The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,35
the left, knocking her back down.
Bullets whistled and banged around my head as I saw her pulled farther beneath the truck, until only her white-knuckled fingers were still visible.
Priyanka wasn’t being dragged, I realized. She was using whatever strength she had left to hold her tall frame between the scalding hot metal of the axles and undercarriage and the bite of the road.
“Kill it!” Roman shouted, throwing himself flat on his stomach as the spray of bullets poured through the wall. He flipped over, trying to use the holes left behind to aim at the figure moving there, climbing over the two bodies between him and the wheel.
Three. There had been three of them, not two.
One more bullet.
“I can’t,” I called. “I’ll electrocute her, too!”
I crawled over to the edge of the truck. Priyanka had tucked her long legs up under the lip of it, bracing her feet against something I couldn’t see. Her hands and the top of her head were the only thing visible. The road streaked beneath her, ready to tear her apart.
Priyanka set her eyes on something past me, her face going blank. I was close enough to see her pupils flare as she took in her next gasp of exhaust and air. Her adrenaline must have been off the charts.
Sound exploded out from the cab of the truck and the relentless grind of the wheels slowed with a few sputters.
“Grab my hand!” I called, reaching out to her. “Priyanka!”
I wasn’t sure she even heard me. I barely heard myself over the road, the screaming radio from the cab, the thrum of blood in my ears.
“Priyanka!”
I reached for her hands just as she released her grip and the dark, tattered road snatched her.
I WAS THE ONE WHO screamed.
At the edge of the truck’s trailer, I watched as she slammed into the road, curling in on herself just enough to miss the monstrous wheels as they sped forward. She rolled, over and over, her body limp as it took the beating. When she finally came to a stop, I couldn’t even tell if she was breathing.
Get up, my mind screamed. Get up!
She didn’t. She wasn’t moving—she—
“Suzume!” Roman shouted. He crawled toward me, keeping his head down. Whoever was up front had stopped firing, giving him just enough time to reach out and take my arm. “We have to do it again!”
The sound of my name, combined with his touch, shocked me back into action. I nodded, following him back over to the opening I’d cut in the mats. His hand returned to my shoulder, steadying me as the truck swayed.
Roman looked to me, and when I nodded, we both reached down. My awareness of him exploded as his power brushed mine the instant before our hands touched the metal of the trailer.
This time we didn’t just stall the engine—we melted it into liquid steel.
The truck stopped so violently, its joints folded into themselves. The back wheels of the trailer lifted off the ground, tossing Roman against one wall and me against the other. The burning power of the connection between us went out with one last shock to my system.
Finally, the truck jerked to a full stop. Roman pushed himself upright. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision, before taking off on shaky legs. I jumped down onto the road.
I stumbled toward the dot of color that was Priyanka, only to realize it was growing bigger, brighter, as she half ran, half limped toward me. Scrapes and road rash covered her arms, shoulders, and legs.
“Are you o—?” I began to shout.
“You left him?” she yelled back. As soon as I was within reach, she grabbed my elbow and turned us back toward the truck.
The only sight that greeted us was a man in the black tactical gear climbing out of the driver’s side of the cab, his handgun trained on us. The white of his skin had turned bloodred with fury.
Priyanka charged forward a step, her fist raised, apparently unbothered by the fact that the knife was a silver glint on the road a mile back. One cut on her head was bleeding profusely, leaving a trail of crimson down her front. Her palms and knuckles were raw from the road; I was in agony just looking at her.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” the man said. He tossed a glance up toward the truck’s trailer. “Anders? Anders, report!”
Anders’s body rolled out, falling bonelessly into the road. Roman stepped out of the shadows, gun drawn.