bus, and we run right into a dozen Mogadorian warriors. They bring their blasters around on us, but I
blow them back with a fireball before they can squeeze off any shots. The ones who aren’t
immediately incinerated get popped by the cops standing behind me.
I look over my shoulder, nodding to the officers. ‘Nice shooting.’
‘We’ve got your back, John Smith,’ one of them says.
I don’t even think to ask how he knows my name.
Our group runs a few more blocks before I’m drawn to the sound of nearby screaming. Around the
corner, we find a young couple trying to escape from their burning apartment building via the fire
escape. The bolts look like they’ve come unmoored from the wall near the roof, and now the whole
fire escape hangs like a crooked finger over the street. Still five stories up, the guy has fallen over the railing. His girlfriend desperately tries to pull him back over the side.
Sarah’s face flashes into my mind. Just stay alive, I think. Survive this, and we’ll be together. I’m going to make it back to her.
I run towards the fire escape, bracing it from a distance with my telekinesis.
‘Let go!’ I shout up at the couple. ‘I’ll catch you!’
‘Are you freaking nuts?’ the guy yells back.
None of us have time to argue, so I reach out with my telekinesis and just yank the couple off the
fire escape. As I’m lowering them to the ground, I hear the beats of heavy footfalls bearing down on
me.
‘John!’ Sam screams. ‘Look out!’
I turn my head. It’s a Piken. The beast gallops towards me at full speed, its jaws covered with
slobber, its razor-sharp teeth bared. I hear screams from my group. The cops take some shots at the
monster, but they don’t even slow it down. The others have the good sense to run from the rabid
Mogadorian beast.
Except the direction they run in puts them right beneath the fire escape. Which, of course, chooses
that exact moment to tear fully away from its building and come clattering down into the street.
I’ve still got the couple suspended in the air, and now I’m holding up the fire escape with my
telekinesis, too. I try to divide my focus enough to turn on my Lumen, but it’s just too much. I’m too exhausted, the strain is more than I can manage.
The Piken is almost on top of me.
Sarah’s face flashes again to the forefront of my mind. I have to try. I grit my teeth and dig down
deeper.
With a massive woomf, a wave of telekinetic force hits the Piken and knocks it into the air. The beast’s muscular legs flail wildly. It lands back-first on top of a stop sign, the pole impaling the beast right through the heart.
That didn’t come from me.
I lower the couple safely to the ground, toss the fire escape aside and turn in the direction the
telekinetic blast came from.
Sam stares at me. He’s frozen. His hands are extended out in front of him like he just shoved the
Piken and still hasn’t finished with the follow-through. Slowly, he blinks his eyes. Sam looks down at his hands, then over at me.
‘Holy shit,’ he says. ‘Did I just do that?’
THE BEGINNING
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MICHAEL JOSEPH
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First published in the United States of America by HarperCollins Publishers 2014
First Published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph 2014
Copyright © Pittacus Lore, 2014
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Cover images © Alamy
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Typeset by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-405-91363-8
Document Outline
Title Page
By the Same Author
The Revenge of Seven
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
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