Free The Violet Awakening (The Elementum Trinity Book 2) by Styna Lane

weighted as I imagined the same amount of destruction within the walls of The Facility. I pictured my tiny apartment in ruins, a new alarm clock torn to pieces by something other than myself for once. The vase full of blue flowers strewn across the floor, wilted and crispy. Emmy’s trash can toppled over in her kitchen, Eddie’s damp shoes spilling out of it.
    The fire had mostly been extinguished, but a few straggling townsfolk prodded around the site with shovels and sticks, looking for who-knows-what. I caught sight of a familiar face, very animatedly talking to a police officer. The face belonged to Lakin’s adoptive father, and he looked mostly angry, with just a hint of despair.
    ‘They thought Lakin was in the store…’ Al explained after reading the hefty man’s mind.
    I was surprised that it mattered at all to him. He had all but kicked Lakin out, and had never shown any amount of care for him. By the look on the police officer’s face, I was not the only person who knew of the man’s neglect.
    ‘How do we get in?’ Mattie’s voice streamed through our little network of soundless communication, reminding me that I was not alone inside my head.
    Al focused on the officer for a moment, before giving us his response. ‘We won’t have a problem.’
    Though the flames had diminished, heat radiated against us from the remaining embers as we stumbled across ash and scorched cans of sodium-ridden stuff that was considered to be food. We made sure not to cross paths with those who poked around the disturbing sight, and found ourselves at what obviously used to be the men’s restroom, a single blackened urinal still protruding from the ground. Al did his best to shuffle the debris as discreetly as possible, until we could see the thinnest outline of a door in the floor. He ordered that we all keep a close eye on those around us as he lifted the door just enough for each of us to shimmy through, but the order quickly became unnecessary.
    “All right, folks,” the officer spoke up from the edge of the ruin, “I’m going to need you all to clear the scene.”
    As the stragglers turned their backs to us, I thought I saw the officer’s gaze linger in our direction. But I knew it couldn’t be so.

Chapter Eleven
Break
     
     
     
     
    Darkness. Complete and total darkness. That was all that seemed to exist on the other side of the door. Mattie dropped my hand as Al held his lighter to each of our palms, eerily illuminating our surroundings. I recognized the room we wandered into by the human-shaped scorch-marks littering the floor. I shuddered at the thought that Al had created those morbid marks, and that he had created them because of me. I didn’t know if those guards had died, but the bits of flesh still stuck to the floor suggested that they had certainly been left with some nasty scars—and at least one missing ear.
    In the stairwell, fluorescent lights dangled dangerously from the walls, threatening to give us just the slightest startle from an unexpected crash. Other than a thin coating of dust, The Facility seemed fairly untouched by the explosion above. Al and I took the free hands of our humany-invisibility-cloaks, fearing that we had perhaps strolled into the den of a less-than-sleeping—and very hungry—monster.
    We made our way down to the floor where I’d been released from my shackles. Cubicles were covered in messes of papers, and the floor was sprinkled with the tiniest bits of ceiling. A light was on above a single desk, exactly as it had been on the night of my escape. A lump developed in my throat and seemed to hold itself in place with b arbed wire as I walked toward the light.
    ‘Angie, don’t,’ Al pleaded.
    I ignored him and continued to the cubicle, using all my strength to force one step after another. A long exhale whispered through my lips at the sight of the empty chair, but the dark puddle of blood beneath the desk was less than reassuring.
    “Aww, her grandpa?” The sound