Falling by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online Page B

his head. “This is a tough business all round.”
    I look at the bodies lying in the cave, Faders and Others both. Tough doesn’t begin to cover it. The last few days have been brutal, deadly. Senseless. Why do the Others need to hunt me like this? Why do they feel they have to risk so many lives? What is it about me that threatens them so much they would rather see carnage like this than just let me live my life?
    “Anyway,” Lionel says, “we need to go.”
    Annette, who is currently trying to put pressure on the wound in her side, looks from Lionel to the glowing rock. “What are we going to do about that?” she asks. “Are we taking it with us, or leaving it, or what?”
    Jack steps close to it, kneeling beside it. “We need to be careful,” he says. “This is a source of intense energy.”
    He points to one of the closest bodies to the rock. It could be one of the Others, or it could be one of the Faders. It’s hard to tell. Unlike the bodies cut down by bullets, this one is charred and blackened, burned almost beyond recognition. I know what Jack’s implying. This body looks just like the ones of the Others I have killed with the energy inside me. It’s the same. Powerfully, dangerously the same.
    Whatever this rock is, it has to do with what I am. With what both Jack and I are.
    Lionel understands too, because he moves to stare at the rock. “This has a connection to Celes here, I take it?”
    I can only nod. “It’s the same effect I get when...” I can’t finish that.
    “Yes,” Lionel says. “I have seen the reports. Not to mention the footage in the archives. So, this is where the signal came from. I imagine you must be disappointed.”
    “Disappointed?”
    “That it isn’t from a person.” Lionel looks at the rock a little more closely, though he’s careful not to touch it.
    I hadn’t thought about that, but I nod. “A little. But this is still… it’s still something.”
    “It is indeed. We will need to study it further. Though we will have to be careful.” He looks at the burned up figure. “I imagine, since they were here first, that this was one of the Others. It would have been the first person to touch the rock. After that, they would have stayed around, trying to work out how to deal with it, and that would have been when we arrived.”
    “So they were here before we came, following the same signal,” Grayson says. “It wasn’t a set up. No one knew the Underground would show up.”
    “Exactly,” Jack replies. “And since they didn’t expect anyone, they’ll think it’s just the rock when the bodies turn out to be completely burned up or buried in an avalanche.”
    Lancaster smiles and puts an arm around Jack. “Always one step ahead, Jack. Still the same Jack, but better. I have enough explosives in the helicopter.”
    Jack looks over at me, and I can see the love there. It’s intense, a heat almost as great as the one coming from the rock, and I can feel heat rising in me in answer to it. Literal heat, of the kind I’ve used to kill people. I look away quickly. It’s true then, what Grayson implied back when he was asking why I only burned people up around Jack. Jack’s my trigger. My feelings for him help to spark this power. And they have grown so much.
    “I’m better now because I have a reason to be,” Jack says. He moves over to me. Right now, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, but it seems he isn’t planning to kiss me again right away. I don’t know whether to be disappointed or not by that.
    “Celes,” Jack says. “We know that your power doesn’t cause you any harm. You’re connected to this rock, so you should be able to handle it safely. I think you’re the only one who can.”
    “What if you’re wrong?” Grayson asks, but he’s too late.
    I’ve already bent to pick up the rock. It’s warm, but it’s a pleasant warmth, like holding another body to me as I lift it into my arms. It’s big enough that I have to cradle it two