“That’s excellent,” Brianna answered. She’d been through the records herself, as had many of the others, but they were void of anything specific about the power or the way it had changed. Almost suspiciously so. “Have you had any luck?”
“No, not here anyway.” His expression lifted, suddenly eager to share his discovery. “I’d been thinking all this time that you were special.” Brianna noticed Logan’s mouth twitch at the boy’s enthusiasm, but she managed to keep a straight face as Wesley’s hands became animated. “There was something about your power that I could feel, whatever you did to protect me from Morgan, from the sway—” He shook his head, struggling to get the explanation out clearly. “I thought it was you, that I had some sort of connection to your power. And then this morning, I saw Emily in the lobby. She’s down there making a terrible mess, you know. There’s water and metal everywhere, and she took this jar of marbles and…”
Brianna raised her brow and Wesley remembered his point. “It was when I saw her that I realized it’s not just you, Brianna. Whatever this is, the way I can feel the power, it’s with everyone. I guess I didn’t realize because the soldiers weren’t really using their sway. Just Morgan. And it wasn’t very strong, it only felt a little bit…”
He trailed off, trying to think of a word to describe the feeling, and Logan said, “That’s how you were blocking it?”
One side of Wesley’s face scrunched up. “More like avoiding it. I could feel it, kind of a pulse through the air, and then I could just… not be where it was.”
Brianna thought of the way the power had looked in her hands, that faint aura that only the shadows could see. Wesley could only feel it, not see it, but blind to it as he was, he would know as easily as she where the power was headed. Possibly even easier than her. “It’s because your gift is getting stronger,” she said. “As you use it, it will strengthen, become less difficult to manipulate.”
Wesley’s stare went a little unfocused as he recalled watching Emily. “I could feel everything. Each time she brought the wind, the very second she released her focus to shoot some bit of debris across the room, I knew what would happen, could sense how strong the blow would be.”
Brianna stared at him. Her sister was apparently taking to the task of learning her powers with single-minded focus. An imagined lobby filled with flying marbles and gale-force winds was tugging at Brianna’s consciousness, but she brushed it off. Emily would figure it out. She was thorough, if nothing else.
“I’d like to give you some different connections to those powers,” she explained to Wesley. “So you can protect yourself when the others come.”
The boyish wonder at their discussion disappeared completely from his face. He was suddenly a soldier of Council, a son of… “Wesley,” Brianna asked, “what line is your blood?”
“Lion,” he said.
Lion. She smiled, taking his hands into hers. “You will be strong, in control.”
He held very still, but Brianna thought she detected the slightest straightening in his shoulders.
***
The conversations with Ellin and Wesley consumed Brianna’s thoughts on the walk back to her room. She was exhausted. She needed to turn more of them, to repair as many connections as possible, but she couldn’t seem to keep up without rest. It reminded her of Morgan, the way her mother had used her own power to find the links within him. As Logan closed the door to her suite, she turned to face him.
He came up short, surprised by her sudden stop.
“Take off your shirt.”
Logan’s expression didn’t falter, but one eyebrow crept up.
“I need to see something, and I already know how your connections work,” she explained. “It has to be a network I’m familiar with.”
He reached for the hem of his shirt, the barest trace of a smile crossing his lips. “Here?”
Brianna glanced at the sitting area, certain if she got off her feet she’d be out with the first blink. “Yeah,” she said. “It should only take a second.”
He tugged the shirt free, drawing it smoothly over his head to reveal a bare chest and broad, muscled shoulders. She hesitated, suddenly unsure, and then flexed her fingers open and closed. “I just …” she started, eyes falling to the spot she’d intended to touch.
“Whatever you need, Brianna,” Logan replied, only a hint of emotion beneath his tone.
She stepped closer, raising her palms to hover over the steady rise and fall of his chest, and then closed her eyes as she laid them against the warmth of his bare skin.
The network of connections within Logan was there, suddenly clearer than it had been before. She could see each of the ties that she’d made, each link she’d restored in him. There was no way to be sure whether it was easier now because she’d had practice, or because it was somehow closer to her here, but she couldn’t deny the difference. It was the way Emily had touched Morgan, as if she had known, and Brianna suspected her sister had connected with Aern the same way when they’d been bound.
She searched Logan closer, finding the web similar to the one that linked Aern through his union with Emily, but could see no real difference within.
“That looks like bad news,” Logan murmured, seeing the furrow in her brow, the disappointment she hadn’t meant to show.
She opened her eyes, so close to him, and said, “No, it’s fine.”
He pressed his lips together, hands sliding to her waist. It hadn’t looked fine, she realized.
“I… it’s just the bond,” she offered. “I was looking to see—” Her words cut off as the door to the suite opened, Aern and Emily’s voices giving her only enough warning to step free of Logan’s embrace. That left them standing there, Logan shirtless for no good reason. Emily’s eyes widened as she and Aern stopped short.
There was a moment of silence as the four exchanged glances, and then Emily raised a brow at Logan, her gaze rolling down and then up his bare torso with a smirk. He frowned, yanking the tee shirt back over his head with considerably less ease than it had come off, and Emily fought a full-on grin.
The silence lengthened, though, Brianna considering what her discovery could mean, what possible implications it held, instead of bothering to explain what they’d been doing. Logan cleared his throat.
“Right,” she said, finally free of her stupor. “So the good news is that Wesley can feel the pulses that generate our power. He’s got some sort of sense of where they are and how fast they’re coming. He won’t be able to relay the information to the rest of us quickly enough to do much good, but at least he’ll be safe. He’ll have the tool he needs to stay out of harm’s way that much longer.” Brianna glanced at Emily. “He tells us you’ve got quite a grip on your new talents.”
Aern’s eyes rolled to the ceiling, and Brianna was sure he was purposefully not thinking of the damage she’d done to their front hall.
Emily shrugged. “It’s a bit trickier than I imagined. The wind is easy enough, fire too. But I don’t have much control over projectiles yet. Can’t focus the strikes as well as I’d like.” She smiled. “You were right about the water, though. That one will come in handy.” A sound came from Aern, indecipherable and barely audible, but Emily didn’t seem to notice. “Too bad we didn’t get the—”
Emily’s words dropped off as she reached forward, barely catching the tail of Brianna’s shirt. It was only then that Brianna realized she was falling backward, that Logan had caught her. Her vision had lost all focus, and he was dragging her into his arms as Emily’s hands pressed to Brianna’s face.
Emily’s voice was far away as she called her name. She was pleading with her to come back.
To be okay.
Chapter Nineteen
Aern
“They’re coming,” Brianna said. She was wrapped in Logan’s arms, Emily’s palm pressed to her cheek. She’d only been out for a moment, but it hadn’t made it any less terrifying. Aern moved closer, touching Emily’s back as he listened for more. “S
even of them,” Brianna continued, “dark clothes, some kind of uniform maybe. There are three women and four men.” Her eyelids fluttered, but did not open. “He’s not going with them. He wants me to see. To know.” She shuddered, squeezing her eyes shut tight. “To kill them.”
Aern’s gaze connected with Logan where he stood, jaw tight as he held Brianna’s limp form. This was it, the start of what their prophet had feared. They needed to fight, but they needed to protect her. “How long?” Aern said.
Brianna took a deep breath, forcing her eyes open to find him. “I can’t see. The building looked industrial, maybe a warehouse, but they were heading toward a van. There’s something stopping me from finding it, something blocking my real visions.”
Aern nodded. “This time, we wait at the gates. I don’t want to give them the chance we gave Morgan.” He hesitated, remembering the fall Brianna had taken before the battle with Morgan, the vision this dark-haired man had sent her that was nearly a seizure. “Can we trust him, Brianna?”
“I don’t trust him at all,” she said, lowering her gaze. “But the images he’s sending me are real. Don’t ever doubt that.” She wrapped a hand around Logan, steadying herself until she was certain she could remain upright. Her eyes were clear when they met Emily’s and then Aern’s. “I’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes.”
Emily touched her sister’s arm before turning to Aern, ready to follow whatever plan of attack he had in mind. It was less than four minutes later when his men were assembled in the main hall, all of them aware of the new threat they faced, the power that could overwhelm any of them. Kara, Seth, and Eric stood front and center, key players now that Brianna had given them extra abilities, restored their connections. Wesley came through the west entrance with Ellin, who appeared to have some trouble with her right hip, but Aern didn’t think she would let that stop her.
“Give them nothing,” Aern continued his instruction. “Don’t hesitate, because they. Will. Not.” He punctuated his words by connecting with the stares of his men. They had to understand, to have no doubt. “There will be fire. There will be wind. There will be destruction the likes you’ve never imagined. Push through it. There is only one way out. Seven men. Seven.”
His gaze roamed the room of fifty, hoping it would be enough, hoping they weren’t making a mistake.
Emily slid closer, and he could feel her impatience, her readiness, her concern. He gestured for the group to split as he’d instructed, catching Emily’s eye before he called to Wesley and Ellin. “With me.” Soldiers filed past them, a steady rush of boots on the ancient timbers covering the floor, leaving nothing but the four of them to walk toward the lawn. “Eric, Seth, and Kara will be splitting their teams just inside the gates and across the lawn. The rest of the men are positioned throughout the lobby and entrance points. We will be waiting at the south gatehouse, able to move wherever their response requires.”
“I can’t run,” Ellin put in, an apology in her tone.
Aern kept walking. “You won’t need to. This will happen fast.” He glanced at her. “If they make it past us, there’ll be nowhere to go.” Seven, Aern thought. Seven shadows and only the handful of them.
As they walked from the building, down stone steps laid in place a hundred years ago, Logan’s team darted past. One by one, heavily armed, they ran over the lawn to their positions, until the sixth man slowed in a spin, his rifle tip pointed to the sky. It was Daniels, catching Aern’s gaze to throw him a wink that could only mean one thing.
“Brianna,” Emily whispered.
Aern’s hand automatically came to her waist, because the word was full of emotion and understanding. Brianna had given all of the Seven Lines hope, she had turned six men who were more than capable of helping, but at a cost too great for any of them to bear. Because it would hurt her; it was taking something from Brianna each time, exhausting her.
And they needed her.
Aern turned to find the entrance, Brianna and Logan making their way from the building behind them. Her face was wan, but determined. She knew better than anyone the importance of the occasion.
In the end, Ellin and Wesley stood at the window of the gatehouse while Aern and Emily waited near the side door. Brianna sat on the ground at Logan’s feet. He didn’t appear comfortable with the situation, but no one was prepared to argue with her while she was searching for some sort of vision.
“I just want a clue,” she muttered, visibly annoyed with whatever had fogged up her view of the shadows. Her arm twitched, purposefully elbowing Logan in the shin. “Tell Rhona to hold back, he won’t get clear of the tree falling.”
Logan pressed the device in his ear, repeating the message as Brianna instructed. Given where Rhona was positioned, he must have replied something like, “What tree?” because Logan’s response was clipped, an order. “I said hold back.”
Emily glanced out the window, tapping a finger on the handle of her blade where it rested beneath her shirt. She’d drawn her hair into a tight ponytail, double-knotted the laces of her shoes. “How long?” she asked again.
“Soon,” Brianna said, eyes tight against whatever image rolled through her mind.
The lights flickered, a brief instant of darkness before they were back again, too strong. The monitors lining the wall shot through with static, and then flashed white; a quick buzz sounded in Aern’s ear before it snapped, an electric pop that caused him to jerk the device free, toss it onto the floor. The room was suddenly bright, lit with sparks, and then nothing remained but the pale glow coming in through the windows, sunlight filtered by a narrow line of trees.
“They’re here,” Brianna said from the floor.
“That is so creepy,” Emily replied.
“Not a coincidence, I’m guessing?” Ellin asked of the surge that had just disabled their electronics and cut the camera feed. She didn’t take her eyes off the window that was now their only warning of the shadows’ coming approach.
“No,” Wesley said from beside her. “I felt the spike. It’s coming from the tree line over there. They’ve hit the guard houses and everything in about a fifty-foot radius.”
Aern glanced at Logan, their communication systems completely down and no way to alert the others, to tell them where at least one shadow hid. Wesley saw the exchange and said, “I’ll go.”
“I’ll follow him,” Ellin said, eyeing the distance to the trees he’d indicated. “I can make it.”
Brianna pushed herself up from her spot on the floor, no one moving until she spoke. “That should work. When you get outside, take the wide arc, let them come past you.” She pressed a finger into Wesley’s chest, warning him. “Only this one. Don’t approach the others.”
Wesley nodded, and Aern could feel that he trusted her order without reservation. There was a silence, a sudden stillness, and Brianna said, “Now.”
All eyes fell to the window, metal bars resting over shatterproof glass.
Chapter Twenty
Brianna
Brianna watched as the iron gatework between the sculpted block walls that bordered the property melted to a pool on the asphalt below. It was only minutes ago that she’d been surrounded by Logan’s team, an awkward scene where she’d instructed them all to remove their shirts and they’d done so without so much as a snigger. And now she stood with Logan and Aern and Emily, waiting for unknown shadows, seven opponents the man from her visions wanted her to destroy.
Because they were coming for her.
Brianna wasn’t a killer. She didn’t want to be the cause of war, of any man’s death. But if the flashes of visions she was getting had shown her anything, it was that if she didn’t fight, if they didn’t win, a great number of them would die. She pressed her fingernails into her palms, forcing the images down—bodies strewn across the lawn, mangled and torn, trees uprooted, scorched earth. As if a tornado had raged through the yard. She would do it, she would fight. But she wanted there to be a way to make it right.
She glanced at E
mily, thinking of how her sister had burned away Morgan’s power, left him so that he was no longer a danger, and wondered if that gift would work on other shadows.
At the sound of the first gun firing, Brianna’s fear intensified, and Aern’s head snapped up, away from the spot he’d been watching. He’d somehow felt her, she realized, sensed her reaction to the coming fight. Understanding passed between them in that instant of time, and then the door to the gatehouse flew open as the four of them rushed into the light.
It was already chaos. The shadows must have known, somehow predicted the ambush. Brianna hadn’t anticipated things to escalate so quickly, but the moment she stepped from the shelter of the gatehouse, heart pounding, she felt the assault of wind and debris. She pushed her own power forward, creating a tunnel for her and Logan to run, and saw Emily bearing down on a man in black who dwarfed her. The man’s dark eyes connected with Brianna in a spark of recognition, but she couldn’t stay focused on him, because two more shadows were rushing toward her and Logan.
The shadows were weaponless, heading for her with single-minded focus, and Brianna felt them. It wasn’t that same tug, the pull she sensed from the dark-haired man, but the instinct to run or to fight. The exhaustion that had been plaguing her was suddenly gone; her shoulders drew back with the impulse to use her power, to strike. The woman seemed to recognize Brianna’s response, and she bared clenched teeth as she threw up her own arms, prepared for the clash.
Brianna hurled a force of wind at both shadows and Logan was suddenly beside her, running full speed as he gestured toward his team, all other communication lost from the surge and the roar of wind. Several of them must have fired, because the woman spun as her right shoulder was struck, pitching her back long enough that Brianna could take stock, see that the other man had been hit in the knee. It wasn’t slowing them down as it should have, their black uniforms hiding body armor or some other form of protection, and she knew Logan’s men wouldn’t risk it again. The shadows were too close; their next marks would be higher.
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