Sacrificed (The Ignited Series) (26 page)

And Lillian had shot the wall behind him.

She turned to me expectantly. I knew I was surging—I felt it in every fiber of my body—and, from the look of triumph on her face, she knew it too.

“Cut her loose,” she ordered the Skotadi closest to me.

My eyes remained on Lillian—the source of my anger—until the knife was placed in my hands. I turned it over, examining it, remembering how it had felt in my dream-hands. When I looked up again, I avoided Alec. I could feel his eyes on me, and knew that he would try to talk me out of doing what I had to do.

What a big part of me wanted to do. The other part of me was along for the ride as I slowly approached Micah where he sat restrained in his chair.

Should be easy.

So why were my hands shaking? W
hy were unwanted thoughts of freedom and love and happiness washing over me? And why was the boy sitting in the chair at my mercy smiling at me like he understood why I was about to kill him?

My hand wavered, and the knife dropped to my side.

“Do it.” I glanced over my shoulder, saw Lillian hovering over Nathan with the gun in her hand.

Nathan was watching me with uncertainty, like he real
ly hoped I had a plan. And Alec…the look he gave me meant something else. Something that I was supposed to understand. Something important.

His hand moved behind his back like he wanted me to see something, but his hand was empty.

Empty, but
free
.

Lillian gave up her post by Nathan and crossed the room to me, the rage on her face growing with each step. “Do it now,” she seethed, coming to a stop beside me.

Where she stood, it would be easy to spin around and catch her in the stomach with the knife. But then, I had another idea. A better one. One that trumped my desire to see Lillian evaporate into nothing.

I lunged for Micah.

CHAPTER 23

The knife sliced through the ropes around Micah’s wrists. As he lurched forward and slammed a fist into Lillian’s side, I dropped to my knees and slit the ropes at his ankles. He came to a stand as a stunned Lillian retreated a step.

Alec grabbed one Skotadi by the waist before he could rush Micah, while Nathan landed a kick into the stomach of another.

“Kris!” Alec shouted. “My ankles!”

I clambered across the floor on my hands and knees, avoiding the growing scuffle around me, stopping only long enough to sever Alec’s bonds before moving on to free Nathan. I slashed the rope around his ankle first, then crawled behind him to saw through the rope at his wrists.

In a flash, he was on his feet and joining the fight.

It had all taken only seconds for us all to be freed, but we were still outnumbered, five to four, and though I had the diamond-coated knife, Lillian had a gun and…

And she had Micah lifted off the floor, pressed against the wall. Standing a safe distance from him, she held him there using nothing but a hand held out in front of her.

Levitation
.

Lillian was levitating Micah off the floor.

Lillian was an Incantator?

“Oh, shit,” I muttered. 

The big Skotadi stepped in front of me, the jeer on his face exposing the rotten teeth in his mouth. His eyes were enflamed with fury. “You’ll never be one of us.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I returned as I held the knife out in front of me. I met his eyes, daring him to make a move.

“She says we need you, but I don’t think we do. I’m going to enjoy killing you…
the one
,” he taunted, feinting to the right.

I didn’t take the bait. Apparently, practicing with Nathan had paid off. I was in a real life fight, holding my own. Granted, the diamond in my hand was doing most of the work for me, but still. I was holding off a Skotadi three times my size.

Over the Skotadi’s shoulder I glimpsed flashes of Nathan and Alec as they fought together, mirroring each other like they’ve been covering each other’s backs for years. My heart swelled with pride for a moment before I glanced beyond them, to Lillian, who continued to hold Micah in the air, while barking out orders to the rest of the Skotadi.

What I gathered of her commands was that they were to spare me and Micah, but kill Nathan and Alec.

Preoccupied with watching them, she hadn’t noticed Micah’s hand moving slowly toward the charm around his neck. It looked as if every movement took a tremendous effort on his part, but I knew what he was trying to do. If he could get the charm off, he would no longer be blocked.

Same went for me.

I yanked at the charm from around my neck, breaking the string, and tossed it at the Skotadi in front of me. It bounced off his chest and fell at his feet. He didn’t look like he cared, and I wondered if he realized what the charm had been doing, if he knew what I was capable of without it.

My hand shot out with a blast of fire that hit him in the chest, showing him just what I could do. He stumbled backward, flailing at the flames that engulfed his shirt.

Behind him, Lillian half turned to me, while keeping one hand trained on Micah. He was closer to his charm, but not close enough. 

“Take her out!” Lillian screamed.

I scoffed. No one was listening to her. One Skotadi was desperately trying to remove the shirt that was partially melted to his skin, two more were preoccupied with Nathan and Alec, and another was…gone. He must have been dissipated at some point.

It was me and her. The moment I’d been waiting for.

I felt the familiar tingling in my hand as I prepared a fire ball worthy of Lillian’s face. As I raised my arm to launch it, Micah fell from midair, and Lillian turned the rest of the way around to face me. Both her hands shot out, sending an invisible wave that felt like nothing short of an atomic blast into me.

It rocketed me into the wall. My head snapped back, striking the concrete with a sickening crack. Stars swarmed my vision as I tried to hold on to consciousness. The fire in my hand extinguished, and the knife slipped from my hands, and distantly, I was aware of someone
yelling my name.  

A chair flying across the room…

Alec taking a fist to the jaw…

Nathan being dropped to the floor…

Shouts, from all around me…

Flashes of activity were interrupted by long stretches of darkness. I hoped the images were nothing more than remnants of a terrible nightmare, but when I finally blinked the black away, I saw that it all had been real.

Nathan lay on the floor in front of me, hands pulled behind his back as a Skotadi secured them with rop
e. Only when he was pulled to his knees and placed beside Alec did he see that I had come to. A soft shake of his head warned me not to move.

Across the room, Micah was blocked off by Lillian and two other Skotadi. The charm was still secured around his neck, and he looked…defeated.

What in the hell had happened after I blacked out?

Something bad, for Nathan and Alec to wind up as they were, and the Skotadi to have control of us again. The only advantage we had was that they thought I was still out. If I could take them—take Lillian—by surprise…

Unfortunately, thanks to my blurry vision and the throbbing in my head, I wasn’t so sure I could conjure another fire ball. I needed to concentrate to pull it off, and that was hard to do with a concussion.

Regardless, I tried it, and winced at the stabbing pain that shot through my skull.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to work.

All I had was the knife.

Keeping my eyes on Lillian as she spoke to one of the Skotadi, I slowly swept my hand behind me, searching for it. A sharp, burning pain in the tip of my middle finger clued me in to its location. I immediately pulled my hand back, but the damage had been done.

How could I have been so stupid?

I managed to keep my face blank as the realization that I’d just been cut with a diamond weapon swept over me. Nathan was watching me, his eyes pleading with me to stay still and quiet…to not do anything stupid.

Little did he realize it was too late for that. And when Lillian cocked the gun in her hand and took a few steps forward, closing the gap between her and the two guys I cared about more than anything in this world, I knew that
stupid
was my only option. 

I was already injured with diamond. My fate had been sealed, but if I could save them before I succumbed to the diamond deliria, I would.

Lillian leveled the gun on Nathan, and I clambered to my feet with the knife in my hand. I had nothing left to bargain with…but myself.

“Lillian!”

Though she kept the gun trained on the back of Nathan’s head, her eyes shifted to me. She looked surprised to see me awake.

“You want me to kill Micah?” I asked her. 

“You’ve proven yourself worthless in that simple task,” she spat.

“But you still need me. Don’t you?” I lifted the knife in my hand, placed it over my forearm, never removing my eyes from Lillian.

In my periphery, I saw both Nathan and Alec squirm. One of them muttered my name, but my focus remained on Lillian.

“I’ll do it, Lillian. I’ll do whatever it takes to save them. I’m not afraid.”

“You do it,” she taunted, “and your boyfriend will be right behind you. Both of them. And you’ll be around long enough to see them die.”

“Or maybe you’ll realize how badly you screwed this up when I take myself out of the equation, and you won’t have anything left to fight for.”

She scoffed. “You’re not that important, girl.”

“Oh no?” I pressed the knife against me, hard, but not hard enough to break the skin, and grinned when Lillian flinched. “I think maybe I am.”

In that split second before I made my decision, my eyes found Micah’s from across the room. I hoped, for the first time, that my thoughts were loud enough for him to read.

And then I slid the knife across the palm of my hand.

Someone yelled no, and suddenly there was a flurry of activity. Micah, already knowing my intentions, was the first to react while everyone else stared at me in shock. He broke free of the two Skotadi and wrestled a very stunned Lillian to the ground. 

Their eyes had lingered on me a few seconds longer, but then Nathan and Alec were on their feet. Though their hands were still tied behind their backs, they were able to keep the Skotadi preoccupied while Micah fought with Lillian for control of the gun.

No one was paying any attention to me. Seeing an opening, I jumped on Lillian, pulling her off balance. She barely avoided the knife in my hand, but in the process, lost the gun. As I crawled across
the floor after it, she lunged for me.

The moment my hands circled around the cold metal, I flipped around and pulled the trigger. My aim was off, and the shot hit Lillian in the stomach. Though it wasn’t a kill-shot, she dropped hard.

I scampered to my feet, holding the gun out in front of me as I ordered the other two Skotadi to freeze. Nathan and Alec were both on the ground, beaten and worn, but okay. The Skotadi stepped away from them, hands held up in the air as they eyed me warily, stealing glances at their leader bleeding on the floor.

Yeah, I did that, thank you very much.

Micah was advancing on me. “Kris…”

I knew what he wanted to do, but I wasn’t going to let him yet. “Cut them loose first,” I told Micah, nodding to Nathan and Alec. Someone would need to keep the Skotadi in line while Micah worked his magic on me.

If
he could still work his magic on me.

I was feeling…off. The room was starting to spin, I was seeing double of everything, and my legs had turned to rubber. Someone needed to take the gun from my hands before I accidentally shot someone else. 

The moment Nathan and Alec were cut loose, they were at my side. Alec took the gun, apparently recognizing the fact that I could barely hold it up anymore. And my legs…

They finally went out from under me and I dropped to my knees. Nathan went with me, cushioning my fall. “Kris…” He shook his head, face aghast. I could have been mistaken, but his eyes were glistening, almost as if he were on the verge of crying.

It was the deliria. It had to be the deliria.

“Out of the way,” I heard Micah say. I looked over Nathan’s shoulder as Micah approached, ripping the blocking charm from his neck. As he withdrew the vial he kept hidden under his shirt, his eyes leveled on mine. “Stay with us for five more minutes, Kris. Okay?”

Five minutes? I doubted I had five seconds, I thought, but slurred, “Yeah, sure.”

“What are you doing?” Nathan asked Micah, his voice thick, shaky.

“Healing her,” Micah answered quietly as he withdrew what he needed from the vial and held it in his hand. “I hope.”

“You can do that?” Alec asked.

“Shh.” This came from Micah as he closed his eyes, entering the state of meditation he was always harassing me about practicing.

My eyes fluttered shut, and I lost sight of them, but I was still there. I was distantly aware of being laid down, and my head resting on something hard, but soft. Legs, I thought. Nathan’s legs. I felt his arm behind my shoulders, supporting me, as Micah held my diamond-cut hand in his.

As a warm tingle pulsated in my palm, then traveled up my arm, I wondered if it was Micah’s doing or the diamond. If it was the diamond…

There was so much I’d never said that I needed to say, that I may never have another chance to say.

“Nathan…”

“
Shh,” came his response from above me, and his voice, whispering soft words that I couldn’t understand was the last thing I would hear.