The MORE Trilogy

by T. M. Franklin

  “I know. It’s safer having you all together. It’s the most protected—”

  Ava heard a shout on his end. “Caleb?” Her heart stopped as he cursed under his breath. “What’s happening?”

  “I’ve gotta go,” he said. It sounded like he was running. “Stay with the others.”

  “Caleb?”

  “Tell them someone’s gotten through the cloak. Watch out!”

  The phone went dead in her hand. She stared at the picture of Caleb smiling at her before it switched to her home screen. “Caleb?” She redialed, holding her breath and exhaling in a panicked whine as it went straight to voice mail.

  She crossed the hallway to Sophie’s room and pounded on the door.

  It flew open a second later. “Ava? What’s wrong?”

  “Something’s happening. Get everyone and meet me in the surveillance room,” she called out over her shoulder, already running and dialing again, even though she knew she wouldn’t get through.

  She burst through the doors to a flurry of activity, a tall man she’d never seen before nearly knocking her over as he raced through the door. A group stood clustered around the central screen, others shouting into phones or across the room.

  “How many?”

  “At least a dozen, I can’t get a clear read!”

  “Dispatch everyone we’ve got—”

  “—reports of gunfire—”

  “Why aren’t the cameras working? I need to see what’s happening!” Madeleine’s voice rang out above the others, and Ava zeroed in on her, pushing her way through the crowd.

  “I have Tiernan Ross on the phone.”

  Madeleine whirled. “Put it on speaker.” Her jaw tensed. “Ross. Report.”

  “We need reinforcements,” Tiernan said through gasping breaths. “They keep coming.”

  “Divert the rest of the Protectors to their location,” Andreas ordered. “Sensors, monitor the rest of the perimeter. I want to know if there’s another breach!”

  “What about Caleb?” Ava’s heart pounded in her chest, her gift yearning to be let loose, to get to Caleb.

  “I . . . I don’t know,” Tiernan ground out. “I haven’t seen him since—”

  More shouts, and the phone went dead.

  Sophie and Isaiah hurried into the room followed closely by Evan.

  The sensor took a spot near the central screen, nodding as Andreas started firing questions and commands at him.

  Ava fought down her panic, fought to think clearly, fought against her intuition screaming for her to take action because something was wrong, so wrong. “We should go, too,” she said finally. “We need to help them.”

  Madeleine stared at her for a moment, and Ava wondered what she was thinking.

  Does she think this is exactly what Borré wanted, too? That we don’t have any other choice but to play his game by his rules?

  The Council leader finally nodded. “The sensors will monitor you from here,” she said, grabbing Ava’s arm when she turned to leave. “If we can’t reestablish communications, it will be up to you,” she said quietly. “If you can’t fight them off, retreat and regroup until you can come up with a plan of attack. I’m afraid you . . . you may be our only hope.”

  Ava pulled away, but the words echoed in her ears as she, Sophie, and Isaiah took off running.

  Caleb chomped on an R-cube angrily as he huddled behind a tree next to Tiernan.

  “Did you have any idea they had so many?” Tiernan asked, reloading his gun.

  “No.” Caleb cursed under his breath as another wave headed toward them.

  The Rogues kept coming. Darting in for an attack then withdrawing before they took any casualties, only to hit again from another direction. None of the Twelve, though, and still no sign of Elias Borré. It was as if he was taunting them, making them exhaust their resources before the real attack.

  Tiernan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, frowned, and wiped blood on his fatigues.

  “You okay?” Caleb asked.

  “It’s nothing. Already healing.” Tiernan snuck a look around the tree and cocked his gun. “Ready?”

  Without another word, they came out from their hiding place, Caleb shifting to cause a distraction as Tiernan attacked from the other side. Grunts, punches, and sporadic gunfire filled the air, although the presence of a telekinetic on each side made the bullets all but useless. They were forced to resort to hand-to-hand combat, and Caleb had to admit he was exhausted.

  “Watch out!” Tiernan shouted, and Caleb whirled, diving to avoid a large rock flying at his head.

  “Where are the damned reinforcements?” Caleb shouted back, but nobody answered.

  They were all asking the same question. Fifteen Protectors holding off wave after wave of Rogue attacks, coordinated to wear them out, distract them—

  Caleb’s head snapped up, his body reacting before he could fully process the impact on his gift. He sensed Ava’s approach, her power reaching for his.

  No. She can’t be here.

  He ducked a punch, spun, and shifted to avoid another when all the air in his lungs left him in a rush. The weight that had tackled him to the ground rolled off, and Caleb grunted, trying to regain his breath as well as his footing.

  Before he could shift again, the Rogue floated into the air and flew through a gap in the trees with a surprised shout, arms and legs flailing.

  Ava ran to Caleb’s side and reached down to help him up.

  “What are you doing here?” he growled, pulling her behind the cover of a large tree.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re welcome.”

  “Ava, I’m serious. I thought you were staying back at Bureau headquarters.” He heard a scream and peeked around the tree to see a group of Rogues diving for cover to avoid a couple of Sophie’s more impressive ice balls.

  Isaiah was staring straight at another Rogue, who finally turned tail and ran off.

  “Look,” Ava said, knocking a Rogue away from Tiernan, and then another trying to sneak up behind Sophie. “We can argue the point later, okay? We’re here to help, so let’s make the best of it.”

  A Rogue staggered to his feet, and a few rocks shot in Ava’s direction.

  “Looks like they have a telekinetic,” she muttered. She stopped the rocks and fired them back at the Rogue, nailing him in the arm with one, despite his attempt at dodging. “Where are they all coming from?” she asked, as two more Rogues appeared in the distance.

  “I don’t know. I can’t even tell how many there are. They keep coming in waves and then retreating.”

  “Well, what do you guys usually do to beat them?” she asked, using a large tree branch to swat at a couple of advancing Rogues.

  Sophie threw ice balls and hit them both in the forehead.

  They crumpled to the ground.

  “Usually, the odds are a little more in our favor,” Caleb replied. “We’ve never had to take on a group of them.”

  Ava whirled around and threw a hand out in front of her.

  “What is it?” he asked, searching through the trees until he saw a familiar man—tall, thin and more than a little shocked because he was hovering midair. Caleb reached out and touched Ava’s arm. “It’s okay,” he said. “He’s one of ours.”

  Ava released him, and he dropped to the ground, running toward them in a crouch.

  “James. It’s about time you guys showed up,” Caleb said.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said with a wry grin, glancing at Ava. “You must be Ava. We never formally met.”

  “James was part of the rescue mission when you were kidnapped,” Caleb explained. “He’s a telekinetic like you.”

  “Well, a telekinetic, anyway,” James said, shrugging.

  Ava smiled. “Well, it’s nice to meet you.” There was loud crash overhead, and she ducked as a shower of splintered wood covered them. “Wish it was under better circumstances.”

  James sobered and turned to Caleb. “What’s the situation?”
>
  Caleb filled him in as Ava covered them, diverting any Rogues who got too close. Caleb knew she thought she was hiding the little trickles of blood she’d wiped from her nose, but she wasn’t as covert as she thought.

  “Does anyone else think this is weird?” Ava asked when another Rogue took off running back the way he came. “They don’t actually seem to be trying to get through.”

  Tiernan ducked behind a neighboring tree and scowled at the three of them. “Having a little vacation?” he asked, his chest heaving as he caught his breath. “Look, I love a good fight as much as the next guy, but this is getting old. We need a plan.”

  “Oh, a plan? Yes, that’s an excellent idea,” Ava said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “You got one, Mr. Obvious?”

  Tiernan spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned. “As a matter of fact, Miss Pain-In-My-Ass, I do.”

  Ava had to admit it wasn’t a bad plan. It wasn’t necessarily a good plan, but it was the best they had at the moment. Caleb hated it, of course. He hated anything that put Ava in danger, and this even had her a bit nervous.

  She took her place on higher ground, a slight rise in the forest with a good view of the action so she was able to keep track of their allies. She hated not being in the thick of things, to leave Caleb and the others, but this was the best use of her abilities.

  She saw James on another rise a few hundred feet away—across the valley, if you could call it that, lying on his stomach like her. He had a better vantage point for the Rogue approach, so he would give the signal.

  The Rogues had retreated, all but two who kept darting in and attacking to keep them on their toes.

  Tiernan suspected it wouldn’t be long before there was another full-fledged attack—the true diversion for whatever Borré had planned. They all recognized the strategy, keep the Protectors busy while he launched his coup and hit the Council Arena, but they couldn’t leave the perimeter unguarded either. There were civilians to consider, and Ava believed Tiernan when he said Rogues would not hesitate to turn on them if they needed to.

  Many of the civilians had no extraordinary gifts—well, beyond the Race norm, at least—but that didn’t count for much against trained soldiers, especially when the Rogues had some gifted among them—a telekinetic, a couple of shifters, and a few others, including the guy who could fly.

  Despite everything she’d been through, flying still kind of blew Ava’s mind.

  She shifted against the rocks cutting into her stomach and picked out the others down below. She couldn’t see Tiernan, but she knew he was there. Sophie and Isaiah were together behind a cluster of trees, Caleb about twenty feet from them, and the rest of the Protectors were scattered everywhere, waiting.

  I really hate waiting.

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention, a tingle of awareness sparking her intuition. She didn’t question it anymore but reached out with her gift to bounce a few pebbles around near James to get his attention instead.

  He nodded in her direction and rose up on his elbows to get a better look.

  Ava closed her eyes and focused her gift on the approaching group.

  More than a dozen. Twenty-five, thirty, maybe. Could be a few more.

  With James and the other new arrivals, they’d be evenly matched. The problem was getting them all together. Ava was coming to realize that fighting a group of Rogues was a lot like herding cats.

  Her head pounded. She tried to ignore it.

  James lifted his head a little more and waved a hand.

  She knew Caleb was watching.

  They were ready. As one, half a dozen Protectors, including Tiernan and Caleb, stepped out into the clearing.

  Bait.

  The Rogues burst out of the trees, their telekinetic sending a shower of rocks to herald the arrival.

  The Protectors dodged them easily and pushed forward to meet them in the center of the clearing. Between one breath and the next, the rest of the Protectors joined the fray, arms and legs blurring as they ran and fought, dodged, and parried. Moving the Rogues along . . . corralling them all the way.

  Not yet.

  It wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone on the ground, but Ava saw the method to the madness. The way the Protectors pushed the Rogues together into a loose circle—Protectors on the outside, Rogues in the middle, facing out.

  Not long now.

  One Rogue broke away and started to retreat through the forest but came to an abrupt stop. He staggered backward, falling and crab walking away from something.

  Ava wondered what thought Isaiah had planted in his mind, and she smiled at the possibilities.

  Isaiah had said he could handle it, that he could keep the shifters from shifting, the flyer from flying, and still help with a few others if needed. Ava had doubted him because he was so new to his powers, but her brother was proving to be a quick study.

  He stepped out from behind a tree just as Sophie did on the other side of the melee.

  The wind whipped up below, whirling around in a spiral of ice and snow.

  Ava couldn’t feel the cold. She zeroed in on Sophie’s gift, Isaiah’s, too, and added her own to the mix. Not a lot, because she needed to conserve it, but Sophie seemed to be holding her own.

  The Rogues struggled against the wind but couldn’t make any headway, one step forward leading to two, three steps back.

  Ava gathered her gift around her, feeling it swell.

  Almost.

  With one last glance in Ava’s direction, Tiernan bellowed, “Now!” and the Protectors all took cover.

  The Rogues didn’t move, Isaiah planting the thought that they were surrounded and the fear that they would soon be defeated.

  The wind picked up speed, pushing them closer together.

  Showtime.

  It had been a long time since Ava had let her power loose in such a way—back when she all but destroyed the training field at the Guardian Colony. She ignored the ache in her muscles, the sharp stabbing in her head, and let her gift flow out and down, digging into the frost-covered ground and cracking it apart. A fissure formed beneath the Rogues, splitting the earth open with a deafening crack.

  They tried to run, to escape, but Sophie and Isaiah pushed them back. They toppled into the hole—now fifty feet across and growing . . . deeper and wider.

  Ava had no idea how deep or wide it would go, but she let her gift guide her, digging and clawing at the rocky soil until the last Rogue toppled in.

  Sophie and Isaiah stepped back, and Ava turned her attention to the trees. It was up to her now, but she felt Sophie and Isaiah aiming their power toward her. A hand clasped hers, and she realized Caleb was next to her, doing the same thing. The Protectors were helping, too. She saw Tiernan putting his shoulder into a tall pine, and she aimed her gift that way, the tree giving way and falling across the open hole. One after another, she felled the trees, weaving a roof to the Rogue prison. It wouldn’t kill them. It wouldn’t even hold them forever, but it was enough to buy them some time.

  Ava shivered, a burst of familiar power flowing over her skin. “Can you feel that?”

  “Feel what?” Caleb squeezed her hand, but she was watching Sophie. The way she stiffened and looked up at her.

  She feels it, too.

  “It’s Borré,” Ava said, wiping the blood from her lip as she pulled a packet of pain pills out of her pocket and swallowed them dry. “It’s all of them. They’re nearby. They’re close.”

  Caleb shouted for the Protectors, and Tiernan was at his side in an instant. “Borré’s making his move,” Caleb said. “Take the rest and meet us at the Council Arena. Tell them to be careful. Don’t make a move until we know what we’re walking into.” He handed Ava a couple of R-cubes and pulled her into his arms. “Ready?”

  She held on tight and closed her eyes. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 17

  “I don’t understand it!” Caleb twisted his fingers in his hair in aggravation.

  Ava swayed on
her feet, still trying to get her strength back. “Where are we?”

  Caleb turned in a slow circle. “Eastern perimeter. I don’t get it.” He knew the city like the back of his hand. Had shifted through it dozens—hundreds of times. Yet he’d tried three times to get them to the center of the city only to end up somewhere else entirely. He pulled out his phone and called Tiernan, thumbing on the speaker.

  “Where are you?” the Protector growled into the phone.

  “Near the museum,” Caleb replied. “Something’s throwing my shifts off.”

  “You’re not alone,” Tiernan said with a mixture of frustration and fury in his voice. “I can’t even keep everyone together. Everybody thinks they know the way, but we keep going in circles.”

  “You think it’s Borré?”

  “It’s gotta be.”

  “No,” Ava said slowly. “Not Borré but . . .” She paced away a few steps, speaking half to herself. “I knew something was wrong . . . I thought it was just the situation, you know? My intuition tried to warn me, but I misread it.”

  “What is it?” Tiernan asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Caleb replied. He watched Ava as she tried to work it out in her own head. “What are you thinking?”

  She stopped and faced him. “When you were taken by the Rogues, we thought Evan escaped. That he was rescued.”

  “Yeah. That’s how he ended up in New Elysia.”

  Ava chewed on her lip as she contemplated her words. “What if he wasn’t? Rescued, I mean.”

  Caleb ignored Tiernan’s irritated grumbling on the phone as he tried to follow her train of thought. “What are you saying?”

  Ava’s eyes were wide with understanding and with shock. “What if he was taken by Borré, and then sent to New Elysia?”

  “You think Evan’s a Rogue spy?”

  “Of course he is,” Tiernan grumbled. “This is just great.”

  “I knew something was off,” Ava said. “I felt it when we were together, but I wrote it off. Ignored my instincts. Think about it, though. It makes sense. Who else could be doing this? It has to be Evan.”