Chapter 3
Chapter three
Kellan
The agent’s neck snaps with a sharp twist, and he crumples to the ground. When I turn around, another three are running toward us, adding to the three still fighting.
Where the hell are they coming from?
I’d thought bringing Dane down to the beach would help divide their forces, but I must have miscounted. Every agent who shows up is one more obstacle between me and Dane should Charles appear.
To make matters worse, my gift is running out. I can feel the strength thinning with every blow. And attacks that would normally slide over scales now land with full force. I may have gotten the hang of activating it, but holding onto it for extended periods of time is still a work in progress.
I check on Dane, who’s holding his own against an agent. “Get on my back!” I shout, punching the agent trying to attack him from behind and then shoving his face into my knee.
Dane throws his fist at the agent, knocking him back and then following up with another blow that drops him to the ground. “Fuck off!” he growls, kneeing the agent on the ground and laying into him.
I lock my arm and clothesline the next agent, then stomp my foot on his chest to keep him down. “Charles could show up to grab you any second.”
He leans back on his heels, panting. “Any of these fuckers have guns on them? I’ll stay close, but I’m not going to be a backpack.”
The approaching agents surround us before we get a chance to check. Dane shoves himself to his feet, fists up.
And then I hear her voice.
Her scream.
I whip around, frantically searching for her even as the agents start their attacks.
The world around me sharpens as my fading gift resurges with a vengeance.
I can feel the pull of scales covering the backs of my arms when I clench my hands.
The newfound strength thrumming through me.
A burning scent fills the air, and something about it has alarm bells ringing in my head.
Protect. The instinct roars through me, demanding action. I barely feel the strikes from the agents surrounding me. Flies to a dragon who aren’t worth my attention when my girl’s in danger.
A blast of power rocks the beach, sweeping over us. I brace myself through it, positioning my arms in front of me and widening my stance as Dane and the GE agents are knocked to the ground.
The headland collapses beneath her and Charles.
“Rae!” Dane yells, then grunts at my side.
I grab the agent trying to grapple with Dane by the face. He shrieks with pain before I throw him to the side, then reach for the next nearest agent and slam my scaled knuckles into his jaw, causing a loud crack. Another agent tries to run, but I fist his hair and drag him back, snapping his neck.
Dane’s already racing to where Raegan and Charles are falling. I catch up to him in a few running strides before Reid appears in our way.
“Move!” I snarl, raising my arm to swipe him to the side.
His hand meets my arm halfway.
And the world tilts.
We land in the center of the Guild Hall at the Tower, still riddled with zombies and destruction from the fight. The off-balance I ordinarily feel from his teleportation isn’t here this time with my gift active.
Dane wobbles on his feet beside me, and Reid...
Fury electrifies my blood as I realize what’s happened. At where we are and where she is. I lift Reid by the throat, my grip twitching with the desire to squeeze tight enough to make his eyes pop. “What have you done?!” I roar. “Bring me back!”
“Reid!” Tinsley beats my side and pulls on my arm, but I don’t budge. “Let him go! Whatever it was, he was helping you! Put him down. Right! Now!” She emphasizes her words with punches that I hardly register.
Reid’s face is pinched, his fingers digging into mine as if trying to help support himself more than trying to break free. He’s smart enough to know he’s not getting down unless I decide it. “...J-Jack...”
“Rae was fighting the president alone. We have to go back!” Dane argues, panicked. He, too, grabs Reid’s arm. “Now!”
Reid gives the barest shake of his head, and my grip tightens involuntarily, making him choke.
“Stop! Stop it! You’re going to kill him!” Tinsley screams, pounding at my scales. She disappears, then slams into me with enough force that I slide a few feet across the floor.
Cibrina and Evie run over.
“What’s going on?” Cibrina asks, sounding breathless. “Kellan? What are you doing to Reid?”
Reid vanishes before I can answer.
“NOOO!” I whip my head around to see where he teleported to. “Reid!”
Dane’s face pales. “Fuck! Where did he go? She needs us, Kell, and we’re not there.”
“I have him,” Evie says, lifting her hand to show a miniature Reid in her grasp. “What happened?”
“Reid!” Tinsley reaches for him, but Evie pulls her hand in.
“I didn’t free him. I’m just trying to get answers without Kellan killing him first.”
“Make him big again,” I demand. “He can’t teleport us in that size, and Raegan’s fighting with Charles. We need to go back.”
“We’ll go with you,” Silas chimes in from behind us, Fabian and Gabe standing with him.
A tiny voice chirps from Evie’s hand. She releases Reid, and he drops to the ground back to his regular size. “If you have a problem with this plan, take it up with Jackson,” he remarks, accepting Tinsley against his chest and holding her there.
Dane steps toward him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’s the one who told me to bring you here.”
“You didn’t see what was happening with Raegan—” Dane starts, but Reid cuts him off.
“Don’t assume it was easy for me to leave her there, either. But I trust Jackson will keep her safe. It’s Aiden you should be worried about.”
Aiden?
Reid jerks to the side, staring at something in the room. “Someone’s coming. Grab him and get down!” he shouts at me, indicating at Dane.
I do it, and then we teleport again. It’s not far. We reappear behind the bar in the same room seconds before a deafening silence overtakes the Hall. Followed by the crunch of broken glass.
Crawling to the end of the bar, Reid hisses at me to stay hidden over Tinsley’s head, who is still tucked against him. I peek around the edge, and my blood chills, dread hardening my gut.
Charles.
It can’t be.
He wouldn’t have left unless he’d won. Unless Raegan...and Jack and Aiden...
Dane shakes, his expression muddled with fear, anguish, and anger.
Charles waves his hands, and the zombies and debris on the floor sweep to either side to clear a path for him.
The Guild members dodge or move around it.
Cibrina and the others are grouped in the middle of the room, only a short distance from him, and I notice a GE agent standing behind Charles, who must’ve arrived with him.
All the other agents are dead.
I have to get everyone out.
But I also have to go back to find Raegan, Aiden, and Jackson.
Damn it.
“Still cleaning up, I see,” Charles begins, his voice carrying easily in the vast room. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your Guild Master is dead. He threw himself in front of a bullet not meant for him.”
Gasps erupt in the room, and Dane throws me a stricken look. I shake my head. We can’t believe a word he says. I won’t believe a goddamn thing unless I see proof of it.
Aiden’s alive.
He has to be. So are Raegan and Jackson.
“I’m here looking for a colleague of yours. Dane.” He strolls forward, approaching Cibrina and the others. He stops in front of her. “You haven’t seen him, have you?” His smile stretches as he zeroes his gaze on her.
My muscles tense, preparing to launch myself at him if he touches her. Dane shifts behind me, then grunts softly.
“Sit down and stay quiet,” Reid whispers. To both of us, I think. “He’s trying to lure you out.”
That’s fine. Dane can stay here. I’m not going to sit still and watch Charles hurt anyone in the Guild while I’m here.
“No,” Cibrina answers, her voice remaining calm and collected.
“Hm...” Charles lifts his hand as if he’s going to touch her face, and the others in the group shove forward to get between them.
“He’s not here,” Silas snaps, and the GE president looks between the others before landing on Silas. He drops his hand.
“I see. You think I’m the bad guy, don’t you?
” He steps away, turning to address more of the room.
“But who’s really the villain here? Your Guild Master killed his predecessor, then took the Guild for himself.
He pockets money from your pay, controls the jobs you take, and trains you to take the lives of other people like you.
” Charles places his hand over his heart.
“I’ve always instructed my agents to never kill. To avoid harm as much as possible.”
I clench my jaw to restrain the urge to go out there and beat the shit out of him. But with my gift in his veins, it wouldn’t do anything more than prove I’m here and that Dane might be, too. If he’s not hurting anyone, then it’s not worth that risk.
“Between the Guild and GE, who has murdered hard-working gifted people and who hasn’t taken a gifted life?”
Of course, he’d word it that way, considering all the non-gifted families they’ve murdered to kidnap the gifted children. But I’m sure even this is a lie. What about those gifted we’d seen comatose in beds? How many have died in training or experimentation? Or from defiance?
He even killed Harvey, though most of the Guild doesn’t know it yet.
He continues, “Are you sure you’re on the right side?”
Silas scoffs. “Do you hear yourself? You kidnap gifted kids! I’ve seen and rescued some of them, asshole!”
Charles smiles. “Are we not the ones rescuing them? Giving them a chance at a better life, free from living job to job. Paycheck to paycheck, just to give the money to your Guild Master. People like us—we’re not meant to steal and beg for scraps.
” He gives Silas a knowing look and the latter looks away.
This bastard has our files. Only a handful of us know where Silas came from, what he’d been doing illegally with his gift just to make ends meet for his family. How he’s always putting every penny he makes into an account to support them.
Vera.
When they’d attacked the Tower and she’d hacked the network, triggering Dane’s virus to shut everything down. Once it was back up, there was no stopping her from grabbing whatever information Charles wanted.
“I’m giving them a purpose to use their abilities to build a better world.
To free them from human shackles that bind them to rules that are not meant for gifted like us.
I’ve spent the last decades protecting children from non-gifted families who wouldn’t understand; who would ridicule or shame those of us with gifts; who would despise and fear you for what you can do.
I’m building a world where you can control them instead of the other way around. ”
“No one should control anyone,” Evie counters.
“In a perfect world, I agree. However, if it ever gets out that people like us exist, that result is inevitable. Either they control you because of their fear, or you control them with my method, where there will be no resistance and no fighting as they remain blissfully ignorant of who holds the power in this world.”
The Hall is silent.
My heart pounds the longer he talks, and the condition of Raegan and the others stays unknown.
Leave. The sooner he goes, the faster Reid can bring us back.
But I can’t abandon the Guild to this man.
And if Reid was able to sense his arrival, then he might be able to sense us leaving if we go before him.
Charles’s expression never changes as he scans the room, and no one agrees or steps forward. “Your loyalty is admirable. I’ll admit, I’m envious. It would be an honor to accept you into the fold at Gifted Enterprise, should you be willing.”
Cibrina straightens, shifting to the front of the group. “Please leave.”
“I’m aware that losing someone important to you can be.
.. emotional,” he says. “It can make people become irrational and make poor choices. Of course, you still need time to accept the unfortunate passing of the Guild Master, someone you hold in such high regard. I could never ask anyone to rush a decision as important as this. Take your time. Say your goodbyes. And truly consider my offer.”
Charles looks to the GE agent he’d arrived with, and the other man crosses the room to place a hand on his back.
“I’ll give you until the end of the month to make your decision, as I assume you’ll be coming upon a new month of bills and debts to be paid.
Join GE, and you’ll have a better place to call home.
Or decline, and I’ll be forced to see you as an enemy and potential threat to GE. ”
They disappear.
“Is he gone?” Tinsley whispers to Reid, staring at him like he’s her knight in shining armor.
Reid closes his eyes, his brow pinched with concentration, then nods. “He’s gone.” He stands, bringing Tinsley with him, while Dane and I follow suit.
Dane grabs Reid’s arm. “Take us back to the beach house!”
“Jackson wanted you both here. I need to find Cassandra and bring her back.”
He yanks himself from Dane’s grip, but I snatch his wrist and squeeze. “We’re not asking,” I growl. All I can think about is what Charles said about Aiden. How we’d last seen Raegan fighting with the GE president, and yet he was able to appear here, unscathed and without her. “You’re wasting time.”
Reid releases Tinsley from his other arm, gently pushing her behind him. She grips his shoulder anyway. “I’m not going anywhere without Cassandra. Aiden won’t survive without her, if he isn’t dead already.”
“She’s in the infirmary helping the ones you rescued or who were hurt here,” Cibrina says as she rushes by, her heels clicking on the floor. “I’ll get her!”
“Is what he said about Aiden true?” Evie demands, running up to the bar with the others close behind. “Where is he?”
“Where’s Raegan?” Gabe adds. “And the ninja?”
Dane takes Reid’s arm again. “Infirmary, then beach house.”
Reid nods, and the four of us reappear in the middle of the infirmary.
Cassandra jumps at our arrival, her hand flying to her chest in a gasp before scanning a critical gaze over each of us.
“If you aren’t severely injured or dying, we have a door,” she admonishes, returning her attention to a patient in bed.
“We’ve got five rescued members, six still out from that sleeping mist and tranquilizers, and another four with significant zombie-related injuries. Thankfully, Holly’s here to help, but—”
Tinsley uses her gift to reach Cassandra and pull her to our group, and we teleport before she can finish.