Dominance

Chapter 25: Rescue Party

Sara continued to stare blankly at Ashton, who sighed before he spoke again.

"You were thinking about fixing something. Making it better. I would say those feelings manifested into the crystal."

"Wha- That's it? I just have to think about recharging it. And that will work?" Sara asked, dumbfounded.

Ashton shrugged. 

Humour me. Ashton's voice came into Sara's head. Just try it.

Sara clenched the shiny little rock between both of her hands. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to concentrate. She trained her thoughts to think about recharging it. Fix it. Make it better. Forcing out the idea for the gem to take whatever it needed from her to replenish its power.

The warmth from the taffeiten crystal began to intensify. Sara's hands started to throb from the strange pressure and she held on until her stance wobbled and her head became dizzy. When she opened her eyes, the bright orange glow from the mineral was seeping out between the gaps in her fingers. The rest of her body began to protest, her muscles feeling strained and sore.

Twister grabbed Sara by the shoulders as she suddenly became faint and threatened to topple over. 

"Sara!" Ashlee shouted, concerned for her friend. She attempted to help Twister hold Sara upright. "Are you okay?"

The crystal in Sara's grip fell through her limp fingers and was caught telepathically by Ashton. It floated gently back to him and he inspected it with a wide grin on his face. 

Sara mumbled a yes while she rubbed her drooping eyelids, suddenly feeling immensely tired. She rolled her head back upwards and shot Twister a woozy smile. He reacted by trying to edge his face away from her as much as he could while supporting her.

"She'll be fine. She just needs rest. And probably a snack." Ashton informed Ashlee with both her and Twister returning unimpressed leers.

"How'd I do?" Sara asked with an expectation of praise and a droop of her head.

"It's not quite fully charged. But you did better than I thought you would. It will be sufficient enough for the transportation spell," Ashton responded.

"Great. let's go quickly before someone spots us," Tyson said, not even trying to hide the excitement in his tone.

Sara was forced to hold some of her own weight again as Tyson grabbed Twister by the elbow and pulled him towards himself and Ashton. There was a stumble of feet and Twister's eyebrows wrinkled into a dour expression, but he said nothing as Tyson heedlessly tugged at him.

The two boys were surprised, but did not have much time to react, as Ashton wordlessly looped his arms around their elbows. Gripping the power sources to fuel the spells tightly between his fingers, foreign words mumbled from out of Ashton before either of the two could protest the sudden direct contact.

Ashton's eyes began to glow a magnificent amber, very similar to the colour of the also glowing taffeiten crystal, and then temperate suddenly dropped harshly.

Ashton motioned the party of three towards the daunting black hole that fizzled open before them. Tyson suddenly looked nervous as his face fell pale. But Twister was just looking annoyed to be physically attached to Ashton.

Just as the boys were about to step through Sara's head snapped up as something moved in her peripheral vision. 

She pushed herself off Ashlee, whom she had been using as a human crutch, to block Clyde from charging after his brother. But her efforts proved to be useless and her meek strength did nothing to slow his pace.