Simi stepped back, her face softening with hope. A smile trembled at the corners of her mouth. “I believe you. If any one could save my boy, you will.”
Erynn sidestepped around the woman who had given Jaer life and walked through the kitchen. She continued quietly into the great room, her focus on the narrow hallway and the room at the far right. Erynn took a deep breath and held it, realizing at the same moment stealth wasn’t necessary. In the instant it would take her to round the corner into the hall, her presence would no longer be covert. “No use being sneaky now,” she mumbled.
Her manner brash and confident, she strode toward Jaer’s room. A man sat in a chair by the door, his attention on a handheld computer. He jerked, alerted when Erynn approached. He started to rise from his seat, simultaneously pulling his staser free from the holster. “You can’t—”
Purple currents swirled and snapped from Erynn’s fingertips. Static popped through her hair, raising wisps of red curls to dance around her face.
The staser glowed white-hot and the guard cried out in pain, flinging the scorching weapon to clatter across the floor.
Erynn swept her hand back and the staser flew from the hall into the great room. This wasn’t like causing glass to rattle and fly from shelves as she had as a child, it was way better. She sensed Pyrn, Jess, and the two other Anbas behind her, watching. Their fervent and indomitable morale bolstered her.
The guard stared at Erynn, his eyes wide, fingers squeezing the wrist above his flaming-pink palm.
Erynn brought her hand forward and the purple currents found their target.
The guard’s body lifted. Arms flailing, he arced into the air. A frightened whimper issued from his throat.
Erynn stepped back and turned. She meant to sweep him away from the door and into the great room where Pyrn and Jess would deal with him.
Instead, he slammed down with a loud crash, before sliding along the floor, unconscious.
Pyrn rushed forward catching the guard.
Erynn grimaced. “Oops. Didn’t mean to be so forceful.”
Pyrn smiled. “He’s fine. And you’re doing fantastic. Don’t doubt yourself, Erynn.” Pyrn dragged the guard back and secured him with leather straps.
The door glided open behind her and footsteps hit the floor in a rapid beat.
Erynn spun toward the sound. Static built, arcing and snapping in a wide radius around her.
The young guard she’d seen through the window rushed forward, staser aimed, skidding to a stop when he saw the condition of his colleague and the Anbas just meters away. He hesitated, his moment gone.
Electricity flashed from Erynn’s hands, lighting his chest. Brilliant purple tendrils crackled and buzzed, audible beneath his high-pitched screams.
He skidded backward across the polished wooden floor, arms and legs trailing his body. He rolled into a heap in the center of Jaer’s room. He quickly turned his face to Erynn. Fearful eyes focused on her and he scrambled awkwardly back to press against the wall.
Pyrn and Jess, weapons drawn, followed Erynn into the room.
Aven pulled his staser and strode toward the two remaining guards, motioning them to the corner. “I think you’ve made it with no time to spare, Erynn.” He nodded to a man across the bed. “Rias, go stay with mom.”
Rias hurried away, glancing warily at Erynn.
Tam and Cale rushed in to stand just inside the door.
Where had they come from?
Erynn’s lips twitched in an attempt to smile. She abandoned the effort and stumbled to Jaer, her heart racing. The room spun and her vision blurred. Erynn slumped, her shoulders hunched. She touched Jaer’s pale, cold face. Any warmth that once radiated from him had burned out. His slack features presented a caricature of his former self. No twitch of muscle, no flutter of eyelid, no whisper of breath issued from his lips. Erynn gasped, forcing air into her lungs. “Jaer.” His name exhaled in a long wretched sob. “No. You can’t be gone.” She laid her hand over his heart. His chest rose with a nearly imperceptible rise and fall. His heart beat, but slow—too slow.
Erynn closed her eyes and the memory of the first time she touched Jaer flooded her. He appeared in her mind as he had then—powerful, commanding, yet surprisingly gentle and kind. She gazed into dark, enigmatic eyes—lost in their fathomless depth. Eyes that were too inviting, too hopeful. She breathed in his spicy scent and fought the urge to melt in his warmth. Erynn felt again the same heat rise and flush her face.
“Calm down. Slow your breathing.” his voice was controlled and precise, not deep like she expected. His tone was an exotic melody, touching her more intimately than she could have ever anticipated. He’d laid her palm over his heart, and her hand had risen and fallen under his. “Like this.”
Snapping blue static raced from her center, down her arm, into her hand, and across a vanishing barrier to caress Jaer’s fingers. His low chuckle sent a charge of energy through her. “Hmmm. That is stimulating.”
She’d known at that moment she loved him.
Erynn smiled.
Tam sniffed. “Erynn?”
Erynn straightened. “It’s okay, Tam.”
An angry female voice shrieked down the hall. “What? Who are these people? You can’t be here.” Rapid footsteps pounded the floor, heralding Shan’s arrival. She burst into the room, eyes narrowed, her arms crossed defiantly.
Erynn turned, positioning herself between Shan and Jaer.
“I should have known.” Shan glared at Erynn. “The little half-blood freak. I told Jaer he’d never have you. And I won. Here’s what’s left of him.” She sneered and gestured, nodding toward Jaer’s still, quiet form.
Nev appeared in the open doorway, reaching into his pocket for the antidote he had “borrowed” from the Medical Unit during Kira’s rescue. He slipped next to the bed, studying Jaer.
Pyrn and Jess disarmed and transferred the three remaining guards to the two Anbas who had entered the room. They all stood watching, waiting for what would happen next.
Erynn’s body tensed and she stared at Shan through a red haze. “It’s time for you to go. Now.” Erynn wondered if the words delivered in that scathing tone had really come from her.
Yes. They did. I am the storm. The Storm of Arranon.
Shan raised her head, her chin jutted in Erynn’s direction. “I’m not going anywhere. But you are.” She glared at the remaining guards and snarled, “Get her out of here. Do your jobs.” She pointed at Nev, her eyes narrowed and teeth bared. “Arrest him. He’s come to finish my Jaer.”
The guards tipped their heads, eyebrows coming together, and raised their hands. They were unarmed and in custody of the Anbas—unable to force anyone to do anything.
Erynn turned her attention back to Shan. “Your Jaer? Wrong. Jaer isn’t a possession. He’s certainly not yours. You never deserved him.” Currents gathered, snapped, and popped, going from blue to a very visible purple. Erynn fought the urge to increase the current to a deadly white.
Even through the heavy curtains, a bolt of lightning blazed bright in the gloomy room. The resounding crash of thunder that followed shook the walls.
Shan’s face contorted in an ugly grimace. Hatred flamed in her dark eyes. She screeched and lunged, grabbing for Erynn.
A cold shrewd smile tipped Erynn’s lips. She stood still and allowed Shan to seize her, knowing what would happen.
Wind collided against the house with a mournful howl and rattled windows nearly to their breaking point.
Shan screamed in pain. She jerked her hands away, her face twisted in disbelief, staring at blistered fingers. She stumbled back against the wall, gasping and glaring maniacally at Erynn.
Erynn sidestepped to the center of the room, well away from Jaer’s bed. She was ready, wanting this confrontation, but didn’t want to risk him being caught in the middle of . . . well, whatever it took to convince Shan her charade of a hold on him was over.
Shan snarled, spit flying from her lips. She rushed forwa
rd. Her angry sneer gave her once normal features a grotesque, monstrous appearance. Clawed fingers reached for Erynn.
Jess and the other two Anbas moved quickly to intercept Shan.
Erynn threw up her hand, stopping Jess only a breath before Shan attacked. Quickly facing an onrushing Shan, Erynn bent low, propelling herself into the driving assault, connecting dead center with her attacker.
An eerie quiet enveloped the room as the others waited and watched. No one moved but Erynn and Shan.
Currents of purple electricity buzzed and crackled, arcing across Shan, and her body stiffened in a convulsive twist.
Outside, rain pelted in a drumming onslaught, hammering the roof like thousands of rocks thrown by a horde of angry giants.
Erynn straightened. Shan’s forward momentum carried her up and backward over Erynn.
Shan landed in a jumble, thumping dully against the far wall.
Erynn spun, arms loose but ready at her sides, feet braced in a combat stance. Her nostrils flared, breaths coming fast. “Shan. Stop. You’ll never win a fight against me. Just go. Live your life somewhere else—far away from Jaer.” Static snapped and buzzed, paling to a lethal white-hot brilliance. Erynn willed them into submission, back to a radiant purple.
Shan pushed her trembling, jerking body up the wall. Her sweat-streaked face was partially hidden by long dark hair hanging in hanks lifting sporadically with Shan’s ragged, panting breaths. She grimaced and croaked in a bitter tone, “You’re a freak. You shouldn’t be alive.”
Erynn’s eyebrows lifted, and a small cold smile touched her lips. She strode toward Shan. Chains of self-doubt fell away, vanishing along with the fear that had pursued and tormented Erynn all her life—until this moment. “But I am alive. And you’re wrong. I’m not the freak here. You are. I’m not different. I’m special. You can’t hurt me—not you or others who refuse out of fear and ignorance to understand who I am. I won’t allow it. Not—ever—again.” Erynn’s eyes narrowed and she reached toward Shan.
Shan cowered, pressing clear of the sphere of painful arcing energy.
Erynn stopped and nodded, the action brusque and somehow final. Her newfound confidence reverberated in the timbre of her voice. “I see we understand each other. I’ll give you one last warning. Leave. I never want to see you again.”
Shan shambled toward the door on unsteady legs. She hugged the wall, staying out of Erynn’s reach. Her ranting became less vigorous, and her tone no longer commanded deference. She rambled, fearful eyes darting around the room, but always returning cautiously to Erynn. “I have rights. Jaer is my cheille. Even though he never loved me, I have rights.”
Jess moved beside Shan and not so gently took her arm.
“Let go of me!” Shan shrieked in a pitiful whine. Tears joined the sweat streaming down her flushed cheeks.
Jess jerked and Shan cried out in pain. “You can make this easy or hard. Personally, I’d prefer hard.” Jess smiled.
Shan shrank back. She limped, dragging her feet across the polished wood floor, reluctantly allowing Jess to escort her from the room. Her sobs of protests, of unjust treatment, carried down the hall amid an occasional tearful moan of suffering.
Erynn turned to Pyrn and motioned to the guards. “Please. Get them out of here.”
Pyrn marched the guards into the hall with no dissent—there was no fight left in them. They glanced warily at Erynn as they left, the stench of their fright permeating the air.
Aven closed the door, shutting out Shan’s begging and pleading to Jaer’s mother.
Erynn turned to Nev. “Do you have everything you need?”
Nev sighed and tipped his head, his expression somber. “Yes. But Erynn—”
Erynn closed her eyes, not wanting to see Nev’s anguish. Her own grief threatened to haul her down into a dark chasm with no return to the light. “Try, Nev. Please. I do understand. Just try.”
Cale stepped in on the other side of Erynn, wrapping her in his arms. His voice cracked. “Please, Nev. Try.”
Tam moved to the foot of the bed. “Please, Nev.” Her brown cheeks gleamed with tears.
Nev nodded. He frowned at an IV port in the back of Jaer’s hand. No fluid dripped from a bag, but the access was still viable. He shook a small vial and drew the solution into a syringe. Then he pulled a second syringe filled with saline from his pocket. Nev pushed a small amount into the port before injecting the antidote, followed by the remains of the saline—and waited.
And waited.
Erynn watched Jaer—only Jaer. She willed his color back, his chest to rise in a mighty breath, his eyelids to flutter. She wanted to be with him the moment he looked at her and smiled. Maybe he would whisper her name—or call her his Kipa.
Nothing.
Erynn turned to Nev. Adrenaline rushed a current of panic through her limbs, and she began to shake. In a strained, quivering voice, Erynn grasped for any option. “Because it’s been so long, maybe he needs more.”
Nev was already shaking his head. “Erynn—listen. More would be worse. The increased dosage would kill Jaer instantly.”
“But—”
“No. I won’t. Even if I had more antidote.” Nev put his arm around Erynn. “I’m so sorry.”
The room spun, blurring beneath unstoppable tears. Erynn slipped from Nev and Cale’s grasp, collapsing onto the bed. She lay close to Jaer, holding him tight. “I won’t let you go,” she sobbed. “Remember what I told you? The secret I shared with you? Don’t go, Jaer. Please don’t go.” An icy grip squeezed her chest until breath refused to come. Her heart felt it would burst under the pressure. A low droning rush roared in her ears. The dark fathomless chasm in her mind splintered, threatening to crack wide open and swallow her whole.
Wind howled, a fierce living force demanding reckoning. Multiple bolts of lightning blazed across the sky in filigreed patterns. Thunder rocked the house in a series of earsplitting explosions. Rain fell in a punishing torrent, pummeling the land with enraged fists.
Arranon wept with Erynn.
“There’s nothing we can do.” Cale stepped away, gathering Tam, Nev, and Aven from the room. He turned back, watching Erynn. His eyes brimmed with tears and his voice hitched. “Erynn needs time alone with Jaer.”
Chapter 28
JAER WALKED ONE OF THE orchards on his family’s farm. Snow collected on bare trees and frozen ground. The sharp spicy scent of fermented fruit just below the scant crust drifted from under his footsteps. In cold still air, snowflakes fell straight down in a silent rush. Jaer remembered peaceful days like this, growing up on the farm. He, Rias, and Aven always took off after the morning chores and escaped into the woods. They embarked on grand adventures, saved fair maidens in distress, and vanquished evil beasts, returning only when hunger drove them home.
Jaer chuckled. “It was in this very orchard I vowed to become an Anbas Warrior.” He glanced toward the large farmhouse. White smoke rose in a lazy column from the chimney against a gray sky. He could almost smell breakfast—a huge bowl of omal, strips of smoked meat piled high on a platter, a stack of toasted caisaran, and of course, a pitcher or two of juice squeezed from the fruit in their orchards.
A curious but pleasant memory invaded his thoughts. A snowstorm raged outside a warm room with a fire crackling in a hearth. He sat at a small, round table across from . . . from . . . someone he couldn’t quite make out. Plates held tender chunks of achcear in a white sauce with sliced nuts and berries—her favorite. And Kree with lots of ice—another of her favorites.
“Who? Whose favorites?” Jaer frowned. His serene memories disrupted, he searched for an answer that lay just beyond a shadowy veil.
A capora whinnied from the stable and another answered, breaking his concentration, returning him to this peaceful place and time.
Jaer gazed out across the pasture between the orchard and the barn. He watched the snow dancing in idle pirouettes to settle softly around him. At this moment, his life at peace, he wanted to remain fore
ver.
“You may, if that is truly what you want, Jaer.”
Jaer spun to the sound of the voice. A man with long dark hair and sad brown eyes surrounded by a shimmering white light stood behind him. “Zander?”
Zander stepped forward. “You remember me.”
“Of course I remember you.” Jaer frowned and stared at the transparent figure. “You saved my life, or tried, or . . .” Jaer’s frown deepened. “I can’t quite remember. You told me you were her father. Whose father? The one who likes achcear with nuts and berries? And Kree, with lots of ice?” He tipped his head. “Who is she?”
Zander only smiled. He glanced around at the quiet splendor. “I can see why you would want to stay here.” His focus returned to Jaer. “But you would miss so much life, so many possibilities.” He chuckled. “So many adventures. You’d never know a dull moment with her.” Zander stopped in front of Jaer. “Are you sure you want to stay here and not go back?”
Jaer shrugged, head tipped. “Go back where?”
Zander placed his hand on Jaer’s shoulder. A dazzling beam of light opened behind him, sparkling, beckoning to Jaer. “To life, Jaer.”
Jaer watched the spinning vortex, unable to take his eyes from its brilliance. “Is it that way? Is that life?”
Zander slowly shook his head. “No, Jaer. That way leads to peace, to joy, to contentment, and love . . . forever—much like you are experiencing right now in this sacred place. Going back would be a different kind of life.” Zander chuckled. “Not life as you’ve experienced so far, though.”
Jaer nodded. “I think I understand. This isn’t decided yet. You’re giving me a choice. To die . . . or to live.” He pulled his eyes away from the light. “Is this decision mine to make?”
“It is—this time.” Zander lifted his hand from Jaer’s shoulder and stepped back. “Make up your mind, Jaer. Soon it will be too late.”
Jaer stood tall, staring past Zander to the light. “I’ve made my choice.”
Chapter 29
THE STORM RANTED AND RAVED. Wind howled in an angry voice through the forest and screamed in sorrow under the eaves. Lightning flashed, releasing its wrath, cutting brilliant white arcs across churning gray clouds. Thunder boomed and echoed, raging through canyons and surging into the valleys below. Rain pounded the roof in a violent tantrum and lashed against the windows. Shadows crouched in the gloom cast by the storm.
Storm of Arranon Allies and Enemies Page 25