J A K E

Gigi and Arlo left, having been called to the armored vehicle that would take them to the cliffs on the fortress's other side. The rest of us lingered in the tent, waiting for the war call that would lead us to charge.

"And you think you're not qualified to give speeches," Jaxon said to Delphinium.

"Perhaps I should rethink that sentiment. After all, you were on the verge of tears."

He made a face and pulled away from her. "I was not."

Riley clicked her tongue. "You boys and your masculinity. Save it for the battlefield, Williams."

At that, I peered out to the Imperium army, hazy in the morning sunlight. I had spent my life with armies of men prepared to fight and bleed and die amongst one another, but this was a new level. This was not a city-wide gang fight. This was war. And this was our last stand.

I wasn't stupid enough to think we were invincible. Especially not when I'd gotten a look at their forces. Death was possible. Probable, even.

Though I hadn't seen it done, I had sewn the seeds of discontent within the Club members. They would eventually turn against Hundsen. In theory, they were already mine. It was all I'd planned for.

If death did finally come for me, I would be ready.

Though I didn't look at her, my attention went to the assassin beside me.

If death came for her...

As if she knew what I was thinking, Delphinium looked up at me. I held her blue gaze, my mind at war with itself.

And then, before I could find a reason to stop myself, I grabbed her wrist and dragged her outside. My grip felt too rough, but I didn't know how else to do it.

"What are you doing?" She asked me, the same question repeating over and over in my own mind.

I dropped her hand as soon we we stood behind the tent, out of hearing range of the other soldiers. "There's a very high chance we're going to die today," I said, voice low. But that didn't scare me in the least. Not like this did.

"I know."

"If either of us don't make it out..." I paused.

What the hell was I going to say? How could I admit to her all the things I couldn't accept myself? That for some godforsaken reason, I'd begun to need her. And that nothing would be the same if she was gone.

She'd told me I was what made her feel again, but some traitorous, weak part of me wondered if she was the reason I felt anything at all. Even if just a fraction.

I'd never done anything remotely like this. How was it done? And why did I have such a sudden, desperate need to do it? I knew myself well enough to be well aware that this was something I never wanted.

"It's okay." Her voice was soft, gentle. I hated the way she spoke to me like I was a wounded animal. "Say it."

This was a mistake. A mistake. But I may have been many things—just not a coward.

"Long ago, I told you I'd burned...certain things out of myself. That this life has its cost. But sometimes I think...I don't always want to pay that cost."

I swallowed. Licked my lips. "I don't want to feel...those things. I don't like it. I need it to stop." My voice came out fiercer than I'd intended. It felt disconnected from my body.

"I know," she said again. "I feel it too." She raised a warm hand to touch the side of my face, just as I'd dreamt all that time ago. "But I'm not sorry for it."

No, I wasn't sure if she quite understood. I broke all my rules for you, I wanted to say. But I didn't.

I wanted to back away, to take back the things I'd said. But something in her bright face made me stop. And stay.

After some amount of time my mind was too warped to gauge, General Lawridge gave the signal: a low, haunting horn that ordered us to form our ranks. We were finally going to charge.

Perhaps it was what gave me the last push to say, "If either of us don't make it out, just know I never expected...this. And sometimes I think I don't regret it."

With that, I pulled away, knowing deep down that she deserved more than I knew how to give.

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The Imperium army was getting closer—simply waiting to attack until we marched close enough. The fortress was becoming more and more solid as the mid-morning haze disappeared.

We were nearly on the front lines; a few rows of soldiers marched before us as a buffer between us and the Imperium army. Jaxon and I walked beside Delphinium, while the Shires brothers were on her other side. Our sole job was to protect her long enough to get her to the fortress in one piece. We were meant to take all the blows meant for her.

Our soldiers were riled and more than ready to slaughter—and die. As a leader with my own soldiers, it was all one could ask for. This war could only be won through sheer power. Numbers didn't necessarily matter as much when enhanced abilities were now at play.

At that thought, I searched their front lines for any variation in the soldiers; if there was any battle Orion would utilize his new creations, it would be this one. I couldn't spot them yet, but I knew they would eventually show themselves.

Lawridge was bellowing orders to the soldiers somewhere behind us. In any other occasion, I would have proved myself to be disobedient in the face of such government authority. In fact, I wouldn't have even been involved in this war if it didn't interfere with my own goals.

So they would have to die. And I would do everything to ensure that I didn't.

They were close now—close enough that I was nearly surprised they hadn't taken shots at us yet. I figured they were waiting for us to be too far in to retreat. Even under the threat of our incoming army and our planes arcing across the sky toward them, the Imperium men were eerily still. Poised and ready.

Our soldiers on the front lines raised their guns as we continued on. There was the rumbling of planes coming up behind us. The first shots rang out on our side, horrible in their silence.

From there, the battlefield exploded into chaos. As the two armies collided in a storm of bullets and steel, so did our planes and a battalion of Imperium's that appeared out of nowhere. Gunfire came from far above from the aircraft fighting to knock each other from the sky.

At last, Imperium's Scorpions heated to life and began wiping out our soldiers in wide paths. Men fell before us, bringing us closer and closer to the front line. I was vaguely aware of the anti-Scorpion projectiles streaming over the sky, smoke on their tails.

Just as we became the new front line, both Jaxon and Delphinium vanished into thin air. I could only feel a vague warmth where they used to be. Jaxon meant to hide her to the best of his ability.

Guns, fists and blades of every kind were suddenly swinging for us now. With one sweep of my power, a dozen soldiers were immediately frozen solid. I would have liked to make the coldness seep into their bones and freeze them slowly, painfully, but war unfortunately called for quick deaths.

The icy jaws of death came for any soldier that dared attack me. Kane and Benton were before us, cutting soldiers to shreds together. As if by an invisible hand, soldiers were murdered by no visible enemy—Jaxon and Delphinium. Our own men died around us, but we weren't deterred, even as we worked our way farther and farther into the Imperium army.

Riley and Finn were nowhere to be seen, but that was no issue. They were meant to be sneaking through the edge, where the Imperium army was weakest. Hopefully once they killed the army leaders, the army itself would crumble from a lack of structure.

The fortress was nearer than ever, but that meant our opposition was even more vicious. After slicing open two soldiers' throats at the same time, I caught a glance of the Scorpion-like barrels mounted high into the walls of the fortress. They'd been busy before we returned.

With a hiss, white-hot ray of plasma razed the ground near us, killing Imperium and rebel soldiers alike. It forced us to move farther left, closer to the fortress. We were halfway there. No, more than that now.

I became aware of a low, pulsating sound that seemingly came from all around us. With another glance upward, I saw a plane—flaming red against the perfectly blue sky—spiraling to the ground. One of our own. My attention being drawn away for a split second cost me a slash down my arm, but I hardly cared. My attacker got a knife through the face before the impact of the plane hit twenty feet away.

Soldiers fell as the wreckage exploded. I shot out my hand, expecting to send an icy wave over the billowing smoke and fire. Nothing but a few harmless ice chips that instantly melted into the blood-soaked, hot ground.

I struggled for an answer. The ice had never failed me before. And I wasn't close to exhaustion; no, my body could keep going. So why couldn't my power?

It didn't matter. I always fought with my fists anyway.

As I whirled to attack another soldier with a cocked fist, I saw Jaxon and Delphinium flicker back into view. Breaking the soldier's nose allowed me the upper hand, eventually forcing him to the ground. With his body clearing my path of sight to the Shires brothers, I saw Benton with a strange look on his face as Kane tried—and failed—to effortlessly throw a soldier into his comrades.

"I can't hear their thoughts," he said to us, voice barely audible over the commotion of the masses. Like something bad broken inside him. "Everything's gone silent."

None of their abilities were functioning. The world seemed to go silent for a moment. Until I realized the pulsating sound was still there under all the noise of battle. Almost as if it was emitting from the ground. Or the air. The other soldiers seemed unable to hear it. Only us.

Rong's words came back to me: a warning about a weapon made specifically for us. This was it.

Orion's weapon was made to destroy our power.