Chapter 23 #2
A large block of cement slams to the ground between me and Charles. Another smaller one falls from the ceiling. The lightning scours the ceiling, creating fissures of heat and destruction.
Right above Charles.
One of our plans to kill him was to bury him alive. We don’t have the board members yet, but I’m not missing this opportunity.
I double down on my gift there, my heart racing with the hope that we can end this right here. He may heal from damage, but not if he's crushed. Like when Kellan had been stuck in the car accident, if Charles is so pinned that he can’t move, then he can’t heal, either.
More concrete crashes around him.
Charles teleports before being crushed by a massive chunk of debris, reappearing closer to me. He raises his hand, and I’m hurled backward. “Don’t be foolish. This is an underground facility. You’ll be dead by rubble long before me.”
Before I hit the wall, a cushion of air catches me from behind.
The pressure from Charles’s gift intensifies, pinning me between the two forces. A gasp wrenches from my lips as pain lances through me.
The GE president laughs.
I catch Jackson’s hand shaking, his face pinched in concentration as he slowly releases the air, and I glide backward.
Charles flashes to his side and punches Jack in the gut. The added strength of Kell’s gift has Jackson doubled over, and I strike the wall the last few feet before tumbling to the ground.
The fall does more damage than anything else, pain ringing through my head like alarm bells as I choke on sand and struggle to my hands and knees. My gift is still active, but the lightning and power I’d been harnessing earlier have retreated.
When I check on Jack, his hand is fisted as if he’s trying to cut off Charles’s air. The GE President smiles and flicks his wrist, sending Jackson at me at high speed.
I scramble to my feet, unsure if I’ll even make it in time, before Kellan is suddenly in front of me and catches Jack.
“Are you okay?” Dane steadies me with his hands on my forearms, unbothered by the soft glow of my gift running through them. There’s dried blood on his face and neck. It’s caked in his blond hair and soaked through his shirt. Yet there’s an overpowering smell of gasoline coming from him instead.
Even with all the blood, I don’t spot anything fresh.
Tinsley and Reid attack Charles, pushing him back before he can land a hit on either of them, while Aiden and Kell check on Jackson.
Dane’s gaze sweeps over me for his own inspection, and once our eyes meet again, I nod. “Yeah.” I grip his arms. “You?”
He starts to say something, but Aiden cuts him off. “We need to hold him off so Reid can get the others out.”
“Then what?” Kellan asks. Golden scales are spread along the backs of his arms and up the sides of his neck and torso.
The impenetrable skin fills in the rest of what I can see.
His gift is fully active, but there’s a slight tremble to his arms where he stands, and exhaustion lines his face. His gift may be back, but for how long?
“Then I bury this place with Charles in it,” I answer first, stepping around Dane so I can see them all. “Have Reid get you out with the others.”
Aiden’s speckled with blood and sporting a few shallow cuts and torn clothing, but otherwise looks okay. Jackson offers me a smile when I check on him next, playing off his own injuries as nothing, even though I’m sure his knee is in a lot of pain.
“He’ll teleport before you get the chance,” Aiden counters, but I’m undeterred.
“Then I’ll destroy his facility and crush anyone left. I’m tired of running away. Even if he runs, it’s a small win for us.” And hopefully a blow to his confidence. “Are there any other prisoners here?” I continue, looking at Dane.
He shakes his head. “Not anymore.”
Perfect.
Tinsley sails through the air. Reid appears midair to catch her, vanishes, then teleports to us. “What’s the plan?” he demands, breathless.
“Get Silas and the rest of our people,” Aiden answers. “We’ll take it from here.”
Reid nods.
Tinsley gasps, “Wait—” and then they’re gone, revealing a barrage of ceiling debris flying toward us.
Jackson blows the first round to the side. Aiden uses his whip sword to knock them down, and Kellan hits whatever’s left with his fists.
Those seconds are all I need to reignite the full strength of my gift. Charles teleports beside Dane, and I don’t hesitate. I strike him in the chest with my gift and shove myself between them. Red lightning zaps over his skin and scales before dissipating into the sand.
Kellan grabs him by the throat and squeezes.
Charles smiles at him, unaffected. He grips Kell’s arm in return.
“You and I are a poor match-up at the best of times. But I’ve had more sleep.
More food. I’m at my peak, and your gift is waning.
I can see it. In a battle of stamina, you don’t have a chance.
” He breaks Kellan’s hold and knocks him back with a telekinetic blast.
I send my gift back to the ceiling. To whatever structure is between us and above-ground, spreading it as I had beneath us at the start of this fight.
Aiden shouts directions behind me. “Jack, clear this area of sand. Dane, keep Kell’s gift active.
” He starts attacking Charles. Even though his blade can’t cut the scales, he blunts and thickens it instead to hammer him hard enough to send him flying.
“Kell, break through the concrete until you reach rebar. I need more metal.” He stabs his sharpened sword into the concrete beneath the sand.
It pierces the cement by a couple of inches, cracking the surrounding area.
I’m grateful he’s realized I can’t do it myself while I’m concentrated above us. One misstep, and I’ll trigger my gift too early and have everything falling down over us, too.
Kellan beats his scaled knuckles into the cracked area that Aiden started for him. Dane holds his hand on Kell's shoulder as he works while Jack and Aiden position themselves between us and Charles, who’s dusting himself off.
The president eyes the fissures of stone above us, noisily snapping and popping, as my gift continues to expand through it.
He lifts his hand, but instead of propelling me back, I’m drawn toward him.
Jackson’s air slows me down.
Aiden’s blunted sword swings at Charles, who lifts his arm to block it. He slides some feet back, but he doesn’t lose control over his telekinesis.
“Aiden!” Kellan shouts.
A large block of concrete suddenly hovers over Charles, then falls.
I’m no longer being pulled forward, and Jackson quickly shoots me back to the group while Charles is preoccupied with dodging the stone.
“Now, Raegan,” Aiden commands, and I realize thick walls of metal are surrounding us. Only the space above me remains open.
I unleash my gift.
Sharp cracks and a deep rumble roll through the arena. The sound drowns out shouts of my name before I’m roughly yanked down, and the world darkens.
We’re pressed together in the cramped space as booms like thunder and the pounding of stone against metal echo around us. My heart jumps into my throat at the incursion of sound that’s so loud I can feel it echoing in my bones.
I fight against the panic that threatens to take over as we all hold on to each other.
It feels like a lifetime.
It’s maybe minutes.
And then it ends.