Caged Warrior

Leto gave her a shake. Maybe too hard. He couldn’t tell how loud he shouted or how fast he moved. “Don’t you leave me.”

“Going . . . nowhere.”

The last of what had been forged steel landed in bits and chunks, all brittle and black like charred wood. Leto realized that much of the training arena looked the same way. Their insane plan had worked. What looked like singed wood was enclosed where layers of metal girders and roofing had been. Maybe it still was metal, just altered beyond recognition.

Light filtered through crags and cracks in the rock, and streamed in great gushes through a gaping hole where Silence and Hark had stood. The hole was almost as big as the octagonal base of the obliterated practice Cage.

“You meant it,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “Burn it down.”

“Hell yeah.”

“You’re a wreck.”

“You should see your face.”

“You want a pretty boy instead? Can’t help you there.” He kissed her forehead. “Time to leave. You promised to show me the snow.”

“What if I killed them, too? Silence and Hark?”

“Then they died on their terms. Free.”

♦   ♦   ♦

Ny

That wasn’t to say it was devoid of life. Hark and Silence stood staring at the white wasteland. They looked like refugees from a coal mine.

“Where’s your pack?” Ny

Hark looked over his shoulder with a teasing grin. “Someone’s Dragon-damned gift has a nasty kick. Our packs are ash. On the upside, we thought we’d need supplies for a long foot trek. I’m glad we can be proven wrong and still survive the shame.”

In the distance, maybe two miles away, stood another complex. It was aboveground and ringed with helicopter pads and smaller buildings that looked like private, individual villas. Ny

Perhaps she and the other warriors had traveled that short distance on some convoluted, disorienting path, because those two miles could’ve been traversed in mere minutes. Their bus rides had taken a good half hour. She didn’t trust much about her perspective from that time, but she read it as another Aster trick to keep their slaves subjugated.

One long, squat building among the others was lit for business.

That bastard has my son.

Leto climbed out behind her and staggered. He shielded his eyes. Ny

Training, fighting, hating . . . they’d taken on a numbing cadence. Saving Jack had become a mantra, not an actual thing. No wonder Leto had been able to continue without question for so long. He would’ve kept fighting forever, to make sure his sisters were safe and that his clan name continued.

But if he had continued, he never would’ve seen the sun or the snow.

Eyes shut, he tilted his face up and pa

The shudder that worked down his body fed into Ny

Beautiful pain.

Those two words, spoken with his roughened voice, tickled between her temples. Beautiful pain. Yes, that was it exactly. She looked at the sun, stared at it, dared the elements to take what remained of her. Nothing could. She wasn’t numb anymore. She was in pain, the beautiful pain of being awake, finally awake.

“A little help here, firecracker,” Hark said. “We need to clean up our mess. I’d rather not share this lovely snow-covered holiday with a passel of guards.”

Ny

Ny

The Sath must’ve been gaining control of their uninhibited gifts, too, because Ny

An i

“One door opens,” Hark said, “and another closes. Ta-dah.”

A big hand reached down. Leto helped her creak to her feet. Without speaking a word, she and the others began a fast trudge to the distant outpost.

A few hundred yards of snow had numbed her feet before she frowned. “Why are you two coming with us? Do the Asters hold relatives of yours?”

“Nothing so selfless. We can’t walk out of here.”

Leto’s armor clanged because of his fast pace but he wasn’t even winded. Likely he could travel there and back a dozen times before Ny

Ny

“What are you talking about?”

“Just like how they cha

Leto charged into her space in that restrained, angered way of his. “Leave you here?”

“Yes. You could carry me, but that would be three people digging into your strength. The alarms have already warned the guards at the labs. We don’t have time to let them fortify. And we need you as strong as possible to take on those who have.”

“You are my partner.”

“But right now,” she said, “I’m your liability. These two have been lying in wait for months. They helped us get free. You’ll have them at your back, and they’ll have you at theirs.” She touched his face, ran her thumb over the scar along his upper lip. Out in the daylight, that streak of silvery pink was easier to see. “I’ll catch up. Go, please. Find Jack and Pell.”

Sometimes the words that shivered out of his mind, into hers, were as distinct as if he’d spoken. Sometimes they were just feelings. Did all Indranan work that way, or was it because he was crossbred? She only felt his desperation. She felt it and echoed it. They would do what they needed to. Their goals would not waver. Even if that meant parting. Her heart was as hot as the rock she’d turned into molten slag.

After a curt nod, he turned away and took a breath. The strength of it lifted his scarred armor. He was a mountain preparing to run—the most impressive thing she’d ever seen. Ny