From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) (47 page)

I kept hold of Annabeth, who stumbled on weak
legs. Sprig sat on my shoulder. “Stay here,” I ordered, stepping
away from her.

“Where are you going?” Annabeth reached for
me. “Don’t leave me.”

“I will be back.” I squeezed her arm with my
good hand. “I have to get Kate. Sprig, stay here with her. Keep her
safe.”

“Eye-Eye Matty.” Sprig leaped to Annabeth’s
shoulder.

If we weren’t in a life-and-death moment, I
probably would have laughed at Annabeth’s
what the shit
expression when Sprig patted her cheek.

Then the ground shivered under my feet, the
building swaying and buckling. I swore under my breath and darted
into the room. Every area down here held horrors beyond my
imagination, but this one would always be the most painful. What I
did to Ryker, how far I was willing to go…

You better be alive
, I said to him in
my head. Leaving him to fight a dozen well-trained soldiers with
fae weapons felt like I handed over my heart to a shredding
machine.
Please be all right.

“Kate?” I stumbled through the dark room, the
green emergency light giving a ghastly glow to the room. The
testing devices, lab equipment, and chains could qualify this space
for a haunted house. But nothing here was fake or set up for a
movie. It was real. And so was the water from above. A buzz sounded
from the exit lights, flickering and sparking. Water, embers, and
flammable lab equipment sizzled around us, making this entire
building a bomb waiting to go off.

The door to the inner room still stood open,
and I saw the outlines of two figures on the floor. “Kate,” I
called her name, rushing to her side. I kneeled down, rolling her
over to her back, my fingers finding their way to her neck, feeling
for a pulse. Water and debris covered her. Her heartbeat thumped
under my index finger.

“Hey.” I tapped at her face, shaking her a
little. “Wake up.” A groan came from her throat. I wiped the wet
hair clinging from my face.

She stirred, her lids blinking open.
“Zoey?”

“Yes. Come on.” I sat her up. She hissed, her
hand going to her head. “We don’t have time. We need to get out of
here now. The place is going to collapse.”

She gazed at me confused, then looked around,
staring up at the oozing water. A square panel fell from the
ceiling, breaking a line of beakers laying on the table, sending
glass flying through the space.

“Now!”

She reacted like I slapped her face. She
jolted, her eyes clearing as though really understanding the danger
we were in. She tugged on my arm, trying to stand, her body stiff
and slow.

The emergency light above the door sparkled,
sending a ray of flickers through the air landing on the table of
broken beakers.
Whoosh.
A deep blue hue ignited across the
table, and heat instantly seared my face and an acidic smell
scorched up my nose.

“Get out!” Kate yelled, her eyes wide.
Whatever chemical burned across the table sent fear into her.
“Go!”

I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the
door. She let out a heartbreaking noise, and I glanced over my
shoulder to see her hand on her heart as she stared at Delaney.

“I’m sorry, my sweet girl. You deserved
better than this. I should have never brought you in.” Kate’s pain
rippled over her expression.

The flames crackled and popped like a bowl of
Rice Krispies, shattering the glass vials as they devoured
everything in their path and drinking the toxic liquid like it was
a piña colada.

“Kate.”

Kate took a breath then turned her head,
running with me. “Wait!” She pulled from my grip, leaning back for
the table.

Crack!

A large flask ruptured, sending slivers of
glass at us like a machine gun. I ducked, tucking my face into my
arm, but razor-sharp slices cut my arms and forehead.

I lifted my head to the sound of hissing. The
flames leaped over to a burner.

“Oh. Fuck.”

Kate swiped the files off the table, tucked
them into the back of her pants, and whipped around.

We both bolted. We hit the outer door and
rounded the corner. “Run!” I screamed at Annabeth and Sprig.

We had only taken three steps down the
hallway when I heard it, the inner room exploding. The blast
rattled through my bones. My ears echoed with its thunder.

Then there was a moment of backdraft before I
soared through the air. I flew down the hallway across the tile
floor. Kate hit my legs, while Annabeth’s featherlight body sailed
farther down the corridor, taking Sprig with her.

I lay there in shock, trying to grasp which
way was up.

“Annabeth?” I lifted my head. “Sprig?”

“Double dingleberry nuggets.” I heard Sprig
down the dark hallway.

“Yeah. I’m okay,” Annabeth responded. “I
think.”

I sat up and reached for Kate.

“Damn, my old body can’t take this kind of
activity.” Kate struggled to push herself up. “Why I never joined a
gym.”

“Yeah, because this is exactly the routine I
do at the gym.” I rose and helped her to her feet. Smoke and fire
billowed out of the room behind us. It wouldn’t be long before we
were incapacitated by smoke inhalation. I quickly helped Annabeth
up and tossed Sprig on my shoulder.

“Pam? You okay back there?” He looked over
his shoulder. “She better be all right,
Bhean
, or I will
seriously think about maybe not talking to you.”

Annabeth was soaked from the tank and still
wearing the hospital gown. “Annabeth, use your gown to breathe
through. The moisture will help filter the smoke.” She nodded,
pulling up the bottom and covering her mouth, her arms trembling
with weakness. Kate and I used our T-shirts, while Sprig used my
sleeve.

It wasn’t until my eyes landed on the
elevator did I realize our problem.

“Shit!” No electricity. No elevator. And in
the building’s brittle state, I didn’t really trust we could get to
the top. We had no other choice since we were approximately eight
stories down. “What do we do?” We couldn’t climb through the vents.
Each floor was separate. Plus, Rapava had made sure to block all
paths leading outside.

Another blast shook the ground, and a loud
whine of metal ripped across the building.

“I know another way.” Kate grabbed my
arm.

“Another way?”

“Rapava always had an additional escape route
for himself.” She waved us to follow her down another hallway. “He
may be insane, but he’s not stupid. He trusted only a few with this
information.”

“You?” I couldn’t help the surprise in my
voice.

“Oh gosh no.” She curved around another
corner, Annabeth and me on her tail. “He never trusted me. But he
wasn’t the only one who was sneaky and deceptive.”

Another boom in the distance shifted the
ground, dropping us all to the floor. The paneling above came
raining down, burying us in debris. Sprig curled under me, my hands
on the back of my neck as I protected both of us from the
fragments. Warm liquid trickled from the back of my head to my neck
and matted my hair. All I wanted to do was shut my eyes and fall
asleep. Let all the pain go away.

I suddenly had images of the night the big
fae storm brought Seattle to its knees. Even though he hated me
then, Ryker had instinctively covered my body with his, taking the
brunt. He had not known about the powers yet. He just reacted. And
I was doing the same for Sprig. If I could have tucked Annabeth and
Kate underneath me, I would have.

Even though I disliked him just as much at
that time, that moment of protection had stuck with me. He had
always been there for me. Protected me. These thoughts made me more
frightened. What if I never made it out? What if he didn’t?

No! Get up, Zoey! Find him.
I gritted
my teeth and sat up, letting the rubble fall off me.

“Sprig, you okay?”

“Define okay.”

I kissed the top of his head and stood.

“Zoey.” Annabeth’s arm rose in the air only
feet away from me. Wounds sliced across her face, legs, and arms,
but she pushed up to her feet.

“Kate?”

The building continued to groan and grumble.
We had little time left.

“Oh no.” I saw white hair and an arm peeking
through the remnants. “Kate?” I dug her out of the debris. Blood
covered her face. “You can’t die on me. None of you can. We are
getting out of here. Absolutely no excuses,” I barked, feeling
emotion stabbing the back of my lids.

“Anyone tell you that you are
extremely
persistent
?” she tried to joke, wiping the blood from her
eyes.

“Yes,” both Sprig and Annabeth answered.

“You can tell me what a bitch I am when we
get out of here.” I tugged her arm.

“Oh, child, I never said bitch.”

“Can I?” Sprig raised his hand.

“I don’t care what you call me.” It took a
couple of tries to get Kate back on her feet. “But only if we get
out of here.”

“Damn, these files came in handy.” Kate
readjusted them against her, securing them. “Only place I don’t
have any cuts.”

Flickers of flames and smoke scorched the air
from down the hall, as though the building was having a coughing
fit, the walls heaving in on us as it rumbled. We all limped
forward until Kate came to a stop.

“Here.” She pushed at a partition.

“Here?” It looked like an ordinary wall.

“He wanted to be sure it remained a secret,
but I followed him one day and watched him. He used it sometimes so
he could get to other floors undetected. He definitely was a
consequence of the Cold War with its secrecies, espionage,
paranoia, and distrust.”

“How do you open it?” I pressed my hands
against the flat surface, trying to find a button or trigger.

“That I don’t know.”

My gut tightened. The twisting of metal
braces screeched in my ears as the building vocalized its pain.

Kate’s hands shook as she kept touching and
pushing at the door.

“What about this?” Annabeth poked a bare toe
at a small translucent button at the bottom edge. It was high
enough no one would accidently kick it walking by and blended into
the wall so you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t looking. She hit it
with her big toe, and the door swung open to a narrow spiral
staircase heading straight up.

“Holy honey turnips and banging biscuits.
That was awesome,
Bebinn
.” Sprig held out his hand to
Annabeth. It took her a moment but then she slowly smiled and
lifted her hand, high-fiving him back. Sprig, no matter how odd,
was hard to resist. He crawled inside your heart and plastered
himself there like he rolled in glue. Or honey…

I ushered Annabeth and Kate in, their feet
hitting the metal, pinging underfoot as they circled their way up.
I gazed up, the staircase disappearing into the darkness.

I took a step.

And crumpled.

Sprig clung to my neck as I crashed onto the
steps.

“Zoey, what’s wrong?” Kate stopped, her hand
on her chest, peering down at me. I could barely see her, but the
level had an emergency light, giving a dim awareness of space.

“The stairs,” I choked, struggling to breathe
or talk. “Goblin. Metal.”

“Of course.” Kate’s lids fluttered and her
head nodded. “That bastard would cover his ass.”

I understood right away. Rapava would want to
escape, but by chance fae had escaped, he would not want them to be
able to follow him. They would be trapped and die, just how he
preferred them.

My body felt like it was being torn apart and
drained of blood. The stairs were more potent than anything I had
felt before. I couldn’t move. My eyes were slamming shut.

“Get up, Zoey!” Kate demanded, skirting
Annabeth and coming for me. “You are not giving up now.”

“I can’t.” No one but another fae could truly
understand what goblin metal did to us. Sprig’s head curled
forward, falling into my lap, out cold. It was so potent it even
took him out without touching it.

“Yes, you can. You are the strongest person I
know.” She came down, putting her shoulder under my arm. “Daniel
used to tell me how in awe he was of you. I knew then he was crazy
about you.” I lifted my eyes to hers as she tried to get me on my
feet.

“Really?”

“Yes, Zoey. He was deeply in love with you. I
always told him he needed to get his head out of his ass and act on
it, but he never did. Stupid man.” She grunted trying to get me up.
“He missed his chance. But I’ve seen your face when you talk about
this Wanderer. He came here for you, got captured and tortured. He
didn’t let fear hold him back from loving you. He is the one you
need to get up for, along with your sister, Sprig, Annabeth…me. We
all need you. You are stronger than this. Now get up!”

“Talk…about…persistent,” I forced out through
my gritted jaw, grasping to pull myself up. It felt like standing
with a mattress on my back.

A soft smile inched across Kate’s. She turned
to Annabeth. “Take Sprig.”

Annabeth rushed down a few steps, taking
Sprig from my arms, tucking him in safely against her. She turned
back and started up the steps.

“I won’t lie to you, Zoey. This is going to
be horrible and painful. You have hundreds and hundreds of steps
ahead of you. But we have no choice. I am old; Annabeth is weak. I
need you to dig down and find the place in you that keeps you
moving.”

I nodded. I wanted to hold on to the rail to
help pull myself up, but as soon as I touched it my legs caved,
forcing me to crawl on my hands and knees. The agony felt
excruciating. Even worse was I could feel the stone calling for me
again. One touch and all of my pain and struggle would be gone. The
metal and the stone yanked at my energy.

No.
The word tore from my gut as I
pulled myself up another step.
You will never have me. You lost,
stone.