chapter Eighteen
MR. LIAM SAT DOWN at his desk. “I’ll try my best.” He removed his copper-rimmed glasses. “What is it that you need, Ms. Harkly?”
I brought my crystal from the project cabinet. “I need to make this much, much smaller. And…” I carried the crystal to the lab counter and placed it into the transfer machine. “I need to distribute my power to a device…to something.” I shook my head, exasperated. “I know you helped Devon make more than just lights and synthesizers. I need weapons. Something my friends can use.”
He stood and began pacing with his head bowed. “Is this for some sort of rebel action?” He looked up at me.
I clasped my hips. “I won’t lie. Yes.”
He bit down on the tip of his glasses and nodded his head once. “Right. So how much time do we have?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Two and a half hours.”
“It can be done.” He put his glasses back on. “Go to my office.” He fished a key from his pocket and tossed it to me. “On the top shelf of the bookcase, you’ll find a mahogany box. Please bring it to me.”
I did as he asked. The box was large and heavy, but I was able to carry it, and I placed it on top of Mr. Liam’s desk. He halted adjusting gears on the transfer machine to lock the lab door.
Walking back toward me, he said, “I don’t think I want to know all the details just yet, but I’ve suspected your power is stronger, different.” He paused, checking the machine’s levels as my crystal was drained. “If I’m questioned, I know nothing about you. So, it’s best to explain at a later date.”
“Agreed.” I placed my hands on the crystal and took a deep breath. “If for any reason I become a danger”—I glanced at Mr. Liam—“knock me out.”
For the first time, I unleashed my Shythe Charge at full power.
The power grew inside me, and my body trembled. I focused on the crystal, infusing my full strength into it.
Glancing down, I watched as my hands illuminated, glowing the brightest blue I’d ever seen. My arms began to shake, the power overwhelming. But I fought hard, holding onto my purpose, my need. I felt a surge beneath my hands. Charge sparked, firing in bolts. I shivered as the crystal absorbed the power.
Overjoyed, I pulled back, trying to douse my power, but I couldn’t. It was too strong. I panicked. “Hit me or something!” I shouted. Charge arced from my palms, reaching toward the ceiling.
Mr. Liam rummaged behind me, and then I was knocked to the floor. The power was still growing. Crap! Why didn’t he knock me out?! I sat up, my mind reeling. I thought back to Reese and our training—our meditation. I closed my eyes, seeing Reese’s hand holding mine. I saw our peaceful river, and my mind quieted. I felt the power pulling back. I concentrated harder, stilling my body. When I opened my eyes, the blue glow was subsiding from my arms.
“Okay,” Mr. Liam said, staring at me from across the room. “One day, you’ll definitely have to explain.” He shook his head once, clearing it.
I bounced up, smiling. “I controlled it.” I looked down at my hands, amazed. My heart fluttered. Because of Reese. Without him even knowing it, he’d been the one here for me when I needed help. My chest ached.
If I could just do that with my White Flame after I shifted…but I didn’t have time to think of the possibility. At least I’d controlled my Charge at full power.
I shook off the feeling and walked toward my crystal. It hummed, pulsing with blue light while currents crackled over its surface. “We don’t have much time. Can you put this into some kind of weapon? Something another Kythan can use?”
Mr. Liam nodded. He walked to the wooden box, opened it, and pulled out a brass hilt. It didn’t look like the typical handle of a sword or knife. It was perfectly round and fit in his palm.
He looked at me, a boyish smile playing at his lips. “This is going to be cool.”
I met Jace, Lana, and Nick at the back of the Academy. It was Friday evening, and students were getting ready to leave the Academy. Most would be returning at curfew, but we wouldn’t. Mr. Liam had agreed to cover for us, saying we were spending the night at our homes. He was leaving a secret side door unlocked, but we had to be back before dawn, when he’d lock it before anyone would notice.
I fingered the tiny crystal in my pocket. Although I’d ultimately controlled my full Charge at the last moment, I wasn’t confident I could do that during the mission. I needed to be focused on finding documents, not concentrating on my power. If I was attacked and under extreme duress, I didn’t know if I could rein it in again. And worse, if I panicked—shifting in the process—I knew without a doubt I wouldn’t be able to control my White Flame. I had plenty of time after this crazy stunt to learn to control it. But for now, I needed the security the crystal brought.
I strapped my leather belt bag around me and clipped the waist and shoulder straps. Then I glanced over to Lana. “Everything’s set.”
“Devon hooked us up, too,” she said, securing her goggles over her eyes. “I can’t believe you recruited Mr. Liam to be a part of this, though.”
“As far as we all know,” I said, placing my chemical mask over my head and rolling it above my eyes, “he’s not.”
Jace hovered his levibike over to us. “Understood. But it’s still pretty badass that he’s down.” He winked. Then he double checked our supplies.
We were dressed in black and dark brown leather—nondescript outfits that any citizen of Haven Falls would wear. I’d brought extra chemical masks from the lab so our faces would be covered. I felt like we were preparing for a heist. I guess we are.
Our rendezvous spot was an abandoned shack near the bay. That’s where we’d meet up if for some reason we got separated. And that’s where we’d camp out until it was time for the mission.
We pulled up near the back of the shack, and Nick and Jace hid the levibikes in the brush while Lana and I went into the damp building through an open window. It was pitch black inside and smelled like salt air and rotten wood. Lana illuminated the small area, sparking a small dome of Charge in her hand.
In the corner I found a small gas lamp and turned it on its lowest setting, surprised it still worked. The lamp was dim and made the little room seem eerily vacant, haunted. Lana doused her power, and I hunched down near the window. The ocean breeze blew against my face, and I gazed into the sky, watching the fiery sun fall behind the airships. I couldn’t look at them without thinking of Reese.
I’d wanted desperately to find him in hopes that he could give me information so this suicide mission could be avoided. I was suspicious that he was purposely hiding from me. Maybe he knew what the Councils were up to and didn’t want me to find out. But right now, I had to focus on gaining those documents myself and keeping the triplets away from any information that revealed my secret. And in the process, I’d possibly discover the truth about the experiment…and myself.
The floor boards creaked as Jace and Nick entered the shack through the back window. I nodded at them. “I have a surprise for you guys.” I unlatched my belt bag and dug out the weapons Mr. Liam and I had created.
I tossed one of the brass hilts over to Jace. He studied it with knitted eyebrows. “There’s only half a weapon here.”
“Turn the gear on the side,” I advised. “But make sure it’s pointed away from you.”
Jace pointed the top of the device away from him and slowly turned the gear. A beam of blue light shot out. The laser wasn’t very long, about a forearm’s length, but it was powerful. It was my Charge molded into a short sword. And it had one great feature.
I stood up and walked over to Jace. “Point it toward the corner of the room,” I told him. “And crank the dial here.” I pointed to a copper spring on the side of the device.
Jace followed my instructions, and a stream of powerful currents zipped across the room. The weapon fired the equivalent of my Charge.
Jace stared wide-eyed at the sword. “Whoa,” he said. “How the hell did you make this?” He shut the device off and turned it around in his hand, studying it.
“Mr. Liam.” I walked back toward my bag to retrieve the others for Nick and Lana. “We dubbed it a Charge Saber. He’s a very strong Shythe,” I said, flinching. I hoped they never approached him about his power. He was strong, but his Charge wasn’t as strong as mine. He couldn’t have created these weapons on his own. “We infused the crystal at the end of the hilt with his power.” I winced again. I hated lying to them.
Nick tossed his weapon back and forth between his hands. “I can’t wait till my power is strong enough to shoot bolts. But this is pretty cool for right now.” He turned the saber on and slashed it through the air.
Lana tried hers out, then quickly clipped it to her belt. “I’m ready to get this over with,” she muttered. “I hate waiting.”
I was becoming anxious, also. I sat beside the window, allowing the cool breeze to comfort me. All we could do was wait.
Around two in the morning, we left the shack. According to Jace, now that Narcos were attending the Academy, all we had to worry about were the guards on the Council’s ship. Only the guards, I’d mocked. We didn’t know how many were aboard, but from where we hid behind the concrete pier, I could see at least two on the front deck.
We lowered our masks over our faces, and began creeping along the railing. I slid down the side of the boardwalk. The cove’s sand squished under my boots. As we neared the dock leading to a floating platform, my heart raced. The airship hovered just above us, lines cast down its side, anchoring it to the bay.
Thankfully, tonight was moonless. All around us was black, the only lights coming from the harbor’s dim gas lanterns, far behind us now, and the airship’s chemical lights along the deck.
Jace held up his hand, halting us. He looked around and motioned toward the floating platform directly under the airship. We slipped onto the platform and I glanced up, studying the underbelly of the ship. Jace adjusted the lens on his one-eyed telescopic goggles, pointing toward the stern. Then he reached into his jerkin and pulled out a couple of now-familiar devices. Grapplers.
He handed one to Nick, and Lana wrapped her arms around his shoulders. I did the same with Jace as per our plan. My heart thudded painfully, remembering when I’d first experienced this with Reese. But then I smiled as I recalled him explaining that you needed a grappling device when it came to airships. He was right. And lucky for us, Devon had some.
Jace strapped a leather belt around me, securing us together, before we lifted up. I clung to him as the device reeled us into the air.
I didn’t dare look down. We were going much higher than the waterfall, and there was nothing surrounding us to scale. When we reached the back of the ship, Jace grabbed the ledge and peered over the side onto the deck. He signaled Nick, and they both climbed over. I felt useless dangling, not being able to help. But once I was on my feet, I planned to take the lead in finding the documents. I had to.
Jace unhooked the belt once we were secure, and I crouched against the ship’s side. We’d timed it so we had two minutes to get inside the ship before the guards returned to patrol this end. Jace adjusted the goggle lens, sweeping the perimeter of the ship. Then he motioned us forward, signaling it was clear.
I spotted the door and took off behind them. I needed to get ahead of them once inside. More than that, I needed to separate from them and look in the right place. I mentally cursed. How was I going to do this?
Lana, Jace, and I pressed up against the outside wall of the ship’s main quarters, while Nick picked the lock on the door. I had no idea where the son of a Council member had learned to pick locks, but at the moment, I was thankful. I heard a light click. Nick smiled and waved us in ahead of him.
Jace was the only one with night vision goggles, so I was relieved to find the inside quarters dimly lit with gas lamps. That was a good and bad thing. I swallowed hard. I could see, but that meant the guards—or worse, the Council members—could see me, too. I wished I could turn invisible as I crept along the hardwood flooring behind the others.
None of us had ever been inside an airship before. We could only guess its design. Logically, the safest place for sleeping quarters would be the middle of the ship. During our planning, we’d assumed an office or meeting room would be near the back. But we could only pick one side and hope we were right. There wasn’t enough time to chance searching the whole ship.
At the end of the corridor was a set of double mahogany doors. They were locked, a promising sign that something of importance was behind them. We waited, nervously glancing around while Nick picked the lock.
Once inside the room, it was completely dark. Nick closed the doors behind us and we illuminated our hands, sparking small domes of Charge and lighting the room with a blue glow. Lana and Nick began searching cabinets along the wall as Jace moved toward a desk at the opposite end of the room. I couldn’t be in both places at the same time. Crap. I chose to follow Jace. The desk seemed a more logical place to store secret documents.
My insides roiled. I opened a drawer and rifled through files, most of which were sales receipts and other documentation for their steam devices and machines. I breathed easier. The Narcos probably didn’t have anything on the experiment here. Why would they? That information was way classified. I almost laughed out loud at myself. Soon we could get out of here.
I closed my drawer and sidled up beside Jace. He was looking over documents similar to the ones I’d found. “Jace,” I whispered. “There’s nothing here. We’re running out of time.”
He released a heavy breath. “Dammit. There has to be something.”
Across the room, Nick waved his hand, signaling us. Jace put the documents back in place and closed the drawer. My heart rate kicked up a notch as we came up beside Nick and Lana and I saw them unrolling a scroll.
“What’s that?” I asked. “It looks old.”
Lana nodded. “It’s written in some kind of Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was locked up all by itself.” She analyzed the delicate paper. “I think it’s something about the ancient guardians.” She pointed to a symbol we all recognized—the mark of the Kythan. “But I can’t read it. The language has been dead for centuries.”
Jace pulled out a Carbon Capture. “Hold it still. I’ll snap a few proofs. We can try to decipher it later.” He took the photo, then glanced around the room. “Did you guys find anything else? Anything about the union?”
“No.” Nick tugged out his communicator. “But we’re out of time. The guards will be making their round to the other side of the ship soon. We have to go.”
Jace pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose as he thought. After a moment he nodded. “All right. We tried. We’ll just have to figure it out on our own.” He placed the scroll back into the mahogany cabinet and silently closed the doors. Then he dipped into his leather satchel and pulled out four canvas packs with attached harnesses. “Strap these on now. We have to be ready when we reach the back deck.”
I strapped on the harness. “Got it.”
After locking the doors behind us, we inched down the hallway to the main entrance quarter. We were almost to the door when someone entered from the opposite corridor: a Narco guard, and behind him, two more.
I froze.
Reese. My chest constricted. I forced myself to breathe through the panic. Why is he on the Council’s airship?
“Stop right there!” One of the guards shouted.
The rest of my party didn’t stop, they bolted for the door, but my feet were planted as I stared at Reese. He was dressed in a uniform, just like the other two guards. My mind spun. I felt a tug, and then I was being hauled through the door onto the deck. Jace pulled me by my hand. We were almost to the edge of the ship when Flame shot past my head, burning into the ship’s stern.
I spun around. The three Narco guards stood only a few feet away from us, their arms glowing red.
“Halt,” ordered one of the guards. “Hands up.” He held his blazing hand outstretched in our direction.
Jace drew his Charge Saber, illuminating it, and Lana and Nick followed his lead. I hesitated, not wanting to fight Reese, but drew my Charge Saber at the last moment as Flame flew toward my head. I blocked it, sending the Flame to the ground, and looked up. Reese was preparing to send another my way.
Instead of firing Charge back at him, I rolled, ducking his next Flame. I didn’t want to fight him. From the corner of the ship, I saw the others taking on the two guards and winning. Jace would never let us live down that his training sessions had come in handy. Getting my bearings, I stood.
Reese came straight for me. I squatted into a defensive position as he lunged, taking a blazing swipe at my rib cage. I countered with my saber, sending him reeling to the ground from the shock. Crap. I clipped my saber onto my belt and held my hands up.
Reese recovered and took another swing at me. Flame brushed my stomach as I dodged it. Lighting Charge in my palms, I shot a bolt near his foot. He stared at me wide-eyed, knowing I’d missed on purpose. I contemplated removing my mask for a split second. But I looked over and saw the others had just defeated their two foes.
I was yanked up as Reese jerked the collar of my leather jacket, bringing my face close to his. He pulled back his fist, ready to land a blow…
I flashed him my violet eyes, and he froze, then tilted his head. “Dez?”
His grip loosened, and I wrenched free. I ran and jumped onto the ledge of the ship. Pulling the chain on my pack, I hurdled off the back of the airship behind Lana, Nick, and Jace—my glider wings spreading as I hit the open air.