Edge of Dreams (12 page)

“You’re serious. Why would you?”

He grimaced, his teeth clamped together. “Madison will if I don’t. She doesn’t need that kind of trouble.”

“But you can handle it.”

“I will.”

The lines around his mouth dug deep. He was afraid of Percy, and I didn’t blame him at all.

“What do you have in mind?”

“You don’t need to know. Just be ready when I come for you.”

With that, he walked out, shooting the bolt home behind him. I stared blindly at the door. I actually believed him.

Chapter 8

I dithered about using the heal-all for the next half hour. Luke had sounded like he was coming back soon, but I still worried that Percy’s people would drag me off to get fumigated before Luke came back, and they’d report that I’d been healed.

In the end, I decided to risk it. If Luke came for me first, I wanted to be in decent shape to run. The heal-all filled me with its wormy magic. The heat was worse than back at the diner. I practically sizzled. It was all I could do not to peel off my clothes and stick my head under the faucet. I panted as the worms invaded my body. I thought they’d concentrate on my arms and broken finger, but they dug deep inside, down where the Sparkle Dust magic had ripped out of me.

I hadn’t realized how raw my insides had been until the heal-all withdrew its awful touch. I lay on the bed, my body tingling and pulsing with leftover pops of healing energy. I stared at the ceiling as I took a mental inventory of myself. My arms no longer ached, and my finger curled and bent like brand-new. My bruises were gone and so was the ache in my face from Percy’s slap. Most of all, I felt an easing inside, like I’d been bleeding to death and hadn’t even known it. I sighed and sat up.

I was going to have to thank Dalton for the heal-all. I blew out a disgusted breath as I stood and stretched, reveling in the fact that I didn’t hurt. Amazing how good just not hurting could feel. I really didn’t want to thank the smug bastard. Still, I owed him that much. If I saw him again. Where the hell was he? And Leo? Please God, I hoped they were safe. Even Dalton.

The faucet lured me over. I rinsed my face and hands, wetting my towel and rubbing it along the back of my neck and under my shirt. My hair was a rat’s nest. How long had it been since I showered?

I’d been in the cell nearly twenty-four hours, if the mealtimes were to be believed. My little team and I had taken three or four hours just to get to the tunnel entrance, and then spent another five or six finding our way into the trap. So it had been maybe thirty-six, give or take, since we’d left the diner, plus a little more depending on how long I’d been in the fume room and with Percy getting myself cooked, one little burn at a time. Even if I were a fan of polka dots, I’d be giving them up forever after that experience.

Several hours went by without any sign of Luke. Every person passing in the hallway made me jump. The cart rattled outside my doorway, and I pushed myself back against the opposite wall as if that would protect me. I could see the brilliant light surrounding the men pushing it. My body started to go numb, and the high whining sounding from before drilled into my skull and vibrated down to the marrow of my bones. I was getting tired of being in pain.

I bit my lower lip to keep from moaning my misery out loud, silently urging the fuckers to go faster. Apparently they got paid by the hour, because they weren’t in any hurry. By the time they moved out of range, I felt boneless. I sagged to the floor. At least I wasn’t paralyzed. There was something to be said for that, anyhow. The range of their magic was maybe ten to fifteen feet.

It took me a good five minutes before I could trust my legs to hold me up. I wobbled over to the bed and sat on the edge and proceeded to do weightless arm and leg lifts until I began to feel normal again.

I began to wonder if Luke had changed his mind. If my stomach was anything to go by, dinnertime was close. I’d just gotten up to pace again when the lock on the door shot back. Luke brought in my dinner tray and set it down.

“Come on,” he said.

“Now?” I asked stupidly, because obviously he meant right now.

“Do you want to stay longer?” he snarled. He was clearly in a foul mood, like a porcupine had crawled up his ass and decided to have a litter.

I started to follow him, but paused to take a deep swig from the water jug before joining Luke at the door.

“What now?” I asked.

He scraped his bottom teeth over his upper lip, hard enough that I thought he was going to draw blood. He shook his head hard as if dismissing something, probably his own sanity, and blew out a long breath.

“Stay with me. Don’t get separated.”

He turned away. I opened myself to the trace. His was a vibrant blue and white, like a bolt of lightning. He was my lifeline out of here. I didn’t dare lose him. I took a quick breath and reached into the trace dimension and snatched hold of his trace. Instantly something grabbed me, almost like it had been waiting for me. It pulled on me. I clutched Luke’s trace and yanked back. The grip loosened but didn’t let go. Icy cold fingered its way up my arm.

“You must . . . come to me,” a voice said in a whisper. “Riley. Before . . .” I jerked back again as aching cold fingered across my shoulder and into my chest. This time the hand let go. I stumbled back and bent over, putting my hands on my knees.

“What’s the matter with you?” Luke said, spinning to look at me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me up straight.

“Nothing,” I rasped. “Just dizzy.” I looped his trace around my wrist. Now there was no danger that I’d lose him.

I didn’t think about the voice. It was clear Luke hadn’t heard it, any more than my other companions had heard it the first time it had talked to me. It had been in my head. Who was it?
What
was it? A ghost? Something else? Goose bumps prickled all over my body. I shivered and thrust away the mystery. For now, it didn’t matter. I had to escape from Percy. Then I could worry about it.

I waited for Luke to hustle me out into the passage. Part of me had this idea that he was going to stuff me inside the food cart and roll me to safety that way. Instead, we stood there just inside my doorway. He faced away to the wall and put his hands on the rock and just stood there. His muscles bunched, and then I felt a pulse of magic move through him and out into the stone. It started to burn.

Low flames spread over the wall and out of the doorway into the hall. They rippled in a rainbow blanket. An acrid smell drifted through the room, and black smoke billowed.

“Don’t breathe too much of the smoke,” Luke said, his voice thick with concentration. “It’s poisonous. You’ll probably want to see a tinker when you get out.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’m not your problem,” he snapped.

“You are if you pass out before I get out of here,” I retorted. He didn’t need to know that for a nanosecond I’d actually been concerned about him.

“You can always trace your way out.”

“Right into a booby trap.”

He dropped one of his hands and put it into his pocket. He pulled out a smoothly polished piece of white quartz. “Once it’s activated, it glows red when you get close to a trap, white when you head toward the surface. Don’t follow the blue or you’ll end up back here.”

“Thanks.” I plucked the stone from his hand and pocketed it. The flames had traveled far along the passage ahead. I could hear cries of warning. Black smoke bubbled along the ceiling, dimming the lights and filling the air with chemical stench. Luke’s calloused hand closed around mine. He pulled me into the hallway. He kept one hand on the wall, fingers dragging lightly along. Magic continued to pulse through him and feed the fire. It ran down ahead of us and behind.

“Won’t Percy suspect you?” I asked.

“He doesn’t know I’m talented,” Luke replied, pulling me along. He ignored the terrified yells from the cell doors as we passed by.

“What about them?” I asked, pulling back against his grip. “We can’t leave them to burn up or suffocate.”

“They won’t,” he said, yanking on me so that I stumbled forward. “As soon as we get to the end of the corridor, I’ll melt the doors.”

“Then what? They’ll stumble around in the smoke to get caught again?”

He growled. “They aren’t my problem.
You
are.”

I dug in my heels, hauling back against him. He only tightened his grip and kept going. I staggered after, unable to resist without popping my shoulder out of its socket. “Those people need help.”

“They’re getting help. They are getting freed. The rest they have to do for themselves.”

“What about the booby traps? They have no idea how to get out.” I put my other hand against his back, trying to get leverage to pull away. It was like wrestling with the Hulk. He didn’t even notice.

“It’s a chance they didn’t have five minutes ago. Percy’s bugging out of here at the end of the week. He wasn’t going to leave anybody alive. They were all dead in the cells, they just didn’t know it yet. Now they might live. Not that it’s your problem. You need to get out of here. And you’re going to have to rescue your friends. They got stuck in a trap.”

That sucked all the fight right out of me. I quickened my pace to catch up to him, my chest knotting up. “What kind of trap? Are they okay?” No wonder they hadn’t shown up to rescue me.

“They’re alive.”

“Are they okay?” I repeated, and then started coughing as I sucked in smoke.

“Stop talking,” Luke said. “Cover your face with your shirt. Breathe through your nose.”

I did the best I could one-handed, and concentrated on keeping up with him. We heard more yells and screams, and then someone glanced off me, knocking me sideways into Luke. He shifted his grip to my wrist and plowed onward.

Since he wanted to play bulldozer, I dropped back as far as I could and let him take the brunt of whoever came barreling down the corridor. As doors melted away, more and more people tumbled out of the cells, all of them shouting and looking for a way out.

My head pounded and spun from the acrid vapors. I wasn’t ready when Luke veered off to the left and then to the right. He no longer touched the walls, and the fire and smoke stayed behind.

“Neat trick,” I said, leaning on my knees and sucking in clean air. “Next time I want to make lava, I’ll know who to call.”

“Don’t bother. I won’t be answering. Come on. You’re wasting time.”

He set off again, and I fell in behind. The lights popped on ahead of us as we walked. My lungs refused to let me go faster. Luke turned again and then again.

“Where are the booby traps?” I wondered out loud.

“There aren’t any through here.”

“Why not?”

“You’ll see.”

That sounded ominous. Clearly he wanted me to stop asking questions. So I didn’t. “Where’s Madison? How did you keep her from food deliveries?”

He glared at me and didn’t answer.

“What about Percy? Why don’t you tell him you’re talented? Seems like you’d get paid more and wouldn’t have to be a glorified food delivery boy if he knew.”

“If he knew, I’d be a wraith by now.”

“What? Why?”

I was surprised when he answered.

“He thinks having talents around SD production throws off the process. Plus, he doesn’t trust us. He’d give me SD to keep me loyal, and then when I turned too far wraith, he’d turn me over to Doctor Inawa.”

“For what?”

He stopped dead, then glanced at me. “Do you really want to know?”

Something in the way he asked sent ripples of fear chasing through my entire body. I didn’t want to know. And yet I didn’t want to walk away without knowing who had taken me. I needed the full truth.

I nodded. “Yes.”

He snorted. “Why?”

That caught me up. In the blink of an eye, Madison’s scared face flickered through my head, then Lauren’s, then Percy burning me, and his and Dr. Inawa’s cryptic conversation, and then the fumigation. It wasn’t just that he was stone-cold evil, it was that nobody else seemed to know he existed. I’d never heard of him before he’d captured me. Right now, I was the only one who might be able to bring him down. And oh, Lord, but I wanted to. I hated him more than I’d hated anybody ever before.

“Because I’m the only one.”

Even though that didn’t make a lot of sense when I said it out loud, Luke seemed to understand what I meant. His brows rose.

“You could get caught again,” he pointed out.

I hesitated. It wasn’t just about me. Leo and Dalton and the others were trapped somewhere, and they were depending on me.

Luke gave a thin smile that made me feel about an inch tall.

“Figured as much.” Luke started to turn away.

He might as well have dared me. I have more sense than to do the schoolkid reaction and accept the dare. That’s not what made me grab his arm. No, what made me stop him and delay my escape despite the risk to myself, my stepbrother, and Dalton and his crew, was Percy and the fact that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t try to stop him, and that meant finding out all I could about his operation.

It wasn’t just the fact that he was making SD, though that was part of it. The drug was horrible, and I had a chance to maybe shut down some of the production. Mostly, it was about Madison. Percy was holding her captive somehow. That much I could read. She was just a kid, really, even though she was just a few years younger than me. She wasn’t the only one. He’d used the five teens to lure me down. Were they even still alive? It’s one thing for adults to get sucked into evil, but another thing to be innocent and young and have someone like Percy take advantage. After my dad left, during those years when I was running wild, I’d lived that. I’d seen it up close. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch Percy do it to others. I couldn’t.

Luke eyed me narrowly, then nodded. “Then come on. I’ll show you the horror show . . . What’s left of it, anyway.”

I didn’t get a chance to ask what he meant. He turned and ducked down another tunnel. This one smelled stale and old—it clearly wasn’t used often. There were no lights. He pulled a headlamp out of his pocket and fit it onto his head, clicking it on. I could feel his agitation through the ribbon of trace wrapped around my wrist. Whatever we were going to see was bad enough to send him soaring on all the fear, loathing, and hatred charts.