by Skye Genaro
Darkness welled in my heart, my muscles, my bones. I let the voices in the next room fade and latched onto the sounds coming from Connor's chest: the steady, certain sound of his breath; the rhythm of his heartbeat—three beats, a flutter, three beats, a pause; three beats, a flutter, three beats, a pause; three beats, a flutter.
"I have a way to get you out of here," he whispered into my hair.
"Not now, please."
He pressed me closer. "If I can get them to send me on a mission, they'll cuff me and I might be able to contact the portal. Once I get home, I'll get my father to send a team to get you. Then you can come to West Region with me, like we've always wanted."
My shoulders shook.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"You're insane."
"My strength is coming back. And I know I said I had to hide my ability, but I can't think of any other way to get you out. I might be strong enough to convince Keenan to give me a shot. I have to try, in case I start to fade out again. It'll work. It has to." He bit back his desperation, but I heard it.
I ducked under his arms and brought his hands to my face. They were the only warm things in the room. I wanted to dissolve into them, the way I had when Connor had seemed invincible. Instead, I stared in to his face.
"What's going on?" Connor asked. If I could read his mind, I bet I'd hear a tentative voice warning him that I was up to something. That voice was right.
I flagged Roth, who stood at the room's entrance, keeping an eye on us.
"Tell Keenan I want to see him," I said. He tilted his head at my odd request. "What are you, hard of hearing? Get Keenan for me." He left to fetch our boss.
"What's going on?" Connor asked.
"Why are you here?" I asked him.
"I don't get it…"
"You came here to rescue me, right? You defied your dad's orders, broke into the lab, and jumped time and where did that get you? Nearly killed."
"I'd do it again, in a heartbeat."
"That's the problem."
Suspicion dawned in him. "Where are you going with this?"
"Your dad will never come for me, and I'm sorry, but you've got to be a fool to think he would ever rescue me after I've endangered his son's life again. You're the next leader of a region!" I lowered my voice. "You don't belong here. You never should have come. And I don't belong in West Region."
Keenan came into the room. "You wanted to see me?"
"I want to make a deal," I said.
"No, she doesn't. Echo, listen to me."
I held his gaze. There were things he needed to know, things I could not communicate. Things he would never forgive me for:
I had to stop worrying about his safety.
I had to stop loving him.
Then I would have nothing left to fuel my ability. I would have nothing left to give the Mutila.
Keenan would either set me free or end my life.
That was my only way out.
Chapter 36
"Tell me about tomorrow's mission," I asked Keenan.
He cocked his head at my sudden interest.
"I don't need to know the details. Just tell me, do you expect me to hurt someone?"
"That is the idea," he said. "I expect your full alliance if you want to go home." If you want to live was what he meant. If you want Connor to live.
"Yes," I answered. "Of course. But I need something first."
Keenan's mouth curled in amusement. "And what might that be?"
"Let Connor go."
Keenan chuckled.
"You've already got me, and I'm everything you want. Am I right?" I challenged.
Keenan didn't answer.
"You know it's true," I pressed. "I've proven myself and I know what happens if I don't follow orders. I still have skills that I haven't tapped into, and you expect me to develop them. Connor is no good to you. If I'm terrified you're going to torture him, I'm not as strong. I need a clear head. I can work better if he's not here."
"I'm to take you on your word?" Keenan asked.
"Of course not! You have my life in your hands, my parents' lives, and if you want Connor back, you'll go to his house and take him, right? That's what you do, take what you want when you want it. So why not let him go?"
Keenan considered this for far less time than I expected. "We all know what happens if either of you goes to the police or tells your family."
"Yes, of course," I answered robotically.
"All right," he said. "I'll send him now."
Connor cut his eyes to me, and the corner of his mouth twitched as if to say nice acting.
"No. This is it. I don't ever want to see you again," I told him.
"Okay," he agreed, still playing along.
He didn't get it. I was a bad person, a hypocrite. I'd used the most precious thing I'd ever had, his love, to commit atrocities, and this was just the beginning of Keenan's gruesome plans for me.
"I'm serious," I said, my eyes holding his. "Don't show up in my bedroom or in my house. Don't show up in my classroom, not anywhere. I don't want to see you again. Not in this lifetime."
His jaw fell. "Don't do this."
"Take him, Keenan."
"Echo!"
"Don't be an idiot, Connor. Go home," I said.
Tears stung my eyes.
Roth led him by the chains at his wrists. "You heard the girl."
Keenan pulled out his phone and dialed. "Take Connor to the dock on the other side of the river and have a car waiting. Drop him off wherever he wants."
Connor disappeared into the elevator, his unforgiving eyes pleading for chance to help me escape.
I had pushed Keenan further than I dared and won, but a single phone call from a man capable of cold-blooded murder carried no currency with me.
"I want proof that you're letting him go," I said.
"Instead of dumping him in the river?" Keenan chuckled like this was some sort of joke. "Take this." He punched a few buttons on his phone and handed it to me. The screen showed the Feller Industries driveway beyond the front doors.
A few minutes passed and the doors swung open. Connor stumbled into the rain.
Roth shoved him into a car idling outside the building. Exterior cameras placed throughout the property followed the car a quarter mile to the dock at the edge of the island. Instead of driving onto the car ferry, they climbed out. Connor began arguing. He pointed back at the Feller Tower. I didn't need audio to follow what he was saying. His lips formed my name more than once. His eyes blazed and his jaw grew tight from shouting.
"Go," I said. "Just get out of here."
Roth and a second handler pushed him toward the pier and restrained him enough to get him in a motorboat. They launched into the choppy brown Columbia River. A quarter mile later, they pulled to a pier on the mainland.
Another camera—did Keenan have eyes everywhere?—showed Connor limping out of the boat. The handler unlocked his chains and pointed toward the road.
"A car is waiting for him in the parking lot. He'll be taken wherever he wants," Keenan said.
Connor's green eyes stared back at the island, that mind of his ticking with alternate plans. The chip was still embedded in his wrist. I hoped he wasn't foolish enough to rip it out and try to rescue me. I hoped he'd gotten my message. I'd left no room for misinterpretation.
"That's enough," I said and handed the phone back. I hiccupped to keep from crying.
"Satisfied?" Keenan asked.
"Yes. Of course."
*******
I sat next to Ivan in the testing center, on the couches in front of what used to be Connor's cell. I told myself over and over that he was safe now, but that only reminded me that I had traded his safety for someone else's. Today, I was expected to cause physical pain to our target.
"Hold this for me," Ivan said. He was synching a set of cell phones to an earpiece that I would wear for the mission.
"What exactly am I doing today?" I asked.
"Don
't know. We get a GPS code at the last minute that tells us where to take you. Keenan'll stay here, at Feller Industries. This earpiece has a video component so he can see and hear everything you do. He'll give you instructions at the destination."
Ivan had to raise his voice for me to hear. Behind us, in the weight bay, Jaxon had cornered Keenan and was yelling at him for releasing Connor. Apparently Jaxon thought he had ownership over the recruits he turned in. From Keenan's unblinking pose, I'd say he was running out of patience with his foster brother.
"Jaxon's got cajones, I'll say that for him. Why does he care so much about your boyfriend?" Ivan asked.
"Beats me."
Ivan adjusted the earpiece until it fit snug against my head.
"Are you excited to go home?" he asked.
"I guess." After this mission my house, my bedroom, and school awaited, but also Kimber's wrath for leaving unexpectedly, and a new life that I would never come to terms with.
"It's hard at first, knowing someone is watching you all the time, but after a while, you don't even notice," Ivan said.
"So, you like being in the Mutila."
He kept his gaze on the phones, even though he no longer fiddled with them. "It's all I know."
I ran a finger along my cheek, signifying Ivan's burn. "And this?"
"I messed up a mission."
"What did your parents say when they saw what happened to you?"
He stiffened. "They're not around anymore. I live at Feller Industries." He tucked one of the transmitters into my back pocket. "All right, you're ready to go. The headset has a mic, so you can talk to Keenan if you need to. Someone on the team'll cuff you once we get there. Roth and Luma and some of the others'll be with you, too. If anything goes wrong, they'll help."
I huffed a laugh. "Yeah, right. They'll be there to make sure I do what I'm told."
Ivan cemented his brown eye on me. "We do watch out for each other around here. For some of us, it's all we've got."
*******
I rode with Ivan and Jaxon. Six other SUVs carried Luma, Roth, and a team of other soldiers. We drove into downtown Portland and then through a residential area two blocks from my house. My stomach cramped and I realized how homesick I was. I'd been gone for almost a week.
Ivan pulled into the parking lot at Lincoln High School. My pulse picked up. "What are we doing here?"
"This is the address we were given," he replied. It was Saturday, and the lot was empty save for a handful of cars parked near the gymnasium. Our army of black SUVs crowded the lot.
"This has to be a mistake. I go to school here," I said.
"Your principal had twenty-four hours to deliver the list. He hasn't, so we're kicking up the pressure a notch," Jaxon said.
Last night, I had agreed to carry out this mission in exchange for Connor's release. As we piled out of the SUV, the enormity of my decision set in.
"Listen for Keenan's instructions," Ivan interrupted my thoughts. "If we get separated, we communicate through him. In case you get any crazy ideas, you do not want to break away from the group."
For all their wild, paranormal expertise, I found it ridiculous that there wasn't a single telepath among them.
A voice came through my earpiece. "Echo, lead the team through the school's side entrance. When you get to the gym, don't go in. Keep to the hallway and stay out of sight of the people inside."
A buzz rippled through me. Not the kind that came as a precursor to my telekinesis. The kind that felt like impending doom.
Chapter 37
I yanked the heavy outside door open and was assaulted by the scent of sweat, rubber soles, and textbooks. I didn't know until then how much I loved the way my school smelled.
"Move it. I want you in and out in less than three minutes," Keenan said. He monitored our progression through the camera on my earpiece. "Take the hallway on the right. Yes, that way."
Inside the gym, Saturday basketball practice was in session. Fifteen or so boys ran up and down the court, doing passing drills. The coach and assistant dodged between them, hollering instructions. Mr. Lauer, my principal, watched from the bleachers. I remembered that his son was on the team.
Three rows behind Mr. Lauer, a girl with spikey platinum hair pecked at her phone. My eyes bugged. It was Becca. Why, why, why did she have to pick this day to watch Lucas practice?
"Are you listening, Echo?"
"I'm here," I said into the mic.
"Soldiers, get into place," Keenan instructed. The group imprisoned me in the center of a tight semi-circle.
Luma snapped the cuff over my wrist.
"She's ready," Luma announced into her mic.
"Echo, you are going to levitate everybody and everything in the gym that isn't nailed down. Do you understand?"
My voice hitched. "Um, yeah, okay."
Cool buzzing fanned over my forehead. Nerves in my arms and hands lit up. On the basketball court, Lucas arced a ball toward the hoop. The ball landed on the rim, spun, and stayed there.
"Hey, check this out!" Lucas yelled to his teammates. A second later, the other balls levitated, then all the boys' gear. They seemed more amazed than shocked.
"What the…"
"What's happening?"
"Dude, check this out! I'm flying!"
Becca screamed, and everyone realized they were rising off the floor.
"Good job, Echo. Take them higher," Keenan said.
"How high?"
"Until I tell you to stop."
There had to be more than a thousand pounds of people and stuff levitating. My strength wavered. I found my memory of Connor, and my heart swelled. Everyone in the gym ascended, their screams echoing off the cement block walls.
"Higher," Keenan said.
"I can't," I answered. I was breathing heavily to keep everyone at this height. The spot behind my temples throbbed.
"Find it in yourself. That's an order."
In my mind, I pulled Connor to me and relived our most passionate kiss. Our lips glided together, damp and insistent. I inhaled him, clung to him fiercely. It was easier to imagine this today because Connor was free. The portal would have found him shortly after the Mutila driver dropped him off in the city. He would be safe, far in the future.
Intense heat flared down my arms, like I'd dipped them into a too-hot bath. A sound like a roaring wind filled the gym and Keenan's targets shot toward the ceiling.
"Omigod," I said. The soldiers stirred, probably picking up the intense power surge.
"That's my girl," Keenan crooned. I knew the look he'd have on his face: blind greed, thrilled with the dominance he was able to wield through his minions.
Hysteria broke out in the gym. The players, coaches, principal, and Becca all dangled helplessly forty feet in the air, marionettes waiting for a puppeteer to steer them to safety. Some of the boys were crying. Mr. Lauer was fighting tears, yelling for everyone to stay still.
Acid rose to my throat at the part I played in this nightmarish game. If anyone fell from this height, they would be crippled, or even killed.
"They got the message," I said, relieved that this was nearly over.
"Good," Keenan said. "Now drop them."
"What?"
"You heard me. Let them fall."
"They'll die!"
"Do it!"
"No!" I said, shaking from the strain of keeping them airborne. The kids quivered overhead. I was about to lose them. I squeezed my eyes tight and scrambled for a powerful memory.
I jumped to the last night Connor and I were together, when we were certain we'd last forever.
Felt his lips on mine.
His hand under my shirt.
The electricity beneath his skin.
His sweet voice.
I want to spend eternity with you.
I love you I love you I love you.
A blast of air rushed through the gym. I opened my eyes. My body began to glow. My aura rolled outward like an ocean wave and the gym exploded with pink
light. The school walls shook.
"Get the cuff off her!" Keenan commanded.
Luma made a grab for me. I heaved an elbow that landed in her stomach.
The south wall of the gymnasium collapsed. The soldiers dove for cover. The freshman wing shuddered and one of its brick walls crumbled in a cloud of dust.
The levitated people swayed and fell. I thrust a telekinetic cushion beneath them. Twenty feet above the court, they landed softly and held.
"Drop them!" Keenan screamed into my ear.
I threw my earpiece on the floor. Luma snagged my wrist and tried to peel the cuff off. I twisted out of her grip. My wrist burned with lava-hot intensity, heating the metal so that the cuff seared my skin.
The energy barrier holding the gym spectators quivered. A thunderous CRACK! split the air and they fell again. I ran a few yards into the gym and, in one explosive burst, threw down another barrier. They touched down lightly, bounced, and rolled the last few feet to the floor. A couple players grabbed their ankles. Becca fell onto the bleachers, but got to her feet and ran for Lucas.
An eerie wail drew everyone's eyes past the fallen walls. My aura was rolling back in. It crashed toward us in a softer pink wave, rebuilding the walls, brick by brick. Broken glass mended itself. Cracks and fissures melted closed. The school reconstructed in front of our eyes.
Three dozen jaws dropped.
Luma snapped out of it fast. She unclipped my cuff and hauled me out by the neck of my jacket. "You are dead meat," she spat.
The rest of the team hurried out the door, throwing awestruck glances at the restructured building.
"What happened back there?" one of the younger soldiers asked, incredulous.
"She regenerated the scene." A soldier in his twenties shook his head.
The younger one could not tear his eyes away. "I've never seen anything like it."
"You're not supposed to," Luma yelled. "Our job isn't to put things back together."
Next to us, two lone bricks rose off the ground and slid into their rightful spots on the wall, like they'd been called home. Luma stuffed me into the back of Ivan and Jaxon's SUV and stomped to her vehicle. The army sped toward Feller Tower.
"You just pulled the worst move on the planet." Jaxon shook his head, hard.
"I know those people! I would never do what he told me to, not to anybody."
