The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (33 page)

Alistair moved quickly to his side and
helped him to his feet.

“
It worked,” said Bernam
weakly. “My ability is mixing with the Phoenix power in the
machine.” His skin sagged loosely on his bones and for the first
time Colton got an impression of how old he truly was. “Quickly,”
he said. “Help me into the bindings so I may finish the
process.”

Alistair put his hands on Bernam’s
shoulders and smiled.

“
Alistair, what are you
doing?” said Bernam. He groaned in pain as Alistair squeezed his
shoulders. “Guards!” he croaked. “Shoot him!”

The guards didn’t move.

Alistair sighed.

“
I paid them off, Bernam.
You should have watched the world around you, but instead all you
could see was the machine. Tunnel vision,” he said, shaking his
head. “Sad to watch. It’s time to step down, my old friend. You
were right. You can’t rely on anyone but yourself.”

Bernam dropped to his knees and
screamed. The skin on his face shriveled and clung tightly to his
skull. Dark pockets sank into his cheeks and his hair fell out in
chunks.

“
What was that you said
about the mouse and the lion?” asked Alistair. His eyes flashed
brighter as Bernam withered in his grip.

“
Alistair,” hissed Bernam
softly as his entire body shook. His eyes rolled back into their
sockets and he stopped breathing.

Alistair released Bernam and his
wasted husk hit the floor like a light plank of wood.

“
Now then,” said Alistair,
brushing his hands together. “Same plan as before. Don’t you three
go anywhere.” He pointed at Colton, Shelly, and Corva. “I want to
have some fun once this is all over. You there,” he said to the
nearest guard. “Come here.”

The guard lowered his rifle and
obeyed.

“
What’s your name? Never
mind,” said Alistair holding up his hand to stop the guard from
talking. “I don’t care. Just…stand still, would you?”

Alistair grabbed the guard by the
throat and lifted him off his feet. The guard’s rifle clattered to
the floor and his legs kicked helplessly in the air as he strained
to breathe. The other two guards stepped back warily but still kept
their rifles trained on Colton and the others.

Black smoke flowed over Alistair’s
hand and into the guard’s neck. When the last bit of smoke
disappeared, Alistair released the guard and collapsed to the
ground, breathing heavily.

“
Shoot him,” he said
quietly.

The other two guards exchanged
glances. The one who had just been given Alistair’s Conduit power
took a step back and turned to run.

“
I said shoot
him!”

Colton closed his eyes as two shots
rang out. Behind him, he heard a body hit the hard
floor.

Alistair straightened his back and
grinned at Colton when he opened his eyes. “If I can’t have it, no
one can.” His skin was pale but he still looked a lot stronger than
Bernam did after he gave up his ability.

He whistled softly as he walked to the
machine, then stopped when he saw Bernam’s suit jacket hanging over
the railing. Alistair picked it up as if it were a dead rat,
inspected it, then tossed it on top of Bernam’s corpse and brushed
off his hands once again as he stepped onto the
platform.

He reached up and grabbed the
restraints.

“
To a new era,” he said,
and waited. “Oh, right.” He snapped his fingers and hopped off the
platform. He went to the small control panel and flipped three more
switches, then pressed a series of buttons. “So hard to remember
all of these things on your own,” he said. “There we are.” He
closed the lid on the panel and walked back to the platform.
“Right, then. Where were we?”

He grabbed the restraints as the
machine’s hum grew louder. Blinding white light flowed along the
tubes, into metal boxes, and then up to the top of the
machine.

Alistair closed his eyes as the energy
crawled down the bindings and glided over his skin.

On the floor next to Shelly, Reece
coughed and opened his eyes. She bent down over him and brushed his
hair back from his eyes.

“
Reece?” said
Colton.

Reece saw Colton and his jaw
tightened. He closed his eyes and turned away.

Colton slowly looked at the remaining
two security guards. They stood watching the machine as it fed
energy into Alistair’s body. Colton shifted a little closer to the
guard behind him, hoping he could grab the rifle while he was
distracted.

The guard saw him and brought his fist
down hard on Colton’s cheek.

“
Don’t try it,” said the
guard.

Colton spit blood onto the
floor.

“
How about
this
?” someone said from
behind.

A bright blue ball of light exploded
next to the guard’s head. His neck snapped back and he collapsed.
The other guard turned and raised his rifle.

Colton jumped forward and shoved his
shoulder into the guard’s stomach. He picked him up off the floor
and slammed him onto his back. The rifle clattered out of reach and
Colton brought his fists down on the guard’s face, over and over
again. The guard grabbed a handful of Colton’s shirt and pulled him
to the side, then stood and kicked him in the stomach.

Colton gasped for air and tried to
crawl away.

The guard grabbed his ankle and pulled
him back.

There was a flash of blue light and
the guard screamed as he flew through the air. He smashed into the
middle of a pillar, cracking it in half. His body stuck into the
crooked pillar and hung there, suspended ten feet off the
ground.

Haven appeared next to Colton and
helped him to his feet.

“
Was wondering where you
were,” he said, coughing to catch his breath.

“
We have to get out of
here,” said Haven. “Right now.”

The white light in the machine
intensified and Alistair screamed as if he were being burned alive.
His body ignited with white flame and his skeleton was visible
inside his skin.

Colton bent down and picked up Corva,
draping her arm over his shoulder and holding her up by her belt.
He started the long walk to the elevator at the far end of the
room.

Behind him, Haven knelt down to help
the others.

“
Don’t touch me,” said
Shelly.

Haven stepped back as Shelly helped
Reece to his feet. He groaned in pain and clenched his chest. His
breaths were wet and shallow. Shelly supported him as they hurried
away from the machine, toward the elevator.

With a quick flash of light, the
machine powered down.

Alistair fell forward onto his hands
and knees. His black hair hung loosely over his face as he lifted
his hands from the floor and looked at his palms.

“
Let’s go!” shouted
Colton.

Shelly and Reece were closest to the
machine; Haven ran past them, moving quickly toward the
elevator.

Alistair stood up and brushed his hair
back. He held his right arm in front of him and turned his palm
outward, studying it as if it were an unknown weapon.

A beam of white-hot light shot out of
his hand and hit the elevator. The metal doors turned to molten
liquid that sloshed out into the room and burned through the
floor.

“
Get down!” shouted
Haven.

Colton turned around just as the
elevator exploded.

Chunks of metal burst out in all
directions amidst a huge fireball that consumed half the room. The
impact from the explosion picked Colton off his feet and slammed
him onto his back. He did his best to keep Corva close but she was
ripped from his arms. A piece of burning metal smacked against his
ankle and he kicked it away.

Fire licked over the ceiling, crawling
like lava pouring from a volcano.

Behind him, Alistair was
laughing.

“
Children,” he said
loudly. “
Idiots
.
Do you know how easy it’s going to be to kill all of you? You’ll
find out soon enough.”

Colton flipped onto his
stomach.

Haven was crouched behind a nearby
pillar, staring at him. She pointed to a section of wall on one
side of the room and made an exploding motion with her
hands.

Colton didn’t understand until she
pointed to herself, then to Alistair.

He shook his head,
no
.

She nodded calmly, as if it was
something she had been planning to do all along. Haven pointed to
Corva, Reece, and Shelly, then firmly back at the wall.

Colton fought to find a way that they
could all escape without someone staying behind. He sighed and
looked back at Haven.

As soon as he nodded, she stood up and
stepped away from the pillar.

“
Over here,” she
said.

Instantly, a ball of white light tore
through the pillar, splitting it in half and ripping it out of the
floor and the ceiling. Haven ran away from the falling pillar,
toward the machine.

Alistair tracked her, firing thin
beams of white energy as she moved. The beams cut black canyons in
the walls. She paused in front of the section of wall that she had
pointed out to Colton. She ducked as a thick tube of energy slammed
into the wall above her head and shattered the black tile. Sunlight
poured in from the cracks.

Haven quickly stood and placed her
palms on the wall. Blue light burst from her hands and a large
section of the wall crumbled down the outside of the
building.

She turned and ran toward the
machine.

Colton picked up Corva and looked over
at Shelly. “Come on!” he said.

Reece leaned against her as they
hurried to the hole in the side of the building.

Colton peered down over the edge—six
stories straight down to the asphalt parking lot.

“
This isn’t a good idea,”
said Shelly.

“
It’s all we
have.”

“
Just like jumping from
the plane?” she asked. “I thought you were broken.”

“
Maybe this will fix me,”
said Colton.

He hugged Corva close and
jumped.

Fear seized him as he fell through the
air—the same fear that threatened to paralyze him when Alistair had
thrown him from the plane over the desert. It was different,
though, because the first time he truly believed he could rely on
his ability.

He pressed Corva close to his body and
turned slowly in the air so that his back was toward the
rapidly-approaching ground—it was the only chance Corva had of
surviving if he failed.

Colton focused on the air flowing
around his body. He imagined the battery in his chest. He tried to
imagine it filling up, even though he barely felt
anything.

He screamed within his mind and
reached out for energy—a light tingle at the small of his back; a
brief flash of heat in his hands.

Colton closed his eyes and let it
out.

He slammed into the concrete on a thin
cushion of air that barely managed to keep his bones from
shattering. The back of his head bounced off the ground and his
vision went black.

Corva fell on top of him and one of
his ribs snapped. He yelled in pain as he guided her onto the
ground next to him.

Colton lay there panting, feeling the
sun’s heat on his face but unable to see anything but a soft glow.
He heard footsteps approaching and two figures dissolved out of the
blackness, silhouetted by the faint light of the sun.

“
Haven?” he
said.

The closest figure stopped. Colton’s
vision changed from dark to blurry and he could tell that it was
Shelly who stood over him. She reached up and wiped a tear from her
eye.

Reece stood next to her and guided her
away.

“
Let’s go,” he said. He
cried out in pain and clutched at his chest. His breath came out in
quick, ragged gasps as Shelly helped him to stay on his feet. “We
don’t belong with them.”

“
Wait,” said Colton
weakly. “Don’t go.” He reached out but their blurry figures faded
away into the brightening sunlight.

Colton closed his eyes and tried not
to think about the pain that covered his entire body. Far above,
through the hole in the side of the building, Haven
screamed.

41

A
section of the floor fell away beneath Haven’s feet as she
jumped to the side. The edges of the hole glowed with white
plasma.

Alistair cackled from across the
room.

Haven was trying to keep the pillars
between them as she moved closer to the machine. Her only hope was
that Alistair would bring the whole place to the ground before he
realized what was happening.

“
You’re alone!” he
shouted. “What a noble sacrifice you’ve made! Pointless, but noble.
Even if your friends survived the fall, I’ll find them.”