The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade

by A. P. Kensey

  He drove past a deep groove at the base of the building and a door suddenly swung inward. Dormer hit the brakes and the four of them sat there, staring into a dark hallway.

  “I don’t know about that,” said Bastian.

  “She is very treacherous,” said Roku. “We should be careful.”

  Haven looked up at the building. The surface was smooth all the way to the top—there was no way to climb high enough to get to a vulnerable window for access, if there were any vulnerable windows at all.

  “I don’t think we have much choice,” she said.

  “You go first, then,” said Bastian with a grin.

  “I’ll go first,” said Dormer. He got out of the Jeep and approached the door. The others followed and stood close behind as he leaned over the threshold and squinted down the dark hallway. He took a few hesitant steps inside.

  Haven walked past the door and looked up. “Tall ceiling,” she said. “Security cameras. Kamiko definitely knows we’re here.”

  “Of course I do,” said Kamiko from above. Haven and the others jumped at the sound and looked up quickly. Speakers embedded in the walls of the hallway played a tinny, metallic version of Kamiko’s voice. “I hope the trip was worth it,” she said with obvious amusement. “It will be the last journey you’ll ever make. Well, not including death, of course.”

  “She had to spell it out for us,” said Bastian, shaking his head.

  “Where’s Colton?!” shouted Haven.

  There was a pause. Then, “Why don’t you come and see? I’ll be waiting.”

  The speakers went silent.

  Dormer led them farther down the hallway. When they were about halfway, a distant whirring noise came down from high above their heads.

  “That sounds familiar…” said Bastian.

  Haven looked up and saw the small objects between the security cameras on the ceiling. “Run!” she screamed.

  The guns in the ceiling opened fire. Bullets rained down from above, hitting the floor and ricocheting back and forth between the walls. The surfaces of the hallway had been intentionally lined with bulletproof material and the bullets easily bounced off, as if they were made of rubber.

  “Stay close!” shouted Dormer.

  Haven huddled against his back as he ran forward. Her eyes were only open for a part of the time, and she caught glimpses of bullets sparking off the walls and then bouncing away inches in front of her face. Suddenly Dormer stopped and Haven nearly pushed him over as her momentum carried her forward. The guns stopped firing and the last of the bullets clattered to the ground. Dormer put his hands on Haven’s shoulders until she steadied.

  They were at the end of the long hallway. Bastian stood by a closed, black door and quickly patted down his entire body, looking for holes. “Hah!” he said, then slapped Roku on the back. He nodded at Dormer. “That did the trick, didn’t it?”

  The door behind him opened and he was yanked out of the hallway, his eyes wide with terror. He left a yellow stream of energy in his wake, which flowed through the air like a snake into the next room.

  “No!” screamed Roku.

  He lunged forward to grab Bastian, but it was already too late.

  41

  Haven hurried through the doorway and into an enormous circular room with a vaulted ceiling that ran unobstructed all the way to the top of the building. Across the room and up a small flight of stairs, Colton sat chained to a chair. A thick strip of black tape covered his mouth. He saw Haven and shook against the chains as he struggled to free himself.

  Kamiko hovered in the air thirty feet off the ground, suspended over the middle of the room by long strands of lightning that extended from her back and arced down to the floor. She held Bastian in front of her like a rag doll. His body was limp in her hands. Two strands of lightning extended from her shoulders and burrowed into his temples. He moaned softly and turned his head away.

  Roku pushed past Haven and raised his fists. Haven joined him, allowing her energy to flow to her hands, ready for release.

  Kamiko’s eyes sparked with lightning. She brought back her arm as if she meant to throw a baseball, only what she threw was a ball of lightning the size of a small car. Dormer grabbed Haven’s arm and tried to pull her back but it was too late. The ball of lightning flew through the air and hit Haven full-force. She was knocked backward to the ground, paralyzed as if she had been hit with a giant taser gun. The lightning passed over her and hit the wall, exploding the hallway door. Huge chunks of metal and concrete burst into the room. Debris hit Roku and Dormer from behind and pushed them to the floor. They struggled to get out from under the heavy rubble.

  The lightning around Haven died and the room became just quiet enough to hear Bastian whisper, “I don’t want to die.”

  Kamiko held his chin in her hands and turned his head until he was staring directly into her eyes. “Then you shouldn’t have come here.” She opened her mouth in a silent scream and blue energy poured out to envelop Bastian’s entire body.

  Roku stumbled to his feet. He banged against a table as he tried to walk forward. Haven pushed herself up and fell right back over. Her muscles were still jerking in spasms from the lightning. Bastian screamed, and then there was silence. Kamiko was alone in the air. Bastian was gone.

  “Who’s next?” said Kamiko. She sounded bored.

  Blue energy covered Haven’s body like a new layer of skin. Kamiko smiled when she looked down and saw Haven approaching. Then she noticed Roku circling around to the other side of the room and her smile slowly faded. Roku looked up at her with a mixture of hatred and love.

  “I never thought I’d see you again,” said Kamiko. More strands of lightning grew out from her back and grabbed onto the walls. She hovered lower, moving toward Roku gracefully.

  “I always knew we would be together,” said Roku. “One last time.”

  She saw something in his face that made her angry. She scowled at him and brilliant blue energy shot out from her back and arced over her head. It crashed against him—but he remained standing. The energy hit the center of his chest and he absorbed all of it. A bright blue aura surrounded his body as he walked toward Kamiko. She lowered herself closer to the ground as he approached. Soon his eyes were as luminescent as hers—two small blue stars emitting enough heat to melt steel.

  Haven tried to lift a large piece of concrete on top of Dormer. He helped push up one corner and managed to scoot out just before Haven lost her grip and let go. The concrete slammed down to the floor, sending up a cloud of dust.

  Dormer coughed and pulled Haven closer to him. “Hit her now,” he said. “We might not get another chance.”

  “He’s her counterpart,” said Haven. That was why Kamiko’s energy wasn’t vaporizing Roku upon contact. They were a Source and a Conduit who had found each other in the world—against all odds, they had once been together.

  Haven looked over at Colton. He struggled helplessly against the heavy chains that bound him. She wanted to run over and melt away the chains, but between them was Kamiko, and Haven was sure she would never be able to reach him in time. Faint blue fire sparked from his hands as he tried to use some of Kamiko’s excess energy to melt the chains, but it wasn’t working.

  In the middle of the room, Roku and Kamiko were almost touching. The energy she fired in his direction shot up from him like a pillar of dark blue light. He walked toward her with his fists clenched. His eyes of blue fire were hard and unforgiving. For a fleeting moment, Kamiko’s face seemed to soften. She looked suddenly tired and alone, like she had been lost for years and had suddenly found her way back to her home.

  “You left me,” she said.

  “I had to,” said Roku. “Look what you’ve become.”

  She screamed at him. New strands of lightning burst from her body and slammed into his chest. The tips crawled over him, searching for a way to burn his skin.

  He turned to Haven. “Do it!” he shouted.

  Kamiko’s trance was broken. She turne
d her head just as Dormer and Haven gave her everything they had. Haven’s wings spread behind her. They opened up into the air, fanning out like giant blades of light. Her vision went blue as she let go. There was no need to visualize the sphere of energy in her mind’s eye—no need to call it forth to the forefront of her imagination and draw the fire from its core.

  The energy came to her naturally, without thought or concentration. It erupted from her fists like a volcanic stream, twisting through the air and hitting Kamiko in the head.

  Dormer must have been storing up as much of Kamiko’s energy as he could safely retain since they first arrived. A wide tunnel of black energy laced with blue lightning exploded from his chest and hit Kamiko in the stomach.

  The four of them remained in those spots, frozen like a painting: Dormer and Haven unleashing their powers against Kamiko, and she, hovering in the air with dozens of lightning bolts reaching out from her body, putting everything she had into destroying Roku. He stood before her, funneling the powerful energy upward, holding his ground against her malicious onslaught.

  One of the four had to weaken eventually, and Haven was determined it wouldn’t be her. She grit her teeth as more energy flowed down her arms and shot into the steady stream hitting Kamiko. Her wings pulsed with her exertion, lighting up the entire room in bright flashes.

  It went on like that for what seemed like minutes.

  Roku looked up at Kamiko and smiled sadly. He closed his eyes. Suddenly, the energy he was funneling disappeared. He was no longer absorbing and dispersing—he was completely blocking her energy flow. Everything she aimed at him hit his skin and disappeared.

  Kamiko looked confused for a second, and then she tried to back away, but she wasn’t able to cut off her assault in time. The stream of dark blue plasma that connected her to Roku suddenly reversed directions. All of the hair on Haven’s skin stood up on end as a massive electrical shift crackled through the air.

  Roku grabbed Kamiko and pulled her close. She struggled to push away but he held her there in a tight embrace. Their bodies vibrated rapidly, like plucked guitar strings. The vibration traveled through the floor and into Haven’s bones.

  Dormer’s stream of energy broke off and he reached for Haven. He shouted something but she couldn’t hear him. In the middle of the room, a blue ball of light had completely engulfed Kamiko and Roku. Kamiko screamed and the ball exploded like a star going nova. A shockwave of energy ripped through the room. Haven and Dormer were thrown back. They slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. Colton’s chair fell over backward and skid across the floor until it crashed into the side of a couch.

  Bits of debris crumbled to the ground near Haven’s head. Dormer lay next to her, groaning softly. His eyelids fluttered open and he saw Haven.

  “Are you alright?” he whispered.

  She nodded and they helped each other up. Roku and Kamiko lay apart in the middle of the room, forced away from each other by the blast. Roku lay on his back with his eyes open, staring up blankly to the far-away ceiling. A thick smear of blood ran from one side of his mouth and down his face. Haven could tell, even from a distance, that he wasn’t breathing.

  Kamiko lay face-down, unmoving. Haven and Dormer approached her slowly.

  “I’m almost out,” said Haven. She reached deep within herself to summon more energy. Residual traces of power tugged at her from deep within, but she knew she needed more time to call on anything powerful enough to put up a good fight.

  “Same here,” said Dormer. He held his left arm close to his body as they walked. Haven thought she had heard the crack of bone when they hit the wall.

  Across the room, Colton stirred. He wriggled in his chair against the chains. He managed to get one of his arms free and scoot the chair around so he could see the rest of the room. His eyes met Haven’s and she stopped walking. She wanted to say something but didn’t know the right words.

  Colton saw what they meant to do, then he looked down at Kamiko. Her face was toward him. He watched her for a moment, then his eyes opened wide. He quickly peeled off the tape covering his mouth and shouted, “She’s awake!”

  Dormer lunged for Kamiko just as she turned and saw Haven. She grinned and blue energy blossomed from her body. Another shockwave exploded outward and knocked Haven and Dormer to the floor. Two thick strands of blue flame licked out from Kamiko’s back like giant snakes. One hit Dormer in the neck and slammed his head against the floor. The other opened its wide jaws and lunged at Haven’s face.

  42

  Colton used his free hand to loosen another chain that kept him bound to the chair. He lay on his side next to a couch, squirming to get free. A blue shockwave slammed into him and pushed his chair back another few feet. It scraped along the couch until he was able to grab one of the legs and stop himself.

  Across the room, Kamiko slowly got to her feet. Twin snakes of blue fire grew from the middle of her back. They writhed and twisted in the air as they pinned Haven and Dormer to the floor.

  The one that had Dormer by the neck flickered near its head as he tried to absorb all of its energy, but it was either too strong or Dormer was too fatigued to fully deflect the plasma. He struggled uselessly against it, unable to free himself.

  Kamiko looked down at her two captives and casually brushed her hands together. She knelt down next to Haven and pushed a flaming strand of hair from her face.

  “You’re not the only one who’s full of surprises,” she said.

  Haven choked against the fire, barely managing to breathe. “You killed him,” she whispered.

  Kamiko turned and looked at Roku’s body. “He killed himself,” she said softly. “Foolish boy.” She turned back to Haven. “I should blame you for his death. You brought him here.”

  “I’m here for him,” said Haven, looking over at Colton.

  He lay there, watching helplessly, still half-chained to the chair. The only energy he could draw from the room was residual—barely enough to warm his skin, let alone melt the chains. He would have gotten a good burst of it from Kamiko’s shockwave if he was paying attention, but he had been too focused on trying to loosen the chains and missed his opportunity.

  “Ah, yes,” said Kamiko. She stood and took a few steps toward him. “But didn’t he tell you? He’s with me now.”

  “She’s a liar,” said Colton. Anger flashed across Kamiko’s face and that made him feel better. “I only agreed to go with her so she would spare the others at the Dome.”

  Kamiko stared at him, a look of betrayal in her eyes. “Well,” she said finally, “I guess that means I don’t have to hold up my end of the bargain any longer.”

  She stood next to Dormer as he writhed on the ground. The fire snake twisted and plunged deeper into his neck, as if it were burrowing down into his torso.

  Kamiko knelt next to him and put one of her hands on his forehead. Dormer tried to sit up but she pushed him back down. “Shhhh,” she said. “It will be over soon.” Energy flashed under her palm, pulsing in short, quick bursts. With each one, light seemed to shine from deep within Dormer’s head. Each pulse made his eyes glow and turned his skin translucent. Colton could see the outline of his skull with each flash of light.

  “Stop it!” screamed Haven. Colton could tell she was trying to use her own energy to fight the fire snake that kept her pinned to the floor, but every time she pushed back, Kamiko sent a fresh wave of dark blue plasma down the snake to slam into Haven’s chest.

  Kamiko suddenly released Dormer. He fell back against the floor and lay there, barely conscious.

  “You’re right,” said Kamiko. “It’s not fair for me to choose which one dies.”

  She walked across the room and grabbed Colton’s ankles. The fire snake extended from Haven to Kamiko like a long tube of burning fire. It continued burrowing into Haven’s chest and pressed her to the floor.

  “What are you doing?!” shouted Colton. He grabbed for her with his free arm but couldn’t reach down to where she had him by
the ankles.

  Kamiko dragged his chair to the middle of the room and put him right next to Dormer. With a single burst of blue plasma from her palms, his chains fell loose. He kicked away from the chair but was too slow for Kamiko. She grabbed his forehead and slammed his head against the floor. A pulse of burning light burst from her palm and seared his brain. He wanted to scream but nothing in his body was responding. The light came again, blinding and burning, cutting into his head like a knife. Kamiko grabbed Dormer’s forehead with her other hand and dark blue light flashed from her palm.

  “It’s your choice, Haven,” said Kamiko. Colton opened his mouth to speak but another wave of pain shot through his body. He lay there on the ground, unable to move. “Pick one of them.”

  Colton’s vision flashed white and he heard Haven breathing heavily somewhere nearby.

  “I…won’t,” she said.

  “Then I’ll kill them both.” Another wave of pain and light. Colton heard something sizzling deep within his body, as if her plasma was charring his bones. He wondered if he was dying.

  “Don’t!” screamed Haven.

  “Then make your decision.”

  Another flash of pain. Colton was almost numb to it. It surged through his body and down his spine, but he no longer convulsed against its power. He felt detached from his own body, far away. Even between pulses, he was blind. He tried to open his eyes but realized they were already open. All he saw was a blinding white nothingness. His eye sockets felt strangely empty. Nearby, Haven wept.

  “Oh,” said Kamiko. “Too late for this one.”

  Colton heard Dormer’s head hit the floor with a soft thud as Kamiko released him. Haven cried softly between deep gasps for air. “You killed him,” she said, her voice hot with anger and despair.

  “Yes,” said Kamiko. “And now I will kill the other one, too.”

  “No!”

  “You should have made your choice when you still had time. There are consequences for your actions, little girl. Hasn’t anyone ever told you?”