The Breakers Ultimatum (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 3) Read Online Free

hold of my hand, and he squeezed it, as if to tell me he was here for me. “Right now it seems like your body is either producing or absorbing massive amounts of shade; too much for it to handle. All that shade is why your lines were in flux and unstable. Now, if you were almost anyone else the shade would have probably spent itself out adjusting and readjusting your lines until you were left with an entirely new identity; new future, new potential, perhaps even new interests and desires. But, because you are a fixed point- and because things like that cannot be changed, the shade has no way of burning itself off. It was trapped inside of you, lighting you up like some sort of overcharged battery.”
    “I don’t get it,” I answered. “I use all kinds of shade. I tied a giant freaking dome to the moon last night. And now you’re telling me I’m overcharged?”
    Echo sighed. “That wasn’t- Look, you know your abilities. You shape the shade of others. All your feats from earlier, they were likely accomplished using borrowed energies. That says nothing for the shade you produce yourself. Now, I’m of the mindset that you must also be absorbing ambient shade, because there’s simply no way your body could create enough shade to explain what’s happened to you.”
    “But why now?” I asked, trying really hard to keep up.
    “Because of where you are,” Echo answered matter-of-factly. “There is no place in the entire world that is party to the amount of shade that exists within the Hourglass. You’re surrounded by Breakers here, Cresta; many more than you ever have been before. I think you’re inadvertently siphoning their energies. The more Breakers you’re around, the more power builds up inside of you.” He looked down at his own hands. “Even now, you’re probably siphoning from me at some low level.”
    “Great,” I sighed, instinctively scooting away from him. “So now I’m a freak, a murderer, and a thief.”
    “The way your powers work is not your fault,” Echo answered softly.
    “Yeah, but if it kills me whose fault it is won’t matter,” I said. I leaned forward, knitting my hands together. “And that’s what’ll happen, won’t it Echo? When the shade started in my hand, it felt like I was going to explode.”
    “We don’t know that’s what will happen,” Echo replied, but he didn’t look me in the eye.
    “But you don’t know it’s not what’ll happen either.” I didn’t need him to respond. I wasn’t new. I knew how this worked.
    “What’s happening to you is unfortunate,” Echo slid closer to me. “And no, I can’t be certain of anything. The quicker we can get you out of the Hourglass and away from all this built up shade, the safer you’ll be. But until then, it can be managed.”
    “Managed, how?” I turned to him.
    His eyes lit up, like I had just stumbled onto the one bright spot into this otherwise hopeless conversation. He smiled a little as he spoke. “Royce.”
    “What the hell did Royce do?” I asked, but flashes of his lips pressed against mine, of the stubble that grazed against my cheek, of his red towel and not much else, skipped across my mind and I remembered what part he played. My face reddened as Echo continued.
    “I admit that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I brought you back into the cabin. I had never seen anything like what was happening to you; so much energy with no way to escape.  But then Royce came and, as soon as he touched you, the energy just started melting away. You could see it-literally see it- flowing through you, into him, and then out into the ether. I’m not sure how or why, but you’re physiologies seem connected. He was able to help you, and eventually he was able to stabilize your condition.”
    “He kissed me until I settled down?” I asked, clutching the Star Wars sheets tightly and trying to hide my embarrassment.
    Echo smiled despite himself and shook his head. “You had massive amounts of energy