Read Winter's Legacy: Future Days (Winter's Saga Book 6) for Free Online

in the moonlight nor the children being jostled in their parents’ arms—each wearing the same look of terror and confusion.   The ratta-tat-tat of gunfire had people ducking as they ran.
    Kylie wasn’t terrified anymore, and she wasn’t confused.  She felt a sense of absolute clarity even through the burning pain in her chest as she gasped for air.  Her one hand gripping the steering wheel tightened as she felt warm blood seep between the fingers of the other hand.  The same hand that had killed so many innocent children in the name of Metahumanology was now stained with her own blood as she fought to stay conscious. 
    She had one last act to perform.  It wasn’t much, but as her life’s blood pumped freely through the bullet wound in her chest, she knew it was to be her last act on this earth.  She knew now she had been on the wrong side of the fight , tricked, lied to and used all her life by Kenneth Williams.  She hoped with her last act, she could find some redemption for all the wrongs she blindly committed.  She was ready to die fighting beside the Original Three.
     
     
     

5  The Empath’s Eclipse
     
    Meg stepped confidently toward the rail, grasped the ornate wrought iron and searched the crowd for Arkdone.  She had to avoid him entirely or risk being found out by him sensing her psychic push before she had completed her task.  He was surrounded by people, but Meg knew they had to be expendable votes.  She focused on everyone except the black hole that was Arkdone’s signature and a ten-foot radius from him.  Then she bowed her head, readying herself for her task. 
    Time was a steamroller squeezing the breath from her.  She only had a matter of minutes to do what she’d never done before.
    She focused on the signatures around her. 
    In her mind, she visualized all the delegates holding their ballots in one hand and pens in the other.  She focused on them and muttered the thoughts she needed to plant in their minds:
    “Not Arkdone.  He’s not worthy of my vote.  He’s not the best choice for our party, for our country.  Not Arkdone.” 
    She watched the delegates in her mind hesitate; their pens poised over their ballots and watched them check the box beside names other than Donovan Arkdone’s. 
    “Do not vote for Senator Arkdone.”  She pushed her will wider, imagining herself a fog rolling delicately over the room, blanketing the vast majority of the hundreds of people there.  She kept repeating her will, “Not Arkdone.  Do not vote for Arkdone,” as she pushed herself even harder desperately trying to impart her will on as many people as possible.
    Gideon watched Meg as she began her work.  He saw her breathing slow, deep breaths at first then watched her lips move as she muttered words.  Two minutes into her efforts, her whole body began shaking.  Blood began to drip from her nose soaking into the dress of the same color.
    He resisted gathering her up right then and rushing her out of that place.  He knew she had work to do and she would tell him to respect her wishes, no matter what. 
    A minute later, when her knees began to buckle, Gideon caught her easily before she collapsed completely.  He held her reverently, watching her face as he carried her back to an unoccupied leather sofa against the far wall.  
    Thinking quickly, he grabbed an abandoned glass of wine left on the sofa’s side table.  Knowing he needed to hide her condition from the Senator, he discreetly spilled the wine all down her neck and chest, watching the aromatic liquid wet her red gown.  Trying not to panic at the sight of her bloody face, he just curled her into his arms and held her. 
    “Please wake up, Meg,” he whispered to her ear.  “What did you do to yourself?” he groaned softly, and he carefully buried her face against himself, hiding her condition from the few people who walk ed past their relatively private little corner.
    He didn’t care that her blood was staining