Chapter 4
Rafe
Marionand I stopped near the burnt out trees, and I did my best to ignore my mother’s agents as they scrambled out of the way to bow for me.
“Please take a look at this man,” Marion said, pointing with the toe of her kitten pump toward the body of one of the attackers. I stared at her shoe for a moment, wondering why thefucksuch an old woman was still wearing heels, even short ones like these. Were these part of a uniform? I added that to my mental list of shit to yell at my mom about.
I crouched down next to the body, covered by a long white sheet. My shadows slithered up from the grass, gently pulling the sheet away from the body so I could gaze upon it.
It was a man. Young, probably only a year or two younger than me. He wore all black, same as the other zealots littering the lawn. Though…maybe calling themzealotswasn’t too accurate. The early reports from several students matched what I’d seen with my own eyes. Men in teams, with different objectives, communicating through their radios. These men had been trained, some of them militaristically so.
This one’s green eyes were wide open, blindly staring up into thecloud-filled sky. A dried bead of blood tracked from the corner of one of his eyes, and another from his mouth.
My shadows itched to close his eyes and soothe his face, but I reminded myself he’d attacked the school. This man had probably killed someone, or at least intended to. At the very least, he was involved with a dangerous cult of psychos, whohadkilled and kidnapped students.
I blew out a breath.
I hated this shit.
“Where was he hit?” I asked, trying to separate myself. It was better to approach this type of thing clinically, detached in a way that kept me from thinking about how Skye could have been one of the victims of this attack. Or Willow. Or Mia. Or fucking Aiden.
I examined the man in front of me again as Marion shifted anxiously next to me.
The man didn’t appear drowned. My shadows shuffled the sheet further down his body, but there weren’t any wounds on him. No blood anywhere except for his face.
“He wasn’t hit,” Marion said lowly.
“So, what? An air affinate stole his oxygen? Maybe…overfilled his lungs?” I suggested, though that was a bit odd. This academy didn’t teach the really scary ways to kill people.
But my mother’s newly inherited military certainly did.
“Friendly fire?” I tried.
Marion cleared her throat. “His insides are, ah…mush.”
My brow furrowed as I glanced up at her, and then my entire body filled with dread as I remembered the attacker Wyatt and I had inched away from just moments ago. The one that lookedsqueezed.
Skye’s name rang out through my mind like a death knell.
Skye.
Skye was…the squisher.
Hell. Fucking.Yeah.
My insides lit up like a firework. I’d already thought my Key was exceptional, but now she was something extraordinary. A goddess of death all wrapped up in a crop top and sneakers.
I loved it.
But then a pang of regret passed through my chest.
I…missed her. She was clever, protective…andruthless. She was everything I’d ever wanted while still being sweet and kind. I still couldn’t stop replaying the vision of Aiden bundled in one of Skye’s soft blankets while she cuddled and cooed at him.
Iwanted a beautiful, murderous sex vixen who squeezed men to death to fuss overme, damnit.
“What could have caused this?” I nearly whispered.
Marion’s jaw moved back and forth as her eyes searched my face. “A Telekinetic,” she said under her breath.
