Or himself, just to stop this blinding pain.

“How many more of you are there?” said Silver.

Hunter almost couldn’t think to process the words. “More of me?”

“Fifths like you, living outside our notice?”

“Just me.”

“I don’t believe you. How did you coerce Kate to join you?”

The mention of Kate bought him a moment of clarity. “I didn’t coerce her into anything. Kate wasn’t a killer. She didn’t want to be like you.”

Hunter patted his hand along the concrete, searching for a weapon. Even the ax.

“My mistake,” said Silver, “was working with children.” He shot Hunter in the leg again, closer to the knee.

His vision went white for a moment, and Hunter felt like he lost a minute of time.

“Who else is like you?” Silver demanded again.

“Fuck you.”

“What are you, sixteen? No wonder you couldn’t save your father. No wonder you couldn’t—”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything! He was nothing like you.”

“You’re right,” said Silver. He pointed the gun at Hunter’s head. “I do what needs to be done.”

He pulled the trigger.

The gun exploded. Hunter saw the flash, but that was it.

Then Silver was yelling and the smell of gas was in the air.

Then Hunter felt fire. Somewhere distant, but a raging fireball, heading this way.

The kids must have started a fire as they fled, somewhere farther down the line.

Maybe it was the blood loss, but Hunter was having a hard time figuring out what was going on.

Especially when Michael stepped out of the darkness and slammed Silver into the concrete wall with enough force to break the stones. Rock crumbled around him. Silver crumpled to the ground.

Hunter felt himself lifted by the shoulders. He opened his eyes but didn’t remember closing them.

Gabriel was dragging him.

But he was looking at his brothers. “We need to do something! I can feel it building!”

Fire. He could feel fire building. Hunter could feel it, too, a swelling rage coming fast.

“Did they . . .” started Hunter. He had to wet his lips and really think to string a sentence together. “Did the kids make it out?”

“Yeah. They got out.” Gabriel didn’t sound entirely happy about that.

Hunter could feel the heat, the rage in the air around him.

Then he felt the fire, true fire, barreling through the tunnel.

His mind was trying to panic, but he could barely lift his head. At least it let him string a sentence together. “Gabriel! We need to stop it!”

Too late. Hunter felt the fire wash over him. Heat seared his lungs and scorched his cheeks, blinding him for an instant.

But then he felt Gabriel’s power in his element. His friend was trying to harness the energy, to keep it from spreading.

There was too much. He couldn’t handle it all. This fire wanted to explode from these tunnels, and Gabriel couldn’t hold on to it.

But then another source of power joined Gabriel’s. Nick, trying to choke oxygen from the fire.

Not enough.

Chris, pulling power from the steam in the pipes, the trickles of water on the walls.

Not enough.

The fire was weakening, slowing, but not enough.

Rubble scraped against pavement, and it took Hunter too long to realize what that meant. Silver was getting to his feet.

And he was pulling power, lots of power, from the air around them. Hunter felt it building and knew Silver could kill the Merricks, right here in these tunnels, using their own power.

So he did what he’d been told never to do. He added his power to theirs.

And like a final link clicking into place, the five of them formed a perfect circle. Everything hesitated. The destructive power was right there, in Hunter’s control, lighting up his vision like a power grid. Waiting for direction.

Hunter looked at Silver.

Then he shoved every ounce of power in his direction.

Hunter felt the force of energy leave his body and slam into Silver’s.

And then he didn’t feel anything at all.

CHAPTER 34

Hunter woke up in a hospital.

It took a moment to realize he should probably be grateful to be waking up at all.

An IV was in his hand, one of those oxygen cannulas strung around his face. Nothing really hurt, but at the same time, he had no desire to climb out of this bed, either. A dull, unsettling ache clung to his bones.

He tried to move his legs.

They worked. They hurt, but they worked.

He wasn’t handcuffed to the bed, either, so that was a plus.

One of the Merrick twins was asleep in the recliner on the other side of the room. His T-shirt said I Google Myself.

Gabriel.

Hunter wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Hey,” said Hunter.

Nothing. He tried again.

Finally, he grabbed the box of tissues on the small table beside the bed and threw it.

Gabriel sat up with a start. He grabbed the box and tossed it onto the window ledge. “Dude, you’re lucky you’re hurt or I’d be shoving this right up your—”

“Save it. What happened?”

“Oh Em Gee, Hunter, you are so welcome,” Gabriel said in a lilting falsetto. “I had a blast saving your life.”

He couldn’t be too mad if he was cracking jokes.

Or maybe he was furious. Sometimes it was hard to tell with Gabriel.