Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“What cost?” Frank asked warily.
“Pain? Decay? Death?” I shrugged. “Take your pick. Each time we wake with power, it obeys us for a little while before recoiling with agonising backlash.”
I shivered as I sank into the furnace where the flames existed.
Utterly empty one second, it surged with red hot fury the next. It put me on constant edge because I couldn’t predict if the fire was trying to keep me alive or kill me.
“Same for me,” Rook said. “The ice feels like it’s waiting for something. It’s angry and impatient and refuses to answer any of my requests...almost as if I don’t matter anymore.”
Frank rubbed a hand over his exhausted face. “That’s a lot of information and I guess...I guess it makes sense.”
“What makes sense?” Rook asked, leaning forward in interest.
“Well...the Requiem gene was never about granting magical powers but about creating something better than human. I suppose whatever evolution is happening inside you has decided it can do better.”
“Do better?” I growled.
“But what about what you told me?” Dillon cut in, planting his boots on the ground and clasping his hands between his spread legs. “You said the reason a particular frequency can override the Requiem change is because everything vibrates, right? That’s how the collars and Rook’s necklace worked. So...wouldn’t it make sense to keep trying to find the frequency that fixes them?”
Frank nodded slowly. “You’re right that frequency is the language of reality. At the quantum level, nothing is truly solid. Everything—atoms, cells, thoughts, even souls—are just energy vibrating at different rates. That’s why we thought we’d cracked immortality because the Requiem gene isn’t supposed to just rewrite DNA but to change it to a frequency where death can’t affect it.”
“And once again, this is well over my pay grade,” Dillon muttered.
“However...” Frank continued. “If the powers are becoming sentient and no longer just existing on a frequency plane, then...it’s resenting the symbiotic relationship with you.” His voice trailed off, worry pinching his eyes. “After all, the butterfly doesn’t care if the caterpillar has to die.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dillon grouched. “I swear talking to you makes my head hurt.”
Frank rubbed his temples, looking ten years older than before. “Think of your powers like parasites. They’ve lived inside you ever since you were born—feeding off you, growing stronger right alongside you. For a long time, they’ve had a good deal. They had a healthy, young host they could use. But now...that power knows you’re dying.”
He looked between us, eyes heavy with guilt. “Parasites will feed until there is nothing left. It might be keeping you alive by allowing you to slip into the source, but ultimately, it’s breaking you down and trying to wring out every last drop of energy before your body fails completely. Which is actually...positive news.”
“Positive?” Rook blinked. “How the hell is that positive?”
“Because parasites can be killed.” Frank shot to his feet, eyes sharpening with hope. “Worms, mites, tapeworms, malaria—we’ve eradicated countless parasitic infections throughout history. We have treatments designed specifically to target and destroy them without necessarily destroying the host. If your powers have truly become parasitic, then we finally have a clear target. Something concrete we can fight.”
He gestured between us, warming to his idea. “Once we kill it, hopefully the remainder of the Requiem gene will go dormant. Or better yet, it could cease to exist completely. None of the other test subjects lasted long enough to see a separation of person and power. It might be doing you a favour by turning on you because if we can isolate it and figure out a way to remove it...you could return to just being human.”
Fire detonated out of my hands with pure, primal fury.
“Shit.” Balling my fists, I wedged them into my armpits, trying to prevent the roaring inferno from incinerating the entire room. Flames just poured out of my arms instead.
“Get down!” I yelled as a crash of fire swallowed the TV, melting it into a puddle of glass and metal. The fire crawled along the walls, licking up the curtains and filling the room with smoke.
Whisper snarled as Rook shot to my side. “Lucien!”
Her wonderfully icy hands landed on my burning arm.
I tried to yank the power back, but it wouldn’t listen.
It raged hotter, angrier, as if it had heard every word and decided it would rather burn everyone to ash than let anyone try to kill it. My ribs cracked as the fire clawed its way out of me, refusing to be contained. I dropped to one knee, coughing up a thick mouthful of black blood.
“Lucien!” Draping herself over my back, a blast of ice cracked through me. For a second, it helped. The fire stuttered. The carnage stopped, but then...
Her power turned on her too.
Rook gasped as a blizzard detonated. The temperature plummeted. Frost smothered my smoke and every piece of furniture froze solid.