Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 24894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 124(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 124(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Up ahead, the building where I’ve lived for the last six years is ablaze, and I move toward it.
“Key!” Elsy grabs my arms so tightly her fingers dig into my skin. “Be careful.”
I nod as I hold her face with both hands. “I love you, don’t be scared. I’m coming right back to you.”
“You better.” She sniffs, holding back tears. “I love you, Key.”
“Protect the queen, remember?” I say, and she nods. “Keep your ass right here, sweet girl.”
With one quick kiss, I’m on my way through the crowd and listening for signs of my parents. The smoke is making it impossible to scent them, but up ahead, I see my mother arguing with a firefighter, and I hurry over to her.
“Mom!” I call out, and she looks at me with a tearstained face.
“Keaton, he’s inside. Your father is still inside.” She grabs my arm, and the firefighter comes over.
“The building isn’t secure. It’s not safe to send someone up. I’m sorry.”
“Okay,” I tell him, and he goes over to join the men still struggling to put out the flames. “Go stay with Elsy.” I point my mom in that direction, but she shakes her head.
“You can’t go in there.”
“Mom.” I stare at her for a long moment until she takes a breath. “If anyone can go in there, it’s me. Right?” There’s a long moment, and then eventually she nods. “Take care of my Elsy. I’ll be right back.”
“Be careful,” she calls out to me, with a sob stuck in her throat as I sneak past the officers blocking the entrance and speed up the stairs.
It’s hard to see past the smoke the closer I get, but I check every floor. I can sense when there are people, and I end up finding three people that were caught in the flames. Once I’ve gotten them to the stairs, I climb higher and higher until I reach my father’s lab.
“Dad!” I shout over the sounds of the building falling down around me, and then I sense he’s close. “Dad!” Soon enough, I spot him collapsed on the floor near his desk, and I rush over to him. “Dad, wake up!” I smack his cheek, but when he doesn’t wake, I throw him over my shoulder and hurry as fast as I can out of the lab and back down the stairs.
It takes longer this time because heavy beams have blocked the way. I grab them one at a time and toss them out of our path as I try to listen for a heartbeat. It’s faint, but I think it’s there, and I just need to get him out of here before the building collapses on us.
Just before I reach the door, a massive wall of concrete falls in front of the exit. All these years, I’ve repressed my skills and held back everything that tried to consume me. The anger, frustration, and pain of everything was buried deep since the day I was changed. But now, I cut all those restraints inside me and unleash my full powers.
With a roar, I blast through the rock and metal that’s blocking my way to Elsy, and the debris explodes. The light ahead appears, and I run through just as the rest of the building falls in behind me.
In the distance, I see Elsy and my mother hugging, and when they see us, my mom nearly falls to the ground in relief. Medics surround us as the two of them come closer, and although someone is telling me I need to be checked out, I ignore them and pull Elsy in my arms.
“I thought I lost you.” She buries her face in my chest, and I rest my cheek on the top of her head.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” I say, and then I see my father waking up and my mom beside him as they get him on a stretcher.
“Is he going to be okay?” I ask the medic, and she nods.
“Looks like some smoke inhalation and a couple of minor burns. I don’t know how you did it, but you saved his life.”
I tell my mom we’ll meet them at the hospital as they load up in the ambulance. When it’s gone, I see Jade standing alone in the back of the crowd. She gives us a little wave, and I walk over with Elsy still right against my side.
“Thank you,” I tell her, looking back at the wreckage of the building. “You saved more than his life today. I owe you one.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she says as she starts to walk away. “I’m in need of a favor or two.”
“You can have one from me as well,” Elsy calls out, placing her hand on my chest.
“Somehow I don’t think that’s the last we’ll see of her.”