Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (28 page)

“Crap,” says Tyler. “Right. Let’s check those labs as quick as we can and then get the hell out of here.”

“Agreed,” I say.

Cas and I clear the rubble out of the way and we run, holding weapons like beacons. Lights flicker ahead, but there’s no sign of Murray or Jared. Unease skitters down my spine. We can’t afford to waste any more time in here.

Another corridor. Several tense minutes pass while the others search the labs, and I keep an eye out for any trouble. Including the suspiciously-still ceiling. I guess it explains why those winged Transcendents were able to sneak up on us before.

Damn Jared and his games. I lose patience and search a couple of the labs myself, but don’t come any closer to finding anything useful. Worse, Cas has decided to run off ahead, and I have to hang back to make sure no fiends appear and attack the others. The crashing and snarling from the fiend trying to claw its way out are driving me mad, and I almost want to put the creature out of its misery.

Another sudden jolt shakes the corridor, knocking me off balance. I stumble to the side, glancing up to check the ceiling isn’t falling down. But somehow, part of me senses the vibrations rocking the floor are coming from somewhere on our right.

I don’t get time to wonder how in the world I know that, because the wall on the right explodes. Dust clouds rise into the air, once again plunging us into darkness. A chunk of ceiling falls and strikes the floor, shattering into fragments. Shards cut into my arms, but I barely notice.

A scream.

“Tyler!” I yell. “Poppy! Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine!” comes the response… from behind a wall of rock.

“Damn. You guys better get back.”

“Are you crazy?” Tyler says. “I can break rock open with my fists, you know. Have you forgotten who taught you about wall-punching?”

“This place is gonna collapse,” I say. “If it does, Cas and I will survive it, but you…”

“Come on, she’s right!” shouts Poppy. “We’ll go—”

Another bone-shaking tremor. This time, the remainder of the right wall bursts open, and I’m sent flying into left wall with such force, I feel a cracking sensation in my left arm. I cough, and blood sprays the dust-filled air.

An explosion.
An energy blast? I groan, and my vision swims.
Not again. Not now.

“You know what, we should
all
get out of here,” says Poppy’s voice from behind a haze of dust.

Ouch.
My arm throbs. Self-preservation wars with the reminder that if we leave, I’m forfeiting my chance to ever find a cure for the visions. The pain in my arm is enough of a reminder I’m living on borrowed time. But I can’t let the others get killed on my account.

A hiss comes from ahead, through the dust. Cas stumbles towards me, clutching at his own arm.

“Stand back,” he says. “The roof’s going to come down. Leah, stay where you are.”

“Wait, how do you—?”

But Cas has already jumped, knife swinging, severing what’s left of the wall in fragments. The remainder of the ceiling collapses on top of it.

“What are you doing?” The words escape in a flurry of coughing, but I already have that stinging pins-and-needles feeling that tells me my body is healing itself. I stagger upright, blinking dust from my eyes.

“The cages are ahead,” says Cas. “Running that way brings us right into a trap. But if we knock the walls down, we can search each lab this way without opening the cages. They’re only on one side of the corridor.”

“If you say so.”

I’m more worried for the others, but like hell am I bringing them into danger again. Even as I feel the bones of my arm knotting together, I know I’m lucky to have escaped worse injury.

Crash.

Lucky I moved out the way in time, because the fiend chooses that moment to run through the opposite wall. The same way Cas went.

“Cas!” I yell. Even that direction’s blocked by fallen rubble.

“Don’t worry about me, idiot!”

I spin wildly around, to find the way back’s still blocked, too. “Poppy? Tyler?”

“We’re fine!” Poppy yells. “What the hell is happening over there?”

I jump back as a massive chunk of ceiling falls down. “Guys, get back!”

Cas appears in front of me, blade slicing the falling rubble to pieces. The view clears, even as everything shakes again.

I stare. The fiend’s left a trail of destruction in its wake, and yet all I can focus on is the beam of sunlight shining down on the wrecked lab. There must have been some kind of hidden exit. In fact, as the dust clears, I can see the outline of stone stairs, which must once have been concealed behind the wall at the back of the room.

“Guys?” I say, and point, though I’ve no idea if they can see me.

“Damn,” says Tyler’s voice. “Guess Jared built more ways out than I thought.”

“Yeah, but that fiend’s out there.” I can hear it rampaging away, probably clawing down the walls in a bid for the surface.

“Wait,” says Poppy, and there’s a shuddering crash as the wall between me and them breaks away. Poppy and Tyler stand on the other side, weapons out and the smoking remains of the rock wall in front of them.

“Wow,” I say. “Nice job, guys.”

Except the way ahead is blocked, I have no clue where Murray and Jared went, and dragging the others through a collapsing building is a stupid move. But then, half the place has fallen down already.

And Cas has disappeared again. Damn him. I’m
not
leaving him behind again.

“Cas!” I yell.

“Through here.”

He stands on a pile of rubble, covered in dust, but appears unhurt. I check the ground’s stable and nothing’s about to collapse, then beckon the others to follow.

It’s hard to tell where one lab ends and the next begins, let alone what they used to contain. Smashed glass litters the rock-strewn floors, and the fiend’s left monster-shaped holes in most of the walls. Too many for one fiend alone.

“The others are loose in here,” I say, in a low voice.

“Be careful, guys.”

“Famous last words,” Cas mutters from behind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

No sign of anything useful. Worry is clawing at my chest once we’ve passed by the main set of labs, leaving the ones on the other side of the fiends’ cages. The rampaging noises are louder than ever, and it’s only a matter of time before the whole ceiling comes crashing down.

I can see the stairs on the other side, leading me to wonder if they’re connected up with the other pathway out of here. But it’s impossible to see.

“Uh, Leah, do you think this is human blood?” says Tyler, shooting me an anxious look as he hands me a test tube.

It’s beyond me to tell the difference. “Not sure. Better take it anyway, just to be sure.”

Cas had run ahead, supposedly to check for dangers. The rattling, shaking and falling rock becomes background noise, but worry for the people on the surface intrudes. Will I really have to choose between stopping the visions and saving my friends?

I already know the choice I’ll make. And yet some part of me wonders what choice
Cas
would make. He stayed back here to find the cure. Because I’m the only person like him? Or because… it’s me? Would he stay behind for my sake again?

Now isn’t the time to wonder about that. We’re at the final row of labs, and by the trail of destruction, it’s obvious the fiends have destroyed everything worth salvaging from here.

I sag against a half-collapsed wall, trying to push down the despair clawing at me. The lab’s finished. Jared and Murray are fighting for their lives, the fiends are pounding on Earth’s doorstep… and yet, as self-centred as it is, the only thing I can think of is being consumed by visions, unable to protect anyone.

Just like when Lissa died.

Even as a Pyro, even as a Transcendent, I can’t save the others.

Enough.
I grit my teeth and dig through the trashed remains of the lab, throwing bits of crumbled wall and ceiling aside. A row of test tubes has smashed over the back wall and I run over, cutting my hands on the broken glass as I try to find something worth salvaging. Nothing left.

The trembling under my feet becomes difficult to ignore. Especially as it’s now coming from all around us. I can barely walk steady.

Crash.

I brace myself against a doorway as a fiend charges through the ruins, leaving a hole in the wall. I swear as another chunk of ceiling comes down.

“Tran—scen—dent…”

I blink through the dust at the fiend.

“What?” I say. “You win, don’t you? You’re free.”

“Only as you command, Transcendent.”

I stare. Is this the fiend I controlled before? No way to tell, especially with the falling dust and the shaking…

Oh, God. The others.
If the ceiling falls, if this place falls apart, I can’t protect them.

“You. Get Ty and Poppy out, you hear me?”

I don’t know if the fiend heard me. Because a tremendous cracking sounds overhead, and the world goes out in a cloud of red smoke.

***

They’re coming to Earth. A distant army of fiends marching towards the divide. We’re closer than ever, close enough to see the lava flowing through the breach, between scorched red sky and scorched red ground. Above, flames form a gate I recognise clearly now.

This is the bridge. Somehow, in the present day, I know this is the first time it appears.

The fiends wait restlessly. At the head of the monsters, a group of smaller figures march. Smaller figures dressed in black. Like humans.

Fiordans.

“I’ll close it,” I whisper. “I can close it. Let me…”

“Wait,” says Cas from beside me. “Don’t you think there’s something odd going on? Where’s Murray? And Jared? They were with the army just a second ago.”

“I don’t know. Cas, they’re
right there.
I could close it from here.” I’m standing before he can reply, darting from our hiding place to another rock closer to the divide. The Pyro army stands in lines alongside us.

Cas appears beside me and grabs my arm. “What happened to staying inconspicuous?”

“We’re so close, Cas,” I whisper. “So close to shutting them out for good.”

Close enough to see the figures crossing the bridge, to make out the features of the Fiordan leading the group.

“No way. Jared’s with
them.”

***

I blink awake. My head’s pounding, and pain shoots through my limbs as I struggle to sit upright. Another blink tells me it’s because half a wall’s collapsed on me, and my chest feels like it’s caved in.

“Don’t move.” Cas’s voice comes from nearby, but I can’t turn my head. “I’ll shift it. We’re gonna have to move fast.”

I cough. I’m pretty sure I’ve broken ribs, but then again, I healed from certain death in less than five minutes. I concentrate on breathing instead of the pain, and the pressure lifts from my chest and legs. Cas appears, throwing the fallen ceiling piece aside, and I struggle upright.

“Hold on,” he says. “You might not be able to stand yet.”

Is he concerned for my safety? Maybe I got hit on the head harder than I thought. But I’m careful as I slide out from underneath the remains of the collapsed ceiling and stand shakily, trying not to look at the smeared mess of blood on the floor. Breathing becomes easier by the second. Once again, I’m a walking miracle… with a ticking time bomb over my head.

I look up, and my jaw drops. “What happened up there?”

“That fiend took Poppy and Tyler.”

My heart misses a beat. “Which fiend?”

“One of the winged ones.”

“Oh shit. I hope it was the one I told to get them out…” And now I have to explain this. I quickly give Cas a rundown of what I did to the fiend, controlling it with my blood, while he watches me, genuine shock on his face.

“You seriously controlled… that was
stupid,
Leah.”

“What was I supposed to do?” I counter. “It probably saved my life. And the others, too.”
I hope.
“We need to get out.”

“I’m aware.” Cas points up over the ruins of the lab. “That way leads to those hidden stairs. It’s not ideal, but it’s the only way out now, unless you want to climb the cliffs of the divide.”

“I’ll pass.”

So we climb through the ruins. Ignoring the shaking, the tremors that suggest something is happening on the surface. Or over the divide.

That army…

But I can’t remember whether it’s something I actually saw, or just the vision.

After several minutes’ precarious climbing, we stumble onto the stairs. They’re littered with rubble, too, but it’s easy to climb over. I pick up speed, trying to forget that leaving this place is condemning myself to madness. But I have to make sure the others are okay.