A Dome of Blood Read online

  Her entire body hummed, as if she was transmitting a signal into outer space, or something. Her eyes were wide open, shining like headlights. Her breathing was even, and, upon checking her wrist, I noticed her pulse felt normal, too. It was as if she’d just fallen asleep after having swallowed the sun.

  I raised my head and looked around, hoping I’d see a familiar face. The Faulties I’d spotted earlier were gone, and the small fire in the middle had died out. We had a couple of hours left before departing. They all needed to rest a little before the next stage of our plan.

  I breathed out, wondering how long it would take for Kailani to wake up. Unlike the last time, it didn’t feel like something terrible was about to happen, but I couldn’t know for sure. The sooner she snapped out of it, the better.

  Footsteps made me turn my head. I couldn’t stop a gasp from leaving my throat.

  “Lumi!” I said.

  She stood about twenty feet away from us, clad in a long, dark blue dress with golden embroidery on the sleeves and along every hem. Her bright orange hair was pulled back in a bun, and her neck and face tattoos added a dramatic and unexpected contrast to the existing plethora of visual elements composing her. Her irises, white with blue edges, were fixed on Kailani.

  “She’s away,” Lumi murmured.

  “She passed out a few minutes ago. She’s been like this since,” I said. “How do I wake her up? What if she lets out another deadly pulse?”

  Lumi came closer, concern visibly etched into her features. She sighed deeply as she kneeled by Kailani’s side. “I’ve seen this before, with other witches. I’ve been through it myself, but my circumstances were quite different. We weren’t at war or running for our lives when we fused with the Word.”

  “What… What does that mean?” I asked, unable to follow her.

  “I’ve said it before, Hunter. The conditions of Kale’s apprenticeship have changed. She was supposed to have done it in peace and quiet, away from family and friends, away from pretty much anyone. Instead, she’s running around and trying to save people by using spells that she hasn’t fully internalized. She’s unstable, Hunter.”

  “How unstable?”

  “Nuclear-warhead-rolling-down-the-hill unstable,” she replied. I had to admit, her reference game had improved significantly since she’d studied Earth and its history. “These episodes she’s having are supposed to take place under quiet and tranquil conditions, not hidden in a cave and about to become Ta’Zan’s prisoner.”

  “Should we have her stay back and hide her here, then? Let her do her apprenticeship in peace?” I suggested, occasionally glancing down at the unconscious woman of my dreams, limp in my arms.

  Lumi smirked. “Do you think she’d let us do that? While we go off to Ta’Zan’s private zoo?”

  “What can we do, then?”

  “Try to rein it in. The apprenticeship cannot be stopped; you know that already. There are only two possible outcomes. Either the Word accepts or rejects her,” Lumi explained.

  “What happens if it’s the latter?”

  “She’ll live, but she’ll always feel empty on the inside. You see, the Word opens up before you, first. It gives you access to knowledge that has never even seen the light of day. Secrets of the universe. The origins of creation itself. If it accepts you, it will make them available to you, through a series of lengthy meditation processes. Frankly, I’ve only had time for about thirty. Out of approximately ten thousand. Though there could be more, since we can’t exactly put a limit on knowledge. I’m still incredibly ignorant, in a way.”

  “And if it rejects her, then what? It closes it all off?”

  “Precisely,” Lumi replied with a nod. “It takes it all away, and it leaves you with a feeling that you could’ve had it all. It doesn’t feel as bitter as a missed opportunity. It’s much worse. It could drive a person mad.”

  “Oh, good. Madness. Anything else we should be aware of?” I retorted sarcastically.

  “This apprenticeship is too bumpy,” Lumi said. “If she’s not careful or calm, it could kill her. This is her most fragile period, just before a so-called chrysalis stage. The last sleep before the great bloom.”

  The more I learned about swamp witches, the more worried I became. Nothing of what Lumi told me was soothing, in any way. There were more ways in which this could go wrong than ways in which it could go well, and that scared the daylights out of me.

  “Keep talking to her. She’ll hear your voice, eventually,” Lumi advised me, giving me a sad half-smile. “The only thing you can do for her is support her and make sure she’s as calm as possible, considering what’s ahead. If she doesn’t keep herself cool and open to these episodes, the entire process might kill her.”

  “Did she know about this when she signed up for it?” I asked, frowning.

  “I couldn’t reveal too much, as per the swamp witch traditions. But I warned her that it could be dangerous or even deadly if done incorrectly. The rest was up to her.”

  I shook my head slowly, then shifted my focus back to Kailani. I pressed my lips against her ear. “Come on, Kale. It’s getting lonely here without you. I need you,” I mumbled.

  “I have all the faith in her, you know,” Lumi said. “I wouldn’t have taken her on as an apprentice if I didn’t think she could pull through. Kale is incredibly strong. There is so much raw power inside of her. It flows naturally. It’s like music to my ears. The Word would be foolish to reject her.”

  “Provided she survives these blackouts, right?” I asked.

  Kailani moaned in my arms. I held my breath. She blinked several times, until the lights went out from her eyes. She looked at me, then exhaled sharply.

  “I was out again, wasn’t I?” she asked.

  I gave her a weak nod, then showered her with kisses, thankful to have her back. I could breathe again, and, as she hid her face in the small space between my neck and shoulder, Lumi told her what happened, and what it could mean for her future as a swamp witch.

  Once Lumi laid out all the facts she could disclose, like she’d done with me, Kailani cursed under her breath. “Well, I definitely picked the wrong time for this swamp witch stuff, huh?” she asked rhetorically.

  “You couldn’t have known,” Lumi replied. “We all thought you were coming to Strava for a simple recon mission, not this pile of trouble.”

  “Kale, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” I said to her.

  She smiled, then planted a kiss on my cheek—as if I’d just said the cutest thing, and as if I couldn’t be farther from the truth. “This one’s on me, Hunter,” she murmured. “I have to make sure I don’t blow myself up, and that, in the end, the Word accepts me. Though, I have no idea how I’m going to do that.”

  “Do you remember anything from this blackout?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. The rules.”

  “Screw the rules,” I grumbled.

  She wrapped her arms around my torso and glued herself to my upper body. I couldn’t really think straight when she did that. All I could focus on was her scent, filling my nostrils and flooding my mind with images of her, melting in my arms, the wind blowing through her hair and the ocean lapping at her feet.

  Thankful to have Kailani back, at least for the time being, I kissed the top of her head, then looked at Lumi. “I don’t know what else to do,” I said.

  “There’s nothing you can do, Hunter, except prepare yourself for the most difficult challenge yet,” Lumi replied. “Help Kailani keep her condition under control while you’re Ta’Zan’s prisoners. He’ll be particularly interested in her, and we don’t want him riling her up in any way. If she loses it, we’re all screwed.”

  As if things couldn’t get any worse. Kailani looked at me, her brow furrowed.

  “Hey, we never said this would be easy, right?” she said.

  Nothing ever was. My only concern was that Kailani had jumped on a ride she had absolutely no control over, and it was too late
for her to jump off and save herself. It killed me to see her like this and to know that there wasn’t anything I could do to help or protect her.

  The only thing I could do was help us both brace for the impact, which was inevitable. Either way, and no matter what the outcome of this apprenticeship, I had to make sure that Ta’Zan didn’t get his claws on the love of my life.

  Easy to say, since we’re about to surrender to him.

  Amane

  Amal and I tried to get some sleep before heading to the colosseum. Ridan gave us the privacy we needed, hoping we’d get some time together as sisters. Once we returned to Ta’Zan, everything was going to change, and not in a good way.

  My sister wasn’t too confident in our plan. She feared we were playing fast and loose with our freedom, and she was still miffed about us kidnapping her. At the same time, she was able to acknowledge the brilliance of our actions. Ta’Zan didn’t know she was on our side, and that was going to help us, going forward.

  But none of that mattered, for the time being. I settled on the floor next to her, crossing my legs and resting my back against the stone wall. She handed me a small device, the size of my fingernail. I looked at it and turned it over, trying to figure out what it did.

  “Hide this somewhere on Rose,” she said. “I’ve got one of my own. Make sure it doesn’t pop up in a search.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I studied one of those earpieces and figured out how it works. It’s similar to something Ta’Zan had the Faulty engineers developing. This, dear sister, is a scrambler. If Ta’Zan thinks of eavesdropping on anyone in the diamond dome by means of magi-tech, this little thing will thwart such endeavors.”

  I chuckled. “You’re devious.”

  “I’ve had to adjust. It was only a matter of time before Ta’Zan figured out a way to eavesdrop on his prisoners without them knowing. I suppose that makes me as devious as him.” She sighed. “Point is, if he does try something, it’ll fail, and he’ll blame his magi-tech, since he obviously has no idea I came up with this,” she added, nodding at the scrambler. “By the time he gets the engineers to try something else, we’ll be long gone.”

  “How would he eavesdrop, then? Through the collars?” I asked.

  She shrugged in return. “I doubt it. The collars have been on the prisoners since they were first brought to the colosseum, long before Ta’Zan would’ve realized they would destroy his blockers and restore communications. Whatever artifice he might come up with, it would be a last-minute fix, with little to no time for testing. Hence the possibility that it wouldn’t work and therefore why the scramblers will be effective.”

  I laughed lightly. “You’re positively evil.”

  “I’ve had you by my side. My brain functions better, you know that. It helped me come up with a solution. A preemptive one, anyway. There’s no guarantee that Ta’Zan has any means to listen in on any conversations, but I’m inclined to think he would have.”

  “It’s brilliant, if you ask me,” I said, looking at the scrambler. “If he does have a listening device in the dome, and it doesn’t work because of this little thing, he won’t be able to come in and ask us why his spying gadget doesn’t work. It would give him away.”

  Amal grinned. “Exactly. No way that he’d allow himself to come across as a bumbling, incompetent inventor in front of Derek. Especially Derek. He’s so determined to prove his superiority. It’ll be his undoing someday.”

  “Hopefully, that day is soon…”

  A few minutes passed in silence.

  “This isn’t how I’d planned it,” Amal finally murmured, staring blankly ahead.

  “I thought we were over this,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “You should’ve told me.”

  Amal sighed. “Can I be honest?”

  “It’s what I’ve always expected of you.”

  “I wanted you to have total deniability, in case it went wrong,” Amal murmured. “Getting close enough to kill Ta’Zan is extremely dangerous. I think I’ve already explained why—”

  “He’s been modifying his own genes, gradually,” I replied, nodding. “He’s become nearly as invincible as the Perfects, only he’s more cunning than all of them put together. His self-preservation instinct makes him virtually undefeatable.”

  “Yes. We need to chip away at his confidence, piece by piece. Once we go back in there, we have to play our parts flawlessly. We cannot make a single mistake,” Amal said. “This plan of yours… Well, it’s crazy, but it could work.”

  I gave her a sly grin. “A few minutes ago, you weren’t really on board with it.”

  She chuckled. “Hey, I’d rather go with the crowd than ruin all the work I’ve put in so far. I am so close to finding the right attack angle, you have no idea.”

  “How’ve you been, though?” I asked, changing the subject. We’d talked about what we were going to do, already. We knew how we’d proceed through every step, until we got it right. Revisiting the plan wasn’t helping, not this far in the game. “In my absence, and with everything that happened in there…”

  “As well as I can be. I have the blood of my brethren on my hands,” Amal answered, her voice uneven.

  “You’re talking about Monos and the other rebels.”

  She nodded. “I could’ve let them go ahead with it, you know. They could’ve taken Sofia’s group out. But Ta’Zan would’ve been on to them in minutes. They were all going to be back in the dome before the next midnight. His comms blockers were still up. His mind was still too clear for a bunch of prisoners escaping to get the better of him. Like I said, we need to break his psyche before he can make a potentially fatal mistake. It’s the only way to stop Ta’Zan.”

  “Why didn’t you speak to Monos and his people about it?” I asked.

  “Everyone knows I’m loyal to Ta’Zan. I had to keep up appearances. It’s the only thing that has helped me save more lives than the few we lost the other day. Monos’s sacrifice won’t be in vain. As cruel as it may sound, those deaths fortified Ta’Zan’s trust in me. I have him right where I want him. I mean, why do you think he started killing prisoners and giving you ultimatums? He’s scared he’ll lose me. He knows he’s weak without me. Without us, Amane. He hasn’t been the same since you left.”

  “I’m sorry you had to do what you did,” I mumbled. “I wasn’t even sure I could trust these outsiders when I saw them. Then the dragon took a nose dive, and I found myself swimming after him, saving his life.”

  “You did right by him. And they sure did right by you,” Amal replied, smiling. “I see the way they look at you, Sister. They respect you. They value your opinion. They rely on you. They’re everything our so-called father never was to us.”

  “If only he’d been less of a murderer, right? Then he wouldn’t have been half bad,” I replied with a chuckle.

  “And I see how the dragon looks at you, too,” Amal said. “He loves you. And you… Sister, I think you love him, too.”

  I took a deep breath, wondering if what she said was true. It felt right. It felt so damn right.

  “Ta’Zan never told us about love,” I whispered.

  “Nope. He said it’s useless. A romantic concept that the Draenir couldn’t let go of.”

  “It’s everything,” I said. “Everything matters more, now that I know where Ridan and I stand. And you’re right. The way he looks at me. It’s mesmerizing. It makes my heart race. My stomach churns whenever we’re apart. And I know, I know that I would never be bored with him. You’ve seen him in his dragon form, right?”

  Amal nodded, her eyes wide as she remembered the flight back.

  “I’m in awe of him,” she replied.

  “That, alone, was enough to make my chest tighten. And when he’s just himself, he’s so… quiet and patient. You should see him fight, too. He is as fierce as the dragon inside him. But he’s also tender, and sweet. And he makes me laugh, even though I don’t always get his jokes. It’s the way he smiles to let me know he’s joking.
That cracks me up.”

  Amal giggled. “Good grief, Sister, you’re in so much trouble.”

  “I know. I have to make sure he lives through all this,” I said, stifling a chuckle. “What about you and Athos, huh? That poor soul has been pining over you for years, now.”

  “I’m aware. But I don’t feel the same,” Amal replied. “I value him. I care about him. After all, I convinced Ta’Zan to put him on the cleaning crew, instead of kicking him out like the other rogues. But I could never give him what he wants.”

  “He’ll find someone, eventually.”

  “Your optimism could be infectious.” She laughed. “That’s assuming we survive what comes next!” she added, then suddenly turned serious. “We helped this murderer become who he is today. Don’t think we’re forgiven for our past sins.”

  “So, what, we don’t deserve a second chance?” I sighed. “We didn’t know any better. It wasn’t until I spent time with Ridan and his crew that I realized what the real world was like. It’s the complete opposite of what Ta’Zan taught us and wanted us to do. You know that as well as I do, since you’ve been working to destroy him already.”

  Amal let a deep breath out. A few seconds passed in silence as she formulated a reply. I knew she wasn’t done with the guilt trip. I’d already gone through those motions, shortly after we discovered the surviving Draenir. I would’ve gone to my grave with the secret about the plague, had it not been for Rakkhan. In hindsight, it was better this way. My moral compass had clearly been in need of adjustment.

  “I don’t know, Sister. I feel guilty. I live with it every day, like a disease festering in my chest,” Amal finally said. “Sometimes, I think we don’t deserve any kind of happiness or forgiveness. We helped him kill millions of Draenir.”

  “We did. And, if we break free of his reign, we will have a whole life ahead of us to make amends, to fix it as best as we can, to help the Draenir resettle and thrive again. It’s what gives me hope. Well, that and the fact that I have Ridan in my life. I’ve been tempted to punish myself by running away from him, but I can’t. I’ve thought about it. But love’s funny like that.”