Forged from Flame

by Kasey Mackenzie

  Sudden pain began tearing at my brain. I barely had time to warn Si Si. ((Gotta go. Keep you both safe. We’re coming!)) That was the last coherent thought I had before agony thrust me back toward my body.

  Chapter 6

  Crushing fatigue swept across my mind, and I cried out both mentally and physically. The mental link between the flow of Fire and myself snapped, sending me crashing back into my physical body.

  Opening my eyes took nearly every ounce of strength I had left. I found my body sprawled upon asphalt next to the still-running SUV, Jake hovering over his mother’s shoulder while she sent gentle waves of Fire rolling over my body. Obviously attempting to get the element to heal whatever physical ailment had struck me. Only it wasn’t a physical ailment. I had vastly overused my new and barely-understood Mindbending abilities, and magical backlash was hitting like a ton of bricks. Even now, tremors wracked my body, and I had to fight for each breath against the wave of pain touching every nerve ending. Breena’s Fire had no effect in healing this torment, likely because it came courtesy of Mindbending.

  On the one hand, I could have cheerfully gone the rest of my life without feeling that agony again. On the other, I’d both discovered a clue of my own where my mother’s abductors could be taking her and had that hunch confirmed by Si Si. And damn, learning I could use Elemental flows to telepathically communicate was a complete game changer.

  Agony slowly faded to mere intense pain, allowing me to focus on the voices murmuring around me. They sounded garbled, as if traveling through a long tunnel like the Elemental vortex my mind had recently traversed. Pain finally subsided enough that I gulped in a greedy breath and sat up, nearly knocking a kneeling Breena onto her ass.

  “Oh thank gods!” Jake choked out, succeeding where I’d failed in knocking over his mother. She broke her fall with her arms and shot him an annoyed glance. He started to wrap his arms around me, but my wince and sharply indrawn breath had both arms falling to his sides. He settled for locking a penetrating gaze upon me. “Cass, sweetheart, what the hell just happened? We couldn’t tell whether your father recovered enough to attack you mentally again or you were suffering a physical seizure. You scared the shit out of us!”

  “S—sorry,” I managed to force out, then licked my lips and fought to speak more loudly. “It was neither of those. I discovered I—or at least my mind—can travel along Elemental flows of energy and view scenes from a distance. We have one border guard dead on my parents’ doorstep, but six other guards are evacuating my brothers and father to the farmhouse.”

  Jake’s eyes widened, and he shared a glance with his mother, who appeared equally impressed. “They’ll head straight for the farmhouse, where they’ll be safe. Let’s go kick some asses!”

  The ferocity in his voice didn’t bode well for our enemies. My attention began to expand outward as the pain diminished even further, and I saw that Breena’s Quatrain stood around us. An itchy sensation crawled across my skin, and I realized I could sense my brother and sister standing behind. No doubt courtesy of the liegebond. Asphalt crunched softly and Liam’s figure appeared behind where Jake now knelt.

  “An SUV is approaching very quickly. I suggest we—”

  “I believe it’s our border guards bringing my brothers and father,” I cut in, voice sounding more normal. “They’re all okay, but we should send a team to their house to see if the fallen guard can be revived.”

  Liam’s brows arched slightly, but then he gave an understanding nod. “So that’s what made your body go completely haywire. Mindbending powers coming online.”

  I gave an unamused bark of laughter. “To put it mildly.” Jake tried to protest when I began pushing to my feet, but I shot him one of my I’m no delicate flower expressions, and he wisely reached over to help me stand rather than try to lift me into his arms like a child.

  Breena’s sharp gaze met mine once I managed to stop swaying on my feet. Not too proud to accept a little help, I leaned my side against Jake as his mother spoke. “You mentioned your father and brothers. What about Kari?”

  The fact that she showed concern for my mother warmed my heart. Thinking of Mom’s current predicament had my lips trembling much like the little girl I’d once been. “He took her.”

  Dia’s voice echoed hesitantly behind me. “Our bastard of a father?”

  “No, surprisingly enough. It seems like everything’s not all sunshine and rainbows among our enemies. Dorian was the one behind my mother’s abduction. Both he and Si Si were in the truck driving off with Mom. I was able to speak with Si Si the way Garrett can. Evidently when I was in her mind, she had some clarity despite Dorian’s magical brainwashing. She said Dorian took advantage of my psychically kicking Garrett’s ass to make a play for hostages to use against me. Dorian was supposed to be waiting back in St. Louis making some sort of move against Isaac’s Freeholders.”

  Liam frowned, and Jake’s expression mirrored his brother’s when I glanced back at my bondmate. “Shit. They want to distract the Freeholders so Isaac can’t send reinforcements if we request them.”

  I nodded. “Precisely. If we hurry, we can get to St. Louis just behind them, save my mother and Si Si, sabotage whatever scheme Dorian has in mind, and win the Freeholders’ goodwill. We’re definitely going to need their help against my father.”

  The sound of the SUV that Liam’s Air-enhanced hearing had picked up only moments earlier reached my ears. Breena claimed my attention before I could search the evening gloom for approaching headlights. “That seems like a sound enough plan, but do you expect your father to wait before attacking again?”

  My lips twisted in a predatory smile. “Si Si said that it’s going to take him some time to recover from the sucker punch I dealt him. Too bad he didn’t know about the liegebond or that it’d give me the strength to knock the mystical snot out of him.”

  We took a moment to call Isaac and give him a heads up on the situation. He’d agreed to use his technical know-how to track down the truck I’d seen fleeing with Mom and Si Si. Just as Jake disconnected from the call, glaring headlights finally appeared in the distance. My body stiffened because, as happy as I was to know my father and brothers were safe, guilt that our mother was not flooded my system. I was the reason she had become a pawn that one evil asshole was using to enact a power play against an even bigger asshole. The mere thought of losing the only woman I’d considered a true mother—even if we had been separated for years—had hot tears pricking my eyes. I couldn’t let Garrett steal another mother away from me. I would rather see him burn first.

  And if I was wrong—if either Dorian or Garrett caused my adoptive mother’s death—then God help them all.

  Jake helped me walk toward the front of our SUV so we could touch base with my family before going after my mother. Knowing I would need all my strength for the coming fight, I leaned on him more heavily than my pride might otherwise allow.

  He stared into the distance, brows furrowed. “I swear to holy heaven I’m going to behead that prick if you don’t.”

  My lips twitched at the incongruity of the term holy heaven paired with behead that prick. “Well, my birthday is coming up. Just make sure you gift wrap his head.”

  Everyone around us was alert, but not overly so, thanks to my assurance that the vehicle barreling down on us carried border guards transporting my family. Focusing my thoughts so intently on my family had a scarlet beam of Fire flaring to get my attention, leading behind us rather than to the front. Given my earlier experience in Mindbending to my mother’s physical location, that could only mean one thing. The guards had taken one of the back roads rather than this paved road that connected with the main gravel road—which meant the vehicle speeding straight for us did not belong to them.

  Shit! Dorian must have sent people to slow us down.

  I shot a panicked expression toward Jake. “That’s not my family! Move off the road!”

  Nobody hesitated to scramble off the asphalt and onto the grassy field
next to our SUVs. Jake swept me into his arms like a romance cover hero and leaped a dozen feet away, fueled by the Earth magic I could see him siphoning from around us.

  Okay, one person hesitated. Liam assumed an arrogant pose in front of our SUVs, beams of white-hot light writhing around him. A terrifying amount of Air magic, to be honest. No wonder he’d nearly kicked Jake’s ass a few months ago. I opened my mouth to tell him not to be reckless when a monstrous funnel cloud kicked into existence a couple dozen feet away, spinning madly in place and picking up dust and debris from all around. Liam’s eyes gleamed in the headlight beams from our SUV, and my mouth gaped open.

  Oh shit, what if I’m wrong and that’s some innocent teenaged couple looking for a makeout spot?

  That worry gnawed at my insides until I gritted my teeth and did something equally reckless: sent my psyche spinning down the nearest band of Fire toward the approaching vehicle. My body began to shake again, but fortunately at a bearable level. The vehicle was so close and I just needed one little peek…

  The oversized truck now a few dozen feet away was an exact match for the other I’d seen. At least a half-dozen people carrying fully automatic weapons and an equal number of Elementals filled both extended cab and truck bed. I could tell they were Elementals by the diferent bands of color surrounding each as they prepared to rain chaos upon us. Except for the simple fact they didn’t notice Liam’s unnatural tornado until it was too late…I hurriedly zipped fully back into my body, breathing heavily but this time free of debilitating pain.

  Score one for the good guys.

  I turned my expectant gaze upon the scene now unfolding before my physical eyes. Cyclone met vehicle with a sickening shriek of wind and metal. The truck flew a hundred feet into the air, whirling madly, and then began plummeting toward the unyielding asphalt.

  Except it actually did yield. Two of the enemy Elementals were Dragons, and they channeled Earth rapidly, making asphalt soft enough to cushion the truck’s landing. An enemy Gryphon simultaneously slowed their descent, and a shield formed of shimmering white light burst upon impact. That shield had been large enough to protect only the Elementals, however. The unfortunate humans carrying guns were thrown every which way, three of them dying instantly, two others becoming moaning shapes trying to crawl away from the broken metal littering the marshy asphalt.

  One man—the driver—had been cushioned enough by his deployed airbag that he managed to stumble out of the wreckage, lift a gun, and point it toward Liam.

  “Oh, that poor SOB,” I whispered from my vantage point cradled in Jake’s arms. My bondmate grunted in agreement.

  Beams of diamond light whipped away from Liam’s hands as he flung them at the gunman. They pierced him at chest and abdomen, sending him to his knees with one pained scream and then, silence. But only until the enemy Elementals regrouped and emerged from the wreckage virtually unscathed. Two Phoenixes and a Selkie flanked the Gryphon and two Dragons. Bands of scarlet, emerald, white, and sapphire writhed around them. Wind snapped in the air, sending their hair flying in a freaky way that reminded me of a horror movie. Water pooled beneath their feet as the Selkie summoned it from below, and the Phoenixes began shaping red-hot balls of Fire in their hands.

  “Jesus,” Jake muttered. “I thought they wanted to capture you, not kill you.”

  “Oh Jake, you know very well they can do both. They only need my body and a little fire to revive me for Dorian. Or my father. Depending on which one has their loyalty.”

  “Over my dead body,” he growled before setting me on my feet so we could prepare to fight.

  “My, but you say the most romantic things.” We gave each other fierce smiles and jumped into the fray.

  The six enemy Elementals didn’t stand a chance against the nine of us. Liam and Jake were magnificent warriors with both fists and magic; Breena’s Quatrain had been waging magical warfare for centuries; and what my two siblings and I lacked in experience and finesse, we made up for in sheer enthusiasm and genetically-enhanced strength.

  Liam paired off with the other Gryphon, and his opponent was woefully outmatched. Liam dispatched him before his brother could leap upon one of the Dragons. Wen advanced upon the second; father and son fighting in eerily similar styles that mixed Elemental magic and martial arts. The ease with which they took out their opponents made me angry on their own behalf. It was obvious Dorian had thrown his weakest fighters at us just to give himself a little more time to escape, knowing full well they wouldn’t make it out alive.

  Ju Hai and Shan dashed over to engage the sole Selkie. Breena and I exchanged grim smiles and waded in against the remaining two Phoenixes, which left my brother and sister to watch our backs, something I psychically ordered them to do. The fact I did seemed to piss them off.

  Not that I had time or breath to waste. It took more strength than I expected to counter the fireball my opponent threw. Unleashing my Mindbending powers for the first time had depleted me far more than I realized. Fortunately, my order to “Watch our backs!” allowed my siblings to save my ass when I fell to my knees after sloppily blocking the fireball, panting in sudden dread as the other Phoenix fired up (ha) another ball of death.

  Dia channeled Air into a shield that surrounded me with explosive force at the same instant our brother summoned his own small river from below and sent it spraying toward the Phoenix. She shrieked in rage when the fireball she’d already thrown smacked ineffectively against Dia’s shield, and the second fireball she summoned was extinguished by Nic’s Water.

  My sister shook her head with a cocky finger wag. “Temper, temper, Phoenix. Don’t want to give yourself a heart attack.”

  The woman narrowed her eyes and spat on the ground. It didn’t come close to us, but the insult was clear. “Dying from a heart attack is the last thing any of you need fear. You’ll soon bend knee to His Excellency’s will or you’ll be obliterated!”

  Everyone else’s fights were winding down in the expected manner, our superior numbers and home field advantage too much for them to overcome. But they were definitely delaying the hell out of us, something that had me clenching my fists. No way we’d catch up to them on the road.

  Nic gave a sarcastic laugh, hands planted at his waist as Water began to encircle the Phoenix without her even noticing. That was the problem with fanatics. Shitty observational skills when in the midst of a tirade. He glanced over his shoulder to meet my gaze. “She means Garrett, by the way.”

  Jake stepped closer, having already wiped the asphalt with his opponent. “Wait, why is he still using a Stalker title? They didn’t boot his ass for not only not killing every single Elemental whose path he crossed, but starting to actually breed them to use as minions? In this case, very ineffective minions.”

  The Phoenix, now last enemy standing, took exception to being called a minion, judging by her opening mouth and flashing eyes. Dia spoke right over her. “Not only did they not boot his ass, Jake, they actually raised him to Deacon of North America.”

  Breena had joined us, and her eyebrows rose so high they nearly took flight. “You mean to tell me the Stalkers now allow Elementals into their ranks?”

  Dia nodded grimly. “Their numbers have been declining for some time. They’re allowing Garrett free rein right now, as an experiment, to use collared Elementals in the U.S. under the belief that it may be the only way to stop the growing scourge they cannot contain using more traditional methods.”

  Meaning they were getting their asses kicked and had no other choice but to adapt or fall. The Stalkers, or the Society of the Sacred Star, were a fanatical group of cross-religion magic haters who blamed Elementals for most of mankind’s ills. Formerly, they’d viewed the only good Elemental as a dead Elemental. The Clan had thought Garrett’s actions in using Elementals made him a renegade. They’d assumed he would be expelled from the Society in the wake of what went down after my first death and thus easier to expose. Hearing that he was acting with their blessing scared the crap out of m
e, because it meant things were even worse than I’d already feared.

  I forced that fear down and tilted my head. “Collared?”

  Nic was the one to spit this time. “It’s a euphemism for the control Garrett and that prick Dorian are exerting on their Elemental minions, who must swear loyalty to one of them or be executed. They can’t maintain magical control over everyone constantly, so they’ve developed a bond somewhat similar to—” He hesitated, likely not wanting to mention the liegebond in present company, “—the bond among a Quatrain that forces them to keep that loyalty. He cannot draw magical strength from those bonds, though. We believe it requires a willingly given oath, but there are all kinds of ways to force that willingness.”

  Like holding their parents hostage, I thought sympathetically, sad for the parents he so obviously loved and who were even now in Garrett’s clutches. And then I grew angry thinking about my own mother, now trapped in Dorian’s.

  Although she’d disliked being called a minion, having her boss insulted was what sent her over the edge. “How dare you refer to Lord Dorian in such a manner?” The Phoenix moved to leap upon Nic—or at least tried. Instead, she fell flat on her face when ropes of water wrapped tightly around her ankles and yanked. She squawked indignantly until Dia waved a hand, sending a shield of Air to silence the woman’s curses.

  I bit back a smile as the woman struggled, although she deserved the ridicule considering she was out for our blood. Hell, she could have been the one to kill our fallen border guard. That had me thinking of my mother, and then a sense of urgency hit again.