Page 34 of Awakened Gifts
“What the fuck?” Rex says as he drops to the ground, exhausted from seeing the same thing I just did. I felt it first. I don’t know how I just tapped into his vision, but I felt it. The pain.
But I don’t know who I felt it from—Jase or Kellan.
“What happened?” Mom demands, her violet eyes burning a little brighter.
“We have to go now! They’re under fire,” Rex spews, leaping to his feet and heaving me to mine.
My breath is still scattered, and my heart refuses to slow down. There are so many of them. Jase and Kellan barely have anyone still able to fight with them against the army of Scorpions.
Rex practically carries me to the car, and everyone starts piling into different vehicles. Uncle Grayson squeals off the pavement and barrels toward the gate, and Mel joins us, her eyes scanning mine as I try to catch my breath.
The car jolts forward, and Rex flips the switch to thrust us forward that much harder.
“How quick can we get there?” Mel asks, her attention turning toward Rex as the fear for her brother’s life becomes almost tangible.
“It’s two hours away, but I think I can cut it in half. But it’ll take our military longer because they have to suit up. It’ll be up to us to hold off the Scorpions until then.”
“Scorpions,” she says in a breath, reminding us that we never gave details of the vision to anyone.
Mom’s body is barely a blur as she races by on foot, her savage giving her speed we can’t possess. She’ll beat us there. She can save them. She’ll save them. She has to save them.
“What do you mean hold them off?” Mel asks incredulously. “We have Araya and we’re a small army of hybrids. We can take them.”
“Too fucking many,” he says, shaking his head. “And Mom can’t put them to sleep. They have those fucking electrical ear plugs again. They’re prepared for us. This was all an ambush to spur the war back into place. If we go into peace times, the Scorpions become the target of two nations. If we’re at war, they can continue operating behind a forgotten veil of nothing more than inconvenience. They’ve already painted signs of Unaligned symbols on the walls. If they kill the commander, the war resumes.”
“They should have let us go with them,” Mel growls, but my heart is still racing too fast for me to form words.
Something is burning feverishly through my veins, and my hands are shaking almost violently as the ground besides us starts to quake.
“Fuck,” Rex says, gauging the unstable scenery around us. “Aria, you can’t go savage. Take the olophine.”
I honestly don’t think olophine will work on me. My blood is too strong, and it burns through it. The sedative might work, but I refuse to be unconscious. Jase needs me.
“Let her go savage,” Mel says, her eyes wide with twisted inspiration. “She’ll level them all if she goes savage.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Rex hisses. “She’ll probably level the whole fucking world if she goes savage. Her powers are restrained by a block right now. If she goes savage, that block will crumble. She could shatter a house with barely a flick of her wrist when she was nine—before she even hit puberty. She wasn’t even supposed to have her gifts. Imagine what would happen now.”
Mel shudders, and very warily she looks back at me as sweat starts beading on my body. Hot. It’s too fucking hot. I feel like my body is stuck in a raging inferno.
The ground shakes harder, and Rex is forced to dodge a tree that slams down in front of us. He curses and slides sideways, but suddenly the car is moving even faster, forcing a smoke to fume from the engine as we gain on Mom’s trail.
“Holy shit,” Mel says. “What’s happening?”
Rex glances at me, and I nod, slowly trying to keep my composure for just a little while longer. It’s taking all my strength to hold back—something I never thought I’d have to do.
“Aria is happening, and she’s not even savage yet.”
Mel looks around, watching as more trees fall, but they fall in awkward positions, not hitting our path again as my power creeps out on its own. The car continues to move faster, even as the tires start to melt in response. The engine collapses, exhausted from the pace, but the vehicle continues to be propelled by the force I thought to have lost long ago.
Speaking is impossible. If I try, I’ll lose my hold on what little restraint I have left. All of my focus is on not going savage. Yet.
It’s almost impossible, because the promising taste of insanity rests on the tip of my tongue, teasing me as it tries to draw me in. My fingers tingle with all the power burning to be set free, and I feel the static mounting in my mind as the untamed, unkempt madness beseeches me with a more alluring call.
“Almost there, Aria. Just keep it at bay,” Rex coaxes, keeping his voice soft, trying not to aggravate my fragile hold.
Mom runs harder as the rubber from the tires explodes and slings away from the car that continues to move at warp speed. Then we see the fire ahead, and Mom cuts hard to the right, leaping into the mayhem with one powerful jump and clearing miles of road with barely any effort.
But they’re prepared.