Spiral (Spiral Series) (39 page)

“Natalie, run,” Jackson gritted out as the man in the overalls got the upper hand and climbed on top of him. I stood staring for another second, then my body was in motion. I dashed for the large barn door again, seeing the light of day filtering through into the dark space. Jackson had showed up when it had counted the most.

As I hit the doorway pain split my head open. I slammed into an invisible force that crashed over my head and shoulders, forcing me back inside. A Visioner trap had been laid across the doorway, and before I could try to get through it, its creator was standing in front of me: Haley. I glared at her, the girl who had pretended to be my classmate and had enjoyed making my senior year miserable. She had acted like there was something wrong with me, like I was a freak, and my classmates had gone along with it, when in reality she had been there to keep an eye on me until she could kidnap me and do whatever it was she thought she was going to get away with.

I could hear muffled cries from behind me, and I knew Jackson was still fighting the red-haired man. He wouldn’t be able to help me against Haley.

“Hmm, I see your Watchful is stronger than we anticipated,” said Haley, her eyes slithering past me to the battle Jackson was waging.

“He’s the best,” I said, my chin jutting out in defiance.

Haley smiled at me indulgently. I was getting so sick of that smile.

“Move,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

“Or what?” she demanded, still smiling. She wasn’t really paying attention to me, though. I got the idea she liked watching a fight.

“Or I’ll move you,” I said. This was no time to be meek. Haley wanted me dead. She had already proved that with the boat accident.

Haley threw back her head and laughed. “Yeah, right. You’re just a unicorn. You do know that your hele is not oriented towards violence, right? It’s ridiculous.”

Jackson and I weren’t going to get out of this alive if I kept defending, so I decided to attack. Calling to my hele once again, I surprised Haley by sending a burst of power to heal the air right where she stood. I smiled smugly when she was covered in pure healing substance and staggered back, losing control of her own powers. Haley, who wasn’t much bigger than I was, didn’t want to get into a physical fight any more than I did, so she backed away. Besides, when two people fight who have no idea what they’re doing it looks more like birds pecking each other. I was about to try and attack her again when I saw Pierce racing towards us. He looked bruised and disheveled, his black t-shirt torn and hanging off of his shoulders. I wondered what fight he had been in.

My chest tightened at the bruises on his face. He had gotten those bruises for me.

“Natalie, run,” he yelled, ducking a shot of electricity from Haley.

I was tired of everyone telling me to run.

While Haley was distracted by Pierce, I darted towards her. I didn’t know what a unicorn’s touch did to a Visioner, but I was about to find out. I reached out my hand and placed it on Haley’s shoulder just as she stepped back into me - away from the attacking Pierce.

Instantly I regretted my decision. A blackness started rolling toward me, through my hand and into my body. With my closed eyes I could see it coming, eating everything in its path. I felt a sharp pain where my body connected to the Visioner’s, and the throbbing in my head from where I had been slammed against the wall intensified.

I tried to pull away, but my hand was stuck as if glued to Haley.

Strong hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me away. Pierce’s fresh clean scent washed over me, and safety wrapped around me at his touch.

“No,” I heard Haley scream, but I was in no condition to look at her. I let Pierce drag me away.

The second I was no longer touching Haley I could open my eyes again, and the black coils that had threatened to overwhelm my body and mind disappeared. The only thing I saw was Pierce’s chest, my nose almost touching his skin. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks just from being this close to him.

“I’m fine,” I said, once I knew we were far enough away to be out of Haley’s reach. “Let me go.”

Pierce released me and my body rocked back, now supporting its own weight. Haley was collapsed on the ground in front of the barn door I had tried to get through, and Pierce was standing in front of me, panting. I flinched again at the bruises covering that perfect face.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered, trying to stand properly and only partially succeeding. “I didn’t know they were there.” I knew I wasn’t making any sense, but Pierce gave a small smile and nodded, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me to him again. “All that matters is that you’re okay,” he murmured in my ear. “I thought I was never going to see you again. I thought . . .And I couldn’t breathe.” The pain in his voice made my heart ache and I wrapped my arms around his waist, resting my head against his chest in relief.

“How did you find me?” I asked softly, enjoying every moment I had with him, knowing it might be my last.

“Haley attacked me at home. I managed to get away, then I followed her here,” he said, stroking my hair.

The sound of fighting brought me back to reality. “Jackson,” I cried, pulling away. “He’s still fighting.”

Pierce was instantly in motion, and I was right behind him. We left Haley lying on the ground just outside the door and ran back into the big room. But Pierce halted when my old friend came into view. The look on his face was a mixture of shock and pain, and it scared me as much as anything else that had happened that day.

“Eric?” Pierce breathed, so that only I could hear. When Eric and Jackson noticed the two of us standing there, everything came to a standstill. “Eric”: I racked my brain for where I had heard that name before, then I remembered. Eric was the name of Pierce’s Watchful. I covered my mouth in a gasp.

Eric didn’t look like he cared that Pierce was there, but Jackson hesitated for just a split second. It was all the opening Eric needed. Grabbing one of the daggers that was shoved into his belt, he raised it over her head and thrust it into Jackson’s chest.

He gave a cry of pain, moving both hands to wrap around the hilt of the dagger as Eric tried to twist it further into his body.

I let out a scream and raced forward, desperate to help Jackson, but I was stopped when I slammed into Pierce’s outstretched arm. I tried to fight my way through him, but he wouldn’t let me move. His eyes never left Eric’s face, and there was pure hatred shining through their silver depths.

“How could you?” he asked as I continued to struggle against his grip.

He shook his head sadly at Pierce, as if he was talking to an errant child and not a young man.

“She’s putting us all at risk,” Eric spat, pointing at me. “She’s a danger to all unicorns. The best thing for all of us is if she just disappears.”

“So, you intend to let the Visioners murder an innocent girl?” Pierce asked incredulously.

“One innocent girl is better than the whole world of the unicorns,” said Eric. “She shouldn’t even be alive. She should have died along with your mothers years ago.”

Pierce had let go of my arm when he stepped towards Eric, and now I stumbled forward. The Watchful’s eyes widened in fear, and every line of his body said that he was no match for the young unicorn he was facing. Fumbling at his belt, he tried to draw a vial, but he never had a chance. Pierce was on him so fast that all he could do was scream as the two of them fell to the ground. Under normal circumstances I would have been concerned about seeing the guy I liked attacking a man who was clearly twice his age, but Eric had tried to kill me and had stuck a knife into Jackson’s chest. What’s more, he looked like he would have been more than happy to see Pierce drop dead. Under the circumstances, I could make an exception.

Seeing my chance I raced to Jackson, who was lying on his back, clutching at his bloody chest. Pain ripped through me when I saw the blood soaking his shirt.

I moved to touch him, but just as I did a cry from behind me drew my attention. I had thought that Haley was too injured to get up and fight, but she wasn’t. Instead, she had spun a lance of electricity while we weren’t looking, and just as I reached Jackson to tend to his wounds, she threw her power, burying it in Pierce’s back.

The cry I had heard was his. Our eyes met and locked as in slow motion he fell to the ground. I knew that Visioners were specially trained to mold their powers so that they could attack unicorns in such a way that the unicorns wouldn’t be able to heal themselves. Pierce wasn’t even able to catch himself as he fell heavily to the floor.

Eric, who had been stepping back out of his way, looked at Haley. The blond-haired girl looked very pale and tired; her eyes had sunk deep into her face. “We have to get out of here,” the Visioner croaked to the Watchful. “Their friends will be coming to help soon.”

“What about her?” Eric asked, motioning to me. He also looked pale, and now that I saw him up close I could see cuts and bruises all over his body, probably courtesy of Jackson. Good, I thought fiercely, he deserves all the pain he’s in.

“Leave her. Do you really want to try and fight her now?”

“You beat her yesterday,” Eric scoffed, starting towards me.

“I had the element of surprise,” said Haley tightly. “You really want to fight her when we’ve just killed the two people she cares most about in the world?”

It was like someone had punched me in the gut. My distress must have shown on my face, because Haley said, “Yeah, that face? Not something I can go up against right now. Let’s. Get. Out. Of. Here.”

Eric looked ready to argue, but when Haley started hobbling away, he reluctantly followed.

I sat there next to Jackson, motionless. I knew I could reach Pierce from where I was, and I could see that he wasn’t dead - yet. I checked inside myself. Between trying to fight Haley off last night and the events of today, my strength was depleted even more than it had been when I had healed Andrew. There was no way I could save them.

Pierce opened his eyes and looked at me. I was instantly by his side.

“Are you okay?” he asked. His chest was rising and falling, his voice sounded raspy. I knew he didn’t have much time. His skin crackled, probably from where Haley’s bolt had plunged into him.

I couldn’t help it. Tears started to fall from my eyes, and I wiped them away angrily. I wasn’t the one dying, but they just kept coming.

“I have a question to ask you. . . .” His breathing was becoming more labored, his chest rising and falling painfully. He had been trying to ask me a question for weeks, but something always came up.

“Now?”

“Yes.” The word came out as a wheeze.

“Okay,” I said, my vision blurring.

“Will you go to the dance with me?”

I gurgled out a laugh. “Yes.” I tried to smile, but my heart hurt too much.

“You can use your spiral,” he said, as his eyes closed. His chest wasn’t rising and falling as fast anymore. “There are hele reserves in the spirals.”

I stared at him. I had not seen my spiral since the surreal morning I had awakened with it sticking out of my head. But if it held reserves of hele that I could use to save one of them, I now had a choice: the boy I had always known versus the boy I had always wanted to meet.

I looked frantically back and forth between them, tears pricking my eyes as I watched Pierce fight to breathe.

Then he stopped. My heart stopped with him. It was like I froze, alive but not living. I couldn’t save them both. My mind went blank with pain.

Then, with no warning, there was someone else there, bursting through the door. I squinted, but I didn’t recognize the dark hair or the grim set of the mouth. He looked young, around Pierce’s age, but even in my muddled state I barely dared to hope. He raced over and tumbled to the ground next to Jackson.

“Hey,” he said, breathless. His eyes were silver. “I’m Jar. Sorry I’m late. You heal him. I’ll take the Watchful. They’re going to be alright, I promise. We are all going to be alright. At least for now.”