Chapter 122
The first lightning strike rips through the bungalow like a bomb, and the explosion sends everyone sprawling. The air fills with the deafening roar of thunder, the crash of collapsing wood, and the crackling hiss of igniting flames. The blast rattles my bones, and the air is so thick with smoke and heat that every breath burns like acid in my lungs.
I scramble to my knees, coughing, my vision blurred by tears and smoke. The bungalow is ablaze, flames licking greedily at the walls and ceiling. The dried thatch roof ignites instantly, collapsing in chunks that rain down embers and sparks like a fiery storm. The heat is suffocating, oppressive, and the roaring inferno drowns out everything else.
A support beam groans above me, splitting with a sharp crack before slamming to the floor. It misses Wake by inches but lands on one of the assailants with a sickening crunch, pinning him beneath the burning debris. The rifle he’d held clatters across the floor, sliding to a stop a few feet from Wake. Blood streams down his face, but he moves with grim determination, his gaze fixed on the weapon.
“Phoebe!” Wake’s voice cuts through the chaos, sharp and commanding. “Call off the lightning!”
“I can’t!” The words tear from my throat, desperate and raw. My hands tremble violently, electricity sparking from my fingertips. The sparks leap to the walls, the floor, anything nearby, leaving charred trails in their wake. “I don’t know how!”
The power surging through me is wild, untamed, a storm trapped in my veins. My skin feels like it’s on fire, my body a conduit for energy I can’t control. The lightning keeps striking the bungalow, each bolt feeding the growing inferno. Flames leap higher, hotter, consuming everything in their path. Deep down, I know this is my doing.
“You have to let it go!” Wake shouts, his voice strained but resolute. “Discharge it all at once!”
“I can’t!” My voice cracks, tears streaming down my face as the electricity courses through me like liquid fire. “I don’t know how! Wake, I’m going to kill you!”
“You won’t!” he snaps, his piercing eyes locking onto mine, fierce and unyielding. “You’re stronger than this, Phoebe. You have to let it out!”
I try. I try so hard to take hold of the chaos inside me, to direct it, to stop it. But the harder I try, the more it slips away, twisting and turning like a living thing. The energy fights me, resisting my every effort. My body begins to spark uncontrollably, electricity crackling across my skin and leaping into the air. Each spark ignites something new—a curtain, a chair, the very walls themselves. The fire roars louder, hungrier, and I realize with a sinking dread that I’ve only made things worse.
Wake takes a step toward me, his movements slow and deliberate, like he’s approaching a cornered animal. “Phoebe,” he says, his voice steady despite the chaos raging around us. “Listen to me. You’re going to lose control. If you don’t discharge it now, it’s going to destroy you.”
“I can’t,” I whisper, my voice barely audible over the roaring flames. My body feels like it’s being torn apart, the energy inside me too vast, too overwhelming. “I don’t know how.”
Wake’s expression hardens, his jaw setting in a way that sends a chill through me despite the heat. He bends down, picks up the rifle, and rises to his full height. But he doesn’t aim it at the assailants still groaning on the floor. He points it at me.
“Wake?” My voice wavers, a mix of confusion and fear. “What are you doing?”
“Trust me,” he says, his voice low and firm. “You’ll thank me later.”
Before I can respond, he pulls the trigger.
The stun gun’s prongs hit me square in the chest, and the jolt of electricity slams into me like a tidal wave. It collides with the energy already surging through my body, amplifying it until I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. My body convulses, arching violently as the overload consumes me.
I hear myself scream, though the sound is distant, like it’s coming from someone else. The storm inside me explodes outward in a blinding burst of light, a final, uncontrollable surge of energy. The world around me disappears in an instant of pure, blinding white.
For a moment, there is nothing. No fire, no noise, no pain. Just stillness, vast and infinite.
Then, like a wave crashing down, darkness swallows me whole.
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