Storm Born

by Amy Braun

  “Stop.”

  This time I did whisper to spare whatever remained of my voice. It was still enough.

  Hadrian’s eyes traced over mine, and I watched the realization dawn on his face. He knew I’d heard basically everything. His guilt for pushing me into combat that I couldn’t handle, the self-loathing he’d turned on his oldest friends and allies. Like so many times before, he knew he couldn’t take his words or actions back. Now he had to pay the price for them.

  That price was seeing the disappointment in my eyes. His assumption that he’d failed me.

  Hadrian’s arms dropped to his side, his head lowering soon after. He didn’t say another word. I didn’t need to touch the tether to know how deep the humiliation and remorse ran into him then. It was a rock heaped onto his back, crushing down on his shoulders and breaking his control. When he turned and walked out of the infirmary, no one followed him.

  I sighed and fell back against the pillows. I clapped one hand onto my forehead and wondered if I could ever go back to being a regular waitress whose only major concern would be what I would do with my weekend.

  The odds weren’t looking great.

  “How are you feeling, Ava?” Vitae asked, sounding genuinely concerned about my welfare.

  Maybe I was being cruel in thinking that wasn’t the case. I mean, yes, her first interest was stopping the Mistrals and protecting humans from the Stormkind, but she didn’t have any open hostility toward me. I wasn’t sure that we were friends, but I hoped we were more than allies.

  “I kind of wish I’d woken up under better circumstances, but I feel okay.”

  “Yes. I am sorry you had to witness that. Hadrian has been in quite an agitated state since you fell unconscious on the beach.”

  I shrugged, trying to act casual. “Don’t apologize. I saved you from being punched in the face.”

  Vitae’s smile was so weak, she shouldn’t have bothered at all. “You should be proud, Ava. You’ve done what no other Stormkind has ever done. You’ve driven Hadrian into madness.” Under different circumstances, I might have awkwardly laughed at her weak, terrible joke. I probably would have genuinely laughed if Hadrian had been in the room to glare daggers at his friend.

  But the mark had hit too close to the target, and Hadrian was nowhere to be seen. He was probably hidden so we wouldn’t be able to find him until he wanted to be found. Zephys sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face, appearing just as rueful as Hadrian had before he took off. He wasn’t alone in that dejected little rodeo.

  After all, it was hard to stay upbeat with the elephant in the room.

  I looked at my hands as they knotted in the blanket. Then I took a breath, and asked the question I didn’t really want an answer to.

  “Am I really dying?”

  The shuddering whisper in my voice was embarrassing, a pathetic hoarse sound that I would probably make when I really did die.

  Each breath was jagged in my throat. Piper clutched my hand tightly to secure me to reality.

  “Hadrian brought it to our attention,” Vitae admitted quietly. “Guardians can feel when their charges weaken or pass on. Because you are human, he did not realize what it was at first. Now that he has, he made sure to tell us.” She paused, then added. “I am sure you can see how greatly it has upset him.”

  Talk about an understatement.

  “And you still want me to go with you on these missions? You want me to be bait to track down the Mistrals?”

  Vitae exhaled sadly. Her shoulders drooped. “Please believe me when I say it is not a fate I wish for you, Ava. Risking the lives of our charges is never something we do lightly. Already, I fear Hadrian is considering mutiny. The only way to find out Mortis’s goal is for him to have the key to it. That key unfortunately, is you.”

  My heart pounded as that sank in. Piper couldn’t absorb any other gifts. Declan hadn’t taken mine. Austin was dead. I didn’t know if there were any other false Stormkind like me, but if the warnings that Ferno and Mortis left me were anything to go by, I was betting the answer was no.

  “You are a conduit, Ava,” continued Vitae. “You have taken almost every kind of Stormkind gift available.”

  “Except for Turve’s,” I muttered.

  Vitae nodded solemnly. The ache built in my chest. I closed my eyes.

  “What do you want me to do, Vitae?”

  She answered honestly. “The same thing we originally planned. I want to use you against Mortis. I want you to become our weapon rather than his.”

  I opened my eyes and looked at her. “I’m one superpower short. We don’t know where Turve is.”

  “We do,” Zephys said. He didn’t sound or look any more pleased than Vitae did. “Tornadoes have been forming in Sanford. Your government has evacuated as many human survivors as possible from the area, but I fear it will not hold them back for long. Turve enjoys destruction.”

  I looked at my hands again. My knuckles were as white as Hadrian’s had been when he was arguing with Vitae.

  “It’s going to be a trap,” I stated.

  “More than likely.” Vitae didn’t mince words.

  I nearly choked on my next words. “How will you get me out of it?”

  “By any means necessary,” Vitae announced at the same time Piper burst with, “What? Ava, you can’t consider this.”

  I dragged my eyes to my friend. “Mortis won’t stop coming for me. He’ll use his cronies to attack innocent people until the Precips have to go hunting for him. If they’re killed, I won’t have any Guardians to keep him from taking me.” My breath shook in my throat. Tears burned my eyes. “My family is still out there, Piper. If I don’t help stop the Mistrals, I won’t even have time to check the Missing Boards.”

  The tears spilled free. Piper scooted closer and wrapped her arms around me. I was so used to her being the strong one. I didn’t know when things had changed.

  “You can’t do this, Ava,” she begged. “It could kill you. This isn’t worth your life. It’s not.”

  Except it was.

  Don’t get me wrong– the last thing I wanted to do was die, but dying to save thousands of already shattered lives would be a pretty noble way to go.

  Right?

  I didn’t want to know the answer.

  I pulled back from Piper and wiped my eyes with my palm. Keeping my best friend’s hand in mine, I looked at Vitae. The Precips leader had her chin held high, but her cool blue eyes were tortured. She looked like a woman desperate for another option, but knowing there was no time for one.

  “How–” I lost my voice, and struggled to find it again. “How certain are you that I’ll... die if I take Turve’s power?”

  Vitae spoke quietly. “It is not the collection of powers that worries me. I worry about what will happen when you are forced to use all those powers simultaneously.”

  My stomach pinched. “I... I don’t think I can.”

  “I know that. We all do. Mortis likely does as well. The difference is that he will not care.”

  I wrapped my hands around my stomach. My head was feathery and all but out of my body. I couldn’t help but play through the scenarios that could lead to my death.

  Would I be frozen from the inside out? Would I drown in a flood I created? Disintegrate to ash? Blow myself to pieces?

  Or... Would Mortis see me as a failed experiment? Would he choose to kill me if I didn’t form to his design?

  Or would Hadrian be forced to put a tempest-blade through my heart when I became too wild to control?

  Thoughts of knives and blistering pain consumed my thoughts. The flash of a crystal blade stabbing into my chest with a vicious punch, ripping a scream from my throat and pouring violent energy into me–

  I looked at Vitae. “Could a tempest-blade reverse it?”

  She hesitated before giving her answer. “I fear I do not understand.”

  “You said that Mortis used a special blade on me. When I was stabbed, all that energy went into me. If that blade
was used on me again, would it take the powers away?”

  She rolled the thought through her brain. “It is possible. But there is no way to be certain. It could simply be a dead blade.”

  “When Hadrian cut me,” I pointed to the faded red line on my forehead, which was now a mere scratch that didn't even sting, “I felt myself come back. It could work the opposite way if it touched me, couldn’t it?”

  I was grasping at straws. It was obvious in my voice and probably in my eyes. But I wanted to get rid of whatever magic or spells had been put inside me. I hated the things it made me do, the things I wanted to do when I lost control. I had to believe I could back to the normality I’d taken for granted, even if I knew it was a lie.

  That was the only way I would be able to keep going without screaming.

  “Perhaps,” Vitae said, though I knew she was merely humoring me. “If it is indeed possible, Mortis will still have the crystal blade with him, and he will not part with it. We must take it from him.”

  “I recommend removing his hand,” Zephys offered with a teasing grin. “It will be the most efficient method.”

  I grinned sourly. Hadrian would jump at the chance to chop a limb off Mortis.

  Oh, crap. Hadrian. I had to talk to him about this. Find a way for him to agree to it. Pulling teeth with a pair of dull pliers would be easier.

  Sighing with no small amount of dread, I pushed the blanket off my chest and sat up. Moving was a little dizzying at first, but once I started the motion, I felt much stronger. Piper kept her grip on my hand as I moved.

  “I’ll go talk to him,” I mumbled.

  Piper squeezed my palm and gripped my shoulder, trying to push me back onto the bed.

  “You need to stay here and rest,” she insisted. “You can’t push yourself.”

  I gripped her wrist and drew it away from my shoulder. “I feel better when I move. I’m okay.”

  I scooted up the bed and dumped myself off. I used the edge of the bed to steady myself, but my legs were able to support me. I was dressed in fresh, clean clothes again– another one of Vitae’s tactical black outfits– just as everyone else. I knew would have to get some food before the next mission for energy to recover and to keep moving forward, yet I didn’t feel hungry. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was because I was dreading the conversation I was about to have.

  Vitae looked at me as I walked past. She nodded and stepped aside. Zephys whispered, “Good luck,” to me as I walked out of the room.

  Luck. Yeah. Because that had served me so well in the past.

  ***

  If I were a brooding warrior that just had a temper tantrum in front of my commander and best friend, where would I be? What would I be doing?

  I’d be finding something to punch away the rest of the rage.

  There weren’t many places in the prison where Hadrian could train. My first instinct was to go outside. That was really the only place he could go for relative quiet. Where he could slip away if he decided not to be on the compound at all.

  Hadrian, you better be here. I am not in the mood to track you all over Florida.

  Silence met me. I wondered what the range on this weird mental connection was as I walked to the shattered hallway that would lead to the prison yard, of if he was just ignoring me.

  I reached the collapsed hallway that led to the yard, carefully stepping over broken slabs of wall and other detritus the Precips hadn’t bothered to move. Cool night wind slid through my hair and gathered around my head. Once I stood on solid ground outdoors again, I looked up and scanned the yard for Hadrian.

  He wasn’t there.

  “Hadrian?”

  I called his name again and again, sometimes with my voice, sometimes with the tether. Each call was louder and more panicked than the last.

  I raced for the crumbled fence and crawled over it, scanning the streets for any sign of my Guardian.

  “Hadrian!”

  I yelled again, even though I knew the truth was staring me in the face.

  Hadrian was gone.

  Chapter 15

  There was one consolation to Hadrian’s disappearance:

  We knew exactly where to find him.

  I was forced to travel with Vitae, and the journey was far less comfortable than it had been with my Guardian. Vitae had a harsher grip and was much less concerned with my comfort than Hadrian was. Probably because she was furious with him.

  That, at least, I understood.

  Vitae let go of me as soon as we touched ground. I nearly pitched into the middle of the road, but managed to find my footing. Someone bumped into me from behind and threw me off balance again. I spun around to glare at the person who hit me, but then I finally registered the screaming.

  We were standing on the middle of a highway. I couldn’t tell which one because all the signs and markers had been ripped from the ground and flipped on their backs. Uprooted trees lay haphazardly on the cracked road, broken branches, shattered limbs, and lost leaves pressed onto the tops of smashed and overturned cars. Terrified survivors barreled through the ruins, tripping over the debris and each other as they stampeded toward safety.

  I turned around, and saw their desperate escape was totally justified.

  Two tornadoes swayed along the ground across from us, tearing up the ground near another highway road. The funnels twisted out of the hazy grey sky like pythons, kicking up dirt and fractured trees, dragging them into a tumultuous dance.

  The twisters moved close together, but had different targets. One skidded a path across the road across from us, while the second moved further north, heading toward a crumbling housing development. I had to squint, but I could see the metal skeletons of new structures being erected. Fresh homes for new lives. The first trace of hope that some of them had seen in over a month, and it was about to be torn to pieces by rogue tornadoes.

  My eyes lowered from the thin funnels and started searching for Hadrian. I crouched beside a dented sedan to stay clear of the crowd, which continued to squeeze through the crevices of trees and vehicles blocking them from safety. Even then, I was still shoved away from the Precips. I had lost sight of Vitae, and had no idea where Piper or Zephys were. Not that I was too concerned about them getting hurt right now. Zephys would never let anything happen to Piper, and Vitae was more than capable of taking care of herself.

  I didn’t really think they would ditch me, but it would be hard to find each other with the screaming masses surrounding us. They were too scared of the ravenous tornadoes shredding the ground a few yards behind them, they didn’t seem to notice or care that four people had just appeared out of thin air in front of them. Panic always gave way to survival instinct, and they would think about anything strange they saw when they believed they were safe again.

  I grunted as a shrieking woman knocked into my shoulder. True, I was feeling better than I had when we left, but I wasn’t exactly in tip-top shape. I rolled my shoulder and stood on the tips of my toes. I was too short to see over anyone’s heads. I needed to get higher.

  Turning around the side of the car, I jogged to the hood. Carefully gripping the torn, scrunched metal of the sedan’s hood, I crawled onto its surface and scrambled for the roof. Now that I could see over everyone’s heads, I saw the situation was way worse than I originally thought.

  The tornado lingering on the road wasn’t just blocking the road. It was growing. The base spread like a gaping mouth, widening around the middle like a snake devouring an animal twice its size. The clouds darkened from grey to black, suffocating all traces of blue from the sky.

  And it was moving closer to our highway. It was an attack being set against the innocent people running for their lives.

  For a single, dreadful second, I worried that a Stormkind was controlling both the thin tornado making its way to the developing houses, and the thick twister churning toward the scattering survivors. All these life forces would have been a feast for them.

  But as I digested that stomach-
churning thought, I knew they weren’t here. I would have seen their bright, liquid form. If I hadn’t, I would have noticed the bright flashes of light as they guzzled fresh human life. Yet I didn’t see either.

  And I still couldn’t find Hadrian.

  Fear was contagious, rising up from the road beneath me.

  “Keep running! Don’t stop!”

  “David! David, where are you?”

  “Help me, please, someone help!”

  I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to breathe. I balled my fists to stop them from shaking. I reached for the tether, feeling its smooth, cool strength caress my heart.

  Hadrian, please, show me where you are. You can’t fight them alone.

  There was no reply. I pinched my eyes shut and gripped the tether as hard as I could.

  I’m here. Show me where you are–

  The tether shuddered violently. I gasped and snapped my eyes open. Ahead of me, in front of the thick tornado, there was a flash. It was so small that it could have been mistaken for the glimmer of the sun on a car mirror, but the longer I looked, the more flashes I saw.

  Two men fighting with two swords between them, mindless of the huge tornado converging on them.

  Hadrian.

  “Vitae!” I screamed. “Vitae, I found him!”

  I didn’t know how close she was until she climbed onto the hood of the car and nudged me to the side.

  “Primes,” she cursed. Fury and fear mingled in her crystal blue eyes. “The fool is going to get himself killed, unless you talk him out of it.” She glanced at me. “You must be ready to fight.”

  If she’d said that to me a month ago, I would have choked. Me? Fight? Sure. As soon as I had a helmet and suit of indestructible armor and a jetpack that would carry me to safety when I panicked and needed to run.

  But I wasn’t the same girl I’d been a month ago. Not one person could say the Centennial hadn’t changed them, but not many could say they’d been changed the way I had been.

  I was still terrified of what I was about to face, but my friend was out there. A man who’d saved my life and was making me fall for him. I wouldn’t abandon him again.