“Not now,” he said.
“Nope, not now,” Gina parroted, continuing to step backward. Black smoke poured from her fingertips, billowing around them. “But soon, my lovelies. Very soon.” She turned to walk away, disappearing around the corner of the building. In groups of two or three, the rioters moved away as well, vanishing in the cloud of smoke and the surrounding darkness. Within minutes, only Maia and her friends were left in the quad as the smoke dissipated, floating away in the slight breeze.
“Well, that could have gone better,” Beck muttered.
“Nobody died,” Wren replied. “I count that as a win.”
“But none of this makes any sense.” Miranda threw up her hands. “I get that it wants to feed or whatever, but why bring all those people out here? Just to gloat at us?”
“The thing does seem like a bit of a show-off,” Maia said. “Likes to have an audience, maybe?”
“I think it's more than that,” Professor Kennedy said slowly, eyes narrowed like he was working out a puzzle. “It's trying to get in your heads. Not directly. It's not strong enough—Beck proved that. But It wants you to know It's watching. It knows where you are. Knows what you're doing. And It’s not worried . . . at all.”
Miranda bumped Chloe's arm. “What did Gina say to you, anyway?”
“What?”
“When she whispered in your ear?”
Chloe shrugged, looking at the ground. “You know, typical stuff. You'll never defeat me kind of garbage.” Maia thought maybe she was missing something when Miranda gave her a long look, but she let it drop.
“So It's trying to psych us out,” Beck said.
“Well, It's doing a good job!” Miranda snapped. “How are we supposed to prepare for this epic fight if It's watching our every move and is always one step ahead of us?”
“We have to be more careful,” Chloe replied, voice calm despite her trembling hands. She clenched them into fists at her sides. “We don't let It see. We have Wren and now Maia. They can keep us hidden when we need to be.”
Ethan unfurled her fingers and took her hand in his. “We now know that It's watching, so we'll make sure there's nothing to see.”
“Will that work?” Wren asked Professor Kennedy. “Can It, I don't know, sense us somehow?”
He frowned. “From what I've read in the journal, It can, to a certain extent—but only if It's focused on looking.”
“So, we don't give It reason to look,” Beck said with a shrug. “It seems like It's using its lackeys to keep an eye on us, so when we need to be one place, we'll just let them think we're in another.”
“Easy enough,” Wren said. She nodded at Maia. “We can take care of that.”
“We'll need to find another place to train, though,” Chloe said. “Obviously, the practice field is too exposed. We need something more remote.”
“I'd offer my place,” the professor said, “but they’ve seen me with you, so I'm sure I'll be watched as well, if I'm not already.”
“How about the quarry?” Ethan suggested.
Chloe shook her head. “Too much traffic.”
“The park's too exposed.” Beck started to pace. “The old airport might work.”
“They're starting construction on a bunch of new homes near there,” Miranda said. “I saw it in the paper. People will be all over the place.”
Maia cleared her throat. “I think I might know a place.”
They all looked at her in surprise. She was new in town, so it was understandable.
“It's isolated, but not far from our place—maybe an hour's hike?” she said. “I found it when I first got to town and I've been out there a couple times since, when I needed to get away and think about, you know, things.” She shrugged. “I've never seen anyone else out there. I think it could work, maybe.”
The group exchanged questioning glances, then seemed to shrug in unison.
“Worth a shot,” Chloe said. “First thing in the morning, let's go check it out.”
“How did you find this place, anyway?” Chloe asked, clinging to Maia's left hand while Ethan held her other one and Miranda took up the rear in their odd human chain. Maia had assured her that they didn't need to be touching for her power to render them all invisible, but Chloe thought it was better to be safe than sorry. It was probably putting her gift to the test anyway. They'd been walking for almost forty-five minutes and Miranda said the longest Maia had gone was thirty.
She didn't seem tired, though. If anything, she seemed energized; as if happy she had found a purpose in the group. She navigated the overgrown trail easily, dodging overhanging branches and hopping over fallen logs, and Chloe found herself breathing heavily as she tried to keep up.
Maia glanced back at Chloe and opened her mouth to respond to her question, but Miranda hissed from the back of the line.
“Don't distract her!”
Maia rolled her eyes. “I'm fine. Really. It's like a faucet—once I figured out how to turn it on and off, regulating the flow is pretty easy.” She looked back at Chloe again before turning to step over a root. “I've always been a hiker, but didn't really get to do it much in Seattle. When I moved here, I got out as much as I could to try and explore. I had no idea this trail even existed . . . just stumbled across it one day.”
Chloe wasn't sure she believed in chance anymore, but didn't say anything.
“So you two are cousins,” Ethan said. “Were you close as kids?”
Maia laughed. “Miranda hated me.”
“I did not!” Miranda retorted. “I just thought you were so mean, at first. You wouldn't even talk to me.”
“How old were you?” Ethan asked.
“Twelve. Miranda was ten.”
“You're only two years older than us, and you're already in grad school?” Chloe stumbled over a root and Ethan caught her. “I didn't realize that.”
“She's a brainiac,” Miranda said. “Two years of college while she was in high school and still graduated at the top of her class.”
Maia kept her gaze forward, but Chloe could make out the hint of embarrassed color in her cheeks.
“Anyway,” she said. “I came out to stay with Miranda and her mom when my parents got divorced. It was a tough time, obviously, and my mom—well, my mom was dealing with her own stuff and so I was kind of in my own head a lot, you know.”
“Must have been rough,” Chloe said quietly. Maia shrugged, but said nothing else.
“Are we there yet?” Miranda whined loudly, breaking the tension.
Maia laughed. “Almost. Just around this next bend.”
Wren, Beck, and Professor Kennedy would be waiting for them, most likely. Or would get there soon after? Chloe wasn't sure. It was weird to think that Chloe and the others would be frozen in time as Wren’s group passed them by. Maia had given Wren directions and drawn a rough map and Wren was confident she could get Beck and the professor there, hidden by her own power.
As far as anyone watching was concerned, Beck and Wren were at her house, Chloe and Ethan were at the Alpha house, and Miranda and Maia were at home. Sure, it was a little unusual for them all to still be in town when Christmas break was already underway, but not unheard of. The actual holiday was still a week away, and there were more than a few students milling around town, working last minute shifts to make a little extra holiday money or just hanging out with their friends.
It took some planning and coordination to figure out who would go where to get who, but they worked it out. Two groups—one invisible, thanks to Maia, the other moving through a world suspended in time, thanks to Wren—and they’d join up once they’d reached the place that Maia told them about. A safe place to train, away from Chaos’ minions.
Chloe hoped so, at least. They decided to wait until they got where they were going to let down their guard a bit.
Sure enough, they rounded the corner and Wren and the others were standing just a few feet ahead at what looked like the top of a hill. Maia released Chloe's hand and Wre
n startled in surprise, then smiled and waved as they all came into sight once again.
“Took you long enough,” Beck said crossing his beefy arms over his chest with a smirk.
“Shut up,” Chloe said, without heat. “Some of us are bound by the laws of physics. Well, time at least. Besides—”
The words fell from her lips as they arrived at the hilltop and she saw what lay beyond.
Or rather, saw it again.
At her feet, the ground dropped down to a large clearing surrounded by trees. Dried grass swayed in the breeze, the sparkling early morning sunshine cutting through sparse clouds overhead creating an almost idyllic portrait.
It was a startling contrast to how Chloe had always seen the clearing—filled with the sights and sounds of battle and bloodshed, thick black smoke hovering over the ground and twisting into a wild tornado of destruction on the far side.
Despite the differences, she was sure it was the same clearing. And despite her efforts to ignore them, Gina's hissed words echoed in her brain—words whispered in a gleeful threat that she dared not repeat to anyone. That was something she'd need to figure out how to deal with on her own. And from the looks of things, she'd better figure it out quickly.
“Chloe?” Ethan squeezed her hand. “What's wrong?”
For a moment, she wondered if she was once again caught in a vision, if reality had been pushed aside for a peek at the future. “Do you see it?” she whispered.
“See what?” Ethan asked.
“The clearing?” She pointed. “The woods?”
Ethan looked at her in concern. “Of course I see it. Chlo, what's wrong?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat and the reflexive terror in her bones.
“This is it,” she said.
“What?”
She tore her gaze from the clearing; the images from the vision melting into the current landscape and out again. She looked into the concerned faces of her friends, filled with the sudden urge to take them all and run back home. Pretend they'd never found it. Pretend it never happened—would never happen.
But she knew better. More than anyone else, Chloe knew there was no escaping their joint future.
So, although she couldn't paint on a smile, she forced what she hoped was a look of grim determination onto her face. One that hid the fear making her insides tremble and her heart pound heavily in her chest.
“This is where it happens,” she said. “This is where we fight.”
Chloe was on the verge of sleep when she heard movement downstairs and muffled voices. She was already sitting up when Maia knocked lightly on her door and poked her head in.
“Someone's here to see you.”
She glanced at her alarm clock. “It's two in the morning.”
Maia arched an eyebrow. “I have a feeling you won't want to miss this.”
It had been a long day training, followed by another long hike home. They'd made some progress, though. The self-defense with Professor Kennedy was coming along—Chloe was even able to throw Ethan onto his back, so she felt pretty good about that, even though she hurt her shoulder in the process. The professor said she'd get better at it with practice.
Beck was finally able to put his strength through its paces—throwing boulders and hefting fallen logs around the clearing just to see what he could do.
He was fast, too. They had yet to time him, but Chloe could barely follow his progress when he ran at full speed. That had to come in handy at some point.
Maia, though. Maia was amazing. Her power seemed almost limitless—and incredibly precise. She could vanish a tree from forty feet away—and the entire group, even when they scattered themselves around the clearing. It took focus, though. So they'd need to figure out how to best use her gift, as well.
They were still working on a plan, but for the first time she felt confident that they'd come up with one.
Stifling a yawn and stretching out her aching shoulder, Chloe slipped out of bed and found Miranda rubbing her eyes as she emerged from her own room.
“What's going on?” she asked.
Chloe shrugged and they both followed Maia downstairs. Chloe was surprised to find Dylan—the barista from the coffee shop—dressed in a ratty t-shirt, plaid pajama pants, and socks that looked soaking wet, standing awkwardly by the front door.
“Dylan? Is everything okay? Did something happen to your dad?” Miranda asked.
“His dad?” Chloe asked.
Miranda looked at her, blinking. “I didn't realize—” She shook her head. “Dylan's Professor Kennedy's son.”
Chloe couldn't even find it in herself to be surprised at the connection. “Is he okay?” she asked.
“My dad?” Dylan replied, confusion creasing his brow. “Yeah, he's fine. Why would something be wrong with him?” He ran a hand through his hair which was already standing on end. “I . . . I don't know. I'm not even sure what I'm doing here.”
“Did you . . . did you walk all the way here?”
Dylan shrugged. “I guess? I mean . . . I woke up and I was on your front step.”
Chloe exchanged a look with Maia, who sighed. “I know the feeling.” She turned to head to the kitchen. “Anyone want tea? Something stronger? I know I sure do.”
Dylan watched her go, his mouth hanging open. “Is she okay? I mean, other than having a strange guy show up on your doorstep in the middle of the night.”
Chloe let out a short laugh. “Yeah, well. Believe it or not, this isn't the weirdest thing that's happened around here lately.”
“That's putting it mildly,” Miranda said, shuffling past them without looking at either of them and curled up in the chair, wrapping the afghan around her shoulders. “Let me guess,” she said to Dylan. “You had a strange dream.”
“Umm . . . yeah.”
“And Chloe and/or this house figured prominently in said dream.”
He glanced nervously at Chloe, then nodded. “Yeah.”
“And then you ended up here and you're not exactly sure why, but you felt compelled, or drawn here or whatever.”
“Yeah. What's this all about?”
Maia poked her head through the doorway. “Tea's ready. I found some cookies, too.”
“No, wait,” Dylan protested. “I want to know what's going on.”
Chloe patted him on the shoulder. “You'll get your answers, but take the tea,” she said. “Believe me, you're going to need it.”
The Order faces the ultimate battle in…
Super Natural: The New Super Humans, Book Three.
Get your copy today!
My editor, Kathie Spitz
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All the amazing authors of Enchanted Publications
The T.M. Franklin Book Club and T.M. Franklin ARC Team
…and of course, to my wonderful family for their never ending support.
T.M. Franklin writes stories of adventure, romance, & a little magic. A former TV news producer, she decided making stuff up was more fun than reporting the facts. Her first published novel, MORE, was born during National Novel Writing month, a challenge to write a novel in thirty days.
MORE was well-received, being selected as a finalist in the 2013 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Awards, as well as winning the Suspense/Thriller division of the Blogger Book Fair Reader's Choice Awards. She's since written novels in a variety of genres, as well as several best-selling short stories...and there's always more on the way.
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The MORE Trilogy
“Reminiscent of the Mortal Instruments series... only better!” – Penny Dreadful Reviews
MORE
The Guardians
TWELVE
The New Super Humans
Super Humans
Super Powers
Super Natural
Super Heroes
Standalone Books
A Fun and Quirky YA Romance
How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You
Adventure and Romance on the High Seas
Cutlass
A Magical Holiday Romance
Second Chances
Visions of Sugar Plums
Short Stories
Unscheduled Departure
A Piece of Cake
Super Powers: The New Super Humans, Book Two Page 14
