Supernova (Supernatural Superstar Book 1)

by Anita Oh

  “Stay low to the ground,” she whispered. “Don’t make any noise. This is a trap. We can’t let them find us.”

  This late at night, the train yard was almost full, neat rows of carriages lined up beside each other. That made it easier to stay hidden, but it would make it easier for the alpha to hide, too. His senses were much more fine-tuned than the Followers’, so Audrey didn’t know if even Koko’s powers could conceal them.

  She knew he was close. She could feel it. Not just through the ring, but in the way the hair on the back of her neck stood up and her heart raced like crazy. The air seemed full of him, that heavy, meaty scent.

  They wove their way around the carriages, and at the end of each one, she expected him to appear. In her head, she couldn’t stop replaying the moment he’d killed Patty, only now it wasn’t Patty’s frightened eyes she saw, but Koko’s and Peg’s. Each time they got to the end of a carriage and he didn’t step out to confront them, Audrey’s tension grew. Where was he? When would he appear?

  They got to the end of the train yard without meeting anyone. Cautiously poking her head out between two carriages that were sandwiched so closely together that they almost touched, Audrey tried to see if the way was clear. She could see the tunnel entrance to the closed platform, barely a stone’s throw away. This didn’t seem right. Why would the alpha be in the train yard if not to trap her? Why were the Followers blocking the entrance to the closed platform inside the station if not to drive her there?

  Then she realized. That was exactly what they’d done.

  With dawning horror, she turned and looked behind them.

  Every possible gap between the carriages had been filled. Shifters of every rank, some looking almost human, others almost entirely in animal form, all of them stood there silently, watching and waiting. Their eyes shone in the darkness.

  Then they began to move, stepping aside to form a pathway down the middle of their ranks.

  At the very end of that pathway stood the alpha.

  “You guys,” Audrey said quietly, carefully. But she didn’t have to spell it out. Koko and Peg had already seen him. “Run!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  There was nowhere for them to go now but into the tunnel. It was where Audrey had intended to go, but it seemed unlikely now that she’d come back out. That was their plan – to trap her in the tunnel, so she couldn’t escape the ritual. She shot crackling bursts of energy behind them with the ring but had no time to look back to see if any of them had hit.

  The ground seemed to shake with the footsteps of the shifter army behind them. As they made it inside the tunnel, the alpha let out the most bone-shaking roar Audrey had ever heard.

  It was hard to run on the train tracks. Audrey’s feet caught on the rails, almost tripping her. She knew the Followers were holding back. If they wanted to attack, they would. They were stronger and could run much faster than humans. This was all part of the plan to herd Audrey to where the ritual was taking place. Even though she knew she’d fallen for their trap, even though she knew this had been inevitable from the moment she decided to try to rescue Eli, she didn’t regret it. There was nothing else she could’ve done. Her only regret was that Koko and Peg were with her.

  “Go on ahead and get Eli out,” she told them. She stopped running and turned around.

  “What? No!” said Koko.

  “There’s no time to argue,” Audrey said. “Just go!”

  The alpha didn’t care about Koko and Peg, and he’d only brought Eli there to lure her. If she offered herself up, the others should be able to get away. As she listened to their footsteps fade, some of the tension left her shoulders. She’d lose Koko’s yokai power, but at this point, she didn’t see how it could help her anyway. There were so many of them, she couldn’t fight the entire cult by herself. This was it. This was the end.

  The light was dim in the tunnel, just a few signal lights dotted along the walls. It was more than enough to see that the odds were definitely not in her favor. There were so many shifters crowded into the tunnel that she couldn’t tell where they ended. It was a sea of claws and fangs. The alpha was nowhere to be seen, but she could feel him there, lurking in the shadows.

  As Koko and Peg got farther away, she could feel the yokai power fade. Before it vanished completely, she sent more bursts of energy into the first few rows of shifters. The lower-ranked, human-looking ones didn’t seem too affected by it. When it hit them, they were stunned for a moment, but then they shook their heads and were fine. It seemed to annoy them, more than anything. But the others, the more terrible, beastly ones, dropped to the ground, incapacitated. Their snarls and growls echoed off the tunnel walls.

  Audrey squared her shoulders. She’d been intimidated by them long enough. She was ready to fight. Even if they ripped her to pieces, she wouldn’t run any more.

  Over and over, she sent bursts of energy at them, but as she did so, they began to surge at her. Those who weren’t affected by her blasts kept coming, trampling over the ones on the ground. Even with the stronger ones down, there were still too many to fight. That didn’t stop her. They’d trained her in hand-to-hand combat, but with all the dance practice for the concert, she’d built up muscle and become more agile. She managed to fend off the first wave, dodging around them before they could grab her. They obviously weren’t trying to seriously hurt her. They wanted to capture her or force her deeper into the tunnel. No matter how many she fought off, they just kept coming. There was limited space in the tunnel, but as soon as one fell, another appeared. Every second, the yokai power became weaker, and she had to rely on her physical strength. They were trying to tire her out. Once she was exhausted, they could overpower her and take her to their creepy ritual.

  Their plan was working. All she could do was keep fighting and hope she’d bought Peg and Koko enough time to find and rescue Eli.

  When the yokai power failed completely, she knew it was just a matter of time. The Followers pushed her deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Her muscles were getting too tired to hold up her arms. She needed to think of something quickly. There were no cracks in the tunnel, nowhere for her to escape to. The only way out was forward, toward the ritual that would end the world.

  Without any other option, Audrey kept fighting. A bear with a man’s head clawed at her, and she was too tired, too slow to dodge it. She raised her arm to protect her face, screaming as the claws raked down her arm. She rolled out of the way just as the bear tried to grab her.

  It was all over. It had been an impossible task with two functioning arms. Now it was all she could do to stem the bleeding.

  She had to run. Run, and hope for the best.

  Her heart was heavy as she turned into the tunnel. Her hope of escape was gone. She’d failed. She’d only wanted to save Eli. Instead, she’d doomed the world.

  But as she turned, the entire tunnel lit up. The light was so bright that it blinded her.

  The shifters shrieked and howled, scattering away from her. Audrey had no idea what was happening. What could make the Followers run away in fear against the will of the alpha?

  The light began to dim. Audrey blinked her eyes.

  Standing in the tunnel with a hand full of dragonfire was Thomas Thorne, an army of Sparkling Gems guards at his back.

  “I knew you were useless without me,” he said.

  Chapter Thirty

  For a moment, Audrey was too stunned to move.

  “What?” she said. “How?”

  He shrugged and started walking toward her. “Where are Peg and Koko?”

  She hooked her thumb back over her shoulder. “They went to help Eli.”

  She couldn’t stop staring at him. She’d thought he was beautiful before, but that was nothing compared to how he looked now. There was a smudge of ash across his cheek, and his hair was slicked back with sweat. He looked so bright in the darkness of the tunnel that he seemed to glow.

  “But how?” she said.

  “You’re hurt,
” he said, taking her arm.

  Even his gentle touch was too much on the tender flesh, but then the dragonfire began to creep from his hand and along her skin. Instead of burning, it knitted the wound together. Within moments, it was healed. After a moment, the flames of the dragonfire were completely wrapped around her arm and hand, like a glove of flame.

  Thorne took his hand away, shaking it like he was flicking off water. He avoided her questioning gaze. “I made a deal with the president,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s nothing big. Don’t worry about it.”

  He set his jaw stubbornly, and Audrey knew there was no point in questioning him on it any further. Not until they got out of there.

  Around them, the guards were rounding up the remaining Followers. Most of them had fled. Some were lying in the tunnel, knocked out or worse. A few of them still wanted to fight, but the guards took care of them easily now that the numbers weren’t so overwhelming.

  “Did you fight the alpha?” Audrey asked as they turned to leave the tunnel. She couldn’t help but look at each of the shifters on the ground they passed, hoping it was the alpha. Maybe it made her an awful person, but she knew he’d never stop hunting her while he was alive, and she wouldn’t believe he wasn’t until she saw it with her own eyes.

  Thorne shook his head. “I didn’t see him.”

  Audrey stopped walking. She’d assumed he was at the back of the Followers, waiting until she was too weak to fight so he could swoop in and defeat her. She’d assumed that when she lost the yokai power, it was because of the distance, and that Koko and Peg had rescued Eli and the three of them had got to safety. She’d assumed they’d won. She was wrong. In the worst possible way, she was wrong.

  “He’s got them,” she whispered.

  She turned back and ran into the tunnel.

  Every step of the way, she’d played right into his hands. She’d thought she was keeping them safe by sending them off, but really, she was sending them straight to the alpha. He’d never entered the tunnel. He’d sent his minions after her and then gone to wait for her to come to him, knowing she’d try to protect her friends and rescue Eli.

  “You said they were safe,” Thorne said, catching up with her.

  “I’m stupid,” she said. “So stupid.”

  The light in the tunnel grew brighter as they approached the abandoned platform, and as they got closer, Audrey knew she was right. She could hear Koko yelling at someone.

  “You should stay out of sight,” Audrey told Thorne before they left the shadows of the tunnel. “He doesn’t know you’re here. Save the others while I distract him.”

  She held out her arm to give him back the dragonfire, but he shook his head.

  “Only one of us can use it. It’s better if it’s you. If I’m trying to be sneaky, it’ll just call attention to me. You’ll need it to fight with, anyway.”

  She nodded. “Hide at the end of the platform until I’ve got him away,” she said. “Don’t take any risks.”

  She waited for him to agree before moving away, but he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back. She stared into his eyes. For a moment, she thought he was going to do something crazy, like kiss her or maybe knock her unconscious, but instead he pulled her into a rough, one-armed hug.

  In the middle of all the darkness and violence, he smelled like fresh strawberries.

  “Don’t hold back,” he said in her ear. “Do whatever you need to do to finish it.”

  “I’ll explode into my dream!” she said, pulling back to do a little fist pump.

  “Fight for the future!” he said, smiling softly at her. “Never give up!”

  “Shine on, Supernova,” she said, punching him softly in the shoulder. The words caught a little in her throat. They’d be fine without her.

  She was sure it was an illusion, but as she turned away, the light in the tunnel seemed to dim.

  As she got closer to the platform, she could see a small stone altar in the middle of the train tracks, covered in dried blood. A ring of fire burned low around it. Sigils were painted on the altar, as well as all over the ground and on the walls. The altar had a few things placed on it, Audrey assumed they were offerings of some sort. As she got closer, she realized with horror that they were tokens from each of the ritual killings that the cult had performed. The senator’s tongue, the businessman’s heart, Patty’s treasured necklace. To the side of the altar was a pile of bloody rags.

  Worst of all was behind the altar. The pile of bodies. Audrey recognized the uniforms of the Sparkling Gems guards.

  Seeing it all laid out there in front of her made her face the reality of the situation. The cult wasn’t playing around. They intended to kill her. It wasn’t something she could run or hide from. It would never go away. There was a very real chance that her life was about to end, that the lives of her friends were about to end, that the world was about to end.

  Only she could stop it.

  The Alpha stood up on the platform, pacing. About halfway down, a few of the Followers were holding Koko and Peg. At first, Audrey couldn’t see Eli anywhere. Then the pile of bloody rags groaned and moved.

  It was him. He was bound by the hands and feet, his clothes filthy, but he was alive.

  Audrey wondered what they were keeping him for. It wasn’t like the cult to take hostages. They took what they wanted and discarded anything else. They didn’t need him alive to lure her there; they only needed to have taken him. They didn’t know she could sense him through the empathy ring.

  The only other person they’d bothered to keep alive was her. If they’d kept him alive, it was for a purpose.

  The fact that Eli was on the tracks and not the platform would make it hard for Thorne to rescue him. She knew Thorne wouldn’t bother trying; he’d take the other two and run. She didn’t blame him. She just had to trust that he could take care of things on the platform while she dealt with the alpha and rescued Eli. He wouldn’t be able to do that with the alpha up there, pacing.

  She took a deep breath. The cult had tried to steal her voice. Now that she had it back, she’d use it against them.

  “Oi! Alpha!” she yelled, letting the dragonfire flare up in her hand.

  The alpha spun around, turning his glowing red eyes on her. Without any warning, he leapt at her.

  Audrey dodged him. One hit and it would be all over. He was insanely strong. There was no point getting small hits in on him, either. They’d only sap her strength.

  One big hit with everything she had. That was her only chance.

  She had to be fast. The tracks made the ground uneven, so she kept moving. She danced around him, trying to find an opening. He knew how to fight, how to guard himself. He probably knew what she was planning as well. Her main advantage was her speed. His massive size slowed him down. Each swipe he took at her left him wide open for a few seconds. She needed to time her strike perfectly. She needed to be lucky.

  She could hear fighting up on the platform, but she couldn’t afford to be distracted by it. Thorne would save them. She had to believe that.

  The alpha was like a tank. He’d never tire out. She had to do something before she made a mistake.

  There was a pattern to his movements. She’d learned enough about choreography to pick it out. The simple four-count step. Step-swipe-step-turn. Occasionally, he made a slight variation, but that was his basic move. He relied on strength, not creativity or skill. He might have outmatched Audrey when it came to fighting, but she was definitely a better dancer.

  Making sure the ground was clear, she threw out a sequence of spins and barrel turns that would’ve made Kento proud, then added in a pop and glide to get herself behind the alpha.

  She launched herself at his back. The dragonfire flared in her hand. He thrashed around, trying to dislodge her, but she wrapped an arm firmly around his neck. She pulled her other arm back, preparing to thrust it over his shoulder and deep inside his chest.

  But something stopped her.

  She co
uldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill him.

  He was evil. He’d killed people. Defenseless animals. Her friend. He wanted to end the world. He had to be stopped. But to actually kill him, to sink her hand into his chest and end his life, to feel his heart stop pumping — she couldn’t. It was the right thing to do, but it was a wall she just couldn’t break through.

  Her moment of indecisiveness was enough for the alpha. He threw her over his shoulder. She went flying. She rolled across the tracks and into the ring of fire.

  For a moment, she lay on her back, winded and unable to get up. Before she could move, the alpha was on her. His face hovered over hers, breathing his rancid breath all over her. Her entire field of vision filled with his glowing eyes.

  This was it. This was the moment she died.

  In that moment, everything seemed clear. Every bad decision she’d made, every wrong turn, all the things she should’ve done differently – they all seemed obvious now. She’d spent so long running and hiding that she’d never learned what happened when you stayed in the same place. If you were still for long enough, you grew into your surroundings, became part of them. Like a rock covered with moss or vines wrapping around a tree. Everything became part of everything else.

  She should’ve trusted the president to save Eli. She shouldn’t have led her friends into danger. They’d grown into her now, crept into all the empty spaces where she’d been so alone. She should have protected them.

  Regret wouldn’t change what was about to happen.

  She didn’t want the alpha’s distorted face to be the last thing she saw. She forced her eyes away from him, jerked her head around to look up at the platform. The ring of fire had flared right up to the roof of the tunnel, but through the flames, she could see them.

  Those idiots. They were still there. Peg and Koko were holding onto Thorne, who was struggling in their grasp, trying to get down onto the tracks. They weren’t leaving her.

  “Get out of here,” she croaked.