Ava Rising: Book 2 of 3

Chapter 6

A full hour passed before she could sense Lucas coming. He emerged out of the darkness; when he got close enough she could see that he was nursing a black eye and various scratches and burns. Her stomach turned and she wondered if he too had killed his attacker...or attackers. He came to stand over her, and she could tell from the movement of his eyes and faint hint of concern emanating from him that he was scanning her body for injuries.

"Excuse me, ma'am, I'm going to have to write you up a ticket." He stroked an invisible mustache, doing his best impression of a traffic cop. "Your left taillight is out...and you broke the Golden Gate Bridge."

From her position on the ground she started laughing and crying—snot mingling with her tears to streak down her face. "It's not funny."

"It's a little funny. You were being attacked by one person, one person," he said, holding up his index finger, "and your first instinct was to unleash an earthquake to bring down the Golden Gate Bridge." His voice was equal parts wonder, reproach, and excitement. "This is why we can't have nice things."

At this Ava began to laugh in earnest.

Lucas continued, "Was it because I called it a triumph of human engineering? Because if so, I just want you to know that the Pyramids are garbage—definitely not worth a trip to Egypt—"

"It wasn't me. The earthquake. It wasn't me." She hadn't wanted to tell him her theory yet—God knows they didn't need anything else to worry about—but the words had bubbled up before she could stop herself.

Lucas looked at her in disbelief. "Who was it? Your grandma again? She can't cause all the natural disasters in the world, Ava." His tone turned more serious. "You know I was just teasing you before—your power is actually incredible. It was really kind of a brilliant maneuver—"

"I'm not being modest," she cut in sharply. "I think it was she—Gaia. I think Mother Earth has decided to enter the battle herself." As Lucas continued to look at her, incredulity written all over his face, her words tumbled out faster and faster. "I didn't kill him. I didn't want to kill him...It didn't even occur to me to ice over the water to break his neck as he landed...I heard it...I heard the sickening crack of his body snapping like a twig as he landed."

"Slow down. Mark is dead?"

Ava eyes widened. Mark?—Lucas had known their attackers. "Yes." She wiped her snot away as she continued, "After the earthquake, which I swear I didn't cause, the man attacking me lost his balance and tumbled off the edge of the bridge. While he was falling the water below him iced over and..."

"And you're sure you didn't communicate subconsciously? Maybe you'd seen another Gaia warrior try that move before and so it was filed away in your mind? Somewhere deep down? It wouldn't be impossible—the natural world seems to be responding to even your most fleeting of thoughts."

"I've never seen that 'move' done before. And it's not something I would just think of. It's so...twisted."

A siren interrupted them; the sound and what it signified suddenly left Ava feeling claustrophobic. "Let's get out of here," she muttered and put a hand up in the air, motioning towards Lucas to help her up. Hesitantly he did so. As soon as she made contact with his skin she flinched violently away from him. The same burning energy had ignited at their contact, but there was something else, something even more disconcerting. She turned and dry-heaved.

"What's wrong?" Lucas asked in concern, moving towards her.

"Stay away from me," she barked.

Lucas put up his arms and retreated in confusion. Ava swung around to confront him. "I can feel the satisfaction seeping out of your pores. You wanted this to happen." Accusation was thick in her tone.

When Lucas didn't say anything to defend himself, Ava took a step forward and shoved him, making sure to connect the skin of her palms with his bare forearms. The skin on skin contact was like steel striking flint—sparks jumped from the point of friction and drifted lazily to the ground. Ava watched the neon specks with satisfaction for a moment and then shoved Lucas again, harder. This time there was a full shower of sparks. Lucas backed away a few feet, his face impassive.

Ava said, "You dangled us out as bait and I barely made it out alive. I ki—somebody died because of me." She cursed under her breath. "I broke the Golden Gate Bridge," she echoed Lucas's joke, but this time the words didn't seem nearly so funny. "And potentially brought a city to its knees."

Lucas returned her stare with no pity in his eyes. "Did you really think nobody else was going to have to die for us to live?" His voice was taut with anger. This time he took a step towards Ava. "Did you know the person you killed? Did you know the name of his wife? His newborn daughter?" With every word, the muscles in his neck tightened a little more.

It was a strange moment. Ava was already angry but she was also picking up on the rage flickering through Lucas's body and it was building in her, coaxing the flame of her own anger. And it felt delicious to be shouting and kicking and pushing. So Ava raised the stakes. She closed the gap between them and raised her arms to shove Lucas again. "Then why did you make us do it? And why didn't you tell me about your plan?"

Lucas grabbed her hand, blocking her forward motion. He held onto it firmly as Ava tried to pull away. "This was the only way. You've heard the rumor that the Ares can read the future? We can...in a way. By knowing every bit of data about a person, every material fact about his environment, we can predict exactly how a person will react in a given situation long before that person knows what he'll do. This is especially true for our own members, who we've monitored since birth and put through a rigorous series of personality and aptitude tests." Lucas sucked in a breath. "I have one and only one trump card in my race to escape the Makhai. The Ares don't know me like they thought they did. And until they recover those last bits of data, until they trace the Gaia blood in my lineage, and fill in the blanks—I can move unnoticed. Like I'm off-map in a videogame. They were expecting me to slink quietly out of America. And so I had to draw them out, so we could get rid of those who were trailing us here—where your power would be at its zenith. If they had ambushed us in the airport we wouldn't have had a chance. You started to see it today with your bees and your fog—you leave a phosphorescent trail, Ava. I needed that to draw them out."

As he had been speaking, their hands had burned hotter with energy. The sparks had turned into flames, which were now licking up their arms.

"But...think of all the people that might have been hurt in the earthquake. What if some of them died? I didn't want this." The last part came out as a wail.

"You don't think more people will be hurt if the Ares succeed in wiping out the Gaia?"

Ava was silent.

"We have to go now, while the Ares are in disarray. While I'm still essentially invisible—unpredictability is our only chance. And you have to follow my lead. We need to leave no trail at the airport—it's critical that they not know where we're going next. We need the head start."

Ava made to pull away, but Lucas held tightly to her arm. "I'm serious. This could be the most dangerous part because we'll have nowhere to escape to." He looked at her solemnly as the flames licked up their arms. "Are you with me?"

"I'm not not with you."

He nodded and pulled out of their embrace, watching as the flames disappeared into the darkness. "Good enough for me," he murmured.