The Breakers Ultimatum (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 3) (27 page)

“Royce!” I yelled. I wanted to run to him, to wrap him in my arms and tell him he’d be okay. But this damn dome was still the only thing separating us from certain death. And I knew the stupid thing well enough to know that, should I lower my arms, the dome would have a similar effect.

Luckily for me, Dahlia was there in a hurry. “Echo, your shirt!” Kneeling beside him, Dahlia let Royce rest against her knee. At this angle, I saw everything that was happening. A knife stuck out of his gut, buried to the hilt.

“Hey now, don’t look at me like that Sweetheart. I'mma be fine.” He gritted his teeth. “But if ya gotta go on staring at me, I’m gonna have to insist that you picture me naked.” He grinned, which I could tell pained him. “You know, preferably without the knife.”

Echo pulled his shirt off and reached it to Dahlia, who crumpled it in her hand.

“I’m afraid this is going to hurt, Son,” she said to Royce.

“Everything that’s worth anything does, Miss Dahlia,” he said and shot me another look. “Just do it.”

She jerked the knife out with one fluid motion. Royce winced and yelped a little, but didn’t scream. Blood poured from his stomach undeterred now, and I spun around so I would have to see.

“She’s blotting it with the shirt, Cress,” Casper said, staring at what was happening in awe.

“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, knowing there was no way that Casper could reasonably know the answer to that.

“Sure,” he said much too quickly. “Just get us to the wall, Cress. Get us there quick.”

Closing my eyes, I pooled every ounce of energy inside of me. “Please God,” I muttered. “Please.”

With nothing but prayers and energy between me and the ground, I pushed harder than I had ever pushed before. The dome shot off like a bullet, bending not only to my will, but my want.

I swore no one would ever die for me again, and I meant that. But this went deeper than that. This was Royce. This was Poe. He was the boy from my locket, the Raven who I was prophesied to be ‘joined’ with; the guy whose body reacted to mine in a way still couldn’t be explained. But more than that, he was my friend. He saved my life, saved my sanity, and promised to save my future. I couldn’t let him die; not now, not when I was still so unsure about everything.

The power screamed inside of me, waling like a banshee on a mission. I felt Renner somewhere in the distance. His dwindling energy was still holding this thing together, but the way I had sent it shooting around like a pinball couldn’t have been good for him. This wouldn’t last much longer. So I needed to haul ass.

Somewhere in front of me, a large object shone in the sky. It burned like a comet in the distance, lighting the sky and even momentarily blotting out the Blood Moon. My heart sped up, thinking it was a missile or something the Council had sent to shoot us down. I practically passed out when I saw what it actually was. A dragon made of fire soared above me, flapping its huge wings and effectively scaring me to death.

It was here, the dragon from all those games. Except, unlike those games; this was real.

“Echo!” I yelled. “Echo, what am I supposed to do about-”

But the dragon darted downward and disappeared from sight.

“Thank fate for small favors,” he answered from behind me. “And keep moving.”

I turned to the left, seeing the Great Wall appear in the distance. Bathed in red, it was maybe the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. This was it, my exit from the Hourglass and, because of the Blood Moon, it was wide open. Now all we had to do was get to it.

“Cress, no pressure or anything, but Royce is starting to get pale.”

I turned around to see that Casper had joined Dahlia in trying to keep pressure on Royce’s wound. Blood was everywhere, a pool around them. Royce was white and still, but his eyes were still open, and they were staring at me.

“I’m- I’m peachy Sweetheart. Don’t worry your pretty little-”

And that’s when everything went wrong.

The pull that came along with Renner’s energy cut off. I grimaced because, this time, I knew it was for good. There was no resistance, no saving grace. I was pretty sure Renner was dead now, and he couldn’t have picked a worse time. Then dome flickered, and then disappeared.

We fell, separating the way pebbles might after they had been thrown into the air. The Wall was still a long ways off, but the ground was close now. And getting closer.

It seemed strange that things would end like this, so unceremoniously. I was the Blood Moon for God’s sake. I was a pretty big deal. And there wouldn’t be some great battle for my life. I wouldn’t go out in a way that people would tell stories about for years to come. I was just going to die, squashed like a bug against the windshield of a truck.

I was-

No. I wasn’t going out like this, not with so much more life to live. I blinked hard, letting the world turn into ribbons of ill-formed shade again. Then, looking past that-to the places Echo had begged me not to- I saw the Essence.

It colored everything and everyone. Dahlia was bright. Her powers reached out, looking for information, for energy. Echo was cool and green. His energy flickered up and down, the way a polygraph needle might if the person strapped to it was being untruthful. Casper, because he was a normal guy, didn’t have much of a signature. But what I could see was deep and inviting, the colors of warmth; everything that I had come to expect from Casper.

Seeing Renner put a catch in my throat. His energy, gold and green, the way his eyes looked when they were unguarded, leeched out through the knife wound. They spilled away from him, painting the red sky with his life force as he plummeted.

Come on Cresta. Keep it together.

I closed my eyes, trying to remember what it felt like to change the moon. Something Renner told me came to mind.

You can change what is.

And then what Echo told me when he saw my hand glowing that day at the cabin, the day he first must have imagined that the Essence was a part of me.

“It’s the source of everything,” I muttered, echoing Echo.

Something soft, like a pillow, caught me and gently nudged me to a stop. Opening my eyes, I saw everyone around me, lying on a bright red disk of energy that I must have just created.

Blinking hard, I rid my vision of the Essence, seeing things the way they were again. Royce still poured blood; face up on the disk and clutching his gut. The fact that he was still alive, much less still awake; was a testament to the sort of badass that the Raven actually was.

Still, he wouldn’t make it to the Great Wall. And if he did, what then? I doubted that Hourglass sat right beside an urgent care. So, even if Royce got out of here, the chances that he’d actually pull through weren’t great.

No, if he was going to make it through this, it was down to me to make it happen.

“Take his shirt off,” I told Dahlia, who had crawled over to him and was pressing hard against his open wound.

“I beg your pardon?’ She asked, her blond brows arching.

I pulled the shirt Casper gave me off, revealing the Blood Moon shirt that Royce had gifted me with.

“I need you guys to turn around,” I told Casper and Echo. “There’s something I need to do.”

“Cress, I’m not understanding you,” Casper answered, staring at his shirt as it fell to the floor of the disk.

“Royce was right. Our bodies react to each other. He could help me. So it stands to reason that I can help him, too.” I shook my head, “And even if I’m wrong, I have to try. I was hurting bad the first time, so he kissed me. He’s hurt worse now.”

“So what are you going to do?” Casper asked.

“Whatever I have to,” I answered. “Now turn around.”

Once he and Echo were facing the opposite direction, I walked closer to Royce. Dahlia had removed his shirt and inched far enough away to leave him laying by himself.

Royce panted; he was as white as a sheet now. “Sweetheart, you-”

“Close your eyes,” I said. “And trust me.”

When he did, I removed the Blood Moon shirt, leaving me standing in my bra and pants. “No peeking,” I said as I knelt down to him.

“No promises,” he choked out and even managed a labored smile.

“Shh,” I said and lay on top on him. He was cold, much colder than he should have been. But I felt his muscles tense under me. The only warmth came from his wound, which poured like a hydrant turned on high.

“What if my body tries to take your shade again?” He asked weakly. “It could take this disk away. I don’t wanna hurt you, Sweetheart. I‘d rather you just let me die.”

“Shut up,” I told him, unsnapping my bra and wrapping my arms around his bare back. He lifted as much as he shook, inhaling sharply and hugging me. His hands rested on the small of my back.

“Sorry,” he said, moving them. “Instinct, I guess.”

I breathed slowly, matching his breaths with mine. In and out. In and out. I felt his heart pounding against my chest, in rhythm with my own.

“Stay still,” I said, feeling his breath against my neck.

“Yes ma’am,” he answered, resting his head against the place my neck met my shoulder.

The energy- the energy that had always run from me to Royce- stilted in its tracks. Commanding it to do my bidding, I pushed it all in the other direction.

“Still,” I muttered, feeling the energy rush through me and go into him. I writhed just a little, just enough to feel conscious of it.

“W-wait,” he moaned, no doubt feeling overcome by the energy and the way it pulsated inside him.

“Stay. Still,” I breathed. Tightening my already closed eyes, I focused the energy toward his wound; knitting it together, healing him from the inside out.

Royce went limp under me, heat returning to his body. I leaned up, spying his stomach; it was now flat, tight, and unbroken.

“Keep your eyes closed,” I said, standing up. I put my bra back on, picked up Casper’s shirt and slipped it on. “Okay, you can all turn around now.”

I took a long, deep breath, realizing that I had been panting before.

“Oh my God. You fixed him,” Casper said, motioning to Royce. Royce stood staring at me, bare-chested and glistening under the red light of the moon.

Leaning down, he grabbed the Blood Moon shirt and put it on. It fit him snuggly, hugging his shoulders and biceps. ‘Thank you, Sweetheart,” he told me, leaning in and giving me a surprisingly chaste kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah,” I answered, blinking hard.

“I hate to follow one emergency with another,” Dahlia started. “But we are, as we speak, being held above a chasm by a sliver of energy that might disappear at any moment.”

“Right,” I said answered, turning. “How’s about we make a beeline for that giant wall over there, then??”

Lifting my hands, I thrust us forward. Without the walls of the dome to shield us, the wind threatened to knock me down, cold and fierce as it was. We buckled down, though. The Great Wall was close and nothing, including flying knives, bleeding quasi-fiancées, and fire dragons were going to keep me from it.

I tilted left, lowering the disk as we neared the Great Wall. It was a huge thing, bigger than I had imagined; which was strange, given how many times I had stared at the stupid thing. Carvings covered every inch of its huge structure- the anchors that, on any day but today, would stop us from leaving this place.

But this was today, the Blood Moon was shining in the sky, and I was getting the hell out of this place once and for all.

I settled us on the ground, allowing the disk to dissipate and feeling the relief that came with no longer having to manifest it.

“I can’t believe we’re actually here,” Casper said, running his hands along the mammoth thing. “Why can’t we just go over it, though?”

“There is no over it,” Echo said. “The Hourglass is encased. Just because you can see over it, because what happens on the outside effects it, doesn’t mean you can just fly out.”

“Which means we have to find a door,” I answered.

“Or maybe we deal with that first,” Royce said, pointing forward. Following his hand, I saw that things were about to go from bad to worse. Breakers, countless in number, came rushing toward us. Weapons in hard and snarls in teeth, they were a mere hundred yards away and closing the gap quickly.

“They were waiting here, probably guarding every inch of the wall and waiting for us to show up,” Dahlia answered.

“There’s so many of them,” Casper said, inching closer to me. “What-what are going to do?”

“We’re gonna fight,” I said.

“There are five of us, Cress. If we fight, we’ll lose,” Casper said.

“There ain’t five of us redbean,” Royce said, looking to his left and smiling wide. “See that girl,” he said, pointing to a tall brown haired woman running toward us with a mace in hand. “Her name’s Candace. “

“So you know the name of one of the people who’s going to kill us. That doesn’t make things better, y’know.”

“It ain’t just her name that I know,” Royce grinned. “She’s a Libra. She likes broccoli way more than any normal person and she taught me how to kiss.” He looked over at me and winked. “You can thank her later.”