Page 130 of Resolve
Dane
Wehadhim.Wefucking. Had. Him!
The plan worked. We cuffed him. Jackson brutally stabbed him in the goddamn jugular with blood everywhere. He should have been dead in seconds. It should have been over.
Instead, he’s laughing and boasting.
I clench my fists, shifting from my kneeling position to one foot on the ground in preparation to move.
My gift works.
It’s the only way.
His teleportation is blocked, so he can’t just run away like he always did. I can grab him. Block his gift to give the others time to kill him. I just have to hold on long enough… no matter what he tries to get me off him.
“Dane!”
Raegan’s voice snaps my attention to her. She’s in my sights for a second, running toward me, before the room moves.
No, not the room.
My body races to Charles midair. There’s fuck all I can do aboutit, as much as I try to lean away. To move in any way that might change my direction.
Raegan is suddenly in front of me, and I drop.
She screams.
Time slows.
I force my head up, but it’s like moving through molasses. My skin prickles as if her pain is electric, flowing through me and jolting my heart to beat double-time. And then the world becomes clearer. Sharper.
I’m on my feet, but I don’t remember standing. Charles is holding Raegan off the ground by her throat. His other hand grips Jack’s knife, where it’s buried in her side.
Blood pounds in my ears at a dizzying pace.
“No. No!” I jump toward them. His hands are busy. I can grab him. I can save her.
The others are already shouting at Charles like me, racing toward them.
Something shoves me back so hard I fly off my feet and crash to the floor yards away. I blink away the disorientation. What did I hit? Kellan’s lunging at them again, and I see himbounceoff something a few feet from Charles.
But nothing’s there.
Jackson’s knives find the same invisible wall that throws them right back at us. He controls them before they do, but they’re useless. He tries his wind. Aiden throws his shoulder into it and is thrown back.
“Thank you for volunteering, Raegan. You should have died a long time ago, so it’s only fitting you die first.” Charles twists the knife, smiling as Raegan’s screams intensify. The sound shatterssomething in me.
“Stop. DON’T FUCKING HURT HER!” I run at them even though I know I can’t get close. It doesn’t matter. I won’t stop trying. If there’s even a second that one of us can get in, we have to find it. I’m repelled back. All the air knocks from my lungs at the impact. I wheeze and force myself to my side. To my feet.
I charge them again.
And again.
Tears flow freely down my face as I scream at him to stop. As I call her name. She doesn’t respond. Not to me. Not to the others. Her eyes are closed, and blood leaks from her lips.
“Don’t give up, Rae! Don’t die. Please! Stay with us! Rae!Rae!”
Each time she doesn’t answer, the broken pieces crack a little more like an icepick is hammering into my chest.
