Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (26 page)

So he didn’t tell them what I did when I killed the Campbells?

“Like Ms Weston?
She
knows.”

“She must have guessed,” he said, frowning. “Good point. I know she’s been involved in med-tech before.”

My heart twisted. I spoke carefully. “And she knows…”

“About the experiment?” He spoke casually, like it was no big deal, but his expression darkened at the words. “Yeah, she knows. I don’t know what her game is, but she’s not out to report either of us to the council.”

No. She just feels guilty.
But I couldn’t say it.

“I don’t know how she thinks we can solve this problem,” I said, my words punctuated by another well-timed clap of thunder. “Anyway, I never even told my family you were a magic-wielder,” I added. “Or anything else.”

His eyes narrowed a fraction, like he was trying to figure out what I meant by
anything else,
and I was glad he couldn’t read my mind. I easily forgot how little he’d actually told me about himself. Nell had adopted a policy of ‘don’t ask unnecessary questions’ and the same applied to her own life, but I’d never had a friend get close enough to bring down the boundaries. And I’d never been interested enough in another person to know how to do the same for them.

Mostly, I was terrified to say the wrong thing again and drive him away. I didn’t try to repeatedly run myself into heartbreak, at least, not deliberately. But with Kay, it was different.

Maybe that was why it scared me. I wasn’t used to caring so much about someone outside my family. I wasn’t used to opening my own heart.

So I didn’t say anything. I moved closer to him. Close enough that my arm brushed against his. I looked down, unable to help it, at the wyvern-scars on either side of his forearm–in fact, close up, they were far from the only marks. Other faint scars covered his knuckles. Looked like he’d broken bones at least once.

“It looked worse when they stitched me up,” he said, making me jump.

“Um. You said you can’t feel pain… there?” I tentatively poked the scar.

“No… depends on the angle.” He flipped his hand palm-down to show where the most recent, pinkish scar overlapped the twin jagged marks, where Aric’s sister cut him with her knife.

I sucked in a breath. “Damn.” Heart beating fast, I ran my fingers along the scar on his arm. I felt him stiffen, and before I could lose my nerve, rested my hand on top of his. He blinked in surprise, but didn’t pull away. Just in this one moment, we weren’t Ambassadors with the fate of the Multiverse on our shoulders. We were us. If there
was
an ‘us’. He tilted his head. Our faces were inches apart.

“Kay,” I said, my voice little more than a breath, and this time, I let my lips brush against his, gently.

Thud.

“That,” said Raj, “is a terrible make-out spot. Did you plan to fall to your deaths?”

I jerked back and Kay grabbed my arm to steady me in case I actually did fall off. My face lit up like a traffic light. Raj stood at the top of the stairs, staring up at us incredulously.

“Thanks a lot,” I called down to Raj. “You have the most epic sense of bad timing in the history of the Multiverse.”

Kay laughed, slightly unsteadily, I thought. “Yeah, you really do.”

“The world’s kind of ending out there. In case you two forgot.” Raj left, and Kay shifted along the beam.

“He has a point,” he said. “I reckon we should brave the storm and open a door. If we stay in the Passages, it can’t hit us, and it’s better than sitting around here.”

Rolling my eyes, I followed him back down. Once our feet were safely on the ground, I crept up behind him and whispered, “This isn’t over.”

Kay glanced back over his shoulder, the corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk.
Oh, we’ll pick up where we left off later.
I had no intention of letting him slip away again.

Focus, Ada. Apocalypse happening outside, remember?

Yeah. No big deal. The world might be ending, and I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with Kay Walker.

We found Mathran and the others back in the room. Iriel winked at me, and Raj grinned at both of us, but their expressions turned serious as Mathran cleared his throat to speak.

“I have another suggestion,” said Mathran. “The storm appears to only be affecting this area, and there is another town at the far end of the jungle which might be far enough away from the storm to risk a trip. The town is devoted to Xanet, like Sekth, and from there, we might be able to discern if this effect is widespread.”

“And if it is?” I said.

Mathran didn’t need to answer: his face said enough.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

KAY

I closed the door behind us in the Passages and opened another one. Trees obscured the view, and no path was in sight, the sky blotted out by branches.

“The forest,” said Mathran, frowning. “No, this is not near the town.”

All-too-conscious of the ticking clock, I opened several other doorways, one after another, while Mathran inspected them and shook his head each time. Finally, he indicated for me to stop.

“This is near the town.”

It looked like another part of the forest to me, but I put the world-key back in my pocket and we followed him back into Vey-Xanetha. I noted he carried several of those stick-like metal weapons he’d had before, threaded into his belt, and kept his hand on one. The others, too, were prepared to draw a stunner or dagger at a second’s notice in case something appeared and attacked us again.

Unfamiliar, thick-branched trees surrounded us, roots criss-crossing the ground every which way. There was no clearly defined path, but the shapes of narrow buildings were visible through gaps in the trees. Mathran led the way, expertly stepping over roots and vivid red-coloured plants with snaking vines. Careful not to touch anything, we followed. Everything smelled like decay. Like death.

“There should be a path here,” he said, in a low voice. “Xanet controls the trees, and it looks as though it has grown wild. And some of it is dying.”

That explained the decay-like smell. The air was thick with it, all the more because of the warmth. And there didn’t seem to be any wildlife, not so much as a bird’s call.

Mathran led us around a thick tree and past a broken-down building. The city had merged with the forest itself, judging by the vines and tree roots wrapped around so many of the houses and forming a thick canopy above, like a protective dome. Taller shapes stood amongst the trees, including a central tower. Nothing appeared to be collapsing. Yet.

And it was so quiet here. Nobody seemed to be about, at least not at first, but I glimpsed faces in some of the windows. The buildings were made of the same rock as the others, but the central tower, now I looked closer, was a hollowed-out tree trunk.

A shadow passed behind us. I whipped around, pulling my dagger.

“What’s that?” asked Ada.

I shook my head. Maybe I was jumping at shadows, but this was the third time. And my belief in coincidence disappeared by the second.

I turned back, following Mathran. Now we were in the city proper, houses on either side, but still, there were no people. Not outside, anyway. Except…

People moved inside the tower. Robed figures, in green cloaks. Summoners? The tower belonged to Xanet, I remembered Mathran saying.

“He is gone,” Mathran whispered, watching the tower.

“Huh?” Ada gave him a quizzical look.

“Xanet sustains life, and the tower with it. It should be alive.”

And it clearly wasn’t, judging by the dead, grey colour. Even the plants growing alongside it had withered.

Along with the bodies.

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t spotted them before, but they lay amongst the tree roots dressed in robes the same colour as the forest—grey and dead-looking. Ada made a choked noise when she spotted a man lying close to her feet and backed away, hand on her weapon. Raj and Iriel reacted the same. But I kept moving forward, trying to figure out if they were dead or unconscious. No. Their eyes were open, sightlessly reflecting the branches above.

My feet knocked a limp hand, and a faint spark winked into existence, then out. A white-red spark.

Magic. They were killed by magic.

“What… who are they?” Ada asked in a faint whisper.

“Xanet upholds the law here,” said Mathran, his tanned face paling. “They are—were—his messengers, the police of this village. This—this means something terrible has already happened.”

Mathran muttered something in Vey-Xanethan under his breath and indicated that we stay back. The wooden door opened, and two summoners came out, then another two.

A rustling behind us. My hand rested on my dagger, but a short, ragged-looking man wearing an expression of pure terror peered from behind a tree. Behind him, others came out the houses, too. A couple cast frightened glances at us, but most were fixated on the tower.

A group of children followed, all under the age of ten or so. Summoners surrounded them on both sides.

A chill went down my spine.

The summoners were speaking, but I couldn’t hear most of the words at this distance. Except one.
Veyak.

The group turned, forming a circle around the children, and started to walk in our direction. Mathran indicated for us to move out of the way, like we needed any encouragement, slipping into the shadowy alcove between a large tree and several houses.

They walked past, and I kept my hand on the heel of my dagger.
This is wrong.

“I was afraid of this,” Mathran said, softly. “This village has always been an outlier, and without Xanet, every magic-wielder will have lost their power… except for one small group. But I never would have thought they’d go as far as to commit this atrocity.” He indicated the bodies.

They killed their entire police force?
Shit.
If the police relied on magic, and an insurgent group gained power right when everyone else lost the ability to use magic at all… I could guess what had happened.

Enough to know we were in a shitload of trouble.

“The trio were originally rivals, in our first mythology,” he said. “They never worked together, but weren’t outright enemies, though there is a school of thought who believe they were. Those are summoners of Veyak, and they believe their deity is superior to the others. Ridiculous, of course, because we all rely on all three. But that particular group–it doesn’t surprise me that they would take advantage of this situation…”

“And do what?” I asked, staring at the kids in the middle of the group. My voice sounded distant, and my muscles locked in place as one summoner sharply prodded a kid who stepped out of line with a stick similar to Mathran’s weapon. “Where the hell are they taking those kids?”

“To the chasm,” said Mathran, and his eyes were closed. “They believe that in order to pacify their deity, a sacrifice has to be made.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ADA

Shock gripped me all over. They were going to kill those children? No. I glanced at the others. Raj and Iriel looked on in outraged horror, and Kay had stopped dead, pale as a ghost.

I took a step forwards, raising my weapon with shaking hands.

Kay seemed to come back to life. “Ada, we can’t interfere,” he said, but his voice shook. “It isn’t Alliance business. We’re in their territory now.”

I clenched my fists and glared at him, even though I knew he was right. “Dammit,” I said. “Damn them all. They’re not seriously going to…”

Raj cursed under his breath, while Iriel turned away, her hands shaking.

“There is nothing we can do here,” said Mathran. “If I were to challenge them, they would strike me down like they did their law enforcement. The invokers of Xanet were some of the most powerful magic-wielders on our world.”

“No kidding.” Raj stared. “You’re seriously gonna lie down and let that happen?”

“We’re outnumbered, and Aktha is gone along with Xanet. You’ll die if you intervene.” Despair lined every inch of his face. But no… I couldn’t let this go. I knew the Alliance’s mandate as well as anyone, but there were some things I just wouldn’t lie down and watch.

“Fuck that,” I said.

“Ada.” Kay grabbed my arm as I took another step forwards.

You can’t save everyone,
Nell had always told me. I’d always known it. But I’d never really accepted it. As long as I could walk, as long as I could fight, as long as my heart still beat, I’d always try to help.

I wouldn’t let this go. No way in hell.

I pulled my hand away from Kay and followed after the group. He cursed. “Dammit, Ada.” Footsteps sounded behind me.

“Don’t you dare try to stop me,” I hissed, aware that someone would hear us if we got any closer to the group of robed figures—and that they were heading the way we’d come. We couldn’t get back to the doorway without passing within sight of them.