When the air was still again, a haze of white smoke filling the room, I glanced over at Jamie.
Her eyes were closed, and there was blood rushing from a gash in her forehead.
“Michael?” I asked, shaking white powder from my hair.
He muttered a curse in Spanish. “I’m okay.” He sat up again, chunks of white . . .stuff . . . falling around his body. “Scout?”
I moved my arms and she lifted her head. “I’m okay, too.”
“I think Jamie’s hurt,” I said.
Michael looked at her, then glanced around. The room was in chaos, Reapers yelling at one another, smoke wafting through the room.
“We’ve got to make a run for it,” he said, “use the chaos to our advantage. It’s our best chance.”
I nodded, then put a hand on Jamie’s shoulder and shook gently. “Hey, are you okay?”
Her eyelids fluttered, then opened. She raised a hand to her face and wiped at the blood streaming from the gash at her temple.
“Here,” I said, pulling off my plaid tie and wrapping it around her head tight enough to put pressure on the wound and keep the blood out of her eyes.
“Can you get up?” I whispered. “We’re going to try to make a run for it.”
She nodded uncertainly, but it was a nod just the same. I helped her to her feet as Michael helped Scout behind me. As stealthily as we could, we began to move through the smoke and back toward the door, picking our way through the remains of the transfigured wall, me trying to hold Jamie upright, Michael all but carrying Scout.
We made progress, the haze aiding our escape, and managed to get halfway closer to the door . . . at least until a voice rang through it.
“Stop.”
We looked over. Alex emerged from a swirl of white, Sebastian beside her.
She stretched out a hand. “You can come willingly, or I can knock you all on your asses.”
Reapers—the ones we hadn’t been introduced to—began closing in from the left and right.
“Michael?” I asked.
“Um,” was all he said, his own gaze shifting from side to side as he tried to figure a way out.
I’m not sure what made me do it, but I chose that moment to glance at Sebastian, who stood just behind Alex, his hooded gaze on me again. And while I looked at him and he looked back at me,
he mouthed something.
Let go.
I frowned, wondering if I’d seen that correctly.
As if in confirmation, he nodded again. “Let go,” he mouthed again. No sound, just the movement of his lips around the words.
I stood quietly for a moment as the Reapers gathered around us. Somehow, I knew he was right.
And although he was supposed to be kicking our collective butt right now, I knew he was trying to help.
I didn’t know why, but I knew it as surely as I knew that I was standing in the midst of people I wanted to protect.
People Icould protect.
I took a chance.
“Get down,” I told Jamie, Michael, and Scout.
“Lily?” Scout asked, confusion in her voice.
“We know what you’ve got in store,” Alex said. “We know what you can dish out, and I think we’ve demonstrated that it ain’t real much, so it’s our turn to teach you all a lesson. To teach you about who matters in this world, and who doesn’t.”
“Trust me, Scout,” I repeated, suddenly as sure about this as I’d ever been about anything else. I was where I should be, doing what I should be doing, and Sebastian had been right.
After a half second of deliberation, Scout nodded to Jamie and Michael. I waited until they’d all crouched down beside me, and then I did as he’d directed.
I stoppedtrying to make magic.
And I let the magic make itself.
I outstretched my arms and trained my gaze on Sebastian, and felt warmth begin to flow through my legs, my torso, my arms.
Firespell.
Not Sebastian’s.
Mine.
My magic to wield, triggered by the shot of firespell I’d received a few days ago, but mine all the same.
I held my arms open wide. He nodded at me, then put a hand on his head and crouched down behind Alex.
I pulled the power, the energy, into my body, the room contracting around us as it filled me. My eyes on Alex, one eyebrow arched, I pushed it back.
“Bet you didn’t know aboutthis ,” I said.
The room turned green, a wash of power vibrating through it with a bass roar, knocking down everyone who wasn’t already crouched behind me.
It took a second to overcome the shock at what I’d done, at what had seemed natural to do. I shivered at the power’s sudden absence, wobbling a little until the pressure in my head equalized again.
The ground rumbled a little, an aftershock; then the room went silent, a spread of unconscious Reapers around us.
Michael stood again and helped Scout and Jamie to their feet. “Well-done, Parker. Now let’s get out of here.”
I offered an arm to Jamie, then glanced back at the dark-haired boy who lay sprawled on the floor a few feet away. “Let’s go,” I agreed, positive that I’d see him again.
We regrouped in the catacombs, Jason, Jill, and Paul emerging from their tunnel at a run. Jill and Paul both went to Jamie—sisterly concern in her eyes, something altogether different from the brotherly concern in his.
Jason’s eyes had shifted again from blue to the green of flower stems, a color that seemed unnaturally bright for a human . . . but better for a wolf. His hair was in disarray, sticking up at odd angles, a bruise across his left cheekbone. His gaze searched the crossroads, then settled on me, ferocity in his eyes.
His lips pulled into a wolfish grin, dimples at the corners of his mouth. I swallowed, the hairs on my neck standing on end at the primal nature of his gaze. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to run and hide, or stand and fight, but the instinct had certainly been triggered.
He looked me over, and once assured that I was fine, checked out Michael and Scout. She was on the ground, sitting cross-legged. Michael sat beside her, holding her hand.
When the two groups had reunited, everyone had made sure that everyone else was okay, and everyone had been debriefed about the rescue, Scout spoke up.
“Thanks, everyone,” she said quietly. “If you hadn’t come—”
“Thank Lily,” Michael said, smiling up at me with appreciation in his dark eyes. “She’s the one who led the charge. She did good.”
“Parker showed some hustle,” Jason agreed, offering me a sly smile, his eyes now back to sky blue. “She’ll make a good addition to the team.”
Scout humphed. “She’ll make a good addition if Varsity lets her join, but that would require Varsity pulling their heads out of their butts. Katie and Smith are being total jerks.”
“They’ll unjerkify,” Jason said confidently. “Have faith.”
“I always have faith in us,” she said. “It’s them I’m not too sure about.”
“Have some water,” Michael said, passing her the bottle I’d pulled from my messenger bag.
“You’ll feel better. And when we get back to the enclave, you can tell us what happened to you.”
Scout snorted defiantly, but did as she was told.
I stood up and stepped away to a quiet corner and looked down at my hands, still in awe at what I’d managed to do.
And I was still unsure how I’d managed to do it.
Okay, that was a lie. I knew exactly what I’d done, the sensation of doing it somehow as natural —as expected—as breathing. It wasn’t that I’d suddenlylearned how to do it, but more that my body hadremembered how to do it.