by Jessica Gunn
But even after we’d completed our mission to kill Charon’s husband, the council had figured it out. They denied General Allen the spot and now I was paying the price for his treason. Because they thought I knew more about the General’s plan. I didn’t.
The boy tore through my head anyway, convinced that more blocked or altered memories lingered somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind. When he let up, I took the chance to suck in a deep breath. My lungs cheered for joy at the full gulp of oxygen. The combination of trying to keep him out of my head while simultaneously not vocalizing my pain had stolen my breath.
I glanced up at the kid. “Satisfied yet? I don’t know anything else. He used us just like your people are using you for your gift. You’re just a kid, not a torturer. You don’t have to do this.”
For a moment something flashed across his face—recognition or pride or clarity—but Charon cleared her throat and his eyes narrowed like nothing happened. I’d gotten through to him, even if for only a second.
The pain returned as the kid entered my mind again, though not as intensely this time. I suppressed a grin, easy to do given the stabbing in my head, at my little victory. The small wins were the only ones that mattered anyway.
Small victories turned the tide of war.
Chapter Twenty-Three
CHELSEA
“You’re using a child, Trevor!”
My heart dead-stopped and I lunged for the door, not sure I even wanted to know what that meant. But I’d heard enough. Trevor was in there. Josh was in pain. And from the sounds of it, the two weren’t mutually exclusive events.
Two sets of hands pulled on me and Weyland wrapped my arms behind my back. “Stop, Chelsea. You can’t just charge in there.”
I spun out of his grip and pushed against his chest with my palms. Only, it didn’t do anything because I didn’t have my super strength and he was using his to firmly hold his ground. “He. Is. In. There.” Every word was a push against his chest.
“Weyland’s right,” Sophia said. “We need a plan.”
“There’s no time for a fucking plan,” I hissed.
Sophia’s eyes burned with fire. “You need to learn to take orders, Chelsea.”
“I don’t have to,” I growled. “I’m a civilian. You can’t order me to do anything. And we need to break down this door, now, before Josh dies and Trevor gets away.”
“Agreed.” Valerie stepped past the two of them and slid her hands against the stone door. A red glow grew around her palms, as if they were on fire. “Ezra.”
He joined her at the door and did the same. What were they doing?
Oh, oh—she’d done this before. Way back, years ago, when Thompson had charged her to look after me during the hijacking. She’d melted the metal around the door to our quarters so I couldn’t get out. Now she and Ezra were melting the door. Steam rose off the stone, but it didn’t budge.
Valerie shook her head. “Need more.”
“Look deeper,” Ezra said as the glow around his hands seeped from red to a deep orange, white around the edges. “The power is there.”
She closed her eyes and her expression twisted. Then her hands produced a white-hot glow and the stone door began to melt under their touch. As soon as the door was gone, Valerie and Ezra pushed through it, guns at the ready.
Sophia, Weyland, Dr. Hill, and I charged in behind them and were met with immediate resistance. Lasers fired in our direction. I pushed Dr. Hill out of the way of one of the shots and we fell to the floor in a heap of limbs. Untangling myself, I rose and took stock of the room. Half a dozen White City soldiers scattered about. A woman in a deep green dress grabbed hold of a young kid and whisked him to the far side of the room, where I had no doubt another door waited. A White City guard was using Major Pike as a human shield. He’d been bound and gagged, but his hands uttered wordless commands. Then came the doozy.
Josh had been locked inside of some cage, and Trevor stood on the other side, raising water from the air. I took a breath, warmth surging in my chest at the very sight of the love of my life, but when I opened my mouth to speak, Trevor shot water my way. His attack turned to ice halfway between him and me. I shrieked as I dropped to the ground. The ice-lance sliced in the stone wall behind me.
Not only had Trevor stolen my powers, he’d learned how to use them way better than I had in five percent of the time.
“Trevor, stop!” I said as I collected myself and rose from the ground. Arms open, I continued. “It’s me. We can save you from them. They’ve got you confused, brainwashed. Please, Trevor.”
His eyes darkened, storm clouds of dark grey and purple—the color of the sky before a tornado. His entire expression went feral. Recognition was there, but his lip curled and within a matter of moments that spread out across an eternity, I watched as the man I knew, the man I loved, became a complete stranger. A menacing threat.
Chills tidal waved up my arm in a dizzying pattern that spun my head and made me lose balance even as his arm lifted, water trailing behind his palm. My heartbeat thundered in my chest, quick and hard, and I backed away. Scared. I was scared of him.
Fire zipped past my head and evaporated the water Trevor was gathering, then a flash of red hair sprinted in front of me. Valerie shoved me behind her and she turned on Trevor. “Back off. I won’t let you hurt her.”
“Out of my way,” he growled.
“Hello!” she said. “It’s me, you dumbass. I’ve known you since before you even believed in this crap.”
A torrent of water appeared beside his body and his fingers twitched as though he were playing an instrument or signing words or—weaving something? The water itself? Trevor pushed out with his free hand and sent Valerie flying. I took my eyes off of him long enough to make sure she was okay and in the instant I’d stopped paying attention, water closed in around my throat and arms, wrapping around my wrists to hold me still. The water around my throat was gentle, though, standing in stark contrast to the bite of cold, nearly-frozen water at my wrists.
We moved and I had to walk behind Trevor to keep from choking. We were headed for the door, Trevor dragging me behind him like some trophy kill. Me, the Atlantean super soldier who could make Link Piece paths to Atlantis.
Ezra jumped in front of Trevor, trying to reason with him, but he flung his uncle out of the way without so much as batting an eye at his presence. Trevor’s entire focus was on the door, on escape, with me in tow.
“Let her go!” Josh screamed against the cage he was in. He banged on the walls and was electrocuted every time he did so. I wanted to tell him to stop, to not hurt himself, but the selfish part of me wanted him to do whatever possible to get out and save me.
That was when Trevor’s body froze out of nowhere, just dead-stopped in the middle of the room. The sound of shattering glass echoed above the grunts of battle, and I turned to see Weyland helping Josh out of the cage. He must have shattered it somehow. The woman and child had disappeared. But it was the sight directly behind me that stopped my heart from beating.
Sophia had a gun in one hand and the other was held in the air, fingers curled as though wrapped around a bottle. As though wrapped around Trevor’s throat. But I knew that wasn’t the case. I knew exactly what she was doing.
“Don’t hurt him,” I pleaded, water closing tighter around my throat. “Sophia.”
She twirled the pinky on her hand holding the gun and the water rope around my throat released me. Then the bonds on my wrists. I hurried away from Trevor, defenseless and powerless against every single person in this room except Josh.
Sophia held Trevor in place, unwavering. “Snap out of it, Trevor.”
“I’m not ‘in’ anything,” he gritted out. “Let go of me.”
Her lip quivered and her eyes rounded, the only signs of her exhaustion or emotional state. Otherwise, she stood as still as a statue.
Major Pike grunted from his corner. His guard had been taken care of during the scuffle. I rushed over and undid the gag
but could do nothing about the stone around his wrists. “What the hell?”
“White City people can control stone, apparently,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Among other things.” Trevor let loose a roar and his body shifted a few inches, fingers lifting up. Sophia was losing control of him. “As much as I hate to say this, we can’t bring him back with us.”
Four sets of eyes turned on Major Pike. Only Josh stood unfazed. “Excuse me?” I asked. “We finally find Trevor and you want to leave him here?”
“He’s dangerous—”
“He’s not himself,” Josh said. “Look at him. Whatever hold they’ve got on him, it’s deep. It’ll be a miracle to get out of here alive to begin with, never mind with Trevor.”
“He’s not wrong,” Ezra said as he circled around his nephew. To Sophia he said, “Can you hold him and teleport at the same time?”
Weyland stepped up. “I’ll teleport us.”
“All seven of us?” I asked. “Can you do that?” Weyland had come a long way in a few short months, but neither Sophia nor I could move that many people at once while also using another power. Through a Link Piece, it’d taken both of us to keep five people from falling into the time-filled void. And even if Valerie or Ezra teleported us instead, we still had to get home—something they couldn’t do.
Major Pike was right. With me unable to use Link Pieces, and the Lemurians out of the equation altogether, there was no way Weyland could handle moving two dozen people through time alone. And Sophia wouldn’t be able to help if she had to funnel all her attention on keeping Trevor bound by her water ability to fight his attempts to take his own body back.
“Knock him out,” I offered instead.
Josh laughed, but it wasn’t joyful. The chuckle had been packed full of disdain and gritted teeth. His jaw locked hard. “Gladly.”
What had he done to Josh? God—what was happening?
Trevor roared again and this time he broke free of Sophia’s hold. He pushed out into the air with both free ends and we all flew feet into the air. Six thuds echoed as we all made contact with a wall or the floor. I recovered first, hopping up through the pain.
“He’s going for the Lifestone,” Josh shouted. He tried to stand but yelped in pain. His ankle had twisted to a weird angle. “Hurry!”
No one else was doing any better. Dr. Hill hadn’t moved—knocked out probably—and the others struggled to help each other stand. Weyland ran over to Dr. Hill, a healing hand already extended for his head.
I turned back to the door just as Trevor ran through it, a White City soldier appearing at his side. The woman, blonde and in a beige set of pants and a sleeveless white shirt, gripped at nothing in the air. Stone appeared in the doorway, closing in fast, growing like crystals over the opening. They disappeared behind it, already on their way down the hall.
Closing in on the door, I pumped my legs faster. My head swam, both from the impact of my hit against a machine console and from everything that was happening. I pushed through it, fighting to reach the door before it was closed off for good.
“Right behind you, girlie!” Valerie called. But as we got within ten feet of the door, I realized there was no way we were both getting through the shrinking hole. Unless…
“Hope you’re good at diving!” I shouted as I picked up the pace, stretched out my arms before me, and dove through the hole, tumbling out of the way when my shoulders and knees hit the stone floor on the other side. I rolled as Valerie hopped through after me, crying out as the stone nearly clipped off her toes.
I helped her stand and then we were off. No stopping to ask if she was okay, no making a plan. We ran on pure instinct, the need to save someone we both loved. Valerie tore ahead of me, faster and stronger with powers behind her every movement, but I kept up based on pure adrenaline alone. We ran through the monastery, only a turn behind Trevor and the woman soldier the entire time. Then they just disappeared at a three-way intersection.
“Which way?” I breathed, chest heaving. Blood thudded in my ears with the exertion.
A crash sounded, followed by a huge bang—like one of those impassable stone doors had fallen down. “That way.”
And we were running again, down this hallway and that one, sprinting until—
We rounded a corner and a blunted lance made of stone tore through the air. Its round end hit Valerie directly in the side and she toppled, helpless behind its weight and momentum.
I stopped short. “Val—”
“Go!” she cried. “God dammit, get it. Get the stone!” She writhed around on the floor, though I saw no blood, so I went after Trevor and the soldier.
Finally, we stopped at the same room we’d entered the monastery in. Trevor stooped against the floor, twisting brass symbols on the tile that we hadn’t noticed before. I hid behind the corner of the doorway, waiting to see what’d happen. No sense barging in if I couldn’t back it up without powers. My fingers itched toward my gun holster. Crap. I’d lost the pistol back in the other room.
Hand-to-hand it was, then.
What I wouldn’t give to still be telepathically connected to Trevor right now. To see what the White City or whatever sect of it he was working for had done to his brain. To see if this was really him, or if he’d been brainwashed like we thought. Like I used to think. But this, his actions, his entire demeanor—this wasn’t the Trevor Boncore I’d fallen for. This wasn’t the Trevor who’d risked his own life to save me from Dave in Boston. This wasn’t the Trevor I’d saved from the stasis chamber months ago.
Maybe this had all started then. Maybe he’d come back twisted and wrong. Oh god. Was this my fault?
“It’s not here!” he exclaimed, snapping me out of my thoughts.
What? I risked a glance around the corner. A pedestal had risen from the floor, a red velveteen bed the size of a bird’s nest resting at the top. With nothing in it. We’d come all this way, risked everything, for nothing? “Aw, hell.”
The pair spun on my words. I hadn’t kept them to myself.
Trevor’s eyes narrowed and the woman stepped in front of him. To protect him. From me? How hilariously ironic.
“Show yourself,” she demanded.
I could do that—and might die. Or I could run and try to get back to the others.
Coward. Trevor wouldn’t run. He’d try to save me. So I’d do as she asked, but I’d try to bluff my way out of this. I tiptoed into the room. “Hey, Trevor. Soldier lady.”
“Quit your impotence.” She grunted.
“Sheesh, woman. Chill out. I’m surrendering already.” I lifted my hands above my head. “You’ve got me.”
“Check her,” Trevor said. “They carry explosives. She’d do anything to keep me from leaving this room with the stone.”
I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t use to be this dumb, you know. I heard you. The stone’s gone.” The woman patted me down, but I had nothing on me. I’d left everything at the cave or back in the room with the others. “Happy now?”
Trevor’s gaze darted between me and the empty stone’s nest. “Maybe it’s invisible?” he asked of his companion. A stab of jealousy slammed into me. Was she the real deal? Or was he lying to her too? Had he even actually lied to me?
I had so many questions and so little time to ask any of them. I stepped toward him. “Can you please tell me what’s going on? I’m not mad. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to know what happened, that’s all.”
He raised a hand the second I moved, fingers poised to throw me back with his telekinesis. My telekinesis.
A dark thought shredded my soul. I’d lost my powers during the attack. Right after he’d given me the engagement ring. “Was that it, then?” I asked, wiggling my ring finger. “You give me a ring to distract me, but really it zapped my powers and gave them to you? Was that all that was?” Tears stung my eyes. The questions kept coming and I didn’t know if I wanted the answers to any of them. It’d hurt too much if it were all true.
“No,” he said and de
spite himself, a flash of regret zipped across his expression. A glimmer of hope sprouted inside me. He was still in there, he had to be. I saw the real him lying there on the horizon like a mirage.
“We don’t have time for this,” said his companion. “If they catch us here—”
“Understood,” Trevor said as he flicked his fingers. I fell backwards but gripped on to a pedestal next to me. This room had been lined with them. I wouldn’t let him move me, shove me away like that. Not like this. He couldn’t get rid of me that easily.
“Trevor, stop this nonsense. Whatever they’ve got you under, whatever they have against you, I can save you,” I pleaded.
“There’s nothing left to save.” His words nailed my coffin closed and I spiraled so hard and fast in my emotions that I missed what his companion said next and only caught his reaction to it. He growled in anger and swept a hand toward the stone’s nest. “Dammit! We can’t go back having failed!”
The floor began to shake and the pedestal holding the stone’s nest dropped back into its container, and I got the sudden distinct feeling we were about to enter an Indiana Jones movie. Everyone watched as the ceiling started to break apart at the center and water tumbled through the cracks. Then poured inside in torrents.
“Come on!” the woman soldier shouted as she made for the door, Trevor hot on her heels.
I made to follow them, had even gotten a hand on Trevor’s wet shirt, but he turned and pushed me backwards. His head was drenched, hair almost hanging over his eyes.
“Let go!” he yelled.
I grabbed on to him again when he turned for the door. “No way in hell, Trevor Boncore! We made a promise!” I held up my hand, though I’d taken off the ring days ago. “One I intend to keep.”
