“Sweetheart,” I stepped forward, cautious. “Let’s end this. Let’s go home.”
Jack cleared his throat again before snapping his fingers. “Excellent plan, Cinder. I think we’ve all had quite a night. Daydream, darling, would you mind?”
Alex’s brows scrunched, and her horns started to glow, before her expression dropped again. “Yes, Jack.”
All hell broke loose.
The men behind Jack surged forward, and of course, everyfuckingone was a Variant. One in the back doubled in size, and then tripled, before letting out a yell that made my brain want to explode. Projectiles started flinging at us—needles, acid, swarms of fuckingbees.
We have god damned insect Variants now? What the fuck is this?!
Reed shielded us, but the acid managed to slip through. It splashed onto my shoulder, eating away part of my suit and flesh as I howled.
“Shit!” Reed shouted, and another shield went up, this time a light, translucent green. “There are too many abilities, I can’t create something that deflectseverything.”
I knocked out a Variant that had swiped at my throat with blades for hands, before stomping on him with my boot engulfed in flames. Something hit the side of my neck, and I was convinced I’d been shot, before a bee dropped to the ground. My body shook, trembling, as venom made its way in.
“Can’t be normal bees,” I snarled, turning up my heat, making my flames create a new kind of shield around me. “Just has to besuperbees. Of course.”
Joon bounced next to me, his arm wrapped around the neck of another man who was going unconscious. “Just assumeeverythingin here is genetically altered.”
When a fist was thrown my way, coated in a large, mechanical contraption, Joon leaped up and kicked it back down. The blow was so powerful that the body broke through the floor. I’d almost forgotten how strong he was, and breathed a sigh of relief that Glitch preferred speed.
“Or mechanically. Biologically. All of the ‘ly’ things, really,” he panted.
“Thanks for the heads up,” I snarled, before shooting out my flames beside him.
Joon reared back, panic on his face, but my fire didn’t touch him. It only ignited the giant behind him, who then crashed into a cluster of empty chambers. Purple liquid poured over the floor; slippery, slimy,disgusting.
“Ah, that’s expensive, I think,” Joon quipped as a meteor was launched at him.
“Heads!” Reed called as a barrage of flaming rock came toward us.
It wasn’t until we’d wasted our energy, dodging around like trainees on the first day, that one hit the floor beside me and disappeared entirely.
Damnit,Alex.
“Boo,” she cooed, stalking up to us, those hips swaying in tight leather. “I missed.”
Was it wrong to be attracted to the woman trying to kill us?
I gave her a shaky grin. “That wasn’t very nice, Sweetheart.”
What do I do? How do we stop it?
Mind control was something I didn’t know how to fix; usually, I just beat the person down until I could reach their handler and turn them to ash. But Alex? There was no chance, noway?—
“Burn her,” Joon whispered, eyes wide.
I snapped my head toward him. “Are you fucking insane?”
“Yes!” Reed called from the back, busy swapping out shields, altering them to fit the next ability to come our way.
Alex stopped short, pressing her hands against the air. An impenetrable shield—the one that worked for everythingexceptacid.
“Not todeath,” Joon hissed. “Call it a love spark, or something.”
She walked around, prodding at the air, testing it. Reed threw up another shield that darkened around us—skewing her visibility. If she decided to pull us in, if she could remember that part of her ability, we were done for. Dead in the water.
