“How do we get out?” Rook asked quietly as we rounded another corridor and found the heavy glass-walled laboratories. Inside, rows of glowing cylindrical tanks held pale, lifeless human body parts.
Rook sucked in a breath. “Please tell me they aren’t remains of other R gene carriers.”
I couldn’t answer so I just said, “Don’t look.” More footsteps and heartbeats sounded up ahead. The fire spread up my arm, eager and hot.
We passed another lab. Steel tables waited beside trolleys full of surgical tools. On the walls, huge diagrams of human bodies hung, complete with copious notes scribbled across the veins and bones as if they’d been trying to recreate another like Rook and me.
Turned out, Marcus had been telling the truth back in the Eastern Crucible. Those trapped in the mountain were just rejects—the ones with barely any power and tossed aside on the off chance they might produce something worthwhile.
But here...here was where the true work was done.
My fingers flexed to destroy it all.
How many others were like us? How many men and women, girls and boys, had suffered here, been tortured here?
Never again.
I would burn this place to the fucking ground and take out the rest of the monsters who did this.
A flare of ice coated the floor as if Rook came to the same conclusion. Catching her gaze, we shared a fierce nod before breaking into a jog and—
Slammed to a halt as two guards dragged an unconscious man between them, his legs dragging behind him. Two men in white coats trailed behind, discussing their notes and pointing at the poortest subject they currently carried to be brutalised.
The guards noticed us first.
They dropped the unconscious man like discarded rubbish, reaching for their guns—
Flicking my wrist, two whips of flame cracked forward. Gold-white fire wrapped around the guards’ throats like living nooses, lifting them clean off the floor. Their screams lasted less than a second before the fire consumed them from the inside out. Their skin blackened and blistered as they hit the ground.
The scientists behind them bolted.
I smirked, sinking into the delicious power and giving myself over to it. Hurling a bolt of heat toward them, fire collided with their backs. Their hearts stopped as heat arrowed right through them, severing their spines.
Rook made a small sound behind me, but she didn’t complain.
More footsteps thundered toward us, followed by a dozen heartbeats—no doubt witnessing my carnage on the many cameras dotted on the ceiling. Alarms suddenly screeched, blaring with red lights, flashing in time with the ear-piercing sirens.
Good.
Let them come.
Let them pay.
Breaking into a run, we sprinted down the main corridor, passing more labs full of horror. I didn’t bother being stealthy anymore. I threw fire into every lab we passed.
Vials and bottles went up with mini-explosions as flames found dangerous liquids. Thick acrid smoke filled the air, suffocating the cameras.
“Come on.” Fumbling for Rook in the haze, I pulled her into a faster run.
She coughed, choking on smoke.
Her ice flared up my arm, feeding the fire that refused to soak back into my skin. Her presence was so strong. Deliciously strong. Her coldness permeated into my bones and prevented me from reaching that awful burnout.
The fire burned hotter and wilder—caged by her frost and making me unbelievably powerful.
We kept running—
I tripped as dizziness suddenly slammed into my head.
