Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)

“Kovacs!”


It was the only sound that penetrated. Turning my head, my gaze latched on aqua eyes. He was still strapped to the table, soaking wet, blood tricking out of his nostrils. I was snapped out of my trance in an instant, darting over to him. My fingers unlatched his binds, helping him sit up. I felt no buzz between us. The link burned out. But I no longer feared it wouldn’t come back.

“You okay?” Lights spurted and fizzed overhead; just a few on the far wall still lit the room enough to see. The place was quiet of voices, which twisted my gut, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

“Had better days,” he grunted, sliding off the table, his arm around me, legs dipping when he tried to put his weight on them. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Yeah...” I took one step, my focus taking in the object only feet away, laying in the debris, the water retreating down a drain.

“Caden!” I ran for the body, falling down next to him, water going up to my hips, panic thundering my pulse in my ears. “Oh, gods. Be okay... be okay.” I pressed my fingers into his neck.

Did I do this? Did I kill him?

“Caden, come on.” My arms shook as I leaned over him, trying to feel any breath. I didn’t hesitate, starting CPR, my hands pressing into his chest, my mouth covering his, blowing air into his lungs.

“Please...” Panic quaked my voice and tears burning my lids before slipping down my face. I recalled so many key memories with my best friend. “You can’t leave me.” I pumped harder, trying to give him life. Once again, my magic was gone when I needed it the most—to save someone I cared about.

“Brex...” Warwick’s tone said everything, his hand reaching out for mine over Caden’s chest. The moment Warwick’s hand touched him, a wheezing gasp heaved Caden upright, his eyes bursting open wide. And I swear I saw his eyes glow, as if fire was burning behind the brown, before he blinked, and they were normal again.

“Oh my gods, Caden!” A cry broke free, my arms wrapping around him. Pulling back, I peered at him. He looked confused and disoriented.

“What the fuck happened? How...?” He looked around.

The shouts of soldiers heading our way from other parts of the underground building volleyed into the room.

“Come on!” Warwick got to his feet as I helped Caden up. “We’ve got to go now.”

Caden was weak, dazed, but alive.

“Do you think you can make it?” I held on to my friend as he swayed on his feet, barely keeping upright.

“No, I don’t think I can.” Caden whispered, his voice rough and scratchy.

A hacking cough and groan came from behind us, spinning me to the noise.

Istvan was stirring awake.

“Go, Brex.” Caden’s gaze went from him to me. In that moment, I saw the love he still had for me. The part of him that would always choose me over his father.

“I won’t leave you.”

“You have to.” He touched my face. “Just know, the moment I went back to HDF—I had to act as though I was with him.”

“Act?”

“I was never against you.” He dropped his hand away. “Now go!” His attention went to Warwick; a pointed expression passed between them. Warwick dipped his chin, answering Caden’s unspoken words.

Warwick moved to me, grabbing my arms.

“No!” I tried to fight him.

“Brexley, go.” Caden helped push me. “I can’t leave her.”

“Leave who?” I asked, while Warwick was leading me toward the exit. “I don’t understand. Come with us!”

“I can’t.” Sorrow flickered over Caden’s face. “I won’t leave my mother.”

My mother.

“Wha-what?” I sputtered in shock. “Your mother?” The pieces were clicking into place—the woman in the back cage before the door shut. The image of her huddled on the floor, her eyes meeting mine briefly. Nothing about her would be recognizable as the elegant, graceful perfection of the woman I grew up with—the one who could be a queen. This woman was dirty, gaunt, beaten, scared, and in filthy rags.

Except for the eyes. Her son’s eyes.

“Oh, my gods...” My hand went to my mouth, the realization knocking like a drum. “Rebeka.” She was here. This is where Istvan had hidden his wife. Was he using her as a lab experiment?

Yells from guards, followed by a groan from Istvan, captured Caden’s attention.

“Go,” he ordered again.

“No, I won’t leave either of you.”

“You don’t have time, Brex.” Caden wheezed, his throat raw, his legs still unstable. “He will kill you. He’ll kill both of you.”

Warwick gripped me tighter, trying to get me to move as pounding steps came for us. Time was running out.

“What about you?” My feet shifted with Warwick, but I still leaned toward Caden.

“I’ll be fine,” Caden said to me, but his gaze went to Warwick. It was odd, but I felt them understand each other. A nod of the head.

“Állj!” Stop! A bark came from the main doorway.

We whirled for the only other exit out of here, the one leading back to the cells.

“Get them!” I heard Istvan’s voice strain, climbing up to his feet. “Shoot to kill!”

“Fuck!” Warwick hissed, both of us ducking as shots rang out over our heads, spraying sparks down on us. Ankle-deep in water, the equipment floated around like a minefield, slowing our retreat. I paused, swiping up a piece of debris I could use as a weapon—a broken piece of thin pipe with a jagged edge. It wasn’t a gun, but anything was better than nothing when guards and bullets were heading straight for us.

“Come on!” Warwick yanked me through deeper sludgy water, things bumping my leg. Peering down, a scream caught in my chest. A dozen dead bodies floated on the surface, some face down, some staring blankly above, but it was the one knocking into me that held my attention.

David Andor.

Seeing his lifeless carcass and empty eyes slithered around my ribs, tightening in and choking the air from my lungs. He was dead. All of them were dead. Not one person had survived in the tanks. I had killed them, whether with my magic or by cutting off their air. They had all perished.

Except Caden.

Bang! Bang!

A squeak lobbed up my throat as we ducked and weaved to avoid bullets. Warwick shoved the door, breaking us through to the familiar passage which led to our prison.

“Don’t let them escape.” Istvan’s voice boomed from behind.

“Where the fuck do we go?” Warwick yelled back at me, our feet pounding across the cement, our wet clothes weighing us down. “This leads us right back to our cells.”

Shit. Shit. Shit! My brain whirled, trying to figure a way out of here.

“There are three levels under the factory. Not only do they all join to each other, but the middle level leads straight to the Ferencvárosi railway station.” My conversation with Nora came back to me.

Another memory popped into my head when Ash and I were hiding behind the viewing dome a level above us.

“Tell Dr. Karl more shipment is coming in. I’ll prepare the side bay for their arrival.”

A shipment from the railway station.

The prisons and labs were the bottom level. The viewing bay was the second, and where Ash and I got into the fight with those soldiers had to be the first.

That meant...

“We need to go up,” I screamed as we continued running, the sound of guards gaining on us from behind. Tension sprang down my arms and legs, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. If there wasn’t a way out, we were just herding ourselves into a pen for Markos.

Trapped.

Dead.

Warwick’s boots pounded the ground, searching for any doors or way out, while we took the same route we had taken several times in the last few days.

“There are stairs behind that door.” A small voice brought me to a complete stop, whipping my head to a cage full of emaciated bodies and sorrow-filled faces of the fae children.

An older boy pointed his arm through the bars at what resembled a tiny closet, almost hidden in the wall. “Behind the door are stairs. I’ve seen them come in and out.”

Warwick started to run for the doorway.

I didn’t move a muscle.

“What are you doing?” Warwick growled, motioning me to hurry. “Come on, we don’t have time.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Not without them.”

“Kovacs...” He gritted his teeth, his gaze darting from the corridor soon to be filled with soldiers to the kids. “It’s impossible. We can’t save them right now.”

“I’m. Not. Leaving.” I shot every word to him. I hadn’t been able to save the little girl. And probably a hundred others similar to her. Like Rodriguez’s little sister. I still felt I owed it to him. To save someone’s sister, daughter, son.

Stacey Marie Brown's books