Page 11 of Shadowlands Omega

“And worse. He’s preparing the poles for them to hang from outside of the gates. And her, he’s going to do even worse to.” She gestures to Merlin with her chin, her short Afro matted and charred and tilted askew. “He’ll keep her down here for some time before he hangs her with the rest of them. He has plans for her.” She shivers — shivers — and that’s what does it for me.

“Cyprus, help me.”

“Help you? Help you with what?”

I run to the first of the steel gates trapping the six Trash City members that Yaron has planned to flay and hang. “I can heat up the lock.” I can. Because my hands are miracles. They cansave. “We have to bring them with us.”

“They’re criminals,” he scoffs.

“So are we,” I shout. I stare at him and he stares at me. Our standoff lasts until Mama says, “Please. He’ll be back soon. We need to hurry.”

Cyprus curses and rushes to my side. He places his hands on the bars near the lock while I use my palms to completely surround the place where the lock secures into the stone wall. “Count us down, Kia.”

Cyprus looks at me and I meet his gaze, and together, we break Trash City free. They stand together, smiling at us as they pass by. “Thank you,” a younger woman says to me. “I’m Angel,” she offers me her hand, then hesitates. “You’re not going to burn me, are you?”

I smile back and shake my head. “No. But you should hurry.” I don’t shake her hand, a little unsure of myself.

She’s not half so sure, and makes her way straight to the opening. Without hesitation, she jumps in, plummeting into the below where light cannot touch her. By the time the rest of Trash City has jumped into the abyss — all but one man who waits for their leader — Cyprus and I have freed her.

She’s in bad shape, badly beaten, slashed and sliced with what look like a Berserker beast’s claws, but she offers me a tip of her head and a smile to Owenna as she passes her. A wink, too, that I can’t quite make sense of.

“You’re a good kid,” she tells me as she turns to face me and slides her goggles, which she miraculously still has, from inside a pocket within her raggedy clothes and back onto her face. Her hair is entirely red with blood. “I’ll tell them to take it easy on ya.” She laughs, like she’s somewhere out in the light, not at all trapped in the darkest place in the world. “Not that they listen to me, though. Come on, Lou.”

“After you, Merlin.”

“Rendezvous point Z,” Merlin says, and the strangest thing about this entire miserable situation is that she’s looking at Owenna as she speaks.

Merlin disappears, followed closely by Lou. There’s a moment of silence, and then a splash, and then Owenna’s voice, “Let’s go.”

“Owenna, what was she…” Zelie starts, voice muffled from the bit of Dad’s shirt she’s got tied around her mouth. Mama hands me one and I’m slow to lift it as I watch and wait for Owenna’s response.

She doesn’t give it. Instead, she merely urges Zelie towards the opening and all but pushes her in. “Zelie, go!”

Zelie splashes into the darkness with a short screech, followed by Audet and Mama next. Cyprus helps Papa toward the opening and carefully lowers him into a seat on the opening’s lip.

“Come on, Kiandah. You next,” Owenna says. I go towards the hole in the ground, but I still hesitate.

“I…” think I should stay. My body wants me to stay. I can’t feel anything clearly, but I can hear the word in my head replaying on a loop, over and over and over again.Stay stay staystaystaystaystay.

And then another word, many of them, spoken out loud, in a voice that I’ve dreamed of, but that I now have no desire to hear for the rest of my existence. At least not in person. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Kia, come on!” Owenna yells.

But it’s too late.

It’s too late forall of us. But it’s not too late for them. Owenna tries to grab me but I dodge her hand and spin out of her grip, turning to face Yaron as he crosses the short, blood-spattered space between us in just two long steps. His gaze is pinned to Owenna and Cyprus at my back — until I start to run. I move towards him as fast as I can with both hands outstretched, and I feel it…a huge swell of sensation in both of my arms…

And then I trip. My feet stumble over the metal shackle on the floor that once caged one of my family members and I fall so hard that my feet momentarily leave the ground. I feel like I’m flying…directly at Lord Yaron.

His surprise is the only thing I register before our bodies collide. And in that final moment as his hand wraps around my upper arm, almost as if he’s trying to catch me and not kill me, the energy within me releases in a burst of blue fire and he goes flying into the stone behind him, taking out the entire contingent of his Crimson Riders.

They all fall, crimson coats catching fire. I fall, hitting the stone beneath me hard. It hurts. Everything hurts. My blanket's gone. My dad and brother are calling my name but with every ounce of everything left in me, I look back at them and fling my hand out, sending one last cascading flare of energy in a burst of orange light towards them, knocking them both back into Owenna, who falls into the hole in the floor first, followed by the other two. I hear the splash some moments later and, moments after that, I look up into Yaron’s furious grey eyes.

“What have you done?” He’s kneeling right in front of me.

Right. In front of me.

“Yaron,” I whisper, the word so wrong, so informal, yet so automatic.

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