Numbers Ignite (18 page)

The mountains loomed ahead, black against a gray sky. A brown-red moon, nearly full, lit the dark wasteland before me. I shivered against the cold wind, impatient for my body to warm up. The only sounds were my boots pounding into the desert sand and my rhythmic breathing, heavier than it should have been. Sweat began to build in my hair, dripping down my cheek and curving under my chin. My injured ankle pulsed with a dull ache, intensifying by the minute. I used the pain to propel me forward. There was no time for rest, not with NORA desperate for my capture.

I tried to block out memories of the community I had just abandoned, but they kept seeping into my thoughts. Had they made it to the emergency shelter before NORA came knocking? Maybe Coltrane and Lillibeth were wrong about NORA. Maybe Dresden would negotiate with them, allow them to keep their home. Once they saw how peaceable those people were—

An explosion rocked the desert. Light flashed first, then the sound hit my ears, and I slid to a halt. A bomber plane turned overhead, then headed back for another pass. The bomb had hit near the hill where I’d just escaped.

No.

Fates. They were bombing the entire valley, starting on the far end. Trying to drive the settlers toward them. Whatever the soldiers had been waiting for, it seemed they had run out of patience. The attack had begun. And hundreds of innocent people below ground were about to meet their deaths, shelter or not.

It’s not too late. You can still turn yourself in.
Even if it didn’t stop the attack, it could at least buy a little more time.

But if I went back NORA, I was as good as dead. There were hundreds of witnesses and thousands of people who wanted justice in the deaths of their loved ones. I’d be executed, probably by punishment mode. But that wasn’t as painful as the realization that I’d never see Vance again—never find myself in his arms or lose myself in his kiss. He’d never know I loved him.

I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth, still standing there, thinking of Ruby’s disappointed frown when she’d found out who I was. Maxim’s accusations echoed by Lillibeth’s skepticism regarding my motives. The entire community’s suspicion. The shock in Coltrane’s eyes as he asked, “What
are
you?
”
The two vials of antivenom, hidden at the back of the medicine cabinet. I had every right to run away and find peace.

A lock of hair had escaped from where Lillibeth had pinned it. I brushed it out of my face and caught something rough. I fingered it, then pulled it out. Coltrane’s flower. Ruby’s favorite.

Perhaps you were on the wrong journey.
Ruby’s words. Dear, sweet Ruby.

The bomber jet grew louder overhead. There was little warning. The blast hit just north of the previous one. Light flashed and the ground rumbled beneath my boots. They were definitely trying to drive the settlers out. Coltrane had been confident in the community’s engineering, but there was no way it could withstand this.

Digit or not, I couldn’t let them die.

I cursed and sprinted back the way I’d come, waving my arms in the sky like a lunatic. “Stop!”

Overhead the noise of the bomber jet grew louder again. I waved more frantically and increased my speed, but I couldn’t pick my way very carefully in the dark. I tripped on my dress and fell, then jumped to my feet again, hollering to the jet. Any minute now, the soldiers would see me. They’d call off the bomber and come to get me. If I could just make myself known. The first bomb site was just to my right now.

The jet shot by overhead. There was no way the pilot hadn’t seen me. I put on a new burst of speed, stumbling through the pain in my ankle. “Please! Stop!”

A distinct whistle sounded in the night, and then the ground exploded in front of me. An incredible force threw me backward, and I flipped once, twice. My head whacked into something hard, and the blackness closed in.

I shook my head and forced my eyes open. I lay sprawled on the ground, my face coated in dirt. A horrible high-pitched ringing played on repeat in my ears. I forced enough air into my lungs to speak, but nothing came out. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear myself talk.

The desert was unrecognizable in front of me, torn up like a giant had hacked it apart with a shovel. Thick smoke blew sideways with the wind, but it was still too dark to see much else. If NORA was still out there, I couldn’t tell. I raised my head to look for the bomber jet. Either it was gone or the smoke was too thick to see it coming again.

I pushed myself to my feet and nearly fell over. I tried again. This time I stood slowly and let my head adjust. A few steps, and the smoke cleared for a second, just enough for me to see people coming in my direction. Running.

They wouldn’t be headed this direction if the bomber pilot was still a threat. The settlers below were safe for now.

The soldiers encircled me with stunners, at least forty of them, all wearing serious and determined expressions. I raised my hands in surrender. As they grabbed me roughly, locking my wrists together and saying words I couldn’t hear, I sighed with relief.

NORA’s camp was a harsh white under the brightness of a dozen work lights. The camp did indeed surround the north exit. Several soldiers stood around it with their stunners trained on a round hatch in the ground—a three-foot-wide metal opening. They’d apparently found a way to disable the camouflage feature.

The soldiers dumped me at someone’s feet. When I looked up to face my captor, I nearly fell over. “Mom?”

“Oh, honey,” she said with a gasp. Her eyes were tired, and she threw her arms around me. “I’m so glad you escaped those awful people.”

“What in the fates are you doing here?”

She pulled away. “They asked me to help with the search. I can only imagine how hard Dresden’s appointment must have been for you. What Konnor did was unforgivable.” She combed her fingers through my hair, which had flopped down into my face. “I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about the throne.”

“You honestly think I left because of some tantrum?”

She hesitated. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. Let’s get you home and safe. Are you injured? What—what in the fates are you wearing?”

I looked down at the sleeves of Lillibeth’s dress, damp with dark red stains. Coltrane’s blood. “I’m not hurt.”

“I can’t believe you survived down there for so long.” She turned to a female guard. “She needs some privacy to change. I brought a clean uniform for her. It’s in the second chopper, over there.”

The guard grabbed four others and then motioned me inside the helicopter as my mom had instructed. The women didn’t speak as I dressed, but I felt their eyes on me, every inch of me, until my uniform was zipped up. It felt a little baggier than usual. I hadn’t quite gained back the weight I’d lost in the desert.

They secured my wrists in front of me the moment I finished. I looked at Lillibeth’s dress on the floor, torn and stained almost beyond recognition. One of the women kicked it aside as we stepped out of the chopper.

“Mom,” I said when we reached her. “When are we leaving?”

She pursed her lips. “Commander Denoux has something he wants to take care of first.”

NORA’s general and councilman of war. The man who had smiled at my arrest just weeks before. “He’s here?” I looked around, but he was nowhere in sight. “What are we waiting for?” Her eyes met mine then, and my stomach plummeted. The pity I saw there was like a slap to the face. “
No.
No, Mom. I won’t let him do it!”

She shook her head. “Things are a little complicated right now, Treena. If we’d found you wandering in the desert, that’s one thing. But you uncovered a civilization hiding just hours from NORA’s borders.”

“They’re peaceful, Mom. They don’t even allow weapons. You have to help me!”

Another pause. “Treena, calm down. You need to act like an adult here for a moment.”

“You didn’t question my adulthood when I was the successor,” I hissed. “Look, those people saved my life when I got a snakebite. They fed me and gave me a bed to sleep in and offered to let me stay there forever. If the commander thinks I’m going to help him destroy these people, he’s wrong.”

“I’d think long and hard about that,” Commander Denoux said, stepping out of a nearby chopper. My mom jumped out of the chair and stood next to me, eyes on the ground.

Denoux sat down in the newly vacated chair like it was a throne, legs crossed. He faced me. “We’re not asking for you to shoot anyone, Ametrine. All we want to know is the layout of the settlement.”

I spoke through clenched teeth. “Not a chance.”

He sighed, the type of sigh that meant I was being unreasonable. “You’re in a very precarious position here, young lady. You’re defending a group hostile to our nation, which will not bode well for your trial.”

“I don’t care about that, and they’re not hostile.”

Denoux nodded to a guard. He locked my mom’s hands behind her, pausing for a moment to connect her bonds to her techband. She continued to stare at the ground, not looking surprised at all.

The message was clear: Mom wasn’t here to help. She was collateral. Denoux was using the same threat on me that he’d used on Vance. And why not? It had worked on Vance for two years.

Vance. I’d traded my chance to see him to save the settlers, and now I wouldn’t accomplish either.

“Treena, just tell them what they want so we can go home,” my mom said quietly. “Nobody will think less of you once you’ve done your duty. There’s something big happening. Dresden needs your help. Maybe after the trial you can take the throne back—”

“I don’t care about the stupid throne!” I snapped. I was angry—angry at my mom for letting herself be used, angry at Denoux for trying to use me, and at the settlement for making me care. It would be so easy to turn them over. But they didn’t deserve this. “Hundreds of people have already died trying to help me, Mom. I’m not letting hundreds more suffer the same fate.”

“That sounds very dramatic,” Denoux said. “But it comes down to this. All you’re doing is postponing what will happen anyway. You can minimize losses on our end by answering my questions, or you and your mother can die with them. Your young emperor friend will have to deal with it.”

I pushed away the panic spreading through my limbs. “Dresden and my stepfather, Councilman Dowell, would never believe it. You can’t hurt my mother without them realizing what happened, Denoux. It would be the end of your career.”