Evermarked, p.24
EverMarked, page 24
No, not an open forest. A glass wall stood glimmering in front of it.
It sparkled from the spots where light bounced off the glass, revealing that it covered the entrance into the forest. The densely treed area beyond was dark and strange, and I could have sworn yellow eyes stared back through the trees before they disappeared.
Cas nudged me to keep going, and I turned back my attention to where Em was leading us. A small compartment was near the door at the front, by the pilot’s cockpit, and Em was using her knife to wedge it open and pop the door off. It led to an open cavity under the main deck where the magnetic pulse for moving the shuttle hummed. Em went first, I squeezed through next, before Cas followed and pulled the door shut.
The space was cramped, and we had to slide on our stomachs across the smooth metal, until Em found another panel she popped open to reveal the hard cement docking station the shuttle sat on. Once we were out, we snuck to the front of the shuttle, away from the lights and people removing the crates, and towards the building looming in the distance.
“Where are we?” I asked Em, who pulled out her tablet. Part of me already knew the answer, but I was hoping, praying, I’d been wrong.
She tapped it twice, mumbled something, and tapped it again before shaking her head. “Location not found.”
“We don’t need a tablet to know where we are,” Caspian whispered as his eyes moved up the large metal wall. It closed in the forest beyond the thick glass. The wall went up so high I had to tilt my head to see the top. Higher than the highest tree I could see.
“You think…”
“The Void.” Caspian nodded. My heart sank. “This doesn’t look like a historic landmark—it looks more like a prison.”
I remembered what Holden had said about the Void: “you don’t build a wall to keep people out, you build a wall to keep something in.” The rumors that something was inside the Void may not have been rumors after all.
“Why would they need a wall that big?” I mumbled, mostly to myself.
“They’ve already got three crates out. We need to hurry,” Em said, and I pulled my gaze away.
We kept to the shadows as we made our way to the large building. It had a metal exterior and was maybe three stories high. The first door we tried was locked, the second, too. But the third swung open to reveal a long, stark white hallway. It was empty. We paused, waiting to hear any sound, but there was nothing. It was eerily quiet.
“Ten minutes, that’s it,” Em suggested, and Cas and I both agreed.
It was impossible to stay hidden when the entire place was covered in white tiled floors, white walls, and bright lights, and we wore head to toe black. Em had her tablet out, disabling every CameraBot we passed with ease.
When we reached another hallway, we took the one to the north towards the forest we had seen outside.
“Is it weird this place is empty?” Cas whispered.
I nodded. There wasn’t a person in sight outside of the ones still by the shuttle. We tried a few doors, but all were locked, and Em couldn’t hack us in.
I was about to give up and suggest we go back when we reached another hallway, and we could see a door at the end with a small window. We moved towards the door. A sound came from behind it, something muffled and strange. It almost sounded like someone crying or trying to scream, but they couldn’t open their mouth. We reached the window, and I was the first to look in.
I instantly wished I hadn’t. Gasping, I stumbled back, running into Caspian, as I threw my hand to my mouth to cover the scream my body wanted to release.
“What? What is it?” Caspian asked, as he held me steady.
I shook my head. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what that thing was. Em glanced in next, and her eyes widened, but she kept her composure and continued looking. She was likely studying everything else in the room I hadn’t seen because my eyes had only focused on the black figure chained in the middle. It had a distinct human appearance, but its body shape was where the comparisons stopped.
“What is that thing?” I asked Em once I’d managed to regain my balance and could carry my own weight again.
Em shook her head. “I have no idea.” Her voice broke as she spoke.
Cas looked through the window last and like me, he startled back, swearing under his breath. “We need to get out of here, like now,” he said.
We turned away from the door and moved back down the hallway we’d come from. As we spun around, two guards stood with their guns aimed at us.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” one of the guards said as they stepped towards us.
My hands moved with lightning reflexes as I reached for Azrael on my hip and loosed two bullets before they took another step. They screamed before two more bullets silenced them. With the noise of the guards and the gunshots, footsteps echoed down another hallway, drawing closer.
“Move.” Em pushed us down a different hallway and we sprinted. Cas in front, his gun ready, and Em watching behind us with her twin blades ready to slice.
An alarm sounded, and the lights turned from fluorescent white to flashing red.
“Shit,” I said, taking another turn down a new hallway in the direction I hoped was where the shuttle had been.
At the next intersection, more guards came into view, and I had to skid onto my knees to avoid getting shot, bending my body backwards as the bullet whizzed past my head. I wasted no time getting to my feet. I blindly shot as we sprinted faster, pushing every door we found, looking for a way out, but it was all locked.
We reached a dead-end, a locked door before us, and more guards coming behind us.
“Give me thirty seconds,” Em ordered, pulling out her tablet and decoding the locked panel.
Caspian and I stood before her with our guns raised, waiting for the guards we could hear. One stepped around the corner, and Caspian took him down. The rest weren’t so quick to step out of the hallway, glancing around the corner and aiming a few careless shots towards us. Caspian ducked and pushed me against the wall as another bullet sped by.
“Hurry up, Em,” Cas screamed.
Em frantically tapped on her tablet, and Cas aimed a few more shots where the guards hid around the corner. I did the same.
Finally, a click and a soft hiss sounded and the door slid open. We didn’t waste any time sprinting out into the open air of the loading dock where the shuttle still stood.
The door slid closed behind us, but more guards blocked our path. We had to dive out of the way of their bullets, hiding behind the crates that had just been unloaded.
“We need to get to the shuttle,” Caspian said as we moved from crate to crate, bullets zipping by through the otherwise silent night.
“Stop shooting you idiots,” I heard the guard from the shuttle scream. “If you hit one of those crates…”
The entire space went silent. In the far distance, a wolf howled and the wind gently swayed the trees. Their soft rustle was the only noise.
We waited, calming our breath as we calculated our next move. The only way out was on that shuttle, and they couldn’t know we were on it if we wanted to get out of here.
“Let’s move,” one of the pilots screamed, and the three men ran. Guards stood in front of the shuttle with their gaze and guns focused on where we hid behind a crate.
“We got to get on there, or we’re as good as dead here,” I mumbled. The door was slowly closing, and over a dozen guards stood between us and it.
Caspian looked to me, then to Em, and said, “Get her on that shuttle.”
Then he ran.
Away from me.
Away from our ride home.
I tried to grab him, reaching for his arm, but he was too quick, and my hand fell to empty space. The guards spotted him immediately and yelled for him to stop and drop his weapon, but he kept moving.
Em yanked my arm, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Cas. He was going to get himself killed.
“We have to go, Jayla, move your feet!” Em growled in my ears, and I finally shook the fog away and followed her. The shuttle door was fully closed, and the engine roared to life. We were out of time.
I glanced back to Caspian who had cleared the crates. The guards followed him. When he was in clear view, I heard a bullet rip through his back. He stumbled and fell to his knees, aiming a few shots of his own towards the guards, but another bullet hit him in the leg, and he screamed.
“No!” I tried to sprint towards him, but Em shoved me forward.
We were beside the shuttle now, and Em pulled off a panel underneath. She gripped my arm and pulled me towards it, but I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t leave Cas. He needed me. I needed him.
Hot tears spilled down my cheeks, and I watched as the guards converged on him. He aimed one last bullet, not at the guards, but at the nearest crate, and a deafening explosion rocked the loading zone. The heat hit my side, and I had to shield my eyes from the bright flames.
Screams sounded over the chaos as guards dropped to the ground, trying to extinguish the flames coating their bodies. Some guards didn’t move at all.
I felt Em pick me up and push me through the small opening into the base of the shuttle but my entire body had gone numb. I lay, motionless against the warm metal. Tears pooled under my eyes, and I couldn’t breathe.
Em pulled herself in and closed the panel. The shuttle lurched and lifted towards the sky before it shot off, fast and smooth, away from Caspian.
My body trembled, and Em wrapped herself around me.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she repeated, and I think she was crying, too.
I didn’t say goodbye. I didn’t say anything to him, and now he was gone.
The hum surrounding us pushed against my chest, and my heart was being splitting open. My ears were ringing and Em’s voice sounded muffled next to me. I laid there blinking, staring at the metal hull around us, unable to move. He couldn’t be gone. He couldn’t leave me. He said he’d never leave me.
My eyes squeezed shut, and Em’s grip tightened against mine as she repeated, “It’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay.”
But how could he? I saw the bullets. I felt the blast. There was no way.
I had to believe. I had to hold onto the small sliver of hope he was still alive. Because if he were dead, I was dead with him. I could no longer live in a world without him.
So I held onto the promise he’d made me.
“Never leave me,” I’d said.
“Never,” he’d replied.
Chapter 37
Caspian
They dragged my broken body into the building. My blood stained the tiled white floors in a long streak as they pulled. My eyes fluttered open a few times, an instant headache formed against the still flashing red lights. They ceased after the third corner where I was yanked into a room and thrown onto a hard bed.
I winced, the wound in my back exploding with sharp pain when it made contact. I couldn’t feel the bullet in my leg, and I think it was because the burning had taken over. The entire right sleeve of my arm had burned off when I’d shielded my face from the blast. The skin was bright pink and black in some spots. The flesh looked as though it had been melted from my bones and felt like someone was dragging a hot iron over my arm.
The pain was excruciating, but I would do it again if it meant she would be safe. I didn’t see if they’d made it to the shuttle, but I trusted Em to get her there. I knew this pain was worth it; it was worth every agonizing minute of it.
I counted down the seconds until it was all over, knowing she was safe.
A small part of me hoped I would make it back to see her again, but the odds were almost non-existent. I wasn’t an idiot. They would torture me, try to find out who sent me, how I got here, and where the other two I was with went.
I would give them nothing.
Once they realized I would not break, they would kill me.
“Geez, what did you do to him?” a young male doctor asked as he picked up the shredded piece of flesh that was once my arm, dropping it back on the bed.
I screamed in pain, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Did that to himself,” one of the guards said, seething. The side of his face wasn’t as bad as my arm, but it was burnt as well. “Forget him. Dr. Merinda is on her way to deal with this guy. Fix my goddamn face, Allard.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Allard turned to the man and tossed him a salve. “Put this on; it’ll fix you as best it can. Won’t fix your ugly face, though. Maybe the scars will be an improvement.”
The guard mumbled, “prick,” under his breath before storming out of the room.
Allard watched me as I struggled to breathe, the pain choking my lungs. My entire body was weak from all the blood seeping from me. I trembled, and the room felt freezing cold.
“Shock.” Allard tilted his head as he continued surveying me from a distance. “That’s what you’re feeling. Soon, everything will go a bit fuzzy. Your head will feel like it’s spinning, and your heart will beat so fast you’ll think it’s going to come out your chest. If you’re lucky, you’ll pass out from the pain. It’d be better that way if you ask me. I’ll pray to the stars for that to happen before she arrives.”
The door slid open.
“Oops, too late.” Allard shrugged as he moved away.
The woman who replaced him had a friendly, soft smile on her face. She was shorter than him but wore the same white attire as he did. Her eyes held no warmth, despite the warm tone she tried to convey.
“Hello. I’m Dr. Merinda. And you are?” She waited for me to reply.
I didn’t.
“There were two other people with you. Where are they?”
My mouth was a thin, sharp line, and I glared back at her.
“Very well,” she said. “Fix him up, Allard.”
My brow creased. Fix me up? Weren’t they going to torture me? Let the pain last as long as possible until I bled out and died?
Dr. Merinda turned back to me with a predatory tilt of her head. The smile of a snake filled her face. “When you’re ready to tell me who you are, where your friends are, and how you got here, I’ll be waiting. Until then, enjoy your stay in the Void.”
She strolled off, her high-heeled shoes clicking with each step.
Allard came back beside me with a syringe in his hand and an almost sympathetic smile on his face. I would have believed it was sincere if his eyes didn’t betray him. “Told you you’d rather pass out than face her.”
The needle pierced my skin, and a flush of warmth ran through me. My vision began to darken, and Allard went blurry before me.
“Good luck, kid.”
Continue the story in DeathMarked
Also by AJ Eversley
The Watcher Series
Watcher
Carbon
Savior
Aelish & The Ladies of the Muted Forest (mini novella)
Kenzie (mini novella)
Max (mini novella)
Coleman (mini novella)
The EverMarked Series
EverMarked
DeathMarked
ShadowMarked
FateMarked
Acknowledgments
The idea for EverMarked spawned from one single question..."did they ever achieve peace?" The answer to that question wasn't a simple yes or no, and the more I asked myself it the more I also wanted to know the answer. Without the support and belief of my amazing publisher Jeff Collyer and editor Rebecca Jaycox, this series would never have become what it did. Every day I'm thankful I get to dream for a living, and ask the question "what next?" with excitement in my eyes.
About the Author
AJ Eversley is the author of the WATCHER series and the EVERMARKED series. A true north Canadian girl, AJ currently lives in Central Alberta with her husband and dog. When she's not writing, she can be found binge watching Harry Potter, quoting various movies in every day conversation, and eating copious amounts of candy.
https://www.ajeversley.com/
Contents
1. Sienna
2. Sienna
3. Sienna
4. Jayla
5. Sienna
6. Jayla
7. Sienna
8. Sienna
9. Sienna
10. Jayla
11. Sienna
12. Sienna
13. Jayla
14. Jayla
15. Sienna
16. Jayla
17. Sienna
18. Sienna
19. Jayla
20. Jayla
21. Sienna
22. Sienna
23. Jayla
24. Jayla
25. Sienna
26. Sienna
27. Jayla
28. Jayla
29. Sienna
30. Sienna
31. Jayla
32. Jayla
33. Sienna
34. Jayla
35. Sienna
36. Jayla
37. Caspian
Also by AJ Eversley
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Published by Aelurus Publishing, 2020
Copyright © 2020 by AJ Eversley
Cover design by Molly Phipps
The characters and events portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
