Black City (24 page)

Up above us, a crow soars through the gray skies, its long black wings cutting through the clouds of smoke and ash that continue to rain down on the city.

“Sometimes I wish I could fly away,” I say.

Ash stands up and takes my hand.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes . . . I trust you,” I say. “What are we doing?”

He grins. “Flying.”

He starts to run, my hand still entwined in his. I have to sprint to keep up with him. The edge of the roof gets closer and closer. I start to panic.

“Ash!”

We’re going to fall off, we’re going to die, we’re going to—

Ash leaps into the air, bringing me along with him. For a brief second, it feels like we’re flying as we jump toward the building on the opposite side of the street. We land with a thud on its roof. I grin at him.

He lets go of my hand and bounds onto the next roof. The distance between the buildings isn’t that far since the city is so crammed together, and it’s surprisingly easy to get around. No wonder Ash managed to get on my roof without trouble. I chase after him, like a game of cat and mouse. The world around me blurs as we leap from rooftop to rooftop. Icy wind courses through my hair and stings my cheeks, and for a short time, I feel like a bird soaring through the sky.

I jump off another roof, and Ash catches me when I land. We fall down, wrapped in each other’s arms. His body is hard underneath mine, his taut muscles easily carrying my weight. Every time he breathes, my body moves with him, like I’m bobbing up and down on the waves.

I trace my fingers over his lips, and he sighs, parting them slightly, showing a hint of fang. My heart quickens. The sight both scares and thrills me. I gently press my lips against his.

The jolt of electricity that passes between us is intense.

I laugh. “Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” he mocks.

“That zap of electricity?”

He shakes his head, but I know he’s lying.

“Maybe we should try again?” he suggests.

I roll my eyes. “For scientific purposes only.”

We kiss again, and it’s just like a bolt of lightning zinging through my body. He pulls me closer to him, and our kiss deepens. I can feel his fangs against my lips, but it’s not an unpleasant sensation. After a few minutes, I grudgingly pull away, but I continue to lie on top of him, just listening to his heart. He plays with my hair, twirling a curl around his index finger.

“You should wear your hair down more often. It looks so beautiful,” he murmurs.

I giggle. No one’s ever called my hair beautiful before, not even Sebastian. But I don’t think he actually likes me that much; he just wants to possess me. Ash sighs contentedly.

“Are you happy?” I ask.

“Yes.”

I shift slightly on top of him, and his heart quickens. I still find the sound amazing.
I did that.

“What was it like not having a heartbeat?” I say softly.

He’s silent for a moment, and I wonder if I’ve put my foot in it.

“It was hell,” he eventually says. “It was like being stuck between life and death; I could walk, talk, breathe, eat, but I never felt truly
alive.
I never felt part of this world.”

“And now you do?”

“Yes. Because of you.”

I snuggle closer to him.

“Do you only have one heart like a human, or two like a Darkling?” I barely know anything about twin-blood physiology, and I want to know everything about Ash.

“I only have one heart, like a human. When I met you, though, it activated just like a Darkling’s second heart, so I guess whatever I have inside me, it’s a combination of both species.”

“Best of both worlds?” I say.

He chuckles. “I never really thought of it like that before; I always thought it was the worst.”

We stay wrapped in each other’s arms until the sun starts to set over the city. Overhead the clouds turn heavy and black, threatening to storm. In the distance I hear the eerie wail of Darklings calling to each other from within the Legion as they wake from their slumber. Ash quietly listens.

“Do you wish you were there with them?” I roll over onto my stomach to face him.

“Yeah. It’s not easy being the only twin-blood in the city. It’s . . .”

“Lonely?” I fill in for him.

He nods. “But I don’t feel that way anymore.”

He takes my hand and places it over his chest. His heart beats steadily under my fingertips.

“That’s the beauty of having a Blood Mate. You’re always with me. I’m never alone,” he says.

“Don’t you wish you could see your family again, though?” I ask.

“I’m seeing them tonight.”

He tells me about Sigur and how he’s been invited to the Legion. I don’t know why, but I’m suddenly filled with an irrational fear. I don’t want him to go, but I can’t tell him not to see his family.

“How do you know Sigur?” I ask.

“He and my mom are Blood Mates. Mom left my dad to be with Sigur just as the war broke out.”

“That must’ve been very tough on you and your father,” I say.

He sighs. “It’s okay. I think I finally understand she didn’t have a choice. If she felt for Sigur what I feel for you, she had no option but to be with him.”

“How did they meet? You don’t have to tell me,” I add quickly, realizing I’m being tactless again. I’m just so curious about his life.

“Before the war broke out, Mom got involved with the Legion Liberation Front, back when they were civil rights activists rather than freedom fighters,” he explains. “She really cared about the cause. She even went to a sit-in at the Black City University, demanding that Darklings be given the right to an education.”

“Wow, I can’t believe she was involved in that,” I say, remembering my father telling me about it.

He nods. “Sigur led the movement. She was infatuated with him even before she met him. Dad used to tease her about it; he thought it was just a silly celebrity crush. Guess he was wrong. Thing is, I think Mom would’ve left my dad eventually anyway.”

“What makes you think that?”

“They fought about me a lot. The deeper Mom got involved with the civil rights movement, the more she wanted to raise me as a Darkling.”

“And your father didn’t want that?”

“He thought it would be easier for me to integrate if I was more human. They never even asked what I wanted.”

“And what did you want?”

“I wanted to be a Darkling. I wanted to live with my mom when the wall went up.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Ash looks off into the distance. “She never asked.”

“I’m glad you stayed. We wouldn’t have met otherwise,” I say.

He kisses me then. Softly, slowly, and my body fills with sunshine, making every part of me bloom into life. When we eventually pull apart, he stands up and helps me to my feet.

“I should really go. They’re expecting me,” he says.

I lower my gaze. “You promise you’ll come back to me?”

He lifts my chin and softly kisses my lips.

“Nothing will keep us apart,” he says.

The storm clouds above us finally burst, and the first drops of rain splash against my cheek. A chill seeps through me. I hope he’s right.

21

ASH

THERE’S A LOUD CLUNK
as the metal gates slowly open. My stomach lurches, my nerves on edge. I’m finally going to step inside the Legion! I didn’t tell Dad I was coming here; he doesn’t even know I met Sigur last night or that I was arrested. It would just upset him, and he’s got enough on his plate with Mom. He thinks I’m spending the evening with Beetle.

Two guards appear in the entranceway, silhouetted in the moonlight. They’re over seven feet tall and broad like bears. Sigur stands between them, and although he isn’t as tall as they are, he exudes more power. His pure white hair has been tied back with a bronze band, and he’s dressed in an intricately embroidered orange robe that matches his glittering eyes. He’s not wearing his gold mask, but then again, it’s nighttime, so there’s no sun to burn his skin.

He embraces me, and I tense up. I’m not prepared to play the role of the dutiful Blood Son just yet; we’re a long way off from that. The guards usher us into the holding area and close the main gates. One of my escorts shouts a command to the gatekeepers at the second set of gates, and they open. The other escort faces me and gives me a fangy grin. He’s an Eloka Darkling like me, with black eyes and hair, although his face is sharp and angular, with a pointed chin and long nose.

“After you,” he says, bowing low.

I step over the threshold.

I’m inside!

The smell hits me first. Decay, sewage, sickness—all the worst smells on Earth, and they’re all shooting up my nose. Sigur places a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“You will get used to it soon enough,” he says, then turns to one of the guards. “Go ahead and prepare a feast for my guest.”

The guard nods and rushes on ahead.

I breathe through my mouth, horror-struck at the sights around me. We’re in a colossal shantytown, filled with thousands of ramshackle huts. The ground is covered in ash and mud and things I don’t even want to think about. Outside every hut, emaciated Darkling women hold their children up beseechingly, calling to me in their native tongues.

Our escort leads us through a warren of passageways and narrow streets. I try and keep track of where we’re going, but soon lose my way. I’ll never get out of here on my own.

The escort looks me up and down. “Mmm. Not so different from us. Just a little
pikko.
”

“Pikko?” I ask.

“Small,” Sigur explains.

The two men laugh, and my cheeks turn hot. I’ve never considered myself small before, but then again, I’ve been raised around humans. Darkling children gather around me, curious. I smile at them, trying my best to look friendly. They are, after all, my extended family. They stare back at me with wide, black eyes.

My escort nods toward them. “I wouldn’t let them get too close, twin-blood.”

“Why not?”

“You reek of human blood, and they’re
hungry.
”

Fragg!
I edge closer to my escort. The more I see, the more I realize how ravaged with hunger the Darklings are; many are little more than walking skeletons and teeth.

Sigur shoos them away. “Do not worry, Ash. You may smell human, but they can sense you are also part Darkling. We do not eat our own kind.”

The escort slides him a guilty look. “Not unless all other options are exhausted.”

This doesn’t make me feel any better.

“Hang on. Doesn’t the Sentry give you Synth-O-Blood?” I say.

“Rarely, and the blood they do send is tainted,” Sigur says.

“Tainted with what?” I ask.

“Small amounts of acacia solution. It’s just enough to make us sick and weaken us so we can’t fight the humans. We eat it, as we have no other choice.”

We approach a long rowboat like a gondola floating on the canal. Our escort takes the oar and quietly rows us through the Darkling city, away from the Boundary Wall and away from safety. The buildings are dilapidated, their roofs caved in, their walls crumbling. Shadows stir inside the windowless buildings, and I realize they’re Darklings, hanging upside down from exposed rafters like bats, watching me with their sparkling, curious eyes. A thought pops into my head.

“Will I get to see my family?” I say, suddenly excited.

“We are all your family,” Sigur says, indicating the Darklings around us.

“No, I meant my immediate family. Aunts, uncles, that sort of thing? I’ve never met them.”

They stopped talking to Mom when she married Dad, disgusted at the notion of her being with a human. It devastated my mom, especially since she was so close to her youngest sister, Lucinda, who was ordered to cut off contact with Mom by my grandparents. Despite this, I want to see them; I’d love to know more about my Darkling heritage.

Sigur takes my hand, his face suddenly serious. “I am so sorry to be the one to tell you this, Ash, but they all perished in the Barren Lands at the start of the war.”

I shake my head, grief and disappointment surging through me as it sinks in.
It’s just Mom and me. We’re all who’s left. And soon it’ll just be me.

Sigur politely turns his head as I take a moment to compose myself. We spend the rest of the journey in silence. The boat drifts to a stop, and the escort guides us up a cobbled street to a set of wrought-iron gates leading into the Black City Zoo.

The zoo is unnaturally quiet and deserted. We pass empty animal enclosures, which are overgrown with eight years’ worth of vines and weeds. Inside every cage are stone carvings of the animals that used to live inside them: bears, wolves, tigers. I’m guessing the real animals were eaten.

Our escort guides us to a man-made cave carved into a mound of granite. Above the entrance is a faded sign:
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
. Inside, the cave is surprisingly hot and muggy. The narrow passageway is lit by rows of flaming torches, casting flickering shadows on the ground. We go deeper and deeper into the earth, until we suddenly emerge in a huge dome-roofed chamber.