23. A Dance With The Devil

*Rebel POV*

The sound of gunshots pierced through the calm atmosphere of the night. I woke up in my bed, fear gripping me. I got out of bed in a hurry to find my parents, only to bump into a figure standing in the middle of the doorway, appearing out of nowhere.

I shrank when his long, cold fingers dug into my smooth skin. The mask covering his face and the clothes on his body were all black. I fought to make him lose his grip, but it was futile. My strength was nothing compared to his.

He started dragging me away from my room. I tried to resist as much as I could, but he handled me like a ragdoll.

Tears filled my eyes from the pain—his grip was like steel, never letting go. That’s what I thought. However, in the very next moment, he stopped. His grip on my forearm was gone, right before his body hit the floor with a thud.

I stared at him in shock before looking in the direction he had been facing before his eyes closed permanently.

A shiver ran down my spine when I saw someone standing in the shadows of the hallway, a gun in his hand.

It wasn’t until he stepped into the light that I realized who he was.

I ran to him and hugged him tightly, tears freely flowing from my eyes, wetting his shirt. He squatted down slightly to hug me back and whispered smoothly, “You’re safe, baby. Look, Dad is here to save his little girl.”

I was shaking like a leaf in a storm, yet I believed every word he said. I knew nothing could harm me anymore.

My dad would never let anything happen to me.

Only... it was a lie.

My eyes snapped open, and I jerked into a sitting position. I looked around, searching for the person who protected me, only to realize such a person didn’t exist.

It was a lie. Another nightmare.

And the girl in the dream was not me. Not the version I knew of.

She was not me. She was a shadow of a past I didn’t remember. A past that didn’t exist anymore.

Moisture tickled the back of my eyes, but I refused to shed a single tear over people who didn’t matter to me.

I promised myself—I wouldn’t do that ever again.

I got off the bed and looked around the cramped cabin I had woken up in. From the walls to the furniture, everything was made of wood.

I had no recollection of coming here. As far as I recalled, I should be dead by now—my body floating somewhere in the ocean or becoming food for hungry sharks.

Yet here I was, still breathing, standing in God knows whose house.

If I didn’t know better, I would have believed Xavier had come to my rescue and saved me from the brink of death. But I wasn’t naive enough to believe everything my head wanted me to.

I had sent him back with Ryan. They might have made it back to the safe house as we planned.

They were probably wondering where I was.

I hoped they didn’t do anything stupid and stuck to the plan.

I knew Mr. Karim would have ensured Ryan’s safety first and wouldn’t have let him come for me.

I didn’t get to make sure he was okay. Once I got out of here, I would go check on him.

But for now, I really needed to focus on my safety. I had no idea where in the world I was or who had brought me here. All I knew was that it could be one of the people I had been fighting against, and the thought of being in the enemy’s den twisted my insides.

If it really was one of them, I couldn’t imagine they had a change of heart.

But they hadn’t killed me in my sleep, which meant I might still be useful to them, or they wouldn’t have bothered keeping me alive this long.

I turned the whole room upside down, searching for any clue that could confirm the theory in my head, but I found nothing.

It was worse.

My gaze examined the room once more, but this time, I looked for something I could use as a weapon in case my fears turned into reality.

There wasn’t much to use. I chose a chair as my best option and broke off one of its legs to use as a weapon before leaving the cabin.

The recent incidents had done a number on me—I couldn’t feel my powers. I had never experienced anything like this before. I felt cold even though the sun was scorching hot outside, and the fog in my head was slowing my brain down to the speed of a snail.

That was the best way I could describe my misery.

Outside the cabin, the vast ocean stretched out before me, waiting to swallow me once again—only this time, to bury me in its deepest, darkest depths.

I knew I was too old to be afraid of water, but my brain didn’t seem to get the memo.

I averted my gaze and focused on the task at hand.

I stepped carefully into the wilderness. The trees here were the tallest I had ever seen. I doubted my hands would reach one another if I hugged their trunks.

So far, all I could hear was the sound of birds and bees, and the wind rustling the leaves. I was about to believe I had been left alone on this unknown island to die when my legs started aching. I decided to return and think of a way to get back home.

I had barely taken a few steps when my ears picked up the noise of a tree falling—the ground beneath my feet shook slightly.

I swallowed hard.

There was no way a tree as strong as these could fall on its own. The wind wasn’t that strong—though I doubted even a storm could have knocked down these giants.

That left very few options to explain what had caused it, and I really didn’t appreciate how my sluggish brain had suddenly turned into a rabbit, rushing to produce possible answers.

It hadn’t even been a full day since I discovered there were others like me—stronger than me.

If I were smart, I would have been running far, far away from this hellhole and whoever was wrestling with these trees. But my body didn’t seem to mind the danger signs hanging in the air.

A strange feeling budded inside me. I couldn’t tell what it was since I had never felt it before. I believed it might be the aftereffect of surviving a near-death experience.

Or what other possible reason could there be for me to walk toward danger if not for a death wish?

Following the grunts of a beast of a person, I navigated my way through the sea of trees.

I hid behind a tree when I got close enough to see the sight before me.

My eyes met a person’s back. A very strong one. Oh, and a pair of muscular arms clad in ink.

My mouth watered at the thought of feeling those muscles underneath me. Heat rose to my face as I imagined what it would feel like.

I shook my head, not understanding how I had gotten so distracted from the task at hand.

And why was I sweating now? Hadn’t I felt cold just minutes ago?

What the fuck was wrong with me?

Before I could dig myself a deeper hole to shove what was left of my dignity into, another grunt snapped my attention back to the scene in front of me.

My eyes widened like saucers when I witnessed what those hands could do—another tree crashed to the earth with a single punch.

No fucking way that was normal.

Even the Hulk would have needed a few more punches to bring that thing down. How could this man do it as if it was a piece of cake—unless he wasn’t normal?

My mind flashed back to the incident in the cave. Three of them had escaped. One could control water—I had seen it with my own eyes. But what about the other two?

Was he one of them?

And from our earlier interaction, one thing was as clear as water—they were not my friends.

I turned to leave. This time, I really did. I knew when to pick a fight, and right now was not the moment.

I could have left safely and found a way back home—if only I were lucky. But I wasn’t.

The second I turned, my foot landed on a twig. It snapped under my weight, revealing my location to the enemy on a silver platter.

I closed my eyes, muttering curses under my breath at my bad luck.

I didn’t hear footsteps, but the presence that manifested before me was as real as the devil himself.

A shiver ran down my spine.

I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but no matter what, I always found myself dancing with the devil.

Now that it had come to this, I did what I did best.

I fought to survive another day.

My grip tightened around the piece of chair I had picked earlier. Seeing the strength of the enemy, I doubted it would do any harm to him, but when life gives you lemons, you have to do what you can, right?

All I had was one chance, and I didn’t plan to waste it. I swirled around swiftly and launched the stick straight at the enemy’s heart.