Page 33

Miranda

I choke on tears at the sight before me.

My dad looks like death. His face is gaunt, his movements sluggish. His brown hair is dirty and stringy, longer than I’ve ever seen it. His eyes, once the same color as mine, are dark like steel now, even in the bright lights.

But he’s alive.

I don’t see any obvious signs of physical abuse or torture, though there will be time for questions later, once we get out of here.

“What are you doing here?” His voice is so raspy, it reminds me of Aubrey’s when he first started speaking again.

He eyes my bare hands on the glass, his brows drawn, then Colt is beside me, taking one hand in his and holding it tight in front of my gaping father.

“What…? What is…?”

I shake my head at him. “We’ll explain later. Right now—”

I’m cut off when the lights shut off, leaving us in complete darkness. Then there’s a loud boom in the distance, a clicking noise inside the basement, and red lights flash overhead.

“The collars are off!” a male voice roars before some of the glass cells begin to explode, some of the captives leaping from them and running up the stairs.

My father looks down at his body, at the control unit on the ground, and lets out a growl before stomping on it. “Get back,” he seethes as his fingers spread at his sides and the cell walls around him begin to vibrate.

“Go!” I tell my pack and the rebellion soldier, taking off down the pathway with them in tow, just as Dad’s cell explodes.

As he steps out, a familiar voice calls, “Uh, a little help here?”

Zephyr is still in his cell, knocking on the glass wall, when my dad approaches and nods at him. Zephyr walks back against the far wall, and my father puts his hand on the glass, tapping his fingers against it rapidly until it shatters and falls to the ground.

When Zephyr passes through the opening, his fist taps my dad’s shoulder. “Thanks, Isaac. Still don’t trust my curse after last time.”

My father pats the Omega’s back.

“Is everyone out?” Vera Song’s voice comes from the top of the stairs.

After a quick sweep to confirm, we jog back up to the ground floor where we meet her, and Zephyr plants his hands on his hips, staring the doctor down. “Now this I didn’t see coming.”

“We have little time,” she says in a rush. “I’ve flushed the chemicals and bio samples together to destroy them. The database is being purged and will be submerged in under five minutes.”

“Let’s move!” the rebellion soldier shouts, taking the lead with his shield out.

“Oooh, colorful!” Zephyr sings as he runs alongside us as best he can, my dad as well, both likely fueled by adrenaline alone.

“This way!” the soldier points down a hallway.

We move down it, and the glass labs on either side are now bloodbaths, the people in their hazmat suits filled with bullet holes.

We follow the shielding soldier all the way back to where the GBE soldiers had been shot earlier, maneuvering around their bodies to get through the door and back outside, where the two other rebellion soldiers are waiting.

“We cleared out the rest of the GBE,” one of them says. “We’re going to take the Doctor and rendezvous with the infiltration team at the juvenile campus.”

“And I’ll escort this group to the safe house,” the soldier with the shield tells them.

Dr. Song turns to Zephyr. “Do you want to stay with them or come with us? I wouldn’t recommend being on your own right now.”

“Oh, I’ll stay with these fine folks,” he grins at our group.

Dr. Song nods in confirmation just as the ground begins to rumble. “The servers have been submerged. It’s safe to bring this place down.” She turns back to Zephyr. “You should let go.” Those are her final words before she turns and runs off toward the gate with the two rebellion soldiers.

Colt stares at Zephyr a moment and nods to himself before turning to us. “Let’s get to the gate.”

“But we need to—”

“We will,” Colt cuts my dad off. “ He will.” He gestures to Zephyr.

The shielding guy who stayed with us leads the way to the gate, where we all turn back to the facility. Zephyr stands between us and the building, his dingy white scrubs fluttering in the cold breeze. His arms raise, his hands encased in a purple energy so dark it’s nearly black, save for the lighter edges that lick like flames, ebbing and flowing.

The screech is what makes me jump first, plugging my ears with my fingers with a cry. As the sound grows deafening, there’s a rumbling at our feet, and the building begins to fold in on itself, right into the center. The squeal of bending metal is accompanied by the pops and twinkling of breaking glass, the snap of wood, the sizzle of severed live wires, all until the building is sucked into an enormous sphere of energy, the same color as that around Zephyr’s hands. It spins and spins, growing smaller as the sounds die, and then there is nothing left but a gaping hole in the ground where the facility’s basement once was.

Zephyr turns to us, that dark energy of his framing his right eye like blazing lashes. Then the energy disappears, and he’s trudging toward us, slow and exhausted.

I run to him with Aubrey, catching him just before the young man falls to the ground. We pull his arms over our shoulders to help him stand, but I realize immediately the height difference is going to be a problem and wince.

“I’ve got this, Bunny,” Colt says with a grin as he takes my place under Zephyr’s left arm. “I may not be as tall as Aubs, but—”

“We’ve got to go!”

The rebellion soldier shouts frantically just as I hear it. Helicopters. A lot of them.

I can’t tell which direction they’re coming from, but it doesn’t matter. I know where they’re headed.

We run as fast as we can, Rai taking the lead to get us to the SUV in the woods, but we’re out in the open, easy targets from the sky. Shit.

“Hang on!” I yell. “Stick closer together!”

We keep moving, but they move in closer, Rai, my dad, and the soldier in front of me, Aubrey, Colt, and Zephyr behind. I raise my hand in the sky and concentrate on forming ice, just like I had when I shielded us during our approach to the facility. Only I never practiced creating the shield above my head, and as it grows from my forearm skyward, I realize immediately that I’ve made a mistake. The coverage is too wide, the weight of the ice far too much, and my arm swings to the right, topples over, and what ice I did form shatters on impact.

“Fuck,” I hiss. All I wanted was to help. Tears sting my eyes.

“It’s okay, Mira.” Dad is beside me now, his silver eyes filled with concern as they look down at me. “That was a great effort, kiddo. I...I never imagined you could do something like that.”

I shake my head. I should be stronger. I should have been able to protect us.

With my idea a bust, we run as fast as we can for the woods as a helicopter spots us, the bright light shining down from above as gunfire pelts the snow and ice at our feet.

Rai turns his white, glowing gaze upward, and the helicopter begins to spin violently in the air before careening away and crashing in a ball of fire yards away.

More helicopters come, and Rai does the same to them, sending each one away, spinning and screaming. When a few show up at once, the air around us sliced and whipped, snow crystals flying, he disables two of them as soldiers propel down lines from the third behind us.

More gunfire, and the rebellion soldier shields us, but I can tell that he’s straining, just like Rai.

Aubrey turns his head and lets out a sonic scream, sending two of the GBE soldiers flying backward. But there are two more, and they lunge for Aubrey and Colt before they can react. I see the control boxes in their hands, and something...snaps.

I leap at them, forearms to fingertips encased in thick ice claws, and all I see is red. I grab both by their necks as I take them down on their backs. They gurgle in my grasp as I growl in their faces.

How dare they. How dare they try to chain us; take what’s under my protection!

My grip tightens, and still, one of them tries to put that control box on me now. I scream, my claws slicing through both their necks like scissors through paper. Their blood is sour when it splashes in my mouth, and I spit it back in their lifeless faces.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

I am a flurry of rage and redemption, tearing the soldiers apart, ripping into their clothing and flesh, tossing chunks of them all around the pure while snow, until red is all I can literally see. Dark fading to pale, globs and pools, streaks and splatters.

“Miranda.”

Those eyes beneath me fade to a milky color, the light completely gone from them.

Monsters. They are monsters who deserve worse.

“Miranda…”

Worse, yes. What I’ve done isn’t enough. No, there needs to be a higher price to pay.

My head snaps toward the sound of boots stomping closer, and I am in the air again, soaring toward the approaching soldiers, taking them down in twos, crushing throats, tearing out hearts, roaring at their audacity.

When the final soldier’s head comes off his neck in my hands, I look at it, my own head tilting to one side as I do.

Insects. These Beta suppressors are nothing but insects.

“Miranda!”

My gaze whips toward the familiar voice. Colt stands a little off to the side, his brows drawn, his mismatched eyes glistening in the moonlight. His lips are parted, one arm extended toward me.

Is he afraid? I’ve taken care of the threat and protected my pack. Why does he look so scared?

“ I’m worried about you, my love,” he says in my mind, making me blink.

Worried about…?

The gore all around me suddenly screams for attention, and I turn wide eyes at the scene.

I did this. But…

“Come on.” Colt’s arm wraps around my shoulders, and he steers me away, toward our group and the woods beyond.

As we pass my statuesque father, staring at me with horrified eyes, I can only wonder what I’m becoming.