FORTY - Thorn

FORTY

Thorn

Iallow her to lead me outside with Kaz and Justice flanking us. She looks over at her friends and motions for them to follow. I stumble but right myself as she hurries all of us into an outbuilding that houses potted plants.

"What the hell?" I mutter.

Kaz tugs off his backpack and draws out the two garnets to plop on a worn wooden table. The healthy garnet sits next to the diseased one, and now it looks like they're both freezing over.

"Well, shit," Justice says, shaking his head. "That didn't go as planned."

I chuckle. It's not funny, but his tone is.

My nostrils are freezing. Soon I won't be able to breathe. "I think it's too late. You'll make sure she's all right."

"Of course, always."

We glare at the two garnets as ice tunnels into them from the outside.

Alana motions for Quinlan, who yanks an aquamarine the size of a beach ball out of his pack. "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Put it next to the two garnets. In fact, put it between the two garnets," she says rapidly. "Kaz. Computers. Now."

Kaz draws two laptops out of his bag, quickly attaching leads to the garnets.

"Keep them touching the aquamarine," she orders.

She's a bossy little thing. I wish I had an eternity to absolve her of that bad habit. Or even just a few decades. My breath puffs out white in the evening.

Kaz looks at me, looks at her, and then shrugs.

Quinlan pulls a rose quartz out of his bag.

Alana points. "Put my quartz on top of the other crystals."

Quinlan does as he's told while his sister watches along with Mathias in the doorway.

"Okay," she says. "All right, everybody here has some charging ability. Kaz," she calls out.

"What?"

I like his snappishness.

She doesn't because she hisses. "Do you have any ability to charge?"

"Not in the slightest," Justice answers for him.

"Okay, you start rapidly typing code," she says and then frowns. "You're almost the best, right?"

He puffs up. "I am the best."

Her gaze swivels to Ella and thoughts scatter across her face. She blinks and a frown settles between her eyes. "Wait a minute. No, you're not. Ella is."

Ella turns beet red.

Fury lances through Alana's eyes. "Ella? You and Nico seemed rather close. Right?"

Oh, shit. I stare at the little blonde.

Now she pales. "Yes, but I didn't know he was a serial killer."

Alana's chin lifts. "But you did know he wanted to control all four social media companies. He said that to me, but I was so busy trying to survive that I didn't catch it. What was his plan, Ella?"

Ella stares at the aquamarine. "You know I've studied crystals as well as coding. So did Nico. He actually came up with the idea of infecting the servers, the crystals, and finally Thorn. I just implemented the plan." She blanches and looks at me. "Sorry?"

"Sorry?" Alana explodes. "You infected the man that I love!"

The little Rendale girl has killed me? I breathe out. Impressive.

Ella winces. "You didn't love him when I first infected his garnet and then him with the freeze curse. Didn't even know him yet." She kicks a small pebble. "We all thought you were a cold-blooded killer."

"I am," I say softly.

Ella's shoulders slump. "I knew about the interview with Jackie for Malice Media, and Nico paid her the money to upload the virus."

Truth be told, I like Ella even more now.

Her gaze meets mine. "I'm sorry."

"You're forgiven," I say, knowing Alana will need her friends once I die. "Did you make Jackie overdose?"

"No," Ella says. "She did that on her own. Shouldn't have given her the money, I guess. Didn't know she was going to buy drugs with it."

Alana whirls on me. "We'll discuss this issue later. For now, everybody here is going to help fix this mess. Right, Ella?"

Ella nods and moves to the second laptop. "I want to assist, but the virus has progressed too far for me to reverse the damage. I can slow the bug down, though."

"I'll follow your code," Kaz says, fingers already flying over his keyboard.

Alana nods. "Everybody should touch two stones and one of them needs to be a garnet."

I'm barely standing. Have my knees frozen solid? "What are you doing?"

"Trust me." Her eyes are blazing.

"All right." If it's the last thing I do, I guess I'll trust her. I touch the diseased garnet and instinctively reach for the aquamarine. Justice does the same, as does Alana.

Nobody else moves.

Alana jerks her head. "Listen, assholes. Either you help, or I'll move into Thorn's castle, all by myself, and let Aquarius Social die. Hell. I'll post first about all of you and how you were working with Nico. I'll destroy you."

Mathias growls and then motions the other two forward. Quinlan grins and Scarlett shrugs. I kind of like them, to be honest. Not Mathias. I still want to kill him but probably won't because it'd upset Alana.

Her cousins both touch a rose quartz and a garnet, and Mathias, grumbling, reaches for his aquamarine and seems to take forever to decide to plant his hand on the healthiest garnet.

"Would somebody please explain to me what we're doing?" he asks.

"Alchemy," Alana says, her voice sharp. Her face is bruised. Her body looks beaten and the white bandage on her arm glares beneath the meager lights. "Okay, I need everybody to charge as if these are regular crystals."

Mathias purses his lips. The sounds of the ball echo in the distance. "They are regular crystals."

"Oh, that's right." She looks around. "Kaz, did you bring the alexandrite pyramids? The ones you guys stole from my dad?"

Kaz reaches into his pack. "Of course. Your orders were clear."

"Put them in a triangle around the diseased crystal but make sure they're touching at least one other crystal." He does so.

"Excellent," she says. "You're sure that these can contain more data and transmit faster than anything else?"

"They're supposed to," I say.

She swallows, her face pinched. "All right, good. So each of us will charge different crystals, and they'll amplify each other. As you know, garnets are warm gems, which is why they're being killed by the frost. Aquamarine is a cold stone and rose quartz is thick."

"Thick?" Scarlett asks.

"Yeah, it's dense."

Fascinating. "How do you know this?" I ask.

"Your library," she bursts out. "Do you think I took all those books for fun?"

"Yes."

"Okay," she admits. "I did borrow them for entertainment, but I chose the ones all about crystals because that's what I'm interested in, and then when you told me about your illness . . ."

Oh, the little sweetheart. "You dove deep," I murmur.

"Yeah," she says. "I dove deep. I need everybody to concentrate and charge, but I want you to think heat and healing instead of fire and power. Okay?"

"All right." I don't think I could heat a battery at the moment, but the idea is intriguing.

"Kaz and Ella," she calls out.

"Yeah," Kaz growls.

She sucks in air. "I want you to run an anti-malware program, starting right now. In fact, run every one you got."

"I have about twenty of them," he mutters. "A couple you've never heard of."

"So do I," Ella says. "I'm really sorry, Thorn."

I try to smile at her, but my lips are frozen. "I've already forgiven you, but you seem to require penance. So you will work for Malice Media for a bit."

She pales but nods.

"Good. Hit us now!" Alana yells.

Kaz and Ella start rapidly typing, sending code and energy through the leads to the stones. The garnet beneath my hand vibrates.

"Charge the crystals now," she orders.

I concentrate and try to charge the crystal just as I normally would. Energy violently bursts around us and I feel the tension. I look up and lock gazes with Justice. He then looks down at the aquamarine. The crystal is humming and glowing a bright blue.

"Harder, concentrate," Alana orders.

I'm going to have to do something about that bossy nature of hers if I survive this. Nonetheless, I do as she says, and force every ounce of energy I have into the garnet. Red sparks fly from the stone.

Scarlett cries out and flies back to hit a rough wall. Quinlan releases the stones and goes after her. The alexandrite crystals start to glow and ebb as if they have a life of their own.

"What the hell?" Mathias hisses.

"It's the different crystals and their unique energies," Alana says excitedly. "As well as Kaz and Ella getting rid of malware."

I shake my head. "It's just malware."

She looks up at me, her eyes wide. "Don't you see? It's a computer virus."

I do. The woman's brilliant. It took special stones and the right energy. A potted plant explodes behind me and I pivot to make sure pieces from the clay pot don't hit her.

Mathias backs away from the crystals.

Justice looks at me. "What do you want me to do?"

I try to control the energy in the garnets. Mathias, Scarlett, and Quinlan return and put their hands on the crystals, succumbing to blackmail. I like that. I feel the ice disintegrating inside me but then the melting stops. I'm still half frozen. It's not enough. I look at Alana and I try to show her how I feel. "You tried. You did everything you could."

"No," she says, her brows drawing down, fury lighting her gaze. "It's not enough. We can do this."

I can feel my feet freezing again. We were close, but the disease has progressed too much in the garnet. There's no way to save it.

"Try harder," she says, tears streaming down her face.

"It's okay," I say.

"It's not." She lifts her hand and I feel the energy draining from me into the stone. She grabs her dad's phone out of his pocket.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

Her eyes widen. She instantly starts typing on the screen. "I've got it," she says, backing away and holding the phone up to her face.

Justice looks at me. "She's emoting a video now?"

I stare at her.

"Hi, there," she says earnestly into the camera. "This is Alana Beaumont. Many of you don't know me because I'm usually on Aquarius Social. This is my first time mind-melding on Malice and I have to say it's because I think Thorn Beathach is the hottest guy on the planet, and I'm so ready to dish all about him to you. We're at the ball right now, having snuck off to a cute little potting barn. He's such a mystery, right? I need you to get all your friends and come back to this post ASAP."

I feel a hum in the healthy garnet. The sound of ice breaking resounds through my head.

She lifts the camera higher, sucking energy from her users and pushing it into the stones. "Hi, y'all. I'm back on Aquarius Social. Yes, I survived a serial killer, and I'll tell you all about it later. Thank you for all the kind wishes; however, I need a favor. Would everybody watching me now hop on over to my account at Malice Media? Some of you may not have an account there, but I want you to go ahead and create one. We're going to try something really cool, and if it works out, I'm going to give away a Porsche."

"A Porsche," her father mutters.

She looks at me. "You doing all right, Thorn?"

If anything, I'm bemused. "If this is my last day standing, I'm enjoying it."

"Just keep charging." She takes a deep breath and then flicks the button again. "Hi there. I'm back on Malice Media. Look at all you new users! Thank you to those of you who are coming over from Aquarius, and thank you to those who are new." She pauses and leans around the corner. "Hey, Kaz. I need you to get me all the users I can."

"Already on it," he retorts. "I've been following you."

"Isn't that sweet?" she says, and she brings up the video again. "All right. I need everybody to explode-star on Aquarius and mind-meld here. Jump into the hologram with me and enjoy attending the ball from afar."

She scans the room and shows her friends in their ballgowns. "Everybody right now, interact and feel what I'm feeling."

A pot on the other side of Justice shatters and he partially turns to shield Scarlett. I can feel the ice receding from my legs.

"That's it!" Alana cheers all of her followers. "Everybody, keep interacting. It's like you're all here—and don't forget, you're entering to win not only a Porsche but a Bentley."

The woman is giving away every car I own. I can't help laughing. My arms warm as social media users send energy to us through the two platforms. Ice cracks away in my chest, and finally I can breathe again. As I watch, the diseased garnet slowly warms and the ice falls away. It takes at least thirty minutes, and she keeps posting the entire time. The crystals all start to glow with a healthy hum.

She looks over the phone at me. "You good?"

I smile. "I'm better than good. Hey, Kaz!" I call out.

"Yep."

Might as well take advantage of the moment. "We have enough juice right now. Send a spike directly into TimeGem and the Rendales. We'll see just how they like that." While they didn't poison me, they still tried to attack my servers when they knew I was down.

Alana chuckles. "I like how you think."

"It's a good thing," I murmur. "Because you're coming home with me."