Wrath of Wind

by Kat Adams

  “Who is it?” her shrill voice sounded, peppering my skin with uncomfortable chills. Like nails on a chalkboard, man. I knocked again, knowing if I announced who it was, she’d never answer the door. “I said, who—” She stopped abruptly as she threw open the door. When she spotted me, she narrowed the opening so only her head poked out and whispered viciously, “What do you want?”

  I was surprised she didn’t call me new girl, her favorite pet name for me. “Hiya, Ness.” I didn’t have to be inside the room to know how it looked. Same four-poster bed. Same ridiculous amount of pink. Same boy bands on every wall. Her male visitor must love all that competition staring back at him.

  Her eyes seemed a bit bluer this year, her raven locks a bit longer. I hated her beauty. Someone who looked like her shouldn’t be so ugly on the inside. It was grossly unfair to those of us of average looks, regardless of whether we were pretty on the inside. Or, at least less ugly than her.

  “I have a favor to ask.” I just came right out with it so as not to share the same airspace for very long. Being around Vanessa Graves tended to put me in a very bad mood. Considering how I’d been reacting to bad moods lately, it wouldn’t be good if we spent much time together.

  She glanced behind her, no doubt to address the guy in the room, then stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind her.

  “Why would I do anything for you?” She crossed her arms and jutted out a hip, her standard pose whenever she addressed me.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I saved your life.”

  She thrust out her chin and looked away. “I’m listening.”

  “I need to reach your dad.”

  “My dad?” She uncrossed her arms as she looked at me, clearly not expecting that. “Why? Does this have anything to do with Professor Layden getting attacked?”

  “Yes.” And it did. Well, sort of, anyway. Maybe if she thought she’d be helping Stace instead of doing me a favor, she just might do it.

  She pulled out her phone and held it up. When I reached for it, she stepped out of my range. “Tell me why.”

  “I can’t. It’s, um…official Council business.”

  “You’re not in the Council.”

  “As the prophecy, I’m an honorary member.” I hoped she bought all the lies falling from my lips.

  “Since when?”

  “Vanessa, please.” God, that hurt to say. With a long-drawn-out sigh, she tapped the screen before handing the phone to me.

  “Now’s not a good time, princess.” Virgil Graves seemed even more abrupt than usual as he answered. “I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Does it have anything to do with Stacey Layden being attacked and left for dead in a tree?”

  “How did you…? Who is this?” He did not sound happy. I could relate. If I had a daughter like Vanessa, I’d dread her calls too.

  “Katy Reed. You know, aka the prophecy.”

  “Ms. Reed,” he stated in an even harder tone. “Why are you calling from Vanessa’s phone?”

  “I need to meet with Stephens. I have news about Spencer Dalton he’s going to want to hear.”

  “I’m very well aware of your opinion of Mr. Dalton. Until you have proof—”

  “I just followed him to a meeting with Alec von Leer. Is that proof enough for you?”

  Vanessa gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide in surprise. God, she even made shock look flawless. I turned from her to continue the conversation. It wouldn’t keep her from listening in, but at least I wouldn’t have to look at her.

  Virgil Graves remained silent for several seconds. “Are you sure?”

  “What could I possibly have to gain by telling you about this if I wasn’t sure?” Was he serious with that question?

  “There are other things at play here, things you aren’t aware of.”

  “Such as?”

  “Katy.” The voice sent me spinning around. When I saw who’d been in Vanessa’s room and who now stood in the doorframe behind her, everything went limp as the shock drained me. The phone slipped from my hands and smacked the tile floor.

  Spencer opened the door the rest of the way and waved for me to enter. Like hell. I stood my ground and readied my light call. “Perhaps we should talk.”

  “And perhaps I should tell the Council where you and Alec have been hanging out.”

  “They know, as they were the ones who sent me there in the first place.” He motioned for me to join him inside the room. “Please, this conversation is best had in private.”

  I stormed into the room and kept my hands at the ready in case this was a trick and I just walked into a trap. Nothing jumped out at me. He closed the door after Vanessa and turned to me. “The Council brought me in under the pretext to train you when in fact I’m here to watch you for signs of you going dark like your mother. After less than a week’s time, I can say without any doubt they had reason for concern.”

  “I call bullshit. You sliced open my hand and injected me with some dark spell. I’m not dark.”

  Vanessa channeled the prick and flashed a haughty expression that, of course, looked amazing on her. The bitch. “Now I call bullshit. I knew you were dark last year when you nearly killed me in the shop.”

  “Because you attacked me.” I practically cried. No way would I let her fuel Spencer’s hate fire for me.

  “See? I told you she was crazy.”

  Spencer casually strolled to the bed and picked up a pink furry throw pillow, holding it in his hands. What did he think he was going to do with that? Smother me? That’d be my luck, to survive countless attacks by dark elementals, only to die by the hands of the very guy the Council imported to babysit me.

  Death by shag just took on a whole new meaning.

  “Are you sleeping with this one too?” I regarded him as I nodded toward Vanessa. “Using another one of my roommates to dig up dirt on me?”

  “You really think quite a bit of yourself, don’t you? My acquaintance with Vanessa has nothing to do with you.”

  “I caught him at my house talking to my dad,” she explained. “They told me he’s working for the Council to make sure you weren’t going to wind up destroying our world and to stop you if you tried. I’m the only one he can talk to about it.”

  Yeah, bitches. That does make this about me.

  “Why would the Council keep me as the prophecy if they were worried about me going dark?”

  “That is something I still don’t quite understand. I was to be given the prophecy. That was the agreement for me coming here.” He tossed the pillow back on the bed.

  Was he kidding me right now? The Council used the prophecy as a bargaining tool? What the hell was wrong with those guys? And this guy?

  “Maybe they see the darkness in you like I do, the same darkness you’re trying to force into me using dark magic.”

  “Ah, yes.” Spencer’s lips curled into a half smile, half snarl. It contorted his usually handsome features into the monster I already knew him to be. Vanessa had her back to him and didn’t see it. He strode up next to her. “Through the slice in your hand. May I see the cut?”

  Crap. I made a fist, hiding my palm. “It healed.”

  He gave Vanessa a look that I wanted to burn right off his arrogant face.

  “You already knew that. You even said so when you met with Alec in an abandoned warehouse down at the docks.” I caught the way Vanessa inched away from him when I said that. She might have known about the Council’s involvement in all this, but she definitely didn’t know Alec’s. Now that she did, her instincts told her not to trust him, even if her brain hadn’t quite caught on. “How’d you and he get to be such good friends?”

  “A most fortunate turn of events. His timing was impeccable. He cornered me my second day here on the island, offering a seat next to him when he takes over the Council after defeating the prophecy. He can’t defeat you alone, so he recruited me.”

  Something didn’t feel right with that statement. “
You mean he believes he recruited you.”

  “Of course.” His lips twitched as he stepped behind Vanessa, so she didn’t see the gesture. But I did. I was sure that was by design.

  I shifted toward the door. Something definitely didn’t feel right. About any of this. He didn’t seem to have a problem with me knowing his little secret, yet wanted to keep up this charade with Vanessa and everyone else. I had to get to the guys, had to tell them what I knew. “Well, if story time is over, I have to go.”

  Spencer popped out and back in, blocking my way to the door. “Is that your way of saying you don’t believe me?”

  Regarding him coolly, I crossed my arms in front of me. Did he think intimidation was going to work with me? Had he even met me? This guy had everyone fooled. Everyone, that was, but me. I saw right through his charm, his model looks, his buttery accent. I had to break this spell he seemed to have over everyone.

  Spell.

  That had to be it. He enchanted everyone using dark magic. I’d have to find a way to cut through it, to lift this twisted hex he had going for him. “Not even a little. I will expose you for who you really are, and when I do, not even siding with Alec will save you.”

  With that, I took advantage of his stunned silence, pushed past him, and popped out so he couldn’t follow.

  21

  When I got to my room, I had company.

  Rob halted his pacing as I walked in. He hadn’t changed out of his school uniform, which was a little worse for wear after tonight’s hunt. A shredded shirt no longer white and stained gray slacks that’d never come clean. The worry lines on his brooding brow deepened as his dark eyes narrowed in on me. “Where the hell have you been? Never mind, I don’t care. What the hell were you thinking pulling a stunt like that? You could have been killed.”

  “Way to keep your cool, bro.” Clay twirled in my desk chair, his head resting on the back as he stared at the ceiling. He too hadn’t changed out of his school uniform, which was pretty much as trashed as Rob’s. “Just like we agreed.”

  “He has every right to be angry,” Leo snapped in a sharp tone I rarely heard from my coolheaded water elemental. He pushed off the bed and charged toward me, his blue gaze wide and wild with concern. No, not concern. Well, not only concern. Fear flashed in those deep pools and tightened his boyish expression. “When are you going to realize you can’t just disappear on us, especially after everything that’s been going on with you lately?”

  I threw my arms around him, so relieved to see him I didn’t care how pissed he was—that they all were—at me. He wasn’t wrong. They all had every right to hate me. The fact they’d waited in my room to scream at me thrilled me, which clearly proved I’d lost my mind tonight. It also proved they didn’t hate me even after every dick move I’d pulled.

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t make any excuses. I didn’t have any. “I screwed up.”

  “Yeah, well.” He broke the embrace and thrust his fingers through his disheveled blond curls, sending them standing on end in every direction. He shrugged his trim shoulders before wiping his hands on his jeans. “There you go. Glad we got that cleared up.”

  Bryan remained against the wall, his large frame holding it up, his still expression and unnerving gaze on me. He had his arms crossed, his fingers drumming on a bulging bicep as he worked his jaw. I stood there, ready to accept whatever harsh words he threw at me.

  He didn’t say anything, simply stared at me. I stared back and waited. When he pushed away from the wall and slowly approached, I danced nervously from foot to foot. He reached up, and I braced myself, sure he wouldn’t strike me but tensing anyway.

  He cupped my face and ran the pad of his thumb under my eye, pulling me to him and kissing me with such passion, such unrestrained want, my knees buckled. He caught me around the waist and held me close, consuming me, rendering me helpless until he was ready to let me go.

  “Earth elementals are nasty,” Clay mused, killing the moment. “Look at you two, being all nasty.” He groaned when no one laughed. “Come on. That was funny.”

  “Hilarious,” Bryan growled, his attention zeroed in on me.

  I laughed at the joke, happy to have my playful air elemental back. “Shocker, Clay made another sexual reference.”

  He waggled his eyebrows and grinned, sending his green gaze into a dance. “I’m here all week.”

  “That makes one of us,” I grumbled, shifting my focus to Rob, who still had deep lines on his forehead as he furrowed his brow.

  “Why haven’t you been answering any of our texts?”

  “Phone’s dead.” I held it up as proof. “Anyway, let me tell you what happened. When I teleported out after, you know, I wound up at a port, and you’ll never believe who was there.”

  “Spencer,” three of them said in unison.

  “Your fandler,” Clay stated at the same time.

  Way to spoil the surprise. “How’d you all know?”

  “He popped out right after you, saying it was his job to watch you.” Rob removed his shirt, wadded it up, and tossed it in the metal trashcan under my desk. I stared at the sculpted muscles as his arms flexed to untuck his white tank top. “When I turned to ask him what the hell he meant by that, he’d already disappeared.”

  “I can tell you what he meant.” I dropped onto my bed and plugged in my phone before removing my shoes, then my socks. Clay rolled over in my desk chair and pulled one of my feet onto his lap, rubbing it. Ahhhh, yeah. I relaxed and leaned back. When he stopped the massage, I sat up. “Why’d you stop?”

  “Keep talking, Montana.”

  “The Council brought Spencer here to watch me, worried I’d go dark. Ohhh, yeah. Right there.” My head fell back as Clay hit a sweet spot between my big toe and little toes.

  “But he’s the one who’s dark.” Leo sat on the opposite side of the bed and grabbed my other foot. Oh, hell yeah. One of the many, many benefits of having more than one boyfriend. “Hey, how’d you end up teleporting to that exact location? Have you been there before?”

  “Never.” I hadn’t thought about the why until now. We all turned to Clay as he nodded.

  “It’s called an echo. It can sometimes be powerful enough to draw an elemental, sort of a false positive when trying to locate someone.”

  “That’s what Brooks called the residual power after a battle. I popped into a deserted alleyway. Why would I be drawn to that location?”

  He pressed his thumbs to the ball of my foot as he continued to explain. “What were you thinking about right before you popped out?”

  “Spencer and how much I hate him.”

  “Bingo.” He winked. I stared, not making the connection. He bounced his attention to Leo. “You get it, right?”

  Leo nodded. “She followed Spencer’s echo.”

  “He must have teleported there several times before to leave an echo strong enough for your subconscious to pick up,” Clay stated.

  “That does explain a few things, like how Alec found us so many times last year. He must have been reading my echo or whatever. Oh, speaking of the dark elemental. He—ahhh. Do that again, Leo.” I fell back once again, loving the dual foot massage. Now other parts of me wanted a massage. “When I followed Spencer to an abandoned warehouse down at the docks, guess who he was there to meet?” I didn’t wait for them to answer and blurted it out. “Alec von freakin’ Leer.”

  “No!” Rob barked.

  “He’s dead,” Bryan added.

  “I thought you killed him,” Leo pointed out.

  Clay stopped the massage as he studied me. “It really was him up at the Point, wasn’t it?”

  I nodded. “And my handler is his silent partner. Isn’t that awesome?”

  “He’s the one who created that creepy fog, isn’t he?”

  “Fog?” Bryan stiffened as he darted his attention to Clay, then me. “What fog?”

  “We were surrounded by this gray fog that made it impossible to see.” Clay had no idea the connection the fog had
to Bryan’s grandfather. He went on before I could stop him, oblivious to how red Bryan had grown, how tense and hard his entire body had gotten, how much the atmosphere had shifted in the room. “And man did it stink, like—”

  “Burnt human hair,” Bryan muttered hollowly.

  Clay snapped his fingers. “Exactly. Burnt hair and maybe a little singed rubber.”

  Bryan collapsed against the wall, his chest deflating from the realization. “It’s back.”

  “It’s not your grandfather.” I was sure of it.

  “No, I mean the fog. It supposedly died with him. The fact it didn’t means he showed someone else how to create it, how to use it.” He lowered his head, shaking it, looking so close to crumpling to the floor, it pulled at my heart.

  “Now that we have proof, we can go to the Council and get him removed.” Rob marched to the door like anyone from the Council would answer a call from the new guy at ten o’clock at night. When no one else moved, he turned with a frown. “What are you waiting for?”

  “For Montana to finish.” Clay resumed the foot rub, and I sighed deep. “Something tells me there’s more to the story.”

  “A lot more,” I agreed. “Jules was there. She’s having Spencer cozy up to her sister to turn her. The Council thinks this is all part of the grand plan. They have no idea he’s really dark and playing them. He’s using some sort of enchantment spell to keep everyone charmed so they don’t question him or see him for what he really is—a leecher with the ability to conceal it. You want to know the best part? Vanessa knows all the assorted details and has no idea she’s playing right into his hand.” I looked at Rob. “That’s why you can’t go to the Council. They won’t listen. Trust me, been there, done that.”

  He sank against the door, his shoulders sagging. “What are we supposed to do? Alec has an in.” He finished in a snarl, “Again.”

  “We break the spell.” I sat up, taking my feet back and tucking them under me, and waiting for everyone to look at me before going on. Although I loved the massage, it was too distracting. For what we had to face, we needed everyone’s undivided attention, including mine. I jumped off the bed and padded to Bryan. “How’d the patrol beat your grandfather?”