The only positive to the entire situation I’ve found myself in is that I’m not facing North Draven’s wrath by myself.
We all watch as the plane touches down on the dirt runway, the engine roaring as it kicks into reverse to slow and finally come to a stop only a couple of hundred feet away from where we’re all standing around. The moment my hands had stopped shaking from using my gift, Sage had come over to stand with me, holding Gabe up between us. She’d moved slowly at first, but it wasn’t the same fear that Gryphon’s TacTeam was throwing my way. Instead, she was being understanding of just how volatile bonds can be when their Bonds are threatened.
She was respecting the insanity of this entire situation because she’s the best goddamn friend a girl could ever ask for.
Gabe still isn’t looking great, his face is green and he’s swaying a little on his feet, but he has that same stubborn look on his face as always. I glance past him at Sage and she shoots me a look like she’s praying for me to survive whatever the hell is about to come from all of this mess.
My gift hums in my chest like it’s eager to be formally introduced to the rest of my Bonds. My legs still feel a little weak and my head is pounding. I need a nap to recharge from using my gift and I’m hoping that plane is as luxurious as the rest of North’s possessions.
There’s murmuring behind us and an argument between a couple of the TacTeam guys, but my head is hurting too much for me to really take in their words. When Gabe’s arm tightens around my shoulder and Gryphon steps back up to my side, I make the calculated guess that my honor is being torn apart.
Like I give a fuck.
“You need a new fucking team,” Gabe snarls and Gryphon shrugs at him, his eyes sharp as the back of the plane finally starts opening.
“I’m finding out who’s loyal and who’s not, adjustments will be made.”
Jesus, he doesn’t sound angry about it either, and I start to wonder how long he’s worked with this group. Kieran and Nox are both standing with Gryphon and when the word monster filters into my brain again Kieran curses viciously under his breath and turns on his heel to ream the two squabbling team members out.
Gryphon glances down at me like he’s expecting me to react to them, but I couldn’t care less about their opinions.
I care about what hell North is going to put me through over this. I care about the way that Nox had reached out to my gift with his own, like he wanted to know exactly what I’m capable of.
I care that Gabe is still swaying on his feet with whatever drug he was dosed with.
“Any explanation for us yet, Fallows? Anything to say about lying to us all for months about what you can do?” he says, and Gabe turns to glare at him in my defense.
The eight-pack hottie is really growing on me, dammit.
When Gabe opens his mouth, I cut him off because there’s no way I’m going to sit back and let him fight my wars for me, that just isn’t my style. “Nope. Just because you’re my Bonds doesn’t mean I owe you shit. I’m so sorry you had to find out this way that you’re stuck with a monster.”
The sarcasm is dripping from my tone and I’m expecting him to react but he doesn’t, his eyes still just staring me down coldly. From the corner of my own eye, I see the snarl on Nox’s face pointed right in my direction, but fuck him and his shitty mood.
Gabe also moves to glare at me instead of Gryphon and snaps, “Don’t fucking say that shit. You just saved us all. A monster wouldn’t do that, and every last one of the people here that are saying that shit are ungrateful, spineless assholes who would burn their saviors at the stake just because they’re stronger than them. Gutless and jealous fucking assholes.”
Huh.
There’s a nerve there that I didn’t even know existed and when I take a second to look at the rest of my Bonds, it’s clear on their faces as well. Something about what’s being said about me is triggering them and I know for sure it isn’t on my behalf, because Nox is looking particularly bloodthirsty about it and he really, really fucking hates me.
Gryphon is staring around at his team with cold eyes, taking in exactly what’s happening around us. Kieran is still verbally tearing strips off of the men behind us and there are others watching on in disgust, but when my eyes hit the other students staring at me in horror, my blood chills a little bit.
Then I remember that they’re all here right now, breathing and torture-free, thanks to me, and instead of feeling like shit about who I am and what I can do, I smirk and wiggle my eyebrows a little at them, taunting them.
I swear one of the girls nearly faints.
She would never have survived the Resistance and their camps.
The back of the plane finally opens completely and another group of TacTeam members, all clad in black, come streaming down the ramp and over to us, order being called out in code words that mean absolutely nothing to me. Gabe’s arm tightens around me again, his jaw clenching as he stares out over the newcomers as though he’s expecting another attack. I’m kind of hoping we’re past that though, as past that as we can be, when I see two more figures descend from the plane that have me gulping a little.
I really don’t have much fight left in me and North’s particular brand of it isn’t great, even when I’m at full strength. Right now, with everything I’ve had to do? Shit, we might just be scraping his innards off of the side of the plane if he so much as looks sideways at me, because my bond is not fucking around anymore.
I have my gift back and it’s eager to come out to play.
I squeeze my eyes shut for a second just to take a deep breath and clear my mind, to find some sort of calm or peace or something to get me through this without destroying everyone around me.
“Fuck, he looks pissed. We’re both in for it, Bond,” Gabe mutters under his breath at me, and my eyes snap back open to find Sage cringing and looking terrified about the hell that’s heading towards us all.
North starts off charging towards us but his footsteps slow as he takes in the damage lying all around us in the fields, all ninety-two of my victims writhing and twitching on the ground as blood pours from their eyes and ears as their brains begin to break down in their skulls.
Atlas doesn’t miss a beat, his feet propelling him to me without a single glance in any other direction. Only at the last second does he seem to notice Gabe and the way that we’re wrapped around each other, but he doesn’t comment as he slams into me with enough force to knock the breath out of me and tears me away from Gabe, swinging me into his arms and clutching me close to his chest.
“What the fuck was that, Oli? Why the fuck did you take off without me? I would’ve come with you to find Sage,” he murmurs into my hair and my arms feel as though they weigh a thousand pounds as I lift them to return his embrace.
I let out a shuddering breath as I let myself just melt into his arms, too exhausted from using my gift in such a huge way after years of hiding it. I let my face tuck into his neck as I mumble back, “There wasn’t time. They already had her and I couldn’t let her go without backup, that’s not who I am, Atlas.”
His arms tighten around me even more, constricting me until I can’t breathe, but there’s something so goddamn comforting about it that I’m willing to just die here rather than ask him to ease up. His hand cradles the back of my head as he whispers back, “I never doubted that or you for a minute, Sweetness. Fuck the rest of them, I already told you that it’s us against the world.”
I accept that I’m going to die here wrapped up in him and I’ll never regret it, not even while I’m rotting six feet under and burning in the pits of hell for all of my sins.
“Bassinger, get off of her, we need to get her out of the open before the riot starts,” North snaps, but his words make no sense.
Riot?
Why the hell would there be a riot and exactly which people would be starting it? But Atlas drops his arms away from me slowly, which is great because my legs give out on me.
He catches me and swings me back up into his arms, snapping at North, “She needs a healer, did you think to bring one? Fuck Ardern, he can wait. Over my dead body are any of you being attended to before my Bond.”
And then he stalks forward with me still securely wrapped around him until he reaches Sage, dropping one arm to offer her some help if she needs it. When she shakes her head, he motions at her to follow him back to the plane, keeping my friend safe without a word from me, because even in the short time he’s known me, he’s figured out just how to reach my ice-wrapped heart.
I let my eyes slip shut, mumbling a quiet thank you even as I slip out of consciousness.
I SLIP BACK into some semi-consciousness as Atlas takes his seat and adjusts his hold on me, moving me around a little until I’m secure in his arms.
I feel Sage’s hand slip onto my forehead as she murmurs with Atlas about finding a healer for me, but I manage to croak out, “I’m fine. Take me to Felix when we get home, I don’t want anyone else to touch me while I’m out of it.”
Atlas’ arms tighten again and for a second, I think he’s pissed at me but then my bond feels Gabe take the seat next to us, jostling me a little as he collapses there. When Atlas snarls at him, he snaps, “Give me a fucking break, I’ve just been drugged and had the shit kicked out of me.”
My bond doesn’t like that at all and my gift bursts out of me before I can stop it.
Gabe yelps as it hits him, scrambling up like he thinks I’m about to tear his mind apart. I don’t have the energy to feel bad about it. I mean, they don’t know about the other things I can do.
They don’t really know anything.
Gabe figures it out first. ‘My headache and dizziness is gone.’
I hear footsteps and my bond recognizes Gryphon as he approaches us, his voice low and gravelly as he snaps, “What the fuck was that? What the fuck just happened?”
I feel the Draven brothers both approaching and even in my paralyzed-like state, I tense a little and then Gabe speaks again, harsher than I’ve ever heard him before, ‘Don’t take another fucking step near my Bond or I’ll rip your fucking throat out with my bare teeth.’
I wonder which one of the crew has been stupid enough to try to approach us because he cannot be talking to one of the Dravens like that, but then Nox says, snark dripping down his words, ‘She’s my Bond as well.’
Atlas scoffs. ‘No, she’s your punching bag, your favorite victim. She’s the default villain in every one of your stories. You move even an inch closer and I’ll take the whole fucking plane out to stop you. No more warnings.’
I struggle to get my eyes open, to prepare myself for the war about to break out because Nox Draven does not back down, but I’m too fucking tired.
Maybe it’s for the best that I just die in the melee of what’s about to happen.
There’s a shuffling sound again and then Nox snaps, ‘Take her to the bedroom. We need to talk. Now.’
Bedroom?
Of course North’s plane has a fucking bedroom. Of course.
As Atlas gently lifts me in his arms as if I weigh nothing, cradling me against his chest like I’m precious, I hear the sounds of the plane filling with people and orders being shouted everywhere as they prepare for takeoff.
I don’t know why he thinks I’m precious, I’ve just ruined dozens of people, and yet he is acting as if I’m even more important to him now than ever before.
He’s steady on his feet, even with the throngs of people around us, as he walks us over to another room and then lowers me carefully onto a bed, pulling up blankets and tucking them around me as he brushes his lips against my forehead.
I’m almost pissed off that I can’t acknowledge it or ask him for more.
I hear more footsteps shuffle into the room and then a door slides shut.
‘Hurry up then, Draven. I want you out of this room and as far away from Oli as you can get on this fucking plane,” Atlas snaps, and again, I try to pry my eyes open. Nope. Nothing.
Nox growls under his breath and footsteps get closer to the bed. ‘She just healed us all. You don’t think we need to talk about that? You don’t want to be let in on exactly what our little lying Bond just did out there?“
Gabe snorts. ‘Bonds can heal each other in dire situations, you already know that. Move the fuck on. You just want to argue over every little thing because you don’t want to admit that you were wrong about her. Heaven fucking forbid you admit you were wrong. I saw the Resistance get a good look at her, Nox. They knew her. She’s been running this entire time and now we know why. They want her because she can do something no other Gifted can do-‘
Nox cuts him off. ‘She’s more than just a fucking Gifted, that’s what I’m trying to say. She didn’t just heal us enough to survive, she fixed everything. Everything! My fingers are straight again, Gabe. She fixed an injury that happened twenty fucking years ago.’
Oops.
I feel like my life is about to become even more complicated if that’s possible, but whatever their answers are to that statement, I don’t hear them. Instead, my mind finally catches up to my body and I pass out into nothingness.
