Ignite Me

“I am not intimidated by The Reestablishment,” I tell them. “And I have more strength than you might realize. I have the kind of power that the supreme commander cannot stand against.”

“We already know what you can do!” someone else yells. “That didn’t save you before!”

“No,” I say to them, “you don’t know what I can do. You have no idea what I can do.”

I reach my arms out in front of me, both hands pointed in the direction of the crowd. I try to find a good middle. And then I focus.

Feel your power, Kenji said to me once. It’s a part of you—a part of your body and mind. It will listen to you if you can learn how to control it.

I plant my feet. Steel myself.

And then I pry the crowd apart.

Slowly.

I focus my energy on recognizing the individual bodies and allow my power to move fluidly, working around the soldiers in a gentle fashion, as opposed to rushing through them and accidentally ripping them apart. My power clings to their forms as my fingers would, finally finding a perfect center that divides the group into two halves. They’re already looking at each other from across the courtyard, trying to understand why they can’t move against the invisible walls pushing them apart.

But once the energy is set in place, I open my arms, wide.

Pull.

The soldiers are knocked back. Half to the left. Half to the right. Not enough to be injured, but just enough to be startled. I want them to feel the power I’m containing. I want them to know that I’m holding back.

“I can protect you,” I say to them, my voice still ringing loud over them. “And I have friends who could do more. Who will stand beside you and fight.”

And then, as if on cue, the group of them appear out of thin air, in the very center of the courtyard, in the space I’ve just cleared.

The soldiers jerk back, stunned, shifting farther into their corners.

Castle reaches up one arm, coaxing a small tree in the distance to uproot itself. He uses both hands to pull it out of the ground, and once he does, the tree careens out of control, flying through the air, branches rattling in the wind. Castle pulls it back, yanking on it with nothing more than his mind.

He tosses it higher in the air, just over their heads, and Brendan raises his arms.

Claps his hands, hard.

A bolt of electricity hits the tree at the base and travels up the trunk so quickly, and with such extreme power, it practically disintegrates; the only remaining pieces rain to the ground.

I was not expecting that; they weren’t even supposed to be helping me today. But they’ve just created the perfect introduction for me.

Now. Right now.

All the soldiers are watching. The courtyard has been cleared. I find Kenji’s eyes down below and check for confirmation.

He nods.

I jump.

A hundred feet in the air, eyes closed, legs straight, arms out. And I feel more power rushing through my being than ever before. I harness it. Project it.

And land so hard on the ground that it shatters beneath me.

I’m crouched, knees bent, one hand outstretched in front of me. The courtyard is shaking so badly that for a second I’m not sure I haven’t caused another earthquake.

When I finally stand up and look around, I can see the soldiers much more clearly. Their faces, their worries. They’re looking at me in awe, eyes wide with wonder and a touch of fear.

“You will not be alone,” I say to them, spinning to see their faces. “You don’t need to be afraid anymore. We want to take back our world. We want to save the lives of our family members, our friends. We want your children to have a chance at a better future. And we want to fight. We want to win.” I lock eyes with them. “And we are asking for your help.”

There’s absolute silence.

And then, absolute chaos.

Cheers. Screams and shouts. Stomping feet.

I feel the mesh square tugged out of my hand. It flies up into the air and into Warner’s hand.

He addresses his men.

“Congratulations, gentlemen,” he says. “Send word to your families. Your friends. Tomorrow, everything will change. The supreme will be here in a matter of days,” he says. “Prepare for war.”

And then, all at once.

Kenji makes us disappear.

SIXTY-ONE

We’re running through the courtyard and right through base, and as soon as we’re out of sight, Kenji pulls back the invisibility. He darts ahead of the group, leading us toward the training room, winding and twisting and darting through the storage facility and up the shooting range until we’re all toppling into the room at once.

James has been waiting for us.

He stands up, eyes wide. “How’d it go?”

Kenji runs forward and flips James into his arms. “How do you think it went?”

“Um. Good?” James is laughing.

Castle claps me on the back. I turn to face him. He’s beaming at me, eyes shining, prouder than I’ve ever seen him. “Well done, Ms. Ferrars,” he says quietly. “Well done.”

Brendan and Winston rush over, grinning from ear to ear.

“That was so freaking cool,” Winston says. “It was like we were celebrities or something.”

Lily, Ian, and Alia join the group. I thank them all for their help, for their show of support at the last minute.

“Do you really think it’ll work?” I’m asking. “Do you think it’s enough?”

“It’s certainly a start,” Castle says. “We’ll need to move quickly now. I imagine the news has already spread, but the other sectors will surely stand down until the supreme arrives.” Castle looks at me. “I hope you understand that this will be a fight against the entire country.”

“Not if the other sectors join us, too,” I say.

“Such confidence,” Castle says. He’s staring at me like I’m a strange, alien being. One he doesn’t know how to understand or identify. “You surprise me, Ms. Ferrars.”

The elevator pings open.

Warner.

He walks right up to me. “The base has been secured,” he says. “We are on lockdown until my father arrives. No one will enter or exit the premises.”

“So what do we do now?” Ian asks.

“We wait,” Warner says. He looks around at us. “If he does not already know, he will within the next five minutes. The supreme will know that some members of your group are still alive. That Juliette is still alive. He will know that I have defied him and stood against him publicly. And he will be very, very angry,” Warner says. “This much I can absolutely guarantee.”