The Return of the Lifebringer (Children of the Sun Book 3)

“What the hell is that?” yelled Nef over the muffled sounds of what were definitely explosions above them. It wasn’t long after Kaleth had finally saved them from their horrible fate of listening to Relioth either. They really couldn’t catch a break, could they?

“I’d say Enor found us,” Alor answered the rhetorical question. Nef would have added a snarky comment, but as the ground continued to shake and he was forced to lean onto the metal table, he really wasn’t in the right mood to do it.

“Right, great,” Nef forced out finally, watching the lights above them flicker for a moment. How well built was this Umbra base again? It seemed to be handling itself well enough so far, despite clearly being bombed, but that couldn’t last forever, surely. Though Nef sure hoped it would. “What do we do?”

Nira and Alor answered that at the same time, though their answers were vastly different.

“We fight back, obviously!”

“We wait it out.”

Immediately, the two looked at each other with matching looks of I can’t believe you just said that. And unfortunately, since Nef was sitting between them, it kind of felt like they were looking at him this way.

Another explosion went off above their heads, somehow even louder than ever before. Was Nef just getting more sensitive to it or were they somehow getting closer to the base itself? Was there a crater already? What kind of bombs was Enor using?

Ugh, so many questions again.

“We can’t just sit here and hope they go away,” Nira argued, scowling at Alor. And Nef was inclined to agree, no matter how unsettling it was to see her eyes flash white as she said that. It wouldn’t be that bad if it hadn’t been Relioth’s energy she was using.

“What can we do out there? They are throwing down bombs,” Alor argued back, springing up and leaning forward onto the table. He was putting on his big brother frown too. Nef did his best to ignore the argument as Nira got up as well, standing directly opposite his brother. And he also tried to ignore the sounds of explosions and flickering lights, which was easier said than done.

Both Alor and Nira were right—they couldn’t go out there because they would be killed instantly. Well, Nef would be killed instantly. He wasn’t sure about Nira or Alor anymore. But they couldn’t just let Enor’s people attack the base and do nothing, right?

The lights shut off as another explosion, this one so much more ear-piercing than all the rest combined, went off, throwing them into darkness. Nef flinched, blinking as he tried to see anything. But it was useless. With the base being underground, there was just no light at all.

At least the explosions seemed to have gotten farther away again. That either meant that Enor’s people were really bad at aiming, or that they didn’t know precisely where they were. Both of those options sounded pretty good to Nef, relatively speaking.

“Still think we don’t have to fight back?” Nira said quietly, her tone clearly annoyed. Nef was sure he wouldn’t have even heard her if those explosions had still been going off at the intensity they had been a minute ago.

“Still think we do?” Alor shot back, also irritated. Nef sighed, rubbing his forehead. He didn’t remember them butting heads like this before, though maybe Nira had been trying to be polite until now. They had had a couple of very mild disagreements before. “They are clearly leaving.”

Nef opened his mouth to argue against the arguments of his currently impossible-to-see sibling, but he stopped himself as he noticed that the bombing had indeed seemingly stopped.

“Huh,” said Nef as nothing else happened for a few more seconds. “Well, it doesn’t have to mean they left, Al.” Dammit, Nef really hated not being able to see anything. Was he the only one, or something?

Nef blinked. Oh, right. Alor was now an Eternal, and Nira was…something in between. It probably didn’t bother them nearly as much.

“Whatever Enor is doing, we shouldn’t stay here,” Alor said, apparently starting to pace as he said this. Nef really couldn’t tell aside from the sound of footsteps.

“You just said we should do exactly that,” Nira argued a little too loudly in the suddenly otherwise deathly quiet room.

“No, I said we should wait for the bombing to stop,” Alor corrected, and Nef sighed. Was this how Nira felt when Nef and Alor argued? Because if so, he had an apology to make.

“And it did,” Nira continued, her voice getting more and more irritated. “So let’s go out and fight.”

“No one is going outside until we assess the situation,” a new voice announced, making Nef sharply turn towards it. It was Alor’s former boss, but of course Nef couldn’t see her. Damn his limited eyeballs.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Nef said to himself and then spoke more loudly. “Anyone got a flashlight?”

“Oh, right, you can’t see, can you?” asked Alor, and Nef wanted to smack him. He settled on giving his brother a look of utter irritation, which he knew Alor could see and fully appreciate. He was about to voice his annoyance as well, but just then bright light assaulted his eyes.

Nef jerked away from its source, blinking for a moment before looking up again. It was Elrin, apparently, now with a glowing green aura around her. Well, it made it hard to look at her, even though that light was actually way more dim than he’d thought originally, but at least he could see his surroundings now.

And wow, Nira looked even more irritated than he’d thought she was.

“I’ve made a few calls. Apparently Enor has decided to bomb the entire area, so I don’t think he knows we’re here specifically,” Elrin continued, folding her arms behind her back. Nef really wondered where she made those calls to, but before he could even think of asking, she was speaking again. “But I do agree that we should move elsewhere. He might not know where exactly we are, but he’ll probably find out sooner or later.”

“Wait, he’s bombed other towns?” Alor asked, clearly shocked. Nef was about to point out that Enor didn’t seem to have much of an issue with murder, but then he thought about it more.

It was kind of strange that Enor was willing to just attack what was essentially his own country now. Didn’t anyone have a problem with that? Then again, Enor probably had the media under his thumb, along with everyone else. Maybe the news hadn’t and wouldn’t spread.

More explosions sounded above them, making Nef flinch. Gods, he really hoped Enor somehow hadn’t put together where they were. A much, much louder explosion followed, and this time there was the screech of metal bending.

A direct hit, then. But that didn’t have to mean anything, right?

“We need to move. Now,” said Elrin, and yeah, Nef was more than happy to go along with that. “There is another exit here, in case something like this happens. We just need to gather everyone and—”

“Kaleth and Relioth are gone!” Rayni announced angrily as she ran into the room. Following behind her were Mel, Mereria, Kara, and a few Umbra. With how lifeless the base seemed, Nef was willing to bet this was everyone here.

“What do you mean gone?” Kara exclaimed, apparently not having been made privy to this. Nef just watched them, waiting for Rayni to explain what the hell was going on. And why was all of this happening now? They just had the worst luck, didn’t they?

“Relioth somehow managed to grab Kaleth as soon as he put that damned suppression bracelet on, and teleported both of them away,” Rayni growled, shaking her head. Wait, what? Since when could Relioth do anything with those handcuffs on? Weren’t they supposed to take his powers away? Hell, Nira had taken them from him not too long ago.

As everyone started talking at once, the distressed voices overlapping, once again something exploded, this time right above them, making everyone go deathly quiet. Nef would lie if he said that the way the bombing made the metal above them screech wasn’t making him more than a little nervous. Just how much could these hideouts take before the ceiling fell down on them?

“Okay,” Elrin said, letting out a long sigh. “First, we need to evacuate. Then we can discuss the rest.”

Nef was whole-heartedly in support of this plan, looking up at the currently very green ceiling. He was really expecting it to crack and fall down on them any minute now. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he couldn’t help it.

Everyone seemed in agreement—even Nira didn’t argue against the idea of just running, and not fighting. Everyone except for Mel, that was, who didn’t even nod. In fact, looking at him more closely, Mel just seemed very, very resentful, scowling at the floor with hurt and worry in his eyes and practically ignoring everyone and everything, including the two explosions that quickly followed after Elrin had spoken.

But while it was weird seeing Mel brood, it also made sense. Relioth had apparently kidnapped his boyfriend just a moment ago. A valid reason for anyone to get upset.

Since there was no more discussion, they all got up and followed after Elrin who knew where. Nef was doing his best to ignore the explosions going off above their heads—and they seemed to only be going off there anymore, which wasn’t really helping with his stress levels. Enor’s people had located them, Nef was pretty sure.

The one thing helping him while walking through the near darkness, only illuminated by Elrin’s light, was Nira holding his hand. It would have been effective under any circumstances, but this time it was even more so because she was really, really strong right now. Nef had a first-hand confirmation of that by the grip she had on his hand.

It didn’t hurt, and she was clearly trying to be gentle, but it was definitely out of the norm. But that somehow made Nef feel safer, if only a little bit.

He had no idea where they were going, mostly because he couldn’t see much of anything, but Elrin seemed to have an idea of where she was leading them, and as much as Nef hated not knowing things, he was fine with this.

It didn’t take long to reach a circular door, that Nef would have assumed was just another wall because there were no visible ways of opening it—no handles or anything. Just a smooth wall of silvery metal that was divided down the middle, but the divide was incredibly thin, and he definitely would have missed it if he’d just randomly come across this. But apparently Elrin really knew what she was doing because she just put her hand on the door and it slid open. Maybe it was an Eternal thing.

Peering inside, there was a tunnel on the other side of the door that had now all but slid out of view into the walls surrounding it. Hopefully this would lead them somewhere safe because judging by those explosions that kept going off on the surface, the place probably looked like a war zone by now and was just as safe as one.

They all stepped into the tunnel, which turned out to be even more narrow than it had looked like from the outside. For a while the only sound filling the slightly claustrophobic corridor were boots against metal. Even the Umbra boots, which were ridiculously quiet, couldn’t silence this. Who’d even thought that using a metal floor was a good idea to begin with?

“Just a few more minutes,” Elrin told them quietly as she continued walking. “Then we should be out.”

But then something very unsettling happened. They heard muffled voices somewhere farther in the tunnel.

Well, great, so much for plan A. Nef sure hoped there was a plan B.