Reckoning (5 page)

Seeing the crocogon had shaken me to my core. The last time I’d seen that much blood had been the day I’d found the bodies of my mother and brothers. For a split second, when I’d seen Juliet’s injury, I’d thought I was too late again to save someone I loved. I carried Juliet into a smaller, enclosed area of the Void and lowered her to the ground. She arched when a pebble dug into her back. I shifted her away from the rock. “I’m sorry,” I said again.

In a weakened voice, Juliet said, “What a welcome from the Void. Me getting almost eaten by an animal isn’t your fault. I guess he thought I would taste better than you would.”

I knew she was trying to joke to keep from crying. I couldn’t imagine what kind of pain she was dealing with. I’d heard the animal’s teeth scrape bone. It was difficult to think about her hurting. I would have gladly traded places with her. She shivered and goose bumps dotted her arms.

The air was cold in the belly of the Earth and carried a scent of decay and hopelessness. The chill easily seeped through my dirt-stained clothes. Though we hadn’t been in the Void long, already I couldn’t remember what it felt like to be completely warm.

She started shaking, and her teeth clicked together.

“What’s wrong?” I ran my gaze over her at the same time I searched her body with my hands, more afraid than I knew I was capable of feeling. Over and over in my head, the words please-don’t-take-her-from-me ran together. “Did I miss anything?”

“Maybe shock is setting in.” Stone scooted closer and set the fire-rock beside her. Raising the end of his shirt, he leaned over to press it against her forehead. “She hit her head hard when she fell.”

Juliet groaned as if his touch made her head ache worse, and she pushed his hand away. Stone glared at me. “This never would have happened if you hadn’t leaped into the Void with her.”

“I did it to save her.” I stared him down. He hadn’t liked me before, but after our conversation his hatred had deepened.

“Save her? Instead, you almost get her killed. Look at her. Good job.”

“Do you have a problem, Stone?”

He rose and I took a step closer, ready to deal with whatever issue he had toward me. We were both hopped up on adrenaline, and I wanted to put my fist through the rocks.

Juliet made a noise, clearly agitated by the animosity between Stone and me. “Can you two give it a rest? We need to work together or we’ll never make it out. We have to concentrate on that and not on fighting each other,” she said wearily. It was easy to read the despair she was trying to hold back.

The despair stemmed from knowing it could take weeks to search for a way out of here. The Void stretched for miles below the surface of the Earth with different levels, the way ant tunnels were laid out. Rumor had it the maze was full of endless corridors and many dead ends. All of which led occupants to constantly retrace their steps until in the end, they gave up and simply waited for death.

Juliet squeezed her eyes shut, her voice small. “I want to hug my sister and read her a bedtime story. I want to be able to tell her she’s safe because I’m there to keep watch.” Her lower lip trembled. “Maisy needs me. Please help me get out of here.”

“We’ll find a way out,” I said, knowing I’d do whatever it took to make it happen.

“Exactly how are we going to do that with Juliet’s injury?” Stone asked.

“He’s right. There are areas too hard to navigate with two good legs much less a bad one,” Juliet said.

Though she tried not to, tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.

“We’ll manage.” I turned and nudged the crocogon with the tip of my shoe. “I’ll drag the carcass away. We don’t want it attracting other animals.”

“I’ll help,” Juliet offered with a mocking laugh.

I buried my hands into the pockets of my jeans, knowing her joking was a way to cope with the pain and frustration. “Stone can help carry it.”

“Keep this near.” Stone left the fire-rock beside her and went to stand at the head of the carcass.

As I turned to leave, she said, “You saved my life. Again.”

That brought me up short. “Saving you saves me.”

She swung her gaze away from mine, but not before I saw the fear in her eyes. “I don’t want to die.”

“You’ll be okay,” I said. She had to be. If something happened to her, the sun would fall from the sky. I knelt and gently took her chin in my hand. “I will move heaven and earth to get you out of here.”

Her soft lips parted, and she breathed out my name.

“Hey!” Stone held his hands out in a what-gives gesture. “You helping with the crocogon or not?”

I straightened up and moved toward Stone, working to keep my emotions under control so my knees wouldn’t buckle at the thought I might lose the only girl I would ever love.

Chapter 4

JULIET

If I could rewind time, I wouldn’t be trapped in this place. Ah, hindsight. The homework before the lesson. Hindsight is an ugly teacher and usually travels with I-told-you-so as the teacher’s pet.

The throbbing in my leg intensified, and I maneuvered into a more comfortable position, propping my leg up on a rock to ease the pressure.

A figure moved in my peripheral vision, and I jerked upright, dropping my damaged leg onto the ground. I sucked in a breath when pain exploded in my calf. A shadow moved closer, and I wanted to cry out, to call back Riley and Stone, but fear stole my voice. When I opened my mouth, no sound came out.

The shadow separated itself from the wall where it had hovered. I slumped with relief. One of the Supernaturals I’d known from high school who was a grade level behind me came closer. Her nose was red, her face blotchy from crying.

“I heard the crocogon attack.” She spoke in a whisper like she was afraid of her own voice. In the light the fire-rock provided, her blue eyes were wide, filled with shadows no doubt from the horrors of life in the Void. Her long, slender fingers were white where they gripped the folds of her grimy dress.

“I’ve walked for hours hoping to find someone. I’m—”

“Emma,” I supplied for her.

“And you’re Juliet.” She bit her lip, frowning, and pointed to the dirt. “Okay if I stay?”

I nodded and she sat across from me. Staring intently at my face, she blurted out, “The seven suns circling your pupil, do they represent the seven suns of Shimea Prime? Are you the one?”

“The one?”

“The one the ancient scrolls say was born to stop the Great Extinction. Are you?” She went on, not giving me a chance to answer. “I can’t imagine having such a powerful destiny. Holding the lives of people in your hands. Will you kill all the humans?”

“I’m not here to kill the humans.” How could I kill a species when my sister was part of them?

“Oh. I thought you were supposed to save us.” The excitement and hope faded from her eyes and she scowled. She smoothed a small patch of dirt and held her hands toward the warmth of the fire-rock. The glow illuminated her more clearly, and I winced at what I saw. Her face was covered with cuts and bruises.

“It wasn’t right for the president to destroy our home planet. I would kill every last one of the humans.” She said it matter-of-factly, like the deaths of millions of people were of little consequence.

“No one knew the space shuttle would put a hole in Shimea Prime’s atmosphere.” The landing had put a hole in our atmosphere, causing our seven suns to go dark and fall, effectively rendering the planet useless to our life form.

“They came to our planet uninvited.” She narrowed her eyes. “How can you be sympathetic to the humans? They’re monsters.”

“There’s good and bad in every species.” My sister was proof of that. She was everything good about the Supernaturals and everything good about the humans. I wondered why Emma had such a deep level of hatred.

“You think there’s good in them after all they’ve done since we came here? Bringing Ragespawn to Earth to attack us? Starting the war? If you ask me, both the humans and the Ragespawn are a horrible species.”

The Ragespawn were the Tazavorn’s greatest enemy. They bit and scratched like rabid animals, infecting whoever they attacked. There was no cure for their venom once they bit someone. The infected humans would go mad and in turn infect others. I’d lost people I loved because of it. The humans had mistakenly thought they could control the Ragespawn.

She grabbed my arm, digging her nails in. “If the humans fail to win this war, they’ll only start another one to try and kill us. We’ll never be safe from humans. They all have to die, and you can do that for us.”

“No.” I pried her hand off my arm and squeezed it painfully. She got the memo and backed away.

I lifted my face toward the top of the Void where water trickled down portions of the walls in a continual path. This was the only way we’d be able to get anything to drink. The puny amounts wouldn’t be wasted on bathing. After being confined for a while, I was sure we’d all smell as ripe as the crocogon. “Why do you hate the humans?”

“Besides they’re not one of us? They took my mother. Agents in dark suits came to our house in the middle of the night. I climbed out the window. I haven’t seen Mom since.” Emma’s voice rose, ending on a note of panic.

I swung my attention to her. “Why would they take your mother?”

“She worked in the DOD weapons department. They caught her sabotaging their system. She was doing what our leaders told her to do.” She shook her head as if she could clear away the memories. “I have to get out of here and find her. Do you know the right trail to take?”

I hated dashing her hope. “I don’t know a way out.”

Her expression fell and she drew little circles in the dirt around the fire-rock. Her movement created dancing shadows on the wall of giant rocks beside her. She reminded me of a Barbie doll with her long blond hair and huge blue eyes. The only thing that didn’t fit the doll image was the desperation on her face. “Mom talked about the Void a few times, and she mentioned the Terrors. Maybe that’s the way out?”

The Terrors
. My stomach clenched. “I don’t know.” Whatever promised to unleash the Night of Grief was housed in that portion of the Void. After the first rebellion led by my father had failed, the leaders used a Supernatural virus to set up the NoG to make our people afraid to rebel again. I didn’t know much about the NoG. Only that it was deadly and horrible. No Supernatural wanted to talk about it.

Riley had warned me if I attempted to kill the leaders in retaliation for my father’s murder, the stage would be set for the Night of Grief to unfold. I hadn’t believed him. Now it was poised, waiting to be released.

“But you
have
heard of the Terrors,” Emma pushed.

“There isn’t a Supernatural alive who hasn’t.” I turned my attention back to the water trickling down the wall, listening as it made puddles in the dirt. “How’d you end up in the Void?”

She grimaced. “I confronted a Guard and demanded he find out where the humans had taken my mother. He threw me into the Void before I could even finish speaking.” Emma scratched at a cut on her arm. “I tried to—”

“Quiet!” I put a hand over her mouth and scooped dirt over the fire-rock with the other. I strained to listen. Something walked stealthily toward us.

Stone’s familiar signal, an odd sound somewhere between a birdcall and a frog croaking, broke the silence and flooded my body with relief. I hurriedly rubbed the top of the fire-rock until it once again produced a glow. The joy at seeing him quickly faded once I realized he was alone.

I pulled myself up and limped over to him. Clutching the sleeve of his shirt, I feared the worst. He did look pleased with himself. “Where’s Riley?”

“Relax. I didn’t throw him over a ledge, although it was tempting. After we ditched the crocogon, he said he wanted to check out one of the caverns.”

The thought unsettled me. “You didn’t go with him?”

Frustrated, Stone said, “I’m not his majesty’s babysitter. What was I supposed to do? Throw him over my shoulder and run back to you?”

Behind me, Emma made a noise, and Stone stooped to pick up the fire-rock by the sides, careful not to touch the hot rim of it. He lifted it high, close enough to see Emma’s face.

Her eyes widened in appreciation, and I didn’t blame her. Even though he’d been beaten before the Void, and his face was a mess, Stone was still hot to look at. The scar that ran from the edge of his right eye to the bottom of his jaw didn’t detract from his appeal.

“Who’s this?” he asked me, jerking his head toward Emma.

“Emma,” she introduced herself in a breathless voice. “You said, ‘his majesty.’ Does that mean King Riley is here?”

“He’s not the king. His weird half brother Ide is,” Stone said.

“Half brother?” Emma asked.

“Ide is a mixed-blood,” I explained.

She flicked a glance at me, then back to Stone, definitely preferring him to me. “It’s not lawful for him to reign. The law says only a Supernatural of royal blood can rule, and those weird half-human creatures definitely aren’t.” She shuddered.

The leaders had convinced many of the Supernaturals the mixed-bloods were as dangerous as the Ragespawn.