Chapter Fifteen
WE ROUNDED THE FIRST CORNER, AND almost slammed into a man in a crisp white lab coat, clutching a clipboard. I vaguely recognised him from his visits to Cinderkeep to harvest me when I was younger.
I hadn’t seen him since I’d agreed to start drawing my own blood, but the last time he’d visited, he’d kept me in that little room for hours...sampling my blood with high-tech equipment, grading each congealing droplet as if it was a rare wine.
“Y-You.” His eyes bulged in shock. “What are you doing out of the holding cell?” He went to shout, but...I summoned the fire with nothing more than a thought. It answered like an eager beast, roaring down my arm in a concentrated blade of white-gold flame.
I hurled the spear of fire through his chest, cauterising a hole where his heart used to be. He died instantly—collapsing to the floor—his eyes still wide and lips parted in silent shock.
“Oh my God,” Rook gasped. “How did you...? What—?”
“Come on.” Grabbing her wrist, I ignored the way ice crawled up my fingertips and added fuel to the fire still crackling over my arm. Her power over me had switched. Touching her before helped calm and cool me, but now...now she fed and strengthened me.
I wanted to kiss her in gratitude. Instead, I jerked her into a faster walk. “Stay close.”
Hazy childhood memories overlaid with the present as we made our way out of the row of cages.
The basement level was nothing like the elegant upper floors of Brimstone Industries.
The London headquarters pierced the sky with a giant steel and glass skyscraper, lurking on the outskirts of the city—hiding what they did below.
Thick black pipes snaked along the ceiling, recycling fresh air and water. Stone had been carved to create the cells and labs that could withstand accidental mishaps.
I chuckled under my breath as I followed the schematics I’d studied for the past two decades.
Marcus had regularly dropped off paperwork, operational updates, and meeting minutes—almost as if he enjoyed rubbing my nose in the fact that he’d stolen my family’s company.
Bet he didn’t think all that paperwork would come in handy now as we sneaked through my legacy.
“How do we get out?” Rook asked quietly as we rounded another corridor and found the heavy glass-walled laboratories. Inside, rows of glowing cylindrical tanks held pale, lifeless human body parts.
Rook sucked in a breath. “Please tell me they aren’t remains of other R gene carriers.”
I couldn’t answer so I just said, “Don’t look.” More footsteps and heartbeats sounded up ahead. The fire spread up my arm, eager and hot.
We passed another lab. Steel tables waited beside trolleys full of surgical tools. On the walls, huge diagrams of human bodies hung, complete with copious notes scribbled across the veins and bones as if they’d been trying to recreate another like Rook and me.
Turned out, Marcus had been telling the truth back in the Eastern Crucible. Those trapped in the mountain were just rejects—the ones with barely any power and tossed aside on the off chance they might produce something worthwhile.
But here...here was where the true work was done.
My fingers flexed to destroy it all.
How many others were like us? How many men and women, girls and boys, had suffered here, been tortured here?
Never again.
I would burn this place to the fucking ground and take out the rest of the monsters who did this.
A flare of ice coated the floor as if Rook came to the same conclusion. Catching her gaze, we shared a fierce nod before breaking into a jog and—
Slammed to a halt as two guards dragged an unconscious man between them, his legs dragging behind him. Two men in white coats trailed behind, discussing their notes and pointing at the poor test subject they currently carried to be brutalised.
The guards noticed us first.
They dropped the unconscious man like discarded rubbish, reaching for their guns—
Flicking my wrist, two whips of flame cracked forward.
Gold-white fire wrapped around the guards’ throats like living nooses, lifting them clean off the floor.
Their screams lasted less than a second before the fire consumed them from the inside out.
Their skin blackened and blistered as they hit the ground.
The scientists behind them bolted.
I smirked, sinking into the delicious power and giving myself over to it. Hurling a bolt of heat toward them, fire collided with their backs. Their hearts stopped as heat arrowed right through them, severing their spines.
Rook made a small sound behind me, but she didn’t complain.
More footsteps thundered toward us, followed by a dozen heartbeats—no doubt witnessing my carnage on the many cameras dotted on the ceiling. Alarms suddenly screeched, blaring with red lights, flashing in time with the ear-piercing sirens.
Good.
Let them come.
Let them pay.
Breaking into a run, we sprinted down the main corridor, passing more labs full of horror. I didn’t bother being stealthy anymore. I threw fire into every lab we passed.
Vials and bottles went up with mini-explosions as flames found dangerous liquids. Thick acrid smoke filled the air, suffocating the cameras.
“Come on.” Fumbling for Rook in the haze, I pulled her into a faster run.
She coughed, choking on smoke.
Her ice flared up my arm, feeding the fire that refused to soak back into my skin. Her presence was so strong. Deliciously strong. Her coldness permeated into my bones and prevented me from reaching that awful burnout.
The fire burned hotter and wilder—caged by her frost and making me unbelievably powerful.
We kept running—
I tripped as dizziness suddenly slammed into my head.
“Lucien?” Rook jerked to a stop as I almost dropped to my knees. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Her fear shot into me as I focused on finding my feet again.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
Pulling her close, I broke into another jog. “Come on.”
A shuddering boom erupted somewhere behind us as something exploded in one of the labs. Ripping the long sleeve of her nightgown, she wrapped the scrap of white material around her mouth and nose, eyes watering from the black smoke.
I wanted to scoop her into my arms and carry her, but...I needed my arms free to kill.
At least the smoke didn’t affect me. I could see perfectly clear—the fire in my blood keeping me immune.
Another explosion sent dust raining over us from the ceiling. One of the pipes groaned and fell off its brackets, releasing hot air from the heating ducts.
“Just a little further and we’ll take the lift to the reactor levels.”
She just nodded, following my lead.
I guided us through the black smog, heading toward the lift at the end. I’d thought Marcus was a lunatic when I’d pored over the schematics of the London headquarters. No stair access was allowed into the basement levels...only a lift.
All I could see was a death trap, but now...now I understood.
If there was only one way in and one way out—a way that required a code or key—then he could ensure his unfortunate prisoners could never escape.
The elevator pinged—the doors slowly opened.
A river of armed guards poured out.
The red flashing lights and sirens lit up the smoke with noise and chaos as more men appeared behind, trapping us. Rook pressed against me. It didn’t matter if there was ten or a hundred men.
They were all dead.
The agonising bite of the frequency emitter tore into my brain as they raised weapons and fired.
Rook cried out.
My skull threatened to split apart but the fire got loose and took control. A wave of flame exploded outward, incinerating the men, melting their gear into their skin. The smell of burning plastic, hair, and flesh filled the corridor.
The ground was suddenly littered with smoking corpses.
The frequency stopped without anyone’s finger still around to push the button.
Shaking away the lingering pain, I grunted, “This way.” Pulling her toward the open lift, my left knee gave out. I landed heavily. My head swam.
What’s going on—?
“Lucien?” Rook rested her hand on my shoulder, shaking me with panic. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
I...didn’t really know.
“I tripped, that’s all.” Shaking my head, I shoved back the sudden wave of exhaustion and stood.
Her eyes narrowed on mine. “If you’re burning up, we need to—”
“I’m not. Your ice is keeping me nice and cool.” Cupping her soot-covered cheek, I kissed her quickly. “Don’t worry. Now get in the lift before the doors close—who knows what keycard we need to make it work.”
Stepping over the freshly dead, we darted into the metal elevator just as the doors closed. Rook staggered into my arms as another explosion sent the entire thing rocking.
We ascended even as another boom hinted the fire had devoured everything below, destroying labs and prison cells, erasing all the horrors that’d gone on for far too long.
My heart kicked with hate for this place.
Their day of reckoning was finally here and my mouth watered to avenge myself, my family, and all those unfortunate enough to be injected with my blood.
The floor of the lift grew hot as the fire chased us up the elevator shaft.
It wouldn’t burn out. Not until every inch of this building was char—leaving it to collapse, one floor on top of the other.
Rook stood in a rune of frost, the icy fractals crawling up the walls and ceiling. “Where are we going? Is ground the exit?” She went to push the G button, but...I reached over her and pressed O1.
She scowled. “O one? What’s that? What’s there?”
“Operations. It’s where the reactors convert the energy gathered from elsewhere before being fed into the London electrical grid. It’s a bomb waiting to go off. I plan to set it on fire, so it destroys this building.”
“But...it’s your building.”
“Don’t care. I want nothing to do with it.”
The doors pinged, then opened.
A vast, cathedral-like chamber welcomed us.
Huge reactors that worked off Ashfall blood waited in the low humming quiet.
The three-storey-high ceilings gave plenty of room for the reactors to work without overheating.
They looked as if they were wrapped in metal cobwebs thanks to the steel walkways criss-crossing three levels.
The cylindrical reactors dominated the space, each one the size of a large shed, but not one of them operated—probably thanks to no longer having access to my blood.
I doubted these reactors had been turned on since I’d escaped Cinderkeep. The amount of money my company would be bleeding in lost market share and revenue would probably drive even the calmest board member to murder, but...fuck them.
My father had left me more than enough money in the account protected by Sovereign Retrieval and...I had no affection or loyalty to this company whatsoever.
Why should I?
All it had ever brought me was death, pain, and imprisonment.
Stepping into the impressive space with its network of pipes, stairways, and operation stations, I focused on the part of my power that sensed life.
I waited to hear any heartbeats.
I might have a grudge to settle with the board, but the workers were innocent.
Nothing.
Either the workers had been laid off, or it was still too early for them to clock in.
Rook tensed beside me as I summoned the fire.
Angry, golden flames erupted from my chest, blasting around the chamber like a fiery storm. I didn’t direct it—didn’t care what it attacked first—but it picked up on my desires and bulldozed through each reactor as if they were blocks of butter to be melted.
Explosions rocked the building as the reactors caught fire and burned. Flames chewed their way along every wire, conduit, and walkway—melting everything in its wake.
I smiled as it kept growing. Its roar rang in my ears as it howled around the room like a dragon made of pure fire. The scent of hot metal and burning plastic caught in the back of my throat.
Rook coughed and tightened the scrap of fabric around her mouth and nose.
Glancing at her, I drank in the exhaustion in her eyes and the frost twinkling in her hair. Urgency to get her to safety sent another blast of energy into the fire, commanding it to hurry and ensure nothing was salvageable.
The fire listened.
It snarled—feeding off me like I was firewood.
I let it take more, cranking the flames until they licked against the three-story ceiling. The wall panels warped. The air blistered. Everything purged and decimated, erasing all the sins that’d been committed.
We stood in the centre of hellfire—
And my heart seized.
I staggered as emptiness throbbed in my bones.
The glorious strength I’d woken up with flickered—
Stop it. Rook’s panicked voice fed into my mind. I can feel you getting weaker. Call it back.
Flexing my fingers, I requested the fire to calm. I tried to summon it back—to gather up the heat and call it home.
Unfortunately...it flat out ignored me.
Snarling like an unruly, rabid animal, it turned on me, chewing its way through my bones, no longer treating me as its master but fuel.
“Lucien! Stop it!”
I tried.
I really did.
But just like on the mountain, it no longer listened. It shut me off and bled me dry—leeching out the strength Rook gave me, leaving me full of useless ash.
Obey me!
I closed my eyes and pulled.
But it just kept burning.
“Lucien...” Rook flung her arms around me from behind. A blanket of icy, wonderful relief flooded my overheated veins. Her hands locked around my belly, and I sagged against her as she shoved snow into my blood.
Grabbing her frosty fingers, I held her tight as she slowly helped calm me.
“That’s it.” She pressed her cheek to my spine. “You’ve done enough. There’s no way anything in this room is useable anymore. Let’s go.”
The fire struggled like a serpent, hissing against her winter calmness. It coiled around my heart, draining me in a completely different way than before.
It took all my power to yank it back and bite it down.
Rook blasted me with a blizzard. The fire snuffed out, leaving just a wisp of smoke and the crackle of acrid burning.
“Thank you.” I spun in her arms and hugged her.
She let me hold her for a moment before tugging free. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good. Let’s go.” Grabbing her hand, I weaved our fingers together, letting Rook’s ice control me instead of fighting for supremacy over the flames.
She didn’t speak as I dragged her back to the lift.