Chapter 37

Ray

"No?” Mark said through gritted teeth.

“No!” I repeated. “That’s stupid! Think about it! If we bring her stone here, then she could use her powers, and it will be more difficult to hold her down. It would be like giving a prisoner the key to her cell and letting her escape. If you want to hurt her, why not do it now while she’s weak? Bringing her stone here seems like the dumbest thing to do!”

“Do not question my methods, Draco!” He pointed a finger at me. “Just do as I say! I need her stone in my hands before we kill her!”

I stepped around New Girl and up to the ancient Starling. “I’m not your hitman, Mark! I didn’t sign up for killing teenage girls! I said I’d help you find your stone, and that’s it! She said it’s in a volcano in Italy, so let’s go check it out! I’d prefer a trip to Italy anyways…”

“You don’t understand!”

“You’re right! I don’t understand! How is killing other Starlings supposed to help you find your stone?”

Mark glared at me but didn’t answer. I could see a huge vein in his neck pulse as he fumed in anger. He glanced hungrily at New Girl standing behind me, like a zombie would look at a fat man. He wanted something from her, and he wanted it desperately. What more could he want? She already told him where his Star Stone was.

Then, Mark’s expression turned from hungry to wide-eyed. I spun on my heels and saw what he was looking at. It was New Girl! Her eyes were glowing!

She seemed just as surprised as us at first, but quickly spun into motion. Semi-transparent wings appeared out of nowhere, twirling around her like massive whips, filling the entire space of the small hideout. I didn’t react in time; her right wing swatted me across the room. With a crunch, I broke halfway into a concrete wall. Her other wing hit Mark, but he summoned his powers just in time, causing the wing to collide with an invisible barrier surrounding him. The blow was still powerful enough to knock him backwards, sending him rolling along the sand-covered floor. He didn’t get up, obviously weakened from the blow and from using his powers.

I pushed against the wall, breaking myself out of its cold grasp, and focused on my powers and emotions. Disrespect, I thought. She hit me! And Mark used me! That’s not how you treat a god! Like a dam of energy breaking loose, I tapped into the Second Degree, my powers surging and my hands bursting into flames.

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New Girl turned on me and raised her wings to defend herself. How did she get her powers back? I wondered. Her stone should be miles away. Unless…

She dismissed her wings and flew out of the hideout. She didn’t want to fight, just escape. If she hadn’t hit me, I probably would’ve let her go, but now she had to pay. I soared close behind her, fire trailing behind my hands. She took a few wrong turns, obviously not knowing her way around the dark bottom level of the abandoned stadium. I caught up to her and threw a fireball at her back.

She turned back just in time to summon a wing to shield herself. She grunted as the fireball knocked her hard backwards and into a wall. The wall broke from her impact, turning into a pile of cinder blocks and gray dust. The wall led outside the abandoned building. I could see a hint of moonlight filter in the building as she continued to fly backwards from the force of the fireball. The flames danced around her wings for a second more, and then died. She dismissed her wings and flew away from me.

“Oh no you don’t!” I shouted as I flew through the hole in the wall, out of the building. There were no clouds in the sky. No lights nearby; Trotting Park was pretty remote, except for the interstate about three football fields from here. The cars’ headlights didn’t point toward us. The moon was just beginning to rise. The stars were shining brightly, especially the Draco constellation. There was more than enough light for two Starlings to see each other from a distance.

I brought my hands together and tugged them apart, forming a fireball between them. I clawed at the fire with my fingers and managed to split it into two fireballs, one in each hand, both the size of pumpkins. I soared toward New Girl and chucked the fireballs at her.

She stopped and easily swatted them away with her wings, just like I’d expected. She turned to fly away, but I was gaining on her.

I formed two more fireballs and threw those at her. She swatted one away and one right back at me. I’d hoped she’d do that again. I picked up speed as I flew directly through the fireball. I spread my hands and focused on the flames around me, allowing them to surround me, but not to burn my bare chest or my pants. I could manipulate the flames, but not the fireball itself. It already had too much momentum, so I let it fly behind me.

I emerged out of the fireball and flew directly toward New Girl. Her wings were down, just like last time, leaving a big opening for me to give her another uppercut. The moment before I reached her, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

A blur of motion slammed into me from my upper left. It felt like a giant foot stepped on my back, crushing me like a bug. My world spun in circles as I hit the ground and rolled for what felt like an eternity. The dirt caved in around me and I finally came to a stop.

I lay for a moment, waiting for the world to stop spinning. Eventually, I surged my powers—only in the First Degree—and crawled out of the miniature dirt cave created by my fall. My back ached terribly, but I walked it off. I coughed as a small gust of wind cleared the dust out of the air around me.

I wasn’t surprised when I looked up at who’d stomped on me. Of course, it was him. Of course, it was that stupid dweeb who always got in my way and never seemed to stay down. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. Stoner was going down!