Keep moving. Don’t think about Deidre’s blood spreading across the obsidian floor. Don’t think about Lauren fighting to reach her sister’s body.
“Jade!” Sam screams, and then he’s torn out of my grip, and he’s not behind me anymore.
When I finally spot him through the crowd, he’s ten feet back, pressed against the cave wall, three hellhounds between us.
I throw a bolt at the nearest hellhound. But there’s more panic in the crowd this time, someone crashes into me, and my bolt misses…hitting Elizabeth instead.
Elizabeth crumples, and she’s on the ground, convulsing, smoke rising from her chest where my deadly blast of electricity hit her.
My brain short-circuits. Everything narrows to Elizabeth’s body on the floor as the crackling webs of electricity along her skin die out.
Francis drops beside her, screaming her name.
I can’t stop staring at her. Because I killed her. I was trying to save Sam, and I killed Elizabeth while doing it.
My hands are shaking, I want to throw up, and Francis is screaming, but I can’t do anything except stand here and watchthe smoke rise from the body of a girl who was alive because of me and is now dead because of me too.
All my power, all my goddess-given lightning, and I murdered an innocent girl who was trying to survive.
A wet, tearing sound yanks me out of my thoughts.
I spin around, and Sam’s not against the wall anymore. He’s on the ground. One of the hellhounds is standing over him, muzzle buried in his chest, and there’s so much blood, too much blood, spreading across the floor in a dark mirror that reflects the floating flames above us.
He’s not moving. He’s not screaming. He’s just lying there, eyes open, staring at nothing.
No. This can’t be right. I’ve done this four times. I should know what I’m doing. I should know how to stop this.
How is everything going so horribly wrong?
The hellhound raises its head, Sam’s blood dripping from its teeth.
Electricity tears from my hands before I register raising them. The creature convulses and drops dead.
I stumble over to Sam’s body, my knees hitting the floor beside him. His warm brown eyes are open, but there’s nothing behind them anymore. The fear is gone. The confusion is gone. The open smile he always wore is gone.
Elizabeth and Sam are dead because of me. Elizabeth from my magic, and Sam from my hesitation. I acted and killed someone. I hesitated and let someone die. Either way, people end up dead, and I don’t know which is worse.
“Jade!” Logan screams, although it’s distant and muffled, like hearing someone shout through water. “We have to move!”
I can’t move. I can’t stop staring at Sam’s face.
A hellhound charges from my right.
A bolt leaves my hand, the creature drops, and I feel nothing. There’s no satisfaction, no relief. All that’s left is empty numbness spreading through my chest.
“Jade.” Logan’s hand closes on my arm, yanking me to my feet. “We have to go.”
He’s right. I know he’s right. But my eyes find Francis, hunched over Elizabeth’s body, just as he looks up at me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Go,” he says, his voice hollow. “Just go.”
I go.
The tunnel to the exit blurs into fire, blood, and electric bolts that I throw with precision at anything with red eyes. Logan clears the path ahead, but his fire is flickering out.
I don’t let myself think. Don’t let myself feel. Every bolt hits exactly where I intend it to, because I can’t afford another mistake.
