A pulse rocked the plane. The world slowed down. The creature’s aura was gone in the next moment. I whipped around, but it was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was only the cracking of the plane and Bryce’s screams as the metal groaned. The middle of the plane tore at the bolt seams. More air rushed into the craft. The plane began to slowly tear off at the joint, creaking savagely from the force.
“The monster is gone,” I cried. Sike held on to his scanner for dear life. The screen was flitting on and off madly. Cam gasped, darting for something in the back of the plane. The tear in the middle was only a few inches right now, but it was getting bigger. Was he grabbing our supplies? I sighed when I spotted him pulling the spiky blue creature from its cage. The plane groaned. He wasn’t going to make it back to our side, and this plane was going down. We needed to parachute out of here, but we all had to be together.
Bryce pulled himself out of the pilot chair and grabbed his parachute. "We don’t have time. Watch—"
As he tried to warn us, the plane groaned again and split further at the seam. Now, the metal was barely holding itself together.
“We have to go,” Lyra screamed. “Everyone, prepare yourselves.” She, Sike, and Bryce were already at the edge of the seam, ready to jump.
“Cam, get over here,” Bryce yelled. Lyra bellowed his name, but it was no use. Cam was focused solely on rescuing the injured creature that had found us earlier, not even pausing to put on his parachute. He grabbed the animal, wrapping it under his jacket and holding it close to his chest. It scratched at him fiercely, but he shoved it down and zipped up his jacket, despite the creature fighting against him. The metal wouldn’t hold much longer, and he wasn’t with us. I had to go for Cam. If I went fast enough, I could yank him back over to our side. The necklace I wore from the Arbiters gave me exactly what I needed. I concentrated on where I needed to be and jumped across the breaking plane as it finally split in two.
For a brief moment, my hand automatically went out to grab Lyra's hand by instinct. Her hazel eyes—wide and panicked—flashed before me. I barely missed her hand, brushing the backs of her fingers. She fell away from me as I plummeted with the back half of the plane. I screamed her name, but it was taken by the wind. Somewhere, I heard them shouting, but the sounds faded farther and farther away.
The plane was falling impossibly fast. Fear rushed through me. The cells of my body vibrated against the strangeness of the air. Pure energy rushed through me alongside the terror, but I needed to grab Cam. I yanked him toward me in the falling debris.
He gasped a startled apology as we tumbled out of the plane, and his hand went to my parachute to rip my cord. The last thing I saw was my parachute blooming above us as the creature against Cam’s chest let out a startled cry that was quickly crushed by the wind.
10
Roxy
The cold gray walls of the Bureau meeting room cast a somber air around us. The Hellraisers—except for the twins and Sylas, who would come later—sat gathered in front of me. After our training drill this morning, I wanted to give them a good impression.
I summarized what Hindley had told me about the mission, explaining our objective and our goal in looking for the missing survivors in the Sierras. Colin and Holt nodded along politely as I spoke, but Jones and Evans radiated low-level tension, which I would have to address before we left. I detailed everything about the job, skirting around the need to mentor our newer and more inexperienced members.
I practically heard Jones grinding his teeth during the brief. Out of all of them, his stare was the most critical. As a woman who’d spoken my mind throughout my entire life, I was all too familiar with the sensation of a judgmental look, and I wasn’t about to let it get under my skin now.
"We need to be ready to go at oh-four-hundred hours on the airstrip. Hindley is trusting us with this mission. It's an assignment that requires a great deal of skill, so let's do our best," I finished. "Colin, I'm tasking you with grabbing one of the new scanners Reshi provided us. She was generous enough to loan the Bureau some of her technology." The other members of the Hellraisers were reluctant to mess with anything that had a hint of magic about it, although Holt bordered on curious. Hindley reported that she’d had word from Cam, Bryce's nephew on their private squad, that technology was operating strangely in the Leftovers. I wanted to be as prepared as possible.
"Any questions?" I asked them. It was an opportunity for Jones to air his grievances, but he said nothing for the moment. I had the sense that if he wanted to say something, it was going to come later. Alone. He sat, with his arms crossed, in the chair directly across from me. Evans glanced at him, but I could already see on her tired face that it was a fight she wanted no part of. My team was working hard. They needed to rest up before their mission. "Get some sleep tonight. Thank you for your time and your work today."
Colin, Evans, and Holt drifted out as Jones remained in his chair. Colin shot me a curious look, like he was asking if I wanted him to stay. I shook my head once.
