The ground was blackened all the way to the tree line. Only hints of the Terramara resort remained, a few walls here and there, the tallest of which reached to five feet, maybe. The forest’s edge sported trees that were still burning, any hint of leaves or greenery gone. “Damn,” I whispered.
“Really something, isn’t it?” Sovereign said, shaking his head. He was hanging in the air just a little above me. “Having the power of flame like that at your fingertips? I’ve never used mine quite that way, but …” He let out a sharp exhalation. “It’s like hell on earth.”
Remember.
I stared out on the burnt ground in front of me and remembered I was in a different place, a different time. I stood at the edge of the crater and stared out at the wasteland I’d created beyond.
Sovereign whistled. “Man. As I was flying up here I was thinking how nice it was to be back in the land of ten thousand lakes.”
I glanced back at the crater. “Ten thousand and one, next time it rains.”
“Hm?” He looked down at me. “Oh, yeah.” He shook his head, and something flitted over his expression. “I guess … it’s good I didn’t have to face them again.”
“Because you didn’t want to kill them?” I asked, still staring out at the devastation.
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” he said, and delivered it with enough conviction I almost believed he meant it.
“I know how that feels,” I said under my breath.
There was a faint sound of helicopter blades and I looked up. I could see a Black Hawk circling in the distance, coming closer to the scorched field in which I stood. The acrid smell of smoke remained strong even though most of the dark clouds had cleared by now. The trees in the distance burned quietly, and I knew that they’d need a lot of fire departments working in concert to put out the blaze I’d started there.
“You want me to ride with you or just meet you back at the Agency?” he asked me, drifting down to stand next to me on the ground. The chains rattled as he did so, and I noticed that they were broken neatly in the middle.
“Just meet us there,” I said.
“Sorry about your roof,” he said, and he floated skyward again.
“I don’t suppose you have powers to spackle it shut again?” I asked, not even looking at him.
“Sorry,” he said with genuine contrition, and then he shot skyward in an arc that carried him back into the sky, over the smoking trees and south. I heard him break the sound barrier as the sonic boom cracked through the air.
The Black Hawk settled onto the flat, empty ground before me and I ran up to the side, sliding in where Reed held the door open for me. His leather jacket whipped under the rotors, and he didn’t even bother to hide his concern. “Was that Sovereign?” he shouted over the wash of the blades.
“Yeah,” I said as I jumped in, sliding into the seat between him and Scott. Foreman, Janus and Zollers sat across from me, and Kat was on the bench behind me with the two agents. “Harper said all the civilians got out okay?”
“Yeah,” Scott said into the headset as I put it on. The roar of the helicopter became duller when I did, and Scott’s voice had that electronic radio sound to it. “We dropped our load off in the middle of Gables; the FBI guys did the same and are headed back to Minneapolis.” He frowned at me. “What happened to the earpiece?”
“Same thing that happened to my clothes,” I said, looking away from him. “It burned in the explosion.”
“Nice dress,” Scott commented. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in one before. Where’d you get it?”
“Sovereign stole it for me,” I said.
“Did you let him go?” Reed asked.
“Told him to meet us back at the Agency,” I said, settling into my seat and fumbling to fasten the belts as we lifted into the air.
There was a pause, and Foreman spoke. “And you think he’ll just do that?”
“Yes,” I said. “Did you call in fire and rescue down there yet?”
Foreman dropped his head and looked at me with a pretty incredulous look. “Yes. Did you not think about discussing it before letting him go?”
“I didn’t let him go,” I said. “He broke out of the room we were holding him in in order to come rescue me. He said he’d go back, and he will.”
“And you believe this why?” Reed asked me. I got the feeling he’d been holding it back for a while.
“Because I’m what he wants,” I said and glanced out the door to see the black smoke of the fires I’d started as we circled once around the crater that I’d made. I tore my eyes from the scene of the carnage and looked around the helicopter. “And that means he has nowhere else to go.”