Those words sounded good, in theory, but in reality I was a designer test tube baby, made from God-knew-what bits and pieces. Those parts could have been custom-made, Grade-A evil, and I'd never know until it was too late.
"Drake, I don't know how long we have before he clamps down on our power. I wish I knew what to do to fix all of this."
He sat up and held my eyes with his. 'I have an idea, but I'm not sure you'll like it.'
"What?"
'Mary. We mind-jack her and use her to escort us out as though the Seeker had ordered it. We find Luke and Lucy and help them with their get-out-of-jail-alive plan.'
"You're right. I don't like it."
'Can you think of anything else? Anything we can do to save your friends, and not die in the process?'
Unfortunately, I couldn't. I thought about what the professor and Father Patrick had both said about morality. Could mind control be just a tool, to be used for good or evil? And if Mary was already under the control of the Seeker, couldn't this actually benefit her in the long run?
"Okay, we can try it, but carefully. We don't know what damage he's already done to her."
With the mind link already in place, we scanned for Mary. I knew her signature and found her easily—she was just outside our room.
I expected a wall to block us out, but she had something else going on inside her mind. Rather than a shield to keep others out, what I felt was more like an energy source attached to her mind, growing into it.
It meant the difference between a demolition and brain surgery. It also meant a seriously high risk to her and us.
'We have to at least try, Sam. We have no other way out.'
"I'll see if I can pry the other energy off her mind without damaging her, but if it looks too dangerous, we're pulling out."
Tendrils of power brushed against mine. Rather than bash my way in as I normally would, I surrounded each tendril with my own power and ever so gently brushed it aside.
The whiplash slammed into my mind so hard I nearly tumbled off the couch. Pain pierced through my eyelids and blurred my vision.
Mary's mind remained unchanged.
"Drake, I can't do this. That thing is attached to her for good. We could kill her, or ourselves, trying to get it off."
'Let me try, just once. I'll be careful.'
He used the same approach, but instead of picking pieces to pull away, he created a cocoon around the entire power source before pulling back.
Blinding white light. Fierce and fiery pain. "Drake, stop! You're killing her."
'I'm nearly there, and it's our last hope.'
I could feel pain flood his brain, but he ignored it, unwilling to let go.
"No. You can't. She's innocent. We can't risk it."
He didn't stop.
I felt her mind splinter into fragments.
Her pain swam through me. Her confusion and fear, her anger and her hopelessness—it all hit me.
Heat flared in my belly. I felt my baby's power activate and merge with mine, pushing away my own pain and compounding my power until it swelled bigger and stronger and brighter than ever. No longer in control or fully aware, I knew only that I had to save Mary, an innocent, from being destroyed. Too many had already died to save us.
My power coiled inside me, coalescing into one great ball of unfathomable force, and I knew I could no longer pull it back, no longer stop what I had started. It needed a release, a command in which to dissipate, and so I gave it the only one I had to give. "Drake. Stop, now!"
As though someone had taken scissors and severed the connection between us, my mind emptied of everyone but myself. A loneliness I could have never imagined swept through me and settled into my heart, cracking it into shards of pain. I slumped forward and cried out.
Drake tumbled forward off the loveseat, and his head hit the floor.
My mind probe revealed no trace of Mary, and when I tried to connect with Drake, I couldn't.
And not in the power-on-the-fritz way.
Somewhere inside me, somehow, I knew.
I had destroyed his power permanently.
And he would never forgive me.
Ever.
Chapter 54 – Lucy
"You'll never get away with this. You have no idea what kind of power you're messing with." Mr. Black's voice grated on Lucy's last nerve.
She jabbed him in the ribs with her fist. "Shut up."
Students marched toward the front gate, following her and Mr. Black.
Like an avenging army of gods, they destroyed everything in their path. Gary pulled a metal and glass building apart, and threw it into a crowd of guards who'd aimed their guns into the crowd.
Luke followed behind Lucy as close as he could, worry and fear lining his face. She could feel the field of power her brother formed around her for protection.
Another group of guards surrounded the students and fired. Luke raised his hands and conjured a giant force field against the bullets.