Page 58
“Ready?” Fletcher asked everyone. All five of us had a hand on him as he broke us all apart and let the wind steer us to the heart of the facility.
When we came together, it was dim. The women were huddled in corners of their cages, most of them passed out, drained, dysfunctional.
The room smelled of dirty shoes and sweat as I took a step to the cage that was all too familiar.
Quinn was sleeping in the same corner she always slept in, red light shining down on her tiny body .
“I’ll take them to the men’s wing,” Fletcher whispered. “You got Ripley?” he asked Graff with an agitated sternness in his voice I couldn’t ignore.
“I got her.”
“Good. Start memorizing,” Fletcher ordered in a harsh whisper, and they were gone in a flash.
I looked at Graff who was stepping in circles, eyeing every part of the cages, the girls, the lights.
The depression, the devastation. The stale, sweaty scent.
The bleakness of the red lights mixing with the bright whites.
“I can feel you, you know. Were-were you here ?” A sad ire eddied into his eyes.
“For those two months I felt you dying? Have you been in one of these before?”
I gulped, not wanting to confirm anything.
“Because of Fletcher?”
I stepped toward him. “Get started before I do it for you.”
He nodded and teleported into a cage. Then, he spun in a circle and memorized what the inside looked like.
Fletcher appeared beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Graff and I will take turns so you’re not alone.”
“Hurry,” I ordered .
I watched as they began clearing out the first ten Elizians. My heart swelled in such joy that my Elizians were getting the fuck out of this hell hole. I wanted to take the Cidris down the moment I learned about them, and now it was happening. My magic allowed this moment to happen.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty-five.
Footsteps sounded down the hall to the right before I heard a man yell, “Hey!”
I whipped my head to the man in baggy clothing coming at me with his gun drawn.
I threw my body in his direction, head first toward the barrel as my hands came up, gathering my shaky magic and sending whatever I could into his system.
Seeing my hands light up startled him for the moment Fletcher needed to get behind him and snap his neck. His gun fell to the ground and so did his body. The loud thud it made was satisfying, my split magic entertained by the way adrenaline coursed through my body with a giddy shake.
“You good?” Fletcher asked.
“Yes, go!” I whisper-yelled .
Fletcher and Graff got the last five Elizians to safety before Fletcher grabbed the two of us and teleported to the men’s wing.
Rosaanne and Aldris were darting in and out of the cages with wrath while Mirin confronted a guard that had just turned the corner.
Mirin sent a bolt of blue electricity through the man’s chest, big enough to send him twitching on the ground.
He released one more and watched briefly at the Cidris’s limbs rested motionless.
Forty men.
Forty-five.
Fifty.
Cleared.
“I’ll take you all to the nursery.” Fletcher reached out his hand for everyone to take, but loud sirens exploded through the corridors. “Shit,” he grumbled. His eyes dashed to mine, and I knew exactly what was roiling in his mind.
Without a second to react, Fletcher’s hand came down on mine and teleported me out of the facility in front its gaping, dark entrance concealed by a thick blanket of textured roots. Fresh air swathed my lungs and panic rode up my chest .
“No! Take me back!” I shoved my hands against his chest as my menacing split magic clicked open inside me. “ I want to be the one to set it on fire! You owe me that much, Fletcher!”
His face hardened as he ordered, “Stay put!”
“Not a chance!”
“I’ll come back to get you when I know it’s safe.” In a split second, he vanished.
I growled before I raced toward the entrance, magic swirling in my hands.
I can’t focus if you’re in here. Please. Stay put!
Indecision suddenly halted me. To have Fletcher in there and unable to concentrate could be detrimental. Could I sacrifice my undying need to burn this place to ash for him? Prickles of my lungs sent nausea into my stomach.
With clenched fists, I paced back and forth, deciding what to do.
Muffled sounds of the sirens sang in my blood like it was calling me to return.
But, I knew Fletcher well enough to know that he would be safer knowing I was safe.
So, I continued to pace, eyes darting from one star in the night sky to the next as I made my final decision. I needed to be the one to do this .
Just as I threw my hands up and marched back toward the facility, Graff appeared in front of me with a frazzled look on his face.
His eyes were deeply sunken and sweat clumped the bangs of his bronze hair.
His chest was heaving with pants like he had just won the war against the Cidris.
“Come on. I’m taking you home. Fletcher and I don’t trust you to let us handle things. ”
If Fletcher wanted me home, he would have just taken me home. Right? He promised he’d be back for me. I trusted that. My stomach turned, looking at Graff’s hand and stood my ground, backing up to be out of Graff’s reach. “I am not leaving until I get to finish them.”
I took another step back when he stepped forward.
“We don’t have time for your stupid need for revenge.
We are capable of doing this without you.
” He lengthened his torso, stretching his hand closer to me.
One tiny touch was all he needed to teleport me far away from Fletcher, from Mirin, Aldris, and Rosaanne.
All my Elizians. My friends. My family. Away from me getting to be the one to kill every last Cidris who have hurt me and my people.
Just before he made contact, I growled and let my magic race down my arms with a grunt. Where the trails of aqua illuminated my arms, it seared with pain. Like my magic, Fletcher’s, and my split all wanted out to play at the same time. A muted dark magenta ignited, reflecting off Graff’s fair skin.
A transparent, convex force field in the shape of an eyeglass coagulated in front of me, pushing Graff away with an electric zap. “Get back in there and help them!”
He dropped his hand. “They don’t need protecting. You do!”
The force field charged. Gathering fuchsia electricity in its center, collapsing in on itself as it gathered into a lethal sphere that I was aiming straight at his chest. “Go before I set you on fire.”
“Ripley—” he shouted.
“Last fucking warning, Graff!”
He clenched his fists, eyes scanning the orb of electricity, grunted in frustration, and disappeared.
Within minutes of him gone, the smell of smoke filled my nostrils before I saw the black plume from fire rise into the sky.
Fletcher’s magic became frantic within my body, snapping away the shield protecting us. It slammed against my ribcage, zipped up my neck and down to my toes, trying to find a way out of me. Trying to find its way to Fletcher.
Something was wrong. I hadn’t heard the all call he had talked about.
Then, something more pressing suddenly frayed my nerves, pushing away the betrayal that I hadn’t been the one to set the facility on fire.
The place was in flames and they were still in there!
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fletcher? Fletcher! Answer me!
His lilac magic was unrelenting, making my stomach churn until nausea surfaced.
I kept my eyes locked on the entrance and raced forward a few steps before coming to a halt. A tall figure was emerging from the black smoke that suddenly billowed out of the entrance.
It was hunched and hobbled forward like it was greatly wounded.
I took a measured step back, afraid it might lurch at me.
And upon breaking through the smoke, I recognized his dark hair, his broad shoulders, his tapered waist, and those long legs.
Fletcher.
And I stared at him in stark horror. He was limping—dragging his feet. His clothes were tattered and soaked in dark crimson liquid. He had a hand pressed to his mid-torso, streams of blood leaking between his fingertips.
“R-R-Rip…”
Table of Contents
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- Page 58 (Reading here)
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