Page 130 of Captured Immune

“No!” Katie yells over another loudBOOM!“They’re Royals! Look!”

My attention whips to where she’s pointing. A woman with short brown hair opens her palms toward Jodi’s cuffs. With a smallerboom!, the cuffs fall off Jodi’s wrists. With each small explosion, the heavy metal falls off all the Royals’ wrists.

“Grab the Immune!” Jodi shouts, pointing at Arella.

My heart sinks as a bunch of large men charge toward my girl. Ruby and Katie step in front of her with their cuffed fists up. I know exactly which side people are on by the way they either help protect Arella or try to fight their way past the human wall surrounding me and her.

I keep Arella close to me as a fireball flies straight toward Katie’s face. She screams with her arms up to block it. The fireball stops barely an arm away from her, then rolls to the ground and smokes out.

Katie’s eyes bulge as another fireball rockets toward her face. The flames hit the same invisible wall, fall to the grass, then smoke out.

I gawk at Arella, who’s got her eyes trained on the other element balls launching toward the people surrounding her. Each ball stops in the air, then disappears.

“What the hell?” a Royal shouts.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Ruby says to Arella.

“I don’t know how long I can do this,” Arella says as she stops an ice ball from crashing over Katie’s head. It falls to the ground and shatters into pieces.

“Keep that up!” Ruby says, then she runs toward the guy running at her with a knife in his hands. She ducks his weapon, then turns and kicks him in the back. Using her heavy metal cuffs, she bangs him on the head, and he drops to the ground.

As the Royals close in on us, the people surrounding Arella use their cuffs to keep the Royals away from her. People shout and cry out as they fight each other. From the corner of my eye, I see two men in cuffs charge at me, each one holding a knife in his hands. Katie tackles one to the ground while I kick the other in his gut. Then I bash my cuffs against his face. It only takes one hit for him to drop his knife, but it takes another hit for him to slump to the ground.

“Get off me, asshole!” Katie struggles with the man straddling her. He’s trying to dig his knife into her neck. I rush up beside him and bang my cuffs against the side of his face. He yelps, then falls onto his shoulder. Katie picks up the knife he dropped and drives it straight into his stomach. He cries out again.

A woman charges at me with a water ball in her palm. It hits me in the face, drenching me with an icy-cold liquid. Agony explodes up my jaw as she punches me, then kicks me in the stomach.

“Get away from my son!” My dad tackles the woman into the grass. Then they roll around, punching at each other. The woman straddles my dad’s frail body and drenches his face with a steady stream of water.

I’m about to help him when Arella screams out from behind me. I twist around on my heel, then gasp. A thick man has Arella by her neck in one hand and a knife in his other. As I run to save her, the man draws the knife back and aims it at her stomach.

“No!” Katie shoves Arella out of the way. Then she screams as the man drives the knife straight into her side. She cries out as the man pulls the knife back and aims for her throat.

I grab the man by the back of his shirt and yank him away from her. He stumbles, falling onto his ass. Then I heave my cuffs into his face.

Then again.

And again.

Once he limply thuds onto the ground, I stop.

“Trey!” Arella is hunched over Katie, putting pressure over the knife wound in Katie’s stomach. “Help me! We have to save her!”

I kneel at Katie’s side. The glint of bloody metal sticking out of her neck makes my lungs stop working. Her body shakes as she gurgles, then she goes limp and her head droops over.

Of all the people to die, I never wanted any of them to be Katie.

“Come on, Trey!” Arella cries. “Help me!”

I choke up as I grab Arella by her arm. “Babe, she’s gone.”

“No! She can’t be!”

I drag Arella off the grass to meet my eyes. Her bloody hands tremble against my shirt. “We can’t save her, Arella. She’s gone.”

“No!” Tears stream down her face as her knees buckle. “Katie!”

“I’m so s—” The wind gets knocked out of me as someone tackles me into the dirt. Jodi in Victor’s body climbs on top of me and jabs something sharp into my side. I gasp for air as pain ripples through my stomach and down my leg. I feel every agonizing inch of the dagger as Jodi slides it out of my body.

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