Page 26 of Raze
He’s too busy looking at Dane to notice Aiden moving behind him until it’s too late. Thorne glances up and jumps to the side at the last second, but Aiden’s control over his whip sword makes the adjustment and spears through the enemy’s shoulder. Thorne glares at it, and then Aiden, who smirks at him and then yanks it roughly out.
Thorne curses and pulls his hand back like he’s preparing to throw a ball sideways, then swings it out at Aiden. A whirlwind of air picks up around him. He grunts, and a line of red appears on his cheek. Then his hand. Over and over again, like the air is made of paper-thin blades slicing into him piece by piece.
A hoard of knives race toward Thorne. He swings his arm up to blow them away, but it breaks his concentration enough that the whirlwind releases Aiden and he falls to the ground. Jackson pulls out round after round of blades, slinging them at our enemy.
Thorne sends some of them back at him, but Jackson uses his perfected control over the air to pull and flip them back at him. His teacher may have all the power, but he’s outmatched by Jackson when it comes to control that fine.
He’s pushing Thorne back, and I see my opening. I take the longer way around to get behind him and hope that Jack keeps Thorne’s attention trained on him so he doesn’t notice me. I run up behind the ex-Guild master and dive at him, my hands out and ready to grab any body part to unleash my gift on, but he moves at the last secondand I crash to the ground.
He’s too fast.
I groan and push myself up in time to see Thorne sneering at me and waving his hand at me the same way he had at Aiden.
Oh crap.
I feel the wind pick up around me, and I scramble to move away from it, but it follows me like my own personal tornado of death.
The first cut catches my arm, and I cry out and grab it on instinct. Then the wind is just…gone.
I look up and see Jack reaching out to it, trying to control it over Thorne. The mini cyclone spins between them in a standoff of who’s going to get it. Thorne has more injuries than either of us, but it’s Jackson’s body that’s trembling with the effort to push it back at Thorne. The debris and ash from the floor get sucked up in the current, spinning around midair and struggling between the two men. It picks up speed, and Thorne’s eyes shine with triumph when it moves toward Jack.
He struggles against it, but it steadily sucks him into its vortex and exacts its invisible blades.
“Jack!” I rush at Thorne again, but wind throws me off my feet, and I land with a thud on my back, knocking the air from my lungs. I gasp, collecting as much air as I can, and then it’s not there anymore. I try to suck in air, but it’s like my lungs have seized, and I can’t inhale or exhale anymore. My eyes widen with panic. The other three are clutching at their throats like me, and genuine fear slides through my veins. We’re completely outmatched.
The air around Jackson is red with his blood, and his face pincheswith pain beneath his concentration. Black dots start forming, blocking out bits and pieces of what I’m seeing in front of me. I reach out to Jack, wishing I could break the storm around him.
He drops; the blood falling on him and the ground. My lungs expand, and I heave oxygen through my mouth in painful draws that have me choking in my desperation to take as much as I can. I grab my throat and cough as my body adjusts to having air again, then look up at Thorne.
He’s staring at something on his hand with a frown. Then I see the line of blood across his throat. It’s thin; had it been stronger, it would have ended him.
Jackson.
Who isn’t moving on the ground.
Thorne glares down at him and raises his hand. I remember how Dane was cut down, and I don’t think; I run. Even though my lungs burn and my eyes water, there’s no time to wait for that. I cover Jackson’s body with my own as a shield. I’ll do anything to protect him. To protect them.
My gift stirs in my gut, and I draw it out, repeating the same thing over and over like a mantra.Just Thorne. Just Thorne. Jackson trusts that I would never hurt him with my gift, even by accident. Even if that’s exactly what happened with Vera. I still don’t trust in my gift because I’ve seen it do something I didn’t want. But I will trust in Jackson.
Thorne’s hand swings down, and I grab his leg and thrust my gift into him. He screams, and then it cuts off sharply. I look up, and his eyes are bulging, staring down past me while his mouth is wide open. Ilook down, and Jackson’s fist is shaking as he looks at Thorne with unbridled rage and triumph. Did he cut off his air?
Thorne’s other foot flies out and kicks me in the face. I yelp and taste blood in my mouth. I release him, stopping my gift the moment I lose contact, and Thorne takes off out the door.
Jack’s fist loosens once he’s out of sight, and he releases a breath and closes his eyes.
“Jack?” I roll away and shake him. Something smacks down on the ground behind me. I cough and look around, thinking he’s come back, but roofing tiles are falling as the room fills with smoke. The fire is spreading back down the roof and onto the building.
I shake him harder, but he doesn’t budge. “Kellan?! Aiden?! Help!”
What if they’re all passed out?
I stand up and cover my mouth with one arm, but it does shit-all to block the smoke from my lungs or help me see. I choose to grab Jackson’s ankles with each hand instead and start dragging him back toward the door where we came in. Blood tracks across the floor in his wake, and I keep praying that they’re all superficial cuts.
“Stop, beautiful. I’ve got him. Get out of here.” Kellan appears from the darkness and lifts Jackson in his arms. I think for a second that maybe he’s immune to the fire and smoke, but he hacks off to the side and then gives me a kick. “Go!”
I run through the smoke in the direction I think the door was, my elbow out to feel for a wall in case it’s too hot to touch with my hand. The smoke is mostly going up or out in one direction, so I use that as my guide to the door and stumble through it. I keep going untilI’m out of the smoke at the next building over.
Aiden and Dane are there, sitting on the ground, coughing. Both are bleeding, one with a single large laceration and the other with smaller cuts all over. Aiden pulls out his phone, but my attention jumps to Kellan and Jackson when they finally emerge. I rush over to Jack and start feeling for a pulse. His chest rises and falls, and I clasp his empty hoodie with relief. “Oh, thank god.”
