The Forbidden Trilogy(123)

The whiplash slammed into my mind so hard I nearly tumbled off the couch. Pain pierced through my eyelids and blurred my vision.

Mary's mind remained unchanged.

"Drake, I can't do this. That thing is attached to her for good. We could kill her, or ourselves, trying to get it off."

'Let me try, just once. I'll be careful.'

He used the same approach, but instead of picking pieces to pull away, he created a cocoon around the entire power source before pulling back.

Blinding white light. Fierce and fiery pain. "Drake, stop! You're killing her."

'I'm nearly there, and it's our last hope.'

I could feel pain flood his brain, but he ignored it, unwilling to let go.

"No. You can't. She's innocent. We can't risk it."

He didn't stop.

I felt her mind splinter into fragments.

Her pain swam through me. Her confusion and fear, her anger and her hopelessness—it all hit me.

Heat flared in my belly. I felt my baby's power activate and merge with mine, pushing away my own pain and compounding my power until it swelled bigger and stronger and brighter than ever. No longer in control or fully aware, I knew only that I had to save Mary, an innocent, from being destroyed. Too many had already died to save us.

My power coiled inside me, coalescing into one great ball of unfathomable force, and I knew I could no longer pull it back, no longer stop what I had started. It needed a release, a command in which to dissipate, and so I gave it the only one I had to give. "Drake. Stop, now!"

As though someone had taken scissors and severed the connection between us, my mind emptied of everyone but myself. A loneliness I could have never imagined swept through me and settled into my heart, cracking it into shards of pain. I slumped forward and cried out.

Drake tumbled forward off the loveseat, and his head hit the floor.

My mind probe revealed no trace of Mary, and when I tried to connect with Drake, I couldn't.

And not in the power-on-the-fritz way.

Somewhere inside me, somehow, I knew.

I had destroyed his power permanently.

And he would never forgive me.

Ever.





Chapter 54 – Lucy



"You'll never get away with this. You have no idea what kind of power you're messing with." Mr. Black's voice grated on Lucy's last nerve.

She jabbed him in the ribs with her fist. "Shut up."

Students marched toward the front gate, following her and Mr. Black.

Like an avenging army of gods, they destroyed everything in their path. Gary pulled a metal and glass building apart, and threw it into a crowd of guards who'd aimed their guns into the crowd.

Luke followed behind Lucy as close as he could, worry and fear lining his face. She could feel the field of power her brother formed around her for protection.

Another group of guards surrounded the students and fired. Luke raised his hands and conjured a giant force field against the bullets.

A warm glow of power pulsed from the sphere in Lucy's backpack. Though no one else appeared to notice, the students around her lost the weariness and fear that had plagued them since their earlier attempt to break free. They stood taller and stronger, their energies renewed.

Gary stood next to Luke, who dropped his shield for a split second, and sent the bullets flying back toward the guns that fired them. The group of guards fell, killed by their own bullets.

A guard that had managed to slip inside Luke's field charged Lucy. Gary used his power to fling the soldier's gun to the side, but his aim was off and it crashed into a propane tank and exploded in a shower of fiery light. The guard flew back from the impact and landed, unconscious, to the ground.

Lucy shook uncontrollably even as she tried to press the gun to Mr. Black's head. Everywhere around her the world erupted in chaos and death. Righteous revolutions were supposed to be victorious and moral, not bloody and horrifying.

The kid with ice power, Larry, ran to the flames from the explosion. He held his hands to the fire, but nothing happened.

What little confidence the rebel students had diminished with their powers. No one had any, and so went their tactical advantage.

A cold emptiness filled Lucy where once the sphere had warmed her. It no longer pulsed. Like all the powers around her, the sphere was blocked.

Mr. Lancaster and a few other teachers intervened to defend the students as the guards rushed in to beat them. Like true cowards, they only bullied and abused the defenseless and weak, preying on those who couldn't fight back.

Some students panicked and ran away from the gates. Others wrestled with the guards, or threw rocks in misguided attempts to defend themselves. Before Lucy could react or respond, a young girl, no more than thirteen, fell to the ground in a lifeless heap. Carey. She had the power to make things grow, and now she lay dead with blood pooling around her.