Fury of Earth

by Kat Adams

  It was the latter that had me shaking my head and giving in to the hungry dance in his brilliant green eyes. I stepped into his personal space and wrapped my arms around his neck. It was wildly inappropriate timing. We had a crowd of Sentry members ten feet below us that would hear every little noise, every whimper, every cry. When he moved to kiss me, I hesitated.

  He seemed to sense my unease and wrapped his arm around the small of my back, pressing our bodies together. “Hold on tight, Montana. I’m going to take you on a little ride.”

  “What—oof.” We teleported out and landed in an area I didn’t recognize. I immediately panicked. Giant boulders surround us, shading us, shielding us from prying eyes. “Are we outside the veil?”

  “Relax, Montana. I may act like I don’t have a brain half the time, but I’m not an idiot. We’re safe inside our magic bubble. As you can see, I’ve scoped out the perfect little hideaway. Our boy Bry helped me set it up. The rocks will act like sound barriers in case, you know, one of us cries out in the throes of passion.”

  I pinched him on the back of his arm, and he hollered. No echo from his outburst. No one suddenly appeared to inspect the source of the noise. I nodded, impressed. “You’re right. It’s pretty soundproof.”

  The words barely fell past my lips before his mouth was on mine. I curled my fingers into his shirt and pulled him closer. His kiss was relentless as he devoured me, swiping his tongue and searching for mine. I moaned and tightened my grip. He slid his thigh between mine, spreading my legs and giving me the perfect amount of friction to spring my clit to life.

  And then he abruptly pushed me to the ground. I braced myself for slamming into, well, whatever was below me—I didn’t really notice at the time of arrival—but to my surprise, I bounced as if on a trampoline.

  What the…

  I didn’t have time to analyze the situation before Clay yelled, “Incoming!” I made an X with my forearms to protect myself just as he landed on top of me. We both bounced. Several times. He pulled me on top of him and looked up into my eyes. I lost my smile as I stared back. He brushed my hair away from my face and caressed my cheek in a rare moment of seriousness. “I love you, Katy.”

  Hearing him call me by my real name and not his nickname for me sent my heart into spasms. It took me a minute to recover. “I love you too.”

  “Promise me something.” He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “When shit hits the fan, and you know it will, you won’t do anything stupid like get yourself killed.”

  Way to kill the mood, dude. I climbed off him and was surprised at how buoyant the ground seemed to be, like walking on the bloated floor of a bouncy house.

  Not that I would know anything about that, mind you. I did not sneak into a bouncy house at a traveling fair after it’d closed and stay up half the night drinking with friends and bouncing around like teenage morons. That never happened despite what the police report stated.

  That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

  I gingerly walked across the unstable ground, wondering how he’d done this. I knew his control over air was impressive as hell, but I’d never seen him transform the ground into a bouncy house. “Are you doing this?”

  “Doing what?” He sprang up and landed with both feet firmly planted, the impact knocking me off-balance. From ten feet away.

  I nearly fell but shot my arms straight out to catch myself. “Holy hand grenade.”

  Clay bounced again, and I widened my stance to keep from falling. He popped out and back in between my legs, grabbing my ankles and giving them a good yank. I fell back, half laughing, half shrieking, and spouting off a few of my favorite curse words on my way down. He rolled out of the way just in the nick of time, and I landed hard. He quickly pinned me.

  I bucked him off, stood, and blew the hair out of my face. He wanted to spar, we’d spar. He had yet to beat me. Today would be no different. “You want to go, pretty boy?”

  “I want to blow,” he clarified and waggled his eyebrows. “Come on. It’ll be fun. Check out how springy this is. It’ll be like having sex in an invisible bouncy house.”

  “We are not having sex in an invisible bouncy house.” Even if the thought of doing so had my lady bits tingling.

  “Have you ever had sex in a bouncy house, invisible or otherwise?” He stood and faced me.

  We were at a standoff, waiting for the other to break. Not one to wait for good things to come to me, I stomped my foot, the impact sending a weak air ripple Clay’s way. He barely shifted. Well, fine. I jumped up and landed hard. He staggered but remained upright.

  “Come on, Montana. You can do better than that. How about a little game? We each get one chance to knock the other off their feet. If we do, the other person must remove an article of clothing.”

  I snorted. “Only you would come up with strip bouncy house.”

  He waggled his eyebrows a split second before slamming a foot to the ground, and down I went. “I’ll take your bra, please.”

  “It’s under my shirt.” I pointed out the obvious. “Don’t you have to take the top layer first?”

  “Who made up that rule? Bra, please.”

  I groaned and tucked my arms inside my shirt to remove the bra without losing the shirt. It was a talent most women had, removing the bra while remaining fully clothed. I popped my arms back out the sleeves, my bra now dangling from my right hand. “Tada!”

  Clay blinked and grabbed it when I shot it at him. He slung it over his shoulder. “That was oddly arousing.”

  I caught him off guard and slammed both feet to the ground, knocking him over. “Underwear, please.”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t possess the talent to remove them without first taking off my pants,” he pointed out while flat on his back.

  “Fine, I’ll take those too.”

  “No argument here.” He jumped to his feet and quickly stripped, running his hand up and down his semi-hard cock until it was rock hard. “Something got your attention, Montana?”

  “I, uh…” I couldn’t stop staring at the way he stroked his cock. I licked my lips as the ability to speak suddenly escaped me. I shook my head to clear the fog. “We are not having…” I stared at his cock in his hand. “Sex.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Pretty sure,” I said without an ounce of conviction.

  “That’s too bad.” He bounced on the ground and grinned. “I bet sex while calling our element the entire time would be very exciting.”

  “And draining.”

  “Good thing we can tap into our reserves, aka the other guys.” He launched and slammed into me, sending us both to the ground. We bounced several times, each time Clay helping me out of an article of clothing until we were both naked and rolling around, all hands and legs and lips in our desperation to connect. On a rather aggressive bounce, he took full advantage of the highly dynamic motion to thrust his cock deep inside me. “Montana. Ah, Jesus.”

  I bit his shoulder after one particularly hard bounce sent him so deep, I swore he hit the top of my rib cage. My love bites always drove him wild and sent him into a frenzy. Now was no different. He buried his flesh inside mine, bouncing us off the ground. When we landed, he drilled in once again. It sent us shooting up.

  Clay plunged hard as we sprang off the ground. With each thrust, we bounced, which gave him perfect leverage to thrust deeper inside me, which caused us to bounce, and the cycle repeated. The constant motion gave my clit the perfect friction. He plunged. I cried. He plunged deeper. I cried louder. The orgasm tightened, sending me higher and higher.

  When the tension snapped, I held nothing back and thrashed my head side to side as my entire body clamped down from the force of my climax. I dug my nails into his shoulders and locked my heels behind his hips.

  He bounced us, slamming us into the ground and vaulting us up. He held me tight as he thrust deep one last time before stiffening. We rode out the waves of our release until neither of us had the strength to move and the gro
und had stopped trembling.

  “I can’t…believe…we just did that.” I panted and stared at the beautiful blue sky.

  “What? Had sex in a bouncy house?”

  “Had sex in an invisible bouncy house.” That was a sentence I never thought I’d say. “How’d you do that?”

  “I told you I have way more control over my element than you guys think.”

  “I could never get earth to do that.”

  “Stick with me, baby.” He kissed me tenderly. “I can show you a whole new world.”

  “Not this again. Do not break into a Disney song and ruin the moment.”

  Too late. Clay hummed the tune as we dressed. He switched to a classic song about whistling while you work, which, of course, he whistled.

  As we held hands and walked out of the hideaway, no one near to see us and wonder what we’d been up to, I contemplated our next move. We couldn’t use the webcomic to reach potential recruits. I no longer had the guys on the outside to help enlist members. We had the power of the legends on our side. And, truth be told, with a group this large, it was only a matter of time before we were discovered. I didn’t trust Margo Carson any more than I trusted Virgil Graves. If given the right opportunity, she’d turn on us faster than it took to melt ice under running water. Hot water, at that.

  We walked across the training field, surprised to find it empty. Why weren’t people training with the weapons the blacksmiths had been making? In fact, why was it so quiet? Where was everyone?

  “Clay? Something’s wrong.”

  “People need a break, Montana. You’re pushing them too hard. Let them have the afternoon off.”

  I hoped that was all it was.

  We popped up to the treehouse to find the guys in opposite corners, their backs to each other. Clay laughed. “Oh, come on. Why aren’t you guys enjoying this more? I think it’s hilarious how we all blow when one of our, uh, volcanos erupt. It’s like we’re all getting lucky at the same time.”

  “Dude, stop.” Rob thrust his hand through his hair and scratched at the five-o’clock shadow, clearly uncomfortable talking about it. He regarded me, sweeping that dark gaze along my face and slowly down the rest of me. The mental contact sizzled my skin. “You okay?”

  “Better than okay. Why?”

  “We were worried.” Leo faced us, his cheeks flush from the recent orgasmic contact high. “It wasn’t until we all felt the uh, you know, that we knew you were safe and, uh…in good hands.”

  Clay grinned. “Yeah, she was.”

  Read the room, dude. The guys all stared at us, concern tightening their expressions. My anxiety spiked. “What’s happened?”

  Bryan spoke up. “There’s movement outside the veil. The yetis picked up on it about twenty minutes ago. A few are checking it out along with the elder witches.”

  “It’s probably just hunters on patrol. They won’t find us unless they know where to look.”

  “And if they do?” Leo asked.

  No one answered. We didn’t have to. We all knew how screwed we’d be if the Council found the grove.

  That explained the lack of activity. Everyone had hunkered down, remaining hidden just in case the Council busted through the protective veil. I’d rather be out there with the elder witches protecting the grove than stuck inside our magical bubble doing nothing but waiting.

  Shouting caught our attention. We all teleported to the entrance just as several treelike creatures at least eight feet tall burst through the veil, each holding their arms out as if carrying a load of wood, yet their arms were empty.

  All but one.

  “Serenity!” I raced to the tree giant as it laid her limp body onto the grass and hung its head. It backed away as the other tree giants followed the same motion, seemingly laying something or someone onto the ground. The grass was compressed in the shape of bodies at their feet.

  But I only focused on the one I could see, the one lying motionless in front of me, her lids partially closed, her eyes glazed over in death. I dropped to my knees and took her hand. It was still warm. “What happened?”

  “Ambush,” the one who’d carried her in rumbled. “We protect.” It shook its head. “Not save all.”

  I didn’t bother to hide the horror in my expression. She was so kind and didn’t deserve this. I clutched the crystal she’d given and made a silent vow. I will not let your death be in vain. The crystal warmed in the palm of my hand.

  “They knew to look for the protective veil,” Stace explained as she knelt next to me. “Someone has betrayed us.”

  “Gee, that sounds familiar.” I stood and stormed off before my grief overpowered my reason and made me do something crazy, like forgive her.

  I didn’t slow as I marched into the area lined with rows and rows of wall tents. “Margo Carson?”

  She and Trevor poked their heads out of the one they’d been assigned. “Is it safe to come out?”

  Not after I’m through with you. “A word, please? In private?”

  “Stay in the tent,” she told Trevor when he tried to leave with her.

  “But Mom…”

  “No. You stay. It’s safe inside the tent. I’ll be right back.” She left the tent and cautiously approached, her eyes wide and taking in everything around her.

  Until I had proof, I wouldn’t accuse her out in the open. But if she had anything to do with this, I’d make sure everyone else knew the identity of the person responsible for the death of one of the high priestesses.

  “I had nothing to do with this, I swear.” She kept her voice low, for my ears only. “Please believe me.”

  “I want to, Margo. I really do, but I’m having a hard time doing that. I just held the hand of a friend who died protecting this grove. Protecting you, Margo. Protecting your son. Please help me understand how the Council’s hunters had no idea where we were until you showed up.”

  “It had to be a coincidence.”

  “I don’t believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. What was the reason for this, Margo? How did the Council know where we were, Margo?” Yes, I realized I was overusing her name, but I had to drive home my point.

  “Maybe they just got lucky.”

  “Or maybe you told them where to find us. I’ll ask you one more time before I have them take you away. It will separate you and your son forever. Is that what you want?” I felt like a pile of steaming donkey doo threatening her, but if it stopped this from happening again, if it kept the grove safe, I had no choice. “How did the Council know where we were?”

  Margo’s shoulders fell as she hung her head, and I knew. She told them where to find us. Hopefully the veil hid us well enough that they wouldn’t be able to find the entrance.

  “Why?” When she didn’t answer, I asked again, this time practically shouting. “Why!”

  She said nothing and kept her head down.

  “Look around. Look at all the innocent people you put in danger.”

  “Me?” She jerked her head up and riveted a burning glare to me. “I’m trying to stop a war. I’m trying to save them. It’s you who’s leading them to slaughter. They’re not warriors. They’re men, women, and children. Entire families are relying on you, a dilute who didn’t even grow up in this world.”

  “What did she just call you?” Clay surged forward. Leo and Rob stopped him from advancing on Margo.

  “You have a kid who’s not a pure,” I pointed out. “How can you say such a hateful thing?”

  “Trevor is a pure.”

  “Yeah, don’t think so. You’re a Nelem.”

  She stiffened as if I’d just called her both fat and ugly. “I most certainly am not. I’m a soothsayer.”

  “That’s not an elemental.” And it still made Trevor a dilute like me.

  “It’s better, more powerful. I can see into the future, see into the past, and see into the present.”

  “All without a crystal ball, huh? I don’t believe you. You got one of the elder witches killed. Did you see
that coming?” My heart pinched at the thought of Serenity, her life lost because of this woman before me. Hatred burned behind my eyes.

  “I foresaw the death of the eldest high priestess. Several more will die before this ends.”

  It didn’t take a soothsayer to predict something like that. It was war. We were gearing up for the battle of our lives. Literally. Some of us wouldn’t make it. None of us would if we didn’t act fast. It was only a matter of time before the Council figured out we were hiding in plain sight. Alec had already figured out I had the power of invisibility.

  “Uh, Montana?” Clay handed me his phone. “Check it out.”

  And, once again, un-fucking-believable. This woman’s stupidity and apparent need to blindly follow like a lemming astounded me. I quickly scanned the social media post, shaking my head. It was a copy of the latest webisode, the one I’d just posted, completely deciphered and giving up the location of the grove.

  The activity outside the protective veil. We were being surrounded.

  The Council had found us.

  20

  “The veil will protect us. The only way in is with one of our crystals to create an opening.” Renee held hers in the palm of her hand. The other high priestesses followed suit. I did the same, not understanding why, but waiting to find out. She waved her other hand over the top of the crystal as she chanted something that sounded like Latin but also sounded like incomprehensible song lyrics.

  The others repeated the incantation, along with the gesture. Apparently, I was the only one who didn’t know the song. I tried repeating what she’d said, but nothing happened. Maybe I didn’t say it right. Why spells had to be in Latin still baffled me.

  “Here, let me help.” Stace stood and pushed away from the table we all sat around to plan out our next move.

  “I got it.” I closed my hand over the crystal.

  She nodded sadly and sat back down.

  “Your crystal needs no additional enchantment,” Renee pointed out as she took Stace’s hand. Stace offered a wilty smile in thanks. I refused to feel guilty for pushing her away, despite what the pinch in my midsection meant. “Its power is far greater than ours. No enchantment will work on it. Serenity and the witches before her made sure of that.”