Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) (35 page)
Read Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) Online
Authors: Steven Montano
“Ronan…I have a
really
bad feeling about this,” Kane said quietly. The others were still back in the chamber going over maps and strategy. They had very little to work with, and it was important to get every detail right. He worried about Maur being in there alone with the others, but decided he was just being paranoid. “I don’t trust them.
Any
of them.”
“
Good. That means
you’re not stupid,” Ronan
said with a grim smile
. With the number of scars he bore, Ronan
almost
looked like a movie monster.
He’d acquired th
e
worst
of them
saving Cross from his own spirit. “We
can’t get
anywhere without Burke’s help. You want to save Dani, right?”
“I want to save her, and Cross…”
“But
mostly
Dani. Right?” Ronan quietly waited for an answer.
Kane laughed. He always laughed when he was nervous. He gripped the steel windowsill tight. He wanted to break
something
.
“Ronan…I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore.
” He took a steadying breath. He was shaking.
“
I’m not sure
if
I ever did.”
Ronan was quiet for a moment.
“Let’s just do what we have to do.”
“And what if Burke tries to screw us over? Or Jade?”
Ronan
looked back into
the room.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.” He
turned and walked
back towards
the meeting chamber. “Heads up,
”
he said quietly as he went.
Kane turned
and saw
Jade approach him with a smile on her face.
He
didn’t want to trust her. Her disarming personality was just a way of getting him to lower his guard,
and
he knew it. He hated that he found himself liking her, wanting to talk to her. But he couldn’t take his eyes off her: she was radiant, even
in grungy
and
weather-worn fatigues, even with her long dark hair disheveled and wild
-looking
, even though he knew her interest in him only extended so far as
making sure
that
Klos Vago
got
what
he
wanted.
Get your head together.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Kane bit back a scathing reply.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You’ve been acting a
little strange since you came back
. And you’re acting strange now.”
“I wonder why?
” Kane said coldly. “Could it be because a guy who was personally responsible for
most
of my pain and suffering in Black Scar is
standing thirty feet away and
calling the shots? Could it be because my two best friends are in danger, and all I can do is
hope
that one of my so-called allies isn’t going to screw me over at the first convenient moment? Or could it be that I’m
just
sick and tired of being used and pushed around?!”
He turned away. Rage swelled in his veins.
Jade didn’t say anything.
“Why are you still here?” he asked. “What could your boss possibly have to gain by you staying involved in all of this?”
“Maybe I’m not here for my boss anymore,” she said.
“And Sol?”
“He doesn’t care. He just wants to fight.”
Kane laughed.
“I want to trust you,” he said. “You know that, right? But I can’t.” He clenched his fists. “Not with so much at stake.”
“
I’m s
orry,” Jade said after a moment.
Her voice wasn’t angry or apologetic; it wasn't sad or dismissive.
Just a statement of fact.
Kane turned, but she’d already walked away. He
looked
back
out
the window
and thought about Ekko.
FIFTEEN
GAUNTLET
Danica
marched down
one of the
corridor
s
that led
to
t
he Gauntlet.
Two Revengers named Parker and Creel followed her with their rifles aimed at her back.
She knew she was
about
to die.
She’d never expected to be
walking down this
blood-stained metal hall. Fear gripped her chest. She felt like she’d swallowed something hard.
Danica’s legs were sore, and her
skin
was
covered
with
grime. She hadn’t eaten properly for days
,
so
she was listless and weak
. Her muscles were stiff, her heart raced, and
the scent of
her
own sweat and stench
filled her nostrils
.
I should have known it would end like this
, she told herself.
It’s no less than I deserve.
She tried not to think about the crimes she’d commit
ted
as a Revenger. It was
just
too much. She’s spent the past two years
having nightmares about
murders and executions and
condemning
people
to
die
by
fire or starvation.
Some
nights
she woke up screaming
.
Danica
would never
forgive herself. Not ever.
She
could
never
wash that much
blood
from he
r
hands.
I’m sorry, Lara. I’m sorry, Eric.
Th
e
hallway seemed to go on forever. She heard
muffled
shouts
in the distance
,
the call
s
of
the
other prisoners
who’d been
assembled as a captive audience
. They didn’t
cheer
so much out of excitement
, she thought,
as they
did for
the fact
that
at that moment
they weren’t the ones
suffering
.
D
oors
covered
with the grim visages of gargoyles
peeled open
ahead of her
.
Th
e
y
weren’t
the true entrance
to the Gauntlet
, not yet – there was one more hall to pass
through
, where she’d be
given
the equipment she needed for the
competition
.
Danica had helped test t
he Gauntlet when Rake had first come up with the idea
a few years back
. Rather than traditional gladiator games like those held in the Ebon Cities
, t
he Gauntlet was a sort of elite sporting event,
a
survival challenge
that pitted
high-profile or exotic prisoners against one another for the amusement of the Wardens, the prison population, and occasionally even
outside
spectators, dignitaries or ambassadors
or other
high-paying clients who wanted to see inmates they’d
had
interred in the prison suffer a dramatically gruesome fate.
There was never more than one survivor
from
any given
event
, and
often
there were none. The
contests
were never the same.
In the past she’d seen monsters
hunt down prisoners fleeing for the exit
, or
air
ships
filled
with
Revenger
snipers who tried to shoot the inmates
as they fled
across a
trap-riddled
floor.
Rake personally redesigned the course every few weeks, and work crews were pushed to the brink of death to make the necessary modifications.
Danica didn’t worry about what
she’d face
. She’d resolved herself
to the fact
that
she wasn’t going to survive
.
She was far more worried about Cole
, and Cross. S
he’d failed
Lara
as a lover, and
she’d failed
Cross as a friend.
I
betrayed them both
while
trying to save them.
Her blood ran cold. E
very breath went
down hard
. S
he
tried to comfort herself
thin
king about the good times she’d ha
d
with
Cole
. She remembered
Cross and Kane,
how those two had saved her
,
how she’d felt alive
again
with the team
,
a
part of something, needed and wanted by
others.
T
h
ose memories were
what she
’d take with her into t
he Gauntlet,
and
they
’
d give her strength
. She knew she was going to die
,
but
there was no way she was going down without a fight.
Danica
held her head high. Her boots clacked loudly in the stone hall. The iron
cuffs
around her wrists seemed to grow lighter. She took deep
and
calming breaths.
It’s going to be okay.
She kept
telling herself that
. It didn’t matter
that
she knew it wasn’t true.
Danica
walked through
the
open
door
s
and
into
a hall
of
the dead.
The
corridor
was pale stone
covered
with
blood stains, claw
marks
and sharp
metal debris. Blazing white torches set in high
wall
sconces lit the way.
T
he
charnel stench
was thick
.
Two rows of animate
d
corpses stood at attention on either side of the hall.
They were
Scarecrows, gaunt and preposterously tall
. Their
dead
black
skin
was
pulled taut over misshape
n and
elo
ngated bones. They
turned and regarded her with dull white eyes and grinning skelet
al
mouths. Revenger armor
covered their emaciated bodies
. Each
Scarecrow
was identical to the next. Their c
orpse eyes watched as she was pushed
into
the hall.
Parker and Creel
left her
there
. T
he
doors sealed shut
behind her
, barring the way back
.
Danica walked the length of the
corridor, between the rows of undead
.
She stepped through
sticky
clumps
of drying blood and old bones
and
kept her head low.
T
he Scarecrows
watched her pass. S
he
heard the creak of leather and dead flesh. Her breaths echoed
against the cold stone
.