28. Clay
Chapter 28
Clay
“Clay, I need you to remain calm. What I’m about to tell you is going to be difficult to understand, but we’re here for you,” Raven says into my implant as Paul and Garrett teleport into the clearing.
Fiona smiles at Paul, but when he doesn’t return it and her grip on my hand tightens, my hackles rise. Here comes the proverbial shoe .
“Candace was Fiona’s aunt,” Raven says, and everything goes quiet as energy surges into my body, ready to protect me.
I stare at Fiona as the horror seeps in. It can’t be true. Fiona looks nothing like Candace. There’s no way they’re related.
“It’s bullshit,” I snarl.
“What’s going on?” She whispers, no doubt confused by the one sided conversation.
"We ran Fiona's DNA through Nova's algorithm. Candace's files were encrypted, so it took some time, but we found the match," Raven says.
I take Fiona's other hand, facing her so I can see every nuance of her patterns. “Tell me it’s not true. Tell me and I’ll know.”
She glances at her arms when my energy surges towards her.
“Tell you what?”
“Is Candace your aunt?”
She frowns. “Candace? The woman who–no. That’s absurd.”
Her patterns don’t change. There’s no glitch in the flowers. I drop my shoulders and let out a relieved sigh. “She’s telling the truth.”
Paul sighs. “Fiona, please. I’m begging you. If you care about him at all, please don’t do this. It will break him.”
Fiona’s eyes water and jagged lines of frustration lace through her patterns.
“I’d never hurt him,” she says to Paul, her voice small in the open space. No glitches.
“Then tell him the truth,” Garrett says.
“I only have one aunt, and her name isn’t Candace. I haven’t spoken to her since I was a little girl.”
“Garrett, check her for trackers, and bring them back to the bunker. We’ll interrogate her here,” Raven says.
“The fuck you will,” I say, pulling Fiona behind me.
Garrett’s eyes turn a teal color, and he looks through us. “There's a device on her foot,” he says.
She slides off her sandal and peels the sticker off her heel. How did I not notice that?
She flicks the sticker towards Garrett. "That's the one you gave me. I put it on my foot before I left Emilia's house because I knew Raf would take my phone. I wanted to give you time to find me."
Garrett scoffs, but her patterns haven't changed. She's telling the truth.
“Let’s go home and we can sort this out,” Paul says.
They’ll lock her in a cage. They might even tie her up. It will only frighten her, and with the accusatory tones coming at me from all sides, they’ve already made their decision about her.
Fuck that.
“I’m not subjecting her to needless interrogation. If you don’t believe her, believe me. She’s telling the truth.”
“The evidence doesn’t match up,” Garrett says.
My power floods into my body, lightning crackling across my skin as I size up my two friends. I’m outmatched, but I’m not trying to kill them. If I hit them just right, I can knock them out long enough for us to get away. I don’t know where we’ll go, but that’s a problem for future Clay. I’m not bringing her anywhere near them until they listen to reason.
Fiona slides in front of me, putting her hand on my chest and my power ebbs. “It’s okay. They won’t hurt me. Let’s go with them and talk it out. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.”
My lightning sinks into the ground. I know what she’s doing. She doesn’t want me to fight my friends because of her. “Are you sure?”
She smiles. “Yes. It will be fine. You’ll be there.”
Paul and Garrett watch with hard expressions as I consider. “Nobody touches a hair on her head but me. Understood?”
They both nod and Raven says, “Understood.”
Garrett holds his hand out to me and I reach for it, but the sound of a helicopter in the distance catches my enhanced hearing, followed by the unmistakable whir of a mortar round sailing through the air. I drop, dragging Fiona with me and laying on top of her as the trees nearby explode into a thousand pieces.
“Stay down,” I say as she shifts.
I glance over my shoulder and find Paul kneeling over Garrett. Burns eat up his left arm and he lays unconscious.
“He’s out cold,” Paul says. Another explosion sends nearby trees scattering. I bring Fiona into a squat.
“Raven, do you copy?” I say. Fiona trembles and I hold her close. When there’s no response, Paul and I share a look. They took out our comms.
“Take Falcon. I’ll hold them off,” Paul says, standing to face the helicopter approaching in the distance.
“No. I’m not leaving you.”
“Go damnit! There’s no time.”
I grunt in frustration and hoist Fiona onto my hip like a toddler, staring into her terrified eyes. “No matter what happens, do not let go of me.”
I wait for her nod as Paul dumps Garrett over my other shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
Paul hesitates, then slaps my arm. “Go.”
I speed away as another explosion rips into the clearing. Some weird energy that’s not mine slams into me, and I’m jolted from my speeding. Garrett and Fiona rip from my grasp. Instinct takes over, and I wrap Fiona in a cocoon of protective energy. Lightning rockets through me and Fiona cries out as she bounces a few times before she lands. I race to her side and wince at her dislocated shoulder. She grunts as she tries to sit up.
“Take it easy. That was a rough landing.”
“What the hell happened?”
I lift a hand towards the foreign energy, and it comes to rest on an invisible barrier. “There’s some kind of force field around us. It must be why the comms aren’t working.”
An explosion lights up the sky about a mile away toward the lake. Garrett groans from ten feet away. “Did I get hit by a truck?” he mutters. The burns on his arm are halfway healed.
“Falcon, we’re trapped. Can you teleport out of here?”
He sucks in a breath and climbs to his feet. He disappears and reappears a half second later on the other side of the barrier. Confusion crosses his features. “I can’t get back in.” His eyes widen, and I turn to find Elijah Davenport approaching with two men who aren’t hiding the fact they are super soldiers.
“Well done, Fiona. Edgar will be pleased,” he says, before he cuts me from my powers and I lose consciousness.