Power (Book 1)

Chapter 34

"What? You don't want to fight the Master anymore?" Jake asked me from the driver's seat. "Why? You were just talking to us about why we had to do it an hour ago."

"We are nowhere near powerful enough to take him on," I said. "He can literally raise the whole city against us. Do you want to try to beat that?"

We were in an Afterlight standard-issue van. Currently, Jake, Cassie, Que, and I were on board. Cassie was still unconscious. Que was making sure she was okay and stayed in the back with her.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time!" Jake exclaimed. "But you wanted to go ahead and defeat him, despite my warnings against doing it. What's changed?"

"Nothing." I didn't tell him about what I saw. I think I was the only one who could see the Master. "I just realized that if I can make big mistakes like that on my own, then something even worse is going to happen when I challenge the guy who controls everything that transpires here."

"So what? You said we can take him if we catch him by surprise. I believed you," he said.

"No, Jake. That will only end badly," I said.

That part of the conversation was over. I looked back at Cassie, who was breathing evenly in the back.

"She'll be fine." Jake interpreted my staring back to her as me being worried.

"No, it's not that," I said. "Why were you there?"

"We were just stopping by so Cassie could tell you bye before she went home," he said. "And since we were on the way to her house anyway, why not? You were lucky we did, anyway."

Ah, man. I had forgotten that she needed a ride home. But Jake had handled it, so that made it okay, right? As long as she made it home safe, I wasn't in trouble.

"Yeah, right," Que said quietly in the back.

"Do you have something to say, Que?" Jake said loudly. "Because the last time I checked, you were supervising, which makes all this your fault."

"My fault?" He sounded surprised to hear that. "Last time I checked-"

I cut him off before he could place the blame on me. "It was me who was running too fast. I should've known I would create that messed-up portal."

"How could you have known?" Jake asked. "Que knew. In fact, that's how all of the other portals were created as well. Que made them by running in the same spot in a tight circle over and over again really fast. "

"Why didn't you tell me?" I said to Que. "You could've warned me. But because you didn't, I just cost millions of dollars or more in property damage to Afterlight! Thanks for the heads up."

"I didn't know that would happen. When I do it, I have to run with a much smaller radius in order for the portal to be created. How was I supposed to know that you could do it with as large an area as you were running in?"

Cassie began to stir in the back.

"Because I'm faster than you," I said. "You should have prepared for it before you decided you had to prove that you were the fastest." Now I was mad. "You could have prevented this whole thing, and here I was thinking this was my fault, but the blame falls on you."

Que remained silent, not able to defend himself against the cold, hard truth.

I turned back around in my seat.

"What happened?" Cassie mumbled feebly.

"You saved Jay's life, Cass," Jake said.

"She did?" I mouthed to him. He nodded his head. "I'll explain to you later," he mouthed back.