The decision is made to go back to the same Wasteland we’d already been to, the one that Gryphon had nearly died in when we’d gone back to rescue Unser and found the second Trigger.
The one Gabe’s dragon had come to life in.
There’s intel now to say that after we’d left the area, it had only gotten worse. More Gifted were being brought in to die, and even some non-Gifted were being lured in to be used as cannon fodder. That had been horrifying enough to me, the cruelty of using people who have no chance to fight back or defend themselves, but then North says, grimacing, “We suspect that they’re also experimenting on the non-Gifted. We don’t have any solid proof of it yet, but my guess is that whoever was in the camp and killed Nox is responsible for the deaths that we are finding there. If we go to the Wastelands now, we need to go in prepared to face them again.”
A chill runs down my spine.
We’re ready to face them, my bond whispers to me. I let my eyes slip shut as I concentrate on it for a moment, blocking the room out to focus.
How are we ready? How has anything changed from a few weeks ago? Other than Nox and I soul-bonding, we know what we’re facing this time, and we’re all going in together.
Okay, well, now that I list it out, I guess a lot has changed. It still doesn’t feel like enough. I’m not sure it’ll ever really feel like enough.
The others are nearly ready.
Why does that feel ominous? I most certainly do not know what the hell is going on here, but my bond shuts up, and I guess that’s all I’m going to get out of it today.
There’s a gentle hand on my elbow, and I open my eyes to find Sage standing with me. She’s already dressed in Tac gear, and my eyebrows fly towards my hairline as I take in the sight of her.
“You’re coming with us?”
She smiles and nods, glancing over to where Kieran is glaring us both down, and I try not to smile teasingly back at him. “Tac numbers are down. When Gryphon and Kieran were discussing how best to go about this, Gray and I decided that enough is enough. We can’t just sit around here in the Sanctuary any longer while you all go out to keep us safe.”
I turn around to find Gray laughing with Gabe as he shrugs into a jacket. “Holy shit. How is Sawyer taking this?”
Sage shrugs and lifts up her hand, a small ball of flames appearing and then just resting there against her skin without leaving a mark. “I’m a Flame and he’s a Telekinetic. There’s not a huge amount that Sawyer could do to stop us from helping out, and even Kieran couldn’t argue now that our abilities are getting stronger.”
I give Gray one last sidelong look before turning back. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
I’m not doubting her at all. I know she can do it, but Sage has always struggled with her opinions of herself, and she hasn’t had an easy time lately. After Dara’s death, she had taken weeks to feel comfortable enough to walk around the Sanctuary again, even with her Bonded at her side, so I’m mostly gauging where she is mentally.
She nods quickly and drops her hand back down, snuffing out the flames without even trying. “I’m ready. I’m definitely ready to stop watching Kieran walk out the door and wondering if he’s going to come back. After what happened with Nox, I’d rather stay close to him. Also, things are getting better with Riley and, once he gets the all clear from Felix, he wants to join too.”
That’s news to me.
The last I had heard, they still weren’t sure that Riley would be able to make a full recovery. I reach forward to grab Sage’s hand, squeezing her fingers gently. “I’m so glad he’s feeling better.”
I mean it too.
There’s a layer of guilt in me whenever I think of Sage’s other Bond, but it’s grown and become more complicated now. I’d hated him, loathed the man, for how he’d treated her, when really he was being controlled.
Abused.
If I think about it too hard, I’ll puke.
Sage gives me a small smile and nods her head, glancing down at her feet. “He’s different, very different from the guy I loved growing up. But he’s also ready to channel the anger in him at what happened to us all into joining the fight. Felix offered to come too so that we had a medic on site, but North and Gryphon didn’t want to risk him. He’s still the best Healer we have, even if the Medical Board wants to throw him out.”
I huff and roll my eyes, still just as furious about this as I had been the first time she’d told me. When everything is said and done with the Resistance, I am completely on board with North firing all of them. I still sort of think he should kick them out of town and let them fend for themselves if they’re all so high and mighty.
“They’re all gutless, fearmongers who are trying to grasp desperately at power,” Gray says as he steps up behind us, fidgeting with the straps over his chest that hold the gun holsters at his side. I notice that he has two more guns than I do, and I shoot a look at Gryphon.
He shrugs at me with a smirk. “You don’t need them. I’ve never actually seen you draw a weapon before. You only have them to distract people from the real weapon you wield.”
I know he’s just trying to flatter me to distract me from my anger, but I refuse to let it work.
“I need more guns,” I say in my most insistent voice, and Gryphon shakes his head at me.
“Start using the ones you’ve got, and then I’ll think about it. We’re not wasting firepower just to look good.”
I raise my eyebrows at him and bounce on the balls of my feet a little. “You think I look good in them?”
Sage giggles beside me and Gray makes a huffing noise, like we haven’t spent months watching he and Sawyer fall over their feet at each other, so he doesn’t really have much of a leg to stand on here.
“Right, we’ll go through the plan one more time, just to be sure that everybody is on the same page here,” North says as he walks over to us.
At this point, I’ve seen him in his TacTraining gear a million times, but it still sends flutters through my belly. His hair isn’t slicked back like it usually is. Instead, there’s a few errant curls resting at his temple, and I have to physically resist the urge to tuck them back behind his ear.
As he begins to speak, Nox walks over to join us, looking analytically over every TacTeam member who has been assigned to come with us, as though he is making his own decisions on them. His eyes bounce over Sage and Gray without much thought, and it warms me a little. While neither of them have ever tried to hide the fact that they didn’t like him much, he knows that they’re both good at what they do.
“This is a clean out. We need all of the Shields taken out and every last member of the Resistance to be dealt with before we leave.”
Rockelle nods from across the room and clears his throat to get North’s attention, interrupting, but in the most respectful way I’ve seen him act. “I just want to confirm that this is a ‘no prisoners’ mission before we move out.”
North nods at him and then speaks again, looking around the room. “These people have nothing that we need, so unless there are extenuating circumstances, we’re not planning on giving anyone a ride home today.”
A ride home.
The politest way that North can say that we’re going there with the intention of killing them all.
It doesn’t bother me. I’m not squeamish about this and, if anything, it will be good to get my bond back into the swing of things after the soul bonding. It’s been quieter and less bloodthirsty, which should be a good thing considering how much I normally hate its demanding and vicious ways, but honestly, I’m a little freaked out at how docile and sleepy it’s been.
Maybe the energy boost of the souls we’ll consume there is exactly what it needs.
I swallow around nervousness that is a lump in my throat and tuck my hand into Gabe’s, leaning into his side a little as we both listen to the tactical plan that North lays out. I already know it by heart, having spent most of the last two days going over it all with my Bonded, but watching him explain it all to the TacTeam gives me the opportunity to watch how they all process it.
These are the most trusted men that Gryphon leads, and even Rockelle is hanging on to North’s every word, no messing around or added attitude out of him at all as he listens to what is expected of his team.
“The most important thing here is that we are not leaving until the Wasteland is shut down. Leaving them open is about the worst thing that we can do, and we’ve had our hands tied the last few missions, but that isn’t going to be happening anymore. We go in, we take them out, and we leave no survivors behind. Any questions?”
When no one raises their hands, he nods again decisively. “Then let’s move out.”
When my feet hit the ground at the Wasteland, it’s as though we’ve traveled to a different planet.
It looks nothing like it had before.
Although it has only been a few days since we were last here, it might as well have been months. The bodies that are still strewn around, left behind wherever they died, are in various states of decomposition, the process sped up by maggots and whatever other wildlife has managed to survive in this place. I try not to gag at the sight of them feasting on the fallen Resistance here. Thankfully, the TacTeam members who had died here when the Trigger attacked us all had been brought home, and I’m not about to see any familiar faces in the fields of dead.
Gryphon’s hand brushes my neck slightly to relieve some of the sickness pooling in my gut. When he’s finished with me, he does the same for Sage, who has a hand clamped over her mouth as she tries not to breathe in any of the horrific smells around us.
Kieran stays tucked in close to her side, as though he is desperate to transport her back home, but the moment that Gryphon steps away from her, she drops her hand away and gives her Bonded a curt nod.
Now isn’t the time for me to smile at her or acknowledge just how amazing my best friend is. I always knew she was stronger than anyone gave her credit for. She isn’t reacting to any of this any worse than I am, and I have been around a hell of a lot of death.
Gryphon starts making hand signals to disperse everyone. Once his team is in a formation, he looks back, nodding to me. I let my eyes slip shut as I reached down to speak to my bond.
I hope you’re hungry, because we have a big job to do today.
It’s slow to answer me, They’re all pathetically small. Not worth my time.
A meal’s a meal, right? Our Bonded deserve some power.
That piques its interest a little more, just enough that it reaches out to each of our Bonded to check in with them, and it stays with Nox for longer than any of the rest.
They’re not in danger.
Honestly, I could kill it for acting like this. I know, but you said it yourself, we need to bring the fight to the Resistance.
This isn’t fighting. This is cleaning up and they’re not worth my time.
I sigh and open my eyes back up, meeting Gryphon’s gaze and shrugging. “There’s no one here strong enough to be a concern.”
Sage exhales like I’m saying something reassuring, but Gryphon knows exactly what I mean and nods back at me slowly, signaling once more to the teams around us, and then we’re moving. It would be much easier if my bond would just take everyone out instead, but I guess there’s nothing wrong with getting a good view of everything that has happened.
There’s a lot we can learn from the destruction.
The giant craters that we come across make my stomach sink, each of them a monument to how close I’d come to losing Gryphon. As we move, I watch the air shimmer around us. The power of the Wasteland slowly begins to fade as the Shields get taken out, one by one.
It’s clear that the Resistance has given up using this space for anything other than a place to send their enemies to die.
At first, that was all I thought that the Wastelands were, but with Nox’s memories and experiences in my head, I now know better. These places are used as a training ground, a place to test powers and as somewhere they can bring their prisoners to be broken and turned into soldiers. It’s exactly why they’d brought Aro here, a young girl they needed to see death and destruction so that she would lose herself enough to join them. It’s a wonder that they had never brought me to a Wasteland, though I suppose Davies planned on breaking me in a very different way.
He got closer than I’d like to admit.
When we get to the drop-off zone that had been used to funnel people in and out, the landscape around it is even more bleak than anywhere else that we have been today.
The area that had clearly once been a road is nothing more than rubble, and even the bodies that had been left behind are nothing more than bones loosely wrapped in clothing. My stomach dips in warning at the same time that my bond finally decides that something here is worth its time, but before it can say anything, I hear another voice in my head.
They’re here. I glance over to see Nox’s eyes shift to black as his bond takes the helm, shadow creatures bursting out around us.
I glance over to North, and the last thing I see before my bond takes over, are his eyes shining back at me; black, depthless voids as his own shadows come out to play.
Oleander’s bond
The soul-bonding had drained more energy than I care to admit, and it was my own anger that had stopped me from just devouring the souls of our enemies here. It doesn’t help that the Gifted currently here in the Wasteland are nothing more than crumbs to me.
What I really need is a feast.
The transporting area is still live. Our appearance here, along with the deaths of the Shields, has clearly sounded some sort of alarm to the Resistance, chiming like a dinner bell and sending them into a flurry to strike back at us. It’s nothing more than a carelessly laid trap, because I’m ready to deal with them all personally.
I’m ready for all of my Bonded to benefit from the power I can give them.
The first wave of people through the Transporter zone are instantly consumed by the shadow creatures, the sounds of their screaming and tearing flesh like music to my ears. I’m not upset to miss out on their deaths, especially not when the strongest among them is brought to me by August, his large jaws clamping around the Gifted’s neck as he drags him across the rubble to me.
My Dark Bonded looks down at it with critical eyes and then back up at me, quirking an eyebrow and gesturing down to it. “Is this a declaration of love? Am I watching the gods court one another right now?”
I sink down onto my knees as I scratch behind the shadow creature’s ear, giving it the same affection that the girl always does and watching as it melts beneath my touch. I have never interacted with the shadows the way that she has, but I find myself wanting them to love me the same way they love her, exuberantly and with everything they have.
“Thank you for the meal,” I murmur, and then I tear the Gifted’s soul out without another thought, consuming it whole and letting the energy fill me. Well, it’s more like a small trickle into a dam, nowhere near enough to actually fill me. However, as more and more Resistance transport here in an attempt to stop us from taking out the Wasteland, I start to have my fill, until there is a pile of bodies at my feet.
Finally, finally, I feel as though I am truly alive again.
The next wave that comes through, I take out myself before the shadow creatures can reach them, quenching their life forces with nothing more than a thought. This time, I filter all of the power to my Damaged Bonded One, sending him what extra I have. I watch as his back straightens a little more, the heavy weight that was on his shoulders easing as the last of the damage done to him is repaired.
Now we’re ready. Now we can go hunting.
The Damaged Dark One turns to look at me. His shadow creatures are running around us all, still feasting on the bodies of our enemies around us in a perfectly vicious massacre. He ignores everyone as he steps towards me, the black, inky stain of his power creeping up his arms as he reaches for me.
Oh, how I’ve missed him.
I let him take me into his arms, but when he leans down to me, instead of kissing me, he murmurs quietly, “Finish it. Take everything from them like they tried to take everything from us.”
With renewed energy, I cast out my Gift to feel everything within the Wasteland, every living creature, and I focus on those Shields that are keeping this place running. Most of them are nothing more than shells themselves, their minds broken by the torture they were subjected to. One by one, I snuff them out. I take the essence of their lives and pull it into myself, however small, until finally the shimmer of their Gifts fall away from us, and we can once again see what lies outside of the barren battlefield.
The girl is shocked to hear the sounds of cars and life around us. We find ourselves standing in the middle of a busy town, one that the Resistance had no problem tearing a hole in.
It’s banal and completely normal-looking, except for the edges where the death and destruction begins. It looks like the everyday sort of country town where nothing ever happens.
Nothing until our enemy came here.
