“Echo, I found him.” An image from the scene pops up. Jensen is stalking through the crowd in the direction of the fires. That’s what heroes do. They run to danger, not away from it.
“What do you want me to do?” Charger asks. He’s ripped off the stupid pirate costume and she finds he’s fully suited up underneath. She isn’t surprised.
“Casper said bombs. Are they on electronic triggers? Timers? Pull up the map and see if there’s anything you can do to disconnect them with your power.”
“What about you?” he asks. There’s no mistaking the look of concern in his eyes.
“I’m going after Blaze. I owe him one.”
He nods. “Be careful.”
The dragon roars and other creatures come to life. Strong horses with sleek black manes. Lizards and dinosaurs. Pixies with sharp teeth.
“You too.”
He reaches for her and pulls her close, kissing her on the forehead before jumping off the float and into the crowd.
She’s about to follow him off the platform when Pan calls her name over the com.
“What?”
“I need your help. This crowd, they’re panicking, and people are getting hurt.” She’s tried to push their voices out of her head—ignore the screams--but lets them in and it shakes her to the core. Hundreds if not thousands of terrified people running in a dozen directions. “I’ve got a way for them to get out of here, but they need to calm down. I need you to calm them down.”
“I don’t know how to do that,” she says.
“I’ve seen you!” He shouts something away from the com. She tries to find him in the crowd, but it’s swelled into a frenzy.
“Not with a crowd this big.”
“You can do it. You have to, Echo.”
The dragon roars, spitting a burst of fire into the air. Chaos follows, and she takes a deep, steadying breath and rips off her gloves. She doesn’t plan on touching anyone but she needs as much of their emotional energy as she can get. With the heat of the dragon at her back and another explosion rocking the ground she grabs hold of the panic in the air…
Terror, distress, agony, torment, suffering…
The feelings grip Astrid like a vise.
Sweat pools on her back and she claws at her ears, at her skin, wanting it to stop. But she doesn’t run. She channels it, pulls the energy into her core, building it into a small but powerful ball. Astrid lets it grow, feeding on every scream. Every faltering step. She consumes as much as she can until she feels like she will burst and then she puts her hands together, wrapping them around the energy and holding it with both hands.
“Holy shit,” Casper says in her ear.
She barely hears him because she’s now focused on shifting the energy, but…
“I can’t do this. I don’t know how.”
Her knees threaten to buckle under the weight of it all.
“Open your eyes,” Casper says.
Her eyelids feel like they’re held down by weights. The same with her arms, her legs and shoulders, but she fights against the pull and blinks, looking into the crowd.
They’re moving, following a bright light down one of the side streets away from the danger. It’s a peaceful scene, the opposite of the horror and destruction of the parade route. Bright paper lanterns lead the way along with twinkling lights and a starry sky. The buildings are painted a cheery color and the crowd moves calmly, carefully toward their escape.
“How?” she says, her arms and hands aching from holding the energy.
“You took their fear,” Casper says. “And Pan? Well, that’s not an oasis down that alley, but it’s better than the alternative.”
She holds, feeling the wave of exhaustion rolling over her, but her heart swells when she sees the crowd thin; children racing to safety, parents carrying three kids in their hands. She doesn’t look for Draco or Charger, knowing the slightest distraction will destroy her efforts, but she does exhale in relief when Pan comes through the final people. He looks up at her with a huge smile and gives her a thumbs-up.
“We’ve got the people clear,” Casper says over the group com. “Echo, you’re good.”
She has no idea what to do with the energy but she’s willing to try something new. She turns and faces the lumbering, terrifying dragon and opens her hands, blasting all of the pain, fear, and distress into the fantastical creature.
The energy shoots from her, kicking back and knocking her on her ass. She flails, trying to see what happened, but another explosion goes off. No, not an explosion, but a wave ripples over Astrid’s skin just as the hum of the city falls away and darkness shrouds the street, other than one thing.
Blaze stands in the middle of the street with a ball of fire in his hands.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Quinn
After kissing her on the forehead, Quinn jumps off the float and pushes his way through the crowd. Astrid told him to take care of the bombs but there are dozens, according the map Casper uploaded into the system. The small but powerful explosives are placed up and down the Harbor Line, all linked into a timer system.
“Can you hack into the timer?” he asks Casper.
“I tried. There’s a complicated firewall keeping me out. They were smart, and it would take too long to get through to make a difference.”
“Shit.” A teenage girl stumbles at his feet and he reaches down to help her up. Tears streak down her cheeks. He looks across the road and sees the tell-tale sign of Casper’s work. “Run that way. Toward that light. That’s the safe place.”
She nods and disappears into the crowd, dragging a smaller boy behind her.
What a fucking nightmare.
The dragon (dragon!) roars behind him, sending people into a bigger panic. Fire billows from its jaw and he throws up a shield, keeping the heat off the people around him. The fire blasts it and the electronic field wavers, but he doubles down and makes it stronger.
The heat and flames bounce off his shield, sending them back at the dragon. The creature stumbles back, giving the people in the street a chance to run. Quinn shouts for them to follow the lights; he truly hopes it’s to safety and not another trap.
Another explosion trembles the ground.
“Do something, Charger!”
He looks around—for something—anything to give him leverage against Kincade and his plan.
“There’s a major transformer two blocks down. One of the bombs is about twenty feet from it.”
Schematics appear on the screen and a dot shows him where the transformer is located. “Do you know when it’s set to go?”
“Two minutes.”
“Of course. Why give me any more time?” But he’s already running, pushing past the terrified parade-goers and feeling like a dick for not helping. The map helps him find the transformer and Casper has graciously provided a countdown clock in the corner. No pressure. None at all.
The box is down a small side alley with a dead end. He slips between a group of people, lanterns smashed and broken under his feet. The box takes up most of the space.
“Sixty seconds.”
“Shut up, Goblin,” he says, reaching for the box. He hears the hum of the electricity moving inside. He’s got a plan. It’s risky and could totally backfire, but they’re in some serious shit. He’s got no choice.
Quinn steps back and kicks at the lock on the door. His boot slams into it over and over until the metal twists, then breaks. It falls with a clink to the ground and he flings open the door. Cables dart in different directions, thick and black with metal caps. With a silent prayer, he ignores the safety switch and yanks two live wires out with his hands. The shock is significant, but nothing he can’t handle. The burn doesn’t even make it past his gloves, but he knows what he has to do and damn if it isn’t going to hurt.
“Be careful, bro.”