Elemental Hunger (16 page)

His had only moved once, and he’d screamed and screamed. The ghosts of his agonizing wails filled my ears as I walked.

The Chief stepped into my path. “What’s happened?” His voice sounded so parental, so kind. My tears renewed themselves.

I gestured back toward the cabin. “Adam needs help.”

The Chief placed one hand on my shoulder for a long moment before striding toward the camp. I continued through the forest, forcing myself to take deep breaths to get the tears to stop.

A few minutes later, I found myself at the hot spring. I lay next to the eternal flame, longing for the soothing comfort of smoke. But the eternal flame brought no such relief. I tried to think of something else, but all I saw were the expanding lines on Adam’s back. Engulfing him. Crushing him.

The tattoo created one mass of black. Two hands grew out of the darkness and pushed, pushed on my chest.

I couldn’t breathe. I felt like someone had bound me in Elemental cancellers, forcing my firepower to slowly ebb into nothing.

What remained: Adam’s tattoo.

“You awake?”

My eyes flew open with Hanai’s question. I sat up, trying to distinguish reality from what existed in my head.

Hanai watched me with thoughtful lines around his mouth. In that moment, I felt like he genuinely cared about me, and the walls around my heart crumbled a little.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Is Adam okay?”

Hanai sat down and brushed a stray piece of hair out of his eyes. “I think he’ll be all right. My father is with him. What really happened?”

I invited the eternal flames to dance in my palm, which they did eagerly. “Well, I touched him.” I glanced at him. “What did he tell you?”

“He said you’d spill his secret.”

“He said that?”

“Look, I’m pissed you guys both have so many secrets. So just tell me already.”

“Oh, please. You’re not mad.” I bumped him with my shoulder. “Besides I overheard you and Adam talking, and he said he had something to tell me, and I still don’t know what that’s all about.”

“Nothing, really. That Adam might know some Elementals for our Council.”

“Oh,” I said. “That’s nothing.”

“Not like learning your Councilman is really a woman.” He sounded on the outer edge of frustration.

“That’s nothing too,” I said, trying to force a measure of playfulness into my tone.

He grinned, though it looked like he was trying to hold it back. “You serious? Finding out you’re a girl? That was rough. At least I got to see—”

“Okay, okay. I’m the Firemaker from Cyrlon the sentries are looking for. But I swear I didn’t set that fire. Adam’s a trained and active sentry, and my print has been uploaded to his tattoo. He has to initiate all contact between us in order to cancel the transmission.”

“Active?”

“Yes. For the Supreme Elemental. So, was he able to stop the transmission?”

Hanai sputtered like he’d just realized he needed oxygen to live. “The Supreme Elemental?”

“That’s what I said.” A dull ache radiated forward from the back of my skull.

“Active?”

“Did you see that tattoo? You think that’s a beauty mark?”

Hanai opened his mouth, but I cut him off. “Did he stop the transmission or not?”

He took a deep breath. “This is heavy. He told me he ran away last year. I think he’s telling the truth there. But to still be an active sentry? That’s against the agreement he has with my father. He’s going to be livid.”

“But did Adam stop the transmission? ‘Cause if we need to run, we should go.”

“He thinks he stopped it. He didn’t explain anything but he kept saying ‘I think I did it. Tell Gabby I think I did it.’”

I nodded and focused on the glassy surface of the hot spring. Hanai gently placed his fingers on my face and forced me to look at him. “What now?”

The air entering my lungs lightened. Hanai’s dark eyes held mine, searching. Again, I felt as if the spinning of the Earth had paused.

“Adam said there’s an Unmanifested rebellion in Gregorio that’s supported by the Councilman.” My meaning was clear. We needed a Council, and our best bet was to find Adam’s friends and hope the Councilman of Gregorio would charter it.

He dropped his hand, and the tangled mess of my life snapped back into motion. Surely he’d used one of his Spirit-speaker gifts on me, but I didn’t care. I liked feeling as if time didn’t matter, that everything was warm and right with the world, that Hanai and I—

I stalled the thought there, unsure about what might complete it. Terrified to destroy the walls surrounding my heart, release the pent-up resentment, and let him in.

“So, uh, Gabby,” he said, my girl name foreign in his mouth. “Are you seriously considering leading a Council when you can’t even touch one of your own members?”

“I don’t need to touch Adam. Why would I need to do that to run a Council?”

“Well if…you’re kissing him. How would that work?” Hanai’s voice faded. “And where would that leave me?”

Ah, so there we sat. “Hanai, you don’t have to worry about anything. I need you on the Council as much as I need Adam. No more, no less. I’m, well…working through some confusing things.”

Hanai chuckled. “You sound just like him.” His playful smile faded. “I can’t believe he’s an active sentry.”

I looked down at the fire leaping in my hands. “We shouldn’t trust him.”

“No, we shouldn’t.” He pinned me with a pointed look. The flames shone in his dark eyes.

“Hanai, what would you do if you were me?”

He leaned closer. “Adam has skills. Contacts. Knowledge.”

I studied him, hearing the meaning concealed in the words. I needed to use Adam.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“It sucks all around.” Hanai put his hand on my knee and looked at it like he couldn’t figure out how it got there. “But—” He cleared his throat and pulled his hand away. “Let’s learn as much from him as we can before we do anything stupid.”

Like getting involved,
I thought.

Hanai stood up and rubbed his hands over his face. “I’m beat.”

“You were acting weird today,” I said as we climbed the steps.

“Yeah, well, I was working through some of my own confusing things.”

“What kind of things?”

“Nothing,” he mumbled from behind.

Back at the cabin, I paused with my hand on the door. I spun, finding Hanai immediately behind me. His hand fumbled along my arm as I stumbled over his feet.

“Sorry. You okay?” He let his hand linger on my elbow.

A tiny shuffle step put more space between us. I swallowed hard at the soft curve of his lips. “Uh, yeah. Look, where are you sleeping? Councils should stick together.”

“Way ahead of you, girl. I—” He cut off, probably because of my murderous glare.

“
Girl?
”

He tilted his head. “You really hate being a girl that much.” He wasn’t asking.

“Is that what Adam said?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“He said you thought no one would accept you. But you’re wrong. I don’t care that you’re a girl. I….” He stepped closer. “I made myself a bed in the corner.” But he didn’t move.

“You should take your cot back.”

His gaze flickered to my chest and back. “It’s okay. I don’t—”

“If I were a guy would you let me keep your bed?” I folded my arms over my incriminating evidence.

He sighed.

“Exactly. I’ll be fine on the ground.” I turned and entered the cabin. Like I was going to let him get away with chivalry.

The lantern had been trimmed so only a faint ember glowed. I waited until my eyes adjusted, then I located the bed Hanai had prepared on the floor.

Placement: Diagonal from Adam.

I crossed the cabin and lay down. I looked at Adam and choked back a scream so I wouldn’t disturb the Chief, who I could hear chanting softly on the other side of the curtain. The black tattoo ran in thick, coiling stains over his neck and face. His eyes were closed, and a staining redness of broken blood vessels covered his forehead. The mottled cloak covered his body.

“He’s okay,” Hanai whispered from the cot. “He just looks bad.”

“Looks bad?” I almost shouted. “Those lines are thicker and blacker…. What did I do?” The useless tears welled up again.

Hanai knelt in front of me. “Hey, it’ll recede.”

“You don’t know that.” I tore my eyes off Adam’s garish face and looked at Hanai. “Do you?”

He smiled and wiped my tears away. “No, I don’t know that. But don’t cry, Firemaker. He’s not dead yet.” Hanai squeezed my shoulder and retreated to his cot. I stole another look at Adam’s disfigured face before rolling over and closing my eyes. The covering tattoo stained the back of my eyelids, and sleep took a long time to come.

When I woke up, the cabin was empty. I locked the door and changed my clothes. Adam’s sleeping area was clean and orderly. I copied him, folding the blanket and leaving it on top of my clothes before I went outside.

The seats around the smoldering fire lay vacant. I glanced down the main thoroughfare. Status: Abandoned.

Determined not to panic, I strode over to the fire. I thought Adam had left me before, but he never had. Hanai and I had decided to stay, so I held my hands over the dying flames, trying to work out the stiffness in my knuckles.

I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath. The smoke painted my senses. I stretched, reached, and extended my power into the forest. I sensed the charred leaves in the garage…the eternal flame at the hot spring…and that was all.

I opened my eyes. The sun had already come up, but there were no breakfast dishes. No people. No noise.

A breeze rippled through the trees. “Hide,” it whispered. The single word carried desperation.

Without hesitating, I ran. As I ducked through the trees, I felt for the knife at my waistband. I wove through the forest, keeping the wind at my back and a tight grip on the knife.

I paused at the edge of the clearing, panting, and zeroed in on the garage. Everything seemed peaceful. No wind. No movement. Nothing.

As a precaution, I reached for the smoke back at camp. I watched it fill the clearing, fill my very soul. I dashed through the cover and yanked the garage door up. It rose silently. My nervous radar screamed,
Problem!

I spun and crouched, scooting around the side of the garage and behind a boulder. The smoke drifted into the trees, slowly revealing the clearing.

Vacant.

“Come out, Gabriella.”

I couldn’t locate Felix, because his voice echoed everywhere.

My heart pounded so loud I couldn’t think.

Everything turned still again. Not even the twitter of a bird broke the silence.

Then Hanai stumbled out of the thicket. Blood trickled down his cheek, and he fell to his knees before landing face-down in the snow. Felix followed him, wiping his knife on the sleeve of his black shirt.

“Come on out,” Felix called, glancing around. “Before someone else gets hurt.”

I swiped at the tears blurring my view of Felix. Like Hanai had said,
I’m not dead yet.

But I wanted to die when Adam emerged from the trees wearing his black—

—sentry—

—uniform.