Free The Centerpoint Trilogy by Kayla Bruner Page A

Was she dying? Were they killing her? That wasn’t what was happening… no. She was not dying. Dying was fading out. She was getting brighter and brighter as the moments passed. Everything inside of her was changing, growing and she was getting better.
    Her mind went delirious with the pain, but quickly grew clearer. She wondered about her mother’s fate, wondered about meeting Ethan. She wished that she’d had more chance to go on dates with him. He was a very pretty boy and changed her mind about dating. Maybe it was worthwhile, some of the time. If she survived this then she was going to take that boy on so many dates. She could hear chanting above her. It was a melody all it’s own, a steady cadence that never stopped, no matter what.
    “He is the key and she is the lock. They are the ones who will bring about the coming of the Celestial Centerpoint. The Centerpoint is eternal and that point will not be broken. The power of the mind will take the Celestial Centerpoint to where they need to be. This woman will be the answer and with our sacrifices she will thrive and bring about the end of days, the new era.”
                  She kicked and screamed, finally hearing her voice loud and clear. She forced her eyes open as wide as she could, but she was still blind. All she could see was fire. The fire was red, it was raging. The red was like blood in her eyes. There was nothing that she could do to escape the redness. She tried to hear something besides their chanting, tried to open up her mind to the best of her abilities. She needed something besides their maniac’s lament. She needed to hear Ethan.
    Anna.
                  She paused when she did hear him. He reached forth and gently held her hand in his. She held his back, squeezing. She was able to use her body. It was not consumed in the fire, not when she was with him. She squeezed his hand as tightly as she could. She was gripping for something, an anchor to reality, even if this version of reality was hardly something that she understood. She understood Ethan and that was enough.
                  Ethan.
                  We have to use our powers, now!
                  Yes, he was right. Anna called upon the powers that were deep inside of her. They were stronger than the fire. She called upon the powers and let them fly. She opened her eyes and this time she saw. Things flew all about her. Everything in the room was momentarily in her command. She opened her eyes wide and looked around her. She felt as though her hand had wrapped around something and it was hers. It knocked the man off balance, but not enough. Why was something so powerful not enough for him? She flung something harder, a board that was about a foot thick. It whacked him in the head.
                  The flames all around her spread. She wondered, briefly, if the flames that had been burning her up from the inside had escaped her. She felt that powerful. Maybe her body wasn’t enough of a containment field for them. Maybe she had let loose and they had flown. Maybe she had set them free from the jar that held them.
    “There’s been a fire!” screamed the blonde, stopping mid-chant. Anna turned and lost her concentration completely.
                  The blonde woman screamed as a real fire engulfed her body. She twisted and turned and did everything in her power to bat off the flames. The man broke free of his revelry and stared for a moment. The woman shrieked and screamed and for a moment, Anna too was mesmerized by the flaming woman. Then, she realized that there was something she needed to do.
                  Anna focused on that energy and that anger inside of herself. It was too strong, too close to the surface of her being. She let out a wild sounding yell that hardly sounded like herself; hell, it hardly sounded human. She let out that tiny little scream and then the force burst through her like