Page 12

12

ARELLA

It’s been three days since I’ve seen Trey alive. I trust that Katie’s telling me the truth, but I won’t fully believe her until I actually see him. She’s been giving me updates on his condition after she checks on him every few hours. So far, he still hasn’t woken up. Knowing he’s been out cold for this long worries me.

“Welcome back,” Victor says as I step into the boxing ring. I do it willingly because I don’t want Craig touching me again.

I can’t sense Victor or Craig’s energy. I can’t sense Pixie, Ruby, or Derek either. Suddenly, I feel the most alone since being kidnapped. Before, I had the presence of my unborn baby. Now I have no one. I don’t even have Katie. After she fed me breakfast, she left, and I haven’t seen her since. It was Craig who brought me lunch and escorted me down here.

While I hug myself in the corner, Victor speaks to his four minions in a low voice. I can’t make out anything he’s saying. Judging by the head nods coming from the others, it looks like Victor’s giving them instructions.

Behind me, the double doors open with a squeak. Katie strolls in with Trey at her side. He looks rough: messy hair, dark beard lining his jaw, and grayish skin. His gaze never leaves me as he climbs up the stairs and into the battle box. Meanwhile, Katie finds a seat in the front row of the auditorium.

“Now that everyone’s here,” Victor says, “let’s start. Ordinary, go hold Trey’s hand.”

I don’t need to move because in an instant, Trey is at my side. A troubled storm brews in his eyes as he intertwines his fingers with mine. I hate how normal it feels to hold his hand and to feel the warmth his touch sends up my arm. He’s the very reason I’m here, and I shouldn’t be comforted by him. Still, I’m relieved to see him alive. No matter what he’s done or how we got here, he doesn’t deserve to be tortured.

Victor takes a few steps back until he’s leaning against the ropes. “Today’s objective is to see how versatile the Ordinary’s immunity can be. Once we get an idea of that, we’ll take more time in the upcoming days to explore each of her skills to strengthen them.”

Days? That’s how long they plan to torture Trey in front of me? One second is already too long.

“Ordinary, your first goal is to see if you can project your immunity onto Trey without us hurting him first. Think you can do that?”

“She has a name,” Trey growls.

Victor points a stern finger at him. I squeeze Trey’s hand to protect him from whatever powers Victor is about to use on him. Nothing happens. Instead, Victor shouts, “Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”

Trey squeezes my hand back as if to say he’ll protect me; however, he’s the one who needs protection. “Stop referring to her as Ordinary . She has a name.”

“I will call her whatever the fuck I please. Now, are you gonna shut your goddamn mouth, or do you wanna keep being a nuisance?”

Trey grits his teeth together. “I never signed up to be your test puppet.”

“You signed up for this when you accepted this mission.”

“No. I signed up to find out the source of her immunity. This”—Trey gestures around the room—“is not what I?—”

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth!” Victor crosses his arms over his chest. “If you delay this session one more time, I’m releasing you from this mission. Actually, I’ll be releasing you from all of ZIRDA. Speak another word without my permission. I dare you. Craig can escort you straight out to the waterfall, and you’ll never be allowed back for any reason. Is that what you want?”

Trey clenches his jaw together as he sucks in a breath and slowly lets it out. I can’t sense the anger radiating off him, but I can definitely see it. Keeping his job must be important to him, because he doesn’t say another word.

“Anyway,” Victor says, “Ordinary, project your immunity onto him. When you’re ready, Pixie will blow his ears. Again, your goal is to prevent him from feeling any pain before it comes. Got it?”

I glance up at Trey, who looks back at me with a you can do it confidence in his eyes. It makes me believe I can.

“Take a moment to prepare yourself,” Victor says. “Let Pixie know when you’re ready.”

I close my eyes and replay the things they did to Trey three nights ago. I hear him screaming. I see his body shaking against the floor. I picture him throwing up blood. Then I open my eyes, squeeze Trey’s hand, and give Pixie a nod.

She closes the distance between us until she’s three steps away. Then she puckers her lips and blows.

“Fuck!” Trey tries to cover his ears as I squeeze his hand with all my might. Barely a second later, he puts his arms down and breathes normally again.

“Did she do it?” Victor asks.

“I’m blowing,” Pixie says. “He seems to be okay.”

“Good.” Victor claps as if we’re part of a show. He should get a refund for his ticket because I never auditioned for this play, and I don’t want to keep performing in it. “Immune, let’s try that again. This time, really focus.”

I squeeze Trey’s hand with both of mine. Pixie blows again. The same thing happens. Trey screams in agony as he uses his free hand to cover an ear. Does that even do anything?

“Try again,” Victor says.

And this goes on for the next half hour. No matter how much I beg, Victor keeps ordering Pixie to hurt Trey, who’s on his knees, gasping for air. I kneel in front of him and cup his face. His cheeks are red, and the whites of his eyes are too.

“I’m so sorry,” I plead in a low voice, hoping he’ll forgive me. “I want to shield you from the pain, but I don’t know how.”

“Don’t apologize,” he whispers as he wipes the tears from my face with his thumb. “None of this is your fault.”

My body hiccups from all the sobbing I’ve been doing. Trey knits his brows together and presses his lips into a hard line. He looks like he’s a second away from putting me over his shoulder and making a run for it. A part of me hopes that’s why he’s still here and is just waiting for the right time. I’m not the only one who needs escaping anymore.

“Stand up,” Victor orders. “Let’s raise the stakes a little. Ruby, how ’bout you try?”

Oh no. Not her. Whatever power Ruby has seems to feel like death crawling through the bloodstream.

Trey helps me to my feet, and I seize his hand. He closes his eyes, bracing himself for the pain. I shut my eyes too, just as Ruby raises her arm and hisses. Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt him. I wait for Trey to scream, but he doesn’t.

“She’s blocking it,” Ruby says.

I don’t dare open my eyes because I can’t lose concentration. I don’t know if she’s still stinging him or not.

“Pixie, you give it a shot.”

A moment later, Pixie says, “She’s blocking mine too.”

“Excellent!” Victor says, clapping. “What progress! Let’s move on. Immune, your next goal is to protect Trey from an ice ball. Derek?”

On cue, Derek stands from his squat and draws an arm back. A sparkling ice sphere flies through the air, straight at Trey’s head.

“Fuck that.” Trey ducks and drags me down with him. The ice ball lands behind us and shatters against the floor. I don’t get a chance to take another breath before a second ice ball soars through the air and hits Trey right in the stomach. He coughs and falls to his knees as another ice ball whizzes through the air. It hits him again, right in the face. That’s going to leave a mark.

“Stop!” I shout. “I don’t know how to shield him from stuff like that.”

“And three days ago, you didn’t know how to shield him at all,” Victor says. “So try harder!”

Derek readies another ice ball and launches it at Trey. I rush in front of Trey and brace myself for the impact. It never comes. Instead, I’m tackled to the floor as the ice ball flies past me and shatters into pieces.

“What are you doing?” Trey shouts as he does a push-up over me.

“What do you think I was doing?” I yell back as I shove him off me. “I was trying to save you!”

“By using yourself as a barrier? Are you fucking crazy?”

“Obviously, my immunity isn’t working. What else do you expect me to do?”

We get to our feet as the auditorium goes quiet and I ignore the pain in my tailbone.

Trey shakes his head at me as he says in a low voice, “Don’t ever do that again. Ever.”

Victor taps his chin. “Maybe testing with elementals is rushing things a little. Let’s go back to internal powers, shall we? Immune, your next goal is to project onto Trey without touching him and to do it before Ruby has a chance to bite him with her powers. Let her know when you’re ready.”

A part of me wants to tell Victor he can go shove a stick up his ass. The other part of me is realistic and knows I don’t have a choice. So I close my eyes and concentrate. The auditorium remains quiet for almost a minute. No one dares to interrupt my process. Finally, I keep my eyes shut as I raise up a thumb.

No one says anything for a moment.

Victor is the first to break the silence. “Are you attacking him?”

“I am,” Ruby says through hisses. “She’s blocking it.”

“Excellent! What an improvement!”

I reopen my eyes, then Trey falls to his knees, shrieking. Oh no! I rush to cup his face. At an instant, he stops screaming.

In the corner of my eye, I see Ruby lower her hand. “She must have stopped projecting while I was still biting him.”

“Interesting,” Victor says. “Let’s try this. Immune, come to me.”

I don’t. Not that I can anyway, because Trey rushes off the floor and stands in front of me.

“No,” Trey says.

“What?” Victor snarls.

“I said no! Arella doesn’t want to be a part of this. She never did. We’re done.”

“We’ll be done when I say so.” Victor strides over and takes me by the hand, tearing me away from the only person here who cares about my well-being. “Pixie, Ruby, Craig, you three hit Trey with your mind powers at the same time. Derek, I’ll hold her down while you throw ice balls at her.”

“What?” Trey shouts. “Hell no! You’ve gotta be crazy if?—”

“Go!”

Trey drops to the floor as he covers his ears and screams. Slowly, his body shrinks until he’s the size of a cat.

“Stop!” I rush toward him, but Victor yanks me back by my hair. An ice ball zooms at me and hits my arm. I cry out as the pain shoots up my shoulder.

“Project your immunity onto him,” Victor orders.

Another ice ball soars toward my face. I duck while Trey’s high-pitched wails echo throughout the auditorium. Victor sidesteps to dodge the ball, and it shatters against the floor.

“Stop!” I shout, but another ice ball is already whizzing through the air. It hits my stomach. I clutch my front as I fall to my knees and burst into a sob. “I can’t save him! Not while I’m being attacked!”

“That’s the point. You need to learn how to project your immunity, even when you’re distracted and under pressure. Derek will stop hurting you once Trey stops screaming.”

I punch at Victor’s hands that are still gripping my hair. “Let me go!”

A spiky ice ball rockets straight at me. I duck to the side. The spikes glisten under the light as it flies past my arm so close, it tears the sleeve of my shirt. Victor releases my hair to dodge the ball.

Free now, I race to save Trey. I’m halfway across the boxing ring when my feet are lifted off the ground in a tornado. The air leaves my lungs as I spin in circles. Then I collapse to the ground, back at Victor’s feet.

He jerks me up by my arm and pins my back against the ropes. “That worthless piece of shit is going to die if you don’t help him.”

Trey’s screams echo from across the boxing ring.

“Project your immunity onto him. Focus. Picture yourself projecting a shield around him. What color is it? What shape is it? What is it made out of? Center your mind around those concepts.” Victor steps aside and gives Derek a nod.

Derek doesn’t waste a second producing another spiky ice ball in his hand and chucking it at me.

“I’m imagining the shield,” I say through tears as I dodge the sharp sphere. “It’s not working.”

“Try something else. Bubble wrap. A brick wall. Couch cushions. A house. Pick something. Imagine every little detail of it and focus!”

I close my eyes and center all my energy in Trey’s direction. I imagine the bubble wrap. He keeps screaming. I imagine the brick wall. Then the couch cushions. Then the house. He’s still screaming as Victor continues shouting at me. I don’t know why he thinks that’s helpful. It’s making me lose all my concentration.

With deep breaths, I tune Victor out. Then I imagine a wave of ocean water rushing toward Trey, drowning him with my immunity. While he’s under that water, no one can touch him. No one can hurt him. The water circles around him, while still giving him pockets of air to breathe in. He’s safe under my water. He’s protected. They can’t hurt him.

Finally, the screaming stops. I open my eyes. The sound of a balloon being blown into resonates through the auditorium as Trey’s body expands back to normal size. Craig is still pointing at him, Ruby is still hissing, and Pixie is still puckering her lips, but the screaming has stopped.

Victor grins and claps. “Good job.”

I rush across the floor and drop to my knees. Trey’s body is limp as I cradle him against my chest. He pants heavily as tears stream down both our faces.

“How could you do this to him?” I shout at all of them because I don’t blame only Victor. He may be their leader, but the rest of them are all choosing to do this too. And for what? A stupid paycheck? Is torturing people really worth a few dollars?

Suddenly, Trey lurches upward. He raises an arm into the air with his fingers outstretched. A small garbage bin whizzes through the air from across the room. He catches it in midair and heaves into it. I stand and step back as the smell of vomit fills my nostrils.

Any other time, I’d be reeling over just witnessing Trey move an object by merely summoning it with his hand, but it’s the least weird thing I’ve seen all week.

“Anyone got a theory as to how this Ordi is immune to our powers?” Derek asks.

“She’s probably an alien,” Pixie says.

Funny, I’ve been thinking the same thing about them.

“She’s gotta have a gene defect,” Ruby says.

Trey’s coughs echo throughout the auditorium as he vomits into the garbage bin some more.

“We’ve done thorough DNA testing on her,” Victor says. “We’ve also cross-referenced her results with the other Immunes. There’s no DNA pattern to link them. Not a single one.”

“What’s your theory, Big V?” Derek asks.

“Oh, I dunno. I have a few. Everything from radioactive spiders to sorcery. No matter what we do, we can’t figure it out.”

They’re all having this conversation as if the man they just tortured isn’t puking his guts up right in front of them. Doesn’t anyone care about Trey?

“I’ve gotta give him some credit,” Ruby says, staring at Trey with an ick face. “Most people throw up within the first minute.”

“Ladies,” Victor says, “why don’t you two take Trey up to the infirmary? Derek, you are dismissed.”

I feel helpless as Pixie and Ruby slump Trey’s arms over their shoulders and drag him out of the box. I’m about to follow them when Victor seizes my arm. He holds me tight and waits until the women have left with Trey before he speaks.

“What did you picture in your head?”

I yank my arm back and shoot him a nasty look. “Don’t touch me.”

Victor slaps me across the face, and my head snaps to the side. I’ve had worse, so I simply cup a palm against my burning cheek and continue glaring at him like he’s more disgusting than a maggot in my sandwich.

“Answer my question. What did you picture?”

“I’m not telling.”

I expect him to smack me again. I even brace myself for it. Instead, Victor narrows his eyes at me before turning to his security guard.

“Hey, Craig. Don’t you think Katie will look just as cute when she’s the size of a button?”

From the stands, Katie’s eyes go wide. The second Craig takes one giant step toward her, I blurt, “A brick wall.”

Victor raises a hand, making Craig stop in his tracks. “Come again?”

“I imagined a brick wall.”

“What color?”

“Red and brown.”

“How tall?”

“I don’t know? Pretty tall? It surrounded him in a circle. Kind of like he was at the bottom of a well.” I can’t believe how convincing I sound.

Victor takes a moment to process what I told him, then says, “Interesting.”