46. Welcome Back
Welcome Back
SNOW
Seven’s kiss blows through my mind, body, and soul, leaving every part of me lit up.
The fire in my belly roars.
For years, I thought it was hunger. Envy. Some pathetic need to make myself special by getting close to people who were.
It was my magic clawing at the place where it had been cut away. Now that space is full.
During the kiss, a thin line of heat scored up my inner arm, sharp even through everything else Seven poured into me. I twist my wrist inside the cuff and look.
The hand mirror. Tink's pixie dust ink glows fresh, and the glass is smooth. Every crack gone, every broken segment flowed back into one bright, seamless sheet.
Tink said the meaning would reveal itself one day.
A grin takes over my face until my cheeks ache.
Whole. I'm whole in a way I forgot how to be.
Power surrounds me in bright currents, each one distinct. I can feel them. Goldie. Cinder. The Seven. Even Rosie’s magic lives inside me, the first ability I ever mirrored stamped so deeply onto me that Queenie’s poison couldn’t erase it.
I reach for Two. The restraints pass through my body. My feet hit the floor as five security guards mobilize at once.
The first guard lunges for me.
Goldie’s teleportation opens inside my chest, and I disappear with a strange popping sound, reappearing behind him.
"Oh, this is fucking awesome."
He spins.
I teleport again, popping up beside the next guard long enough to tap his shoulder.
"Too slow."
I’m across the room before his fist finishes swinging.
The third guard draws his gun. I reach for Cinder’s magic and his blood answers to me now.
It floods from his nose and leaks from the corners of his eyes. He drops the gun with a strangled cry as red spills from his ears and over his lips. I release the hold the second his knees hit the floor.
"Contain her," Queenie's voice cracks across the lab, an octave above her podium tone. In my peripheral, she slides along the counter toward the exit, one hand feeling for the door while her men drop paycheck by paycheck.
Goldie's magic answers before I finish the thought. I pop between her and the door, close enough to count her eyelashes, and waggle my fingers. "Stay for the show."
She recoils into a rack of empty vials. I'm gone before it stops rattling.
One’s speed floods my muscles. The room slows as I cross to the far table.
I switch to Two’s powers and reach into the locked drawer where they put my daggers, then switch back to super speed and run. One guard hits the floor before he sees me coming. I drive my elbow into another man’s throat, sweep his legs, and race back to where I started before his body lands.
The final guard raises his weapon.
My daggers lift from my hands.
Rosie’s power hums through me, warm and familiar. I flick my fingers and send both blades flying. One pierces the wall through his jacket sleeve. The other pins his pant leg.
He pulls the trigger.
I teleport directly in front of him and wrench the gun away.
"Now, now, I haven’t finished the magic show yet." Then I cold cock him and he drops.
The scientists stand frozen behind their stations. I point the gun at the IV running into Ariel’s arm. "Wake them up."
One woman raises both hands. "The sedative has to wear off naturally."
I teleport in front of her and press the barrel beneath her chin. "Look at my face and decide if you really want to lie to me today."
"There’s a reversal agent," a different one blurts. "In the locked cabinet."
"Good choice."
Behind them, Queenie is backing away from Seven.
He stalks toward his mother with ominous, panther-like movements. It’s still the same body, but he somehow seems bigger, bulkier, more powerful than the rest.
"The Seven," she admonishes, trying to assert her authority, but her voice shakes.
"We are only Six now," he corrects. "But I think..." He closes his eyes. His shoulders twitch and jerk. A warm flare of red magic pulses from him, carrying the same life-giving force still moving through me.
His eyes open, and he turns to look at me, and I see red. Four winks at me. "Hey, baby, miss me?"
My breath catches.
Seven gave me back my magic. Then he reached inside himself and brought back the piece we both thought was gone forever. My heart pounds so hard it hurts. I could laugh. I could cry. Hell, I can set stuff on fire if I want to with him in the room.
All seven of the men I love are standing in front of me. Whole because Seven finally set himself free.
Then black swallows up the red irises. "Ah, yes. We are Seven once more," Seven says to his mother. "We all need to be here for this."
"You can’t do this," Queenie protests, still trying to keep her distance, but the wall comes up fast behind her. "Everything I’ve done has been for us."
"You’ve spent so much time and effort trying to make us the same again," Seven says in a low, gravelly tone that is deceptively soft. "We tried it your way, but the cost is too high. But don’t worry mother. We can still be a family."
He reaches out and gently touches her face in a loving caress.
Her fingers curl around his automatically, grasping for the control she lost.
His power flashes between their palms.
Queenie gasps and tears herself away.
She catches herself on the edge of a metal counter.
Vines burst from beneath her palm, twisting around glass vials and blooming with tiny purple flowers. Her mouth falls open.
She stumbles and grabs a scientist to balance herself. He cries out as translucent wings rip through the back of his lab coat.
She jerks away from him and grabs a rolling stool.
The metal legs bend beneath her hand. Hooves crack against the tile as the seat sprouts fur, a tail, and two curling horns. It tears free of her grip and gallops between the lab tables.
Seven watches his mother stare at her hands in horror. She falls to her knees as she begins to cry and scream like someone has chopped off a limb.
"See, Mother?" he says. "It’s what you wanted. For us to be the same again."