Free Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) by Emma L. Adams

on the other side, our ancestors have seen it first-hand.”
    The scene changes to an old piece of parchment, faded and yellowing. A drawing of a twisted monster is scrawled in black ink. Even though it’s rough and faded, it can only be one of the fiends.
    “Most of the evidence is with us. Why? We don’t want regular people to know about us. Our powers are not so different from our enemies’. We would be shunned, forced into hiding. Already, we live in secret communities. There is no place for us in regular life. If you are here to join, you will have experienced some of this already. You will be unnaturally strong and fast, and be able to endure more damage than any regular human. This is not anything to be ashamed of. Now you know our place in the scheme of things. Our organisation was formed to learn more about them, but when they turned hostile, we had no choice but to intervene. Through this, we have learned much about them.”
    Now, the scene shows a laboratory, through a grainy camera lens. I recognise it from my visions of Cas’s past—and from when we actually went there. The old lab.
    “Thousands of years ago, a rift was opened between our worlds. The Fiordans decimated their own world, and ever since, these smaller rifts have been enabling them to get through into our world, to invade us. We are gifted with fire for a reason. We are humanity’s avenging angels. Time and again, we have protected humans from the Fiordans, and so it continues, and will always continue, until our enemies are vanquished.”
    The video cuts out. Jared looks at me expectantly.
    “Well?”
    “Well what?” I say, folding my arms. “That was a propaganda video for your group, right? Not like it told me anything. Avenging angels?”
    I admit, it’s odd that Jared’s symbol once belonged to the group as a whole. But he could have told me that already.
    “We were once united,” says Jared. “All of us. Pyros against the Fiordans. Why can it not be the same again?”
    “Because of what you did.” The experiments. The tattoos. Cas. Does he really think a stupid propaganda video will change my mind?
    “I see you’re going to take some convincing.” Jared sighs and pauses the video. “I will take you to him.”
    My heart flips, and I have to force my expression to remain neutral. It must be a trick. He wouldn’t… but I can’t help thinking of Cas in my last vision. He’s alive. He’s really alive.
    “Nothing to say?”
    He’s searching for weakness again. I meet his stare evenly, though my mind’s racing. What has he done to Cas? What state is he in after being stuck here for days, with a madman who can torture him on a whim?
    “Cas is in training with the others at the moment, I believe, but if you like, I can show you to the room you’ll be staying in, as my guest. You can shower and change, and I’ll send someone to call you when the others come back, okay?”
    Yeah, like he’s offering me a choice. But I can’t turn down the offer of a shower and change of clothes, as much as it makes my skin crawl to be dependent on him in any way. Perhaps if I go along with it, I’ll have the chance to talk to Cas alone. Tell him I know how to remove the tattoo. Then we can get out of here.
    I just nod, and he directs me out of the room and into the corridor again. Two guards have appeared outside the door as if he somehow called them without making a noise. Probably did, I think, remembering how the tattoos can affect people from a distance.
    I half-expect Jared’s assigned me the crappiest room, but it turns out to be pretty nice, as far as underground bunkers go. Small, but cosy. A single bed and table are the only furniture, but there’s an en-suite bathroom at the back with a real working shower.
    Jared leaves me in peace, but the guards remain outside the door, probably to stop me running off. I might as well make the most of this. A clean, plain black outfit lies across the bed, along with a couple of towels. I