Lucky and the Killer ✔

Or What?

"Damn," Helix groaned. "This is going all wrong."

He flew down the stairs two at a time—passed the shattered, brown leaves beneath indifferent, gray birds and the sprinkling rain. The whole point of putting her there was so that someone wouldn't find her, and out of all of the people that could have found her, it had to be them. Killing Sean would have to wait. Deraindium was much worse. None of it was working out the way it was supposed to. It was all wrong.

He pushed his gloved fist against the glass and opened the portal behind it. It was still warm from the last time they'd came through. There were so few portals since the war, that it'd taken him much longer than it would have before. The last thing he'd planned to do was hunt down King. He was supposed to have Lucky kill Sean—in turn, killing King and stopping him from destroying everything. Deraindium shouldn't have even shown up. He was running out of time.

Still, it didn't take him long to get to the palace in The Kingdom. He jogged up to the empty gate and ran inside—into the chaos and death Sean left in his wake. There were sounds coming from the right, but he didn't have time to search the entire castle like that.

"King!" he yelled. "Get out here!"

It didn't take King long to appear. He came running out with his entourage behind him. Guards lay scattered around on the floor, and among them, lay Bella. He started to say her name, but he couldn't. They would all be in danger if King turned.

"He found you," Helix gasped. "This is what I was trying to prevent, and it's happening anyway."

"Where's Lucky?" King asked right away.

"What?" Zee asked. "Who's found him?"

"Deraindium," Helix said as he braced himself on his knees to catch his breath.

"How the hell did she get there?" King growled.

"She's not there," Helix said. Maybe Lucky would set off and take King out herself—before he finished the mark. It wasn't the way he'd planned on getting rid of King, but it could work. Something had to work. Once that mark was finished, so were they. "She's on Earth, but they're there. The Deraindium Guard, and they've found Lucky."

King's blue eyes went wide. His mouth fell flat against his clenched jaw, and his fists dug into his palms as he thought. They...what were they doing on Earth? What were they doing with Lucky?

"How did this happen?" King said. Helix's shirt twisted into his hands as he pulled him by the collar. "Start talking. Now. Damn you, Helix!"

"How it happened doesn't matter," Helix said. He pulled King's hand off of his neck and steadied himself upright again. "What do we do?"

"Why Lucky?" King groaned.

"Isn't it obvious?" Helix spat. "He's toying with you. He wants you to finish the mark."

"It's my fault," Lilly cried. "All of this happened because of me."

"That's not true," Zee whispered.

Lilly's shrieks made Bella's eyelids finally flutter. It didn't take long for her smooth face to wrinkle with worry and her arms to push her from the floor in a panic.

"C'mon, let's go," King said as he set his solid, blue eyes towards the front door.

"King!" Bella yelled. "Damn you!"

King twisted around to see Bella's bruised up face crying from behind them. Her fists were clenched as tight as they would go, and her brown curls trembled slightly beside her wavering jaw.

"Bella...," Helix finally whispered.

"Sarah is gone because of your father!"

"Sarah is fine," King said quietly. "She's with Liz, resting."

"He took her! Your father took her!"

"He's not my father! I said she's fine. Calm down. I've got bigger things to worry about right now!"

"Bigger things?" Bella gasped, but then her eyes landed on her own father. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"He came to tell us Lucky is in trouble."

"Oh," Bella half-laughed, "right. How could I forget that any time Lucky is brought up, you forget your A-B-C's."

"I'm leaving," King said.

"What's your plan?" Helix asked as King began to head out the door.

"Plan?" King's voice came out hollow. He took in the stars in the sky—their effervescent gathering of energy laced through-out the clouds like rotten glitter. It was both beautiful and pointless—like everything. What was his plan? He didn't really need one. "I'm going to give them what they want."

"You can't do that, King," Helix seethed. "You'd better come up with something else by the time we get there."

King began to run. He jogged through the tall, dead grass on his way to one of the few open portals. There was no telling what they could...what they would do to her. He could see the marks on the back of his neck—their gray scars slid into his skin and were still just as painful as they'd been when they were first carved there. They were silver—like her hair. She was a magnet for them. They fed off energy, and she had so much. Creston wouldn't spare her. He couldn't take the mark, but he was going to. He had to. Maybe with it, he at least stood a chance against him.

"How many of these damn portals did y'all open?" King spat as they made their way to the closest one. "It took forever for us to shut them down."

"Only what was necessary," Helix sighed as he toyed with the ring he always kept inside of his pockets.

"Where is she now?" King asked. They stepped out onto the Earth. The night emptied out. Shiny cop cars patrolled the ghosted intersections, and the people were mostly tucked away.

"Left," Helix said as he looked up at the billboards above them. Billboards made good maps at times. The muddy yellow of the sign lingered over them as they ran along busted sidewalks and swirling coffee cups.

They turned the corner. A flash of light bit into the sky, but it wasn't the storm. It was too bright—too packed. It was Lucky.

"Lucky...," King let her name fall off of his lips. Their feet stood glued to the ground and staring at Milo and Lucky.

"Oh," Milo laughed. His fist was wrapped tightly around Lucky's throat—despite her wild silver hair flailing with power. "That's a good one. Try again, love. You missed."

"This is bad," King whispered.

"Oh, King," Milo called over to them, "so you did come? And you brought the watchful eye with you. How nice."

"Put her down, Milo!" King yelled.

"Or what?"