The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Forty-Six: Walls

Sam dropped to the ground next to Veronica and Summer as Eric ran off. He could barely think through his headache. And any thoughts he did have were drowned out by the minds screaming around him.

Please be okay please be okay please be okay—

Veronica's thoughts were cut off when Raveena finally found her way over to them. She slid to her knees at Summer's side.

"Can you heal her?" Veronica asked, briefly looking up from the hoodie she had pressed to the gunshot wound.

"I'll do what I can." Raveena rested a hand on Summer's arm. "I'm pretty weak, too."

Veronica frowned. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Spying on Scorpion. And trying to find something important." Raveena closed her eyes. "Claudia mentioned a hard copy of the list of altered that she knew was here. And I found it."

Sam pressed a hand to the side of his head. "A list of altered? How—?"

"We can deal with that later," Veronica said.

Summer sucked in another deep breath. Her eyes were closed, and her head tipped to the side. Sam wasn't picking up much from her mind. She was on the verge of unconsciousness, probably slipping in and out.

"Sam, I'm sorry, you look like you're in a lot of pain," Veronica said. "Is there any way you could try getting the rod again?"

"It's not just that I'm weak. I can sense other things right now, but I couldn't feel the rod at all," Sam explained. His shoulders sagged. "It's like I'm blind to it."

~

The rod rolled across the chamber floor toward Adam's feet. He darted forward and scooped it up. It had only been in his hand for a moment when Willow appeared and charged at him, a four-foot icicle in her hands.

Willow swung. Adam ducked. Once the icicle was clear, he straightened up and chucked a fireball at her. Her icicle flattened into a shield that extinguished the fire a few feet from her face.

"How are you so good at this?" Adam exclaimed in frustration. "These walls are way beyond anything you did in training. You said you'd never practiced before!"

"I lied."

Adam's heart dropped to his stomach.

The thin remnant of the shield lowered. Willow lifted her chin. "I warned you not to reveal too much, didn't I?"

"I thought we were friends." Adam's face burned. He'd been an idiot to trust her so easily, hadn't he? "Would it have killed you to tell us something? Anything? At least let us know we were going to lose our homes?"

"Adam." Willow's voice cracked. "I don't want to do this, but we have to. Now's the only chance we have to save as many people as possible."

Adam hesitated. His voice softened. "There's really no way to stop it?"

"I know I lied about a lot of things, but I swear that if I knew how to stop the collapse, I'd do it."

A long moment passed. Adam's right hand tightened around the rod. His other burst into flame. "You went to Scorpion. You're helping them instead of us."

Anger flashed across Willow's face. "You're just a group of kids who don't stand a chance against them!"

"That doesn't mean we should join them!" Adam gestured wildly with the rod. "Willow, you've built amazing things on your own. You don't need Scorpion. Take the fragment and help us! We might actually be able to take them on."

"Me? Take the fragment?" Willow let out a cold laugh. "You have no idea what kind of tech is needed to tap into its energy."

She wasn't loyal to Scorpion. She was loyal to whatever technology could access the fragment. There had to be a way to persuade her to—

Willow swung her arm, and a small shard of ice spun end over end toward Adam. It grazed the hand holding the rod. He winced but didn't let go.

He let the hand holding the rod catch fire, too. Maybe if he got it hot enough, it would melt and—

Adam yelped in pain.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, his skin burned.

He instinctively chucked the rod as hard as he could. Willow turned, her eyes following the rod's arc through the air, but all Adam could focus on was the intense burning in the palm that had been touching the metal. He grabbed his wrist and stared, wide-eyed, at the burned skin.

It wasn't as bad as he'd expected. Adam forced his breathing to steady. He could handle pain. He had to.

The rod clattered against the ground somewhere nearby. Adam lifted his gaze from his hand. Willow was already running.

Willow stopped dead in her tracks when Summer, Veronica, and Raveena stumbled out from behind a half-melted ice wall in front of her. Summer stood slightly hunched, leaning on Veronica for support while Raveena kept a hand resting on her shoulder, probably still trying to heal her.

Summer clutched the alterium rod in her hands like a baseball bat.

"I burned myself while holding the rod!" Adam yelled at them, hoping they'd understand his warning: something about the rod screwed with their powers.

Summer met his gaze and nodded. Her mouth moved, but whatever she'd whispered had no chance of reaching Adam's ears. Raveena reached her free hand into her bag, drew out a golf ball, and passed it to Veronica.

Veronica tossed the golf ball into the air. Willow rushed toward them, but there was no way she was going to make it in time. Summer swung the rod. It cracked against the golf ball.

Summer's eyes narrowed as they traced the ball's path through the air. Sparks appeared on its surface, followed by dancing lightning. Willow summoned a shield of ice to block the blow, but it wasn't thick enough. The ball shattered the sheet of ice and struck her hard in her shoulder, still throwing off arcs of electricity.

Willow staggered backward a few steps before collapsing.