Liberation

Chapter 26

Julia's point of view:

C-R-A-C-K

The flames finally become too much for the invisible barrier, shattering it into millions of tiny fractals and then making them disappear into thin air. I hold my breath, my pulse quickening at the loss of one of our defensive tactics.

I wait for the surge of Henley and her guards to appear, but nothing happens. Everything is eerily quiet, and I get a strange feeling.

They should have been here by now.

"Something's not right," I whisper worriedly to Cassia.

Everything is still, nothing and no one moving as if we're all frozen in time. It's calm, but it feels more like the calm before the storm that destroys everything.

I try to feel if Henley and Will are even anywhere near here, but I can't sense them. It's almost like they've vanished, for I can't even pick up the slightest trace of them.

But then, the flames start to move in an unnatural position. They begin to part in the slightest, like they're making room for something.

And that's when everything becomes clear, so crystal clear that I want to scream at myself for not catching it sooner: their disappearance, my not being able to sense them, and the movement of the fire.

They're transparent.

My lips part to yell out a warning call, but I'm too late. Before I can even utter a syllable, a shot goes off, and an element empowered not far away from me falls dead.

So I yell, shout out the only word I can think of as panic claws through my throat. The word that every single one of our policemen has learned to commence without hesitation:

"SHOOT!" I scream.

A plethora of gunshots go off at once from both sides, making my ears ring with a deafening roar. The element empowered have lost their focus on the fire, and the wall fall of flames falls back to the ground, becoming a raging wildfire again.

Some of Will's police fall dead out of their transparency, and the rest lose their invisibility from breaking focus.

However, I can't see Henley or her brother, supposing that they know how to control this newfound power.

I immediately activate my power of insight, the only power being able to see straight through transparency.

Peering through the never ending amount of police officers, I finally catch site of them a few hundred yards away, creeping like cats to where Adam and Peter stand, the two boys fighting off their own opponents but completely unaware of the menace hunting them.

I start to run for them in an effort to help, but a knife suddenly zips across my face, cutting a deep gash across my cheek as it lodges into a nearby brick building with deadly accuracy.

Turning around to face my attacker, I see a man with a smirk on his face as he wields his arm back to launch another dagger, this time at my heart.

But with a heightened awareness of location I dodge the knife, rolling out of the way and then springing back to my feat. And before he can even reach for another dagger, I shoot a gust of wind at him, effectively knocking him far enough away so I can escape.

I run for Adam and Peter, Henley and Will getting closer and closer as I begin to panic once again. This will not end like my dream, this will not end like my dream. I forbid it.

I dodge a few more attacks on me, swiftly and gracefully as if nothing else mattered.

I become transparent myself, knowing the only way I can attack Henley without passing through her is to become invisible myself.