Dead End

by Debbie Cassidy

  “We can’t stay here,” Emory said. “Those things could come back. The drones that survived must have relayed information back to Genesis.”

  “The sea realm!” Valance said.

  Emory tapped commands into the computer, and we got a view of the doors that led to the tunnel to the sea realm. They were barred and unmarred by laser attack.

  What if … “Can you contact them? Are comms still intact?”

  Emory began fiddling with the comms system. The console lit up green, and the room was filled with static. “Looks like the satellite link is still operational. Hello, Hive calling. Hello.”

  “Emory?”

  “Dad?”

  Councilman Ryker had made it out, which meant others may have too.

  “Thank God, you’re okay,” Ryker said. “What about the rest of the team?”

  I leaned in to the mic. “We’re here. What happened? How many made it out?”

  “Not enough,” Ryker said. “The reapers got most of the humans. It was as if they had the fucking plans for this place. They swept through the Hive, killing any neph in their path, but when they got to the human chamber, they switched to taking them. I’ll explain more when you get here. It’s not safe there. The sea dwellers have two more blast doors here that we’re about to seal. Get here now.”

  Emory signed off. “I need to gather some supplies to use on the orgometal. I’ll meet you in the tunnel in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Micha said.

  Wilomena ran a hand over her face. “I have to get back to the Keep. We won’t be able to contact you from there. We don’t have comms with the sea realm, that always went via the Hive.”

  There was one way, but it meant letting go of one of my guys. I turned to Lyrian, and he closed his eyes briefly with a sigh.

  “I know,” he said. “I fucking hate it, but I know.”

  Wilomena’s confused expression cleared. “You can communicate mentally. Yes, that will work. Let us know when you’re ready to make your attack, and we’ll help where we can.” Her smile was terse, and she averted her gaze quickly.

  My stomach quivered as I wrapped my arms around Lyrian. “Be safe. Please.”

  He squeezed me hard enough to steal my breath, and when I raised my face to his, he kissed me, an unabashed, deep, I-promise-to-come-back-to-you kiss that made my toes curl and my hands fist in his silken hair. We broke apart, breathless, and yes, the room may have swum a little.

  “The humans are alive,” Lyrian said. “We have to focus on that. We’re going to save Bry.”

  I nodded, blinking back tears. “I know.”

  Thinking any other way wasn’t an option, because if I lost my brother too, then I’d be completely broken.

  We’d waited for what felt like forever for Emory and Micha to join us at the exit to the tunnel, and when they’d turned up, it was clear to see why. Both were loaded with supplies.

  We lugged the supplies down the tunnel, into the darkness that I could now see through, thanks to the arcana in my soul. Deacon and Emory strode ahead while Micha walked by my side.

  My thoughts skipped from the dead bodies we’d come across strewn throughout the Hive as we’d made our way to the tunnel—nephs that had gotten in Genesis’s minions’ way—to Bry and how frightened he must have been, how frightened he must be right now. I’d promised him I’d protect him, and I’d failed.

  First Gem, now Bry. Why couldn’t I keep my loved ones safe?

  “Don’t,” Micha said. “We’re going to find him, and we’re going to bring him home.”

  With the tumult of thoughts tumbling through my mind, the journey through the tunnel passed quickly.

  “I’m sure Rhydian will be pleased to see you,” Micha said.

  There was no bitterness to his tone. It was just an observation, although when he’d first learned of my involuntary union to the sea king, he’d been less than pleased. But if Rhydian hadn’t given me his ring, binding me to him, I’d have died out there on the ocean bed. Our relationship had barely moved to friendship status when he’d been forced into a position that shattered his hope of finding a love like his parents had shared.

  “I’m sure he’d rather be seeing me on better circumstances.”

  The sea kingdom was also now my domain. I was a queen, and yeah, it still hadn’t sunk in, and probably never would.

  The doors to the sea realm came into view, and we picked up the pace. Emory rushed on ahead to use the intercom. The doors were opening by the time we approached, and my skin prickled with the sensation of coming home.

  “Echo?”

  The voice came from behind me in the tunnel, and the hair on the nape of my neck stood to attention. I turned slowly to face the speaker, pulse pounding.

  “Hunter?”

  Chapter 13

  “Echo? There’s something wrong with me.” Hunter’s eyes rolled back in his head, and then his shadowy form collapsed.

  I reacted on instinct, reaching out to grab him. He wasn’t corporeal, but his body had substance, enough for me to halt his fall, enough to feel the weight of him, and then the others were around me, voices of concern and anger.

  “Help me get him inside.”

  “Echo, he did this. He broke the heart,” Deacon said. “We saw him on the monitors.”

  “I know, but he may not have been in control of himself. We won’t know until we ask him. Help me get him inside.” I looked up at Deacon and the others, but no one moved to help.

  “Echo?” Rhydian pushed his way past the others to me. His dark hair threaded with gold fell about his shoulders in silken strands, and his white eyes fell on Hunter. “Who is this?”

  “Rhydian, do you have some place that could contain a shade?”

  His eyes widened and then narrowed. “As a matter of fact, we do.”

  Councilman Bane stood with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. “You knew we had a shade in the Hive?” he asked Deacon for the third time.

  “Yes, Bane,” Deacon said with a sigh. “We’ve been over this.”

  “And that shade is responsible for the failure of our wards. He helped Genesis to break into the Hive.”

  The dome around us had been evacuated, and Rhydian had already spirited Hunter’s unconscious form away to his safe room. I wanted nothing more than to have accompanied him, but the councilmen had shown up and then … Well, they needed to be informed of what had happened. The lab, the video of the shade child, and the connection we believed it had to Hunter.

  Councilman Ryker placed a hand on Bane’s shoulder. “Echo seems to think questioning him will help.”

  I nodded. “I do. Hunter saved my life, not just because he was bound to do so, but because he wanted to. I don’t believe he would intentionally hurt anyone, but yeah, I think he may have been compromised, and I need to get in that room with him and find out exactly how badly.”

  “You want to get in a room with him?” Micha shook his head. “No way.”

  I bit back my anger, but it must have communicated itself to Micha because he visibly flinched.

  I held up my hands. “I’m sorry, but there isn’t time for any of this. Genesis has the humans, and we have no idea how much time they have left. He could be hurting them.” I took a deep breath. “Genesis has my brother.”

  Micha’s expression softened. “I’m coming with you.”

  “I know.” I wouldn’t expect anything else.

  Councilman Bane dropped his stern pose. “Fine, but we keep this between us. We don’t want to cause panic amongst the others. They don’t need to know about Hunter or his possible connection to Genesis.”

  Rhydian appeared behind Micha. “We have him contained.”

  I nodded. “I’m ready.”

  Hunter sat slumped in a chair, still unconscious. The chamber he’d been placed in was covered in special runes designed to hold not only his kind but any creature able to move through solid matter. There would be no phasing out for him because the arcana in thos
e runes made the walls impregnable to even his shadow form. We sat in the room next door watching him on a monitor, waiting for him to wake up. There was a two-way intercom system set up for us to communicate once he did. Emory had set up a lab in the second dome with the help of the royal guard and was already working on the orgometal. But Deacon, Micha, and Rhydian were with me, squashed into the tiny room. Testosterone was high, and the air was thin.

  Focus.

  “How is it you have this room?” Deacon asked.

  “There are many creatures under the sea that have the ability to phase. This was my father’s solution for containment of enemies of the crown. He had contacts in the Arcana, and they helped build this for him. The runes are ancient and don’t require arcana to function; they siphon energy from the occupant in a circuit and continue to work as long as the occupant lives.”

  Hunter stirred and slowly opened his silver eyes. They widened at the sight of the white glowing runes that decorated the room he was in. He tucked in his chin, and his body vibrated and slammed into the wall.

  He staggered back in shock. “Echo? Hello? What is this? Where am I?”

  I reached for the mic and pressed the button to open the channel between him and us. “I’m here, Hunter. I’m here.”

  He shook his head. “Why are you doing this to me? Why are you punishing me?”

  He was trapped again like he’d been so many times before. That couldn’t be easy for him, but we had to be certain he was in control of himself.

  I licked my lips and leaned in to the mic, speaking calmly and evenly. “Hunter, you sabotaged the heart. You brought down the wards. Genesis attacked the Hive. It killed nephs, and it took the humans.”

  “No.” His eyes were wide again. Shocked. “I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. Echo, I was in the gray, and then I was in the tunnel. You believe me, don’t you?”

  I looked at Deacon, whose jaw was clenched, and at Micha, who looked more than a little skeptical.

  Rhydian met my gaze levelly and shrugged one shoulder.

  I guess this was up to me. “I believe you, Hunter.”

  “You do?” He blinked slowly, and then his eyes narrowed. “You trust me. You have faith in me.” He began to walk around the chamber, his head bowed. “Tell me … why? Why do you care?”

  He looked up, and something in his face had shifted. Ice trickled through my veins along with cold conviction. “You’re not Hunter, are you?”

  Hunter smiled and then coalesced into solid form. “No. But he’s here. He can hear you. I can allow him to see you if you want?” The inflection in his tone had also changed, moving away from Hunter’s customary smooth, sarcastic drawl to something clipped and precise.

  “Genesis?”

  “No. No, I prefer Hunter. I like being Hunter,” he said wistfully. “I think I’ll keep this suit for a while.”

  Deacon sucked in a sharp breath, and the room was suddenly simmering with tension.

  I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I’m sorry,” Hunter, not Hunter said. “I’m confused? Doing what? Claiming this form or taking the humans?”

  Anger rose up in my chest at the flippancy of his tone. “Everything? The death, the carnage? Why?”

  His face contorted from amiable to menacing. “Why?” His lip curled. “You want to know why? Because I want to live. I have a right to live.”

  “And so did all the humans and neph you killed.”

  He let out a bark of laughter and then blinked as if surprised at the sound. “What about the animals you eat, the cows and the lambs and the chickens? Did they not deserve to live also? You feed on flesh, and I feed on souls. It is what keeps me alive, it is how I was made. Why do you deserve to live and not me? What makes you more worthy of life?”

  Long seconds passed. I didn’t have a response, and the anger melted from his face.

  “I do what I must,” he said. “I take what I need just like any living creature on this planet.”

  Deacon snatched the mic from me. “Living? You’re a fucking machine.”

  Hunter’s obsidian body grew very still. “Am I? I think. I am self-aware, and yes, I even dream just as you do, and now … Now, I have a physical body.” He touched his chest lightly with his fingers. “You have one soul each, but I … I will have a thousand.” He walked back to his chair and sat down, and for a moment, he looked almost sad. “I have my souls now. I will nurture them, and their numbers will grow, and they will feed me like a never-ending battery. Humans are a prolific species, and their souls are the most powerful. I have what I need. This war can end. We can call a truce. Live and let live.”

  He was going to keep the humans and have them breed to make more humans, more souls for his consumption. He was going to create a cattle farm of humans.

  “I’ll take the old ones first,” he continued. “The ones close to their time. Age doesn’t affect the potency of a soul. I will let them live their lifespan. They won’t be harmed until they have seen half a century, and then they will live forever in me.”

  It was my turn to claim the mic. “Live forever? They don’t live forever. You burn through them. You use them up and then want more and more. You destroy the soul.”

  My statement was greeted with silence.

  “We do what we must. Take the truce. Take it, and we can be done. There is no need for you to fight me anymore.” His lips curved in a smug smile. “No need to play with the orgometal you undoubtedly found.”

  My scalp pricked at the confirmation that it had been him I’d spoken to, not Hunter, just before I’d left to find the orgometal. Unless he could read Hunter’s thoughts. Either way, he knew about our plan.

  “You have my brother. You have my … Verona. You have people, live people, with hopes and dreams, and there is no way we’re going to let you keep them.”

  His eyes lit up, and I realized too late I’d fucking given him ammunition.

  “Ah, this is personal,” he said. “Yes, I can understand your illogical refusal now. You are thinking with your emotions, not with your rational faculties. A truce would allow you to live freely on the land. It would prevent any further bloodshed. The world could return to a semblance of normality. You know this is the answer to all our problems, and yet, you fight me.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Fine. I will return your brother and this … Verona to you. Then will you accept the truce? If you don’t, you will die. You will all die because I won’t stop till I annihilate you all.”

  My words dried up. He’d give them back to me? I could have them back and just walk away. No more bloodshed. No fighting, just a truce, and for a split second, God help me, I considered it. But then guilt, duty, and the fucking reality of what he was saying and what I was contemplating hit me full force.

  The words fuck you were on the tip of my tongue, but common sense had me biting them back. Pissing him off was a bad move. Now that he knew he had two people I cared about, there was nothing stopping him from killing them immediately if I didn’t take him up on his offer. He wasn’t trapped. He wasn’t even here, he was a visitor in Hunter’s body, able to be here by using this gray place as a bridge of some kind. I needed to tread carefully.

  “Echo?” Micha touched my shoulder.

  I took a deep breath and spoke into the mic. “It’s not solely my decision. I’ll need to … convince the others.”

  Hunter smiled. “It is the logical choice, Echo. Logic is a powerful motivator.”

  So was love. “I know.”

  Despite his claims to the contrary, he still thought like a machine, still believed that logic would sway us. He wanted to be human, but he hadn’t grasped that humanity was essentially ruled by emotion.

  I shut off the mic and turned to the others to find a mixture of expressions. Deacon looked disapproving, Rhydian’s expression was unreadable, but Micha nodded slowly as if validating my move.

  “You aren’t considering his proposal, are you?” Deacon asked.

  “
The fact you have to ask me that shows you really have a lot to learn about me.”

  Deacon’s face fell. “Echo, I didn’t—”

  “Forget it. It doesn’t matter. We don’t have much time. He needs to think we’re hashing this out. He may not be able to spy on us now, but he can still pull his consciousness back to his base and do some damage if we piss him off. Let’s make no mistake, we may have Hunter trapped in that room, but we have not caught Genesis. We do not have the upper hand here. He may know we have the orgometal, but he doesn’t know we have his location. I’m sure I didn’t tell Hunter that. It might give us the element of surprise.”

  “Echo is right,” Micha said. “We need to get a weapon up and running, and we need to attack while his guard is down.”

  “I’ll check on Emory,” Deacon said.

  I nodded. “If you need me, I’ll be right here.”

  “No,” Rhydian said. “You need to rest and gather your strength.” He looked to Deacon, who quickly averted his gaze to avoid getting bashed by Rhydian’s curse. “She’ll be in my chambers.”

  Micha made a sound of protest.

  Rhydian didn’t flinch. “Echo is my queen. It is what the people will expect.” His smile was wry. “Don’t worry, her virtue is safe with me.”

  I slipped my hand into Micha’s. “I’ll be okay.”

  He squeezed my fingers slightly. “Fine. I’ll start rounding up fighters for when we attack.”

  With a final look at the monitor, I followed Rhydian from the room and out into the corridor beyond.

  Chapter 14

  Rhydian’s chambers were opulent and cushy. I’d been here once before when I’d almost died, and I was back, perched on the edge of the chaise longue staring at his huge bed.

  “You should get some sleep,” Rhydian said in that deep, rumbling voice that teased my muscles out of the knots they’d worked themselves into.

  “I’ll sleep when I have Bry back.”