05-08-2020, 09:19 PM
Every instinct recoiled from the gunfire, the leering ghosts summoned by his warning reigniting memory of the chaos and heat and fear. But Jay captured hold of the fingers she’d brushed against his and intended to let go, and pulled her on. Ice flooded the brief cracks in composure, or maybe the flippancy of his humour realigned something knocked askew. It was that grin; the one she sometimes wondered if she would follow to the very pits of hell. Maybe.
She ran.
Soon after the wind rose, stinging sharp and sudden on unseen tendrils of power, or so she assumed. Grit burned Natalie’s lungs as visibility abruptly pitched to static. She pulled her jacket up over her nose, burying a cough and squinting ahead as her pace slowed. Would a shield of air be enough to stop the ballistic impact of a bullet even if she could figure out how to keep it moving around them? For now she concentrated on keeping up. Power pulsed like a second heartbeat, a thin skin of comfort, but Jay was the lighthouse upon which she navigated.
It thrilled him, she realised, when they finally stood in the wall’s shadow. It felt familiar, that search for exhilaration, though this was not the kind of danger in which Natalie had ever thought to look. Probably it was only the light-robbing storm that for a moment made him seem swathed throat to ankle in black.
To his order she didn’t say anything, just touched his arm in acknowledgement that she was still there, and turned out to watch the storm. Loose hair lashed her cheeks beneath the curve of her hands. Disembodied voices curled up in the wind, barking orders that even her power-tuned ears could not pick clean. Shadows darkened and wavered through the screen of dust, though she didn’t turn to warn Jay. Heat singed her back for whatever he did to the wall, and she’d felt the elastic snap of a weave interrupted before. Light she didn’t want to contemplate what loss of concentration might do now, with something like that.
Her heart pounded, but it was with an eerie calm now. Shivers prickled her sweat-sheened skin. If bullets rained through she was not convinced she could protect them, but the squint of her pale eyes did not break from the blurred landscape. The power threaded from her, building a tapestry around them; something old blended with something experimental. It had been imperfect last time; ricocheting her head off the wall and knocking her out cold. She did not think of the twisted bodies left in its wake back then, instead armouring herself with the knowledge that she knew more of its workings now as she pulled the threads into place around them. A precaution, not an intention. The voices grew closer. Too close. She half closed her eyes, counting her breaths while she waited for Jay to finish carving their path through.
But the pressure of her weave released a little before it was ready, and before she’d intended. Which in fact she hadn’t.
As the bars of the wall exploded, the air slashed out in a vicious arc around them. The sand whooshed outwards for a second before Jay’s storm danced back into the empty space with a frenzy, and a few grunts and cries sounded close by as men lost their balance to the buffeting sweep. The force of the recoil knocked her a hard step back. Natalie kept her feet but hit the edges of the hot metal, sinking her teeth hard into her lip to bite off a scream as she pushed herself off it. Pain sparked her vision white, but she’d probably only won them seconds. She caught the edges of Jay’s grin as he pushed through the hole, and she followed, though her shoulder protested in sharp agony. The edges of the metal sheened like smooth glass now, and she half stumbled out the other end, the ground bracing her a sweet second before she pushed herself up. Dizziness lingered, but with the storm it wasn’t likely noticed.
When she turned the power flooded her fresh, plucking at more unfamiliar threads; harder and thicker, more difficult to coax and guide. The earth rumbled sluggishly, and her jaw tensed, concentration warring with the throb of her injury. It was something she’d seen Pavlo do, though not how; pinning her in spikes of stone after she’d slashed the straps holding her down. The memory drained her cold, banished deep. Marcus’s app informed what instinct did not, but it was rushed work. An inelegant stump of earth thrust to cover their path, should anyone seek to follow. Unlikely, with the raging gunfire. Not worth the chance, though.
She turned to find Jay, disorientated now with the way everything twisted in the wind. Her throat burned raw. Halfway there. Chainlink had sounded a less arduous reprieve five minutes ago, but she could not even see it through the swirling dust, and a bullet was still a bullet. The sun was sinking lower, burning the world up in flames. She twisted, and realised that in that brief moment she’d lost her direction, and Jay.
She ran.
Soon after the wind rose, stinging sharp and sudden on unseen tendrils of power, or so she assumed. Grit burned Natalie’s lungs as visibility abruptly pitched to static. She pulled her jacket up over her nose, burying a cough and squinting ahead as her pace slowed. Would a shield of air be enough to stop the ballistic impact of a bullet even if she could figure out how to keep it moving around them? For now she concentrated on keeping up. Power pulsed like a second heartbeat, a thin skin of comfort, but Jay was the lighthouse upon which she navigated.
It thrilled him, she realised, when they finally stood in the wall’s shadow. It felt familiar, that search for exhilaration, though this was not the kind of danger in which Natalie had ever thought to look. Probably it was only the light-robbing storm that for a moment made him seem swathed throat to ankle in black.
To his order she didn’t say anything, just touched his arm in acknowledgement that she was still there, and turned out to watch the storm. Loose hair lashed her cheeks beneath the curve of her hands. Disembodied voices curled up in the wind, barking orders that even her power-tuned ears could not pick clean. Shadows darkened and wavered through the screen of dust, though she didn’t turn to warn Jay. Heat singed her back for whatever he did to the wall, and she’d felt the elastic snap of a weave interrupted before. Light she didn’t want to contemplate what loss of concentration might do now, with something like that.
Her heart pounded, but it was with an eerie calm now. Shivers prickled her sweat-sheened skin. If bullets rained through she was not convinced she could protect them, but the squint of her pale eyes did not break from the blurred landscape. The power threaded from her, building a tapestry around them; something old blended with something experimental. It had been imperfect last time; ricocheting her head off the wall and knocking her out cold. She did not think of the twisted bodies left in its wake back then, instead armouring herself with the knowledge that she knew more of its workings now as she pulled the threads into place around them. A precaution, not an intention. The voices grew closer. Too close. She half closed her eyes, counting her breaths while she waited for Jay to finish carving their path through.
But the pressure of her weave released a little before it was ready, and before she’d intended. Which in fact she hadn’t.
As the bars of the wall exploded, the air slashed out in a vicious arc around them. The sand whooshed outwards for a second before Jay’s storm danced back into the empty space with a frenzy, and a few grunts and cries sounded close by as men lost their balance to the buffeting sweep. The force of the recoil knocked her a hard step back. Natalie kept her feet but hit the edges of the hot metal, sinking her teeth hard into her lip to bite off a scream as she pushed herself off it. Pain sparked her vision white, but she’d probably only won them seconds. She caught the edges of Jay’s grin as he pushed through the hole, and she followed, though her shoulder protested in sharp agony. The edges of the metal sheened like smooth glass now, and she half stumbled out the other end, the ground bracing her a sweet second before she pushed herself up. Dizziness lingered, but with the storm it wasn’t likely noticed.
When she turned the power flooded her fresh, plucking at more unfamiliar threads; harder and thicker, more difficult to coax and guide. The earth rumbled sluggishly, and her jaw tensed, concentration warring with the throb of her injury. It was something she’d seen Pavlo do, though not how; pinning her in spikes of stone after she’d slashed the straps holding her down. The memory drained her cold, banished deep. Marcus’s app informed what instinct did not, but it was rushed work. An inelegant stump of earth thrust to cover their path, should anyone seek to follow. Unlikely, with the raging gunfire. Not worth the chance, though.
She turned to find Jay, disorientated now with the way everything twisted in the wind. Her throat burned raw. Halfway there. Chainlink had sounded a less arduous reprieve five minutes ago, but she could not even see it through the swirling dust, and a bullet was still a bullet. The sun was sinking lower, burning the world up in flames. She twisted, and realised that in that brief moment she’d lost her direction, and Jay.