Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

It’s the first time I’ve acknowledged what I did aloud.
    A long pause stretches out between us. Finally, Nolan says, “I’ll come back to the lab with you.”
    “He might not be there,” I warn him. “The fiends broke in before. If he’s not, is there any other place he’s likely to go?”
    Nolan shakes his head. “The other labs were destroyed when the fiends broke through. The divide opened right over our training ground.”
    The divide. I think of the river of churning lava, Cas standing on the brink. A horrible suspicion rises within me, but I can’t say it to Nolan. Not yet.
    “Okay,” I say. “That’ll have to do for now.”
    I pull the dagger back, and he breathes out. I actually frightened him.
    Nolan doesn’t take his eyes off me as I back away. It’s like he thinks he’s looking at a stranger. You and me both. I don’t trust him.
    I withdraw the blade. How I’m going to explain this to the others… I’ve no idea.
    “Tonight,” I say, guilt already rising. But I can’t wait around for approval. I’ve wasted enough time already. As horrible as it is, Nolan’s my one link to the enemy.
    This time, I will kill Jared. For real.
    ***
    Of course, it’s harder than I anticipate, acting normal while planning to abandon everyone. I lie in bed fully-clothed in the full uniform of a Pyro, complete with the deep-red flame-resistant coat. The dormitory quietens as one by one, the others fall asleep. At midnight, I slip out of bed and tiptoe to the weapons room. Murray doesn’t sleep in his office but it’s locked anyway. Luckily, I know how to pick a lock. One of the skills Randy taught me in the wilderness, in case we had to steal from an abandoned house. It takes longer than I’d like. Then I have to repeat the process with the back door.
    “I thought you’d gone.” Nolan appears from the gloom, close than I’d expected. His hand moves towards one of the weapons in my hand. I took as many as I could carry.
    “Don’t you even think it,” I warn him.
    “I know better than to mess with a girl with a dagger. Or thirty.” The corner of his mouth quirks up. I shake my head at him. I wish he had attacked me, or at least been hostile. It’d be easier to hate him. But he’s not a bad guy—just a coward.
    Except I’ll never forgive him for what he did to Elle.
    “Come on.”
    Guilt tails me every step of the way. I asked Elle about patrol routes earlier, but I still expect someone to sneak up on us as we leave the back way, through the tunnel Murray declared unsafe after the fiends got in that way and tried to bring the ceiling down. The rocks blocking the path are nothing to my powers, though I do take the time to push them back into place afterwards. The fiends aren’t sneaking in again if I can help it.
    But there’s no sign of them out here, even though night has fallen. I tread carefully on the platform, knowing too well how easy it is to fall. The path leads downwards, and I can’t help but pause besides the entrance to the cave. Now I know the truth, I’m guessing it was where they kept old experiments. Those winged skeletons.
    Transcendents.
    “We should move,” says Nolan, and I nearly spear him when he appears from the shadows beside me. Apparently I’m more on edge than I thought.
    “Yeah.” I continue down the path. “Just thinking. I could fall from here and not break. Like a superhuman.”
    “Superhuman? You’re not human at all, Leah. Have you no idea what you can do? I guess you haven’t been around here long enough to hear all the tales of the Transcendent. The last one could run faster than a cheetah and tackle a wall of solid concrete and survive. Before the end, back when we lived in hiding, she used to track the fiends miles away. She’d have this instinct, a sensitivity to the fiends that none of us could match up to. It was like she could smell them or something. Her whole body lit up like a beacon when they were nearby.”
    I shake my head, feeling