Page 161 of Let It Snow
I lock my eyes on him.
"Summer," he says slowly.
Is that even still my name? Or is it Doom?
How the hell did Bay survive as the only one? And what is he doing here?
He must have shielded Lake with his body.
Thank Fate.
The zone around him remained untouched.
But why? Why doesn’t my power affect him? With all my strength, he should have been obliterated. But no, he alone… is my blind spot? A strange thought, almost alien.
"Stop it, Summer," he says slowly, his voice low. "You don’t want this on your conscience. And if you do, this is the last moment of your life, because I can’t let you live."
He lowers his dad to the ground. Lake is still unconscious.
Then Bay steps closer. The last few strides. He reaches me, grabs my throat with his hand.
"Take. It. Back. Right now!"
"How?" I rasp, his grip tightening like iron around my neck.
He lifts me off the ground effortlessly. He’s strong. The fucking bastard.
"Do it! You’ve slaughtered innocents, you’ve crossed into darkness, and you’ve become my enemy. I’m giving you ten seconds to redeem yourself. I know you can, because now you carry Snow’s power inside you too!"
His words slam into me as hard as everything else that’s happened, like the force of my own shockwave crushing me from inside.
"Do it, Summer. The seconds are running out. Or I’ll rip your head off your spine. You can’t win against me."
His eyes are pitch black. And in their depths, something burns. Something like red flame.
"What the fuck are you?" I choke, strangled.
"Take it back, Summer. You’ve got five seconds left…!"
I try to shove him off, but it doesn’t work.
I know I have to try something. Or it’s over.
I lift my gaze, reaching deep inside myself.
I’m the mage of matter. Snow is the mage of energy.
And now that I’ve absorbed his essence… do I carry both powers? Both forces?
Energy and matter together—they can rip the fabric of space itself, can’t they?
I focus everything, all the power I have left, onto a single thread of light in front of me, shooting forward like a photon.
Is this how Snow saw the world? The entire future stretched ahead, a tide of energy crests rolling toward me, black waves threatening to crush me. I see the darkness striding closer, see the doom it carries.
The effort nearly tears me apart. I throw everything I have at that oneline of lightguiding me…
And I yank it backward.
