• This is the second book of The Collected series •
"Those who bring pain are here to save, and those who bring hope will bring death. A great evil rests on the horizon, eating away at each setting sun. Nothing is as it seems while you beg for salva...
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The fighting had already begun by the time Jasper and I reached the others. Nicholas was stronger than he used to be, and with his accelerated healing as well as lack of feeling for pain, he was no easy opponent. Not even when he was outnumbered three to one.
In the time the Collectors had him, they had molded him into something else entirely. He was ruthless and without mercy. His movements were fast and precise, as if he could do this in his sleep. He was a monster, even more so than he had been before.
He had an advantage too, as none of us would kill him, and he had no problem killing us. It was hard not to wonder if it was worth it. If trying to save him was worth risking all of our lives. He hadn't been a good person, not even before they had changed him.
The floor and walls shook, the lights flickering. Around us, the Collecting point grew quiet. The sounds from below ceasing and the engines that kept the place running were dying. The army we'd amassed was too much for the Collectors. It didn't seem real, that it was really happening. That soon, it might all be over. That if we could get Nicholas under control, that we may all walk out of this godforsaken place alive.
"You've lost Nicholas," Torryn shouted a few feet away where Nicholas had pushed him back, "Stop this now and we can still help you."
"No." Nicholas' eyes looked wild, almost glazed over and unfocused. His breathing was ragged and his fighting started to become more hurried, more frenzied. "I'll kill you all, if its the last thing that I do. If we fall, you'll fall too."
A piece of the barrier that separated their ledge from the open space below broke away, wrapping around Nicholas' midsection and pinning him to the wall. He struggled against it frantically, screaming over and over again all the ways he would kill us. Andrea fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face, arms outstretched and straining to keep him trapped.
We had no idea how far our abilities could go. We'd never had the chance to tests the extent of them or how long it would take to pull us apart. Andrea had been using hers constantly, and now, it appeared she'd reached that wall. Both the physical and mental exhaustion draining her.
Max - or maybe the creature that lived behind his eyes - moved, slamming Nicholas's head against the wall with enough forced that could've been deadly for any regular human. We knew it wouldn't hurt him, not in the long run, but it did knock him unconscious.
The moment he slumped forward, the metal fell away and both Andrea and Nicholas collapsed to the ground at the same time. With Jaspers help I limped to her side, pulling her against me. "We did it." I whispered, "You did it, we've got him."
"Is it over?" Andrea's hands curled into my shirt, her breath ragged.
"Almost."
There was the sound of running, and when I looked up, Torryn and Estelle collided with each other. My heart lurched as he lifted her off the ground, her arms wrapped around his neck and face buried in her chest. Her small frame was shaking, and so was Torryn.
