‘Does M really think Joseph will send all of his recruiters?’ Luke asks.
April nods. ‘Hunter and M believe he’ll send a large number of them.’
‘But what if he doesn’t?’
‘Then we will find another way to bring Joseph to his knees,’ she replies softly.
Copper snuggles in close to me, resting his head on my lap. I’m grateful for his presence and it’s comforting to run my fingers through his fur. Nothing I do can keep my mind off the events that are supposed to happen tonight though.
The others fall silent and I stare at the train tracks, the minutes passing like hours. No one speaks and the other two seem caught up in their own thoughts. I’m glad of the silence. I don’t feel up to making small talk for the sake of it right now. I have too much on my mind.
The longer we wait, the tenser I feel. I’m not the only one. April looks troubled and it worries me. Something is clearly up and it feels like more than the usual concerns that she seems to shoulder.
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask her.
‘Nothing,’ she responds, too quickly. ‘I’m just thinking about what we have to do.’
I can’t argue with her answer, but something about it doesn’t ring true. ‘You sure that’s all?’
‘Elle, we have to blow up the tunnel entrance tonight and trap recruiters inside. I think that’s enough to worry about for now,’ she retorts sharply.
I frown and drop the subject, falling silent again. I want to trust her, but I don’t believe she’s telling me everything. There’s something she’s holding back from me.
I’m distracted from my concerns when I catch sight of April’s cuff glowing. All of our eyes fall on it and she slowly lifts her head. ‘The recruiters are nearing the station.’
We all stand in one fluid motion and I glance between April and the tunnel.
‘Do we blow it now?’ I ask her.
She shakes her head. ‘No. We wait until they’re all in there or until we can see someone coming. We don’t want them to realise what’s happening and stop them from entering the station.’
I nod, my body tensing. The timing has to be perfect for this. If we blow it too soon the recruiters will hear and may escape out the main entrance before Mia can destroy it.
My heart is beating quickly in my chest, but I feel disconnected from the sensation as I am totally focused on using my talented hearing and sight. I can hear the gentle wheezes of April and Luke’s breaths in and out, and the near soundless rustle of their clothes flapping in the light breeze. The rest of the area is quiet though.
Through the silence, I begin to hear something. It sounds like muffled voices and footsteps and gravel scuffing against the ground.
‘They’re in there,’ I whisper to the others, my heart rising to beat in my throat.
‘Can you tell how far off?’ April asks.
I look at her. ‘No, but they can’t be far. Any news from the others?’
She glances down at her cuff, her eyes willing another comm to come through with an update. ‘Nothing,’ she says, flinging her wrist down with disgust.
The feet slapping against the ground draw closer. Men’s voices shouting to one another become louder. I can hear their ragged breaths, their sniffs and pants as they run along the tracks. They have to be getting close now. I’m almost surprised we can’t see them already.
‘I don’t think we can wait much longer,’ I say to April.
‘Just another minute,’ she says.
Luke looks worried though and a flaming ball of fire erupts in each of his hands.
‘Not yet,’ April says, holding her arm out to stop him. ‘Not until we see them.’
My heart thuds loudly and my skin buzzes with nerves as we wait. Each moment draws out and I forget to breathe as I focus fully on the tunnel entrance.
‘I hope your aim is good,’ I hear April whisper to Luke.
‘It is,’ he responds.
A man in recruiter black appears in the tunnel, making his way towards the entrance. His eyes fall on Luke’s burning purple flames and he shouts over his shoulder to the recruiters coming behind him. A flash of light erupts from his hands, beaming in our direction and completely blinding us. The searing light gushes from the tunnel entrance, like a huge spotlight has been pointed in our direction.
‘Now!’ April shouts.
‘I can’t see where to throw!’ Luke yells back.
Copper growls and launches forward, bounding towards the tunnel entrance at an unnaturally fast speed.
‘Copper!’ I yell, but he disappears from sight as he’s enveloped in the white light, which pours from the tunnel. I can still hear him panting, his growls echoing off of the concrete walls.
‘I’m just going to take a shot and hope for the best!’ Luke shouts.
‘You can’t!’ I yell back at him, grabbing his arm and yanking it down, paying no heed to the flames that hiss in his hands. ‘Copper is in there.’
‘He’s just a dog, Elle,’ Luke responds, yanking his arm from mine.
Copper’s barks become louder and more aggressive and a moment later the blinding light disappears. It takes me a moment for my eyes to readjust, but when they do I immediately see a man on the floor with Copper on top of him. Behind them, other recruiters are racing towards the entrance, appearing like wraiths from the shadows.
Luke spares a glance at us. ‘Get down,’ he says, before turning back to the entrance.
‘Copper!’ I scream, wanting to run to him, but April wraps her arms around my waist and stops me from rushing forward. She drags me away from Luke, back along the train tracks and away from the tunnel entrance. Tears stream down my face and my stomach clenches tightly.
Luke’s fireballs grow larger and he hurls them at the tiny black devices they’ve placed on the ground by the tunnel wall. Before I can gauge if his aim is true, a huge explosion erupts and I am thrown forward, landing hard on my forearms.
The noise of the explosion is so loud I feel like heaving and I throw my hands up over my ears in an attempt to quieten the din. Even after the initial roar, the sound still reverberates around me like an ongoing rumble I can’t escape.
‘Elle!’ I hear April cry, her voice distant as though she’s shouting at me from another room. There’s a ringing echo in my ears and a wave of dizziness floods my consciousness.
Something grips my arm tightly and I look up to find April there, helping me to my feet. Her face is covered in dirt and bloody gashes run down her arms. ‘Elle?’ she yells again, though her voice is quiet and distorted to my ears.
She slowly helps me up and we support each other as we stand. I glance over my shoulder to see Luke staggering along just behind us. I can’t see the tunnel beyond him, as the air in front of it is thick with fire and smoke.
My eyes search the wreckage for any sign of Copper, but there’s only rubble and smoke to be seen.
‘Did it work?’ April asks, as we slowly stagger back to where Luke has retreated.
Luke looks over his shoulder at the entranceway. A gust of wind blows the smoke from the fire in the other direction and we can all clearly see the debris behind it. The entrance has been destroyed, and only broken slabs of concrete and bent poles of steel remain.
We all stare at it in shock. I know what we had planned, but never guessed the devastation those bombs would pack. My heart breaks as I look at it, knowing there’s no way Copper could have survived.
But then I hear a soft whining noise, so quiet there’s no way you could catch it without talented senses. I rush forward, pushing out of April’s grasp, and run towards the fire that still blazes from the ruins.
I get to the edge of the wreckage, but endless piles of rubble lay before me. I wouldn’t know where to begin to look for him. But his solitary whining sound comes again and my eyes zero in on a pile of rocks just beyond me.
I clamber over the broken concrete and exposed wiring to reach them. There’s a large slab of concrete, too heavy to lift alone, b
ut I hear Copper’s painful whines again and I know he must be under it.
‘Here.’ I look up and find Luke beside me, crouching down to help lift the slab. Together we both grab the bottom edge and groan as we pull it up. I feel a brush of fur against my leg, and Copper crawls from beneath the concrete until he is free.
We drop the slab and I laugh, pulling the dog in for a hug and burying my face in his neck. His fur is covered in ash and dust, and he’s stepping gingerly on a bloodied front paw, but miraculously he somehow seems to have survived.
‘I think he must have been cocooned in there,’ Luke says. ‘I don’t think the concrete fell on him at all.’
I look up at him, my eyes wet with tears. I don’t know whether to hug Luke or punch him for setting the bomb off in the first place.
‘I’m sorry, Elle,’ he says, scratching the fur behind Copper’s ear. ‘I didn’t want to hurt him, but we had to close the entrance. We didn’t have a choice.’
I slowly nod with understanding. ‘I think Copper knew how important that was too. Thank you for helping me get him free.’
‘It still doesn’t mean I like you,’ he says, with a grin.
‘Noted.’ I grin back at him.
We are slowly making our way back towards April, when a loud explosion echoes through the night. The ground shudders and more dust and dirt seeps out through the cracks in the debris that blocks the tunnel entrance.
‘That must be Lara and Henry closing off the other side of the tunnel,’ April says calmly, as we reach her. Her head is bowed and her eyes are trained on her cuff. ‘I haven’t had confirmation from Mia that the front entrance is closed,’ she says. ‘Come on, we need to check it out.’
She takes off at a run, and we follow close behind her. I struggle to keep up on my sore ankle and Copper has fallen back completely, barely able to run at all. I duck under the wire fence by the tracks and push through the bushes to get to the road beyond.
The others are already halfway down the street when I get to it, and I try to push myself to keep up with them, but each step I take is harder and harder. And it’s not just my ankle I’m struggling with. A part of me feels like I shouldn’t be here, like I’m running in the wrong direction.
The others start to slow up ahead and when I catch up with them I gasp. Mia stands in the middle of the road before us, facing the front of the station, with her arms stretched out wide. I watch in shock as a huge black hole engulfs the ground beneath the station entrance. The walls of the building are crumbling inwards, falling and plummeting down into the deep abyss that waits below.
The hole is slowly expanding, crawling its way further out into the street. The buildings connected to the station begin to shudder violently and the asphalt beneath our feet quakes and rumbles. The hole grows bigger and wider, creeping its way towards Mia.
‘Why won’t she stop?’ Ethel cries, from the other side of the street.
April doesn’t hesitate as she launches herself towards Mia. Luke tries to grab her, but she’s too quick for him. She easily avoids his grasp and races down the road to Mia and the black abyss beyond her.
‘What’s she doing?’ I yell.
‘Saving us all,’ Luke responds.
When she reaches Mia, April grips tightly onto her arm and stares straight into her eyes. She completely ignores the bottomless darkness that inches towards them, and focuses her attention solely on Mia.
April’s lips move quickly, her persuasive words rushing out as she attempts to control Mia. But it doesn’t seem to be working and the black hole only continues to grow. The station entrance is completely gone, and the buildings surrounding it are beginning to crumple under the power of Mia’s all consuming talent.
I shake my head. ‘April’s persuasion isn’t working. Mia’s too strong, and she’s clearly lost control’
‘Elle…’ Luke warns, as I take a step forward.
I glance back at him. ‘Mia needs to stop this herself.’
I race forward, ignoring the pain that shoots through my sore ankle, as I run towards the two girls and the gaping black mass that roils just beyond them. Wind rushes noisily past me, gathering speed as it whips and lashes its way towards the black hole. The violent gusts pull at my clothes and my hair, and I can almost feel the power of the dark black vortex tugging my body closer. This thing is going to devour us all if Mia doesn’t stop it quickly.
April’s eyes are set on Mia, while Mia’s focus is fully on the hole before her. She doesn’t blink as she stares at her creation and her eyes are glazed over in a hauntingly dark colour of purple. I approach Mia’s other side and grab her hand in mine.
‘Mia,’ I shout, trying to be heard over the battering sound of the storm around us. ‘You have to stop this.’
‘I can’t,’ she moans, not breaking her gaze with the chaos in front of her, which is creeping closer to our feet.
‘You can. I know you can.’
‘It’s too powerful,’ she whimpers. ‘I can’t contain it.’
‘Yes, you can,’ I repeat. ‘You created this and you can control it. It’s part of you and there’s no reason to be afraid of it. Imagine that Amber is here. You wouldn’t let your talents hurt her, just like you won’t let it hurt the rest of us.’
She doesn’t respond and the fear in her eyes only seems to become more pronounced. Her body is shaking and there’s a touch of blood at her nose. She looks close to collapsing and it terrifies me to think of what will happen with the hole if she passes out.
‘Listen, forget the size of it and just treat it like you would any other black hole you create. You are in total control of it. It doesn’t exist without you.’
Mia frowns, but then slowly nods. Her eyes harden and she glares at the darkness in front of her. A minute passes and nothing has changed, but as I watch the churning shadowy hole I realise it’s stopped expanding towards us.
‘You’re doing it Mia!’ April exclaims, as the abyss ever so slowly begins to retract. At first it’s a little, and then a little more. The wind that batters against me, tugging at my clothes and hair, dies down and the rumbling beneath our feet slowly softens.
Gradually the black hole shrinks back towards the station until it disappears completely. Already crippled from the carnage Mia’s power has inflicted, the buildings either side of the entrance continue to quake and crack. Just as the hole blinks out of existence the buildings collapse down on top of it in a deafening boom. Nothing remains of the station entrance and only piles of broken brick and concrete lie where it once stood.
Mia sags to the ground, exhausted. Collapsing her head into her hands, she starts to cry. ‘I lost control,’ she sobs. ‘It was too big and it got away from me.’
April kneels next to her and rubs her on her back. ‘It’s okay Mia, you did amazing.’ Ethel and Luke cautiously approach us, looks of shock plastered across their faces.
‘There’s no way the recruiters are getting out of there,’ Luke says.
‘We saw them go in.’ Ethel speaks quietly, her words almost tinged with guilt. ‘M was right; Joseph must have sent nearly every recruiter he had. There were so many of them.’
I turn from them to look back at the remains of the station we once called home. After the two explosions and Mia’s monstrous black hole, I wonder how many of the recruiters are actually alive down there. I shake the thought from my mind. They were coming here to destroy us. We had no choice.
I feel my attention drawn away from the station remains, and I look over in the direction of the bright lights of the inner city in the distance. The others will be at Headquarters by now and, even though I know I can’t go there tonight, a part of me feels like I’m supposed to. It’s like an itch that I can’t scratch, a compulsion that is difficult to ignore, and standing here by the station ruins suddenly feels wrong.
‘What are you looking at?’ April asks, worry touching her voice, as she comes to stand next to me.
I shake my head, unable to look away from the city’s g
low. ‘It’s nothing. I just…I just feel like I need to be at Headquarters.’ It’s more than just a feeling. It’s like an urge pulsing through my body to the beat of my heart.
‘You can’t go there, Elle.’
‘But, I think I have to.’
She grabs my arm and pulls me to face her. ‘You can’t go!’
She had been her normal fiery self only minutes ago, but now her eyes are filled with fear and she looks truly shaken.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask.
She looks away from me, her eyes welling with tears. Fear licks its way up my spine as I watch her. April never cries. This is more than just recovering from the scare with Mia’s black hole or aftershock from the explosion. Something is truly wrong and she’s hiding it.
‘April, tell me what is wrong.’
‘I can’t,’ she says.
The bad feeling forming in the pit of my stomach gets worse.
‘What do you mean you can’t?’
She merely shakes her head again, tears beginning to rush down her cheeks.
‘April!’ I bark at her. ‘Tell me.’
She stays silent, but then lets out a sob, her whole body shaking from the impact. ‘It’s Sebastian,’ she says, so quietly I almost don’t hear her.
I freeze, unable to move or even so much as breathe. ‘What is?’
‘I know Sebastian…Ryan…told you the truth...’
‘Yes…’
Her eyes look up into mine again and the way she stares at me sends terror like an arrow straight through to my heart. ‘Ryan told you not to go to Headquarters tonight because you save someone and it kills you…’
‘Yes, I know. Someone is going to—’
My heart stops beating and the quiet world around us becomes completely soundless. I can’t think. I can’t so much as move as I try to comprehend what she’s saying. There’s only one person who could have her so upset. Only one person who I would risk everything to save.
‘If I don’t go tonight, Sebastian dies. Sebastian is the one I’m meant to save, isn’t he?’
Destined (The ARC Book 4) Page 25