‘I don’t think there’s anything you can say that will convince him. Just promise me you’ll be careful,’ I plead. ‘And if by some stroke of luck you’re sent to our ARC, give Quinn and your dad a hug for me.’
‘I will.’ He hesitates, like he doesn’t want to leave me, so I give him a soft push towards the stairs.
‘Go,’ I insist.
He nods and begins walking in the direction of the stairs. When he gets there he pauses and looks back across the platform at me. His blue eyes are almost stormy grey in colour, and they swirl with determination. I try to give him a reassuring smile. His expression doesn’t change though and, with a deep sigh, he turns and continues up the stairs.
‘You’re not going to the meeting?’ I ask her.
‘I am, I just need to go find Dalton. He was on lookout and missed the announcement,’ she says.
‘Why aren’t you going to the ARC?’ I ask.
‘M told me I’m needed here,’ she replies, sadly. Too sadly.
‘You already know where they’re going. It’s our ARC, isn’t it?’ I guess.
Her eyes widen as I look at her, but she slowly nods.
‘Sebastian is going home.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I stay on the platform while M briefs the team upstairs on their mission to the ARC. The rest of the gathered crowd slowly disperses, but I can’t bring myself to leave. I stare at the steps, trying to comprehend M’s rejection of me. I feel empty inside and it hurts that he doesn’t think I’m good enough. Especially when I was partly the reason that his rescue was successful. I’ve been growing more confident using my talents and I’ve spent all my spare time devoted to this cure.
Not only do I deserve to be on the team headed to the ARC, but also my knowledge of the cure and talents could actually be useful. M has underestimated me, and I want nothing more than to prove him wrong.
‘Winters?’ I hear Hunter’s voice from behind me. I turn to see him approaching me slowly from the bottom of the stairs. He sounds as if he’s terrified by the very mention of my name.
I try to ignore him, but the mere sound of his voice has me writhing inside. Unable to keep what I’m thinking silent, I look up at him. ‘I thought I told you to leave me alone.’
‘You did,’ he replies simply.
‘Then why are you here? Why have you even come to us at all?’
He blows out a slow, measured breath. ‘Because I want to help Michael,’ he replies. ‘I want to make it up to you and Lara for the harm I caused you both. But, mostly, I want to take my father down and helping The Movement is the best way.’
I glare at him but struggle to find fault with his reasons, which only makes me hate him more.
He stands back and crosses his arms over his chest. ‘I didn’t come here to argue with you,’ he says, before I can get another word out.
‘No?’
‘Look, Elle, I know you want to go on the mission to the ARC and I think you need to be there. I can help you.’
My gaze flicks up to meet his, weighing the truth I see in his eyes. ‘And how will you do that?’
‘I can get you on the team for the mission.’
‘Sure you can,’ I say, folding my arms over my chest and leaning back against the wall. There’s no way in hell M would let that happen. He’s made up his mind and I doubt he’ll change it, even if Hunter is his nephew.
‘I can,’ he insists, his voice filled with certainty.
A kernel of hope begins to grow within me. ‘How?’
‘It wouldn’t be easy, but I could manipulate all of the others on the team so they don’t realise you’re there.’
‘So, you’d sneak me into the group?’ I ask, the derision in my voice is completely gone and has been replaced by anticipation.
‘Yes.’
‘And you think that would work?’
He nods. ‘Yes. We’re getting ready to leave soon. We’ll be heading to the edge of Hope where we’ll meet our ride.’
‘What do you need me to do?’
‘Get a jacket with a big hood. It will make it easier to cover your identity. Then, I need you to wait in the station concourse so I can slip you into the group with ease.’
‘Are you sure you can do it?’ I ask.
‘Just leave it to me,’ he says. ‘It will work.’
I take a deep breath in and then out, before nodding my head. ‘Okay, I’ll be there.’ I turn from Hunter, my heart racing. I only have one shot at this and I hope I’m not wasting it by putting my trust in Hunter.
I wait in the station concourse for the others to arrive. They are all still in the security office and the longer I wait the more nervous I feel. I find myself pacing up and down, constantly glancing at the staff only door and jumping whenever I hear a sound. What if I can’t get on the mission? What if Hunter doesn’t help me?
I look over at the steps that lead down to the tunnels. Kelsey and Copper are with Mia now. I wish I could have warned Kels that I won’t be coming back tonight, but I can’t risk Mia finding out. Kels seemed aware that something was up when I said goodbye to her though. I wouldn’t be surprised if she already had a feeling I was leaving.
She will be fine with Mia. I trust her completely with Kelsey who is as much a part of Mia’s family these days as she is mine. Mia loves taking care of her, so I feel certain there will be no problem if I’m not back for a few days.
I hear the staff door opening, and I quickly move to stand behind one of the pillars in the hall. I keep out of sight as the group moves into the concourse, feeling uncertain how to proceed. Hunter hadn’t given me any idea of what to expect or what I needed to do once they got up here.
‘Elle?’ Hunter’s voice echoes in my mind.
I frown, not particularly liking his thoughts in my head.
‘You can come out here, no one will notice you,’ he continues.
I make certain my hood is low over my face before slipping into the group. I keep my back up against the wall and my eyes cast down on the floor. The people in the group are talking quietly amongst one another and haven’t noticed my addition to the team.
My heart races as I focus my eyes on the ground. I keep waiting for someone to grab my arm and pull back my hood, exposing me. The talents on this team are formidable and I don’t know how Hunter thinks he will manage to keep me hidden from them all the way to the ARC.
‘Has anyone noticed me yet?’ I direct my thoughts to Hunter, feeling a little silly and hoping he catches them.
I glance up to see him watching the group with analytical eyes. He looks away, considering them, and gives me a small shake of his head.
‘You’re fine. For now, you’re invisible to them.’
I try to let his words sink in and relax me, but the tension in my shoulders refuses to budge.
The team assembled in the foyer hushes as April clears her throat. I draw further back against the wall, hoping she doesn’t see me. Luckily she doesn’t turn my way once. Although, it’s probably more Hunter’s doing than luck.
She moves to stand next to Dalton and Soren. ‘I’ve just had word from our operative who’s picking you up in the helicopter. He’s scheduled to leave Hope for the ARC in two hours and can meet you by the edge of the city fifteen minutes after he sets off. He can’t wait at the meeting point for long because they’re expecting him at the ARC. If you’re late, he won’t wait. Good luck.’
Dalton nods seriously and then turns to the rest of us. ‘You heard April,’ he says, his deep voice booming loudly. ‘Time to move.’
Everyone herds up the steps that lead to the surface. I catch sight of Aiden in the middle of the group. His eyes are red rimmed and his face is devoid of any emotion. I want to talk to him, to try and see how he’s doing, but I can’t expose myself.
I keep my head low as I walk past April towards the exit. Her eyes drift straight from the person in front of me to the person behind me and I smile. We’re over the first hurdle.
Hunter and I stay
at the back of the group as we follow the others onto the street. We’re less noticeable here and so far it seems to be working. Not once has anyone glanced back at us.
Dalton and Soren are confident as they take the lead. The two of them look odd together, with Dalton so big and dark and Soren so small and pale, but whenever I’ve seen them working together they seem to make a great team. They walk quickly and with purpose, only pausing briefly when they reach an intersection.
The crumbled ruins of South Hope seem to stretch endlessly before us as we make a turn. I’ve become accustomed to the look of the area. Thick vines cover most of the buildings, and the uneven road is covered in deep, web-like fractures, which weeds and pools of water tend to gather in. Rusted cars dot the sides of the road, claimed by plants that wrap their way around the wheels and claw their grip around the bodies. The thick branches almost look as though they are about to rip the machines from the street and pull them down into the earth.
There are seven people in the team. Lara, Sebastian and Aiden stick close to Dalton and Soren, while Luke trails a little behind. I feel exposed walking beside Hunter, so worried that someone could turn around at any moment and ask what the hell I’m doing here. The more time that passes though, the less tense I feel.
I sneak glances at Hunter, trying to gauge if he’s tiring from using his talent on the others, but so far he seems to be doing fine.
Dalton makes a sharp turn down one of the side streets and everyone follows without question. I get a bad, niggling feeling in my gut as we follow. I shoot a look at Hunter. Does he notice how the world seems suddenly quieter? Like the wind has stilled and even our soft steps have been muted.
‘Elle, if anything goes wrong make sure you go back to the station. It’s not worth you being caught again,’ Hunter whispers to me, his words rushing out quickly.
‘What do you mean if something goes wrong?’
Dalton raises his hand, causing the rest of us to stop. The quiet street has become unnervingly silent. I reach my senses out to see if I can hear anything, but there’s not so much as a rustle from the breeze to be heard. Shivers run down my spine as I look around and I can almost feel eyes watching me.
I slowly raise my head to look at the rooftops of the buildings surrounding us, but a low hissing noise causes me to spin my head to look at the far end of the street.
‘Get down!’ I scream, throwing my body to the ground. The others follow suit and merely seconds later a huge funnel of crackling purple flames flows over our heads. Once it passes I look up to see a group of recruiters gathering in the street. There are only three of them, but I know what three well-trained recruiters can do.
‘Recruiters!’ Dalton hollers. ‘Get out of here now!’
I jump up and turn, racing in the direction we’ve just come. My heart beats ferociously as I move, and I can clearly hear the slapping of feet as the rest of the team follow.
Hunter is running right beside me and coming up on my other side I can see Aiden. While Hunter looks calm and focused, there’s true fear in Aiden’s eyes.
A rumbling noise reaches my ears and the ground shudders beneath my feet. Small stones bounce as they roll across the uneven asphalt and the fractures in the ground groan as they stretch wider.
I hear a loud cracking noise echo down the street and I glance over my shoulder at the others who run behind us. The recruiter’s aren’t following and as I look at the street between us I can see why.
The ground just in front of the lead recruiter shudders before collapsing into the earth creating a huge hole. The abyss stretches from one side of the street to the other, the dark depths of it impossible to discern from here. The edge of the pit continues to tremor and slowly it begins to crumble. I watch in disbelief as the road between the recruiters and us starts collapsing into the darkness and disappearing from sight.
Slowly the imploding ground gains momentum, the gaping hole gathering speed as it chases us down the street. The fissuring earth pulls cars, fences, trees and lampposts into the void. Nothing is safe and it destroys everything in its path.
I turn and focus on where I’m going, running harder as I hear the quakes getting closer. I can feel my talent buzzing just beneath my skin, but as I race forward it fails to find an outlet and continues to build.
‘Can you do something?’ Hunter grunts between breaths.
‘Like what?’ I ask. About the only thing I’m good for under pressure is creating ice, and I don’t think that will help.
‘Anything!’ he growls.
I glance over my shoulder again. Some of the others are falling behind and the large gaping hole in the street is getting closer. The cracking noise suddenly stops, as does the progress of the imploding earth. I naturally slow down to try and figure out why, and that’s when I hear movement up ahead.
I turn to see five more recruiters standing there before us. With the hole behind us, it becomes clear we’ve been herded towards them.
I swallow tightly and when I look down at my hands, I can see sparks of electricity flying off of them as erratically as my heart beats in my chest. I take a small step closer to Hunter. These recruiters don’t look like they have any intention of taking prisoners.
‘The woman in the centre, with the red hair, she’s the most talented. If we stop her, the others may just run. They’re outnumbered, but they’re not worried about it when they’re with her.’ Hunter speaks in my mind but I’m guessing he’s also talking to the others in our team as they slowly seem to nod in response, their eyes zeroing in on the woman.
As talent continues to ripple wildly across my fingertips, I focus on the pulsing ball of energy I can feel deep in the centre of my chest, just like I did while practicing with Sebastian in the church. As I do it the sparks emanating from my hands begin to calm and I can almost feel the breeze brushing against my fingertips, whispering at me to pull it under my control.
As the wind begins to whip up into a frenzy around me, I instinctively gather it with my talent. Using the energy in my chest I draw in the coils of wind with my fingertips. The breeze twists and turns as it collects, whisking around my fingers and ricocheting between my raised hands. It feels like I’ve rolled a storm into an uncontainable ball in front of me, which pulses between my palms wildly as it fights to break free from my grasp. I don’t know what I’m doing, or even if it will work, but I push the turbulent ball of air forward with all my strength, sending it hurtling towards the group of recruiters.
The woman in front dives out of the way, but the force of the wind hits one of the men, throwing him ten feet in the air and back into the street behind him. The rest of the group don’t hesitate, charging towards us as one.
I try to gather the wind again, but it’s slower this time, more sluggish to respond. Just as I bring it under my control once more, a ball of fire spins towards me and I throw myself out of its path. I can feel the heat as it passes by, so close to me it singes my jacket.
I glance up at the red-haired woman who has another fireball in hand. I need to find a way to stop her. As I watch the burning flames in her palm, the solution hits me. Fire needs air to burn and, for once, I seem to have control over the air around us.
I engage my talented senses with all my strength, going beyond my sight and hearing and the feeling in my fingertips until my whole body feels like it is reaching out to connect with the world around me. I can almost sense every molecule, every fibre of the air that fills the street. It’s like the world around me is made up of tiny vibrations that bounce off my skin. The sensation is intense and overpowering all at once and my skin itches with the awareness, like the air itself is rubbing up against it.
I concentrate on the air particles that dance through and around the flames in the woman’s hand and I urge them to disperse. I will them from the blaze, drawing them out and pulling them from the fire. Slowly her fireball gets smaller and smaller, until I’ve created a vacuum around the flames and suffocated it completely. I grin, when I see the conf
usion in the woman’s eyes as Dalton approaches and backhands her, causing her to go flying across the street. She lands on her feet though and charges him, moving quickly as she launches herself towards him.
I try to focus on the air around her again, but I feel exhausted and my shoulders are slouching tiredly. The connection with the wind and air I felt is gone, and I’m swaying on my feet.
I watch in horror as the woman fights Dalton hand-to-hand. Every time she connects with his skin he yelps in pain as her burning hands scald him. Another recruiter descends on Dalton from behind, but is stopped in his tracks as Luke sends a fireball smashing into the ground at his feet. The explosion launches the man high into the air and knocks both Dalton and the redhead off their feet.
I hear a painful shout and look over to see a large man holding Aiden up against a wall by the cuff of his jacket. Before I can move to get to him though, Sebastian appears behind the recruiter with a broken slab of concrete and smashes it over his head.
The man barely flinches from the contact but drops Aiden, who crumples in a heap on the ground. The recruiter turns to face Sebastian, grabbing him with his powerful hands. Soren surges towards the man, but he’s too slow, and the recruiter launches Sebastian up into the air like a rag doll, hurling him into the abyss behind us.
His body flies through the air almost as if it were in slow motion. My heart stills and my blood turns as cold as ice as I watch. I scream and race towards him, but he disappears from view, down into the chasm the recruiters have created.
‘No!’ I yell, falling to my knees, my heart wrenching inside. It can’t be true. Please don’t be true.
I feel the slightest shift in the air to my left and turn to see Sebastian appear just above me, his body hurtling through the air before he crashes into the ground.
I clamber to my feet and stumble over to him, completely oblivious to the fighting that goes on around us. He’s not moving and his chest isn’t rising and falling. Is he breathing?
I kneel down beside him, taking his hand in mine. ‘Sebastian?’ I say, but he doesn’t respond. There’s a whole lot of blood from a cut on his forehead, but I try to ignore that and lean my head down to hear if he’s breathing.
Destined (The ARC Book 4) Page 15
