Resurrection Read online

  I swallow, and struggle to my feet. It feels all kinds of wrong to be leaving him here, shell or no shell. How can I be so cold, so callous, to leave him here and save what remains of myself? But I have to. I have others who need me, other battles to fight.

  We burst into a clearing, but the van careens ahead of us and blocks our exit. We turn in another direction, but six armed guards surround us in seconds. One of them is wielding an electric whip, like the one the leader of the Chosen used before. It pulses with energy.

  We have no where to go.

  “Surrender,” says the man with the whip. His voice is so like the Director’s… and his face is familiar too. He’s definitely the leader. Maybe all megalomaniacs sound and look the same, like a hunger for power crusts your very skin.

  “I should warn you, surrendering isn’t really in my nature.” I summon my flames, brandishing them like daggers. The leader’s eyes glint hungrily, like I’ve flashed gold in front of him.

  “Ashe…” says Nick warningly.

  “Fine,” replies the leader. “Shoot the boy. Save the girl.”

  “No!” I step in front of Nick and burn the bullet before it can touch him, but the electric whip catches around my ankle and drags me to the floor. My blood burns. I writhe, twitching like a moth on fire. Nick yells at them to stop, his voice like glass, and steps forward to try and yank the whip away. A gun is raised, and the next scream is my own.

  Nick falls to the ground beside me, his eyes wide and searching. His stomach is covered in blood, and his hands clutch at the wound, desperately trying to staunch it. I struggle towards him, but a white-hot pain strikes me in the back, and keeps striking until every atom of my strength has dribbled away.

  Chapter 58

  I’m not unconscious for long. I drift in and out, too weak to move, my hands wrapped in chains. I’m awake when we’re thrown in the back of an armoured vehicle, although not enough to fight back when they clip my chains to the floor and slam the doors behind them. I race upwards seconds later, but my chains aren’t long enough to reach the exit. I am yanked back like a dog on a chain.

  These aren’t fireproof manacles. I could burn my way out of them, possibly. If I heated up the whole space, I could blow out the doors–

  “Ashe…”

  Nick. Nick is in here with me, curled up in the corner and bleeding. It’s enough that he’s not moving, even with the Nemean coursing through his veins.

  I call out his name and race towards him. My chains give me just enough room. The front of his jacket is covered in blood. I’m not going to lose him. I can’t.

  Oh God, Joni. Joni, Joni, Joni...

  “You idiot, you idiot,” I hiss. “What were you even thinking?”

  “I wasn’t really thinking,” he wheezes.

  I pull up his clothes and examine the wound. It’s a through-and-through. No bullet. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think it’s hit anything major. It’s in a similar place to the wound I received escaping the Institute the second time. The blood though…

  “I’m going to cauterise it,” I tell him, summoning flames into my palm. “Hold still.”

  “Wait–”

  I don’t bother giving him any more warnings or instructions. I don’t need to tell him to bite down on anything or keep still. He won’t move. He can’t feel anything.

  Except, of course, he does. His back arches in pain the second the flames are applied, and his scream fills the space.

  I drop my hands away.

  “You… you can feel that.”

  Nick clutches his side, struggling into a sitting position, breathing heavily. “I tried to tell you.”

  I should have known. I should have noticed. He screamed out when he was shot. His eyes were different. They’d been different before, but I wasn’t paying attention.

  “You… you can feel again?”

  “Yes.”

  “How… how much?”

  “Everything,” he whispers, “I can feel everything.”

  It’s not real. It’s not true. It can’t be possible. It can’t be possible that everything I’ve hoped for is here, right here, at the worst of all moments. I’d imagined so many times what I would say to him if I had him back, but now I’m at a complete loss for words. They turn gummy in my mouth.

  “When, when did you…”

  “When Mi went on that mission, a few weeks ago.”

  “The mission…”

  “Wasn’t exactly a mission, no. Rudy knew, though. Gave us a safehouse in the woods, somewhere I couldn’t procure anything. Mi was there to look after me, make sure I didn’t do anything stupid. And… he was the only one strong enough to stop me if I tried to escape.”

  “I… I could have done that. I would have done that.”

  Nick shakes his head. “I’ve caused you enough pain. I couldn’t put you through that.”

  I recall the hollow look in Mi’s eyes when he returned. If that was what it was like for him, someone who was used to looking after people… what must it have truly been like? My mind flashes back to the textbook, pasting Nick’s image over that hollow man’s.

  “But… how? Why?”

  “I… I had a moment,” he explains. “I don’t know if it was during our fight, or watching you with Gabe, or when you… when you kissed me… but I felt something. A fraction of a thing. And in that moment, I knew I had to feel again, and act quickly before I lost resolve.”

  “It… it was me?”

  Nick raises a hand and thumbs my cheek. “It was always you.”

  “But why didn’t you–”

  “I was going to. That… that was all I wanted to do. The minute I was clean, the minute my head was clear… all I could think about was getting home to you, begging for your forgiveness, but when I got back…”

  “Gabe,” I whisper. Gabe. I’d forgotten all about him, trapped in here. How would I tell him about this? How would he ever be sure that I didn’t have feelings for Nick? I cannot hide anything from him.

  “I figured that was my punishment for not stopping sooner,” Nick continues. “For hurting you as I had. I… I still wanted to tell you. I didn’t want to hide it, but there was never a moment–”

  “I’m not mad at you for your silence,” I whisper. “I get it. Some things are hard to talk about. But…” But where does this leave us? What do I do next?

  Then a sharp memory slices through me. I clutch my hand to my mouth. “Oh! I told all those terrible things I did–”

  Nick reaches out and tugs my fingers away. He kisses the tips, sending shivers of electricity straight through me. “It’s all right. I never minded. You’re still the same to me.”

  I have touched him before, since we were reunited, but not like this. Before, he was clay and rubber. His touch gave me nothing but heartache. But now, now… the mere brush of his skin across mine makes me soar.

  I reach out and slide my hand over his free, immobile fingers. “Can you feel that?”

  They twitch under mine, and he links them together. “Yes.”

  “And this?” I pull his hand to my lips and kiss them.

  “Yes.”

  “And this?”

  I cup my free hand against his cheek. His lips turn to touch my palm, but before they meet, I’ve pulled both hands free, grabbed his face, and slammed my mouth against his. We sag against the wall of the van and I kiss him as fiercely as I did in my dreams, as fiercely as I imagined doing when we were reunited. He is here, he is here.

  Nick groans, and I jolt back. He’s still bleeding, still hurting. I need to seal the other side of the wound.

  “It’s all right,” says Nick. “I’ll be fine. I can’t die after that.”

  “You better not.”

  “Sorry,” he breathes, “I’m all human and breakable again.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I always quite liked your human qualities.”

  “But the breakable parts?”

  “A little less so, I’ll admit.” I lean forward and touch his wound g
ingerly. “Nick, I’m really sorry, but I need to close the other side of the wound.”

  “Yeah, I was afraid of that.” He rolls slightly to his side. “Just do it quickly.”

  I press one palm to his back and slide the other round his front. “Hold onto my hand,” I tell him.

  Nick smiles weakly. “Julia would offer me a lollipop, but I think I prefer this.”

  His Nick-ness almost breaks me, as if my heart were a fragile piece of porcelain, cracking on the mere suggestion of how much I missed him, how much I wanted him.

  I ignite the flames. Nick’s body spasms underneath me, his fingers clenching mine. I can still hear his screams under the roar of the fire, but it’s over quickly.

  “I lied,” he hisses, breathing hard, “I’ll take the lollipop.”

  I pull down his clothes. There’s nothing I can do to soothe the burns, but the bleeding, at least, has stopped. As long as he has no internal damage, he should be OK. In pain, scarred for life, but OK.

  I only realise I’m crying when the tears reach my mouth.

  “Ashe?” Nick twists carefully around. “What is it?”

  I burned you again. I scarred you again. You’re hurt again, because of me… and you’re back. You’re back. I’m finally, truly, completely home.

  “I’m sorry,” I weep instead.

  “It’s all right, it’s fine, don’t worry.” He pulls me gently into his chest. “I’m so sorry I went away.”

  “I was so mad at you…”

  “I remember.” His fingers wind into my hair.

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “I missed you too.” His breathing becomes shallow. “God, how I missed you…”

  His lips glide once more to mine, his hands slide round my back, and his warmth spreads through me. I am gathered into his flesh, burning, malleable. The words he wrote swim around us, and his longing pours into me. I do not need an empathic connection; I could die in this embrace.

  Nick shudders away, struggling for breath and clearly in pain.

  “We need to get out of here,” I declare.

  “Any chance I could be all noble and convince you to leave me behind and save yourself?”

  “After that? No chance.”

  I grab fistfuls of the chain and start to melt it off. It takes longer than I would like. Are they taking us back to that abandoned place? How much time do we have?

  The van draws to a halt.

  “What’s the plan?” Nick asks.

  “Oh, you know, the usual. Burn my way out of here. Kick down whoever is on the other side.”

  “Good plan.”

  We both ignore the part where we have no idea what is on the other side of that door, how many there are, what equipment they’ll have… or how I’ll get Nick out if I’m fighting against a dozen of them. I have some vague plan of getting round to the front of the van and driving off in it, if I can find the keys. It’s the most sensible idea I have yet.

  There’s the noise of something being dragged across the ground, banging on the van, someone climbing onto the roof. No voices. Are they… do they know I’ll be able to hear them? Are they communicating another way? I press my ear to the wall, hoping to get a better idea, but a small hole opens up in the roof and a hose is shoved through on full blast. I am soaked through in seconds, the floor of the van coated.

  “What–” I start.

  “Ashe!”

  I see it seconds before it falls; a small, glowing, miniature device, spitting out sparks. When it hits the floor, it erupts into lines of blue, coursing electricity. Nick screams, writhing against the side of the van, as I hit the centre. My eyes fall back in their sockets. There are voices now, calling, muttering, but they slosh around my eardrums. I cannot make them out.

  The back of the van is wrenched open, people coming forward, brandishing new chains, tasers. I try to raise my arms to stop them, but my limbs don’t move. They twitch soundlessly beside me, like dying fish.

  There is nothing I can do but close my eyes.

  Chapter 59

  I awake on a hard stone floor, completely sodden, my head raised just a little above the ground. I’m in a vast stone space, vaulted, devoid of natural light, and filled with several inches of water. My hands are wrapped in chains again, and they don’t move. They’re completely submerged. Clever. I can’t start a fire this way.

  I glance around the space. There are huge stone slabs and structures, the size of coffins, and the remains of several statues dotted around the room… one of which was serving as my pillow.

  “Nick!” I call out. “Are you here?”

  “Here…” he answers weakly.

  I turn towards his voice. He’s a few feet away, chained to a wall, half-hidden behind a pillar.

  “Are you all right?” I ask.

  “I’ve been better, although the water is actually kinda soothing… you?”

  I flex all the muscles I can, focus my sight, my hearing. Nothing amiss. “I think I’m fine. Where are we?”

  “A crypt in an abandoned cathedral, I think.” He glances at me. “That’s a holy place–”

  “My name was Eve. You don’t think I know what a cathedral is?”

  “I’m sorry, you just seemed confused about where we were–”

  “I’ve never… I’ve never seen a place like this before, that’s all.”

  “Right.” He is quiet for a moment. “I keep forgetting you were Eve.”

  “What?”

  “You never told me. First I heard it was on the video you released. You hadn’t mentioned it before.”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  “I didn’t see why I would. You were always Ashe to me. She was the person I wanted to be with.”

  She’s the person that wants to be with you, too.

  “Eve did kinda suck, if I’m honest," I tell him. "Never had much patience with her.”

  He grins. “You don’t have much patience with anyone.”

  “I–” I stop shortly. “That’s very true.”

  “Hey, Ashe?”

  “Yeah?”

  “How are we getting out of here?”

  I swallow, considering our very limited options.

  “I guess we hope that Xaph finds the others, and they come back for us.”

  Nick sighs. “That’s right. Xaph escaped.”

  We both spare a moment, silently thinking of Joni. Poor, tiny Joni, whose body is still lying out there in the woods. I am sorry, Joni, I am sorry I could not make you faster. I am sorry I let you down.

  “Does… does Xaph know how to track?” Nick asks.

  The truth is, I don’t know. Gabe can, of course, but if Xaph can’t lead them back to the right starting point…

  And honestly, even Gabe, Bullet and Lili aren’t much of a force, not against a building this size, and the weapons in their arsenal. If they locate us, the most sensible thing to do would be to fetch back-up. That could be hours.

  And The Chosen… they were prepared. They may not have anticipated my stumbling onto them, but they’d made a good rudimentary prison. It’s almost like… they were expecting to see me, at some point.

  The hungry look in the leader’s eyes flashes before me.

  “Gabe will find us,” I insist, because I have to believe something will happen. I don’t have many other options, unless someone comes down with a key…

  Nick groans. “Yes, being rescued by my ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend. The perfect end to a lovely day.”

  “Nick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why were you out in the woods today?”

  He pauses. “I just wanted to be close to you.”

  “I… how did you know that’s where I was?”

  “I didn’t. I just… I used to go out there a lot, OK? When I thought you were dead. It was kinda our spot.”

  “Where I burned you?”

  He shrugs. “Some people are worth burning for. Some people are worth walking through hell for.”

  And h
e did, I think, remembering the words of his diary, the gaunt look in the eyes of that Nemean patient in withdrawal. He had gone through hell because of me, and for me, and I had felt it all when I returned to find him gone. And yet… some people were worth it. He certainly was. I wouldn’t erase our time together for the pain that followed, no matter what happens next.

  There is sound above us, along the stone corridor. A door opens. Someone is coming down, someone in a long red robe, brandishing a whip. The leader. He smiles when he sees I’m awake. I hate that he was confident enough to come down by himself, that he knows how powerless I am at the moment. I want to tear that grin from his face.

  “Good evening, Eve.”

  I freeze, before remembering that I did a video declaring who I was to the world. He isn’t from the Institute. He doesn’t know me that way.

  “Evening,” I return, as stiffly as I can manage.

  “I have to apologise for this rudimentary cell. I know it can’t be very comfortable.”

  “You think?”

  “It was the best we could do at short notice. We weren’t expecting you so soon.”

  I don’t like the fact that they were expecting me at all, but I don’t want to let him know this. Anything I say now will just make me sound weak and helpless. Why am I here? What do you want with me?

  “It’s very exciting to finally have you here. Our members are delighted. We’ve been waiting for you for a long, long time.”

  I stare at him, waiting for him to elaborate. He waits for my question.

  “So, she’s not going to ask,” says Nick, craning his neck forwards, “but I’m quite curious. Why do you want her?”

  The leader glares at him, as if Nick were a flea on his arm he’d only just noticed. “Why, she is to be the saviour of humanity. It was written long ago: one will rise to rain down on the corruption, to burn away the world of old. It shall be reborn in fire and ash.”

  A stillness passes over the room. I want to laugh. It’s so ridiculous. Rudy was afraid of these idiots? Of some ancient words in a text that likely included no shortage of other daft things? What else was there? 'Thou shalt always wear red on a Wednesday?' 'Thou must only talk in pretentious language?' 'Thou shalt perform the hokey-pokey every evening?'