Page 185 of Firestorm
The campus was overrun with invaders, men dressed head-to-toe in black. I caught sight of Professor Randall using his earth affinity to create massive chunks of rock, and Coach was right there next to him, lifting and then hurling the rocks toward a group of men taking shelter behind a stone bench.
“Holy shit,” Mia breathed. “Where’s Headmaster Earl? We’re under attack!”
My arms trembled. The air was thick with tension, a strange static building as I took in just how many men were running through the campus, grabbing random students and taking off with them. They looked familiar – moving with military-like precision as they systematically grabbed certain students while gunning down others.
They were just like the men who’d hurt Levi.
A girl near us started to scream, and my affinity flared through me. We all turned just in time to see Carla being dragged away by two men, her screams cut short when one of them took her oxygen.
“Fuck no,” Willow seethed, raising her hands and hurling a wooden bench right at the men. They jumped out of the way just a momentbefore the bench smashed into the ground, right where they’d been standing.
The smaller man raised his gun, and my affinity jolted without me even raising my hands. Both men cried out before dropping to the ground, blood pouring from the larger man’s eyes while the smaller man wheezed for a moment.
“Pha-phan–,” he gasped. I staggered back away from him.
He lurched for the radio on his chest, but Willow was on him in a blink, stomping on his shoulder. He cried out weakly from the pain, then his eyes rolled back the next instant. He was dead.
Mia untied Carla nearby, and the bitch didn’t even say thank you before she took the fuck off.
“You’re welcome!” Mia called after her.
Aiden was strangely silent, his warm eyes watching me carefully.
“You okay, baby?” he asked.
I nodded, my mind spinning as I looked around us. How many of our friends could be out there, being harmed? Kidnapped? Because that’s what was happening. Armed men were kidnapping students.
“Ick, they all have that creepy symbol on their chests like that flag my dad keeps in his office.” Willow said.
My blood ran cold.
“What?” I whispered.
I didn’t hear her reply. My eyes locked onto the symbol on the chest of one of the dead men. My feet moved me forward, and I dropped to my knees, pulling back the radio to reveal the full symbol.
Two blood-red triangles, the points meeting to create an hourglass.
I gasped, lurching away as if it were a snake about to strike me.
“Baby?” Aiden asked.
“Where’s Landon?” I rasped.
“I haven’t seen him,” Mia replied.
“Why do we give a fuck about Landon?” Aiden growled, which would have turned me on if we weren’t in the middle of a hellscape straight from my nightmares.
“It’s the cult,” I said, my voice trembling. “That’s who this is. Extremists. Militants. Landon’s…Landon’s in trouble.”
“Oh my God,” Willow gasped, her hands flying to cover her mouth. Mia paled.
Several screams rent the air a moment later, and in the distance, a massive fireball shot into the sky, lighting up the trees in the quad.
“I don’t like this,” Aiden said tightly. “Maybe we should wait for Rafe.”
“I don’t need Rafe,” I hissed. “And neither do you.” Aiden’s eyes widened as I started moving toward the screams.
“We’ll meet you there,” Willow said. “I’m going to try to call my dad.”
