Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by hamilton, rebecca

  “And how long exactly,” Guardian Wils’s voice rang out, “are we expected to wait to have…access?”

  “These are my students, Guardian. My Wards. And as such, they will be left alone to learn. There will be no sneaking around to catch a glimpse or dares to get their attention.” She let her stare strafe across the students. “There will be no…dinners to get to know them. No whining about access. It’s simple: there will be none.”

  Now she had Wils’s attention, but only for a moment. He snapped a look back to the girls. To one girl. She couldn’t see which he’d selected, but it was clear that he’d already made a decision to have one of the girls she’d sworn to protect.

  “You will not touch them, attempt to influence them, or act inappropriately in any way.” Lena’s glare bored into Wils’s face, demanding that he turn his attention to her, that he hear her words. “You will leave us alone. We don’t owe you anything, any more than you owe the unpowered the use of your bodies and skill. We are all working toward a new world where Sparks are more than tools to be used and discarded. We will achieve that vision. Do not presume to define our place in that world for us. The key to success is mutual respect.”

  A derisive snort came from the front row. She looked at the man who’d made it. She’d been waiting.

  “Or what?” Wils turned his attention from her girls to Thomas. “Are you going to allow this—” he swept an ugly look over Lena “—little girl to stand before us and talk to all of us like this? Our end goal requires one thing and one thing only from all of them.”

  She could feel the flash of heat from Alex.

  Before he could erupt, Thomas held up a hand. When Wils continued for a moment, Thomas’s voice lashed out like a whip. “That’s enough!”

  Wils stopped talking, but he stood up, snugging down his shirt and curling his lip in disdain.

  “We brought Lena here to learn and to see what we could offer her, not the other way around. She is an ally—a powerful ally.” Thomas stopped to spear Wils with a look of disgust. “Instead of treating her with honor, you made demands of her, whispered and plotted to gain access and favors. And then you have the audacity to be offended when she puts an end to it?” He shook his head. “Perhaps they require a demonstration, Lena.”

  Her lips curved into a smile. “Guardian Wils,” she all but purred, “perhaps you’ll help me?”

  A faint ripple of laughter, more expectant than amused, rolled across the Guardians and Wards. They wanted to finally see what she could do. They’d been waiting. The anticipation pulsed against her.

  Wils crossed his arms across his chest.

  “You teach the Wards control, do you not? So I invite you to do what you’ve wanted from the beginning. Control me.”

  His brows bunched together. He had a moment of cockiness, both annoyed and confident for a moment longer before his sureness became concern. Concern flowed into panic. He reached out a hand and batted at the railing in front of himself, finally gripping it with failing strength as she took his breath.

  “Stop me, Guardian Wils,” she invited, “whenever you’re ready.”

  He fell to his knees, eyes bulging. His face had purpled.

  “Lena,” Alex murmured.

  But she wasn’t done. She waited until his eyes rolled back into his head before she allowed him to collapse to the floor. The sound of his sudden breath wheezing in and out of his lungs filled the otherwise silent auditorium.

  She lifted her chin. “We are meant to work together. We are made to work together. I am your ally.” She tilted her head and regarded them, gaze moving over them, touching as many individually as she could before her focus snapped. She didn’t have long. “Until the moment you decide I am not. Please don’t make that decision.”

  She stepped back. The barrier she had erected in her mind sagged, melted, and left her with nothing to use as a bar to the invading energy. She strode away, her heels cracking across the floor of the auditorium.

  Rose’s grin of triumph turned into narrow-eyed alarm at Lena’s face. Jackson got the door open and Rose ushered the girls out ahead of Lena.

  When Lena entered the hallway, she kept going, moving through and past them. She had to get as far away from the combined angry, confused, and excited male energy in the room behind her as she could.

  She could feel Alex behind her, moving up fast. “Lena, stop.”

  “I can’t,” she gasped out, “I have to get away. It’s too much energy.”

  “Let me help you!”

  Her feet couldn’t get her away fast enough. She’d cut it too close. The energy was inside of her now, building, burning into her own Dust, and she didn’t know what to do. How did she get it out? Not even grounding could make this go away. She’d be fried, if she even made it all the way to the Grounding Pad. Her heart throbbed in her chest, the panicked beat of it hard and fast in her ears as she built to overload. Heat flared across her cheeks. Cold sweat ran down her spine.

  She couldn’t make sense of the sound of a scuffle behind her.

  “Get back with them, dammit,” Rose shouted. “You’re part of the problem!”

  The other woman appeared beside her.

  Lena cringed away, hitting the wall. She didn’t know what would happen to Rose if she touched her.

  “Look at me.” Rose stood before her, calm and certain. “You are my match. Remember? We were meant to be paired. You don’t know what it means, but I do. Let me help you.” The woman reached out for her.

  Lena focused on her hands. Rose’s hands shook.

  “You have to share it, Rose, like you’ve seen us do in the lab.” Phoebe’s urgent voice floated down the hall. “But don’t try to take it all. Hers is too much.”

  Rose grasped Lena’s hands. “Let me help. Let it go.” Rose said more, indistinct noise.

  Lena gasped for air. The small, ineffectual breaths sounded like crashing in her ears but did nothing to feed her body oxygen. The energy spiraled around her, coursing in.

  Rose’s fingers, clamped onto hers, were intertwined and white with pressure. Rose dropped to her knees to get Lena’s attention. She looked up into Lena’s face, her mouth moving, eyes urgent.

  If she released it, if she gave it to Rose, she’d kill her. Rose was strong, but she wasn’t used to doing what Lena did. Could Lena control it? Could she let the excess energy bleed out into the other woman little by little, enough for Lena to regain control? Lena’s head rocked back against the wall and she squeezed her eyelids shut, holding back with everything she had.

  Control it. Control it.

  She opened herself to the connection.

  24

  Lena’s head rested on her curled arms. She fought nausea and the mother of all headaches at a desk in the small room Alex had hurriedly opened for them. They’d told her Jackson stood guard outside as the Wards and Guardians leaving the auditorium streamed past. Lena could still feel their energy buffeting her like a wind through a canyon. It slowed as their massed numbers dropped.

  She would never again allow herself to be trapped in an area with a large group of powerful Sparks. Small groups, she told herself. Small groups only.

  Rose paced, back and forth, back and forth.

  The girls and Alex were lined up against the wall, avoiding the static discharges still crackling between Lena and Rose. The girls giggled at Rose’s manic energy.

  “Is this what it feels like to be you, all the time?” Rose asked again.

  It was possibly the tenth time. She waited for the corollary question.

  “Is this what it will feel like to be me?”

  And there it was. One of the twins murmured a number. It set off a cascade of muffled laughter.

  Lena took a deep breath, coughed back the nausea, and lifted her head. She squinted across the room at them.

  She was acutely aware of Alex’s concern.

  He shifted, watching her carefully. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Pretty shitty. How close did I co
me to blowing everything up?”

  “Pretty close. Let’s try to make sure that doesn’t happen again, okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.” She allowed her gaze to follow Rose for a few seconds before her stomach heaved at the constant motion. “Is she glowing?”

  He frowned. “It’s more like a corona. And it’s fading fast.” He assessed Lena. “You’ve stopped glowing.”

  She processed that. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it right now. Her head felt like someone had driven a spike from the base of her neck up at an angle into her brain.

  She squinted at the girls. “How are you all doing?”

  Marissa, leaning comfortably against Alex’s leg, popped her thumb out of her mouth long enough to smile at Lena. Charity and Constance grinned across at her for a moment, and then returned to tracking Rose’s movements. Phoebe and Marin murmured that they were all fine.

  Hania cleared her throat. “You shouldn’t worry about us. You get better.”

  Lena’s heart clenched. “Were you scared, Hania?”

  The girl nodded, the movement so small Lena barely perceived it. Her hair, clean now, hung in a dark shining curtain around her face. It gave away the movement Lena might have missed otherwise.

  “I’m sorry I frightened you, Hania. I’m better now.” She received the barest flutter of a smile. She decided then she would wipe the men who’d hurt these girls from the face of the planet. Nothing would stop her.

  She looked back to Alex. As usual, he seemed to read her mind.

  “When you’re ready, we should go. They’re hungry, but they wouldn’t leave you. And Thomas is waiting to talk to you.”

  She lifted her brows in one motion with her raising head.

  He shrugged. “There’re some things we need to discuss with our new partner.”

  She took another big breath. “I’m ready when she is,” she said, nodding toward Rose.

  Everyone looked at Rose, who stopped pacing and looked back, making an attempt at her usual tough, controlled persona.

  “I’m fine. Better than fine. I feel great.”

  “Wonderful,” Lena told her. “Want some more?”

  “No.” Alex and Marin chorused together.

  Rose laughed, the sound a little manic.

  Lena looked at Marin and Phoebe. “She will be okay, right?”

  “Yes.” Marin answered.

  “We don’t know.” Phoebe said. The two looked at each other and then shrugged at her. “If we had to guess, probably yes,” Phoebe allowed. “But we’ve never seen anyone share anything that….” She shook her head.

  “Big?” Lena suggested.

  “Dangerous.” Alex supplied.

  Phoebe pointed at him.

  “I’m pretty sure you were literally about to—” He made an exploding motion with his hands. The sight of it keyed something in Lena’s mind, something she should remember. Trying to catch the elusive memory made her head throb, though, so she let it go.

  Marissa, taking a cue from Phoebe, pointed at Alex in confirmation.

  “We’ll work in more control exercises, for your Spark and your temper.”

  “With Wils?” she asked, then she smirked. The Guardian she’d humiliated taught control to the incoming and primary year students.

  He chuckled. “We’ll think of something.”

  “If you’re really okay,” Lena checked with Rose. “We should go.”

  Rose clapped her hands.

  Lena winced and tried to swallow the heave. She gingerly got to her feet and followed them out of the room. Alex was making arrangements with Jackson to take the girls to the cafeteria. With a worried look for Lena, Jackson led them away.

  She shook her head. “You’ve got to stop using him as a babysitter.”

  Alex smiled. “No worries on that front. He has his new orders. It’s safe to say he’s happy with them.”

  “Oh. Something more than training me in reconnaissance techniques, I take it?” It wasn’t quite a pang inside. Perhaps regret for what might have been? She swallowed and pushed it away. She didn’t want Jackson. She was an assignment to him. He’d made it clear.

  Alex shrugged and nodded. “Sorry.”

  He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded pleased. The king of the sexy smirk and the intense, sidelong gazes when he thought she wasn’t looking sounded pleased. Perhaps they needed to revisit their agreement not to talk about that kiss?

  “C’mon,” he said. “Thomas is waiting.”

  They moved through the halls, and Alex adjusted his usual brisk pace to her pained walk. Lena noted the halls were unusually empty and said so.

  “Yeah, well, you made an impression. Wards are tucked away in class. Guardians are teaching…or behind closed doors plotting.”

  “Plotting?” She winced. “So you think I alienated them enough to betray you to the Council?”

  He moved his shoulders and looked at her, his lips quirked up. “That’s always been a possibility, from the very beginning. We watch. We listen. We keep close tabs on entrances and exits.” He laughed. “We’ve always been of the opinion that any coup will come after we’ve rid them of the Council. We’ll see if our opinion changes any over the next few weeks.”

  “I’m sorry if I’ve screwed it all up.”

  “You haven’t screwed anything up, Lena.” He paused in the hallway outside Thomas’s office. A slow smile spread across his face. “You have made things measurably more interesting. I’ve definitely been enjoying myself.”

  She managed a low laugh. “It’s been an adventure, hasn’t it? I’d say we’ve had our moments. You conduct a hell of a reconnaissance training, Agent Reyes.”

  “I could say the same for your private lessons.”

  It seemed his own words had taken him by surprise. He turned his head to his shoulder for a moment, then turned back to her with a broad, unrepentant smile.

  “I thought we weren’t going to talk about that?”

  His gaze dropped to her lips, tracing them as she grinned up at him. “We’re not.” He shook his head. “We’re not,” he repeated.

  He pushed open the door, shooing her in ahead of him. Behind her, he muttered something about talking being overrated. He led her past an unmanned desk and into an office.

  “Well, that doesn’t seem very efficient,” she remarked breathlessly, tilting her head toward the empty desk as they entered.

  “I sent my assistant to get breakfast. I figured you might want to eat,” Thomas told her, looking up from his desk. He dropped his pen and leaned back. “You need to eat. You look like hell.”

  “Thank you.” That must be why she felt a little giddy. She needed to eat. She eased herself into a chair. She sat for a moment, uncomfortable and aware of them watching her. Finally, she cursed softly and pulled her legs up, tucking her knees under her chin.

  Alex sprawled in the chair next to her.

  Thomas leaned back in his chair. “That was quite the performance with Guardian Wils.”

  “You said they needed a demonstration.”

  He gave her a long look. She looked right back, completely unrepentant. He exhaled and frowned at Alex.

  “She fits right in, doesn’t she?” Alex deadpanned.

  Thomas laughed, a quick burst of sound. He nodded agreement. “I guess she does. Except when we get mad at her, we can’t work it out in the sparring ring.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she smirked, “I could probably take you—both.”

  They looked at her in startled silence, then both threw back their heads and roared with laughter.

  “Yeah,” Alex said, wiping tears away, “you probably could take Thomas. He could never hit a woman.”

  “And yet I hit you all the time, Alex.”

  “Are you two really going to sit there and use ‘woman’ as code for being weak in front of the girl who could stop your heart in five seconds flat?”

  “You’re right,” Thomas said, “We don’t want you to get mad. You might, I don’t know…” He
looked at Alex for help.

  “Explode?” Alex offered.

  Thomas nodded. “There’s the word I was looking for. Yeah, explode.”

  She made a face at them.

  “What was that all about, Lena?” Suddenly all business, Thomas seemed worried. “The glow? The massive energy—” He gestured with his hands.

  “I don’t know. I really don’t. It’s only happened once before, and not like that. I have no idea why it happens.”

  “Except it happens when you’re really angry?” He glanced at Alex, who was already shaking his head.

  “No, she was healing me last time the glow happened.”

  Thomas digested that. “And you weren’t angry?”

  Lena shook her head.

  “No strong emotions?”

  She shook her head again.

  “Nothing held back or—” He widened his eyes, clearly grasping at straws.

  She started to shake her head again, but then stopped, considering.

  “What? What did you think of?”

  She could feel her face getting warm. She shook her head. “No….”

  Thomas leaned forward. “Lena, this is important. We have big plans. We want to include you. But there are motivators that may upset you. We won’t share them if we think you’ll be a risk to yourself or anyone else as a result. So if there’s something, spill it.”

  She took a big breath. “When I healed Alex, there may have been a strong reaction. To touching him. One I suppressed.” She refused at look at Alex. Like the man didn’t already have a huge ego? “Not anger.”

  Thomas flicked a glance at him.

  She would not look over.

  “I see.” Thomas rubbed his lips. Was he trying not to laugh?

  She closed her eyes in mortification.

  “No, really, it’s fine,” Thomas continued drily. “That happens a lot with him. Happens to me sometimes when I hit him.”