A strange peculiarity || Enoch O'Connor

chapter thirty five

Leo and Ethan reached the cells at the same time as two others they recognised all too well. "Jake! Emma!" Leo called out as the two took out the wight on guard.

"Leo get away from him!" Emma yelled, fire appearing in her palm.

"Wait-" Leo had known it would not be easy reintroducing Ethan into the group, he didn't expect them to trust him, heck he didn't even trust him. "He saved my life."

"Are you sure?" A voice sounded quietly from the back of one of the cells. It was Jeanette, Enoch supporting her, one arm around her waist, she was holding his free hand tightly in hers as though she couldn't bare to be parted from him. Leo couldn't describe how relieved he was to see her again. She was also was calm and collected.

"I am." Leo nodded, although he wasn't one hundred percent convinced this wasn't all some sort of elaborate trick.

"You have to be sure about this darling." Evangeline's voice sounded, Leo looked at her with with wide eyes.

"Evie!" His relief was clear in his voice. She had always been there for him, even though she wasn't particularly close to him, they had gotten closer before she had left, and he had felt wrong with her gone. He had worried they had lost her in the commotion, or Ethan had got to her before the wights.

"Oh darling what have they done to you?" She reached out and rubbed some of the blood from of his face. She'd forgotten how special their friendship was to her. "Ethan what did they do to him?" The sharpness in her voice surprised everyone.

"I found him in a worse state." Ethan replied quietly. "I'm so sorry."

"Ethan you must know where the keys are?" Jeanette asked gently, he nodded at once, thanking her for giving him a purpose so he didn't have to face the awkward stares.

"I'll be right back." He promised, running from the room at once.

"Joe!" Leo noticed the boy stood by the edge of the group, Horace by his side as always and another boy too, one Leo didn't recognise.

"Leo! Glad we found you! Or I suppose, you found us!" Josef even managed a smile for his friend. "Klaus this is Leo, Leo this is my brother."

"Your brother?" Leo asked, bemused. It seemed what Addison had said was true.

"I'll explain later, I promise." Josef replied, Leo didn't push it past that.

"Can we seriously trust Ethan?" Jacob asked the question that was on all of their minds.

"I think so." Leo nodded, although there was still a nag of doubt at the back of his mind. "He seems to understand it now."

"I hope it's not too late." Jeamette sighed, she leaned her head against Enoch's chest. "Whatever they're planning is bad, it has to be."

"Emma and I were thinking, maybe we should go one ahead, try to find the ymbrynes?" Jacob suggested.

"As long as if there is a fight you wait for backup." Cameron bargained.

"Sounds like a plan." Jacob replied with a nod.

"Do be careful." Olive said, coming to the front of the cell. "And make the wights sorry for taking our ymbrynes. But not too sorry, leave us some."

"We will." Emma promised.

"Good luck." Jeanette smiled at them sadly. The two left the group, just as Ethan returned.

"I have the key." He announced, passing it to Leo, he knew none of them would trust him to do it. He had to earn that again. Leo's hands were shaking, but he still managed to unlock the door to the cell. Ethan tried to rub some blood from Leo's face, but stopped when the boy flinched at his touch. 

"Leo!" Evangeline hugged the boy at once, the entire group fussing around him as they made their way out of the cell, pushing Ethan to the side as they greeted their friend, once again making their distrust clear. 

"We must help Emma and Jacob." Bronwyn announced to the group, who agreed with her, but no one moved. They all knew they were too weak to do anything. 

"How? I can barely use my peculiarity!" Casper pointed out, speaking what was on everybodies mind.

"We are all weak, but we must use whatever strength we have left to fight for peculiarkind." Jeanette said inspiringly, Enoch was all but supporting her and they all could see she was in no fit state to fight. "We have to stop them getting to the library any way we can." 

"What will happen if they get to the library?" Olive asked delicately.

"We will all die, all peculiars, all normals, everyone." Evangeline murmured. "This is it."

"Then lets go." Josef said simply, they all turned to look at him. "We don't have anything left to lose." 

"Oh I don't think you're going anywhere." It was a voice that had plagued Jeanette, Ethan, Evangeline, Nathan and Cameron for years and they would not let it continue. "Now, now children, my friends are rather hungry, shall we go and visit them?"

"Miss Cuckoo, if that is even your name, we will not let you keep on like this." Evangeline said, gathering the group away from the rogue ymbryne.

"Oh darlings, how are you going to stop me? You couldn't all those years ago, and I don't think that you can now, look at the state of you." She cackled and advanced towards them, those that had faced her before desperately trying to protect the others, with only a few joining them on the front line. Cameron grabbed Jeanette's hand, combining their peculiarities and trying to do something to get rid of them, but it barely made a scratch, they had little strength and she was less affected by their peculiarities now, they felt that hope was lost, they all did, even all four combining their peculiarities did nothing, whatever she had taken from all the peculiars unlucky enough to come across her, had made her powerful. 

They were concerned of how to defeat her when she suddenly froze, covering in ice, unable to move, every single particle of her being freezing like nothing they'd seen before.

"Try again." It was Ethan who spoke, he was quiet and almost scared, but Nathan, Cameron, Evangeline and Jeanette combined their peculiarities and blew the ice ymbryne into pieces. they were safe. 

"Ethan you saved our lives." Cameron said after a few minutes of no one saying a thing. 

"You're my family." He replied gently, still quiet and unsure. "Now let's go and save peculiardom."