Free Revenge of the ULTRAs (The Last Hero Book 4) by Matt Blake Page B

you a little more.”
    “Cassie? What do you think about all this?”
    My sister wasn’t looking at me. Just at the rainforest floor.
    “Cassie?”
    She looked up. “I think perhaps it’s time we… we took a different route.”
    “A different route?”
    “You deserve a break. A chance for… for fresh leadership.”
    Cassie’s words hurt me more than any of the others. I felt like a javelin had pierced through my chest. Fresh leadership . In a polite way, she was telling me exactly what the rest of the Resistance were telling me—that this was my fault, and it was time for someone else to take the reins.
    “I just try to do the right thing,” I said. “I just… I just wanted what’s best for everyone all the time.”
    “And that’s respectful,” Vortex said. “But I think perhaps your sister is right. You are the enemy in the eyes of the people. As long as you’re leading us, we’re all the enemies. But if we can start again, maybe…”
    Vortex might’ve continued talking, but I didn’t hear her.
    I just heard the rustling in the trees right behind the Resistance.
    I put a finger to my lips and walked towards the source of the rustling.
    “What is it?” Cassie asked.
    “Didn’t you hear that?”
    “What?”
    I narrowed my eyes and looked all around. I didn’t want to use my powers and draw attention to us. “I thought I heard something. I thought I…”
    When I turned back around, there was a man looking right at us.
    He was dressed in a green T-shirt and wore a camo cap on his head. Beads of sweat covered his narrow face. He narrowed his eyes at me, then looked at the people around me. He didn’t look happy that we were on his land.
    I raised my hands. “I apologize.”
    He narrowed his eyes even more—like he didn’t understand.
    “For coming on your land,” I continued. “We’re just looking for safety. For shelter. But we’ll leave now. We’ll leave.”
    “You don’t have to leave.”
    The voice surprised me. The man spoke fluent English.
    I narrowed my eyes. “What do…”
    He pulled out a gun and fired at me.
    Before I could resist it, I felt paralyzing electricity cover my body.
    I fell to my knees.
    I couldn’t fight back.

18
    I woke up .
    I had no idea where I was. My vision was blurred. I wondered if I was back home lying in bed. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d had a nightmare like this. I often had nightmares about the darkness. Sometimes, I’d see something in that darkness. The cities of the world burning. People screaming. Running away from… from something. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but those visions seemed so real. I felt the warmth of the flames against me, and the screams made my skin crawl. I could smell the charred flesh, which brought the taste of vomit to my mouth.
    Then I woke up and I’d be in my bedroom and within a few minutes, the dream would be forgotten.
    This time though, the darkness didn’t disappear as I opened my eyes. I tried to shift my hands, but I was trapped. I felt like my wrists and ankles were tied to something. My head throbbed like I’d got some kind of hangover from using my powers too much. I remembered what Orion once told me about using them. They age you. I hadn’t shown many signs of that yet, luckily. But with the amount of times I’d used those powers in the last year, it wouldn’t surprise me if I started showing those signs of aging sometime soon.
    I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my chest when I tried to use my powers, radiating from my ankles and my wrists, and I realized I must be tied down with electromagnetic bands, which must’ve been bought off the black market or something. Shit. I could handle them if I put all I had into it, but I wasn’t sure how much all I had was right now, or whether it was enough.
    And then I remembered the rest of the Resistance.
    My memory of what’d happened was blurry. I knew someone had walked out of the woods. But then he’d whipped out an