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Cael said, “Why don’t we let everyone rest for a few minutes?”

I turned and studied the group behind me. Shayla was still trudging toward us, her hand gripped tightly in Ibram’s who appeared to be pulling her along. Brian was wheezing a little, and Krish had plopped down on the ground to lean against a tree. Even Alex was breathing a little hard. I hadn’t realized we’d been keeping such a fast pace. “Tell you what,” I began. “Those of us who aren’t tired can go on ahead. The others can wait a bit and then meet us at the top of that little mountain over there?”

“
Little
mountain?” Krish puffed. “Do we have to climb that thing?”

I said, “From here, I can see that the road angles steeply. It’s a little more work to make our own way up the mountain, but if we stick to the road, it won’t be much easier, and we won’t have many places to hide if we hear a vehicle coming.”

She nodded. “Okay. But I want to rest for a bit.”

“Me too,” Shayla said. Beside her, Ibram told us he would stay back with the group who wanted to rest. He tapped his watch and said they’d take fifteen minutes before starting off across the desert.

“All right. But I’m anxious to see what’s over that mountain, so I’m going to move fast. I’ll take my rest on the other side.” Honestly, I was nervous, irritated, and unsure, and I had excess energy to burn at this point. I’d given an open invitation for people to come to the farm, but I hoped Alex didn’t take me up on that offer. I didn’t like the girl, but I didn’t have it in me to say, “Whoops. I meant anyone
but you
could come to my farm.” So all I could do was hope that she didn’t decide to tag along. Surely Wesley wasn’t enough of a reason for her to tolerate hanging out in my presence.

I had a brief flash of the two of them together in Wesley’s bathroom, and I felt the anger rise up inside of me. I quickly retied my shoe laces and started sprinting. There was no way I was going to hurt these people again. I couldn’t let my petty jealousy cause injury. And now that I knew my anger could cause me to lose control and hurt others, I felt like a walking time bomb. And why was this happening now? I’d never had a problem like this before. Did it have something to do with learning to control water and non-living objects?

I leapt over a large and rock and wondered if the others knew what I’d done to them. As far as I knew, no one had discussed what had happened. But the subject would undoubtedly come up, and I wouldn’t have a defense against their accusations. I deserved their anger. Something about me was broken, but if I told them that, they would just think it was an excuse. Maybe if I gave it time, my body would go back to the way it was. Maybe Jensen had been slipping us drugs in our food…something that made our abilities strengthen and evolve. After all, Pippa and Ibram’s powers had changed too. And if that was true, then being back home would mean I’d get back to normal once the effects of what he’d given me wore off. The idea was a bit of long shot, but I wouldn’t put anything past Jensen.

I just had to give myself some time. Time to get back to the abnormal normal state that I was in before coming here.

“What’s with the frown,” Cael asked next to me. He wiped the sweat out of his eyes.

“Wow,” I said, ignoring his question. “You’re keeping up with me.” I glanced behind me to see Wes, Brodie, and Val close behind.

“The last time we ran like this, I had trouble keeping your pace. I worked on my cardio a lot at the underground’s gym. Don’t want to be embarrassed like that again.”

I laughed, and then we fell into a comfortable silence for another fifteen minutes. I had to admit that I was impressed Cael kept up and didn’t even seem to be struggling. When we reached the base of the mountain, the two of us walked in circles, catching our breaths while waiting for the others. Val was tall, and her long legs had carried her past Brodie. But Wes was a former champion cyclist, and I knew his legs had muscles that didn’t quit. He proved that when he climbed the mountain with ease, his thighs pushing off rock after rock without pause. Val and I brought up the rear, probably because we didn’t have the arm strength that the men had.

After another thirty minutes, I was dying of thirst. If only it would rain. Or even snow. Any form of water would work. My lips were chapped and my jeans stuck to my sweaty skin, making it even more difficult to climb. I watched Cael haul his body over a rock ledge, his muscles bulging and stretching. God, he was hot. And then he turned to help me and Val up the easy way. After pulling Val up, he locked his hands around my wrists and practically pulled me up like I was dead weight. He made it look so easy.

He grinned. “I think I finally found something I’m better at than you.”

“And that’s just fine that you climb faster than me because I’ve been enjoying the view.” I winked at him and he laughed.

Just above us, Brodie let out a string of curse words that shocked me. Whatever he was staring at had to be very bad. Beside him, Wes shook his head and clenched his jaw.

“What? What is it?” I scrambled up beside them and looked out at the valley below. We could see for endless miles, and we new exactly which direction to go to find a town. Unfortunately, the town was on fire. Black smoke billowed into the sky from a half-dozen sources. I could see the highway this side of the town was full of cars, many of them on fire. People were running everywhere. Gunshots were being fired, and from the extended rat-a-tat sounds, I knew they were illegal automatic weapons. Something in the distance exploded, shooting out flames and smoke. The Emergency System sirens were blaring.

It was a war zone.

“What the hell?” Val breathed. She collapsed onto her butt and rested her elbows on her knees.

A strange sound grew louder, and I dropped into a squat when a huge military helicopter zoomed past faster than I’d ever seen one move. Another one followed. Wordlessly, we stood and watched them circle the city. On the far side of town, I saw a flash of light. One of the helicopters had fired a missile. It hit the center of a large group of vehicles, blowing everything to hell with a reverberating boom.

I put a hand to my face. “What’s going on?”

Cael shook his head. “This is way worse than New York.”

“Why is our military bombing a town on our own soil?” I pointed to the right. “Is that a jet?”

“Two of them,” Brodie confirmed.

“Four,” Cael corrected, pointing to another place in the sky where two more jets swept down. One of them fired a missile at the other and my hand flew up to cover my mouth. The jet being targeted surged forward with a sonic boom, the missile behind it streaming smoke as it curved upwards in pursuit. Then two more jets fired their weapons. One missile reached its target and a plane exploded, pieces flying everywhere before falling to the earth in smoking, burning chunks. A parachute sail popped open, a perfect target for the jet that came toward it. The gunfire was loud, and the bullets streaked through the sky like super speed fireflies. I knew the pilot was dead even before his chute collapsed, sending the form at the end of the lines plummeting to the ground.

“This isn’t practice,” Val said. “This is the real thing.”

Brodie breathed, “I can’t tell if we’re fighting our own military or another country’s.”

“What’s happened in the two months we’ve been gone?” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The three remaining jets disappeared into the distance. A helicopter fired another missile at the ground. For what seemed like forever, we watched the city being bombarded and destroyed. And when the rest of our group showed up, they joined us in silence, mouths gaping.

Another jet buzzed us, making us all jump. Ibram said, “That was
not
a U.S. military jet.”

Someone asked, “Do you know what country it comes from?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say it’s from the Saudi Royal Air Force.”

Devon shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would they attack us?”

Ibram pointed to the left where two different jets were flying in. “
Those
are ours.”

I could see the moment the two enemy pairs engaged each other. It was like some crazy fast dance in the sky, with twists and loops as the four jets tested defense and offense.

Alex pointed. “That jet’s coming in low. I think it’s going to shoot a missile at the city.”

“No way,” I mumbled. And then it did. Another trail of smoke and light guided my sight as the weapon shot straight and gradually turned downward.

Alex shoved me. “Iggy. Don’t just stand there. Do something!”

My eyes went wide. “What? What the hell do you think I can do? It’s a
missile
!”

“It’s no different than moving the elevator or the birds or anything else you do.”

How did Alex know what my tests in Jensen’s labs were about?

“She’s right!” Brodie said, excitement making his face light up. “You can stop it.”

Could I? I looked at Cael. He nodded and mouthed the word
try
. I took a deep breath and focused on the missile that was nearly at the end of its trajectory.

“Come on, Iggy!” Alex yelled. “Thousands of people are going to die!”

I bit my lip and squeezed my fingers into such tight fists that my nails drew blood. I wanted to scream or cry. I didn’t want this burden. In my head, I screamed at the missile to stop…to turn away…anything but keep going. Alex and Brodie were yelling at me. Wesley started yelling at them. Pippa started screaming and Ibram’s deep voice added to the argument. But nothing compared to the death of the people in that town. I’d done so much already. I could do this. I could. I had to.

Do what I’m telling you
, I screamed silently.

“Hurry!” Alex hollered.

“Stop, Iggy!” Wesley shouted.

I blocked them out. I was sick of hearing it.

And then there was no sound. My body relaxed, and I just knew. It was done. I held up a hand and made a sweeping motion to the left. The missile pulled up and continued past the city….beyond…and into an empty mountainside where it exploded without killing anyone.

I stood there staring. Breathing.

Then Cael swept me up in his arms, laughing. He swung me around. “You did it!” When he put me back on my feet, Pippa hugged me. I felt like I was coming out of a daze. People were clapping, jumping, laughing. Wesley looked pissed. He just couldn’t be happy about a damn thing.

But then I realized he wasn’t looking at me, and I turned around to see what had captured his attention. Alex drew a gun from behind her back, pointed it at the sky, and fired. A flare shot up, leaving an orange wake as it arced. Wesley ran past me and straight at Alex like he was going to run her over.

“Too late!” she cackled.

I gave Cael a puzzled look, a rush of adrenaline telling me something was wrong. “What’s going on?”

His eyes went wide and he reached for me.

“Great job, Iggy! You did it!” Alex was all grins when I spun around again to look at her. Wesley was on the ground, unconscious. Then she darted me in the stomach. I turned to Cael, finding him unconscious.

“What are you doing?” I shouted at Alex and stumbled to face the opposite direction, intending to ask Pippa and Ibram for help. But they were also passed out on the ground. Brodie was holding a tranq gun, and he shot Shayla and Brian. Krish had already taken out Val and Devon.

After the initial shock, my body flooded with anger.

Alex shouted over the sound of a helicopter approaching, “You just saved twelve thousand people! You’re going to win this war for us, Iggy!” And she hit me with another dart. She, Brodie, and Krish laughed and gave each other high fives before waving at the helicopter coming in from the right.

I was holding onto consciousness by sheer will, fueled by hate. I looked down at Cael and back up at Alex. I stiffened my legs and locked my knees. I raised my right hand and curled my fingers, smiling when she screamed in agony. Brodie and Krish shot me with every dart they had left. I crashed to my knees.

Yes. There is a war. And I’m going to win it.

-The End-

*
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.

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for the release date and exciting snippets from
USED
— the second book in this series.

About the author…

I’ve written everything from poetry to newspaper articles, but young adult and new adult fiction are my favorite genres. Writing has been my passion since elementary school. I’m even picky about my pens and pencils — the lead has to be dark and the ink has to be thick.  While I will always love the smell of a new book, the digital age has captured my attention in the form of eBooks.