{Enki | New Cinder}

Bones held his breath as Tameka led the sweep into the proverbial lions’ den. A.K.A. Celindria’s lab. He clocked the lump lying on a cot in the cell and the door on the far wall. Ross said she knew three nacres were nearby. The others must be through there.

At Tameka’s signal, they broke rank and stealthily entered the room in pairs. Para on Bones, Ross on Jack, and Devis on T.a.o. The latter went to the cell while the rest kept their nacre disabling rifles on the entrances.

“Andrius,” Devis whispered, and it sliced through the room.

Elden, no one wanted to alarm Celindria as to their presence.

Well, sorta.

T.a.o. called next, “Andrius?”

The lump on the cot shifted in Bones’ peripheral vision. Andrius startled and rolled over to find his brother and sister waiting for him. His skin was shiny, putting Bones in mind of Karter after her super hero prosthetic replacement surgery on Enki. Bones recalled Devis telling him stories of Celindria carving the imprisoned Progeny like roasted meat—

Great, now Bones would never eat again.

The relief in Andrius’ voice already jerked some tears from Bones. “T.a.o., Devis, are you really here?”

The small Seamswalker gripped his hands through the bars. “Here.”

Devis searched for the mechanism to release him. “Do you know—”

“You shouldn’t be here.” The sudden terror in Andrius’ voice brought all their heads around. “She’ll take all of you. This is a trap. Can’t you see? We’re the bait.”

Tameka inched toward the door, giving the “on me” signal to Jack and Ross.

Softly, Devis tried to assure his captured brother, “What is the purpose of freedom if not to free those in captivity?”

Bones liked Devis.

What he didn’t like was the increased tension in the room hauling up the hackles on the back of his neck the closer Tameka got to that door. Rankled. That’s the word.

Para was a statue aimed at the tunnel they entered, ready and alert. While Bones appreciated her intensity as a Valkyrie and an Icarus, he hated the fear behind it which Celindria put into her. The fear Celindria might soon put into all of them if she found them there.

Tameka reached for the door, paused, and asked, “Andrius, who’s in here?”

“Chris, Pax, and Celindria. It’s her bedroom. Get away. Get far away!” All of this, he rasped in a hoarse whisper.

T.a.o. Seamswalked into the cell with him and put his hand on her face. “No more fear. Everything ends today. Father, Fury, and Li will see to it.”

While Bones kept one eye on that touching moment, the other eye watched Tameka open the door. Her gasp told him she found something. He prayed to Elden it was only Pax and Chris.

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“Tameka, maybe we shouldn’t try to wake him,” Jack sounded unsure.

Ross sounded even less certain. “And Chris… do you think she can see us through him?”

Para’s confident answer twisted the knife in Bone’s heart. “Definitely. Be careful, Fury.”

No one remained calm when Devis swallowed audibly and said, “Oh, it’s far too late.”

Disembodied blue eyes glowed from the darkest corner of the lab, at about the height of an average human woman. They stared out at the Shadow infiltrating the space. The collective breath they held filled the room with an ear popping tension.

The eyes blinked.

They gasped, shouted, and jumped away.

Tameka was the first to train her weapon on Celindria. The crazed angel stepped out of the shadows with one pistol trained on Tameka and deftly shot T.a.o. with the other.

Andrius caught T.a.o. and checked her pulse. “She’s alive. Only unconscious.”

Celindria aimed a gun at Jack and kept the other on Tameka. “I’d never kill my most valuable doll.”

Bones shuddered.

Para cursed.

Ross concentrated, as her hazel eyes shifted into a brown and green Atramentous outside of Celindria’s line of sight. If she could knock her out with a memory spill, then maybe—

“Cease, girl, or I’ll shoot the young Callahan with a lethal round which simultaneously disables his nacre.”

Tears spilled from Ross’ eyes before she hung her head, defeated.

Tameka took a step toward the statue which was the First Progeny. Unafraid, Fury demanded, “I want my son, Celindria.”

Bones spared a glance at Para, and his chest swelled with pride. Fearless despite their current dilemma. Jack faced an enemy weapon with a fierceness his sister would respect. Devis and Andrius’ faces, however, unnerved Bones. Pure. Fear. They were terrified of the monster in the room. All the while, Bones wondered what those on the other side of the earpieces gained from the encounter.

Celindria tilted her head to the side, listening to ancient things elsewhere. Her eyes remained sharp as ever on her quarry. No opportunity there. Instead, she straightened and said, “You still don’t know. Good. Back up to the cage.”

Jack used a tone Bones had never imagined from the young man. “I will bend those bars and—”

“Before you bend them far enough to escape, I will paralyze you and force you to watch as I take Ross’ volition and use Chris to pleasure her. Or Devis. Bones. Maybe all of them at once. Now drop your weapons and back into the cage.”

Ross winced, and Bones felt it.

They all dropped their weapons and took a step back.

Tameka was the only one who lingered. It wasn’t anger that rolled off of her. It was intolerance. Eventually, she, too, backed to the cage along the south wall.

Andrius laid T.a.o. on the cot and shifted to make room. It wasn’t a cell big enough to accommodate eight people.

Para cried out, and they all turned to find Chris holding another weapon on them from the room’s doorway. Apparently aimed at them all the while. No wonder Celindria was so confident.

Using a mechanism along a counter, Celindria slammed the cell shut before walking to the cage. She didn’t look smug or satisfied. She looked like she knew this would happen. “To save one another, as only the Shadow does, you’ll sign your volition to me one by one. But first, relinquish a sample of your blood.”

Bones chafed Para’s arm as each member of their team let Celindria prick their fingers. The Valkyrie wasn’t necessarily in shock, but her icy skin told him she wasn’t far.

“Comfort doesn’t exist here,” Celindria assured.

Andrius scoffed. “You are as wrong as ever. Knowing Devis and T.a.o. were safe from you was comfort enough. Knowing one day you might come to your senses—”

“Sense I have in plenty.” Celindria turned her back on them, taking their samples to her workstation. She held up a test vial and looked into it as she said, “What I lack, you can’t grasp.”

Devis countered, “I can.”

Celindria peered over her shoulder at him with cold eyes. “Then why do you continue to challenge me? Betray me?”

Devis’ silence raised some suspicions for Bones. Why all this back and forth?

Tameka made it worse by asking, “How did Xelan wrong you?”

The other two First Wave Progeny in the cell groaned and shook their heads at Tameka’s naivety.

Celindria broke the vial in her fist and stared at the wound—

Whoa.

What the fuck…

Despite all the glass in her skin, there wasn’t any blood. The wound healed before Bones could blink.

Bloodless, deranged, and beautiful.

“I am the monster he made of me.”