Chapter 12 Zion
ZION
The realization of who was caressing my throat disarmed me.
His gloved hand resting on my pulse point fried my sanity.
And the feel of him so close to me snatched my speech ability entirely.
“Let. Him. Go.” With her fists clenched in anticipation of a fight, Kali stomped over to us. “I said, let him go,” she repeated, slowly, deliberately so, “and I won’t slice your dick off only to feed it to you afterward.”
Before she could do irreparable damage, I reached to unclasp the strap of his black helmet—
He shoved me aside, swiveling and blocking Kali’s blow with his forearm.
Her hiss died when steel flashed in the moonlight. His knife drew an arc and split her left cheek, in the precise way she had done to him a long time ago.
Scarlet welled to the surface. A drop trickled to her jaw, its journey sucking the strength out of her as she blanched.
Kali gaped at the last remaining soldier for a while before croaking out, “No. This can’t— No— Just no.
” Laughter exploded out of her, the sound bitter and jarring.
Blinking the tears away, she shook her head.
“I’m so stupid for thinking—” She squared her shoulders.
“You know what? No. And fuck you.” She punched his chest, his upper arms, his shoulders, traveling up and up—
His head snapped aside. Yet he stood his ground, as solid as a wall, yielding to her need to hit.
Oblivious to how her knuckles had split from having struck his mask, she raised her shaking fist again.
She was hurting herself.
And neither he hiding behind the plastic, nor I could have that.
Catching her waist, I hauled her away. She screamed, trashed, kicked, and cursed, but my mind was too blank to come up with a way to mollify her rage.
Shouts reverberated in the streets nearby, and I pleaded with her. “Be quiet.” Covering her mouth, I grunted from the sting of her teeth sinking into my flesh and drawing blood. “It’s past curfew. The patrols can hear you.”
The soldiers Ilasall had posted across the city must’ve become aware of the commotion as bits and pieces of their conversations floated up to us on currents of air.
Kali relaxed in my hold, but only in a physical sense. If a person’s fury could kill, I’d be dead from how she raged.
Wary, I freed her mouth, and she spat out, “I’ll kill him.”
Disregarding her vow, he marched to the edge of the roof to peer down. Cloaked in the shadows, he closed his fist, and then flexed his fingers wide a few times, indicating the number of soldiers crawling in the streets.
Too many.
Holding her waist just in case, I dragged us to the roof’s door and nudged Kali to begin the climb down. With my pulse pounding, I turned to take one last look at him.
I’d touched him.
Had witnessed him move, graceful and swift, a blur of a shape, and not in my dreams, but here.
As he turned around, the mask harboring his identity stared at me.
My feet melded with the ground.
Yet I forced myself to move, taking Kali’s hand and flying down the ten stories.
Eerie landings with fractured wooden doors and moldy welcome mats marked the stages of our journey.
The longer we descended, the more fluorescent lamps flickered, their buzzing like flies beating their wings against your eardrums.
Down we went, through the gleaming metal door of the basement, the fourteen steep steps into its depths, and then through the thick, rusted door serving as the entrance point to the catacombs Rowan was supposed to be guarding.
The heavy block of iron banged shut, and deafening silence assaulted our senses. Before Kali could secure the bolt, locking out whoever might’ve attempted to access the underground maze from inside the building, I pulled her away.
In utter blackness, we ran down the damp passage, using the wall for a sense of direction.
“Wait.” She tugged my hand. “Zion, wait!” A click, and a scorching bright light lit up a dead spiderweb on the ceiling. Panting, she directed the flashlight to where we’d come from. “What about—”
“Nothing. We saw no one.” Beads of sweat soaked my shirt. I rolled my sleeves to my elbows, exposing the drowning-in-flames forest tattoo on my right forearm, and the swirls of burn scars on my left. “We were attacked and handled their military by ourselves.”
“We can’t— That’s—” She pointed the flashlight at me, blinding me. “Zion, no.”
“We don’t have a choice.” Clutching her wrist, I tugged her to follow me down the tunnel. A slightly sweet odor invaded my nostrils, and something fleshy crunched under my boot, the bug’s remains sticking to my sole.
“But he—” Kali halted. “Never mind. We have another issue right now—getting lost. Rowan said these catacombs spread under the whole city.”
“We can’t go back. The soldiers…” I gulped down the idea of him dealing with the swarm of the military alone. “They’ll catch up to us. But the cavern is not far from here. We took two left turns from there to here, so I can lead us back to it. And then—”
“Okay.” Her acquiescence bounced off the narrow walls. “Let’s go.”
Speechless, we took the first right turn, and the tunnel widened, its sides smooth and devoid of any niches filled with skeletons—altars to the dead.
A screech of not-oiled-in-centuries hinges pierced footfalls, the harsh noise traveling all the way to our nail beds.
“Was that…” Her flashlight’s streaks coloring our path quivered.
The catacombs’ door. Someone had found their way in.
Refusing to consider the possibilities, I muttered, “Hurry.”
We bolted, taking another right turn and falling in line as the passage narrowed. The rhythmic beat of a pair of feet chasing us drenched the space.
We burst into the cavern, the lanterns ringing the chamber put out except for one at the far side—
“Carys!” Kali dashed straight for the girl rising on her toes and reaching for the lantern hanging on the wall.
The short, scrawny woman gaped at us, her hand hovering inches away from the lantern’s handle. So Carys was the one who’d spoken about Alora and pledged to follow Kali in our uprising.
Or more like the desolation we were set upon unleashing.
“Ah, what— What are you guys doing here?” she asked, lowering back onto her heels. The quivering flame behind the glass highlighted her shock. “Where’s Rowan?”
“Dead,” I stated. Barely reaching my chest, Carys tilted her head back, her blonde eyebrows drawing tight. Her mouth parted, but before her questions could see the light of day, I rushed out, “Can you lead us outside the city?”
“I…” She glanced at the five shadowed exits out of the cavern, one of which we’d emerged from, one a path outside the city gates, and three others—a labyrinth of death.
“Well, I have a map.” Rummaging in her cross-body bag, Carys pulled out a piece of crumpled paper, a collection of lines strewn across it.
“Most of us do. It’s too easy to lose your way if you miss a turn. ”
“Great.” Kali puffed a breath, and the candle’s flame diminished. The wick’s glow gradually ebbed, consumed by the darkness—the creature stalking the halls of its underground dominion.
A round blob of silver fell onto the limestone ground as Kali flicked on her flashlight once more. Crumbs of dirt from hundreds of shoes cast thousands of tiny shadows on each other.
“Where to?” she asked, our ears poised for any nearing footfalls.
But nothing but a crinkle of paper disturbed the hush as Carys unfolded the hand-drawn map. Tracing the multitude of lines, she settled on tapping a spot where five tunnels interconnected. “We need to take the fourth exit from our left.”
“Lead the way.” Flanking her new friend, Kali raised the flashlight to her shoulder, dispersing up the gloom prowling the expanse.
We delved into the passage, marching down its length before turning right, left, right, right, and left again, the walls identical wherever we went, the skulls measuring us up as we passed them, the piles of femurs the few bones who’d survived the decaying process.
The scuff of our shoes against the stone marked the long minutes that ticked by, our chats scarce, save to clarify a turn or two before taking them.
Eventually, we emerged in a long stretch of a tunnel, not a curve or a bend, and Carys spoke up. “This is where I leave you. The map says this passage should take you outside Ilasall.”
Kali pulled Carys into an embrace, tucking the woman’s head under her chin. “Will you be okay?” She cupped Carys’s face, searching her expression. “Won’t your partner notice your absence? It’s after curfew.”
The green band encircling Carys’s wrist served as a statement that she was owned by a man—her Match.
“He’s with his friends. It’s their weekly night out. He won’t return until early morning, so I’ll be perfectly fine. I’ll just follow this”—she raised the map—“to go back.”
“Are you sure?” Kali stepped back, glancing at the maze we’d left behind. “Everyone left you all alone in that cavern.”
“They didn’t leave me. It was mine and Arlo’s turn to clean up after the meeting.
He let me off the hook the last time, so I did the same tonight.
” Carys pointed to the source of light Kali had propped in her armpit.
“But I could use your flashlight, if you don’t mind. It’s kind of hard to see in the dark.”
“Here, take it.” Kali pressed it into Carys’s hands but didn’t release it. “Do you want to come with us?” she blurted out.
“I… I can’t.” Carys tugged on the lapels of her wool coat. “If I go missing, my partner…he will search for me.” She swallowed. “He’s a higher-up. He won’t let me go so easily.”
My attention spiked. “Who is he?” I rubbed my already swelling jaw. The cut on my upper arm pulsed, and a wave of fresh warmth soaked my shirt.
Eislyn was going to purposely stab the syringe into me as painfully as she could for having to stitch me up again.
And then would justify it by reminding me we still didn’t have any pain meds we could waste in our reserves.
Our inability to restock due to Ilasall’s increased security meant wounds got treated in the old-fashioned way—biting down on something while you screamed.
Carys toyed with the strap of her bag, the map crinkling in her grasp. “He’s the Head of Military.”
Kali cursed, and a chill crawled up my spine. Rolling out the tension in my shoulders, I voiced the future awaiting him. “He’s a dead man.”
Carys’s laugh tinkled in the damp space. “Oh, I don’t doubt it.” She cleared her throat. “Now hurry. I’m sure your friends are waiting for you.”
I nodded in appreciation. “Thank you.”
“No worries. Just promise me you’ll make him beg for death before granting it.”
“I’ll do you one better,” I proposed. “I’ll give you the choice of his punishment.”
The imperceptible dip of her chin settled in my chest like an egg waiting to hatch, longing for the first intake of fresh air.
Its weight kept the gloom at bay as Kali and I slunk toward the end of the tunnel, where the shaft awaited.
More than sixty ladder bars later, I popped out of the hole in the ground.
Night shrouded the forest, eerie and foreboding. Moonlight filtering through the boughs washed Eli’s scar, a jagged streak running from his lips to his jaw, the end splitting into two.
“What took you so long?” He pushed off the maple tree he was leaning against. “I’m about to freeze my balls off here.”
“Unexpected detour,” I deflected, helping Kali to clamber out of the shaft. “This stays open.” I gestured to the round block of concrete—the lid covering the access point to the catacombs.
Though questions surely spun in Eli’s mind, a subtle shake of my head was enough to shut him up for now.
I was far from ready to talk.
Once huddled in the car, Eli taking the passenger seat, with Ava at the wheel, we flew down the desolate roads, weaving through the forest. I brought Kali’s palm into my lap to knead the pressure points, to feel her pulse.
She shifted in her seat, her knee bumping into my own. “Did you know?”
Her quiet question caved in my chest. Because the answer she demanded, it wasn’t black and white, yes or no.
“I…” Tousling my hair, I yanked the ends until pricks of pain rained across my scalp. “It’s not…”
“I can’t believe you,” she said so calmly her resignation knocked me down, lanced through me like arrows dipped in poison.
A pair of headlights hit our back window—another vehicle had leaped out of a side road.
“Godsdamnit.” Ava slammed the wheel. “Who is that?”
Kali’s fist curled in my lap. “Someone I’m going to kill for good this time.”