City of Everdark (Chronicles of Arcana Book 3)

by Debbie Cassidy

  Noir nodded. “I’ll go and speak to Lex now.”

  “Also check in with that contact of yours, the one who was looking at the transponder the Shedim dropped. We need to know how they got hold of it.”

  “No problem. I’ll be back in a bit.” He poofed away.

  I glanced at the clock on the wall. Almost six p.m. My gut churned. I just wanted to get this over with.

  “You don’t have to do this, Wila,” Gilbert said.

  “He’s right,” Trevor said. “You don’t have to do any of it.”

  But I did, because it was the only way to get back the people I loved. “I’m not the kind of person to turn my back on my friends, no matter how dangerous it may be. I may not have a blood family, but what I have with you guys, with Fran and Eloise, with Azren and Valance, Noir and Tay ... it’s more than blood, it’s everything.”

  “But they wouldn’t want you putting your life at risk,” Trev said. “I know that because if I had been taken, I’d want you to stay away. I’d want you to stay safe.”

  “Well, this is one instance I’d be ignoring your advice.” I grinned, hoping to defuse the sudden doom-and-gloom vibe. “It’s gonna be fine, guys. Trust me. If I can get into dragon territory and come out alive, then I can infiltrate a secure government facility, steal some data, and free a few inmates.”

  Okay, said out loud that sounded ridiculous. I was, after all, just an investigator—a good one, but still, I was no special ops soldier.

  The air shifted urgently. “Wila, what about luck?” Gilbert said excitedly.

  Oh, shit. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “Good call, Gil.” I picked up my phone to dial Barnaby and then paused. Shit, how long had it been since I’d last used luck? Six weeks? Seven? Not long enough for him to sell me another dose.

  “What is it?” Trevor asked.

  “He won’t sell it to me. It hasn’t been long enough between doses.”

  “Shit!” Trevor began to pace.

  The room was once again filled with tension. What they both needed was a distraction from thinking about what I was about to do. “You know what, I’m fucking starving.”

  Gilbert was instantly on alert. “Of course you are. You haven’t eaten all day. What would you like, Wila?”

  Something that required some preparation and monitoring. “You know what I really fancy? One of your roast dinners.”

  “A roast?” Gilbert sounded thrown.

  I winced. “I know. It’s too late for that, right?”

  “No. No. Never too late for a good meal. I’ll get started right now.” His presence seeped out of the room.

  There was silence for several long beats and then Trevor snorted. “Go on then, what distraction are you going to saddle me with?”

  There was no pulling the wool over Trev’s eyes. Gilbert was like a mother hen, so concerned about my welfare that it had been easy to shift his focus from me being about to rush into mortal danger to oh, no, my baby is hungry. But Trev was another story.

  “I guess you’re just going to have to help me keep Gil occupied.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’d feel better about this whole thing if you had a plan B as an exit strategy.”

  “Yeah, so would I. So would I.”

  I’d promised not to do this. I’d given my word, but the pull was an inexorable force that tugged me down the basement steps to the metal door. I stood a foot away from it, waiting, breathing.

  “Don’t do it,” the voice said. “Not without me.”

  “I have to.”

  “No. You don’t. You can open the door. You can take me with you.”

  I wanted to, oh, how much I wanted to, but I’d already broken my promise to Gil. I couldn’t rub salt in the wound by ignoring the rest of his warning.

  “Why don’t you tell me who you are?” There was no disguising the pleading tone in my voice. “Tell me, convince me, and let me confirm it, and I promise you, I’ll let you out.”

  The silence stretched like taffy, and when he spoke, the words gushed out fast and furious as if he was racing, as if he was fighting. “Have you not figured it out by now, Wila? Have you not realized that if I could I would have told you everything. My tongue is tied, my lips are sealed, and my body is bound. I have power, and yet, right now, in this box, I am powerless. You have the power, Wila. You are the only one that can free me, only you—”

  His scream was excruciating, tearing into my soul, fisting my heart and yanking it so it slammed against my ribcage. My hands were on the door, fumbling with the lock, desperate to make it stop, to set him free.

  “Wila!” Trevor barked down the stairs.

  I fell back, chest heaving, hands trembling.

  From beyond the door there was absolute silence.

  “Hello?”

  Nothing.

  Oh, God. Oh, God. What had I done? What had he done?

  “Wila, you need to get back upstairs before Gil finds you here,” Trevor said with gentle urgency.

  But I couldn’t tear my eyes from the door. Ignoring Trev, I placed my hand to the metal. “Please be okay.”

  A low groan.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God. You’re alive.”

  His laughter was soft and bitter. “Forever alive, Wila ... There can be no death for me.”

  Trevor herded me away from the door and toward the stairs. Heart in my mouth, mind whirring, I followed but faltered on the first step.

  “I’ll be back.” It was a whisper.

  The voice chuckled. “I know you will.” He sounded recovered, back to his usual cocky self, and relief unfurled in my chest. “We’re not done yet, you and I. Far from done.”

  The chicken had been melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and the roasties crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. My stomach felt like it was filled with rocks, but I’d eaten every bite on my plate, swallowing past the lump in my throat that reminded me how much Azren would have loved this meal.

  “You’re going to have to cook this again,” Noir said with a smile. “Just so we can watch Azren eat.”

  Trevor snorted, spraying chewed-up potato across his plate.

  Noir patted him on the back.

  This was how it should be, us together, enjoying a meal. And once I got the guys back, this was how it would stay. I’d make sure of it. I’d make sure Arcana was safe. I’d protect my family. Noir’s contact had checked the transponder and revealed that it had no serial number, which meant it was unregistered and untraceable. Unless someone else was making transponders now, it pointed to Kelter making untraceable tech for sneaky purposes. Was it enough evidence to take to The Institute? No. We’d need more than that. We’d need to figure out why Kelter was helping Elora, and how he fit in to her grand scheme before we went tattling. We needed to make sure there was no doubt, no way he’d be able to wheedle his way out of the accusations once they were laid out.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to call Taylem?” Noir asked gently.

  I nodded. “If he comes over when I’m gone, then you can fill him in. But otherwise, we keep him out of it.”

  Gilbert placed a pot of tea in the center of the table. Only a couple of hours left until it was time to—

  Greta materialized behind Trevor. Noir jumped in his seat, hand going to his chest.

  I smirked at him. “Now you know how it feels.”

  He shot me a narrow-eyed glare.

  I leaned back in my seat, affecting nonchalance even though my pulse was pounding. “You’re early.”

  “Things have changed,” she said tersely. “We go now.”

  “What’s happened?”

  “There’s been a lot of activity around the facility; several unmarked vans just left. It happens from time to time. I think they have some kind of meeting at an unknown location. But it means the place won’t be as manned. It’s the best time to do this.” She slid a manila envelope across the table. “Catsear and transponders. I managed to get you two. One for your friends to share. It’ll bring them to me, and I’ll
make sure they’re taken care of. And one for you. It will transport you home.”

  I pushed back my seat and grabbed the envelope. “I’ll get suited up.”

  Noir followed me into the office, where I stood braced against the desk for a moment. I could do this. It was just in and out of a secure facility—stealth and wit and all the shit that were my MO.

  “Wila?” Noir’s tone was hesitant.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned to face him. “I’m good.”

  His gaze was intense, his robin’s egg eyes dark in the gloom. “You can do this.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, ’course I can.”

  He cupped my face, his lean fingers warm on my chilly skin, and then he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. It was a soft kiss, somewhere between a brush and a peck, but it lingered, promising more, promising that we’d see each other again. There was no surprise, no oh my God, he just kissed me. It was the most natural thing in the world. He pulled back, and I stepped into his arms.

  His hands smoothed my hair. “When you get back, once we have the guys back, I’m taking you on a trip.”

  It was my turn to pull away and look at him. “A trip?”

  His lips quirked. “There are other places aside from Arcana City.”

  “I may not have the gene to travel between the pockets.”

  He grinned. “But I do. And when you fast travel with me, you won’t need any gene.”

  See the world? See what was out there? My face broke into a matching grin. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  Neither of us brought up the fact that he was Arcana and I wasn’t, that this—us—was forbidden. None of that mattered, not right now, not in this moment.

  Instead, he passed me my dustkicker and bolt bag and followed me back into the kitchen, where Greta was lounging by the fridge.

  Noir faced the woman. “I just need to make something clear. If Wila doesn’t come back, if anything bad happens to her, then I will hunt you down. I will use every resource at my disposal. I will find you, and I will make you pay.” His tone was cool, matter-of-fact, which made it all the more threatening.

  Greta swallowed and then nodded. “You do what you gotta do, Noir.”

  Can’t say it wasn’t nice to hear him deliver the threat, but in reality, it would make no difference. Whether I got out alive or not was up to me.

  “Let’s get this done, Greta.”

  She grabbed my arm and we fragmented.

  The air was chill against my skin, Greta’s grip a little too hot, as we stood on top of a hill looking down on a valley I’d had no idea existed.

  “Where is this place?”

  “Still in Arcana City, behind the football stadium, Eastside,” Greta said.

  My brain ached. “No, that can’t be right. There’s nothing behind the stadium.”

  “That’s what they want you to believe, that’s what the ‘look away’ enchantment The Institute has cast does.”

  The Institute was a cobra head under which all Arcana activity occurred. Up until recently, I’d honestly thought that activity was limited to monitoring the use of arcane magic, keeping the streets safe by any means, and maintaining connections with the outside world. But it was much bigger than that. This was much bigger than that—a whole facility hidden right under our noses. Fucked up how the mutated humans ended up getting all the power. After all, that’s what the Arcana were—humans that should have been killed by the saturation of magic but somehow survived because of something in their DNA. They survived and they became uber powerful. Hanging with Noir had taught me not to tar all Arcana with the same brush. I mean, if one of them could be cool, then surely there were others like him, but I’d yet to meet another.

  “Are you ready?” Greta asked. “I’ll be dropping you on the laboratory level. Your friends should be held in the holding bay.”

  “You’re sure about this?”

  She sighed. “I’m sure.”

  I popped the catsear in and tapped it to make sure it was lodged securely. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Her grip had never loosened, and before I could draw a breath we were shattering into a million pieces. We materialized in a bland white corridor with overly bright lighting and sparkling clean floors you could probably eat off.

  Greta released me abruptly. “Good luck.”

  She was gone in a blink. Shit. What now? A sign to my left pointed to Main Laboratory. The one to my right simply stated Holding Bay. That’s where Greta had said Eloise and Fran would be held. I headed warily down the corridor, keeping to the wall, ears pricked on high alert for anything or anyone. So far, so good. No cameras, no security doors ... yet.

  “Bastion, can you hear me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good, where are you?”

  “Headed to the holding bay.”

  “There’ll be a security door coming up. I’m disabling it now.”

  The door came into view and the red dot on the touch panel switched to green. With a quick look through the porthole to check for the all clear, I pushed it open and stepped into the corridor beyond.

  The lighting was dimmer here, as if conserving energy. “All clear.”

  Several doors with portholes lined each side of the corridor. My friends had to be in one of these rooms. I checked each one, but all were empty. My heart sank.

  “They’re not here.”

  “Shit,” Greta said.

  “That’s it? Shit? Where the fuck are they?”

  “They must be holding them on the lower level with the Others.” There was a frown in her voice. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “How do I get there?”

  Greta was silent for a long beat. “Get me the data from the central server, and I’ll direct you.”

  What the...? “Fuck you. I get my friends out and then you get your data. That was the deal.”

  She made a sound of exasperation. “We’re wasting time. The central server is on the way to the cell level. You do this and you can grab your friends and get the heck out of there.”

  It wasn’t that easy. I had to get the Others out too, but she didn’t need to know that. The extra transponders Lex had provided were snug in a pouch in my pocket.

  I needed Greta to direct me. There was no choice but to do it her way. “Fine. Lead the way.”

  Back in the main corridor, I headed past the signs and through a fire exit into a stairwell. Shit, if someone came into the stairwell, I was fucked.

  “Two floors,” Greta said in my ear.

  There was nothing to do but take the risk. I was a flight away from the floor I needed when a door opened below me and the sound of deep male voices drifted up toward me. Shit. No, wait, they were headed down, not up, but the acoustics in the stairwell meant if I carried on descending they’d be likely to hear me. I crouched and waited.

  “—subject zero doing?” a male voice said.

  “You’ll have to see for yourself. I think Liam has gone too far with the immersion therapy,” a female voice said this time.

  The male chuckled. “I heard he asked for a dustkicker? What the heck is one of those?”

  “From some show they’ve allowed him to watch.”

  “Do you think—”

  The voices cut off.

  They’d obviously gone through another door onto another floor. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued down to the central mainframe level. There was no brightly lit corridor here, just a vast room filled with machines. Huge towers dotted with blinking lights and covered in wires. Red lighting glinted off metal, and the whirr of machines beat against my ears.

  “Shit, Greta. What the fuck am I looking for?”

  “It’ll be different from the other towers. Larger and newer.”

  Oh, man. Where was Gilbert when I needed him? Okay. Time to do a scan of the floor. Up and down the pathways between the towers, sticking to the shadows just in case. It had to be here somewhere.

  “Bastion?”

  “I can’t see it? Are you sure it�
�s on this floor?”

  “It has to be.”

  “Just like you were sure my friends were on the laboratory floor.” Anger flared in my chest. The longer I was in the building, the more danger I was in. Dammit, where the fuck was this server?

  I rounded the corner onto the next aisle and there it was. Gleaming like an oasis in a desert.

  “I found it.”

  Greta exhaled loudly in my ear. “Okay, there should be a USB port somewhere on the tower.”

  “Oh, great. Thanks for being so specific.” Fuck, this thing was big, with wires and buttons and switches and ooh, a section lined with USB ports. “Got it.”

  “Okay, shove it in.”

  “Done.”

  The sound of soft clicks filled my ear. She was remotely accessing the data. “How long?”

  “Thirty seconds. It’s just uploading.” She let out a whistle. “You did it, Wila. You got the data.”

  The thud of boots echoed down the aisle.

  Fuck! I ducked behind the tower to my left. Shit. The USB stick.

  A man was striding toward the tower, portly, balding, and irate. “Fucking pointless exercise,” he muttered under his breath. He lifted his clipboard, gave the tower a brief glance, ticked something off on the paper, and then headed off back down the aisle.

  I sagged in relief. “All good.” I grabbed the USB stick and pocketed it. “Now get me to the sublevel.”

  Greta hesitated. “I can’t.”

  10

  Had I heard right? “Excuse me? What did you just say?”

  “I’m sorry. The sublevel is buried beneath steal and cement. The catsear will lose reception.”

  She’d known this. She’d known when she promised to get me to Eloise and Fran if I got her the data she needed. My blood boiled. “You fucking bitch.”

  “I’m sorry. I honestly thought your friends would be on the upper lab level.”

  “You don’t give a shit about them. You wanted to use me to get the data to blackmail The Man.”

  “And we can use it. We can use it to get your friends back.”

  “When? Once they’ve been experimented to death on?” Rage was a monster threatening to burst from my skin, and my fingers pricked with the promise of talons. “Will the transponders work at sublevel?”