The Gray Tower Trilogy: Books 1-3

by Alesha Escobar

  My chest tightened, and I pulled at the chains that held me down. Penn was gone, and Jasmine might soon share his fate. So, he found our safe house and had gotten to Praskovya...she was probably chained up down the hall, cursing me for dragging her into this. “Then you received the note from last night?”

  He nodded. “And I would have met you at La Cocina, but Casandra warned me that you two were together. I heard that Nikon was arrested in London, but she’s of no use to us if she’s been compromised.”

  “If you want anything out of me,” I said, “let Jasmine and Praskovya go.” I never imagined I’d be asking for that woman’s safety, but as long as she kept her end of the bargain, I would likewise keep mine.

  “You’re not in a position to make demands. Especially on Nikon’s behalf.” He leaned forward and I spotted a silver chain around his neck. A talisman, shaped as a miniature Asclepius wand, hung on the end. It was a winged rod wrought of silver, with a snake twirled around the length. This was the talisman Praskovya had spoken about that allowed Alban to teleport near the Den.

  My gaze went from the talisman to his eyes, and I balled my fists. “Let them go.”

  Alban sneered and pulled me from the cot with a surprising amount of strength. The chains broke and he flung me toward the upright platform on the other side of the room. I shouted in pain as my back crashed against the cold hard slab. Alban raised my arms and wrapped the hanging chains around my wrists, just below the cuffs. I winced when he gave the chain a final tug in order to tighten my wrists together.

  “Let’s start off with why Nikon’s working with you and why SOE sent you after me, shall we?” He went over to the workstation, grabbed a scalpel, and began heating it over a bunsen burner. The scalpel glowed an eerie green color in reaction to the heat.

  “Where’s Jasmine?” I asked, but he ignored me and approached with the glowing scalpel. I grabbed the hanging chain and swung my feet up, kicking him in the stomach and making him stumble backward. When he approached again and swung the knife, I timed my kick so that I hit his chest and caught his silver neck chain with my foot. I used the weight of my foot to break the chain and send the talisman to the floor with a clatter.

  Alban quickly retrieved the talisman and glared at me with murder in his eyes. I tensed and readied for another attack, but Falk came back into the room. “Why did you take her off the cot?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “Go ahead and start your test, then we’ll see if she wants to cooperate.”

  Alban approached and I tried kicking again, but he grabbed my legs and made a flick with the scalpel on my thigh. I shrieked as the searing pain penetrated through my skin and into my bones. My eyes watered, and my limbs trembled as the agony began spreading through the rest of my body. Falk approached with a long needle, repeating to me that he only wanted to do preliminary tests.

  And then everything went black.

  I half-opened my eyes, and when I felt a cool liquid touch my lips, I instinctively backed away. I hadn’t forgotten where I was.

  “It’s just water,” Falk said, setting the glass aside. “I’m going to experiment on you today. Hopefully you’ll survive.”

  My hands and feet were strapped down, and I sat in a large, sturdy chair. I opened my eyes all the way and saw Falk dip a rag into water and wring it out. He held it against my temple, and I sucked in a quick breath at the sting. We sat in a smaller room that also had the imperium lining on the ceiling. There was a small bed in the far corner, and a table and extra chair behind Falk.

  How long had I been out? What did they do to me?

  “Are you going to test on me today?” Fear weighed down my body more than the straps did.

  “You mean tonight,” he said, grabbing a cotton swab and miming with his mouth so that I could open mine. “It’s evening again.”

  I felt sick again when he swabbed the inside of my cheek. “What do you want with me?”

  “Just from your blood samples, I can tell that you’re quite unique. I don’t know how, but I suspect I’ll soon find out.”

  “I’m sure you’ve tested on many other alchemists.”

  He chuckled to himself. “I have.”

  The door opened and Alban stepped in with Jasmine. A gun in a holster hung at his side. “Here’s your friend.” He shoved her into the room, and she stumbled toward me.

  “Jasmine, are you okay?” A flash of anger ran through me when I noticed her bruised cheek.

  She nodded and knelt next to me. “You?”

  “I’ll be back.” Falk stood and took the swab and other utensils with him.

  Alban closed the door after the scientist left and faced us with a grin. He took Falk’s chair and sat across from us. “Are you ready to talk now, Isabella?”

  Jasmine gripped my shoulder. “Don’t tell him anything. He’s just gonna kill us anyway.”

  “Or, I may not.” He stood and approached Jasmine. “You may put on a brave face, Miss Léon, but I know your type.”

  “You don’t know anything about me.” She rose to her feet and met his gaze.

  He inclined his head toward me. “She’s used to this life. She knows how this game is played. But you...you like fine clothes, fine wine, and a life of glamour. Not this.”

  He went for a lever on the wall and pulled it. I let out a screech as I tasted and felt metal spikes from a contraption in the chair pierce my lower back. I clenched my teeth and forced myself not to scream again as I felt my flesh tear.

  “Stop it!” Jasmine pulled at the straps in an attempt to loosen them, but she froze when Alban came back over to us.

  “Another one of Falk’s inventions. I can place you in a chair like this, and perhaps then Isabella will want to answer my questions.”

  Jasmine saw the pain and worry on my face, and she sneered at him. “You’re a coward.”

  “Your employer is the coward,” he said, reaching for her right arm and gripping it. “A cowardly country that wants to stay out of this war, yet sends girls in to do its dirty work.” He recoiled when she slapped him, and he drew his gun. He aimed straight at her.

  It felt like fighting an uphill battle, trying to slow my heart’s pulsations during a moment when I felt it beat most frantically. I forced myself to focus on the Spark, and then the passage of time as slow as my steady heartbeat. I heard the gunshot, and everything slowed down. I felt something grow inside me. It started off as a burning sensation in my belly, then it extended throughout the rest of my body. A bright orange flame tinted my view of the room, and I could feel the chair straps loosen and stretch like old rubber.

  I broke away and rushed toward Jasmine, who stood frozen in time. Her eyes stared right at the bullet that crept toward her through mid-air. I stood in front of her and used the palm of my hand to deflect it. When it started slowly flying toward the ceiling, I approached Alban with trembling hands. The fire surrounding me grew in intensity with my rage toward him, and I seized him by the shoulders.

  Time went back into normal motion, and Alban howled in pain as the fire burned and ate into his clothes and skin. He dropped the gun and fell to the floor writhing. Just then, Falk returned carrying a vial of bright blue liquid. With a panicked expression, he ran toward one of the levers on the wall that activated the alarm. I was just about to whack him with Zaman’s Fire when Jasmine stepped forward with Alban’s gun and shot at Falk. The bullet pierced his hand and broke the vial he carried. Instead of pulling the lever, he fell against the wall shrieking. The blue substance had spilled onto his hand and wrist, and large pus-filled boils grew on his skin and travelled up his arm, neck, and face.

  It sounded as if Falk was calling for help, but he could hardly form words as the boils now covered his entire face and began to burst. Both Jasmine and I cringed with disgust as the scientist painfully heaved and vomited before collapsing to the floor and straining to speak.

  Jasmine’s hand shook as she pointed the gun at Alban, who had quenched the flames but still suffered from
their burns. “Some of the people I helped hide from the Nazis told me about these labs...about what that scientist did. This warlock is no better.”

  I nodded. “Well, we don’t have to worry about them anymore.”

  She gazed at me as if that weren’t enough, as if they both needed to suffer all over again. I couldn’t say that I disagreed with her, because I feared what we would find once we went to open up those other rooms. To be honest, I didn’t even know if there were any other survivors besides us.

  Alban lay on the floor, convulsing and fighting to hold on to the last wisps of life. The Fire had hungrily consumed his flesh, and he just lay there in agony. Jasmine seemed ready to shoot him, but then decided against it. I didn’t say anything--he spent his last few moments writhing in agony as he had done to so many others. When he expired his last breath, I approached and confiscated the talisman from his pocket as well as my sheathed alchemist’s knife. I went over to Falk, who lay on the floor disfigured and with his limbs making jerking motions. I searched his lab coat and grabbed my rings and the sapphire pendant Delana had given me. Falk also had a key on him, and so I swiped that too. When he tried to reach for me, I pulled away in disgust. Let the monster rot. It took me a moment to realize that Jasmine just stood there, staring at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know you could do that.” Jasmine’s eyes widened at the sight of the flames surrounding me.

  “It’s...a rare ability.”

  She clutched the gun. “The wizards trapped here can’t use their powers because of the imperium gold. It doesn’t affect you?”

  “Maybe it affects individual wizards differently,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t pry any further.

  She nodded. “I don’t know how many people are still alive. I heard them screaming.”

  “Then let’s go help them.”

  I didn’t know who else I’d encounter in this place, so I tempered the fire around me down to a soft glow that was invisible to the naked eye. However, I was ready to let the flames loose again if needed. I stepped into the hallway and braced myself to hear wailing and screaming like the ones from last night, but only silence greeted me. I motioned for Jasmine to follow, and with nervous breaths, she walked behind me, carrying the gun.

  We reached the end and spied around the corner. Two German guards dressed in fatigues were at a central desk, chatting with each other. I noticed that there were two wide corridors behind the station and wondered which one led outside. One of the guards wore a key ring with several keys attached, and I thought about the other rooms in our corridor. How many people did these monsters kidnap and use as test subjects?

  My tongue almost clung to the roof of my mouth because I was so dehydrated. I licked my lips and gestured to Jasmine as I mouthed an instruction. She nodded in understanding and readied herself. On my count, we both stepped out and each went after a guard. She fired at the guard on the left and missed, but hit him in the torso with the second shot. I shielded myself from the other guard’s gunfire with the glow of my Fire and fed energy into my pulsations. When his movements slowed down to a near halt, I rushed in his direction, with my palm ablaze, and hit him square in his face. I let go of the pulsations and time returned to normal; the guard lay on the ground motionless, with his face charred and unrecognizable.

  “Do you think there are more guards?” Jasmine asked.

  “I don’t know.” I tossed her the key ring. “Let’s go back down the hallway and open those doors.”

  We ran back in the direction we came from and opened the first door, but the room was empty. We opened the second door and saw a young woman with her head shaved bald sitting in a chair much like the one Alban had me in. The woman’s empty dead stare met ours, and her bloated body was discolored like a drowned corpse. A terrible stench wafted toward us, and we both gagged.

  “Those bastards.” I doubled over and pressed my hand against my stomach, willing myself not to sick up.

  “God Almighty,” Jasmine said in a low voice as she shut the door. With trembling hands, she went and banged on the third door, and, this time, we heard someone call for help.

  We unlocked the door and stepped inside. A man with pale skin sat in the center of the room. He was strapped to a chair and wore a metal helmet on his head. It reminded me of an electric chair.

  “Help...help, please...”

  I ran over to him and began cutting the leather straps loose. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of here.”

  He shrieked when I tried to pull the helmet off. “It’s attached to my head,” he gasped. “It’s part of my head.”

  The sight of the bolted down helmet and the congealed blood that formed around his ears repulsed me, but I managed to support him as he stood. “What’s your name?” We walked him into the hallway, and I let Jasmine take him. He quivered like a frightened animal.

  “I’m Raymond. Thank you...”

  “I’m Isabella. And this is Jasmine.”

  “Thank you, Isabella.” He faced Jasmine. “You’re...the singer. What are you doing down here?”

  “Getting into trouble,” she answered.

  We freed two other men and a woman. All of them wore white hospital gowns and approached with relieved expressions when they saw us. However, they kept looking over their shoulders, as if expecting an ambush.

  I heard a few moans and calls for help fill the hallway. “Are you able to help the others?”

  The men nodded, and I handed them the corresponding keys to the other rooms. The woman we freed, Mia, approached and spoke up. “We can escape through a set of double doors on the other side of the compound, but it’s warded.”

  I nodded and motioned for her to wait with Jasmine and the others. I took the key to the last room and went to open the door. Praskovya was inside, strapped to one of those upright platforms. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t blink or show awareness of anything. A breathing mask covered her nose and mouth, and fresh scars marred her arms. Did Alban show up at the house and just take her unawares? Guilt crept upon me; if I hadn’t drugged her, she would have been able to escape Alban, even if it meant she’d be out of my physical reach.

  For the first time ever, I felt pity for her.

  I went to her and unhooked the mask. I cringed when I pulled it off and a long narrow tube slid from her mouth. As I unhooked the straps, she took a few deep breaths and started mumbling. “Nastya...Nastya...”

  I loosed the last strap and eased her into my arms. “Hey, Praskovya. It’s me.”

  She slumped in my arms and said in a hoarse voice, “Enact the heart-bind.”

  “What?” I tried to help her stand, but she refused.

  “Kill me.”

  What did they do to her? “No, it’s not going to be that easy.”

  She slapped me. “Do it.”

  “No.” My eyes watered from the sting of the strike, and I gritted my teeth in frustration. I seized her by the shoulders and tried to pull her along, but she shoved me away.

  “Do it! Kill me!”

  “Why do you want to die? Why now?” I shouted back.

  She leaned against the wall for support and gazed at me. “I asked you how you thought this would end. This is how it will end.”

  “Who’s Nastya?”

  Her face screwed up in pain. “Just leave me.”

  “Sorry, not doing it. No one deserves to rot in this hellhole except the people who built it.” I grabbed her by the arm and expected her to punch me, but this time she moved her legs and came along.

  We ran toward the midway point in the corridor where everyone else had congregated. When Jasmine confirmed that every room had been checked, I led the group back toward the central security desk. Mia, the woman who had told us of the warded double doors, said that the wide corridor to the left led to supply rooms and the operating room. The corridor to the right was the one that led to the warded doors--but then we’d have to fight our way through ten armed guards stationed near the exit.
r />   I pulled Jasmine aside. “Get everyone into the other corridor, the one where the supply rooms are. I’ll go and clear the way.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “No one can use their powers while inside here, and they probably wouldn’t have the strength to fight, even if they could.”

  “I can back you up, Isabella.”

  I shook my head. “Save your bullets. We may need them once we get past the double doors.”

  “Okay.” She ordered everyone toward the left corridor.

  I turned and headed toward the corridor on the right, and Praskovya came up behind me. “You might want this...”

  I took the dead guard’s pistol from her. “Thanks. Now go with the others.” She looked at me as if I were crazy, probably wondering what exactly I planned to do with no magic and a gun. She turned and followed the group.

  I headed down the dimmed corridor, past some research rooms and toward the second security desk. I paused and listened for any sounds, but the unnatural silence grew, and I got worried. Where did those ten men go? I heard footsteps coming from the other side of the double doors, the same ones we’d need to get through in order to reach the exit. As the doors opened, I positioned myself and aimed the gun at whoever was coming my way.

  “I knew it was you causing that ruckus on the other side of the laboratory.” Casandra wore dark pants and a white top, along with a holster. She didn’t bother to pull out her gun.

  I glanced around. “Don’t tell me you got hungry and ate those guards.”

  “They’re already waiting outside the exit with orders to shoot anyone who makes it out.” She rolled her tongue across her front teeth and exposed her sharpened canines.

  I fired a shot straight at her head, and she swerved and dodged the bullet. I shot twice more before taking a few steps backward, and there she stood, slowly making her way toward me with a smirk on her face. I got nervous and looked up at the ceiling. Imperium gold lined the area out here as well. I still couldn’t use my alchemist abilities, so how the hell was she able to avoid getting hit? Were Cruenti immune to imperium gold?