Chapter 45 #2
Her form dissolves into light, an incandescent silhouette of power that’s barely contained.
Her eyes blaze green, cutting through the chaos like twin beacons.
Electricity pours off her in wild, snarling streams, each arc snapping through the air violently.
The scent of heat and fire burns my lungs.
The ground trembles beneath the charge. The Surger stutters, just for a fraction of a second.
She lifts her hands. Slow and controlled. And the air shatters. The current builds to a deafening crescendo, gathering at her fingertips in a blinding web of power. Then she releases it.
And with it, the world detonates.
The pulse that tears free is pure annihilation—unrestrained and all-consuming. The Surger doesn’t even have time to react before he’s swallowed whole by whatever it is.
When it fades, there’s nothing left. No body. No ash. Just silence.
I don’t move. I can’t. I just stare. At her. At what she’s become. At what she’s always been. And for a moment, I don’t know what to feel. Awe? Relief? Or something closer to fear.
Because whatever Cece is . . . it’s not just power. It’s something much more. Something almost terrifying. And I have no idea if any world is ready for her.
I take a moment to gather what strength I have left and force myself upright. Cece’s father is there instantly, propping me up, taking my weight until my legs remember how to hold me. Once I’m standing, I pull away and move toward her.
She’s still lit from within—residual power crawling across her skin in faint, dangerous arcs. She stares straight ahead, eyes empty, as if whatever part of her was here with us has slipped somewhere far beyond our reach.
“Cece,” I say, my voice rough. “It’s over. You can come back now.”
I gesture to her father, silently asking him to free Kate and bring her closer. He does, but Cece doesn’t react. Not even a little. She remains locked inside the storm she unleashed.
Panic tightens in my chest.
“Hey,” I try again, softer this time, careful, like she might shatter if I push too hard. “It’s me. You’re safe now. I’m here.” I swallow, my throat burning. “I’m okay. Please—come back to me. I love you. I can’t lose you.”
The words feel raw, torn straight from my chest.
I want to touch her, need to, but I don’t dare. One careless step into that current could end me. So I stay where I am, helpless, watching the woman who is my entire world stand just out of reach.
Then her eyes shift.
They find mine.
The glow drains from them. The crackling light fades, dying away like embers after a fire. Her shoulders sag, her body finally releasing the tension it’s been holding.
“Luc,” she whispers.
And then she’s falling.
I catch her as she collapses into me, her hands clutching at my shirt as sobs tear free from her chest. She shakes against me, burying her face into my neck.
“I thought you were going to die,” she cries, her voice breaking.
I wrap myself around her, holding her as tightly as I dare. “I’m okay,” I murmur into her hair. “I’m here. You saved my life.”
She looks up, eyes red and glistening. “It felt like a dream. I couldn’t let them hurt you. And then suddenly . . . I was full of rage, and all this energy just came. I don’t even know how I did it.”
“You pulled what you could from yourself,” I say quietly, “and then you took mine.”
Her eyes widen.
“Mine too,” her father adds from behind us. “She drew from me as well.”
I look at him, startled. Then back at Cece. She doesn’t deny it. She just stares at me, still breathing hard. She hadn’t just drawn on me. She’d taken from every source she could. That kind of pull shouldn’t even be possible.
And yet, somehow, she’d done it.
I nod, unsure of what else to do or how to respond. Now I realize that the incident at her apartment, when she hit me with that current, also involved her siphoning my energy. No wonder I had no strength to free myself from the energy hold against the wall.
Kate rushes over to Cece and wraps her in a tight embrace. They cling to each other, crying, their voices tangled in apologies and thank-yous, spoken through tears.
A sound echoes from the corridor at the back of the room. All of us snap our heads toward it, instincts sharp, my body already trying to draw on any shred of current I have left to defend us. But then I feel the familiar energy—faint but unmistakable.
Xan.
He stumbles into the room, beaten and bloodied, but standing. Relief floods through me as I step forward without thinking, pulling him into a tight hug.
“It’s good to see you safe,” I say, meaning every word.
He grips me back, and I can feel how much effort even that takes.
“You as well. There were two Surgers on the north side. I took them down, but it cost me everything. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was making it out.”
His eyes land on Kate and soften in an instant. “I’m so happy to see you.”
He crosses the room and pulls her into a hug like it’s the only thing keeping him standing. She folds into him, sobbing into his chest.
That’s new.
I raise an eyebrow but smile quietly. Seems their friendship evolved while I was away.
When Xan lets her go, his attention shifts and locks onto the man I’ve also just met. I gesture toward him.
“Xan, this is Cece’s father. There’s . . . a lot we all need to catch up on. Most of this is news to the rest of us, too.”
Xan steps forward, hand half-extended in greeting, then freezes. He stares.
Just stares.
What the . . . ?
I glance between them. Her dad won’t meet his eyes, gaze drifting down like a man caught in a lie. What is that? Shame? That’s not the look I expected.
“Xan?” I ask, the tension crawling up the back of my neck. “You good?”
He laughs, but it’s wrong. Loud, sharp, and hollow. The sound sends a chill through the room.
“No, Luc. I’m not good.” His voice is eerily flat. “Because I know who he is.”
Xan’s eyes burn with something ugly. Something deep.
“He’s not just Cece’s father.” His voice drops into a growl, quiet, lethal.
“He’s mine, too.”