I take a deep breath and push myself to a standing position. It’s like moving through syrup, muscles howling in pain as I watch the Pearl plummet closer and closer to the Surface. Avery and the guards notice it too. They pull back, dropping their weapons.
The alleyway glows a brilliant green as the Pearl’s light reflects along the windows of the towers. Its path stays fixed on me.
“Back up.” Avery grabs my arm, trying to pull me away. “Jesse! It’ll kill you!”
I keep my eyes on the Pearl, ignoring her. My feet are cemented in place, every bit of me hypnotized by the glowing ball of light speeding to the ground.
I reach out my arms, hands open.
One thousand feet.
My eyes widen. The pain shoots from my core and meets the Pearl head on, pulling it forward.
Five hundred.
“Jesse!” Avery screams behind me, pressed against the railing at the back of the landing.
Fifty.
My fingers tingle with electricity as the Pearl rockets toward them.
Then I catch it. I don’t even stumble backward. It lands right in my hands like it was always meant to be there.
I hold it out in front of my face, gazing at the swirling chaos within-an entire universe before my eyes. It should have burned right through me. I should be dead. Instead, I feel mass complete, like a part of me I never even knew was missing has returned.
I glance down at the dumbfounded expressions on the faces of the guards, illuminated in soft green.
“What did you just do?” Avery whispers from behind me, approaching carefully.
The pain is gone, absorbed by the Pearl in my hands. Without realizing what I’m doing, I push it away from my skin. It floats off into the night until it hovers inches before my fingers.
My senses buzz, on overload.
I ball my hands into fists.
The Pearl explodes, sending a shockwave of energy in all directions. The guards topple over into a heap. My body deflects the energy, sparing Avery and me. The alleyway cracks and hisses. Street lamps and windows shatter, raining shards of glass onto the ground. Everything beams a brilliant green for a second, so intense that I have to shield my eyes.
As this happens, a figure emerges from the top of the Pearl, shooting up into the sky like an arrow until it’s well out of sight. It was humanoid, I think, but too blurry to tell-like it hadn’t quite flickered to life yet. I’m not sure anybody else saw it against the blinding energy. I’m not even sure if it was real, myself.
The Pearl energy finds a home in the circuits and transformers throughout the area, and soon we’re left with nothing. No more Pearl-just empty air and stillness.
The night is quiet once more, with one big difference. The guards below us lie in piles, unconscious in the alleyway. I hope they’re breathing.
I survey the scene around me-the blanket of broken glass, the blown-out windows-and realize what I’ve just done.
My fingers hum with residual energy. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end.
Avery starts off down the remaining steps, stunned into silence. I follow close behind, eager to escape the alleyway and get away from the bodies. Too much damage. Too easy for them to find us again.
As I take the final step into the alleyway, Avery grabs my shoulder and pulls me close to her, hugging me tightly. “You’re amazing,” she whispers.
I keep my arms at my sides, breathing hard. When she releases me, the shock of what just happened begins to sink in. I crane my neck upward, looking between the two buildings at the narrow strip of stars so far away. The alarms continue to rumble through the city.
“I don’t know what I am,” I whisper back, shaking my still-buzzing hand in the cool night air. “Let’s get out of here.”
She nods. We take off running through the corridor, leaving the chaos of the alleyway behind us.