Gerik sneered, his arms folded as he glowered at me. “I was meant to be King,” he said like it all should have been obvious to me.
“So you had my dad murdered for the crown?”
“I had Eames killed because he was Mother’s favorite. All the time, even after he left, after he betrayed his bloodline she spoke of him. I was tired of it all! And that White elf woman deserved to die. She was already blemished, then dug her claws into Eames and defiled him as well!” he shouted, his nostrils flared, his eyes bulging. “But then you were brought to Svartálfaheimr, even though I told that fool of a White mercenary to kill the children as well. You came to my homeland as though you were an ordinary Black elf, instead of the abomination you are.”
Rage bubbled up inside me, but I fought it back. I had to focus on getting his full confession. “So you murdered the Black Queen as well, just to get the crown.”
“My mother was a fool!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. His hands flailed at the air like an insolent toddler. “To allow you and that other disgusting Gray elf to remain in our land was too much.”
I took in a slow breath of air and nodded. “Okay. I think that’s enough monologuing for you,” I said and asked the air to make another vortex to imprison the Chief and Gerik.
Ludwig looked like he wanted to throw up, but slowly he made a motion to the others. “Are you just going to leave them there, or do you mind if I place some binding runes on them to—”
But it seemed Gerik had no intention to be taken anywhere. He used his own magic to crack the foundation of the building and draw up a stone barrier between us.
I jerked, startled that he was able to work around my magic. I did not realize he had that kind of capability. He’d never shown anything like that before.
Then the barrier changed. It no longer separated me from Gerik. The stones morphed into a wall of blades.
I brought my hands up and pleaded with the air to help me. A gale force wind whipped and most of those blades were knocked down . . . most.
I heard a gasp behind me, certain one of the officers had been hit. I had to keep an eye on Gerik though. There was no telling what he’d do next.
The Chief let out a horrified sound and tried to back away, to be as far as possible from all of us.
With his teeth bared like a rabid dog, Gerik took hold of the Chief’s shirt and plunged the stone into his chest. “Cowards deserve to DIE!” he bellowed, his rage as ferocious as ever.
I gasped, horrified. The Chief didn’t even react. He simply fell to the ground, dead where he lay.
Gerik wasn’t done. He advanced, that bloody blade pointed at me. I stood frozen for half a second, then asked the stones and air to work together.
A pit formed between us, but Gerik was able to call stones forward for him to walk on. It was an impressive display, but it didn’t matter. I had always been stronger than him and we both knew it.
Ludwig took a small step back, his eyes sad as he went to transport the Chief’s soul. “I hope you win, Shayla,” he said and was just gone.
I squared my shoulders and called on the elements, determined to indeed win. Gerik was a selfish little boy who had been jealous of his brother. I was often jealous of Kassia, but even the idea of having her killed because of it made me want to throw up.
Gerik raised his stone blade to cut my throat, his eyes demented by rage.
I asked the stone to turn, asked the air to force it around. Both complied. They were my friends. They wanted to help me.
Gerik stopped, his mouth open as he stared at his blade. “How dare you! I am your King!” he raged at the stone.
The blade remained where it was while the air guided it forward. I wanted to plunge it into Gerik’s chest for all the horrible things he’d done, for the deaths of my parents, for all the times he’d tortured me. I wanted to . . . but no.
I was not a murderer. Justice, not revenge, like Kassia’s father had said. I didn’t want to be a monster like Gerik.
He shot me a look of loathing and suddenly, the ground under me cracked. The foundation of the police station was nothing more than dust.
I slipped, then began to fall, my eyes fixed on Gerik as he forced the stones back overtop me. It was like I was nine again. He forced the stones. I asked them. Would they listen to me?
The air cushioned me, my body simply floating in the pit Gerik had made. The stones floated past me like they were nothing more than sweet little old ladies out for a Sunday afternoon stroll. I couldn’t let Gerik win though. He had to pay.
I looked around at the stones and smiled. “Will you guys do me a favor and break through so I can face Gerik again? Please be careful though. Hurting humans is the last thing any of us should want.”
The stones agreed and all of us whooshed upwards together. I wasn’t willing to kill, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be hurt. He would most definitely feel my temper.
The trouble was, as the stones and I torpedoed up, the foundation of the police station gave out. I heard men scream, heard the guards Gerik had left behind curse, heard Mrs. Jarvis pray.
The sound was overwhelming. Concrete, dirt, bedrock, steel and people all cried in unison. Every person’s life was in my hands.
The air raised me up so I was a few inches above where the floor had begun to collapse. I raised my arms and begged the air to do the same for the people all around. With the amount of magic which had already been used that day, I wasn’t entirely sure there was enough juice left inside me to do it. I prayed there was though.
The air and I were alone. The only thing which mattered was that we could chat like the old friends we were. Please, please let this work.
The first time I had asked the air to help me was after Gerik had tried to drain my blood so he could get at my magic. It had come to me willingly and had carried me to Dorian. It had always been there for me. I loved the air.
The water called out. It wanted to help as well. I focused on the liquid which was inside every person who had begun to fall and the air joined us. It lifted them, then moved them to a secure place.
I sighed out a breath of relief. They were safe. No matter what Gerik did, he would not kill the innocent humans, or even his own guards.
Memories began to float through my mind. My dad, Kassia and I had stood together, Dad’s magic repairing some damage which had been done during a storm. We have to be careful, girls. Humans are the most important thing. Our job is to protect them, no matter what it costs us.
Yes. I would do just that. No matter what it cost, I would protect the humans.
Twenty
Every single part of my body ached. Even after Ben and I had done that magic-joinage thing, the amount which had been used in the last couple of hours was ever so slightly gigantoid. I needed a nap like a crazy person.
The problem was, the battle wasn’t over. Gerik had left. I had to find him, take him to the White King and make sure he paid for all the lives he had taken.
It was such a strange thing, to realize the Chief was dead. He had been part of my life for so long. I never would have guessed that he’d turn on me as he did, or that his partner in crime would turn on him.
I wrapped my arm around my stomach, my eyes watery when a firetruck showed up and men began to do whatever it was they needed to do. I’d guess all they’d be able to do was just barricade off the pit which had once been the police station. They might be able to do more, but I had no idea what.
“Shayla?”
I turned slowly, startled to see Mrs. Jarvis there. I took a step back, too annoyed to bother with her. “Yes, Mrs. Jarvis. On the day I came back to town, I did see London at the store and after she yelled for everyone to hear that she thought I would be in special needs classes at school and mocking me about my inability to remember anything, I did have a childish reaction and make water come out her nose. She paid me back by calling the media to tell them where I was, so feel free to piss off,” I snapped, sick and tired of both of them.
She folded her arms and stared me down. “And you stole Ben Connelly from her,” she said, her tone cold as ice.
I rolled my eyes. “No, I didn’t. She thinks they have a connection. They don’t. I thought I did, but looks like I was wrong too, so we’re both losers.” I turned away from her and began to walk a bit unsteadily down the street. I needed to get home.
I would get my car, drive to the mountains and search Gerik out. He could not get away with all he’d done.
I was so tired though. My legs wobbled and my vision flickered, but how I felt didn’t matter. The most important thing was to make Gerik pay.
I stumbled, almost falling before an arm wrapped around me. I glanced to the side, a little surprised to see Ayanna . . . with an irate look on her face. Oh no. What could have happened?
She didn’t speak, but turned me in the direction of a bright red sports car. Her expression suddenly clicked into place. We had met before, just like I’d thought. “You’re my mom’s cousin. I saw you on the day I swore my oath to the house of Gungnir. You tried to talk me out of it.”
She glanced over at me and slowly nodded. “It was the last thing your mom would have wanted for you, Shayla. It’s too late now though. You’re bound to Odin’s will for eternity.”
I narrowed my eyes, confused by her tone. “But, Odin is the King of the immortals. What’s wrong with being part of his army when the end times come?”
Ayanna shot me a condescending look and motioned to her car.
I folded my arms and planted my feet. “What’s going on?” I demanded, adverse to the idea of following her blindly when she didn’t even appear to be loyal to the god-King.
Ayanna closed her eyes for a moment and let out a slow breath of air. “Shayla . . . something’s happened,” she said quietly and reached out to lay her hand on my arm. “I’m so sorry, but when you got free of Gerik’s trap, he went to your house and took Kassia and Ben.”
My mouth fell open. No. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. I tried to speak, but no words would come out.
Tears filled her eyes. “Dorian tried to stop him, but Gerik . . . he killed him. Dorian is dead.”
And the world fell out from under me.
How was this possible? Dorian was Gray. He was far more powerful than Gerik. How could he have enough magic to take down a Gray, but then it hit me.
He had been trying for years to drain my blood so he could get at some of my magic. The Gray elf who had turned on the White, he must have drained her blood after she’d given him the information he had wanted. He now had the ability to communicate not just with stones, but with air and water, just like me.
An icy pit formed inside me. No. I would find him. I would get my sister and Ben back. Nothing would stop me.
Twenty-One
-Ben Connelly-
My head pounded. I could feel Shayla’s magic pulse inside me, but didn’t know how to use it. All I had was control over her power, which did me no good at all.
I tried to shift the blindfold to see where we were, but was tied too tightly. It had only been about an hour since Gerik had captured us, but from all that had happened in that time, it made me want to throw down. The fact Shayla had been Gerik’s prisoner for so long . . . I couldn’t even imagine all she’d been put through.
“Ben?” Kassia’s voice came to my ears.
“I’m here. Are you okay?” I asked, worried by how weak her voice sounded.
She took in a shaky breath and let it out on a sob. “I think my leg is broken,” she said and shifted a little closer to me. “Ben, if I don’t make it, please promise me you’ll take care of Shayla.”
“Knock it off, Kassia. You are NOT going to die. I will make sure of that.”
“You can’t make that kind of promise.”
“Yes, I can,” I stated and focused everything inside me on Shayla’s magic.
Every time I’d seen her use those abilities, she looked happy, like the elements were her best friends. I had once heard her mutter something about that, so it had to be the answer.
My friend-skills had become a little rusty after everything with Paul, London and Micah, but I had been pretty good at it once. Micah and I had been great friends, until London got her hooks into him.
Then my mind turned to the moment after Shayla had pulled the curse from me. I still had no idea where we had been taken, but when she had kissed me, it was like the world finally made sense. She was the most important thing.
And all of a sudden, something came to life inside me. The air . . . I could feel its, well, thoughts. It had emotions. I hadn’t known that was possible.
There was this feeling of energy, then like the air read my mind, it shoved its way between my skin and the blindfold and pushed the thing up. I kept it going, asking the air to free my hands. It was the weirdest feeling, far stranger than anything I’d ever seen.
When free, I looked around, a little confused to see what looked like someone’s basement. Concrete floors. Pipes above us. A washer and dryer in the corner. Huh. Why hadn’t Gerik taken us back to Svartálfaheimr?
But when my eyes fell on Kassia, those questions didn’t matter anymore. She was a mess. Her leg was contorted in a way which made it clear it wasn’t just broken, it was far closer to crushed. I had been so focused on Gerik, it hadn’t even occurred to me that his guards were likely just as bad as he was.
I crouched down next to her and untied the blindfold, then her hands. “Kassia, I need you to talk to me,” I said, unsure how long she would remain conscious with the amount of pain she had to be in.
Kassia swallowed hard, her eyes . . . which were identical to Shayla’s, boring into mine. “Tell me why you got so mad after you did that joining thing with my sister,” she said in a weak voice, her face pale, covered by a sheen of cold sweat.
I glanced unwillingly at the mark which was tattooed to my hand, my throat suddenly tight. “Because I’m now bound to Odin’s will for the rest of eternity,” I said through my teeth, my mind filled by images of blood and horror.
“So what?”
I leaned back against the wall next to her and closed my eyes. “I plan to kill Odin, so that’s going to be a little bit of a conflict.”
“Why?” she whispered, her body slumped a little further down the wall.
I swallowed hard and despite all my work to keep that darker side of me under control, felt the old rage build again. “Because Odin came to my dad when I was a kid, ordered him to send me to the house of Gungnir. Dad refused. Odin didn’t take that well. He sent a redcap to kill my family. I could only get my mom out. My dad and sister . . . that thing slaughtered them.” My heart pounded. My hands were balled into fists. Every nightmare I’d had about that night for the last six years flooded my mind. “And now, Odin won. I’m in his army.”
Kassia gasped in shallow breaths of air before slowly, she spoke. “If Shayla had known that—”
“I know, Kassia. She never would have let me help her. She would have let herself be destroyed, all to help me.”
She gasped and slid a little further down the wall so only her shoulders remained against it. “She’s . . . just like her dad. Noble. Honorable. Good.”
A cold chill worked its way up my spine. She was dying. How could I possibly save her?
Then it hit me. Shayla’s magic had been syphoned into me. She had the ability to transfer injuries into her body, then ask the water to heal her. I could do that. I had to be able to. I would not allow Kassia to die and leave Shayla alone in the world.
I crouched down next to her and laid my hand over her arm. Its coldness made my heartrate pick up. I had no idea how Shayla had done it, when she had taken the curse from my body.
But the water knew. It hardly needed me to act as conduit. It was so in tune with Shayla, it would do anything her magic asked for.
Something clicked inside me and all of a sudden, my right leg snapped in four places. The pain of it was more than anything I had ever thought possible. How
she had endured it without throwing up, I had no idea.
The water pulsed inside me. It warmed every last part of my body, until it felt like my leg might be on fire.
Weirdly though, it didn’t hurt. It wasn’t comfortable, but pain was the last thing I felt. Energized was far closer to the mark.
I felt everything, every particle in the air, every spec of moisture, every stone within a mile of us. They were all I needed. I finally understood Shayla and admiration for her was like yet another fire inside me.
It took a moment to realize I lay on the floor of that basement. It took longer to realize that Shayla’s sister smacked my cheek hard enough, it made my ears ring.
“Ben. You listen to me. You better be okay, or I swear to you, I will give you the world’s worst beat-down. I don’t care that you’re a teenage-mutant-giant. You WILL NOT do this to my sister. She has lost enough.”
I moved my hand slowly up to stop her from hitting me and found blood all over my face. Nose bleed. So that was why Shayla got them sometimes. Her body tried to process magic in the human world, which was no easy feat. I had never been able to figure that out.
Kassia sighed in relief, then like she hadn’t just been smacking me, she leaned down and hugged me. “You may not care, but you totally have my blessing when you get around to asking Shayla out,” she said, like nothing unusual had happened in the least. “Now, come on. We have to get out of here.” She stood up and offered her hand to help me up.
“Leaving so soon?” a voice asked and five elves stepped out from behind some kind of stone partition, apparently having hidden out to watch us.
I must be seriously off my game. Things usually couldn’t be hidden from me, but I hadn’t noticed anything suspicious in the least.
I sat up as fast as possible, though almost fell back with the force of the head-rush it gave me. The fury I’d tried to suppress over the last year came roaring to the surface. I wanted to do some serious damage to Gerik for how he’d hurt Shayla, for what his guards had done to Kassia.
Gray (Awakening Book 1) Page 17