“Oren—”

“Oren? Rain Oren?” 

The instructor cuts off the captain and stands tall lifting the hand still held out between us. 

I raise mine, beg it not to glow, and latch onto his for a shake I add too much strength to.

“Whoa, better save that energy.” He flexes his hand before crossing his arms over his chest.  “Not sure what we’ll encounter next.” 

"Running out of energy is not something I worry about." I fold my arms to match him. 

His golden eyes survey me from top to bottom. It’s what they all do once they learn my name. Size me up to the legend of my family only to find me lacking. But this time instead of feigning submission I stare right back. 

I fight the urge to shift my attention to the captain who stands silently next to him, apart from me. My vision sharpens and I can’t find it in me to pull back even if I start to glow. A hard slap lands on my shoulder and Kane’s dark profile steps up on my right. 

“Vander Geir. Surprised to see you here.” Kane squeezes my shoulder hard and I release my breath with the welcome pinch. 

“Speal. Where else would I be if not with my ——“

“Captain, we’re moving out.” The general’s bark stops Geir mid sentence but his comfortable lean toward the captain says it all.

“Elite Squad, cover the rear. Let’s move.” 

I spin around out of Kane’s grasp and stalk to the end of the line of weary civilians. Luce, Iva, and Hasta follow the last slow moving cart carrying Fletcher and Targe’s gurneys. Cole and Addy perch inside on either side. 

Cole watches me approach. He’s always watching. I step up to his side of the cart. 

“What are you looking at?” 

I want his fight, I need his fight. I need anything, but this rotting, hollow scooping out my insides. I need to keep from turning around and tugging her to my side. 

“Get it together.” He leans over in my face and electric blue shines in his onyx glare. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

“Let’s see what you got, Targe.” 

The marble size muscles in his jaw tick, tick, tick back at me. And his eyes shutter hearing his name. That name he runs from shoved into his consciousness in the same unforgiving way he’s granted me countless times. His chin drops with a hard swallow. 

“Enough." Kane pushes me back but I’m quick to return to my place only to end up nose to nose with him. “Close your eyes, now.” 

He punches me in the gut. I try to double over but he keeps me upright checking our surroundings. I push my energy to my aching stomach and blink through watery, unfocused seconds.

“It’s him, right?” I cough out.

“Yes, he’s her betrothed.” 

“I’m fine.” I shove him away toward the cart and count my breaths until everyone passes me by.

“You’re not.” Kane jerks his head toward our slow moving caravan and waits for me to walk with him.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m just another warrior under an officer’s command. I know how to keep myself under control. I’m a damn master at it. So why…”

“Why not now? Not with her?”  Kane’s stoic profile is a comfort to the distant distracted version he’s been since the failed mission. 

I curl and uncurl my fists in time with my beating heart. My senses strain to seek hers out. To seek the calm rhythm that pulls me toward her. My pieces are coming apart. And I'm fooling myself into thinking this unhealthy attachment to the captain is all about controlling this energy.  

This power has truly taken over. I’m a chaotic mosaic. My cracks filled with electric blue. I thought I was finally controlling it but it’s always pushed my boundaries. Used the littlest spark of emotion to gain ground. Now I’m overloaded, its weapon ready for the slightest trigger to set me off. 

“Whatever’s inside you is accelerating and seeping out. And not just with her or Cole - the Rex demons in the lab, your healing, the blue flames.” Kane sees too much and is always miles ahead of anyone. 

“Yes.” I glance at Cole.

He sits beside his father’s bed, head hung, with a white knuckle grip on the tubes extending from the general's arm. I did that. I inflicted pain on someone else. I would’ve never allowed myself to do that before. 

“I don’t think I have much longer.”

Kane ties his hair back in a knot and sighs. “It’s just a matter of expelling it, using it regularly. We’ll figure it out.” 

“Sure.” I nod. 

But it’s not that simple. The more I use it, the bigger it becomes. It will tear right through me, and soon. 

“Oren, front and center on the double.” The captains’ order cuts off before I can respond.

“I’ll go with you.” Kane rubs a hand over his meaty fist. “You may need my help.”

I place both hands over my gut as if they could shield me from his help. He barks a laugh. We jog around the civilians and carts to the general. He squats in front of the tunnel wall with a hand against a mud caked tile in the floor. 

“Captain.” I salute. 

“Oren, what do you see?” The general waves me to his side and points to the tile.

I want to search the captain’s expression to understand what he’s asking. Did she tell him I can see more than he can? But when I glimpse Geir’s instructor uniform beside her I decide to take the question at face value. 

“A dirty tile embedded in the road.” I say and suck in a breath when he chips some mud away. “My crest. My family crest.” 

“Yes.” The general's hazel eyes flash green like Nugget’s. “Come closer.”

I squat beside him. He pulls out a thin braided gold chain from under his uniform collar. And there in the dim tunnel light glints the gold and cerulean blue medallion of the Oren crest. Every warrior family has one that’s passed down to the next generation. Elio would have been given this when he married his betrothed. 

My power pushes forward and I rock back on my heels. Kane’s quick to grab my shoulder for a blinding squeeze and I breathe deep in the pain, energy in check. The general’s brows raise and a small smile softens the wrinkles of his forehead. He holds the necklace out for me and I snatch it like a starving man offered bread. 

“How do you have this?” I lay it gently in my palm.

I trace my fingers over the circles and lines, my warrior marks etched in gold. The blue on the medallion glows bright on contact, electric like my powers. I quickly close my fist around it.

“It arrived at my house in an unmarked package ten years ago.” He raises a hand as if to place it on my shoulder but takes it back. “The day of the attacks.” 

He knew my father. Most warriors did, but the general was close enough for my father to trust him with this. 

“Why?”  

“It came with this map, nothing else.” He takes a brown laminated folded document out of his breast pocket. “And we’re about to find out if this is what he meant for us to discover.”

I look at the tile again and work to clear the mud to reveal the rest of the crest. I glance up at the general and he nods in encouragement. Somehow, I know what to do. I press the medallion’s crest to the one on the floor. 

Blue light sparks when they touch. We jump to our feet and stumble back when the floor rocks. And then the tunnel wall breaks apart before us. The tiles separate in a zigzag pattern outlining a square about twelve feet across. 

“Move back!” The general orders.

I stand my ground ready to shield the others if needed. The tiles stop separating and silence rolls over us. Deep within the wall, a round of clicks domino from the left side to the right side. 

“What do you hear?” Kane’s still next to me studying the wall. 

“Clicking. You don’t hear it?” I ask.

“No.” 

I lean in closer. A massive section of the wall soundlessly slides backward and then glides to the right revealing an endless unlit cavern. 

“General, they’re coming. ETA ten minutes.” Geir says.

“Warriors, you have five minutes to secure our cargo and get in that hole. Move.” The general’s orders are answered with rushing boots.