Untouched (Denazen #1.5)(18)

But I obeyed.

Dez gasped as I swept her feet. Eyes wide, she slipped over the edge of the platform.

I fell to my knees, fingers catching her wrists just before they disappeared. Her body jarred, stopping suddenly and swinging to the left. “I have you!”

“Kale!” she cried, grabbing the shoulder of my shirt to try to steady herself.

Samsen said to push her over. He hadn’t said not to catch her.

She managed to stabilize, but my grip was slipping. I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

Behind me, there was an amused chuckle, and a moment later, Samsen was standing over us. “You’ve always been a tough one, 98. Anyone else would have simply pushed and let go. You…you are stubborn.”

I started moving back, pulling Dez up and over the edge of the track, but I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Samsen slammed a foot down and the unstable metal beneath our feet rattled and shook. “Stop. You’re not to pull her up.”



My muscles burned and my brain rebelled, but I stopped moving, frozen. Dez gasped and tried to hook her foot over the edge, but she couldn’t quite reach.

Something clattered to the ground on the other side of the room, catching Samsen’s attention.

“Hang for a while,” he said with a snicker, eyeing the far corner. There was a stack of boxes and several brooms. As Samsen made his way down several of the steps, I watched as something shimmered and one of the brooms disappeared. It had to be Kiernan.

“Hang on, Dez,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Grab hold of my shoulder and try to pull yourself up. I can’t—” With every ounce of strength I had, I tried to move. It did no good. “I can’t move. I can’t pull you up.”

Her left wrist still in my grasp, she reached out with her right hand and tried to grab my shoulder. At first, all she got was a handful of my shirt. The motion dragged me forward and she panicked and let go as we both began to slide closer to the edge.

“Don’t,” I hissed, frantic. “I’m fine. Try again. Hurry.” Samsen was busy checking on the noise. Now was the only chance we’d have.

She tried again, this time managing to wrap her arm over my shoulder and around my neck. “I can’t hold on,” she cried, slipping a bit. “I can’t—”

“You can,” I whispered. “Swing your leg up. Hook it through the edge of the platform. Try harder.”

She tried again—and failed.

“Denazen is impenetrable. A fortress that no one ever gets into—or out of. Yet you managed. When they took me—when they locked me back in that cage—it was you who got me out. You did the unthinkable, Dez. You. Can. Do. This.”



The tip of her sneaker popped over the edge. Closing my eyes, I focused on my right hand. My pointer finger twitched. Then my thumb. I managed to move it an inch—maybe two—but her foot slipped back into the darkness. A rage-infused scream was building deep in my throat.

Samsen, deciding that the noise had been nothing, came back up the steps and settled beside me. Kneeling down, he whispered, “What would it do to you—if I told you to let go? Would it destroy you? Snap that last remaining shred of sanity Denazen left intact? Would it push you over the edge and finally make you into the monster they tried so hard to sculpt? I always enjoyed poking you the most, 98. You tried so hard to resist. Remember?” He sighed. “Always tried—and in the end, always failed.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. In my grasp, Dez was still struggling to climb back up. She’d managed to hook her shoe into the slots on the edge of the platform and was halfway over the rim.

“Loosen your grip.”

I did. I tried not to, but it was useless. He was right. I always failed. Dez screamed and slipped a few more inches. Her leg, wrapped around the edge of the platform, unwound and disappeared.





11


Samsen laughed. “Very nice. How does that feel? To know you’re going to be the reason that pretty little head cracks open and spills her brains all over the ground below. Now let g—”

A slight breeze hit my neck and sent the edges of Dez’s hair fluttering sideways. Samsen’s eyes widened for a moment, then rolled back as he toppled forward, landing facedown on the platform beside me. It was like someone had snapped a rubber band inside my gut. Something shattered and the connection was broken. Rendered unconscious, he no longer had an influence over me.

In control of my limbs again, I dragged Dez up and across the edge of the track. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I pulled her close, aware that I was almost cutting off her air and not caring. She was safe and in my arms, and that was all that mattered.

I turned to see Kiernan in the shadow of the platform, standing over Samsen with the broom in her hand. “Kinda likes the sound of his own voice, doesn’t he?”



Dez pulled away and stumbled to her feet. “Oh my God, I totally said the same thing!” Kiernan grinned and tossed the broom over the edge. It clanked twice before falling still at the base of the track. “I knew I liked you.”

I nodded to the ground. “I saw you across the room. How did you make the broom disappear?”

Kiernan winked at me. “It’s hard to do, but if I try, I can sometimes extend my ability to something I’m touching. Nothing big, and I probably couldn’t have made it last long, but it was enough for me to move across the room with it.”