Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(89)

He got it open, I think. Somehow he got it open.

I immediately twist around and watch in horror as the first of the Enforcers finally push their way through the opening. The doors to the sub slam close just as Mother and the rest push their way through.

She’s yelling again and her eyes and face are dark with rage.

I glance over and see Gavin at the controls. “Just hang on tight. I have no clue what I’m doing, but I’ve played a few video games in my lifetime. Either way this is probably going to be the thrill ride of your life.”

I laugh, but this time the movement pulls on my shoulder and I end up gasping and clutching at my chest.

Gavin shoots me a worried glance, but stays where he is. He pushes a series of buttons on the console and then I’m being shoved into my seat as we blast away from the city and toward the Surface.

Even as the submarine’s computer voice warns us to buckle our seat belts, I quickly turn around to watch as, for the first time in my life, I can see the whole of Elysium laid out along the trench walls and ocean floor like a great mechanical octopus. To my shock, it’s brown, covered in overgrowths of the plant life I’ve always seen through the windows. Nothing like the shining silver beacon in the painting in the Palace dining room. It looks so old.

Soon, I can see only the shine of its lights, before it finally disappears in a curtain of bubbles.

I don’t know how I feel about leaving everything behind. It feels bittersweet. Macie, my gardens, Father. It hurts knowing I’ll never see anyone or anything I cared about, but after everything I’ve learned, it’s also a relief.

I glance over at Gavin and can’t help but smile. At least one good thing came from all of this. Gavin. My knight in-not-so-shining armor.

He keeps glancing behind him. Even when we can no longer see my underwater city and I continue to watch him.

A voice jolts me out of my daze. “Warning! Angle of ascent is not recommended for current cabin pressure equalization protocols. Course adjustment and slower ascent is strongly recommended.”

Gavin frowns at me. “What does that mean?”

“We’re going up too fast for the submarine to automatically equalize the pressure. If you continue to go up this fast, you’ll get the bends.”

His face pales and he immediately slows the submarine.

The pressure from the blast lightens up, but now there’s a terrible pain in my chest and shoulder. Something is wrong. My head is buzzing again, and I can’t understand what the computer voice is saying. I hope it’s nothing important.

My hand is warm. And wet.

I glance down and see the entire front of my dress covered in blood. I pull my hand away and see there is a glove of blood from my fingertips to my elbow.

Too much blood, I think, my head growing foggy. There’s entirely too much blood.

“The pressure…” I murmur. “Why aren’t the nanos working?”

I glance at Gavin, but he’s staring straight ahead now, entirely focused on getting us to the Surface. My head lolls back to the center and I stare ahead. I can’t tell him. There’s nothing to be done anyway.

I can’t quite recall what I meant to tell him.

I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and glance down. There is blood all over the front of my dress. How did that happen?

Inside my head, I hear lovely violin music and I smile. I do love the violin.

The fingers of my left hand begin to finger imaginary strings in time to the melody and a pain shivers along my arm. I glance down. There is blood all over the front of my dress. How did that happen? I wonder.

The music gets louder, but my fingers can’t keep up anymore. How odd.

I turn to the left and catch sight of the person beside me.

Gavin.

The nanos.

She barely tried to stop us.

“Gavin,” I gasp out, trying to reach for him, but my body won’t cooperate and I only jerk uselessly. He turns. “We have to go back. The electromagnetic fi—” I cut off when a sharp pain tears through my head. I gasp and slump forward. I hear my name as I’m pulled into the blackness.

*



“Evie…”

I fight to open my eyes, but my sleep is so deep and so seductive.

“Evie, please. Answer me.”

There is so much light pouring through my eyelids. More light than I can bear. I try to pull a hand up to my face, but I can’t seem to move. The whole world seems to move around me. Rocking me.

Even through my closed lids, the light scorches my eyes. Even if I want to look, I can’t, but I can smell air. I don’t know where I’ve smelled air like this before, but it’s familiar and it’s mixed with the scent of salt and something else I can’t identify. The warmth on my skin feels so good from the chills I’d felt before.

I let myself be soothed back into sleep by the rocking, the comfort of whatever is holding me, and the warmth on my skin.

*



Blood and pain. That’s what fills my dreams. A voice screaming that I failed. Someone whispering he’s sorry. Another voice screams for me to run.

I wake slightly when I’m picked up from my seat, but a familiar scent and the strong arms that hold me soothe me. I know that scent. I know I do. I try to open my eyes, but it’s too much effort. So I stop fighting and curl into whoever’s holding me.