by Terina Adams
Jax caught my attention. Released from his paralysis, he pushed up from his seat. His movements were like a big cat readying for the prowl.
“This is all very amusing,” Carter said.
Jax spared a few more seconds with Archon before turning his gaze to Carter. “Oh it will be.”
Since entering the room, I saw the smug smile on Carter’s mouth slip. Jax was his prize fighter, his pet. He knew Jax little, but well enough to know the edge in his voice was something to concern himself about.
Was this Jax’s signal? Was it time for destruction?
I was the one who saw it first as I was facing the window. There was no noise because the glass was inches thick. Archon saw it next. Following Archon’s frown, Carter turned in his chair to also look.
Time suspended as we stared out the window at the nose of the STU utility, hovering threateningly close.
Jax dived for me, slamming into me with such force I was thrown backward. At the same time a thunderous sound punctured the air, roaring through my sanity. The weight of Jax crushed me, but there was glass splintering like rain drops onto my face and wind ripping around us and grit scratching at my eyes.
Chapter 32
The fury of the wind whipped around the room, fierce gusts ricocheting off the walls within the confined space, abrading the skin of my cheeks, filling my mouth with the desert. The unplugged ferocity of the wind swelled the simmering giant inside me.
“We’ve got to leave!” Jax yelled into my ear over the roar of the wind and the tinkling of billions of specks of sand pummeling every surface in the room. His weight lessoned over mine. “Get up!”
Hands on my upper arm, Jax dragged me to my feet, bracing against the onslaught. Eyes scratched up, I blinked through the curtain of sand and caught movement in my periphery. Jax pulled me one way. My eyes followed in the direction of the movement to see Archon racing for the exit. Watching him dash for the door, destruction raged a silent roar of its own.
“Jax!” I yelled over the noise and the concealment of my hand over my mouth so as to keep the grit out. My voice tilted up to a manic pitch. Was now the time to reveal that destruction was no longer bound by my graft?
Jax’s mouth pressed against my temple. “We need to get on the STU.” It was only his proximity and the agitated tone of his voice that gave me the strength to keep the thread of destruction from arching forward in a deadly stream and taking Archon out as he fled.
“Archon’s getting away.”
The wind whipped my hair over my face. We knocked heads as Jax pulled me close so he could use me as a barrier to the wind as he spoke. “He’s not our concern.”
I pushed him in the chest. Unhinged from his hold, I staggered sideways against the ferocity of the wind. Not willing to let me go, Jax wrenched me to him again. “They’re here for us. We have to get on that STU.”
“Carter’s here. You can stop him.”
Jax’s face remained fragmented through the sandstorm. I’d been a recipient of his frustration enough times to know what I’d see in his eyes if I could peel back the curtain. In this, the storm protected me. He was right. This was the chance I thought I’d lost only a day ago before destruction returned, when I was stripped of my factional nature and left helpless. But I was destruction again. To remind me, it thrummed and pulsated throughout my body, aroused by the chaos surrounding us. It was time to force Archon and Carter to pay their dues.
“You’re not listening to me.” Jax’s fingers dug into my arm, tearing my mind back to him and not Archon fleeing, back to our escape.
But I didn’t want to escape. Archon had to pay for all his deceit and for puppeteering me and stripping me of myself. I wanted to look in his crystalline eyes and watch the smirk slip slowly from his face when he realized I’d been the one to deceive him. “You know what revenge feels like.”
“I also know what it feels like to be free of it,” he said.
“Then help me end this, and we can both feel that freedom.”
“It won’t end, Sable.”
Neither will destruction. The storm inside my body was bigger than the storm in the room, drumming faster than my heartbeat, energizing me to life. Now that it was with me, a part of me, I couldn’t—refused to—ignore its desire. Was this the precipice, the edge of my choices? To be destruction or that other girl. A day ago, I’d been that other girl, and I couldn’t, wouldn’t be her again.
“I can end this!” I yelled back at him.
I pulled myself free of Jax. No, he let me go. I spun toward the now closed door, unprepared to chance catching his expression. Jax understood. He knew, because he’d been here himself, more than once, this place of defining decisions that altered more than the outcome; they also altered you.
Rather than run, I chose to fight.
Nearing, the door slid open. I stumbled out into the corridor, blown from behind and into the wall opposite. The wind escaped with me, showering me and the wall with fine grains of sand. The wind blasted off the wall but lost its impact down the vast corridor, leaving trails of sand in its wake.
Archon had vanished. But which way? Think. Left. Yes, definitely left.
Sand shed from my hair and clothes as I ran. I tasted desert, bit into grit as I clenched my teeth to entrench my decision. Tears from the sand blurred my vision. Keeping my sprint, I wiped at the tears until my eyes burned raw.
How many doors had there been? Too many. He would’ve gone for the lift, not sheltered in one of the rooms I passed. But how was I to get inside the lift? How did I expect to move around within this compound? Stupid, I’d not thought of that.
Before I reached the lift, it hissed open. A bunch of sweepers rushed into the corridor, protective energy rippling in rivers in front of them—the tough sort that shielded them from physical as well as factional attack—weapons clutched to their chests. I skidded to a stop but felt a detonation puncture through my chest, expulsing a wave toward the sweepers. I could feel my body in place, but it was like I hadn’t stopped at all. This other part of myself exploded outward. Unhinged from my mind, it fed on instinct.
The force at which destruction hit stripped the wall paneling like it was sheets of paper. Storms of debris replaced the storms of grit of moments ago, choking the corridor with a fine powder and missiles of rubble. Pummeled as they were, the sweepers remained on their feet, thanks to their shields. Destruction pulsed below my skin, the throb like a heavy drumbeat, finally subdued by my mental control. I couldn’t bring the ceiling down or I’d block the lift, but how would I get past the wall of sweepers who’d weathered the storm I unleashed?
“Get down, Sable!” someone yelled from behind me.
Hearing my name in the forceful cry, I went down, hands smacking the floor first. The residual injury in my left wrist flared a sharp twinge to life. Before I could turn to look over my shoulder, a sizzle flashed over my head, leaving a trailing smell of ozone. The sweepers scattered like ten pins.
I scrambled up, half looking over my shoulder. Someone collided with me, scooping me under my armpit, helping me to my feet. “We have seconds,” Jax said.
Elva appeared on the other side of me. “This stinks of your doing,” she all but snarled.
Sweepers were finding their feet. Two had lost their shields, disintegrated in the weapons fire.
“Duck,” came the voice of Patrick from behind.
Jax dragged me down to my knees as another bolt blew over us, nearly scorching our hair. The sweepers who’d found their feet were sent backward once more, blown by the impact then sliding farther down the corridor on their backs.
“The lift,” I panted, pushing to my feet.
“No. We need to get back in the STU and disappear,” Elva said.
“Carter’s here,” I said, hoping that would fire her own need for revenge as I sprinted for the lift, dashing inside like a tidal wave was about to sweep down the hall and flush us all away. Elva, Patrick, and Nuke burst in behind me, but Jax disappeared. I lunged for
ward out into the corridor to see Jax dragging one of the sweepers who’d lost his shield in the first blast. Blood followed in a trail behind them. Not a river of the stuff, but enough for me to suck my breath in.
This is what you’re doing.
Destruction pawed impatiently inside my skull, incited by the sudden slap of reality at the sight of the injured sweeper. Unleashed and wild, it would not give in or allow me to falter.
Patrick came forward to stand with me in the doorway. One sweep of his arm, he shoved me backward into the lift. I tumbled back onto my ass, biting my lip as he swung the barrel of the stolen weapon up and forward and released another arcing shot. The smell of electricity burning the air, the noise of the impact as the stream collided with the sweepers down the hall, and I turned to stone. This was the game, for grownups only. For those willing to step beyond the boundary and into freefall. I’d made the first move over the line, and the others had followed. I’d plunged them into my decisions.
Elva pushed past me, darting down the corridor. Soon after, Jax crammed the doorway with the wounded sweeper as Patrick bent and swept me up off my ass. “Sorry about that,” he said with a wink. There was no missing the red bruise in his eyes. Bloodlust was assuming control.
“Why him?” I asked, staring at the sweeper.
Elva reappeared carrying extra weapons. “How do you expect to move around in here?” Venom tinged her answer.
Destruction lashed under her remark.
Nuke helped Jax maneuver the sweeper toward the panel. They were going to use his palm print to operate the lift.
“Why can’t we shift from level to level?”
Elva turned her body toward me, pulling herself up to her impressive height. Destruction read her body language as an imminent attack, writhing and flaming for release. “Don’t you think it’s a bit late to be asking those questions now?”
“It won’t work inside the compound,” Jax said.
“This is a prison, sweetheart. Do you think the senate would be so stupid as to allow something as risky as shifting?”
I tried to dismiss her by looking to Jax and Nuke as they moved—which felt painfully slow—the sagging sweeper so they could place his hand in the right position over the panel.
“You better make this worth it.”
I ignored Elva’s acid and willed the guys to hurry up. The door hissed closed, and my stomach rose as we dropped. I held my breath for the time it took to travel into the bowels of the compound.
“Do you know—” Too late. The lift stopped.
The doors opened to silence. Patrick was the first to leave the lift, moving with the same skill and grace as he’d shown countless times in Dominus. This was what we’d been trained to do. Only now, we fought with weapons more lethal that did not require us to get close to cause injury or death, but our enemies were better protected. And our enemies were real people. I could make the moral choice—we all could—and step back from this fight, refuse to do harm to a living soul. And what would Archon’s choice be? And Carter’s? Was there room for moral choices in this game we played?
“The others will meet us on the docking platform,” Jax said, arranging one of the weapons Elva retrieved in his hand. Nuke carried the other.
“Others?” I asked, but everyone hustled out the door, leaving my question to sink in the emptiness of the lift, bar the sweeper now propped against the wall. I hesitated for a stilted breath. Destruction warped through my head, flushing a color of white across my vision. Get going. That’s what it said. Like lowering the googles and descending into Dominus, there was no turning back, no time for regret.
I joined the others in the corridor led by Jax’s hurried march.
“How long will they hold?” Nuke said.
Jax swiveled so fast I bumped into him. It was like he transformed into a granite wall. The force of his coal eyes, emanating the power of his will, bared down upon me like a sledgehammer. “You want Archon, you’ve got fifteen minutes.”
“I need more. I’m not sure how to find him.”
“Take it down, one level at a time.”
I flinched at the edge in his voice, sharpened to a fine blade.
“The compound.” My words came out in a shocked rush.
“Start at the top and work your way down.”
“There are prisoners in here.”
“You’ve made your choice, Sable. You can’t save everyone. You should know that.” The first signs of red filmed across the white of his eyes.
He was right. The choice I made to chase Archon meant he was right. The burn inside me for revenge meant he was right.
I knew Jax; I knew his heart. The redness of his eyes was not because he longed for the fight, nor because bloodlust was on the verge of winning control. He was pulling down the boundaries, letting his factional nature through, because he understood what a fight meant. We both understood, because we both knew the depth of the words “kill or be killed.” I’m sorry, Jax. But he would do it too. They all would. That was why they stood with me now.
“He’ll go to the docking platform.” Of course. “That’s his and Carter’s only escape.”
“The others will cover that. No one will leave alive, but I wouldn’t put any faith in that being their only way of escape.”
“What if there are people in the—”
Jax fingers manacled around my arm as he gave me a sudden shake. “You need to do it.”
Destruction had arced wild, empowered by the maelstrom, amped by the sound of the shattering glass, the fury of the wind, and struggled to break free and smash up the room. It was feeding through me now. I glanced around to the wall of my friends, each Aris, each with eyes flushing red.
I arched my head back, stared at the ceiling, focused on the stream of destruction. It fled out of me in a glorious surge, poring straight from my core. This is what it mean to be united and whole. It was grounding, blissful, consuming. The ceiling above us vibrated with the immensity of my release. Cracks corded outward from a center directly above my head, spreading down the corridor and outward to splinter down the walls. The force of destruction and the walls shuddered, and the floor vibrated beneath our feet.
“How about we get moving?” Nuke prompted, bringing me out of my excited fascination with what I’d done.
Nuke was right, no point hanging around in case I’d been stronger in my release. I was sure Jax had taken us down to the level of the platform, which meant there weren’t too many more levels above our heads, and that is why I’d been steady with my release. I had to be careful not to bring the floors above down on top of us but needed to make enough of a mess to cause Archon and Carter a lot of pain in their plans to escape, if Jax had been right and they disappeared via another route.
A heavy monotone siren sounded in stereo.
Our eyes sought each other out. “Looks like the clocks wound down to zero,” Patrick said.
“You know what to do!” Jax yelled, sweeping us all up in that command. Just like in Dominus, now was the time to engage.
With the sound of rushing feet behind us, we launched into a sprint around a bend. In front was the vast open space that served as the reception for new arrivals and the indoor exercise area for the prisoners. It was filled with prisoners corralled into the middle of the cavernous space by a wall of sweepers, the exercise for the day violently disrupted. Behind us, pounding feet meant more were on their way.
None of us broke our stride, running into the enemy at full sprint. In front, to the left of me, Patrick rose his weapon to his line of sight. Before he released a shot, a wall of bluish-white expanded out in front of us, warping the vision of the prisoners to a rippling glow. One of the sweepers had released his own shot.
Destruction flowed with the barest touch. It raced out in front of me, poured down the corridor, and slammed into the bluish blast of energy, expanding it farther into a blinding light. The thunderous sound felt like a detonation held to my ears.
The others continued runn
ing toward the mouth of the corridor and into the turmoil I created. I spun, emboldened by destruction’s release, and sent it funneling back the way we’d come, severing the path of the sweepers behind. The energy collided with the walls, puncturing through into the rooms and cavities and bleeding debris into the corridor. Expanding upward, the energy punched through the ceiling then rushed as a line of devastation toward the oncoming sweepers, creating a chasm through which the level above fell through. I coughed, pulled my overalls up over my nose to protect me from the billowing dust, now a thick haze in the air.
The grit from the sand was joined by fine particles of dust as I ran through the cloud toward the noise up ahead. I managed a few strides when something collided with the back of my head and sent me tumbling to the ground. I hit hard, sliding forward on my stomach, with the pain radiating through to the front of my head. On my stomach, vulnerable, destruction seared a line down my arms and out of my fingertips, splintering cracks along the littered floor, radiating outward from each finger.
I inhaled the dust, because my overalls mask had slipped. Coughing, I rolled to my back and looked back down the corridor. Expecting to see a sweeper, someone who’d thrown the lump of ceiling or wall at me, I saw nothing but my own devastation. I scrambled up onto my ass, peering into the hazy gloom, breath seized in my throat so I could hear clearer. Nothing.
I touched the back of my head, resting my palm over the smarting pain, then pulled my hand away to see blood. Behind me, the others had already broken free of the corridor. The sounds of fighting echoed down toward me. By the sounds of the commotion, I’d say the prisoners, encouraged by the attack of Jax and the others, had decided to join in. At least I knew where they were. Safely away from destruction’s attacks.
I climbed to my feet, about to join the rest, when I heard a faint clink behind me. I turned but couldn’t see anything through the dusty haze. It was a stray piece of debris falling onto of the rest. About to turn around and head for the fight, the floating haze in front of my face began to swirl. No longer was it wafting through the air, because it was light enough to resist the gravitational tug to the floor. It was moving in a coordinated circle. As it went, it gathered more, sucking in dust from around it to spiral a wider vortex. As the particles spun, they expanded, taking in more. Soon, the dust was spinning around my head, whipping my hair into my mouth and eyes.