The darkness lasts for what feels like forever. It’s only my probing steps and the vice-like grip I have on the railing that keep me grounded. When I reach the bottom, I search blindly for one of those wall sensors that turn on the lights and manage to find one after a few minutes. The light flicks on with a blinding glow. When my eyes adjust, I gasp.
In front of me are rows of cells on either side of a narrow hallway. I must be in the reform cell place Draven had mentioned. The place where he’d been locked away while he endured the madness caused by The Rades. Without thinking, I walk forward, my head swiveling from side to side as I study the cells and recall my conversation with Draven.
His was the last cell. I know the moment my eyes fall on the destruction inside. Despite the passage of time and the thorough cleaning I imagine it received, shadows of blood still paint the interior. Visions of Draven clawing at his own skin, trying to deafen his own ears, tearing out his own eyes, fill my mind.
Rivets cut into the metal underneath the brown-red stains are twins of those in Draven’s room. Based on the extent, I have to wonder if he tried to simply dig his way out of the cell with his own hands. Tortured by delusions, fever, and unimaginable pain, had he tried to escape to end it all? It would be enough to drive anyone to madness.
“You shouldn’t be here,” comes his voice.
I whirl around and find Draven, his spine straightened to his full, intimidating height, standing at the foot of the stairs. My heart hammers in my throat. I can still hear the baby crying above the sound of blood rushing in my ears. Or am I, too, going mad?
“I’m sorry, I was just…” The baby’s screams increase an octave, and I begin to pant. The walls seem to close in around me. I wonder if madness is catching, because clawing my way out of this tin can is starting to seem like a great idea.
“Mate—Molly. What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you? Is that why you’re hiding?”
The desperation in his voice calms me. “No, I’m fine. I’m just feeling a little…shut in. I wish I could go outside.”
Draven studies me, his neck cracking as he reverts back to his normal height. “You wish to see the outside?” he asks.
My thoughts clear. “Can we do that? Go outside. Isn’t it dangerous?”
“The winds aren’t as violent now that the geostorm is weakening. I will keep you safe, Molly my mate.” He lifts a hand for me. “Come with me.”
I place my hand in his, comforted by his touch as he is by mine, and follow him back up the stairs, leaving the darkness behind us.
“Where are we going?” I ask when we reach the top. “I thought we weren’t allowed.”
He tugs me along, passing his quarters, then Avrell’s lab where the doctor had examined me the day before, down a hallway to a door I hadn’t yet been through. The tunnel-like walls don’t give any hint about where he’s leading me, but the volume of the baby’s cries begin to decrease and the squeezing sensation around my heart lessens.
Maybe Draven isn’t the only one who’s a little mad.
He stops when he reaches an outer door and motions for me to wait. He suits up in another of those strange exoskeleton-like suits and fits a mask over his face. Draven does the same for me, extinguishing my hysteria as he carefully helps me into the suit and hooks me into a mask that smells a little strange, but must operate like some sort of breathing apparatus. I don’t even care that it makes me feel a little claustrophobic like I did when I was in the cryotube. All I care about is going outside. Being free.
When I’m suited up, he holds a hand out to me.
I take it and he leads me through the doorway and up an endless flight of stairs. I’m shocked at how the urge to follow this broody alien is one that comes easily to me. I’m starting to think I’d follow him anywhere. And that scares the ever-loving fire out of me.
6
Draven
Her eyes are wide behind the glass of her mask, and I almost wonder if she is afraid of going to The Tower with me. These alien females seem so fragile and delicate. It’s difficult to recall the mort females from long ago. Even when The Rades was destroying them, they were tall and fierce and strong. They were fanged and clawed like the remaining morts. It makes me wonder how these strange aliens manage to exist without proper teeth and claws for defense.
I tap the door and get her attention. “There are dangers outside of this door. You must keep your mask and zu-gear on at all times.” I shudder simply thinking about The Rades somehow getting in through a puncture in her suit. Calix has assured me in the past that it’s not that simple, but I worry nonetheless. “Also, we must be mindful of armworms.”