A Matter of Fate (40 page)

“Will they be safe, out like this?” I yell.

“They’re fine,” Jonah assures me. “None of them are targets.”

I look at the pile of friends in the middle of the room and think of Cora, who is in a hospital nearby due to her proximity to me. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Jonah says. And then all of a sudden, he shoves me toward his brother. Kellan catches me at the same time the entire wall Jonah and I had been standing next to collapses, knocking Jonah to the ground. I attempt to run to his aid, but Kellan’s grip turns vise-like as he hauls me backwards.

Jonah rolls over and pushes himself up to his knees. Before him, and us, is the bedroom Iolani had been sleeping in. Beyond that is a huge hole leading straight outside.

And beyond
that
is a mass of Elders.

I am nearly overtaken by fear, despite the little voice urging me to remain calm. Jonah takes a huge breath and then staggers to his feet. His eyes connect with mine. “Go with Kellan!”

Wait.
Wait
. WAIT.

Jonah’s hand swings out in an arc. All of the Elders in the hole back up, squealing in agony. “We need to go now, Chloe,” Kellan is saying in my ear, but I am flailing against him, gripping onto a desk as he tries to drag me closer to the door.

“Jonah!” I scream, hysterical now. “Jonah!”

Jonah pushes himself off the wall and runs directly toward the hole leading outside. And just when I think he’s going to stop, skid to a halt to oversee what’s outside, his feet move faster to launch his body directly out of what used to be a fourth-story window and out of my view.

The desk below my hands explodes, nearly knocking me and Kellan down. This cannot be happening! He did not just do that! I squirm enough to face the screen I created, but Jonah is not in its line of view. As if it knew it’d failed me, the screen melts down, popping and hissing. “Get ahold of yourself!” Kellan yells in my ear. “We need to get out of here now!”

I begin sobbing. “No, Jonah . . . he . . . he . . . .”

“I know exactly what he did! And he specifically requested that you get out of this room, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do right now! Do not make me sedate you, too, Chloe.”

His words stun me enough that my muscles lock, facilitating Kellan’s attempts at extracting me from the room.

Once outside the door, though, the hysteria returns. “He jumped out . . . he just jumped out! Oh my gods, what if . . . ?”

Kellan’s grip doesn’t loosen one iota. “Raul caught him.”

“C-caught him? From four stories up?”

“With a tornado. Now listen to me—I’ll answer all your questions
after
we get to safety. But I need you to stop talking and let me get you to the basement.”

But I can’t do it. All I can think is that Jonah is out there, Jonah—all of seventeen, and not Ascended. Strong Guards have fallen outside. I’ve watched them go down. What’s to stop the Elders from getting to Jonah? Who’s strong enough outside right now to protect him? What if something worse than driving off a cliff happens? What if more than an arm is broken?

I can’t take the risk. If something were to happen to Jonah now that we’ve finally found our way back to each another, I don’t think I’ll maintain sanity. I need to get out there, find him, and make sure he’s okay. My mini suns could work. They worked before.

We are in the stairwell of the second floor when another blast rocks the building. It’s strong enough that Kellan finally stumbles, just enough that his grip on me loosens. I wrench myself free and sprint as fast as I can into the hallway, stumbling over chunks of downed walls and plaster, before I reach the stairwell on the opposite side of the building.

Kellan is behind me; I know any minute he’s going to zap me with something. I don’t put it beyond him for one second to tranquilize me and carry me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes out of here. And normally, I’d be thankful he’d do that for me, that he’d risk my anger just to keep me safe. But not today. Not with Jonah outside for who knows how long now.

I throw my hand out and the wall before us disappears. I can practically feel Kellan’s fingers ready to scrape at my back, so I pick up speed. I made a life raft on the way down from the Bay Bridge. I can do something like that again, right? I’m just about to jump through the hole I’ve created when Kellan catches me. He rolls to the side just before we tumble out, slamming us against the remaining bits of wall left behind.

“Are you insane?” he growls in my ear.

I squirm frantically, trying to break free again, but this time, he’s got a lock on me. The roaring of the winds, the screaming filling the air are too much to bear. Jonah is out there, he’s a target, too, and I’ve got to do something.

I change tactics and shove my feet against a slab of concrete nearby. I push off, attempting to wrench my arms wide, hoping to confuse him as to which ploy to counter. But it doesn’t work. His arms clamp down harder, his legs twist until they’re around mine.

“You’re not going to win,” he hisses in my ear. “Because I will do anything to make sure you stay alive today. Including knocking your ass out until I have you hidden.”

I duck my head and kick again, rolling us over until I’m on my stomach. I manage to pry one arm out long enough to grip the open edge of where wall meets sky. Concrete and stone crumble beneath my fingers, cutting into the soft flesh of my palm, but the pain is irrelevant. I try to dig my fingers in long enough to pull myself, but Kellan is extremely strong. Kicking does no good any longer—and even though my adrenaline is off the charts, I know he won’t give.

I sob helplessly. “Would everything just
stop
?”

“Chloe, I know you’re frustrated—”

“It just needs to stop,” I cry. “I need it all to just
stop
.”

And just like that, everything does.

The screaming has stopped. But it’s more than that—there are no roaring winds, no lightning, no smashing against buildings. The air around us is oppressive, so thick, so still it doesn’t feel right. Kellan lets go of me and rolls away; while this is what I’ve been fighting for, I still reach out and grab his arm as he leans toward the ledge. He looks down below and pauses, lips parting in surprise. I scramble forward to see what he sees.

Nothing is moving. The winds have frozen in the sky, the black shapes dangle like grotesque mobiles over the fallen Guard below, tornadoes hang like pictures in a diorama. Every last person is contorted mid-motion, like statues caught by Medusa’s stare. There is no sound. There is nothing but stillness.

Kellan rocks back on his heels, stumbling over pieces of concrete. Whereas the rubble had skidded around like marbles ready to cause falls mere minutes ago, now they’re firmly glued in place, refusing to budge even a millimeter. I try to pick up a rock, but nothing gives way.

I am so taken aback that I nearly fall back over again. My toes slam against a rather large chunk of debris nearby when I try to right myself, but when I open my mouth to yelp, nothing comes out.

No sound. No movement—nothing but me and Kellan.

He grabs my arm, steadying me. And then he brings me close—my heart goes berserk being in such proximity—and mouths slowly:
Can you make us talk?

It hits me then:
I’ve
done this. I made everything still. I’ve created a world where everything has stopped.

Panic shoots sky high in my chest, but he grips me tighter.
Focus,
he mouths to me.

I close my eyes and concentrate. When nothing happens, I put a hand on both of our throats.
Talk,
I will myself.
We can talk. If we can move, we can talk.

“Okay,” he says, his voice echoing dully in the vacuum, “this is good.” He grabs my face so he can look into my eyes. “Are you okay?”

My throat feels like it’s been dry and unused for centuries. “I did this.”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

I look around at the world I’ve created and then down at my fingers. They should be shaking, but they’re not. “I guess I never thought I could do this.”

He lets go of my face. “You’re a Creator. You can do almost anything.” He takes a few steps back toward the ledge and looks out, surveying the scene I’d frozen.

“If you jump out, I will kill you,” I threaten.

“That’s rich, coming from you. Weren’t you the one ready to do just the same thing?”

“It’s different!”

“How so?”

“As you said,” I say through my teeth, “I’m a Creator. I would’ve made something to stop my fall. What was your big plan? Hope fuzzy feelings will lessen the impact?”

Eye rolling proceeds, “I wasn’t going to jump.”

My silence indicates my disbelief. So he turns around and says evenly, “Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do, Chloe.”

I join him at the ledge. “Why did your brother jump out of that window?”

“He was told to.” After I make a few choking sounds, he clarifies, “Well, he wasn’t told to jump out of the window, per se, but he had orders that if the walls were breached, he was to join the fray.”

I press the palms of my hands against my forehead. “And you?”

“The same. One of us had to get you to safety first, though. I was closest to the door.”

Now I’m glaring.

He turns his focus back below us. “We’re not going to argue about this. Besides, I think this may work to our advantage.”

I nearly laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

“How long can this hold?”

I hold my hands out and shrug.

“Do you think you can wake select people up? Allow them to function, like we can function?”

“I guess.” I stare at the statues below me. “Why?”

He leads me away from the edge and out of the building. “Because we’re going to go kick some ass, and not even get dirty doing it.”

Minutes later, I tell him, “I want to find Jonah first.”

Kellan stops in the middle of the street. “I want to make sure he’s safe, too, but I think—”

“You want my help? You play by my rules.”

He sighs, giving me a look I can’t quite decipher. I resist the urge to tell him that if it’d been him out there, I’d have done the same thing to get to him, too.

“And,” I add, pointing to a clock tower nearby, “we have all the time in the worlds right now.”

“The clock might simply be frozen.” He doesn’t even bother to look at it.

“Or,” I counter, “time might have stopped, too.”

“We have all the time in the worlds,” he says, beginning to walk once more, “as long as you focus and keep this thing stable.”

I hurry to catch up. “Meaning?”

“Meaning you’re extremely emotional right now, and I’ve seen your Magic go wonky when you’re upset.”

“You have
not
!”

He stops again and raises an eyebrow.

Okay, so he’s right. “As long as I know it matters, I can keep it together. We find Jonah first and then the three of us will go with your plan.” I pause. “Can you feel him right now?”

Kellan starts walking. “No.”

“Can you feel any of these people?”

“No.”

“Can you feel
me
?”

He sighs. “Yes.”

“So . . . how are we going to find Jonah?”

“We are going to start in the direction where I felt him last,” Kellan says, stepping around two people cringing on the ground. “And then we’ll work from there.”

I think it takes us nearly forty-five minutes to find Jonah, but I can’t be sure since I don’t have anything accurate to judge time. He’s in an alley with three other Guards and, much to my terror, two Elders.

Jonah is down on the ground, one arm stretched toward the sky. The Elders are above him, hovering about an inch above his fingertips. This isn’t what has me panicked, though—no, while that is horrifying in itself, it’s the deep gash on his left temple and the dark red matting his black hair.

I whimper his name and crouch down so I can look at his head. Before my hands make contact, though, Kellan pulls me back.

“Make it so I can sense him.”

“What?”

“I can’t feel my brother,” he grinds out, “and I’m not going to let you wake him up if it’s only going to make him worse. Make it so I can sense him.”

I have no idea how to do this, of course. I didn’t even know I could. I attempt to do what he’s asked by visualizing the link between the brothers, and then imagining clearing the debris blocking it.

It must be enough, because Kellan sinks down and lays his hands on either side of Jonah’s face. He closes his eyes and presses his forehead against Jonah’s bleeding one. After an agonizingly long time, he opens his eyes and says quietly, “Don’t wake him up yet.”

I am fully aware of how shrill my voice is. “Why?”

He lets go of Jonah’s face. “Because he was right on the verge of blacking out.” Kellan then moves over to one of the other Guards lying on the ground. “This guy . . . he was out when Jonah found him.” Another Guard looks as if his leg is broken, as it’s angled in a weird direction. The third’s hand is out, inches from an Elder’s whipping tail.

But as much as I ought to care about the others, I really can only focus on Jonah. “Is he okay, though?”

“I’m not a Shaman. I can’t diagnose anything.”

“But you know what’s going on with him. Just tell me, Kellan. And don’t try to sugarcoat it.”

He rubs at his hair. “There’s something wrong with his left leg. And what they did to his arm before, they tried to do to his head when he was helping one of those guys over there. They caught him off guard—he thought he had more time before they struck. So, he’s barely hanging onto consciousness, and I’m no Shaman, but the way his thoughts are distorted, I’m thinking something’s wrong with his head.”

I don’t even know how to process these words. I want to touch Jonah, soothe him, hold on and make sure he doesn’t let go, but I don’t, out of fear of possibly waking him up and making it worse. And that is impossible to accept, because I should be able to help him. I’m his Connection. It’s my duty to keep him safe.

Kellan slides down the wall until he’s sitting on the ground next to his brother. He reaches out and touches Jonah’s hair. I envy Kellan this luxury, this touch. “I know it’s asking a lot of you right now. I know you’re scared. I know you’re so worried about him you can barely think straight. But I need you to focus. We need to get this done, get rid of these things, and then we can get someone here to take care of Jonah.”