Broken Knights (Gifted Academy #4) - Michelle Hercules Page 0,9
focus on the wind, but I need Daisy to slow down our descent. Can you do that?”
“I-I don’t know.”
Phoenix leans forward and grabs my hands. “You can do it, babe. I have faith in you.”
His eyes are shining with intensity. It’s not until I feel the panic release its grip in my heart that I realize Phoenix used his gift to help me. I’m calmer, but not calm. However, now I can concentrate on my power and attempt to make time move slower around the plane. The loud whizzing noise begins to fade, and the sense that we’re plunging to our deaths lessens.
My erratic breathing returns to normal, but too soon. The noise of the propellers stops, and the lights in the cabin flicker until they go out completely.
“What happened now?” Rosie shrieks.
“Son of a bitch. He cut the plane’s power off,” Rufio grumbles in the darkness.
“That’s your department, Bryce,” Phoenix says.
“I’m on it.”
I avoid looking at him, afraid if I do, I’ll lose focus and the plane will start to drop like a bomb again. But I feel Bryce’s powers blaze next to me, and then I can see it when his body flares up like a supernova. A moment later, the engine restarts and the lights return.
No one speaks for the longest time. I don’t dare to pull my powers in, but I know if I keep the plane moving at snail pace, we’ll never make it back to Saturn’s Bay before we run out of fuel.
“Is he gone?” I ask.
“I don’t sense his presence anymore,” Bryce grits out.
I let go of my powers then, sinking into my seat and closing my eyes. I’ve never sustained the slow-motion trick for this long before, and now I feel drained.
It’s another minute or so before someone nudges my arm. I blink my eyes open lazily, coming face-to-face with Rufio, who is leaning over me. I sit up straighter in an instant.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
“You weren’t moving.” He takes a step back.
“I think I pushed myself to the limit.”
He doesn’t reply, and his expression doesn’t change from the cold mask he’s wearing. I can’t begin to understand what’s going on inside his head.
“I’m going to check on the pilot.” Principal Fallon heads for the cockpit.
Rufio returns to his seat, leaving me filled with doubt.
“Don’t mind my brother,” Bryce whispers in my ear. “He’s never dealt with change well. He’ll come around.”
Bryce is trying to make me feel better, but all he did was make me angrier at myself. I have to bite the inside of my cheek to avoid snapping at him. I can’t take my frustrations out on him. It’s not fair.
Principal Fallon returns, sporting a frown that can only mean she’s the bearer of bad news.
“What now?” Bryce asks.
“Barring any more natural disasters, we should make it back to Saturn’s Bay in one piece.”
“That’s good news,” Phoenix says. “Why the sour puss expression, then?”
Principal Fallon narrows her eyes to slits. “Now that the worst has passed, I’d like to know who the island god is and why he tried to take our plane down.”
4
Daisy
When we finally land at the private airport in Saturn’s Bay, my mind feels bruised and sore, as if my brain had been in a fighting ring the whole night. It wasn’t only the ordeal of trying to keep the plane from crashing that made me feel so wretched, it was the exhaustion of witnessing Principal Fallon pressure and coerce her sons and Phoenix into talking about the island god. But no matter what tricks she used, they wouldn’t tell her a thing.
She exits the plane first, practically breathing fire from her nose. I stay back, choosing to deboard the plane last. But before I even get down the steps, I hear more shouting and arguing. For fuck’s sake. What now?
I hurry out and see the source of the woman’s displeasure is my uncle Xavier. He was in Hawk City with us but chose not to catch the same flight as we did. So wrapped up in my problems, I didn’t stop to consider his reasoning for not wanting to fly with us. I’m sure I’ll find out now.
Principal Fallon stops talking when Xavier’s attention lands on me.
“How did you get here before we did?” Rosie is the one who asks.
“I left a couple of hours earlier. I had arrangements to make.”
“It was all for nothing, Xavier. Daisy is coming back to Gifted Academy with me.”