Page 78 of Shiny Things

“Why isn’t it working?” Kim whispered.

“Oh, it is. Can you fix your aim?”

“Just a little.”

“Direct your spray towards the guy closest to us.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure because my powers about to unleash and it’ll be all the more powerful combined with yours.”

“Tell me when and I’ll try.”

“Powers!” the girl yelled once more.

I closed my eyes fighting the energy coursing through my veins.

“Now.”

Kim turned slightly, drenching the man closest to us, just as I held out my hands and released the energy built up there. Like a lightning rod, it hit her water and exploded.

The impact shook the ground, and I threw my body on hers before the energy came back through the water.

The girl shrieked and stopped the hold she had on us.

“Don’t look,” I told Kim as I picked her up and ran for the house.

I could smell burnt flesh and I knew it was bad.

Safely inside, I set her down and turned back to the scene unfolding on her front lawn.

Joe was crying as he cowered next to his car. The Collector’s hat was on fire, but he otherwise looked unharmed. The girl was shaking all over. I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or shock. And the man with them was dead, little more than ash in the yard. I couldn’t even feel badly for it.

Ryan and Dean had laid low after taking out the tires on the Collector’s car, and headed at full speed to join the action was the bulk of the Raven Congress. They nearly blacked out the sky and the ear-piercing calls had the human covering his ears and running for his car. But with no driver and two tires down, he wasn’t leaving.

In a last-second getaway, he held a gun to Joe’s head and forced him into his own vehicle before jumping into the backseat and pulling the girl along with him.

The last thing I saw was Joe speeding away from town with a black cloud of ravens on his tail.

To them, it probably looked like a scene from a horror movie. But for me, it was the most beautiful sight in the world. Well, almost.

I looked down at Kim curled up in a ball on her couch, and I smiled despite the horrible things that had just happened.

Kim

Chapter 21

“Are you okay?” he asked me.

“That asshole tranqed me. I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“They’re gone. It’s over. You can rest now. I’ll be watching over you.”

“Joe brought them to me. Why?”

“I don’t know. But it will be addressed.”

“Where is he?”

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