City of Stone (The Watchers Trilogy, Book Two)

by T. C. Edge

  Jackson...no.

  I reach up to pull him away from the paths of the bullets. In seconds, they'll come...

  I'm too weak.

  He tries to lift me, but I try to pull him down.

  The while lines continue to hover threateningly over his heart, imminently sent to kill.

  “No...” I croak. “Duck...Jackson...”

  He can't hear me above the din. I watch in horror, nothing I can do now. He's about to die before my eyes once more.

  And this time, it will be real.

  I shut my eyes, unable to watch, and hear the sudden fizz of two bullets as they whistle overhead, just above me. Jackson's hands leave mine, slipping from my grasp, and I feel him fall away to the side as the sound of the bullets tearing into flesh cuts into my ears.

  Then, I hear his voice shouting.

  “Theo! No, Theo!”

  I open my eyes, and look up, and see Theo standing where Jackson once was. He looks down at me, Jackson shoved to one side, with a weak smile on his face.

  And two bullet holes in his chest.

  36 - A Fear Confronted

  Theo collapses to the ground beside me. I hear Jackson screaming for help as the world roars.

  “Man down! Man down!”

  Immediately, Drake rushes over. He quickly lifts Theo up onto his strong shoulders and gallops towards the plane. Jackson does the same with me as Markus, Ellie, and Link continue to provide covering fire.

  Bouncing on Jackson's back, I look ahead and see my father's shoulder quickly soak with blood. Theo's chest, torn up by two bullets, pours crimson down onto him. I reach out with my hand as his eyes start to fade.

  Theo...

  The safety of the plane looms. Drake rushes aboard, up a short ramp, and disappears into the back. Jackson follows, my weight hardly slowing him, lowering me quickly down onto a soft chair close to the entrance. Then, he's gone, calling out of the opening for the others to join, and Drake rushes back past me.

  Both men quickly descend down the ramp again, weapons to their shoulders, covering the others as they beat a retreat. My vision still slightly blurred, I watch as they reappear, all of them, one by one, filling the plane as the doors begin to shut.

  The engines suddenly begin to fire more loudly. Then, we begin lifting into the air, the plane hovering and turning. I look out of the window to my side and see the sight of fresh, open space beyond. A bright light at the end of the hanger signalling freedom from the city, only the open ocean beyond.

  The interior of the plane remains hectic. People rush this way and that as the plane begins to rumble. I hear Stein calling for everyone to strap in, take their seats. Drake rushes past me to the back of the flight with a first aid kit in his hands. I arch my neck around and see Theo, lying on the ground with a pool of blood around him. Leeta kneels next to him, her hands pressed hard against his wounds, tears wetting her eyes.

  “Theo...” I whisper.

  I try to stand, but Jackson is quickly by my side, strapping me in tight. Ellie and Link take seats nearby, covered in soot and cuts from the explosion, but looking mainly unharmed.

  “Ready!” roars Stein up ahead.

  The plane rumbles harder. Outside, I hear shouts and the rattle of murderous bullets slashing against the exterior of the plane. Then, suddenly, the shaking grows more intense and we fire forward towards the bright light at the end of the tunnel.

  I shut my eyes tight as it brightens and burns, my stomach rolling around and churning inside me. My head aches harder, my ears ringing louder, as we reach supersonic speeds, leaving the hanger exit behind and thrusting out over the wild, raging ocean.

  We quickly gain height, rising steeply into the air. I turn my head and let my eyes open a crack as we bank right. The shape of Eden quickly becomes visible in its entirety, a den of evil standing tall over the ocean.

  I turn away and scrunch up my eyes, tears squeezed from them. Once more, I arch my head back and see Leeta still clutching at Theo's chest, lying low to the ground to steady herself as the aircraft rises. Drake, next to her, frantically applies bandages and dressings, trying to stop the bleeding.

  I reach forward and unclip my straps. Immediately, I fall out of my chair as I try to rise. I feel Jackson quickly beside me, trying to lift me back into my seat. I hold him back.

  “No...Jackson.”

  I stand, gingerly, gripping hard on the chair heads to stabilise me, and look to Theo at the back. His eyes lie open, unblinking, lifeless

  Theo...

  Jackson holds onto me, but I move away from him. He doesn't follow. I step to the back of the plane and see Ellie and Link looking at me with sorrow in their eyes. No one speaks.

  Drake's eyes rise to me when I reach him.

  “Cyra, you shouldn't be here...” he says.

  His hands are covered in blood, hope withdrawn from his face. I see resignation in his eyes. I see inevitably.

  I drop to my knees by Theo's side, and reach forward and take his hand. Its bloodied, growing cold. I squeeze it as tight as I can.

  “Theo...” I whisper. “Theo...wake up.”

  His eyes stir at the sound of my voice.

  “Theo, stay with me...stay with me,” I croak through my tears.

  They turn to look at me, recognising me. A smile forms on his face, blood trickling from his lips.

  “Cyra,” he whispers weakly.

  I lean in closer, his words so quiet.

  “Is...is Jackson OK?”

  I squeeze his hand tighter, and nod my head.

  “He's fine...you saved him, Theo. You saved us both...”

  A single tear begins gathering in the corner of his eye.

  “I want you to be happy with him...”

  “Don't speak like that. Don't say your goodbyes.”

  “I did it for you. You...always loved him, I know that. You were never going to love me.”

  A single tear rolls down his face, joining the blood in the corner of his mouth.

  “But I do...” I say.

  His eyes flicker. I take his face in my palms, shake him. They focus on me, fading.

  “I do love you, Theo.”

  I lean down and kiss his lips, tasting the briny tears and bitter blood. I close my eyes and feel the last life beginning to leave him, his heartbeat so weak, his breathing so slow.

  I pull away, and with it a final smile rises on his lips.

  “I will always love you,” he whispers. “Always...”

  His hand reaches up to me, shaking. Bloody fingers brush the blonde hair from my eyes, around my ears. He looks at me, smiling, and a final breath flows from his body. His eyes, looking directly at mine, lock in place.

  I see the life leave them.

  “Theo,” I say, shaking him. “THEO!”

  His eyes remain staring. His lips remain curled into a small smile. I shake him again and call his name. But he remains locked in that same expression, the final one he'll ever show.

  I feel Drake come to me. He reaches down and slowly brings his hand to Theo's face, dragging his fingers over his eyelids, hiding those eyes forever.

  I want to stop him, hold him back, stay looking at the boy who helped change my life forever. But I don't. I sit, numb and shivering. Empty.

  I continue to sob quietly, my heart breaking, as Drake pulls me into a hug. I weep long and hard into his chest, gripping tight, as the world falls silent around us. The plane steadies. No one talks. Only the sound of my steady sobbing remains.

  I look down to see Leeta pulling a sheet from a drawer and laying it over Theo's body. It quickly gets soaked in blood. She dips her head and stands above him, and I hear her whisper a few words to herself.

  Behind me, the others gather. They all look down at Theo with great sorrow in their eyes. Ellie's fill with tears, Jackson's with guilt, Link's with respect. But still, no one says a word. Now is not the time.

  I stay there for a while as the others move up the plane, leaving me alone with the boy I was Paired with
. The boy who I first hated, then began to understand, then liked. And finally loved.

  I stand and look at his shape beneath the bloodstained sheet, but don't pull it back. I don't look at his face, now stricken of life. I just stare at a sheet, and let my body fill with hate.

  Eventually, an exhaustion begins to take over, my eyes emptied of tears. Tentatively, my father comes to me from behind, and guides me into a chair.

  “Sleep now, Cyra. I promise you, we will avenge him.”

  He kisses me on the forehead, and strokes my hair for a while, before leaving me alone once more. I sit, and look out of the window. Stare blankly at the ocean.

  Revenge, I think.

  There's nothing I have left.

  Next in the Series - War at the Wall

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  T C Edge