The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,34
like I’m about to tell you that your puppy got hit by a car.”
“Priya.”
“All right,” she relented. “I’ll get the door open—but I want the knife when she’s done with it.”
My heart gave another hard kick. I tightened my grip on the hilt. “Wait—”
“God, what’s the problem now?” Priyanka demanded.
Everything, I thought. It would leave me without a weapon, but I was never defenseless. I had my power. “Nothing. Never mind.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roman shift toward the front of the truck. I turned to find him staring down at the gun in his hand, a pensive look on his face.
As if feeling my gaze, Roman looked up, and I quickly knelt on the rubber mat. Pressing the blade of the knife to it, I sawed at the heavy material until it broke through and clinked against the metal truck bed below.
The engine’s power surged across my senses, the voltage registering like lightning in my blood.
Roman checked the cartridge of the gun, his frown deepening.
“How many shots do you have?” Priyanka asked.
“Three.” He moved past me to press his ear up against the wall dividing us from the cab. “You’re sure you heard two voices?”
It was my turn to give a bad answer. “He asked a question and two voices responded. That’s all I’ve got.”
Roman nodded.
“Ready?” I asked.
He took the knife from me and cut a section of rubber away from the wall.
Get out, find some kind of ID on these people, get away. With that last thought, I let my mind connect with the engine. Its knot of electricity was so powerful, it burned away the rest of the world.
I grounded myself on the rubber mat. “All set here. Can we get this show on the road?”
“All right,” he said. “Once we’re out, head west. Don’t stop running for anything.”
“And if we get separated?” Priyanka prompted.
“Like hell we will” was his only reply.
“Stay on the mats,” I told her. “Just in case.”
Priyanka gave me a bland look as she stepped over the man’s body to take the knife from Roman.
The image of the Defender, his whole body seizing as I sent the charge toward him, flashed behind my closed eyelids.
“Just in case,” I repeated, when I realized the others were waiting. My fingertips pressed into the ridged floor, searching for that powerful connection again. “Tell me when….”
Priyanka positioned herself at the door, the soldier’s knife in one hand, the other on the latch to the truck’s gate. At the edge of my vision, I saw her nod.
Roman waited a beat longer before shouting, “Now!”
I fell into the blinding-white power that flooded through my mind. I called it out, pulled up and up and up, feeding it back tenfold until the engine stalled out with a metallic bellow. The truck swung left, the wheels on the right side lifting off the road as the driver tried to regain control.
Roman braced his back against the side of the trailer and fired two shots into the wall that separated us from the cab.
The wheels locked, skidding in the opposite direction.
“Holy sh—!” Priyanka’s voice cut off as she was thrown against the door.
The world rocked up and down, around, around, around. I released my hold on the current, breaking it. The last of its power caressed my spine, purring against my senses.
With a bone-jarring finality, the truck slammed down on all four wheels and rolled forward slowly, coming to a stop. Roman raised his brows at me. I raised mine.
“Well, that was some demon’s idea of fun.” Priyanka shook out her whole body, recovering enough to shove the truck’s gate open. Dusky light poured in from behind her, revealing a landscape of flat green fields and little else. “Come on, before—”
I felt it a split second before the others did—the spark as the engine reignited. The truck suddenly shot forward, and Priyanka fell.
“No!”
Roman’s shout was drowned out by the hail of bullets that tore through the wall separating the trailer from the cab. They pinged against the exposed metal, roaring as they shredded the rubber. The air filled with black and metal ribbons, the stench of hot rubber clogging the already thick air.
Priyanka had grabbed the metal edge of the trailer, her legs pumping under her, as if trying to run at the accelerating speed of the truck. With a gasp, she hauled her elbows onto the trailer’s lip, one hand reaching for the door’s strap. There was a scream of gears as the truck swerved hard to