Oh shit. How the hell are we going to stop all that?
The heat and power are intense, and it makes my blood stir and flow. Adrenaline rushes through me. I feel recharged just being near this thing.
Lava is flowing at three feet a minute, destroying the villages, roads, and homes in its path. A firebreak won’t stop this, and neither will water unless we drain the ocean.
What can we do? Can Tor stop it?
We consult together, the three of us with a commander and an environmental specialist, at the base once we land.
“What about a wall of ice, would that stop it?” Tor asks.
“I don’t know, it depends on the size and thickness and temperature,” specialist Dr. Roe says, her dark brown hair in a short, straight bob under her hat.
“Ashley, do you think you could control the lava itself? Make it stop?” Dr. Mara suggests. She knows how far we’ve both come.
Control the lava? I stare at my hands. I’ve only controlled what comes out of me; the lava is something completely different, a separate force.
“I can try.”
“Are there natural waters on the mountain, like a lake?” Tor asks, catching on to where the doctor is going with this line of questions.
We lean over the large map on the table, showing elevation lines and geographical details. Red lines from a marker draws the direction of the flowing lava.
“Yes, there’s Green Lake here.” Commander Riley shows us. “But the lava is flowing down the opposite side of the mountain.”
“Do you have maps of the underground source of this water? The water table, maybe? Hidden springs?” Riley brings more maps to the desk, and he and Tor put their heads together.
“Dr. Mara, what if … what if we can’t do anything to stop this?” I lean close and speak softly.
“Not to worry, Ashley. We’re still learning what you two can do. Maybe we can help here, maybe not. All we can do is try, experiment, and learn for next time.” She smiles with reassurance. “It’s not a forest fire. Most of the villages have already evacuated. But if we can lessen the damage and learn the limits of your powers, that is enough.”
I nod, relieved. Not too much pressure, then.
The Commander shows us our sleeping quarters. Still, I can’t sleep. I’m charged, my blood on fire in my veins.
It takes Tor sneaking into my bunk and snuggling next to me when I finally fall asleep in his arms.
***
We start the next morning at 0700. Tor and Commander Riley go off in their own copter toward the lake.
Dr. Mara, Dr. Roe, and I stop at a wide slope, the lava flowing down in rivulets, some over ten feet wide. We focus on one that is about twelve inches.
I put my palms up toward the moving, glowing orange. The radiating heat doesn’t bother me, but the other two stand farther down, wearing their fire retardant protective gear. I’m in the same boots and jumper, but no gloves. I need my hands free.
I concentrate on flowing my heat, focusing through my palms. Several sparks and small flames fly out, bouncing harmlessly on the black rock.
Think, Ash. Don’t bring fire out. Control the fire here.
I try again, moving the energy inside me, focusing to shape it into a flameless heat, pushing against the lava creeping toward my boots. I can visualize a wall of heat in front of me.
Nothing happens. I attempt a second time, using all the force I can muster. No flames appear, and the lava crawls ever onward, hungry like a relentless, living thing.
I struggle again and again. The lava keeps coming, and it’s within inches of me now. Stepping out of its path, I trip and fall on my ass, the lava reaching the soles of my black boots. They begin to melt with painful, searing heat.
I scream.
Isn’t this just a different version of fire? How come it hurts me?
The power of the lava, the fire from within the mountain, the force of the earth’s core rumbles through me. I feel it like thunder clapping on my chest. I draw it up into myself, embracing the burning, the pain on my feet from the burned soles, igniting a fire within which shoots to my head like the exploding Hawaiian goddess.
I direct this super force out through my hands. The lava hesitates, moves back ever so slightly, freeing my feet. The bottoms of the boots are gone, revealing my bare skin. I jump up and out of the way, my blistering feet screaming in pain on the sharp, black rock. The lava resumes its destruction down the mountain.
My feet are burned so badly I hop about and fall again. The doctors rush me to base and treat my angry, growing blisters.
I guess I can’t stand in lava.
The pain is intense, like my feet are still burning. I breathe through it.
But I moved the flow.
The others hadn’t seen it from below. I tell Dr. Mara how I stopped it and moved the lava back, just an inch. For some reason, I don’t tell her how the mountain itself fills me. I want to explore it more before I share with anyone. Even Tor.
“Are you serious? You moved it?” Dr. Mara is beside herself. “Do you think you can do it again?”
I nod.
“As soon as you’re on your feet, Ashley, let’s try again. We’ll fix you up with the best protective gear this time.”
When the Commander and Torrent get back to the base, Tor runs to the medical wing. “Are you okay, Soot?” he pants as the door bursts open.
“Where were you when I needed you?” I tease. “I burned my boots off my feet.”
“My god, you’ll do anything for attention.” Tor winks at me. “Had a good day, huh?”
“I did it, Tor. Not at first, and not on time, obviously. But I moved the lava: I stopped it and moved it back about an inch.” The power of the mountain still flows through me, simmering, lighting my body with energy. I feel invigorated like I could move a mountain next.
“You look different.” Torrent always notices things. “Are you glowing? Maybe you’re on fire yourself, hot stuff.” I try to punch him, but almost fall out of the bed as he side-steps. We laugh and he rights me back on the bed. “Anything to get your hands on me, Soot.”
His cooling touch does wonders for my burns. And my heart. I don’t even care about my ruined feet. The doctor can’t believe I don’t want any meds. The pain is already fading, something unheard of with fourth-degree burns. They say it should have been worse.
“What about you?” I scoot over so he can lay next to me. “Did you move water?”
“No, I just kept shooting it out of my hands.” Tor lifts me up so he can support my weight on his chest. “How did you manage it?”
I try to explain it to him, the feeling of the volcano’s power, heating my being. Using my finger, I run small circles on his arms that are encasing me. “Did you feel anything like that?”
He shakes his head. “Maybe you have a higher connection with this version of fire. It’s more compact than flames.”
“Ya think?”
Torrent shrugs. “Not sure. Just spitting out ideas.”
“Tor, don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want them to know. It’s … private. They wouldn’t understand.”
He nods, looking concerned. He throws his leg over mine and keeps glancing my way.
***
We try to tame the red beast the next day. Tor and I don’t comment. With him lying next to me all night, and constantly in contact with my skin, my feet have practically healed overnight, and the doctors have never seen anything like it.
Now that I know what to do, I’m able to stop the flow of lava, at least for a little while. I can only hold it for a few minutes before it piles up and overflows my wall of force. I can’t control the whole mountain of magma.
Torrent fares no better.
By evening, we both are spent. There’s a letter on my bunk from Smoke. I read it with Torrent leaning over my shoulder.
Ash,
Have you and Tor been able to sightsee? Does Pele mean anything to you? She’s the Hawaiian goddess. He better be treating
you all right; otherwise, I’ll be next in line to kick his ass. After you, of course.
~Smoke
“Does he think we’re dating?” Tor asks.
“Maaaybe.” I smirk. “He thinks you’d be good for me.”
“So, you’ve talked to him about me?” He smiles. “What have you told him?”
“I vaguely tell him what you can do, how you help me. How you’ve been there for me when I need someone.”
Tor grabs my shoulders so we’re facing each other. “I’ll always be there for you, Ash.” He brushes a stray lock of hair from my face.
We haven’t even been able to clean up yet. I pull away, spying my ashy hands. Tor’s smile falls. He must think I’m rejecting him. I place my palm against his cool, dirt smudged cheek.
“Torrent.” I hardly ever use his full name, so now he knows it’s serious.
That one word is all that’s needed. He presses his frosty lips against mine. All thoughts of today’s hardship vanish as his tongue runs across the seam of my mouth. I open to allow him greater access. His arms pull me closer to his finely sculpted body. I sink into the embrace.
Breathing heavily, we part. “We should clean up. I’m a mess and you’re ….” He doesn’t let me finish.
His lips are back on mine, urging me. “I don’t care,” he mumbles in between light kisses. “You can be covered in mud, burned to a crisp, have white hair. None of that matters to me. You’re everything. You are my world. Today … with my death looming. You’re all I thought about. If I left you, you’d have no one. Not until Smoke could get to you. I won’t leave you. Not like that. Not until you tell me to go.” He inhales sharply. “You are the air to my drowning life. You saved me without even knowing it, and not just today. The day we met when we were just kids.
“I may not be showy enough for you. I may not express my feelings as often as I should. But trust me when I tell you that you are my everything. The air I need to breathe.” He leans his forehead against mine. “I’m in love with you, Ash. Have been since I saw your gray hair as a ten-year-old. When you came into my life after the school incident. Then when our paths crossed again just this year, I knew it was more than fate that brought us back to each other. We have a life to make together.” He squeezes my hand. “And I want to share mine with you. If you let me.”
He’s in love with me?
I sit there on the bed, still facing him. Dazed. No one has said those words to me. Sure, I know Smoke does, but he has to. He’s my brother.
Tor hasn’t said that many words in a row since … well, I’m not sure. He’s been holding that all inside of him for far too long.
While I may not be able to say those three words back to him just yet, I have the start of something burning in my chest. When I’m around him, I know he makes me better. He makes me want to be calm and cool like him. Not this hothead who takes action and asks questions later.
“You make me want to be a better person, Torrent.” I take his hands into mine and gently squeeze. “I’ve never been loved by anyone other than Smoke. While I don’t think I’m there yet with you, I want to be. So please, just give me time. This is new to me. Getting my abilities under control, us, and finding out who I am and why I’m this way. Why we’re this way.” I glance at our joined fingers. “I don’t want you to leave. I think there’s something in play between us that’s bigger than we realize. I’ll need you, and Smoke, by my side.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
We turn in late that night, defeated. At least we have each other, and he kisses me senseless before falling asleep.
Tor loves me.
***
Early the next morning, we’re woken with the building shaking. I see the ceiling corner angling out, then in, then out again. The rumbling and trembling grow in strength, larger and stronger. We run to stand in the doorway together, as the building sways from side to side.
The growling slowly dissipates. We get outside as several, smaller aftershocks tremble beneath our feet.
Soldiers are running and shouting. Dr. Mara spots us.
“Are you okay?” She scans us quickly. “Good—get dressed, quickly. Meet me at the helipad in five minutes.” She doesn’t linger or give us weird looks that we were just found in the same room.
We snap into army mode, running to our separate bunkers and back in clean uniforms within the allotted time.
As the helicopter lifts off, we’re given our protective gear. I change into the heavyweight boots, but I don’t want the rest of it.
Dr. Mara speaks to us through our head mics. “The summit erupted more this morning. The lava is shooting two hundred feet up, and the flow is moving faster on the side of the mountain where the population is. It’ll take time to evacuate … more than what we have. This is a crisis now.”
We fly to the opposite side of the slope, where the lava is running down, sluicing through rock in dozens of streams, melting everything in its path. Soon it will hit the tree line and start a forest fire, which will scatter, quick as lightning but not as fast as the flames in Colorado where the air was dryer.
“They’re evacuating everyone on this side,” Dr. Mara says. “People on the other side were told to abandon their homes last week, since that was the projected pathway. No one was expecting the lava to make a new route. The many residents may not make it, there are too many people, and the A’a flow is moving too fast.” We nod to our leader. “This is it, soldiers. Time to put your powers to the test.” She looks grim. “Just do whatever you can.”
Tor and I look at each other. His usual confidence is gone. He hasn’t accomplished anything on this mission. I’ve never seen him so down. I squeeze his hand.
I’m not sure what I can do. I don’t think I can stop this flow, not all of it, not enough. I can’t hold it, either. This is useless. I stare at my hands.
We’re let out near a village. The people are still working their way down the mountain, loaded with their belongings and the elderly on wooden carts, with small children, goats and chickens, plus a few cars. They’re moving too slowly.
I sprint up the slope to meet the glowing red-orange river, topped with chunks of black, cracking skin. This flow is about five feet wide.
I pull the energy of Pele, the Hawaiian Goddess that Smoke mentioned in the letter, into me, filling me with her power. Her unstoppable lava. Her ravenous hunger and overwhelming force. Of giving life to new earth—birthing the mountain. I scream as if in childbirth pains as I throw my hands out and shoot the new-life fire against the magma.
The fire river slows, slows, slows. It stops, holding still, while I focus all my power against it.
But I can’t push it back up the mountain.
My force falters, and another yellow river moves toward me, joining the first. The combined power pushes past my barrier and flows faster than before, like Pele’s arms reaching to me for a hug.
The mountain shouts in a giant crack and rumble. The ground shakes beneath my feet, making me fall. The lava rushes to me. I hear the others screaming my name.
“Ash!”
I turn and scramble to get up. Burning grabs my feet and I glance back. Blinding, screaming, orange-red pain snatches my feet, my legs, my torso, as the magma pulls me under its crackling, charred skin.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I am fire. I am pain. I am death. I am burning–fuck–it hurts so bad I can’t even think straight!
I wake with a scream, torture consuming every part of me, every sensation; the fire won’t stop.
I open my eyes to pitch blackness, calming my breath: in, out. I try to ignore the pain, but water is streaming out of my eyes.
I can barely move my arms. There’s a hard, uneven surface surrounding me, a couple of inches from my face and body, all around. The energy of heavy rock and solid lava weighs on me, pressing down. It’s unbearably hot; sweat is streaming along my skin.
The earth shifts above and below, a slow convulsing as the melted metals pour over me. My c
offin is pushed another inch into the mountain.
I’m trapped. But I’m alive, for the moment. There can’t be much air, though.
Slow your breath … in … out.
I calm my panic, ignore the stifling heat and searing pain, the sweat, the pressure of slow death. My army training switches on.
I must think. This would have killed anyone else within a split second. My powers must be protecting me.
Where is Torrent? Does he know I need him, that I’m in trouble? I call to him with my thoughts. Can I even do that and have him hear me? Or am I locked in my own blackness, clawing at straws?
I’m alone in here, all alone, no one to help me, no one who can.
They must think I’m dead. They’ve probably left already.
I control my thoughts, don’t allow myself to sink into despair and crazed fear.
Breathe in … out … in … out. Will I survive this? I must.
For Smoke. For Tage.
For Tor.
For myself.
How much longer can I breathe? Following the skills I learned from Dr. Mara, I put myself into a meditative state. My heart rate slows, my breathing calms. I only have to breathe a few times a minute. In this place, I can connect to my inner self. I can ask for help and receive insights, answers, miracles. Can anyone answer?
I need a miracle. I don’t want to be buried alive. A startling thought intrudes. What if my powers keep me alive indefinitely? What if I live the next seventy years trapped in this rock coffin?
No, I’m sure to run out of air in a few minutes. I don’t control air.
God, I wish I controlled earth or air right now.
Slowing my thoughts, my heart, my breath, I rest in complete stillness, my eyes closed. My tomb shifts downhill, ever so slightly. The magma outside is a dull roar. The stink of rotten eggs is overpowering. I’m on my back, my head pointed slightly down, toward the sea. But I must think clearly. The mountain is moving around me, pushing me down, shifting me, little by little, to the ocean at its base. The pressure is immense, squeezing my lungs.
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