Page 49 of Taken for Granite
Tas navigated through the crowd, disarming and incapacitating as needed. He left a trail of destruction, heading toward the pulse of his sigil, smashing access panels to the holding cells and looking for other captives.
The majority of the rooms were empty, except for the last holding cell in the corridor. A lone male Khargal pounded on the glass window. Tas’s wings fluttered and his tail lashed violently at the occupant.
Frelinray. The years had not changed him.
“Un-fucking-believable,” Tas said, quote Juniper’s favorite word. Thegrackingfool was alive. Alive this entire time! He left Tas to rot in a cell, but Frelinray might have been laboring under the misunderstanding that Tas perished in the bombing, the same misbelief Tas had about Frelinray’s fate. He was glad to see his friend and furious all at once.
Frelinray spoke, the message absorbed by the soundproof glass. He pointed to something just out of view.
“Grackthis.” Tas smashed the lock and the door swung open.
Frelinray opened his arms wide, as if to embrace Tas after their long separation.
Tas landed a punch to his face, knocking Frelinray on his ass. He was happy to have his friend back, but he wasn’t ready to hug and forgive. He said as much. “Not yet. I’m pissed at you and I’m busy. We’ll deal with this later.”
Frelinray rubbed his jaw. “I’ll find you on the ship.”
So therewasa ship coming. Tas gave a curt nod. The sigil was near and he needed the coordinates of where to find the rescue ship.
“Don’t you dare fucking die before then,” Tas yelled, as he stormed down the corridor. “I haven’t beaten the shit out of you yet.”
Tas could swear he heard Frelinray laugh.
Down another flight. He tore the door off the stairwell, throwing it down the stairs at the gent foolish enough to stand below him.
When he reached the new corridor, he knew he’d found the correct level. He smashed the locks on doors, finding sterile white labs with broken old Khargal equipment. He might find his old armor, the suit the Syndicate took off of him in London. The advanced functions had ceased working, but since he was returning home, he should show up in his uniform. He’d be happy with any armor, even a shielding device. He could not summon stone to skin to form armor, like some warriors, and he disliked being exposed to bullets and tranquilizer darts.
Giving the collection a quick look, he found only junk and pieces of tech long dead or broken. No armor.
Close now. The pull of the sigil drew Tas in. Only a door remained between him and his message from home.
It had to be a message from the retrieval team. He didn’t want to hope after a thousand years of bitter disappointment, but he knew he was going home.
The door opened with minimal effort and swung shut behind him, plunging him into darkness. Having lived in a permanent state of darkness for decades, Tas navigated his way across the lab.
The light flared to life, blinding him with a searing brightness.
“You absolute fool,” Rhododendron said.
17
Juniper
Juniper drove, heart pounding and hands shaking. She had to keep moving. She had to look straight ahead. If she looked at Chloe, she’d burst into tears and drive into a tree. When the road widened enough for two cars to pass comfortably, she pulled over.
Chloe watched her, eyes wide and chewing on her bottom lip.
Her sister looked terrible, with circles under her eyes and wearing a too-large, rumpled white linen shirt and pants combo. Her face had been scrubbed clean. While Chloe never wore a ton of makeup, she always had lip gloss on. The complete lack of anything on her face was odd.
“You look like you joined a cult,” Juniper said.
“Oh. They gave me this.” She plucked at the front of the shirt. “All I had was my school uniform and it had brains on it.” Her voice trailed off. “I’m sorry. That was gross.”
“Fuck it. I don’t care.” Juniper lunged across the seat and hugged her sister. Chloe tensed and for a moment Juniper was certain the teenager would wiggle away, but then the girl melted in her arms. “Don’t you dare apologize for what those people did to you,” she muttered into her Chloe’s hair. “I was so worried. I was going out of my mind.”
“Those people—”
“I know.”
