Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)

by Lauren Roberts

His voice is lower than before when he says, “You’re a vision.” “She is, isn’t she?” My heart skips a beat. The voice coming from over my shoulder is so cold I nearly shiver. Kai brushes my arm as he steps around me, facing the stunned boy still clutching me to him. “I’ll be stealing her now,” Kai says simply, completely aware of how inappropriate it is to cut in during the middle of a dance.

GAHHH IVE BEEN WAITING

He feels too familiar. We fit together perfectly, pieces of a puzzle snapping into place. I shouldn’t let myself relax into his touch. Shouldn’t let the tension ease from my body when he holds me. But I can do nothing to stop it. Utterly and completely powerless.

“You looked like you needed saving,” Kai says, and I catch a glimpse of his smirk before he spins me. “For once,” I sigh, “I’m going to have to agree with you.” “I’m sure I could think of other things we agree on.” “Oh really? And what would those things be?” “That he was right,” Kai says softly. “You are a vision. I’m sure we can both agree on that.”

eekkkkk

“Hmm,” he hums distractedly as his eyes sweep over my face. “Are you having a good time tonight?” I blink at him. “Well…” “Spit it out, Gray.” “Fine,” I huff. “Not particularly, no.” He cracks a smile. “Then we both agree that these balls are incredibly boring.”

“And what if you’re the reason I’m not having a good time?” “If that were the case,” he says with a grin, “you likely would have stomped on my toes or pulled a dagger on me to get away by now.” “Don’t give me any ideas, Prince.” He chuckles softly. “You’re right. I’d hate to bloody my suit.”

I’m swept from my thoughts when Kai spins me and my eyes dart to his without my permission. Mistake. His midnight hair falls over his forehead in messy, silky waves. Smoky gray eyes meet mine, captivating, chilling. His set jaw loosens, pulling his lips into a cocky grin as he watches me take him in. Dimples. Both of them mocking me. “Like what you see, Gray?” he croons, knowing that will get a rise out of me.

totally

“By all means, carry on. I’ll never deny myself the chance of watching you watch me.” “And why is that?” I ask with a nonchalance I don’t feel. His smile is wicked. “Because it is far more fun to admire you when the action is mutual.”

“Fair enough.” He shrugs slightly. “How about we say the score is two to four then? That’s generous.” My eyes light up. “Look at that. The prince finally admitted I saved him.” He laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest, crinkling the corners of his eyes. “I never said—”

yeah rd

pain tears through my left forearm. The shooting jolt has my eyes falling to the torn, bloody flesh there. Throwing knife. Suddenly, I’m crashing to the floor with a strong, solid body landing on top of me. No, a strong, solid body covering me. Explosives erupt around the room, and my ears ring from the impact. I feel a wave of heat accompanied by smoke and hunks of stone sailing toward us. Kai’s large frame hovers over me, his hand cradling the back of my head so my skull didn’t crack on the hard marble when he threw us to the ground.

WHAT IS HAPPENING

Kai wrenches me to my feet, ducking low as he half drags me toward the wall, trying to get us out of the open. “What is going on?!” I shout over the sound of explosions and echoes of screams. But Kai is busy barking orders at the guards and people around us, telling them what to do and how to do it. Every bit the future Enforcer.

lord he so fine

“There’s no time to explain.” His eyes are wide, the only sign of his worry. “How badly are you hurt?” He reaches for me, but I step away, my back colliding with the hard wall behind me. Pain shocks up my arm, but I grit my teeth and ignore it. “I’m fine, but what is—” “I need you to get to one of the safe rooms. The guards will take you—” “Kai, I’m not leaving.” He flattens me fully against the wall, boxing me in with his arms on either side of my head. His eyes are wild, like smoke smoldering from a blazing fire. “Then don’t think I won’t throw you over my damn shoulder and carry you out of here myself. Is that what you want?”

well..

They aren’t using powers because they have none. Because they are Ordinaries. “Let me help,” I breathe, my eyes pleading with Kai. I need to get closer. Need to see who these people are and where they came from. “No.” “I can take care of myself.” His laugh is dry. “Then prove it. Go quietly to the safe room. Now.” “Make me.” I practically growl the words in his face through gritted teeth. Wrong thing to say. He looks away and exhales, shaking his head. “You’re too stubborn for your own good, Gray.” And then the world flips upside down.

ay put us down

“Kai, I am literally going to stab you in the back if you don’t—” “If you think a stab wound will stop me then you seriously underestimate my abilities, darling.”

sigh

“I’m not hiding from this, Kai. This is my kingdom too.” His voice is stern, on the verge of yelling into his brother’s face. “Well, you won’t be around to rule it if you die, Kitt,” Kai fires back, his tone cool. “You need to lie low until this is cleaned up. This could be an attempt on your life.” “I’m not leaving this fight!” Kitt roars.

OH BROTHER

“They call themselves the Resistance.” His voice is low and steady, intended for only me to hear. “They are a group of Ordinaries that have been banding together for years. Fighting against the king and the kingdom because of what was done to their kind.” Their kind. My kind.

damn we supposed to be with them

“Do you not want to be king?” He doesn’t hesitate. “I do not want to be a coward.” I force myself to hold his gaze, seeing all the confusion and consideration reflected in it. “No one has ever asked me that before.” “Yes, well, you’ll find that I often ask questions that I shouldn’t,” I say, looking away from him. “Don’t stop,” he says quickly, quietly.

“I’ll see you after the Trial.” Kitt’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “I will see you after the Trial. You expect to survive this, remember?” I duck my head and smile despite myself.

I’m about to slip back out the door when a mass of messy black hair catches my eye. He’s sitting—no, slumping on a large slab of stone near the far end of the ballroom, dirty and drenched with blood. My heart hammers against my rib cage. He’s hurt. And more importantly, why do I care?

THATS KAI OMG

I drop to my knees, looking up into his bloody, dirt-streaked face. His gray eyes only look startled for a moment before they begin roaming over me, searching my body for injuries as I do the same to him. Words spew from my mouth. “What happened? Where are you hurt?” I look around, scanning the room. “And where are those damn Healers?” “Ah, Gray. Just the person I wanted to see.” He grinds out the words through gritted teeth, though he’s still acting like his cool, collected self.

“Before we get to that,” he fights to keep the grimace from gracing his features, “did a Healer get to you?” He’s suddenly serious, pain forgotten as his eyes sweep over me yet again. I’m both confused and annoyed with him—a common occurrence, it seems. “What? Yes. I’m fine.” I dismiss his question and scoot closer, hands slightly outstretched. “But clearly, you’re not.” “And here I was thinking you hated me and my stupid dimples. I’m touched you care so much about my well-being, Gray.”

oh dont start

I gasp. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” “Darling, that is a very loaded question.”

I ignore his comment, unable to tear my eyes from the throwing knife buried deep into the flesh of his right shoulder blade. “You’ve had a knife in your back this whole time and you just let me talk?” I’m sputtering. A dimple accompanies his crooked grin. “Oh, but the sound of your voice was such a welcome distraction from the pain.”

KAI pls dont play with me rn

“Yeah, well, now you get to hear me telling you that you’re a complete idiot.” “That’s still one of the nicer things you’ve said to me, so, I’ll take it,” he says smoothly, seemingly undisturbed by the piece of metal impaling his body.

“You know, it’s a shame we never got to finish our dance,” he says. “It was the first time I could actually focus on you rather than dodging your stomping feet—” I yank the knife out in one fluid motion. He grunts and doubles over on the stone.

very smooth pae

His palm is suddenly extended toward me expectantly, and I stare at the calluses blankly. When I make no move, he slowly drops his hand to the one at my side, his rough fingers closing around my wrist. My heartbeat quickens and I curse the stupid organ. He pulls my arm, my hand, toward him—the one still clutching the throwing knife. Then his other hand brushes against my palm, gently prying the handle from my fingers. “You have enough of these to bury in my back, don’t you think?” he says softly, his hand still wrapped around my wrist where he can likely feel my stupid, stammering pulse beneath his fingers. “So, I think I’ll hold on to this one.”

My laugh is bitter. “You know damn well that I can take care of myself—” “And you know damn well that I could take care of it, myself.” “You got stabbed, remember?” “Occupational hazard.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Gray.” “See you tomorrow, Azer.” He finally turns, making his way across the ballroom as I watch his retreating form. Then he calls over his shoulder. “Do me a favor, darling?” “And what’s that?” “Promise me you’ll stay alive long enough to stab me in the back?” I laugh loudly. “That’s been my goal all along, Prince.”

oh you guys are so fun

If Paedyn is so determined to hate me, I could make it very, very easy for her. It wouldn’t take much. But I’m selfish, weak, and unwilling to make it anything but difficult for her to push me away. She’s bewildering as much as she is beguiling. That pretty mouth of hers says one thing, but those ocean eyes say another. She pulls a knife from my back only to say she’ll bury another one there. She’s confusing, captivating, and we’re completely wrong for each other in all the right ways. She’s a flame, and I’m going to get burned. An ocean and I’m going to drown.

I’ve never been so affected by a single girl, and it’s absurd, absolutely annoying. But then I grin, remembering her heartbeat hammering beneath my fingers, her breath catching every time I touch her, her eyes drinking in every smile and dimple she supposedly hates. The feeling of absolute annoyance for being so affected by someone is most definitely mutual, though I’m sure she’d deny it with a dagger to my throat. So very vicious, that one.

“But you’re going to have to burn me before I let you have my band.” He heaves a sigh. “I had a feeling you’d say that.” A pause. “And I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” Flesh meets fire. Skin meets searing, hot flame. I expect a scream to tear from my throat, but nothing but a strangled cry slips past my lips. Braxton’s knee drives into my back, angling my body and forcing the left side of my chest into the flames.

KAI

then my eyes snag on a particular Ace, identical to the others. Found you. The tiny bead of sweat trickling down the side of his temple is all it takes to give him away, the only sign of his struggle to cast the illusions. I raise my bow toward him at the exact moment he lunges toward me.

maybe you do have a power bookie

I lift my loose shirt to reveal the silky tank beneath it, now sopping with blood. I take a deep breath and pull up the layer of cloth separating me from the wound before shuddering at the sight of it. A long, bloody gash slices open the skin right beneath my rib. A spear wound. My breaths come in shaky, shallow pants. At least I’m alive.

nah fuck that our nigga gonna get him

“You just can’t seem to stay away from me, can you, Gray?” I halt, heart hammering.

oh hi kai

“Gray…?” Between my drooping eyelids, I can see Kai take a hesitant step toward me, all amusement wiped from his face. And I must truly be hallucinating because I think I see worry flickering in his gaze. “Gray, what happened?” He’s stepping slowly toward me, but I can’t keep my hold on the bow any longer. For a reason I can’t explain, I aim at the ground instead of him, releasing my grip on the string and letting the arrow fly into the dirt at his feet before the bow slips from my sweaty hand. I can barely hear Kai’s shout through the ringing in my ears. “Gray!” I don’t remember hitting the ground.

omg bae hep us

“Paedyn! Hey, Pae, look at me.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Calloused hands are pushing the damp hair off my forehead while words are muttered close to my face. “Pae, stay with me.” His voice is stern despite the panic lacing each word. Slowly, I force my eyes to crack open while I croak out quiet words through cracked lips, words that suddenly seem so important. “You’ve never called me that before.”

And I’ve certainly never heard him call me “Pae.” I’m smiling up at him now, grinning like an idiot. I can’t stop. Delusional. I’m completely and undeniably delusional. But in this moment, I don’t want to die—if only so I can hear him say my name one more time.

“Remind me to make you smile like that again, when you aren’t dying, and I have all the time in the world to memorize it.”

His fingers pass over my legs, gently poking and prodding as he searches for the wound. Once he’s satisfied that my legs are functioning just fine, his hands slide up to my hips, lifting me slightly off the ground to run a hand over my lower back. His brows are knit in concentration as his fingers feel over my lower stomach, his movements swift, steady, sure. This isn’t the first time he’s done this.

I watch through blurry vision as he lifts the hem of the tattered shirt to reveal the silky one beneath soaked with blood. He sighs through his nose before lifting the hem of the tank, exposing my fevered skin to the cool night. There’s a flash of something small and sharp in his hands as he begins to carefully cut the bloodied cloth from around my middle. His jaw tightens at the sight of the jagged wound stretching below my rib cage, a muscle ticking in his cheek. His eyes, full of an emotion I’ve never seen from him before, trace the bloody mess on my stomach.

“Open your eyes, dammit!” Tired. I’m so very tired. Far, far away, I hear a male voice muttering panicked words. “If you die, I’m going to kill you.”

She’s too stubborn to die, and I’m too stubborn to let her.

I stand to my feet, searching for my canteens in the dim light. She needs water. That’s what she came here for after all, why she risked walking straight into someone’s camp. She needed water. Needed it to drink, to wash out her wound. But that won’t save her. I can’t save her. I sigh in frustration, threatening to lose my temper as I run my hands through my hair, still searching for those damn canteens. But my mind won’t stop replaying the scene, won’t stop reeling over what just happened. I knew something was wrong when I saw her arm trembling. Saw it shake with the strain of keeping the bow aimed at me, ready to make good on her threat to shoot. Then I saw her knees shake, saw the fire extinguish from her burning blue eyes. But above all, she wasn’t playing with me, wasn’t teasing me or twisting her mouth into that sly smile of hers that I enjoy so much. And that’s what worried me the most.

She’s so damn stubborn that she would choose to fight me until she collapsed rather than let me see her injured. The image of her crumpling to the ground sends a chill through me, icing over my burning rage. You would think I’d be numb to witnessing hurt by now, watching Death claim another victim. But when she crumpled, something inside me cracked. The sight of her so weak, so vulnerable, so unlike herself, was enough to shatter a piece of the soul I’d forgotten I had.

Slowly, I make my way across the cut, watching as the steady flow of blood already begins to slow. I dab the fabric against a particularly deep part of the gash and her eyes fly open before her hand flies toward my face. Damn. Her slap is shockingly hard for someone who was just dangerously close to meeting Death. My head is still turned to the side from the shock and impact of her hit, but a slow smile pulls up my lips. “Ouch.” I finally look at her, finding wild blue eyes staring up at me. She’s panting, clearly confused. “Is that how you thank me for saving your life?” I

And then she’s trying to sit up. It’s a good effort, despite her grunting in pain. “Easy, darling.” I place a hand on her uninjured side, fitting right into the curve of her waist as I slowly press her back down to the forest floor. “You can slap me all you want once you’re healed, but until then, try to keep your hands to yourself.”

“Killing isn’t a hobby of mine, I’ll have you know.” I felt like I needed to say it. Felt like I needed to admit that to her, to myself. What I do—what I’ve done—has had a purpose, a reason. I’m still a monster, just not the kind that loves the hateful things they do. There’s that look again. It’s like she’s seeing straight through my many masks, tearing down my walls, stripping me bare with nothing but her gaze. I hate it—I love it. I feel free—I feel trapped. The thought that a single pair of blue eyes can leave me so vulnerable, so exposed, is alarming.

“Why don’t I ask the questions?” My stare is leveled at her, unyielding and unfeeling. But it’s simply another mask, seeing that I’m currently simmering with rage. “Which one of them did this to you?” Her eyes fly open, looking more confused and unsure of herself than I’ve ever seen before.

SQUEALS

“It doesn’t matter.” And that is the only answer she deigns to give me before rolling her head back toward the starry sky hanging above us, avoiding my gaze. My fingers find her chin and then I’m tugging her face back in my direction so I can look her in the eyes as I say, “I’m going to ask again. Who did this to you?” My hand is still gripping her chin, her strong jaw, as she holds my gaze and says, “Why do you care?” Then she’s laughing bitterly, the sound vibrating under my fingers. “Because I don’t tolerate my toys being played with.” She is going to hate that.

AHHH

Oh, so you think I’m fragile? I’ll show you just how fragile I—” “There,” I say calmly, cutting her off midthreat. “The first stitch is always the worst, especially with how blunt this needle is.” She blinks, snapping her mouth shut when she looks down to see the needle I’ve pushed through the gash without her even realizing, too angry to feel the pain. Which was exactly what I was hoping for.