I evaded him and dove deeper into the crowd. “We have the numbers, and we can have the power.” The drones veered away, and the holoscreen died. They were trying to shut me up. Fuck them. I raised my voice. “We can protect our children from the Hunt, we can stop the needless death. We can feed our families.”
Anger and determination bloomed on faces. It was working; the crowd was waking up.
“We can—"
A low hum filled the air, then blue mist rained on the crowd up ahead. People cried out as it landed on them, clawing at their skin. Bodies began to drop. The drones swept toward us, bringing the mist.
What was this?
The Danaan grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.
“Stop!” I battered at his back and kicked out, but he pinned my knees to his chest and broke into a run.
The crowd parted for him, and in the next moment, I was thrown into the back of the car. He slammed the door and remotely locked it.
I slapped my hands to the glass, looking out as the mist descended on the people.
The Danaan got into the car and slammed his door shut.
I punched the screen between us. “What the fuck is this?”
“Your fault,” he growled. “This is your fault.”
He started the engine and peeled away from the screaming crowd.
I watched with my insides in knots as they fell one by one. The Tuatha had done this as a response to my speech.
My fault.
My speech.
My fucking fault.
* * *
The Danaan parked the car a few doors up from my house and sat shoulders heaving.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
“I know.”
“You were reckless.”
There was something in his tone. Pity, maybe? And a thought occurred to me.
“You could have stopped me sooner.”
He growled low in his throat. “I should have.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I needed to know.”
“Know what?”
“If you were awake.”
My skin prickled. “Awake?”
The barrier between us lowered with a whirr, and he turned his head to look at me. “That blue mist won’t kill humans. It hurts like a bitch, knocks them out, but they’ll wake up with no memory of it. They’ll go home, and they’ll drink the water and breathe the air, and they’ll go back to being sleepers.”
Oh god. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you’re one of the immune.”
Was this a trick?
He sighed. “Not all of us are monsters, even though some of us might look like it.”
Shit, could it be? “You’re not like the others…”
He snorted indelicately. “No. But I play my part. We all do.”
“All?”
His neutral expression melted, and his eyes grew warm with compassion. “Those of us born with the ability to feel emotion.”
Emotion? He could…Oh god. “You can feel?”
“Yes. There are more of us, but the ancients have been weeding us out and executing us for two generations.”
I shifted and gripped the leather back of the seat in front of me. “I don’t understand. I thought the shining ones craved emotions.”
His expression was wry. “Maybe at one time, but the ancients have since learned that emotions can lead to uprisings, which lead to war. They keep the power by culling those of us who feel. The drug they use on the humans also dulls emotions, keeping the population docile. The blue mist you just saw is a concentrated version of that drug, and it’s not the first time it’s been used on humans. Over the last few decades, humans have woken up en masse several times as each generation becomes more resistant to the drugs in the water and the air. In those cases, the blue mist is used, and the drug is modified.”
“Wait, how do they know how to modify it?”
“They experiment on the human youth.” His gaze was direct, pointed, as if he was waiting for me to make some kind of connection.
Wait… The Hunt? “The children taken in the Hunt?”
“I believe so. Rumor has it there are two projects the human youth are used in, but I don’t know what the other purpose is.”
“They have my sister.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “No child taken is ever seen again.”
My stomach knotted. “There’s still time. She could still be alive.”
“Even if she is, it’s impossible to get into the red zone,” he said.
How did he know so much about the Keep? “I’ve done it before. I just couldn’t get into the room where they were holding her.”
Shock painted his features. “Impressive. Tell me about the room?”
“There was no way to open the door. No lock, no panel, nothing.”
“It’s a biometric door,” he said.
“What is that?”
“The metal is programmed to allow certain individuals inside. It literally allows them to walk through because it recognizes their biometric signature.”
Fuck. “I have to get to her. There has to be a way.”
“Unless you can get into the biotech wing and program your biometric data into their system and link it to the door, then no, there is no way in.” He chewed his lip, thinking.
“Where is the lab?”
He frowned. “Danika, even if you succeed in getting to your sister, there is nowhere to run.”
I locked gazes with him. “But what if there was?”
His eyes narrowed, and I could almost see his brain ticking. “Then I’d help you get into the lab on the proviso that you take me and mine with you.”
“Yours?”
“There’s a small group of us, Danaan like me, who can feel. We want out.”
I needed this, and Killion would just have to help me figure it out. “Done.”
“Lowland expects me to have misted you. He expects you to be docile and calm now.”
In other words, no defiance. “I understand.”
He started the engine. “Let’s go visit your family. We can discuss the other stuff later.”
“Thank you, Airm Marfach.”
He met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “That isn’t my name. It’s my title as royal bodyguard. My name is Slade.”
“In that case, thank you, Slade.”
He drove up to my front door.
“Um…so what does Airm Marfach mean?”
“It means Lethal Weapon.”
5
“She’s here!” Joti’s screech was audible from outside the house.
Slade opted to remain by the car to give me some privacy. The drones hovered around me, but Slade assured me they wouldn’t follow me into the house.
“Get back.” Ma’s voice filtered through the door. “Into the living room.”
Baba’s soothing rumble was next before the door was pulled open and a silver plate, with a tiny flame lit in the center and some Indian sweets arranged on the periphery, was shoved up toward me. Ma said a prayer, a blessing, and wafted the flame toward me.
“Beti, you are alive by the grace of god.” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “We are all so proud of you.”
I caught sight of Baba’s somber face. His brow was furrowed in his classic troubled look. We locked gazes, and an understanding passed between us. He was awake like me, had always been immune to the drug that pacified the population, and he knew what surviving the games meant. He understood what I must have endured… What I must have done, and he knew it was no cause for celebration.
As Ma ushered me into the house, her gaze slipped past me, and her face drained of color. She muttered another prayer before slamming the door shut.
I guess she’d caught sight of my Danaan escort.
“Come, come,” she said, recovering quickly.
I wanted to hug her, to hug Baba, but I was propelled into the living room where a table had been arranged, laden with all my
favorite foods. Joti stood by the window, hands clasped in front of her, eyes bright with excitement. Auntiji sat on the sofa with her walking stick resting on her lap.
Like Baba, her expression was troubled. She was a seer, a witch, and of course, she was immune too. How had I not made the connection?
“Can I hug her now?” Joti pleaded.
“Yes, yes,” Ma said impatiently.
Joti launched herself at me, and as I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her to me, the knot in my chest eased. No makeup or clothes could make my family fear me.
“Sit,” Ma said. “Eat. I made all your favorites.”
“She won’t be able to eat everything,” Auntiji said. “I told you to only make a couple of dishes.”
Ma’s face fell, and my chest twinged. This was her way of showing love. She fed us, she cooked for us, and she watched us eat.
Yes, there was no way I’d be able to eat all this food, but I’d be damn sure to try a little of everything. I grabbed a plate and took a little of each dish to please her.
Her eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands together. “See, my beti needs her strength.”
“They’re calling you Winter’s Blade,” Joti said. “Is it true?”
I tapped the dagger at my side. “It is.”
Ma ushered us all into seats at the table, and for a little while, it was as if this was just an ordinary family dinner. Except Nina wasn’t here, and Ravi…Well, Ravi hadn’t been an active member of the family for a long time.
Baba sat opposite me, and I caught him watching me on several occasions. He wanted to say something, but he was waiting for me to finish the food on my plate, which meant it was bad news or something that might upset me. I knew my father too well.
I mopped up the last of the vegetable curry with my chapati and sat back in my seat.
Baba dabbed at his mouth with a napkin then dropped it in his plate, a sign that he too was done.
“Have more,” Ma urged him.
He shook his head, his gaze fixed on me. “Is it true?” he asked me.
“Is what true?”
“The blood trials.”
Fuck, had the news reached them already?
“Oh, yes,” Ma clapped her hands together. “Lowland announced them a few hours ago. A chance for my beti to shine once more. A chance for our daughter to showcase her skills for everyone to see.”
Baba’s mouth worked as if struggling to hold back a chiding. He inhaled through his nose and exhaled to calm himself.
“Danika?” he probed. “Is it true?”
“Yes, Baba. It’s true.”
“Of course it’s true,” Ma snapped. “Lowland said so.”
But he’d wanted to hear it from me. To understand why I’d agree to such a thing.
“I wasn’t given a choice, Baba.”
He dropped his gaze to his plate. “We can run,” he said. “We can go now.”
“What are you talking about?” Ma stared at him, mouth parted in horror. “Why would we run?”
“No.” I reached across the table and took his hand. “Not yet. I have a plan.”
“What are you talking about?” Joti asked.
Baba ignored her. “Tell me.”
“I can get through the trials. I know I can. But I need you to get away.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know yet, but you need to stall. Feign sickness, whatever it takes, but don’t move to central Middale.”
“Anu,” Ma pleaded with Baba. “Make her stop. My head… It hurts.”
“Drink some water.” Auntiji topped her glass up with water from the jug on the table.
Ma picked up the glass and glugged it as if on autopilot. She sighed, and her expression grew dreamy. Her attention dropped to her food.
“Joti, you too,” Baba ordered.
My younger sister complied.
“They’ll be out of it for a while now,” Auntiji said. “Now, tell us what really happened at these games. Tell us everything.”
* * *
“I feel sick,” Baba said.
Ma and Joti were washing the dishes in the kitchen, and Baba, Auntiji, and I were gathered in his study. I’d told him everything, and it was a weight off my shoulders.
“I had no choice but to kill them, Baba.”
“I know, beti,” he said. “You did the right thing. Those bastards had it coming.”
My father rarely cursed, but when he did, he did it with a satisfying vehemence. “I remember this blue mist. They used it when I was a young man.” He prodded the fire in the grate. “You say this Danaan can get you to Nina? That he’s on our side?”
“I trust him.”
“And this Killion… This weapon… You trust him?”
“He saved my life several times. I trust him implicitly.”
“And I trust you.”
“I can’t believe they would kill their own,” Auntiji said softly. “To prevent the return of emotion.”
“Yeah, power can make monsters out of the best of men, and these guys were already pretty twisted.”
The doorbell rang, and a moment later, Joti popped her head around the study door, eyes wide with shock.
“The shining one says you have five minutes.”
Shit, I’d allowed time to get away from me. This wasn’t a social visit, even if that’s how Aspen and Lowland intended it to look. This was a visit to warn my family, to promise them that I’d get them out, even though I had no fucking idea how right now. Then a possibility occurred to me. Magnus. He was one of the immune, and the last time we’d spoken, even though he’d said there was nowhere to run, he hadn’t said there was no place to hide, and that’s all I needed. A hideout for my family. If he could help, he would, I knew it. But what if Slade refused to let me swing by there on the way back to the inner city?
No. I’d find a way. It’s what I did.
“Baba, promise me you’ll do whatever it takes to avoid the move to the inner city.”
“I promise,” Baba said.
“I have ways to induce sickness,” Auntiji said. “Those shining fuckers won’t be setting foot in this house.”
Okay, good. All I needed to do now was speak to Magnus and hope and pray that he knew of a place to hide my family until Killion and I could retrieve them.
* * *
“No,” Slade said. “Lowland’s orders are clear. We need to head back to the Keep.”
“Fuck. Look, you want out of Middale, right? Freedom?”
He sighed. “This will help us?”
“Yes. I have a contact, and I need to speak to him.” Okay, so Magnus wasn’t really a contact, and he could still tell me to fuck off, but saying it this way made it sound more promising. “You can tell Lowland I wanted to see my guard friends. Rally the troops and all that shit.”
The corner of his mouth turned up, lifting his tusk. “Huh. Yeah, that could work.” He turned the wheel sharply, taking us off the main road and onto the slip road that would take us toward Sector B and the barracks where I hoped Magnus would be.
“Don’t you need to check in with Lowland?”
“I’ll explain the detour later. That way he can’t say no.”
I sat back with a smile. “You know what, Slade? You and I are gonna get along just fine.”
* * *
Guards greeted me with cheers and fist pumps as I stepped out of the car.
“Fucking A for Sector B,” one of them said.
“Nailed it!” another added.
This was a triumph to them, and the loss of their comrades didn’t register because that shit was buried by the drug and the blue mist. My speech, my rousing words, were gone from their minds, so I did the only thing I could. I smiled and fist-bumped my way through the crowd and into the barracks.
Magnus was the only reason I was here.
I found him in his study, waiting for me, and as soon as I shut the door behind me, he bridged the distance between us and pulled me into a hug, crushing me to him.
He cupped the back of my head with one large hand and massaged my scalp. “You fucking made it, Khatri. You fucking did it.”
I breathed him in, then pulled back. “They’re making me do it again.”
“I know. What the fuck?”
“Politics and shit I don’t understand, but I found the weapon.”
His eyes grew wide. “Where is it?”
“Not an it, he. It’s a person… A… I don’t know what he is, but he’s powerful, and the ancients have been keeping him a prisoner all this time.” There was so much about Killion that I could tell him, but all he needed to know right now was that Killion was our way to stop the Tuatha. “His name is Killion, and he can help us stop the Tuatha and bring them down, but he needs to gather his strength first. He’s coming back for me in six days.”
“He’ll get you out?”
“Yes, and when he does, I promise you I’ll bring an end to the shining ones’ rule, but I need your help.”
“Anything.”
“I need a place to hide my family until I can come for them. Until it’s safe.”
“Aren’t they being moved to central Middale?”
“I’ve asked Baba to feign sickness. They’ll stall.”
“Your father is immune to the drug too?”
“Yes. Can you help? I need a hideout, a safehouse where they won’t be found.”
He frowned and reached up to run his thumb across my cheek. “I’ll help, Khatri, but when you go, you take me with you.”
“What?” I scanned his face. “Magnus…”
“You could use me out there, you and this Killion. You say he’s a weapon but is he enough to take out all the shining ones?”
I… I hadn’t thought of that. Killion hadn’t clarified. I’d already promised to get Slade and the other Danaan who could feel out of Middale with me; what difference did one more person make?
Feel My Power: The Iron Fae book 2 Page 3