Fireblood

TWENTY-ONE

I kick at the dirt and pine straw as I walk to the log seats. Sitting down, I stare up at Devlan. He continues to gather our stuff and toss it into the bag. “So how horrible am I?” I ask.

His head snaps my way. “Not horrible at all.” He stuffs my green dress into the satchel. “It would be ridiculous to think you could best me in one night.” He reveals a small smile. “But you surprised me more than once, and that’s more than many of the Rebels I trained with.”

My chest expands as I take in a big breath. I didn’t expect a compliment from him. “And how long did you train?”

He walks over and drops to the ground near me. He looks up into my eyes, the pale moon bathing his face in a soft glow. “Right after I left Court, Micah approached me. One of her spies informed her of the prince having a falling-out with his best friend.” He looks to the river. “It didn’t take long to convince me to join. I trained nearly every day before coming back here when I turned eighteen, the age required to become a knight.”

“So you’ve been here how long? A year?”

“Yeah. I’m nineteen. Sebastian advanced me to first knight quickly.” He glances around. “We should head back. You shouldn’t miss out on any more sleep. It’ll start to look suspicious, especially if you’re limping around.”

I rub the back of my neck. “I’m going to feel like death tomorrow.” Tomorrow. I enjoy the way the speech I’ve learned from Devlan feels on my tongue. I wish I could’ve kept my father’s books. I’d like to study them and learn more.

Devlan shakes his head and laughs. I especially enjoy that rare laugh. “I’ll bring you a soak in the morning. It’ll help the soreness.”

He stands and starts heading toward the opening in the wall.

“Wait.” I rise from my stump. “You can’t bring me here and beat me bloody and then not answer any of my questions.”

He turns and his brow furrows. “You were told everything last night.”

“No, I was slammed with too much all at once.” I walk toward him. “But now that I’ve had time to think, I have questions. I want to know how the Virus works, what it does to us. And I want to know about Outside. What are we going to face when we succeed in lowering the barrier?” I stop a foot in front of him, look up, and cross my arms.

He first looks to the sky, then takes a step closer to me, cocking his head. “When?” His eyes pin me in place. “When we succeed? You have no doubt that you’ll do this.”

I hadn’t realized I’d said the word, but no. I do have doubt. Only I can’t think of the mission as mine. It’s ours, all the Rebels’. The doubt doesn’t seem to consume me when I think of it this way. “No,” I answer him. “My father’s out there. All our family is out there. There’s little doubt.”

His eyes travel over my face. He extends his hand, motioning toward the open area. I turn around, then think better about having my back to him and spin again, walking backward instead.

He chuckles. “You’re a quick learner. I’ll give you that.”

I settle down on the log, and he stands before me, his features masked by the night. “Well, are you going to answer my questions?”

He raises his hand and gestures for me to stand. “If you’re not sleeping, then you’re training. We have no down time, princess.” His lips curl up on the side. “I’ll answer them as you win hits.”

Standing, I stretch out my sore muscles. “How can I convince you to stop calling me that?” I lunge and land a blow to his thigh. I know Devlan isn’t fighting to his full potential while training me, but I plan to take any openings he gives.

Backing away slowly, I raise my brows. He sweeps the pine straw floor. I tumble out of the way. “You can’t,” he says. “It suits you.”

“I’ll figure out a way.” I kick and strike his shin, then hop back. “How does the Virus work?”

“It’s not easy to explain,” he says quickly, and rebounds with a kick to my leg. I groan and pull myself up, rubbing the spot. “I’m not a scientist. All I know is it’s triggered differently in everyone. I’ve been told it acclimates to our system, and our DNA activates it when the Virus mutates. Then it shuts down our body. Like a false death. The brain is alive, we even breathe, but we appear as dead.”

A shudder travels through my body. I bring my hands up, stepping wide into a defensive position. “So what happens after the Virus takes us?” I jab. He blocks. I quickly turn and elbow his rib cage.

He recovers and spins my body away from his. “Afterward, the mind awakens into a new mental state. Completely void, like a blank slate. And then”—he blocks my swing and pushes me backward—“we’re hooked up to a machine that programs us like computers. A monitoring chip is placed here.” He points to his hand, between the major knuckles of the index finger and the thumb. “It tracks us and records our vitals.” His lips pull tight. “I think the Virus causes damage over time, but there’s no way of knowing just what kind until we can evaluate it after it has mutated.”

I nod once, remembering my father’s pale skin, his sunken eyes. A stinging pain pulses behind my eyes, and I blink hard. Drawing the heat from my core, I plant my feet on the ground, holding a balanced fighting stance as Devlan hurls a punch to my side. I block, wobble, and attack the area he’s exposed—his stomach—with a hard jab.

“What do the Taken do Outside?” I ask, backing away and shaking out my throbbing hand.

“They mine uranium for nuclear energy and build new compounds to harness the power. Some work close to Karm, others are sent farther out to scout for more resources and link the power back to the main hub. And…” He trails off.

I dip my head forward, finding his eyes. “What? Devlan, tell me.”

His eyes are cold blue pools. “Zara. There are things out there that make the stories you heard growing up seem like fairy tales.” His stare intensifies, and I take a step back, wondering if he’s trying to sneak an attack.

He drives his hand through his mussed hair, and I relax my stance. “The fallout mutated animals into monsters,” he continues. “Beasts that can tear through a man in one bite. Those Outside who aren’t workers defend the compounds. And there’re humans out there that have mutated into beasts right along with the animals—cannibals—and they’re smart. They can’t be fought off like the monsters.”

A sickness coats my stomach and I step back, shaking my head. I can’t spar with Devlan anymore. My father is out there with these monsters and—I can’t. “Then how do they survive out there?”

He apparently feels the same, as he looks to the ground, dropping his defenses. “Hart has programmed the Taken to offer sacrifices to keep them from attacking the compounds and wiping out his project. The Yielding.”

I stumble backward and my leg hits one of the upturned logs. I sit, my body unable to hold its weight. “No.” I bury my head in my hands. “You’ve seen this?” I pray that he hasn’t, that this is still no more than the stories from my youth.

He kneels in front of me and removes my hands from my face. “Yes.” His eyes are steady, convincing. “I’ve seen it. I’ve seen men and women, and some younger than us, walk right into the open and be devoured.”

Jerking away from him, I turn and face the river. Its slow trickle transforms into a roar, rushing past rocks like sand hastens through an hourglass.

How much time do I have before I’m taken?

“Zara,” he breathes my name. “Look at me.” And I do. His eyes turn pale as the reflected moonlight in the river washes over him, and my heart constricts. “I wish I didn’t have to scare you with all this, but you need to know what you’ll be facing once the barrier is shut down. You deserve to know the truth.”

His eyes plead with me not to break down. I take in a crisp, shuddering breath as he settles on the log beside me. “Why can’t we just bring them in?” I ask. His eyebrows knit together, and his lips slowly part, but I press on. “I mean, take down the barrier, quickly bring the Taken inside Karm, and then raise it again. Keep the cannibals and the monsters Outside.”

Devlan blows a heavy breath past his lips and lays his elbows on his knees, leaning toward me. “It’s not that simple, Zara. At first, the cannibals were tearing up the power cables and attacking the compounds. Hart uses the Yielding as a peace offering. They have a steady food supply. They’re given a reason, a reward not to attack the compounds and Karm.” He swallows, his Adam’s apple works. “But once we rescue the Taken, the cannibals will take down the barrier. They’ll tear through the compound and knock out the power. We could hide behind the force field for a while, but eventually, we’d have to fight them.”

Understanding dawns. There’s no getting the Taken back without facing the monsters of Outside. “Do we have the resources to wage this kind of war?”

“That’s where Sebastian comes in. If we—you can convince him to join the Rebels, we’ll have the army of knights and the Force alongside us. Combining our forces is the only way to stand against Outside. This has to be done.” His eyes search my face, and I see the determination in them. “I’d rather give my life to save them than hide like Hart.”

He’s right. Risking myself in order to save my father is worth it. The image of my father Outside, maybe this moment being sacrificed to the cannibals, pounds against my inner vision. “I need to train harder. I have to learn how to take down Hart now. I have to get to my father, and I have to do it all now before I’m out there as a…as a mindless slave and I can’t do anything to—”

He presses his fingers over my mouth, and my words halt. I breathe hard against his hand. “It’s all right,” he says in a soothing tone. “It’s no different than the fear we’ve lived with our whole life. The fear of being taken by the Virus.” Slowly moving his fingers aside, he skims them along my jawline and cups my cheek. Embers stir beneath my skin where his touch lingers. “And, if you’re taken…” His eyes flick over my face. “I will come for you.”

His skin is warm and sure against mine as he smoothes away the anxiety etched on my features with the brush of his thumb. He drops his hand, and my body trembles at the wake trailing his touch. His eyes hold mine, their blue shimmering like the moonlight rippling over the river. He says more forcefully, “I will come for you.”

I place my hand over his, the one that held my face, and squeeze. “I will come for you, too.”