One of Aidan’s eyebrows arched upward. “Supposedly?”
“I think…” Rhys growled and raked his hair, messing it up all over again. He took my hands and squeezed them. “Do you trust me?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cece
I gathered the hem of my dress and sprinted away, the sound of the clusterfuck in the cafeteria chasing me through the winding halls toward the elevator. My purpose was clear: destroy the source. The how, on the other hand, was a bit fuzzy.
The marble warmed in my hand, and I prayed that it knew something I didn’t; that the quasi-sentient crystal ball could not only see my future, but also show me how to execute it. How an empath with no offensive magic was supposed to be the one to bring down what two malums and a hybrid sorcerer/vamp couldn’t was beyond me.
Faith—that was what I needed. Boatloads of it. Unfortunately for me, the only things I’d ever trusted in my lifetime were my sister and my gut, and I wasn't sure either could help me now.
I skidded to a halt in front of the old elevator and punched the button repeatedly, as though my frantic movements would somehow speed things along. Not surprisingly, they didn’t, so I bounced on my toes and chewed my nails until a sharp ding rang out and the door opened.
I hit the button labeled B3 and gripped the brass rail behind me as the elevator dropped deep into the basements below Wadsworth. Underground dungeons might have been a better description. I shuddered at the thought.
“This would be faster if you’d just zip me down there,” I muttered to the black ball in my hand. For whatever reason, it didn’t react.
When the doors opened, I forced myself to move forward as my memories clung to me like a cold, wet shirt. Thoughts of what I’d found the first time I’d entered that level of the building assaulted me. My eyes drifted down the hall toward the closed torture cell—the room where the smoke demon had nearly killed my sister—and I took a deep breath.
“You can do this,” I whispered to myself as I steeled my nerves.
Shoulders squared and spine stiffened, I ran toward the echoes of memory trying to derail my mission. The screams of my sister. The feeling of emptiness that had overtaken me after I’d stopped the headmaster and his keepers. I bolted past the spot where Aidan had pulled me back from those dark depths, and my eyes dropped to the gold marking that lay dormant on my hand.
Aidan…
I hoped that he was safe, that he and Maddy and Rhys were succeeding upstairs. I hated being separated from them, but that was the hand we’d been dealt, and I refused to be the reason everything fell apart.
With every running step, the familiar pulse of the source drew me nearer. Instead of the debilitating pain in my head that it had bred before we attacked it, I felt my breath synchronize with it like we were one. I didn’t stop until I stood before the writhing, glowing mass. It appeared smaller than the last time I’d seen it, but it was equally alive. Equally hungry.
I opened my palm to look at the miniature crystal ball.
“So,” I said between ragged breaths, “got any ideas?”
The tiny glass ball flared yellow, like a blast of lightning in a storm, and a spark shocked my hand. I flinched, and it fell to the floor at my feet. Then it rolled in slow motion toward the writhing orb of energy in front of us.
“No!” I screamed, diving for it. I slapped the stone hard and slid, the silk of my dress tearing across my belly. The orb opened wide like a yawning mouth, prepared to swallow the ancient relic, and fear pierced my heart. My hand shot out and snatched the crystal just before it rolled to its doom.
Somehow, feeding the orb the crystal ball didn’t seem like a way to destroy it.
“Cece!” a voice shouted as I scrambled away from the shifting power source. I could feel its attention on me as it undulated closer, mouth still open wide. Then I felt the faint brush of sharp teeth graze my forearm. I turned to find the mini-wolf tugging me backward, his lips wrapped around my delicate skin so he didn’t break it.
I struggled backward with him until he let me go, and I stumbled to my feet.
“Maddy sent me to help you,” he said, a wolfish smile spreading, “and not a moment too soon, I see.”
“Yeah, I’m not off to a great start.”
His smile widened. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Simple. Destroy this thing,” I said, pointing at the orb inching toward us.
He scoffed. “Of course it is…”
“Apparently, all we need is me—well, me and this,” I said, trying to show him the ball that nobody could see when I held it. His furry brows furrowed. “It’s the crystal ball...from the room of death.” The mini-wolf’s eyes went wide. “The dragon in the painting said I’d need it to destroy the source—well, he and the Council guy that caught us disposing of the body in the blast furnace.”
The scuff of boots on stone startled us both. “You mean me?”
The sound of that voice sent claws down my spine. I turned slowly to find the Council member I’d come nose-to-nose with while hiding in the furnace—the one Rhys had held in his thrall.
So much for that party trick lasting long.
Wolfy stepped in front of me, growling like a guard dog, and I couldn’t help but think of how proud of him Maddy would be. What the mini-wolf lacked in size he made up for in heart.
“Samuel. Why are you here?” the wolfling asked.
The terrifying Council member—who I presumed to be their leader—stepped further into the room, and I resisted the urge to step back into the orb. Surrounded by enemies wasn’t exactly the best case scenario, and I tried to steady my breathing to keep me from spiraling at the dire implications.
“I’m here for what she’s holding,” he said, eyes darting to the orb in my hands, “and her, too.”
“She isn’t interested,” I replied, forcing all the bravado I could muster into my voice.
He cocked his head at me in the most condescending way. “I don’t have time for games, girl.”
“That makes two of us. I’ve got an orb to destroy, so if you’d be so kind.” I gestured for him to leave, and he sneered as he stepped closer.
“I have a better idea,” he said, dull brown eyes dropping to my closed fist. “You give me what’s in your hand, and I’ll make your death painless.”
I swallowed hard. “And if I don’t?”
“I’ll take it by force and make the remaining moments of your pathetic life agonizing.”
Nothing about that sounded good.
The marble shook in my hand, as though it were quaking at the thought of being turned over to the deranged supernatural drawing near.
“Then help me,” I hissed at my palm, willing the glass ball to be all-powerful—to do more than amplify my powers or shift me out of there. That solution would work in the short term, but I had zero doubt that Samuel would track me down eventually. And I needed to do what I’d come to do—destroy the source. I knew that, somehow, that was the key to everything. I could feel it in my bones.
Too bad my bones didn’t have a plan.
“Why do you even want it?” I asked, trying to buy myself time to do something—anything.
“It belonged to someone very powerful once. We can’t afford to have it fall into the wrong hands.”
“I feel like ‘wrong hands’ is highly subjective,” I replied, looking at his outstretched arm.
His eyes dropped to where mine were balled into fists. “It wants someone it can manipulate,” he continued, undaunted by my jab, “and it’s found that in you. It thinks it has an ally. I’m here to shut that down before you undo everything we’ve worked so hard to build. Before you unleash something you can’t even begin to understand.”
With lightning speed, he lunged for me. Wolfy sprang at his face, teeth bared, and I dove to the left, tucking into a roll to avoid getting sacked. The ball flared in my hand, and before I knew it, I was standing on the other side of the room.
A roar of anger rumbled from the Council
leader’s throat as he ripped the mini-wolf from his arm and tossed him aside as though he weighed nothing. Wolfy rolled across the floor with terrible speed until he smashed into the far wall. After the sickening smack of flesh on stone stopped reverberating, he didn’t move.
“Wolfy!” I screamed.
The Council member scanned the room until he found me somewhere that I could never have gotten on my own. The anger that flared in his eyes at that realization was terrifying.
“Give it to me before I shred you to bits!” he bellowed.
A whip of blinding light appeared in his hands, summoned from thin air, and he snapped it at me. For a moment, I just stood and watched the magical band hurtling toward my body. The moment before it struck my face, the world spun, and I found myself standing behind him.
Taking advantage of the element of surprise, I buried my foot in the back of his knee so hard that I heard something snap. He crashed to the ground, but not before unleashing his whip again. My balance was off as I attempted to kick him in the back, and the sharp tip of the magical weapon bit into my side, shredding the thin silk just as easily as the flesh that lay beneath. A scream bubbled up my throat just before I magically moved once again, reappearing in the doorway.
As though he’d known where I would pop up, my arrival was met with a crack of magic across my thigh that bit in so deep, I feared it had hit bone. The whip coiled around my leg tightly, and he tugged the magical tether, yanking me off my feet. I flew across the room and crashed hard against the wall.
The force of the blow caused my whole body to recoil, and my hand flew open, releasing the crystal ball. The second it left my hold, it returned to its normal size and appearance. It rolled across the floor toward the Council member, who stared at it with greedy eyes.
With a snap of his wrist, the whip pulled free of my leg, but not without inflicting more damage along the way. Blood poured between my fingers as I tried to cover the massive wound, but my efforts were futile.
“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked, looking at me as though I were weak. As though I were nothing at all. A life that didn’t matter. Just an object in his way.
Anger burned through my veins, but it weakened with every pulse of blood. My life was slipping away with every beat of my heart, and I wondered if I’d ever see my sister again. If I’d get to say goodbye. If I’d get to tell Aidan that I was sorry.
That it seemed that I couldn’t do it alone, after all.
I was on the brink of failure, and it would haunt my final moments.
My eyes drifted to the power source, the words of the Council member ringing through my ears. The empath knows…she has everything she needs . Then my gaze fell to the mark on my hand—the one that bonded Aidan and me. The one that had pulled me back from the brink once before.
He hadn’t given up on me then.
I wouldn’t give up on me now.
With a growl, I ripped the hem of my dress and tied it tight around my gaping wound—the one that would likely leave me dead. But if I was going to die, I sure as fuck was going out with a fight.
“Aren’t you adorable?” he said, watching me push myself up the wall, barely able to stand on my own. “What you fail to understand is that you can’t beat me—you’re not strong enough.” He scooped up the crystal ball and tucked it under his arm, totally unfazed by it, unlike how my friends had reacted to holding it. My gaze fell past him to where I saw a shadow move. But it wasn’t a shadow at all. The black mini-wolf, finally conscious, prowled on silent feet. I did what I could to shoot him a note of approval with my energy—one that wouldn’t alert the psycho approaching to what I hoped was the mini-wolf’s plan.
“Maybe not on my own,” I wheezed through gritted teeth. Then I closed my eyes and tapped into the bond between Aidan and me, pulling forth a surge of energy—something I didn’t fully understand—and letting it build inside me. “But I’m not alone.”
With Samuel distracted, Wolfy launched at him and knocked the crystal ball out from under his arm. The pitch-black relic flew through the air toward me as the Council member roared in anger. The ball fell right into my hands, and I embraced it like an old friend. Rage like I’d never felt before shot through my body, and I channeled it along with the power from Aidan’s bond, the two swirling into a vicious, ugly noise begging to be released.
The man stopped short when he looked at me. Something about what he saw looking back gave him pause.
“This was never meant for you,” I said, my voice not my own. I took a step forward, my wounded leg no longer a burden, and he took a step in retreat. “It chose me.”
His whip rose again, prepared to strike, but the second he snapped it toward me, it burned out like a dying star until all that was left was ash floating through the air.
“This is mine,” I said, voice soft and warning as I clutched the ball tighter to my chest. A feeling of rightness washed over me—a feeling of ownership. I looked at the one who had dared to try to take it from me, and like a volcano erupting, the anger raging inside me exploded. “THIS IS MINE!”
My voice shook the ground we stood upon, and he fell to his knees. For the first time in my life, I truly felt powerful. I felt like the hammer of the heavens I was named after. And I would use that hammer to smash anything in my way.
Starting with the terrified man at my feet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Maddy
Aidan tugged Rhys and me off to the side, well away from everyone and shielded by one of his fey friends he must’ve talked some sense into.
“Before you two go strolling through sentinel-land,” Aidan said, “I want to try something simpler.” At our nods, he explained. “You see the councilman in the white button-up shirt?”
I peered around him. “The one on the far right?”
Aidan glanced that way. “Yup. He’s our main target.”
“What’s the plan?” Rhys asked easily enough, though an edge of steel cut through his voice. “We haven’t much time. They’re sucking power from the room. Soon, it will take more than all of us combined to end this.”
“That’s the key,” Aidan said. “We’re going to give them what they’re begging for.”
“Just hand over our power?” I gulped. “It’s bad enough that they’re stealing it from us. If we feed it to them, we’ll end up drained and they’ll be in full control.” I could only imagine what they’d do to us after that. The incinerator in the basement...
“We can overload them,” Aidan said. “Right now, they’re controlling how much they draw in.”
I dodged to the side as a vamp was shoved off Aidan’s fey friend and into the wall. He smacked hard enough into the surface that cracks formed in the sheetrock around him. Moaning, he slithered down to the floor, where he remained, his legs outstretched. The fey guy wiped his hands and, with a growl, shot bolts of magic at supes coming at him, sending them ricocheting backward into walls, tables, and the floor.
“Will three of us be enough?” I asked, moving to stand beside him. Rhys took his other side.
“Six might increase your odds,” someone said from my right. I turned to find the witch I’d released from her own spell studying us. Two other witches caught my eye and nodded. “We can’t let them get away with this.” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder, toward the Council. “We tried to entrap them ourselves, but got nowhere.”
“Saw you three over here and decided to see if we could help,” a dark-haired witch said.
Aidan dipped his head slightly in their direction. “We’re going to give the Council a big mouthful of what they’ve been stealing from us all night.”
“Cool,” she said. “Tell me where and exactly when to blast ‘em, and I’m all over it.” Joining me at my right, she glared at the Council while her friends lined up with us. “I’ve been aching to do something like this since…” She snarled and green mist drifted off her fingers. “Let’s just say you and Cece aren’t the only sisters who were locked up at Wa
dsworth together.”
There was a story there, but we didn’t have time.
“On three, I’m going to create a distraction,” Aidan said, his face etched in steel.
“Go for it,” Rhys said, his hands lifting already.
“Three…two…wait for it...” As if someone overhead had dumped a truckload of magical confetti, bits of gold and silver drifted down. But before it reached us, some of it sizzled. More of it popped. The rest exploded, sending some stars arcing up to the ceiling, while others smacked into students, sending them flying. Clothing smoldered and supes screamed.
A few kids stopped and stared, some in wonder, the rest in horror. Others kept fighting; fey glamouring, vamps tapping one kid after another, witches conjuring misty spells, and shifters leaping, roaring, and shooting out bolts of magic.
One of the Council members frowned and leaned close to the guy standing next to him. They spoke, and the third joined in. As a unit, their gazes scanned the room, seeking the threat.
While Aidan’s magical fireworks continued to wreak havoc, our tiny force gathered our power.
“One,” Aidan hissed out.
Our magic shot across the room in a solid band of rainbow lightning, smacking the lead councilmember in the chest. He stumbled backward, rage filling his face. His snarl rang out like a jungle raptor scenting prey.
Power spent, our arms dropped.
The councilmember shouted something to the other two, then stalked toward us with the others flanking him. Fury turned his eyes a glowing red. His hands lifted, and a bolt of energy blasted across the room, flinging us back into the wall.
The lead witch’s head smacked hard, and it was lights out for her. Her friends each took an arm and started dragging her away from us, as if they could merge with the fading ruckus and hide.
Aidan actually looked stunned, an expression I never thought I’d see on his face.
“Again,” he shouted, his arms rising.
“We can’t,” Rhys said, jumping in front of Aidan. “I don’t think we have time.” His gaze fell on me. “And I believe Maddy may be the key.”
Rogue Reformatory: Broken (Supernatural Misfits Academy Book 2) Page 21
