“What exactly do you know, Ta’Zan? You certainly didn’t know they’d steal Amal from you,” I retorted.
“I will get her back. Amal is my most loyal child. I will get Amane back, as well, whether she likes it or not. Your son, Ben, and your daughter, Rose, will never see their home world again. Vesta, your other fae, will probably be more useful to me alive than dead, since I understand she has control over all four elements. She has strong genes. I could do with Zeriel, too. He’s less… threatening,” Ta’Zan said.
Dread froze my joints, my throat gradually closing up. Cassiel had served us all up on a silver platter. If I get out of here, he’ll be the first chicken I roast… No! Scratch that! I’ll drain his blood. Every last drop!
“Your witch, Kailani, I’m particularly interested in her. I’m told she can kill my Perfects, permanently. I can’t have her walking around, loose and all. The white wolf, Hunter? Not so much. The dragon might come in handy,” Ta’Zan continued. “I know Amane likes him. She can keep him as a pet, if she comes back to me willingly. Dmitri, on the other hand… Again, I have no use for half-breeds, and Douma has exhausted her chances with me already. Elonora’s genetic material might work, but her mind is too sharp. I don’t need her conscious. The Dhaxanian, Nevis? I’ve not yet made a decision. But the bottom line, Sofia, is your children, their friends, and all the others who landed on Merinos will all suffer the same fate. You will not win, so if you think your death will help them, rest assured, it won’t.”
“My people were able to turn your Perfects into dust. A handful of them took out your favorite lieutenants,” I retorted, trying to find out who else he knew about. “Araquiel, Abaddon, and the others. They’re all dead. And that was before they took down your comms blockers. Before they blew up your starships. Ta’Zan, we’re just getting started, and you continue to underestimate us. You’re in over your head, and you know it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be putting my neck on the line like this. Deep down, you know it. And you are afraid of them.”
He didn’t say anything for a while, but I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. If there was one thing I’d learned about Ta’Zan throughout my involuntary stay here, it was that he always had to have the last word. This wasn’t going to be an exception.
“What happened to Araquiel and my other children was extremely unfortunate, but nothing short of a stroke of luck for your people,” Ta’Zan finally said. “It was a mistake on my part to think the Draenir wouldn’t be vicious enough to store such weapons in those bunkers of theirs. They were always delusional, thinking they’d eventually find a way to beat me. Speaking of which, I know there are survivors, too. They will all burn, as will the Faulties who joined them. The world I’m building has no room for weak and ungrateful children. Oh, and don’t think I’m too broken up about the death of a few Perfects. I can always make more. Besides, it’s the Arch-Perfects I’m counting on to lead the charge against the universe. They will be the true warriors. The Perfects will be colonists, at best.”
“Good grief! Are you not hearing yourself?!” I croaked. “You sound like you’ve completely lost your marbles. What happened to you, Ta’Zan? Were the Draenir mean to you, and so now you’re getting back at the whole universe? Who the hell do you think you are, to claim you’re superior to anyone?”
Ta’Zan smirked. I’d gotten the information I needed, but that didn’t make him any less irksome.
“I must be, since you’re in a glass box, and I’m watching you from the outside,” he said. “Sofia, there’s no need for you to rile yourself up any more. Enjoy these last hours you have left. If your children don’t surrender, I’ll put your head on a stake and mount it on the top of my colosseum for everyone to see.”
He turned around and walked toward the double doors. I knew now that Ta’Zan had no idea about Araquiel—which worked in our favor, in the end. If anyone could infiltrate and destroy the colosseum from the inside, it was a Perfect presumed dead. My synapses were quick to make the connections, and I also remembered the four Perfects that Harper had fished out from Strava’s orbit, shortly after the fleet attack.
They could help, too. And the idea that the Perfects were no longer at the top of the food chain couldn’t possibly sit well with them. I was confident that at least a handful would be annoyed by the prospect of Arch-Perfects doing all the conquering, while they came in last to colonize the planets. The sole pride of the Perfects was that they were the best, the greatest, the most powerful and whatever. This couldn’t possibly end well for Ta’Zan, and, even if I were to die in the next few hours, I was going to do my best to make sure I played a part in his demise.
“Ta’Zan!” I shouted after him. He stilled but didn’t turn his head to look at me. “Will I see Derek again before you kill me?”
He scoffed. “Let’s see what your children do first, Sofia.”
Words couldn’t describe the mixture of horror and hatred brewing inside me, like a hurricane threatening to rip me apart from the inside. I pressed my sweaty palms against the glass wall, wishing I could break out and end him, right then and there.
But I had no power in there. All I could do was wait for Isda to sneak in and update me on what was going on outside. Ben and Rose must’ve spoken to Derek and the other prisoners already. They had to have a plan for this. They had to. My biggest fear was that Ta’Zan knew something about it. If Ben and Rose were looking to stall him, it was incredibly dangerous to try it.
I’d raised two powerful and incredibly sharp kids. I knew I could count on them, always. They knew what they had to do, and I was fine with whatever decision they made—even sacrificing me, if needed. Anything to stop this monster. Anything.
Kailani
Hunter and I hadn’t really talked much after my last Word-mode episode. The words we’d exchanged had been harsh and filled with anger. In light of what we were all about to do, however, I felt the need to try and patch things up.
If this was going to be our last night of freedom, our last few hours together, I didn’t want them to go by in awkward and sullen silence. I loved him too much to let him be angry like this. And he loved me; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so riled up about what the Word was doing to me.
We were done with the explosive charges and the pulverizer pellets. We’d used all the ingredients we had, until we ended up with enough firepower to take down a colosseum and an entire army of Perfects. Knowing that the Perfects could be reset to a more neutral stance made us reluctant to actually use the pulverizer pellets against them, which was why Amal and Amane were determined to put the mass memory wiper together, instead.
Hunter was busy putting his weapons in a small pile on the floor, on top of his backpack. I kneeled next to him, placing a hand on his muscular shoulder.
“Can we talk?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
He gave me a sideways glance, then looked around for a couple of seconds. We were pretty much on our own in the main hall, with the exception of three Faulties watching over the pulverizer ammo. The others in our crew were taking some time for themselves, probably to do what I was about to do: leave no room for sadness or regret. The plan had been drawn down to the last detail. If we succeeded, we’d all see each other again, in better circumstances. If we failed, there was a chance we wouldn’t, turning this night into the very last.
The thought nearly broke my heart, but I chose to focus on Hunter’s cool blue eyes, instead.
“What’s up?” he replied.
“I’m… I don’t want us to be like this when we go in there.”
“Like what?”
“Like this!” I said, irritated. He was definitely sulking, and I had no patience for that. I needed him to hold me and to tell me that everything was going to be okay—one of those pretty lies we told our loved ones before going off to war. “We’re not… I mean, I know you don’t like this Word apprenticeship, but, I don’t know, I feel like we didn’t really talk it through the other day.”
“We did
n’t, Kale. We just argued,” he grumbled.
“I don’t want that. I can’t give up on the Word now, and I don’t want to lose you. I love you,” I murmured.
He stilled, his gaze softening as he looked at me. “I love you, Kale. I need you here, with me, alive. And I don’t think that’ll happen if you keep going down this road.”
“We’re about to surrender to Ta’Zan.” I sighed. “Any chance we could postpone this Word-related argument for later? Maybe till after we kill him?”
He blinked several times, then exhaled sharply and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. His natural scent filled my mind with ideas of lazy summer nights in the redwood forests of The Shade, making my heart skip beat after beat as I held him tight.
He shoved his hand in my curly hair and gently pulled my head back. A low growl escaped from his throat, sending my senses into a frenzy. “Kale, if you don’t survive this, there will be nothing for us to argue about,” he whispered.
Pain cut through me like a hot knife. Death was the last thing on my mind, and for good reason, because it meant I’d never see Hunter again. The mere thought of that broke me down on the inside. I parted my lips, slowly, noticing the effect it had on him. I’d dreamed about moments like these before we even knew Strava existed, back when Hunter and I were just friends. Ah, those were the days. Before Ta’Zan and his dumbass Perfects.
“I need you to back me up here, Hunter,” I replied. “How am I going to pull through the apprenticeship if I don’t have you by my side, huh?”
He chuckled softly. “So, you want me to be okay with you potentially dying?”
“No, I want you to be okay with me potentially becoming a better version of myself. Glass half-full and all that,” I answered, smiling.
He nodded slowly, his expression warm and his soft lips begging to be kissed.
“I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose you,” he managed. “I didn’t think I’d be so deep in these feelings I have for you. And it’s too late to undo anything, my darling witch.”
“Then don’t lose me. Help me stay on the path. Remind me why I’m doing this. Make sure I always know that I’m coming back to you, no matter what,” I said. “You’ve brought me out of the Word-mode before. You might be the only one who can.”
“Ever the optimist,” Hunter replied, then kissed me deeply.
I needed him now more than ever. “I need you to promise me,” I said, my voice uneven. “Promise me that, no matter what happens, you’ll bring me back.”
His forehead smoothed. “Are you expecting another blackout anytime soon?”
“I have no idea. But I’ll breathe easier if I know you’ve got my back rather than being mad at me for insisting on doing this,” I replied. “Besides, you know it already. I can’t quit. It’s a one-way street I’m on, and I need to reach the end in order to survive.”
His pained expression made me cry a little on the inside. He didn’t like the prospect of losing me, I knew it. He’d made that perfectly clear before. But I held on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, I could get away with both.
“You do know we’ve got an evil overlord out there waiting to chop us into spam, right?”
“I know, bad timing. But none of us saw it coming, so the best we can do right now is adjust and adapt,” I said.
He rolled his eyes, then kissed me again. This time, however, there was a certain tenderness in it, enough to bring tears back to the surface. I locked my arms around his neck and refused to let go.
“Fine, I’ll adapt,” he muttered against my lips. “But I won’t let you go, do you hear me?”
I giggled. “I don’t expect you to.”
“Good, because I plan on introducing myself to your mom and dad as your boyfriend when we see them again,” he answered, making me laugh.
“I can’t wait to see what Grandma Corrine has to say about it.”
“Frankly, I’m more worried about your Grandma Mona. She scares me, sometimes,” he whispered.
I stifled a chuckle. “Yeah, well, she’s a determined witch. It runs in the family.”
“Yeah, let’s just hope she’s not determined to skin me alive.”
“Only if you break my heart,” I replied.
He sighed. “I’m afraid you might break mine first, Kale.”
I kissed him, this time. I put all the love I had into it, hoping he’d feel it like sentry couples did.
“I’m in this all the way, if you are,” I murmured, firmly cupping his face. “Hunter, come on. Let’s grab this big-ass problem by the horns and tackle it. I don’t want to do this alone.”
“You won’t,” Hunter said, smiling. “I’m with you all the way to the end, you crazy… crazy girl…”
Our lips met once more. I closed my eyes to enjoy it to the fullest. Once the shock collars were mounted around our necks, there was a slight chance they would never come off. I didn’t want to go in with even the slightest idea of potential failure, but I wanted to be realistic, as well.
If, by some misfortune, our plan failed, I was going to be stuck there, forever being poked and prodded by Ta’Zan so he could get his claws on my swamp witch magic. However, knowing how the Word tended to react in times of pressure, I was aware that I could easily turn into a friggin’ nuclear bomb without even being able to control it.
That was my worst-case scenario. Death by Word.
I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. Hunter’s lips were gone. The firm softness of his embrace had vanished. I was stuck somewhere, in some kind of limbo…
Darkness everywhere. My body missing, and yet my heart racing as panic began to seep through and make a mess of my psyche. I knew what this was. I’d experienced it before, and I dreaded it the most. I’d lost control.
I was going into another Word-mode, and what truly terrified me was the fact that I didn’t know why this was happening or how I could stop it before I hurt anyone again. Hunter had just been holding me, which meant that he was still out there, by my side, probably livid to see me blank out like this.
Wait… Hold on… Why am I conscious?
This felt different from my previous seizures. I was sharp and fully aware of my surroundings. I knew there was a physical world outside. Time seemed to flow strangely slow here—or maybe the complete absence of matter made it feel this way.
Where the hell am I?
Something flashed past me. I turned around. Another spark flew in the opposite direction.
Oh. I know what this is.
Before I could formulate my next thought, I got a feeling of déjà vu as words began shaping in the black ether, written in golden light, as if someone had squeezed the sun into a fountain pen. Something was deeply wrong with my brain, though, because I didn’t recognize any of the words.
Some were written over and over, while others were dropped in different sentences. The silence was almost deafening as I tried to make sense of what the Word was trying to say to me. I had to figure out what the message was, because now, more than ever, I wanted to wake up and be with Hunter.
Ugh, I don’t have time for this now.
“What do you want from me?!” I shouted from the bottom of my lungs, putting all the rage I could muster into this one, simple question. “What the hell do you want from me?! Why can’t you just talk to me, like normal people?”
I cursed under my breath. Of course the Word couldn’t talk to me like normal people. It wasn’t… people. It was a mysterious entity with the power to do or undo pretty much anything, if I had the right formula. Its language was unknown, but, in certain instances, I understood it. Its power limits were a mystery, but it felt as old as time itself, and I’d recently offered myself up to it. But I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand where all this was going. Lumi had said it was for me to discover, but, dammit, we were at war!
Was this another violent blackout? Or was it just a brief encounter with the Word, again? Would I remember any of it once I came back to my senses? Or would I forget it all
, like before?
No matter what the answer was, I had to admit one thing. I was genuinely tired. This felt less like an apprenticeship and more like a chronic illness—something akin to narcolepsy but able to obliterate dozens of Perfects at once.
It was as if I’d just fallen asleep on top of a nuclear warhead.
I hated it.
Hunter
Kailani’s eyes glowed white.
She’d gone limp in my arms, and I was once again at a loss for words, not knowing what I could do in order to get her back to me. I’d been through the motions before, and, while I was terrified she might hurt herself or all of us, I was also tired of seeing her like this.
I completely understood why she was so determined to go through with this, and I wanted to support her every step of the way, but seeing her like this just cancelled everything out and threw me into complete disarray. We’d spent years being friends, closer than most people ever get in their entire lives. We’d finally found our way to each other in love, too, after all this time. Kailani was intrinsically connected to my very heart, and I couldn’t lose her.
“Kale… Come on, babe, wake up,” I said softly, holding her close and gently shaking her every other minute. “Don’t do this again. Take back control!”
I didn’t need any swamp witch knowledge to understand how dangerous the Word could be in the absence of control. I’d seen it back by the last comms blocker, where Kailani had virtually disintegrated a bunch of Perfects and four innocent Draenir. Had we not dropped to the ground in time, we, too, would’ve been roasted. And I knew she didn’t want any of this.
“Kale… Come on, honey… I need you here, in the real world. We’ve got so many asses to kick,” I continued, whispering in her ear, hoping she’d hear me.
My heart ached to the point where I found it difficult to breathe. But I didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like without Kailani. Panic was already threatening to set in, the hairs on the back of my neck rising and my wolf instincts awakening.
A Dome of Blood Page 6