The Psychic Legacy

Chapter 29: Whole

They had been waiting for us.

The blue-cloaked strangers quickly closed in. Instinctively I leapt back, but there was already someone behind me. I slammed into them, sending both of us toppling over as well a few others nearby.

Lillian quickly righted me, rolling me off the mass of bodies so we were in a crouch and on my feet again. She leapt from our crouch like a runner taking off, still clutching the skull tight to my chest, cradling it like a football. As we ran over the still-fallen strangers, my feet dug into their backs and stomachs. I didn't feel bad as they cried out in pain.

Had they followed us? I thought with racing panic. Or was Sofia right, and they had been watching her all this time...?

But why were they here? They already had Luc.

What did they need us for?

Unless Lillian had been wrong...

I'm not wrong! Something's changed, she hissed inside my head, even as she leapt over more advancing Gathered. She was graceful in a way I never had been, spinning and dodging with ease. It felt strange to ride along as she spun my body in every direction. It was a little like riding a roller coaster.

She had speed and agility, but they had numbers. No matter how well she danced out of their grip, there were always more coming... and coming and coming. Soon enough there was nowhere left to dodge.

A fist came flying at my face. Lillian twisted my head in time to avoid it, but there was another coming from the side. It slammed into my head, right above the ear. Light and dark flashed across my vision and my body went limp. I fell in what felt like slow motion.

The skull dropped out of my arms. It landed softly in the jacket. The bundle came undone and the skull rolled free, settling into the grass. I landed beside it. We both laid there, eye-to-eye, its empty sockets staring back at me.

A black boot came down on the skull. I barely had a chance to hide my face in the grass before orange shards of bone shattered everywhere. I didn't look back. I didn't want to see it. I pressed my face into the grass and dirt and I wished I could burrow into the Earth.

We were fucked.

The strangers had a different plan for me. Four firm hands pulled me back up to light and air. They held me tight even though I was still too dazed to struggle. Slowly my senses returned. I felt something wet sliding down my face. I looked down and noticed red seeping into my shirt. Was I bleeding?

Seeing my own blood cleared my head a little. I looked up. Polly was being pinned to the lawn by several of the blue cloaks. Her lip was swollen and bloody, but she was still struggling. We were surrounded by a thick crowd, but I could still see Sofia, standing above it all on the porch. She eyed the scene with quiet disgust but just stood there.

People from the neighbouring houses had started coming out onto their own front porches, curious about the commotion. But I noticed that Octavia and Anne were nowhere to be seen. Something about that was worrying...

Can't you do anything? I begged Lillian.

No, she snapped back. I could feel her anger with me... and with herself. I'm too tired. This is why I wanted to rest...

Something cold gripped my insides.

"Do we bring this one, too?" asked one of the blue-cloaks, drawing my attention back to them. She was pointing at Polly, who was still fighting despite the number of people pinning her down.

"No," came a voice from behind me. I tried to look back to see who, but I couldn't. "Just the possessed one."

Wait. My gaze met with Polly's. Her face was being pressed into the grass, but her brow was pulled into a deep frown over her grey eyes, so icy and sharp that they looked like they could cut. She bared her teeth.