Atlas (The Atlas Series) (24 page)

Kala looked up at the clock on Talan’s wall: 1d 14h 15m 41s.

3:45 P.M.

The day was half over, and Kala only had one day left.

She wanted to expel this fire before she burped and accidently fried some poor squirrel or something. “How do I get rid of it?”

“Focus and release. It’s that simple. Try it on my couch,” Talan instructed.

“Grills and tabletops are one thing? But a couch? Can you put it out in time?” Kala couldn’t help but doubt Talan’s skills.

“I can handle a burning couch,” Talan answered Kala’s skepticism with an entertained smirk.

Kala shrugged and went for it. She looked at the couch and felt the rush of fire leave her stomach and mouth. She almost fell over from the shock and terror of seeing real flames shooting out of her mouth and surrounding the couch in a giant fireball. She wondered if her eyes were red like the people from Talan’s vision. Kala took a few steps back from the heat wave that hit her full force.

Talan blew about as hard as if he were blowing out a birthday candle and the fire went out. The couch was a blackened carcass, but there were no residual flames. “You don’t have to expel the fire from your mouth,” Talan waved his hand at the couch and it transformed from a charred lump into a brand new sofa. “You can channel it through your hands.”

“Really?” It felt like some kind of video game power, from fire breathing dragons to exploding hand fireballs, Kala was definitely out of the realm of her comfort zone.

“The people you saw were only able to perform the spell in its most simplistic form, that’s why the mouth, but
you
…” Talan’s eyes shined with admiration, “you are truly a wonder.”

“All right, quit with the googly eyes.” Kala wasn’t comfortable with Talan’s obvious affection for her, especially since there was a part of her that felt the same pull he did.

“No more
googly
eyes, I promise,” Talan said with amusement. He lit the grill with the snap of his fingers. “Now, take in the fire and extract it through your hands.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Kala retorted sarcastically. She knew that both Roberta and now Talan thought she was some sort of prodigy, but this magic thing was hard. It was exhausting and took way more concentration than Kala had at the moment. She had to go into sniper mode to keep her focus up. Her training was coming in handy. Spending hours in a room looking through a rifle scope, you needed a lot of stamina and ability to be extremely attentive. Kala had to use every ounce of that particular skill with this magic stuff. It was one of the hardest thing she’d ever done. Not to say she wasn’t enjoying it. Being able to breathe fire was a bit of a power rush, especially when she imagined scorching the crap out of Asmodeus’s cocky face.

Kala looked at the small fire and focused on transferring it inside of her.

So weird
. The strangeness of it all would hit Kala sometimes. If someone had asked her about breathing in fire a week ago, only the circus would have come to mind.

Taking a deep breath, Kala opened her eyes and stared at the flames intensely. Within seconds she felt the tingling sensation of the fire entering inside her while watching the grill snuff out. Her natural impulse was to blow it out the way in came in, hence the mouth breathing fire technique. But she believed Talan when he said she could channel the fire in other ways. She closed her eyes again and focused on the tingling sensation. Whereas she had only been aware of the sensation in her chest and stomach before, now she experienced it tingling all through her body. It felt like recovering from an arm falling asleep, tiny pinpricks in every part of her.

This time when she opened her eyes Kala knew what she was capable of. Her innate gift of aim didn’t have to be used for guns alone. The magic that coursed through her veins amplified all her senses, but mostly her eyes. It was like her eyes had turned into a magnifying glass. Kala looked out the window to test her theory. Sure enough, Kala focused on the tip of the Washington Monument miles away, and like a rifle scope, Kala was able to zoom in until she could see a tiny fly landing on the top of the monument.

Before Kala could think rationally about her decision, she pointed her finger at the fly. Fire burst in a laser-like line, searing a tiny hole through the window and traveling the ten or so miles until it reached its destination. The fly never had a chance.

Kala realized that if anyone had looked up they would have seen a strange line of orange attacking the top of the Washington Monument.

“No one saw it, and if they did, they wouldn’t know what it was.” Talan was already trying to comfort her, sensing her anxiety.

Kala turned to Talan and stopped when she saw the pure and utter fascination written all over his face.

Before Kala could say anything he tossed her a lighter. “Constant source of fire.”

“It’s so tiny.”

“It’s all you need. The size of the fire doesn’t matter.”

“Then why on earth did we use a grill? We could have used this thing the whole time!” Kala was annoyed that Talan felt the need to tell her this after the fact that she had been using pretty sizeable fires to practice on.

“For novices, the bigger the fire the better, but after seeing
that
,” Talan nodded toward the tiny hole in his window, “you don’t need much.”

Kala examined the lighter more carefully. It was pretty stylish as far as lighters went, tarnished silver with intricate engravings etched on its surface that were black from lack of polishing. Kala didn’t recognize the pattern of the engraving, but knowing that an Angel gave it to her, she figured it meant something. “The engravings?” she asked.

“Grigorian,” Talan replied with a nod. “Guaranteed to always light.” He smiled.

Kala smiled back. “That’s handy.” She pocketed the lighter. “Please tell me this fire spell works on Demons.”

“It technically works on everything, but it won’t kill a Demon or an Angel, if that’s what you’re hoping for. Just Minotaurs.” Talan smiled again.

He was joking with her, she realized. Kala didn’t realize how much she needed a little bit of lightness to brighten up the darkness of her situation. He was trying to make Kala laugh about what her life had become. All Kala could give him was a smile, but it was a genuine one and it lifted her spirits immeasurably.

“Well, if any Minotaurs attack me, I guess I’m set,” Kala responded.

“It
will
hurt Demons and Angels though, buying enough time for you to escape. And with your control, you could do some serious damage.” Kala saw that he was toning down the “gush” factor for her sake.

“What’s next?” Kala asked. The longer she trained with Talan the longer she wouldn’t have to deal with her mission.

Talan was on to her. “Kala, you saw what would happen after the countdown is over. The Atlas is given four days as a courtesy, not a luxury. You have to think of it as a suspension of time. The repercussions of Jack existing with you is put on hold essentially, but at the second the four days are up, the Universe tries to right itself.”

Kala
had
seen, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that it was true.

The destruction of everything.

It was hard to ignore.

Talan waved his hand over the counter and Kala’s sniper rifle appeared. Normally, Kala felt comforted by her guns, but this time it made her stomach twist in a giant knot. The rifle itself could shoot accurately from over a mile away. Maybe if Kala were far enough away from Jack it would be easier…

Kala’s head pounded just imagining it.

“I don’t think I can,” Kala repeated her fears out loud.

“You always have a choice, Kala,” Talan said softly, “but he’ll die anyway. You’re indecision will be for nothing and billions of people will die because of it.”

Kala thought he sounded like he was talking to someone about to jump off a ledge, gentle but forceful. The more she thought about it, the more she realized he was trying to do the opposite. Talan was trying to talk Kala
into
jumping off the ledge. He’d provided Kala with her gun and he wanted her to shoot.

“I don’t know where he is,” Kala mumbled lamely and she wished she hadn’t.

Suddenly her entire world shifted.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Before Kala could move, her surroundings changed: she was standing on the roof of Union Station in the center of D.C. with the sniper rifle in her hands.

“Holy crap!” Kala flattened herself on the roof, placing her gun next to her to try and hide it. “A little warning would have been nice.” Kala was furious that Talan would drop her and her rifle onto a national monument with thousands of people moving in and out all day. Nothing says terrorist like a single shooter with a sniper rifle on top of a building in Washington D.C.! Kala wanted to scream.

Talan stood beside her, not bothering to try and hide himself. “No one can see you. I’m hiding us from view,” Talan said this as if Kala should have known better.

Not quite trusting that this information was true, Kala stayed where she was. “Why here anyway?”

Talan pointed to the grass and brick-worked courtyard in front of the station. There were several benches and fountains creating warm and inviting images for people exiting the station. Kala got to her knees and peered over the side.

And there was Jack.

From this vantage point she could easily see him sitting on a bench. He was reading a newspaper, but Kala knew better. Jack was waiting for someone. She could tell by the way he held the paper, just low enough that he could keep his eyes on his surroundings. Every few seconds or so, Kala watched as Jack glanced in a different direction so no one could take him by surprise.

It was a clear, clean shot.

“He’ll never feel a thing. You can do it quickly, painlessly.” Talan leaned down on his knees to be level with Kala. “I know this is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but you know it’s right.”

Kala moved away from him. “The more you try and convince me, the less I want to do this. In fact, you know what?” Kala stood up and started to walk away, leaving her gun behind. “I’m leaving.”

Talan was by her side in seconds, his eyes soft, pleading. “Kala, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say to make the consequences clear to you.”

“I know the freaking consequences, okay? I’m not stupid! Killing someone you love may be easy for you, but it’s not for me. It’s not in me!” Kala knew she was being unfair to Talan, but she didn’t care.

But like always, Talan didn’t show an ounce of hurt from Kala’s words. She could tell he wanted to reach out and hold her, but he was respecting her wishes of a
no touch zone
. “Kala, it’s time and you know it.”

The way Talan said it made her skin crawl, mainly because Kala knew he was right. There were no words she could say, everything would sound insincere and trite. She never thought of herself as a murderer though she had killed people before on missions. Her rational mind told her that killing Jack was another mission, but it was still murder. Plain and simple: killing Jack would make her a monster.

A monster that saved the planet, but a monster nonetheless.

Kala didn’t make eye contact with Talan as she walked back to her rifle. She went into military-mode and began setting up her rifle stand on the cement ledge, locking the scope onto the rifle. Lining it up with the park bench, she looked through the scope.

It took her a few seconds to put Jack’s head in her crosshairs, but when he was, Kala wanted to vomit. A single shot to the head and the world would be saved, but Jack would be dead. All she had to do was pull the trigger. It would be so simple.

Kala just had to squeeze.

One little squeeze.

It would all be over.

Jack turned his head.

Through the scope it seemed like he was looking straight at Kala.

His eyes.

His gentle, kind eyes.

Before Kala could think, she stood up and left the rifle behind.

“Kala, wait,” Talan called after her.

Kala whirled around and had the lighter lit before Talan had stood up. “It may not kill you, but it will hurt. Don’t follow me.”

Kala didn’t wait for Talan’s response. She knew if he wanted to he could pop up right in front of her and teleport her to the moon. But she had to do something. She had to see Jack, to talk to him, to tell him what she saw, anything.

After a few seconds of searching, Kala found the exit from the roof and rushed down to the service entrance of Union Station. Feeling like a zombie, Kala kept moving forward, hurrying her steps as she thought of talking to Jack. Barely noticing anything, Kala pushed her way through the beautiful latticed architecture of the station’s main hall, through the throng of people and through the double exit doors.

Seeing Jack on the bench with his fake newspaper disguise made her heart jump into her throat. Kala wanted nothing more than to hold on to Jack and never let go. She hurried over to him, but Jack saw her a hundred feet before she arrived and was waiting with open arms.