Resolve (Raegan of Ruin #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter one

Jackson

The coppery tang of blood blends with salt and brine on the ocean breeze.

The others must be in the thick of taking down GE agents since we split up.

Kellan escaped with Dane to the base of the cliffs while Raegan and Aiden block agents from chasing after them.

I’m still stuck on the other side of Royce’s beach house at the top of the cliff, hidden from the rest while I fight to save Reid.

The agents I’m facing would be dead already if they were on their own. Paired together, they’re troublesome.

Once I’ve knocked the woman with paralysis-inducing nails to the ground, I reach toward the second agent and fist my hand. He runs at me, swinging punches that I easily evade while keeping his flow of oxygen suspended.

The female tries to sneak up behind me, as if I would somehow forget that she was there. I’m keeping her in my peripherals as I dodge the other one. His movements slow at an exponential rate the more he attacks me. I just need her to keep her distance until I’ve taken him out.

She raises her arm, and I push off the sandy grass, using my gift to glide out of range before her nails swipe across where I’d been standing. The move unfortunately forces me to drop my focus on the male agent, and he gasps for air.

I land in front of Reid. He’s still frozen in place by the venom that woman injected into his neck. I’m guessing only she can free him from it, either by choice or her death.

I’m aiming for the latter, but the male agent has continuously intervened in my attempts so far, which has driven me to shift my attention to him. I slip my hands into my hoodie pocket and finger the remaining blades as I tilt my head and smile at them both.

“As much as I enjoy a good fight, you’re keeping me from the others. I can’t promise a clean death the longer you draw this out.” Licking my lips, I add, “I’m losing my patience,” in a darker, serious tone.

“You’re the one dying here today,” the guy says, sneering and then wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

I chuckle. The sound is hollow and devoid of any humor. Seeing them shiver in response ratchets my smile to a maniacal grin. “Those are unfortunate last words.”

Plucking two knives free, I toss them at the venomous agent with my gift boosting their speed.

As expected, the male dives between them and the blades clatter against him and drop.

His body is hard and sharp like jagged rock, his skin jutting out in strange angles that are just as likely to stab or cut me if I were to attack him directly.

Which is exactly what I’m going to do now.

My wind attacks have proved fruitless against him, just like throwing any sharp projectiles.

The only attack that works is limiting his air, but his partner has intervened every time, and I’m not practiced enough on this newer technique to hold it without full concentration.

And I can’t get to her without him getting in the way, so he dies first.

While he’d moved in front of my knives, I jumped high above them, drawing another knife free. I drop onto his back, slamming him to the ground with my thick boots. I grab his hair and yank back, then drive my knife through his eye. It plunges deep enough that it’s lights out for good.

The woman screams behind me. I roll off the dead agent in time to miss her pointed nails. Now that her partner is gone, she’s an easy kill.

I wave my hand in a sweeping motion. All my fallen knives rise and surround her. Wrenching my blade free of her partner’s eye, I stand and offer her another smile. “Release Reid, and I’ll consider letting you live.”

She scowls, eyeing the knives hovering in a circle around her. “And if I don’t?”

“Then you die right now. I don’t care for prisoners.”

I give her until the count of three to think about her choices.

I’m already pushing my patience the longer Raegan’s out of my sight.

We’ve just defeated Royce and all the strings attached to him—Thorne, Vera, and a horde of zombies—only to have Charles appear and kidnap Dane.

I’m not worried about the agents with him, but I know the GE president will be hard to beat.

The sooner I get back to her, the better.

Aiden’s with her.

It should settle the frenetic energy coursing through my veins to get to her, but it doesn’t. Nothing will soothe it until I see she’s safe and unharmed. I’d also like a front row seat to watch her eviscerate our enemies, and these two agents have been delaying me for too long.

“You can have him if you swear to let me go. I’m not buying your consideration crap,” she snaps.

“I swear to let you go.”

Her eyes narrow, but she walks to Reid. I mirror her on his other side, staying out of her reach but keeping close to Reid so I can monitor what she’s doing. My knives clear a forward path and maintain their distance around her.

She wraps her hand around Reid’s shoulder and leans in, her eyes closing as she drags her tongue over the area she’d punctured.

Hm. Probably a good idea I hadn’t killed her right away, then. Luckily, she values her own life over taking down one of our allies with her.

“There.” She steps back from Reid.

His surprised expression melts back to its usual stoicism. As he blinks, I take the opportunity to shove the woman over the cliff with a burst of air.

The only promises that mean anything to me are the ones made to Raegan and my brothers.

“Who was that?” Reid questions, though his tone is indifferent.

“The enemy.”

Something flies past the tip of the headland.

A person?

Could be from Kellan, but he should be at the base of the cliff and not up here. I focus more on the body and freeze when I notice the suit.

“Is that…” Reid trails off.

Aiden.

Realization hits me like a brick.

I won’t make it in time.

I lift my hands as if I’m holding an invisible ball and start pulling in and gathering air between them. This isn’t anything I’ve tried before, but I’m acting on instinct now to do whatever it takes to give us time. I seal it, then shoot it out at Aiden to cover his face.

It could pop when he hits the water. It might not stick to him at all.

It reaches him just before he disappears in the water.

He doesn’t come up.

There’s no time to think about whether that worked or not. I balance on the edge of the cliff, building the air needed to launch myself skyward, when a scream pierces the air and echoes in my bones. The sound of her voice—drenched in pain and fury—seizes my soul in an iron fist, and I nearly fall.

At the same time, the smell of burned wire, a sharp metallic taste that clings to the back of my throat, warns me what’s coming next.

Reid grabs my arm. “She’s with Charles. I’ll bring us there.”

“No.” Breaking his grip, I run along the cliff and stop when I see Kellan and Dane still fighting off agents. “Get them to the Guild. Then bring Cassandra to the zombie caves.”

Raegan’s gift bursts out of her as a shockwave of power.

Reid stumbles back but manages to keep his balance while my gift holds me to my perch.

The headland collapses to rubble, and she and Charles descend through the destruction.

Red lightning arcs and ripples around her, further decimating the broken rocks to dust until they’re surrounded by a cloud of dirt and powder.

Reid vanishes, reappearing on the beach in a split second to reach the others, and then the three of them are gone.

Charles hits the ocean first, and it disperses outward and upward like a stone dropped in water until his back impacts with rocky and saturated sand. The sea rushes against an invisible barrier surrounding them, steam hissing and rising where it makes contact.

I sprint to the beach house and kick the already-broken door off its hinges, sending it down the rockslide where the remaining GE agent won’t spot it.

The agents up here are all dead, Aiden’s slashes clearly marked in red on every body.

A single bush clings to the cliff above Raegan and Charles, halfway over the edge from the headland collapse with its roots struggling to hold on.

I duck behind it and crouch on the precipice to reassess.

Even though my body vibrates with the need to go to her, I keep still, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

If any one of us is going to defeat Charles, it’s her.

It’s the only win I can see for us. The only gift that can break through all his imitated powers. She’s underestimated her gift at every turn, and I think she’s finally starting to realize how powerful she is. How strong she can be, if she uses it right.

The sweltering heat radiating from them at the base of the cliff reaches me even up here, making me sweat in my hoodie.

We’re losing daylight, losing time. My chances for rescuing Aiden are narrowing with every breath.

I know I need to find him, but I can’t leave her with Charles. Aiden would understand.

Charles’s voice carries on the wind.

“Is this all you have?”

I fist my hand, accepting the time to beat him isn’t today.

Not yet. But soon.

He continues, “I’m going to take Dane now and kill the rest of your friends. You should thank me for a poetic ending. I’ll let you die in the same watery grave as your lover.”

I’m relieved that Dane and the others are gone, stealing that prize from Charles. He thinks he’s won, but if I can get Aiden back, it’ll be a draw at best.

“Sleep.” Charles palms her face, wielding the same gift he’d used to knock Kellan out in the bunker, and her eyes close.

The president is too impatient to follow through on his promise to recapture Dane that he doesn’t deal a killing blow with his telekinesis.

That would have compelled me to intervene before the attack could land, and I’m not sure if I could escape him.

It’s a mistake on his part. A flaw in how he thinks during a fight.

I wouldn’t have hesitated to go for the kill.

My muscles tense, desperate to go to her, but I can’t let him see me. Saving Raegan and Aiden are my priority.

I force myself to wait.

To be patient.

Even when he teleports away and her gift dissipates.

Even as the water floods the crater, crashing over her, and swallowing her from my view.

Every nerve ending burns to move; to save her.

Wait.

Charles reappears by the beach house, and I tuck in closer to the bush.

He surveys the dead agents, then strides to the cliff to peer below.

He teleports to the remaining agent, speaking a few words back and forth.

Hopefully telling him that Dane and the others are gone.

The GE president turns, and the agent places his hand on his back.

They vanish.

I dive, thrusting the wind at my heels and splitting the air with my hands. The buffer of air lasts until I slide beneath the water. The cold temperature skitters over my skin, inducing a shiver, but it’s not a muscle-binding chill.

Moving through water is a heavy, claustrophobic experience for me. I’m used to air at my fingertips. That invisible, endless freedom and lightness which constantly surrounds me. But underwater, it’s muted. Smothered. As if I’m trapped in a thick, wool blanket.

I’m slow. Weak. Cut off from the gift that I’ve interwoven into every fiber of my being. I fight against the instinct demanding I return to the surface and swim harder instead.

The warmth from her gift beckons me to her, growing in temperature the closer I am until I see her. She’s floating just above the softened sand, the setting sunlight reaching for her with slender orange fingers.

I shove myself toward her, wrapping her in my arms even as her heat scalds my skin.

I swim toward the shore, wishing I could control air underwater—use it to propel us into the sky or increase my speed.

But I’m as restricted in the water as anyone.

I bundle her to my chest once I can keep her head above water, progressively shifting to a run until I lay her on the sand and start CPR.

I’m sure there’s a way I can use my gift to clear the water from her lungs, but I haven’t tried it before, and I’m reluctant to try anything for the first time with her. I save it as a backup option if this doesn’t work, continuing the compressions and guiding air into her lungs with my gift.

Come on, little one. Breathe.

After a minute with no results, I debate switching tactics, panic bleeding into my composure the longer she’s not breathing. My compressions become rougher; my own breathing clipped as my heart races.

Her body jerks, and I quickly help her to her side as she coughs water. Once it’s all out, her breathing slows, and her eyes remain closed. I check her pulse, then palm her forehead.

She’s still burning up from her gift.

Lifting her in my arms, I fly us to the rockslide where Reid’s supposed to be with Cassandra.

Neither of them is there.

Something’s wrong.

If he’s not back by now, they ran into trouble at the Guild.

I take a calming breath, releasing the frustration that keeps trying to take over. Cassandra can’t heal her from this anyway. I need her for Aiden. Hopefully, they’ll be here before I get him back.

There are mini tide pools on this side of the beach formed by the broken rocks and boulders from the rockslide Raegan created and filled in during high tide.

I slip Raegan into one of those, away from the waves, but still in the cooler water to help regulate her temperature.

I shift the larger boulders around her, blocking her body from view unless someone gets close enough, then find the door I’d dropped around here.

“I’ll bring him back to you,” I promise, hopping on the hovering door.

A quick burst of air shoots me over open water as I fight the strong ocean breeze.

I lie on the door to reduce air resistance and keep myself low to the water.

The winter sun sinks below the horizon, darkness creeping over the sky and shadowing much of the sea.

I try not to consider the possibility of not finding Aiden or him not making it.

I promised Raegan that we would all make it through this war.

I already failed her with Gordon.

I won’t do it again.

My chest tightens as those thoughts percolate. We all need her, but the same is true for the rest of us.

Our family won’t be whole without him, either.

She’s the glue to our broken pieces, but we won’t fit together with a piece missing.

It has to be all of us. Together.

I’ll find him and bring him home.