Read Online The Ascended by Tiffany King - Free Book Online

looked up at my friends and saw similar angry bites on the exposed chests of the Protectors in our group.
    "When you expelled all that energy, what results were you trying to achieve?" John asked, not bothering to hide his intrigue.
    "I only had one thought, which was to give all of you peace before you died," I said apologetically, realizing how morbid it sounded that I had contemplated their demise.
    "Amazing," John said, deep in thought. "Obviously The Light felt the best solution to bringing us peace, short of killing all of us, was to use you."
    "You are correct," Haniel's deep voice said behind me.
    "Haniel, dude, your timing really sucks. Where were you like five minutes ago?" Shawn asked, not bothering to hide his disgust.
    "I believe my whereabouts are no concern of yours," Haniel said, making the chain of command quite clear.
    Shawn opened his mouth to retort, but thought better of it, snapping it back shut. He glared at Haniel though, making his distaste obvious before sinking down on one of the logs with Sam.
    Haniel returned his stare before finally answering him. "My duties were to get all of you to this destination and to deal with Victor directly. Any further assistance goes against my instructions from The Light."
    "So, we're just supposed to fend for ourselves," Sam asked quietly.
    "You are not by yourselves. You have a Gift ," he said looking pointedly at me.
    "What?" I sputtered. "Not again with the gift?"
    "Krista, how can you keep denying that?" Lynn asked me.
    "Because it all seems so ridiculous. Why am I the one that's been "blessed" with such extraordinary gifts when I'm only going to be here for a short while?" I asked, clearly fed up with all the hero worship.
    "What do you mean 'short while?" Shawn asked, standing up to glare at me now.
    Crap , I had let my emotions take over and wound up showing my cards before I was ready. "Come on guys, surely you know I can't carry on with any of this after we're done. If Mark can be saved then I'll spend the rest of my life thanking The Light, but if he has to be destroyed…" my voice broke and I had to swallow several big gulps of cool air before I could continue on. "If he has to be destroyed, there will be nothing left for me," I finally finished flatly. I turned away from their stares that had shifted from horrified to pity.
    "How do you know?" Sam asked in a voice filled with thick tears.
    "Because Sam, it's what we we're created for," I said, all fight gone from my voice. "I don't want to be special. I just want my Protector back and if I can't have him, I have no purpose," I said, turning from my group and striding purposefully for the tent. The fact that I now possessed extra abilities and could stand up to Victor's dark powers didn't bring me joy, instead it only seemed to widen the gap between what Mark and I had once shared.
    I pulled the downy-filled sleeping bag up over my ears, but I could still here the mumbled voices of my friends outside. Craving peace, I pulled my iPod out of the pocket of my hoodie. I scrolled through my playlist and picked a song that was sure to drown out all background noise. After placing the earbuds in my ears and closing my eyes, my friends' voices were gone and I was alone to ponder my own solitary thoughts. My last coherent thought before I let sleep lure me in was how desperately alone I truly was.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
     
    I woke several hours later feeling slightly disoriented. The sunlight streamed through the nylon of the tent, so it was obviously morning. It had been a while since I was able to sleep that soundly. Oddly, the nightmares that had plagued my dreams for so long were absent. I sat up, slowly pushing the heavy sleeping bag off of me. The sun beating down on the tent made the interior of the tent toasty warm making the sleeping bag unnecessary. My friends were still dead to the world, so I quietly crawled out the narrow flap trying to avoid their legs on my way out.
    The campsite was