It meant that I had no idea why exactly she hated me, but the reason didn’t matter.
“Don’t you think you’ve got bigger problems than us?” Wade asked with his usual carefree tone. “Isn’t now the time to try and get out?”
“Get out?” She laughed as though she’d never heard anything dumber. “There is no getting out. Do you really think they don’t already have guards at the front doors? Guards watching the fence line? There is no escape, so I might as well use this chance to remove things I don’t want to be here when they gain control again.”
“And by that you mean us?” Wade let out a thin laugh full of stress. “I feel like if I wanted to get rid of someone, I wouldn’t waste my time on folks like us. I’d go after the person who guards the chocolate.”
The woman shook her head and came forward. A glance at her wristband told me what she was.Dryad.That meant little to me, but when she lifted her hands and a tree grew from the cracking tile floor, it made it clear.
Wade yanked me to the side, out of the way, when a branch swung toward us from the rapidly growing tree.
I shook, wanting nothing more than to collapse to my knees, but a glance at Wade told me I couldn’t.
He could steal her power if he got close enough, but closing the distance was dangerous.One wrong hit could put him down.
It left it to me, and I couldn’t let him get hurt, couldn’t let him fall because of me. I forced myself to use my power, to twist the sounds of the tree and send them toward her no matter how I staggered.
It struck her, knocking her down, but we had no time to celebrate. The hit was weak, not enough to do more than slow her down, and as she got up, another few shades came into the room.
Any hope I might have felt that the new people would help us disappeared when I saw who it was. Gina, the girl Kit had used to knock me around stood there, along with a few others I didn’t know. Their expressions showed they wanted nothing good with me.
I fell to my knees, unable to keep myself upright anymore. Wade crouched beside me, grabbing at me without touching my skin, trying to help me, but I shook my head. I’d never used my powers like this before, hadn’t realized I had a limit, that it could tire me out. Between the fight with the shade on the bridge and our trip here, I’d run out of power.
We were so close to the rally point, so close to finding Brax and Knox, but I had nothing else to give.
I looked toward Wade, then moved my hands quickly.“Go. Just leave me here.”
He shook his head. “Not a chance—I’m not leaving you.” He rose and stood between the others and I, his expression hard.
“You think you can stop us?” Gina sneered as if amused. “As long as you can’t touch us, you’re useless.”
“Not quite.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “Oh really?”
Wade nodded, and I had to admit, his resolve surprised me. He usually looked like a kid, making jokes and taking nothing serious. Despite his power, he’d never struck me as all that scary.
That wasn’t the case at the moment, and as he spoke, a shiver ran through me at his resolve. “I’ve been pulling power from shade after shade. You know that I don’t just steal it, right? I can use it.” He held his hand out and set it on the tree the dryad had created, and the entire thing turned to dust, drawing a scream from the dryad, telling me they were connected.
Kit’s power…
I wanted to ask about Kit, to find out if he was okay since it appeared Wade had stolen his power, but I couldn’t right now. I had to trust that Wade wouldn’t seriously hurt Kit.
The shades in the room stepped backward, as if unsure. It seemed when they thought they were facing enemies they could easily kill they were all in, but the moment they realized it might be a fair fight, they hesitated.
I wanted to laugh at them, but I lacked the strength.
“Unless you want to end up the same, you’re going to want to turn around and leave,” Wade warned, none of that friendliness he usually had in his voice.
Gina hesitated. “You might be bluffing. If you could actually take us all on, you would have. Maybe that means you don’t have as much power as you want to pretend.”
Wade held his arms out. “You’re welcome to test that theory.”
Gina rushed forward, but before she reached us, a roar echoed from outside. It was familiar, but notbecause I’d heard it before. Rather than that, it felt more like something I recognized but not from where.
Even if I couldn’t place it, the others seemed to at least know they didn’t want to play with it. Everyone turned their gazes back to the door just as something huge came through, the skin red, the eyes flashing brightly.
I looked at its face and realized when we locked eyes who it was.Brax.I’d only seen him shift slightly before, but even still, I saw him in those red eyes. He was every bit the terrifying beast he’d claimed he could be.