I spin on my heel, firing the inferno of my power directly at my brother’s outstretched arms. The blast is like nothing I ever expected to see in real life, like my body has become a living, breathing Death Star and my skin the conductor for its murderous ray.
Cooper falls away with a curse, the melted gun dropping from his grasp and puddling onto the floor in a mass of steel and brass. The problem is that wasn’t the only thing hit. I stare in horror as the cement blocks char around us, all other material turning molten in the face of that heat. All down the tunnel,pipes turn red and burst, spraying steam and chemicals into the air, fanning the building flames.
34
KAYE
Smoke billows black and thick through the air, clouding the already limited air with toxins. The fire spreads fast, further progressed by the shattering of glass receptacles carrying goodness only knows what in them. Whatever Cooper needed to conduct his experiments. The real problem is the pressurized oxygen and hydrogen cans on the far end of the hall. They’re far from the flame now, but it won’t take long to reach it.
I look to where my brother fell, expecting him to be watching the scene fold out before us, but he’s gone. “Cooper?”
Only the hot crackle of flames answers.
I race to Zane’s side, fighting to cover both our mouths as a thick cloud of smoke billows over us. The power in my palms has subsided, but I still feel that current coursing through my veins ready and waiting for use.
I snatch the screwdriver from the tray and pry at the metal bonds holding Zane’s form in place. The material holds firm, the heat building up around us doing nothing to soften the material. I hazard a glance behind me, to the mouth of fire licking the walls there, and know this will never work in time.
Zane’s eyes rove my face, his expression filled with emotions I can’t begin to name.
“Do you trust me?” I ask him.
“With every cell and fiber in my being.”
I wish I could say the same. “Don’t move.”
The power concentrates into my hands again, and though I hold a significant portion of it back, it’s still more than enough. The metal quickly crumbles under my grip, the material destabilized. My fingers grasp the last binding holding him in place. A blow knocks me aside, my ribs lighting up with pain like lightning cracking my bones.
“Kaye!” Zane screams.
I clutch my ribs, legs folding up to protect me on the ground as I choke on smoke and tears to catch my breath. Cooper looms over me, hammer clenched in his reddened, blistering fist.
“I’m always cleaning up your messes,” he spits into my face. “‘Protect Kitty.’ ‘Kitty didn’t mean to hurt you.’ ‘Share with Kitty.’ Why? All those times I protected you, and just this once you could have protected me.”
Tears burn at the base of my eyelids. “I’d give anything to protect you, Coop.Anything but this. Not at the cost of my soul.”
“All I hear is that you don’t care.”
I swallow around the pain. “Then you aren’t listening.”
BOOM.
The ground shakes around us. Cracks form in the foundations. If we caved in right now I still couldn’t be more happy to hear that sound.
BOOM.
“What the hell is that?” Cooper clutches the hammer to his chest even more tightly.
The tightness in my ribs eases, the abundance of power redirecting to begin the process of healing the broken bones there. The still twinge heavily when I bend to the calf of my boot, feeling around for the secret compartment, and the tracker, hidden there. I present it to him with grim satisfaction.
“You may only have invited me, but there are other ways into these tunnels, Cooper. And my friends areverydetermined.”
Everything shakes around us with the final explosion, rumbling like an earthquake. God, if they haven’t at least gotten through the largest of the blocked tunnels… My attention locks on the cannisters again and the impending explosion creeping ever closer.
“Friends?” I can’t tell if it’s from the smoke or adrenaline or something else altogether, but Cooper’s voice shakes. “Those pathetic pissants at the cathedral, too scared of their own shadows to claim their power? This is exactly what I’d like to make of your so-called friends, Kitty.”
Cooper fishes a thin, black remote from the pocket of his lab coat. I grab for it, but Cooper is quicker. He thrashes wildly with the hammer and I barely dodge the sharp end in my bicep.
There’s an audible click as all around us doors open. A swell of nausea rises as the most foul smell I’ve ever encountered assaults my senses. Like hot, rotting garbage and human excrement rolled together to create the dirtiest, moldiest shit-sandwich on the planet. It’s so strong that the putrescence of the smoke has no chance against it.
