“Well, isn’t this awkward,” Sean said, voicing what everyone was thinking.
Jessica stroked her chin thoughtfully as the expression on her face rolled from betrayed to infuriated.
“Wait a second,” Jessica blurted. “So when we were at the Spring Formal and the sleeve of my dress caught on fire…”
Xander looked over quickly to Sammy. “You didn’t.”
“I didn’t,” she quickly replied. “It was the candle, I swear.”
“You tried to set me on fire,” Jessica screamed.
Sammy stood quickly and held up her hands defensively. “I swear I didn’t. If it happened, it was purely a coincidence.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“She does that a lot,” Xander said, before immediately regretting opening his mouth. Sammy and Jessica both glared at him.
“Can we calm down?” Sean asked. “There are apparently Fire Warriors around town that aren’t on our side and I’d rather not draw attention to us.”
“She tried to…” Jessica started to repeat.
“All right,” Sean said as he stepped past Xander. He put his arm around Jessica and led her out of the room. “Let’s let everyone cool down for a while and we’ll try this again later.”
He and Sammy watched the unusual pair leave the room before they turned back toward one another.
Sammy smiled sheepishly. “That went well.”
“As well as I expected it to,” Xander admitted. He bit his lip as he furrowed his brow. “You didn’t, did you?”
Sammy laughed at the absurdity of the situation. “For the last time, I didn’t. The bimbo really did lean over a lit candle.”
Xander laughed too.
They heard the heavy footsteps on the hardwood floor moments before Sean returned alone.
“Jessica decided to take some time to herself and think through everything,” he explained. “I kind of agreed with her.”
Xander smiled. “I think you made the right choice.”
Everyone took his or her seats once again. Xander glanced over his shoulder at the archway, checking to make sure Jessica wasn’t going to suddenly make a reappearance. As he started to look back toward the others, his eyes slid across the flat-screen television on the far wall.
He pointed to the television. “What have I missed since I’ve been gone?”
Sean followed his gaze. “You serious?”
“I’ve been stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere. No TV, no internet, not even a newspaper. I literally have no idea what’s happened in the last couple weeks.”
Sean looked over to Sammy as though she were going to refute everything Xander just said. She merely shook her head and shrugged.
“Man, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Turn your chair around and let’s start flipping through the channels.”
The island should have been nearly pitch black. It was far from the normal lights of civilization. Even on nights of full moon illumination, little of the light filtered through the walls of the waterspout surrounding the marble homes.
Giovanni slammed his fist angrily onto the windowsill as he looked out over the island. The waterspout reflected the red glow of the flames. The air was starting to smell of burning drywall and wooden support beams. While he stood at the window, he heard the splintering of a roof’s support beams and the clay tiles collapsing into the interior of the home.
He couldn’t see the fire; the flames were being started further down the wheel’s spoke from where his home was located. He didn’t need to see the blazes or the people starting the fires to know what was happening. The twisting in his gut told him that elemental wielders were nearby.
Looking out the window, he shifted his gaze to the island’s central dome. A small bell tower stood at the crest of the dome, its bronze bell concealed in the darkness. Giovanni crouched, ready to leap from his window, when he heard voices beneath his window.
“What are you doing?” a cloaked man growled at a younger Fire Warrior. The younger man quivered in the presence of his obvious superior and stammered a response.
Giovanni slid into the shadows of his room but kept his gaze locked on the mysterious leader. The man’s dense robes concealed every inch of skin, leaving his hands draped with the elongated sleeves and his face hidden beneath the folds of its protruding hood.
“If I find you standing around again,” the leader continued berating the younger man, “I’ll burn you to ash.”
“Yes, General,” the Fire Warrior stuttered.
“Go,” the General demanded. “Burn this island to the ground.”
The younger Fire Warrior hurried away, angling down the road and far away from his threatening leader. When he was passing Giovanni’s house, an older Fire Warrior grabbed him by the arm and dragged him toward the Italian’s doorway.
Giovanni scowled at his bad luck. He would have preferred to fly toward the central dome but with the two Fire Warriors at his doorstep and the General hovering nearby, he wasn’t sure he’d make it far before being set ablaze. He took another longing glance at the bell tower, hoping that the others would be alerted to the threat without him having to ring the bell, before turning back into the interior of his room.
Unfortunately, the house didn’t have another exit, aside from the available windows and the front door. With both options blocked, he had little choice but to search for a place to hide.
As he stepped into the hallway beyond his bedroom door, he heard the front door crash open. It hadn’t been locked and the Fire Warriors clearly had little care for the damage done. As soon as they entered the downstairs, however, Giovanni could hear their heated conversation. The Italian swore under his breath. They had been burning houses, one after another. Nearly all the houses on the island were abandoned, their living rooms and dining rooms completely barren of furniture or other amenities. As soon as the Fire Warriors entered the house’s foyer, they would have seen his dining room table and paintings hanging above the console table against the wall.
The second they entered his house, the Fire Warriors knew they had found the home of a Wind Warrior. They’d be coming for him soon.
The Italian closed the bedroom door behind him and slipped into the bathroom door to his right. He closed it quietly behind him and turned toward its dark interior. The bathroom had a small window of frosted glass but the window didn’t open and it was far too small for him to fit through. He glanced around for a weapon but realized his house was poorly designed for defending against the Fire Caste. Short of beating one of them to death with a toilet plunger, Giovanni didn’t have any real options.
Even through the closed door, he could hear the creaking of the wooden steps as the two warriors climbed toward the second-story landing. Giovanni wiped away a thin sheen of sweat from his forehead before climbing into the claw-footed tub. He quietly pulled the shower curtain in front of him, realizing how ridiculous it was that his only protection was a thin sheet of semi-transparent plastic.
The muffled footsteps stopped in front of the bathroom door. The door handle jiggled as the Fire Warriors checked the bathroom. Giovanni could see a glow flood the room as the warrior stepped into the doorway. He couldn’t see the man but it was easy to imagine the man’s arm sheathed in flames. The proximity to the Fire Warrior turned Giovanni’s stomach. Despite his concern about the shower curtain, he suddenly realized it was his savior. The flickering flames were reflected off its shiny surface, keeping him hidden. So long as the Fire Warrior didn’t check the bathroom more thoroughly, he’d be safe.
The warrior stood in the doorway for what seemed like an eternity before the light faded and the man stepped back into the hallway. Giovanni refused to let out the breath he was holding, for fear of being discovered.
He heard the closet door across the hall open moments before he heard the two Fire Warriors make their way toward his bedroom.
Waiting was no longer an option. It wouldn’t take long for the other Fire Warriors to spread across the isl
and. There was a chance the other aunts and uncles were still asleep and unaware of the danger. Despite the risk, he needed to ring that bell.
Giovanni silently pulled aside the shower curtain and stepped out of the claw-footed tub. His stomach was still a giant, painful knot. The discomfort had been enough to wake him from his sleep when the Fire Warriors began their assault. Their use of the elemental powers so close to his home had been far too telling for him to remain asleep.
Barefooted, he stepped into the hallway. The shadows of the Fire Warriors fell on the walls in the hallway, stretched from where they inspected his bedroom.
He grinded his teeth as he watched them tear through his room. The few papers he kept on his desk were tossed unceremoniously onto the floor. The sheets were ripped from his bed and discarded in a pile on the floor.
Giovanni walked down the hall without making a noise and stood in the doorway. While the Fire Warriors searched his room, he began focusing his energy. He kept his eyes fixated over the Fire Caste, focusing on the bell tower that stood above the central dome.
A distant cry split through the still night air. The Fire Warriors seemed just as startled as Giovanni at the scream. Breaking their relatively silent assault with such noise meant only one thing—there was a battle between the Fire Warriors and at least one Wind Warrior. Others were awake but it was hard to tell whether the yell had been of surprise or pain.
A sudden breeze swirled through the room, sending the pile of sheets tumbling on the floor. Both Fire Warriors suddenly clenched their guts as his power grew. Their fires extinguished themselves, as their concentration was broken, casting the room into sudden darkness.
The wind kicked up unexpectedly, lifting a chair from its place beside the nightstand. It launched through the air, slamming into the head of the older of the two Fire Warriors. The man crumpled to the floor, blood flowing freely from the wound on his scalp.
The younger man barely had time to turn before Giovanni launched into the air. He grabbed the warrior around his waist, lifting him from his feet and pulling him out the window with him. With his eyes still focused on the bell tower, Giovanni released the Fire Warrior and propelled himself forward. Giovanni didn’t pause to listen to the young man’s scream, which ended abruptly when he landed awkwardly on his neck on the marble tiles below.
The bell tower grew quickly closer as Giovanni pushed himself faster. He struggled with the fact that Fire Warriors were on the island. There had never been any indication they even knew where the Wind Caste was hiding all this time. Had they grown complacent in their protected home far away in the ocean? It had seemed like such a good idea all those years ago, to be detached from humanity as they lived out the last of their years. The ocean surrounding them seemed like the perfect protection from an army of elementalists wielding the power of fire. Yet, in the end, even the ocean hadn’t been a strong enough deterrent for the assassins that were now at their doorstep.
He barely slowed as he reached the large bell positioned over the central dome. As soon as his feet touched the cool surface, he pulled hard on the long rope that dangled beside it. With a firm tug, a massive, wooden trunk swung away from the bell. He released the rope and leapt from the window, drifting down toward the makeshift hospital below where Xander’s grandfather rested. Giovanni refused to leave the elder Wind Warrior undefended.
Above him, the massive ringer swung forward, colliding with the giant bell. Its tone rung pure across the island, wrenching the other Wind Warriors from their sleep. The bell had been installed at the behest of a paranoid Wind Warrior when the island had been selected and taken aloft. It served only a single purpose—to warn of an attack. In all the years since, it had never been rung. Tonight, its sound echoed hauntingly over the island.
Giovanni trusted that the others would awaken and defend the island as best they could. The only thing he was concerned with was protecting Xander’s grandfather. As he glided toward the smaller building beside the dome, he didn’t even notice the dark-clad Fire Warrior pushing aside the curtain to the central dome.
The Fire Warrior sensed the Italian soaring over his head. He was close enough to engage. Since the warrior hadn’t been using his flame powers, he knew the Wind Warrior couldn’t sense his presence. In the shadow of the central dome, he watched the Wind Warrior land besides a building nearby and hurry inside.
Killing the Wind Warrior would have been easy but he had been given his task directly by General Abraxas himself. No one defied orders from the General; no one that had genuine concern for his or her continued existence.
At the entryway to the central dome, the Fire Warrior could feel nauseating waves of elemental power pouring from its interior. A Wind Warrior was inside, of that he was certain.
Beyond the curtain, the room was unnecessarily dark. No windows lined the walls of the room. The Fire Warrior assumed there were lanterns or wall sconces nearby that could be ignited but he had no reason to waste his time with such frivolities. The ends of his arms ignited as he prepared to face the Wind Warrior inside. The thrill of the anticipation sent chills through his body, in stark contrast to the heat from his generated fires.
The flames flickered across the virtually empty room. He expected a Wind Warrior prepared for battle, standing across from him with the winds under his command. The Fire Warrior was horribly startled to find a shaggy-haired man reclined in a chair in the middle of the room. Robert’s eyes were closed and legs resting on a padded ottoman. Were it not for the fluttering of the man’s wild beard, the Fire Warrior might have mistaken him for a corpse.
He couldn’t help but think the room was a clever trap. The power was evidently emanating from the room but he assumed it had to have been from another Wind Warrior, not the man resting comfortably—seemingly asleep—in the chair in front of him. A quick examination of the room, however, showed that they were alone.
The Fire Warrior couldn’t resist a malicious smile. He knew this would be the easiest Wind Warrior any of them would kill that day.
He approached the reclining Robert and placed his hands on the armrests. He leaned forward until he could smell the Wind Warrior’s underlying musky scent. His sense of accomplishment slowly faded as he realized Robert wouldn’t be putting up a fight. His smarmy smile quickly became a frown.
“Wake up and face me, Wind Warrior,” he spat acidly. “Face me like a man or I really will kill you like a dog.”
Robert didn’t respond. Beneath his eyelids, his eyes flickered as though he were in deep sleep.
Angry at being ignored, the Fire Warrior grabbed Robert by his tunic and jerked him from the chair. For a moment, he feared that the Wind Warrior wouldn’t stand on his own and he’d have to drag a limp body to the man’s execution.
Slowly, Robert planted his feet on the ground and locked his knees. As the Fire Warrior pulled him in closer, Robert’s eyes shot open. His pupils were dilated far beyond normal and his breathing came in rapid gasps.
The Fire Warrior felt water splash across his ankles, soaking his leather boots. He looked down in surprise as it sounded like a torrential downpour of seawater outside the front door.
Robert looked at the Fire Warrior as though really seeing the real world for the first time in years.
“What have you done?” he croaked, seconds before the island dropped out from beneath their feet.
Xander’s hand shook as he reached for the remote. On the screen, the announcer reported on an uncontrollable wildfire that had already burned more than a million and a half acres of the Chinese countryside. Firefighters had been unable to get a handle on the blaze and had requested international support. He muted the television and turned slowly toward Sean.
“You’re saying this is happening everywhere?”
Sean pointed at the world map he pulled up on his laptop. “Volcanoes have erupted in Hawaii, Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia. There’s a massive hurricane over Iceland. Earthquakes are shaking every continent. Wildfires are burning throug
h China, Russia, and a good part of California.” He turned back solemnly toward his best friend. “I don’t know what you guys are doing but it seems like the planet’s trying to rip itself apart.”
Xander rested his elbows on his knees and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew there had been earthquakes after Bart died but he hadn’t paused to think about the type of destruction that had spread across the globe. All because of one death, he had to remind himself.
“Is this going to keep happening?” Sean asked. “Is there more of this coming?”
“Not if I can help it,” Xander replied, though he was sure he lacked the bravado of his words.
“We have to let the other Wind Warriors know,” Sammy said, her eyes still glued to the television. “They have to know what’s happening.”
Xander scoffed. “They don’t care. They take trips to the mainland to resupply all the time. They had to have heard by now.”
He stood up quickly from the couch. The other two turned their attention to him.
“Are you going somewhere?” Sammy asked. “You know you can’t go outside, right? Not right now, at least.”
Xander nodded. “I’m not. I’m just having trouble sitting right here and watching TV. I just need a break. I’m… I’m going to go check on Jessica. Make sure she’s okay.”
He didn’t turn around, which saved him from seeing Sammy’s disapproving look. Even without seeing it, he was more than capable of imagining her stern glare. As he passed Sean, he swore his best friend wore a similarly disapproving frown.
Beyond the large common room, most of the sorority was dark. The lights were off so as not to draw too much attention from any passing Fire Warriors. Plus, the lights were unnecessary. The girls were all gone, long since fled back to their respective homes. They thought getting out of White Halls was the best decision; that somehow the violence and destruction was isolated to a single Tennessee town.
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