The Power
Page 39

Chaos erupted.
It happened so fast, one side converging on the other, that scuffles broke out everywhere around us within a matter of seconds. Deacon sprung to his feet, right beside Luke just as a pure fell into Colin. They went down in a tangle of punches and kicks.
Oh man, someone was going to end up on fire.
Seth was suddenly in front of me. “You need to go back to the dorm now.” He took hold of my arm and spun me around, toward Deacon. “Make sure she is—”
“Are you freaking serious?” I tore my arm free from Seth. “I can fight and I—” My words were cut off as he shoved me to the side and snapped forward, catching a pure in the chest with a solid swipe of his arm, knocking him back.
Seth looked at me pointedly. “You can do what again?”
“I can fight, you giant jackass of jackass proportions.” Spying a pure who was going all firestarter a few feet to my left, I lifted my arm and opened my hand. Summoning the element of water, I grinned when lightning cracked overhead and a white glow surrounded my palm. Power left me, but it was akasha. As the bolt of energy streamed out, it turned into a jet of water. The liquid slammed into the pure, knocking him over, head over feet. Closing my hand, I spun around to Seth and lifted my middle finger. “How’s that?”
He arched a brow as he spun, catching a half-blood that had stumbled backward. Righting the younger kid on his feet, Seth gave him a gentle push. “You’re going to want to stay out of this.”
I was going to have to agree with Seth on that.
Things had escalated quickly, and there was no way I was staying out of it like I had done that day in the cafeteria, while innocent people had gotten so horrifyingly injured.
It wasn’t something I even thought twice about, and maybe later, I would look back and be a little shocked by how quickly I got in the middle of it, but right now, it was instinct.
Pures didn’t fight fair. That was for sure.
A pure had a half pinned against a tree with the air element. Leaving Seth’s side, I stalked up behind the pure. Clapping my hand on her shoulder, I spun her around. Surprise widened her eyes and she dropped the half-blood.
“That’s not very nice,” I told her.
Her lower lip trembled, and when I let go, I figured she was going to run off. She didn’t. Throwing out her hand in my direction, I knew she was going to summon the element.
“Not smart.” I caught her arm and twisted as I stepped behind her, bending her over as I did exactly how Seth and Solos had trained me in the beginning. I shoved my leg between hers and wrenched to the right. Down she went.
As she scrambled off, I lifted my head just as a pure guy bum-rushed me. Like, legitimate rushing at me like a linebacker. A moment of trepidation seized me and then I shut it off. Sidestepping the massive dude, I dipped down and kicked out, sweeping his legs out from under him. He fell backward, hitting the ground with a fleshy thud.
Spinning around, I saw the guys. Deacon had his phone in his hand, snapping pictures with a smirk on his face while Luke had two pures, one in each hand. He brought them toward each other, knocking their heads together. Colin had a cursing pure restrained on the ground and Seth . . .
Seth power-bombed a pure into the ground with one arm.
Whoa.
That was hot.
A hand snagged my ponytail, jerking my head back. I cried out, more in anger than in pain. I caught the slender arm and twisted around, bringing up my leg. I slammed my knee into the flat stomach of a pure. She dropped my hair and doubled over as I jumped back.
“Are they insane?” I asked, dodging a ball of flames that smacked into the tree above Deacon’s head. “I’m a demigod. For real?”
“And I’m the Apollyon, and yes, they are just that dumb.” Seth darted around me, catching a pure by the shoulders and taking him down to the ground. He raised a fist. “Really dumb.”
“Not dumb,” the pure spat back. “Pure. We’re pure and we’re going to keep it that way. And you might be the Apollyon, but you’re nothing but a dirty fucking—”
Seth’s fist ended that sentence. Blood and spittle flew. “Bigotry is dumb, you know, just in case you didn’t realize that yet.”
The pure didn’t hear him, because he was knocked out. Part of me couldn’t believe that this was happening. I turned and jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a punch to the face.
“Gods,” I snapped, more than irritated.
Coming at me again, the pure lumbered forward, blood trickling out of his nose. He got all Fists of Fury on me, swinging with enough oomph to do some damage, but that wasn’t going to happen.
I wasn’t the same Josie who walked into the University months ago.
I was part-badass-ninja.
Catching his hand, I used his momentum and body weight as I ducked under his arm, taking him with me. I flipped the dude, laying him out flat on his back. I bet he was seeing stars. Or maybe Greek minotaurs. Whatever.
“Damn.” Seth stared at me.
“What?” I shook my arms out as I straightened, tossing my ponytail back. “Did you think I’ve just been moping around and not getting better?”
Okay. I’d been doing a lot of moping in my alone time, but he didn’t need to know that.
His lips twitched and his gaze dipped a fraction of an inch. His features tightened, and I recognized that expression. Hungry. Starved, really, and something inside me, something just as hungry and something entirely stupid, responded. My lips parted. Seth took a step toward me.