Page 3 of Resolve
I’m relieved that Dane and the others are gone, stealing that prize from Charles. He thinks he’s won, but if I can get Aiden back, it’ll be a draw at best.
“Sleep.” Charles palms her face, wielding the same gift he’d used to knock Kellan out in the bunker, and her eyes close.
The president is too impatient to follow through on his promise to recapture Dane that he doesn’t deal a killing blow with his telekinesis. That would have compelled me to intervene before the attack could land, and I’m not sure if I could escape him. It’s a mistake on his part. A flaw in how he thinks during a fight. I wouldn’t have hesitated to go for the kill.
My muscles tense, desperate to go to her, but I can’t let him see me. Saving Raegan and Aiden are my priority.
I force myself to wait.
To be patient.
Even when he teleports away and her gift dissipates.
Even as the water floods the crater, crashing over her, and swallowing her from my view.
Every nerve ending burns to move; to save her.
Wait.
Charles reappears by the beach house, and I tuck in closer to the bush. He surveys the dead agents, then strides to the cliff to peer below. He teleports to the remaining agent, speaking a few words back and forth. Hopefully telling him that Dane and the others are gone. The GE president turns, and the agent places his hand on his back.
They vanish.
I dive, thrusting the wind at my heels and splitting the air with my hands. The buffer of air lasts until I slide beneath the water. Thecold temperature skitters over my skin, inducing a shiver, but it’s not a muscle-binding chill.
Moving through water is a heavy, claustrophobic experience for me. I’m used to air at my fingertips. That invisible, endless freedom and lightness which constantly surrounds me. But underwater, it’s muted. Smothered. As if I’m trapped in a thick, wool blanket.
I’m slow. Weak. Cut off from the gift that I’ve interwoven into every fiber of my being. I fight against the instinct demanding I return to the surface and swim harder instead.
The warmth from her gift beckons me to her, growing in temperature the closer I am until I see her. She’s floating just above the softened sand, the setting sunlight reaching for her with slender orange fingers.
I shove myself toward her, wrapping her in my arms even as her heat scalds my skin.
I swim toward the shore, wishing I could control air underwater—use it to propel us into the sky or increase my speed. But I’m as restricted in the water as anyone. I bundle her to my chest once I can keep her head above water, progressively shifting to a run until I lay her on the sand and start CPR.
I’m sure there’s a way I can use my gift to clear the water from her lungs, but I haven’t tried it before, and I’m reluctant to try anything for the first time with her. I save it as a backup option if this doesn’t work, continuing the compressions and guiding air into her lungs with my gift.
Come on, little one. Breathe.
After a minute with no results, I debate switching tactics, panic bleeding into my composure the longer she’s not breathing. My compressions become rougher; my own breathing clipped as myheart races.
Her body jerks, and I quickly help her to her side as she coughs water. Once it’s all out, her breathing slows, and her eyes remain closed. I check her pulse, then palm her forehead.
She’s still burning up from her gift.
Lifting her in my arms, I fly us to the rockslide where Reid’s supposed to be with Cassandra.
Neither of them is there.
Something’s wrong.
If he’s not back by now, they ran into trouble at the Guild.
I take a calming breath, releasing the frustration that keeps trying to take over. Cassandra can’t heal her from this anyway. I need her for Aiden. Hopefully, they’ll be here before I get him back.
There are mini tide pools on this side of the beach formed by the broken rocks and boulders from the rockslide Raegan created and filled in during high tide. I slip Raegan into one of those, away from the waves, but still in the cooler water to help regulate her temperature. I shift the larger boulders around her, blocking her body from view unless someone gets close enough, then find the door I’d dropped around here.
“I’ll bring him back to you,” I promise, hopping on the hovering door. A quick burst of air shoots me over open water as I fight the strong ocean breeze. I lie on the door to reduce air resistance and keep myself low to the water. The winter sun sinks below the horizon, darkness creeping over the sky and shadowing much of the sea.
