J A K E

For a moment, I simply watched. The pilot had ejected out and was drifting on the wind with a parachute. But the plane was gathering speed as it plummeting towards the earth—plucked from its path of travel and sent downward to kill us.

I'd always known the assassin had much more power stored inside her than she ever let on. She'd always refused to demonstrate her full might. Until now.

I stood poised, waiting for the perfect moment. When the aircraft was dangerously close, I raised my hands and let the ice break the plane's momentum. It crashed through the wall of ice with ease, freezing splinters of it falling all around us. But the weight of the impact was already over. The downed plane slid across the dirt field, slowing by the second. I didn't even move when the nose stopped inches from where we stood.

Turning to face the assassin, unimpressed, I found that she was already watching me as she planned her next attack. She hadn't won yet, but she'd been able to hold the six of us off at once.

It was time to blind her before she did any more damage. This fight, we'd come prepared. Jaxon held a bag in his hands that would prevent her from seeing. Once we were able to tie it over her face, she would be easy to knock unconscious.

As she stood in front of us, we waited. The Reaper began to stride forward, brandishing a dagger in each hand, confidence in each step. There were enough blades strapped on her to slit all of our throats at once. With the sun gleaming in her hair and face and the lethal narrow-eyed stare she was delivering us, she looked like some sort of goddess on the battlefield. Unearthly.

But that was before the light hit her daggers—already dripping with blood. Dangerous. She was dangerous.

On either side of me, Kane and Jaxon both made moves to run for her, but I held up a hand. "Wait. Let her come to us."

They obeyed, staying where they were. We all watched as Delphinium strode lazily toward us, a panther circling her prey. But Jaxon held the bag. As soon as she got close enough...

She didn't have to be near for me to sense the sense of otherness that Orion planted in her. I could see the whites of her eyes, every detail on her blades. That was it. "Go," I said in a low voice. My teammates didn't need to be told a second time as they all surged forward, forming a half-circle around the assassin.

Finn's fire made her jump back. One step closer to Jaxon. Arlo swung wildly for any part of her body he could lay his knives on. Kane hit her back farther as Riley's thick plants wound around Delphinium's legs. A spray of ice particles into her eyes had her stumbling back into Jaxon's arms. The bag went over her head as she thrashed. Kane helped hold her down as I stood over them, watching carefully.

Throwing a glance over her shoulder to where the two sides of soldiers were still fighting each other, Riley said, "We need to make this quick." Kneeling down, she held a hand out to Jaxon, who'd been carrying a syringe for her. Arlo made a face at the sight of it. "This will knock her out for a half-hour, tops."

Being able to hear every word we said, Delphinium writhed around in Kane's steel grip. When she realized she was no match for the strongman's strength, the assassin then screamed out one word in Romanian. I didn't have to know the language to know she'd told the soldiers to fire at us. Jaxon slapped a hand over her face under the bag, but she'd already done the damage.

Bullets turned from our soldiers to us. One whizzed straight for my chest, but I batted it away with a single bolt of ice. Knowing that our attentions were now divided, Finn and Arlo both ran to aid our soldiers in taking out the gunmen.

Unfortunately, Benton had read our thoughts from afar. He looped around from his place in the fight across the street toward us. Both Jaxon and I watched him near, the former yelling, "Riley do it now!"

Delphinium kicked and stabbed out at Kane, who took every blow without moving. He knew it needed to be done at any cost. So he continued tying down her arms as Riley lowered the syringe.

Benny threw the first knife. I hit it out of the air with another bolt of ice. The second blade was at an awkward angle—I couldn't shoot it down without blasting through Jaxon and Kane. Riley saw it streaking for Kane's throat and yelled a warning to save his life. The strongman ducked, loosening his grip on the assassin.

Letting loose a line of fire, Benny forced Jaxon and Riley to scramble away from the fighting assassin. The syringe fell in the grass. Knowing that his brother was the primary threat—as Delphinium was tied and blinded—Kane leapt at him and began wrestling the gun from his hands. As they fought, another round of bullets arced on the ground just inches from Riley and Jaxon. It forced them back from Delphinium.

Finally, Kane wrenched the gun from his brother's hands and broke it in half over his knee. When Benny tried to come for him again, he hit him so hard the assassin actually fell back.

The attention turned back to Delphinium, as she sat perfectly still on the ground. Her daggers lay at her sides on the ground, unable to return back to her tied hands. Gone was the screaming and thrashing. I wasn't sure what she was planning, but this opportunity wouldn't come again.

Forming a heavy bolt of ice between my fingers, I tore my hands off of it and sent it flying for the assassin's covered head. She had to be unconscious for this.

I'd been expecting it to crack into her body and knock her out. Instead, it hovered before her as if some invisible object was blocking it. I urged it further under the influence of my power. It shook in midair with the effort but barely made any progress.

There was something different. Something horribly wrong with her.

The gears in my head were frantically turning, trying to figure out how this was possible. She'd never been able to use telekinesis without looking at the object she wanted to move. And she certainly couldn't see now, which meant that Orion had done something to his assassin. I could only wonder what it was that made her be able to use her abilities to this magnitude.

Riley, having seen the entire thing play out, realized this was her only chance. She stalked behind the assassin, the syringe clutched in her hand. Despite knowing it wouldn't do any good, I urged the ice further to distract Delphinium while Riley made her move.

She was just a few steps away. It had to be now. Riley had to hit her now, or it wouldn't work. The ice was already beginning to shake and splinter under our combined forces.

The bolt of ice exploded, showering the both of us with freezing dust. Without moving a single muscle, Delphinium sent a massive boulder hurling toward Riley. At the last second, Riley saw its looming shadow and turned. Too late. It caught her in the abdomen and was sent with such force that it knocked her significantly back. She hit a nearby tree-trunk and her head slumped to the side, a trickle of blood oozing from her mouth. I was vaguely aware of the strongman screaming for her. Though he was bleeding profusely from a hundred wounds, Kane fought against his brother to get to our fallen teammate.

My attention went back to Delphinium, who still sat eerily still on the ground. She was able to do things she'd never done before. Even if she hadn't been able to move things without seeing, her stamina was at a record high. She'd brought down whole trees, caused whirlwinds, dragged a plane from the sky, hit Riley with a stone bigger than her. And she didn't even seem tired.

What had Orion done?

"I know you're there, Evans," she said.

"I don't care." My mind was racing. How would I think my way out of this one?

She lunged for me, trying to gauge my proximity to her by my voice alone. I hit her in the side with a bolt of freezing water and she recoiled.

"I want you to know," she seethed through clenched teeth, "That I hate you. I want you dead."

"Do you really?" My eyes flicked back to where the soldiers still fought, their numbers significantly lower on each side. Small flickers of Finn's fire still raged on a few fallen bodies.

"Yes. My master gave me the honor of being the one to finally murder you."

"You're going to have to deal with a lot of furious others who want me dead as well." I watched as Kane pushed through layers of gunfire to get to our fallen teammate. Jaxon held off Kane's brother, both throwing punch after punch into each other down on the ground.

"I'll kill you. I swear I'll kill you," she hissed, sounding more manic than ever. The voice of Orion's Reaper. "None of those things I said that night were true. It was a lie."

I knew exactly what she meant; I'd spent a great deal of time trying to forget what she'd said. It would have been infinitely easier for the both of us if she hadn't. And now this—the declaration that it wasn't true...it would finally calm my mind. Even if this wasn't really her.

"I know that already," I said before beginning to circle behind her. I was glad I couldn't see her face. She still faced towards where I had been; she didn't know where I was.

Ice shot from my hands once again, freezing her to the ground. She screeched and tried to pull away, but found that she couldn't. I glanced up at the sun, directly above us. "Pray that the ice melts," I told her before taking a few steps toward my crew. But I knew it wouldn't hold her long. Minutes, at most.

Glancing up, I saw that Kane and Jaxon had made it to Riley. Benny was trying to claw himself up off the ground.

A rock almost as big as the one she'd hit Riley with soared over my head as I ducked down. She was still after me. Benny reached out and sliced a deep cut into my leg. I barely felt it. Kicking him in the side, where a red gash was bleeding, I moved on.

As soon as Jaxon met my eyes, he knew we had to leave. Kane lifted Riley's body—limp and unmoving—in his arms and began making his way to one of the trucks. Arlo and Finn noticed what we were doing and made a break for it. Gunshots sounded after them, the soldiers were trying to mow them down before they could get to us. Jaxon picked off a few with a stolen gun, but it wasn't enough to guarantee our safety.

Right as I jumped into the back of the truck, I saw the last ONNT soldier fall. We were alone against the Imperium agents now. I closed the back doors, catching a glimpse of Delphinium breaking free of the icy bonds I'd set in place.

"Step on it!" Jaxon yelled and I immediately knew Arlo was driving by the way the truck veered to the left and almost rolled with breakneck speed. It was safe to say he'd never driven before in his life.

"If we die today, it's going to be because you're at the wheel," I heard Finn fell Arlo at the front.

"Shut up, do you want us to crash?"

We almost did as Arlo swerved the truck into a group of Imperium soldiers running at us with guns. If they got near enough, they'd latch on and begin shooting at anything that moved.

"Stop swerving, Riley's losing blood!" Kane yelled to Arlo, ignoring the fact that his clothes were damp from his own injuries. But Riley's dark head was indeed dripping blood, as was her back. Red dripped from the ends of her short hair. Her normally tan skin had been leeched of its color. As Kane down looked into her deathly face, I heard him mutter several things under his breath, probably urging her to stay alive.

I scowled at her small body in the strongman's arms, remembering how she'd found something of importance. If she died now, we'd never know what she heard.

Gunshots peppered the side of the truck and we all ducked down. Jaxon leaned over Finn to throw a bomb out the window. An explosion rocked the ground very near the truck. Kane cursed as he cradled Riley's body and prevented her from being thrown aside.

Something heavy dented the back doors, eliciting more curses from everyone in the truck. Delphinium had launched something against the vehicle.

Grabbing Jaxon's open bag, I took out as many bombs as I could find. Turning, I faced the back doors and blasted them open with a bolt of ice. I didn't have time to see what followed us before I threw all the explosives out at once. Turning away from the burning heat, I could vaguely make out the others all yelling orders at each other.

When the doors were closed again, Finn asked me in a near-yell, "Are they gone yet?"

"The explosion was too great to tell. But whatever vehicles they had following us are burned."

A few more shots came from Jaxon's gun out the window. "Correction: now they're gone." He pulled away from the window and Finn could lean forward again. "I think we're in the clear." He shot Arlo a flat look over his shoulder. "No thanks to your driving."

Arlo gave a sharp retort as we shot down the road. Kane kept muttering to the unconscious girl and did his best to staunch her blood flow. The sounds of gunfire grew quieter and quieter behind us.

It had been a narrow escape. But we needed to be ready, because they would come for us again.