Page 92 of Amethyst Flame
Which hit the hollow curve of his left shoulder and sent him staggering into the NASA arc of desks. A chair toppled. Papers scattered, some floating briefly in the air.
“Drew!” Adley shouted as she backed away from the desk.
Suddenly my butterfly field was invaded by a nanoscopic gust of dragons, late unwanted guests at this horrible party.
“No!” I yelled at her. “You’ll just scare him…” Into doing something even more desperate.
Not to mention that the dragons’ charge into my field had set my butterflies into a frenzy, and now I couldn’t track the subtle lap, sway, and absence that might be Will.
“Catch him,” Adley commanded.
I sputtered. Because how…? But by the floor, a small swirl of purple dust denoted a footstep, and I shoved toward that eddy with another [block]. A cloud of my butterflies rushed upward as Will fell, his feet knocked out from under him. Right in front of Adley.
His cloaking failed in a zapping haze of electric blue.
Finally seeing the danger right in front of her, Adley turned to bolt.
The dragon hive coalesced around Will, but with a hasty grab, he caught Adley by the swaying flutter of her palazzo pants.
She pinwheeled for balance as Will grabbed her arm to stand. And then he yanked her to him so her body would shield him from me. He put his fingers to Adley’s neck, and wormy veins of blue shot through the right side of her neck and face.
Exactly what I was afraid of. Well, not exactly the wormy vein thing, but close enough.
“I’ll end her,” he said. “Don’t make me end her.” He sounded trapped and miserable.
“Take him, Drew,” Adley said.
Credit where due—the woman had spine. Drew didn’t have our symbiosis with the dragons. He had to command them via some sort of interface, and that took precious time. Will could easily rip out an artery before Drew could get the dragons to do anything useful. Or the little buggers might kill her anyway if anyone tried to mess with Will.
“Don’t take him, Drew,” I called.
Oluwa came to stand next to me, speaking low, “Can you hit him again?”
“Not with her in the way,” I muttered back.
Will backed toward the corridor, toward the elevator that would take him back up to the ground floor. Adley was his ticket out of here. And after that? I had no idea.
“Will, don’t do this,” I said.
“You made me.” His lips were going an ugly blue.
“You’re the one with the stranglehold on the person who can help you.”
Oluwa and I followed their slow staggering shuffle—Adley was panting—and though my hands burned with unspent energy, I felt powerless.
“She’s already helping me,” Will said. “She’s helping me get out of here.”
A cobalt haze of Will’s bugs drifted around him, and without him touching the elevator call button, it lit. And fuck if the doors didn’t slide right open, the car empty and waiting for him and his hostage.
“Anyone tries to stop me,” he went on, “I’ll make her scream.”
“Imogen,” Adley gasped. Clearly, a plea for help.
I’d beentryingto help. I’d been telling her that her schtick wasn’t going to work. Will was too far gone. Andnowshe wanted me to intervene? What was it going to take for someone,anyone,to listen to me?
Will backed inside the elevator, Adley in his grasp.
The doors closed without him having to hit a level.
