10: AINSLEY

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The sound of familiar voices wakes me. I try to open my eyes to meet them, but my lids are sluggish, caked together like I’ve been asleep for a million years. Memories of my Spark Ceremony flash before my eyes in the darkness. I shudder. It was truly awful, worse than I ever could’ve imagined, and I spent a lot of time imagining it thanks to my brothers so helpfully giving me every gory detail of their own experiences.

“She’s waking up,” Asher says excitedly before crawling right into the bed next to me. His shower gel is a blissful reprieve from the terrible antiseptic smell accosting my nostrils.

I force my eyes open, squinting against the light shining too brightly through the window. “The light,” I rasp, “it burns.”

Archie moves quickly to draw the blinds.

“I’ll get a nurse.” Atlas is out of the room before I can beg that sequoia slug not to leave me.

I take in my surroundings. The first thing I see is an IV bag hooked to a pole beside the bed.

“They’ll take it out now that you’re awake,” Asher says soothingly.

“How are you here?” I rasp again, my throat as scratchy as the bleach-stiff bedding.

“They called us to come,” Dad explains.

“But you’re wearing your clothes?” I quickfire.

“We flew like Regular people.”

That would’ve taken some time to arrange. Why bother? Was something so seriously wrong with me those squibs called in my family? Did they think I was dying? Am I freaking dying?

I start shaking, and Asher wraps his arms more tightly around me. “We’re here now.” He nuzzles my neck. “You’re okay.”

Adley smirks. “Did you piss yourself?”

“No, jerkwad,” Archie deflects, pointing to the side of the bed. “That’s what the catheter is for.”

I lean over to check for myself before groaning loudly.

“I meant at the ceremony,” Adley defends himself.

“Water,” I beg, my throat continuing to flame like the worst case of jalapeno salsa pukes in the history of the universe.

Atlas comes bounding back in the room with a nurse. They assess me quickly and seem satisfied with what they see. “I’ll fetch you something to drink. You’re probably a little dry.”

“No freaking duh,” I unholster.

They lift a brow.

“I need these tethers off,” I lock and load, pointing to the IV line and catheter bag.

“Soon,” they assure me.

“Right freaking now!” I discharge.

The act sends my throat fire directly into my head where it scorches through my neural pathways. I raise my fingers to my temples, pressing hard in an effort to abate the throbbing.

“I’ll see what I can do,” they say patiently. “Let me get the drink first, alright?”

I grumble my agreement, but if they don’t hurry up, I’m ripping the IV and catheter out myself. Archie grins like he’s following my train of thought. “I’ll help,” he offers.

“We can, but we shouldn’t,” Atlas states. “I mean, we could probably guide out the IV needle easily enough, but unless you have a syringe to deflate the water balloon holding the catheter in, she’s sort of stuck with it.”

I click a sigh, resigning myself to wait. I swallow repeatedly trying to draw some dang moisture into my mouth. I’m wildly uncomfortable and growing more uncomfortable by the minute. My skin is cool, but I’m starting to sweat balls, though I have no idea how that’s possible considering how thirty I am.

Archie beams. “Do you want me to spit in your mouth?” I shrug. It isn’t the worst idea.

Asher cuddles closer to me, and I inhale deeply again. I might be miserable, but I’m not alone. They all came. I’ll never let anyone separate us again.

Much to Archie’s disappointment, the nurse comes back in with a pitcher full of ice water and a glass. Once they fill the glass, I grab at it and drink the whole thing down in little more than one swallow, coughing as I choke on the ice.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

They wrestle the glass and pitcher away from me before I can repeat the action. “Let’s give that a minute to see how it goes,” they suggest, taking the pitcher as they leave the room.

I throw the pillow from behind my head toward the door, volleying a feral groan that makes my brothers ignite with laughter.

“I thought she might’ve changed,” Adley jokes.

“I told you it wouldn’t affect her personality,” Atlas contends.

“What wouldn’t?” I ask, relieved as the fire in my throat finally calms down.

Archie’s eyes light up with mischief. I reckon it can’t be anything good.

“Ainz, they brought us here…” Dad begins, but he pauses, meaning I won’t like what he has to say.

“You have ALL FOUR SPARKS!” Archie squeals. “All of them.”

My pulse rockets, and Asher rubs slow circles on my arm where he’s still holding me.

“That’s not funny,” I snick.

“It’s not a joke,” Atlas confirms.

My heart constricts in my chest. It continues to beat, but it’s under siege from the weight of their horsecrap words. To make matters worse, they’re being casual as heck about the news, like it doesn’t rock the very foundation of our existence.

“That’s why you’re here,” I report. “Those squibs brought you here to say good-bye.”

My worst nightmare has come to fruition. I want nothing more than to go home, but S.W.O.R.D. is taking that away from me, ripping my life out from under me like it was never mine to begin with.

“I won’t let them do this,” I slamfire.

Tears pour from my eyes while my heart keeps beating a war drum in my ears.

“It’s okay,” Asher soothes me. “They’ve taken care of everything.”

I shake my head furiously. I won’t believe this, refuse the truth of it. Something stirs inside me, wrapping its tendrils around my heart and encasing it in a barrier of ice that freezes it solid.

“I have a pass that lets me fly anywhere I like whenever I like!” Archie exclaims. “I’m going to travel so many places!”

The pressure grows around my heart until it splinters apart in a sweeping wind that shoots the broken pieces through my insides.

“I got a golden library card that will let me access the Registry and any texts I want regarding the spark,” Atlas adds. “I can’t believe all the things I’m going to learn about. I hardly know where to start.”

My temperature rises, and my body starts shaking violently, the splinters igniting in a roaring fire that courses through my blood like razors through my veins.

“We’re moving close to the academy,” Asher tries to placate me. “We can see you every weekend and some weeknights too.”

I know what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to show me this cage is okay. There’s a positive I just need to accept. But there’s no good in this. At least, not for me.

“You traitorous squibs!” I roar as the storm rages on inside me.

The wake of the fire leaves everything in me feeling weighted, ten thousand tonnes slamming down on the last of my resolve.

I wail in pain, convulsing violently in Asher’s arms. “Get help!” he cries out.

I barely register Atlas running from the room. Everything is growing dark. I can’t breathe, my lungs compressed by this enormous weight holding me captive and smothering me.

Within seconds, people are running into the room, pushing my brother away from me, and trying to grab hold of my arms on either side. Air whips through my arms as they latch on in a force so strong it feels like they might rip them out of their sockets. I flail, resisting the tethers, my hand connecting with the glass the nurse left behind. I hurl it toward the door where it meets its end with a huge crash, my fury exploding outward as my insides continue to implode with energy. Each burst is stronger than the last, tearing away the final threads of my humanity.

I hear Nick’s voice on my left. He’s holding one of my arms trying to keep it from moving. But it’s Luke’s blue eyes with swirling white flecks that capture mine as he straddles my chest to hold me down, his hands clasping my cheeks firmly to keep me looking at him. Icy cold splits the barrier between us, creeping in and freezing everything in its path.

“Breathe!” he billows, but I’m at war with myself and can’t comply.

“Grab her legs!” Nick booms, his tone shrill with fear.

I feel some slug trying to wrestle my legs. Two slugs. I kick hard, desperate to be free. One of them curses as my foot connects with their face, but they don’t stop trying.

“Got the left,” they cheer triumphantly. I try to jerk away as flames lick up my left shin.

“Got the right,” the other slug announces. My right shin is quickly immobilized by a crushing weight I’m sure will turn my bones to dust.

The sparks inside me continue to wreak havoc, ripping and tearing out anything they haven’t already destroyed. “She’s bloody volatile,” the fire slug spews.

“How? She just saturated,” the earth slug rumbles.

“There’s too much. It’s replenishing too fast,” Nick sputters. “Luke, you have to get her to calm down.”

But this white horse above me isn’t going to manage that. His tiny tidal is about to get swallowed up by my tsunami.

“Ainsley,” Luke breakwaters through gritted teeth, “you need to calm down.”

The fire slug hisses a laugh. “Real smooth.”

“Very convincing,” the earth slug agrees.

I buck like a bronco and kick out hard with my right leg. The earth slug outcrops in pain, releasing me for a moment. There’s a crash, then they’re murmuring apologies.

“It’s fine,” I hear Dad say, grounding me to him.

“You need some stitches,” someone else says.

“I said it’s fine!” he hollers.

His anger meets with mine in a ferocious wind that blows through me again like a tornado. Everything I’ve ever cherished is splitting apart, just like my heart, all because these stupid sparks I never wanted in the first place. They’re caging me, consuming me until there’ll be nothing left of the girl my family loves, the girl who loves them with equal force.

“Look at me, Ainsley,” Luke sprays, stealing my attention again. A bitter cold moves through my body toward him. His hands soften against my cheeks, the frozen sheets of serrated ice warming where he touches me. “Stop resisting me. Just let it go.”

I try to calm my breaths, but I’m gasping for air with every pull of my lungs.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he swells, and I stare into his eyes, an endless blue sea promising freedom. “Please let me help you.”

When I stop resisting, the sparks at the precipice of all the wielder connections rush out to meet them at once, a torrent of fire, air, water, and earth. Inside my body feels like a summer rain shower cascading onto me after a day of baking in the sun. It’s freaking glorious. It’s everything.

Some squib in a white coat rushes to my side, jamming a needle in my arm.

“Finally!” the fire slug erupts from station left. “Were you taking a dump or what?”

Darkness finds me fast.