Page 20 of Coerced

“I don’t like that,” John rumbled.

“Why? What’s going on at the quad?”

Jax hesitated, his brown eyes skating away from mine.

“Just tell me!”

“Firsts First is holding a rally there today.”

“The F-Fers again? And they would go to itwhy?” I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. “To protest, of course.”

I took off in a fury of blue sparks.

#

Gemma

The rally was a disaster.

Apparently, Council members did not consider it a serious matter. It was obvious that they hadn’t expected anyone to show up on the quad. If they had, they would have sent more than a handful of wardens to monitor fifty screaming First Firsters and the twenty of us who’d come to protest.

My friends and I held up our signs in silence, as we’d all agreed beforehand, and the First Firsters made a beeline to confront us. We didn’t respond as we stood there and faced them, even when the volume of their chanting became deafening.

“Firsts First! Firsts First! Firsts First! Seconds and below need to go, go, go!”

Cole Fanishell came right up to us and screamed in our faces.

He frightened me more than anything I’d encountered so far in this world. His kind of mentality led to genocides and holocausts.

Worse, he hadfollowers.

If Kerry knew I was here, the ugly situation would have deteriorated even faster, especially since Cole seemed to have made me his target.

He came right up to me, raised his hands, and pressed his palms against my sign. Confused, I glared at him and refused to yield so much as an inch, but he kept bearing down on me, fast and aggressive.

Holding my ground, I glanced over and saw Gigi and Chessie were having the same problem with two other First Firsters. Before I could check on Tara and Maddy to my left, Cole gave me an extra hard shove and I lost my footing. I had the sense and experience to keep my head up to avoid being concussed, but I still landed flat on my back and the air went right out of me.

I’d been winded a few times in my life. My brain knew it was temporary, one or two minutes at most, but my body went into survival mode and shut out everything as it tried to restart my diaphragm. I nearly forgot there was another threat standing over me, but Cole was kind enough to remind me by shoving his shoe into my stomach.

I grabbed his foot to push it off, but that compressed my panicking lungs, and I had to drop my elbows back. Gritting my teeth, I kicked up, but there was no strength in it and my foot only glanced off his backside.

“Quit wiggling around, little worm,” he warned me and pushed his heel down harder.

Of course, right then, a deep voice bellowed my name with enough power to make my heart stutter, and one frantic thought branded itself on my brain.

He’ll kill Cole. He willkillhim!

Sending a jolt of healing through my body, I swung my foot up again. This time, I hit what I aimed at full force. Cole grabbed his groin and dropped to his knees, then keeled over onto his side with a moan.

Hah! Hope Kerry saw that!

I sat up to look for my boy, wanting to gloat a little, but hard fingers dug into my shoulder and yanked me back down. Before I could blink, murky power wrapped around me and—

#

Kerry

When Gemma kicked Fanishell in the balls and he fell to the ground, I thought,That’s my girl!

---