Page 11 of Outlawed

“Go!” Riggs yells at him. “I’ll keep her safe.”

Shephard hesitates for a second before he takes off in the direction of the shooter. I barely pay him any mind. I look down at the woman who has come to mean so much to me, a bullet wound on the left side of her chest bleeding so profusely that for a moment I don’t know what to do.

“Calliope!” Riggs roars, snapping me out of it.

“She’s been shot,” I scream at him as I press my hands to her wound. “Get everyone else back in the town hall.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Please. I need you to get them to safety.”

I look over at him and see the war in his expression. He wants nothing more than to throw me over his shoulder, but I’d never forgive him, and he knows it.

“God dammit, Opie,” he snarls, kissing me hard before he scoops Jackie up and runs with her in his arms to the town hall, ignoring her protests.

Henry grabs Sarah and yanks her in the same direction. She fights him, but I hear him promise to help once she’s safe, which makes the fight leave her.

I lean down over Dawn, holding back my sob at her terrified expression. “Paramedics are on their way. You just hold on for me, okay?”

The terror seeps from her eyes only to be replaced by acceptance. Ice slides through my veins.

“It’s okay,” she whispers as a scream builds in my throat.

“They’re almost here. I promise.”

Pain creases her forehead as she sucks in a wet breath and grips my wrist. “He’ll come for her. Don’t let him get my baby.”

“I’ll kill him before I’ll let him anywhere near her,” I vow, feeling my own tears run down my face. My powers rush to the surface, urging me to do something. But I can’t heal bullet wounds or pour vast amounts of blood back into her body.

“Don’t let her forget about me.”

“Never,” I choke out, blood gushing between my fingers as she coughs, splattering us both with it.

Riggs drops down beside me, his expression bleak. He knows he’s staring death in the face, just like I do. My body feels supercharged. As my emotions batter against my cage of control, I worry I’ll level this place if I can’t pull it back.

“Tell Hannah…Mommy loves her. She…was my happy ever after,” she gasps, her eyes going wide for a moment before her gaze becomes vacant.

“No. Please don’t do this. Hannah needs you. I need you, goddam you,” I yell as Riggs tries to pull me into his arms. My bloody fists beat at his chest as power ripples over me. I hear him hiss, but I can’t pull it back.

“Baby,” he groans as my hair lifts and floats around me.

“Let me go,” I choke out.

“Never.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I can handle it.”

“No.” I tear myself away from him and scramble to my feet. I move before he can reach me. Unconsciously, a swirl of wind whirls around me, keeping him at bay as Shepard jogs back over.

Shepard takes in Dawn on the ground, dead, before his gaze lifts to mine. “He got away. Fuck. I’m sorry.”

My eyes zero in on a baseball cap in his hand as the ice in my blood turns to fire. The cap has Corvis Wing Ranch stitched into the front of it. Though a dozen old ranch hands might have one, the last time I saw one was on top of my father’s head, the day at the library.

Sparks of lightning erupt from my hands into the ground in front of me as my hold on my power snaps loose. “Get back,” I yell. This is going to be bad.

“Baby, you’ve gotta calm down. We’ll get through this,” Shepard urges.