Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) (28 page)

He flashed me a smile as he scooped a gun off the floor, then he trotted to the doorway beside Richie and Bruce. I ignored Micah’s glare and Lillian’s curious eyes as I followed in a partial daze.

“This is going to be dicey,” Bruce warned.

“We need to find a way through the Skotadi line,” Richie added. “Join up with the rest of the Kala by the mess hall.”

“We need to find Nathan,” I said. “I need to know that he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Lillian mumbled. When I glanced at her, I noticed that she was already looking at me.

Micah pushed between the two of us, breaking up our short staring contest, as he muttered, “Let’s go.”

Micah led the way outside, with Richie right behind him.

“Stay close to me,” Alec said.

I wasn’t sure if he wanted me near for my own protection, or if he felt that he needed to be close to me. Whatever it was, I nodded in agreement as we stepped outside together.

The situation in the village center hadn’t improved in the few minutes we had been inside. If anything, it had worsened.

Both dorms were complete losses, and one whole side of the girls’ dorm had collapsed into the village center, forcing the Skotadi to shift closer to the Command Center. Closer to us. Though the fires cast the fighting soldiers in an eerie orange glow, our little group remained in shadows. If we were careful, we could slip past the Skotadi line, and join the Kala on the other side. And I could find Nathan.

“Stay low,” Bruce ordered as he started to the right, his back flush against the wall, as he took the lead.

“No, wait,” Micah called, and he turned to me with wide eyes. “Kris, get inside
now
.”

Before I could ask why, I saw what—or rather who—had alarmed him.

Moving through the crowd of Skotadi was a tall man, dressed in long black robes. But he wasn’t just a man. I didn’t recognize him and had no idea who he was, but I instinctively knew
what
he was.

A demigod. And it was too late. He had seen me. There was no running and hiding now.

“Temulus,” Alec muttered. He spun to me, his eyes wide and desperate. “I don’t know if he can charm you or not, but don’t make eye contact. Just in case.”

Micah moved to stand in front of me, his arms spread out protectively. “He’s not going to take you,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m not going to let him.”

The demigod stopped several yards away, in front of the large tree in the center of the village center, and faced us. With nothing more than a wave of his hand, he sent a wave of Skotadi at us. Richie jumped in front of Micah, and was the first to be hit. His body dissipated before it hit the ground. The scream that rose in my throat was carried away by a sudden gust of wind that swirled around us.

It left our group unaffected, but forced the Skotadi back. I heard a sharp cracking noise above the howling of the wind, and looked up as a large branch of the tree behind Temulus split from the trunk. Another gust of wind tossed the branch on top of the Skotadi.

One look at Micah’s rigid posture and focused gaze, and I knew it was all him, using his powers of wind manipulation.

Temulus turned his attention to Micah, and his eyes flashed with the golden spark I had come to recognize in the Skotadi. His hand barely moved, but that was all it took. The remaining Skotadi marched toward Micah as if they were string puppets controlled by Temulus’s hand.

“Micah, no!” I tried to push past Alec. He grabbed my shoulders to stop me as the Skotadi launched a string of star-shaped pointy objects through the air. A dozen, or more, all shiny from the diamond that coated them, flew into Micah with a chorus of flesh-piercing thumps.

The wind abruptly stopped as Micah dropped to his knees, and fell forward face down on the ground. I wrenched free of Alec’s hold, and sprang to Micah’s side at the same time Bruce got there. As I reached for Micah, Bruce was flung back by an unseen force. He hit the side of the building, and slumped to the ground, unmoving.

I rolled Micah over, and my hands flew to my mouth to stifle my scream. Blood poured from his mouth as he opened it to speak.

“Shhh,” I cooed. “Don’t try to talk.”

His hand moved to his neck, to the vial he carried with him. His fingers were covered in his own blood as he extended it to me. “It’s yours,” he whispered. And then he was gone.

I rocked back on my heels as his soul dissipated into the night.

“The time has come,” a dark, deep voice announced, and I looked up at Temulus through my tears. “You will join us now.”

“No, I won’t,” I answered.

His gaze on me hardened with determination. “You will join us now,” he repeated, and I realized what he was doing. He was attempting to charm me.

And it wasn’t working. Knowing that filled me with a strength I hadn’t had a moment ago, and I stood to face him defiantly. My anger over Micah’s death fueled the powers that buzzed through my body, and I fisted my hands at my sides as if that could help restrain me.

“That’s never going to happen,” I said, and smirked at the flicker of surprise that crossed his face. “You’re forgetting two things. I’ve got free will on my side, and I don’t want to join you. And . . .” My smile grew. “I’m Hecate’s daughter.”

Temulus chortled. “There are other ways, child.” His arms rose to his sides, and he swept them forward, toward me. At the same time, Skotadi on both sides of him marched forward as if pushed by him.

Lillian’s words from earlier came to me. I closed my eyes to compose myself, and willed myself to be ready. Because I
had
to be ready.

“
Obiectum motum
,” I chanted under my breath. My eyes snapped open as I lifted my hands out in front of me forcefully.

Nothing had happened the last time I tried it, but now . . .

Temulus flew back as if he was a flea flicked by a giant. He crashed into what remained of the tree behind him. As he fell to the ground, I advanced on him. My arms shot out, tossing Skotadi to the side with nothing more than a thought along the way. I came to a stop a few yards from him as he rose to his feet. He looked up, and I shot a swirling ball of fire at him.

He taunted me with a laugh as the fire hit his chest and burst open. He stepped through it unscathed. “You have much to learn,” he jeered. “I’m a demigod. You cannot hurt me anymore than I can charm you apparently.”

“Oh, no?” I returned. “There’s one way to kill a demigod that I know of.”

He smirked. “Yes, but it appears you are unarmed.”

I needed diamond. Little did he know that at my feet, partially covered by my shoe, lay a diamond coated knife that had been dropped. And I was prepared to use it.

Chapter 28

{Nathan}

I watched in awestruck horror as Kris advanced on the demigod. Skotadi were tossed to the side, and out of her way, as if they were nothing. But Temulus?

I didn’t want her anywhere near him.

I yelled her name, but she didn’t hear me. I was still too far away.

Since the moment I first saw her as she darted across the village center and disappeared inside the command center, I had been trying to get to her. Though I had left a trail of dead Skotadi in my wake, many more still remained between me and her.

As I dropped one with a well-placed bullet, another rushed me with a knife. I quickly, and easily, ended him. The majority of these Skotadi were inexperienced newbies. Even with their greater numbers, and the fact that they had achieved the element of surprise, they would not overcome the Kala.

I doubted it had been their goal to overtake the base. No. I figured the attack was nothing but a distraction. Temulus’s arrival confirmed my suspicion, and I knew that he planned to take Kris. And probably Alec, too.

I cut down another Skotadi in my way, and shouted Kris’s name again.

I saw her lips moving, and I suspected she was talking to Temulus. She, at least, didn’t appear under his control despite having made eye contact with him, so that was good. But then she bent to pick something off the ground. The light from the fire reflected off of it, creating a familiar sparkle, and my heart nearly stopped beating.

“Kris! No!” I yelled.

She rose with a diamond coated knife in her hand, and glanced in my direction, though I didn’t think she actually saw me.

Temulus waved his arms as he stepped toward her . . . she disappeared . . . and I had no idea what was happening.

Skotadi and Kala—hell,
anyone
who stood in my way—were pushed to the side as I tried to get to where I had last seen her. I hadn’t seen it, I hadn’t seen Temulus hit her with a weapon. But had he?

Oh, God, had Kris been dissipated right in front of me?

My voice cracked as I yelled her name, over and over again, until my throat was raw. My body was tired and sore from fighting, my legs felt like lead, but none of that compared to the emptiness in my chest at the thought that I had just lost her.

I stared at the spot where I had last seen her as if willing her to come back. I stared at that spot so hard, I didn’t see the butt of the gun intended for my head until it made contact.

Stars filled my vision as I went down. The Skotadi must have been out of bullets, because he came at me with a knife. I flipped over, catching him in the stomach with my foot. As he fell, I rose to my knees and finished him with a stab to the heart.

As I pushed myself up onto wobbly legs, Kris reappeared—ten yards from where she had vanished, and now only inches from Temulus. His eyes widened in surprise, and his hands shot out in front of him, but not before Kris plunged the knife into his chest.

Temulus roared as his hands connected with her. He didn’t just shove her away. She flew into the wall of the Command Center like she had been shot out of a cannon.

I barely registered the fallen Temulus dissipating behind me. My focus remained on Kris where she laid unmoving on the ground.

Blood from the gash on my head blurred my vision and limited my view of her. Then, as Alec and Lillian crowded around her, I couldn’t see her at all. The instant I got there, I forced my way between the two of them, and dropped to my knees at Kris’s side.

“Kris!” In my head, I shouted her name, but it came out sounding like a hoarse whisper. I slowly reached for her, fearing the worst—because she was so still, too still, and her head laid in a pool of blood.

The instant my hand grazed her cheek, she sucked in a big breath. Her eyes popped open, and landed on me. “Oh, thank God you’re okay,” she breathed.

Why she was worried about me, I had no idea. She was the one who had just taken on a demigod. And took a rock wall to the back of the head.

Her hand lifted to my forehead. “You’re hurt.”

“I’ll heal.” I gingerly lifted her up into a sitting position to examine the injury to her head. Her hair was matted with blood, but the wound itself appeared to have healed . . . already. My hands and eyes roamed her body for other injuries, but there were none. Finally, I sagged in relief and did the only other thing I needed to do.

I didn’t care that we weren’t alone. I didn’t care that the battle still raged on behind me. I blocked everyone and everything out, and I kissed her.

I kissed her like I thought I had lost her and I couldn’t believe my luck that I hadn’t . . . and like I would never risk losing her again. If it were possible to tell her that with a kiss, I did it.

I barely registered the crunching of shoes on the ground as our small audience left us, and I pulled her in closer, holding her tighter, to let her know what I would never have been able to put into words.

When I finally let her go, she smiled and whispered, “Love you, too.”

Her eyes slid over my shoulder to settle on someone behind me, and her smile faltered. I didn’t need two chances to guess who she saw. I followed her gaze to a motionless, and expressionless, Lillian.

I helped Kris to her feet as I stood, then turned to face Lillian. I opened my mouth to apologize—not for the kiss, not for falling in love with someone else—but for not telling her sooner, when a shout from behind me stopped the words on my tongue.

“I need some help over here!” Alec yelled. 

I ran to where he was crouched, tossing debris to the side as he worked to uncover someone. As I neared, Bruce’s eyes opened. He was hurt but alive, and pinned under a fallen tree branch. Together, Alec and I moved the branch off of him, and Kris helped him to his feet.

“I knew it would take more than a tree to keep you down,” Alec teased as he patted Bruce on the back.

I eyed the way Bruce’s arm hung limply at his side. “We need to get you some medical attention . . .” Once we reestablished some sort of order.

I turned to survey the situation in the village center, and saw that more Kala than Skotadi remained. Finally. The remaining Skotadi must have realized their odds weren’t good without Temulus, and appeared to have surrendered. They were being corralled into the Command Center by a group of Kala . . . led by Jared. Of course.

As if feeling my gaze on him, Jared looked up and nodded once when he saw me. Then his eyes swung toward Kris, and his expression changed from a look of relief to one of awe. He wasn’t the only one. Several Kala glanced at her as they passed. They no longer regarded her with caution and contempt, but with admiration and gratitude.

I watched her as she wandered away, and dropped to her knees a few yards away. She retrieved something off the ground as I walked up behind her.

“Kris, you okay?”

She stood and turned, with a pendant dangling from a thin gold chain in her hand. Unshed tears rimmed her eyes. “Micah . . .”

I took her in my arms. “I know. I saw.”

“So many died because of me,” she cried.

“That’s not true. Kris, what you did . . .” I pushed her back far enough to force her to look me in the eyes. Waving a hand at the passing Kala, I added, “You saved so many more. Look at how they’re looking at you now. They know what you did.”

“But they don’t know the Skotadi came here for me. It’s my fault they attacked in the first place.”

“No . . .” I took her face in my hands. “Attacking us is what the Skotadi does, Kris. There were spies that set us up, set all of this up. It wasn’t your fault.”

She drew a shaky breath, and pressed her face into my chest as if to hide from what she believed was the truth. I knew it would take some time for her to see past the devastation, but eventually she would realize all the good she had done here tonight.

I gave her a moment before I pushed her back again, this time to study her. There was only one explanation for how she had managed to destroy Temulus, and survived that hit to the back of her head.

“You’ve reached your potential, haven’t you?” I asked.

Her head nodded slowly.

“So?” Though her eyes still carried a blend of gold, she appeared . . . okay. And she had destroyed Temulus, a demigod she should have wanted to join if she had truly followed the path she had been created for.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Something . . . happened, and I fought it. I think. I still feel something inside of me, but it’s not as powerful as it had been.”

“I saw it.”

I looked over my shoulder at the sound of Lillian’s voice.

“I saw what happened,” she added. “You and Alec both were spared because of your connection to each other. I saw it the moment he kissed you, and I see it now. You strengthen each other, and that enabled you both to fight it. The kiss pushed it away . . . for now.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, and the way Kris stiffened in my arms at the mention of a kiss warned me not to press for more. Though I was definitely curious, whatever Lillian was talking about, and whatever had happened between Kris and Alec, wasn’t important right now.

“You feel okay?” I asked Kris tenderly.

Her eyes shot daggers at Lillian before they lifted to me. She nodded. “Yeah. But
Nathan . . .”

I stopped her with a quick shake of my head, and jutted my chin over her shoulder. “There’s somebody who wants to see you.”

Kris turned as my indestructible grandmother emerged through the haze of smoke that blanketed the village center. Gran shot me a weak smile as she pulled Kris into her waiting arms, and gave her the kind of hug that only a grandmother could give. The kind that healed the worst kind of pain.

{Kris}

We spent most of the night assisting the wounded and trying to restore some semblance of order. Fortunately, the Infirmary had been untouched, and Dr. Ribbons had survived the attack, so the injured had somewhere to go for help.

As the night progressed, it became painfully obvious that many had not survived. I heard early casualty estimates were in the two hundreds. Sadly, Richie and Micah were among them. As well as Kim, I eventually learned.

I tried to overlook the devastation and see the positive, as Nathan insisted. That many more could have been killed if I hadn’t stopped Temulus when I had. But in the immediate aftermath, it was hard to see the silver lining.

Callie had been unharmed, and for that, I was grateful.

After hours of tending to broken bones, burns, and superficial wounds, the adrenaline wore off and I started to feel the exhaustion that came from using my powers. I hadn’t realized at the time just how much energy I had expended in fighting Temulus, but Nathan noticed. Sometime in the early morning hours, he insisted that I get some rest.

Instead of bedding down on the floor in the mess hall with everyone else who sought a few moments of rest, I crawled into bed with Callie. My eyes shut the moment my head hit the pillow. Despite the events still fresh in my memory, I enjoyed a few hours of dream-free sleep.

Alec’s grin greeted me when I woke.

“Thought I would find you here,” he said softly, careful not to wake Callie.

I sat up gingerly, and cringed from the soreness that had settled in my muscles. My body protested as I climbed out of bed. As I stretched life back into my limbs, I looked over Alec’s wrinkled and blood stained clothes.

“Did you get any rest?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “Too wired. Maybe later when the adrenaline wears off.” He paused, and stared at me intently. I almost asked him what was up, when he extended a hand and said, “Walk with me.”

His intensity alarmed me, but I took his hand and let him guide me out of the room. We were outside, and well on our way to the beach, before Alec spoke again.

“How do you feel this morning?” he asked.

Aside from feeling the effects of being thrown into a wall by a demigod the night before? “Umm . . . okay, I guess.”

“Your powers, Kris,” Alec clarified. “How are your powers? Your repressed Skotadi? How does that stuff feel?”

I looked down at my hands. I hadn’t experienced the weird half-invisible phenomenon since last night. And despite feeling like I had been on the verge of a future as a Skotadi only a few hours ago, my inner Skotadi had been surprisingly quiet. Still there . . . but quiet.

“I thought I was about to lose it last night,” Alec said quietly. “I thought that was it.”

“Me too.”

Alec spun to me quickly. “So what happened? What stopped it?”

“Maybe it didn’t stop, Alec. I still feel it . . . just more under the surface like it was before.”

“So what restrained it again? Kris, we were
there
.” He looked at me pleadingly, as if he hoped I had the answers that he so desperately sought.

But I didn’t. Not unless I believed Lillian’s claim, which I still hadn’t made up my mind about . . . despite what I had felt.

“I don’t know.”