Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (31 page)

“Nolan, if it was him, he said we survived passing through the divide because we have Fiordan blood. Is that… true?”

Cas says nothing for a long moment. “Yeah. Guess so.”

“Do you think it really was him?”

Cas walks faster. I have to speed-walk to catch up, but of course, getting the hell out of here is our priority. Things look different from this side. The bridge
has
to be here somewhere.

Shadows creeping in my vision.

An army on the horizon.

Blood. Screaming. Swords and fire and blood…

“Leah.” A hand on my arm. “Focus.”

“I’m trying,” I snap, angrier with myself more than anything. “Don’t you think I’m fighting with everything I have?”

Silence.

Apparently, someone hasn’t learned any manners from this whole ordeal.

It’s his fault I’m dying,
says an awful, selfish voice in the back of my head. Never mind that the fiend in the woods all those weeks ago would have killed me if not for his healing me.

Blood sprays. A heartbroken scream.

I jerk back and slam into Cas. “Sorry,” I say without thinking.

“What are you reliving?” He gives me a sideways look, for once not disdainful. More like… when he realised I was dying.

“The war, I think. I get flashes. You were friends with the other Transcendent.”

Cas’s expression turns icy. “I was.”

“And?”

Nothing.

“If I’m dying, there’s no harm in talking to me. Seeing as we’re the only two humans here.”

“Doesn’t seem a good enough reason.”

“Whoa.” I step away from him. “That’s kinda harsh for deathbed talk.”

Not a word in response. What a way to die, on a hostile alien world with a guy I might just kill before the visions drive me to madness.

“It’s not deathbed talk,” he says. “But you’re unlikely to last the day. You know that. Accept it.”

“Been there, done that,” I say. “I did tell you manners cost nothing, you know.”

I turn away. There appear to be flames on the horizon, above the divide. Some trick of the fiends, or Fiordans, I guess.

Wait.

“There.” I point. “I think I recognise it. That’s the spot where I crossed the bridge last time.”

We’re going to make it.
Hope rises in my chest before I can stop it. I won’t die before setting foot on my own planet again.

Before I see the others. Before I find out if they survived.

The flames waver and flicker. I fix my gaze on them, though it doesn’t make the dizziness any easier to bear. Every step becomes a battle of wills.

Screaming. The shimmering fire above the divide flaring up, a bridge covering the entire path as fiends beyond counting swarm across. An ugly, noisy struggle.

People screaming. Running.

Red-cloaked figures falling into the divide.

“Leah.”

Screaming.

No. I can’t…

Scenes of devastation play out before my eyes. The army marching on Earth, breaking into chaos as they set foot on our world. The sky’s on fire, the ground’s splitting open, and red-cloaked figures are falling into the gap.

Now I’m in a town. A line like an earthquake splits the street, growing by the second. Red figures fight on either side of it. One pulls a companion out of the gap just in time. Fiends are materialising one at a time, swiping at any target they find. The Pyros run up and down the widening split, trying to hit back. On this side, it looks like the fiends are appearing out of thin air.

Then a cracking rends the air. The divide splits like a lightning bolt, half the street disappearing in a split second…

And the army appears as one, a writhing mass, descending on the Pyros left on the other side.

I’m watching from behind a building, but I’m on the other side. I’m jumping through the gap.

Am I seeing this from the fiends’ perspective?

Before I can wonder, I’m overwhelmed by pain. Agony splices my entire body, and once again, I’m looking at a familiar lab…

And I’m powerless to stop the visions as they crash into me, one at a time. The pain. The repeated attempts to see if I, Cas, am Transcendent.

Time blurs to nothing.

***

“Dammit, Leah, wake up.”

I struggle, expecting pain to explode all over my body, but I can’t feel anything but numbness.

“She’s awake.” Murray’s voice. Impossible. He died. Right?

My eyes flicker open. And I almost jump a foot in the air. I’m in a lab. Again.

But Murray’s here.

“What…?”

“Don’t try to move,” says Murray. “We’ve got you.”

“What the hell… where am I?”

“Home.”

The base. Impossible as it seems, I’m… home. In the sickbay, by the look of things.

And I’m not alone. Cas walks towards me. Did he carry me all the way here? There are other people outside, but the door’s closed, and Val stands nearby.

“We’ll have to act fast,” says Murray. “The effects are… Leah, it’s lucky you woke up.”

“About that,” I say. “I have a lot of questions…” But before I even finish speaking, my vision blurs over again. A pattern, like flickering flames, overhangs everything.

“I’m sorry, Leah,” says Murray.

My heart drops. I’m actually going to… die.

“Tell me quickly,” I say. “Did Poppy and Tyler make it? Who…?”

“They’re alive,” says Murray quickly. “And Elle. We had minimal casualties. We were very lucky.”

His words become a hum as the flames dance and my head flops back. I no longer have the strength to lift it. Not even to look at Cas, who brought me back here even though I’m a lost cause.

“Guess this is it,” I say.

“Perhaps not,” says Cas, and holds up a test tube.

“Whose…?”

“Nolan’s,” says Cas. “I grabbed a few samples from the lab, too, but I’ve no idea if they were Fiordan or what. I just took everything that wasn’t damaged.

“Well.” I draw in a breath. “Let’s find out.”

I’ve nothing to lose. We got home safely. Murray somehow survived, and so did Val and the others. They’ll survive without me.

They can win this fight.

And yet somehow part of me can’t believe it’s really happening. I have to make myself lie still and breathe calmly. Being in the lab is a bit too reminiscent of what I went through with Jared.

Relax. You’re safe.

And if this doesn’t work… then I can’t think of a better place to die. Jared’s experiments died along with him. My blood is my own again, and the enemy will never get hold of it.

“Leah? We’re going to put you to sleep. If you wake up… you survived. You beat it.”

I nod. I can’t say any more. I don’t want to spend my last few seconds crying. I’ve done enough of that already.

A few tears slip out anyway. I wish it could have been this painless for Lissa. But she’d be glad I’m happy. Glad I managed to find friends, in what’s left of our world.

I close my eyes. This time, no visions rise to claim me.

***

“Leah.” Murray’s voice, close by. “Can you hear me?”

I nod. My eyes are sticky, but I force them open. Blink a couple of times. Murray leans over me, concern etched on his face.

“Did you black out?”

“Kind of. I didn’t see anything, though.”

Murray looks at someone behind me. “If the curse was breaking down, she’d have seen the battle again for sure.”

“You think?”

Cas. The other person is Cas.

I manage to twist my head around. “Is that true?”

“It’s been the case with all the others,” says Murray, and Cas’s expression goes hard.

“No proof,” he says. “Other than experience.”

“What other proof is there? She was sedated. She survived.”

I survived. Despite the dizziness, I sit up. More to reassure my body that I can move. I’m here, at home, and I’m alive.

I break into a grin. “I’m… really alive.”

“You are.” Murray smiles at me. “And there are a lot of people who want to see you.”

“Yeah, they’re breaking down the doors.” Cas appears unimpressed. But he’s not aggressively holding his weapon, like usual. And he’s so close to me, I can hear him breathing.

A shiver runs through me.

We survived…

“Let me see them,” I say quickly. “I bet I had Elle worried.”

“Of course you did,” says Murray. “Just in case, I’ll tell them not to swarm you.”

“Oh, come on.” I let myself have this moment of triumph. “I’m pretty much indestructible.”

Though my Transcendent powers are put to the test when ten people pile on me and hug me at once. I attempt to explain through the writhing bodies and shouts of, “Leah, you’re alive!” But I’m pretty sure no one can hear the details.

There’ll be time enough for that later. Time to celebrate being alive.

I have a permanent smile on my face as I talk to the others, even people I don’t know. That this many people were worried about me is… unexpected. Different.

Hours of celebrating later, I have the headache of a lifetime. Which, considering my Transcendent state supposedly makes me able to heal any pain, is saying a lot. I haven’t seen Cas in a while, so I wander out of the recreation room and walk around the lava pool. If he’s not there, he’s probably stabbing targets or something.

But he’s there, standing on the same rock formation where he told me the truth about being Transcendent.

I jump soundlessly down to join him, but he immediately turns around, no surprise in his expression. “Thought you’d come back.”

“And thank you for carrying me here? Even though I’m a lost cause?” I can’t stop smiling. Of course, Cas is as expressionless as ever, which is why I want to poke him until he joins in the fun. Not that I can in any way imagine Cas being the life of the party.

“You’re not a lost cause.”

I blink. “Wow. Almost a compliment. Maybe I really did wake up in an alternative world.”

“Why would you think that?”

I shrug. “We all survived, right? We walked out of the fiends’ world without a scratch. You carried me over the bridge, right?”

He nods.

“So,” I say, shifting, the silence getting to me. “I guess that’s it. You get to keep your secrets now.”

Still, no answer.

“So we’re back to me having to guess whether you’re being an asshat on purpose or not.” Inwardly, I wince at my own harsh tone. I don’t even know why I’m so annoyed. What did I expect, him to hug me like my friends did?

Are
we friends? I mentally kick myself for the stupid question. Like it matters. Isn’t it enough that the rest of us got out okay?

“Never mind.” I back up, prepared to jump for the surface.

“Hold on.” He hesitates, looking at the floor, rather than at me. “I was trying to figure out what to say to you.”

“About what?” I have goose bumps for some inexplicable reason. Seeing as I’m standing next to lava, that makes no sense whatsoever.

“What you saw.”

I tense. “Which part?”

“Any of it. I’m sorry you had to live that. I knew when I healed you, and I did it anyway.”

Wow and wow again. I’ve never heard Cas say so many words to me.

“What, you regret saving me?”

He shakes his head. “No. But if you’d died—”

“Then I’d be dead either way. I thought you saved me because Nolan told you to.”

A pause. Then he shakes his head. “I lied. I didn’t want you to know there was a possibility the blood connection might transfer over. Every time I did it to the other test subjects, I hoped it wouldn’t. Then when it did the same to you, I couldn’t face the responsibility.”

My God. Is he actually apologising to me? It’s understandable how he acted, if nothing else. Doesn’t make it right, but who am I to judge?

“Is that why you kept treating me like crap?”

He looks away. “I’m not proud of it.”

More wow. An actual apology. I half expect the fiends to show up and beg for forgiveness for invading our planet.

“Right,” I say. “Then why not trust me enough to tell me your plan?”

“Because I knew you’d stick around and get yourself killed.”

I release a breath. “I’m the Transcendent, you know.”

“I think I know that.”

So much for apologies. “Yeah, that attitude of yours needs adjusting.”

“Says who?” His eyes narrow. “I don’t think anyone’s ever annoyed me as much as you have.”

“Wow.” My eyebrows lift. “You sure know how to compliment a girl.”

“They don’t cover that in basic training.”

A laugh escapes before I can stop it. “I guess not.”