They didn’t run.
Snapping out of my shock, I dragged Owen behind the nearest tree, trying to cover him as much as I could with my body.
“Zu?” she called again.
“Okay!” I shouted back, my voice raw from the smoke and the staggering relief that arrived both unexpected and uncontained.
They’re trying to help.
They should have run—but somehow, they’d known something was coming, and they’d tried to warn us. They’d rushed into the fray to help all these kids.
The two teens who had been guarding them burst out of the trees, rushing past me. Each had a sobbing kid clinging to their back.
“Owen,” I said, leaning down to look him in the eye. His skin was feverish to the touch. “You need to go with them, all right?”
“I can help,” he said quietly.
The heavy smoke fell over us like a curtain. Even when I breathed through my mouth, I could taste it coating my tongue.
And Owen…He flinched at every gasp or soft cry as the kids who’d been guarding the hole crossed paths with the charred remains of the soldiers.
“You already did,” I promised. “The only way you can help now is to go with them to safety.”
One of the guards held out her hand to Owen, urging him forward. He pulled away from me, but instead of taking the girl’s hand, he raised his arms.
“What are you doing?” I asked him. “Owen!”
The flames narrowed and rose like mountains where they covered the house, invincible, gorging themselves on the pure air and wood frame. But then Owen smashed his hands together with a single loud clap, and, all at once, they were smothered.
With one last reluctant look at me, he ran after the others.
A second too late to warn them, I remembered the girl, how I’d told her where to go to find the Haven kids who had already evacuated.
Thanks for letting me know.
That had been before the fire. She, or one of the soldiers, would have had time to go after them. To hurt them.
I spotted Roman as he ducked behind a tree, taking a moment to reload his gun.
Stopping only long enough to pick up the pistol that had fallen from the female soldier’s hand, I soared toward him like an arrow. Bullets thundered through the air as I ran.
Roman spun toward me, a wild look of relief on his face as I slammed into the trunk, dropping down beside him. One hand reached out, cupping the back of my head to draw me closer. He had to shout to be heard over the gunfire. “Are you all right? Tell me they didn’t hurt you—”
No—no time for that—
“They know how to find the kids,” I gasped out. “They’re going to go after them!”
His body went rigid. “Like hell they are. Priya!”
Priyanka was all color and motion, backlit by the lingering patches of fire in the trees. She ran for us, dropping to slide on her hip and leg across the last few feet of mud. Wincing, she said, “Okay, don’t let me do that again. Looks awesome, feels terrible—”
Roman cut her off. “There’s some kind of crawl space or escape route out of the house.” He glanced at me, confirming. I nodded. “They found out where it is. Can you take care of it while we finish here?”
Her expression turned grave. “Yeah. Where is it?”
“Under the dryer in the laundry room,” I said. “There might still be a few kids trapped upstairs in the attic. Call out for Jacob when you get inside and let him know we’ve got everyone.”
She nodded, tossing her long hair back over her shoulder. “I’m going to remind you that heroes frequently die, but the morally mediocre people almost always live to see another day. Don’t do anything that’s going to piss me off.”
And with that, Priyanka bolted for the house, leaving us to cover her as one of the remaining soldiers opened fire from somewhere in the forest. The screen door snapped shut behind her, then fell completely off its frame. A section of the porch collapsed with a sigh of cracking wood, burying the bodies there.
I reached out, gripping Roman’s arm to reclaim his attention. “You should have run. What are you even doing here?”
Streaks of soot covered Roman’s face, and his dark hair had fallen into his eyes, but it was impossible to miss their startling shade of blue. It burned in the darkness, pulling me in a bit closer.
There was a quiet catch in his throat, as if he’d skipped a breath. Then his dark lashes lowered, and he allowed himself a ghost of a smile. “We would have come sooner, except that noise—you took care of it, didn’t you? The second I pulled myself back up off the ground, I thought, There’s going to be nothing left for us to do but watch as you sweep up the rest of them.”
I straightened at the words, only to realize there had been nothing mocking in them. His genuine tone and that slight, almost amazed curve of his lips made me brace a hand against the ground, unsteady.
“I’m the reason they’re here,” I whispered back as he turned back to the forest, adjusting his grip on the weapon. “This is my fault. That stupid phone—”
He reached over, gripping my shoulder. “It’s not your fault. If anything, it’s mine. I should have thought of it. I know better. I know how people like this work. You were the one who did everything right in this situation.”
“I should have known, too,” I said, shaking my head.
In the panic after the power went out, I hadn’t even thought to wonder how they’d anticipated the attack. But now that Roman was here, in front of me, as calm and steady as always, I reclaimed some small bit of center. Of clarity. “How did you and Priyanka know we’d plugged it in?”
He risked a glance at me. “We heard the helicopters in the distance. We’d been so careful on the drive not to be followed or seen, so it was the only explanation either of us could come up with.”
There was another faint scream in the distance—a girl’s. We both whirled toward it.
“What do you want to do?” Roman asked.
“Split up,” I said, starting to rise. “You go left, I go right, and we meet back up at the lake. Is that where the helicopters landed?”
He shook his head. “There wasn’t room to land. They dropped them. That gives us some time while they wait for transport.”
I nodded, breathing in the smoky air. My eyes held that image of him rising from the ground, so solid and unafraid.
“You should have left,” I said again. Thank you for not leaving.
“Come together,” he said, “leave together.”
Before I could respond, Roman’s expression shifted again. The searing look of determination became what could only be pain.
Not pain. Agony.
Roman’s breath exploded out of him as it hit. One hand shot out, feeling through the air for something to grip—something to use for balance. It landed on my outstretched arm, and I had to fight to keep him from collapsing back onto the ground.
He shook his head, sweat beading on his face with the force of the cry he was holding in.
“Roman!” I said.
This wasn’t like the migraine before; that had been as simple as something unplugging his consciousness. Now his body locked, jerking as if the pain had its hands on his throat and was slowly strangling him.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded, checking his pulse, gripping his face in my hands to keep him from pounding his skull against the rocks. “What’s happening? Roman!”
“Kids…get…kids…” he gasped out. “Go!”
I let him fall against me, sliding my hands beneath his shirt, feeling along the hard lines of his back and shoulders for a bullet wound or shrapnel or anything to explain why his gaze had gone so unfocused. His fingers tightened on my forearm, pressing hard enough to bruise. A warning.
“You know I don’t like having to do this.”
The girl. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket, tossing her long hair over her shoulder. “You make this so hard. I don’t know how else to get through to you.”
; I looked between her and Roman. His lips were moving, struggling to get the words out. She wasn’t just locking his mind, it looked like she was attacking it.
Roman cried out, his legs thrashing on the ground as she took another step forward.
“I’m trying to help you. I should kill you myself for what you did. I’m supposed to, you know. Kill you. Some days, I even think I might want to.” Her voice was low, seething. It was only then, with the clarity of the hate in those words, that I realized the gunfire had stopped. “I don’t know what happened to you, Roman, but you need help. It’s not too late. Come with me, and I’ll make sure you’re safe. I’ll protect you.”
I stood up, gun in hand. A cold fury gripped me, steadying my aim. “Whatever you’re doing to him—to all of us—stop.”
That dead-eyed smile was like a single fingernail running down my spine. “No.”
I licked the sweat off my top lip. My finger tightened on the trigger. “Then give me one reason not to kill you.”
“Because,” Roman said weakly from behind me. “She’s my sister.”
“LANA…”
The girl’s gaze had been trained on me, unblinking. Now she turned toward Roman, her eyes narrowing with a look of outrage.
Lana.
Roman used the tree to pull himself up from the ground. He staggered forward, his knees bobbing dangerously. His eyes looked glassy, almost feverish with pain.
Fury stormed through me, and I didn’t bother to stop it. She was going to kill him—she was going to kill him, and the only way to stop her was to kill her first.
Don’t make me do this, I thought, watching her.
“We had to go,” he said. “We had to. All of this time, we’ve been looking for you.”
The knowing, after all these days of guessing, slammed into me like a fist.
I was right.
She was shaking her head, backing away. “You’re the one who needs help. I’m trying to save you! I’m going to save you!”
Someone called out for her.
“Here!” she yelled back, ignoring the gun I had trained on her. “Here! I found him!”
“Don’t…don’t…” Roman’s voice was faint. “Solnyshko…”
Then I felt it. The twist.
It was like molten liquid pouring into my skull. A scream tore out of my throat. Every joint in my body strained, stretching and contorting. I hit the ground, banging my left side against the root of the massive tree. The gun slipped from my hand, spinning across the dirt and leaves.
Through the blur of tears and smoke, I saw one of the soldiers approach us, dragging a boy after him. Fear shot through me as I struggled to get my hands against the ground, to push myself up.
“Stop, Lana!” he begged. “I’ll come with you, all right? Please—don’t do this!”
“You’ll come with us no matter what,” Lana said. “This”—I screamed again as the boiling pressure increased—“is so you understand that there are consequences to your actions.”
A shot cracked out. The soldier was there, and then he wasn’t. A spray of blood burst from his neck, and he stumbled back, pressing a gloved hand to it. The shock of the hit made him release his grip on the boy, who bolted the instant he was free. Some of the heat in my mind eased enough for me to lift my head and look for Roman.
But the shot had come from the remaining section of the porch. The gun was still smoking in Priyanka’s hands as she lowered it, her eyes going wide.
“Lana!” The word broke from her like a joyful sound, only to be fractured by disbelief.
“Stay back!” I managed to shout through the agony. “Don’t come any closer—”
The girl turned, and I wished I could have seen her expression—if it was still that tight mask of rage, or if it mirrored Priyanka’s exhilaration as it faded into horror.
Priyanka looked first to Roman, then to me, before turning back to Lana.
“What are you doing?” Priyanka jumped down off the porch, her long legs quickly closing the distance between them. Lana tried to back away, refusing to look at her.
The distraction Priyanka provided was enough for the painful heat and pressure in my skull to momentarily ease. I drew myself up enough to try crawling across the ground, straining to reach the gun I’d lost.
“What do you think?” Lana spat. She looked between the three of us with all the feral suspicion of an animal that knew it was about to be cornered.
Priyanka stopped, and, like there was some magnetic force between them, Lana froze in place as well.
“I really don’t know,” Priyanka said softly. “Explain it to me while we get the hell out of here.”
Something switched off in her, and Lana’s tone went flat again. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re mine.”
“You’re damn right I am, Sunshine,” Priyanka said, trying for a pained smile as she knelt down beside Roman, checking his pulse.
Oh, I thought, putting that much together as well.
“That’s not…” Lana began. Her nostrils flared as she took in a heavy, uneven breath. “Don’t. You know what I meant.”
“I know a lot of things,” Priyanka said slowly, rising again. Roman tried to follow, but could only get himself onto his knees. “I know the Lana I loved wouldn’t hurt others, especially not her brother.”
“Just like Pri would never leave me, right?” Lana seethed.
Priyanka struggled to control her expression, but her eyes gave her away. “What’s happened to you?”
Lana clenched her fist, taking a step forward. “He made me stronger. No one, not even you, will hurt me again. He’s the one who took care of me. And now he’s the only one who deserves my loyalty.”
One word rose through the pain ratcheting up in my mind. Who?
“Who…the hell…is he?” I got the words out through gritted teeth. Both of them ignored me, wholly focused on each other.
Priyanka held out her hand. “Just…come with me. We’ve been trying to find you—this whole time, we’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Liar,” Lana whispered, but she didn’t back up again. She stared at Priyanka’s outstretched hand. It trembled where it hung in the air, and I could see in her face, no matter how hard she was working to disguise it, that Priyanka was halfway to heartbreak.
Still, she took another step toward Lana. “We have so much work to do, remember?”
Whatever daze had taken over Lana’s mind was ripped away. “No.”
The gun’s register sounded a split second after the bullet slammed into the tree inches from Lana’s head. Jacob had taken position on the porch and was already lining up his next shot. The boy I’d seen before hung behind him, tears streaming down his cheeks as he spoke, clearly explaining what was happening.
In the distance, helicopter blades sliced through the night air, growing louder by the second. Priyanka lunged for Lana in that moment of interruption, but the girl was faster, both on her feet and in processing her odds. She crashed through the underbrush, jumping over a downed log before disappearing into the trees.
“No!” Priyanka called, running after her. “Lana!”
My vision split in two as the band of pressure around my mind released with a hard snap of pain. Roman shuddered and gasped beside me.
Static roared through my mind, my ears, filling my veins. The welcome caress of power fired through me, erasing the terrifying silence in my mind.
“You all right?” Jacob called, jogging over.
I waited for the dizziness to pass before accepting his help up.
Roman had shoved himself up onto his feet, turning to follow the path Lana and Priyanka had taken through the woods.
“They still have Sasha!” the boy shouted from the porch.
Shit. I gripped Roman’s arm. “Go after Lana, I’ll—”
At that, Roman gave his head a hard shake, pulling away. “No, I’ll go. Can you find Priya?”
I was still just disoriented enough that it took me a second to compre
hend his words, and by then, he was already running, stooping to pick up a different gun from the ground. Then he disappeared, too, wrapped in darkness and smoke.
Jacob put a hand on my shoulder, making me jump. “You okay?”
“Is it just Sasha?” I asked.
He nodded and the relief was so pure, it brought tears close to the surface again.
“Take him,” I said, angling my head toward the boy. “We’ll bring Sasha.”
“I’m taking that as your definitive vote for trusting them,” he said, wiping the sweat off his face.
I turned back toward the smoldering forest, scanning for any sign of movement. “I tend to find saving kids from being kidnapped and murdered pretty endearing.”
He clucked his tongue. “Makes it unanimous, then. She saved both my and Jen’s asses when she busted into the house. Consider her extra endearing.”
More than that, though, I finally understood what was going on. The darkness I’d sensed at their edges, shaping their lies, hadn’t been some horrible intention. It had been a person, and she was nothing I ever could have imagined.
Like us, but not.
I took off, calling out Priyanka’s name as I moved off the trail and into the woods. My mind raced. What Lana could do…the fact that she could affect our minds the way she had, suppressing our powers and driving stakes of pain directly into our nerves, made me think she might be Orange-classified. The only two I’d known, Ruby and Clancy, hadn’t had the exact same ability, after all. He could plant suggestions, manipulate feelings, and maneuver bodies, but only Ruby had been able to directly affect someone’s memory.
I slid to a stop at the sight of Priyanka coming toward me, her arms crossed tight against her chest, her head down. Her whole body shook, and her face looked as if every emotion had been wrung out of her.
“Are you all right?” I jogged toward her.
She shook her head, momentarily unable to find the words. Priyanka looked…not helpless, but lost. “I couldn’t…I wasn’t enough. I couldn’t make her stay.”
I didn’t know what to say other than “I don’t think anyone could have.”
“I could have. I should have. But I promised Roman not to take it too far.” Even though she didn’t repeat them, I saw the echo of the words on her face. I wasn’t enough.
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