Authors: Chris Michaels,Reema Farra
Bound (4 page)
The intruder grabbed her. “The whole camp will be on us in a second. I have a way out, but we have to go now!”
His hands were strong and warm. Still, she held back.
“Jason wouldn’t want you to die here.”
Hannah took a long look at him. A head taller than her, his sharp-cut features made him look fierce. A bump punched out of the bridge of his nose, broken once and never healed. But his dark eyes called her to danger; begged her to follow. They struck a chord deep inside Hannah that she never knew was there.
Before she knew what was happening, Broken Nose had pulled her to the castle wall. He ripped away a section of unkempt vines to reveal a jagged hole and dove in.
Hannah stole a glance behind her.
The soldiers passed the bottom of the hill, a dozen or more rounded the crest, and the clunky roar of a motorized truck lumbered up the far side. Her mind flashed back to Jason’s casket. She was surrounded again – always alone.
But she wasn’t alone; she could feel Jason nearby, somehow.
Hannah dropped to all fours and squeezed into the opening. Rocks scraped her hands and knees as she crawled deeper. Darkness so thick it stole her breath pressed from all sides. She wiggled forward, finally bursting out into a cool chamber.
Light flashed nearby, momentarily blinding her. When her eyes adjusted, she saw Broken Nose a few feet away holding a small, glowing stick.
Majick? No. It has to be more Ilsan technology
. The light punched through clouds of dust that floated past. The chamber was unfurnished, scarcely bigger than the prison tent. Carvings of bones, skulls and letters in a foreign language lined the room. She touched the stone wall. A spark jumped to her fingers. Energy passed from the wall to her hand, trickling through her body.
Broken Nose spoke up. “The Melor built this castle before the Ilsan invasion. The siege lasted months. The Royal family dug tunnels from the catacombs to the West River. On the night of their escape, the Ilsans overwhelmed the castle and sealed the tunnels. Hundreds of people were buried alive. I do not think anyone’s been down here since. Except me.”
Hannah wanted to ask,
who are you?
Her voice wouldn’t work.
Shouts from above filtered into the chamber.
Broken Nose turned to another tunnel. “It isn’t far, but we have to move fast.”
The two raced through the catacombs. Broken Nose set a furious pace, dragging Hannah through chambers and around comers until she lost track of which way was up. The Ilsans were fast on their heels, never more than a few steps beyond the last corner.
Broken Nose never slowed. Hannah’s lungs burned.
Trying to keep up, she didn’t notice Broken Nose stop. She slammed into him, pushing them both to the ground. Hannah scrambled to her feet and froze.
There was nowhere to go. The tunnel was a dead end.
Marissa Cabbot was in luck. No, not luck, she didn’t believe in that. Fate hadn’t made her the first woman in the Grey Wolves, the elite arm of the Republican Guard. Hard work, dedication and more than a little blackmail had carried her to the top. Most of the Senate was in her debt.
So she didn’t call it luck when Hannah Blue and the traitor ran into a sealed tunnel. It may have been an accident, but she would find a way to claim the credit. There were plenty of medals she hadn’t received.
Cabbot slowed to a jog and raised her revolver, pulling back the hammer. She’d better wait for the rabble behind her to catch up. Witnesses were needed to sing her praise.
She was a Wolf hunting her Prey and Cabbot liked to play with her food.
Hannah spun. One of the soldiers had caught up with them. The Ilsan strode forward grinning, revolver raised. More troops would be right behind. Broken Nose stepped into her side-vision. His rifle was broken, face cut and his lamp flickered on and off.
She chanced a glance at him.
Now what?
He seemed to read her thoughts. “Now we see if you are as good at majick as your grandfather.”
Hannah’s eyes widened. She shook her head furiously.
He knelt and drew in the dirt.
The soldier called to them, “don’t move!” A woman’s voice.
Hannah gawked at the approaching soldier. A rifle slung behind her shoulder and a deep blue dagger marked her as a Grey Wolf. Her ammo belt clinked with each step. Every trapping of modern war.
War!
War was the monster that had devoured everything in Hannah’s life. War damned her family to slavery, robbed her of Jason and forced her into this tunnel. Rage rose like bile in her throat, churning together with raw grief.
Broken Nose took her hand and pulled her to her knees. “Hannah, focus on these.”
He scratched four marks into the dirt. Rough and unknown, but familiar somehow.
He pointed to the first. “Water.”
Clattering feet sounded at the far end of the tunnel.
Broken Nose indicated each mark in turn. “Breaking. Cold. Barrier.”
The lead soldier was a woman. She shouted, “freeze by the authority of the Ilsan Republic.”
Hannah couldn’t look away from the mark on the ground. The symbols seemed charged, almost alive.
Another soldier bellowed from farther back in the tunnel, “Cabbot, take them alive.”
Broken Nose whispered, “don’t think about anything except these marks. Concentrate on Jason.”
Jason.
Memories washed over her so powerfully, she could smell Jason’s scent, hear his steady breathing in her ear. Her emotions became a raging demon. She was so wrapped up in herself that she barely noticed Broken Nose tracing more symbols on her back.
The temperature in the chamber plunged. A low rumble shook the cavern.
Hannah’s breath came out in a puff. Her senses sharpened so that her mind like the tip of a blade. She was in control.
Broken Nose ripped her backward just as the wall exploded. Water burst into the cavern between the lead soldier and the ones behind. Freezing wind instantly filled the room. The jet of water froze. The eruption ceased. A shimmering wall of ice stood a few paces away, separating Hannah, Broken Nose and the one soldier from everyone else.
Hannah stood on shaking legs.
Majick. Did I do that?
The soldier screamed, “witch!”
Hannah turned.
The soldier attacked, brandishing a blade at Hannah’s throat.
Hannah dodged clumsily to one side, stumbling away from the dagger but straight into the soldier’s arms. They grappled in each other’s embrace for a moment, but the soldier forced Hannah to the ground. Hannah dug deep inside herself, using the flood of turmoil left from the burst of majick. She thrust everything she hated onto the soldier: Ilsa; slavery; Jason’s Death.
Gushing pain. Boiling anger.
Her skin tingled. A wild, corrosive smell filled the room. She grabbed the soldier’s neck. The soldier’s fingers loosened instantly.
Hannah shoved her opponent against the wall. Red lines sprouted on the soldier’s face, spider-webbing down her cheeks and neck before disappearing beneath her uniform. The woman shook. Eyes bulged. Then silence.
Hannah stepped back.
The soldier fell, the lines on her face turning black and blistering, eyes closed, still as Jason in his coffin.
Hannah gulped. Had she . . .
“She’s not dead,” Broken Nose said from behind. “No one can kill with majick alone.”
Hannah allowed herself a guarded breath. Her body felt like a live wire.
Jason secretly knew a little majick even though he was Ilsan. All Hannah had ever seen him do were simple things: make a book levitate or a coin vanish. Nothing so raw. Nothing so powerful.
Bit by bit, her heart rate slowed. The room warmed and the stench of Wild Majick faded. For the first time, she noticed a pile of half-buried bones an arm’s reach away. The skull on top eyed her, almost speaking to her.
Am I going to end up like the Melor Royal family?
The soldier Hannah had burned wore a badge that read, “Cabbot.”
Marissa Cabbot
, thought Hannah, though she couldn’t say how she knew that.
A purple flickering light stole Hannah’s attention.
Broken Nose ran his fingers over the glowing symbol etched into the wall. Light oozed from the Rune like syrup spreading through the cave, filling the nooks and crannies. Broken Nose removed his hand and the light retreated.
Hannah blinked. No wall remained. The liquid light had eaten away the rock.
A crash sounded from the other side of the ice wall. The Ilsans were breaking through.
She turned back to the newly made escape. Smells of the West floated through the opening: pine trees, fresh snow, and a hint of smog. Daylight streamed in bright and clear. She followed Broken Nose through a narrow tunnel, crawling the last stretch and breaking into the open.
Relief shot through her. Broken Nose crawled through the new tunnel to freedom. Slowly Hannah followed him to the surface.
Broken Nose waited with hand extended. She ignored it and rose to her feet, face to face with her rescuer in the cool afternoon air. She still wasn’t sure if she had wanted to be rescued. Suddenly she couldn’t stop thinking of Jason all the way back there, so far from her.