I removed my hand, but kept my eyes on Jayden. “That’s why they locked Eva up, isn’t it?” I asked. “Because they thought that she drowned all those people?” I could feel the tears prick behind my eyelids as I swept my attention to the ground. A very significant part of me wanted to grieve over Eva, but I was still holding Lela’s memories away from me as much as I could, crowding them into a small section of my brain and locking them up tightly.
Jayden didn’t answer and I had to raise my head to look at him again. A tear slipped free as I opened my eyes and he tracked the wet line down my cheek until the moisture beaded and trembled on my chin. Barely, he nodded.
“I’ll free her,” I promised him, knowing that it was an impossible task, but unable to prevent the statement from spilling out of me anyway. “I swear, she’ll be free and we’ll be a family again, just like we used to be. But you need to help me first.”
“Danny has changed,” Jayden finally relented, moving away from me and turning his blank stare to the wall. “You don’t understand, Seraph. He’s different.”
“I know. He changed that day right in front of me. I think it was even my fault. He wanted me to kill him; begged me to use my valcrick on him or he would kill me. If it was just me or him, it might have been different, but I knew that he wouldn’t stop there… he had killed so many people already. They were piling up around us and they would have kept coming until the room was full, and then he would have moved onto the rest of the building. I had to do something. I… I used… I killed…”
“You tried to kill him, but he can’t die,” Jayden finished for me, sinking down with his back against the wall, his arms notched over his bent knees and his head hanging between his legs. He looked just like the drooping fern on the stand beside him. He was clinging desperately onto life even though his very lifestyle was unsustainable. “So you only killed the person inside him. I saw the memory myself. He was from the same batch as you; and you were both different to me and Eva. You were both ruled by your abilities, and when you attacked him, his ability took over, claiming his body. The powers don’t have morals like we do—they have only characteristics. Protect, build, create, grow, kill. He’s an endless cycle of killing now. We can’t stop him.”
“I can.” I wrapped my arms around myself, delivering the promise into the room, even though my voice sounded uncertain.
Cabe stood, and the movement drew my attention. He wasn’t approaching me—none of them were, but he and Noah were now standing side-by-side, and it almost seemed as though they were opposing my posture. They both had their arms crossed over their chests: a bolstering position to combat the way my arms wrapped around my torso for protection. Their shoulders were pulled back as mine slumped forwards, and their opposite faces were set into twin expressions of determination. I could only stare at them; struck by them. Even the bond was humming with their strength, and Cabe’s particular habit of draping his emotion over me was lending me a feeling of courage that didn’t exactly belong to me, but felt as though it was mine to take all the same.
“We can stop him.” Quillan’s touch brushed lightly against my shoulder, pulling my attention to him. His dark eyes were a slow burn of emotion that promised so many things… and I nodded to him, receiving the message that the three of them were trying to send.
We were in this together. It was better than thinking about our inevitable failure. Four people were stronger than one.
“I need access to some of Kingsling’s pills.” I spun to face Jayden. “If there isn’t a person in him left for us to deal with; I’ll let my power out to play with his. He might only know how to kill, but I’m pretty sure my power only wants to protect. It’ll probably attack him to keep the rest of us safe. It wouldn’t be the first time the valcrick has lashed out.”
Jayden pushed himself to his feet, the shock cracking through his mask for a moment. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“It’s the only idea I have, and we can’t wait another three months to save Silas again. Standing still did nothing for me last time, and as you can see, there isn’t anyone holding me back this time… so we’re going to move forward no matter how crazy the plan is.”
“We’ll make sure it’s only the four of us,” Quillan added. “The bond doesn’t allow her valcrick to hurt us.”
“If you say so.” Jayden turned into the kitchen and returned with a zip-lock bag of small, white pills. He shook several of them into his palm, leaving only one inside, before handing it to me. “You realise that this will send you out of control?”
“That’s the plan.”
“More people could die.”
“Only if they try to hurt us.”
I rolled up the little zip-lock bag, moving to shove it into my pocket, but Jayden caught my hand at the last second. He was tense, his eyes blazing.