A quarter mile away, tiny people ran around the meadow, screaming and trying in vain to put out the fires that raged all around them. The forest was on fire in three different places, but two of the fires threatened to merge and become one unstoppable inferno. Here and there the creek glinted in the moonlight, winding through the camp like a silver snake.
“Reid, can you divert the creek toward the fires?” I asked, pointing to where the water came closest to the flames.
“Yeah. Hold on tight.”
We sailed through the air toward the meadow and touched down at the edge of the grassy expanse. Marco and I jumped off the piece of rock, but Reid flew back up into the air and disappeared over the trees.
The ground rumbled, followed by an enormous roar of water. The hiss of steam replaced the crackle of flames as Reid carved a new path for the creek, flooding the area. A few tree tops still burned like torches in the night, but the majority of the fire was extinguished.
Beneath the hissing and crackling, I heard a faint rocky, echoing sound, like bricks tumbling together in a large space.
Reid appeared again, silhouetted by the starry sky, and touched down in the middle of the meadow. Men with buckets and wet blankets ran into the woods to put out the rest of the fire. Marco and I joined him in the crowd, patting him on the back.
His eyes flashed with an astonishing fury that made me shiver. He leaned down to my ear. “You need to see something.”
“In a minute,” I said, spying Elder St. James across the meadow with Mr. Dufresne and other members of the watch team.
I strode up to Elder St. James. He turned to greet me.
I punched him in the jaw.
The watch team stopped talking.
Mr. Dufresne stepped between Elder and me. “What’s gotten into you? Explain yourself!”
I threw Mr. Dufresne aside and put my face inches from Elder’s. “I spoke with Benjamin tonight. He told me what you’d ordered him to do.” I narrowed my eyes. “Guess what I did to him.”
Elder St. James stepped back, obviously doing some very quick thinking. “Now, Jillian, I know this looks bad.”
“Benjamin Corsaro is missing!” I screamed to the crowd. “And this scumbag ordered Matthew Dumont to impersonate him! He’s a liar!”
Murmurs ran through the watch team. People began to crowd around us now that the fire was mostly out. Marco and Reid pushed through the throng.
“What?” Marco said, disbelief coloring his features. “Uncle, what did you do to Benjamin?”
“Benjamin is fine,” Elder said, his hands raised in a placating gesture. “He came to me last night and confessed that he was unhappy as a superhero. He wanted to leave the camp without upsetting you right before the tribunal.”
“Bull,” I growled. “Benjamin has never hidden his feelings from me. If he hated being a superhero, he would’ve had the balls to tell me to my face. Now where is he?”
“Perhaps he sneaked out of the camp through the hidden tunnel I discovered when I redirected the creek,” Reid said, his loud voice rising above the clamor of the crowd.
I looked between Reid, who was white with rage, and my camp’s leader. Elder backed away, but the watch team formed a wall to block him in with my team and me.
Elder St. James gulped. “We—we have caverns around here—”
“Don’t you dare insult my intelligence by suggesting it’s a cave. I’d know the difference between caves and manmade work better than anybody. The entrance collapsed when I moved the earth to put out the fire.”
“A hidden tunnel?” I said through gritted teeth. A horrible picture was beginning to take form in my mind. “The Westerner we questioned said they came to get people! And now Benjamin is missing! Who else is missing? Everyone, form up with your families! Now!” Elder St. James moved to go to his hut, but I grabbed him. “You’re not going anywhere.”
The crowd dispersed in haste to take tally of their families. Reid craned his neck and searched the darkness, no doubt looking for Ember.
“Isabel! Where are you?” My aunt cupped her hands around her mouth and darted from campsite to campsite. “Sweetie! Please!” Her father and sisters joined the search.
“No,” Marco gasped. “Not Isabel.”
Slimy understanding raced down my spine. “Marco, Reid, look for Isabel.”
They raced off, Marco holding up a little orb of light to illuminate the search.
I slowly turned my head and stared at Elder St. James, who wouldn’t look at me. “They’re not going to find her, are they?”
Elder St. James didn’t reply.
“Isabel! Isabel!” Marco’s shouts crept into hysteria. Adora and Melissa burst into tears. Other families began to call for my cousin.
Elder St. James and I stared at each other for many wordless seconds.
I shook my head in stunned disbelief. “What was it going to be this time? She died in the fire, so there’s no body left to find?”
“Jillian…you don’t understand. There’s so much going on that you could never understand.”
“I understand that you threatened Reid to get me to marry Matthew without complaint. I understand that I have seriously threatened whatever little set up you have going on here. I understand that Benjamin and Isabel are gone, and you know where!” My shout echoed around the field. Elder St. James flinched.
I’d tortured Matthew, and had been gearing up to interrogate the Westerner before Reid had stepped in. I could definitely go for a third round with Elder St. James. Where would I start?
Marco’s strangled yell made me look up.
Marco had lifted a small, blackened log off of something a few meters into the burned-out expanse where the fire had been.
I smelled what it was before I saw it: corpses.
Black and shriveled, the remains of two unfortunate people smoked on the ground, unrecognizable. No identifying features were left, making it unclear whether the victims had been male or female, or even adults.
Marco sank to his knees, holding his head and sobbing. My aunt clutched her husband and screamed, while he gazed at the bodies, his eyes devoid of emotion. Caroline doubled over and wailed, tears falling freely from her face.
I didn’t comfort Marco. Instead, I pushed past the gathering people and bent down to examine the bodies for any clues as to who had died. They were face up, the papery skin rippling away from the grinning skulls in the breeze. I looked at the first body from all sides except one. With extreme care I lifted up the remains—the body was very light—and turned it over.
I immediately saw what I’d been looking for: a small hole at the base of the skull.
I repeated my search on the second one, lifting up the body and spotting the same small hole on the back. I glanced at its feet and my theory was solidified.
I got up and kneeled next to Marco, gently pulling him into a hug. “Stop crying,” I whispered into his ear. “That’s not Isabel or Benjamin. But we need to go right now. Save your questions for later.”
He wiped his eyes and sniffed. “Okay.”
I nodded at Reid, who was watching from a distance. He hurried over and helped Marco to his feet, though with difficulty because of Marco’s trembling knees.
I gathered the St. James parents around me. “My team and I are going now,” I said quietly. “I’m positive that’s not Isabel, but I don’t think it’s safe to go around saying that. Act like she’s dead.”
My uncle’s eyes flashed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that someone wants you to think Isabel is dead.” I broke away from them without another word and grabbed Marco and Reid. “Reid, get us in the air. We’re finding Ember and getting the hell out of here.”
Reid pulled us close and another large piece of earth rose up underneath us, taking us high into the sky. He pointed toward the canopy spread out below us. “Start thinking Ember’s name. She says it’s the easiest for her to hear, like we’re attuned to our own names.”
We soared over the
north and eastern forest, where we’d seen the hunting team go that morning. As the trees flew by beneath us, I chanted Ember’s name in my mind. Ember Ember Ember Ember Ember…
I’m here! I just saw you go by above me!
“I heard that,” Reid said, turning us around and descending rapidly. We hopped off and immediately went into defense mode, tense and alert.
Ember crashed through a thicket, thorns and twigs pulling at her uniform. Her face was scratched and bloody, but she was otherwise unharmed.
“I thought you’d never find me,” she said, panting. “When the siren sounded, I asked the animals where it was safest to go and they took me over here. The rest of the guys went toward the center, but I know who I can trust in a forest.”
Reid gathered her up in his arms and kissed her so fiercely that I blushed. His hands seemed to be everywhere at once, though I didn’t sense any sexual intent—it was more like he was reassuring himself that she was truly there.
Ember rested her forehead against his. “Shh, shh, don’t think about it. I’m here. I’m fine. Nobody’s touched me. The cuts are from the bushes. Benjamin can heal them in an instant.” She looked over at Marco and me with an expectant expression. Her smile dimmed when she saw my face. “Where’s Benjamin?”
“He’s gone.” Reid’s passionate embrace was still in my mind—how desperately I needed to know that Benjamin was there. “So is Isabel. Elder St. James did something to them, and it involves the Westerners.”
Ember and I locked eyes. I replayed the day’s events for her like a disjointed movie: Reuben’s heinous punishment, Reid’s near-miss, my coerced engagement to Matthew, his whispered threats in my ear as his sweaty hands slid over my body, his face melting into Benjamin’s, and the volcano of my fury unleashing on him. The final memory was of what I’d seen on the back of the burned bodies.
“Oh my God.” Her hands fell from Reid’s arms. “What are we dealing with?”
“There was a bullet hole on the back of each skull,” I explained to Marco and Reid, whose quizzical looks had reminded me that I hadn’t told them what had made me rush out of the burned clearing so quickly. “I don’t think it was Isabel or Benjamin. I think either the Westerners or Elder killed some poor bastards and wanted us to think it was them. The fact that it was a bullet points to the Westerners, because I’ve never seen a gun in the camp, nor did I ever hear a gunshot.
“On top of that, Benjamin wears steel-soled boots like the rest of us. If the fire wasn’t hot enough to completely destroy the bodies, the steel soles of the boots would’ve survived, but they weren’t there. I think they brought in the bodies and dumped them right before setting the fire. Reid put out the fire earlier than planned.”
Marco cursed. “This is big. I don’t know what we’re looking at, but it’s big. I can feel it.”
“So what are we going to do?” Reid asked, rolling his neck. “Are we going to go back and interrogate Elder St. James, find out what he knows?”
Marco pounded his fist into his other hand. “I say we beat it out of him. If my sister is hurt or… or…”
My team looked at me for direction.
In a fraction of a second I saw two paths stretched out in front of me.
The first one ended at Chattahoochee. I’d stay here at Matthew’s side, his punching bag and broodmare, my freedom given up in exchange for my team’s possible safety. I’d grow into middle age, and probably die of disease or injury by my fiftieth birthday.
That is, if I wasn’t killed at age twenty-one for punching the elder, torturing Matthew, and generally being unpleasant.
The second path was into the unknown. If I left Chattahoochee with my team in tow, we’d be rogues. We’d cut ourselves off from all resources and support. There were no superheroes in existence that operated completely outside of the auspices of the camps and the elders. The few who dared were killed. If we went rogue, it was only a matter of time before we faced a strike team in combat. That was certain.
There was no question as to which path I was going to choose, but I had to give my team their final warning.
I planted my hands on my hips. “To hell with the elders. I’m going after Benjamin and Isabel. I’ll be hunted. If you all go with me, we’ll all be hunted. They’re all going to come after us.”
“I don’t give a crap,” Marco growled. “I want my sister back. I want blood.”
Reid put an arm around Ember’s shoulders. “When we said we’d follow you, we meant it. This changes nothing.” Ember stared up at Reid, who looked down at her with the soft gaze of a lover. “I’ll protect you,” he said softly. “Always.”
I stood up straight, my shoulders pulled back. They copied me, waiting for orders.
“That’s fine with me. But as of this moment, we’re not affiliated with the camps. Elder St. James, and I suspect Elder Campbell and Elder Lloyd, have proved to us that they can’t be trusted, nor do they have our best interests at heart. I don’t know what’s going on or why, but the four of us are going to find out and put a stop to it. We’re getting your sister back, Marco.”
I peered up at the night sky, where Mercury twinkled brightest among the lights. The sloshing fury in my chest hardened like cooling lava.
“We’re not camp heroes anymore, but I believe in right and wrong, and that we have the responsibility as powered people to defend the former and defeat the latter. I believe in the vows I took six months ago. I believe in loyalty to my team, and Benjamin did—does, too. He would never abandon us like a rat in the night.”
Marco nodded emphatically. “So we’re not going to abandon him. I’m in this to the end.”
“Me too,” Reid said.
Ember nodded. “To the very end.”
“Are we changing our codenames?” Marco asked. “We got our codenames when we were part of the camp system. They’re part of our camp identities.”
I snorted. “You can be whoever you want now, but I’m going to be Battlecry until the day I die.”
Ember whooped. “Heck yeah!”
I clapped her on the shoulder. “I need you to do a scan before we go. Reid, get ready to fly again. We’re picking up your brother.”
14
Reuben and Peter were encamped at the far side of Chattahoochee, two miles to the east of the main camp. Reid landed the flying earth and we hopped off. We ignored the small group of onlookers.
However, when I saw Samuel Dumont and my sister Allison, who was holding an infant, I caught their attention.
“Matthew is in the forest by the north wall. He’ll need crutches for a while.” I didn’t wait for their response. I found Reuben and Peter’s tarp by a small creek. “Hey, Peter!”
Peter sat next to Reuben at the base of a tree. Reuben was laid out on the ground, breathing heavily.
Peter stood and looked at me with curious eyes. “You’re Jillian, right?”
The hardened lava in my chest turned back into churning, molten hatred.
I’d kill him. I’d kill everyone like him who didn’t defend their teammates from injustice.
I rushed him, slamming him into the tree as I had Matthew, and squeezed his windpipe. He clutched my wrist and I let go suddenly with a yell. My arm hair sizzled. Palm-shaped burns wrapped around my forearm where he’d touched me.
“You’re crazy,” he gasped, flames igniting in his hands. “I don’t know what this is about, but you’re going to lose.”
This was going to be fun.
I unsheathed the knife on my thigh—the only one I’d brought to camp—and gripped it. “You know exactly what this is about.”
Peter shot a bolt of fire at me, then another.
I twisted and ducked around the flames and swiped at his head, which he blocked with a deft motion of his arm.
He aimed a series of jabs toward my face and neck which I countered with my forearm.
A column of flames sent me backwards, but I turned my steps into a hasty spin and kicked him. Peter flew into the creek.
&
nbsp; After throwing down my knife, I jumped into the water and held him below the water’s surface. I pinned his hands to his neck and used my weight to keep him under. His eyes grew wide as bubbles floated up from his mouth, his air and life leaving him.
He was drowning, just as I’d said Patrick had during my testimony.
“Die,” I hissed.
For a brief second, I did not see Peter’s pale face below the water, but Patrick’s. I was no longer in a freezing creek, murdering Baltimore’s superhero leader, but in a living room of a house in which I hadn’t lived in six months. I was charging at Patrick, enjoying the naked terror on his face, finally allowing my fear to morph into wrath and fuel me. Weeks later, I’d let that same wrath take over while I delighted in drawing out Patrick’s death.
Benjamin had begged me to stop.
Benjamin. Sweet, kind, caring, gentle Benjamin.
Benjamin, who was gone.
I hoisted Peter out of the water.
He dropped onto the bank and coughed, water gushing out of his nose and mouth. I kicked him in the ribs one, two, three times and he dropped, breathing but unconscious.
I walked past my stone-faced teammates. “We’re wasting time. Reid, help me get your brother.”
If any of them disagreed with my decision to kill Peter, and then to spare him, they didn’t show it. I even heard Marco’s dark chuckle. He was shaking his head. “You almost killed him. Can you imagine having to explain that to his team?”
“Take a wild guess how much I care.”
Reid and I carefully lifted Reuben onto a slab of floating earth. His branding was hideous, bright red and oozing. I could smell the blood from his back.
Reuben’s eyelids fluttered. “Gab..rela?”
“Sorry, Rube,” Reid said, holding Reuben’s hand. “It’s just us.”
Reuben groaned. “Home.”
“We need to take him home to his wife,” I said, brushing the hair from his head. “But I have no idea how to get to Baltimore from here. The truck is on the other side of the camp, and none of us can drive.”
Sentinel Page 11
