Authors: Amy Braun
No wonder the girl in front of me had gone crazy. All the other pains I’d felt when I stole a gift were agonizing, but none of them felt as out of control as this.
I don’t know when I let go, or if Declan finally forced me to release the girl. When my vision returned to color– the horizon still wobbled violently– the girl had backed away from me, her eyes wide with horror and confusion. Declan’s crushing grip was gone from me.
I couldn’t stop screaming.
I pitched forward, clutching my middle when it squeezed. I had to get rid of this power, do something with it, anything to stop the blender whipping up my insides.
Voices carried through the wind. Familiar ones. I didn’t know who they belonged to, and I didn’t care. Pain snapped through me again and I landed on my knees. I lifted my head and looked at the cars surrounding me. It was too much. Too much clutter, too much restriction. I needed space. I closed my eyes and dragged on the energy spiking through the air.
Wind thrashed over my head, spinning my hair in chaotic directions. The voices faded, drowned by the screaming winds. The scent of dry earth carried over the gusts. Rubber tires skidded along the road. Metal groaned and glass crunched. I opened my eyes.
A thin twister danced in front of me. Dirt swirled around it like a protective shield, the abandoned cars creeping toward it like possessed beings.
The pain in my body was a dull throb now. I pushed outward, testing the limits of this new ability. The tornado slithered forward on my command, drawing the cars forward with sharp squeaks. The pain lessened again. That seemed to be the key. I could get the pain away if I used the new gift I had been given.
The tornado whipped faster and faster, thickening and gaining speed. The cars tilted backward, showing their bellies. The winds from the tornado dragged them around its base in a screeching circle. I was able to breathe again.
A terrified yelp dragged my eyes from the twister. I saw the girl I’d stolen the gift from. She was scrabbling to hang onto the back of a truck, terror turning her words into incomprehensible noise. Her eyes caught mine, desperate and pleading. I thought about the hunger replacing the pain in my stomach. The warmth I could take from her to replace the chill inside me.
There was a tug on my heart. A final plea.
The tether.
Delirious, I turned my eyes away from the girl and sought out Hadrian. He was on the ground, blood pouring from the slices on his chest. It streamed down the sides of his face from where he’d been pummeled. He dragged his abused body toward his tempest-blades, using the tether to slick the road with ice so movement was easier. I was horrified at the pain he was in, but he wouldn’t stop fighting.
Mortis didn’t seem to care that Hadrian was returning to his weapons. He was watching me, appearing impressed.
Smiling, even.
Anger crushed the pain.
Let’s see how impressed you are with this.
I looked at the girl, still terrified and clinging to the truck.
“
Run
!” I shouted.
She didn’t need to be told twice. Hoping she would get far enough away, I snapped out my arm and made a fist, like I was gripping an invisible rope.
I grabbed the tornado instead.
With a shout, I threw it in Mortis’s direction. His grin faltered as the twister carved a violent path toward him. Cars smashed into each other as the spiraling grey and brown storm barreled toward the leader of the Mistrals. Clouds rolled over each other viciously, repelled by the tornado collecting them.
While he was distracted, I looked at Hadrian. He watched me with wide eyes, black hair snapping in front of his face, a terrified expression that made my heart pinch. I didn’t know if the fear in his eyes was for the danger our enemies were bringing toward me, or simply for what I was doing.
What I was becoming.
My eyes burned when they met his.
Get the others to safety. Don’t forget the girl.
A rough arm wrapped around my throat and squeezed. My scream was an awful choked sound, but I didn’t give in to the strike of fear. I stomped on my attacker’s foot. He stumbled and I slammed my elbow into his ribs as hard as I could. He grunted and released my neck. I spun and plowed my elbow into the side of his head.
Shock reverberated up my elbow, but Declan was disoriented. I had a minute. Less than that, maybe.
By now, the tornado was in front of Mortis. I thought it would batter or sweep him down. That would have solved a lot of my problems.
I didn’t expect he would shove out both his hands, and send out a hurricane wind unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It ripped through the tornado like a knife through butter, sending grey and brown dust flying in opposite directions. Cars lifted from the ground beside him, hurtling through the air like kicked toys. I was lifted with them.
My arms flailed uselessly, grabbing for something to grip and stop the motion, but finding only dirt and air.
Then it all stopped in an explosion of pain. My back hit unforgiving metal like a baseball meeting a bat. Glass cracked and gave way. I toppled forward onto my stomach, feeling broken pieces of glass and rock dig into my belly. My head pounded and swelled, growing until I thought it would burst. A copper-smelling wetness coated my nose and dripped into my mouth.
All my remaining strength went into lifting my head. Two blurred shapes stood over me. I could make out the furious scowl of Declan, and the disappointed glare of Mortis.
“This is troubling,” Mortis declared. “We cannot eliminate the Precips now that she is about to die. We must leave. Take her.”
Declan’s scowl was the last thing I saw.
Chapter 16
Whatever room I was in, it needed a heater. Goosebumps riddled my body, and every breath I took was frigid and dry.
At least I was breathing. That was something, right?
The aching pulses strumming through my body begged to differ. My body felt like it had gone through a meat grinder. It was my head that felt the worst. A headache pounded against my skull, and there was a goose egg growing on my right temple.
Though it went against every rational thought in my mind, I opened my eyes.
And found myself staring at rocks.
I blinked slowly, letting the focus come back into my eyes. There was little light in the room, but enough for me to see the craggy roof over my head. I pushed myself up– very, very slowly– and followed the curve of the roof downward until I spotted the floor. It was a mismatched puzzle of rumpled bed sheets and blankets layered over dirt. The light was coming from a kerosene lantern glowing in the left corner of the cave.
Where in the world was I that I was in a cave? Was I even in Florida anymore?
The thought that I might be out of the city– out of the
country
– filled me with sickening dread.
I flipped over and crawled for the lamp. I didn’t trust myself to stand just yet, though I knew I would have to get on my feet and run if I were going to get out of here and back to my friends.
Thinking about them made me halt. The last I saw, Vitae was unconscious, Zephys and Piper were running to help her, and Hadrian…
My chest tightened. It hurt to breathe. I closed my eyes and fought the tears burning them.
He’s alive. He has to be alive. He’s strong. He’s okay.
Oh God, Hadrian, tell me you’re okay.
There was no reply.
I pushed the horrible thoughts away before they could take me over. First step was getting out of here. There was a tunnel straight ahead. I could try going through it and hope I wouldn’t be caught by one of the Mistrals.
Yeah. And maybe a white unicorn would appear and let me ride it to safety.
I gripped the lantern and pushed to my feet. My legs burned like I’d done five hundred squats before running ten miles. Not very pleasant at all.
Vertigo made my head swim, but I kept my footing. I glanced around the cave, which was only about eight feet across and just as deep. There was no exit that way, and there was nothing on the floor that I could use as a weapon. Not unless I wanted to wave one of the blankets like a beacon of surrender.
I trudged toward the mouth of the tunnel. I frowned as the lantern’s light dispersed through the hollowed walkway, pushing the shadows deep into the gouged walls. I put the lantern behind my back, darkening the tunnel again. I knew it was risky to have any kind of light with me when I was making what I hoped was a sufficient escape attempt, but I wanted to be able to see where I was going, since I didn’t know where I was, or how long I would be able to stay away from the Mistrals before they realized I was missing.
I got my answers far sooner than I wanted to.
The smell of smoke and cooking meat was my first warning. I paused, my stomach rumbling. When was the last time I had eaten?
It didn’t matter. I had to get out of here first. Then I could find some kind of ration station. I couldn’t be far from civilization, and enough time had passed that more effective food supplies would be put up. Production was probably starting as I walked.
Dear God, why did they have to be cooking bacon?
Struggling to ignore the hunger cramping my belly, I shuffled around a curve in the tunnel. I slowed down when an orange glow flickered along the wall. The light from my lantern wasn’t strong enough to emit that kind of glow, so I set it down behind me and edged around the curve of the wall.
Sitting in a wide cavern around a fire were the Mistrals. Camping gear was tossed around them, everything from jugs of filtered water to sleeping bags to coolers of food. Ferno was contently moving a frying pan over a grill set on top of the crackling fire, the culprit for the delicious scent of cooked meat. Mortis sat beside him with a tempest-blade stretched across his lap, slowly rubbing a cloth along the bare steel.
Their actions seemed so normal, I could almost forget they were killers that didn’t have any problems torturing others for their personal gain. Seeing them like this might have made me think they were normal men enjoying silence and simplicity.
If I hadn’t been one of the victims of their torture, maybe I might have.
I glanced across the cavern searching for Turve and Declan. I couldn’t see them, and had no idea how to get past the two Guardians without making myself known–
“You do not need to stand in silence, Ava. You are welcome to join us.”
Damn Guardians and their enhanced senses.
I glanced back, wondering if I could use the lantern to crash against Mortis’s head, and if I could conjure up some wind to whip the fire into Ferno’s face–
A shadow fell over me. I turned around and stared up at Mortis. He was taller than I remembered, and the tempest-blade in his hand greedily sucked up the light of the fire.
“Allow me to make the choice simple for you,” he said. His face was barely visible among the shadows. “There is one exit in this network of tunnels. You are not strong enough to run past us, and even if you had your strength and were capable of using your gifts, both Turve and Declan are outside, and they will surely re-capture you with far less kindness than I would.”
He tilted forward. All I could see with clarity were the whites of his eyes and the glow of the fire behind him. Everything else was shadow, and it made my skin crawl.
“And suppose you did succeed in passing them. You are in the middle of a forest, miles away from any residence or aid station. You will be exhausted and alone in the dark, easy prey for the wolves and other beasts that still roam freely. You strike me as an intelligent young woman, Ava. Do not prove me wrong.”
I figured my situation would be bad, but obviously didn’t think about every possible worst case scenario. I wanted to lift my chin and tell Mortis that he was wrong, that I was strong enough to face all of those obstacles and find my way back to the people who cared about me.
But I wasn’t a liar, and my luck had never been that good.
Seeming to sense my defeat, Mortis stretched his back and peered down at me. “You must be hungry.”
He stepped to the side and extended his arm, like a gracious host welcoming me to his home. I didn’t want to move an inch, but his gaze was turning into a sharp glare. Ferno watched me from across the flames, blindly taking a paper plate and filling it with fried meat. My stomach groaned and I wrapped my arms around my middle to hide the sound.
I raced through the reality of my situation again. I could defy the Mistrals to show them that I wouldn’t give into any demands and that I trusted them about as far as I could throw them… Or I could swallow my pride, regain my strength, and think of a way to sabotage them so I could escape, or at least send a signal to the Precips.