The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,82
took in a heavy, uneven breath. “Don’t. You know what I meant.”
“I know a lot of things,” Priyanka said slowly, rising again. Roman tried to follow, but could only get himself onto his knees. “I know the Lana I loved wouldn’t hurt others, especially not her brother.”
“Just like Pri would never leave me, right?” Lana seethed.
Priyanka struggled to control her expression, but her eyes gave her away. “What’s happened to you?”
Lana clenched her fist, taking a step forward. “He made me stronger. No one, not even you, will hurt me again. He’s the one who took care of me. And now he’s the only one who deserves my loyalty.”
One word rose through the pain ratcheting up in my mind. Who?
“Who…the hell…is he?” I got the words out through gritted teeth. Both of them ignored me, wholly focused on each other.
Priyanka held out her hand. “Just…come with me. We’ve been trying to find you—this whole time, we’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Liar,” Lana whispered, but she didn’t back up again. She stared at Priyanka’s outstretched hand. It trembled where it hung in the air, and I could see in her face, no matter how hard she was working to disguise it, that Priyanka was halfway to heartbreak.
Still, she took another step toward Lana. “We have so much work to do, remember?”
Whatever daze had taken over Lana’s mind was ripped away. “No.”
The gun’s register sounded a split second after the bullet slammed into the tree inches from Lana’s head. Jacob had taken position on the porch and was already lining up his next shot. The boy I’d seen before hung behind him, tears streaming down his cheeks as he spoke, clearly explaining what was happening.
In the distance, helicopter blades sliced through the night air, growing louder by the second. Priyanka lunged for Lana in that moment of interruption, but the girl was faster, both on her feet and in processing her odds. She crashed through the underbrush, jumping over a downed log before disappearing into the trees.
“No!” Priyanka called, running after her. “Lana!”
My vision split in two as the band of pressure around my mind released with a hard snap of pain. Roman shuddered and gasped beside me.
Static roared through my mind, my ears, filling my veins. The welcome caress of power fired through me, erasing the terrifying silence in my mind.
“You all right?” Jacob called, jogging over.
I waited for the dizziness to pass before accepting his help up.
Roman had shoved himself up onto his feet, turning to follow the path Lana and Priyanka had taken through the woods.
“They still have Sasha!” the boy shouted from the porch.
Shit. I gripped Roman’s arm. “Go after Lana, I’ll—”
At that, Roman gave his head a hard shake, pulling away. “No, I’ll go. Can you find Priya?”
I was still just disoriented enough that it took me a second to comprehend his words, and by then, he was already running, stooping to pick up a different gun from the ground. Then he disappeared, too, wrapped in darkness and smoke.
Jacob put a hand on my shoulder, making me jump. “You okay?”
“Is it just Sasha?” I asked.
He nodded and the relief was so pure, it brought tears close to the surface again.
“Take him,” I said, angling my head toward the boy. “We’ll bring Sasha.”
“I’m taking that as your definitive vote for trusting them,” he said, wiping the sweat off his face.
I turned back toward the smoldering forest, scanning for any sign of movement. “I tend to find saving kids from being kidnapped and murdered pretty endearing.”
He clucked his tongue. “Makes it unanimous, then. She saved both my and Jen’s asses when she busted into the house. Consider her extra endearing.”
More than that, though, I finally understood what was going on. The darkness I’d sensed at their edges, shaping their lies, hadn’t been some horrible intention. It had been a person, and she was nothing I ever could have imagined.
Like us, but not.
I took off, calling out Priyanka’s name as I moved off the trail and into the woods. My mind raced. What Lana could do…the fact that she could affect our minds the way she had, suppressing our powers and driving stakes of pain directly into our nerves, made me think she might be Orange-classified. The only two I’d known, Ruby and Clancy, hadn’t had the exact same ability, after all. He could plant suggestions, manipulate feelings, and maneuver bodies, but only Ruby had been able to directly affect someone’s memory.