Page 108 of Amethyst Flame
I caught a glimpse of the brighter blue glow at their back ends before I whirled toward Dane. “Get down!” I hollered, jumping at him.
I knocked him to the ground as the three bullets ricocheted back at us.
We crashed down, my flailing arms entwined in his strong embrace, my t-shirt smooshed up against his disheveled suit coat.
Will wasn’t playing, wasn’t listening, and wasn’t fighting to lose anymore. He was trying to kill us.
I rolled off Dane with a muttered curse and spun back to face Will—there were plenty of other large, sharp, and/or chemical weapons he could fling at us—but he wasn’t even looking at me. He was striding toward the tank of honeycombed hives.
“I can’t stop him,” I told Dane. “He’s too powerful. How long before your guys are here?”
“Too long,” Dane replied. “If you can hold him, I’ll do the rest.”
“Will, stop.” I pushed all the command I had into my voice. “I can’t—won’t—let you do this.”
To my shock, he did stop. He pivoted slowly to face me, and the strain in his expression matched what I knew was in my own. Maybe he wasn’t so much stronger than me.
“When I drank the vial, I just wanted to get high,” he murmured. “I had no idea…” He gave me a little shrug, his hands opening to his sides.
A flicker of blue danced across his knuckles—nothing much, not enough to be scary, but it echoed in a handprint on the tank behind him.
Right where Adley had touched.
He’d told her to wake them, but I’d thought Dane shooting out the computer had prevented it.
Maybe our last mistake.
Blue cracks spiderwebbed from the handprint fingertips, racing across the clear surface. Following the cracks, the honeycombs ignited with pure white sparkles.
Will had been stalling while the unbound hives awakened—not at the computer command but from the provocation of his bugs, sent through Adley. He’d never been listening to me at all, just biding his time while thinking what a babbling loser I was.
He must’ve seen the jolt of understanding in my face because he smirked—right as the tank exploded in a deadly halo behind him.
Dane grabbed me, and I grabbed the faltering remnants of my hive, huddling close. There wasn’t much power left in the butterflies, but their presence blocked some of the piercing splinters of glass. Larger chunks rained down too, bouncing around us—the balls of nanobots that had been contained within the honeycomb.
For a second, I stared at the fist-sized sphere that had rolled to stop near us. The casing was some sort of soft jelly stuff—like a dishwasher detergent pod—but within was a roiling mini-verse of power, just waiting to come to life…
I reached out—
Dane’s grunt brushed across my tangled hair. “Don’t have to worry about breaking the tank anymore.” He jumped to his feet, a gun in each hand, and fired.
Will swept a glowing hand through the air, a negligent gesture that knocked the bullets away like he couldn’t even be bothered to aim them back at us. Flying glass had left his shirt in tatters, and glittering shards pierced his skin.
As he stood, he jammed the jellied casing over his nose and mouth. With a huffing gargle, he emptied the case. His eyes rolled back in his head, the crushed ball tumbling from his hand.
Yeah, Will wasn’t home anymore.
I grabbed Dane’s hand. “Game over,” I whispered. “Time to run away.”
Will’s eyes burned midnight blue, no whites left, when he looked at me. “I’ll take yours too.”
Dane shoved me away. “Go.”
For once, I didn’t stop to question. I fled, clamping my hands over my ears to dampen the hail of gunfire.
I knew what I had to do. It was the only option I had left, no matter what Dane said.
Will didn’t care about anything anymore except the bugs. He’d follow me. I’d buy a little more time for Dane, Jacob, Adley, and the white coats to come up with our next step. I trusted them to figure it out. And if not…
