Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (43 page)

Between my fiery cage bars, I
found Gabriel, who looked more worried than I’d ever seen him. I glared at him,
motioned for him to mess with my emotions. He shook his head helplessly; he had
no more energy to give me. He had to lean on others for support.

Felix stood twenty feet away
from me, a smile on his face. He knew a victory when he saw one. And then
Finley, the only human in the gifted battle, charged at him with a scream.
Nikolas tried to stop him, but he burst through the line and ran straight for
Felix.

Finley stabbed the mad scientist
with a syringe no one had seen him holding. It looked like a smaller version of
the one I’d seen last night. Did it have Felix’s own cure in it? For one
heart-stopping second, we all froze, stared at Felix in wonderment. Would he be
human now? Could the battle be over?

Instead, Felix gave a bark of
laughter and pulled the syringe from his shoulder. He burst into flame and hit
Finley with a horrible crunch. Fin flew across the field in a fiery, crumpled
heap and lay still. Delia darted to him and beat the flames off his skin, his
clothes. He didn’t move.

“You can’t make me human—I
already am!” Felix said with a laugh.

I cast one more desperate look
around and found Sheffield. He gripped Bianca’s shoulder, leaned against
another circus member I didn’t recognize. Sheffield looked awful, pale and
sweaty. His eyes met mine and I had but a brief second to see that despite his
appearance, his steady gaze gave me comfort. He looked tired, yes, but not like
a man who might die…or lose everything to an enemy. He nodded; he couldn’t kill
Felix to protect his people, but he believed in me.

Felix’s nasally voice cut
through my panic. “I’ll be the most powerful gifted being ever created. I
killed Lucy Sullivan, daughter of the great Lenny Sullivan, the most talented
Firestarter in existence.”

His arrogance, the mere thought
he could be better than my dad, made my rage mount again. The only person who
would be better than my father would be me. My temper flared, and with it, my
fire. I burst into blue flames; the heat that had moments ago suffocated me now
gave me power. My hair stood on end; I felt power course through my veins like
never before. Shouts of terror and admiration alike reverberated through the
crowd.

I concentrated hard; my head
felt as if it might split in two, but I couldn’t stop. I had to control Felix’s
fire now or I would lose. I released myself from his cage by drawing my arms
into my chest, brought his giant ball of fire into my body. I glowed with
flames, shaking with the power that threatened to consume me.

I barely noticed as those around
us took several steps back. Never had I controlled or absorbed so much of
another’s fire. Even my lungs burned with pain. My heart pounded erratically,
my entire body screamed in protest and for a second, I wondered if I might die.
I looked at Felix, who narrowed his eyes and prepared another fireball.

Through the flames circling me,
I saw Felix’s expression. For the first time, he looked worried. I knew he
wanted out and if that meant running, he’d do it. I couldn’t allow that. If he
escaped, this might never end.

“You’re nothing, Felix; a no
one, a nerdy scientist with a complex. You say the gifted aren’t human, don’t
belong in your world.”

“You don’t, science has clearly
proven that. But I know many government officials and scientists who are
willing to figure you out, make you a part of the everyday world.”

“You have it backwards. It’s
you
who doesn’t belong and you will
never force us to accept you. You will
never
be one of us. No matter whose gift you take or how many humans know about us,
we will always be here,” I taunted him.

The crowd bellowed their
agreement. Felix’s hand flew to his temple, tapped his glasses in his absurd
tic. Flames lit up his pale face. I wanted to break his nose.

“You’re willing to die for
people you don’t know? These—these
freaks
?”
he shouted back.

“I
am
one of those freaks. I belong here!”

He screamed his frustration at
me, chucked another large ball of fire at me. Instead of stopping it, I
absorbed it into the flames that surrounded me. I gathered up every bit of fire
in my body, every thought of frustration and anger I could muster. My skin
began to blister and I raised my arms to my chest, bringing every bit of fire
off my body into my palms and took aim. A blue ball of fire escaped my hands
and went straight for Felix’s heart.

It hit him dead in the chest,
consumed him completely. As he fell backwards, his hands scrabbled at his heart
and his eyes looked at me in fury and astonishment as he screamed in pain. A
heartbeat later, he hit the ground, unmoving, coated in flames.

Relief flooded through me, but I
didn’t dare let the flames in my hands die yet. I wouldn’t put my weapon away
until I knew I didn’t need it again.

“I have to know he’s dead,” I
said to no one in particular.

I walked gingerly across the
blackened field to where Felix stayed motionless. His body already reeked,
rancid and burned, from ten feet away, but still I got closer. Most of his
shirt had burned away to reveal a nearly concave torso. His small body
resembled Marty’s: charred and blackened, his face in pain while his hands
reached for his chest. The whites of his eyes stood out amongst the black and
flaking skin. I backed away from the sight, knowing I’d have nightmares for
months. I’d killed Dr. Felix J. Hardy.

Well, at least his burn scars
wouldn’t piss him off anymore.

Chapter
41

The flames took their slow time
melting from my body. I’d never felt so odd: both terrible from the pain and
powerful from the newfound strength.

My head drummed harder, my
entire body shook, and for a horrifying second, I thought I might puke in front
of everyone. Dying was one thing, but I did not any under any circumstances want
them to see me yak. I clamped my mouth shut and tried to stomach the pain. I
wanted to scream in agony; stars popped in and out of my sight. When the last
reddish orange spot disappeared from my hands, I steadied my breathing and
looked around. The crowd stared back at me in astonishment.

“So…thanks for all your help,” I
said awkwardly.

Half of them laughed weakly,
while others simply looked from Felix’s body to me. Sheffield eased forward and
addressed the group.

“Thank you everyone. If you
don’t mind, let’s all go to bed or stay up and drink or do something other than
stand here. We’ll…have a meeting later.” He sounded weak, but no one dared
ignore his command. Most of the group scattered.

Sheffield motioned to Gabriel’s
uncle who now stood nearby. “Rick, go get a few of the workers and clean this
up, all right? We’ll say goodbye to our own in the morning. Can’t have any
customers wander over and see this tomorrow.”

Rick nodded, walked away to get
help from workers. I would gladly keep my ignorance to never know what they did
with the bodies. Nikolas now held Keegan up, to my relief; he looked like a
truck ran him over, but he was alive.

As I made my way over to them, I
stumbled and a hand caught my arm. I looked up to see Gabriel, who already
looked remarkably better despite the blood on him. We looked at one another
wordlessly for a moment.

“Thank you,” I finally told him.
“For everything tonight.”

He shrugged and I could barely
muster up any annoyance. “I didn’t really do anything, you know. I only strengthened
your feelings. The emotions, the power in your gift…you’ve always had it,” he
said.

“All the same, you helped me. I
guess I owe you my life twice over now.”

“I wasn’t exactly honest with
you about things. I don’t apologize for much, but for hurting you, I am so
sorry,” he replied.

I looked down at the ground. He
hadn’t removed his hand from my arm yet. I didn’t need to look over to know my
friends stared at us.

“Gabriel…” I started.

“I don’t care about what
everyone thinks. I know you don’t trust me right now but I’m going to do my
best to win it back. I’m in lo—”

“Don’t,” I interrupted. “
Do not
finish that sentence. I’m more
tired than I’ve ever been in my life, I just killed a couple of guys, and I need
to sort out my thoughts before I can even begin to figure out my feelings.”

“I get that, but I’m cashing in
my life-saving favor. We need to talk. I want you and I know you want me, even
if you don’t know what to do about it yet.”

I sighed and pulled away,
motioned for him to walk over with me to our friends. I looked up to see Keegan
with a pained look on his face. I gave him what little smile I could muster.
Gabriel had the good sense to wander away and Nikolas also stepped away to talk
to the others.

“Are you ok?” I asked Keegan.

“I’ll live. I’ll have the Healer
patch me up. Are you all right?”

“We won, didn’t we?”

“You don’t have to be tough with
me, Lucy. It’s been a hard night on everyone, but I imagine you took the brunt
of it for us. I know the pain can be bad, but you went further than any of us.”

I leaned in, put my forehead on
his chest and he put his arm around me. I felt his lips brush my hair and I
squeezed my eyes shut, tried to temporarily block out sounds and thoughts.

“Perhaps it’s my own fault for
not putting myself out there a little more with you,” he whispered in my ear,
“but I didn’t want to scare you away. I want to be with you. I wonder if we can
talk soon about us being a little more…officially together?”

I bit back a sigh. Did all
life-endangering situations bring about the need to talk about commitment and
togetherness?

“We can discuss it later. I’m
sorry, but I’m much too tired to think about anything else right now.”

“Understandable. You let me know
when. As for right now, what do you want to do?”

“Right now, I want to go to bed
and sleep off this fire hangover. I’ll get to the rest later.”

“All right. Let’s get everyone
to head back and we’ll get you to bed.”

We broke apart and made our way
to where everyone stood. They talked to one another about the fight, different
gifts they’d seen or fought, and the fight between Felix and me. I looked at
Sheffield, motioned my head to go back to the grounds and he nodded.

Nikolas offered his arm to
Sheffield, who took it and leaned as we walked through the grounds. Brooklyn
and Bianca smoked cigarettes as they walked arm in arm, their heads leaned in
together as they whispered. Delia walked with Finley, who nodded as she
murmured how to best care for his injuries. I became uncomfortably aware of
Keegan and Gabriel on either side of me; neither spoke or touched me, but both
of them kept their eyes on me. I focused on our surroundings instead.

The battle’s damage retained
mostly to the field. A few tents here and there were ripped or had burn marks,
but we’d gotten lucky not to lose our way of life. We would have a circus show
tomorrow and days after. Brooklyn had been smart to not have me throw fire at
the Airspinner, for she would’ve made sure flames caught all the way to the Big
Top. Bird feathers in the dirt caught my eye and reminded me of our winged
companion; sadness overwhelmed me. Too many had been killed or injured. Gifted
had too much to worry about to fight amongst our own.

“Can you believe it? I carried a
passenger! I’ve never done that before, but I wanted to help somehow and get
Sheffield outta there,” Bianca said. Brooklyn planted a proud kiss on Bianca’s
cheek.

“Looks like our emotions are not
so bad after all in a fight,” Delia replied. “You did a great job. Felix looked
so surprised.”

“Thanks. I have no idea if I
could ever do it again because I’ve never felt so desperate,” Bianca admitted.
“I don’t really know how I did it.”

“You just have to practice,” I
told her. “We all do. All of you were amazing and I can’t thank you enough. You
put your lives out there.”

“Of course we will help,” Delia
said. “This is what a team does, what protecting a family is about; we would
never let you fight the monsters alone.”

We reached Sheffield’s office
camper. The outdoor light attached to the door shone brightly, cast a yellow
light on our group. Shadows danced as we came forward. When we reached the
small wooden steps, Sheffield and Nikolas paused to catch their breath. The
rest of us hung back.

“I think I can make it from
here,” Sheffield said. “Lucy, would you mind coming in for a minute?”

He let go of Nikolas, carefully
walked up the three steps and through the door. I followed him into his office
camper, waited until he seated himself behind the big wooden desk. He moved
slow but already looked far better than he had in the field. I stood there and
folded my arms across my chest.

“Are you going to be all right?”
I asked him.

“Oh, I’ll definitely live. He
did have me worried for a few minutes though,” he admitted. Unsurprisingly, he
reached in his desk for his whiskey bottle.

“What was it like?” I asked.
“When you touched Felix and all that power went through you?”

“I’ve never been struck by
lightning, but I imagine it felt rather like electrocution. I knew immediately
my plan was shot to hell; my body froze up and I could feel myself seizing.
Next thing I knew, Bianca stood over me at the other end of the grounds. I knew
we needed to get back to the fight. I’ll be all right, though I don’t think
this is something the Healer can fix right away.”

I shuffled my feet, unsure what
to say next. Finally, I said the first thing that came to mind.

“You ignored my plan,” I told
him accusingly.

He shrugged. “I know. For the
record, and don’t get too smug about this, you were right. I shouldn’t have run
in there like that because I did almost die. But if it had worked, we’d be
having an entirely different conversation.”