It means she’s come to kill me.
I look up at Bryce. “Run,” I breathe. She looks back at me, confusion all over her face.
“What?”
“Run!” I shout, pushing her away from me and then running through the trees and trying to draw this girl away from her, away from everyone. But I feel like fainting and lean against a tree to keep myself upright.
•
In less than a minute my stomach lurches hard with nausea and I know she’s here.
Across the path, stumbling forward from a stand of trees, a shock of red hair, face pinched in pain, holding her stomach, one palm leaning on a trunk, holding herself up, is a girl. It’s her. I know it’s her as surely as I knew the stone was mine. And there’s white light pouring out of her. Just seeping from her as if she’s a nuclear reactor with a crack, leaking her insides all over the world like ropes of electricity. It looks kind of disgusting.
Also, though I’ve never been able to read anyone’s thoughts before, I realize that I can read hers as clearly as if I’m sitting inside her brain with a flashlight. Like they’re lit up on a huge neon billboard beside a desert highway. I can read every thought she has. Mostly she’s afraid.
This is going to be even easier than I thought.
Just as I smile, she looks up and locks eyes with me. Dark blue and piercing. It’s like looking in a backwards mirror.
And she knows. I know, she knows.
I clench my fists and fly at her like a bullet.
Hitting her feels like running into a freaking mountain and my shoulder comes out of joint with the impact. We bust through at least three trees before I crash us roughly into the mud, narrowly missing a stone wall. She’s thrown from me and I’m up before she is, moving to her side in one motion as I yank my shoulder back into joint. I’m standing above her as she opens her eyes. The impact didn’t even knock her out. I’m impressed. Also, slightly nervous for about the first time since I killed Delia. I may be an absolute badass, but maybe she is too?
It’s starting to rain heavily. Thunder and lightning crackling all around us.
I think maybe we’re causing it. How awesome is that?
I swing my leg back and try to kick her in the stomach with a momentum that will send her flying up into the sky, at least above the treetops. But she reaches out at the last second as my leg comes forward and catches my foot in her hands. I’m so shocked I don’t notice that she’s got another move, twisting my foot sharply to the left and pulling me down onto the ground in a painful snap of my leg.
She’s broken my goddamn leg.
I kick her in the face with my other leg and she goes flying backward into the stone wall, leaving a giant human-shaped dent in it as she falls to the dirt. She’s still not unconscious though, which is what I was hoping for, and she shakes her head, stunned and surprised at the impact, but already getting up. I can’t believe it.
I focus all my energy on my shin, willing the bones to heal. They obey me just as the gunshot wound in my leg did the first time I tried to speed up my healing. She sees this and can’t hide her amazement. I take it to mean she can’t do this, or at least hasn’t figured out how to yet. And then I poke around inside her head. She’s terrified. She knows even less about whatever we are than I do it seems. She can’t heal at will, she can’t fly, and I can tell she can’t read my mind or she’d be trying to hide her obvious fear from me.
This is awesome.
She stands up, she’s taller than I am, broader too, her bones larger and stronger-looking. It doesn’t matter, I learned long ago not to judge a person on their looks. All I need to do is break her damn neck and this will all be over.
°
Thankfully, she’s knocked me well clear of Bryce with the impact of her first hit. But I must get us farther away, not just from Bryce, but from everyone. Fortunately the rain is sending park-goers away in droves, but there’s still a few lingering under trees and umbrellas, hoping to wait it out. I can’t have innocent people being collateral damage. I hope that Bryce will see how serious this is and just leave. It’s not like her though, she’s too proud and loyal. But I hope for it anyway, even as I see her running toward us, a horrified look on her face as she sees the destruction we’ve already caused. I will myself to move and run to Bryce at a speed I’ve never even tried before, intent on scooping her up and running away with her. Somewhere safe. But the stranger gets there first. She elbows me in the face and at that speed it’s like running into a building and it breaks my nose. There’s blood and rain in my eyes and when I look up again it’s to see Bryce throwing a punch at the stranger. It’s a good punch – Bryce’s solid right cross that always connects – but the girl moves so fast it looks like Bryce is on pause. Before Bryce even finishes her swing, the girl has swung back at her and I watch her go flying off into the trees nearly twenty feet. I’m half-surprised the blow didn’t just disintegrate Bryce on impact, but the girl obviously knows what I’ve missed all along, that Bryce is just human and she doesn’t have to waste any extra strength taking her out.