The Breakers Ultimatum (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 3) (9 page)

“Do you think they’d know what’s happening with-“

“You want me to find out what’s going on with your boyfriend,” he finished, his jaw setting.

And there it was. I knew this would upset him. He had sacrificed so much. His uncle was at death’s door. But what could I do? I had to know. I just had to.

‘They have him, Royce. The Breakers have him. They could be doing anything!”

“Look,” he threw a hand up to stop me. “You know how I feel about this whole thing. The Dragon is bad news, and sooner or later, he’ll bite you. But if this is what it’ll take, knowing what’s happening with him, to maybe help you get over it, then I’ll do it. But make no mistake, Cresta. The people who have him aren’t Breakers. He ain’t either.” It was the only time I could remember Royce actually using my name, which let me know he meant business. “Those people, the way of life their living, that’s got nothing to do with real Breakers. They’re nothing but shadows of what they used to be. An abomination is what they are. The people who sent me here, they’re real Breakers. The people on the inside, risking their lives to get us Intel, they’re real Breakers. The man in that bed who’s too proud to let some snot nosed kid spoon feed him, he’s a real Breaker. So, I’ll find out what you want to know, and then I’ll find out what we need to know…under one condition.”

He glared at me for a moment. I was unsure whether it was anger or amusement that flickered across his bright eyes. This is what I hated about Royce; that smugness that seeped into everything he did. Was he mad at me for being concerned about Owen, or was he secretly laughing at me for being stupid enough to still hold on to this hope? Is this who I was to him; some lovelorn little girl who didn’t know what was best for her? Who didn’t know enough to stop touching the fire after she’d been burned?

“What is it?” I asked, my narrowed eyes studying him cautiously. “What’s your condition?”

A big, infuriating smile spread across his face. God, I hated him. He walked, almost skipped over to a nearby tree. His arms flexed as he pulled at one of the low hanging branches. Still smiling at me, he broke it over his knee, snapping it into two three foot pieces.

Before I could ask what he was doing, he threw one of the branches at me. Without time to think, instinct took over and I grabbed it. It wasn’t that long ago when I was the ‘duck from flying objects’ sort of girl. Turned out Breakers and circumstance had changed that.

“What is this?” I asked, letting the branch sit heavy in my hands. The bark was thick and rough, but it didn’t feel as foreign as it should. And, with the threat of the Blood Moon still very much alive in my mind, something about that made me uneasy.

“It’s a duel, Sweetheart,” he grinned. “I’m sure it’s high noon somewhere.”

“You’re not a cowboy,” I scoffed.

“Don’t look like I'm'ma have to be one to take you out. You barely know how to hold that thing.” He nodded it at me cockily. “Here are the rules, you knock this out of my hand and I’ll find out anything you want to know about your little boy toy.”

‘And if you win?” I asked, adjusting the wood in my hands.

“Then you gotta kiss me.’ His grin exploded into the most absurd of smiles.

I glared at hm. “Why would you-“

“Those are my conditions, Sweetheart. Take ‘em or leave ‘em.”

“Fine,” I muttered, and tightened my grip.

Before I had even had a chance to ready myself, Royce was rushing toward me. He was fast, faster than fast; faster than Owen even. The branch lifted over his head as he neared me. He wasn’t going to really do this, was he? He wouldn’t really hit me?

The answer came as Royce swung the branch down at me. I threw mine up, letting his collide with it. My hands shook hard as the pieces made contact.

“Didn’t think I’d do it, did ya?” He asked, spinning around me. I turned, suddenly tense. My blood was pumping, my body was alert. “Why’s that? Cause your boyfriend wouldn’t?” He swung at me again, but this time I ducked away. “Well, I ain’t your boyfriend, Sweetheart. And the truth of the matter is, he ain’t doing ya any favors.”

My eyes narrowed as a spike of anger rose in my gut. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, lifting the branch over my head and bringing it down on him. A surprised smile flickered across his face. He was enjoying this. “I’m supposed to respect you because you’re willing to attack a girl?”

He darted away at the last second. The branch hit the ground hard, sending a shot of pain up through my arms.

“You ain’t giving yourself enough credit,” he said, sizing me up slowly. “We both know you ain’t just a girl. And it ain’t the attacking that’s important. It’s the arming.”

He launched toward me and this time, when the branch came at me, it was aiming for my head.

I duck but, no longer the girl satisfied to stay on the defensive, I rammed the brunt of my branch into Royce’s stomach, sending him stumbling backward.

“Arming?” I asked breathlessly.

“He’s afraid of ya,” Royce grunted, obviously winded. “Sure, he thinks he loves ya and wants to save you and all that predictable nonsense. But the truth is, he don’t even know ya. And what’s more, he doesn't want to.”  I was about to protest, given that what he was saying was the stupidest thing I had ever seen, but Royce came at me again. “That boy would piss his pants if he ever thought you were actually gonna become the Blood Moon.”

“You’re an idiot,” I said, blinking. The world was shade now and I could see it all. My shade poured like an open faucet from me to Royce. It was different than anything I had ever seen, though. For all the shade I was producing, and it was a lot, none of it seemed to stockpile inside of Royce. But, if it wasn’t, then where was it going?

“Think about it.” He swung. I moved easily now though, sensing his movements before he even made them. “The entire time you’ve known him, has that boy ever done anything to help you reach your potential?” He swung again. I dodged it and slapped my branch against his right arm. He squealed and darted away. Of course since he was Royce, it didn’t shut him up. “Or has he spent the whole time trying to tell you that you aren’t the person he knows you to be? Admit it, Sweetheart. Has he ever tried to teach you to defend yourself, or has he been more than happy to play the hero?”

“He cares about me!” I swept Royce’s feet out from under him with my branch, sending him falling hard to the ground.

“I ain’t denying it,” he grunted. “But there’s a piece of the Dragon that’s scared of you, and I’d wager there’s a piece of him that wants to keep you as weak as he can.”

“And why would he do that?” I asked, deciding it was time to end this. I swung my branch one more time, rapping it against Royce’s knuckles and knocking the branch out of his hand. It was over. I had won. So why did he look so satisfied?

“Because, if you apply yourself; there ain’t a person in the world who could take you down. And somewhere deep down, the Dragon wants to hedge his bets.”  He hopped up, much quicker than I’d have expected from someone who had just had his ass kicked. Brushing the dust from his back and shoulders, he leaned into me. Suddenly I got the idea that he was going to kiss me.

“You lost!” I pulled away. His eyes narrowed accusingly as he grabbed my hand and held it in his. He was trying to siphon the shade away from me, to help me keep it together.

“Don’t worry Sweetheart. A bet’s a bet. Besides, the next time I kiss you, it’ll be because you want me to.” The rest of my excess shade drained into him. Letting go of my hand, he turned away. Walking deeper into the forest, I realized he was leaving right now.

“Hey!” I said. When he turned around, I realized I had no idea what I wanted to say to him. Things were so weird between us, so weird in general. He was the Raven, my prophesized husband, and my body wasn’t making denying that fact any easier. Still, he was risking a lot for me. They all were. “J-just make sure he’s okay. Make sure he’s not hurt.”

“Whatever you say,” he nodded.

I blinked a couple of times, watching how the lines on his face hardened anytime I mentioned Owen. “You be careful too, okay.”

He stared at me for a moment, and I wasn’t quite sure what it was that filled his eyes. “Yeah,” he said simply. Then he turned and walked away.

When Royce left, smug and swaggering in classic Royce fashion, I fully expected him to be back inside of a day. It wasn’t like he was actually going inside of the Hourglass’ main area; just close to it. Close enough to make it interesting, that’s what he said. And, given that we had limped our way to the cabin in just a few hours while dragging a wounded Renner along with us, I figured it couldn’t have been that far. As the sun sat on his second day gone though, I began to reconsider that thought.

A deep nervousness began to seep into me. What if he had been captured? What if he was, at this moment, strapped in a chair sitting next to Owen; no doubt being tortured by the Council? Sure, I hadn’t known Royce for very long, but if he never came back, it would change so many things.

The things we did seemed to have thrown the Damnatus into play. Like it or not, Royce was the Raven. And if the Raven was out of the picture, who knew what horrible alternative would pop up to take his place. Not to mention the fact that he was my resident shade siphon. Even now I could feel the stupid energy building up inside of me, making me antsy and itchy. Before long, I’d probably start shaking. Maybe my hand would burn and glow like it had before. If Royce didn’t come back pretty quickly, there was no telling what would come of me.

And worse than that even was the fact that if he had been caught; he wouldn’t even be close to the first. Mom had been kidnapped before she was killed. At this very moment, both Owen and Flora were being held against their wills. The idea of even one more person being at the Council’s mercy on my behalf, even if that person had cockily sauntered toward them of his own accord, was too much to take.

I beat back the nervousness the best way I knew how, with monotonous busywork. Casper and  I walked the perimeter of the cabin’s ground, careful not to move past the ancient anchors that hid us from the rest of the Hourglass. We talked about a lot, mostly shared memories from Crestview. But every now and then, a piece of Clarity would weasel its way in.

He talked about Liv more than I would have liked, not because I didn’t want Casper to have those feelings. If he loved the girl, then I was happy for him. But talking about her made her real and it also made the life I forced him into, the life I inadvertently ripped him out of, real too.

“I wish you’d have stayed there,” I said after he mentioned prom night, recalling the way Liv looked in a sky blue dress that made her eyes “look like those diamonds that models always wear in the commercials after their meathead boyfriends finally pop the question”.

“No you don’t,” he answered without missing a beat.

“No. I don’t,” I admitted. It was selfish. It was awful, but I wanted Casper with me. I needed him here, danger or not. It flew right in the face of the reason I sent him away in the first place, but the truth was I couldn’t do this without him. So what kind of person did that make me?

“I just wish you were safe, is all,” I said, leaning against a nearby tree and sliding down it absentmindedly until I was sitting on the ground.

“I wish you were safe too,” Casper said, settling next to me. “But I was never safe, Cress. Even in Clarity there were things going on that I didn’t understand. I mean, you left me in Tennessee for God’s sake and somehow I ended up in Maryland.”

“You don’t know how that happened?” I asked, leaning my head on his shoulder the way I had so many times back in Crestview.

“Not a clue. I blame Wendy.” He shook his head. “All those stupid letters. Do you really think she saw all this; that she knew we’d be sitting here talking about her?”

“Probably. That girl had skills,” I answered.

“I sorta can’t believe she’s dead,” he said, a softness trailing into his voice.

“They all die, Cass,” I answered. “Mom, Dad, Wendy. Even Renner’s at death’s door. And for what, some stupid prophecy that might never even come true. Even Allister Leeman got killed for that thing, not that I give a damn about him.”

“Do you think it’ll ever stop?” He asked, and for whatever reason, his voice held more aloof curiosity than earnestness.

“I really hope so,” I said, interlocking my fingers in his instinctively. “Can I tell you a secret?” I asked, staring at into the seemingly never ending woods.

“Is it about the Justin Bieber album in your car that you thought no one knew about?” He asked.

“No,” I chuckled. “But we’re going to have to have the ‘boundaries’ talk soon. It’s about Owen.”

“Okay,” he answered, keeping any emotion out of his voice.

“Before we got separated, he told me that I could never see him again.”

“He didn’t want you to get hurt trying to save him,” Casper said, squeezing my hand.

“No,” I answered. “Well, yes. But that’s not all. The crone, and I know that you have no idea who the crone is, but just bear with me. She told him that the next time I saw him would be the day he killed me.”

He was quiet for a second. His breath was steady slow.

“And you still wanna go back for him?” He finally asked.

“More than anything,” I said.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “You love hard, Cresta Karr. You always have, but so do I.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, turning to look at him.

He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing in flame-colored tufts as he answered. “Promise you won’t hate me?”

“I don’t think hating you is possible,” I assured him.

“I’m kind of glad he’s gone.”

“Why would you say that?” I asked, straightening up and trying really hard to keep both judgment and rising anger out of my voice.

"You know I like Owen. He was my friend," Casper said, fidgeting beside me. "But if I have to choose between him and you, it's you every day of the week."

"He won't hurt me, Cass. He couldn't," I answered.

"He's the Dragon, Cress. The prophecy says he will, and I won't risk it."

"The prophecy says I destroy the whole world!" I yelled, standing. "But I don't see you itching to put a bullet in my head. Why are you okay with risking the fate of the entire world, but not me?"

"Because you're more important than the world," he said instantly. "At least to me."

I opened my mouth to answer him, but he lurched up beside me and threw a finger over his lips, telling me to shut it. “Get down!” He whispered feverishly and pulled me back to the ground beside him.

“Cass, what the hell?!” I asked, but he pointed forward and the cause of his concern became clear.

Two unfamiliar Breakers came marching slowly into view. They were moving slowly, looking for something. I swallowed hard, having no doubt that what they were looking for was me.

“Be quiet,” Casper said and squeezed my hand tightly.

“I don’t think they can hear us, Cass,” I whispered. But, as they moved closer, I realized that might not be true. I didn’t know anything about the anchors that protected this cabin, aside from the fact that they were built by some age-old seer who knew more about what was going to happen than I ever would.

And what did I know about seers anyway? They work toward their own agenda, always had. Even Wendy, who died to keep Casper from taking a bullet, always gave me the impression that there were things going on under the surface.

Maybe the seer who made this cabin did so for this very moment, so that the anchors would fail now, when I needed them most. And all so some unknown nonsense would happen that would, in turn, force some other nonsense to happen, that would, one day, cause a tree to sprout in a spot on a hill or some ridiculous garbage. God, I hated the future.

No. I was being ridiculous. They couldn’t see us. The anchors had kept us safe this long and they would continue to do so. Or at least I could hope they would.

“Are you serious?” One of the Breakers asked the other, moving closer toward us. I shuddered when I saw the gun dangling from his belt. I’m not sure why the constant reminders of their intentions affected me the way they did. I knew what they wanted, my head on a spike. But something about seeing the gun, about the concrete evidence of just how far they would go to rid this world of me, kept seeming unreal no matter how many times I was presented with it.

“I can’t believe they’re just going to forgive him like that,” the first Breaker scoffed, shaking his head disapprovingly. “If I’d have done half the things that bastard did, I’d have been banished years ago.”

Casper’s breath was frantic and hot on my neck. Like me, he knew these guards probably wouldn’t see us no matter what we did. But, also like me, he had been almost killed enough times to know it was better not to tempt fate.

“Well, you’re not the Dragon. I suppose the Council would be more willing to look past your faults too if the fate of the entire world rested on your shoulders.” My shoulders tightened. They were talking about Owen, about what the Council was doing to him.  Instinctively, I leaned forward. Casper pulled me back against his chest.

“Quit it!” He said in a fevered whisper.

“You know what I heard?” The first one said, smiling like a doofus. “Since they can’t punish him by killing him, they were going to-“

I leaned forward, desperately wanting (and dreading) to hear the end of that sentence. A fallen leaf crackled under my palm, and the first Breaker spun around, stopping midsentence.

A scream gurgled up in my throat, but thankfully died before it could escape my lips. They weren’t supposed to be able to hear me. They weren’t supposed to be able to perceive anything that went on within the grounds of the cabin. Only people who already knew it was there could hear or see anything that went on inside of it. That was the deal. It was what the anchors meant. So what the hell was this idiot doing lifting his pistol right at me?

“Oh God!” Casper muttered, clutching me tightly.

“This isn’t right,” I whispered, watching the way the sun glinted off the pistol. “He’s not supposed to… the Seer.”

“Maybe the Seer cut corners or something,” Casper pulled at me. “We’re really close to the edge. Maybe we went over and didn’t realize, or maybe the magic is weaker out here.”

“It’s not magic,” I said, examining the Breakers. One of them was looking right at me, but the other; he was scanning the area like he was looking for someone. Suddenly, the first Breaker’s eyes broke with mine, and joined the other in scanning the woods. He couldn’t see me. Neither of them could. But how could they hear me?

“Stay still,” I whispered to Casper. I didn’t move, not even an inch. My palm still rested on the ground, crunching the dead leaves.

“Yeah, I sorta figured,” he whispered back.

All we had to do was stay still; stay still and stay quiet. They’d stupidly make their way further down into the forest soon enough.  It’d probably take a few minutes longer than it would have in the outside world, given there were no animals running free within the walls of the Hourglass and they’d want to be sure the noise was a fluke. But what did I have to do, besides not get shot? Nothing was going to make me move from this spot. Nothing could.

And that’s when my hand started burning.

Yep. That figures.

I fidgeted, trying really hard not to move. The thing about pain and me was, we had never been on the best of terms. I had never been the thick skinned, physically tough girl one might expect when talking about a world ender. Sure, I had never been a girly girl, so to speak. But the idea that I was anything other than a giant baby when it came to hurting was just ridiculous.

Casper knew that about me. He had ever since that day I stubbed my toe in algebra and he had to carry me to the nurse’s office. I had grown up since then. I had to, seeing as how roughly seventy percent of everyone I ran across these days was actively trying to kill me. But he had also seen how I had reacted when my palm started burning the first time. So his reaction; throwing his hand over his mouth and muttering “Crap, I wanted to die from dehydration while on my honeymoon with Taylor Swift, like a real man” was totally reasonable.

My palm started glowing as the pain grew, pulsating like my heart was made of barbwire. I bit my lip so hard that blood, warm and metallic, filled my mouth. The Breakers were still looking, still close enough to hear me (if, in fact, they could hear me) if I as to yell in pain or something.

My eyes shifted, and the world became ribbons of shade again. I was getting really tired of that, and I may have said something if not for the stabbing and hot pain that now flooded through my hand. My palm started to glow, just like it had the day Casper gave me the letter.

He cringed and leaned over me. “This is not happening,” he said in a rushed whisper. But it was happening. It was happening all over again. The last time my hand had reacted like this, the last time I felt this sort of agony, the only thing that saved me was Royce; his touch, his kiss. My teeth ground together. Kissing Royce wasn’t high on my wish list, especially after our little confrontation the other day. But, truth be told, I’d have licked his stupid, smug face right now if it would have put an end to this pain.

But I couldn’t. Royce wasn’t here and, even if he was on his way back right now, the chance that he’d get here in time to help me fell squarely between slim and none. Tears started to pool in my eyes and spill down my cheeks. And still these Breaker idiots weren’t moving. They just stood there, surveying the area with guns lifted in the air.