35. Briar
brIAR
I don’t waste another second standing there with panic chewing at my mind; I pivot hard and take the right stairwell, remembering from the maps that it's on the second floor with the labs, hidden away behind a secure door where only those with the highest clearance are allowed.
Before anyone further up in the stairwell fighting can see me, I dart up from the third floor to the second.
I don’t hesitate to kick the door open and storm inside.
My breathing is ragged as adrenaline consumes me, ready to tear down anyone standing in my way.
However, an eerie silence fills this level, aside from the alarms pulsing a steady beat.
Instantly, I feel a little disoriented trying to recall the layout to this level from the map, trying to figure out how to best get to the room from where I am now. I was too hazy during my time that involved this room, unable at the time to firmly pinpoint the spot in this maze.
Now my anxiety and fear cloud my critical thinking skills when I need them more than ever.
Then I remember: I’m not alone in this.
My hands tighten around Lyra and Kael and I tip my chin just enough to catch the nearest lens and say, “Dante, route me to him, or to my mother if they aren’t together.”
If anyone can find where Terrance is hiding her, it’s Dante. I can’t waste time with presumptions and half-thought out plans. Every single second counts.
A green blink flares to life on the camera in front of me, then another at the middle of the hall where another path crosses perpendicularly.
I run toward it, trusting in him with everything in me.
My head darts all around, trying to find the next camera that blinks.
A brief flash catches my eyes on my right at the far end and I rush toward it.
Then there’s another blink to the left at the far end of this hall.
I take that as my answer and run toward it.
Just as I’m about to cross under it, the light flashes red three times and immediately I’m on high alert.
As I round a corner, I find two guards with weapons drawn in front of a door.
I quickly slice through the guards without breaking stride, thanks to Dante’s warning.
Lyra opens one of their throats while Kael drives between the other’s ribs and to their heart.
Both bodies crumple to the ground as I rip my daggers from them.
The building tries to pull me into old memories, to slow my feet with the gravity of what occurred to me here, but the present need of finding my mom keeps ripping me forward and I let it consume me.
I don’t have space in me for other noise right now, only the straight line between here and wherever she is.
The door hisses open and my body tenses as I drop into a fighting stance, prepared to find guards on the other side, but it's another hallway and the vivid green light at the end of it spurs me on.
Another camera winks green as the corridor opens wide to my left and there it is: reinforced doors I’d recognize anywhere. I can’t even recall how many times I let myself zone out looking at them, while imagining my family bursting through them to save me from my torture.
The smell in this corridor makes my stomach tighten, the air thick with the odor of antiseptic over the unmistakable copper scent of blood.
The camera above it blinks green three times and I rush to the door, prepared for it to hiss open like the other, but as I stand there with my heart practically in my throat, nothing happens.
My focus falls to the keypad and a growl rumbles through me as my fangs bear.
It’s been smashed in and had the wires cut.
Do they really think that’s enough to stop me?
I plant my feet and slide Lyra and Kael back into their sheaths at my thighs so I have both hands free without dismissing their forms.
A feral scream rips from me as I curl my fingers into the seam of the door and pull with all my might.
My muscles strain and burn from the exertion as the frame groans, moving inch by inch.
A tremble rolls through me at the effort and my eyes and jaw clench as I readjust my feet to press against the wall and use the strength of my legs to assist as I get a better grip around the edge of the door.
“Open the fuck up!” I scream until the frame gives way enough that the gap is wide enough for my body.
Relief pours through me as I quickly slip through sideways, shoulders turning, breath held for whatever sight might greet me.
The lights of his torture chamber are too bright as always, the counters are lined the way they always were.
The multiple trays of weapons sit where they always did, and strapped upright in the metal table that was designed to hold us against all our might is a figure with her head bowed, her short, uneven white hair matted with blood against her cheek.
For a heartbeat I can’t make myself move. I can’t make my feet bridge the last stretch of clean floor between us, because my mind is trying to protect me from the possibility that it’s someone else, or that she isn’t alive.
“Mom,” I croak as my feet slowly inch forward.
Her fingers twitch at my voice, and that’s all it takes for my body to respond. I’m across the space in a second, the sound of my breath too loud in my ears as I lift her face with shaking fingers and look for her eyes.
They open slowly, unfocused at first, then find me, and her bloody, cracked lips part.
“Briar.”
My bottom lip wobbles and hot tears spring up to fill my vision. “It’s me, Mom. You’re safe now. Papa, Dad, and Father are all here, too, getting the prisoners out.”
A ghost of a smile tugs at her mouth just before her head slumps forward again, seemingly unconscious.
“Mom!” I snap, shaking her head lightly within my palms to try and stir her. “Mom, open your eyes!”
Behind me, somewhere outside the door I forced, I hear footsteps take the corner at a measured pace that doesn’t belong to any who fears for their life. The hair lifts at the back of my neck because I’d know that pretentious cadence anywhere.
The footsteps draw closer, unhurried, each one echoing with the kind of certainty that makes my pulse pound harder in my throat. Terrance always moved like this, like the whole world bent to his pace and he never needed to rush to catch his prey.
As I turn to block Mom’s body with my own, I slowly unsheath Kael and Lyra, pulling on the strength they hum through our bond, to hold back the tremble threatening to overtake me.
It’s one thing to think you can walk back into the place that abused you and stole a piece of your soul, but it’s another to actually be there staring your captor in the face.
“Take a breath and remember he is no match for you now,” Kael commands, his voice leaving no room for argument.
It cuts through my anxiety and I do as he says as the steps draw nearer, letting my chest expand with as deep a breath as I can take before slowly blowing it out.
“He is an ant. He is nothing. He is here to meet his reckoning.”
The runes at their hilts pulse with a steady energy that threads strength through my spine.
“You have never been stronger than you are right now,” Lyra assures me, her soft voice laced with a steady determination. “He is surrounded by our teams. There is no escape for him, only death, and we are here to deliver it and save countless lives in the future by doing so.”
By the time he slides through the opening, my gaze is narrowed, my breathing even, and my heart and mind focused.
“Briar.” His voice fills the room, smooth and cruel in its calmness. “I was wondering how long it would take you to find us.”
I don’t answer. My fangs ache in my gums as the bloodlust surges forward.
He looks the same and worse all at once–his eyes a little hollower, his hair greasy, but the same smug curve of his mouth is left unchanged. The smile of a man who thinks he’s untouchable, even in the face of his empire collapsing.
He sweeps his gaze over my body and I resist giving him the satisfaction of shivering under his focus.
“You’ve grown stronger,” he says almost thoughtfully, like I’m a plant he left in the dark and he can’t quite believe it survived.
“I knew what you were the night I laid eyes on you in front of that campus, from the composed and graceful way your body shifted ever- so-slightly. The way your eyes tracked every detail with a rapid speed. Looking at you now, I can see a newfound confidence in your abilities.”
The rage surging inside me burns hotter, nearly blinding. I tighten my grip on Lyra and Kael as I bite back, “You know I’m not here for idle chitchat, Terrance, so let’s cut out the evil villain monologue and get straight to your throat being cut open.”
This time, I’m not chained to his chair. This time, I’m not the victim.
I snarl, stepping forward as the pain and grief I’ve carried sharpen into a single point, every muscle in me ready to strike.
The moment breaks as he yells, “Release the reserve mist!”
I don’t have time to process what he means by that as he lunges first, faster than a man his age should move, but he’s no match for me.
Lyra flashes up to catch the blade he pulls from his coat, the screech of metal meeting metal ringing through the room.
Kael drives forward in my other hand and I twist my body with the motion, slicing across his side before he can fully block the blow.
He snarls, the sound more animal than human, and slams his shoulder into me, trying to drive me back.
I meet him head on, my fangs bared as I push him off and spin low, my blades carving shallow lines across his thighs.
“Release it, I said!” he snarls, spit flying from his mouth as his eyes dart to the cameras.