by Amy Braun
“You’ve been recovering rapidly,” announced Vitae blandly.
I couldn’t really argue that. I still felt like emotional crap, but my body was stronger. I felt normal. Maybe that tear-induced rest did me some good.
“Your body must have absorbed some of the tether’s self-healing capabilities.”
Or not.
Trusting Vitae but choosing to confirm with my own eyes, I lifted the blanket and peeked underneath.
Someone had stripped me of my dirty clothes and replaced them with clean ones. Even my underwear was fresh. There had only been two people to come in my room that I knew about, and I had been too busy arguing and defending my actions to Hadrian to know if my clothes were different. I didn’t want to think he would be that pervy, but...
Heat flushed my cheeks when I looked at Vitae. Her expression remained blank, but I swore there was a twinkle in her eyes.
“The garments you wore were beyond saving. I took the liberty of discarding them and redressing you shortly after Hadrian departed. They are more of my own. Please try not to ravage them.”
Vitae, badass warrior and leader of the Precips, was a clothing freak. Who knew?
“No promises,” I muttered.
Vitae’s lips quirked as I looked down. I pulled up the bottom of the dark grey sweater and looked at my stomach. Nothing. I prodded my ribs. Nope. Poked at my face. Nada.
Lucky me.
“How did I heal?” I asked.
“Once the tether is activated, it remains that way. It never fades unless both a Stormkind and Guardian perish. Usually it is the Guardian that perseveres long enough to pass the tether down to their sons or daughters. Stormkind simply die.”
“They don’t have little Stormkind babies running around setting off random thunderstorms and tornadoes?”
I spoke bitterly, but the antagonism died when I saw the grim look on Vitae’s face.
“No, Ava. They do not. They were not created to breed. Even if they had the capacity for it, they are too volatile. Too single-minded in their purpose for consumption and destruction.”
I gulped, hesitating to ask my next question, but needing to know more about the Stormkind. About what I was potentially going to become.
“Then… How do they multiply?”
Vitae’s stare unnerved me. “They do not. The Stormkind you see here are the last of the Stormkind to exist. They are nearly extinct.”
My jaw dropped. I had no love for the Stormkind, but I had to admit they were kind of like wild tigers. Extraordinary to look at and worthy of respect, but not exactly the kind of creatures you keep as pets.
“You must remember that the Stormkind were created as experiments by the Primordials. They were made due to boredom, and for millennia, we have suffered the consequences of their creation. But they are part of the old world, the world that we know. It is important to preserve them for as long as we can.”
I hesitated before I asked my next question. “What happens to the Guardians if all the Stormkind die?”
Vitae hesitated, and I could have sworn a glint of fear passed through her eyes. It was gone before I could be sure.
“I do not know,” she admitted. “Without a tether, it is likely our extended lifespans will dwindle at human rates. The tether is a shared bond of energy. It strengthens the Stormkind and the Guardian it is connected to.”
I blinked. “What kind of energy?”
Vitae smiled, but there wasn’t a lot of warmth in it. “The kind the Stormkind crave.”
“Wait,” I said, “Are you telling me that when I use the tether, I’m using Hadrian’s life force?!”
Vitae didn’t seem surprised by my outburst. “As he will do to you whenever he needs extra power. Remember that we were created to siphon Stormkind gifts. It is the only way we can contain them.”
“But the whole point of using the tether is to keep me from draining his life force!”
Vitae held up a hand to stop my rant. “You are not absorbing it, Ava. Merely using it. Think of the tether between you as a battery. Both of you can use it, and it will recharge over time. When Stormkind reach the end of their lifespan, Guardians quickly find a new one to tether to so we do not age and eventually die. Using the tether will exhaust Hadrian, but not hurt him.”
I looked down. “So… If I lose control again and try to hurt someone… Will he take all the energy from the tether so I can’t use it?”
It was a stupid question. Of course he would. He’d been here chewing me out about how I was too uncontrollable. Maybe he was right to do just that. Hadrian was a Guardian first, my ally second, maybe my friend third. Definitely nothing else, and even the second and third options were pushing the limits–
“It is the wisest course of action for him, the one he knows is right, yet I do not think it would be what he will choose in the end.”
I glanced up. Vitae’s smile was soft. “I was a friend of Hadrian’s father. I’ve known Hadrian since he was a child. Though he has been unlucky with the stability of his charges, he remains one of the best Guardians I’ve ever known. Yet I have never seen any charge get under his skin the way you have.”
I had no idea if that was a compliment or an insult, so I decided not to answer. I picked the edges of the blanket. “What do you mean by stability?”
Please don’t tell me I really am as crazy as a Stormkind.
Vitae sighed. “Hadrian has always gotten the wildest charges. Even when they were in their cages. Stormkind that fought him savagely at every turn, nearly escaped, proved too uncontrollable. More than once, he has been forced to eliminate them himself.”
I winced. “Is… Is that why he didn’t want me as his charge?”
Vitae held my eyes sadly. “I cannot speak for Hadrian’s heart. He is dedicated to his task, yet I sense he longs for something else in his life. It was the most significant way he and Sonus were different.”
The name rang a bell. “Mortis mentioned that name. Sonus. Who is he?”
Vitae’s blue gaze darkened, a violent combination of grief and rage.
“Sonus was Hadrian’s father.”
“Was…” I whispered the word.
She nodded. “Mortis killed him.”
Things began to click into place. Hadrian’s tension when he mentioned Mortis to me when I was in solitary. The way he fought Mortis as soon as he had the chance. How effectively Mortis’s taunts worked on him.
Despite the hundreds of questions that popped into my mind, only one stood out above the rest.
“Why?”
Vitae sighed. She reclined in her chair, more a slump of exhaustion than relaxed seating. For a moment, she looked her age, as if centuries of hardship and bitter memories were resurfacing and shadowing her face. “I wish I knew. Though my assumption is that it had something to do with power and position.” Seeing the confusion on my face, Vitae launched into a story.
“There have always been two factions to the Guardians, but we were once united as one. It was necessary, given how many Stormkind were spread across the world. Someone had to bring us together and co-ordinate us. That person was Sonus. He was the strongest of us, the wisest.” Vitae smiled, a small, sad expression. “I suppose you could say he was our king. But that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to be more than the leader of one faction of the world. He wanted to be a Guardian, a father, a peacekeeper, a sympathizer, a historian. In the end, Sonus simply wanted too much.”
“What happened?” I asked, enraptured.
“Sonus and Mortis had always been rivals. They could never agree on the Primordials or their choice to leave the world in the hands of humanity. Mortis believed that if humans were more like the Stormkind, humans would not be killing the Primordials in their sleep. Mortis was known for… experimenting with the Stormkind. Using the tempest-blades to draw on their powers, eager to study charges that were not his own. One day his experiments went too far, and he killed one of Hadrian’s charges. Hadrian was younger then, younger than you in hum
an years. He was filled with arrogance and immaturity, and he confronted Mortis about it.
“Mortis was in the middle of a project, something he did not want anyone to know about. He saw Hadrian and beat him within an inch of his life. Sonus loved Hadrian, and when he realized what Mortis had done, he repaid him tenfold. He destroyed everything Mortis had worked for, and cast him out of the Guardians. For three hundred years, Mortis walked the earth alone. We never knew what happened to him in those centuries, and we had no desire to care.”
Vitae’s eyes became cast in shadow. “Until he returned. To this day, we do not know how he managed it. He attacked all of Sonus’s supporters, caught him unaware. He gathered his own followers and turned them on Sonus. It was a bloody day for all of us, and a stalemate was reached. Mortis wounded Sonus, and disappeared with his followers before retribution could be exacted. That was how the Mistrals formed. I was Hadrian’s mentor, Sonus’s trusted friend. When we returned and saw what had been done, the task of leading the remainder of the Guardians– the Precips– passed to me. It was Sonus’s final wish.”
Vitae looked down, whether to hide her shame or her tears, I didn’t know.
“To this day, I wish he had not given it to me. Protecting Hadrian is one thing, but I was not ready to take over for his father. I am a soldier. Not a leader. It is no wonder so many Precips have died under my command.”
“It’s not your fault–” I tried.
“Do not speak to me about faults or failings,” Vitae snapped. “You have no concept of how much has been lost because of me.”
I was about to lose her, the same way I’d lost Hadrian. I needed one ally if I was going to find out what Mortis did to me, and how I could reverse it. Vitae didn’t strike me as the kind of person who needed a kind, loving hand to guide her out of her turmoil. She needed the truth, simple and absolute.
“I know you’re doing the best with what you have. I know Hadrian and Zephys are loyal to you. I know it takes balls to stand up to Mortis. I know that’s what you need to beat him.”
Vitae stared at me for a long, almost awkward time before she spoke again. Then she smirked.
“No wonder Hadrian is so flustered by you.”
I snorted. “Not the word I would use.”
“You do not know him the way I do.”
I didn’t want to think about what she meant by that, so I decided to switch tracks.
“Can you find out what Mortis did to me?”
Vitae took a deep breath. “I can speculate. Tell me again what the dagger looked like.”
I explained it. By the time I was done, Vitae was frowning. “It sounds like a modification to a tempest-blade. The swords we use are meant to be longer. We use two not only for greater skill in combat, but because the power of one blade can be overwhelming. Condensing that power into one small, single dagger is... insane.”
“Because it’s what all super villains have in common, right? Insanity?” I really wished the tremor hadn’t been in my voice.
Vitae stared at me with confusion. “I suppose. But perhaps the more pertinent question should be what the consequences of such a weapon will be. If he managed to alter the energy of a tempest-blade into a single dagger, using it could mean that you are now infused with whatever gifts he filled it with. Ice, wind, rain, dust, any of these could have been forced into you. We should be lucky you were channeled with ice and able to gain a tether to Hadrian.”
“Umm...” I bit my lower lip. “Uh, about that... I think he did something else to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“After Mortis attacked me, I had this dream– or maybe it was a memory, I’m not sure– but I was with Mortis and Ferno, and I kept having these painful sensations. One minute I was freezing, then I felt like I was drowning, then I was drying up, and then I...”
Fear had been creeping into my voice as I relived the horror of the torture I’d endured. I was shaking like I was about to shudder out of my skin.
Vitae shifted uncomfortably on her chair. Pity filled her eyes. I turned my head away, shame flooding hot in my cheeks. I wished I were stronger. Tough enough to handle this. To at least stand up for myself and tell Vitae I didn’t want any pity.
But that would make me a liar. I had already lost my family. I didn’t know what Hadrian would think of me now. I could only guess at how Piper had been changed. The last thing I wanted right now was to feel alone.
“You believe you have more than one gift?” Vitae asked tentatively.
I nodded without looking up, still trying to catch my breath and steady my racing heart.
I closed my eyes and sighed. I didn’t want it to be true. I wanted to tell her that I only had one “gift,” and it was the one that tethered me to Hadrian.
But not wanting to admit the extent of my damage would only make it worse.
So I nodded. “When I touched Declan, I felt something in him push into me. It was like I was taking the wind into my body.”
Vitae’s eyes sharpened. She leaned forward. “You felt his power go into you? The same way you felt Hadrian’s?”
I took a breath to tell her it was different than that, except it wasn’t. The more I thought about the jolt that connected me to Hadrian, the more it reminded me of the powerful shock Declan shoved into me.
“It wasn’t cold but,” I nodded. “Yeah. It was kind of like that.”
Vitae continued staring at me, her jaw clenched. Her fingers gripped her knees tightly. Now I was the one who felt awkward. It seemed like she was restraining something. Part of me didn’t want to know what she was thinking, but if she was looking at me like a secret was about to burst past her lips, I felt I had a right to know what it was. It was my life that was being turned on its head, after all.
Just as I started to ask her what she thought had happened to me, a drop of wetness splatted onto my head. Confused, I looked up. Water began to steadily drip from the ceiling.
Vitae’s eyebrows creased and her lips were pulled down in a frown. “Strange. The water has never leaked before.”
Said leakage was continuing to dribble on me. Because of course it was. I had been clean and comfortable. My recent adventures had been getting in the way of maintaining that status.
When I heard the pipes groan beyond the ceiling, I knew it was time to move. I tossed the blankets aside and swept off the bed. Not a moment too soon, either. There was a crack of metal, a crunch from the roof, and the hiss of water spitting from the destroyed fire sprinklers.
I was a bit unsteady on my legs because I’d been laying down too long, but Vitae was on her feet and running out of the door. I followed her as quickly as I could, more water spraying wildly from the busted sprinklers. I clung to the walls and shuffled my feet so I wouldn’t trip.
It wasn’t long until I started hearing the screams.
My heart stuttered at the sound of them, convinced that there was some kind of attack and we were caught in the middle of it again. But as I entered the main cell block, I realized the screams weren’t cries of pain or fear.
They were screams of anger.
“I said get away from me!”
I turned around the corner and watched Piper shove her hands against Zephys’s chest. He held out his palms, showing that he was unarmed, though I spotted coiled tension in his hazel-blue eyes.
“You must relax–” he called through the rain.
“Relax? Did you just tell me to relax? How am I supposed to relax when I can do this?”
Piper lifted one of her hands toward the sprinklers. Water pooled and collected into a swirling ball in her hand, a sphere of water that looked more like cracked glass. She shouted wordlessly and dropped her wrist. The ball of water crashed into the floor and splashed Zephys. He pushed his hands down, keeping the water from spraying him in the face.
“Normal people aren’t supposed to do that kind of thing!”
Zephys was trying to do his job, act as Piper’s Guardian and tell her the truth, but he knew not
hing about my best friend. She was strong, but she wasn’t like Vitae. She listened to gentle truths better than harsh ones.
Which is why Zephys said the worst possible thing he could say when he responded with, “You are not normal any longer.”
Damn damn damn!
I scurried into the prison block as horror swam across Piper’s drenched face. She screamed again and charged Zephys. She needed something tangible that she could rail against, and he wasn’t going to hurt her.
The moment she touched him, her eyes started to glow.
Oh no.
I ran faster than ever, my heels threatening to give way under me. Piper’s eyes were wide and wild as she grabbed Zephys’s forearms and lunged in like she was going for the world’s boldest kiss.
That was when Hadrian appeared, slipping up from the sidelines and standing in front of me like a brick wall. I hadn’t even known he was there. His hands found my shoulders and held me in place. He made it more than clear that I wasn’t getting past him without a fight.
“You must stay back, Ava,” he said, void of all the emotion I’d seen from him earlier. He was almost robotic now. “It is not safe.”
I glared and balled my fists. I was really not in the mood for this, or him. “I must not do a damn thing you say,” I mocked. “Move.”
Hadrian stood in place.
“Move or I’ll make you move. I think we both know I can do it now.”
Empowering blue eyes burned dual holes in me as I waited for him to call my bluff. Angry as I was for how he’d yelled at me, for calling me a damn monster, I wouldn’t hurt Hadrian. I didn’t know what we were to each other, but I wanted to move past our spat. If only to believe that I wasn’t exactly what he thought I was.
Water soaked his hair and snaked down his face. He was as striking as ever, but I was becoming better at resisting him. I gripped his wrists and pulled his hands from my shoulders, then hurried around him. Zephys was keeping Piper away from him, but she wasn’t giving up. She attacked him wildly, hunger in her glowing eyes. Water hammered down in thick drops from the broken pipes. We were all soaked.