Free Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) by Lindsey Fairleigh, Lindsey Pogue Page A

my telepathic network, ready to alert me of any incoming
two-legs, and their senses were so much better than mine, even when I was paying
super close attention. Which, I was a little ashamed to admit, I definitely wasn’t doing at the moment.
    Part of me was
wondering what Jason was doing, since he’d originally been scheduled to be my
watch partner tonight, and part of me couldn’t get enough of basking in the
gentle touch of the non-human minds all around me. It was one of those things I
hadn’t truly appreciated until I’d thought it was gone, maybe forever. I
couldn’t help but dwell on the possibility that my relationship with Jason
might be headed in that same direction.
    Apparently I was
paying too much attention to those things, and not nearly enough to my
surroundings. Someone touched my knee—clearly not a “dangerous” someone, since
the animals hadn’t warned me, but that didn’t stop me from being startled. My
left elbow nicked the armrest, and just that small impact sent a shock of pain
branching out along my forearm.
    “Owww…” I
scrunched up my face. Which also hurt, thanks to Clara getting a little too
slap-happy with me during my time in one of the Colony’s subterranean interrogation
rooms.
    “Careful,” Carlos
murmured as he hauled himself up onto the wagon’s bench seat. He draped an arm
over my shoulders and tucked me close against his side. Since my escape, he’d
been hovering around me nearly as much as Jason had been, but unlike Jason,
Carlos hadn’t built an impenetrable fortress—with a mote and alligators—around
his emotions. Having Carlos around was comforting rather than draining. In the
several months since we’d freed him from the mind-controlling clutches of a
madwoman, he’d become the little brother I never had.
    I smiled up at
him. He was a good half-foot taller than me, despite being only sixteen. But
then, pretty much everyone was taller than me. Even Sam was taller than me, and
he was only ten. I sighed my most damsel-in-distress sigh. “What would I ever
do without you?”
    “You don’t want
me to answer that.” Carlos’s tone was dry, but one corner of his mouth quirked
upward.
    My eyes narrowed.
“Smart-ass.” Inside, I grinned, just a little. At least Jason’s sullenness
wasn’t rubbing off on his protégée like his general
mess-with-me-and-I’ll-rip-your-face-off attitude and absolutely filthy mouth
were.
    “So where is Jason,
anyway? Not that I’m disappointed to have you join me, but he was supposed
to be my partner for first watch…”
    Carlos gave my
shoulders a squeeze. “He fell asleep after dinner, when you were off with Zoe
and Chris at the creek.” He chuckled softly. “He was just sitting by the fire,
his head hanging down like this.” Carlos’s arm slipped away, and he mimed
nodding off with his chin lowered to his chest. “So I offered to take his
place. He’s passed out in your tent.”
    He scooted over,
putting a few inches between us. “So, um…I haven’t really been using my Ability
since the breakout thing. I mean, I don’t know if you noticed or anything…”
    I had noticed, mostly because I’d been told about his Ability—that he had some sort
of control over electricity—but other than knowing he’d knocked the power out
during the escape from the Colony, I’d yet to see him use it up close. He’d overexerted
it, resulting in Ability burnout just like me, but his had come back online
days ago. He seemed reluctant to use it, and I assumed it was because he feared
he would burn it out again.
    “I noticed,” I
told him with a slow nod, continuing to scan the circle of colorful tents that
made up our camp and the darkness surrounding them. “Sure, I’m totally curious
to see you work your electricity mojo, but I’ve lost access to my Ability a
couple times now, and I get it—losing it, even for just a little while…” I
shook my head. “It’s like going blind or deaf…or getting a hand chopped