Page 105 of Broken Ties

I don’t have to wait long to see it in action. The man steps forward and she strikes. Without a second of hesitation, there’s a surge of power so intense I’m forced to look away before my eyes melt in my skull. At first, I assume it’s Elemental, maybe she’s a Flame, but then bodies hit the ground and I’m blinking away the pain to find both of the Resistance soldiers writhing on the ground.

Mouths open, their bodies are locked up like they’re convulsing, but they’re gone. I don’t know how I know that, either, but despite the shallow breaths they’re taking, it’s all mechanical. They’re gone.

I… don’t know what that is.

Even without the haze of the drugs, I don’t think I’ll know it, either.

"Oli, what the fuck was that? What the fuck did you do to them?”

She doesn’t answer me. I struggle to sit up which is a really, really stupid idea. So stupid. My hands are tied behind my back, so I fail pretty much straight away, but when I attempt a crunch-like tactic, my head swims and then my vision blacks out.

When it returns, dazed and even more stupid than before, I look up to find Sage opening up my cage, and then she leaves me to my Bond. She’s fucking gorgeous, all scowling and bright. Her Gift is making her skin glow like a firefly, and I’m in love with her. Sure, she’s been pretty mean to me, but she’s a cute little glow bug right now, and that’s all that matters. A glow bug… who melts brains?

What Gift even is that?

She crouches down to me, so close to being in my arms but not quite, and I think I’m pouting, so I ask good questions todistract her. “How did you stop them from knocking you out? I’ve seen Zoey do it a hundred times.”

Her hands slip on the ropes as she gets me free from the restraints. “You saw Zoey knock Gift-less me out. I’m a little more supercharged right now. I don’t have time to explain this, can you hulk out and get these off?”

I can’t control my head movement, and when it rolls on my shoulders a little too fast, I have to swallow hard to stop myself from puking. “One of them drugged me, I can’t access my Shift. How the fuck are you still conscious, Oli?”

Huffing and puffing, she finally gets me free, and I want my hands all over her. “You obviously haven’t paid enough attention in Gifted 101. I’m higher up the food chain than those little bitches, so far higher, that they’re nothing to me… the exact same way you are, and they had to resort to drugging you. Can you stand? We need to movenow.”

I was listening, but Nox never told me that there were pretty little glow bugs out there who could melt brains… until they came out of ears, which is what’s happening to that Gifted lady right now by our feet.

Her face is still twitching, so she’s alive.

Fuck her and her brain soup.

My Bond pulls me up to stand with her, and I’m an expert at standing, but after a minute, the ground tries to take me again. I think it’s stupid for a second until my Bond panics a little and a seriousness falls over me. I cannot fall and take my Bond with me.

Fuck no.

I will not get my Bond killed because of that stupid dart. My jaw locks up and I rub at my face until I can feel it again.

Faintly, like it’s happening far away from me, the sounds of my Bond clearing her throat and rustling grabs my attention, butnone of the motions she’s doing with her hands make any sense to me right now.

I focus on staying on my feet.

That seems the most helpful thing I can do, and when I’m steady again, a pulse of relief radiates out of my Bond that makes me feel like I’ve slayed a giant.

I glance back down at her, ready to see her grinning up at me for all of my hard work and instead find her glaring at the other Gifted. Whatever the hell they’ve managed to communicate to her with all that waving around, she’s pissed.

She shuts her eyes and another wall of power bursts out of her. The rest of the tent panics, blood draining from faces, eyes wide, everything except running away, but I guess the Resistance scares them more than the complete mystery of my Bond.

My Bond is suddenly on her tip-toes, her lips brushing against my ear as she whispers to me, “Cavalry is here.”

Shit.

I’m getting drunk from her power, the swell of it pushing into me as though her bond is trying to funnel it inside me, only I’m unable to take it.

I think it’s pissed that I can’t.

I shake my head, trying to shake the thought away at the same time. I don’t know where the hell all of this is coming from, but I never want to be hit by one of those darts ever again in mylife.

Then all hell breaks loose outside the tent.

TWENTY-EIGHT