Fury and Flame | 3

5 | 0

J A X O N

The three women stood in the light of the street lamps, watching us leave. I looked back once, the grin from the victory I'd earned us still on my face.

As soon as we were out of earshot of the women, Delphinium looked up at me. "You talked to your father?"

"Yeah." I didn't care anymore that they knew about my issues with him; they meant more to me than he did anyway. "As it turns out, he's very motivated by money." As if I hadn't learned that from an early age when he'd chosen it over the family and become emotionally unavailable.

Riley gave an exaggerated shrug, not judging. "Aren't we all?"

"Some of us more than others," said Finn, throwing Arlo a look.

      One by one, we stepped through the gaping hole in the fence. I stopped fidgeting with the small contraption I was building. "Are they still watching us?"

      Checking behind us, Delphinium said, "No. They're gone."

      Good. "Duck down." I crouched and the others confusedly followed suit. "Make sure we won't be seen."

I turned to see them all staring at me. Sighing, I said, "Alright, hear me out." I pulled out four more of the same contraption as the one I'd just finished. "See these? If they're exposed to enough heat, they explode. As we know, Imperium's weapons take extreme heat to function. I'm thinking if we put them into the fuel canisters, we can take out targets without actually having to be there."

Eyes cast to the facility in the distance, Riley said, "We'd have to wait until they leave. And then we'd have to worry about security cameras."

"You think I'd be stupid enough to not check? I saw where they were situated when we went inside," I assured her. "If we stay out of view, no one will know."

"But you heard what those women said: Imperium will punish them for anything that goes wrong," Delphinium reminded us, her hair almost glowing in the dark. "Once the explosions hit, the hammer will come down on these innocent people."

"Not if Imperium thinks there was a problem with the batch of fuel itself. That's why we'll be putting these bad boys inside the canisters themselves." I waved the contraptions in the air to make my point. "They'll never suspect foul play because they won't know we were here."

"You really thought of everything, didn't you?" Arlo asked me, eyes shining faintly in the low light. He eyed Jake. "Jaxon's coming for your job."

Benton turned to Jake, who looked less than pleased at sharing the same skill as me. "Careful, Evans. We might believe you're losing your touch."

"Keep talking," Jake said calmly to him. "I would love to finish freezing you to death like I did that day on the battlefield."

I could make out Benton's sly smile even in the darkness. "Like you did to your father?" I rolled my eyes, knowing he was trying to rile Jake.

I watched the situation closely, aware that Jake's father was a touchy subject. I supposed we had that in common. But Jake didn't give the violent response Benton wanted; instead, he simply said, "Yes. You will have the same treatment he did. Limbs blackening, blood freezing inside your very veins, your organs starved for warmth..."

"Tell me more," Arlo requested, sounding genuinely entranced. Benton's white-toothed smile grew as he read whatever Jake's thoughts were.

"Look, they're leaving." Finn pointed to the three dark figures moving across the parking lot. A small group of workers followed them.

We all watched as they left, making the parking lot completely abandoned. Because of it, we were quick to hurry back across it to the group of buildings. I walked confidently across the pavement—made slick by the night's mist—but an inkling of self-doubt gnawed in the back of my mind. Knowing it had no place here, I quickly squashed it.

There was no one better than me. I would see the job done.

Our group made it to the side of the building, where there were no cameras to be seen. The only problem was that the door was locked, as expected. There was only one person here who could open it undetected. Turning to her, I looked her in the eye in an unspoken request.

Delphinium hesitated. Then, looking as though she was counting each carefully-measured step, she stood in front of the door. She didn't even have to move a muscle for the door to swing open noiselessly.

With a flaming hand held in the air, Finn lit our way back inside. He led us to the army of boxes that the women had showed us—ready to be transported.

       Delphinium used her power to seamlessly open the cartons and moving quickly, I helped the rest of them open up the canisters. After placing the devices I'd made into the pool of reflective silver liquid, we sealed them back up. Good as new.

       I scanned once again for outside cameras as the door shut behind us. There were none. We'd gotten in and out undetected.

      "I'll admit, I didn't think that would work as well as it did," Arlo broke the silence as we stalked back through the cool night.

       I sensed Benny's quick glare on me. "It hasn't worked yet."

       "I made it," I retorted, hands in my pockets. "Of course it will work. My only regret is that we won't get to see it happen."