The Forbidden Trilogy(128)

'Fire! Must run. Sam... Sam? Help us. Our powers don't work. The guards will kill us.'

"You have to release your hold on my friends. They'll be killed by your guards if you don't. Do you really want to sacrifice our kind on the altar of... what? Your father's vision? The man who abused you, killed the only woman you loved, and then wiped your mind clean? We don't have time for you to digest all of these new memories. Now's the time to choose, Seeker. Whose side are you on?"

A single tear fell down his perfect, pale cheek. "You do not understand. I am dying."

"I know."

"And this hold, it is a double edged sword. The use of my powers is killing me, but the exchange of power, of energy, is also keeping me alive. If I let go completely, I will die much sooner. My power will drain from me. I will be gone."

I wiped the tear from his face and linked with his mind. "I'm so sorry, for everything you've been through. Sorry you had to endure such brutalities from the man who should have protected you. Sorry your powers have been abused. Sorry we couldn't be the happy family you wanted. And sorry you are dying. But many more are dying out there. My friends. My family. I need your help."

Blood dripped from his nose and ears, just like Mary. His eyes squinted in pain, and he fell to his knees in front of me.

"I have released them all. Guards, students... everyone. My mind has not been my own in so long. I had grown accustomed to the myriad of thoughts, emotions and voices that created a symphony inside of me. Now I am so alone. So empty. A void comes for me, to devour me. Even now, I feel my power flowing out and dissipating into nothing."

He looked up with eyes that reminded me of a hurt puppy. "What do I do now, Sam? Who am I if not the Seeker? Who will I be when I am no longer here? The darkness. I have walked in the dark for so long, but always it was filled with the bright stars of others like us. Now, nothing."

He chose this moment to have an existential crisis? I grabbed his hand with my good one and pulled him to his feet. "You're not dead yet. We'll worry about that later. First, we need to get Drake and get out of here. Is there an emergency exit to the library? Or a fire extinguisher? A huge room full of paper must have at least an extinguisher."

I let the Seeker's hand go and ran from wall to wall, and found what I needed by the checkout desk. In the movies, they always bashed out the glass window of a fire extinguisher case with their elbow. That didn't sound fun to me, or my elbow. I looked around and grabbed the biggest, heaviest book I could find. I shielded my eyes while I smashed the glass and freed the fire extinguisher from its case.

Our emergency medical training course had covered the use of these, but my hand throbbed so much I couldn't get a grip on it. "Hey, you know how to use one of these things? I can't manage it one handed."

The Seeker took it and moments later a stream of white suds coated the door. He used his robe as a glove and turned the handle, then sprayed more suds into the hall. "Follow me."

He turned left. We needed to be going right, toward the room Drake and I had been held. "You're going the wrong way. Drake!"

"He will get out on his own. We will get caught up in the fire if we go that way."

He tried to pull me toward him, but I broke free. "I'm not leaving him."

I turned and ran down the hall.

The Seeker sighed and followed behind me. "You are a very stubborn girl, but, very well. We will try to get to Drake."

Guards ran past us, toward the exit. They glanced at us but didn't stop.

We turned a corner, almost to Drake's room, and faced a hallway full of flames. The heat hit my face in a gust of smoke and fire. The Seeker sprayed enough white foam to clear a path for us to run through. Well, I ran. He stumbled and nearly pulled me to the floor. I grabbed him and helped him through. My jacket caught fire, and I pulled it off and threw it to the floor before it burnt through my clothes and skin.

Tears sizzled down my face. The door to Drake's room slumped to the side, the hinges almost completely torn off.

My voice cracked from smoke inhalation. "Drake!"

The room was empty save for the candles that still burned in the haze. "He's not here. We need to find him."

"He is probably already outside. Let us go."

This time I let him lead me away. If only I could have connected telepathically to Drake. I hated the emptiness I felt without his presence. For months, we'd been joined in the most intimate of ways, and now he was gone, leaving not only a void in my mind but a hole in my chest.

Flames chased us from both sides of the hall as we searched for an escape route. The extinguisher sputtered out its last white stream.

We rushed to the nearest office and closed the door. The room boiled with the rage of the fire, and filled with smoke so thick we both gagged.