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“Please let them go,” she said. “They haven’t hurt anyone.”
“Sit,” said Gareth.
Adam took her hand and dragged her toward the couch. She started to speak again, but he squeezed her hand so tightly that she gasped.
Then they sat in silence, listening to nothing but Chris’s fractured breathing. So long that she wondered what they were waiting for. So long that Chris’s fear began to capture her, too, until tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Hey,” said Adam softly, talking to the Guide. “He’s a kid.
Why don’t you let him go and put the gun on someone else?”
“You think he’s just a child? He’s a Water Elemental. I let him go, and suddenly I have blood boiling in my veins or frozen eye-balls or anything else he can come up with. Isn’t that right, Christopher Merrick?”
Chris didn’t speak.
“He doesn’t do that,” said Michael.
“He should do it now,” said Quinn. Her voice was thick with tears, but strong. “If you’re going to go out, Chris, you should do it with a bang.”
Chris shook his head, just a fraction, just enough.
“He knows,” Gareth said, “I’m supposed to witness evidence of destructive abilities before I kill him. Nicholas and Gabriel demonstrated that last night. You two, however . . .”
“Then let us go,” said Michael. “We’re not going to demonstrate anything.”
“I bet I can make you show a little something,” said Gareth.
He cocked the hammer and pointed the gun lower.
“No!” she screamed.
She didn’t know what she expected. Maybe some kind of Elemental show. But Michael moved, shoving Chris hard, pushing him to the ground, shielding him with his body. The gun fired.
The bullet missed Chris, but Michael cried out. Blood bloomed on his shirt. A lot.
But at least it wasn’t his head.
The Guide aimed again.
Quinn didn’t think. She flew off the couch. Her hands slammed into Gareth.
For the first time, she was glad she wasn’t one of those stick-thin twigs who lived on lettuce and water. He wasn’t a big guy, and she had the element of surprise. She hit him with the full force of her rage, and he went down.
But damn he was strong. She tried to go for his gun, but he was faster.
Then Adam was there, adding his strength to hers, pinning Gareth’s arm, trying to pry the gun from his fingers.
They were going to get the gun. And she was going to shoot this f**ker in the forehead and see how he felt about it.
But she’d forgotten Gareth wasn’t an ordinary human, limited to finite things like strength and leverage.
Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. At first she kept fighting, trying to get the gun anyway. But black spots danced in her vision.
Her muscles started to cramp. Her fingers couldn’t grasp at the steel.
Adam was suffering the same thing.
She had to let go of the gun. The Guide shoved her to the side. He freed himself from their weight and stood. He aimed at Michael.
