Liza Fury - Catch 22: The Terrian Chronicles, #2

By TC Marti

My Wind Wielding cousin broke out of prison, killed my parents, and kidnapped my sister…

 

…Then she beat me to within an inch of my life and gave me twenty-two days to rescue Stef

 

The expert tracker he is, my brother offered to take my spot. But the notorious Intrepid Party caught up and arrested him on false charges.

 

No one, not my best friend's crimefighting father or my love interest's savvy brother has the slightest clue of Stef's whereabouts. My brother didn't fill them in.

But they know where the Intrepid arrested him. In a vast, underground city that remained hidden for nearly a century.

And it's a place where the same people who arrested my brother wait for me and my two best friends. To throw us in jail as retaliation because neither my brother nor my best friends' families conformed to their politics.

But if I want to rescue Stef, I have no choice but to venture to this city and find the lead Braden was looking for. Even with the looming threat that my violent cousin may be lurking in the shadows. Or the threat of a prison term if the Intrepid catch me.

 

So yeah, one enemy wants me dead. Another enemy wants me to rot in a prison cell. Never in my seventeen years did I believe I'd play the deadliest game of Catch 22 in human history.

Liza Fury: Catch 22 is the second installment in the Terrian Chronicles, picking up right where Tarja Titan left off. If you love metaphysical fiction rich in elemental magic and small town fantasy, Liza Fury: Catch 22 is for you. Get your copy today and see if Liza can outwit and outlast not one but two enemy factions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TC Marti
• Release date: Apr 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201480004

TC Marti

TC Marti is an author, book reviewer, and freelance writer. When he's not writing, you can often find him in a gym lifting weights, or running miles on a trail.  He's also a huge fan of Arizona sports teams, an unapologetic Blink, and like most authors, an avid reader. 

Book preview

I’m going to bleed out. My breathing labors as the world and gravity blinks from existence. I’m floating above my body. Am I dead? Dead before I can fulfill my destiny to Escort One of the Five?

Frantic approaching footsteps bring me back to Earth, or Terra, as Elemental Society refers to it.

"Liza!"

My brother, or half-brother, Braden Hawk, scrambles over, takes my hand, and places two fingers on my wrist. Don’t talk and don’t move, okay? I have an Elemental team coming to get you.

He lifts my eyelids and asks me to squeeze his hand as hard as I can.

My hyperventilating again erupts. Braden knows about my anxiety; something I’ve had ever since I discovered my ability to control fire. Anxiety that intensified after the abuse I suffered from my parents, whose bodies lay feet from me, after they found out I was an Elemental. 

Something above creaks, shards of plaster fall, and it sends me into hysterics.

Braden pins me with one hand and brushes loose strands of frizzy brown hair behind my ear with the other. You’re alright. Just dinged up pretty bad.

He rehashes a story of how this Maddie girl almost killed him back in 2012 and that he spent eight months in a rehab facility learning to walk again.

If I can survive, so can you, he says, raising his voice as though trying to blink out the ominous creaking above us. And you’re in much better condition than I was.

I appreciate him doing what he can to keep me calm. But this small-town, ranch-style house I grew up in is on its last legs. And here I am, hyperventilating, blood gushing from my face, stomach, everywhere, unable to move except to keep squeezing my half-brother’s hand.

Three sets of footsteps and black-clad medics storm inside, with two dragging a stretcher and a third carrying a bag of medical supplies.

The first medic, a petite girl, asks Braden to move and like the noble brother he is, delegates to me. I follow his order to blink once if it’s okay, twice if not. Obvious answer. I’ll lapse into a full panic attack if someone I know isn’t near me. Even if I’ve seen Braden about five times my entire life, all of which occurred in the past year.

The medic’s lips thin as she holds my head in place while another chokes me with a cervical collar. The third medic, a Blood Elemental, given their iron-hilted sword, places its blade’s tip onto my cuts.

Don’t flinch, Liza, it’s alright, Braden says, tracing the back of my hand with his thumb. She’s going to help heal your cuts.

"She needs to stop moving, period," the medic, who keeps my head cradled in her hands, says.

The first medic performs a more in-depth exam and nods to Braden. Her heart rate and blood pressure are high. Does she have any conditions?

Braden looks at me. Blink twice if you do. Other than your anxiety.

One blink.

Just anxiety, right?

I blink again.

The first medic fills a syringe. Liza, this is going to help you relax, okay?

My eye catches Braden’s and he smiles.

I’d never let them give you anything that would hurt you. One blink if you understand that.

Something tells me I have no other choice than to blink.

Alright, shoot her up and get her outta here, he says.

I wince while they drain the contents into my forearm. Seconds later, everything goes fuzzy.

Braden’s hand never leaves mine as the medics turn me over and immobilize me to the backboard before lifting me onto the stretcher. Two throw a white sheet over my body while a third seals something over my nose and mouth and forces air into my lungs, and they rush me toward a black van. This must be what an Elemental ambulance looks like.

Want me to ride with you? Braden says. One blink for yes.

Another obvious answer.

After shouting down a medic’s inquiry about his car, the second medic asks where he wants them to take me.

Grant Street, Braden says.

They close the doors, silent sirens erupt, and we speed up Route Seven toward Steubenville, Ohio, which will take us onto Twenty-Two West, across the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, and toward Pittsburgh.

I’m still lightheaded from both Maddie’s attack and the meds when we hit the Steel City and turn off the Grant Street Exit. I don’t need to sit upright or be fully aware to know where I’m at, since I’ve been in and out of Pittsburgh dozens of times throughout my seventeen years.

However, I’m sure this Elemental hospital isn’t on the main drag, but probably some strange, back alley, since we’re a secret society, after all. Everything goes dark for about twenty seconds and I only hear a rushing sound as the ambulance vibrates.

Braden and the other three medics wheel me into the emergency room, which looks sleeker and holds more character than any I’ve ever seen in Benight (what we call those born without Elemental ability) Society. Both in real-life and on TV.

Once they wheel me to a unit, two medics unstrap me while one places a pale blue hospital gown over me and another cuts off my shirt and jeans, before removing my socks and shoes. The third fits an oxygen mask over my face, swapping out the bag while doctors rush over.

Something else pricks my arm and the world goes even fuzzier. Braden’s voice echoes something unintelligible and darkness overtakes me.

Chapter One

Catch 22

Everything’s blurry. I’m still, to my dismay, in a neck collar, while I think someone put a nasal cannula into my nostrils. Guess I never got my breathing under control, but it beats an oxygen mask muffling my voice. I have a heart monitor strapped to my right finger and EKGs pulling at my skin under my gown.

Someone put my other arm, the one without the blood pressure cuff and monitor attached, into a black sling, and pale blue linens cover me just beyond my waist.

Then it returns. When I was last conscious, I was riding in the back of an Elemental ambulance after a woman claiming to be my older cousin attacked me, kidnapped my older sister Stef, and killed my parents in cold blood.

Then, she forced me to become a player in a sick game called Catch Twenty-Two. I have twenty-two days to rescue Stef. If I somehow get out of this hospital bed in time and succeed...who am I kidding? I’m a freaking kid and this Maddie girl looked at least ten years older than me.

Plus, she wielded a golden-hilted Sword of Wind, like Braden. Me? I’ll someday have full access to my Sword of Fire and a Sword of Destiny. In times of need, they manifest in my hand. Which I learned last August when I discovered my rare status as an Escort; an Elemental, the only Elemental on Terra capable of eventually controlling more than one element. 

Though they haven’t manifested since and for some strange reason, refused to manifest when this madwoman who broke out of prison and evaded Elemental law enforcement beat me to within an inch of my life. 

The door opens and a lean Indian woman wearing a white labcoat walks in, smiling.

"I need to talk to Braden. Now. The girl who attacked me said something about a Catch Twenty-Two and she’s going to kill my sister. Seriously. Like, I’m not crazy or anything."

Her smile widens. I’ll let him know you’re awake. It’s routine for Sentinels and in some cases, Falconers, to interview assault victims.

Assault victim? I’m sure if I’m laying in a hospital bed attached to medical devices, Maddie’s crime should qualify as something more than assault. I’d have bled out had I not called Braden.

I’m just going to give you a lookover first, okay?

Can’t anyone invoke that rune magick a little more and get me outta here?

Already done. You’re in recovery now.

Oh, alright, fine. Do what you want with me as long as I can talk to Braden like, right after.

Trust me, I’ll let him know. I’m Dr. Singh, by the way, and I’ve been taking care of you over the last few hours. How’re you feeling?

At least I’ve only been out for a few hours. Alive. Better here than I’d be at a Benight hospital, I guess.

Another smile spreads across her angular face as she puts me through a routine exam. You’re improving. Does anything hurt?

Yeah, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Like, I don’t need any sleeping meds, painkillers, or anything. Really, I’d let you know if I did.

We don’t do painkillers here. Rune magick always does the trick.

I’m sure there are like, sleeping runes, or potions, or something, right?

Too right. You’re a smart girl, Liza.

Thanks for the upvote. Now, I need to talk to Braden. It’s important. And can you get rid of this neck collar? It’s choking me.

Not until we run more tests.

Alright, whatever. Just bring Braden in. Oh, if he’s unable to help, can you have someone tell him to delegate this to Sentinel Chase Gotham or Falconer Cesar Hernadnez?

Sentinels are sort of like a police force, or at least it’s what I compare them to. Anyway, like their Benight counterparts, they’re instrumental in protecting civil liberty here in Elemental Society, slaying any threat to us. And the Falconers are like the federal branch of the Sentinels.

My best friend Daya’s father, Cesar, is a Falconer. Cesar’s become a father figure in my life since my biological dad, Jay Fury, wanted nothing to do with me when he discovered his DNA produced another Elemental. With Braden, so disgusted at his relation to Jay that he changed his name to Hawk to reflect his late stepfather, being Jay’s first.

I wanted to be a Sentinel, or Senty as I call them, when I turn eighteen, which won’t happen until early next year. But after the Goddess Trinity and Her Daughter, Valitut, paid me a visit last August, fate had other plans for me.

I grew up as a Christian. Forced to, really. Goodness if you claim any other religion holds truth in the mill towns that line the Upper Ohio Valley, they’ll probably freak out like some far-right cult and throw holy water on you.

Now that I’ve seen Trinity and Valitut in person, my views on religion changed substantially. Oh, and there’s the part where I'm destined to Escort One of the Five. Which means I win in the end, right? Or is that just the deteriorating Christian in me citing the Book of Revelation?

The door opens again and Braden enters. Behind him, Doctor Singh again smiles and sweeps down the hall.

I can’t help but feel at ease. We barely know each other as I never even knew I had a brother until last April. But he returns my smile with an expression that he’s known me forever. Well, I can’t say forever. He’s almost thirty and I turned seventeen in February. So we’re like a generation apart, or so it seems.

Feeling alright? he says, holding out a stuffed teddy bear I’m sure he bought at some hospital gift shop. If Benight hospitals have them, I’m sure their Elemental equivalents have the same. I thought you could use some company before your friends get here.

Y-you called them? I snatch the bear and place it halfway under the linens beside me, also trying to hide the redness encroaching my fair-skinned cheeks. He called Daya and my crush, Chip, who most call Skeeter. But I call him Skeetz. He’s my other best friend but, well, friend zones, right? Which means I’ll never have a chance with him.

They’re on their way now. But first, you know we need to interview you, right? Statements and all?

I twist my lips and nod. We should skip the formalities so he can go rescue Stef while I-I—a haunting thought hits me—what if Maddie sees Braden coming and kills Stef because she specifically told me to go after her? Wherever she is.

He locks my fingers in his. Liza, you’re going to talk to me, Chase, and Cesar about this. Does that sound okay?

I do the best I can to nod in this ridiculous neck collar and to my surprise, Braden doesn’t insist I hold my head still. Like, my freaking neck muscles ache because of this stupid thing. And it’s not that I’m intimidated to talk to another Sentinel or Falconer, it’s just that Braden, Cesar, and/or Chase would drop whatever they’re doing, hunt down Maddie, and rescue Stef.

No, they need to help me rescue her. You know those negative thoughts that climb into your head and won’t go away? Well, that’s what’s going on with me right now. It’s like Trinity or Valitut are telling me I’m right in my intuition and I need to lead the charge against Maddie.

That’s fine, Braden. But she’s got Stef and she’s going to kill her. What else do you need to know?

How much do you remember telling me when you called?

Everything. I’m a bright girl, you know?

I wouldn’t think any differently. He lays a hand on my shoulder. You’re my sister, Liza. That alone tells me your brainpower.

My hardened look softens while guilt stabs my heart. I should’ve made more of an effort to get to know Braden since I discovered his existence last April. She called it a Catch Twenty-Two.

She being Maddie?

"She said I have twenty-two days to find Stef or else she’ll kill her." Then she’ll probably find and kill me.

I’m not going to let that happen. You know that, right?

She didn’t leave as much as a hint of where she’s going.

No, but I’ve known Maddie all my life. When I visited Tuhutraz over the years I made it a point to pass her cell and lock eyes with her. Her tendencies haven't changed. Trust me.

D-do you know where she went?

Well, I’m going to have to do some thinking. But you remember your little escapade to Browns Island with Skeeter and Daya, right?

"Skeetz just knew they were on Browns Island, I say. Well, two of the three prisoners. We never found the Spirit Master’s whereabouts." 

"Skeeter has the mind of a Sentinel, like his brother. And Chase is one of Pittsburgh’s best. But I have more experience than those two combined. I know how to track people in ways Skeeter, Chase, and even Cesar wouldn’t even dream of."

I smile. "You remind me of Catriona from World of the Gateway. She was a Tracker, which is a lot like a Sentinel. And she knew how to find people within days."

He returns my gaze, as though silently telling me Catriona is his favorite character from E.E. Holmes’ hit paranormal occult series. Something I had the privilege to read over the past eight months while I improved my Fire Elemental ability under Chase’s guidance thanks to Daya’s love for Benight books.

Well, I guess I’ll have to pull a Catriona and beat Maddie at her own game, won’t I? Reminds you a bit of Lucida, doesn’t she?

Uh-huh. Braden?

Yup?

When Maddie attacked me, she said I was her baby cousin. What did she mean by that?

He sighs. You know little of Jay’s extended family, don’t you?

I nod.

"Jay had an older sister who got with this whack job man one night in the late-1980s and had Maddie nine months later. Our aunt was a certified nut now that I think about it. Anyway, that’s how we’re both related to her."

Can’t believe she’d attack her own family.

Like I said, she betrayed me once. It’s how Tarja entered your life.

I throw him another smile. More of a grimace given how badly I treated Tarja growing up. I still need to relay to Braden, somehow, that while I’m cool with him tracking Maddie, I need to go after her. He just needs to hand me the info on her potential whereabouts.

How I’m supposed to tell him this, I have no idea.

The door opens again and five people enter. Two blond boys eight years apart in age but you’d think they were twins if you saw them, lead the other three, who I refer to as my extended family, are Cesar, Daya, and Dee Hernandez.

Daya takes after her Hispanic father’s facial features but her skin tone is a solid mixture between Cesar’s and her mother’s, who I learned over the past eight months is of Ethiopian descent.

Braden beams as he turns to the group. Told you some friends were coming your way. Cesar, Chase, Liza already gave her statement; she just needs to write it so if you’d like I can fill you two in.

I don’t think I really gave a statement, but elation further buds inside me that Braden Hawk is my older brother. Okay, mental note: I’m making it a point to call him at least once a week. I need him in my life more than perhaps anyone else.

Chapter Two

News

I’m not one to hash. Never have been, never will be. I have no interest in hashing things that aren’t important. So here’s the condensed rundown from my hospital stay to my discharge.

They diagnosed me with three fractured ribs and a sprained shoulder. Nothing rune magick and rest couldn’t fix. No more neck braces or any contraption designed to help me breathe, which I’m more than cool with.

The next day, I walked out of the hospital in cool designer clothes Daya picked out for me, into Cesar’s Escalade, and arrived at their posh home in Pittsburgh’s North Hills to a Welcome Home Party.

Dee threw it, with Daya’s help. Everyone I’ve met since Chase rescued me from Jay and Janet in late August came. Too many names to list. And I’m not gonna lie, I had a great time.

Except for one nagging concern not even a huge party could throw from my mind: I have twenty-one days to find my sister. Twenty, come tomorrow