“Had enough?” Orrick asked, his tone as easy as if he were asking her the question over dinner. “I assure you, the pain you Felt was nothing compared to what Mr. Starling just endured. Isn’t that right?”
Morgan’s eyes flicked to Corbin, and she felt sick to her stomach when she realized he had regained consciousness. His eyes were wide and his complexion pale as he stared at her, shaking his head.
“Don’t do it, Morgan. Don’t give in to him.” Corbin’s voice was weak and trembling, but the look on his face was hard.
It took every ounce of resolve within Morgan to tear her gaze from Corbin and direct it back to Orrick. “I won’t join you,” she said, steeling herself for what she knew would come next.
Orrick’s mouth twisted into a leer. A thrum coursed through the barrier holding Morgan and the others in place. “I think all your friends should know what Mr. Starling is going through. You shouldn’t be the only one fortunate enough to experience it, Morgan.”
It felt as if millions of white-hot pins were inserted into Morgan’s flesh. She bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. Corbin was unable to keep his reaction inside and a scream ripped from his throat. Beside her, Joss also let out a cry of pain. At that moment, it occurred to Morgan what the thrum of energy before had meant: Orrick modified the barrier holding them so that each one of them could Feel what Corbin was feeling.
“Stop it!” Lia’s anguish reverberated through the energy field connecting the five.
Morgan could sense Lia’s emotions as clearly as she Felt Corbin’s pain. In forcing them all to share in Corbin’s torture, Orrick had allowed them the ability to connect with each other. Morgan pressed her abilities outward, toward Lia, feeling a slight trembling in the force that held them in place. Lia’s energy attached itself to hers, and Morgan could Feel the intensity of the emotions driving her. Not wasting a moment—not even pausing to connect with Lucas and Joss—Morgan focused their combined abilities along with the power afforded by Lia’s rage and fear, and pressed Orrick backwards against the wall behind him.
Corbin dropped to the ground, the sensation of burning needles abating. Orrick’s eyes widened in shock as he attempted to move his arms. “What—”
Morgan took a step toward him, a thrill of dread coursing through her. This was her moment—the moment Kellen had warned her about since his arrival at the safe house. Orrick had to die.
She sensed Lia reaching out with her abilities to connect with Lucas, Corbin, and Joss, and Morgan prepared herself to do what was necessary.
Orrick struggled against the force that pinned him to the wall. “Release me, or—”
“Or what?” Morgan asked, Feeling Lia’s energy join with Lucas’s.
The connection snapped.
Morgan turned immediately to Lia just as her body crumpled to the floor, her neck twisted at an impossible angle.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Morgan stared down at Lia, unable to move. The force that held her still returned. She looked down at Lia’s body, not accepting what her eyes were telling her. “Lia? Lia? Lia!” Her voice increased in volume to a scream, but there was still no response.
A throaty chuckle floated to her ears and she turned to see Orrick, no longer pinned, a broad smile stretched across his lips. “Foolish girl.” In a flash, his eyes turned cold, his face stony. He looked at Morgan. “And I can do the same to you—like that.” He snapped his fingers to punctuate his point. “Lately I’ve been wondering if that wouldn’t be the best thing to do in the situation. Do you think it hasn’t crossed my mind? You’ve been nothing but trouble, an annoyance. But I’ve been assured by multiple Knowers that you are the key to subjugating the population. For some reason, Morgan, you have been marked. And without you, any attempt by me to force the common into submission at a larger scale than already exists will not work. I need you. That’s the only reason you still draw breath. If you were anyone else, you’d be dead by now.”
She glared at him. “Why don’t you just do it, then—because there’s no way I’ll ever join you. You just killed my friend—”
“I’ve tried to be reasonable, Morgan. I’ve tried to manipulate you. Neither of these things have worked. It seems the only choice left to me is to kill those closest to you, starting with your precious Naturals. If you still resist, I’ll move on to your dear mother and your Watcher friends. Morgan, I hope you believe me when I say my patience is at an end.”
Morgan’s eyes drifted back to Lia’s lifeless body. In her mind’s eye, she saw the same fate for Corbin, for Lia, for Joss. For Lucas. It felt as if Morgan’s blood was bubbling in her veins. She felt hot all over. Never in her life had she felt such hatred for anyone or anything. Morgan realized she’d never felt more powerful. It wasn’t hatred for Orrick that fueled her, however—it was love for Lia. Suddenly, as if she had thrown a blanket off her shoulders, the feeling that had been cloaking her body and her energy dissipated. With her abilities, she reached out for the remaining Naturals. She felt the bright glowing energies of Lucas, Corbin, and Joss and suddenly knew just what to do, as if she’d been planning to do it the whole time.
Taking all of her energy and the combined abilities of her Naturals, Morgan focused a laser-fine point of energy on Orrick, wielding it like a scalpel, excising energy from matter. For the briefest of moments, Orrick seemed taken off guard, but by the time he had a conception of what was happening to him, it was already too late to mount an attack. He no longer had the capability.
Orrick’s energy filled Morgan’s entire being, coursing through her like a blinding light. It was more power than she’d ever experienced before—more than she’d ever thought was possible to possess. It was intoxicating, alluring… Tempting. She felt the energies of a hundred different people combining to create a power she’d never experienced before. And part of her wanted it. Part of her felt it was her duty—her right—to hold on to it, to protect it. After all, how was she to lead without such power? But something else whispered in the back of her mind. It was a nagging sensation, but a persuasive one. It was her own voice, amplified by Lucas, Joss, and Corbin. The energy wasn’t hers to use, to keep. She knew where it really belonged.
With an almighty effort, Morgan pushed the blazing sphere out—focusing it directly on the dim, common energies which had been steadily arriving outside the compound.
A pulse of energy burst through the room, knocking Morgan to the ground. She wasn’t fully aware of her surroundings for what felt like a geological age. When she finally came back to herself, slowly, by degrees, she felt a tugging at her arm and heard a voice saying something, repeating the same word over and over.
“Morgan? Morgan, can you hear me?” Chelsea pressed her fingers to Morgan’s neck, her face. “Morgan, can you open your eyes?”
Morgan lifted her hands, catching her mother by the wrists as her eyelids flickered open. “What happened?” She attempted to press herself into a sitting position, but Chelsea kept her pinned firmly to the ground.
“I’m not sure. I was with Greg and the others outside—hundreds of people are out there, Morgan. All common. Just wandering toward this house like they’re in a trance. Then the ground shook and I ran in here and when I saw you, I thought… I thought…” Chelsea’s eyes glistened as she surveyed Morgan. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
Despite her mother’s protestations, Morgan managed to sit up and look around her. Orrick sat slumped on the stairs where he’d been standing, body twitching. Aurelia lay crumpled and unconscious at the foot of the stairs. Joss, Corbin, and Lucas were all on the floor nearby, but all three were rousing. The only one not moving was—
“Lia,” she murmured. With great effort, she began crawling toward the lifeless body of her friend. She smoothed the hair back from Lia’s face and pressed her fingers to her neck, praying to find a pulse. When none presented itself, she recalled the information about CPR she learned in health class back in freshman year. Reluctant to move Lia’s neck, she move
d her hands over Lia’s heart and positioned her body to begin compressions.
Lucas’s arms encircled her, pulling her away from Lia. “Stop, Morgan. It won’t help.”
Morgan struggled against him. “It has to. I have to… She can’t be…”
Lucas’s light blue eyes darkened as they fixed on Lia’s form. “You can’t help her,” he said quietly. “But maybe I can.”
“You can’t,” Corbin said, his voice filling the silence. “Ellie said so—you can’t because it takes too much energy to bring someone… to bring…” He broke off, unable to continue.
A part of Morgan’s soul lamented at the loss of the power she’d held just moments before. If only she’d held on to it, she would have enough to do what was needed now…
Sensing what she was thinking, Lucas shook his head. “Morgan, no.” He clasped her hand. “You did what you knew you had to do. It’s not your fault—”
“Not my fault?” Morgan asked, her voice shrill. “She died helping me. Of course it’s my fault!”
Chelsea leaned toward her and touched her hair. “Morgan, she knew that was a possibility when she—”
“When she what? Signed up? Being a Natural wasn’t her choice—she was born that way, she didn’t get to decide for herself.” Morgan looked at Lucas, desperate. “There’s gotta be something we can do. Please, Lucas. Help me, please! I don’t know how to Heal on my own.” She grabbed Lia’s hand, pulling it to her face and pressing it against her cheek.
A shadow fell across Lucas’s face. The open lines of his face turned sharp, closed. Resolute. He shifted forward between Morgan and Lia, taking the hand Morgan held. He pressed it close to his heart. “Okay.”
Morgan took in a breath, steading herself, waiting for Lucas to connect with her energy. She became aware of the focus in his body, his attention, and also something else. Alarmed, she put her hand on his shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing? Let me help you.”
Lucas shook her off. “It’s too dangerous.”
She stared at him. “Of course it is—that’s why I’m gonna help…”
When he turned to her, Morgan didn’t have to use her abilities to know what he was feeling: all of his emotions were contained in his eyes. “I can’t risk it, Morgan. I can’t risk you. I’ve never tried anything like this before. What if I somehow make it through, but only because I took all your energy and… What if you…?”
“Then that’s what happens,” Morgan said. She looked again at Lia. “This is because of me. I can’t let you—” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word die. “If it’s anyone, it should be me.”
A small, sad smile graced Lucas’s lips. “Unfortunately, I think fate has other plans. You’re the One, remember? And me? Well, there was always a bit of a cliffhanger when it came to how my story ended. Now, this isn’t exactly a bad-ass blaze of glory, but… I’ll take it.”
Morgan blinked hard, attempting to push away the prickling and burning accumulating in her eyes, but all she managed to do was to set two tears free. She grabbed Lucas around the back of his neck and pulled him to her, the taste of salt sharp as their lips touched. “I love you, Lucas,” she whispered against his mouth. “I love you. I love you—so you can’t—”
“I can. That’s the reason I can.” He kissed her again on the lips, the tip of her nose, and her forehead.
As he pulled away from her and settled again back at Lia’s side, Morgan became aware of the others standing around her. She’d forgotten she and Lucas weren’t alone.
“There’s gotta be another way,” Joss said quietly. “Lucas, if we all join together, then—”
He shook his head. “Like I said, I’ve never done this before. I can’t risk you all.”
“But isn’t that what the Watcher’s’ve been trying to teach us all this time?” Joss pressed. “We’re stronger together. We can do things together that we can’t do alone—”
Chelsea nodded. “It’s true,” she said quietly, “but…”
Morgan stared at her mother. “What do you mean, but?”
She shook her head. “There are some things that are just… too big…”
Rage flashed through Morgan, and she fought the urge to shove Chelsea across the room. “Ignore her,” she said, turning instead to Lucas, ignoring the flash of pain emanating from her mother. “What the hell does she know about working with people? Living alone for a decade changes your perspective on things.”
“Morgan,” Chelsea began, her voice tight, “that’s not why—”
Another voice spoke above Chelsea’s words. “What’s going on?”
Morgan turned toward the origin of the voice to see Kellen entering through an open door. His eyes scanned the scene and fell on Lia’s limp form. “What happened?”
“What do you think?” Morgan snapped, the tears that had been threatening to fall since she’d first seen Lia crumple to the ground finally slipping onto her cheeks.
“What’re you waiting for?” Kellen wasn’t looking at Morgan, he was staring at Lucas. “The longer you wait—” He crossed to Lucas and knelt down beside him.
“I know.”
Kellen placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder, and to Morgan’s surprise, Lucas didn’t shake it off. She understood what was about to happen a split second before it did: Kellen was offering his energy to Heal Lia. And for some reason, Lucas was allowing him.
Immediately, Morgan sensed that both Lucas’s and Kellen’s energies dimmed. Her stomach dropped. It was too much—she could tell. They weren’t going to be able to Heal Lia. They were both going to die in the process.
They needed help.
She attempted to force her energy onto them, but Lucas blocked her. Panicked, she launched herself at him, hoping that physical contact could help her force him to use her energy instead of completely draining his and Kellen’s, but she found herself stalled in midair as if she’d hit an invisible wall. She looked around wildly and realized it was Chelsea who held not only her but Joss away from Lucas.
“Let me go!” she demanded, flailing in a vain attempt to move closer.
“I can’t let you,” Chelsea said, her voice strained.
“Morgan!” Joss held her hand out toward her cousin and Morgan reached for it. If they could touch, maybe their combined energy could overcome Chelsea’s hold on them.
“No!” Chelsea lunged for Joss, who was nearest to her. She pinned down Joss’s arms, pulling her into the tight circle of her arms. Her eyes went to Corbin. “Please—Morgan.”
Corbin positioned himself between Morgan and Lucas. His green eyes begged forgiveness as he wrapped his arms around her torso and pulled her farther from Lia, from Lucas.
Tears poured from Morgan’s eyes as she pounded against Corbin’s back. Helplessly, she watched Lucas and Kellen, Feeling as the bright light of their energies continued to dim.
The ground below them lurched with such violence that Morgan was convinced the Veneret had caused another earthquake. Corbin stumbled, bringing Morgan down with him as he fell to the ground. A sound like thunder reached Morgan’s ears and an icy tendril of fear wound itself around her insides. What was coming for them now?
Corbin managed to shift his weight enough to allow Morgan to sit up and survey the room. Movement to her left drew her eye and through a doorway she saw Greg, Ellie, and Wen emerge, followed by a crowd of Watchers, she assumed. She turned her head to see Chelsea and Joss, who had clearly also fallen during the shaking. Both were pushing themselves into upright positions. Finally, just as the crowd led by Greg began swarming into the room, Morgan’s eyes landed on three motionless forms laying several feet from Chelsea and Joss.
With an almighty push, she managed to dislodge Corbin from atop her. Half walking, half crawling, Morgan scrambled to Lucas’s side. His body splayed at an awkward, unnatural angle, he still hadn’t moved. With trembling fingers, she touched his jawline. “Lucas,” she breathed, tears she hadn’t realized had formed spilling from her eyes and leaving circular
patterns on his shirt. She wrapped her arms around him and gathered his limp form into her lap, cradling him against her chest.
Around her, murmurs of voices turned to a soft buzzing, but none of what was said broke through to her—nothing made sense. As she buried her face in Lucas’s neck, she accepted that it didn’t matter what was being said by the dozen or so people who had now entered the room. She didn’t—couldn’t—care.
“Morgan?”
The sound of her name, though quiet and tentative, managed to draw her attention. Pulling Lucas closer to her, she wiped her eyes against his shoulder as she turned toward the origin of the voice.
Dylan Abbey, her father, stood ten feet away, blue eyes wide and bewildered. “Morgan?” he asked again.
Morgan blinked heavily, squeezing her eyes together tightly before fixing her gaze on him again, convinced she was imagining things. But when her eyes found him, there was no mistaking it: somehow, for some reason, her father had found her.
She took a moment to glance around the room. Indeed there were Watchers set in a tentative perimeter, eyes alert and scanning the room, but in addition to Dylan, there was at least one other common person in the room: Ris.
Overcome with an emotion she couldn’t even identify, Morgan pressed her face back into Lucas’s neck. Fingers slid across her shoulders and she felt Dylan fall to his knees behind her. She allowed him to pull her against his chest—a feat complicated by the fact that she would not let go of Lucas.
“Morgan… what… what is this?” Dylan’s bewilderment was obvious in his tone. “Where am I? What happened?”
She lifted her face again, craning her neck around to look at him, confused. She knew the common had been arriving for some time, but she hadn’t realized her father was one of them. It made no sense for him to be here.
But something inside her knew that wasn’t entirely correct: hadn’t she been longing for her father all day, calling to him?
“I just… I don’t remember how I got here,” Dylan continued. “I went to bed last night and… and it’s like I had this crazy dream that I was on the road, going somewhere. And when I woke up… I am awake right now, right?”
The Naturals Trilogy Page 65
