by Megan Curd
“But what if I don’t want to get used to it?”
“Hopefully you won’t have to. I’m figuring out a way to escape.”
There was a shuffle and a rustle of covers. I glanced at Sari, who put a finger to her lips. She wasn’t finished listening. I felt a little guilty, but I’d never seen this side of Jaxon. I didn’t want him to go back to his usual snide personality earlier than he needed to.
Alice’s voice regained my attention. “Where would we go, Jax?”
So she’d started calling him Jax. For some reason, I’d felt the need to refrain from calling him that. If I called him Jax, he would win. That’s what he wanted; for me to acknowledge him as familiar. I smiled at the thought of my mini resistance against him.
“Anywhere but here,” he said fiercely. “We’ll find a dome that’s safe, change our names, and blend in. But until we leave, you need to make me a promise.”
“What’s that?”
“That you’ll fight. Not against what’s happening to you, I don’t mean that, but that you’ll fight to stay positive in the face of adversity. Anyone can be positive when things are going right. It’s when things are at their lowest that our integrity and determination are tested. I failed that test. Every day I regret how I’ve handled myself in the past. I don’t want you to lose yourself because of the hand you’ve been dealt. This situation isn’t permanent. You’ll make it out to see the other side, and Avery, Sari, and I will be there with you.”
The depth of his words surprised me. It was becoming obvious that the arrogance he usually displayed was a ruse.
Sari gave me a look that seemed to say I told you so. I pushed her shoulder teasingly and she held in a laugh.
“You like her, don’t you?” Alice said out of the blue.
He coughed. “What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Avery?”
Alice huffed the way she always did when she got annoyed at me for playing dumb. She had no patience for people avoiding her questions, and her desire for good gossip was insatiable. “No, I mean your shadow. Of course I mean Avery.”
I leaned in closer to the sliver of the open door, so I wouldn’t miss anything. I was suddenly a lot more interested in eavesdropping.
Sari grinned at me, her voice barely audible. “Oh no, you need to learn the answer to that question on your own.”
“Don’t you dare, Sari. I want to hear his answer!”
There was no stopping her. She pushed past me, opened the door and strode in as though she owned the place. I tried to grab her ankles, but she dodged, leaving me grasping air and nearly falling on my face. “Alice, how are you feeling?” she said.
In the uneven light that poured from the hallway, Jaxon appeared flushed. His eyes met mine but only for a moment. Had Alice’s question embarrassed him? I internally cursed Sari for breaking their conversation off.
He crawled to the foot of the bed and stood, stuffing his hands in his pockets and focusing on Alice.
She smiled weakly and rested her head against the wooden headboard. Along the top were beautiful filigree ivy designs that spread over the corners and halfway down the sides. She reached up and traced one of the vines with a finger. “I’m okay, I guess.”
Her eyes bore into Jaxon’s, and I had to fight back a chuckle. I knew that expression; it was the same one I’d received time and time again when she’d barely missed out on a juicy bit of information. Jaxon was in trouble; Alice wouldn’t let this rest until she had her answer, come hell or high water. She pulled her focus from him and shifted to Sari. “My chest hurts, but Jax said that would pass.”
Sari sat down beside her. “ Good. Jax knows what he’s talking about. He won’t lead you wrong.”
As they began to talk, Jaxon sidled over to me and nudged me with his shoulder. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah. I told Xander I’d stop by and check on Legs.”
He nodded thoughtfully and then smiled. “Fair enough. Afterward you’re mine. Deal?”
“You make it sound so sinister.”
He swept his arm around the lower half of his face to obscure his nose and mouth then leaned in close to me. “Maybe because it is,” he said in a creepy voice. “You forget that I’m quite unrefined.”
“Really? I wouldn’t think so after seeing you be so kind to Alice.”
“I have my moments, then I return to my natural state of sarcasm. The world is full of too-nice people. I’m here to keep the balance.”
“Always thinking of others.”
He gave me one of the biggest smiles I’d ever seen. It took my breath away. “In a completely self-serving way, yes.”
He extended his elbow to me in an open invitation. I accepted it and called over to Sari one last time. “You going to be okay here?”
“Of course. Go save the world or whatever it is you two are planning to do.”
As we left the room I realized I’d be content to start with saving ourselves.
THE COLD HALLS of the academy seemed to suck the warmth from my body as Jaxon and I walked soundlessly beside one another. Moonlight washed all the color from the banners that hung eerily still in the night, and the splashing of the water into the fountain pool echoed against the walls in the absence of the usual commotion. It was almost ethereal.
Jaxon’s rhythmic breathing was the only reassurance that I wasn’t alone in the near darkness. The low-powered emergency lights flickered, preventing my eyes from ever really adjusting. We trekked by touch, which I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with. It felt too intimate and made me reliant on him to lead the way.
“For having electricity, this place doesn’t use it when you need it most.”
He laughed. “Just because you have something, doesn’t mean you misuse it.”
“So you’re saying we’re conserving energy for more important things?”
“Precisely.”
“Such as?”
His voice hardened. “Such as trying to keep people out. I never said the usages were for good things, only that the academy conserved where they could.”
I hated being dependent on anyone, especially the handsome dreadlocked boy whose angular features were exaggerated in this light. I caught his eyes locked onto mine, which made me self-conscious. I pulled the band from around my wrist and quickly pulled my wild hair back into a messy bun. I eyed him warily. “What are you looking at?”
“I would think that was obvious.”
“Me?”
His answer was a snort, and he continued into the atrium. He exuded assurance in each step, but what I first mistook for arrogance, I began to see was self-preservation. We weren’t so different. Neither of us was willing to get to know anyone or give them a chance for fear of being hurt. We simply handled it differently.
He stopped when he reached the fountain and looked back in my direction. The moonlight enhanced his already attractive appearance. “Are you going to stand in the hallway, or are you coming with me? I thought you wanted to go visit your boyfriend?”
I was startled by his playful accusation and walked toward him, waving away his words with a quick snap of my wrist. “Legs isn’t my boyfriend. Xander asked me to stop by because he was asking about me.”
Jaxon resumed the journey to Xander’s office. “Uh huh. I wonder if you’d come see me, were I in the infirmary. I’m pretty sure I’d be lucky to get a card.”
“Only if the card was free.”
We both started laughing. He looked my way, but quickly returned to watching our surroundings.
Did I seriously just flirt with him?
Part of me wanted to do a fist pump for pulling it off without crashing and burning.
We arrived down the small corridor that led to Xander’s office. The brilliance of the fluorescent lights spilled through the frosted glass door at the end of the hall. Our steps echoed as we increased our pace. It seemed Jaxon was ready to get this part of our night over with.
His hand wrapped around the steel door handle, and as he began to walk in, I heard him gasp. “For the love of God…”
I fell in step behind him, anxious to see what the commotion was about.
Sitting on the center examining table was Legs hooked up to Riggs’s mechanical arm. His face was filled with sheer elation as he bent the arm at the elbow; the cogs whirred in finely tuned and oiled synchronization. The metal fingers clinked together as he flexed the hand instinctively, the focus on his face clear.
I let out a jittery laugh, and his head snapped in my direction. “You came!”
Jaxon pointed to his chest then waved his bandaged arm as though it were evidence in a court case. “Don’t mind me. I’m the guy that saved you, never mind that you stabbed me while in a drug-induced panic. No reason to acknowledge my presence. Carry on.”
Legs narrowed his eyes at him, and I briefly wondered if he would try to crush him with the ultra-strong arm he now possessed. He seemed to deliberate as he chewed the inside of his cheek. Finally he smiled sheepishly and waved his new arm. “My fault. Hello.”
Jaxon shrugged and walked back to the corner of Xander’s room. The leather chair gave a whoosh of air as he tossed himself into it with an exaggerated, melancholy sigh and grabbed a nearby book. As he flipped the pages disinterestedly, he muttered to himself so low I was able to only catch a few words, most of them colorful.
I turned my focus back to Legs. He sat quietly, in obvious wonderment, as Xander checked all of the connections. I glanced to the corner where I knew a camera was mounted. A cord dangled from it, and it was turned toward the niche on the other side of the room. Xander must have disarmed it. Sari was going to have to keep Riggs from noticing that.
“So how’d this happen?” I asked Xander, as I motioned toward the arm. “I thought you said it was impossible to get it.”
A crooked smile tickled the corner of his lips. “Impossible for you.” His mischievous grin made me laugh. A small can sat at the edge of the bed, which he picked up to oil one particular cog that wasn’t moving as seamlessly as the others. “For me, it was a matter of explaining to Riggs that I wanted to run tests on a few subjects in order to create a more powerful version. He happily agreed to let me borrow it, as long as it came back in one piece. I agreed, since he never set a return date.”
The comment about subjects made my skin crawl.
His eyes caught mine, and his smile faltered. “I thought you’d be happy I got him the arm—”
“No, no, I’m happy.” I didn’t want to offend him. “But when you say subject…”
“He doesn’t have a tracker, if that’s what you mean. That would defeat the purpose of your little mission now, wouldn’t it?”
I was glad to have the confirmation that he hadn’t accidentally ruined our plans before they were even in place. “Yes, it would. Sorry.” I laughed at myself for being worried.
“It’s okay. Come take a look. I think you’ll be impressed.”
I neared Legs, and he held out his arm. My fingers traced the thin steel poles that ran along the sides and protected the central shaft like a metal skeleton. The intricacies of the apparatus, though made of mere metal and wire, were beautiful.
“It’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.” My fingers ran up to the shoulder, where his flesh now met the steel beams. A large bandage covered the connecting point at the elbow, but I assumed it would look a bit strange when it came off. I traced the line of the cloth, and he winced. “Does it hurt?”
He wiggled his metal fingers. “A little, but being able to move my fingers again is nice, even if they’re prosthetics.”
“This arm is going to be better than your human arm by a hundred times,” Xander said confidently.
Legs’s gentle eyes never left mine. “I’ll be happy to be able to hug someone again.”
I couldn’t help staring at his flesh hand covering my own. What did he see there? Friendship? Solidarity? Hope for more? When he spoke, my eyes lifted to meet his.
“Thank you for saving me. Seems like we always find a way to help each other survive. I owe you.”
“Along with me,” Jaxon called from the corner.
“Along with you,” Legs said cheerfully, his eyes never leaving mine. “You really are a welcome sight, Avery. Beauty in the face of horrible things.”
Across the corner of the room, Xander coughed back what sounded like a laugh, and I closed my eyes in embarrassment. “I do have something interesting to report that Legs isn’t telling you.” Leaning casually against the countertop, he pulled a vial of blood from his jacket pocket and lifted it up to the light. The crimson liquid stained the container as he tilted it. “Legs is able to mimic some of your abilities now.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Not in the slightest. I’m not sure why he hasn’t mentioned it.”
Legs flashed me a look before breaking into a wide smile. “I was circumvented by Jaxon’s pouting.”
“I don’t believe in pouting,” Jaxon said. “I simply believe in making sure people are aware of my discomforts, so they’ll be remedied in a timely manner. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.”
“The squeaky wheel also gets replaced,” Legs said, fighting to keep his face impassive. These two were going to kill each other if they stayed together much longer.
“Well, let me see something before we leave,” I said hastily, hoping to postpone the impending wrestling match. “Let’s see if you’re on par with me.”
“I’m not,” Legs said with a small smile. “I can light candles or make Xander’s coffee steam more than it should. Nothing like bursting wine goblets into flames.”
I dropped my gaze and felt Jaxon’s eyes on me. He didn’t know that story. “So you heard about that, huh?”
“Word travels fast here. Riggs called Xander down, and when he came back, he was cracking up as he told me the story. He said you gave that Riggs guy a pretty good scare,” Legs said smugly. “Serves him right. I’ll make sure he gets what’s coming to him.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Jaxon interjected. “He’s my father.”
“Let’s not get into that right now.” Xander said, apparently unhappy with the digression of the conversation.
He opened a drawer and rummaged through it, the contents rattling and clanking together. Finally, he extracted a long candle and pointed it at Legs.
“Show them your candle trick, my friend.”
He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the candle. Nothing happened.
After a few seconds of silence, Jaxon’s patience waned. “Excellent trick; stare the candle into submission.”
The wick suddenly burst into a flame too large for the candle to control. Half the wax softened and melted. Xander dropped it in surprise, but then whooped in excitement.
“See there, Jax! I wouldn’t make him mad if I were you. Before long, Avery will be able to coach him on how to handle this.”
I doubled over from laughing at Jaxon’s disgruntled face and applauded Legs. “Nice one!”
His face beamed with excitement.
I was full of mixed emotions. Legs was creating elements. I hadn’t been able to master that. Did Xander know my shortcomings? Maybe Legs could teach me how to do that. I tried to keep my voice carefree. “Xander, how’d this happen?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I think it’s something in your blood. I’ve never seen anyone manifest abilities if they hadn’t been exposed to radiation, and Legs swears he’s never been exposed.”
Jaxon stood with his arms crossed. “Excellent. Now we’ve got Avery’s blood making everyone odd.”
Xander extended the vial to Jaxon. “Would you like to test the theory?”
He snapped his fingers in mock disappointment. “Damn, Xander, that was my goal yesterday—to become a repeat human guinea pig. You missed the deadline. Lucky for you, I’m sure Riggs will have you testing that theory on subjects in no time.”
I gripped his ar
m tightly. “Jaxon, he’s on our side.”
Jaxon’s eyes burned with anger as he shrugged me off. “I don’t even know why you’d ask me that, Xander. Have you been spending too much time with Riggs? I thought you were supposed to be on our side, like Avery said.”
Xander dropped his gaze to the floor, appearing battered by Jaxon’s words. “I apologize, Jax. There was no ill intention. It wouldn’t hurt you.” He looked at me sincerely. “I was simply trying to see if Avery was the—shall we say—universal donor for abilities as she’s the universal donor for blood type. It would be a huge step forward.”
“I understand,” I said, “but let’s keep that between the four of us. Information like this could get me into trouble.”
He deposited the small vial of my blood back in his pocket. “Indeed it could. We’ll see how Legs takes to the new abilities and go from there.”
Jaxon, obviously flustered by the turn of events, fidgeted with a stray dreadlock. “Well, it’s been real, but can we go now?”
I gave Legs a quick hug and a small kiss on the cheek. “Keep practicing,” I said in his ear. “It takes a lot out of you to create elements, so take your time. And let your new arm heal. It won’t do you any good to try to work on elementalist things when you aren’t one hundred percent yourself.”
He smiled and put his hand on mine. “You got it, boss.” As I made to pull away, he squeezed my hand and pulled me back to him. “I came for you, Avery.”
Jaxon wedged his way between us. I couldn’t see his face, but his tone made his displeasure clear. “And I went for her before you and succeeded. Respect that.”
“You kidnapped her from her home,” Legs said evenly as he pushed himself off the bed and stood toe to toe with him. Their chests pressed against one another as they sized each other up. “There’s no pride in committing a felony, Mr. Pierce, although for some reason you seem to think that makes her your property.”
“So you coming to get her on orders from your government is supposed to be any more altruistic?” Jaxon snorted. “Please, save your words for someone who believes them.”
