Illuminate (Antithesis Book 1)

by C. L. Fennell

  Max held up his palm and we stopped, he grabbed our hands and slipped us to the top of the wall surrounding the building.

  “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” I asked and knelt down, scanning the courtyard below.

  “I didn’t think about it.” He chuckled like it was funny, but he wasn’t the one who had to toss a hundred dollars worth of shoes back there.

  “Look,” Levi whispered and pointed at the side of the building.

  Andi was walking through the yard with her hood up and swords out. The ground under was lighting with her blue flames, following each step she took. The guards yelled and ran at her as a group, which was a rookie mistake. She raised a head and dropped them before they could get close enough to do anything. Another one came from behind and she fell to a knee, letting him flip over her, then she knocked him out with one hit.

  Max grabbed my hand and I took Harvey's, who held Levi's, and we slipped.

  Once we were inside it was hard to see what was happening. There were yells and gunshots, but the lights were off and not many things were visible. We held on to each other and slowly made our way to the hall connecting the rooms we’d been to before. Max held his arm up over my chest, blocking me from moving further. I leaned to the side and peeked around his shoulder, watching Andi face off with Sebastian. I couldn’t hear her but his face was tense enough to know she was trying to reach him.

  She must have given up trying to talk it out, because she jumped up and hooked her body around him. With a burst of power, she reached into the skin on his neck and ripped the long metal chip from his back, then covered him with her blue light. He dropped to the ground and her head jerked up. I thought she was looking at us until someone stepped in our path, blocking my view of her.

  We moved a few steps forward, and I caught a glimpse of someone behind Andi. The glint of metal reflected from the light of her flames, and sent my heart in overdrive.

  “Andi!” I yelled and pushed through Max’s arms, but not quickly enough. Her eyes met mine and widened as her back arched. The green light from the gun exploded behind her, forcing her off the ground and violently dropping her.

  I rushed to close the distance and fell to my knees beside her limp body. I threw my arm out and slammed a ball of power at the man who shot her in the back, not caring if I killed him.

  “Andi?” I rolled her over and patted her face, but she wasn’t there. Her eyes were closed and her skin clammy. I tried shaking her but her head flopped around like a rag doll. I pulled her close to my chest and scanned the area. Charles was standing in front of us, which meant he was who she’d been looking at. To one side there was Reed and Sara, staring at me like they were waiting for their next move. And on the other side was a group of guards, I couldn’t tell how many. Sebastian was still laying on the ground next to us, and I wasn’t able to see if he was breathing or not.

  “Max?” I looked from face to face, waiting for one of them to move. “Please take them home.”

  He stepped from the doorway, keeping his eyes moving from one person to the next.

  “Misty...”

  “Please take them to Beth,” I said and the tears dropped from my cheeks. “I can’t lose them, Max. Please.”

  He dropped his head and nodded, then slipped to us and away within a second, taking Andi and Sebastian with him.

  I stood on shaky legs and faced the room, ready to take them on if I had to. I could pull the thing from their necks like Andi did if it came to it.

  The shadows began closing in and I meet Harvey's wide eyes from where she was peeking around the door. The darkness spread until it took over, and with it came the girl. She stood in front of me, close enough I could see every line in her face, every similarity to mine. It was like standing in front of a mirror. I stood taller, refusing to be afraid. I was getting my family back no matter who I had to fight in order to do it.

  “Stay out of my way,” I said with false bravo, thankful my voice didn’t crack.

  She tilted her head and frowned, then raised her hands and yanked me into her shadow.

  Chapter twenty-six

  Misty

  “Get up, Misty.” I pulled the blanket over my head and pretended to snore but she pulled it back off. “We have to get up.”

  “I don’t want to get up,” I whined and rolled over, tucking the pillow under me.

  “I know,” she said and flopped down next to me, then wrapped her arms around my waist. “But he’s going to be mad if we’re still in bed”

  “Tell me a story,” I said and leaned back. “Then I’ll get up.”

  She let out a sigh and snuggled her head into my neck.

  “Okay,” she started and raised her hand above us, using a black cloud to play out her words. “Once upon a time, there were twins who were opposite, one of them as bright as lightning and the other as dark as the shadows...”

  My body felt like I was floating, the way it feels when you dream of flying. In the same way, the drop felt like a dream too, when you fall from the sky knowing you’re about to die. My heart pounded and limbs shook when the ground hit me with enough force to knock the air from my lungs.

  I rolled to my back and opened my eyes to the sky, the stars shining down on me. It’d have been peaceful if not for the face blocking them a second later. Her dark hair fell around her like a curtain and I narrowed my eyes.

  “You,” I hissed and scrambled to my feet. It would have been much smarter to stop for clothes, the dress was incredibly inconvenient. “Why’d you take me?” I looked around to nothing but open desert and the old cracked road. “Where are we? I have to go back!”

  Crazy anxiety was racking through me in a way I’d not experienced before, but this girl took me from people I needed to help. She took me from my family and friends when they needed me there. My friends who were now alone with those monsters. Harvey wasn’t aggressive and Levi was human, they needed me with them.

  “You have to take me back,” I said and turned to her, my hands shaking at my hips. She was staring at me with those blue eyes and confused expression on her face. Under any other circumstances I would have tried to talk to her, but this wasn’t the time. I reached one of my hands out, and she stepped back. “Please take me back,” I begged, not caring if I sounded pathetic. I couldn’t leave them.

  She shook her head and took another step back. I clasped my hands at my chest and tried to hold in my tears.

  “You don’t understand,” I said and ignored how badly my voice cracked. “They’re my family, and I can’t leave them.”

  I took a small step closer, and she took another away. Her face showed me nothing, no understanding, no compassion. She was a shell, like so many others I’d seen in my life, and it broke my heart. She could have been so much more, she had been so much more than this.

  She turned away and the shadows closed in on her.

  “Raven, please,” I sobbed and dropped to my knees with my hands out in front of me. “Please help me.”

  The darkness reseeded and her head tilted but she kept her back to me.

  “Raven’s dead,” she said emotionless, and a sob broke from my throat. Her words knocked a brick of pain through my chest.

  “And I am helping you.” She glanced over her shoulder and then vanished in a shadow, leaving me to fall to the ground overtaken with convulsing cries.

  It took me around five minutes to control my emotions. I needed to get it together and get back to the facility. I couldn’t allow myself to give up so easily. I might not be her biological daughter, but I was raised by the strongest person on Earth, and I wouldn’t let her down by failing. I couldn’t give up when there were people I loved depending on me.

  Standing in the middle of the desert, I turned in a complete circle before taking off in the direction that felt best. I ran as fast as my legs and bare feet would allow. The ground was cutting into my skin, but I kept pushing forward. I didn’t stop until the lights began shinning in front of me.

&nbs
p; I caught my breath and pulled the sword from my back. Gathering my power with each step. The sky illuminated above and gave me more juice than I’d ever allowed in the past. The energy was flowing through my body with purpose, with a determination I’d never had.

  I would save my family if it was the last thing I did in my life, I would save them no matter the cost.

  There wasn’t a guard at the front gate, so I made it into the building without seeing anyone. The first one I came across fell with a tiny spark to the chest, and I kept moving.

  The room everyone had been in before was empty, I passed it and kept going. After searching a few more empty rooms, I found them in what looked like an old training gym. Charles, Sariel, Claire, Reed, and Sara were standing to one side, and Levi and Harvey were crouching down together on the other. There were guards everywhere, some standing in formation, and the others were lined behind my family.

  I stepped in the room with my sword in front of me, not caring that I wasn’t strong enough to win. I couldn’t stand back anymore, couldn’t wait for someone else to come save me. If there was ever a time to use the abilities I’d been born with it, it was then.

  They said the chip was a way for them to be controlled, which I assumed meant it was connected to some type of computer. If there was one thing in life I excelled at, it was frying technology.

  One of the guards came at me with a sword of his own. I’d never actually stabbed anyone, and to be honest, I didn’t think I could then. Lucky for me he tried to get close enough to knock me out, unlucky for him because it gave me an opening to strike. I released a bolt, hitting him in the gut, and he dropped at my feet. I stepped over his body as he convulsed. I hoped I didn’t kill him, but I wasn’t in the best position to stop and check.

  A man circled behind my friends and lifted his hands, creating small flames in each palm. He wasn’t a nephilim, but he wasn’t exactly human either. This is what Addison had been doing all along, finding a way to create his own race. I pointed my sword at him.

  “Don’t touch them,” I said and met his dark eyes. He smirked and tossed his flame at Harvey. She yelped and flicked her wrist, using her telekineses to throw the fire away from them. The guard sneered and threw more. Harvey was strong with her power, but if he threw too much she wouldn’t be able to stop it all.

  “Stop!” I yelled and pushed a bolt of electricity toward him. It landed on his chest, but unlike what I’d normally do, I kept the line open. The stream of light flickered and cracked as I tried to control where it went, trying to guide it to the place I knew the chip was implanted.

  Shouts around me threatened to break my concentration, but I didn’t want to stop until I knew if it would work. The guard was on his knees, his back arched and face contorted in pain, but I kept going.

  “Misty!” Harvey screamed and my body flew forward, my sword was knocked from my hand and slid away. I turned to see who hit me and froze.

  “Grandpa?” I scrambled to my feet and stepped back. Charles looked at me in a way I would have nightmares about. The protectiveness I’d grown to know and the love I’d always felt from him was gone. This wasn’t the man who treated me like a granddaughter, this was a puppet.

  Red flames licked the ground at his feet as he moved closer and his dark eyes stared through me the way Andi’s had when she was attacking.

  “Please, Charles...” I whispered, hoping I could snap him out of it the way Andi had. “It’s me, Misty. Remember me?”

  A trembling hand touched my back but I didn’t turn to her. Levi’s arm brushed mine as he came up to the other side. I quickly glanced around the room, taking in my family and the guards. We were surrounded in the front but other than the guard on the ground, there was no one behind us. What were they doing? Were they going to attack or just stand there? Nothing was making much sense. The currents in my body were sizzling along my skin and beginning to become painful, the way they always did if I used too much, or didn’t release them.

  I took a couple steps back, pushing Harvey and Levi closer to the wall. I didn’t turn away from the blank-faces in front of me, but I tilted my head slightly.

  “Run,” I said under my breath and Harvey sucked hers in. “I know you don’t want to leave me, but I’m about to explode and if you’re here it might hurt you.”

  Her hand gripped my dress and I reached behind me to squeeze it.

  “Please, run. You guys need to get out of the building as quickly as you can.”

  “Be careful,” Harvey whispered and let my hand go.

  “You should come with us,” Levi said and leaned closer to my ear. “There are too many of them, Misty. The chances of you being able to overcome them are slim to none.” I nodded. I knew there were too many of them, and I knew I didn’t know how to completely control my power. But I was going to try- I had to try. I owed these people my life, and I wasn’t going to run away when they needed help.

  “I know,” I said. “But I’m not leaving without them. Now, run. You have less than a minute to get out of the building.” I glanced over my shoulder and nodded, meeting his eyes until he dropped his.

  “Okay,” Levi said and patted my arm. “Okay.”

  They moved quickly out the door behind me, and I kept my eyes drifting from one person to the next. None of them seemed to care about them leaving, which made me think they only cared about me. Every one of their dull eyes were staring through me. My family’s faces were void of anything familiar, and some of the guards were sneering, but even they didn't look natural.

  There was a small gap between Sariel and Charles, and I could see my sword lying a foot or so behind them. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then launched my body forward. I made it just past them when arms wrapped around my waist and slammed me to the floor. My eyes snapped open and I rolled quickly, just before the boot could make contact with my face. I grabbed my sword and jumped to my feet.

  Sariel’s stomp hit the floor hard enough to shake the walls, and my eyes widened. If that had been my head, I’m pretty sure I would have died.

  Standing in the middle of them now, I raised my sword and turned. I tried to calm my nerves and prepared myself for the shock of my life. I met Charles' eyes, and then I looked to Sariel’s. I tried to see the others but they weren’t in front of me anymore. The guards were scary, but they were nothing compared to my family. These men were never human, they were created to be warriors, and held more power than most. These fallen angels could destroy anything in their path, which is probably why Chief Addison wanted them in his control. With them, he could do whatever he wanted, using them to wipe out any enemy he had to face.

  I was no match for them and I knew it. They could have already killed me if they wanted. The stomp to the head was a terrifying threat, but that’s all it had been- a threat. If they wanted me dead, I would have been within seconds of walking in the room.

  “You really don’t know who I am?” I asked and a tear fell. It wasn’t the time to get emotional, and it shouldn’t have surprised me but it did. It hurt when Andi attacked me, but in the end, she’d loved me enough to snap out of it. It didn’t seem like they were going to, though. I’d been apart of their family for years, but I wasn’t their blood. I wasn’t someone they had to love, but I thought it would be enough. I might not have been born in their family, but they chose me to be apart of it. They’d always made me feel loved, the same as they do Ezra.

  “You have five minutes,” Claire's voice called out from behind her husband. She took a step to the side, her body was twitching and her eyes were rolling around. She faced me but wasn’t seeing me. “Five minutes, Misty.”

  “Claire?” Was she herself? Her head jerked from one side to the other before dropping.

  I inhaled as deeply as I could and slid my sword back in the sheath. I didn’t need it for what I was going to do.

  Chapter twenty-seven

  Max

  I was pissed at Misty for asking me to take them, for begging me to leave her and my p
arents behind. But I understood her reasoning, I knew I was the only one who could slip and they needed help. I’d hoped we got there in time, but as I stood in the corner of the room and watched Beth frantically trying to heal them, I feared it was too late.

  “Grab my bag!” she yelled and Eddie took off down the hall, slamming things around in search for whatever it was she needed.

  The look on his face when we landed in their living room was one I never wanted to see again. The agony written on it when his eyes landed on his sister would be forever burned into my memory. The love they had for each other was legendary. The stories of him teaching his little sister to fight before she knew who she was, then him fighting in matches against nephilim and winning. Andi faced the fallen angel Amon and won so she could bring her brother back from the dimension he’d been trapped in. Eddie was human, but he was so much more than any of the others I knew. Levi reminded me of him, actually. The strength they both had was what they’d worked hard for, and they both carried it well.

  “Where are they?” a booming voice came from the other room before the door flew open. Azazel rushed in and knelt down next to his son. His hand shook as he lifted Sebastian's head from the floor, using his fingers to pry open his eyes. He looked from him to Andi and laid his palm over her chest, then his eyes found Beth’s.

  “No tears, girl. This is not the time for you to cry.” He gently lowered Sebastian's head and stood. “Where are your crystals?” he asked.

  Eddie rushed back in with a black bag in his hand and dropped next to Andi. “I got them,” he said and dumped them out. Beth’s hands shifted through them, picking out certain ones and pushing away others. She was muttering under her breath and started placing them over Andi and Sebastian’s chest. Each time a stone landed, it began to glow. I’d heard about Beth’s healing abilities, and saw some in her classes at school, but this wasn’t something she’d taught us. This was a gift only the Luminaries had, and she was the only one I knew. Her family lived in some unknown remote forest in one of the other countries, and they rarely visited.