~
Grace adjusted her bag as they reached the base of the mountains. They’d heard that a group of hikers had found a number of bodies with the same deep burns dumped off the side of the trail, and so the group had decided it might be worth searching the area in the hopes that they may find some clue as to Erebus’ location. Surely he had to be nearby?
The snow had halted and the sun was peeking its way out from behind the clouds, melting the ice away from the track. The air was still cold, however, and Grace was sure to secure her coat tighter around her body as they started up the trail that would lead them to the summit.
Half an hour later, Robin pulled them all up, gesturing at something that was shining bright amongst the ice a little way off the trail. Logan was closest and eased off the track, treading carefully through the snow. He knelt down thoughtfully and began inspecting the area. He pulled the glove from his hand and pressed his fingers to the place that still shone.
‘It’s glass,’ he said finally.
Robin and Mitch moved in to help clear away the snow so they could see what was hidden underneath. Grace and Gemma stepped closer as the object began to reveal itself.
‘It’s a door…’ Gemma whispered.
‘Not just that… it’s an underground lab…’ Grace gasped.
The group leaned forward, all peering down through the frosted glass and catching sight of benches, computers and chairs below. Logan grasped the silver handle and pulled the glass door open, loosening the surrounding snow and sending it raining down into the room.
‘Let’s check it out,’ Gemma said, already halfway down the ladder.
One by one they each took to the rungs, and one by one their feet hit the bottom and turned them around, allowing them to observe the huge, very much deserted lab.
‘Whoah…’ Logan whispered, twisting around in a slow circle.
‘I know.’ Grace agreed.
Steel tables lay unoccupied, old computers rested atop wooden desks gathering dust and glass cabinets full of equipment sat unopened. The place was clean, save for the cobwebs, and empty of people nor any sign of what had once went on there.
‘What do you think this place was used for?’ Grace wondered aloud.
She strayed over to one of the computers and pressed the on button. To her surprise, the machine began to boot up.
‘Why would humans have a lab halfway up a mountain?’ Logan added.
There was a required password for the computer, of course, and Grace’s lips formed a thin line as she tapped her fingers on the desk.
‘I doubt the Humans put this here.’ Gemma remarked, eyes wandering to the roof.
Out of curiosity, Grace tried Erebus.
Access Denied. You have two attempts remaining.
She paused to think for a second, then raised an eyebrow and typed in the words, Erebus Cain Wizard.
Access Granted. Welcome Back Maria.
Grace took a seat in front of the computer, waiting for it to load.
‘Hey, how’d you get in?’ Logan asked, appearing by her side.
‘Turns out this place belongs to the Wicked.’
‘See if you can find out what this lab was used for.’ Mitch said, joining them.
Grace began searching through the folders, though time and time again she came up short, for it appeared the files had all been deleted.
‘There’s nothing on here.’ She declared after a while.
‘What about the recycling bin?’ Logan said, pointing to an icon on the screen.
Grace double clicked over the bin, bringing up the folder. Only one document remained. She restored it, then opened the page. It took a moment for it to load, but when it did, there were just a few short words that filled the stark white screen. As Grace read them, she felt her body begin to freeze up with horror.
‘What does that mean?’ Robin inquired from over Grace’s shoulder.
Grace glanced up at him, then around at the rest of the group. Gemma and Logan understood, however it was clear Mitch and Robin were struggling to make sense of the words.
‘Back before Cara, Laura’s mother, was kidnapped, there were a number of people, both humans and Enchanted Warlocks, who were turning up dead.’ Grace explained. ‘We later came to realise that Erebus had been trying to re-create Laura by forcing Warlocks and Humans to have children. This lab…’ She shook her head, glancing around at the suddenly eerie room. ‘This was where they did it.’
~
Drew and Laura woke early the next morning, intending to set out in search for Mr Stark. They hoped that perhaps he was still nearby, and, if they did find him, then they could spy on him. Drew was desperate to know what he was up to. Lying to the Enchanted about the war? Even for Mr Stark that was bad.
‘Let’s ride to the next town and keep an eye out. If there is no sign of him anywhere along the way we’ll get a room at the next hotel and start sifting through Kane’s journals. Sound good?’
Laura agreed and they set off, taking the back roads and searching through the desert for any sign of Mr Stark and his men. It wasn’t long after they’d began their search, however, that Drew felt the uneasy feeling that someone was watching them creep up on him. He pulled over and began searching the vast desert.
‘What’s wrong?’ Laura asked worriedly.
‘I’m not sure yet.’
All of a sudden, and, seemingly out of nowhere, a land drover appeared atop a sand dune.
And it was speeding straight for them.
Chapter Nineteen
Devils Of The Past
Drew reacted faster than Laura could comprehend, and suddenly they were tearing off through the sand, narrowly missing the land drover as it soared past them.
‘Get to a road!’ Laura screamed over the roaring wind.
Drew took a hard left and began swerving through the sand in an attempt to slow the pursuers down. He roared up another sand dune and finally hit the bitumen road, taking off at lightning speed down it. Laura risked a glance behind her and was horrified to see the land drover had already completed a full circle and was speeding up behind them.
‘They’re following!’ She shouted to Drew.
‘Damn it, who are they?’ He yelled back.
Laura swivelled around as best she could however no matter how hard she strained her eyes she still couldn’t make out the people’s faces through the tinted windscreen.
‘I don’t know.’ She replied.
Drew took the first right they came to, hitting a dirt, rocky road and Laura hoped the new uphill route they were on might slow the car down. The drop was growing larger on their right side as the wound their way up the large sandy mountain and Laura’s heart began to beat faster at the sight. She wasn’t afraid of heights, however the last time she’d been up a mountain she’d nearly plummeted to her death.
She peered over her shoulder and her stomach dropped. The land drover was closing in on them, tackling the road with ease.
‘They’re still coming!’ Laura told Drew.
‘I can’t get the bike to move any faster, somethings wrong with it.’
‘What are you saying?’ Laura felt sick, for she already knew exactly what Drew was implying.
‘We’re going to have to stop and face them, they’ll catch us anyway.’
She was about to protest when she heard the rev of the engine behind them. She slowly looked around and saw the land drover was so close to them that it could hit them at any moment.
‘If they wanted to hurt us they would.’ Drew told her.
‘Like they tried to do back there?!’ Laura shouted.
‘Listen to me Ace, I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? Trust me. Can you do that?’
Laura’s mind whirled as fear began to take over her body. But she was the girl who faced Erebus. She was the girl willing to face him again. She could be brave. She could be strong.
‘All right.’ She said, and she felt the bike begin to slow.
The land drover was
slowing too, so clearly their pursuers didn’t intend on harming them… yet. Drew pulled over, setting the bike on its stand and removing his helmet and pack. He pulled his sword from its scabbard, prepared to fight. Laura, all the while, felt her legs begin to buckle beneath her as she freed her own weapon.
The car doors opened and three men exited the vehicle. Drew staggered back as if he’d been shot, and Laura chanced a glance his way. His face was ashen, his eyes a dull green, and a look of confusion crossed his face. No… not confusion. Hatred.
Laura turned back to the three men.
‘We meet at last, Mr Crescent.’
‘Who are they?’ Laura whispered, and her breath caught at Drew’s response.
‘They’re the Wicked that killed my parents.’
~
Gemma left the confines of the underground lab feeling somewhat shaken. She knew her companions were in the same boat, for they were all much quieter than they had been before their discovery.
They made it halfway up the mountain then decided to leave the worn path, taking an unused animal track. The snow was melting quickly under the sun, and the path was growing thinner under foot.
They walked in single file, Mitch taking the lead, Gemma following behind, Robin next and Grace and Logan bringing up the rear. The higher they progressed the warmer the sun became and the slicker the ice grew.
After a while, the mountain wall to their left disappeared, leaving them completely exposed on the edge of a cliff. The drop was far, and Gemma made an asserted effort not to peer over the edge.
‘So how’d you come to live at the manor?’ Mitch asked over his shoulder.
Gemma was taken aback at his direct question. More often than not people skirted around the subject of her past until she told them in her own time.
‘My family died and I had no one left to take me. How else?’ She replied bluntly, not sure she really wanted to have that particular conversation while she was essentially scaling a wall.
Mitch paused to test the ground ahead before taking his next step, then, when he was sure it was safe, he continued onwards.
‘I guessed that much.’ He said, though there was no sarcasm nor jest in his voice.
Gemma resigned, ‘Goblin attack. Killed everyone. Betrayed by a family friend.’
Mitch was quiet for a long moment, again stopping to test the ground in places before moving forwards.
‘That must have been difficult.’
‘It was.’
‘Your issues with trusting people make a little more sense now.’
Gemma didn’t reply, shocked to hear him speak so openly about her trust problems. How’d he even figured it out?
‘But not everyone is like that.’ He said after a while.
‘I’m sure they’re not, but I’d rather they earned my trust than my placing it in them only to have them stab me in the back.’ Gemma said firmly.
Mitch halted and swivelled in his place. As his eyes locked with hers, she saw a hint of something glinting behind them, though she wasn’t sure what.
‘What’s the hold up?’ Robin called, obviously not wanting to move forward until they did.
‘Nothing.’ Gemma said quickly over her shoulder.
She took a step, urging Mitch to keep moving, however as she brought her foot down, she realised there was nothing but air beneath her, and before she knew it, she was falling.
~
Laura didn’t see the flash of red lightening, only felt the surge of electricity as she was struck by a pain like nothing she’d ever felt before. She cried out desperately, and the current left her body as quickly as it had arrived. She collapsed to the ground, unable to stop her limbs from jittering, struggling to catch her breath.
She thought she could hear Drew shouting but she wasn’t sure. The next thing she knew, she was being lifted from the ground. The blackness that edged her vision seeped away and the world came back into focus. Drew was holding her up, and slowly, the shaking in her body subsided, the buzzing she hadn’t initially noticed in her ears began to dissipate, and she could make sense of what was happening again.
‘What do you want?’ Drew growled fiercely.
The Wicked in the middle, clearly the leader, took a single step forward and raised his sword. ‘We came to finish a job. You see, we left two witnesses that night.’
Laura found she was able to stand by herself again, and bent down to take up her own sword. Drew was boiling with rage, she could see it in his tense posture, in the way he held his blade. Any moment he would explode, and she didn’t know how it would end. Three against two… and these Wicked were well trained. The odds weren’t good.
‘Why now?’ Drew asked through gritted teeth.
‘Ah. Yes, well it appeared at the time that you and your sister were no longer a trouble to us, so we left you alone. However in the past months… things have changed. You now pose a threat, and we can’t afford to let you live.’
Drew laughed though there was nothing humorous in his expression. ‘Go ahead then. Try and kill me.’
The Wicked shook his head and chuckled, ‘oh you don’t think it will be as easy as that do you? No, our master wants to see you first. He’s been informed that Erebus has a little… task for you.’
That was the limit. Drew snapped into action, swiping out at the Wicked. All three were on him in an instant, and Drew was turning, jumping, sliding; spinning his blade in his hand with ease as he fought off their attacks. He couldn’t hold it up for long though, Laura knew that, so she charged, blade ready. She’d trained for hours on end but she was no professional, not like her companions. Regardless, she knew how to fight better than she had before. Never again would she cower when a battle was to be fought, despite the consequences that weighed on her conscious thereafter.
She sliced her sword at the smaller of the three Wicked’s neck, but he spun in time to deflect the blow. He growled, stabbing his weapon at her. She moved her own sword and the blades clashed, ringing out as Gold stabbed Silver. The Wicked was fast, and the blade was coming at her every which way. She kept up, however, warding off the blows. What she didn’t realise was he was pushing her backwards, away from Drew. She didn’t have time to see where Drew was, if he was even still alive, for she was struggling to concentrate on herself.
She was losing strength, struggling to keep up with the Wicked’s many manoeuvres. The long days on the road had taken its toll and she simply wasn’t use to working in the desert heat. Sweat dripped down her neck, back, forehead and into her eyes, stinging them.
She blinked rapidly and her guard failed. The Wicked’s sword sliced across her shoulder, and she cried out, glancing down at the wound where blood was spilling in thick streaks down her arm. Something collided with her stomach, shoving her backwards, and she lost her footing. She scrabbled about in the air as she realised the ground was no longer beneath her second foot. Drew shouted her name and she locked panicked eyes with him, watching as he was knocked to the ground.
Then she fell.
~
‘Gemma!’ Mitch shouted, diving for her hand and just missing as she slipped through the air.
Gemma dug her fingers into the cliff face, searching wildly for something to grip onto, but she just kept falling. Her feet flayed about and her nails scraped against the earth. She finally jarred to a stop as her hand closed around a root and her foot found leverage on a rock jutting out from the side of the cliff. Her heart was hammering in her chest and her fingers stung. She dared not look at them, knowing they’d be torn to shreds.
‘Gemma!’
She peered up to see Mitch hanging over the edge of the cliff, and realised that she was a fair way down. Considering the state her fingers were in - if the pain was anything to go off - she doubted she could climb back up. Her stomach was throbbing with the ache of her old injury and she felt her mind begin to shut down from the pure shock.
Keep it together. She told herself sternly, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before r
eopening them. She refused to look down. She could feel the root within her hand beginning to weaken, and the rock beneath her foot straining under her weight.
Grace appeared over the side frantically calling out at her.
‘I’m okay. But my hands are in bad shape.’
‘Do you think you can climb up if we send a rope down?’ Mitch asked.
Gemma shook her head then yelped as the root pulled out from the cliff an inch.
‘Gemma!’
The root caught again and she reaffirmed her hold.
‘God, okay, we’ll have to send someone down to get her.’ Mitch said, already pulling rope from his bag.
‘I’ll go. I’m the lightest.’ Grace said immediately.
Mitch shook his head, ‘no, I’ll go, I’ve done this before.’
Gemma glanced back up and saw Grace was going to protest, but the root tore free a fraction more and she screamed, begging them to hurry. Though she wouldn’t admit it aloud, she was afraid. Severely so.
‘Okay. Go!’ Grace said at last, and Mitch secured the rope around his waist.
Robin, Logan and Grace took the other end, moved into position, then, slowly, Mitch began to lower himself over the edge of the cliff. He cautiously scaled the wall, allowing his hands and feet to find foot holds so the three at the top weren’t holding his entire weight. Mitch pulled up short just inches to Gemma’s left, however he was still too high, and he called up for the others to slacken the rope more.
‘It’s run out!’ Robin yelled back.
Gemma’s heart began to race again as she realised what that meant. Mitch couldn’t reach her to tie the second rope around her waist, and there was no way she could do it herself if he were to toss it down to her.
All of a sudden the rock disappeared beneath her foot and she screamed as she fell. The root she still gripped held, and she swung out before slamming back into the side of the cliff. Snow rained down over her at the impact and she buried her head in her arms as she clung to the root with both hands.
‘Gemma! Gemma!’
She realised Mitch was shouting at her and she raised her head enough to see him reaching a hand down to her.
‘Gemma take my hand!’ He said.
The Sacrifice (Wicked Book 2) Page 22