He was too close to savage earlier. I should have made him take olophine. Seeing me hit, bleeding profusely, and hundreds of unaligned mercenaries rushing toward us has pushed him to the breaking point.
“Jase, put me down now!” I instruct, my body tingling with fear of what's about to come.
“Not a fucking chance,” he scoffs while holding me to him and dodging shots.
I summon up my strength as I see my brother's pupils pulse, change, and take over his hybrid blues, turning them almost black.
Damn it.
I almost say a prayer, begging for my gift to work. It does, and Jase’s body is stripped from mine as I fling him away. I fall to the ground, crying out in pain as I thud against the muddy yet unforgiving ground.
Rex walks through bullets, his phase three savage forcing his body to be invincible as bullets shatter against him. He'll kill every full blood here... including Jase. Almost all forgotten children lose their minds around full bloods when they're in their savage, and they lose all restraint.
“Full bloods get out now!” I scream, and their pale eyes widen as they start running from the savage who can’t control his burning hatred.
Jase’s ignores my plead and tries to come for me again when I struggle to stand. I manage to use my gift to force him back once more, and then I try to stand just as Uncle Grayson scoops me up.
“This is about to get bad,” he mumbles under his breath as Rex holds out his hands in front of him, forcing his power to flow through his fingertips.
Unaligned members begin screaming in pain as my brother fucks their heads up. His gift of insight becomes an offensive weapon as he enters their minds and forces them to see things that don’t exist. Tormenting, vivid images I’ve only ever heard of are swirling through their minds, burning up their brain with its unfathomably dark force.
He’s too strong. Everyone he feels a threat from will die, and so will Jase if I don’t think of a way to stop him without provoking his savage into believing I too am a threat.
My aunt uses her gift to force back our full blood companions even farther to keep Rex from inadvertently striking one of them.
Then I see Melania, her pale eyes burning and changing to a hybrid blue as she walks toward my brother. I’ve seen that gravitational pull before. I’ve heard about it and seen it actually, but I've never felt it.
But she’s full blood. She can’t… what the hell? How the fuck did her eyes change?
A gargling burst of screams exude from the throats of the falling, and then Rex’s body stiffens, his head turning to meet the entranced beauty stalking toward him. Melania’s parted lips gasp as the first bit of eye contact sends her body to an internal blaze.
He moves toward her, his new mission being only her - to touch her, be with her.
“Melania, you have to snap out of it,” Aunt Angelica urges. “You have to steer him away from here, keep the others safe. Keep your brother safe,” she prompts.
Melania isn’t just a secret hybrid, she’s a gifted hybrid… a strong gifted hybrid if my brother is her counter.
My eyes move to find Jase, my heart wondering if he’s secretly a hybrid as well, but I can’t find him. Shit. He can't be. He's too cold to the touch. I've felt his chill, seen his glowing night eyes. But how is Melania his sister then?
“Get him out of here,” Aunt Angelica says again, and Melania’s sound mind returns slightly as her lips find my brother’s for the first time.
He wraps her up in his strong arms. Her golden hair becomes tangled in his hands, and her legs rise to wrap around his waist.
And he thought seeing my future was ew.
I can see her whispering in his ear, and he starts walking away, his body holding her tightly to him. She’s leading him away to offer our people safety, and she’s doing a damn good job of it too.
With one final rush of power falling from our gifted fleet - excluding me - the few remaining Unaligned soldiers fall lifelessly to the ground.
“What the fuck was that?” I blare to Uncle Grayson when Jase seems to be hiding.
“Melania is hybrid. She’s a level seven,” he says with a shrug. "I found out shortly after meeting her that day at brunch."
“She had full blood eyes,” I object.
“She was adopted, Aria. We didn’t know it until the forgotten started being adopted, but when loved and cared for by another breed, our eyes camouflage. Some forgotten children who were adopted by humans were even told to have green or brown eyes. Her body was our temperature though. How did you miss that?”
I never touched her. I never even shook her hand.
