“We outnumber you,” Jana says. “You’ll do as we want.”
My body tightens, and I feel sick.
It’s everyone.
Everyone wants to use me for their own plans. Raleigh. The Stone Seers—Untamed, my own people.
My vision blurs.
“Step forward,” Oona says, pointing at me. “Do it.”
“No.” I meet her sharp gaze with my own. “I’m not doing anything for you.”
“Oh, I think you will. And you’re going to do it now. Or face the repercussions.”
“Repercussions?” Elf asks, his voice low.
Oona nods at Zara, then the two of them lift their hands up, point at me. At first, I don’t feel anything. I stare at them, my heart thundering, what are they—
My throat tightens. Subtle, slow, at first.
But it gets stronger.
I see the concentration in Oona’s and Zara’s eyes and—
I splutter, gasp, can’t—
No.
No.
No.
I’m stronger than this.
Energy bursts from me, but the moment it happens, I know it’s what they want—just like how Raleigh did it, hurt me until I fought back.
And now I am—it’s instinct. Preservation. I’m calling on my Seer powers, sending a wave out that blasts. A flash of bright light. The nearest Stone Seers fall in screams.
Elf yells something, throws white light, and someone else shouts. Roaring sounds fill my ears, and something hits my arm, something wet, splattering.
My gaze jerks to the right.
A bolt of white light heads toward me.
I block it just in time, hear others shouting.
A man steps out from behind Zara and raises his hands. The air seems to turn blue, hazy, and I feel the energy radiating from him, and—
I send the full force of my powers at him. His body flies back, hits the wall of the hut, where he falls down, his body folding in on itself.
Dead.
I know it instantly, and it startles me—how easily that power came to me.
Like Elia Jackson. The Enhanced child Raleigh made me kill.
It’s the same power, the same one I used. It both fills me with confidence and destroys me. But there’s no time to concentrate on that now.
I lift my head, look at Oona. “Don’t ever try and make me do anything,” I warn her, my voice low. “Any of you. I will kill you all in an instant.”
Oona folds her arms slowly. Confidence radiates from her—but it’s the deadly kind. The kind that means she’s so sure of herself and used to getting what she wants, that she doesn’t care about the consequences. It’s the same confidence Raleigh has.
“You wouldn’t,” she says, her voice a sneer. “When the end of the war comes, you’re going to need us. Non-Seers won’t be able to help. It’s us you need. We’re the army you require.”
Jana smiles a smile that turns my stomach because it changes the light in her eyes, and I see into her soul. Only darkness lurks.
“And,” Zara says, “just because you’re the powerful Seer, it doesn’t mean you’re in charge of us. Because I am. You’re joining my group, Seven, and I will command you. Make no mistake about it.”
I call flames to my fingers. I grit my teeth, feel my gums throb with energy. “I will not be your weapon.”
“Oh, you will. You’re going to do exactly what we want.” Zara laughs then nods at Oona.
In an instant, Oona holds Elf against her body. For an old woman, she’s surprisingly strong. A knife glints from her hands, the blade sparkling against his skin.
“If either of you tries anything, I’m slicing his neck open,” Oona says.
“Now,” Zara says, her eyes on me. “Seven Sarr, bring the world’s other Seers here. Or watch him die, submit to us, and then bring the rest of our people here.”
Elf’s eyes bulge as he stares at me, reminds me of Corin, how he looked when Raleigh strangled him.
“I decide who lives and dies at the end of this war, and you’re doing this?” I glance around, then fix Oona under my heavy gaze. “How stupid are you?”
“You only decide which side wins. Not who individually—”
“I am a Seer of Death!” I roar, and then the power—there’s so much in me—and I’m shaking. It’s breaking through me, I can’t contain it, and it’s like it’s not me speaking. It’s everyone else—the Seers inside me, gathering strength, pushing forward.
No. My heart stutters.
No.
No!
Flames burst forth, everywhere, catch the linen and blankets. The roof of the hut. The walls. Smoke everywhere, in an instant, hissing and twisting.
Elf screams and—
The knife. It slashes across his neck. One movement. A red line beading too slowly.
I freeze, but my fire burns. Zara cackles. Elf slumps down, his hands at the base of his neck. He’s trying to stop the blood that pours out in sheets.
Blood.
No.
No.
No.
Darkness plows through me, screaming. My body jolts, and I see Zara. See her soul. Threads tightly bound together. Evil threads, rotten and rancid.
I reach out, her threads are in my hands—except they’re not real hands, they’re Seer hands, in my mind—and the fingers curl around the life-threads.
A sharp tug, and the Sarrs and I unravel them. We do it together. It’s all of us, and at this moment, it’s what I want because I am the Sarrs.
Her body jolts.
Zara falls. It’s the power of my gaze, my power, my energy. It feels good. My body is alive. My mind is alert, active, elated, the most it’s ever been. Exhilaration tastes sweet.
I turn to another Seer, unravel him. So easily. It’s me—it’s what I do. Death follows me because I bring it. I am Death.
I can kill with my eyes, my mind, my vision! Never to be helpless again. Just looking at them and thinking it, feeling the hatred, and they die.
Die.
Die.
Die.
“Do you see?” I yell, and I’m definitely not me anymore. The power in me is deafening—booming, thudding through my body. So much of it.
“Get out!” Jana yells, screaming, turning, gesturing at the other Seers.
Jana.
I find her among the swarming mass of panic as they flee the burning hut, knock into things, all rushing together—the Stone Seers. Running. Scared.
So they should be.
Oona turns back, her eyes burning a hole into the air. My fire dances around her, orange tongues licking.
“We will get you, Seven Sarr! We will find you! You will be one of us!” she screams, and her scream somehow wraps around me as she leaves. “You’ll understand that we are the ones who have to survive!”
My powers show me her threads, how hazy they look in the burning, smoky air, and—
A gasping sound.
I jolt, look down, and—
Blood, so much blood among the thick smoke, and I see the redness of it through the black.
Elf.
My body jolts. Nausea floods me and it’s like I’m shrinking, falling, power stripped from me, my own mind is back. Back here, with my thoughts and visions and feelings. I rush toward him. He’s spluttering, gasping, trying to move on the floor. Crimson still pours from him.
Fear lives in his eyes, and he’s trying to speak, trying to—
I gather him in my arms, feel his life force slipping and—
No.
“Keelie,” he mutters, his voice barely audible.
I shut my eyes, see both our souls. They hang brightly in the dark sky, but his gets dimmer because our life forces are now silver threads, where only one burns brightly, and his is unraveling, reaching out for the spirits.
So, I stop it.
I wind it back up, I make his life force brighter, I heal him. Energy transfers in the blink of an eye.
I open my eyes to smoke and deadly heat. Th
e burning hut. We need to get out.
“Elf?” I inhale too sharply, start choking. My eyes smart, and they’re stinging. Can’t see a thing. My chest hitches, and I’m coughing—and I shouldn’t be coughing. It’s my fire. But I am.
Elf drags in a stuttered breath, and I see his neck. No new blood gushing. And his skin: smooth, healed. A wave of exhaustion washes over me, and then Elf’s stirring.
“Seven!” Elf screams, and he’s yelling other stuff too, but there’s something about his tone, the way he says my name, that reaches inside me, that commands me.
I stand up, pulling him with me. I look toward the door—only I can’t see the door. There are just flames and—
Smoke. In my lungs.
Too much.
I can’t breathe. The air’s too hot. I’m melting.
Can’t—
My body’s too….
I can’t—
Don’t lose control. My mother’s voice.
I jolt, my head pounding, vision sparkling. Her voice? She’s here?
Yes, she said she’d be in my heart. That final conversation: But I’ll still be with you, in your heart. And you end this war, yes? Then you can join me, just as the….
Join her?
Before Death takes me to his realm? Or did she just say that to comfort me? To comfort her? The promise of a reunion, even though she’s not a Lost Soul.
“Get us out!” Elf’s cry breaks through my tangled web of thoughts.
Yes. Got to get out.
But pain and fear are rising in me, and I can’t think, can’t move, can’t breathe and—
Pain in my chest. So much pain, pushing and pushing, my ribs—they’re going to snap and—
Energy floods me.
We’re here.
“Find Corin and Esther and Taras!” The words burst out of me, and I whisper them in a way I’ve never whispered before. “Find Toivo and—”
Colors twist past me. My lungs squeeze with the effort of the Seer-travel, and I scream into the nothingness that tries to take me and—
I open my eyes. See smoke hurtling into the blue sky. Only it’s gray now, because the life’s being pushed out of it, taken.
The burning buildings are a mile or so away. My eyes narrow, then it’s like I’m zooming in, seeing it close up. See the Stone Seers running about, little figures, and I hear them, hear them screaming for water because they’re burning. Several are lying down, their skin ragged, red, peeling.
Burns that I gave them.
Like my mother and—
“Get down!” Elf yells, and he drags me to the ground and—
My face hits damp earth as something booms. A flash of orange—so bright it burns my eyes—and the light goes out. Darkness, everywhere. My ears crack. Rasping noises, in my throat. Pain in my shoulders.
Elf’s hand is on my back. He’s holding me down. His hand, it’s all I can feel, between my shoulder blades. That and the wet grass under me. His breathing is loud, and it fills me as the earth shakes. Blood—there’s blood in my mouth. The bitter taste of copper.
The air’s thick with grit and heat, but the light comes back and—
Things fall from the sky.
I stare at them. Tatters of…and soot, and—
No…no!
“We need to get away.” Elf’s voice is fast, and he’s dragging me up, and—
My legs wobble, feel too weak, as I stare at the burning land, at how death hangs over it. How the huts have just…gone.
Gone.
Because of me.
My flames. My fire.
My explosion?
They’ve gone. The Stone Seers. I feel it, and I don’t need to look for their souls, their threads. Death is a curtain around us all.
My lips are moving, burring, and I’m shaking. My ears ring. My vision feels too sharp, too angular.
All those Untamed….
My breath stutters. My chest feels too heavy, like my ribcage is going to crack open with the weight inside. I take a step back. The ground is moving, and I’m falling and—
Elf grabs my arm. He’s shouting something at me, but his words sail past.
I stare at the…the remains.
What have I done?
But it was them—the Sarrs inside me. It was all of us.
But you led us.
And you liked it. You felt the exhilaration.
My bottom lip wobbles, and more adrenaline races through me. So much. I turn my head, breathing hard. My lungs feel heavy. No, the explosion—that wasn’t me! I didn’t want that to happen!
“Did you do that?” Elf’s voice is like a knife.
I stare at him, because I can’t answer. I can’t. How can I? Not when the darkness is still hissing inside me. Me. Me. Me. I did that. My powers did that. Because it’s all there is, just darkness, once the layers are stripped back—it’s what I am. A Seer of Death. I kill. A part of me enjoys it.
I clap a hand to my mouth, my stomach roiling. I enjoy it? No! Why would I think that? But the energy’s pounding through my system, and my head feels lighter, and, with a jolt, I realize my lips are peeling back. I am smiling.
Euphoria, in me—as well as the fear, and they’re fighting in my veins, and I don’t feel like myself.
Yes. Maybe I’m not. Maybe I’m two separate people, and that was the powerful Seer, the one who enjoys killing, the one the augury says I have to be…not me. Not the girl from Nbutai.
Elf shakes his head, drags the back of his hand across his mouth. “Where are the others?”
I touch my chest slowly, feel my heart absolutely pounding. Then I look around. The others? They’re not here. But I thought… My powers… I said to find them and—they’re not here. It’s just us.
My powers haven’t worked? Haven’t brought us to them. They’ve shut off again? Because of that explosion.
Because I killed them all. Mass murder.
I taste darkness and something sour, bitter behind my front teeth.
But no—I draw fire to my fingers again, and it works. There’s no defense mechanism protecting me, because I’m stronger. It was my first time using great power from the Sarr bank, that was why my mind locked down. But now it knows me, and there’s no risk of it stretching my mind, of Seer instability.
I’m safe.
But why haven’t I taken us to the others?
I turn back and—
The fire, the burning remains. The baby. What if Toivo and the others are still back there? What if I tried to get us out of there and to the others at the same time—and my powers chose our safety? Mine and Elf’s over theirs?
I retch and heave, all euphoria gone, seeped away. My vision is full of images, and I smell burning flesh. So many people, dead, because of me. And the children—not just Toivo, but the others! There had to be others. These Seers would have children, wouldn’t they? They can’t all have been chosen by the Gods and Goddesses. Can they? Elf said something about the children—but I can’t think. My head is broken. But…innocent lives, lost. Because of me.
Darkness hangs heavy inside me.
Elf pats me awkwardly on the shoulder once I’ve finished expelling the contents of my stomach. He doesn’t look me in the eye though, and I can’t look at him. Not properly.
Then a baby cries.
“Toivo?” I freeze, look around, but the air’s grainy, gritty, even here, and I can’t see far. He’s out here? Not in the burning village? My powers brought us here because he’s here?
“That way,” Elf says, his voice shaking.
I follow him in the semi-darkness, drawing on my Seer powers, letting them guide me closer still.
“It’s a cave,” Elf says, and his voice is so far away that I’m confused for a moment. Why aren’t I with him? Why am I farther back?
I speed up, a feeling inside me that clicks with every step until I reach the hole that leads into the earth. It looks like that other cave Jana led us into. A bad feeling squeezes into my gut. We can’t be there, can w
e? Gods, I can’t think, don’t understand. I look around, try to see the rest of the land—where’s that woodland?—but the air’s too heavy, like it’s trying to hide the land from me, so I can’t hurt it.
The crying is louder.
“Hello?” My voice wobbles.
Elf calls white light to his hand, uses it as a torch, struggles a little with it dimming too much.
We head inside.
My foot catches something, and I pull back, repulsion spreading through me like a storm as my eyes adjust, and I see it.
A skull stares back at me. Empty eye sockets, dark but knowing.
Something touches the back of my arm, and I let out a yelp, but it’s only Elf. He’s seen the skull too. He moves his hand so the white light illuminates more and—
It is a cave of skulls.
Get out.
The voice in my head is loud, but the baby’s cries are getting louder, echoing. Is it Toivo? My heart pounds. Or another infant?
An infant left to die?
Then we see them, two figures, tied up.
Taras and Esther.
I rush toward them. “Where’s Corin?” The words are out of my mouth before I reach them.
“He’s back there,” Taras says, “but—”
“Get my baby!” Esther screams, pointing.
I turn and see the baby, naked, completely naked, lying on the stone ground next to another skull. One that looks older. Old, frayed rope and rodent droppings are scattered everywhere among the bones.
Elf darts across, scoops Toivo up, then he’s at Esther’s side, undoing her ropes while somehow also cradling the shrieking baby.
I look farther into the cave, squinting.
“Corin’s back there?” I ask Taras, who’s holding his bound hands up to me. His eyes look darker than ever.
Taras nods, and I head off, ignore his calls. Elf’s there anyway.
I can’t see much ahead, but my feet scatter more bones. There’s little light.
“Corin’s…sick,” Esther yells over Toivo’s screams, and I turn back for a moment. “Very sick.”
“I’ve traced it as having Seer origin,” Taras says. “Those Stone Seers knew what they were doing. We’re lucky they spared Esther.”
“It’s okay,” I say, turning back. “I’ve got all my powers—my mind won’t stretch—and I can heal him.”
And I can.
I just have to get to him.
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