Steel for 5 (Mags & Nats Book 3)

by Stephanie Fazio

  There was actual blood splattered across Blade’s face in addition to her blood droplet-tattoos, and her tongue kept darting out to taste it. She leaned closer to Michael like she might kiss him. Instead, she licked a line of blood across his scalp.

  Kaira shouted something inaudible, but none of us moved for fear of what the Californians would do. As fast as I was, I couldn’t get to any of my friends faster than the bullets just waiting to be released.

  Blade was laughing. I couldn’t hear the sound over the whine of the helicopter rotors that were still trying to turn, but I saw her body shaking from the force of her amusement. She was laughing so hard her gun shook against Michael’s skin.

  What was left of Blade’s army had surrounded us, but I barely noticed. Three of my friends were about to die.

  Puffs of smoke came from Sir Zachary’s nostrils, but he seemed to understand he couldn’t breathe fire without killing our people, too. We were utterly helpless.

  The helicopters whirred their last and went still. The piercing whine of the blades cut off.

  So fast I almost missed it, Michael thrust his head to the side. The violent motion knocked Blade’s gun off-target a second before Michael bashed his skull against Blade’s.

  Blade stumbled back, clutching at her face and cursing.

  Michael didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed the weapon she’d dropped. The gun in his hand cracked twice. It happened so fast, I didn’t even see where he’d aimed.

  A.J. and Graysen’s captors released them and doubled over. That was when I saw the bloody circles in each of the men’s right kneecaps.

  Before I could marvel at Michael’s incredible aim, he raised the gun again. Two more cracks, and the screaming men collapsed onto the sand.

  Blood seeped out of holes in their foreheads as their lifeless eyes stared at the sky.

  “Michael, what are you doing?!” Yutika started toward him, but Kaira gripped her shoulder, keeping her back.

  A.J. staggered against me. His face was white as a sheet.

  Blade howled and reached for another gun in her belt. The ragged remains of her army surged forward.

  I was too stunned to do anything except watch as Michael’s trigger finger twitched again.

  Blade shrieked. She dropped the gun and clamped her hand over the bloody hole in her wrist.

  Michael’s face was completely, eerily blank. He aimed the gun at the Californians surrounding us, who seemed as stunned by the turn of events as us. They were mostly weaponless thanks to A.J., but they still had their magic. None of them attacked, though, thanks to the fact that we had their leader surrounded.

  “Michael, stop,” Kaira said in a hoarse voice.

  Michael didn’t stop. He didn’t even seem to hear her.

  “Don’t move,” Michael ordered the Californians.

  Their eyes glazed over and their muscles slackened. Some of them even had slight smiles on their faces as Michael aimed at them.

  Michael held the gun steady as, one by one, the Californians fell.

  “Enough, Michael,” Yutika said, flinching as the gun in his hand went off again. And again.

  The Californians scrambled back as Michael dropped the ones closest to us. I was too shocked to do anything but watch as every one of Michael’s shots hit its target. Horror mixed into the numbness.

  “Michael, stop,” Kaira said again, her eyes wide with panic.

  “Please, Michael,” Yutika begged, as Michael emptied a second gun. Tears were streaming down her face. Her voice warbled when she said, “This isn’t you.”

  Michael didn’t even look at her. He held out his hand.

  One of the Californians stepped forward and, with chattering teeth, pulled out a gun that had been hidden beneath her fur cloak. Wordlessly, she handed it over to Michael.

  Michael did something complicated with the gun without even needing to look at it. Bullets popped out of the back and fell harmlessly to the sand. Then, he passed the gun to Blade.

  “What are you doing?” Graysen shouted.

  Blade took the gun from Michael’s outstretched hand. Their gazes connected for a long moment. Sweat broke out on both of their brows, and I knew there was some kind of mental battle raging between them.

  When Michael spoke, I couldn’t hear the words over Blade’s whimpers and the roaring of my own pulse. But I could read his lips.

  “Kill yourself.”

  She gripped the weapon and then put the barrel in her open mouth. She pulled the trigger.

  I jumped. Kaira and Yutika screamed. Graysen looked like he was trying not to be sick.

  Snapping himself into action, A.J. lifted his hand. Every gun in the vicinity shot into the air. The metal barrels winked in the sunlight as they arced through the sky and then disappeared from view.

  Michael didn’t react at all. His gaze was unfocused as he stared down at Blade’s corpse.

  “Time to go,” he said, his voice as even and calm as ever. He stepped over one of the men he’d shot and headed for the plane.

  The rest of us exchanged horrified looks. With no other choice, we hurried after him.

  No one spoke once we were onboard the plane. I did a quick head count, making sure all 7.5 of us were present and accounted for. I stayed in my titanium form because I knew if I didn’t, I would be shaking like everyone else on the plane. Except Michael.

  He sat on the edge of the couch, straight-backed and unmoving. He stared at the floor without seeming to see anything at all.

  “Buckle up, everyone,” Smith called from the cockpit. His voice sounded too loud in the silent plane. “A.J. and I are fried, so this shit is going to get bumpy.”

  The plane lurched, and then we were leaving the ground and all those bloody corpses behind.

  CHAPTER 33

  As our plane carried us back to Boston, my mind kept replaying what had happened down on the ground.

  I had seen people die before. But that had always been in the thick of a fight, when everything was happening too fast to process anything. This time, Michael had used his magic to hold the Californians in place while he executed them one by one.

  My entire body was numb, even though Yutika had jacked up the heat on the plane. I couldn’t seem to stop shivering, even in my titanium form.

  Yutika sat beside Michael, trying to coax some kind of reaction out of him. He continued to stare off into the distance, giving no indication he knew she was even there.

  In the years I’d lived and worked with Michael, I’d never so much as heard him raise his voice. Now, he’d just killed close to twenty people without batting an eye.

  I grabbed a cloth napkin off the table that was still covered with our breakfast leftovers. I dipped the napkin in some water and went to Michael.

  I started to wipe the dried blood from his skin. I tried to be gentle, even though he gave no indication he could feel anything at all. Yutika quickly sketched a new, clean shirt to replace Michael’s blood-stained one. A.J. joined us, silently zooming first aid supplies from one of the overhead bins. Antibiotic ointment and bandages applied themselves to Michael’s shallow cuts and sand-burned face without A.J. touching him.

  It took both Yutika and me to get Michael’s old shirt off and his new one on. He didn’t resist, but he didn’t help, either. If I didn’t see his chest rise and fall as he breathed, he would have looked like a statue.

  Sir Zachary lay down at Michael’s feet. Kaira and Graysen joined us, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Sir Zachary.

  “We’re all alive,” Graysen said, breaking our silence. “For now, let’s just be grateful for that.”

  Kaira leaned her head on his shoulder. He turned and pressed a kiss to her hair.

  “I’m sorry you all had to see that,” Michael said, speaking for the first time since we’d boarded the plane.

  His unseeing gaze snapped into focus and pinpointed on Yutika. “I…I didn’t want you to know that side of me.”

  Yutika’s lips parted, but
no words came out. I couldn’t blame her. To say we were all shocked by what we’d witnessed would be an understatement.

  After a few more seconds of silence from Yutika, Michael’s gaze flicked to the rest of us. “I’ll understand if you don’t want me in the house or as a part of the Seven anymore.”

  “Are we in any danger from you?” Kaira asked.

  “No.” Michael’s answer came immediately. “Never.”

  Kaira nodded. “That’s good enough for me.” She swept her gaze across the plane. “What about the rest of you?”

  “We’re the 7.5,” A.J. said. “If members start dropping out, the name won’t make sense anymore. And I already got bumper stickers printed up, so changing our name is not an option.”

  “Michael stays,” I said. Whatever the fallout from killing Blade and decimating her army would be, we’d face it together. It was no less than Michael would have done for the rest of us.

  Michael still radiated uncertainty. He couldn’t hold any of our gazes. With a start, I realized he was ashamed.

  I thought back to several months ago, after I’d accidentally killed Valencia’s brother. Valencia had been trying to shoot Graysen, and when the bullet struck my titanium skin instead, it bounced off and killed her brother. I’d been a total mess afterward, and Michael had been the one to make me feel better. I still remembered the exact words he’d spoken to me.

  “You were defending us,” I told him, repeating the same words of comfort he’d given me. “You never need to apologize for that, no matter the consequences.”

  The tiniest smile flickered across his face.

  Graysen and Smith nodded in agreement. Even Sir Zachary nuzzled Michael’s hand.

  The only one left was Yutika.

  “Of course,” she said, looking a little dazed. “Michael is one of us.”

  She didn’t look at him when she spoke, though. She kept her arms wrapped around herself, trying to contain her shivers.

  I couldn’t begin to imagine what she was thinking.

  Then again, I was mooning over a guy who hunted down Super Mags to take their power away. Compared to that, everything about Michael and Yutika’s relationship seemed downright normal.

  ✽✽✽

  We stumbled off the plane, covered in dust and mentally spent. A strange sight greeted us on the mansion’s front lawn.

  All of the Super Mag kids were sitting in a circle. In their center, Grandma Tashi was perched on a lawn chair like she was a queen holding court. The kids were staring at her in rapt attention.

  I didn’t even think they’d noticed that a plane had just landed a few yards away from them.

  “What’s going on?” Kaira asked, giving the group a suspicious look.

  I didn’t blame her. I’d never seen all of the Super Mags sitting calmly in one place. It was unnerving.

  “00445’s momma visited Grandma Tashi,” one of the children said eagerly. “We’re waiting to see if the rest of our parents talk to her.”

  The unwavering hope on the kids’ faces pulled on my already-stretched heartstrings. In that moment, I saw the Super Mags the way Kaira and Graysen always had—as children who had been deprived of the things every child deserved: a family and a home.

  I wished Diego could see them now…not as wild creatures that could one day destroy the world, but as kids who just wanted to talk to their dead parents.

  I wondered whether Lilly had ever dreamed of getting a message from her parents.

  I blinked away the sting in my eyes.

  “Now don’t start fussing,” Grandma Tashi said in a cranky voice. “I told you it doesn’t work that way. The dead come when they wanna come, and they say what they wanna say. But if you stop your chattering, I’ll tell you a fact. Your parents loved you. I’m a momma and a grandma, and I know there’s no magic stronger than the love a parent feels for their child.”

  The Super Mags scooted closer to Grandma Tashi, hanging on her every word. The open longing in their gazes was too much for me. I turned my head.

  Emory, who had just caught sight of us, got up from the circle and came to join us.

  He had been steadily gaining weight over the last several weeks, and he was looking a little less gangly. His shaved hair had grown out into soft curls, and there was a brightness to his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

  “All forty-seven of the Super Mags have agreed to live here,” he announced. To Yutika, he said, “We like the house you built us.”

  That was good news…mostly. Before today, only ten of the Super Mags trusted us enough to live with us. With all of them living on our property, we’d be able to keep tabs on them.

  The challenging part would be for Smith and me to make sure they didn’t become a security threat. While Kaira and Graysen were determined to make the Super Mags equal members of the Boston community, my first priority was my friends’ safety.

  “We’re so happy to hear it, Emory,” Graysen said, holding out his hand for the boy to shake.

  “That’s awesome,” Yutika told Emory, offering him a weak smile. “I’ll make some additions to the house so you won’t have to share rooms unless you want to.”

  “Maybe we can talk about that Alliance group again,” Kaira said, her voice rising in her eagerness. “You could help us draft the Super Mag laws, and—”

  Emory yawned, before hurrying to cover his mouth. His cheeks turned pink.

  “Sorry,” he apologized.

  Emory might be a Level 14 Intellect, but he was still a kid with an attention span to match.

  “Or maybe not,” Graysen said, chuckling a little.

  Kaira nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. She wanted the Super Mags to have representation in the Alliance and not to feel so isolated from the rest of the city.

  Meanwhile, I had promised to give Diego what he needed to take away their magic.

  I’d never felt like more of a monster.

  The front door opened, and Ma stuck her head out. She gave us that motherly up-and-down stare, like she was assessing us for injuries. Or hunger.

  “When was the last time you Seven ate?” Ma asked, drying her hands on her flower-print apron and fisting her hands on her hips.

  “We had breakfast like three hours ago,” Kaira said. “We’re not wasting away.”

  “It’s lunchtime,” Ma said, ignoring her daughter. “And with the time difference in California, you’ll be extra hungry. I’ve got vegan mac and cheese and three-bean chili. Come and get it while it’s hot.”

  “Ma isn’t going to be happy until I’m obese,” A.J. complained, rubbing his flat stomach.

  “Tell me about it,” Kaira replied.

  Sir Zachary zoomed ahead of us, utterly unconcerned about what Ma’s cooking was doing to our waistlines.

  We were waylaid by one of the youngest Super Mags, a tiny wisp of a girl who was never seen without one of the numerous teddy bears Yutika had made for her. She was a Level 15 Phaser, which meant she could slip right through solid materials.

  Her secondary magic was scary as hell. She could control people’s internal temperatures and burn…or freeze…them from the inside out. Fortunately, she followed Kaira’s cousins around like a lost puppy and didn’t give off any violent vibes.

  Now, she was crouched under the hydrangeas and crying.

  “What’s wrong, button?” A.J. asked her.

  Instead of responding, the little girl just shrank deeper under the bush.

  Michael crouched down beside the flowers. Even at that height, he still dwarfed the little Super Mag girl.

  “Will you come out and talk to me?” Michael asked in a gentle voice.

  The little girl wriggled out of the bush and went to him without a moment’s hesitation. She wound her tiny fingers in his shirt as tears poured down her cheeks.

  Michael scooped her up and sat down on the bottom porch step. He bent his head as the little girl whispered something to him. All I caught was …stole Mr. Wiggles and tried to tear his paw off.


  Tears continued to roll down her cheeks, but her body wasn’t strained in tension anymore.

  “Tell them to go away,” the girl said, giving the rest of us a fearful glance and burying her face in Michael’s shirt.

  “You can all go in,” Michael told us, giving the girl a gentle pat on her back. “I’ve got this.”

  My brain struggled to wrap itself around the two halves of Michael…the one who comforted sad children and was the Seven’s rock…and the one who had shot those Californians without batting an eye.

  “Shout if you need anything,” Kaira told him, before gesturing for the rest of us to head in.

  I didn’t know about everyone else, but I felt like a bow string ready to snap. Everything with Blade had gone to hell, and now I had no idea what we were going to do. We didn’t just not have the Californians’ support…we had made them our enemies.

  And that meant we were on our own.

  “It’s good to be home,” Graysen said, letting out a sigh as his stiff posture eased a little. He wrapped an arm around Kaira’s waist as the two of them leaned into each other.

  I breathed in the scent of vanilla wafting from the unlit candle I’d left on the hall table. The comforting smell helped ease some of my own anxiety. I listened to the familiar voices and turned my face into the fall air wafting in from an open window.

  My stomach rumbled. Apparently, it was made out of stronger stuff than my brain. While my mind was still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened in California, my stomach had moved on to bigger and better things. The promise of mac and cheese and chili was too tempting to pass up.

  Yutika turned off at the stairs. “I think I’m going to get cleaned up and take a nap,” she said, her voice unusually toneless. “Unless you all need anything.”

  “We’re good,” Kaira assured her, her eyes full of sympathy. “Want us to bring you up some lunch?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Yutika said, already climbing the stairs. “Thanks.”

  That was bad. Yutika was always hungry, especially when Ma was the one doing the cooking. But I knew as well as anyone that sometimes, a person just needed to be left alone.