Spark Rising (29 page)

“We know,” Phoebe told her. “We can feel it.”

“We’re used to it,” Marin added. “Our guards were Sparks. They liked the way we felt.” She shrugged and looked down at her hands.

Constance and Charity shifted, moving closer together.

Lena’s stomach turned over. Her furious gaze snapped to Rose. The woman stared back at her in silent confirmation. Her shoulders were back, tight and squared, and her hands fisted at her sides.

Hania had been looking off into space, her upper teeth scraping over her lower lip again and again. Now she brought her gaze directly to Lena. “Will they do that to us here?”

She felt a fire burning in her chest, white and pure as the root of a Sparked flame. “No.” She answered Hania’s hoarse, plaintive question. She wanted to say more, to reassure them all, but her gaze moved over them. Their treatment had been depraved. Words would mean so little. Even Marissa, the youngest of them, watched the other girls with knowing, pained eyes. Perhaps she hadn’t been touched herself yet, but she knew.

A knock made them jump. After a polite pause, the door pushed open, revealing Alex. He searched the room, counting the girls. When he reached Lena, he stopped. Everything about him became still.

“Well,” he finally said, “that’s an effective look.”

Rose snorted her agreement.

“Are they ready for us?” Lena’s words were clipped. It was all she could do to remember that this man, this Spark, had not been to blame for what had been done to her girls. She had to remind herself he was one of the good guys, fighting for their safety.

He held onto the knob, twisting it. “I doubt it, but they are all in there waiting.”

She nodded. The girls picked themselves up off the floor where they’d settled. She moved through them, touching hands with each of them as she went. When she stood before Alex, she ignored his weighing, cautious look and told him, “Lead the way.”

They followed him out and through the warren of halls. Lena could feel the heaviness of male energy growing as they got close.

As they approached the filled hall, the buzz of voices augmented the energy. The energy rippled through the walls, pushing at them. Lena glanced over her shoulder at the now-alarmed faces of the girls and gave an angry push back at the male energy. The sound through the walls muted immediately. Her push had been felt.

Alex hesitated before opening the wide doors.

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, she reached out, grabbed the handle nearest her and pulled back. The muted sound became a total hush. She strode in ahead of Alex and lifted her chin.

Thomas stood toward the center of the open floor area, but forward. He’d been talking to a group of Guardians seated above him in the raised seating. His eyes widened as he took in her light.

She wished she hadn’t brought the girls. It was too much energy. Even as she focused her will and pushed back, she knew she couldn’t handle it. She didn’t know if she’d be overwhelmed or intoxicated, but her time in this space would have to be limited.

Lena looked back over her shoulder and held out a hand, motioning for the girls to stay back.

Rose nodded her agreement, and she reached out to Hania’s shoulder to reinforce the twins’ hold on the fragile girl. They filed back along the wall beside the doors.

Jackson appeared beside them. He’d been standing at the back of the big room, but he moved into a protective posture now so they wouldn’t have to stand alone.

Thomas walked across to meet her in the middle and greeted her with a solemn nod. She could see he, like Alex, was worried over what she was about to do. Still, they had honored her wishes and gathered everyone anyway.

Alex touched her on the arm, holding the contact. “Lena.” His face was serious and his voice low. “Thomas and I worked a very long time to build what you see. We don’t begrudge you the need to do this. Please don’t tear it all down when you do. Remember there are only two of us—four damn hands—holding it all together.”

“It’s a delicate job,” Thomas agreed softly, “and there’s only so much damage control we can do at a time.”

She shook her head at him. “No. There are six damn hands now. And honestly, I’m surprised the two of you didn’t spend the last couple of hours figuring that out for yourselves.”

The men exchanged a look. Thomas took a deep breath.

She wished they’d hurry. She felt battered. She stood straight and tall before them all. Mentally, she felt as if she leaned against a broad barrier of energy she had to make herself, her arms extended, palms pressed flat to keep it in place, back and legs braced. And she was slipping back.

The men parted, each moving to stand to either side.

She faced a thousand people alone. Thomas and Alex were still there with her, lending their support and, in effect, their agreement. But what she was about to do, she did alone. Could she?

Someone toward the back, high up above her, coughed. The sound echoed down to her. Her vision swam as she swept a look over them all. She blinked to clear them, and her eyes fell on a familiar face in the front. Guardian Wils.

He wasn’t looking at her, though. He had reserved his calculating interest for her girls. The avaricious gleam was unmistakable.

She cleared her throat and projected as much as she could, straining with the pressure both to make herself heard and keep herself upright. “I know word travels fast,” she said. “You all know I have joined you. And by now, you all know we have retrieved others like me. We—” she indicated the men beside her, drawing unexpected strength from them “—have gathered you here so there are no misunderstandings.”

She turned and indicated her girls, wincing as she felt the energy pulse away from herself as attention shifted. She spoke quickly, drawing it back to herself to spare them. “We all feel the Spark within us. There’s a pressure, a reaction that builds upon so many of us living and working together. The stronger we are, the stronger the weight. The stronger the pull on our attention and focus. But there are more of you than there are of us, at least for the time being. We need you to be mindful of that. I’m here now asking you to help us deal with the pressure and curb the demands on our time and attention as we settle into a routine.”

“And how long exactly,” Guardian Wils’s voice rang out, “are we expected to wait to have…access?”

“These are my students, Guardian.
My Wards
. And as such, they will be left alone to learn. There will be no sneaking around to catch a glimpse or dares to get their attention.” She let her stare strafe across the students. “There will be no…dinners to get to know them. No whining about access. It’s simple: there will be none.”

Now she had Wils’s attention, but only for a moment. He snapped a look back to the girls. To one girl. She couldn’t see which he’d selected, but it was clear that he’d already made a decision to have one of the girls she’d sworn to protect.

“You will not touch them, attempt to influence them, or act inappropriately in any way.” Lena’s glare bored into Wils’s face, demanding that he turn his attention to her, that he hear her words. “You will leave us alone. We don’t owe you anything, any more than you owe the unpowered the use of
your
bodies and skill. We are all working toward a new world where Sparks are more than tools to be used and discarded. We will achieve that vision. Do not presume to define our place in that world for us. The key to success is mutual respect.”

A derisive snort came from the front row. She looked at the man who’d made it. She’d been waiting.

“Or what?” Wils turned his attention from her girls to Thomas. “Are you going to allow this—” he swept an ugly look over Lena “—little girl to stand before us and talk to all of us like this? Our end goal requires one thing and one thing only from all of them.”

She could feel the flash of heat from Alex.

Before he could erupt, Thomas held up a hand. When Wils continued for a moment, Thomas’s voice lashed out like a whip. “That’s enough!”

Wils stopped talking, but he stood up, snugging down his shirt and curling his lip in disdain.

“We brought Lena here to learn and to see what we could offer her, not the other way around. She is an ally—a powerful ally.” Thomas stopped to spear Wils with a look of disgust. “Instead of treating her with honor, you made demands of her, whispered and plotted to gain access and favors. And then you have the audacity to be offended when she puts an end to it?” He shook his head. “Perhaps they require a demonstration, Lena.”

Her lips curved into a smile. “Guardian Wils,” she all but purred, “perhaps you’ll help me?”

A faint ripple of laughter, more expectant than amused, rolled across the Guardians and Wards. They wanted to finally see what she could do. They’d been waiting. The anticipation pulsed against her.

Wils crossed his arms across his chest.

“You teach the Wards control, do you not? So I invite you to do what you’ve wanted from the beginning. Control me.”

His brows bunched together. He had a moment of cockiness, both annoyed and confident for a moment longer before his sureness became concern. Concern flowed into panic. He reached out a hand and batted at the railing in front of himself, finally gripping it with failing strength as she took his breath.

“Stop me, Guardian Wils,” she invited, “whenever you’re ready.”

He fell to his knees, eyes bulging. His face had purpled.

“Lena,” Alex murmured.

But she wasn’t done. She waited until his eyes rolled back into his head before she allowed him to collapse to the floor. The sound of his sudden breath wheezing in and out of his lungs filled the otherwise silent auditorium.

She lifted her chin. “We are meant to work together. We are
made
to work together. I am your ally.” She tilted her head and regarded them, gaze moving over them, touching as many individually as she could before her focus snapped. She didn’t have long. “Until the moment you decide I am not. Please don’t make that decision.”

She stepped back. The barrier she had erected in her mind sagged, melted, and left her with nothing to use as a bar to the invading energy. She strode away, her heels cracking across the floor of the auditorium.

Rose’s grin of triumph turned into narrow-eyed alarm at Lena’s face. Jackson got the door open and Rose ushered the girls out ahead of Lena.

When Lena entered the hallway, she kept going, moving through and past them. She had to get as far away from the combined angry, confused, and excited male energy in the room behind her as she could.

She could feel Alex behind her, moving up fast. “Lena, stop.”

“I can’t,” she gasped out, “I have to get away. It’s too much energy.”

“Let me help you!”

Her feet couldn’t get her away fast enough. She’d cut it too close. The energy was inside of her now, building, burning into her own Dust, and she didn’t know what to do. How did she get it out? Not even grounding could make this go away. She’d be fried, if she even made it all the way to the Grounding Pad. Her heart throbbed in her chest, the panicked beat of it hard and fast in her ears as she built to overload. Heat flared across her cheeks. Cold sweat ran down her spine.

She couldn’t make sense of the sound of a scuffle behind her.

“Get back with them, dammit,” Rose shouted. “You’re part of the problem!”

The other woman appeared beside her.

Lena cringed away, hitting the wall. She didn’t know what would happen to Rose if she touched her.

“Look at me.” Rose stood before her, calm and certain. “You are my match. Remember? We were meant to be paired. You don’t know what it means, but I do. Let me help you.” The woman reached out for her.

Lena focused on her hands. Rose’s hands shook.

“You have to share it, Rose, like you’ve seen us do in the lab.” Phoebe’s urgent voice floated down the hall. “But don’t try to take it all. Hers is too much.”

Rose grasped Lena’s hands. “Let me help. Let it go.” Rose said more, indistinct noise.

Lena gasped for air. The small, ineffectual breaths sounded like crashing in her ears but did nothing to feed her body oxygen. The energy spiraled around her, coursing in.

Rose’s fingers, clamped onto hers, were intertwined and white with pressure. Rose dropped to her knees to get Lena’s attention. She looked up into Lena’s face, her mouth moving, eyes urgent.

If she released it, if she gave it to Rose, she’d kill her. Rose was strong, but she wasn’t used to doing what Lena did. Could Lena control it? Could she let the excess energy bleed out into the other woman little by little, enough for Lena to regain control? Lena’s head rocked back against the wall and she squeezed her eyelids shut, holding back with everything she had.

Control it. Control it.

She opened herself to the connection.

Chapter 24

Lena’s head rested on her curled arms. She fought nausea and the mother of all headaches at a desk in the small room Alex had hurriedly opened for them. They’d told her Jackson stood guard outside as the Wards and Guardians leaving the auditorium streamed past. Lena could still feel their energy buffeting her like a wind through a canyon. It slowed as their massed numbers dropped.

She would never again allow herself to be trapped in an area with a large group of powerful Sparks.
Small groups
, she told herself.
Small groups only
.

Rose paced, back and forth, back and forth.

The girls and Alex were lined up against the wall, avoiding the static discharges still crackling between Lena and Rose. The girls giggled at Rose’s manic energy.

“Is this what it feels like to be you, all the time?” Rose asked again.

It was possibly the tenth time. She waited for the corollary question.

“Is this what it will feel like to be me?”

And there it was. One of the twins murmured a number. It set off a cascade of muffled laughter.

Lena took a deep breath, coughed back the nausea, and lifted her head. She squinted across the room at them.

She was acutely aware of Alex’s concern.

He shifted, watching her carefully. “How’re you feeling?”

“Pretty shitty. How close did I come to blowing everything up?”

“Pretty close. Let’s try to make sure that doesn’t happen again, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.” She allowed her gaze to follow Rose for a few seconds before her stomach heaved at the constant motion. “Is she glowing?”

He frowned. “It’s more like a corona. And it’s fading fast.” He assessed Lena. “You’ve stopped glowing.”

She processed that. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it right now. Her head felt like someone had driven a spike from the base of her neck up at an angle into her brain.

She squinted at the girls. “How are you all doing?”

Marissa, leaning comfortably against Alex’s leg, popped her thumb out of her mouth long enough to smile at Lena. Charity and Constance grinned across at her for a moment, and then returned to tracking Rose’s movements. Phoebe and Marin murmured that they were all fine.

Hania cleared her throat. “You shouldn’t worry about us. You get better.”

Lena’s heart clenched. “Were you scared, Hania?”

The girl nodded, the movement so small Lena barely perceived it. Her hair, clean now, hung in a dark shining curtain around her face. It gave away the movement Lena might have missed otherwise.

“I’m sorry I frightened you, Hania. I’m better now.” She received the barest flutter of a smile. She decided then she would wipe the men who’d hurt these girls from the face of the planet. Nothing would stop her.

She looked back to Alex. As usual, he seemed to read her mind.

“When you’re ready, we should go. They’re hungry, but they wouldn’t leave you. And Thomas is waiting to talk to you.”

She lifted her brows in one motion with her raising head.

He shrugged. “There’re some things we need to discuss with our new partner.”

She took another big breath. “I’m ready when she is,” she said, nodding toward Rose.

Everyone looked at Rose, who stopped pacing and looked back, making an attempt at her usual tough, controlled persona.

“I’m fine. Better than fine. I feel great.”

“Wonderful,” Lena told her. “Want some more?”

“No.” Alex and Marin chorused together.

Rose laughed, the sound a little manic.

Lena looked at Marin and Phoebe. “She will be okay, right?”

“Yes.” Marin answered.

“We don’t know.” Phoebe said. The two looked at each other and then shrugged at her. “If we had to guess, probably yes,” Phoebe allowed. “But we’ve never seen anyone share anything that….” She shook her head.

“Big?” Lena suggested.

“Dangerous.” Alex supplied.

Phoebe pointed at him.

“I’m pretty sure you were literally about to—” He made an exploding motion with his hands. The sight of it keyed something in Lena’s mind, something she should remember. Trying to catch the elusive memory made her head throb, though, so she let it go.

Marissa, taking a cue from Phoebe, pointed at Alex in confirmation.

“We’ll work in more control exercises, for your Spark and your temper.”

“With Wils?” she asked, then she smirked. The Guardian she’d humiliated taught control to the incoming and primary year students.

He chuckled. “We’ll think of something.”

“If you’re really okay,” Lena checked with Rose. “We should go.”

Rose clapped her hands.

Lena winced and tried to swallow the heave. She gingerly got to her feet and followed them out of the room. Alex was making arrangements with Jackson to take the girls to the cafeteria. With a worried look for Lena, Jackson led them away.

She shook her head. “You’ve got to stop using him as a babysitter.”

Alex smiled. “No worries on that front. He has his new orders. It’s safe to say he’s happy with them.”

“Oh. Something more than training me in reconnaissance techniques, I take it?” It wasn’t quite a pang inside. Perhaps regret for what might have been? She swallowed and pushed it away. She didn’t want Jackson. She was an assignment to him. He’d made it clear.

Alex shrugged and nodded. “Sorry.”

He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded pleased. The king of the sexy smirk and the intense, sidelong gazes when he thought she wasn’t looking sounded pleased. Perhaps they needed to revisit their agreement not to talk about that kiss?

“C’mon,” he said. “Thomas is waiting.”

They moved through the halls, and Alex adjusted his usual brisk pace to her pained walk. Lena noted the halls were unusually empty and said so.

“Yeah, well, you made an impression. Wards are tucked away in class. Guardians are teaching…or behind closed doors plotting.”

“Plotting?” She winced. “So you think I alienated them enough to betray you to the Council?”

He moved his shoulders and looked at her, his lips quirked up. “That’s always been a possibility, from the very beginning. We watch. We listen. We keep close tabs on entrances and exits.” He laughed. “We’ve always been of the opinion that any coup will come after we’ve rid them of the Council. We’ll see if our opinion changes any over the next few weeks.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve screwed it all up.”

“You haven’t screwed anything up, Lena.” He paused in the hallway outside Thomas’s office. A slow smile spread across his face. “You have made things measurably more interesting. I’ve definitely been enjoying myself.”

She managed a low laugh. “It’s been an adventure, hasn’t it? I’d say we’ve had our moments. You conduct a hell of a reconnaissance training, Agent Reyes.”

“I could say the same for your private lessons.”

It seemed his own words had taken him by surprise. He turned his head to his shoulder for a moment, then turned back to her with a broad, unrepentant smile.

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that?”

His gaze dropped to her lips, tracing them as she grinned up at him. “We’re not.” He shook his head. “We’re not,” he repeated.

He pushed open the door, shooing her in ahead of him. Behind her, he muttered something about talking being overrated. He led her past an unmanned desk and into an office.

“Well, that doesn’t seem very efficient,” she remarked breathlessly, tilting her head toward the empty desk as they entered.

“I sent my assistant to get breakfast. I figured you might want to eat,” Thomas told her, looking up from his desk. He dropped his pen and leaned back. “You need to eat. You look like hell.”

“Thank you.” That must be why she felt a little giddy. She needed to eat. She eased herself into a chair. She sat for a moment, uncomfortable and aware of them watching her. Finally, she cursed softly and pulled her legs up, tucking her knees under her chin.

Alex sprawled in the chair next to her.

Thomas leaned back in his chair. “That was quite the performance with Guardian Wils.”

“You said they needed a demonstration.”

He gave her a long look. She looked right back, completely unrepentant. He exhaled and frowned at Alex.

“She fits right in, doesn’t she?” Alex deadpanned.

Thomas laughed, a quick burst of sound. He nodded agreement. “I guess she does. Except when we get mad at her, we can’t work it out in the sparring ring.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she smirked, “I could probably take you—both.”

They looked at her in startled silence, then both threw back their heads and roared with laughter.

“Yeah,” Alex said, wiping tears away, “you probably could take Thomas. He could never hit a woman.”

“And yet I hit you all the time, Alex.”

“Are you two really going to sit there and use ‘woman’ as code for being weak in front of the girl who could stop your heart in five seconds flat?”

“You’re right,” Thomas said, “We don’t want you to get mad. You might, I don’t know…” He looked at Alex for help.

“Explode?” Alex offered.

Thomas nodded. “There’s the word I was looking for. Yeah, explode.”

She made a face at them.

“What was that all about, Lena?” Suddenly all business, Thomas seemed worried. “The glow? The massive energy—” He gestured with his hands.

“I don’t know. I really don’t. It’s only happened once before, and not like that. I have no idea why it happens.”

“Except it happens when you’re really angry?” He glanced at Alex, who was already shaking his head.

“No, she was healing me last time the glow happened.”

Thomas digested that. “And you weren’t angry?”

Lena shook her head.

“No strong emotions?”

She shook her head again.

“Nothing held back or—” He widened his eyes, clearly grasping at straws.

She started to shake her head again, but then stopped, considering.

“What? What did you think of?”

She could feel her face getting warm. She shook her head. “No….”

Thomas leaned forward. “Lena, this is important. We have big plans. We want to include you. But there are motivators that may upset you. We won’t share them if we think you’ll be a risk to yourself or anyone else as a result. So if there’s something, spill it.”

She took a big breath. “When I healed Alex, there may have been a strong reaction. To touching him. One I suppressed.” She refused at look at Alex. Like the man didn’t already have a huge ego? “Not anger.”

Thomas flicked a glance at him.

She would not look over.

“I see.” Thomas rubbed his lips. Was he trying not to laugh?

She closed her eyes in mortification.

“No, really, it’s fine,” Thomas continued drily. “That happens a lot with him. Happens to me sometimes when I hit him.”

She did laugh at that. She shook her head and looked at Alex. He wore a small smile, but he didn’t have anything to add.

The three of them fell silent. Lena cleared her throat. “So…. Big plans?” She prompted.

Thomas made a gesture for Alex to go ahead.

“You remember that we started all of this after noticing certain discrepancies?” Alex asked.

She nodded.

“After we made the decision to move, to make a change, we decided the one advantage we have that the Council does not is our longevity.”

Lena frowned. “But the Council uses Sparks?”

“They use them, yes. But no Councilor is a Spark. Never has been. And under current traditions, there never will be.”

She looked at Thomas, questioning. He was a Spark.

“They don’t know I’m a Spark,” he told her. “I’m very careful to maintain that side of the role when I’m outside of these walls. I only travel after a thorough grounding. And I never use the Spark, ever, anywhere but here.”

She nodded her understanding.

Alex continued, “Our lifespans allow us the luxury of taking the long view.”

“We moved quickly at first.” Thomas interjected. “We had to consolidate our base here and put me in position on the Council. But since then, we’ve waited and watched. Until you. Things seem to be accelerating now. You have them in quite a state. We’ve decided to take advantage.”

Alex leaned in, elbows on his knees. “Because of the distances involved and the autonomy of each Zone, each Councilor is responsible for naming his own successor. The successor is named within the first year, and the name is submitted in secret to the Council at the annual meeting. No one but the Councilor and the Council knows. Until now. At the Council meeting several years ago, long enough to not arouse suspicion, mixed in with Three’s various reports and requests, he unknowingly submitted a change to his successor. A new name went in.”