by Amy Braun
Hadrian shouted a war-cry and hurled one of his tempest-blades at Mortis. Quicker than I could register, Mortis twisted and avoided the blade.
Mortis kept turning, swinging his blade at Hadrian. My Guardian pulled to a stop just in time to block the sword aimed at his throat. Mortis took the offensive, slashing and swinging without pause. Hadrian matched him strike for strike, but that was all he could do. He was so intent on cutting Mortis he didn’t notice the way his opponent’s free hand drifted over the bottom of the ground. The way the mud shifted and steadily rose.
He was drawing Hadrian into a trap.
One that Ferno and Turve were waiting to jump into.
“Zephys–” I said.
“I see them.” But he didn’t move. He was taking his oath to protect us seriously.
Screw it, I thought. I’m not bound to any oath. I can control the weather, and I’ll watch how much energy I use so I don’t devour any life force. I can do this.
With a grunt, I pushed to my feet. It was way harder than it should have been.
“Distract Ferno and Turve. Get Vitae. I’ll take care of the rest.”
He looked at me. “Ava, you do not know your limits, and I promised Hadrian–”
“Just do it, Zephys!” I hissed. It covered up the strain in my voice.
He hesitated, but nodded. Time wasn’t a luxury we had right now. Declan was lying incapacitated on the ground, just as Piper was, but I was still awake. If luck took my side for once, I could end this here and now.
Zephys stormed toward Vitae’s crumpled form. Ferno and Turve noticed him and worked together, with Ferno dragging mud up from the road and Turve pushing a wall of it toward Zephys. The Precip made it to his leader, roughly grabbing her shoulders and pulling her up. Vitae looked weak, her entire body slathered with mud.
But she didn’t stay that way for long. As soon as she was roused, Zephys was on his feet and drawing on the rain. Vitae scrambled up, planted her feet, and waited until Zephys’s attack launched past her to block the two Mistrals. The funnel of rain that Zephys threw crashed into the mud wall. Vitae drew her hands together. The rain that hit the wall hardened the mud, freezing it in its tracks. She pushed again, and the whole frozen-mud wall skidded back into Ferno and Turve. Zephys wrapped his arm around Vitae and started to haul her back. Now that she was turned to me, I could see the blood staining her face and body, like a thousand blisters had erupted on her skin.
Zephys shouted for Hadrian, but his friend didn’t listen. He was still locked in deadly combat with Mortis. The fight was more violent than before.
Hadrian pushed on relentlessly, catching Mortis’ tempest-blade and swinging his arm around to fling it from his grasp. It worked, but Mortis wasn’t fazed. He kicked Hadrian hard in the stomach, bending him double. As Hadrian recovered, Mortis unsheathed his other blade from the scabbard on his back and slammed it down at Hadrian’s head.
Hadrian moved quickly, bringing his sword up and stopping the attack. Metal screamed against metal, and I had never been so relieved that tempest-blades couldn’t be broken.
Though that didn’t mean bodies were safe.
Mortis kicked Hadrian in the ribs. The impact jarred my Guardian and his resistance against the blade slipped. Mortis drove his knee into Hadrian’s stomach, then pounded both his elbows into his back. He twisted and slammed his boot against the right side of Hadrian’s ribcage. He lost his footing and landed on the ground on his back.
Hadrian swung his sword at Mortis in an effort to wound his leg. The Mistral leader kicked it down and pinned his arm. Hadrian tried to rise again, but soon a boot was on his throat, and he was trapped.
As I watched with horror, I felt the energy around me– from the struggle Vitae and Zephys were enduring against Ferno and Turve, to the crumpled forms of Declan and Piper, to the restrained control of Mortis, to the fragile tether with Hadrian.
I could feel it all now, and I knew the only way to help my Guardians was to unleash it.
While I centered myself and prepared to grab the energy swirling around me, I heard Mortis’s voice carry over the sounds of battle.
“Impatient and inferior. Just as Sonus was. I always knew you would take after him. You are not even half the Guardian he was.” Mortis pressed harder on Hadrian’s neck. “At least he could keep his charges alive.”
I felt the weather and the air sweeping over me, and the rough energy coating my tether. I gripped them both, and then I let go.
I screamed and felt my body rip apart. The pressure in my body erupted like a volcano, fierce and merciless. A huge gale crested behind me. The energy was everywhere, snared by the power I was wielding. The pain was unrelenting, but the feeling of complete control and undiluted power was even stronger. And far more welcome. I felt that if I pushed hard enough, I could take it all.
Winds the speed of rockets detonated toward the Guardians. I saw them look at me, shock widening their eyes. A tiny pulse beat at my brain, as if telling me not to do anything to the Guardians dressed in shades of blue. It was like I was supposed to recognize them. But I couldn’t remember why.
It was probably better that way. The Guardians were not my friends. They were my keepers. They would lock me away as soon as they could. They had told me as much.
I did not want to be controlled. I did not want to be stopped. I would take what I could for as long as I could.
Loose snow, shattered ice, and thick mud burst from the ground, scattering across the horizon. The wind pushed on, barreling into the Guardians. Three of them– the ones dressed in black and silver– were hurtled through the air and out of sight. The wind pushed on, smashing into half-constructed buildings and knocking them over. Debris thrashed wildly– metal beams, furniture, the leaves of palm trees, anything not bolted down was thrown twenty feet from where it originally lay.
I grinned and breathed deep. Felt the cold chill in the air and the wildness of the wind rushing past me.
Sensed the energy of a life force behind me.
I turned around, then looked at the body of a human girl on the ground. She was unconscious, but alive.
She was mine.
I knelt down, drawn by the heat of life under her skin. The pulse in the back of my head tapped my brain again, as if something was trying to make itself known to me, and stop me from taking what I wanted.
Yet as soon as my knees hit the cold, snowy earth, the power shut off like a switch. Where the wind had been roaring inside me minutes ago, now there was a stillness so sudden it made my head spin. Something wet and thick dripped from my nose and my ringing ears. I couldn’t see straight. I felt my legs shiver and become liquid.
Then I couldn’t see at all.
Chapter 10
Tender warmth glided down my face. I didn’t know what it was, but I could happily get used to it.
Yet the moment I started feeling the gentle sensation across my cheek, other feelings made themselves known. The elevated arch of my back as it rested on a sturdy mattress. The thick blanket tucked under my arms and around my chest. The warm cloth rubbing my cheek. The slow, steady fingers moving through my hair. The smell of cool water and musk.
My breath hitched. Oh man. This better be a dream.
The circles on my cheek stopped. The fingers unthreaded from my hair.
No! Come back!
“I know you’re awake, Ava.”
I really needed to figure out how to control my thoughts.
I was tempted to ignore Hadrian, but he wasn’t easy to fool, and there was an exhausted weight to his voice I couldn’t disregard. So I slowly blinked my eyes open and found him.
He was a mess. Mud was splattered on his armor and clumped in his hair. Light bruises covered his face, ghosts of what they must have been. Blood had caked on his forehead, though I couldn’t spot the cut that spawned it.
The worst was the bruise ringing his neck. An awful, dirty print with angry red dots lining the design. I squinted at the dots, trying to figure out what t
hey were, why they looked like...
I noticed the dried blood spots on them, and an image of the boots ice-climbers used flashed through my mind. I inhaled sharply and reached for Hadrian’s neck before I knew what I was doing.
He gently clasped my wrist before I could touch him. “I’m all right. The worst wounds have healed.”
Hadrian held my wrist for another long moment, then set it back onto the bed. I took a minute to take in my surroundings. The walls were a familiar bland pale grey that told me were back in Loxahatchee prison. This room– which I quickly discovered was the prison infirmary– was bigger, with hospital beds covered in an ugly aquamarine fabric, like they were on loan from a dentist’s office. The curtains were drawn back to let in dreary grey sunlight, which spilled over the desks covered in paper and blank screened computers, and into the cabinets filled with unused medical supplies. It was a wonder this place hadn’t been raided yet. The SPU and volunteering doctors could use this stuff, and the gangs would literally kill for it.
Then again, the Precips weren’t about to let anyone steal anything from them.
Thinking about them– and how I’d forgotten them when my Stormkind-half took over– I turned to Hadrian. His indigo-azure eyes didn’t leave my face. He looked intense, as if a million accusations were on his tongue and it was taking an effort for him to hold them all back.
I was in major trouble, but first things first.
“What happened? Is Piper okay?”
Hadrian nodded once. “Zephys is explaining things to her. She’s been tended to. Her injuries were far less severe than yours.”
I winced at the bite in his words. Avoiding it, I said, “I want to see her.”
“No. You need to rest.”
“I’m fine,” I half lied. Sure, I was talking, but now that I was fully awake, I was starting to feel the effects of my little adventure.
My body felt like a wet towel, twisted and wrung and squeezed too tight against my bones. There was an unrelenting pulse behind my eyes, as if boots were in my skull and trying to kick my eyeballs out. All of my limbs seemed to be encased in concrete, heavy and sluggish whenever I moved. Every bruise I took throbbed angrily, a silent reminder that I’d done something really, really stupid.
But I didn’t want to stay in this bed any longer. I wanted to see my friend. I wanted to find out if my family was all right. I wanted to figure out what the hell I was, and how I could make it stop.
“I’m fine,” I insisted again. I reached for the blanket to pull it away. “Just let me–”
Hadrian’s hand clamped over my arm and pinned it to the bed. Doing so caused him to lean over me. His impossibly handsome face was inches from mine, his body slightly pressed against mine. I could feel the heat of him sinking into me, a delicious, welcome burn that I didn’t think was coming from his life force.
“You almost died!” he snapped. His eyes seemed bluer than ever, deep and tormented. He relaxed his temper, but didn’t move. “You almost died.”
It was a whisper this time, a broken sound that both caressed my skin and struck my heart.
Hadrian’s chest brushed mine when he breathed. I could almost feel the race of his heart, as wild as the pain in his eyes. I wondered what happened to Guardians when they lost their charges.
Then I remembered Mortis’s last taunt to Hadrian, and suspected he knew all too well.
Believing I could touch him without hurting his life force, I used my free hand to cup his cheek. I smiled at him, hoping it would draw away the darkness swimming in his eyes.
“But I didn’t. I got lucky for a change.”
Hadrian closed his eyes and sighed, as if breathing was an effort for him right now.
“Do not joke about this, Ava. Do not.”
Fair enough. Hadrian was on an emotional tripwire. I had to be very careful, because I had no idea what he would do if I set him off. I hadn’t known him long, but I’d sensed early on that Hadrian was all about control. He was good at keeping a lid on any anguish he felt, preferring to go the broody, mysterious route.
But the problem with control like that was it never lasted. Everyone snapped, sooner or later.
“The lightning was a beacon for me,” I said quietly. “It was heading straight for my family. I couldn’t let anything happen to them.”
Their faces flashed through my mind again. The way Mom shielded James. The terrified whisper in Dad’s voice. I closed my eyes and swallowed the sobs lodging in my throat, forcing them to lump in my chest, grateful that Hadrian couldn’t see how heartbroken I’d become. I didn’t want his sympathy, only his understanding. That wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?
“So you knowingly walked into a trap.” Hadrian’s eyes were still closed, but I heard the anger simmering underneath.
Apparently it was.
“It wasn’t when I got there,” I protested. Then I thought about it. “Okay, so maybe I didn’t realize it was then, but I was able to find a way to get my family and the survivors free. It didn’t really hurt me–”
Hadrian’s jaw tightened. So did his grip on my arm. “You knowingly took on a thunder-Stormkind alone, having no concept of your gifts or how the damage they could inflict on you.”
My lips quirked and I opened my big, stupid mouth. “Not really the best gifts, are they?”
Hadrian opened his eyes and glared at me. My smile faltered. I didn’t think Hadrian would hurt me, but there was no mistaking the warning in his eyes.
Before I could explain any further, Hadrian continued. “Then you fought another like you. That man. Declan. In front of the Mistrals. Using the energy from the air rather than the tether. Something I instructed you not to do.”
Now I was starting to lose my patience.
“I didn’t know they were there. What was I supposed to do? Stand there and let them kick the crap out of me?” I took a deep breath to calm myself. “I had no choice, Hadrian. We haven’t even started to work on your method yet. I’ve used the air’s energy before. I used it, and I didn’t hurt anyone.”
“But you could have,” he argued, the intensity of his anger creeping into his eyes. “You were supposed to hang on until I got to you. You were not supposed to use your powers. You were not supposed to fight.”
I dropped my hand from his face and pushed his chest. Hadrian moved back, but he still felt too close.
“My friend was in trouble! They could have killed her! I never asked for these gifts, but if I’m stuck with them, I’m going to use them to keep the people I love safe–”
“Even when they make you bleed?” Hadrian bit out, his voice starting to rise. “Before I brought you back here, your nose and ears were bleeding. You have no idea what your limits are, but you exceeded them. You nearly snapped the tether, draining both of us of power. How do you expect me to do my duty if you steal my tools for it–”
“You weren’t there!”
“Because you left!”
His shout froze me. I couldn’t think of any kind of argument, but even if I had one, Hadrian would have overridden me. I’d stepped on the tripwire, and set off the explosion.
“If you had just stayed in place, done what I asked you to do, none of this would have happened,” he exclaimed, eyes fevered and wild. “That Stormkind would have been contained. We would have subtly tracked the Mistrals. Mortis would not have escaped again.” The venom in his voice startled me with that last condemnation, but he still wasn’t done. He lowered his voice, but his neck and face were still burning with anger.
“You tell me that you do not want these powers, yet everything you do suggests otherwise. Tell me what I am supposed to make of that, Ava? Tell me how I am supposed to protect you from Mortis when you play right into his hands? When you ignore my warnings and let your Stormkind half overcome your control, leading you to nearly attack your friend and become no better than the monsters we’ve spent centuries trying to contain?”
Hadrian took another breath, then stopped. An uncomfortable, stri
cken look crossed his face. That was when I felt the tears lining my cheeks.
I wiped them away. “Are you done yelling at me?” I asked.
“I... ” Hadrian stopped. He wouldn’t apologize to me, because he wasn’t sorry, though his eyes still seemed to plead with me. “Ava, I didn’t mean–”
“You should probably go,” I whispered. “Being around me is only going to piss you off more. And if you can’t see the reason I did what I did, or why I don’t regret it, then I don’t want to be around you, either.”
Every word I spoke felt like a hook being embedded in my heart. The pained expression in Hadrian’s perfect blue eyes made every barb tighten. But I wouldn’t take a single word back. I couldn’t.
He saw that in my eyes. Felt it in the tether around my heart. Whatever pain he felt didn’t last as long as mine did. His face became stony, all emotion locked away from me. I looked the blanket covering my body, and tried not to wonder if Hadrian was the one who tucked me in. I tried not to remember the gentle way he’d cleaned my face and stroked my hair.
As if I were precious to him, and not just a charge.
Hadrian’s heavy footsteps strode toward the door. The door creaked open, and all I could think was Don’t go. Not yet–
The door closed with a heavy, silent click. The hooks ripped open my heart violently. A sob racked through my chest and spilled out of my throat. I clamped my hand over my mouth and squeezed my eyes shut.
That was when the tears really began to pour.
***
I couldn’t remember falling asleep. I was still in the infirmary when I woke up, but it wasn’t Hadrian in the room with me.
Vitae had settled in the chair he’d sat in earlier, her sharp, intelligent blue eyes boring into mine. She was dressed in a simple black sweater and jeans, her well toned arms folded over her chest. Her hair was tied back in a tight braid, wet from being washed. If she bore any bruises or wounds from her fight, I couldn’t see them. Vitae was as unreadable as Hadrian had been before he left.
My chest pinched at the fight we’d had. It was crazy to miss someone who was in the same building as you, wasn’t it?