A Nameless Dark

Chapter 10

My knuckles bled.

I beat my fists against the cruel metal of the door and screamed for Aaron, my voice raw with dread.

"Open the door!" Samuel's shout reverberated off the concrete walls of the tunnel behind me.

"I can't," Thaddeus said, and drops of sorrow fell from his voice to sting my ears. "Aaron sealed it. I don't have the strength of Light to open it now."

I turned to Thaddeus, my eyes tracking to the gun in his hand and narrowing in suspicion.

"You're a Holder of Light," I said, taking an angry step down the stairs towards him. "But I haven't seen you use it. We're being hunted by the nastiest freaking monsters imaginable, and you've been relying on your gun the whole time."

"It's my responsibility to power the weapons of the Steel Tower with Light." Thaddeus met my eye with pangs of guilt twisting his expression. "The effort leaves me drained of power much of the time. I'm sorry, but I can't open the door."

"What about us?" I said, calling up my power and sending it into my hand to spark a soft blue glow. "We could open it."

"There's no time for me to teach you how," Thaddeus said. "It's a complicated use of Light, not like pushing a button or turning a doorknob."

"Is there another way into the alley?" Lara asked.

"Please." Samuel gripped Thaddeus by the arm. I expected anger from Samuel, but instead I saw fear in the pale blue of his eyes. "We have to get back out there."

Thaddeus lowered his head.

"By the time we go around," he said, his voice heavy with regret, "whatever is going to happen out there will already have happened."

"We can't just leave him." I said, my voice hollow as the fire of my rage cooled to a dull throb in my chest. "He's the whole reason we've been running. He's the one she wants."

"That's right," Thaddeus said. "And if Wiley has your uncle now, it won't be long until the Morrighan gets her crooked fingers on him. That's all the more reason to find Graver and contact the Families. Maybe they can help get Aaron back."

I turned back toward the door where it stood cold and heartless in our path, raising my bloodied hand to its unforgiving surface. On the other side, just six inches away from my fingertips, a cool rain fell into the alley, perhaps washing away my uncle's blood. A feeling of utter powerlessness punched into my core, injecting its bitter poison into my heart. We were out-matched. How could we expect to prevail against such powerful evil when it was so hell-bent on destroying us? Even if we found Graver, and if he chose to help us, and if he was able to contact the Families, and if they agreed to help as well, would they stand any better chance against the Morrighan and her demons than we did? If there was no chance of victory, why should we even try?

This must have been what my father felt when he chose to go into hiding. In a moment just like this one, Jacob Acheson had lost all hope and chosen the coward's path. He chose to quit. And what did he gain through his cowardice? Decades of crawling into corners and slinking through the shadows. And then an early grave.

I would not make the same decision. If death and destruction were coming for me, then let them come now and be done with it. They would find me ready for a fight when they arrived.

"What if we blast through the wall?" Samuel said. "I think I could do it."

"The walls are lined with solid steel," Thaddeus said. "There's no way to get through them. The only way out is down."