Anomaly

by K. A. Tucker

  “Evangeline, what did you just do?” Sofie called out behind me.

  I didn’t stop to explain. I couldn’t explain. “I just wished that I could see the city again. And now I can.” Come to think of it, everything I’d discovered about what I could do was based on what I wanted to do.

  Sofie muttered in French—if I had to guess, it was a curse—before she said to the others, “Follow her and see where this goes. And keep your senses peeled for him.”

  They followed me as I ran along the street, asking Sofie for directions as I came to intersections. The rest of the time, I pondered this strange magic that Sofie swore was not her kind of magic. When I’d wanted Julian—my friend and not the crazed maniac about to attack me—I compelled him and he came back. When I met Dixon, I felt the overwhelming urge to heal his leg and I’m pretty sure I did that. I knew that I’d helped that little boy in the car crash because I saw it with my own eyes. I demanded that Julian never look at a human with intent to harm again. And he hadn’t.

  When I took my friends’ pain away after Amelie’s loss, it wasn’t because I was following a set of rules or weaving some elaborate spell, or begging the Fates to grant my prayers. I wanted to do it.

  And it was done.

  Could it be that simple?

  And here, I wanted to see the city for what it was. Now I could.

  Was that all it would take? A thought, a desire, a wish? If that was the case, what kind of magic was it? It seemed to have no bounds.

  And if it had no bounds …

  I could have anything I wanted.

  Would it be an endless parade of wishes, though?

  When we passed the hauntingly beautiful Fifth Avenue building that had held so many secrets, I slowed. It was wonderful to see it standing again, the wrought iron grates along the lower windows and intricate plaster detail stirring nostalgia. For the horrors that had transpired within these walls, I’d also discovered a new life within it.

  If I pushed through the doors, would I find the dreamlike atrium inside?

  I moved again, picking up speed until running, everyone tailing me. I didn’t slow again.

  Not until the address that Viggo had taunted us with—firmly emblazoned in my head—appeared before my eyes. A sleek, all-glass building of no more than twenty floors stretched into the night sky. “This is it.” Based on what Sofie had mapped out on the kitchen table, we were just one block over from the subway construction site.

  “Are you sure? What if you’re wrong?” The hollowness in Julian’s voice told me that the real site—not the one through my eyes—held no promise.

  With great reluctance, I willed myself to see reality. My eyes opened to a heap of rubble. My stomach clenched. The eerie silence only seemed to grow as I watched Julian step forward, climbing over brick and concrete and steel.

  Ripping his mask off, Julian cast it aside. “Maybe you’re wrong.” He set his jaw in a way that I knew guaranteed only heartbreak.

  I took a step forward, shifting hunks of concrete this way and that. A piece of metal pinged against a steel beam. Glancing down, dismay turned my stomach. Holding the metal plaque with the number of the building up in front of me, all I could offer my friend was the truth. “I’m sorry, Julian. I’m not wrong.”

  His eyes drifted from the plaque to my face to the plaque, and then to the pile of rubble beneath him. “She’s somewhere in here, isn’t she?” I don’t think it was meant as a question. Reaching down, he began tossing chunks of concrete, each one sailing like children’s building blocks. Several times we had to dive away to avoid their path.

  Sofie casually turned to scope out the area around us. Though I couldn’t see her face, I knew her eyes were narrowed. “Do you sense him?”

  I could. Like a piece of food stuck in my tooth, I was ever aware of his presence. I also knew he hadn’t kept up once we’d begun running. “He’s about four miles back.” I knew it as well as I knew my own name.

  Perhaps because I wanted to know it.

  “He could close that distance in under two minutes,” Sofie said as she pulled off her mask, tossing it to the ground next to Mage’s. “But I suppose it’s far enough for now.” Turning to face me, her eyes weighed me down like bricks on my shoulders, a mixture of apprehension and curiosity and awe swirling around her. Could she read me as readily as I could read her? Or was this another bonus ability?

  “You are full of surprises lately, Evangeline.”

  You’re telling me, Max grumbled in my head, the rumble of his voice igniting a spark of thrill. His silent treatment had been killing me!

  “I didn’t know that I could do that,” I said.

  Fiona and Bishop, their masks also cast away, climbed on the pile and helped Julian toss the wreckage away.

  “I have to help them,” Caden whispered. When I turned to look at him, a sheen coated his eyes. That bit of hope he’d been holding onto, that Amelie had somehow gotten away, that she was still alive …

  Gone.

  “They will not find what he’s looking for in this rubble,” Mage murmured softly.

  No, they wouldn’t.

  But what if the rubble were no longer there?

  If this magic was delivered by a genie and this was my third wish, I knew in an instant what that wish would be.

  Stooping to pick up a small hunk of concrete, I wondered if this was possible. I wondered if it was even sane to try. No matter what, I knew it was worth it.

  Closing my eyes, I let my fingers rub against the hard matter. How would one reconstruct this building? Like building a Lego house. One block at a time. I’d seen building constructions before. The concrete blocks and support beams and the cranes. They were built in layers.

  That burn deep within my core began to heat and rise as I pictured the mirage of this site from only minutes ago—standing tall and distinguished along the peaceful street, its walls stretching into the sky, the glass forming a delicate finishing touch.

  The heat rose and filtered through my limbs, warming my entire body with an energy I couldn’t describe. It was an intoxicating feeling that I was willing to let consume me as I stood there in the darkness of human despair.

  Giving Julian and Caden back hope.

  Gasps pulled my eyes open. I think I let one of my own out as I took in the looming structure before me. Everything, right down to the metal address plaque, was perfectly intact. To the left, nothing but destruction. To the right, nothing but destruction.

  But in front of us, a gleaming building stood.

  I’d never seen Mage slack-jawed. Not once. Until that moment.

  Julian tested the glass door to find it unlocked and swinging open. With one last look back my way—his chocolate-brown eyes wide with shock—he bolted for the elevator.

  “Holy shit, there’s even electricity!” Bishop bellowed.

  “We’re going in.” Caden grabbed my hand and tugged me forward.

  Everyone was quick behind us, including Max, to pack into the elevator, wanting to see if this worked. If what I’d intended had happened. I wanted to see it with my own eyes.

  The sign in the lobby said that the Greenpark Brokerage Firm was on the nineteenth floor. Bishop wrapped his arm against a fidgeting Fiona as the elevator ascended.

  Even Lilly’s eyes were filled with anticipation, though she’d never really gotten along with Amelie.

  I think we all wanted to see what I could do, if not for different reasons.

  The elevator dinged.

  The doors opened.

  And I knew.

  I could bring back the dead.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Sofie

  No one could bring back the dead.

  No one but the Fates.

  “By the gods,” Mage hissed beside me as Amelie’s springy blond curls came in to view. Not far behind her was the lone chair, still sitting in front of the window.

  The exact stage that Viggo had set for filming.

  The silvery cord lay on the ground like a
torn party streamer, a broken chair leg beside it. At least Julian was smart enough not to grab the merth with his bare hands.

  Evangeline had turned back time, reconstructing the entire building as we stood by and watched. At first I didn’t believe it. I thought it was some illusionary trick.

  One second we were dodging chunks of concrete as Julian searched in vain. The next, a gentle breeze caressed my cheek and raised the hairs on my neck. I knew that it didn’t belong. I feared it was Viggo swooping in for a quick kill. But glancing around, I quickly dismissed this thought—he was nowhere to be seen. The breeze picked up, catching the attention of Julian and the others. With wary expressions, they stepped off the rubble.

  But Evangeline … she didn’t move. She simply stood with her arms out, eyes closed, and a secretive, satisfied smile curling her lips. She didn’t move from that position when Caden called her, touched her, squeezed her arm.

  She didn’t move when the air grew suddenly thick and then the windstorm blew in, concentrating its force above the building site until it resembled a contained tornado, gray with dirt and ash, roaring with ferocity. We stood by and watched as the wind plucked pieces of rubble from the ground, sucking them into the funnel.

  And then, suddenly, the windstorm evaporated. Left behind was this pristine building.

  “What just happened?” Lilly asked cautiously, her blue eyes bright as saucers as the three of us hung back.

  “A miracle,” Mage whispered. We watched Amelie pry herself from Julian’s arms to throw herself first at her brother, and then at each of her friends, including Max, ending with Evangeline, the bewildered look never leaving Amelie’s face.

  “Should we be worried? I mean, you can’t even do that, can you, Sofie?” Lilly asked.

  “No, I certainly cannot.” I couldn’t ignore the worry pricking at my conscience. I now knew what kind of magic coursed through Evangeline. I’d seen it once before.

  When I had demanded to face the Fates.

  The spark of smoldering flames when she healed the girl, the wind outside to reconstruct this building—I’d bet she was also capable of drawing on water and earth, as necessary.

  An invincible, limitless elemental power that adhered to no rules, who could decimate the fledglings, obliterate the witches and the Sentinel, stop Viggo, all with only a thought.

  The question remained, though.

  Why would the Fates give her their powers?

  This made absolutely no sense!

  “What do you remember?” Julian asked of Amelie, hugging her close. I imagined he’d be clinging on to her for the foreseeable future.

  “I don’t know! I …” Amelie’s hands pushed through her hair as she searched the floor, as if for answers. Not until now had I realized how much I’d missed her raspy voice. “I remember the subway train and chasing the fledglings.” Her pretty face pinched. “Viggo and Jonah were there. Jonah threw the merth around my arm and carried me to this building. Viggo came and then left me. And then I saw …” Her brow spiked as she turned to look out the window. “I saw the missile. I saw it heading right for me and there was nothing I could do. And … it hit. Didn’t it. Didn’t it hit? It had to have hit. Look at it out there!” She paused. “But now I’m here? What are you all wearing?”

  Amelie turned and faced Julian, their lips locking, earning the small group’s laughter. She pulled away, her hands slapping both his cheeks as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “How are you not back in that mine with your bin of blood like the freaking troll that I left, huh?”

  He dipped his head toward Evangeline. “Her. She compelled me.”

  Amelie’s mouth dropped as she turned to regard her friend. “What? How?”

  Evangeline shrugged, but she was smiling. She hadn’t stopped smiling since opening her eyes in front of the building, an ethereal glow radiating from her.

  A pause and then Amelie’s hands waved with their typical dramatic flair. “Okay, seriously. What happened?”

  “We don’t have time for this chatter,” Mage mumbled under her breath, loud enough for me to hear.

  Truly, we didn’t. But I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt this miraculous reunion just yet. “You rose from the dead,” Caden murmured, gazing down on Evangeline’s face with a look of adoration.

  “I rose from the dead?” Amelie parroted. “Dead? Like Fiona dead?” Amelie turned to me. “Sofie? You brought me back to life?”

  A sharp pang stabbed at my heart as I shook my head, knowing what everyone was thinking. No, Sofie was the one who killed you. “Evangeline brought you back.”

  Spinning back to point her index finger in Evangeline’s face, Amelie said, “I knew there was something weird about you. Someone’s gonna have to explain it all to me. But if you don’t mind, I’d rather get out of this building.”

  “No problemo,” Bishop said, throwing one arm around Fiona and weaseling another around Amelie. He pulled her to him with a wink in Julian’s direction.

  “You have ten seconds with her,” Julian warned, his eyes never leaving his girlfriend’s back.

  The six of them, plus Max, strolled casually toward us, masks of peace sitting firmly on their faces.

  As if we weren’t sitting amidst complete ruin.

  As if we didn’t have huge challenges ahead of us.

  Perhaps we no longer did, with Evangeline’s ability.

  Her eyes settled on mine and I smiled. She smiled back, a warm, joyful smile that I hadn’t seen since the few moments after she’d woken up.

  It disappeared just as quickly.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Evangeline

  I felt Viggo slip into the building—an extension of me—like a cold, dark invader. I shivered and instinctively pulled Caden close, ready to throw my body forward in protection as the relentless threat to my happiness lingered downstairs.

  Until it hit me.

  I’d just reassembled a twenty-story building and brought one of my best friends back to life.

  Because I wanted to.

  And if there were no limits to what I could do—as seemed to be the case—then what was stopping me from protecting Caden?

  Nothing.

  I smiled. For the first time since discovering the monster that Viggo truly was, I wasn’t terrified of facing him. I was eager.

  That strange, intoxicating feeling had not left. In fact, I was quite certain it had strengthened.

  “Where is he now?” Sofie asked, pale eyes watching me.

  “Ground floor.”

  “What should we do?” Caden’s body had stiffened. My smile only widened. He hadn’t figured it out yet. By the panicked looks on all of their faces, none of them had figured it out yet.

  If I wanted Viggo dead right now, would he simply just keel over? Would it be that easy? Did I want it to be that easy? No, he deserved much worse than a quick death.

  He deserved to suffer as he’d made so many others suffer.

  But what was a suitable punishment?

  Sofie spun on her heels. “Get your suits off. They’re useless now. We need to deal with Viggo and that tunnel so we can get out of here.” In two seconds, she had her hazmat suit off. “Let’s take the stairs. It keeps us all together.”

  We glided down the stairs noiselessly, all of us having cast away the suits to ensure stealth. When we reached the main floor, Lilly’s hand reached for the handle. I seized it before she could push through. I held up a hand to move everyone back, giving a single head shake.

  Sofie mouthed, “Where is he?”

  I gestured to the right, to where I could sense him waiting. Not an ounce of fear flowed through his limbs. How could he be so confident? He certainly had no idea what I could do, but his absence of fear of Sofie or Mage concerned me. It made me think he had a wicked plan. I wanted to know what it was.

  You’re not going out there alone, Max grumbled. Don’t even try it.

  I know I’m not. Just give me a minute to think, I answered calmly. If I wanted to keep them
all here, I had the distinct impression that I could. But if I walked out there alone, Viggo might wait to make a move. I didn’t want that. I wanted him to believe he’d won. I wanted to bait him, to draw him out from the shadows, and then trap him as he deserved to be trapped, stripped of his confidence and power.

  Closing my eyes, I imagined stepping into the lobby. I hadn’t noticed much on the way in, too focused on what might be on the nineteenth floor. But now the ivory marble floor stretched ahead of me, spanning the length of the building, illuminated by low-level city lights. The wall of glass rose three stories on my left, providing a clear view of the wasteland beyond. To my right was a solid mahogany wall with the security desks and information signs.

  And Viggo hid tucked into an alcove out of view of the door we stood behind. Waiting.

  A thrill jumped in my chest. Was this safe? Could he sense me? I took slow, even steps toward him until I was standing mere inches away, cringing at his handsome face. Homicidal excitement and anticipation danced within his cold blue eyes.

  But he couldn’t see me—that much was obvious. He had no clue I was standing there, invading his space.

  I wanted to invade his thoughts too.

  And so I did.

  I delved into his mind, demanding to see what he had planned.

  He would kill Mage and Sofie first before turning a gun on Caden. That was his plan. Simple. He believed he had the element of surprise. He was so pleased with himself for his patience and craftiness. His hands enjoyed the weight of the Sentinel guns.

  Thankfully, there seemed to be a single train of thought. I wasn’t sure I could handle what else was in there, and I had no interest in scavenging through the mind of a psychopath.

  As it was, I felt ill.

  Viggo was picturing me watch Caden die. My face crumbling, my heart shattering, dropping to my knees beside his limp body.

  And the mental image brought exhilaration to his black soul.

  My jaw tightened with the knowledge of his sadistic plans. Did I bait him? Did I lead everyone through that door, knowing what he was planning? As much as I believed in my newfound powers, a quiet voice of reason called out, warning me that perhaps I shouldn’t be so bold. Could I guarantee the outcome? What if I had only one bring-back-to-life card and I’d used in on Amelie?