Toxic (Denazen #2)(4)

Enough to confirm the unthinkable.

“Kale, let go!”

A flash of lightning darted across the sky. Close. The hair on the back of my neck sprang up like I’d jammed my finger into an electrical socket.

Another surge of pain. The humming grew louder. The wind went quiet, and the raindrops lost their tiny plinking noise as they pelted the metal. Our friends below quieted, and distant traffic seemed to come to a standstill. Even Kale, whose lips were moving frantically, was silent.

Desperate, I tried again to brace my feet against the metal, but it was useless. My sneakers kept sliding off.

“Please,” I begged, wondering if he could even hear my voice above the strange hum. “Let go.”

When he didn’t, I let my fingers go slack.

Another inch.

Horrified, he readjusted his hold and made a swipe with his free hand, but the rain made it impossible. Without my help, his fingers glided past my wrist. He managed to grab my other hand with both of his, but they were already slipping. His lips began moving again, and I thought I saw him say my name.

I forced a deep breath. The pain was worse than anything I could have imagined. Like trying to breathe through broken glass. I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Kale, you’re killing me. LET GO!”

He did.





2


Part of me was relieved, while another part couldn’t believe he’d let me fall. No way was I walking away from something like this. Crap. What was the first rule of taking a fall? Relax! Relax your muscles, and go limp. It wasn’t unheard of for people to survive a major fall. Off buildings and out of planes. It’d happened before. I closed my eyes, braced for impact, and—

The air stilled. My hair, seconds ago a mass of tangles lashing all around, fell to frame my face. I held my breath and twisted to see the ground—it was only a few feet away—but I wasn’t rushing at warp speed to meet it anymore. A few moments of weightlessness ticked by, and then I was falling again, only the sudden, bone-crushing stop you’d expect after a thirty-foot free fall never came. Instead, I landed with a barely there jar into strong, warm arms.

“I have to say, Dez, this is taking the adrenaline high to a whole ’nother level…” Alex set me down as the others crowded close.

I couldn’t respond. My mouth was dry, and every nerve ending was singing and hopping spastically like my celebrity crush, Spider One, onstage.

A boom of thunder, then seconds later, a bright flash. All the tiny hairs along my arms and at the back of my neck shot up again. The lightning silhouetted Kale’s bobbing form as he hopped down from the crane and darted forward to close the distance between us—thankfully with his shirt back on.

Someone poked my shoulder. Alex. “Dez? You okay?”

“You—what are you doing—”

He looked at me funny. “Why would you jump off the crane, Dez?”

“I didn’t—”

Kale’s scream cut me off. “Dez!” Carelessly he ran at the crowd, people clearing a narrow path just in time for him to crash through. He stopped a few feet away and neither of us moved.

“What happened?” Kiernan demanded, pushing to the front. She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring from Kale to me.

Alex answered. From the corner of my eye, I saw him point up. “For some reason, Dez decided it’d be a good idea to jump off the top of the crane.”

Everyone started talking at once, but I couldn’t hear them. Not really. It was gibberish. A mishmash of background noise. Whistles of approval and whispers of insanity all faded into white noise. The universe had finally stomped in and taken payment. I knew it was coming. Daun, the Six that had saved Kale after the battle at Sumrun, warned us over and over again. Don’t get complacent, she said. It will show up when you least expect it. She’d been right.

Kale stepped forward.

So did I.

We stopped inches apart, neither reaching for the other. I could see it in his eyes. Anguish. Guilt.

Understanding.

“Dez—” He made a move to lift his hand but stopped, fist clenched tight.

Daun’s voice raged inside my head. Unwelcomed but persistent. A side effect. An exchange. There is no telling what it will be.

Along with my response. I’ll give anything for him.

I took a step back and nearly tripped over thin air despite the fact that I was suddenly, painfully sober. “Don’t. We knew it would happen. Fair is fair. I got something—I knew I’d lose something in return.”

Kale’s jaw tightened, and he took a single step back. “Nothing is lost. This is temporary. We can fix it. I can learn to control it—Ginger said so.” His voice wavered a bit, and I wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince me—or himself.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. It was a bitter sound—so unlike me. That kind of maniacal cackle that rides along with madness. The one that comes right before you lose it in line at the post office. Everyone had gathered in a semicircle around us—watching. Staring. None of them understood what was going on. They didn’t know what I did. I skimmed their faces. The full gamut of emotion was there. Everything from genuine concern to irritation, all aimed my way. The weight of it all was too much.

Without a word, I turned and ran.

For a few moments, there were footsteps sloshing in the mud, trying to keep up. They were too heavy to be Kale’s—if it’d been him, I wouldn’t have heard them—so I guessed it was Kiernan. Luckily, she gave up when I made it to the edge of the lot.