⚡️THUNDERFANG S3 #24

Flames consumed me. 

I didn’t want to die—I especially didn’t want to die with him.

And that laughter.  It shook me to my core.

I watched as Akim Salvi’s skin both burned and melted simultaneously—and not once did his frenzied expression falter from the joyous revelry he was experiencing.

I wanted to scream, claw my way out of this nightmare, but the heat made the air thick. I couldn’t breathe. Which would come first? Death by fire, or lack of oxygen?

I prayed for the latter.

My mind must have snapped somewhere under the flames of torment. The fire felt like hands, wrestling me to the ground.

And there was a cool breeze on my skin.

The flames dissipated and I found myself on my back, looking up at New Bohemia’s sky.

Was this…hell?

“LOCKE!”

I tried to sit up, but my wrists and ankles were restrained to the ground by something thin but strong, and a weight was on my chest. This had to be hell—I was going to keep dying over and over again, wasn’t I?

All because of Akim Salvi.

I yelled and struggled against my restraints, letting what little lightning I had begin to crackle off of my skin. My fight or flight made the voices around me inaudible, especially with the blood pumping in my veins.

Someone slammed my back into the ground, knocking the wind out of me briefly and causing black spots to cloud my vision. When it finally began to settle, I realized the weight on me was actually…Ira? I quelled my lightning.

Around us, the rest of my crew stood with confused and horrified expressions. I was bound to the ground by Ira’s Branding—though, his firm hands on my chest would suffice now that I was coming out of it.

But…

What if Ira was lying too? What if Ira was another pawn—or bishop, or rook, or knight, or whatever playing for the other team?

What if they all were?

“It’s…all…a…lie!” It came out much harsher than I had intended it; I fought against Ira and his restraints with every word. I wanted to believe he wasn’t corrupted but it was getting harder and harder to recognize what was real around me.

“Breathe…I’m here with you.” Ira’s voice was calm—as calm as he could be in his situation.

It somehow broke through the pounding of my heart in my ears. “We’re home—our home—with all our friends—our family. You’re safe. I promise.” 

But…how was he so calm?

I was right.

He was playing for another team!

The lightning within surged to the surface. I channeled it through both of my arms, ready to break free of the Sly fucker that—

“Locke, you’re safe!” Ira grabbed my hand—my ringed hand. Some small part of me that still had hope clung to his words. I focused on the feel of his matching black iron ring on my skin. I focused on his body weight on top of mine. I focused on his intoxicating floral scent, now mixed with hints of marshmallow and chocolate.

I replayed the scene with Akim Salvi in my head, and replayed every moment with Ira.

Ira wouldn’t betray me. If nothing else in my life was real…he was. We’d gone through so much together. If I was wrong—if there was someday undeniable proof of his manipulation—then I’d welcome death or whatever else would come. It wouldn’t be worth living anymore. I’d let Malice come—hell, I might even invite him in myself.

But until then…I wanted to believe in him. I had to.

I stopped fighting, the lightning coursing through my arms gone. Someone sighed with relief, but I was too focused on Ira who, despite it all, was looking me directly in my eyes with love. Maybe a hint of annoyance—how many times had this been now where he had to climb on top of me to get me to come to my senses? I thought back to when I first saw him again, right here on this very solar farm. I thought back to him on Avam, when we’d first met.

However improbable, Ira wasn’t lying. He was the one thing that had gone right with my life. I thanked the stars that we’d been reunited—that we’d met in the first place.

With my adrenaline gone, my breathing quickly became labored as I allowed reality to set in. Ira climbed off of me as his vines retracted and he helped me sit up. I couldn’t look at my crew, not yet. A well-timed hug from Ira caused the tears to flow unbidden.

I now had to sit with the miserable truth of this reality.

“It’s all a lie!”

If Akim Salvi—my enemy—had lied to that degree, what about them? What better way to make these “inevitable events” take place? They could guide my hand much better if they were right next to me.

John had “just so happened” to practically fall into my lap. And he’d met me here after I’d had my first round of visions. What luck.

The girl who couldn’t stop trying to run away had suddenly wanted to stay with me?

Yelena was always surprisingly helpful. Too helpful. She’d made herself invaluable.

Where were Kaisa and Fletcher always disappearing to? Hell, where were they right now?

Running into Blackstone—in the middle of a solar storm? After we were tasked with finding her?

We’d been looking for Irēn, but…If Ira was Branded, maybe she was, too? They were twins after all. What secrets was she hiding from us? What if she was secretly the Miss this entire time?

My vision from the vault had “suddenly” changed from an apocalyptic end to…Lestrade dying? Was that some clever ploy from Malice to make us think we needed to rescue her—again? We’d already saved her once on Shiningstar—what if she had been helping Dr. Hendrix?

And Tick was just weird. What the hell was he drawing, anyway?

I silently Vowed to keep my eyes and ears open. Any one of them could betray me—could have already betrayed me, even.

“Of all your visions, this one seems the most unbelievable,” John said in a rather Ripley tone. From the moment I had begun explaining what Michael had showed me around the campfire, he doubted it. Was I too close to the full truth? “I worked with that man for months. He was a tyrant—but he was not Hivebranded.”

“I’m with Sla—Morstan. That just doesn’t seem like the Salvi kid. For all his crazy, I’m having a hard time believing this,” Lestrade said. What if it was both of them? Had they compared notes while we were on Obon?

“Think about it,” I said, doing my best to rein in my suspicion. I didn’t want any of them to have an inkling that I was catching on. “It explains how he knew the name Reichenbach to begin with. Only the Hivebranded knew. He mentioned it as I snuck up on him to—I dunno—push me in the right direction. If his own thoughts are to be trusted, I’ve been manipulated since before I met any of you. He’s the one who got Karim to become an Infernomimic.”

“That is so fucked up.” Jane ran a hand through her green hair. Maybe her hair color wasn’t a personal choice; maybe it was a side-effect of being so closely tied to Malice…

“In all of my timelines, Akim always, always died. Maybe that’s always been the push you needed,” Tick said meekly. “I wonder if that’s why, why they call it an inevitable event…” What was he hiding from us? What else did Tick know?

“I still can’t believe he’s been the one pulling the strings,” Blackstone said. I still couldn’t believe we’d just-so-happened to run into her. And near the Ironlands, too. “Never took him for the mastermind type. But it matches up with what the Benevolent told us. Akim hired them and the Moriartys.”

My blood ran cold, snapping me out of my musings. Akim did hire the Benevolent, and the Moriartys. He’d gotten Karim to become an Infernomimic, leading to my rescue from Avam. He’d set all of this into motion.

I wonder…

“I need to run an errand.” I moved before anyone could try to stop me. Naturally, Ira caught up with me before I’d gotten too far off the ship.

“Where are you going?” He was right to be concerned. I, once again, had a very stupid idea.

But this time, I wouldn’t mess up.

“I need to…clear my head,” I said Slyly. “Akim being Hivebranded is yet another crazy thing we have to deal with and…I just need to clear my head.”

“I’ll come with you, then.” He clearly saw through my bullshit.

“No, please.” I placed the gentlest of hands on him, doing my best to sell the act. “I’ll be back before you know it. I promise.”

Ira’s eyes narrowed; I could sense him questioning me. I hated lying to him but I couldn’t drag the others with me for this, nor could I let them stop me. I needed answers. I was sick and tired of finding out everything so haphazardly. I just wanted all of the truth.

“Whatever you’re up to,” he said with defeat, “you have an hour. And then I’m sending in the cavalry.”

“Baby, I—”

“One. Hour.” His sharp words cut down my next lie before it could properly form on my tongue. “This better be worth it.” He gave me a disappointed look up and down, and a soft kiss on the cheek, before returning to join the others.

As I watched him walk away, leaving me outside of the Scarlet Adler all alone, I couldn’t help but think that I almost didn’t have him back in my life.

If Amari Wade hadn’t died on the Bohemian Express…

By the time I made it to my destination, I had fabricated a decent enough disguise to pass as one of the guards. Every fiber of my being was telling me how stupid of an idea this was, especially the second time around. The first time, I’d lost my Mimic suit and practically gave my enemies a leg up trying to get into Akim’s old office. 

Now, I was trying to get into his home. 

But I needed to know what else was a lie. And if I was right, it was much more than I had originally thought.

The Salvi home was a massive estate towards the northern-most edge of the Salvi Sigil. They had the only home on New Bohemia with a massive lawn—full of actual grass! Hedges and bushes enclosed an elaborate fountain that was still spewing water into the air even at this hour. Interior lighting spilled from its numerous windows, polluting the night sky and making it impossible to see the stars above. Various guards dotted the perimeter, keeping the ruling family safe and sound.

About that…

I headed toward the massive columns that surrounded the main entrance. I did my best to channel John. I remembered how he strolled through the underground facility on Saffron, and did my best to mimic him. I tried to keep most of my face obscured or hidden, but I was not afraid to talk to the occasional person I came across.

I’d never been so determined in my life. So determined that I wasn’t particularly sure I was actually doing a good job, or if I just didn’t care—regardless, I made it through the entrance and began making my way to where I assumed the living quarters to be. 

Naturally I headed in the completely wrong direction.

“Whoa. Where do you think you’re going?” 

A large, stocky man stopped me. He seemed to be the only one assigned to the hallway I had just entered. Expensive looking rugs in pristine condition lined the floor and delicately crafted sconces adorned the walls. I remembered wearing the same pair of shoes for three years, my mother struggling to get me a new pair despite the ones I had falling apart. And here the Salvi’s were with rugs in a hallway that didn’t seem used.

“Filling in for—ah, fuck, what’s his name? New guy.” I snapped my fingers and let my gaze wander, hoping to sell the act. I even slipped into a familiar New Bohemian accent that I’d lost with my years away. “Can’t remember anyone’s fuckin’ name here, to be honest. They keep—”

“Hiring more and more, I know.” The guy huffed and rolled his eyes. “This is the west wing. Where you stationed?”

“S’posed to be just doing rounds. Thought I needed to be here, but maybe they meant to look around Akim’s wing? So much for that training. This place is a fuckin’ maze.”

John would be proud. In moments, I was pointed in the right direction and on my way without any additional fuss. I quickened my pace, hoping to find what I was looking for and get it over with.

Maybe I was worked up over nothing. Maybe I had jumped the gun and assumed the worst—truly gotten distracted, as Michael would say.

I briefly needed to correct myself after I got turned around, but I pushed on until I arrived at Akim’s wing of the Salvi residence. 

An entire fucking wing. 

I shook my head as I slowly looked around, thinking of what Karim’s wing would look like—if it was still functional. Knowing how he went against his family, they probably turned it into a mockery of everything he stood for after his death.

And to think, even Karim was set up by his brother. Would Karim still have been a good guy without Akim’s influence? Would he have been a typical Salvi? How could Akim manipulate his own brother like that?

I didn’t want to think about it. My stomach was already twisted from learning of Akim’s true involvement in all of this.

Finding what looked to be the bedroom, I broke the handle and slipped inside, shutting the door behind me.

I’d definitely made too much noise but at this point, I didn’t care. If I found what I was looking for, I…

I didn’t want to think about that just yet.

I tore the room apart.

I was simultaneously sure there was something here and praying that I never found it. I didn’t want my fears to become reality. But if Akim was Hivebranded, and so much of my life up to this point had been manipulated, what—

I held up a set of documents.

My heart dropped.

“Are you fucking crazy!” Jane shouted as I made my way back into the Scarlet Adler. I ignored her and went to grab a towel to wipe the blood off my arm. I’d already wrapped it as best I could, but I didn’t feel anything.

Adrenaline and rage coursed through my veins.

Ira ran up to me, immediately began checking my wound, and looked for any other injuries. “What happened!?”

“The Salvi Sigil is on high alert! Holmes, what did you do?” Lestrade and the others pilled in.

I slammed the papers I had recovered down on a table. “BLACKSTONE!”

She was already present, but I’d missed her in the commotion. “What?” Her voice trembled.

“Why were you on the Bohemian Express?”

“You know this already,” she said. She was the most timid I’d ever seen her. I didn’t mean to direct my frustration at her but—

“Guys, maybe, maybe we should—”

“Not now, Tick. Tell me again…please.” I did my best to temper my emotions. I wasn’t doing a very good job, though.

“I was looking for Amari Wade.”

I nodded, exhaling slowly to calm my nerves. My fight wasn’t with her. My fight was with…I shuddered at the thought. “Where did your tip come from?” I slid her a sheet of paper before she could respond.

“A source reached out and—Wait.” She lifted the paper and scanned over the contents. “This looks like the intel I had on him. Yeah, this is it. Said he was traveling to New Bohemia.”

“Where is this going, Holmes?” Lestrade inserted herself between myself and the others. I was not doing a very good job at directing my frustration apparently.

Could they blame me?

“Each and every one of you on the Bohemian Express,” I said, sliding more and more sheets of paper on the table. “Christa. Annora. Edris. Brian Kerra. Hal and his daughter. Booker. Talia Vega. All of you were there…”

I accidentally laughed. Fuck. I sounded crazy. This shit was so fucking stupid.

“…because of Akim Salvi.”

They’d heard the stories of my “adventure” on the Bohemian Express countless times by now, so it was no shock that the entire crew dived into the paperwork. Their faces twisted in disbelief at realizing the validity of my words.

I slid a final sheet of paper from the folder and exhaled.

“Even Amari Wade himself.”

Next week on ⚡️THUNDERFANG:

Zugzwang: a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move.

Your turn, Locke.