United as One (Lorien Legacies #7)(29)

“There were better ways to do that,” I say, turning to Five. I ignore the fact that he’s completely naked, all his clothing having burned off when he turned his skin into fire.

“Can’t argue with results,” Five replies, hunched over. He holds up the hand I turned to stone in front of his face. I can tell by the way his arm muscles flex that he’s trying to move his fingers but isn’t able. “This feels weird.”

Five turns his entire body to stone to match his hand. When he turns back to normal, the stone hand stays the same. He frowns.

“Shit. Is this permanent?”

“I don’t know,” I tell him. “I could try healing it.”

“Please do,” he says, and holds out his hand.

I take Five’s arm and let my healing Legacy pour into it. It takes a little more effort than normal; my Legacy has to work through the cold stone and find some live tissue to rebuild. Eventually, the stone starts to crumble away, revealing smooth skin underneath.

“Maybe just leave my pinkie,” Five says suddenly, like an idea just occurred to him. “I don’t need my pinkie.”

I make a face. He wants me to leave his finger so he’ll always be able to turn his body to stone. I shake my head.

“Not going to happen.”

“Come on, John,” he says, and grins at me. There’s blood on his teeth. “Don’t you trust me?”

In answer, I heal his hand the rest of the way. I don’t let go of his arm just yet.

“When we were fighting, you said Setrákus Ra came to you in a dream. Was that just you trying to fire me up?”

“No, that happened,” Five states. “I didn’t accept his offer, though. I’m done believing what that old bastard says.”

Before I can press Five further, Nine barrels around the corner in a full sprint. With my enhanced hearing, I can make out another dozen sets of running feet a few seconds behind him. I can also hear the telltale clicks of automatic weapons. I immediately hold up my hands in Nine’s direction and put myself between him and Five. After Five’s stunt, I don’t want this situation to get anymore out of hand.

“I’m all right!” I shout. “It was just a misunderstanding!”

Nine skids to a stop, his fists balled. He puffs out his cheeks with exertion, then raises one eyebrow, looking past me.

Behind me, Five grunts in surprise.

“Uh, John—,” Five manages.

I turn around to find Five standing as still as a statue. He’s barely even breathing. An icicle hovers in the air right in front of his face. The point glints in the brightly lit hallway, sharp as a dagger. The frozen shard is a hair away from Five’s remaining eye.

Marina stands a few feet behind Five, far enough back that he wouldn’t be able to reach out and grab her. Her dark hair is a tangled mess matted to one side of her face. She looks like she just woke up, except for the eyes—those are wide and glaring, focused on Five.

“Marina, easy—,” I start to say. She doesn’t even hear me.

“What did I tell you, Five?” Marina asks, her voice cold. “What did I say would happen if I ever saw you again?”





CHAPTER TEN


“WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE SAVING THE WORLD from evil aliens and instead we’re going to die in a plane crash!” Daniela moans, her face pressed to the nearest window. “So messed up!”

“We are not going to die,” Lexa snaps from the cockpit. “I can land this thing without power. It just won’t be pleasant.”

Unpleasant seems like it might be an understatement. A glance out the window shows me that we’re still awfully high up, the tops of trees pointy green spears down below. Lexa has us gliding in lazy circles, trying to slow our descent as much as possible. Without power, the ship rocks back and forth with every gust of wind, and I can feel Lexa jerk the controls every time that happens, to keep the ship’s nose from going down. So far, she’s been able to keep us relatively steady. Once we hit those trees, though, we’re going to be bounced about like crazy.

Sam stands in the middle of the aisle. He looks panicked. I can’t blame him, since this abrupt descent is pretty much his fault.

“This ship is fucking cursed,” I mutter to myself.

“Turn on!” Sam yells for like the twentieth time. “Ship! I command you to turn back on!”

“It’s not working. Systems are still off, and I’m totally locked out,” Lexa calls back from the cockpit. “Maybe try asking nicer.”

Sam clears his throat, and his voice goes up an octave, like he’s talking to a baby. “Ship? Please turn back on?”

Nothing happens.

“Goddamn it, turn on!”

I grab Sam by the shoulders and make him look at me.

“You’re just yelling right now; you get that, right? You need to focus. Stop freaking out and use your Legacy.”

“I don’t know how, Six. Yelling is seriously all that’s worked for me so far.”

“You did it before with the game player. Just—I don’t know. Visualize?”

“I’m going to get us all killed,” Sam groans.

“I have seen very few futures where that occurs, Sam,” Ella interjects. She’s still calmly seated in her chair. Sam stares at her.