Up or down?
The enforcers were getting closer but Cade didn’t know which way to go. Going upstairs would be trapping himself, but Deianira could’ve still been up there. Downstairs was the only way to the arena but if intruders were coming in, they’d be coming up. He was trapped either way. But at least one way, he’d be with Deianira.
Just before the door burst inwards, Cade set off, sprinting up the steps. The gunshots that followed had him sticking to the outer walls of the square-spiraling stairs.
As he reached his floor, he practically fell through the doors. Shutting them behind him, he quickly looked around for anything to secure the doors. If they got onto the floor, running would’ve been pointless.
Spotting a pot of bo staffs at the entrance of the training room, he made a break for it. Grabbing an armful of staffs, he sprinted back to the door just as an enforcer came into view through the small window. Cade slotted the staffs through the handlebars as the door jolted forward. It held.
He didn’t take a break yet though. Jogging back to the training room, he looked for anything and everything he could arm himself with. Grabbing a utility belt and kevlar vest, he strapped them into place over his dress shirt and slacks before stepping into a pair of boots. Running to the shelves, he brought down a specific box and checked inside.
Deianira’s throwing knives. After loading as many as he could into his belt, there was one left in the box. As if sending him a sign, the knife slipped through his fingers and landed next to his foot.
“What’s the point if you can’t even reach for it?” Cade asked, tilting his head at Lia as he kicked at the tent pegs.
She rolled her eyes as she poked the fire. “You shouldn’t have to reach for it. It’s a backup.” She patted her boot. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”
Cade quickly picked up the knife and tucked it into the sole of his boot.
He looked for a firearm but, of course, his luck didn’t stretch that far. Loud banging echoed from the hallway and Cade knew he was running out of time. Those wooden staffs wouldn’t hold them forever. He couldn’t fight them all either. Or run; he needed to find Deianira. He was about to leave the training room when something caught his eye.
Oh, hell yeah.
After setting up as fast as he could, Cade hid behind the planks of wood and waited. He knew that the enforcers had seen him go into the training room. It would be the first place they would look. He was counting on it.
On cue, he heard a loud crash signaling that they had breached the door. It only took them seconds to start filling up the gym, but Cade still waited. He waited until the last enforcer stepped into the room before he pressed the remote. At the sound of the mechanical whirring, Cade finally took a breath.
It’s working.
Seconds later, hundreds of steel arrows flew across the room, raining down on the enforcers. Cade still didn’t move. He listened to the shouts, the screams, the cries. Only when the room stilled did he step out from behind the boards to see bodies littering the training room floor.
For a moment, he stilled. He knew what he was doing when he loaded the arrow launcher, but nothing could’ve prepared him for what he saw. There were so many. As much as he tried to block it out, he couldn’t pretend that he didn’t hear a few faint wheezes around the room. Some of them were still alive.
When he was brought to the Dome and convicted of murder, he was innocent. But now?
Deianira. That was the only thought that brought him out of that hole. He just needed to get to her and it would all be fine.
Leaving the training room, he started towards Deianira’s room. Just as he rounded the corner, he caught a figure moving down the hall. Quickly moving back around the corner, he closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, praying that they hadn’t seen him.
“Come on out, Cade.”
He stopped breathing. Cade didn’t fear his father, but as he heard the quiet footsteps approaching around the corner, he was petrified. Not for himself, but for what might happen to Deianira if he couldn’t get back to her. It was only because of his gift that he was able to detect that there were imposters in the palace. No one else would know. They’d be handing themselves over.
“We’re not here for you. We just want the girl.”
The girl. Cade could’ve laughed at Drake’s reference to Deianira. That girl was the Queen. That girl was the woman who held his heart in her very palm. That girl was the reason he’d make it out of this.
His father had already seen him. Cade wasn’t stupid enough to try and run, they’d gun him down before he made it to the end of the hall. So he stepped out from around the corner, hands held up, and faced Drake Alden. But not before reaching for the chain around his neck to leave a little message.
I came back for you.
Growing up, he’d always seen his father as this big brute. This man who inspired fear in people. The Head Councilman, Drake Alden. But the man that Cade stared at, head-on? The one that stood back with a gut-churning smirk as enforcers advanced on him, grabbing his arms, hauling him into the stairwell? He was nothing but an insecure little boy on a power trip. There was nothing noteworthy about him.
Deianira
Deianira was practically dragging herself through the halls behind Salem. She was drained, physically and emotionally. Her strength was wavering with each step; even her senses seemed to evade her. That’s why she didn’t hear the footsteps when Salem did.
“Deianira,” Salem called quietly. Deianira squinted at her through blurry vision. “They’re downstairs. I can’t make out what they’re saying but we need to skip that floor. We should take east.”
“That’ll take too long and Cade can’t wait. We’ll be fine,” Deianira panted.
Salem kept on. “Deianira, you’re too weak right now. It’s my job to protect you and I can’t do that while trying to fight off a group of intruders. Our odds aren’t great either way but at least we’ll be alive to find him if we take the east stairwell.”
Deianira thought about it. Salem had a point, but she just hated that Cade would be in danger for longer.
“Okay,” she breathed.
Salem slung Deianira’s arm around her shoulder. Starting towards the stairwell, they passed the entrance of the training room before seeing something and backtracking. It looked like a scene out of a nightmare. Bodies surrounded by blood littered the floor. Steel arrows were sticking up in every direction in the room. Deianira had to hold back a scream of anger. These were enforcers. Her men. All dead.
Deianira yanked her arm out of Salem’s grip and stumbled towards the first body, falling to her knees beside him. Breathing heavily, she lifted his mask, praying that it wasn’t Hewn or Finch, and she paused. She didn’t recognize this man. She’d never seen him in her life. Confused, Deianira tried the next. Then the next. She didn’t know any of these men. But they were wearing standard issue enforcer gear down to the make of the guns they were equipped with.
The raids. The raids had started months back and Deianira was convinced that they were connected, but they were too spread out, happening in different sectors. That must have been a ploy to cover their tracks. They were biding their time. No one in the palace would be able to tell the difference.
“Deianira,” Salem called, urgency leaking into her voice.
Boots. They were loud. Loud enough for her to hear, so they had to be close. Her head spun to the service stairwell. She would’ve run towards that sound a minute ago but after seeing these imposters, she wasn’t taking that chance. If Jude wanted her, he’d have to come in and get her himself.
Salem picked her back up and they headed towards the east stairwell when Deianira’s eyes caught a small object on the floor. It was shiny.
“Wait,” she rasped.
Deianira pulled herself out of Salem’s hold to take a step closer.
The second she recognized it, hope ignited in her chest. The ring. Cade’s ring.
“He was here,” she told Salem as she grabbed it. “It’s his. He left it here on purpose.”
“It could’ve fallen off.”
“No, he wears it on a chain. It couldn’t have. He left this here for a reason.”
He was here. He came back for me.
Salem tensed. “We’re too late,” she whispered.
The disorganized footsteps were coming from the east stairwell too. They were lighter, fewer, but they were still coming in fast.
Cassian
The sub-level was pitch black.
Cassian slowly followed the sound of Devin’s footsteps, careful not to trip.
“How can you even see anything?” Cassian whispered to Devin.
“I can’t.” Cassian’s brows lowered. “I’ve been down here a few times. From the stairs, it’s twenty-six steps, left, twelve steps, left, seventeen steps, right, eight steps, up.”
He frowned in confusion. “Up?”
Devin snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared in his hand.
“Up,” he repeated with a smile on his face as he pointed upwards.
Cassian followed his eyes to find a grate on the low ceiling.
“This leads to the utility room in the staff quarters,” Devin explained as he lifted the grate and shifted it onto the side. “I’ll be back in a sec.”
Huh?
“Back? What are you…”
Devin didn’t hear the rest of Cassian’s question because he was already lifting himself through the gap in the ceiling. Cassian silently fumed. He had no idea how Cade managed to live with Devin for so long without throttling him. With nothing better to do, he leaned back against the wall and waited. About a minute later, light shone through the opening. Stepping towards the gap, he looked up.
“Hey, Cass. Catch,” was the only warning he got before a small object struck him on the nose.
“Ow!” he exclaimed before bending to pick it up. A flashlight. At least it was something useful.
Devin came flying through the opening, landing perfectly on two feet. Finally.
“Can we go now? There isn’t much ti…”
A second pair of legs appeared. Instantly on defense, Cassian lifted his gun and took several steps back. But then, Devin stepped towards the opening, grabbing onto the hips of the person coming through and gently lowering them. Cassian was beyond confused.
A girl. A short girl with bright red hair covering most of her face.
Tilting her head gently, Devin brushed her hair out of her face, revealing a striking set of red eyes. That wasn’t what stood out most to Cassian though. It was the jagged scar across her neck, spanning from ear to ear. It looked old but it was deep. He’d never seen a wound that bad before.
“Now, we can go,” Devin announced, holding her hand.
Cassian stared at them.
“You’re not going to introduce me?” He pointed to the girl.
“Oh, yeah. Cass, this is my girlfriend, Emori. Emori, this is Cass.”
“Cassian,” he corrected.
“Right,” Devin smirked. “Let’s go.”
Cassian stood still for a moment before shaking his head and following Devin and the mysterious girl through the sub-level. Though it hadn’t been long, he noticed that she was very quiet. She hadn’t spoken aloud once, but he saw her whisper into Devin’s ear every so often. What surprised him, even more, was the change in Devin’s demeanor. Gone was the sarcastic, goofy boy. He barely took his eyes off her and kept her hand in his at all times, looking from left to right.
Abruptly, Emori stopped walking. Devin stopped right after.
“What’s wrong?” he said as he leaned down for her to whisper into his ear.
Their dynamic confused Cassian, but he kept silent. Devin turned to him, looking slightly more uneasy than before.
“They’re waiting by the exit. Hundreds of them. We can’t go out this way.”
“This is the only way out. We’re in lockdown,” Cassian argued.
“I think that’s the point…”
It made sense, but Cassian was still doubtful. He needed to get outside to see if Eulalia was out there. It was way past three and he wasn’t even sure if she was in the palace when the lockdown started.
“How do you know?” Cassian asked Emori. There was no way he was turning back now for anything short of sure.
The glare that Devin shot him had him backing up as he put himself between Cassian and Emori.
“She said it’s a trap, so it’s a trap. We’re going back upstairs,” Devin said slowly.
He wasn’t sure where that had come from but he wasn’t looking to get into it with Devin right now. Holding his hands up in surrender, Cassian conceded.
“Fine.”
Leading Devin by his hand, Emori walked ahead of them as they started back in the direction that they came.
