Sacrifice

by Denise Grover Swank

  Alex laughed. “Really? You sent a calling card through the whole city. My biggest problem was getting away.”

  Emma took several slow steps backward.

  Raphael lifted his hand and the ground cracked behind her, the street separating several feet. “Not so fast, Emma.”

  She wobbled but kept her balance. “You know, Raphael, I might be more willing to cooperate if you weren’t so hostile.”

  “So did you figure out how to read it?” Alex asked.

  “She claims she’s read it all and now she’s threatening to destroy it.”

  “What?” Panic laced Alex’s words. “Emma, I know we’ve had our differences, but be reasonable.”

  The sirens grew louder. They’d be here any minute. She had to get out of here. “I don’t want to fight you two. I don’t want to fight anyone. This isn’t my fight. I just want my son and to be left alone. Can’t you understand that?”

  “It’s not us you have to convince of that, Emma,” Raphael said. “It’s your father.”

  Which was hopeless.

  Alex moved closer to Raphael. If she could push the cargo van beside the two men into them and make the gas tank explode…

  She held the backpack out again, her palm facing it as she let the energy fill her. Tears burned her eyes. This could all go so terribly wrong. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  Fear covered Raphael’s face as he lunged forward. “Emma! Don’t do it!”

  His approach scared her and her power released in Alex’s direction before she had a chance to aim it at the van.

  Alex hit the ground as Raphael pressed forward.

  “Go back!” she shouted, her energy pushing him away.

  The sky filled with dark clouds and thunder boomed overhead.

  The first police cars screeched to a halt a half-block away.

  She aimed for the van, her energy crashing into the gas tank. The explosion rocked the ground as she pushed it toward them then turned to run.

  “Emma!”

  She’d forgotten about the crack in the ground but had enough momentum to leap over, falling to her knees as she landed.

  As she took off running, she ignited cars behind her to slow Raphael and Alex down. Police cars blocked the end of the street, the officers filling the road.

  Damn it.

  She ran down the sidewalk, tearing around the corner of a building to the parking lot, just before the building crumpled to the ground. An explosion followed, shooting debris higher into the air. She fumbled with the car door and climbed inside as pieces of concrete fell around her, then took off toward the street on the opposite side of the lot.

  Raphael stood in the middle of the exit, his eyes wild with rage, his body encased in a dense green glow. Alex was nowhere to be seen. The police were behind her, entering the parking lot, drawn by Raphael’s gleam.

  Raphael seemed like her biggest concern at this point. The parking lot was ringed with a metal chain slung through posts, with only two exits. One blocked by police and the other by Raphael. He took a step toward her. “What are you going to do? Run me over?”

  She would if she had to.

  She floored the gas pedal and Raphael created a crack in the ground. A light pole fell on the hood of the car, smashing in the engine.

  Goddamnit.

  Gunshots rang out behind her but didn’t seem to affect Raphael. The bullets bounced off his glow.

  If she got out of the car, she was likely to get shot. If she stayed inside, Raphael would get the book.

  The back window shattered from gunfire. She turned and held up her palm, thrusting energy toward the parked cars behind her. The entire back of the lot erupted with flames and she hoped it would buy her a minute or so from the police.

  Raphael appeared at the driver’s door, pulling on the locked handle as panic clawed at her sanity.

  Alex rounded the corner, brushing dust off of his pants. Two against one.

  She closed her eyes to gather her strength. She couldn’t let them get the book.

  The door clicked as it unlocked.

  She looped the backpack over her shoulder and pushed the door open as Raphael pulled. “Move.” The door flung open with unnatural strength, ripping off the hinges and carrying Raphael with it at least ten feet. Raphael landed on his back, the door on top of him.

  Emma burst from the car and leaped over the metal chain onto the street, running the opposite direction from the police and Alex.

  Thunder rumbled overhead and a torrential rain fell from the sky.

  “Emma! Stop!” Alex shouted. “Just listen to me!”

  She flung energy to more parked cars, blocking her path with explosions. More law enforcement vehicles filled the street ahead. She had to get out of here, but if she got away from Raphael and Alex, how could she outrun all these police?

  The ground shook, glass shattering in the buildings around her. If she hid her power, then she could get away once she was out of Alex’s and Raphael’s sight. First she had to get out of view from the police, then she could try to hide her energy. Halfway down the street, she spotted an alley. If she went inside and blocked the entrance, then she could escape from everyone at the opposite end.

  She neared the passageway, Alex behind her and emitting a dense blue glow, clearly visible to the police officers. As she made it into the entrance, she looked back. The policemen slumped on the ground and over car doors. Alex had killed them all.

  Swallowing her horror, her nausea intensified when she realized that the second part of her plan wouldn’t work. There was nothing to ignite. Unless she burned the wooden buildings encasing the alley.

  “Please be empty,” she begged as she lifted her hands and shot energy into the structures. Fire ripped through the sides, spreading burning debris in the alley. When she reached the opposite end, she turned to see the alley behind her engulfed in flames. With no sign of Alex, she covered her power.

  Rain, wind, and sirens filled the air, but she was nearly oblivious to it all. She only wanted to get a car and find Will.

  Everything else would sort itself out.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Will stood, chained to a picnic table, looking down onto the city below. Fires dotted the landscape in the setting sun. Emma had been part of that mess. Worry for her safety gnawed in his belly, but somehow he knew she was all right, as though he could feel her deep within. She had mentioned they had a similar connection before he’d lost his memory, back when he had the mark. Even though the idea should have freaked him out, he found it comforting. He felt like he possessed some part of his past with her.

  But if Aiden had his way, he’d lose her soon. She’d drive up and tell him goodbye. Will had little doubt that she would. With the threat of his death hanging over her head, she would see no other alternative. Somehow he had to convince her not to go through with this.

  A car turned into the overlook parking five minutes before nine. The men with him shifted nervously. He didn’t know their allegiance to Aiden—Vinco Potentia? Cavallo? Will waited, anxiety jolting through him until he realized it was Emma in a vehicle he didn’t recognize.

  Opening the car door, she stepped out wearing her sunglasses, her mouth pursed. It shocked him that he could read her so well. She was prepared for the worst as she scanned the area, her hand gripping the strap of the backpack slung over her shoulder, the book presumably inside. After what she’d just gone through, he would have been surprised if she’d left it in the car.

  Even wearing her glasses she looked alert yet leery, not that the men with him noticed. They tensed the moment she pulled up, having been told what she was capable of. She stopped six feet away and scanned the group, not acknowledging Will. “I’m here. Now what?” She was sharp and direct.

  The leader of the group moved to Will’s side. “We’ve been told that you’re to tell him goodbye and then we release him.”

  Her jaw tensed. “Then your job is done. Go.”

  The men stayed in place. />
  Emma took a step forward. “Let me make this clear, you fucking assholes. I just blew up half of Albuquerque. I can blow you halfwits up in my sleep. Now move.”

  The men looked at their boss, then moved across the street and climbed into their cars. The man in charge glared at Emma before he backed up toward the road, his hand on a gun holstered at his side. He got into a van and the vehicles took off down the mountain.

  Emma watched them, her body so rigid Will wondered how she hadn’t shattered with tension. When she was satisfied they’d left, she turned her attention to Will.

  Her jaw trembled. Her first sign of weakness since she’d arrived.

  His heart broke. Without thinking, he moved his hand to reach for her, jerking the chain that tied his hands to the table behind him.

  Still, she said nothing, her glasses covering her eyes. Her gaze turned to the valley below and her face paled. “It’s my vision,” she whispered.

  “Emma, no. No, it’s not.” Goddamnit he wished he could touch her.

  Her gaze stayed on the scene as she walked closer to the edge. “It’s just like I saw.” Her voice choked on tears. “I saw a valley dotted with fires and a voice saying ‘You are the destruction of the world.’”

  “There’s no one here saying that, Emma. You didn’t cause this. Raphael did.”

  “I should have just given him the book.”

  “No, you did the right thing. We need to look at it again and see if we can find something new. I’ll figure out a way to translate the text.”

  She turned back to him, tears streaming down her cheeks from beneath the glasses. “I read it. This afternoon before Raphael showed up.”

  “How?”

  She gave a half laugh. “I told the book to show me the words.”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. They’d had the answers all along yet it never occurred to him to try that. “Emma, take off your glasses.”

  She hesitated before sliding them off and looking at him with red, puffy eyes.

  “I know why you’re here. I know what you’re supposed to do.”

  She bit her trembling lip.

  “You don’t have to do this, Emma. Aiden came to see me this afternoon.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise.

  “He told me what he threatened.”

  She turned back to the devastation below.

  Will tugged on the chain again, his frustration mounting. “Don’t look down there.”

  “I told you it would come true. I’m the destruction of the world.”

  “Emma, look at me,” he ordered.

  She swung her head, tears filling her eyes.

  “You don’t have to do this. Unchain me and let’s go. You can tell me what the book says and we’ll figure out where to go from there.”

  She shook her head, holding back sobs. “I can’t. He’s going to kill you. I can’t save you from him.”

  “Emma, no. You don’t have to leave me here. Listen to me.”

  Her sobs broke loose when she finally touched him, placing a hand on his chest and the other on his cheek. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to leave you.” She buried her face in his shirt.

  “You listen to me,” he said, his voice firm. “You’re strong enough to do anything you have to do, but I’m telling you that you don’t have to do this.”

  She lifted her head. “I do. Even if I save you now, he’ll kill you later. I have to protect you, Will, and this is the only way I know how. Besides, I promised.”

  His heart dropped. “Emma, I know what it means to you to promise something, but this was coerced.”

  She cried into his shirt, clinging into him.

  “Listen to me! You made a promise to the devil himself. Do you think he’d keep a promise to you?”

  She stepped away and ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. You don’t have to do this.”

  “I couldn’t protect Jake.” Her voice broke and she took a deep breath. “I saw Jake this afternoon. He was terrified of Aiden, but I couldn’t save him. What does he think of me? Does he think I abandoned him?”

  “He loves you. He knows you had no choice. We’ll get him back.”

  She shook her head. “Aiden’s plan is for Jake to fight. Not Aiden, Jake.”

  “What? He’s a child! How could that work?”

  “I don’t know. But the book mentions Water. We were right. Water is somehow involved in all of this. I think he’ll be at the battle.”

  She seemed calmer now, but he wondered if that was good or bad.

  “The joining words are there.”

  “That’s good. See? That’s something to work on. Together. Unchain me, Emma.”

  She looked into his eyes and slowly shook her head.

  Panic rose. She might go through with this. “Emma, listen to me. Aiden can’t kill me. If he could, why wouldn’t he have done it before? Why not just kill me last night when his men found me? Or the night he took back the mark?”

  “He said he didn’t kill you because he worried I’d be angry with him for eternity.”

  “Since when did Aiden care about anyone’s feelings?”

  She paused.

  “Emma, he doesn’t give a fuck what you think, otherwise he wouldn’t be doing this now. Why would he take Jake? Why would he orchestrate all of this if he worried what you thought?”

  Her shoulders heaved as she turned back to the valley. “I don’t know.”

  “They’re threatened by me. Aiden and Raphael. They know something we don’t and they see me as a threat.”

  She held her knuckles to her mouth. “I know. I’ve been thinking about that all day as well. And for a bit I thought you were Water.”

  “Me?” Will’s brain scrambled to use this to his advantage. “See? Maybe I am. If I am, you need me.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “If you were him, you’d know who you were by now. Like Alex and Raphael. You would have developed powers.”

  He didn’t believe it was possible, but if Emma did and she’d set him free, he’d push the idea. “Maybe they’re dormant.”

  “No, you would know if you were. And surely I would have felt something.”

  “You do feel something, Emma.”

  She looked into his eyes. “It’s not the same.”

  “But you can’t deny that Aiden and Raphael want me gone for a reason that has nothing to do with your feelings. They see me as a threat.”

  “I know.”

  This was good. She was listening. “I called Aiden on it. I accused him of not being able to kill me. He didn’t deny it.”

  She was quiet for several seconds. “But he didn’t confirm it, either,” she whispered.

  “No, but—”

  Her tears broke loose. “I can’t take that chance, Will.”

  ***

  Her heart was breaking. The pain threatened to split her chest open and consume her. She sucked in a breath as she held back her sobs.

  “Emma,” he pleaded. She heard the panic in his voice, which broke her even more.

  What remained of downtown Albuquerque lay below in smoldering ruins. She had hoped beyond hope that the vision was wrong, but here it was, spread below her, nearly identical to what she’d seen.

  And it was only the beginning.

  “Emma.”

  Will’s broken voice brought her back to the present. She’d been selfish to keep him close. Every moment with her was a risk. She could never live with herself if something happened to him. She’d nearly shattered into pieces this morning when she thought the dead man in their car was him. This was the right thing to do, but she still wasn’t sure how to do it. Leaving Will was like cutting out part of herself. She inhaled, willing herself to be strong for the both of them.

  “I love you, Will. I love you too much to let you get yourself killed.”

  “Emma, just listen.” His voice cracked. He was begging.

  Her tears burst. “
Please don’t make this harder than it already is.” She pressed his cheeks with her trembling palms, her chest shaking against his. “I’ve never loved anyone like I love you. I was so stupid not to realize it sooner.”

  Will’s eyes bore into hers. “Emma, please…” His shoulders jerked as he tried to pull free. The chain holding him clanged against the metal table.

  Her fingers trailed down his cheek. This was the last time she would touch him and she wanted to remember the feel and the smell of him. His face was blurry through her tears as fresh waves of pain surged. “Even though you don’t remember most of our time together, what you’ve done for me these last few weeks is more than anyone has ever done for me. Ever.” She took a breath. “And what we had before…” She broke down, leaning her head against his chest, trying to recover enough to say what she’d rehearsed the last hour. “You own half my soul, Will Davenport.”

  “Emma, stop this right now.” He pulled on the chains. “Goddamnit!” He took a breath. “Emma, look at me. Please.”

  She pulled back, her hands on his chest, and stared into his eyes. The eyes that had watched her live through hell and heaven and everything in between.

  “Unchain me. I have to touch you. You can’t leave me without letting me touch you one more time.”

  She hesitated.

  “I have to be unchained to be set free. Just do it now.”

  “I can’t.”

  He leaned his head back and took a deep breath, then leveled his eyes to face her. “We both know you’re stronger than me, Emma. What’s the real reason you’ve left me chained? Because you don’t trust me or you don’t trust yourself?”

  They both knew the answer.

  “Just one hand, okay? I have to touch you.”

  She nodded. But freeing him meant she had to reignite her power. Which meant she had to leave before they found her. Or Will.

  She closed her eyes and let her anger burn, igniting the flame in her chest. When her eyelids opened, she was surrounded by a golden glow. “Release his right hand.”

  The chain links fell to the table with a clatter and Will’s arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her to his chest.

  His mouth found hers as she cried her frustration and sorrow into him. The irony that their beginning and their end came drenched in sorrow wasn’t lost on her.