Chapter Forty-Five
He signals the group in the direction of the elevator, and we march together, impostors hiding in plain sight.
Another team of guards in hazmat suits walk past us.
My muscles stiffen, and I hold my breath, trying not to make eye contact.
They march out of the facility, none the wiser.
Must be a changeover of shifts. I let out my breath as Ryder pushes the button to summon the elevator.
The wait feels like a lifetime. Each ding a reminder of our trespassing.
The doors open, and we all stand like sardines inside the metal box.
I point down to the basement, signalling Ryder to click the button for the lowest floor in the facility.
He nods and clicks the button. It lights up blue, and a robotic voice feeds into the box reading the number - ‘sub level six’.
We stand facing the hallway, waiting for the doors to shut in complete silence.
The doors begin to close, but a petite man wearing a long white lab coat interrupts them.
“Evening, gentlemen,” he says to us all, and a few of us respond. I stay silent.
“Which room have you been assigned to?” A long pause follows his question.
A silence that is deafening. I think back to my dream.
What rooms did I see? Come on, Asha. Eight.
I hold four fingers up on each hand discreetly and show them to Ryder.
It’s not like I can respond, he clearly said gentlemen, and I am definitely not one of those.
“Erm… Room Eight.” Ryder clears his throat, and the box falls silent again, waiting to see if we answered correctly, his hand firmly on the handle of his weapon.
“Ah yes, they just put that new lad in there. Well, have a good shift.”
He smiles at us, and Ryder nods back at him. The lift stops, making my stomach whirl as the door opens for him to get off. The doors shut, and I let out a shaky breath. That was a close one.
We reach the floor and now I am leading the team.
Down the hallway I saw in my dream, and around the sharp corner.
The lights flicker as we move past them and light up the corridor for us.
My heart pounds as I remember the being that resided in room eight.
He was terrifying, but that wasn’t his fault.
That doctor said they had put another lad in there.
I don’t even want to know what happened to him.
I swallow back the lump in my throat and follow the hallway down.
“Here,” I whisper to Ryder, gesturing at the thick metal doors trailing up and down this corridor.
“Right, split up.” He calls out orders, and the group listens. “Behind each of these doors are our brothers and sisters… free them all.”
He assigns everyone else a place in the hall and then waits for them to have taken in their tasks. “Asha, you’re with me.”
“What about the cameras?” I ask as I stare up at multiple cameras lined up down the hall. He looks at a student with dark features.
“Jasper, can you connect to the main feed?” Ryder asks.
“Already on it,” he replies.
“This is why you’re my favourite Deceiver,” Ryder replies with a smile.
“Don’t get all soppy on me now,” Jasper banters while positioning himself in the middle of the hall with his palms in the air.
“What’s he doing?” I ask Ryder discreetly, shuffling in my stance.
“Jasper’s a Deceiver. He can run images through the camera feed to make it look like there is no one here,” Ryder replies, and my eyebrows raise in awe. “River, can you jam the elevator?” he asks sternly.
“What would you have done without me?” River replies with a smirk, one curl of his wrist and the whir of the elevator silences. River revels with pride as he and Ryder share a small smile. Wait, are these two actually getting along? I chuckle quietly before Ryder’s gaze narrows again.
“Now come on.” He pulls at my arm, and we run to the end of the hall. My heart is still thumping in anticipation. I haven’t heard the banging of beasts behind doors, or the blood-curdling screams of soldiers being ripped apart yet, so that’s a good sign.
The sound of unlocking echoes down the hall as we race to the end.
Ryder takes the left side, and I take the right.
I brace myself in front of the big metal door, dragging the tennis ball-sized lump in the back of my throat with me.
I take a deep breath and slide the large metal bolt across the door with my mind, my fingers trembling too much for the task.
I’m still standing a good distance away from it.
I hear its heavy weight scrape across the floor as the door gingerly opens, my mind not one hundred percent ready to see what lies behind it.
My knuckles tighten as the door opens. I let out a breath.
A small-framed girl is crouching in the corner of the room.
My fears diminish as I rush to her side.
“It’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here,” I reassure her, but she flinches away from me.
Her arms are thin, and her legs look spindly and malnourished, like they are not strong enough to lift her.
“I’m not going to hurt you, I’m here to save you.” I lace my words with compassion, but she still backs away. Of course she is not going to trust me, I’m dressed in a bloody hazmat suit. I let out a breath and take my helmet off and chuck my knife onto the floor to show her I’m not a threat.
“See, I’m not one of them,” I explain and watch her muscles relax.
“Thank the Gods…please get me out of here.” A small voice escapes her dry lips, hoarse and quiet, like her vocal cords haven’t been used for a while. She has thick chains on her wrists and ushers me to break them off her.
“They’re enchanted chains; they stop us from using our Gifts.”
Her voice cracks as she speaks, but there is a sparkle behind her eyes, a newfound sense of hope.
The chains are two inches thick, and the skin around her wrists is raw and blistered. The cuffs are etched with Enchantra, and the chains are bolted into the wall. I wrap my fingers around the cold metal and pull at the chains, heaving with all my might, but they don’t budge.
“Where is the key?” I ask, feeling defeated.
“The guards…” she explains as tears threaten to fall from her eyes.
“It’s okay, I’ll get you out.”
I search the room for anything to get them off her.
Think, Asha, think. There is no way I am getting close enough to a guard without blowing our cover.
I hold on to the metal connecting the chains to the walls and put all of my power into heating them up.
The chains glow red as they conduct my heat, changing shape and deforming before eventually melting like molten lava on the marble, setting her free.
The cuffs still cling to her wrists, but at least she is able to get out.
“The others are out there. Go find them,” I whisper to her, and she wraps her arms around me, mouthing a small ‘thank you’, before running out to them.
I break three more people out of their prison cells. All of them looked frail and unfed. Just skin and bones with little flesh.
“The creatures are not down here?” I question Ryder, the realisation making me feel uneasy.
“The Moons are all unchanged so far,” he replies, checking the now-empty cells to make sure no one is left behind.
“Thank the Gods.” I breathe a sigh of relief as his fingers briefly touch mine.
“Don’t thank them too soon,” he says, a reminder that we are not out of the woods yet.
He shoves at each cell door, opening them wide enough for his eyes to peer around each room. They don’t fight him and open with ease, most of the cells are now empty, but one door remains closed. He pushes at it, but it is locked.
“Stand back.”
With a thunderous crack, Ryder slams his boot so hard into the so-called impenetrable door, splintering the steel and stone as it tears free from its frame and clattering against the far wall. Gods, he is strong.
Dust swirls through the air as we step inside, him slightly in front of me.
My muscles tense as my eyes scan the dimly lit cell.
It appears empty - just cold walls, chains and silence.
I was half expecting to see another half-dead, starved Moon in here, but there is no sign of life in this room.
The air feels thicker, a far cry from the fresh air that blesses the mountain peaks just outside of this facility.
The Moons have been trapped in here, starved of food and all the things that make a life worth living.
I shudder as I think about their pain and helplessness, seen as nothing but a sick experiment, wondering if they will ever get a taste of their old lives again.
Suddenly, a strange chill creeps down my spine, a primal sense that something is wrong. I usher Ryder to a halt and feel my muscles stiffen. He senses it too, an unease that clings to the walls of this room. He looks up and takes a slow step back.
“No sudden movements,” he mutters under his breath as if even the slightest quiver of his lips could cause an avalanche.
My eyes trail up to where he is looking. Clinging to the ceiling, its body defying gravity and physics, the creature I have been dreading watches us with rage in its fiery eyes, its limbs coiled and mouth twitching in anticipation. It hasn’t moved yet. It is waiting.
Without warning, the creature drops from the ceiling in a blur of twisted limbs and bone-snapping motion, its gaunt humanoid form unfolding midair like a broken marionette.
Ryder and I take a fast step back as its spindly arms lash out at us with terrifying speed, clawing towards us with a jerky and unnatural grace.
Ryder keeps me behind him as he conjures his shadow hawks to protect us, but they are no match for this creature.
The heart of a Moon trapped in the body of a beast.
“We can’t hurt it. There’s a Moon in there,” I say, fear taking hold of each word.
It slams itself into Ryder, the impact sending him hurling into the marble walls.
He lands with a crash, the abomination snarling on top of him.
Ryder holds it at arm’s length, its long, pointed teeth snapping only inches away from his face.
My heart pumps out of my chest as blood rushes to my head.
Ryder’s arms are buckling with the relentless weight of the creature.
If I don’t do something soon, it will kill him.
“Over here,” I taunt the creature, hoping it will prey on me instead.
“Asha, what are you doing?” Ryder strains to me, still under the weight of the beast.
“Hey you, tough guy, over here,” I taunt again.
This time, the beast’s head swivels round at me slowly, opening its mouth, revealing its rows of sharp teeth.
I gulp. With unnatural speed, it lunges at me with talons aimed to tear me open.
I stand still, paralysed by fear. It hurtles towards me with narrow eyes.
“NOOOO.”
A bloodcurdling scream escapes Ryder’s mouth as the beast leaps only inches away from my face.
I cower slightly, and as soon as I can feel its hot breath on my cheek, I raise a trembling hand, ripping open a swirling portal of dark energy.
With a final guttural screech, the creature is caught mid-attack and dragged into the void.
Its limbs flailing wildly as the portal snaps shut with a crack of silence, leaving behind only the sound of our relieved breaths.
Ryder jumps up and races towards me, his arms wrapping so tightly around me they take my breath away.
“Are you crazy?!” he says, his words laced with a mixture of anger and relief.
“It would’ve killed you,” I defend. “I had to.”
Silence follows us for a minute as I take refuge in the strong grip of his arms. My safe haven.
“Where did you send it, anyway?” he asks, my eardrum next to the loud beating of his heart.
“Astra Nova,” I say simply, it can stay there until we find a way to change it back.
We don’t have long to lick our wounds; there is still a final door, and after what lurked behind the last one, we are definitely apprehensive.
I am still shaken up by the encounter, my breaths unnaturally heavy as we stand outside the door.
It is much bigger than the others, and the steel is covered in symbols and Enchantra.
The bolt is heavy, and even using all of my power, I cannot budge it.
Ryder extends his arm and gauges its strength.
“They definitely do not want anyone to get in there,” Ryder says, looking at the fortress.
“Or maybe they don’t want whatever is in there to get out.”
I gulp, and we share a look, thinking about the being that almost tore through our flesh and bone like it was nothing. We were lucky there was only one in the previous cell. If more lurk behind this door, we don’t stand a chance. My grip tightens around Ryder’s arm.
“You ready?” he asks, and I nod at him, my lungs fighting my chest with each breath.
He puts an arm in front of me protectively, then yanks at the door with his strong arm. As if smothered with butter, the door slides open. My heart thumps again. Yep, they definitely wanted to keep something in.