Chapter 19
Wren
The crunch and rustle of glass and ash underfoot went unnoticed as Wren searched desperately for any intact evidence that any animal had survived in the main room.
He knew he should have been searching for notes for Avery, or clues about the case at large and who was behind it, but Wren couldn’t help but follow his heart.
One, he begged as he and Blu worked in tandem. Just one.
“There’s nothing here but ashes,” Saint called down from the catwalk he had made his way up to check the office.
“I found half a log with an inventory of chemicals, but without the full list I couldn’t take a guess at what exactly they were trying to do.
One missing ingredient could change the whole reaction. ”
“Does it match any of the chemicals you found in the drug remnants, at least?” Teddy called back.
“A few. It definitely has something to do with it. I don’t know if this was the final formula or one of the tests though.”
“Keep searching. That list is better than nothing. Maybe there’s something else they missed that we could send Avery’s way,” Wren said before turning back to his own search. He focused on the ground. For whatever reason that felt like the most logical place.
If there was a wounded animal he was to find, that was where it would be. He walked slowly, steps quiet so as to not startle whoever might be hiding in fear and pain.
He didn’t want to be a source of any more of it. He just wanted to help.
Please…
A trail of something at the corner of the room made Wren’s heart leap.
He hurried to it, pausing in his joy for a moment when he realized that the trail was like nothing he had ever seen before. It looked like an oil slick, iridescent and gleaming in winding curves that indicated a snake of some kind.
He frowned. Reaching out a fingertip to touch the liquid and freezing just before he made contact as Blu screeched an alarm, flying down to sit on his shoulder.
Wren curled his fingers back, with Blu so close, able to feel what Blu had noticed before him. Something sticky and unnatural. “Cursed,” he breathed. “No…not even that. This is…twisted and cruel. What were they doing to you here?”
Pushing the tears aside, Wren began to follow the sludgy trail toward a huge grate in the floor just off to the side of the main mechanism.
It began to pull as he drew closer, the ache in his eye back.
He cursed, knowing there was no way he would be able to get the grate up.
It was solid iron and bolted down with screws the size of Wren’s fist.
He pulled out a small torch from his pocket and shined it down. There was a liquid underneath with more of that oily sheen. It was shifting a little, like it was disturbed.
Had whatever this animal was covered in been created by this machine?
He looked back at it, the cold, imposing menace of it dwarfing him and making his hair stand on end. It wasn’t activated or moving, but Wren was terrified of it.
He followed the tubes running from it and his eyes widened when he realized they ended in funnels that were sitting directly over his head, presumably supposed to empty into these grates.
Wren stumbled back just as Blu twittered and flew off. Wren glanced over to see Blu had found another trail from a crack in the floor that seemed to be leading in the direction of the entrance to the cylinder.
Teddy’s phone rang in the silence.
Both he and Wren stiffened, Wren only relaxing when Teddy did. Not Kellan, then.
“Trace?” Teddy answered. “Can it wait? I thought you were called in on a case? We just found something huge.”
Despite not wanting to, Wren stepped closer to the strange trail and the machine.
“Brown eyes. Bald. Tattoos. First name Adam,” Teddy said in the background.
Wren used the flashlight, shining it around the space. More of that oily substance caught the light in rainbow colors. And just over the lip on the floor, two tiny eyes reflected back at him from the coil of its seemingly normal body. Wren wanted to cry with relief.
“There you are, darling. Hello. Don’t worry, I’m going to rescue you from here and fix everything, okay? You don’t have to be afraid.” He inched closer, examining the cylinder.
“Dead?”
Wren turned sharply at the word, dropping the light in his shock only for it to roll away. Wren ignored it.
“That can’t be…” Teddy trailed off, meeting Wren’s questioning gaze. “Are you sure it’s Adam?”
Teddy listened for a few moments before giving a grim nod. “I knew I should have pushed back when he said he wanted to get himself out of Arcstead. He was an idiot, but he didn’t deserve that.”
“How did they know so fast?” Wren asked.
“They must have been watching the place. And it explains why this warehouse was nuked before we even got here. It wasn’t abandoned, it was purposefully destroyed. They’re a step ahead of us.”
Trace seemed to say something else before Teddy nodded and said “Watch your back, Trace” before he hung up. He ran a hand over his face, no doubt blaming himself.
“It’s not your fault,” Wren said.
“I let him go off on his own.”
“You gave him the option.”
“But I knew the risks. I manipulated him. And now he’s lying dead on a stretcher in the middle of a golf course.” He scoffed to himself. “They wanted him to be found. And they wanted us to know it, too.”
“They’re sending a message.”
“One that’s backed by money and power,” Teddy said grimly.
“What do you mean?” Wren asked.
“It was the Rollings Golf Course. Worthingham’s biggest competitor. What’s better than sending us a message to back the hell off or get punished in the same way while also driving down the business of their rivals? Killing two birds with one stone.”
“I hate that phrase,” Wren said reflexively as his mind raced along the twisted paths Teddy had seen so clearly.
Teddy gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
He seemed to look at where Wren was for the first time in that moment, worry replacing the guilt. He marched forward. “You’re too close, Little Bird. Step back.”
Wren held his ground. “I found a survivor.”
Teddy’s eyes widened. “In the machine?”
Wren nodded. “I need to get them out.”
Panic bloomed on Teddy’s face. “You can’t go in there. Avery said—”
“Teddy.”
“Wren.”
There were only rare occasions when Teddy did this. When he was so firm in his refusal of anything Wren wanted.
“What’s going on?” Saint asked, back down on the main floor.
“Our main lead is dead and there’s a snake in the machine,” Wren said without taking his eyes off Teddy’s.
“Oh, so nothing important, then. What the fuck?!”
Teddy pressed his lips flat. “Wren wants to go into the machine and get it.”
“In the death sucker? Are you crazy?”
“Probably.”
“You’re not going. I’ll do it,” Teddy said.
“You’ll get the loose, most likely poisonous snake?” Wren cocked a brow.
Teddy set his jaw. “Yes.”
“What type of snake is it?” Saint asked.
“Trimorphodon. The shape of its head is unmistakable,” Wren said. “Otherwise known as…”
The words dried up as a thread snagged in Wren’s brain and tugged, unraveling a woolen blanket that had previously been held up over a truth that was now completely obvious.
“As?” Teddy prompted.
Wren continued to stare, heart pounding with newfound information. Seeing everything from the past few days—no, for the past decade—in a completely new light.
Teddy touched his arm. “Little Bird?”
Wren’s eyes snapped to his. “As a lyre snake.”
“A liar?” Saint joked to try and lighten the mood. “What does it do? Evade taxes or something?”
Wren snorted, then let out a small burst of derisive laughter before looking up at the ceiling.
“Don’t bust a gut or anything,” Saint grumbled.
“He certainly thinks he has a sense of humor,” Teddy said.
“Why are you discussing me like I’m not here?” Saint asked.
“Not you,” Wren said. “Don’t you understand what this means?”
“What’s going on, Wren? You think this snake means something?” Teddy asked.
“You’re good with symbolism. Can’t you see it?
” Wren begged, digging his fingers into Teddy’s arm.
“They killed every animal in here. Wiped them clean. Destroyed all evidence. But they left one snake, in the middle of probably the most important and eye-catching thing in the place, and it’s a lyre snake, seemingly completely uncursed. ”
“A liar,” Teddy repeated, almost inaudibly.
“He’s taunting us, Teddy.”
Teddy met his gaze, eyes bouncing back and forth like he was reading lines of the truth scrawled there.
“Who else knows exactly where we are at all times? Who shows up conveniently at every step forward? Who knew that we had visited Adam and that he had talked?”
“Kellan.”
As soon as the name met the dusty air, large metal gates came thundering down, every exit suddenly impassable.
It was impossible not to recognize in the moment, no diagnostics needed.
“It’s a bond curse,” Wren said. “This was a trap all along.”
“The name must have activated it,” Teddy said.
“Well, how do we deactivate it?” Saint asked, walking over and kicking a door. “Any bright ideas?”
“We need a cursebreaker,” Teddy said. “Just not any of the ones here.”
Saint groaned. “Eerie’s never going to let me live this down.”
Teddy drew out his phone. “Worry about that after we get out of here.” He stopped and frowned. “There’s no service.”
“But you just called Avery!” Saint said, pulling out his own phone to check.
“He set this whole thing up. It was never going to be so easy.” Wren didn’t bother to check his.
“So you think Kellan did this? He’s the mastermind behind this drug operation? Why?” Saint asked incredulously.
“Let’s find a way out of here and then find out for certain,” Teddy said, already moving.
“But—”
“Saint, I promise I’ll fill you in, just…please.”
He began checking vents, looking for any gaps in the bond web.
Saint walked over to a disheveled desk. “Maybe the landline works?”
Wren frowned. “Why would they have a—SAINT, WAIT!”