by Amy Marie
“I can get around fine, I’m just a little bruised,” Rafe says with a grimace.
We move outside the aircraft and meet the others in the hangar.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“The water line is being tampered with. Maybe from the pipes,” says Dylan.
“Is there anything you can do?” I ask.
“I can only manipulate the water we have, I can’t create it. If our line is cut off, there’s no flow which means no more safeguard,” he says.
My eyes go wide in fear.
“If the destructor knows we’re here, we should move,” says Joe.
“Where to?” I ask.
“We need to get back to Cambridge. Our sanctuary there has kept us safe,” Uncle Mike says. He points to the SUV. “But driving won’t do. It’s too dangerous.”
“If we can get to one of the other hangars, I can get a plane and fly us out of here,” Joe says.
“In this weather?” asks Darcy.
“Having the wind on our side might help,” Joe says, raising his brows.
We don’t even know what Joe’s elemental powers consist of. I wonder if he can manipulate the air the same way Dylan can with water. What other powers have to do with air?
Rain patters the roof and a violent wind shakes the door of the hangar. The lights flicker out and we huddle around the low flame of the grill. The sound of the water flow stops and we know we have to move. Our charm is broken.
I grab Darcy’s hand. “Keep a close eye on my sister, Rafe, and Uncle Mike.” Next I turn to Dylan. “Stay by me. The rest of you keep close, but behind.”
“What about me?” asks Joe.
I look to Dylan and he answers. “If anything happens, concentrate on your power. Use the air. Your hands will begin to glow, but you’ll feel it like a force coming out of you,” Dylan says to him.
“Which way to the hangars?” Darcy asks.
“We’ll need to go through the museum. It’s late, so it’ll be closed, but my badge will get us in. From there, we can access the back hangars for one of the planes that can carry us all,” Joe explains.
“Alright, let’s go,” Darcy says, and we step out into the dangers of the night.
Chapter 21
We file into the museum through a secure entrance thanks to Joe’s ID badge. The museum hangars are dark and vast, and the eerie night lighting casts deep shadows throughout the space.
As we creep along different displays, my eyes play tricks on me, just missing movement beyond the shadows.
The echo of our movement through the large open space is drowned in the noise of the storm brewing outside.
“Where are the guards?” Char whispers.
“Security is minimal inside. My badge got us in, so no one is on alert,” answers Joe.
Still, we all move along cautiously, afraid of what might be produced from the darkness.
Passing along the nose of a large four-engine propeller bomber, I see my reflection in the glass windows on the front. I jump out of my skin at the image of a body just feet behind me, but turn in relief to find a display mannequin’s empty stare.
“Why all the mannequins?” I ask. The likeness of their empty stare gives me the chills. I’m reminded of Talbot’s eyes.
“Part of the time period displays. We’re in the World War II gallery,” Joe says.
“This place is giving me the creeps,” Dylan voices my shared sentiments.
“Shhh,” Darcy puts an end to our nervous whispering.
Overhead, a bi-wing plane swings slightly by the cables supporting it.
Is there a breeze in here?
I lock eyes with Joe. It’s obvious the plane shouldn’t be moving. We need cover.
We move to duck under the encompassing wings of a cargo plane. Darcy and Joe are giving each other hand signals trying to decide where to go from here.
A hollow mannequin soldier points toward the far wall from his display. Joe is gesturing we follow that suggested path.
Darcy seems to think we should avoid the lighted paths, preferring the mask of darkness. But he concedes to follow Joe’s guidance.
We pass between twin engines and camouflage bombers, aircraft after aircraft. Shadows dance beyond my vision. Off to our left, the large blade of a propeller begins to turn slow and silent.
Char gives off a small noise in fear.
We press on through the maze, coming up short in front of a couple of mannequins blocking our path. My eyes scan their empty faces. They’re dressed in military uniform, and pilot gear with goggles and backpack parachutes.
We slip through the decoy blockade.
My step falters as I come face to face with the empty stare of a blond man with a scar on his face too intricate to be man-made from plastic.
Talbot!
His silent stare is unsettling. I’m caught up in a type of fear that ticks away an eternity before I realize only a second has passed.
Darcy is the first to put himself between me and the destructor. Uncle Mike, Char, Tara, and Rafe fall back while Dylan and Joe flank our sides.
The storm outside picks up and pelts the hangar roof and walls in response to the tension.
“You have come far enough this time,” Talbot’s echo of a voice stabs fear into me.
Darcy speaks up, “Your face is healing nicely.”
With his sarcastic and dangerous words as a distraction, Darcy slips a lighter and pepper spray into my hand.
Talbot’s answering smirk is uncharacteristic of his usually emotionless features.
“You have found yourselves some elements. One big happy family. How are your families, by the way?” Talbot’s head tilts.
This antagonizing is out of character.
He’s toying with us.
My eyes search back to the others hiding behind us.
“Something’s not right,” I mumble under my breath.
I wave them closer to us, and the four of us form a protective circle around the guardians and Char and Tara.
Talbot realizes his game is up, and pulls his cloak over his head, disappearing into the darkness.
Moments later, one of the display planes towering above us snaps free of its supporting cables. The eight of us split, diving out of the way.
Dylan, Tara, and Char are with me, while Joe, Uncle Mike, and Rafe are with Darcy on the other side of the wreckage.
Looking up, I see the hooded figure jump to another hanging plane and disappear into the shadows.
“How did he move like that?” I ask, not realizing I spoke out loud.
Nearby, another snap, and another small plane crashes down, causing Darcy’s group to be separated further from us.
“Move now!” Dylan yells, and we run further into the maze of planes, away from our companions.
More crashing behind us. We just avoided being crushed by a display wall. A few displays away, the engine of one of the small tail-draggers roars to life.
I see Darcy shield Rafe and Uncle Mike from the blades while Joe’s hands glow with a vortex of air to push the plane away in the opposite direction.
“Look out!” Char screams as more displays topple over in our direction.
The destructor is moving around at impossible speeds.
He’s using the darkness.
I have light.
Placing myself in front of my friends, my hands begin to glow as I cast an illuminating light throughout the hangar.
I raise one hand in the direction of the moving plane that Joe’s using the air to keep at bay. A beam of light shoots from my palm and completely destroys the propeller and engine.
Everyone looks to me in wonder, as I stare at my palm in shock.
A glow of light has poured over the darkness and Darcy points to our left just in time for us to see Talbot stepping from behind the blade of a giant propeller.
I steel myself, hands glowing, ready to fight him off.
His eyes move to my hands, and I see the first sign of emotion from the d
estructor.
But it’s not fear.
He smiles at my glowing hands and it causes me to falter. Everything is drowned in my fear.
This is what he wanted.
My hands lose their glow and the driving force of my power disappears, burying itself deep within me.
“Nora, no!” Darcy yells as the hangar gets dark again.
“Nora, you have to fight!” Dylan’s voice is near me in the dark. “I need your help. There’s no water in here!”
“Yes, use your power. Let it take over!” the destructor yells, his voice maniacal.
I’m frozen in fear.
Char rushes to my side to shake me out of my trance.
Talbot steps close and grabs Char by the neck, lifting her off her feet.
He’s choking her right in front of me, and I still can’t move. The others are yelling in the background and I sit, helpless.
A bolt of electricity shoots down from one of the bulbs overhead, striking Talbot’s arm and forcing him to let go of my sister. My eyes move over to see Joe’s glowing hands, and an image of Zeus with his lightning bolts of power overruns my mind as a few more shocks are sent Talbot’s way.
Jumping to action, I move to my sister and usher her away to hide behind the maze of planes.
“Dylan’s guarding Tara. I didn’t see where the others went,” Char says, crouching and looking around.
“I think Joe and Darcy are taking care of Rafe and Uncle Mike,” I say, peeking over the nose of a propeller.
“Nora, you need to stun him with your power so we can get to the back hangars,” Char says, grabbing me by the shoulders.
“I can’t. The power… it’s too much. I’m not sure I can control it–”
“Darcy!” I hear the fear in Uncle Mike’s voice, and we jump to follow the sound.
We round the corner and run into Dylan and Tara. The four of us move to the sound of Uncle Mike’s voice to find them.
Darcy and Talbot are in a showdown. Rafe is being supported by Uncle Mike behind them. Joe’s been knocked to the ground and is slow to get up.
Talbot attempts to circle Darcy to get closer to us, but Darcy cuts him off.
“Not using your power, dark one?” Talbot taunts.
“I do not need it,” is Darcy’s reply.
“Or perhaps you do not want them to see it?” Talbot gestures to the rest of us. “Perhaps you are afraid of what they might think of you and your power of darkness.”
What does that mean?
“Are you afraid of what you might become?” Talbot tilts his head, mocking Darcy.
Darcy screams in anger and charges into the destructor and they both fly into a group of mannequins. Their bodies meet in pounding force as they level each other with blows so powerful, they would knock any normal person unconscious.
I get the lighter and pepper spray element weapons ready in my hands, waiting for the right moment.
Circling to the side of the fight, I wait for an opening.
When Darcy throws Talbot up against the body of one of the planes denting the frame, I seize the moment and step out, lifting my weapons.
“Nora!” Char’s scream of warning is too late.
As I raise my hands to use the element weapon, a cloaked figure jumps down from the top of one of the nearby aircraft and knocks me down. I scramble for my lighter and pepper spray, but as I move my arm, two gloved hands stop me.
The hood of the cloak shakes back and forth at me.
I’m filled with new fear. I look from the figure I’m locking arms with, to the figure that Darcy is battling nearby, and back and forth again.
Two destructors?
Then my mind plays back the images from the farm yesterday. The destructor was out in the middle of the day. This must be why.
But how?
In the moment of hesitation, my arm is twisted behind me in pain, and I feel a tear in my shoulder. In some out of body experience, I can hear the sound of a blade being removed from a sheath, and I know a gold dagger is about to find its way into me.
In a paused moment in time, I turn my head to see Darcy being held by Talbot, forced to watch what is about to happen.
I search for the others, and I find them all frozen in shock at the revelation of a second destructor.
My eyes meet Char’s.
My sister.
I can’t protect her anymore. I’ve failed her.
Expecting to feel the stab of the blade, I reach down into myself and make one last attempt at finding my power again, if only to save what is left of the people I love – my family.
Just as I am about to reach the spark to ignite my power, the ground begins to shake beneath us. Somehow, the earth is moving.
Am I doing this?
I open my eyes and realize there’s no light coming from me. This isn’t my power.
The unexpected earthquake has caused the destructor behind me to hesitate. It’s enough for me to fight back. I duck underneath the hold I’m in, ignoring the pain in my arm. The stab of the dagger misses me by inches.
With unsteady feet, we begin to wrestle and it takes all my might to keep the cloaked figure from sinking the dagger into me.
The sounds of struggle nearby tell me that Darcy is back to battling his destructor as well.
The force of the quake is getting stronger and stronger, and any airplanes that were left hanging on display fall to the ground. Display walls topple over and cracks begin to form in the ground.
The large hangar is creaking as the foundation is being pushed to it’s limits. It’s as if we’re at the epicenter of destruction. The beams of the ceiling tear apart and open a gaping hole to invite the storm inside.
As the tremors of the earth continue, gale forces enter the hangar through the opening. Ice pellets, sting the air around me and I push away from the destructor to duck down to avoid the storm of chaos forming around us.
I army crawl towards Darcy as Talbot and the other destructor are sucked up into a whirlwind and thrown into the wing of a nearby bomber.
Darcy kneels to me and gathers me into his arms.
We both turn to check on our friends in the violent nature storm.
As our eyes lock on the elementals, both of our jaws drop at the sight.
The glowing hands of the elements are intertwined, combining their powers. The water and air creating the storm are being controlled by Joe and Dylan. But we weren’t expecting to see Tara in between them, joining her own glowing hands with theirs. Causing the earth to tremble.
My mind reels in a rush of images to connect the dots. The greenhouse on their farm, the green thumb when planting the sunflower seeds. She was a botanist, and I didn’t realize it, but of course her name, Tara. Which if spelled differently can mean only one thing.
Terra – Earth.
We’ve found the earth elemental.
Chapter 22
Darcy and I stand in a vortex of a storm that only the destructors seem to be affected by. Outside the wall of elemental power, Char, Rafe, and Uncle Mike stare in awe at the elements’ combined abilities, and the revelation of Tara’s power.
The two of us are holding each other, untouched by the power. Flashes of light swirl around us from the glowing hands of our elementals.
The two destructors are struggling against the force, but not incapacitated.
We need one more element.
“We have to move,” Darcy shouts to me over the chaos.
I nod back at him, knowing my voice will be lost in the storm.
We make our way outside the vortex while the elementals strain to hold their powers steady.
Darcy yells to them, “On three, let go of your power and run for the back hangar. Joe, can you get us out of here fast?”
Joe nods without breaking concentration.
“One.”
Char supports Rafe on his feet with one arm and with Uncle Mike’s help, they start to move toward the back hangar.
“Two.”
Darcy
squeezes my hand and moves to help the others.
“Three!”
The glow of light stops and the hangar is cloaked in darkness. The night lighting has been knocked out. I lock hands with one of the three elements and we move in a chain of linked hands to the back hangars.
The sound of our movement is the only evidence of our escape. My eyes refuse to adjust to the night.
With all the confusion, Darcy leads the way in the darkness he can control.
We run and stumble through two more hangars before reaching our destination.
“Here!” Joe calls and we all climb into a caravan of an aircraft in an updated section of the museum.
All of us are on edge wondering how long it will take the destructors to catch up to us. Some of their own powers are still a mystery, after all.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder when the last time this aircraft was flown and if it’s still airworthy, being on display in a museum. As Joe starts up the twin propellers, emergency lights turn on and the alarm sounds. It seems the storm of power didn’t go unnoticed by the base.
Teams of soldiers filter in through the doors, blocking any escape.
“We need to get out of here. This can turn into an army for the destructors,” Uncle Mike says.
“Or a grave for the soldiers,” Rafe interjects. And in seconds, his ominous words summon our deepest fears.
The two cloaked figures close in from opposite sides of the hangar. They make their way through the bodies of soldiers like nothing, destroying everything in their path.
One of the destructors wields a gold dagger, slicing through limbs and throats of the trained military as if they were rag dolls. The other moves along snapping necks and fighting in hand to hand combat, skills unmatched even by the military. Any bullets from the military rifles seem to pass right through the two cloaked bodies like they’re ricocheting around an empty room. There’s nothing inside for them to kill. The soldiers are doomed.
“We have to help them!” I scream.
“We must escape,” Darcy’s voice is the final authority.
“The door,” Tara hisses. We forgot to open the hangar door.
In haste, I reach from behind the pilot’s seat and latch my hand onto Joe’s shoulder. I say into his ear. “Keep the men away from the door.”