Twice Burned

Quinn

So much agony was running through me it was a miracle I was still standing. I had watched as Nathan was struck by Gideon's ball of fire, unable to comprehend how he knew it was coming towards me. Gideon looked surprised too, but it seemed to have a different effect on both of us.

"Nathan!" I screamed, bending down to him. He laid on his back, his mouth open only slightly, looking peaceful after a week of confusion and alertness. His hand was over his heart where the fire ball had hit, but otherwise he looked alive, despite badly burnt. His head, however, was bleeding in the back from the fall, and it didn't look like his immunity was going to heal it. I propped his head up with my hand, trying to stop the blood from coming out.

I heard Robin laugh deep in her throat. "Now I think this is even better than killing her, Gideon. Wise choice."

I scowled at her, feeling as though I had aged years in the last day. Zoe was dying, Nathan was dying, I felt like I was dying inside too. Robin had wanted me to die, but instead she left me alone in the world, with everyone I loved and cared for gone.

I expected sorrow to fill my veins, I expected to cry and to grieve over my dying family, but none of that happened at all. Instead, I stood from where I was and charged, not knowing the outcome of what was about to happen. 

The beauty of my power became a storm.

I yelled and grabbed the gun from the floor and jammed it towards Gideon, pinning him up against the wall with the side of the barrel in his throat. Instead of holding him there, though, I pulled back and slammed it into him, hearing a pop and a groan from his mouth. Before Robin could even react, I turned around and swept her feet. When she landed, I noticed the blood on her back, and somehow already knew that she no longer had wings. 

I felt my eyes glow and I froze her to the ground, then turned back to Gideon and put my foot on his chest where he sat, keeping him there. I made sure the heel of my boot dug underneath his ribs.

Quickly, I froze both of them, then grabbed Nathan's sword from his belt, pointing it towards Gideon's neck. Over my shoulder, I spoke.

"You remove the pendant from Zoe, or I'll kill him." I said, my hair in my face.

"I don't believe you." Robin said, looking up at me.

"Robin!" Gideon shrieked as I put the cold blade to his hot skin.

"She won't do it!" Robin said.

"Do you really want to push that luck, Robin?" I asked, nicking Gideon's chin.

Robin groaned with the pain of my power weighting on her. I was surprised it was this easy to get here, when I realized I only had control over one body.

Robin was free.

Her hands grabbed my waist and pulled me up and away from Gideon, before she slammed me to the ground forcibly. I moaned with the concrete floor slapping me, and knew something was broken somewhere. Robin pulled back, holding her own wrist like it hurt her too. 

Instead of wasting time, I used her vulnerability to my advantage and stood, pulling the sword with me.

You know when you're going to die and you do drastic things? It was like I was never in my own body that day, because what I did next was not the kind of thing I ever thought I was going to do. If you think about how where you started in life, up until that point, it's like your old self never knew you were going to make that decision ever, like some cruel irony the world has of you, and you never saw it coming.

When I got up from the floor, I was too angry, to blind to see what I was doing, or where I was going. But when I sort of woke up from my anger, Robin looked at me with sheer awe and pain. I let go of the sword, but it didn't clatter to the ground like I thought it would.