by Lola StVil
I edge along the wall, getting closer to the bend. If I can make it around there, I can find somewhere to hide. I try not to think about the smooth walls and the long stretch of track that offers no hiding place.
I glance down at my arm, seeing the burnt edges of my shirt. Beneath that, I can see blackened flesh with angry red patches. I wince. I wish I hadn’t looked. The pain has eased a little though.
I reach the bend and Torque follows me.
“Stay,” he commands the Nukes.
I give up on a hiding place and I run.
I can hear him behind me. I have the advantage here I think. I’m small and fairly fast. Hopefully his bulk will slow him down.
I am quick to underestimate him. He can move. I am still a little faster, but he’s closing the gap quicker than I would like. I feel the electric charge in the atmosphere and I know instinctively he’s firing at me again.
I hope for the best and duck towards the wall, his beam of darkness missing me by inches. I feel the heat from it singe the small hairs on my forearm as I push onwards.
The electric feel comes again, and this time, I duck away from the wall. Big mistake. I feel myself plunging down into empty darkness as I overstep and come off the walkway.
I don’t have far to fall. I land on my back, the wind momentarily knocked out of me. I try to get up but I can hardly breathe, let alone move.
I always pictured angels to be graceful creatures. How I can be an angel and be this clumsy still baffles me.
I become aware of my body vibrating slightly. Is Torque doing something to me? I look up, trying to spot him, but I can’t. He must still be a bit behind me.
With growing horror, I realize what the feeling is as I hear a loud whistling sound. A train is coming right at me.
I force my aching body to respond and pull myself to my feet. The train is so close I can see the driver’s horrified face through his window. I squat down slightly and launch myself at the raised walkway I fell from. I grab the top and scramble to safety just in time.
The wind from the passing train blows by and sends my hair flying in every direction and I know then how close I came to being cut in half.
I can feel a sharp, stabbing pain in my thigh and the warmth I can feel there tells me I’m bleeding.
I suddenly remember Torque. I’d forgotten him in the face of a more immediate danger.
He’s only a couple of feet away from me, and as I watch, he closes the gap. I try to run but my leg will barely hold me. At the exact moment he reaches for me, I see what’s hurting my thigh.
There’s a five-inch wood stake sticking straight out of my thigh. As Torque’s fingers grab my left arm, I pull the stake from my leg. With a scream born partly from agony and partly from the adrenaline that surges through me, I thrust the pointy, bloody end of the stake hard in Torque’s face.
The universe has taken pity on me and I have my first stroke of good luck. The makeshift stake goes into Torque’s eye with an audible popping sound. I feel a rush of warm liquid burst over my hand.
Torque’s face is twisted in an expression of shock. He lets go of me, reaching up in slow motion to pull the wooden stake free as his knees buckle. He goes down hard. His hands go limp and fall back to his sides as his body tumbles forward.
He lands facedown with an awful squelch as the stake is forced further into his head. I retch at the sound, and again when I see the black stream of demon blood running down my arm as I bring my hand to my mouth. I swallow hard once. Twice. When the worst of the sick feeling has passed, and the wave of dizziness is over, I turn and hurry back to Parker, ready to take on the Nukes.
I get back to the end of the tunnel I was just in. The Nukes are different now. Less threatening. Two of them roll around, seemingly play fighting while the others lie lazily off to one side, leaving Parker as close to unguarded as I could hope for.
I walk towards her, eyeing the Nukes warily. The one closest to me whimpers slightly. It rolls onto its back, its legs in the air, looking at me with a pleading glance.
I remember Ryder saying that Nukes are essentially pets and I think that now Torque is dead, his influence over them must have broken. They seem harmless now, almost docile, but I’m not quite ready to start handing out belly rubs just yet. Especially not when their fur burns. I reach down and with an effort, I ignore the pain in my thigh and arm and drag Parker over my shoulder. I’m glad she’s so small.
I walk away from the Nukes. Just as I’m pondering how on Earth I’m going to walk through a crowded New York underground station with blood soaking my jeans and an unconscious girl in my arms, I feel a strange tingling sensation around my arm. I look and there’s a series of markings that suddenly appear wrapped around my upper arm. The twins told me about this: it’s the symbol that means that I am the First Toren.
Suddenly, I feel like something is trying to force itself out of my shoulder blades, but there’s no pain. I hear a flapping noise, and a rush of air passes by my face. I catch a glimpse of something purple from the side of my eye. I turn my head and my mouth drops open in shock. I have my wings! I’m officially an angel now. They are magnificent. Silver, shimmery feathers… I roll my eyes and smile to myself, thinking how entirely beautiful, which is not something I have ever thought in relation to myself before.
Suddenly, getting home seems easier. I turn away from the station and head for the light at the other end of the tunnel. I step out into the fresh air, and have a moment’s panic when I realize I have no idea how to take off.
Worried and unsteady, I think really hard about flying. I only have to think about it, and I’m up in the air. I think back to the first time I met Pryor, I mean, my mom.
My mom. Still takes some getting used to for me.
When she took me flying, I felt the exhilaration. The rush. I feel it again now. Only this time, I feel it more deeply as I’m doing it on my own. The crazy thing is it feels natural. It feels like something I’ve been doing my whole life but somehow forgot about.
***
I arrive through Death’s sitting room window and land with a loud crash. I run two steps and manage to regain my balance, keeping a tight grip on Parker.
Even in flight grace isn’t my strong suit, but I did it. I did it!
“That was some entrance,” Lucas comments, kind of bitter.
I register then that the whole team is here, plus my parents, Dylann, Death, Parker’s parents and some others who I assume are the parents of the rest of the team. Not the best timing to make my grand entrance.
Hands gently pull Parker away from me and I get defensive until I see East taking her weight. I let her go. Before I’ve even had a chance to breathe, I’m locked in an embrace so tight I can barely breathe.
“Thank you,” Ryder says, his face close to my ear.
I can hear the emotion in his voice and I hug him back. He holds me a little too long. He doesn’t want the rest of the team to see him losing control. I make no effort to free myself from his grasp and even hug him back, although I’m struggling to breathe.
“That’s enough,” Silver says.
The room descends into silence at the cold anger in his voice. An anger he makes no effort to conceal. Ryder steps back and gives me a quick grin. I turn to face Silver.
“What were you thinking going off on your own like that? You could have gotten yourself killed. And if you have no respect for your own life, you should at the very least have considered that you could well have gotten Parker killed too.”
I glance at Pryor. She usually steps in to calm Silver down, but I see from the stony look on her face that I’m on my own with this one.
Except I’m not. I have one ally left.
“Let it go, Dad,” Dylann says. “You and Mom wanted her to act like an angel and now she is. She has her wings.”
She glances at me with a grin. “Although I think you could use some yoga classes judging by that landing.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. Parker is fine. I’
m fine. And my sister just defended me.
“Hey, I’ll have you know that landing would have scored a perfect ten in the Olympics.”
“More like a two for effort.” Dylann laughs back.
The room is still filled with tension, but I feel good about what I did. I decide it’s time to answer Silver.
My dad. Ha! My dad is yelling at me. Why does that make me feel good? It’s like a scene out of a TV show. A dad who yells and grounds his kid. I’m someone’s kid!
“What I thought I was doing was saving my friend’s life. You know, doing the angel thing, and obviously, the universe agreed because I got my wings.”
“Do you know how dangerous this was? How stupid? You never go off without your team. Never.”
“Parker is one of the team,” I shoot back. “And I couldn’t just sit there and let her get hurt. I thought you’d be…” I can’t bring myself to say it out loud because it sounds lame.
I thought you’d be proud of me…
I guess he knows what I was about to say because the anger drains out of him as quickly as it appeared.
“Summit, I love that your first thought is to help, but you need to be safe. Just be more careful in the future. Stick together. Don’t go off alone. Because this quest is going to be more dangerous than anything you’ve ever imagined. And we won’t be there to remind you of that.”
“What, so I do one thing you don’t like and that’s it, you’re out?” I ask, incredulous.
Pryor steps forward. “It’s nothing like that,” she reassures me. “It’s a stipulation of the quest. We were going to tell you after school, but with everything that happened…”
She trails off as a large shimmering circle appears at the window. As I watch, fascinated, the center of the circle seems to solidify, spreading outwards until the circle becomes a whirling ball of plasma.
“What is that?” Dylann asks. I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t know.
“It’s a gateway,” Mel says. “It leads to the limbo state between this world and the next.”
That doesn’t sound good. I don’t want to know, but I have to ask.
“And it’s here because?” I say.
“It’s here for us,” Pryor says sadly. She touches my cheek lightly.
“I’m so sorry, Summit; we have to leave you.”
CHAPTER NINE: I WILL DO ANYTHING
I feel as if the whole world is shaking. The floor beneath me doesn’t feel solid anymore. I can almost feel it rippling below me like I’m trying to balance on the surface of the ocean. I stand still. If I move, I will drown in a sea of heartbreak.
I’ve only just found my parents after all these years, and now they are leaving me again. In this moment, I realize how quickly they have become so important to me. How quickly I have started to love them. I spent so much time being angry with them and trying to pull away, when I should have been holding on, taking in every moment I could. I know now how central they have become to my life.
The day I was reunited with them, I was determined to hate them, but I just couldn’t. They gave me so much, and now they’re taking it all away again.
I have to tell them—there’s so much I want them to know. All of this, everything. I need to tell them that they have made me strong, both with their training of me, physically and with my powers, and with their love. Their love showed me I am worthy of love. Because of them, I now know I was never unloved or unwanted.
I open my mouth to tell them how important they are to me: how much I love them, and how I will do anything to get them back.
But it’s me, so that’s not what comes out.
Instead, I hear myself snort in derision.
“I just got you back and you’re leaving again when I need you the most? Why am I surprised? Why should this time be any different?”
I turn away from them so that I can bite back the tears I can feel starting to bubble up inside of me. I won’t cry. I won’t let them see how much they are hurting me. I won’t.
I don’t know if can ever find the words to express what I want to say, so instead, I’ll put my wall back up. It’s been my thing ever since I can remember, and it’s always served me well.
I notice Ryder and Parker huddled together with Mel and East. RJ stands with them. I vaguely remember hearing his parents died when he was young and that the twins’ parents took him in. They are a family. A real family. They aren’t afraid to hug each other and tell each other that they love each other and that they will see each other again. Even East has tears in his eyes.
Why can’t I be more like them and just give in and show some emotion?
I pull my eyes away before it all gets too much and I spot Nix with a woman who I assume is his mother. She holds him tightly and tells him to be strong.
I can’t spot Lucas, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m already teetering on the edge of insanity without any of my feelings for him affecting me.
I turn back to face my own parents. Avoiding looking at them isn’t working. I can still hear them talking to Dylann, and I can hear her saying all the right things back to them.
Pryor is hugging Dylann tightly, and she’s starting to cry.
“We’ll be fine, Mom, Dad,” Dylann says, tears forming in her eyes too. “And we love you.”
It’s sweet that she includes me in that. I think maybe she knows me well enough to know I just can’t bring myself to say it, and she’s doing it for me.
“Be strong,” Silver says, touching her arm.
She makes a visible effort to get ahold of herself and nods her head.
Silver turns to Pryor.
“If anything happens to one of them I will make sure whoever is responsible regrets the day they were born. I swear to you all that I will tear this city apart with fire and I will kill those responsible with my bare hands,” Silver says.
He isn’t shouting, but I can hear the venom dripping from his words. He doesn’t want to leave us any more than we want him to go.
Pryor reaches out and caresses his cheek lovingly.
“It won’t come to that,” she says.
“But on every other quest, some of the team members haven’t made it back.”
“But none of those quests had our girls. I have complete faith in them and so should you.”
“I do have faith in them, and the rest of the team, but I don’t trust who they are up against.”
The anger seems to leave Silver as quickly as it arrived.
“If anything happens to them…,” he says again, but softer this time.
“It won’t,” I say, more coldly than I planned to.
I just want this whole goodbye to be over.
I hope I’m not making promises I can’t keep.
The plasma circle begins to spin slowly outside of the window.
“It’s time,” I hear Mel say behind me.
With last shouts of “goodbye” and “we love you” everyone is gone but me, my team, Death, and my parents.
Why won’t they just go? Can’t they see this is hard enough? I know they’re waiting for me to say goodbye. To tell them I love them, but I can’t. I just can’t.
“Everyone will be staying here,” Pryor tells me. “Stick together and stay strong. We know you can do this. All of you.”
I nod curtly.
She embraces me first, and then Silver does. I keep my body stiff and my arms by my sides.
Why am I such a bitch?
As they step out of the window, Pryor turns back to me.
“We love you,” she says with a sad smile.
“Whatever,” I say back.
Whatever?
I turn away and leave the room. I can’t watch this. I can’t be there to see that circle disappear, taking my family away with it.
I push through the door and go out on the balcony. I need some fresh air. I stand with my arms on the railing, looking out over New York. I look down. The cars and the people seem smaller than they should. Insignificant.
The door behind me opens and closes and I’m not alone on the balcony anymore. I expect it to be Dylann coming to ask me what the hell that was all about.
I’m surprised when I hear Lucas’s voice.
“Well that was stupid, wasn’t it?” he starts.
Great. That’s all I need. Isn’t he supposed to love me? Why can’t he just understand?
I don’t trust myself to speak, so I don’t.
“Going off on your own like that,” he continues.
I’m confused for a moment. What does he mean? And then it dawns on me. This isn’t about my lack of a goodbye to my parents. It’s about me going off to save Parker.
So much had happened since then that it feels like forever ago, but in reality, it was less than an hour ago. Thankfully, my wounds weren’t serious, because if they were, then everyone would be right and I’d be dead by now because I completely forgot to mention them. There was just too much going on for me to risk making any of it worse.
Because saying whatever to my mother’s I love you didn’t make it worse at all!
Lucas’s voice is angry and he’s shouting. I don’t care. I feel numb. All I can think about is the missed chance I had with my parents.
“You went to a place you didn’t know, with no real idea of what to expect, to face a powerful enemy that you had no knowledge off. That’s not the way we do things. We are a team and we work together as a team. If you’re going off to do something like that, you call one of us first, and we go together. This isn’t the Summit Case show.”
I can hear his footsteps pounding against the wooden flooring heavily as he paces up and down. I can picture the look of anger on his face, and I can almost see his hands gesticulating wildly as he talks, his finger slamming down into the palm of his hand to emphasize his points as he rants.
“I’ve done stupid things in my life, Summit. Took risks I probably shouldn’t have. But I’ve never gone into a situation blind like that. I’ve never put myself in a position where there was such a good chance I could be killed. Not because I’m a coward, or because I’ve never been tempted to, but because the team comes first, and that means we talk to each other before we act.”
