CHAPTER 32
Astrid
Funny thing about tears – nobody pays attention to where they fall. Good example, my tears fell from my cheeks onto my arms, where they crept slowly into the locking mechanism of my cuffs.
Sparks. She’s alive. I almost don’t believe it, but she’s right there. Her fiery temper flaring brighter than her scarlet curls. It’s all I can do to kneel here and resist the urge to run into her arms. She came back for me.
She falters when she sees me cowering below Marissa.
Sparks has always been strong and brave, even though I know she’s been beaten down and broken before.
Seeing her raw anger crackling off as streaks of light, it ignites something inside me.
I crawl out of my hole, reaching for her hand at the end of the tunnel. And now, it’s time to dance.
I wink at Sparks as the water in my cuffs freezes.
They fall from my wrists, and I jump to my feet.
My left hand knocks aside the gun pointed at me, while my right strikes Marissa in her perfect, plastic face.
God, that felt so good. Marissa stumbles back as the man lunges at me.
I’m slower than I’m used to, malnourished and dehydrated.
I try to sidestep his grasp, but his hand wraps around my throat.
Sparks screams as I am hoisted over the railing, my feet dangling in the air.
She sprints toward the staircase, but she won’t make it in time to help.
I glance through the open window, exhaling as I feel the torrent of rainfall at my disposal. It’s my turn to teach a lesson.
A wave of water bursts through the opening, freezing into a wall and cutting the rest of my assailants off.
It’s just me and him. I grab his wrist and kick off from the railing as a stray stream of water gives me a boost. He topples over the guardrail, arms flailing wildly.
My fingers catch the bottom rung of the railing and I strain my muscles, trying and failing to pull myself over the gate.
God, how much strength did I lose in the past few days?
Sparks is there a second later, reaching down for me. I clasp my hand in hers, and she hauls me over the bar. I fall into her arms. She squeezes me so hard I can’t breathe, but I don’t mind. I thought I’d never feel her embrace again.
“Stand behind me,” Sparks whispers as she brushes my hair from my face. Her eyes frantically scan my face, no doubt concerned with the exhaustion etched onto my face alongside the bruises.
“Marissa is mine,” I pant, my fatigue catching up to me.
“We can make that happen.” She wraps her pinky around mine.
Together, we stand, shoulder to shoulder. We lock eyes and she nods. Showtime.
I unfreeze my wall of water, pushing it toward the trapped kidnappers.
Sparks throws a shard of electricity, and the electrified current washes over them.
Sparks strides toward the group, her cold rage wafting off her.
She unholsters her knives, throwing one into the neck of a man reaching for his gun.
The other she keeps, slicing through flesh as she twirls into the mass. Man, I love watching her work.
I support from the back, trying to stay out of her way.
Tendrils of water lash out, snatching guns from the ground before they can be reclaimed by those who dropped them.
A shard of metal clints in the light. Someone pulled the knife out of his fallen comrade.
He’s hugging the grate, crawling to Sparks’s blind side. No fucking way, asshole.
I leap through the air, a tendril of water in my hands.
The liquid turns solid as I wrap it around his neck.
The knife clatters the ground as he tries to wedge his fingers underneath the noose, but his hands only splash the water futilely.
His breathing turns to strangled gasps until a knife is driven into his chest. Sparks removes the blade, wiping the steel clean on her leggings.
Dang, she looks so hot covered in the blood of other people.
“Thanks,” she says casually.
“You’re welcome.” I look up and find all nine men crumpled on the gangway. Only one person is left, her pantsuit splattered with crimson.
Marissa stands at the end of the passage. Her chin is raised high, a defiant look plastered on her face. She holds a stun gun in her hands, aimed at me.
“Astrid, stop this right now,” she commands. “Kneel.”
“Oh, Marissa,” I mock, remembering her cruel taunts. I walk up to her and run a finger along her jaw. “I don’t have to. You’re in no position to make any demands.”
Marissa panics, lashing out at me. She expects me to scream, to convulse from the current as it connects with my skin.
Instead, she falls to the ground as Sparks redirects the charge, forcing her to experience the pain she tried to inflict on me.
Sparks strides forward, her eyes glowing from unleashed power.
She stops suddenly as I hold out my arm.
Her fists clench at her side, but she stands down as I crouch next to Marissa.
“Did that hurt?” I ask, fake concern in my voice. “I wonder what that feels like.”
“Are you really going to crawl back to her?” Marissa spits. “She left you here. You can’t trust her. How long until she leaves you again?”
I look down at my arms, covered in painful bruises.
“Don’t listen to her!” Sparks steps forward, knife glistening with power, but I hold up my hand once again.
Sparks steps back while she angrily clutches her knife, sparks flying from her fingertips. I stare at her, contemplating Marissa’s words. How long until she leaves you again?
Memories of Sparks flash through my mind.
Tackling the man in the forest. Flinging her knife in the alley behind the gala.
Reclining on her motorcycle after I was released from prison.
Protecting me at Synergy Labs. Stepping off the train as it chugged toward San Francisco.
Even when she hated me, she was always beside me.
“I don’t know where Sparks has been,” I confess. “I don’t know why she left. But you see, it doesn’t matter either way. Why? Because I trust her. And through everything, she has always come back for me.”
Marissa’s face pales as I form a perfect marble, rolling the water around my fingers. I’ve gotten quite good at it over the past week. I flick my fingers, and the orb flies toward her head. I chuckle as Marissa flinches, the orb a hair’s breadth away from her forehead.
“I knew you couldn’t do it,” she cackles. “The vigilante afraid to kill. You don’t have it in you.”
“Maybe you’re right.” I shrug as I stand up. “Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe I want you to live the rest of your life knowing that despite everything, you could have died tonight.”
I turn and extend my hand toward Sparks. Marissa shifts behind me and Sparks screams. I whip around as Marissa pulls the trigger of her concealed pistol. My face pales. Blood splatters onto her pantsuit. The bullet flies wide as a knife protrudes from her chest.
“Astrid!” Sparks whirls me around to face her, searching for injuries. Seeing none, she pulls me tightly against her chest. “What did I say about bad guys? You have to finish the job!”
“What the heck, Sparks?!” I push her away. “You almost killed me!”
“What?” She blinks rapidly, confused by my outburst. I point to the knife that barely missed my shoulder. “I’ve been practicing!”
Laughing at her defense, I wrap her in my arms. Sparks burrows her head in my neck, holding me tightly.
“I didn’t leave you,” she whispers. “I swear, every single day I was trying to get back to you.”
“I believe you.” Her hair is soft in my fingers. My tears slide down her jacket, dripping through the grates of the floor. “Just promise you’ll stay with me, from now until forever.”
“I promise,” she says breathlessly. “From now until forever.”