Silently, I was thankful that someone had at least addressed me. But that wasn’t happening.
“Over my dead body. I’m not leaving without them,” I said.
Who would’ve thought that would be such an unpopular opinion?
The Graeme girl spat at my feet as her brother pulled her back. “Are you bloody nuts? You’re going to get us all killed!” she cried, and I had no doubt then that she was the one who’d called me a coward.
“I never said you all had to stay, but I’m not leaving without them. Now we can go back and forth about this all day, but last I checked, I’m the one who volunteered to come out here and save all your asses. So, you can follow me or not, but this isn’t a debate,” I said.
For once, I found myself acting like a leader and feeling like I had a choice. It was freeing, in a way, but short-lived.
As if Anastasia knew the precipice we were on, another two bombs came flying at us and a third at the base of one of the only standing power lines. I could’ve showed off and made a display of trying to dispatch the three with my speed and strength, but I could do one better.
I plucked them from the sky with invisible hands, and redirected them toward the simulated black sky.
“All right, we’re running out of time here. Whoever’s leaving needs to go now. I need to find Blair and Alec.” Last I’d seen, he’d gotten himself blown up and wasn’t looking so hot, but I didn’t need to tell them that.
“I’m coming with you,” Aaron said.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and instead settled for a raised eyebrow as I looked at the others.
“You’re going to need me,” Alexandra said. She wasn’t wrong when this entire simulation was burning up—even she couldn’t control this fire, though.
“We’re with you,” Amber said, her arm wrapped securely around Tori’s waist, who walked with a slight limp.
“We will fight,” Johanna said, presumably speaking for her nine as a whole.
“We will?” the Graeme girl asked, clearly disagreeing.
“Alec is in here somewhere, and we’re not leaving without him.” Johanna’s eyes flashed with authority, but the blonde wasn’t having it.
“She’s a coward, Johanna. How you can you—”
“The measure of a great leader is not lack of fear but how one faces that fear, Scarlett. She’s made some bad choices, but haven’t we all? I’m willing to give her another chance to prove you wrong. What say you, Milla?”
I followed her gaze to the twelve-year-old child Aaron had been sparring with the day I’d snapped. Her eyes were strange, not clear or gold, but a cloudy white, like cataracts. She had darker skin and frizzy brown hair. Not entirely Supernatural, but not half-breed either. What would give a child so much authority? And how had she ended up here?
“She has spoken with the Mother and her path is clear,” she said.
Johanna nodded like any of that actually made sense.
I shook my head; we didn’t have time for this. As if on cue, another scream drew my attention two hundred meters deeper into the room, where another explosion had just gone off.
“Time to move!” I yelled, as we took off toward the swirling cyclone of smoke and ash.
Thirteen people down. Two to go. They’d better both be in one piece when I got there, or someone was going to pay.
Hang on, Blair. I’m coming.
Mercy killing be damned. No one was getting left behind.
I wished for a moment that I hadn’t spent so long moping and had actually trained with the nine like a leader. Maybe then I wouldn’t worry about the Graeme girl stabbing me in the back…but that was probably wishful thinking.
Concrete grit rained down like hail with every bomb that went off. It seemed that for each disk I misdirected another landed just out of reach. It didn’t help that the smoke grew thicker, and with nowhere to go, it was more likely to kill someone than the fire.
“We’re not going to find anyone with all this smoke,” Scarlett muttered. She wasn’t wrong.
“Instead of complaining, why don’t you find a way to fix it?” I asked, not really looking for an answer. We had another hundred feet of incline before we reached the next rise, and hopefully Blair and Alec.
“Oh really? And how do you bloody expect me to do that? Just wave it away?” She cut off, falling into a fit of coughing. She was being an ass, but something about what she said clicked.
“That’s it,” I said, stopping suddenly. Something ran into me from behind, knocking me face-first toward the concrete. I held up my hands to protect my face, but this time, I didn’t need it. Mentally, I pushed back, and the earth yielded.
Invisible strands of power sprang from my fingertips as I righted myself, forcing the smoke back as I went. Telekinetics moved things with their mind, but smoke wasn’t tangible. It had no form. Only the strongest telekinetics could manipulate it, because it wasn’t solid. But it was matter.
I sucked the smoke into a tight, swirling orb of ash that spun like a dying globe over my palm. I grinned to myself at the simplicity of an act that should’ve been impossible.
“You’re telling me you could’ve done that ten minutes ago?” the Graeme girl groaned.
“Maybe I just wanted you to choke,” I snapped, drawing my lips back.
A light touch to my back made me jump, and I turned to find Aaron standing too close for comfort. Meanwhile, Lucas silently skulked toward the back of the group, his eyes dark and hooded as if he had his own thoughts about Aaron being near me. Alexandra grabbed his arm, yanking his attention away as she leaned forward to whisper something in his ear. Aaron coughed loudly, pulling my attention back to him.
“Do you have to touch me?” I asked, the orb of smoke dissipating in a shower of ash all over us.
“When you’re picking fights with the heir of House Graeme, yes,” he said, rolling his eyes as if I were the foolish one.
“I can—” I stopped short at what I saw coming.
Not thirty feet from me, the fire raged, burning both concrete and wood alike. It shouldn’t have been possible for it to grow so quickly, or move so fast. Another zing through the air distracted me, as the bomb landed in the fire and went off with a bang.
“How the fu—”
“Run!”
I don’t know who said it, but it was the only thing that pulled my eyes away from the terrifying blaze as I raced to the top of the ravine. The others weren’t quite as fast, and I used the time to push the smoke back toward the fire, trying to squelch its flames, but it made no difference. This wasn’t an ordinary fire. It was a living, breathing thing coming for us all. As I hauled myself up over the last chunk of concrete, my throat went dry at the sixty-foot drop, and the two people stuck at the bottom of it.
“I found them! We just need to get them out of there—”
“Selena, we’ve got a problem,” Johanna panted, coming up beside me. Her footing was impeccable as she twisted on the sharp edge, and spun me around.
“What is she doing?” I asked.
Alexandra stood at the base of the rubble, her hands raised in surrender. The fire licked at her worn black boots, trying to follow us. Try as it might, though, she wouldn’t let it past her. My heart dropped into my stomach.
“She can’t hold it forever,” Johanna said, putting words to my fears. My own panting had nothing to do with the running as my throat closed.
Calm yourself. She can hold it. She is fire.
I took a not-so-deep, steadying breath.
You’re a leader. Be a leader. Trust that she can take care of herself.
“She doesn’t have to hold it forever. She just has to hold it long enough.”
And then, I did the dumbest and bravest thing I’ve ever done.
I jumped.
Chapter 84
Turned out six stories was a lot higher up than I’d originally thought.
The ground was coming up too fast. Throwing my arms wide, I pulled the air up to meet me, slowing my
self just enough that I landed with a roll…and instantly regretted it. Rocks jutted out, shredding my back, until I came to a stop and hauled myself up.
It wasn’t the safest of methods, but it had gotten me down here faster, hadn’t it?
The ground was relatively flat in the clearing, but walls made of rubble surrounded it on all sides. The easiest way out was where I’d come from, but that wasn’t an option a second time around—especially if Alec was hurt. I squinted through the haze, sweeping the smoke away so I could find them again. Up at the top of the cliff, I could barely make out my team, and I hoped they would find a way down… Another zing through the air had me turning to catch a bomb, but what I found was far deadlier.
“Blair.”
Her eyes had a wild look to them. Something desperate lurked there, and I needed to make sure she recognized me before I made a move. The knife at my throat pressed down just enough to draw a trickle of blood, before she snapped out of it.
“Selena? Oh my— Are you okay? How did you find— Where’s everyone else?” The craziness had left her eyes, but she was still wary. Dirt caked her body, and tiny pieces of debris clung to the gash on her arm where the blood had already dried. She looked like she’d been through a war zone, but for all intents and purposes, she had.
“They’re at the top. We need to get out of here. Where’s Alec?” The words had barely left my lips when a fit of coughing flared up behind her.
“I’m right h-here,” he rasped. Just behind Blair, Alec pulled himself up, using the concrete fragments for leverage. If I’d thought she was bruised and bloody, he was a downright mess. His pants were shredded, and chunks of his legs were missing as my gaze travelled down. His foot was only half there, and I grimaced to think how we were all going to get out of this.
Think, Selena. Think.
Something landed next to me, jarring me from my thoughts. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, given the way everyone referred to him as my bound and soul-shackled, but when Aaron looked down at me, it wasn’t the relief I’d been expecting that someone had made it down here. It was the urge to hurl, because it was him.
It only took a moment for Johanna to land behind him, and Amber and Tori literally popped out of nowhere. An idea slowly formed even as shouts rang out around me. I stared at Tori long enough to get her attention then flicked my chin toward Alec. I hoped she got the hint that I wanted her to teleport him up. Her eyes went big as she motioned to the rest of us with a sweep of her hand and a raised eyebrow.
“You want to teleport all of us?” I asked, giving up on the silent communication.
“I mean, I could, couldn’t I?” she responded, shrugging like it was no big deal even though her hands were already trembling. Amber, who was closest to us, looked between the two of us like we were nuts.
“You’re already exhausted. Be damn sure you can do this before you agree, because we don’t need two bodies to haul back. You hear me?” Amber said.
Part of me almost agreed with her—the part that knew that if it wasn’t this jump that pushed Tori to burnout, it would be the next. The rest of me said we all had to make sacrifices, and this was our best shot. Alexandra was running out of energy. Alec was running out of blood. We were running out of time.
“I can do this,” she whispered.
That was all I needed to hear.
Linking our hands, we formed a circle around Tori, positioning Alec between Johanna and Aaron. Blair’s eyes kept darting to him, but when the time had come for us to fall into line, she’d insisted on being between Tori and me. Not that I cared, really—I was more concerned about getting us out of here—but it was interesting. Blair and Alec were another puzzle to solve, if we ever got enough of a break to bother.
As if on cue, another disk landed a few feet to my right. Tori’s breath hitched, and she squeezed her eyes shut. The beeping sped up as I mentally counted down. Three. Two. One.
The bomb went off, but it was distorted. Tori sucked us through a vortex so quickly that one moment, we were waiting to die, and the next, I was sixty feet up.
Time to move.
I opened my eyes and peered through the haze. Our world was on fire, and even though everyone was together now, we weren’t out of this mess yet. The group in front of me was still collapsed, but the others who hadn’t followed us were fighting. Each other.
Not much time had passed, but in the minutes it had taken us to go down, get them, and come back, a fight had broken out. Lucas and the Graeme bitch were going at it, while the others were trying to separate them. Alexandra was still holding the wall, but barely. She was already on her knees, shaking as she tried to calm the fire. I’d been right to trust her, but, unfortunately for us, time had almost run out.
When we get out of here, I’m ringing Fortescue’s neck.
I let my emotions burn away in the flames until all that remained was the ability to do what needed to be done. I looked out over the group who’d followed me down. They’d trusted me with their own survival, and I’d failed them.
Tori was coughing up blood, and Alec’s leg was blown to bits. My sister was about to hit burnout, and even Lucas was fighting with some German chick over who knew what. Why was it that every time I started to get myself together, the world chose that moment to fall apart?
This was it. Make or break.
Are you a leader or are you coward? Pick.
We make our own peace. Don’t let your sentimental heart get in the way of what you need to do.
I made my choice. After letting myself literally fall apart and hit rock bottom, there was only one way to go.
Up.
“You guys get Alec and Tori to the door. I gotta deal with this,” I said.
Running like a madwoman, I tackled Lucas head-on, stopping him in mid-swing. I landed on top of him and quickly readjusted so that I straddled his chest and had the upper hand.
“Go! I’ll handle him,” I yelled at the Graeme girl and the boys holding her back.
“You better learn to control your mouth before you insult my house again. Next time, she won’t be here to save you!” Scarlett spat at the ground and threw a look of disgust at him before letting them drag her toward the door. I hoped the others had also listened, but they weren’t my concern right now.
“Get off me,” Lucas growled.
I pursed my lips, looking down at him with my arms crossed over my chest. “Not until you stop acting like a prick.”
He let out another growl, and I decided to do what I should’ve done last time we talked.
I punched him in the face.
“Ahh! What the hell, Selena?” His nose was bloody and broken, but I’d held back.
“Think of it as a wake-up call. If I can get my act together, so can you.” The conversation was taking a surprisingly serious turn until Lucas flipped us and pinned me beneath him.
Welp. That’s not how I was planning on doing this.
The concrete under my back scraped as it bit into the skin, but I didn’t have to stay like that long before Lucas was torn off me.
“You don’t get to touch her like that. Not anymore,” Aaron said as he threw him aside—luckily not into the fire.
“How many times do I have to—” I started to snap at him.
“Do you want him to touch you like that?”
No. Not that I could bring myself to say it, but it was still none of his business.
Aaron crouched down, grabbing my hand to pull me to my feet. “It’s been my business since I first set eyes on you, and that bastard knows it. We can talk about this later, though. Right now, Alex needs you.”
His words left me reeling, because I hadn’t answered him aloud. Somehow, he knew what I’d been thinking. He wasn’t telepathic, and that was alarming. My sister did need me, though, and it was the only reason I ripped my hand from his and turned to face the fire.
Once again, she’d used too much of herself, and now all control was hanging by a thread that was going to burn to ash. The
shaking had stopped, but only because her body had dematerialized into a living flame. Now, the only thing that could stop it was to put that fire out. Good thing my father had been paranoid, because I wasn’t the only one he’d conditioned.
“Ignes ad cineres. Cineres ad ignes. Renascere denuō, itaque tu es incendere incendia.”
Fire to ashes. Ashes to fire. Be reborn again so you can light the pyres.
Her fiery figure vanished, leaving in its place a naked Supernatural girl with flaming red hair and skin as pink as a newborn baby’s. The fire bore down on us both, and I really hoped Aaron and Lucas had had the good sense to get out of here.
I turned into the wall of flame as it hit me, but didn’t burn. No one knew why or how, but for as long as I could remember, the flames hadn’t burned. Not really. Were they hot? Hell yes, but I’d endured worse.
Channeling anger from my core, I rooted myself to the spot where I would make my stand and bring this whole simulator down. This time, I would listen to my instincts. This time, I would not be afraid.
I reached down into myself, smashing the dam that contained my power with a mighty crack. Strands of darkness poured from the fissure, calling for me to seize them. The dam blew apart, and the world flashed from black to white with strands of darkness connecting everything. Mentally, I pushed on those strands, trying to scatter the fire with strong enough winds. It was too far out of control, though, and bombs were still going off. I needed more power. More strength.
“We can do this. Let go.”
I knew who the voice belonged to, but found myself holding back, despite my burning clothes and ash-filled lungs.
“I can’t lose control again. How do I know you’re not just going to kill them all?”
“You don’t,” she whispered, pushing me from my body as she stepped in.
I reached out to hold onto something, anything, but my hands didn’t move. I tumbled blindly through my mind, until there was no chance of forcing her back until she was ready. No longer in the driver’s seat, I observed as she clenched and unclenched my hands.
“Fortunately for you, I’m in a helping mood today. Time to make a little noise.”
Daizlei Academy Omnibus Collection Page 45