Cassius watched as a security battalion emerged around the corner, sprinting across the Ridium-soaked streets toward Theo. But before the soldiers could come close to reaching the boy, dagger-like cones of blackness cut up through the ground, spearing their bodies like meat on toothpicks. Soldier after soldier succumbed to his power. It was a massacre.
Cassius stepped forward, careful to keep his eye on the ground in case something came at him, too. The Ridium continued to fade around his feet, working its way into the circuitry of the ship.
The wind intensified as more and more atmosphere was sucked out of the hole at the top of the dome. The ship continued to sink. Without a clear view of the space beyond the city, he couldn’t tell how close they were to hitting the ground. When they did, the resulting explosion would be enough to tear the Skyship apart.
Someone grabbed his shoulder. He pulled away and staggered forward in fear for his life.
“Cassius!” A familiar voice called him back. He turned to see Fisher’s friends, Eva and Skandar, standing before him. Their eyes focused on the distance, past his shoulders to Theo.
Cassius coughed. “Where’s Fisher?”
“We don’t know,” Skandar said. “He went with Avery.”
Eva’s mouth fell open as she watched Theo continue to fight back the ship’s forces.
“He’s covered in Ridium,” Cassius explained. “There’s no way to stop him. He’s going to bring the ship down.”
Eva was about to respond when a loud explosion rocked the opposite side of the ship. Cassius turned to see an expanding flare of green energy blossom from the far side of the city. It coursed above the tops of buildings, spreading upward and outward like a tidal wave.
He shielded his eyes from the brightness, but forced himself to keep looking. The longer he stared, the more details he could make out. There were bodies, glowing brighter and stronger than the rest of the green. Drifters swirled amongst the chaos. They circled in loops through the sky, riding the wave of energy.
“Fisher,” Cassius whispered.
Eva moved to his side. “I’ve never seen so much Pearl energy in one place.”
“It’s coming at us.” Cassius took a step back. “It won’t dissolve in time.”
She glanced down at his wrist. “Your bracelet!”
He felt the breeze tickle his bare skin. A shiver went down his spine. “We can’t let Theo get the other one. Fisher has to stay as far away as-”
The Pearl energy crackled above them like sheet lightning, splintering the rest of the dome. A few more direct hits and it would burst altogether.
Cassius bolted toward Theo. The boy continued to fend off security forces in front of him, but it stole all of his attention. If Cassius could take him by surprise, he’d have a chance of buying Fisher and the Drifters some time.
It was reckless, he knew. If anything, he should be running the opposite direction, but he couldn’t let Theo get that bracelet.
A few hundred yards and the boy was in reaching distance. Before Theo could react, Cassius bounded toward him, grabbed his shoulders, and pushed him to the ground. He grunted in pain as he collided with the Ridium. It was like tackling a cold statue.
The air around them heated as the Pearl energy pulsed closer. Theo pushed up and sent Cassius flying from his back onto the ground. The sky darkened. Seconds later, the green tidal wave ripped through the air. Cassius held his hands over his face, expecting to be hit full-on. Instead, the energy funneled into what looked like a sideways tornado and barreled straight at Theo.
Knocked off balance, the boy tried to shield himself, but the Pearl energy came at him with too much power. Cassius watched as the Ridium tore from his small frame and fell to the ground in splotches of black.
Unprotected by his suit, the energy blasted Theo to the ground. Cassius staggered to his feet and watched as the force from the Pearls threw the kid across the top of the ship, kicking him around in painful somersaults like a human tumbleweed. He prayed that it would be strong enough to drag him away entirely.
Before Theo reached the outer edge of the ship, the boy managed to conjure a thin shield of black, deflecting a wall of green back into the air and slowing himself to an uneasy stop.
Cassius took shallow breaths, watching the kid’s still body. Tendrils of smoke curled from Theo’s back. His face was buried in the ground. He wasn’t moving.
Pearl Energy. It was the key. It hurt him.
He turned back to the city with only one question on his mind.
Where was Fisher?