Blaire
BLAIRE
Another explosion shook the foundations of the building.
“It’s built into the mountain!” Harvey panted as they ran down yet another hallway, up yet another flight of stairs. Every elevator they had tried had been out of action. Not that was in a hurry to get inside one of them, not with these explosions rocking the place at increasingly frequent intervals.
“So?” snapped.
“It’s going to take a lot more than these little tremors to bring the place down. You’ll have to collapse the entire mountain to destroy it.”
swallowed back bile. Was that Farida’s plan? When she’d said she was going to destroy Taiga, was she planning to take a metaphorical wrecking ball to the entire mountain?
They rounded a corner and found smoking holes blasted in the walls at regular intervals.
“What the fuck?” muttered. Roman grabbed her arm, tugging her along.
“How did you think Farida planned to get all the hybrids out of this place? Just ask the agents nicely?” he grated, hoisting Harvey up again and shuffling them all along.
“This … this used to be Reproduction Block,” Harvey muttered.
’s mom scoffed. “Let’s call it what it really was, Harvey. Rape Block.”
and Roman shared a glance. This was where Seven had been. Where Jack had found her.
suddenly felt a fierce surge of gratitude for Farida. For all the terrifying shit she did, she’d come in here and had singlehandedly broken the prisoners out of these cells. She hoped they’d all made their way out and were safe in the forest with Clay’s pack.
Another hallway, just the same, lined with gaping, smoking holes where doors had been exploded away. There was a set of stairs at the end, leading upwards.
A hollow wail stopped them in their tracks.
“What did you do to me?” a female voice cried.
“Stay here,” Roman ordered her quietly, propping Harvey against the wall before creeping forward, closer to the sound.
“I can’t! I can’t leave him!” the voice sobbed.
“I understand. Believe me … I’ve felt this. I’ve felt it …”
Roman stopped. ’s mouth fell open. Because those words … that sad, resigned voice …
“That’s Farida,” Jude murmured. His eyes were wide, his expression stricken.
Before could open her mouth to ask him why he looked like he’d seen a ghost, Farida spoke again.
“It’ll be the hardest thing you ever do … leaving him. But you can survive this. If you come with me, we’ll get you out. This place … it’s not going to be standing for much longer, and you—”
“I cannot leave him!” the unfamiliar female voice screeched. “What did you do to me? Why did I stop feeling him?”
“I did what I had to do … to save you,” Farida replied, calm but firm. “Them doing … what they did to him … that would have been your fate, too, if I hadn’t separated you from him.”
’s stomach churned. She hadn’t … had she? What was her fucking deal with breaking Joins?
She started forward, but Roman held up a hand. Not the time to get involved.
As much as she hated it, he was absolutely right. Her going in there and raging at Farida wouldn’t help this poor hybrid. And that’s what needed to be the priority right now.
“He’s gone, Twelve. He’s gone,” Farida murmured. “They killed him. The monsters in this place killed him. But you … you can survive. You have to survive … for the babe in your womb. His babe.”
“Oh … oh please, no …” the stranger—Twelve—sobbed.
“You’re pregnant. And I know the only thing you want right now is to follow him …” Farida’s voice was soft, sympathetic … until it hardened. “But you cannot be selfish now. You cannot condemn your baby because living without him feels too hard.”
“I … I can’t,” Twelve whispered raggedly.
“You must,” Farida said firmly. “You can and you will. He wouldn’t want you to die. He wouldn’t want your babe to die. I’ve lived over a century without my Joined now. It’s possible. I promise you. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do, but it’s possible. And you’ll have a baby, a little piece of him, to keep with you forever. But only if you come with me now, and you let me get you to safety.”
’s eyes burned, and she swiped furiously at the tears streaming down her face. Of all the awful things that had happened in the last few days, this conversation was the tipping point that stripped of all that angry armor she’d been hiding under and left her raw, and utterly miserable, and confused.
She still hated Farida for so many reasons, but this conversation … something about the quiet, resigned sadness in Farida’s voice. She’d done abhorrent things, but she’d had abhorrent things forced upon her, too. Things that had shaped the hardness in her. couldn’t forgive her for that hardness … but she could maybe understand it a little better now.
Oh, Sweetest … Roman’s voice soothed through her mind, and he stepped towards her, wrapping his arms around her, his hands cupping her face.
The poor girl, she whimpered. This is so fucked up, Roman!
Which is why we’re doing what we’re doing. We were too late for her Joined … but many others have been saved an awful fate tonight. Including an unborn child.
“Now, come on, I’m going to get you and your baby out of here, safe and sound,” Farida murmured to the girl.
straightened, blinking away tears as Farida stepped through one of the many gaping holes in the wall ahead. She glanced up, looking wholly unsurprised to see Roman and … and then her gaze landed on Jude.
Farida’s eyes widened fractionally, her lips twitching. She cleared her throat, blinking away and reaching back through the hole, tugging gently as a distraught red-haired girl staggered out, gasping, clutching Farida’s hand like a lifeline. She took a look back through the hole, and a strangled wail tore out of her as she clutched at her chest.
“I can’t feel him!” she cried. “I can’t feel him!”
Farida pulled the girl into her arms, shushing her.
“I know. It feels like there’s a hole where he used to be, doesn’t it?” Farida whispered against the girl’s hair. “But … you’re alive. And your baby is safe.”
Her eyes swept over the others, waiting, silent, and somber in the hallway. They landed for a moment too long on Jude. wondered if she’d separated him from his Joined before killing her. She wondered if Farida had managed to break her own Join before Fortis killed him. Is that how they’d managed to survive this long alone?
“My friends are going to take you to safety now, Twelve,” Farida told her, gently extricating herself from the girl’s grip. stepped forward, reaching for Twelve and wrapping an arm around the girl’s shoulders. She shook with silent sobs.
“I’ll look after you, okay?” told her as Roman took over supporting Harvey’s broken body.
Farida nodded at them and turned away.
“Where are you going, Farida?” Roman asked. “Shouldn’t we all be getting out of here?”
Farida’s eyes were solid black as she shook her head.
“I won’t leave until I’m sure no hybrids are left behind,” she told him firmly. watched, an ache in her chest as Farida strode off down the hallway.
“Come on, let’s go,” Roman said softly once she was out of sight. wrapped her arms tighter around the trembling girl and followed Roman.
They passed the hole Twelve had climbed out of.
Don’t look, don’t look! told herself. And then promptly ignored her own advice.
And immediately regretted it.
Two piles of ashes … Farida’s work.
And the bloody, mutilated body of what must have been Twelve’s Joined … barely recognizable as a man.
She swallowed back sour vomit and hurried the girl past that gory sight.
Another, stronger explosion rocked the foundations of the facility.
“Hurry!” Roman grunted as they reached the stairs. “We don’t have much longer.”