sophia ordered. “Perimeter.”
We complied, Weyland taking the lead. A few seconds later he said, “Area secure.”
“Okay,” said Sophia. “What now?”
“Start looking for a Return Piece as we make our way to the Lifestone and your people, but understand that the stone might become more valuable than them,” Ezra said, the weight of his words sinking into each of us.
“Understood,” Weyland said.
We exited the beautiful, stained-glass-lined atrium through the only available door and set out. Hallway by hallway, we explored the structure, ducking into any open doors in search of Link Pieces. Sophia and Weyland picked out a few, but nothing would send us back to when we needed. Nor did we find any of those manufacturing machines Ezra and Kara had promised would be here. My hope of getting home dwindled with every empty room and incense-filled corridor that passed us by. If we could at least find and maybe even destroy the Lifestone—assuming that wouldn’t rip a hole in time itself—and get the hell out of this monastery, that would be enough for me. Finding Major Pike and Josh would be nice, too.
On that front, Ezra seemed to have an idea. “Kara always said she heard rumors at the palace about the prison being hidden. Considering there’s a waterfall directly under us, I wonder if they built down instead of constructing secret rooms on this main floor.”
“There’s only one floor above the surface?” Valerie asked.
Ezra nodded. “Yes. A flat temple on the edge of the falls.”
“You’re probably right, then,” I said. “The waterfall would distract people from assuming anything different.”
“And the lower levels hiding Link Pieces as well as a prison would deter thieves,” Dr. Hill chimed. “That’s why we see so many underground chambers across the ancient world. If there’s only one way here, there’s likely one way to the prison as well.”
“Because that bodes super well for us.” Valerie huffed. She tossed her red hair over one shoulder and lifted her weapon in one hand. The other hung at her side, ready to blast fire if she needed it to. “Where do we think these magically hidden stairs are, then?”
“I… might be able to figure that out,” Weyland said. “I’m stressing ‘might’ here. I’ve been working on a powers theory.”
“We’re all ears, big guy,” Valerie said.
He rolled his eyes at her and pointed to the closest wall. To Sophia he asked, “You can feel the water in each of us, right?” She nodded. “Me too.”
“I could, too,” I said. “It’s a power extension that leads to being able to control someone else.”
Weyland stepped forward, his eyes lit up with an idea. “Exactly. We’re on a waterfall, so there’s a good chance the basement floors of this structure are humid and wet, full of condensation thanks to the warm air outside. I’ve been practicing sensing the water around me in preparation for learning the people-control technique, but what if I followed the water to certain individuals instead?”
Weyland and I both glanced to Sophia. “What do you think?” I asked. “It’s weird but totally possible.”
Sophia blinked, her eyebrows scrunched, then began nodding slowly. “Yes, let’s try that.”
They put their hands on the wall and silence filled the atrium as the rest of us waited. A few seconds later, Sophia and Weyland looked up.
“Got them,” she said.
“Or what we hope is them,” said Weyland. “One of them is injured badly, and they’re both dehydrated. They’re barely a blip on this hydro-radar.”
“Hydro-radar?” came Valerie’s voice, thick with questioning. “Are you serious?”
“Name it later,” Ezra said. “Like Sophia said, it’s time to move out.”
And so we did, Weyland and Sophia and their hydro-radar leading the way.
We were so screwed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
JOSH
Someone shook me. “Wake up.”
I blinked, my brain foggy, and it took longer than it should have for my muddled brain to make sense of what was going on. The Major knelt above me, one hand on my shoulder and his stare on the wall—where the door must have been before.
“Get up. Someone’s coming.”
I groaned and fought against the aching, tight feelings in my limbs. No—my muscles, which cramped up and gave me a massive charley horse in both legs upon standing. I braced myself against a wall and stretched them out. “Major—”
“I know,” he said. “I’m feeling the dehydration, too. And I don’t know what happened to you, but it looks like they fried your brain along with your body. You’ve been out for at least twelve hours, maybe more. Now the whole place is lit up.”
He felt along the walls, most likely looking for the door. Discarded food trays sat in one corner. One must have belonged to me because it hadn’t been touched. I picked up the chunk of what looked like bread and tore off a piece before joining the Major.
Though we’d assumed the walls were soundproof before, all matter of racket seeped through the plastic-stone walls. Shouts, orders, screams. The floor shook with the power of a White City soldier, but—no, could it be?
“Hey,” I said, pointing more or less to where the door had appeared yesterday. A glistening few drops of what looked like water had passed through. “I don’t think these walls are as solid as they’d like us to believe.”
Major Pike bent down and swiped his finger across the wet spot. “Water? What are the odds the waterfall is about make them regret building their city on top of it?”
I shook my head, a smirk growing on my lips. “I think it’s our rescuers.”
Pike’s eyes narrowed and he looked to the spot again. Moments passed as he thought it over, then he turned and started banging on the wall. “Hey! We’re in here!”
I joined him, knocking my open palms against the stone. “Over here!”
Voices flooded through the not-so-solid plastic-stone, but they weren’t loud enough to make out any words. We didn’t let up until the wall shook violently, moving like gelatin on a roller coaster. Major Pike and I backed up away from it.
“Friend or foe?” I asked.
“Hoping it’s them,” he said. The area around the door buckled and disintegrated. “Took you guys long enough—”
Major Pike was cut off by a length of muddy rock flying toward his hands. The earthen cuffs snapped shut around his wrists and connected behind his back. Another pair cracked around mine, the force of the blow sending me to my knees.
I looked up at the doorway and instead of finding Chelsea, Sophia, and the others, I found a herd of White City soldiers surrounding someone else. Someone familiar, and whom I was growing accustomed to seeing for what they apparently really were.
A traitor.
Trevor stood between them, dressed in all cobalt, water dripping from both of his hands. He grinned and the darkness of it, the one-eighty difference in his normally-docile demeanor, swiped air from my lungs. “I knew that’d work.”
A fire lit inside my gut, replacing the air I’d lost and then some, growing into a spiral of rage that burned so brightly, my body seized. I launched across the room in a blind reaction I couldn’t remember having since the explosion that’d killed my brother. And it was unexpected enough, audacious enough, that not even the White City soldiers jumped to save the newest among them.
My arms wrapped around Trevor’s middle and my head slammed into his side as I tackled him to the ground. But it wasn’t as easy as I’d have expected from the normally-passive man. Resistance, a strength he’d never had before, pushed back, but I dug deep. I had him on the ground, knees pinning him as my closed fist sailed through the air. The thwack of it crunching against his skull sent a satisfied surge through me even as I was thrown from him by nothing. No, not nothing. Telekinesis. My back and head snapped against the far wall, and I slid down it, unable to breathe.
Water. Strength. Telekinesis. These were Chelsea’s powers!
“Detain him,” Trevor ordered.
The White City soldiers descended upon me. Pike wriggled between three guards, yelling something unintelligible as he was gagged. I fought as best I could against the remaining soldiers, but not much made it past the blind rage blazing across my mind.
Trevor really had turned. I knew I wasn’t one to talk after being used as one of General Allen’s pawns, but I’d never hurt Chelsea. I’d never, not once, put her in any real danger.
“You bastard!” I screamed as I threw myself against the guards.
I hoped Chelsea wasn’t coming. That they’d gotten stuck at the base of the waterfall and never made it up to the city. And I prayed she didn’t have to see this abomination of whom she used to love toting her powers.
Trevor only continued smiling, darkness creeping beneath fake mirth. It fed the raging storm inside me, made me want to do anything necessary to get my hands around his throat for all he’d done. Not just to Chelsea, but to everyone at TAO. For what he might still help the White City do.
“Bring them,” Trevor said to his guards. “Charon needs him for one last round.”
“Why Pike, then?” I asked. “Leave him out of this.”
He gave the soldier at my elbow a look and a gag was shoved into my mouth. Then Trevor said, “Until we find the others, the Major is the only leverage I have to get you to speak.”
They took us down to the same chamber Charon had always locked me up in and the light cage enveloped me once more. Major Pike stood at unforgiving gun point next to Trevor, held by one of his guards. The Major’s notorious glare found a target in Trevor’s eyes. Trevor paid it no mind, instead focusing on my prison.
“How’d you even get through that stone door anyway?” I asked him. “Why break through if Charon’s on the same side?”
“Water erodes everything, eventually.” Trevor shrugged. Shrugged. “And she’s not. But those I work for are holding her daughter hostage, and the boy there—his fate also hangs on the outcome of what happens here. I need to know what else you have locked away in your head.”
“Who are you working for?” I knew he didn’t like me—hated me, even, for what I’d had a hand in doing to Chelsea—but this? This wasn’t in any way right. He couldn’t be a minion of the White City or he wouldn’t have had to break into our cell. And it didn’t appear to be personal to Charon, just convenient to use her children as leverage. “You came all the way here, followed us to the White City, just to question me?”
Trevor’s gaze snapped to the boy. “Begin.”
“You’re using a child, Trevor,” I shouted. “What kind of twisted, bullshit thing have they done to—” I gritted my teeth against another invasion of my mind by Charon’s son. The circumstances surrounding my original arrival here sprang to life in my mind’s eye.
This—torturing prisoners—had been the boy’s father’s job, his mind-destroying power a family trait. That was why General Allen had sent us to assassinate his father on top of all the political positioning reasons. If the General had obtained that position on the council, he’d have easier access to the Lifestone once the White City had gotten it back. He’d aimed at running a full-scale version of the Atlantean super soldier harvesting project he’d started at TruGates, and when those few dozen super soldiers ran out, when he couldn’t scour all of time to get more, he’d planned to go after Lemurians.