Page 102 of Remnants
I lift her legs around my waist, and she makes a choking noise that sends my heart plummeting. When I tear away from the kiss, there’s a knife burrowed in her back. The reddish glow of her gift is gone, and she doesn’t activate it to remove the knife either.
She stares at me, unaffected, as she reaches back for the hilt andyanks it free, then stabs at my throat. I catch her wrist, and something warm slides over my hand.
No.
Blood runs down the blade to my hand. Her blood. I chuck the knife away and sink to my knees, holding her struggling frame firmly to my chest as I check the wound.
A dozen knives fly at her, and a tidal wave of fury rises in my chest. I swipe them aside, my reflexes and speed hitting them one after another with a vicious snarl ripping from my throat before I find her attacker.
Jackson pulls three more blades from his hoodie, flinging them at her with the same apathetic expression on his face.
Rage swallows me whole, pulsing through my veins so viciously that my body aches with the need tomove. To fight and wreak havoc on Royce and the threat to my family. First, Raegan is forced to attack and hurt us. Now, Jack is being forced after Raegan.
Cruel.
Filthy.
Coward.
For being too afraid to fight us himself. For trying to use us against each other.
I flip us around, shielding Raegan on the ground before the knives strike. The metal sings against scales. I whip my head around, baring my teeth in a snarl at him. Shoving off the ground, I race toward him while he tries reaching for more. I grab him by the throat, every fiber of my beingscreamingto punish him. For being a threat to her. Forhurtingher.
I throw him at the cliff wall, anger clogging my lungs until it’s all I can breathe. All I can feel.
His gift cushions him before he hits, but I’m already there, my hand catching the side of his face and slamming him into the rock. Sanity checks my strength at the last second, pulling back so he doesn’t end up with an injury too severe. Jackson crumples to the ground. My chest heaves, expelling some of the blind fury as I panic that I didn’t restrain myself enough. I find his pulse with two fingers, and relief pushes the rest of the anger from my bones, filling in with exhaustion instead.
When I look back to where I left Raegan, she’s gone.
I frantically search the beach. My heart stops when I find her. I run. As fast as I fucking can.
“NO!!!” I bellow, fear spiking my heart into a frenzy as she points the knife at herself and draws it back.
With all the strength in my legs, I leap the final distance between us, catching her arm and bringing her down with me. The knife snaps between my hardened chest and the ground.
Raegan tugs on her arm that’s pinned beneath me, her hand still wrapped around the handle. I grab her wrist, then the broken blade, and throw it into the ocean.
I collapse on top of her, holding her down while I fight for air. She wriggles and pushes at me, but it’s useless. She’s not going anywhere.
A loudpop, like a heavy stone snapping in two, has my eyes flying open. Raegan’s gift spreads through the ground under her. Under us.
“Rae!” Dane shouts. “Is she back yet?”
There’s the sound of a struggle, and I glance over my shoulder. Dane’s wrapped around Aiden’s back, his gift glowing, while Reid looks between us and Jackson—who’s already standing and stalking toward us.
“No. And he’s got Jack, too.”
“There’s no time to waste,” Reid says. “We have to get out of here before he controls any more of us. And once we’re far enough, they’ll be free of him. Get them both and get to me.”
I growl in annoyance. “I hope you can teleport before they both try to kill you.”
“I’m already ready. Just get close enough that I can grab you, and we’ll be gone.”
He fucking better be.
I heave Raegan up with me, wrapping an arm around her backside over my shoulder. Jackson jumps into the air, but I snatch the heel of his boot before he can get far and bee-line it to Reid. Aiden’s still fighting to get Dane off, but Reid has Aiden’s jacket clenched in his hand while his other is out waiting for me. I rush into it. The second my arm touches his hand, we’re gone.
Metal crunches, the side of the infirmary bed hitting my knees and ramming into the next two beds in a harsh screech. Jackson crashes between two beds, splitting them apart and dropping to the floor. Raegan’s cry of pain pierces the noise, my heart lodging in my throatas the world still spins around me, and I pitch forward. I catch myself on the nearest bed, my weight shoving it harder into the others until they’re stopped by Jack’s unmoving body.
