She pulled out the earbuds to hear more clearly. The sound of burning was—

Gaia toppled over. She hit the ground, face in the dirt, and realized she was staring over at her own leg, lying by itself, the severed knee bleeding.

The second blow was from a knife that seemed almost to come out of thin air, it happened so fast. An invisible force had left it planted in her belly.

Agony!

With Gaia’s focus destroyed, her burning human torches plummeted and splattered in greasy flames on the ground all around her. Someone—a girl, Gaia thought, a blur—was momentarily caught in the light, and Gaia saw her yanking something off her back.

Gaia rolled to one side as BOOM!

Shotgun pellets tore up the ground where Gaia had been. She kept rolling, each turn forcing the knife deeper into her stomach.

Gaia yanked the knife out, amazed by the pain, and pressed one hand on the wound. Her severed leg was now several feet away.

BOOM!

She was too slow this time, and some of the pellets hit her arm, lacerating her bicep and spraying blood everywhere. Blood was pumping from the hole in her belly and her leg, and Gaia could already feel herself weakening dramatically.

She felt fear. Pain. And worse, a sort of humiliation that she might be beaten.

“Who are you?” Gaia gasped.

The girl froze for a moment. Looked at her. Smiled and said, “Who am I? I’m the Breeze, bitch!”

This person, this blur of a girl, this Breeze, was a mutant. She was the source of the speed. Gaia couldn’t kill her. And yet, if she didn’t . . .

Gaia swept her killing beam in a wide arc, low to aim for the girl’s legs, and so fast she almost caught her with it.

Light, Chapter 14