Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (19 page)

“Does that answer your question? Are you happy, now you know you’re not human anymore?”

“Stop it,” I say, possibly too loud. I don’t want anyone else to know this. “I thought none of us were human, anyway.” I silently curse my shaking voice.

“Superhuman,” he says. “If you want to use idiotic human terms.”

“You really don’t like people, do you?” I shake my head.

“They die,” he says. “The fiends might be stupid, but they decimated the human race within a week. We’re no threat to them.” His fist clenches and he punches the rock wall with a force that makes the path above shake. “You still think of yourself as human, but you’ll outlive every one of them. Even the Pyros. There’s no point in forming attachments to collateral damage.”

“That isn’t…” He’s so close to my own train of thought, it’s almost scary. “That’s not the point of living,” I say, finally, as the silence becomes unbearable.

He looks away. Fragments of rock drop from his hand.

“I wouldn’t know, since I’m not technically alive.”

What can I say to that? I want to know more, about how they managed to create a person—using Pyro DNA or something, I guess, but I don’t want to make him hate me again. I’ve never been good at giving advice, least of all when it comes to someone as volatile as… as a volcano.

“Whatever.” He jumps onto the path in two leaps at the rock wall, something that would be impossible for a normal person. I curse myself for not being able to say anything to help. But I can’t think clearly.

Who
created him?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Cas glares at Val. “I’m not working with her.”

“Murray’s orders,” says Val. She’s organising our patrol, trying to get everyone sorted, before we set out to search, once again, for the fiends that supposedly escaped. There are seven of us in total, and I’m the youngest, aside from Poppy. I don’t know any of the others—except, unfortunately, Cas.

My eyes sting with tiredness. It’s the crack of dawn and the few hours of sleep I managed to snatch weren’t enough. My hands are clumsy as I check the position of the knife at my waist, ready for me to snatch at the first sign of danger.

“Come on,” says Val. “We’ve got to make a move. There’s a town a mile or so away, that might be their target.”

“If it is, we’re too late,” says Cas bluntly. “This is a fool’s crusade.”

“Murray’s orders,” says Val, apparently unintimidated. “If you want to stay here and destroy our training dummy collection, that’s your call.”

Cas narrows his eyes. But he doesn’t protest further.

It’s a long trip down the mountain, made longer by the fallen rocks from the fiend attack. It’s caused more damage than I thought, and I wonder at the ability of even a mountain to stand up to the fiends. If enough of them came here, they could pulverise our shelter and us along with it. I try to find cheerier thoughts, and instead concentrate on my steps. Crossing the ocean isn’t as bad this time around, but it’s hard not to think of those fiends with wings, and how they must have flown across the water to the base. What other mutations could they come up with? My thoughts land on artificial warriors and blades made of blood and ashes.

To distract myself, I get in some practise with my knife while waiting for the others to catch up. Without the constraints of the training room, I get free rein to swing at rocks and watch them crumble at a touch. The blade slices the air with a fiery light. Caught in the movement, everything else fades into the background.

“You okay?” Val asks, coming over to me.

“Sure,” I say. “Just a relief to get outside.”

“Yeah, we’ll get to see real civilisation today,” she says, with a smile. Though it fades almost instantly. “As long as we make it there in time.”

A condescending snort behind us tells me Cas is listening in.

“What?” I say. “You might think humans are worthless, but I’ll bet the feeling’s mutual.”

I deliberately raise my voice so the other Pyros nearby can hear, determined to wipe out any rumours we’re buddies.

“It’s human inventions that have kept us alive this long,” Val adds. “Like the technology that keeps our base running.”

“About that,” I say. “Why don’t you have any kind of transport? You have working lights, why not cars?”

“Up a mountain?” Now Cas is actually smirking at me. I clench my fist, wishing I could slam it into his face.

“Fine. What about air transport? Some of the fiends can fly. I saw,” I add, and his expression becomes serious again. And angry.

“No, we don’t,” says Val, with a slight sigh. “Those of us who had cars lost them in the first attacks. Our base isn’t a practical location for any kind of transport, and we have no contact with anyone overseas.” She glances at the stepping stones, where the last of the Pyros has crossed. “We’d better move.”

We take off to the west. This time we aren’t heading for the divide, but to the empty road we walked down when I first joined camp and walked to the base. It seems a lifetime ago already.

“She has a point,” I mutter to Cas—somehow we’ve ended up walking alongside one another. “Why’re you going to the bother of coming with us if you think everyone’s doomed, anyway?”

“None of your business.”

Well, that’s friendly. I side-eye him. “I’m not ruling out using the energy blast on you.”

“You can’t kill me,” he says, but his tone isn’t completely flat. Wait, is that
jealousy
in his expression?
I suppose, from what he said last night, he’s spent his whole life thinking of himself as a failed attempt at creating the world’s saviour. Then I came along and turned out to be Transcendent by accident.

Hmm. No wonder he’s pissed at me. I might find it almost funny, if not for the fact that the burden rests on
me
now.
I’m Transcendent.
But what does that mean? Cas’s blood healed me… but at what cost to both of us?

A line of fire on the horizon grabs my attention.

Val swears. “That’s the town.”

For a moment, horror freezes me in place. Then, like the others, I break into a run.

I already know we’re too late. The town’s burning. Not an energy blast. Real fire reaches arms into the sky, a burning beacon that engulfs every building, growing larger with each passing second.

We don’t need to enter to know nobody will have survived.

A choked sob from Poppy. “No,” she whispers. “Who could have done this?”

The monsters,
I think immediately. And then start when I realise Cas hasn’t stopped, and continues to walk towards the town.

Despite myself, I follow. He stops a metre from the town’s boundary, the wired fence that once formed a meagre protection against the monsters.

“I figured you’d come after me.”

“Only to make sure you weren’t about to walk into the flames.”

“They’d have no effect,” says Cas. “You know that.”

Yes. It slipped my mind, stupidly. But now my eyes are on the ground, and the familiar outline of a symbol shaped like a flame. It’s been drawn in the mud. With a stick, I’d guess.

“What
is
that?” I ask.

“Trouble,” says Cas, finally turning back to meet my eyes.

“No shit.” I wonder about shoving him into the flames until he tells me the truth. Last night only scratched the surface. But the smell of burning engulfs me as a nearby house succumbs to the climbing fire. I have to back away, old grief threatening to rise.
Focus. This means trouble.

Cas watches me, his face tense. “It’s a diversion. We have to get back to the base.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I’ve never run so fast. Dirt pounds under my feet. Wind roars in my ears. My coat streams back, like fire, and I wish I could propel myself forwards. I wish I had wings. Feet aren’t fast enough.

The journey takes too long. I even forget to be afraid as we cross the water. My heart sinks to my feet when I spot the winged shape circling the mountain’s tip.

Cas is miles ahead of the rest of us, but even he won’t get there in time. Blood streaks the ground, the mud marked with claw-marks. The fiends have been here. But what about our defences? Questions war with one another in my mind.
I thought no one could get in.
But they’re one step ahead of us…

The entrance appears intact. Cas leads the way, knife raised, ready to attack. It seems too quiet, with none of the usual bustle.

They can’t all be dead!

A faint noise sounds from behind a nearby door—Murray’s study. My stomach clenches.

Cas moves towards the door and pushes it open. I follow more slowly, heart beating a warning in my ears.

Elle crouches on the ground, a tall figure stooped over her. No sign of Murray.

“Who the hell are you?” Cas demands of the man. He isn’t one of the Pyros, or at least no one I recognise. His dark red coat is similar in style to ours, and the knife in his hand is rust-red. Like Cas’s.

The stranger looks up, his hood falling back. His head’s shaved, and his eyes are piercing and grey. His gaze passes over me and locks on Cas. A smile curls his lip.

“You,” he says. “I should have known.”

For the first time since I’ve met him, Cas looks genuinely shocked. His hand actually slips on the weapon, but he manages to conceal it by catching the knife’s hilt and pointing it at the other man’s face.

“Jared?”

“Surprised to see me alive?”

“I’m surprised you’d show your face around here.” Cas’s tone is cold as ice, but the temperature in the room kicks up a notch. Smoke starts to rise from the knife in his hand.

“I came here to find you,” says Jared. “I should have guessed they’d send their best warrior out.”

“Then why were you threatening a defenceless girl?”

Elle whimpers. I move over to her, concerned, but she appears unhurt.

“Leah,” she whispers. “Don’t let him take Cas.”

I blink, confused. Cas doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere. He and Jared stare at each other. I put two and two together—didn’t Cas and Nolan ask that fiend if Jared was alive? Is he one of the other Pyros? The traitor, even?

I draw my own knife. The movement seems to break the two men out of their trance. Jared takes one step towards Cas, while I stand, my knife pointed at Jared’s back. Before I can think about what I’m doing, the tip of my knife brushes his spine.

He tilts his head to look back at me. “And you are…?”

“Tell me who
you
are,” I say, relieved when my voice doesn’t shake. I don’t know what powers this guy might be hiding, but for the first time it dawns on me that I’m not afraid. Not driven by adrenaline like in a fight, but genuinely unafraid for my life. Is this what it feels like to be Cas?

“I’m here to see Cas. And a girl.” Something flashes in his eyes. “That wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know the Pyros have found their Transcendent,” he says. “That’s you. Right?”

“I don’t see what it matters to you.” I move the knife, brushing it against his spine.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he says, quietly. “Do you want me to reduce this place to ashes?”

Can he do that?
Who knows what powers he’s hiding?

I lower the knife.

“Better,” he says. “Now. We’re going to talk. You see, Murray and I had an understanding. The last Transcendent caused a little accident that did some severe damage. I’m guessing by your age that you would have seen it on the news.”

The energy blasts? The earthquakes? Or the coming of the fiends? My mind reels.
The Transcendent caused that? I thought she gave her life to close the door to the fiends’ world.

“Yes, I thought Murray would have lied to you. Shameful, really. But his daughter knows.”

He reaches back and grabs Elle by the scruff of her neck. She yelps as he lifts her into the air.

“Yes, fortunate that I found you snooping around, isn’t it?” says Jared. “What were you looking at? These old papers?”

He shoves a stack of documents off the desk. They’re the papers Cas and Nolan found in the old house, I realise. I never got a close look at them.

“They’re useless,” says Jared. “Why do you think we left them behind?”

“I would have expected you to hide the evidence,” says Cas. “The fiend told me you still lived, though I never would have believed it. I knew you were the one poking around the old labs, though you tried to pin the blame on the fiends. You forget I know you.”

Elle sobs. Jared shakes her. “Pipe down. I don’t want to hurt you.”