King Cave

by Scarlett Dawn

  Hastily averting my gaze, I slipped from behind Ezra so he could see me. A quick glance at him, and his eyes met mine. I nodded slightly, letting him know the spell had worked. His chest heaved once in relief, but his regard swiftly altered as he fired at and killed a Com trying to climb inside. From the corner of my eye I noted that Pearl jerked at the report, but Antonio snagged all of our attentions a moment later.

  Zipping his bags closed, Antonio questioned swiftly, “Jack, do you remember how to use the pond for shelter by funneling your combined wills?”

  Hearing him put his jeans on, I only listened as Jack directly affirmed, “Yes.”

  “Good.” Antonio stood, slinging his bags over his shoulders. “You’re going to do it again. Mysticals will be traveling with you under your combined protection, so don’t falter. Don’t stop for anything. Or anyone. A single break in any of your concentrations will result in your deaths.” He explained this all matter-of-factly. “The roads are blocked. Right now, there’s only one way to Connecticut and to King Cave.” Absently, he tossed me a circular item.

  Catching it, I saw it was a compass.

  “Connecticut?” Jack’s blue eyebrows furrowed, and sounding incredulous over the erupting gunfire outside, he shouted, “You mean through the Sound?” He shook his head roughly, his blue hair rustling with the sharp movement. “I thought King Cave was a myth!”

  Antonio pointed to me, ignoring Jack’s outburst. “Go north. Once you hit land, there will be vehicles waiting for you, keys in the ignitions.” Rubbing his hand agitatedly over his face, he grumbled, “That’s what took me so long to get here.” A weighty sigh, and then a shake of his head. “Go east along the beachfront. Don’t stop. You’ll see a golden protection barrier. Head for it. When you pass through, there will be an Elder waiting for you. He’ll lead you the rest of the way.”

  We all stilled at the uproar of jets flying far overhead. The noise was unmistakable.

  Antonio rolled his shoulders. “That’s my cue.” A slow, feral sneer crept across his handsome face, and without a doubt, I knew why he had been named one of the most malicious Mysticals in history. “Bombs can be incredibly pleasurable to misguide.” Racing toward the window, he chucked the tube of lipstick to me and barked, “The Kings, Elders, and I will be there soon. Don’t forget to keep your focus steady.”

  My jaw was gaping. Gawking. That wouldn’t do, so I quickly snapped it shut, pocketing the lipstick and compass and watching as Antonio dove out the window, his body beginning to shimmer golden. I couldn’t help my tone, my voice a bit flat as I said, “We’re going to Connecticut.” A deep inhale. “Via a pond dome.” I blinked bit by bit. “Through the Sound.” I rolled my shoulders. “I think I should have paid better attention when Mom took me to Sunday school classes.”

  Pearl snorted, swiftly walking to stand beside me while I tried hard not to stare at the slash of lipstick on her forehead; Antonio’s spell was the only thing keeping her together right now. “Bloody hell, Lily, at least you went to church and know how to pray properly.”

  “He’s crazy,” Jack muttered, grabbing from the floor two of the guns Antonio had left behind. “Do you know how many hours of intense concentration that will take?”

  “Probably more than what he trained us for.” Ezra handed my gun back to me, pulling another gun out of the back of his waistband, which he had taken from Antonio’s arsenal bag earlier. “But it’s doable.” He jerked his head at his mom. “Time to go.”

  Vivian stuffed Antonio’s glowing, brown leather book inside her purse and zipped it tight before readjusting the strap over her head so it wouldn’t fall from her shoulder. Crawling from under the desk, she, too, kept her eyes averted from the lipstick marks on Jack’s and Pearl’s foreheads. “How are we going to get to this pond?”

  “By force,” I muttered quietly, and my jaw hardened as I took a deep breath. Using my Shifter strength, I bent at the knees and launched myself across the room and out the window headfirst. No time like the present to get into the action. I ducked, flying over the pile of Com carcasses, and rolled as I hit the grass. I let my body continue with the motion and ended in a kneeling position. Wasting no time, I immediately opened fire and shot any and all Coms near our window, my gifted spelled gun never running out of silver bullets.

  Wind whipped around me as Ezra arrived in a blur. He fired his gun while standing directly behind me with his legs straddling mine. He secured the right side, and I safeguarded the left. Pearl exited next, aiming one of the guns Jack had previously been holding. She targeted the Coms in the middle, squeezing her gun’s trigger at will. Jack dove through the window, as agile as the rest of us, and motioned for Vivian to get her ass moving as he fired at the Coms dwelling on top of the rubble that used to be the administration building; their vantage point had been chosen because it was better to pick off Mysticals.

  And yes, only the room we had been in was still standing; the rest of the building was a mere pile of stone, wood, and bricks. Mrs Jonas’s room had most definitely been spelled. At the very least she had been smart on that account. It had saved our lives.

  Another rush of wind rustled my distinctive red hair, and Vivian was suddenly in front of us, sinking her descended fangs deep into the neck of a Com and brutally ripping out his throat.

  I actually stopped shooting for a second, merely blinking. I wasn’t sure what shocked me more: seeing Vivian, the woman who had raised Ezra, his mother, rip out someone’s throat, or witnessing a — albeit scary — school teacher rip out someone’s throat. Either way, it shocked me for a second. But reality swiftly intruded my mind’s numbness when I saw a Com taking aim at a Mys child, who was barely old enough to walk but was standing in the masses, her bitty mouth opened wide, screaming from fear.

  My heart stalled. I may have a crazy dislike for brats, but I’m not completely heartless like the Com bitch that was about to murder the tiny air Elemental. My wolf growled instinctively, and I sprang at the Com. Falling on her rapidly, I viciously twisted her neck, damn near pulling her head clean off. The goddamned sadistic Com had it coming. Throwing her body aside, I swiftly lifted the air Elemental and held the whimpering munchkin close.

  Ezra’s spring green gaze met my own ice blue one as the child threw her arms over my shoulders and cried heated tears against my neck. He raised his gun directly over my head. His eyes never left mine.

  He fired.

  I didn’t flinch.

  A Com fell against my back, already dead from Ezra’s round.

  My grin was feral, matching my savage best friend’s.

  Our small group began our aggressive trek through the masses. Toward the pond.

  Any damned Com who got in our path was soon cut down. A steady group of Mysticals began hovering and fighting alongside us, seeing who the four of us were.

  As my friends’ guns ran out of ammunition, they began using their Mys abilities.

  Pearl glowed golden, using her Mage powers to toss Coms straight into the air.

  Jack used his water Elemental magic, drowning or freezing Coms.

  Ezra began blurring, ripping out Com throats in time with his mother.

  My gun never ran out of ammo, so I held the air Elemental close and shot every damn Com I saw.

  The reverberating disturbance of jets neared again. Only, it was much closer this time. Everyone froze uncannily — Com and Mys alike — in their brutality of warfare. The downslope of the hillside where the fighting horde had stopped in their maiming to stare up into the air was the oddest scene to behold. Four jets appeared overhead, and a gasp thousands of people strong could be heard as bombs were dropped. It only took me a moment to realize that all the Coms fighting right here and now were collateral damage to whoever was commanding their forces.

  My red brows rose, but I set the information aside. The Coms were now sitting ducks.

  Confident that Antonio was taking care of the bombs that were falling from above to blow everyone away, I started firing on the statio
nary Coms. Just because they were distracted didn’t mean I wasn’t going to kill them. If they came for a fight, they were going to get just that, dirty and all. Taking down at least twenty in rapid succession, I chanced a peek upward as the crowd gasped again.

  The bombs were glowing golden and no longer falling. They were chasing after the jets. Each one struck its target with deadly precision. The show was pretty impressive. The four airborne jets burst into flames far enough away that the debris wouldn’t plummet from the heavens onto anyone here. Antonio was probably grinning right about now and hoping more jets would arrive for additional target practice.

  Standing farther ahead, Ezra caught my best friends’ and my attention. He and his mom had also taken advantage of the dumbstruck Coms. Piles of bodies were left littered in their combined wake. He jerked his head, a silent demand for Pearl, Jack, and I to hurry up.

  The three of us raced forward.

  The tiny air Elemental in my arms hung on tight as I leaped over a particularly large area scattered with dead Commoners and Mysticals. The ground was chewed to hell under their corpses where a bomb must have detonated.

  Fighting resumed around us. The Commoners began fighting even more fiercely as they grasped exactly what they were to those in charge, their actions now directed toward fleeing instead of sieging. But my fellow Mysticals were having none of it; they had been attacked on our grounds. By Coms.

  To them — to me — that meant a fight to the death.

  With the added benefit of knowing this assault was only the first round, two more still to invade, I didn’t want any Coms escaping to regroup and advance again when the next wave of attackers charged. So on we fought while pushing toward the pond, which was the exact opposite direction that the Coms were propelling to. They wanted the mainland access road, and we wanted the Sound.

  “Pearl, behind you!” I shouted, shooting Coms who were rushing at a group of students in their white ceremonial gowns. Students who hadn’t had their Awakening today because of the onslaught. They were weak and easy marks without their powers yet.

  Pearl twisted on her heels and thrust out a glowing hand. The three Coms aiming their guns at her died as their weapons turned and fired on their owners. She dipped her head in thanks in my direction, actually grinning, before she went back to tossing Coms with her power. That gleeful smile, and her thanks, were not going to be common occurrences once I used the lipstick on her to complete Antonio’s spell.

  Pushing past the last of the Coms, all of them falling because of the large group of Mysticals surrounding us, I turned and shouted, “Everyone, be quiet and listen up!” I knew how to run. This was what I had been trained to do my entire life. Our escape was my show to command.

  The hundreds of Mys around us went silent, affording our large assembly the advantage to hear the other battles raging on King Hall’s property, which, as I now saw, was rubble like the administration building was.

  Taking a fortifying breath, I continued shouting to every Mys within earshot, “We’re going to make a shelter from the pond. We’ll be taking an extremely long journey under it. If you aren’t ready to leave just yet, get ready now. Do what you must.” I knew some of them wouldn’t be. There were loved ones they would want to hunt down. “But know that once we have the dome in place, no amount of pleading or crying will stop us. You will not be allowed entrance. We won’t risk it.”

  A decent portion of the group surrounding us broke off. They sprinted — or blurred — to find their family or friends. Hopefully, they would make it back in time.

  Clearing my throat, I began walking backward. Eyeing the crowd, I yelled, “We will need complete concentration for this, so here is what you need to do now.” Ezra placed a steadying hand on my back when I accidently stepped on a body. We continued to make our way to the pond, which was about a hundred yards away. “Organize yourself in lines behind us. Our elite guards first.” I could see many of them near, including my own — Felix and Aros. “Then the elderly, children, and their parents. Anyone else who is mated will go directly behind them if your mate is not here with you today.” In the event the attack at the school wasn’t the only one, they may faint if their mate died.

  “I want Shifters following that group, assisting anyone who is currently injured.” I paused, still marching backward, staring hard at the Mysticals around us. “You will pick up any Mystical who falls and carry them, regardless of their faction.” I saw immediate nods. They understood this was not a day for prejudice. “After them will be the rest of you to help those who will begin to lag because this journey will be extensive and unpleasant.” Another pause as we neared the pond. “And again, no one bothers us during this. There are more attacks coming, and we need to hurry. If you interrupt us, we could all be killed.”

  We stopped moving. We had arrived at our destination.

  Our elite guards moved in front of us as Mysticals started following my orders. With my friends behind me, Vivian moved to take the air Elemental still clinging to me, knowing I couldn’t do this with the child in my arms. Once the little one let go, I told our guard quietly, “If anyone tries to interfere with what we’re doing at any time, knock them out. Leave them on the ground. Someone will pick them up.”

  They nodded stiffly, taking my direction without question.

  Ezra’s hand was still at the small of my back, and his fingers pressed gently as he bent behind me and placed his wide lips near my ear, whispering, “That was impressive.”

  Turning to face my friends, I saw their eyebrows were raised in an unspoken question. I merely shrugged. “Antonio trained me for this.”

  Ezra cracked his neck and then jerked his head at the pond. “We need to hurry. Antonio didn’t say how long until the next invasion takes place.” He glanced left, and then right, where we could still hear fighting occurring. “And that sounds like it’s getting closer.”

  Jack pivoted toward the pond, shaking the tension out of his arms. “Link up.”

  The three of us relocated behind Jack.

  I on his left, Ezra in the middle, and Pearl on his right.

  Allowing the teeniest spark of my Shifter magic to flow down my arm to my palm, I placed my powered right hand on Jack’s left shoulder. Ezra and Pearl followed suit, Ezra resting his right hand on Jack’s shoulder — next to mine — while Pearl lifted her left hand to his opposite shoulder. The initial contact was heinous —I felt Jack’s power of water currents pressing against my own wild animal power — but an almost instant warmth of tranquillity rushed through my frame as we all connected through Jack.

  Jack lifted his arms and, over the noise of organization going on behind us, stated, “We’ve done this before. Just remember it’s like a pizza. We’re going to pick up the outer edges first. It will drop in the middle, but then we will visualize the water running up, instead of down, but only until the top levels flat, so there’s no longer a crater on the top. All the water will be visible then.” He inhaled heavily. “Last time, we left the middle of the water free-flowing with only the outside immobile, but this time I want it completely stagnant all the way through, since we’re going through the ocean.”

  Pearl muttered, “The fish will be beginning to rot by the time we make landfall.”

  “So be it.” Jack shrugged under our hands. “Now, push.”

  Following his order in unison, we began pushing our individual wills to maximum strength, doing exactly as Jack had instructed. The edges of the pond lifted smoother than they had previously, since we had already completed this task in our training, and I ignored the murmurs behind us as the pond began to lift from its earth home. We managed to get the water twenty yards in the air, leveled off, and completely stagnant within a minute’s time.

  “Good.” Jack cleared his throat. “Now, we gently flip it so the flat top is on the bottom, rolling the edge closest to us up and over until it’s upside down. Again, envision it’s like a pizza — the water is a pile of dough — while still keeping the entirety of it s
tagnant. Just as before, we’re going to roll it flat as if with a rolling pin, starting from the side closest to us and moving away, creating a stretched, motionless streak of water.” He fisted and unfisted his hands. “Push.”

  Our wills at maximum power, we complied with Jack’s detailed guidelines, rotating the pond upside down and smoothly thinning it so that it was an extremely long immobile body of water hovering twenty yards high in the air.

  Jack murmured, “We need to bring it back over our heads. Slowly move it until I tell you to hold.” He paused, and then clarified, “I want it almost all the way over us before we bring it down this time, rather than centered over our heads, since we’ll be leading everyone.”

  As we pushed our wills, the body of water floated back toward us. The sounds of fighting were nearing dangerous levels. Mysticals were returning from their dashes to find their loved ones. Some came back with them, while others wept as they ran alone.

  The pond began to waver, and Jack demanded, “Concentrate.”

  Standing rigidly, our lips pinched thin, we did so.

  We turned a deaf ear to our people. To their pleas already beginning to start, begging for more time. Engaged in our mission, focusing on what we had to do, we disregarded our elite guard slamming their fists into the face of anyone who tried to distract us.

  “Hold,” Jack ordered, the pond’s far edge now directly over our heads. Our hands gripping Jack’s shoulders tight, we held. The water was steady over us. Jack nodded. “Begin to dip the stagnant edges down, forming a large dome, and bring the edges flush with the ground.”

  Mysticals were still running toward the growing mass behind us, running to security. They were breaking away from the fighting I could now see to the left and right of my peripheral; the two battles would soon converge into one. With how efficiently we were completing Jack’s orders, they didn’t have much time. Even more heinous was that it didn’t matter. It couldn’t matter. We had close to three hundred Mys behind us — shouting for the others to hurry — who we were responsible for.