Gift Academy (Book One in the Gifted Series)

Chapter Thirty Eight

Nick

We reach Gift Academy in hours. I feel a bit tired out, holding my fire Gift for so long, but at least I didn't have to randomly create a huge wall of dirt. Poor Claire.

Fay parks the car- a sloppy park, but I can't blame her, we're in a rush- and we all jump out. I let my flames die, and Fay folds the map again, shoving it into her pocket. She grabs the case holding the Life Dagger and rushes to the academy.

Before we reach the front glass doors, Fay stops abruptly as a fireball shoots past her, missing her by mere inches. I light a fire in my hand, and out of the corner of my eye, I see John hold a water ball in his, but something's off. In his other hand, a small yellow spark flies off, but before I can ask about it, four Extras surround us. Four against four. Well, in Gifted vs Extra terms, four Gifts against eight.

I hate my negativity.

I launch a volley of fireballs at the four, and the battle begins. One of the Extras, a guy with dark brown hair and matching eyes, gains on me, a huge rock forming in one hand and a ball of darkness in the other. Earth and darkness. Darkness vs fire. Okay. Bring it on.

He surrounds me in a cloud of black mist, leaving me in total darkness. I light another flame in my hand and see the huge rock he created hurl at me. I catch it in my free hand- thank god for baseball practice- and throw it aside.

He scowls at me and surprises me. He uses his darkness Gift again, but instead of a misty-look to it, it has a more laser edge. He forms it into a huge ball of darkness and hurls it at me. I light both my hands on fire and hold my arms up towards it. The ball of darkness collides with my fire, and a flash of dark brown momentarily blinds me, and in my hands, I hold...brown fire. Since when was that a thing?

The Extra stares at the colored fire in my hand in shock, then looks back up at me. He's too stunned to do anything, so I hurl my fire at him, and before he can react, it slams onto his clothes. Instead of burning him, it completely covers him in a dark brown light, exactly like the darkness he uses. I stand still, shocked as the Extra thrashes wildly against the brown light enveloping him. I hold my hands out towards the Extra, and the brown light follows my movement, exactly like fire. The Extra shouts in pain, and I realize that it's burning him as well.

His darkness hit my fire, and it changed color and mixed both Gifts. Now, I can burn him and keep him in the dark at the same time.

I clench my hands into fists, doing what I've seen Hailey do with her darkness before. I suffocate him until he knocks out. I'm careful to not kill him, and to not burn him too much. I'm not like that, and I don't think any Gifted is.

When he finally knocks out, I retreat the coffee-colored light back into my hands, and it stays there. I shift it into balls of dark brown fire, and it honestly looks awesome. I've never been more hyped in the middle of a battle.

I look up from my flaming hands and my friends are still fighting the other Extras. The closest to me is Gina, who's fighting a female Extra with the Gifts of water and nature. I aim a portion of my brown flames at her and hurl it towards her stomach. It hits her easily, and I do the same thing I did to the other Extra. I knock her out with the dark brown light. Gina stares at me, dumbfounded, as I'm doing it. When I'm done, and the Extra is knocked out on the floor, I look up at her and meet her eyes.

"How...?" She starts, but I cut her off before she can say anything else.

"I'll explain later." And at that moment, I come up with a stupid idea.

In my left hand, I hold the brown flames, and in my right hand I ignite a regular red fire. I look back up at Gina, who looks confused and shocked.

"Throw your wind at this," I tell Gina, gesturing to the regular fire in my palm. Gina hesitates, but she doesn't complain. A gust of wind spirals into my flame, but instead of it getting blown away, there's a flash of dark gray, and in my hand, I now hold a dark gray flame. Gina gasps in shock, but I can't stand in surprise at the new ability I have. I look at Fay and John, both fighting off the last two Extras, and hurl the dark brown fire at the one Fay's fighting, and the dark gray fire at the one John's fighting. The first Extra has the same reaction the other two did, but the last one is blasted away farther than I could see, a bit of his clothes burning with silver flames.

When the last Extra is unconscious on the ground along with the first two, I finally let my flames die. I fall onto one knee, nearly out of breath. Black spots dance around in my vision, and I feel ready to lay down and sleep.

Fay doesn't ask any questions. She grabs my arm and helps me up, slinging my arm over her shoulders. I lean against her, thankful for her support. Gina, John, Fay, and I walk as quickly as we can into the academy, careful to not attract any unwanted attention. John leads us to the back of the academy, and we're doing fine until we see her.

Mariah Smith is limping in the same direction we're going in. Fays hands clench into fists and her jaw tightens, her eyes deadly, like ice daggers.

"Mariah? What are you doing?" Fay asks Mariah, her voice steely and cold. Mariah almost jumps up and turns to us, and she looks awful. Her right leg has a bad slash on it, there's a burn on the side of her neck, a black eye, and what looks like a stab wound on her side. Fay automatically loosens when she sees the state Mariah's in.

"What happened?" Gina asks Mariah as she leans against the wall for support, breathing heavily.

"There were...other Extras, headed towards the basement. I tried to stop them, but there were too many..." Mariah explains, her voice raspy and worn out.

"I'll bring her to the infirmary. Fay, you know where it is?" John questions, helping Mariah stand again. Fay nods her head and John slowly brings Mariah to the infirmary.

"They're probably already in the basement. They might already have the dagger," Fay rambles frantically. I manage to stand on two feet without her help and put my hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"It's fine. With this new ability I have, we might be able to take them," I tell her. Fay nods her head, and without another word, continues down the hall, deeper into Gift Academy.

If they already have the dagger, we might be screwed already.