The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (21 page)

“
When I received my
ability, you mean?”

Haven nodded.

“
I never met the person
who came before me. I like to think that they were able to live a
quiet life, far from the worries that plague our kind these days.
It was no slow process for me, as I am noticing with you. The
energy was practically slapped into me not long after my
seventeenth birthday. I always assumed that the one who came before
me died suddenly, without the time for a gradual transference like
the kind I believe I am experiencing. I was working in a shoe
factory at the time, lacing work boots—just one of many girls on a
long factory line.” She giggled. “Oh, you should have seen their
faces! I lit that place up like a five-story Christmas tree. I had
to leave town after that, of course.” She sighed happily. “Those
days were just
full
of adventure.”

“
If I’m getting my power
from you,” said Haven, “then where do the others get their
abilities?”

“
You aren’t getting your
power from me at all!” said Elena, laughing softly with amusement.
“At least, not yet. Besides the few people who were given their
powers by other Conduits, each one of us is born already possessing
an ability. But those like me and Bernam—and every other Phoenix
and Void that came before us—are given something extra.”

“
What is it?”

Elena smiled. “There are
many theories, and of course I have my own. I think it’s different
for each of us. Only
you
can know for sure.” Her smile faded and a look of
worry deepened the shadows on her face.

“
What’s wrong?” asked
Haven.

Elena shook her head. She smiled but
it was a smile intended to hide a truth. “It’s nothing.”

“
Tell her,” someone said
behind Haven. She turned to see Dormer standing a few feet away,
just at the edge of the blue firelight. “Tell her about the
process—about what really happened to you in the shoe factory. Tell
her there’s a chance she could burn up just like a—”

“
Don’t!” shouted Elena.
She stood and held up a warning finger at Dormer. “Don’t you say
anything. She doesn’t need to worry about that for a long
time.”

“
Maybe not so long,” he
said.

“
Tell me what?” said
Haven. She stood slowly, looking between the two of
them.

“
It’s nothing,” said
Elena.

“
You may as well,” said
Dormer, clearly enjoying Elena’s frustration. “She needs to
know.”

Elena sighed and sat down in her seat
wearily.

“
I didn’t want to add to
your burden,” she said.

“
Tell me,” said Haven. She
stood next to the fire, her mind in a suspended state of
expectation.

After a long minute, Elena spoke at
last. “There is a chance that your body will be incapable of
holding the Phoenix energy and that it will instead go to someone
else.”

“
So…what? I don’t even
have it yet, from what you’re telling me. I’ll still keep what I
already have, right? Nothing would change.”

Elena shook her head.

“
This is the good part,”
said Dormer.

“
The energy does not
simply pass over you like a disembodied spirit looking for a
different body,” said Elena. “The process of
change
—the process that determines
whether or not you are capable of wielding such power—could destroy
you completely if you are not the right person.”

Haven stumbled over her words as her
brain struggled to process the information. “Well—what if—how do I
know if I’m the right person?”

“
You don’t,” said Dormer.
“Not until it’s too late.” He turned and walked away, toward the
black sedan near the entrance to the dormitories.

“
Well, screw that!” said
Haven, shaking her head. “I pass. I forfeit. Whatever you do to
make it go to the next person and not me, do
that
, because I don’t want
it.”

“
I wish it worked like
that, Haven,” said Elena. “I really do. It is a cycle. There will
be a brief time where you experience increased power, but afterward
it will fade until the moment comes when it abandons you
completely. Once that happens—if it happens at all—you will either
receive the Phoenix energy or it will destroy you and go to
another.”

“
But how do you even know
if that’s true?” said Haven quickly, getting defensive. “You don’t
even know where you got your own ability!”

“
There are others in this
world who have shared such things with me,” said Elena. “I was
going to wait to tell you until the pain from the loss of your
parents had passed.”

“
Thanks for reminding me,”
said Haven, instantly regretting her words. Her sadness wasn’t
Elena’s fault, but she was still angry at the world for letting her
parents die. She turned to look at the fire. “When will it
happen?”

“
It is impossible to say.
Maybe never.”

“
Great,” said Haven
flatly. “At least I have something to look forward to.”

Across the room, a metal cup hit the
floor and bounced loudly on the concrete. A small boy wearing
glasses stood on a chair next to Corva’s computer, waving his arms
and bouncing up and down excitedly.

“
Who’s that?” asked Haven.
“I didn’t even know he was in here.”

“
That’s Micah,” said
Elena. She stood up and hurried toward the boy.

Haven followed her over to the dark
area of the dome floor that was scattered with all sorts of
electronic equipment. There were several work stations. The table
next to Corva’s computer was topped with a bulky radio receiver and
what looked to Haven like monitoring equipment. Large knobs and
small switches covered the rectangular units stacked on both sides
of the table.

Micah plopped down into his seat when
Elena and Haven approached and pulled on an oversized set of
earphones. A long, spiraled cable ran from the headset to one of
the monitoring boxes on the table. When Dormer walked up, Micah
pulled the cable plug out of the monitor and turned up a volume
dial.

The monitor was tuned in to a police
scanner. A conversation between an officer and his dispatcher was
just wrapping up.

“
Copy, four-one-seven,”
said the dispatcher. “Fire department on the way. We’ll send some
backup for you just in case. Confirmed two identical suspects,
multiple red fires in the Four Corners area at Shepherd Trail. Unit
on-scene unresponsive. Advise extreme caution. Over.”

“
Copy that, dispatch. Unit
four-one-seven out.”

The line went silent, replaced with
soft, clicking static.

“
Red fire?” said Haven.
She couldn’t believe she heard those exact words.

“
That’s just outside
Bozeman,” said Dormer. “Less than thirty minutes away.”

Marius and Corva ran to the table,
breathing heavily. Marius held a chunk of bread in one hand and
chewed loudly. “What happened?” he said.

“
The twins are out
starting fires,” said Dormer. He turned and went back to his work
station.

“
Who are the twins?” asked
Haven. She remembered her own house burning to the ground, consumed
by rising, bright red flames. She swallowed thickly as her stomach
tightened.

“
Some of Bernam’s
henchmen,” said Corva. She squeezed Micah’s shoulder and he smiled
up at her.

Haven thought the boy could be no
older than twelve or thirteen at the most. He had light brown skin
and pale eyes that were comically large behind his thick glasses.
His baggy clothes hung loosely on his thin frame, and his heavy
shoes clomped loudly on the floor as his feet bounced up and down
energetically.

“
Good work, Micah,” said
Elena.

“
So what we do?” said
Marius.

Elena didn’t answer him. She turned
and looked up at the roof of the dome. Haven followed her eye-line,
tracing an antenna wire that ran out of the back of the radio
equipment and straight up the wall of the dome to the slow-spinning
fan at the very top.

“
We have to stop them,”
said Corva.

“
Don’t bother,” said
Dormer loudly from across the room. “You know something isn’t
right. Multiple fires in the same neighborhood? It’s too flashy,
even for Bernam.”

“
There could be families
inside,” said Haven suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her,
surprised at the conviction in her voice. “We have to go! What if
they were the ones who killed my parents?”

Elena nodded. “We will go. Haven, it
is too dangerous. You will remain here with Micah. Monitor the
police scanner—”

“
I’m going with you!”
shouted Haven. “There’s no way I’m staying! Red fire, didn’t you
hear? My parents…” Her voice trailed off until all she could do was
stand there with her mouth half-open, ready to form another
argument but unable to find the words.

“
It’s not safe,” said
Elena. “Marius, Corva, Dormer, and I will—”

“
I’m staying,” said
Dormer. His eyes met with Elena’s for a long moment, shining with
defiance.

She looked away sadly. “Very well.
Dormer will stay with Micah. Haven…” She sighed and shook her
head.

“
Elena, she needs
answers,” said Corva.

Elena hesitated a moment longer, then
said, “Haven, you come with us. But you are to remain by the
vehicles as a lookout, do you understand?”

“
I understand.” She would
have agreed to anything if it meant knowing more about those who
killed her parents.

“
Everybody ready?” asked
Elena. “Let’s go topside.”

27

M
arius stood before a section of plain concrete wall. A few
feet away was the entrance to the room full of metal tanks that
Haven had been taken to when she first arrived at the dome—a
miniature water recycling plant for the entire underground
complex.

She waited as Marius ran
his palm over the gritty concrete wall until the tip of his index
finger dipped into a shallow depression. He pushed in lightly and
the faint depression became a deep hole. There was a soft
click
and a small square
of concrete next to Marius’s finger swung out to reveal a black LED
panel. He tapped a series of hieroglyphic symbols on the screen and
a long sequence of encrypted numbers rapidly cycled across the
bottom until a small red light on the panel turned
green.

The faint outline of a wide door
appeared in the wall next to the panel and darkened as the large,
thick piece of metal swung silently inward, sweeping in a wide arc
to reveal a long hallway that stretched away from the dome. The
heavy door was about as wide as a car and Haven realized that was
how the black sedan had been brought into the facility.

She walked down the long hallway after
Marius and Elena; Corva followed close behind. Caged light bulbs
protruded from the ceiling every twenty feet, casting bright
circles of light onto the dull grey floor and walls. Haven turned
to look back and Corva gave a slight nod and a comforting
smile.

The hallway led to a single, massive
elevator with a heavy black door that Marius slid to the side with
a grunt. After they were all inside, he pulled the door back into
place and pressed the only button on the small panel set into the
wall.

The elevator rattled softly as it
ascended.

Haven looked down at her clothes and
couldn’t help but feel that something was missing. Corva had tossed
her a beige jacket that fit well enough, but could have gone down
an inch farther at the waist. She felt naked somehow, and she
realized it was because her hands were empty.

Corva held the same strange machine
gun that Marius had used in the car during Haven’s rescue from the
medical center. The body of the weapon was chromed metal; the two
pistol-grips—one at the back of the gun and the other halfway down
the sleek, elongated barrel—were covered with a black rubberized
material. The gun hung from a worn green strap looped over Corva’s
shoulder.

Neither Marius nor Elena carried any
kind of weapon that Haven could see. She assumed that they didn’t
need one since they could make their own energy, but from what
Marius had told her in the training room, it sounded like even a
Source could not maintain constant output. Any conflict would need
to be resolved quickly or they would have to resort to regular
weapons.

Haven opened and closed her hands,
knowing that having some kind of weapon would have made her feel
more confident. She was only supposed to stay by the car, but she
forced herself to believe that if she got the chance to hurt the
people who killed her parents, then—

Then what?

What would I do?
thought Haven. She remembered the red flames that
consumed her house and the cracking and crunching of wood as it
exploded and collapsed. The fire danced in her eyes and she felt
Kayla’s arms around her, holding her back from the fire.