Destroyed

by Madeline Dyer

  The Enhanced man I recognize as Karl clasps his hands together above a black folder on the table. “Shall we get started?” He clears his throat. “Raleigh, is it correct that you are allowing Shania to run wild?”

  The muscles in Raleigh’s chest tighten, and he forces a smile that burns his jaw and cheekbones, burns me. “She will come back to us, I assure you. It is necessary to give a fish a bit of rope before it is lured in as then it will be all the fatter with more flesh to consume.”

  Next to him, Sophie nods, and I try to stop nervous energy flooding me.

  Karl leans in closer. “But did you not promise us you would have the girl secured and under your command by today’s meeting?”

  “The long-game takes time, but the foundations are well in place.”

  “The foundations?” the man next to Karl says. “Time is running out? Is it not the case you are bluffing? That you have no idea where Shania is? That you have no plan? After all, you have failed to share details of so-called plans many a time.”

  “Refusal to share is akin to lying, and lying is bad.” Karl’s hands clench into tight fists. He moves them, and there are sweat marks on the black folder—Raleigh’s keen eyes go to them. “Are you corrupt? Is your obsession with Shania out of control?” Karl asks. “Does Section Three need a better, more level-headed leader? Because I have been talking with a potential replacement, and she is more than happy to step in.”

  Raleigh’s jaw tightens, but Sophie shoots him a glance. He nods at her—the smallest of movements, but I feel it. He doesn’t speak. In the last Section meeting I was present in, she was against him, but I can tell that’s not the case now. Something’s changed.

  Sophie clears her throat. “Given Raleigh’s relationship with Shania, appointing a new leader for his section would be a backward move.”

  “I am not saying Raleigh would not be involved in the capture of the girl, just that leadership qualities are vastly different to that of a hunter. Raleigh would still play a key role in securing Shania, due to the relationship he has built with her, but he needs to be guided by—”

  “I need no guidance.” Fury lingers under Raleigh’s words. “I told you, I have things in place, ready to bring Shania in.”

  “But these have not worked,” Karl says.

  “Not yet. But they will,” Raleigh says, and I feel him draw on his powers. The connection between them and his body—and me—glows brighter. I can see it. See it swelling in his soul.

  Yes.

  Now.

  But what about their plans? My own heart, far away, pounds.

  No. Saving Corin is more important than knowing the enemy’s next movements. It has to be. Raleigh doesn’t know where I am.

  I concentrate hard, step back into my subconsciousness a little, still maintaining the hold on his body. Gold and silver threads fill my vision, and then Raleigh’s talking. His tone sends reverberations through his Seer powers, shows me which threads to draw on, and then—

  It is a world around me, his Seer powers, his mind, his soul. Everything. Like Taras’s, only the sphere isn’t a sphere. It’s elongated and twisted, lopsided. Walls are unraveling, forming new shapes, bursting with power. So much power. So different to Taras’s, all hard edges and thorns, spiny.

  Because this is what happens if the corrosion is left, if it latches on and feeds, if it takes.

  I search through the mesh, the walls, the shapes, feel my heart pounding harder and harder, looking for the traces of Corin. I only know vaguely what I’m looking for.

  Red marks, like the ones I saw in Corin’s soul, and again, in Raleigh’s.

  I think of the red dots, see them in front of me, projected from my mind. And—

  Beetles fly toward me, through me. They’re not just in his powers, but in my own too—I feel them, slippery, slimy, crunching. The patter of their feet—thousands of them, sticky, tangling in my powers, in me.

  Revulsion pulls through me, and nausea gathers.

  No.

  No.

  No.

  Get out. Get out, now!

  But I can’t. I need to save Corin.

  Thousands of beetles swarm through me. Beetles with angry mouths that drip a black, burning liquid. I try to stay calm. A defense mechanism? Something to put me off. He anticipated I’d hack into his soul, his powers, his mind, try and save Corin that way? He’s set a trap….

  Or it’s what happens to the Enhanced… It’s what lives inside them when they invite evil in.

  Right now, Raleigh’s not doing anything. Not to fight me, not to push me out. I tune into his physicality—the Section meeting’s still going on. Raleigh and Sophie are talking.

  He doesn’t know I’m here.

  He can’t.

  The beetles grow bigger, pushing at the walls of my mind, shoving harder and harder.

  The urge within me to focus on them, to push them away, to get them off me, out of me is strong. But I know I can’t.

  Focus, Seven.

  Yes.

  The red dots. Not the beetles. The dots, the marks.

  Follow them, find them. Get rid of them.

  I find them—crimson patches—and I feel how they connect to Corin. It’s like a web, a vast spiderweb, spinning across the lacuna of two souls, his and Corin’s, silk threads strong.

  Vaguely, I’m aware of Karl’s voice. Background noise.

  Slowly, I let my senses run stronger, my powers bolder, tell myself I can do this, because I have to.

  Corin cannot die.

  I lift the red dots up, slowly, see them in front of me, hovering above the web like hundreds of spiders. Angry spiders.

  They’re moving.

  What the—

  Something snaps, and Raleigh jolts, sits up straighter. The others are still talking, but I can’t make out their words.

  I pause, waiting, keep the red dots hovering, pray he hasn’t noticed. He can’t have. He’d make it known if he had….

  What feels like minutes passes. His Seer powers don’t rise to fight my own. He doesn’t suddenly shout. He doesn’t leap up.

  I let out my breath, far away, and then concentrate.

  But what do I do with the red dots? My powers can easily destroy them, but I don’t know the effects that might have on Corin.

  Raleigh’s powers are slipping, my access slipping.

  No.

  The red dots.

  My heart pounds, and I try to think. What do I do? Transfer them to me, into my powers?

  No, that wouldn’t save Corin, that—

  But if they’re yours you can remove them. A Sarr, speaking to me, and I’m so grateful, and—

  “Seven?”

  The voice is distant, far away, and I ignore it. Have to. Can’t be distracted.

  The red dots blur a little. Yeah. Transfer them to me. It’s the only thing I can think of, and I can’t do nothing, can’t just leave, now I’ve found them. Something tells me this is the only chance I’ll get.

  I seize them, feel jittery. Raleigh’s connection between his body and powers is lessening. He’s relaxing? Yes, I can hear Sophie speaking, and Akim. They’re the only two on his side of the table, and they’re speaking for him, not against.

  They’re on his side now?

  “Sev? Oh Gods.”

  Corin’s voice.

  No! Panic fills me. He knows what I’m doing? He’s going to try and stop me!

  I reach for the red dots faster—there are so many of them, and I haven’t got long and….

  Raleigh doesn’t feel as strong anymore. The connection, the body-sharing….

  I’m slipping, losing it.

  No, I can’t be! I’m strong, and I pull more power from the Sarr bank. I can do this—

  But someone’s pulling me back.

  “We need her out of there, her powers are depleting!”

  I grit my teeth, feel pain in my head. Raleigh’s door is closing, but I get my foot in it, force myself to follow the line back to him. My powers screa
m and creak, but then I find his—attached so strongly, so keenly to his body. Open and inviting and—

  The red dots—they’re moving, they’re in my soul.

  I’ve done it. Yes! I’ve—

  They snap away, back to Raleigh.

  All of them, in him.

  No.

  Something else snaps.

  I wince, turn, and—

  A myriad of colors and echoes squeezes me. Raleigh’s door: gone. Gone, completely. Not there—no trace of it and—

  One chance. One chance to save Corin, and I failed.

  I—

  People are screaming. So many people. The future is screaming.

  “Seven!”

  “Your powers!” Taras shouts, and then I’m back—lying on grass, cased in the humid air. Faces peer at me, and my vision gets sharper. Taras, Esther, Corin.

  I check my powers, check his soul, but I already know, feel it. Yet still I check, wade through his soul, and my powers, beetle-infested now with Raleigh’s army, and—

  A ragged hole. In my powers. In me. My soul. There’s a hole, a tear, a gap, and I feel empty. Not completely, but emptier than I should, because parts are missing.

  It’s where the red dots were, the ones I’d collected—but so much bigger than that. Much bigger. An abyss inside me, streaking across my mind, pushing and pushing, expanding.

  No.

  I reach out, my mind’s hands, trying to stop it, but it’s taking more and more—

  Pain flashes inside me, digging deeper. Taras and Corin are shouting, yelling. I feel hands on me, shaking me. But I can’t focus on them, the ravine inside me is still growing, swallowing my powers, my capability, throwing it all out.

  I need to stop it.

  Have to.

  My powers, it’s taking—

  I let out a yelp, feel sick. Something grates, low and heavy.

  The abyss stops, takes no more.

  I pant, stare at the others through a wobbly, watery vision.

  “Why did you use your powers? I warned you—your mind, the walls… I did not expect it would siphon like that!” Taras barks, his voice like nothing I’ve heard before. “Child, who have they gone to? Who?”

  I stare at him, exhaustion trying to pin me down. Oh Gods. What was—

  And the abyss, the nothingness inside me… It’s still there. Still, but there.

  “Who was it?” Taras asks, and his voice is like the beetles crawling over me.

  Body-sharing. He knows I was body-sharing. He felt it?

  I stare at Corin. I see the marks on his soul. The red dots. All of them still there. The ones I’d secured for myself sprung back. Raleigh’s still got control of Corin’s life.

  And more.

  “Who was it?” Taras demands again, his face so red he looks like he might explode.

  My lips feel like stone. “Raleigh.”

  “An Enhanced One?” Taras’s face contorts, makes him look like he’s in pain. “No… that shouldn’t be possible… Body-sharing and…” He shakes his head so hard something cracks. Then he leans in closer. “It’s your powers, your mind… I told you not to push it! You were already unstable and….”

  “And what?” Corin frowns.

  “Her mind is leaking power. A transference channel formed.” He turns to the others. “But she…she shared with an Enhanced. That’s only possible if she’s the same state… She’s turning against us,” he says, his voice all strange and hollow. “The addiction she took from me has turned her against us—it must have— and she’s just given Raleigh her powers.”

  I go cold.

  I’ve given Raleigh my powers? No, I can’t have….

  I didn’t do that. He didn’t know I was there. Did he?

  No. I was trying to get the red dots from him… Power transference? And it backfired and…

  It went wrong….

  I did it wrong.

  But my powers—I’ve still got some. Raleigh hasn’t got all of them, because I stopped the abyss taking everything.

  Corin jumps up, hands raised between us in a cautious, careful manner. “Sev? What’s going on?”

  I stare at him, a slow, burning sensation inside my head. I open my mouth, but I can’t think how to form words or which words I want to form.

  “She’s Enhanced,” Taras says. “She has to be. She body-shared with him and willingly gave him her powers. Marta’s stories confirm you can only body-share with one of the same state and—”

  “I’m not Enhanced!” I shake my head, suddenly out of breath. My vision sparkles. I blink, and shivers run down my spine. “Yani, put the gun down. I’m Untamed.”

  Then I look at Esther, try to connect with her. I’ve body-shared with her before, several times. It should be easy. More than easy. I step into my mind, search for her door. A moment passes, and then I find it. I reach toward it, and—

  Pain lashes through me.

  I jolt back, eyes springing open.

  “Child, what are you doing?” Taras demands, angrily.

  “Trying to body-share with Esther, with Untamed…but I can’t!”

  “Raleigh’s got that power then?” Corin’s eyes are wide—wide in a way that I can’t read them. “You can’t body-share anymore, again?”

  “No. I’ve got it still.” That power’s here, wrapped tightly into my core. The Sarrs tell me that the power is still mine.

  “Your mind must be stopping you, protecting you from further damage,” Taras says. “The defense mechanism.”

  “No.” I drum my fingers against my thighs. “It’s not that. I could body-share with Raleigh again, right now.” I can feel it, the connection to him.

  My chest tingles. This world is different.

  And the power’s there—inside me. I thought it was the same, it felt the same but it’s…

  I look at Taras, try to connect to him, but the same thing that happened with Esther happens now. And the doorway to Raleigh, it’s there. I take a deep breath. “I can only share with the Enhanced.”

  “But it should be the same state,” Taras says.

  “But it’s not.” I let out a shaky breath.

  Esther steps nearer, her eyes wide. “You were trying to…weren’t you?” Her eyes dart to Corin.

  I nod.

  “Oh no,” she whispers.

  “What?” Corin and Taras say the word at the same time, make the question sound even harsher.

  Corin steps closer. His footsteps drag, then his eyes narrow. “What were you trying to do?”

  I look at the ground, because it’s better than looking at him. “To save you—but I didn’t start the body-share. I didn’t. It happened, and then I was there, and I thought I should try, and I found the red dots—like on your soul. The ones Raleigh’s got for you, and I was bringing them over to me, to my powers, so Raleigh couldn’t—” My words fall away, gone.

  My neck cricks as I look up at him.

  He sways, and his face turns red, then pales. “No, Sev, we agreed—”

  “It was me,” Esther says. “I persuaded her. She didn’t want to, but I—”

  “But how did you body-share with an Enhanced One?” Taras asks.

  I take a step back, see Bea retreating, hands raised a little, faltering in the air. “I don’t know.”

  My heart pounds savagely, makes me feel sick. I turn and cough bile up, wipe stringy mucous away from my lips with the back of my hand.

  “Does Raleigh know?” Elf asks. “That he’s got Seven’s powers?”

  They all look at me.

  “I don’t know… He didn’t try and stop me.”

  “But he reversed it,” Taras says. “The transference.” Then he looks down. “But that… that could be easy to do. It could happen without intention, transferences are unstable. Do you see now why using powers when your mind is stretched is a danger? Why you should never have done it?”

  I glare at him.

  “Wait. So Raleigh might not know?” Esther whispers. “But we’ve made our chan
ces of winning the war worse if he’s stolen Seven’s powers? Seven, I’m so sorry.”

  Taras points at me. “If you were planning to save Corin, like this, you should’ve told me. Not gone in alone—especially with Seer instability. And body-sharing with an Enhanced?” He shakes his head.

  “That just happened,” I say. “I didn’t plan it—and I didn’t know what I was going to try and do. It was spur of the moment when I was there.”

  “But you’d already planned to save me.” Corin’s voice is dark.

  Taras is breathing strangely, too loudly.

  I press my hands against my stomach, feel sick again. “I can body-share again, see if I can get the powers back and undo it or see if Raleigh knows he’s got my powers.”

  “No,” Corin says, his voice hard as rock.

  “Absolutely not,” Taras agrees. “Body-sharing with him shouldn’t even be possible. Who knows what else could go wrong? You need to rest, you need to recover and limit chances of further instability before you use your powers again.”

  “Are you sure it was Raleigh?” Quinn asks, her voice low.

  I look over at her, at how she and Siora are standing close together, elbows pointing in. I nod.

  They glance at each other.

  “Do you know him?” Elf asks.

  Siora nods and looks at Quinn.

  “He held us prisoner…not long ago,” Quinn says, her tone neutral.

  “Prisoner?” I stare at her. Why haven’t I talked to either of them more? Especially me—I saw them in my dream, was so convinced we were related, and yet I’ve barely spoken to them, asked about them, their lives.

  “He killed the others we were with.” Quinn shrugs, pushes back her shoulders, but I can see she’s not as calm as she’s making out. She shares a quick glance with her sister, then rubs the back of her neck.

  “Killed them?”

  “They didn’t pass his test for becoming Chosen Ones. They were only worthy of death.”

  “Tests?” My voice is too loud. He’s killing rather than converting?

  “He’d chosen you two?” Elf asks.

  They nod, and something heavy hangs in the air between them and us.

  “But we escaped.” Siora twists her hands together. “Got out just in time.”

  “Then we ended up with you,” Quinn finishes. She rubs her arms.