Ivy couldn't decide whether the drowning nightmares or the fire nightmares were worse.
"Are you the pyro?"
Ivy jerked awake. She had fallen asleep on top of her textbooks. Again. She brushed a strand of auburn hair out of her face and looked up to see who had spoken. A boy she recognized from a few of her classes stood in front of her.
"Can I help you?" Ivy asked, forcing a polite smile.
The boy grabbed a nearby chair and dragged it across the wood floor. Ivy winced at the sound. She was sitting in a far corner of the school library, free from distractions so that she could study in peace. Or sleep, apparently. She sighed as the boy took a seat.
While he got comfortable, Ivy picked up her pencil and glanced down at what she'd been working on. Math. No wonder she'd fallen asleep. But even algebra was preferable to the fiery nightmare she'd slipped into. Guilt crept in as she remembered the dream. Her first accident.
"So, are you the pyro then?" the boy asked.
Crap. Ivy's fingers tightened around the pencil in her hand. How did he know?
"I mean, it can't be a coincidence," the boy continued, leaning forward in his chair. "Just because they didn't have proof doesn't mean it didn't happen, right? How'd you do it?"
Ivy's eyes darted to her hands. This kid seemed to think she did it on purpose. Everyone did, didn't they? How does someone accidentally set not one, but four fires?
The boy looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.
Ivy narrowed her eyes. "Sorry, I have to go," she said, standing up. Ignoring the stares from other kids in the library, she hurried to the old oak doors and pushed one open. She could get in trouble for leaving during study hall, but she didn't care. She had bigger problems, like the heat rushing to her fingertips. Just one spark could destroy everything.
Ivy relaxed a little when she entered the empty hallway, but her heart was still racing. How long had it been? She transferred here in September, now it was April. Only seven months. She used to go years between incidents.
September. Her sixteenth birthday. Another boarding school. Ivy crossed the hallway to the water fountain. She took a long drink, adjusting to the water pressure as it fluctuated. She wasn't going to let herself set another fire.
The school would burn so easily.
Ivy pushed aside the thought and looked up, into the mirror above the fountain. Her amber eyes stared back at her. Was it her imagination, or did she look paler than usual? She told herself she was okay, but deep down she wasn't so sure. She had been so on edge lately. Another accident was inevitable.
There was a hole in the wall next to her. Some kid had put it there during a fist fight a few months ago and it still hadn't been fixed. Looking at the rusty, broken pipes visible through the hole, Ivy realize how awful things had gotten. They used to send her to nice schools. Well, decent ones anyway. Now she was here.
Ivy leaned down to take another drink. Her hand brushed against the bar on the fountain, sending a spray of water at her face. She froze. Fear flooded her body as her breath caught in her throat.
For half a second, she was a little kid again, drowning. Trapped in the deep end of that swimming pool.
Ivy snapped back to reality and stepped away from the fountain, but it was too late. Sparks jumped off her fingers and bounced across the wood floor. Her curse, acting up, as if it were trying to protect her from her fear.
Springing into action, Ivy stomped on the sparks, desperately trying to put them out. But as she extinguished them, more appeared. Her hands burned. Ivy clenched her fists, trying to stop the fire.
"Get a hold of yourself," she muttered. But it was too late. The sparks were getting bigger and bigger, rapidly becoming a fiery blaze. Flames licked the walls and floor as they traveled down the hall.
The piercing shriek of the fire alarm rang in Ivy's ears. Trembling, she ran away from the fire, down the hallway toward the nearest exit. She turned a corner and was pulled into the river of students hurrying to escape.
A wave of nausea rose up in the pit of Ivy's stomach. This was all her fault. Her gaze darted between the other kids. Some were exchanging looks of confusion. One girl asked if it was a drill. In the chaotic sea of faces and shouting, Ivy caught a glimpse of the boy from the library. He was looking right at her.
The red emergency lights turned on for a few seconds before flickering and going out. The alarm grew quieter, it's sound becoming distorted. Ivy doubted the overhead sprinklers would come on at all.
They turned right at an intersection and Ivy took a deep breath. Her hands weren't burning, thankfully, but there was an intense heat in her chest. She told herself that it would be fine. The smell of smoke hung in the air, but they'd left the flames behind.
The memory of her first fire was clear in her mind. A boy at her first elementary school had been making fun of her for freaking out during the water balloon fight. She'd run off and hidden by the side of the school, thinking she was going to die, shaking from the intense heat in her chest and hands.
The next thing she knew, everything was in flames.
Years later, another school. Then her house. That was when people started getting suspicious. The police asked her more questions than they used to. Instead of a new foster home, she was sent off to a boarding school. Then another, and another, and then the one she burned down last fall.
Ivy shook her head. The exit was at the end of this corridor. A few more steps and they would be free. Hopefully everyone would make it out. Ivy couldn't remember the last time they'd had a fire drill.
Her gaze found the exit. She gasped as fire erupted in front of the door, its vibrant orange flames reaching up to the ceiling. Someone at the front of the group shrieked. Ivy turned around to see a red glow coming from the hallway behind them. They were trapped.
Ivy's chest burned even hotter, the heat spreading to her stomach, her arms, her legs. This is it, she thought. She'd survive, of course. The fire couldn't hurt her. But the others...
Ivy closed her eyes and tried to tune out the cries of the other kids. This was it. The connections between her and the fire were undeniable, even if there was no proof. No more foster homes or boarding schools. It would be some sort of detention center this time.
That was probably a good thing. Ivy couldn't stand the thought of hurting any more people. She deserved to be locked up.
Or I could run. Hide out in the middle of nowhere where I can't hurt anyone.
A loud thud came from their left. The other kids backed away from the wall, and Ivy was pulled with them. A pipe exploded from the wall, spraying water into the hallway. Ivy flinched as a few drops landed on her face. More water pipes were yanked out of the way by an unseen force, leaving behind a massive hole.
The water subsided, revealing a dark-haired boy about sixteen. Ivy stared at him as he lowered his arm and studied the students. After a moment, he pointed to the schoolyard behind him.
"Go," the boy ordered. The other kids got over their shock and hurried through the hole. Ivy caught a glimpse of the boy out of the corner of her eye as she was shoved out of the building, and she could've sworn his blue eyes were fixed on her.
Sirens wailed as ambulances and firetrucks and police cars pulled onto the school lawn. Ivy's gaze drifted to the treeline. As police officers climbed out of their cruisers, Ivy considered running into the forest that surrounded the school. There were bound to be plenty of places to hide.
She inched toward the trees, keeping an eye on the paramedics swarming the other students. Guilt washed over her when she saw kids coughing and gasping for air. She was perfectly fine, of course.
A sleek black sports car pulled up next to the emergency vehicles. A man in a suit and dark sunglasses climbed out of the passenger seat, and Ivy could just make out a woman behind the wheel. The man shut the door and headed straight for her.
"Excuse me," the man called as he approached. "Are you Ivy Ackerman?"
Ivy swallowed and tried to keep a straight face. "Yeah."
The man flashed some sort of badge at Ivy, but she only had a second to see the letters 'SCI' before the badge went back into the man's pocket.
"I need to ask you a few questions."
"Sure," Ivy said, watching her reflection move in the man's sunglasses. Could he tell she was shaking?
"When you were leaving the building, did you see anything unusual?"
Ivy's mind jumped to the boy. "Yeah," she said. "There was this kid..."
"Describe him."
"About my age, black hair, blue eyes. Uh, I think he blasted a hole in the wall. I'm not sure how."
The man continued. "And was he wearing a jacket by chance? With some kind of logo on the sleeve?"
The boy had been wearing a black jacket. Ivy thought she remembered seeing something red on the sleeve, but she wasn't positive. "I don't remember the logo. Sorry."
"Are you sure?" the man asked. "Maybe a star, with a scorpion on top?"
Ivy shrugged.
The man's phone rang. "Sorry," he said as he pulled it from his pocket and held it up to his ear. "Hello?" There was a pause and the man glanced back at his car.
"Ivy Ackerman? I'm talking to her," the man said into the phone. "Are you sure? Okay."
Ivy's heart pounded. He knows. He knows.
Run.
"I'll do that." The man hung up and put the phone in his pocket. "Ivy, I'm going to need you to come with me."
Ivy turned and sprinted in the other direction.
"Hey!" The man's shout rang out behind her, joined by more voices as others realized what was happening and gave chase. Ivy moved as fast as she could, but she was no runner. Her muscles ached and burned moments after she began.
The treeline grew closer at a painfully slow rate. Ivy threw a glance over her shoulder. The man wasn't far behind her, and two police officers had joined him.
She finally crashed through the undergrowth. The dim light of the woods swallowed her and the rough terrain forced her to slow down, or risk tripping. Breathing hard, Ivy hopped off a small ledge and ducked behind a tree to take a break. She heard the rustling and snapping of branches as her pursuers spread out, searching for her.
Ivy looked down at her trembling hands. People called her name in the distance. She clenched her fists, stepped away from the tree and moved deeper into the forest. Looking around, she couldn't help but imagine a roaring wildfire, burning every last pine, plant and shrub to the ground.
Should she let them take her? What would her pursuers do if they knew she could create fire? She was dangerous. Uncontrollable. She supposed if they took her, at least she wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else.
But what would happen to her?
They were getting closer. Ivy moved away from the approaching voices, letting the trees blur together as she broke into a run. Even from here, she could smell smoke.
Ivy's foot hit a tree root and she tumbled to the ground. She fought back a cry of pain as rocks dug into her skin. Hopefully the others hadn't heard her fall.
She pulled herself to her feet and tried to ignore the stinging in her knees and hands. Her jeans were ripped, and blood trickled down her knee. Gritting her teeth, Ivy continued at a much slower pace. She could barely hear her pursuers now. They seemed to be moving away from her.
The forest grew more dense as Ivy walked. She shivered and zipped up her hoodie. The snow had melted a couple weeks earlier, but the Colorado air was still chilly. Maybe she could start a fire in her hand. Just a small flame to keep her warm. But the trees around her were very, very flammable.
"Well, this sucks," Ivy muttered. What was she going to do now? Her vision blurred and her eyes stung with tears. She had nowhere to go.
Somewhere in the distance came the sound of a helicopter. Ivy threw a glance at the sky but all she could see were tree branches. Wherever the chopper was, it was getting louder, fast.
Ivy pushed her way through the forest until she found a small clearing. She looked up in time to see the black helicopter appear over the trees. With a gasp, she backed into shadows just beyond the treeline. The chopper moved closer, stopping to hover above the center of the clearing.
The strong wind from the blades whipped Ivy's hair around her face as panic set in. Was the chopper here for her? She pressed herself up against a nearby tree and watched as the chopper did a 180 while hovering in the air. Ivy's eyes widened. On the other side of the helicopter was a logo—a red, twelve-pointed star with the black silhouette of a scorpion on top.
Ivy had no idea what to do when the helicopter door slid open and a ladder fell out. Should she run? Did the people inside know she was there?
A rustling from the forest behind her grabbed Ivy's attention. She glanced back as a boy, the one that had rescued her and the others, sprinted through the nearby trees toward the clearing. He leaped over a boulder, flew past Ivy and landed just a few yards away, facing the helicopter. As he pulled a cellphone out of his pocket, he turned around and made eye contact with Ivy.
"Jetchopper Seven, this is Ash. Put me through to the Overseer," the boy said into the phone. He walked towards the ladder and gestured for Ivy to follow. Ivy didn't move, still trying to figure out what was happening.
Ash paused and put his hand over the phone's speaker. "We don't have all day," he called to Ivy.
Ivy stared at him. "What?" she asked. "You want me to get in the helicopter?"
Ash rolled his eyes. "No, I want you to just stand there. What do you think?"
"Why? Who are you?" Ivy asked, stepping away from the tree. Was this kid trying to hurt her, or help her?
Ash sighed and held out his hand. "I'm like you, okay?" he said. "I have abilities."
A small sphere of water appeared in the air above Ash's hand, slowly growing larger. It was about the size of a grape when he pulled his hand away and the water fell to the ground.
Ivy winced when it splashed on the dirt. She looked up at Ash and folded her arms. "What if I don't want to come?"
Ash narrowed his eyes. "Trust me, you're going to want to come with me." The stream of water rose up from the dirt and circled his fingers.
Ivy swallowed. It looked like she had two choices: go with Ash to the helicopter, or run. She had no idea what waited for her in the chopper, but she was tired of running. And she wouldn't get far if Ash decided to chase her. Heart pounding, Ivy walked over to him.
"So when you broke down the wall at the school, you were controlling the water in the pipes?" Ivy asked as they approached the helicopter. "Can you create water?"
"Yes. And no, I control water, but I can't create it. I can manipulate whatever water is nearby, or in some cases, pull it out of the air and use it. Obviously it works better when it's humid."
"Right. Obviously," Ivy muttered as they reached the ladder. Ash either didn't hear her or was ignoring her, because he didn't say anything. With a sigh, Ivy grabbed the ladder and climbed.
By the time she reached the top, Ash was deep in conversation with whoever was on the other end of the phone. Ivy pulled herself into the helicopter and looked around. The inside was mostly black, with a door that led to the cockpit and a bench that wrapped around the other three sides.
Ivy guessed it could fit maybe fifteen people. At the moment there were five, sitting by the window opposite the door. They wore some sort of red armor, complete with a helmet and a dark visor that covered their face.
Ivy turned around to face Ash, who was still on the phone.
"Let me guess," he said. "Wren spotted an Altered and blew her cover, instead of waiting to see if there were more." There was a pause. "Well that's too bad, she knows recruitment is part of our job. No one gets to go on missions twenty-four seven."
Ivy folded her arms, not sure what to do but stand there awkwardly.
"Fine. I'll go get her and the other one, then come back. Goodbye, Claudia." Ash hung up the phone and looked over at Ivy. "Sit down," he told her. "Get comfortable. We're headed to California to pick up some Altered."
"California?" Ivy asked. "That'll take a couple hours, right?"
"Try a couple minutes," Ash said.
Ivy frowned. "You know we're in Colorado, right? That's a few states away from—"
The helicopter jerked, cutting Ivy off and causing her stumble. She barely managed to stay standing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something emerge from the side of the helicopter. A wing. She hurried over and pressed her face up against the glass, trying to get a better look. The walls outside seemed to be shifting.
"What's going on?" Ivy asked. The walls stopped moving and the sound of a roaring engine drowned out any answer Ash had. There was another jerk, and then they were speeding over the forest, the trees out the window becoming nothing more than a blur. The helicopter had transformed into a jet.
"The soldiers will keep an eye on you," Ash said, pointing to the people sitting on the bench. With that, he disappeared into the cockpit.
***
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