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I charge a fire-bolt, but the guard is faster. Heavy winds blast from his palms and extinguish my flames as easily as breathing on birthday candles. I try dashing forward, but it’s like trying to run through a tornado, and I’m thrown off balance. His winds carry me to the attic’s ceiling, and I lose hold of the binder. The guard extends one palm to keep me pinned with his winds, and with his other hand he gestures like he’s squeezing something. I don’t understand what’s happening at first until I’m suddenly wheezing over and over—he’s dragging the oxygen out of me.
This can’t be the end.
There’s no way in hell this is how I’m going out. If I’m ever going to die in battle, it’s going to be epic and at the hands of a worthier opponent. Not some Dark Side Atlas literally sucking the life out of me. Except I can’t break out of this hold. I can’t believe some nobody is going to kill the Infinity Savior.
I can’t breathe, and even as my temperature drops hard and fast, practically sub-zero, I can’t help thinking that I’m going out just like Dad, fighting for air. I’m dizzy and feel weightless as I fall from the ceiling. The lack of oxygen must be getting to me because the world loses all color, and shifting lights and shadows transform everything like some old-school photo negatives. This must be it for me. I’m about to slam against the floor when instead I sink through it, falling back into Ness’s room, where Emil casts fire against that celestial from earlier, and the flames are blinding me. The sounds of winds follow me as I fall through the floor again, even though that Dark Nobody is still up in the attic and I’m somehow crashing through the kitchen. No, I’m not crashing—I’m phasing through this house—and I go through one more fall before slamming down on a tiled floor and suck in the biggest breath.
My ghost powers saved my life before I could die.
I have all three sets of powers the Reaper’s Blood promised, which makes me more than the Infinity Savior, I’m the—
“Brighton!”
Ma.
I turn, and there’s a massive black box inside a yellow gleam-shield. This is one of those lofty panic rooms. I can’t see Ma through the door’s window, but she ke
eps yelling that she’s inside. I hear Eva too. They’re actually alive. The Senator is going to burn for this. For now, I have to rescue them.
“I’m going to get you out!”
“There’s a button on the wall!” Eva shouts.
I find the keypad with the emergency button and the gleam-shield switches off.
Upstairs, there’s an explosion, followed by people shouting and glass shattering. I hope my side is winning so I have more time to free Ma and Eva. The door won’t pull open. These panic rooms were built to keep out celestials, but what about specters with ghost powers?
There’s no one in my life who can be my phasing instructor the way I have Emil for my phoenix powers and Wesley for swift-speed. I’m all I have—and all I am is more than everyone else. If anyone can go inside a room designed to keep people out, it’s me.
I focus on the panic and determination that must’ve awakened my power, and I think about making myself weightless again until the world loses color again and the sound of howling winds rages inside my head. I’m nervous that I might fall through the earth as I take my first step forward, but that’s not the worst of it. It’s difficult and freezing like walking through a cold, furious ocean and I’m suffocating like I’m drowning in it.
Once I’m inside, the lights and shadows readjust, and I try to catch my breath but my crying mother pulls me into the tightest hug. I’m not complaining.
“I’m sorry for everything, Ma.”
“Me too, my shining star, me too.”
She takes a good look at me, and I hate how underfed she looks.
“Who else is here?” Eva asks. She has bruises around her body.
These monsters who harmed them will meet their ends. Even if I have to possess them all one by one and walk them off skyscrapers.
“We’ve got enough backup,” I say. There’s no time to break down why Iris and Wesley aren’t with us. “This power is new, so hopefully I can make it work with all of us.”
I grab their hands, and Ma squeezes like she never wants to let me go again. We step toward the door and begin phasing through. It’s even harder, like I’m a tiny boat with two anchors thrown overboard, and I’m ready to quit when we break through to the other side. I’m the only one gasping for air, and Ma and Eva don’t seem affected in the slightest.
We go up the stairs and Ma is shaking the entire time.
It’s absolute chaos up here.
Maribelle is fighting a guard on the steps, and she balances herself on the handrail as she kicks him so hard that he tumbles down. Tala and Wyatt are in a dizzying fight with a woman who keeps teleporting in and out, and she always lands a hit on one of them. Emil is rounding the corners of various big furniture pieces as he shoots fire-darts and dodges more lightning attacks from the same celestial as before. And Prudencia is battling the silver-haired bodyguard with a grandfather clock suspended in the air between them; his winds are beginning to overwhelm her and she might get crushed.
“Start moving for the door,” I say.
“No, don’t leave us,” Ma says, holding on to me.
I phase my hand out of hers and rush over to Prudencia. The bodyguard is getting the edge over her until I dash into him so hard that he flies through the windows of the sunroom; he should’ve stayed down when we handcuffed him outside. Prudencia telekinetically slams the grandfather clock down, and the chimes are so distracting that Maribelle surprises the teleporter with a fire-arrow and knocks her out too.
