Atlas (The Atlas Series)

by Becca C. Smith

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Talan approached Kala slowly and carefully took her hands in his.

  A rush of images flew through her head. She closed her eyes to try and see them more clearly.

  The first scene filled her with joy. It was Kala and Jack, together, in a small apartment she didn’t recognize. They were resting comfortably in bed. Kala was already feeling pretty good about her decision. Not killing Jack seemed like a good thing after all. The fact that an apartment existed seemed like a good sign to her. Kala had been expecting to see some kind of zombie apocalypse or something.

  Then Kala’s chest squeezed in pain as she realized that she and Jack were visibly upset. She tried to think of any reason other than a looming apocalypse that would make them both so sad, but it was obvious from their expressions that Jack knew what her mission was.

  Jack begged Kala to kill him, telling her that he didn’t want to be responsible for killing billions of lives, but Kala ran out of the room.

  Jack grabbed his gun from the side table next to the bed and quickly followed her, but she was gone, out the front door.

  Jack raced down the stairs and out onto the street. He had the gun tucked behind his pants. He searched for Kala, but he couldn’t find her anywhere.

  The only ray of hope Kala could think of was the fact that the streets looked normal. No destruction. No bombs. No plagues. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad...

  Kala’s breath caught in her throat as she watched Penny stepped out of the shadows of an alley to face Jack. She looked sad to see him.

  “Where is she?” Penny asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jack said weakly.

  Kala knew they were talking about her.

  “You’re the next Atlas, Jack, the sooner you realize that the better. We only have minutes before she fails. You have to kill her,” Penny pleaded.

  Minutes?

  Kala realized that this was all happening before the countdown was over. There was no apocalypse because she hadn’t failed yet.

  “It’s your destiny. You were born to be the next Atlas. It is written in the holy texts, Jack. This girl is a fluke, an accident. It’s sacrilegious that she even exists.” Penny tried to get through to him.

  Jack looked at Penny with tears in his eyes. “But I’m her mission, Penny. She has to kill me or billions will die.” Jack spoke as if quoting a book, “One cannot live, while the other one exists. A new Atlas shall reign; and the potential must die. A beginning to the end; and an end to the beginning. A new paradise shall be born. The Fated One will be the last.”

  “Don’t quote the texts to me, Jack. I know them better than you.” Penny shook her head. “She can’t be the one! You were supposed to bring us salvation. You!”

  Jack looked down at his watch. “Time’s up.”

  Kala saw the time from her vantage point: 0d 00h 00m 03s.

  …2…1…

  BOOM!

  Kala felt the ground shake, even in the vision. A deafening roar filled the air like the earth was screaming. Kala grew up in L.A., this was an earthquake. A big one.

  Penny shook her head, tears in her eyes. “Jack, no!”

  “If Kala can’t kill me, you have to,” Jack pleaded with her. “I can’t kill myself. I tried, but I’m a coward.”

  Penny was on the verge of sobbing as she stepped forward, taking Jack’s gun.

  Suddenly, Asmodeus popped up with a large grin. “Demon hearing is so useful these days. I can’t let you kill the man, not when things are about to get fun.”

  And POP! Asmodeus disappeared with Penny.

  Jack was alone in the alley.

  Kala’s point of view zoomed out, away from Jack. She saw the city, shaking and crumbling to the ground.

  Zooming out again, Kala saw a sea of tornadoes ravaging the middle of the country all the way to Arizona.

  Zooming out again, fires raged in Europe, black swirling clouds blanketed the entire continent of Asia.

  Zooming out again, Kala was now in space, watching nature tear apart the planet like an enraged animal.

  Kala’s eyes opened and she was back in Talan’s apartment. Her legs shook violently and she let him lead her to the couch.

  “What was that?!” Kala choked. She knew what she’d seen, but she didn’t understand it. Kala had figured the reason why Jack had been chosen as her target was because of something that he’d do. She had secretly hoped that, once she found out exactly what he was supposed to do that was so bad, then she, she would prevent Jack from doing it. It was the only way out she could see.

  But this…

  Talan’s eyes were wide with wonder as he looked at Kala. She knew that whatever Talan saw impressed him immensely. “You’re the Fated One,” was all Talan could say.

  Too much.

  Kala stood up at his words. “Fated One? Seriously? That’s freaking cheesy.” Kala started to feel panicked.

  What she had witnessed…

  Talan stood up with her. “Cheesy or not, it’s the truth. You and Jack cannot exist together. One of you has to be sacrificed or the world will collapse in on itself. When you became Atlas you sealed your fate and Jack’s. He’s the potential, you’re the Fated One.”

  “But…” Kala couldn’t finish her sentence. She had no argument. How could she argue things she knew nothing about? “But…” That seemed to be the only word capable of coming out of her mouth. Finally, she said softly, “I was going to save him.” Kala had really believed that, whether she was going to hide Jack or fix his potential mistakes. She truly hadn’t considered any other alternative.

  Kala felt numb.

  All she wanted to do was curl into a little ball and collapse on Talan’s floor until the world ended because she still couldn’t imagine killing Jack.

  Pulling the trigger…

  Kala looked at Talan, desperate for someone to tell her this was all a mistake and that she wouldn’t have to do the unthinkable.

  But Talan only had sympathy in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “I can’t…” Kala hardly ever cried, but the tears formed against her will. She couldn’t look at him anymore. Talan was just another reminder of how far off the reservation her life had gone. “I won’t.”

  Talan gently held her arms with his hands, forcing eye contact with her. “Hey,” he prodded kindly until Kala met his eyes again. “I’ll help you through this.”

  Kala’s sadness turned to anger, “Help me through this? We’re not talking about rehab here, we’re talking about killing the only man I ever loved!”

  “I know,” Talan admitted. His grip tightened on Kala’s arms, “But it has to be done. I will keep you safe, but there are others who will try to kill you to have the honor of killing Jack.”

  Kala breathed in deep to steady herself. “I know.” She didn’t know what to say. Normally, she’d have shoved Talan off her by now, but feeling his hands gripped tight around her arms gave her a sense of stability. Kala was afraid she’d fall over if he let go.

  “So, let’s think this through. What are you good at?” Talan managed to situate Kala back down on the couch, sensing her shakiness.

  “What?” Kala felt like she was in a surreal nightmare that she couldn’t escape from and every question from Talan felt ridiculous. “You mean like cards?”

  “No. Think,” Talan urged.

  “I don’t know,” Kala said defensively. “Drinking?” She wasn’t sure where Talan was going with this. Was he trying to change the subject to get her mind off of Jack? Was this some sort of re-grouping technique?

  “You’re a sniper.” Talan finally revealed his intentions.

  Kala’s brain stopped. “You want me to snipe Jack?”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Kala couldn’t wrap her head around what Talan was suggesting. “He’ll be defenseless.” It was such an odd thing for a trained sniper to say, Kala was surprised she said it, but killing Jack like that seemed evil. It made her question everything she’d been taught to do. Kal
a had only killed a handful of people in her life, but she had been trained to think of them as the enemy. Targets, nothing more. They needed to be taken out in order for her team to complete their missions. Kala hadn’t thought of them as people. She hadn’t thought of them at all.

  But to kill Jack like that? Someone she loved.

  Looking at him through the scope…

  Talan brushed a stray hair out of Kala’s eye. The way that he looked at Kala was the way that Jack looked at her.

  “You just met me, don’t look at me like that. And stop touching me.” Kala’s voice sounded weak. She wanted to push Talan away, but she couldn’t. No matter how presumptuous Talan was being, he was genuinely trying to help her. Kala couldn’t explain it, but she trusted Talan.

  She didn’t like it, but Kala let it go.

  Their relationship would never be romantic to her no matter how much she was attracted to him. Kala loved Jack not Talan, no matter what Talan wanted.

  Alive or dead Jack was her soul mate. That thought hit Kala hard.

  Talan didn’t appeared fazed by Kala’s biting remarks. It was like he could see right through her defensive façade. Yet another thing to be annoyed at him for. He lifted his hands in supplication. “I promise I won’t touch you again.”

  The way he said it made Kala shiver. She really despised chemistry. Another thing she couldn’t control! But she could control her actions. “Good, keep it that way.”

  “If you can’t kill him face to face, then shooting him at a distance may be the only way,” Talan said gently.

  Kala shook her hand in front of her face for Talan to be quiet. “Can we focus on you teaching me how to protect myself from creatures like you?”

  Talan took a moment, then sighed, standing up. “Yes, of course. Why don’t we start with that fire spell I showed you?”

  Kala raised her eyebrow in surprise. She didn’t expect Talan to change topics so easily, but he could probably see how hard it was for Kala to discuss killing Jack, and decided to make her feel better about her situation. And besides, scorching Minotaurs sounded pretty awesome right about now, even if they were in the shape of an ass-hat named Asmodeus. Kala could pretend, couldn’t she?

  The next few hours were spent almost burning down Talan’s apartment. Luckily, he had crazy powers that could extinguish flames in less than a second. They were using a small outdoor grill the size of footstool for the fire itself. Talan had a stack of newspaper that he’d light with his freaking mind whenever Kala attempted the spell.

  The spell itself was all about thought. Kala had never had to concentrate so hard in her life. She thought training with Roberta had been hard. She soon realized that Roberta had been going easy on her. The first step was to absorb the fire into her being. If Kala hadn’t seen this in the vision she wouldn’t have believed it was possible, and like Roberta had taught her, magic was mostly about belief. It was almost like breathing the fire in without letting it touch your skin.

  The first few attempts resulted in massive coughing fits and a case of heartburn that Kala didn’t feel would ever go away. But Talan waved his hand over her face and chest and Kala had instant relief. He would definitely come in handy after a hard night of drinking and binging on fast food. The fourth attempt was a success. Kala felt a rush of adrenaline and shock at her victory. As she imagined herself breathing in the fire, Kala saw the flames snuff out of the grill and then she felt it dance inside her stomach and esophagus. The fire didn’t burn. It felt tingly and strangely soothing. When the sensation didn’t go away, a part of her started to panic slightly.

  “Is it stuck in me now?” she asked.

  Talan smiled. “Until you decide to release the flames, yes. Roberta was right, you have a natural gift for magic. The people you saw in the past took years to learn this spell and it only took you a few hours.”

  Kala looked up at the clock on Talan’s wall: 1d 14h 15m 41s.

  3:45 P.M.

  The day was half over, and Kala only had one day left.

  She wanted to expel this fire before she burped and accidently fried some poor squirrel or something. “How do I get rid of it?”

  “Focus and release. It’s that simple. Try it on my couch,” Talan instructed.

  “Grills and tabletops are one thing? But a couch? Can you put it out in time?” Kala couldn’t help but doubt Talan’s skills.

  “I can handle a burning couch,” Talan answered Kala’s skepticism with an entertained smirk.

  Kala shrugged and went for it. She looked at the couch and felt the rush of fire leave her stomach and mouth. She almost fell over from the shock and terror of seeing real flames shooting out of her mouth and surrounding the couch in a giant fireball. She wondered if her eyes were red like the people from Talan’s vision. Kala took a few steps back from the heat wave that hit her full force.

  Talan blew about as hard as if he were blowing out a birthday candle and the fire went out. The couch was a blackened carcass, but there were no residual flames. “You don’t have to expel the fire from your mouth,” Talan waved his hand at the couch and it transformed from a charred lump into a brand new sofa. “You can channel it through your hands.”

  “Really?” It felt like some kind of video game power, from fire breathing dragons to exploding hand fireballs, Kala was definitely out of the realm of her comfort zone.

  “The people you saw were only able to perform the spell in its most simplistic form, that’s why the mouth, but you…” Talan’s eyes shined with admiration, “you are truly a wonder.”

  “All right, quit with the googly eyes.” Kala wasn’t comfortable with Talan’s obvious affection for her, especially since there was a part of her that felt the same pull he did.

  “No more googly eyes, I promise,” Talan said with amusement. He lit the grill with the snap of his fingers. “Now, take in the fire and extract it through your hands.”

  “Yeah, no problem,” Kala retorted sarcastically. She knew that both Roberta and now Talan thought she was some sort of prodigy, but this magic thing was hard. It was exhausting and took way more concentration than Kala had at the moment. She had to go into sniper mode to keep her focus up. Her training was coming in handy. Spending hours in a room looking through a rifle scope, you needed a lot of stamina and ability to be extremely attentive. Kala had to use every ounce of that particular skill with this magic stuff. It was one of the hardest thing she’d ever done. Not to say she wasn’t enjoying it. Being able to breathe fire was a bit of a power rush, especially when she imagined scorching the crap out of Asmodeus’s cocky face.

  Kala looked at the small fire and focused on transferring it inside of her.

  So weird. The strangeness of it all would hit Kala sometimes. If someone had asked her about breathing in fire a week ago, only the circus would have come to mind.

  Taking a deep breath, Kala opened her eyes and stared at the flames intensely. Within seconds she felt the tingling sensation of the fire entering inside her while watching the grill snuff out. Her natural impulse was to blow it out the way in came in, hence the mouth breathing fire technique. But she believed Talan when he said she could channel the fire in other ways. She closed her eyes again and focused on the tingling sensation. Whereas she had only been aware of the sensation in her chest and stomach before, now she experienced it tingling all through her body. It felt like recovering from an arm falling asleep, tiny pinpricks in every part of her.

  This time when she opened her eyes Kala knew what she was capable of. Her innate gift of aim didn’t have to be used for guns alone. The magic that coursed through her veins amplified all her senses, but mostly her eyes. It was like her eyes had turned into a magnifying glass. Kala looked out the window to test her theory. Sure enough, Kala focused on the tip of the Washington Monument miles away, and like a rifle scope, Kala was able to zoom in until she could see a tiny fly landing on the top of the monument.

  Before Kala could think rationally about her decision, she pointed her finger at t
he fly. Fire burst in a laser-like line, searing a tiny hole through the window and traveling the ten or so miles until it reached its destination. The fly never had a chance.

  Kala realized that if anyone had looked up they would have seen a strange line of orange attacking the top of the Washington Monument.

  “No one saw it, and if they did, they wouldn’t know what it was.” Talan was already trying to comfort her, sensing her anxiety.

  Kala turned to Talan and stopped when she saw the pure and utter fascination written all over his face.

  Before Kala could say anything he tossed her a lighter. “Constant source of fire.”

  “It’s so tiny.”

  “It’s all you need. The size of the fire doesn’t matter.”

  “Then why on earth did we use a grill? We could have used this thing the whole time!” Kala was annoyed that Talan felt the need to tell her this after the fact that she had been using pretty sizeable fires to practice on.

  “For novices, the bigger the fire the better, but after seeing that,” Talan nodded toward the tiny hole in his window, “you don’t need much.”

  Kala examined the lighter more carefully. It was pretty stylish as far as lighters went, tarnished silver with intricate engravings etched on its surface that were black from lack of polishing. Kala didn’t recognize the pattern of the engraving, but knowing that an Angel gave it to her, she figured it meant something. “The engravings?” she asked.

  “Grigorian,” Talan replied with a nod. “Guaranteed to always light.” He smiled.

  Kala smiled back. “That’s handy.” She pocketed the lighter. “Please tell me this fire spell works on Demons.”

  “It technically works on everything, but it won’t kill a Demon or an Angel, if that’s what you’re hoping for. Just Minotaurs.” Talan smiled again.

  He was joking with her, she realized. Kala didn’t realize how much she needed a little bit of lightness to brighten up the darkness of her situation. He was trying to make Kala laugh about what her life had become. All Kala could give him was a smile, but it was a genuine one and it lifted her spirits immeasurably.

  “Well, if any Minotaurs attack me, I guess I’m set,” Kala responded.