purple boots. I followed the legs up until I was looking at a young woman. She was the only one in the room standing, not at all affected by the wind. The blonde hair in her messy ponytail didn’t even stir.
She was short, maybe a half foot taller than Dot, and dressed in jeans and a black long-sleeved T-shirt. A dirty apron hugged her hips. She looked like one of the kitchen staff—an unassuming twenty-something, maybe even a Bradford Hills student—except for the crazed look in her narrowed eyes and the way her teeth gritted as she arced her hands in wide sweeps.
She was coming straight for me and bringing fire with her.
The wind didn’t abate, but now she was drawing fire from the grill in the back, pulling it forward, letting it swirl with the wind and ignite everything it touched. Her intense gaze never left me as she approached with small, slow steps.
If the chaos and destruction so far hadn’t already scared me stiff, the intention in her look and posture certainly would have. My heart hammered in my chest. Every muscle in my body tensed as my mind went crazy with options, but they flew through my head too fast for me to grab on to an idea and run with it.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t call for help, couldn’t do anything to attack her or defend myself.
Defend. Block!
Maybe I couldn’t do it, but Lucian could.
I reached a hand up, and his warm grip closed around my wrist. As soon as I had skin contact, I pushed as much Light into him as I could.
Transferring to a Variant outside my Bond always took more time and effort, but I forced the Light to bend to my will quickly. It poured into Lucian almost as fast as it did to my Variants.
Before the woman was halfway to us, Lucian raised his other hand over my shoulder. Finally, I could breathe properly.
I heaved a few gasping breaths, my limbs trembling as the intense pressure of the cyclone released. My hand stayed tightly wrapped around Lucian’s wrist to maintain the flow of Light.
He’d thrown up a shield. The wind and fire lashed against it angrily, revealing its invisible domelike shape.
Smoke choked the air. The wind had whipped the flames into a furious blaze. People were coughing and spluttering, trying to move away from the woman and the fire.
Lucian’s shield kept growing. I didn’t know how far it could expand, but it was the only thing we had at the moment, so I kept pumping him full of Light until we could figure out another way out of this. Several people got encased in his protective ability and scrambled closer to us. Some started trying to open the door, but it wasn’t budging.
We only had half the people protected, and some of the others were starting to get burned. Their screams mingled with the deafening roar of the wind.
The woman’s voice rang out, loud and clear over it all. “Give her to me!”
If there had been any doubt she was after me, it was just smashed to pieces. People were dead because of me; they were getting hurt, injured, burned. How many more would die? Lucian couldn’t seem to make his shield expand farther, couldn’t reach the people on the other side of the room.
Fear, desperation, and hopelessness constricted my throat like a noose. I looked around desperately for something, anything . . .
My wide eyes locked on the gun that had slid past her. It was just out of my reach, but I didn’t hesitate. I dropped Lucian’s hand, hoping he could sustain the barrier for even a few moments, and lunged for it.
It was sticky with the dead man’s blood, but I lifted onto my knees and held it with both hands, just as Ty had shown me. I pointed it right at her chest—the easiest target for inexperienced shooters to hit—and pulled the trigger.
The recoil threw me off balance, and I dropped one hand to the ground to steady myself, unable to follow through with another shot. By the time I recovered, the chaos had stopped.
The woman stood in the middle of the café, a stunned look on her face as she clutched a spot just under her right breast. Blood oozed between her fingers.
Moans of pain filled the café. Some people scrambled up and moved toward the door, which was barred with pretty much all the furniture in the building. Others remained frozen, watching the woman warily.