Cardinal Tower (Trinity Central Book #1)

Chapter 36

There's only one place I have yet to check, the room I've been dreading since my arrival, the room where I made my first kill. I should've assumed they'd be kept there since it's isolated from the rest of the facility. Almost no one is aware that it even exists.

I round the corner, images of that day flashing through my mind. This time, the screams no longer resonate from the room behind the wall, but rather from the building across the market. The longer I spend looking for Aria the more people die at Cardinal, and thanks to my father, I now have an internal clock counting down ten minutes before the building collapses.

"Blake?" I call out, seeing the large man standing in front of the door to what could possibly be hiding Aria.

"Castelle?" He looks just as surprised to see me as I am to see him. "What are you doing here? How'd you get out from downstairs."

"You know me well enough. No prison can keep me." I step closer. "I need to get into that room, so if you could just move aside that'd be much appreciated."

He lifts up his gun, the metal shaking along with his hands. It's clear he's never shot someone before, and I'm not sure if he's capable of pulling the trigger. The barrel is aimed directly at the top of my head, so I stop, my hands rising palms forward to show that I mean no harm. "I'm sorry Castelle, but I can't do that. I was told to protect this room at all costs."

"Do you know what's in there Blake?" I ask, trying to keep as non-hostile a tone as possible.

"Orders are orders, I'm not at liberty to question them." He's being controlled like a mindless puppet. "Just don't move."

"Blake put the gun down, and let's talk about this." I force myself to think, trying to figure out what to say to calm him down. No matter which way you look at it, a gun will always beat a knife.

I remember something Jacoby said, something that gauged an interesting reaction out of Blake. "You're fighting with them because of your brother right?" I can see his grip loosening around the trigger at the mention of his brother, his hand falling slightly showing a desire to be civil with me at this moment.

I don't hesitate when I continue. "Do you really think he'd want you to be doing this? Fighting so recklessly, killing in cold blood? If he's as great as you make him out to be, then he'd want you to think about your actions." I can see his features soften, rethinking his decisions in the Karma's plot.

I take a moment to step forward slightly, my hands still in a sign of surrender. The sudden movement forces Blake's hand to press the trigger, a loud bang erupting from across the room. A sharp pain pierces my right shoulder followed by a puddle of red pooling in my blue uniform. My left-hand moves to hold my wound, a gasp of pain leaving my mouth as blood drips down my hand. He looks shocked; stunned by the recoil, and surprised that he had shot someone.

"Dammit," I breathe, sucking in the pain between heavy gasps, "Always with the blood! I don't think you people understand how hard this shit is to wash out." I lift my hand to reveal my palm, covered in a layer of crimson red shining in the restricted light of the hallway. I try to force out a band of gold or black, but the lines on my arm aren't stretching, probably still dormant because of the cage I was trapped in.

Blake's voice is shaky. "I said not to move." His grip tightens around the handle, a false air of confidence filling him. He's scared, terrified even, but he doesn't know any better but to put on this act for the people he's pledged to serve. I'll play along.

"You're right," I suck through my gritted teeth, trying to portray my pain more than needed, even leaning against the wall to oversell my fatigued state. In all honesty, I've endured pain much worse. Absorbing that first drop of blood that day in Trinity felt like a hundred bullets piercing my forearm at once.