Unremembered (Unremembered #1)(75)

With a deep swallow and a large gulp of air, I point my toes, picture Zen’s beautiful brown eyes, and let go.

It feels as though I’m falling forever. In my mind I manage to convince myself that I’ve missed the edge of the cave completely and will be descending until the end of time. Or until I reach the bottom of this canyon. Whichever comes first.

I also manage to convince myself that, without me, they’ll have no use for Zen. That my death will set him free. And that maybe this wasn’t the worst option in the world.

But then my toes slam against something hard. My eyes focus just in time to see a dark tunnel in front of me and I realize that I’ve landed right where I wanted.

However, I also realize that the acceleration of the fall has knocked me off balance, and I feel myself tipping backwards. My heels dip into nothingness and I thrust my weight forward, fighting to stay on my toes . . . and on the ledge.

But I must have tried to offset my fall too strongly because while the top half of my body is flung forward, the bottom half is flung back. My legs drop into the void and I feel the rest of me being dragged down with them.

My chest hits the ground hard, knocking my breath away. I scramble to grab on to something, clawing my nails into the unhelpful scarlet-coloured dirt.

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

One by one, each of my long, shapely fingernails snaps in succession. And now I only have my fingertips to use for traction. But they’re too smooth to grip on to anything.

Gravity is no match even for me. It’s too strong and too relentless. The rough rock beneath me scrapes away the skin on my stomach, chest and forearms. I slip further and further, losing willpower and hope with each passing second.

Until I have nowhere else to go but down.





44


HOLLOW


I close my eyes and surrender to the pull of the abyss. Once I stop struggling, I fall much faster. It’s a liberating feeling. My hands, instead of grappling to hang on to something, slide smoothly and effortlessly through the amber dust.

It’s so easy to simply let gravity take control of my fate, it almost doesn’t seem real.

And who knows, maybe it isn’t.

Maybe this whole thing is just another implanted memory and when I open my eyes I’ll be back on the compound with Zen, telling him stories about our attempted escape into the past.

But I know I’m only kidding myself.

Nothing in my life has felt more real than this moment.

Death is not a memory you can fake.

My hand unexpectedly hooks around the sturdy frame of something smooth and leathery and I’m jolted back into the moment. My fingers instinctively wrap around whatever they just touched and my fall is halted right as I’m about to disappear over the edge.

My body wrenches to a stop. One hand grips the mysterious object of salvation while the rest of my body dangles precariously above the endless chasm below. I twist and pull until I’m able to wrap my other hand around the same surface.

I strain my neck to look up until I can finally see what it is that saved me. The smooth, leathery object that I’m hanging on to for life.

It’s the heel of a large black boot.

Attached to an even larger man.

I immediately recognize his harsh blunt features, scarred face and short cropped hair.

He reaches down with one of his massive chapped hands, wraps it around my arm and pulls me up.

He moves fast. And as soon as I’m back on my feet he yanks my arms behind my back and clasps them together with the same thick metal chains they used to detain me in the old, rundown barn. The ones Rio released me from.

He must not notice the necklace wrapped around my arm or the locket dangling from the underside of my wrist because he doesn’t try to remove it. And I manage to cup the heart-shaped amulet in my hand, hiding it from view.

I don’t tell him that the chains are pointless. I’m not going to fight. Or run. Despite every fibre in my body screaming for me to.

Perhaps some human emotions are simply stronger than DNA.

Besides, I agreed to be taken. I’m surrendering. And that’s exactly what I came here to do. Resisting would only drag the process out longer.

Once he’s finished securing my arms behind my back, he shoves me forward and we walk into the cave. It goes deeper than I thought and we walk for at least five minutes. Eventually we both have to duck until we reach what I assume is the centre.

The tunnel opens up into a large roundish room. It’s lit by four blazing torches. The ceiling is dripping with long, icicle-shaped rock formations that hang perilously above me, seemingly poised to break off and impale someone at the subtlest movement.

Another agent stands in the middle of the chamber. A thinner, darker version of my current escort. I identify him as the man who apprehended me in the barn.

Directly at his feet, sitting on the ground, I see Zen. His hands are also tied behind his back. Nasty cuts and bruises mar his beautiful face and his left cheek is caked in dried blood.

Emotion overtakes me and I try to run to him but I’m forced to a halt when a short middle-aged man with light blond hair, icy blue eyes and smooth tanned skin emerges from the shadows and places a Modifier inches away from Zen’s temple.

‘Hello, Sera,’ he says, in a deep, unnerving voice that I recognize from the phone call and my nightmares.

‘Alixter,’ I breathe.

‘So you do remember me,’ he says, looking pleased. ‘Do you know what this is?’ He gives the Modifier a small flick.