Stolen

Chapter Fourteen

Knox

I didn't question him. "One...Two...."

I braced myself against the door as Rhett counted down. I could feel the muscles in my legs aching as I tried to keep the monsters at bay.

"Three" he said.

I immediately jumped away from the door as a foreign light poured from Rhett's hands and enveloped the room. The creatures threw the door open quickly but could not penetrate through the light. It was working. I stood in awe of him as he held them off single handedly.

"Can you maintain this?" I shouted to him over the snarls of the angry creatures. If he could hold on to it, we would all make it out of here.

Rhett nodded, "I think so." he said but he sounded like he was already struggling.

I lifted Ember back into my arms. Rhett walked tentatively out of the room, the light that pooled around us going with him. I stayed as close to him as I could. We weren't far from the echo. We could do this. Rhett picked up speed as we made our way down the hallway and back towards the first set of doors we'd come through. The creatures followed just outside of the barrier of light. They were smart enough to know that death awaited them inside of it and never tried to break through. Rhett started to shake as the weight of the magic began to take its toll on him. I couldn't even imagine the energy it would take to conjure something like this. I pushed him to move faster until we were both running towards the echo.

We pushed through the last set of double doors and into the small entry room we'd arrived in just as the light around us began to flicker. The creatures nipped forward at the first chance they could, but the barrier would fall back down and sear their flesh.

"Find the echo!" Rhett yelled. His voice was tense as he strained to keep the magic flowing.

The air in the room was still but I knew the echo was still there. I walked forward until I felt a shift and the floor fell out from under me. The force of the jump ripped through my body, stealing a scream from my lungs. I held Ember tighter to my chest as we fell through. The portal must have been almost completely closed. Just when I thought the pain may be too much to bear, I landed on the other side. I hit the floor of Ember's dorm room on my back, Ember still securely in my arms. Rhett came through a second later, landing on his stomach beside us. I watched as the fragment closed into nothing and Maya collapsed onto her knees. She was exhausted from holding it open. For a moment, I laid there holding Ember trying to process what actually just took place. Rhett was the light bearer. The savior of all humankind. How was any of this even possible? I looked over at Rhett who was still laying on his stomach, forehead pressed to the cold floor, taking deep breaths in and out. I wanted to ask him about it but I didn't know how much he'd shared with Maya aout his gifts.

As if reading my thoughts, Rhett turned to face me, propping himself up on his elbows. "I - I'm sorry I lied to you. No one was supposed to know who I was. No one could know what I could do. Hell, I didn't even know what I could do until Ember showed up. They made her think she was this savior of the world and the whole time she was a pawn. She was never meant to live, Knox. It was her duty to die for me and I couldn't live with that. When Carrson told me that they took her, I almost threw up right there. The idea of anyone dying for me is just beyond anything I can take, but Ember? I knew you loved her. I knew this whole time that you needed her and I couldn't be the one who took that away from you. I never knew Carrson was working with them..." I could tell a weight lifted off of his chest as he admitted the truth.

We'd been so close since we were kids but he'd never been able to fully be himself until now. No more secrets and no more hiding. Everything was on the table. I let out a deep breath that I didn't realize I had been holding but before I could respond, Ember stirred on my chest. She pulled a tired hand across the back of her eyes before opening them. Her eyebrows pulled together into a concerned line and she pushed herself off of my chest quickly. Rhett and I both followed suit and quickly rose from the floor but Ember had pushed herself back into the corner of the room.