“You didn’t have that trouble when you fought Paladin.”
“I was mostly unconscious by the time my power kicked in. There wasn’t much in the way of thought or emotion left.” I swallowed and forced myself upright. “That’s not an approach I want to rely on.”
“Makes sense. Can we hurry this up a bit though?”
“Why? You have plans tonight?”
“I have a date.”
“Seriously? Am I the only one at this school who doesn’t have a love life?”
“Probably. It’s not like you talk to anyone but me and Vibe and, on very rare occasions, Evie.”
“That last part is Wormhole’s decision, not mine. She still thinks I’m going to eat her, I think.”
“She’ll come around. Maybe.” Silt frowned. “Speaking of Vibe… where is she?”
“No clue. I haven’t seen much of her recently.”
Light dawned in Sofia’s broad brown face. “Since the Ethics class where you and Isabel almost threw down?”
I frowned and reviewed the past week. “I guess so. Why?”
“You told the whole class that Kayleigh’s life meant more to you than the rest of the world. That’s the sort of thing that’ll give a girl pause, Skeletor.”
“Isabel was trying to trap me with some ethics bullshit, Sofia.”
“So you were lying?”
I gave the question more thought than it deserved… mostly because I was too damn tired to go back to fighting just yet. “I don’t know. Truth is, there aren’t a lot of people left in the world that matter to me. Kayleigh. You. Maybe a few others. I’m not going to let anyone mess with people I care about… even in a hypothetical.”
“Well, half the first-year women thought it was kind of sweet, while the other half are waiting for you to murder us all as part of some sort of weird romantic gesture.”
“I’m not Lady Valentine, for fuck’s sake.” It was my turn to frown. “Which side was Orca on?”
Silt sighed, and muttered something under her breath. After a moment, her grin came back. “The side that’s going to kick your ass in just a few days if you don’t figure this shit out. Ready for more?”
“Do you have the time? I don’t want to interfere with your date.”
“I’ve got a half hour or so left. Plenty of time to pile-drive you into the dirt some more.”
•—•—•
As I’d said, the tricky part wasn’t calling on my power. It wasn’t even calling on it during a fight. The tricky part was staying out of my head as the fight progressed. The moment I started worrying about what my opponent was doing, or what I was doing, or even about how my power was functioning at all, I’d be right back at square one, getting my ass kicked.
I guess it was a good thing I’d been spending the past eight months learning how to stay out of my own head. All those hours meditating, seeking inner peace and all that shit, and it turned out existing in the moment was the whole fucking key to using my power.
Pretty sure Gabriella Stein would’ve been horrified to realize it. Alexa though? She’d have just smiled that little smile of hers.
Kind of makes you wonder if she knew something all along, doesn’t it?
•—•—•
I could tell I’d found a zone when my aches faded away. Silt’s golem slowed in mid-strike; not snail-slow like the world seems to a Jitterbug, but slower than it had been moving all evening. I slipped one punch, then another without even thinking about it. My answering blows tore through tightly packed dirt and soil.
Part of me heard Silt’s sudden intake of breath and the corresponding exhalation as she fought to keep her golem intact, but both noises were faint and indistinct. My body was already moving, one hand’s fingers extending like a spear to drive through the golem’s shoulder, while the other hand tore at the crease that appeared as if by magic. Then I was past the dirt creature, its severed arm crumbling in my bare hands.
I pivoted inhumanly fast, that same distant part of me watching my planted knee buckle under the strain, and then I was coming back at the golem. My other knee went up into the creature’s core, followed by two open palm-strikes at the same spot. For all of Silt’s power, her creation was really just a walking dirt pile; it exploded into hundreds of smaller fragments, spraying the clearing with dirt.
When the dust settled, I turned towards the Earthshaker. She was on her feet a good ten feet away, brown eyes serious. One thickly muscled arm was extended towards me, palm-down, and the ground between us quivered like it was made of pudding. “You still in there, Boneboy?”
I let my mouth fall open, hiding a wince as the pain my power had been blocking suddenly lit up my knee and both hands. “Braaaaaaaaaaaains.”
Silt rolled her eyes and let the earth go quiet. “Brains?”
“Supposedly, pre-Break Walkers hungered for human brains.”
“Have we not met? I know that. I’m just surprised you do.”
“I did some research a few months back when I was trying to figure out my power.”
She looked at the scattered fragments of her creation. “I’d say you’ve figured it out. Nadia may finally get that fight from you she’s been looking for.”
“Yeah.”
“Thought you’d be happier.” Silt shrugged. “At least you’re not smiling. Is there anything else or can I go get pretty for my date?”
I took a halting step and my knee collapsed under me, dropping me onto the loose clumps of dirt.
“Actually,” I managed, looking up at the stocky Earthshaker, “I could use some help getting to the med ward.”
CHAPTER 56
On the far side of the pit, Nadia went through her warmups, every movement slow and precise. I’d seen her fight dozens of times—including the many occasions where she’d kicked my ass—and her routine never changed; one motion flowing smoothly into the second as if she was practicing katas in the mirror instead of getting ready for carnage. Her
