Elssie stepped forward, tossing a shard of ice that hit me in the arm. It hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t care, because they were once again talking about ways to make my life a living hell. I rubbed my shoulder, ignoring the idiots.
I’d come to loathe the training room. Everyone dressed in the same stupid uniform; they must have had an endless supply. I pitied the soul who had to clean them all. What a dirty job.
And these were the things my brain thought about before I became a human punching bag.
“Please, my methods can hardly be construed as bullying,” Elssie scoffed, as if drowning a person wasn’t a big deal or anything. “There are others here who have done far worse.”
“You have a point,” Tyger mused.
“I’m still here, jagoffs,” I reminded them, my voice a tad more forceful this time. A simmering anger sparked within me.
“Ooo. And she has a mouth on her.” Tyger chuckled.
Elssie frowned, crossing her arms. “A mouth that is going to get her in more trouble.”
“She looks like crap, like a drowned freckled kitten.”
Okay. That was it. I was going to knock this hairy douchebag off his high horse. No one mentioned my freckles, except one person. I didn’t care what kind of marvelous superpower Tyger had. Hearing the nickname in someone else’s voice snapped something inside me. Of course, that was exactly what they had been trying to accomplish. My temper burst before I even had a chance to realize it had built to a category five hurricane.
I let out a wild scream and lunged. No doubt I looked like a lunatic, but I no longer gave a ratice’s butt. Hot red rage veiled my eyes.
I swung, hitting Tyger with a solid, satisfying thud. It hadn’t been a girly hit. It had been packed with electric energy, sparks flying off my skin. A bolt of lightning shot from my hand, wrapping itself around Tyger like Wonder Woman’s lasso.
I wasn’t done yet.
Blood trickled from the side of his lip, and a strange gleam lit his eyes. Straining against the electric rope binding him, his fists clenched, muscles bunching. His inhuman strength snapped the golden glowing cord of light, shattering it.
Then Tyger came at me, a menacing grin on his lips like a deranged animal. “Is that the best you’ve got?” he goaded me.
I didn’t know what I had, but I did know this would hurt.
I flung out my right arm and followed it up with my left, shooting two bolts of lightning forward one after the other, but Tyger dodged them both and kept advancing.
He was on me in only seconds, long, pointy teeth bared. Although my muscles protested, I ignored the pain and darted to the side, but it didn’t stop Tyger from getting his hands on me. In a sweeping motion, his arm came around my stomach, picking me up off my feet.
Whoosh.
The impact robbed me of the ability to breathe for a few prolonged seconds. With a new rush of air in my lungs, a swell of energy returned. Grabbing both sides of his cheeks, I sent a surge through my fingertips.
His eyes got big, and then the twitching started, as if he had stuck a metal object in a socket. His arms released me. Landing on my feet, I lifted my head and put a bit of distance between us. Pain flared across his face as he went down to his knees.
Standing over him, a victorious amount of satisfaction rushed through me. Empowered, I didn’t want to stop.
And neither did Tyger. His leg kicked out, catching me in the calf, causing me to go down in an ugly mess of legs and arms, flailing like a fish out of water. I landed on my back, barely avoiding giving myself a concussion. The pain felt like an old friend, and that alarmed me. Groaning, I opened my eyes and thought about closing them again. Tyger was grinning, the flecks of his gold eyes growing brighter, like a tiger on the hunt.
“Neat trick. But you can never beat me, Freckles.”
A week’s worth of frustration and anger built up inside me, along with a smorgasbord of other emotions. Every bruise. Every cut. Every hit I’d taken flipped through my memory. I thought I had lost my shit before. Oh no. Here came round two.
Power covered every crevice of my body, and suddenly I flew off the ground, my skin glowing in a white light halo. Hair floated around my face, levitating in the air as a shower of lightning speared across the ceiling. I lifted my hand, latching onto a dagger of light, electricity pouring into every atom of the room.
Shock rippled through Tyger’s eyes. “Shit,” he muttered.
I cocked my head to the side, a nasty grin on my face. “You asked for it, dickwad.” I let the lightning fly, flinging it at Tyger. His head fell back, and his mouth dropped open in a silent scream as the spear hit him directly in the ribcage. After the surge of light moved through Tyger, it didn’t stop, slamming into the cement. The force shook the building, and to my utter shock, the floor began to crack, spreading out like broken glass.
Holy hellfire!
What had I done?
Dropping from the air, my feet hit the ground with a soft thud. The fact that I no longer levitated had no bearing on the situation.
My immediate concern focused on wondering if the building would collapse down on top of us. The crack eventually stopped about the same time Tyger smacked into the ground, his body lying in all kinds of weird angles. I lost the hold on my control, the power leaving my body at once.
“Tyger?” I croaked.
Nothing. He didn’t move.
Oh. My. God. Please let him be breathing.
I hadn’t meant to kill him.
“About damn time.” A smug voice came from behind me.
It was Ryker.
He seemed to always appear at the right moment. “Don’t worry. He isn’t dead.”
I cradled my hand and looked at him through a few pieces of wet hair. Ryker wasn’t alone. Tyger and I had drawn a crowd. Everyone in the training looked at me with wary eyes, including Elssie, who had wisely not interfered. What did they think would happen when they pushed and prodded someone day in and day out? I’d snapped. “Is he going to be okay?” I asked, focusing on only Ryker.
“The animal will live. That was impressive. Congrats. You’ve passed your second test,” Ryker said, wiping a smudge of dirt off my face.
My stomach surprised me and flipped at his gesture. “Thanks, I think.” It seemed like a millennium since I’d felt human touch that was soft and tender.
He grinned. “Anytime, Red. Lightning, huh? You just gave me a good reason not to piss you off.”
I left training that day shaky and confused. I had almost killed someone, and that didn’t sit well with me, but here in the Institute, it was like a badge of honor.
Psychos.
I wasn’t precisely thrilled with my newfound respect and neither was everyone else—Ember in particular. God forbid anyone outshined my sister. That had definitely not been my goal. I’d received the cold shoulder from her times infinity.