The Breaker's Resolution: (YA Paranormal Romance) (Fixed Points Book 4) (22 page)

The roar of the approaching insurgents ripped loudly through the air now. The y were coming from all sides.  And they were getting closer with each passing seconds.

“They must be in small vehicles, perhaps motorcycles,” Merrin said, settling beside me with her knife in her hand, for whatever good it would do against an army. “I don’t see any other way they could get through the forest so quickly.”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Sevie asked, looking to me for guidance. For the first time since Cresta turned the moon red, I saw an echo of the brother I used to have.

“I have no idea.” I admitted. “They obviously know where we are. They won’t have left us an escape route. They’re Breakers, after all. This is what they do.”

“We can’t just give up,” Merrin said, tightening her grip on the hilt of her knife.

“I don’t intend to, but I don’t see how fighting them would do any good.”

“Well, you can’t talk to them,” she balked. “Even though you’d be truthful when you told them you had intention of killing Cresta, I doubt they’d see that as enough insurance to let us live. Like you said, they’re Breakers.”

“I’m not talking to them either,” I answered, looking straight ahead. Something came up over the far hill. My eyes widened as I took the sight in. Merrin was wrong. They weren’t in motorcycles. They weren’t in small vehicles at all. And that wasn’t how they were moving so quickly through the trees.

“Fate’s hand…” I murmured. They were in tanks, huge, green, army issued tanks. And they were tearing through the trees like tissue paper in the rain.

“So what exactly is your plan then?” merrin asked me, looking slackjawed at the line of tanks.

“Remember the night the bloodmoon rose?” I asked.

“Of course!” She gasped.

“I’m missing something,” Sevie said.

“It’s because you were in a coma then, but your genius brother created a huge dragon made of fire, and we used it to take flight.” Merrin beamed.

“Of course he did,” Sevie answered. “So that’s our plan, fly away on a magic dragon?”

“It sounds stupid when you say it out loud, but it’ll work,” I said. I took Merrin’s hands in mine, the way I did that night, and dug deep into myself, into the place where the fire lived.

“Not to burst your bubble, Big Brother. But your stupid idea is going to sound a whole lot stupider in about five seconds.” Sevie’s eyes narrowed.

“What?” I turned to him.

“I suppose you don’t hear that either.” He pointed upward.

Exactly five seconds later, a freaking helicopter came into view.

A helicopter.

“Well then…” I said, looking up at what I was quickly considering to be the instrument of my destruction. “Any chance that’s on our side?”

A flurry of bullets rained down over us. I grabbed Merrin and together, we rushed into the brush. Thank Fate, Sevie was right behind me.

“Doesn’t look like it,” he admitted, running just as fast as we were.

Of course, regardless of how fast we ran, we couldn’t outrun a helicopter. Bullets nipped at our heels and, though we were running straight for a line of tanks, we knew better than to slow down even a beat.

“This won’t work!” I screamed over the sounds of gunfire. “There’s no way out of this. The only thing we can do is-”

A whistling sound cut through the air. With a whoosh and a boom, we watched as the helicopter exploded into a thousand pieces of metal and fire.

“Take cover!” Sevie screamed as debris fell like deadly snowflakes all around us. I pushed Merrin up against the trunk of a tree and covered her with my body.

“Are you alright?” I breathed into her ear, the heat of her pulsating against me.

“Owen, look behind you,” she answered.

I turned to find a bazooka hanging there in midair. It fell to the ground as my mouth fell open.

With a shimmer of light and a bend in the world around her, Flora came into view. “Follow me,” she said, motioning in the direction of the tanks. Her voice was flat and emotionless, and I remembered what the Council- what Chant- did to her. He took her mind away, replacing it with something bland and empty.  “And if you’re going to say goodbye to him, do it quickly.”

She pointed backward and, following the direction, I saw Sevie struggling to his feet, a shard of metal sticking straight through his gut.

“No!” I screamed, rushing to him. “No. No. No. No.” I scooped his arm over my shoulder and looked at him. Blood poured out of the wound, way too much blood. My stomach turned as I spoke to him. “You-You’re gonna be okay, Sevie. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“A little late for that. Don’t you think?’ He answered weakly.

“Don’t!” I yelled, putting my arm against his waist. “I’m not going to let you die here. You’re going to be fine. Just come on.” Tears poured uninhibited down my face.

“Stop blubbering,” he said. “I’m going to die, Big Brother.”

“No you’re not!” I screamed.

“I am,” he insisted. “But it’s okay.”

“How is it okay?” I pulled him forward now and, to his credit, he was moving along with me better than I figured he might, given the fact that he was basically skewered.

“Something’s happened to me,” he started. “It might be because of what Cresta did to the moon, or because it's so close to the end. But I don’t die the way I used to.”

He wasn’t making any sense. The blood loss must have been getting to him. “Whatever you say.” I motioned for Merrin to help me. She grabbed his other side, taking the pressure off of him as much as possible.

“We haven’t time for this!” Flora yelled, and I could hear Chant’s voice all over her.

“We’re making time!” I screamed.

“Owen,” Sevie coughed. “If I don’t see you next time, I want you to know that-”

“You’re not going to die!” I screamed.

“I am,” he answered. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll be gone. I should have been gone the last time. Only that, if I am-”

“Sevie, just save your energy, okay? Please. For me,” I pleaded, basically carrying him toward Flora and a line of tanks.

“Owen Lightfoot!” He screamed. “You are not listening to me! I do not die the way that other people do. I am one of the Constants. Now I understand that you don’t know what that means. Ideally, I wouldn’t either. But ideals have fallen by the wayside now. If I die, you need to keep track of my body. Don’t let them bury me, and for God’s sake, don’t let them cremate me. Not for one year. Do you understand me?!”

Flora lunged forward and punched Sevie right in the face. He hung unconscious in our arms.

“Are you insane?!” I screamed, wanting to rip her head off.

“Practical,” she answered. “We need to make haste, and this back and forth won’t get us where we need to go.”

“And where’s that?” I screamed. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re still surrounded.”

“There,” she pointed. It was nothing. It was a bare clearing in the trees.

“Oh good,” Merrin scoffed. “Absolutely nothing. We’re saved.”

“Look again,” a familiar voice sounded. Light shimmered again, and Luca James stood in front of a newly appeared log cabin with a red door that had a crescent moon etched into it.

“Reinforcements?” I asked.

“Reinforcements,” he answered.

We scurried toward the cabin. The door swung open as we neared it. When I entered, I saw this place was fully furnished, but completely disheveled, like people had to leave here in a hurry.

I laid Sevie across a couch, whipped off my coat, and pressed it against his wound.

“He’s the least of your worries,” Luca said, standing over me.

“Shut up or I’ll kill you,” I growled.

“What is your name?” He asked.

“What?” I answered.

“Say your name.”

“Owen Lightfoot,” I responded, not in the mood for games.

“No. Say the words ‘I am’, and then say your name.”

“Luca, I don’t care-“

“Just do it!” Luca yelled.

“I am Owen Lightfoot,” I said quickly, taking absolutely none of my attention off my brother.

The entire room began to shake. Pictures fell off the walls, the couch Sevie lay on began to move and, just when I was about to shout, something burst up through the floor.

It was a giant metal wheel cut into five segments.

“What in the world?!” Merrin asked.

“It’s for you,” Luca said. “This cabin was built over a century ago by a particularly powerful seer. It’s remained hidden for all that time, even while housing the Bloodmoon.”

Cresta was here?

“And this instrument,” Luca continued. “Was built by that same seer. And it was built for all of you.”

A man came running into the room. I tensed up until I saw that it was Echo.

“What the hell is he doing here?” I asked, hatred spiking up inside of me.

“I’m here to help,” he said, maimed hand in front of him.

“He’s a traitor,” I spit.

“We’re all traitors to something,” Luca answered indifferently.

“You’ll change your mind once you see who she really is,” Echo answered.

“Shut up, you trash!” I screamed.

“All of shut up!” Luca said, and his words reverberated through my mind. “This cabin was built for this night. It was built to house you, it was built to house this machine,” he motioned to the metal disc. “And it was built to be destroyed. And it will be destroyed, in three minutes when a tank rolls over it.” He disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room. He wasn’t actually here. Like the Council had been, he was an apparition.  “Now you all have a choice, you can stay here and die, or you can climb up on that machine and let it do what it was built for.”

“And what’s that?” Merrin asked.

“To take you where you’re supposed to be. Consider it an escape pod of sorts. It’s your only way out of the Hourglass, your only way to escape certain death. But all of you have to do it.”

“I won’t go with him,” I glared over at Echo. “And Sevie’s too injured to travel.”

“All of you!” Luca repeated. “The machine was built for the five of you specifically. Owen, Sebastian, Merrin, Flora, and Echo. Unless all of you are on it, it won’t work.”

“Put me on the machine,” Sevie said. His teeth were ground together. His face was paler than pale.

“Sevie, you can’t,” I said.

“Put me on the damn machine or I’ll climb on it myself!”

A loud boom shook the cabin.

“That’s the tree beside you,” Luca informed us. “You have fifteen seconds.”

“Owen, we don’t have a choice,” Merrin said, looking over at me.

I shook my head. Scooping Sevie up, I laid him across the metal wheel. Blood stained my shirt, my brother’s blood. I laid across it myself in the space next to Merrin. Flora and Echo climbed on and instantly, the wheel began to spin.

“Where?” I asked Luca as the wheel spun faster and faster, turning the world into a bright white blur. “Where is it sending us?”

“Now,” he started, his voice once again in my head. “What would be the fun in that be?”

There was a chuckle in his voice, a fiendish one.

“And Owen, tell her that
now
we’re definitely even.”

And then we were gone.

I stared at Laurel Luna like a deer staring at the headlights on an oncoming truck. It was here, it was scary as hell, but did I really understand it? Could this actually be happening? Could I really be watching another mother die in front of me?

“Cresta!” Casper’s voice was shaky and close. “Call an ambulance!”

“No!” Laurel moaned from the ground. “No ambulance. No police. No no one.”

Blood pulled around her, staining the carpet and spreading with each passing second.

“We have to call someone,” I said, instinctively kneeling down to her. “There’s too much blood. You won’t make it if we don’t.”

“Then I won’t make it,” she answered. “If you draw attention to this place, then the Taggers will find Sarah. I didn’t go through all of this so that girl could die, Cresta. I didn’t do it so that damn prophecy would be another tick towards completion. If I have to die to keep that from happening, then so be it. But no ambulance.”

“Get Dahlia,” I motioned to Casper. “And be quiet about it.”

Casper nodded and started out the door. Looking down at Laurel, at the way her color already seemed to be changing, I yelled back to him. “And get Royce too, Cass. He needs to be here.”

“Thank you,” she said. She was fumbling for something, and I soon realized that it was my hand. Sighing, I gave it to her. “I want you to know that, if I could have-”

She winced as pain cut off her words.

“There was an eye on his helmet,” I said, changing the subject. “The person who shot you, and he rode on a motorcycle. What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” she said, but I had her hand. I could tell she was lying.

“Laurel. I need you to be honest with me,” I said, looking down at her.

“Listen to me,” she said, gasping for breath. “There’s something you need to know, something about Royce.”

Shade started pouring out of her, out of her wound. And then it started moving back into her. It was trying to tell me something. It wanted me to try and fix her.

“Laurel, shut up for a minute,” I said, moving my hand over the source of the blood.

“What are you doing?” She asked as I pressed my hand against her.

“I think I’m healing you,” I answered, tapping into the shade and, deeper than that, the Essence.

“No!” She batted my hand away.

“Are you crazy?” I asked. “Let me help you.”

“You’ll have to get into the Essence to do that. I won’t let you do that to myself. I’ve seen what that does to people.” She grabbed my hand again. “I want better for you, Cresta.”

Again, she was telling the truth.

“Really?” I asked, pulling my hand away. “Then let me do this. Because, whether I really care to admit it or not, I’d like to keep you around for a while.”

“Cresta, I won’t allow it.”

“I’m not giving you a choice,” I answered. “Sarah, if you want to keep Laurel alive, then get your pregnant ass down here and hold her hands down.”

Sarah climbed down from beg, leaned down and did as I asked. Of course, she was scared to death. Her eyes were full of tears and her entire body was shaking.

“Sarah let go of me!’ Laurel said, but her voice was already getting weak.

“I don’t want you to die though,” Sarah said, still holding her hands, still crying. “I don’t want anybody to die.”

“Then let me do what I do,” I told me. Tapping into the deepest parts of the Essence, I moved through the wound. It was deep, cutting through organs that-while I didn’t recognize them- I knew were vital.

“Cresta, it’s dangerous,” laurel muttered weakly.

“What isn’t?” I answered, knitting her back together.

“Cresta, you’ll lose yourself,” she continued, almost whispering.

“I’ve got a pretty decent support system. If I lose myself, they’ll find me. I worked backward, pulling the bullet toward the front of her body and stitching her back up as I went.

“You don’t understand…” she said, almost unconscious.

“Then you can explain it to me when you’re better,” I said. “You know, after I save your life.”

I pulled the bullet from my biological mother’s body and let it fall to the floor. Sweat poured off me in sheets now and I was more than a little dizzy as I mended the entry wound.

I fell backward when I was done, breathing heavy.

I tried to shift out of the Essence, to see the world the right way, but I couldn’t. It was sticking. Why was it sticking?

“Cresta?” I heard Sarah’s voice, but she was just shade and Essence. I saw her as swirling energy, and the baby inside of her glowed like a spotlight, pulsating brighter than anything I had ever seen before.

“What is that?” I asked, moving backward across the floor. “What’s inside of you?!”

“Cresta!” Dahlia’s voice was in the air. I saw a blanket of energy come toward me and then felt a hit. The world snapped back into the place the instant Dahlia’s hand landed flush against my cheek.

“Thank you,” I murmured breathlessly.

“What- what did you say about my baby?” Sarah panicked.

“Nothing,” Dahlia snapped. “She wasn’t in her right mind. Laurel, is she alright?”

“I think so,” I answered.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Dahlia stared at me. “I’m proud of you, but you shouldn’t have done that.”

“Where’s Royce?” I asked.

“He’s gone.” Casper was in front of me, hugging Sarah, whose face was shoved into his chest. “I told him everything and he lost it. He hijacked a motorcycle and went after the guy. I tried to stop him, Cress. But he-”

I jumped up, almost falling as the world spun around me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Dahlia steadied me.

“I’m going after him. He’s going to get himself killed.”

“And getting yourself kill will help matters?” Dahlia asked. “You just performed surgery with your mind. You’re way too drained to be of any use to him.”

“See that woman there,” I pointed to an unconscious Laurel. “That’s her son, and her son has saved my life more times than I care to think about. I’m not letting him die, not if I can help it. Try to get Laurel into bed, and then do that scan thing you do. See if you can pull the shooter’s motive, allegiance, or identity from the room.”

“I can’t use my powers. I can’t produce the shade.”

“I can,” I answered. “Taking her hand, I moved some energy into her. “That should be enough to cover it.”

“I’m coming with you,” Casper said, Sarah’s head still on his chest.

“You need to stay here, make sure nothing gets to her. I’m fine, Cass. I’ll be fine.” I marched out the door, woozier than I’d ever admit and threw some shade back to that room. “I’m shielding you, so that no one who doesn’t already know you’re here can find you. I’ll be back as soon as I can and then we’re getting the hell out of here.”

Casper told me to be careful, and I ran out of the house, slamming the door shut behind me.

The sun blared brightly on what looked like an idyllic little town. It all seemed so quaint and so quiet. You’d have never thought all hell was breaking loose, or that the fate of the entire world rested in that little blue house.

I turned right and started running as fast as I could. Yes, Royce could be in the complete opposite direction, and maybe he was. But there was no time and I had a fifty percent chance of being right.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take into consideration how horribly unlucky I’ve always been. Because, instead of running into Royce or even the biker, I ran smack dab into Commissioner Rivers.

“Stop right there!” He grabbed me on the shoulders, stopping me in my tracks. I pulled away from him.

“Let go! I have to go!” I yelled.

“Listen to me, there’s been a slight security breach. It’s nothing for you to worry about, but it might be for the best for you to stay indoors for the time being.”

“Slight?” I balked. “That’s one way to put it. It’s the wrong way, but it
is
one way. And hiding in my room, that’s not really the way we do things. Now which way did they go?”

“I’m going to have to insist that you do as I ask,” Commissioner Rivers said, moving toward me.

“Which way!” I demanded.

“If you’ll just calm down, we have everything under control.”

“I doubt that seriously,” I spit out. From the corner of my eye, I saw a red car parked along the street. “You know what? Nevermind. I’ll find them myself.”

Commissioner Rivers grabbed at me and I pushed him back, making contact with his chest so he wouldn’t think it was shade that sent him rolling onto his ass.

“Sorry dude, but you’re not nearly strong enough to stop me.” I jogged across the street, pulling at the red car’s door handle. Locked.

A flick of my finger and a touch of shade later, and not only did the car unlock, but it purred to life seconds after I climbed in.

I threw it in gear and tore out onto the road. Hopefully they hadn’t gotten out of Clarity yet. Something told me that part of the Taggers way of ‘having things under control’ probably included some sort of barrier to keep the guy inside. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t have much trouble finding Royce. This place was, after all, about the size of a shoebox.

I took a hard left down a side street named Elm and saw the Clarity town limit sign in front of me.

‘The Strangest of Places’ it read.

“Oh shut up,” I muttered to myself. But before I could blink, two motorcycles darted across my line of sight, one after another.

“Royce!” I gasped. He would find a motorcycle, wouldn’t he?

I kicked it, mashing the gas pedal as far down as it would go. I took a quick right, following the bikes and leaving skid marks on the small town street.

We booked it into downtown- a small space of diners, shops, and housing- as I gained on the bikers. It really was a lot like Crestview.

“Except Crestview never had a high speed chase,” I murmured to myself.

A full scale unseen battle by warring factions of Breakers, but never a high speed chase.

I darted into the far lane, which didn’t worry me as much as it would have in a town that might have seen a car or two a day.

“Royce!” I yelled, finally pulling up even with him. “Royce! Stop this!”

“Sweetheart?” He turned to me. His sandy hair whipped in the wind and his eyes, no longer shielded, were that of the Raven. “You need to get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving without you,” I said, swerving to miss a mail truck sitting on the side of the road.

“He killed my mother!” Royce yelled as I settled beside him again. “This son of a bitch ain’t getting away. He’s gonna pay for that!”

“He didn’t!” I yelled, screaming to talk over the sounds of the dueling engines.

“What?” He asked, looking over at me.

“He didn’t kill Laurel! I healed her!”

He stared at me for what seemed like a long time now, especially given that he was going seventy miles an hour with no helmet on. “God, I love you!” He screamed.

“What did you just say?” I blanched.

The biker turned around. The pistol that shot Laurel was still in his hand. He fired two shots at Royce, who was still looking at me.

“Watch out!” I screamed. Royce jerked toward me. He was about to skid to the ground, but I slammed into him, knocking him into the car beside me.

He landed on the seat beside me, hitting his shoulder hard. I thought I heard a crunch, but at least he wasn’t a cocky splatter on the side of the road.

He righted himself beside me, holding his shoulder.

“You okay?” I asked, trying my best to keep up with the biker ahead. He took a left and then another right down a tight alley. Though I wasn’t sure this damn convertible would fit, I followed him in.

“I’m fine. Just get me to him,” Royce said.

I was supposed to turn him around, to get him out of harm’s way. But I didn’t want to do that now. I wanted to take this bastard down, and I wanted Royce to do it with me.

So I kept driving.

“Your eyes,” I said, glancing over at him.

“My powers don’t work here. Momma gave me contacts, but the damn things itch so much.”

“I like them,” I said, eyes on the road.

“Good to know,” he said, and though I wasn’t looking at him, I could hear the grin in his voice.

The alley narrowed ever further and I cringed as the brick walls that lined it squeezed against the car. Sparks flew along either side of us and, though I was flinching my world away, Royce stood up, wind blowing through his hair.

“Just get me close enough to jump on,” he yelled.

“Absolutely not,” I said. “He’s got a gun. He’ll kill you.”

“He does have a gun, but you got the last part backwards, Sweetheart.”

“I saved Laurel. That’s unnecessary,” I said.

“This ain’t about Momma anymore. Casper told me what happened. He was after that woman. He was after the Damnatus. I ain’t gonna let him kill her. I ain’t gonna let him do that to you.”