by Sadie Moss
“I’ll tell them.” She hesitated, her big brown eyes brimming with sadness. “I don’t want you to die, Lana. Not even if you become a ghost.”
Oddly touched by her sentiment, I smiled softly. “Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.”
Another lie, but this one contained a kernel of truth. I wouldn’t live through this, but if the last thing I saw in this world was Rain’s machine collapsing, I would be okay.
The ghost rose slowly, smoothing her dress. With one last look down at me, she squared her shoulders and walked quickly through the barricaded door.
I turned my attention to Rain. Magic continued to pour in through the opening in the ceiling and filter through the crystal, and he still stood directly in the beam’s path. His head was tilted back, and he no longer seemed aware of my presence—or anything at all, really. He was high on the power filling his body, on the magic running through his veins.
Letting my eyes drift shut, I extended my focus out around me. The floor in this room was smooth and polished, but it was still made out of stone. Just like the walls and ceilings were. I was surrounded by it.
Jae had never taught me how to use earth magic. Flame, I understood. It burned hot and bright, there in a flash and gone the next. Water and wind were more difficult for me. They both felt ephemeral, delicate—although their delicacy was an illusion. But what was earth?
Earth was solid.
Earth was stubborn.
It didn’t negotiate, and it didn’t ask permission.
The corner of my lip twitched. Maybe earth is my element.
I let my magic spread in tendrils through the rock and dirt beneath me then up through the walls and into the ceiling above.
Then I pulled.
The stone resisted at first. It was bound fast, settled in place by eons of pressure. My power strained and my whole body tensed, causing agony to flare in my stomach. I released the pull, breathing hard. Gritting my teeth, I sent my magic out again, but instead of trying to rip the stones apart, I sent a shock of vibration through them.
The floor rumbled, shaking beneath me.
A moment later, a crack appeared in one wall, running up toward the ceiling like a seam opening on a too-tight dress.
I pushed the magic harder, increasing the vibrations. More cracks appeared, and with a loud grating sound, a chunk of the ceiling collapsed. It hit the floor and exploded, breaking into smaller pieces of rock that flew across the room like missiles.
Another piece of the ceiling caved in, and this one hit the whirling metal arms of Rain’s machine. With a grinding noise, they stopped spinning as the metal bent and contorted. Magic stopped filtering in from above, and when the flow from the crystal ebbed, Rain blinked slowly.
His glowing eyes turned to the broken piece of machinery, and then to me. Rage contorted his features as he raised his hands.
All the muscles in my body strained.
Please gods! End this now.
With a final push, I shoved every last bit of strength and magic I had into the earth around me. A jagged spike thrust up from the rock in front of Rain, piercing his body and lifting him off his feet as it grew upward. His eyes widened in shock and pain, and electric magic flared at his fingertips.
Then, with an ear-splitting crack, another piece of the ceiling collapsed. Rain didn’t even have a chance to look up before it came down on him, crushing him and the crystal beneath its heavy weight.
There was a bright flash of light, and I turned my face away.
A second flash came, blinding in its intensity. The world went white, even through my closed eyelids.
As the flare of light faded, darkness fell.
The rumbling grew louder around me.
My magic was tapped out; I was no longer using it to disrupt the stone.
But the earth was stubborn. I’d started something, and it was damned well going to finish it.
Through the exhaustion and pain, through the roaring in my ears, I thought I heard someone calling my name.
Then I didn’t hear anything at all.
Chapter 26
Blackness.
Silence.
It was peaceful here, in this empty space where I floated.
My body didn’t ache, and exhaustion no longer hung on me.
Slowly, I drifted downward like a feather, finally settling on a soft, smooth surface.
Warm breath tickled my ear. A large hand rested across my stomach, another on my ribcage. Muscled bodies pressed close to me, encasing me in a protective shell.
If this is death, it’s not so bad.
But it couldn’t be death. I felt far too solid for that.
I gradually became aware of my own deep breathing, the weight of my eyelids, and the soreness of my muscles. But most notable was the absence of pain in my abdomen.
Swallowing roughly, I tried out my vocal chords, murmuring a soft, unintelligible noise.
The breath at my ear stopped. The hands and bodies pulled away from me.
Well, fuck. If I’d known that was going to happen, I never would’ve made a peep.
I mumbled again in protest at the loss, shifting restlessly. My body still didn’t feel quite like my own, and when I ordered my eyelids to open, they flat-out refused.
“Killer? Oh, thank fuck!”
Fen.
I tried again to force my eyes open, my hand groping for him blindly. He caught it, raising it to his lips. He rubbed his nose across my knuckles, inhaling the scent of my skin.
Then suddenly, all their hands were on me again. A face pressed to my stomach, warm lips touched my forehead, and cool fingers traveled up my legs. The overload of sensations made me gasp, and my eyes finally flew open.
Four faces peered down at me. My favorite faces in the entire world.
“Godsdamn it, Lana! Don’t ever fucking scare us like that again!” Corin’s voice was too full of relief for his words to have much bite, and he buried his face in my stomach again, as if he could somehow meld us into one being.
Akio leaned against the headboard of the large bed in my room in Beatrice’s house. He brushed my hair away from my face, his dark eyes gleaming. “Welcome back, kitten.”
Jae kneeled by my feet, his hands tracing patterns over my legs, leaving goose bumps in their wake. His elegant features were tight, like he couldn’t quite trust what he was seeing yet.
“We thought we lost you,” he murmured, his grip tightening on my thigh.
“I…” I cleared my throat and tried again, my voice scratchy. “I thought you did too.” A sudden panic rose in my chest. I hadn’t just imagined it, had I? Gone into some kind of vivid hallucination brought on by shock and blood loss? “Rain! Is he—?”
“He’s dead.” Fen grinned at me, though his chocolate eyes were shadowed. “You did it, killer. You stopped him.”
Relief flooded me. “I used earth magic. I tore the place down. Did everyone get out? I told Ivy to warn you.”
The wolf shifter’s expression darkened. “Oh, she delivered your message, all right. Then after we told her where she could shove it, she agreed to bring us to you.”
“It didn’t take much convincing, actually. I don’t think she liked your plan any better than we did.” Akio arched a brow at me.
I sat up slowly, taking my time so I could let the world stop spinning. “It wasn’t so much a plan as a last ditch effort. It was my only option. Rain had started the magic pull.”
Jae nodded solemnly. “We know.”
My head whipped toward him, the sudden movement blurring my vision again. “How? Did it take your magic? Did it kill people?”
“No one died. But we learned after the fact that several people were almost entirely drained. Then there were two huge pulses of magic, and the pull stopped.”
“I tried to stop him from turning it on,” I murmured. “But he was more powerful than me. I couldn’t fight anymore. He….”
My hand went to my stomach. I was wearing a soft gray T-shirt and a pair of pajama
pants. I lifted the tee, staring down at the large pink scar trailing across my abdomen. Even though it was healed, the sight of the thick line brought back a stab of remembered pain. That had been a killing blow.
I bit my lip, looking up at Jae. “Thank you for healing me.”
“Actually,” he said, a smile ghosting across his face, “it wasn’t just me.”
My brow furrowed. “Then who…?”
Fen reached around me to punch Corin in the arm, grinning ear-to-ear. I turned to the blond man, eyes widening, and he ran a hand through his hair, a flush rising in his cheeks.
“You?”
He shrugged. “Jae had used so much magic already—in the fight, and to keep the ceiling from collapsing on us while we tried to get to you. Once we finally found you, we used a transport spell to get out. But you were in bad shape. Jae tried to heal you, but you were slipping away.”
I reached out to grip his hand, and he squeezed mine tightly.
“I couldn’t lose you, Lana. I put my hands on you, not even knowing what I was trying to do, just wanting more than anything to keep you here with us. Light burst out of my palms and poured into you, and your wounds finally started to close.”
“Corin.” I stared at him, touched and awed. “How…?”
He looked down. “I went to talk to Asprix after everything settled down. He’s pretty fascinated by all of us now. I think if we let him, he’d lock us up in a room and study us for days.”
I chuckled, relieved to hear that the old reader had survived the fight. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”
“I told him you’d say that.” One side of Corin’s mouth lifted in a grin before he grew serious again. “He did find a small amount of magic inside me. Don’t get too excited; I’m not Gifted or anything. It’s probably yours, from the bond. I was only able to access it because of how badly I needed it in that moment. I forced it to act.”
“That’s incredible,” I breathed, then tugged his hand to make him look at me. “I knew you’d always protect me.”
He smiled, but his grip on my hand didn’t loosen. We had come so close to losing each other. It would take some time for that fear to pass.
I glanced around at the rest of my four. “Was Olene there? Or did I imagine that?”
Jae shook his head. “No, she was there. Noble brought her.”
“How? Why?”
“Their attack on the palace was more difficult than expected. More Gifted had joined Rain’s ranks than we’d hoped. Olene went into hiding after he killed Theron, but when word of the attack on the palace got out, she came to help.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “Representative Romo came to help the Blighted take the People’s Palace?”
“Well, I think it was more that she came to help anybody trying to unseat Rain.” Fen chuckled. “But the end result was pretty much the same. Once he realized Rain had come after us, Noble brought her to Rain’s lair.”
My stomach twisted, remembering the sight of her lying unconscious on the ground. “Did she survive the fight?”
“Yes. She took a bad hit, but it didn’t kill her. When Ivy came to warn us, Noble got her out with a transport spell.” Akio slipped off the bed, coming around the side to stand over us all.
“And is she… still alive?”
“Of course, kitten. She’s been granted amnesty by the Resistance in exchange for her continued help. Several other Gifted officials were captured in the fight, but believe it or not, Noble isn’t big on public executions.”
I grimaced. “Yeah. Me neither.”
Faint voices filtered in through the door, drawing my attention.
“Speaking of…” Jae lifted a brow. “That’s probably him. He usually comes by about this time of day.”
His words pricked at a question that had been lingering in my mind. “Usually? How long was I out?”
“Three days.” Akio crossed his tattooed arms over his chest. He was predictably shirtless again, but I didn’t mind. In fact, I was seriously considering seeing if I could get him to agree to never wear a shirt again.
“Three days?” My eyes bugged. I let go of Corin and Fen’s hands and scooted toward the edge of the bed.
Akio’s palms dropped onto my shoulders the moment I stood, forcing me to plop back onto the soft mattress. “And where exactly do you think you’re going, kitten?”
“Downstairs! Outside! To the palace!” I tried to rise again on each word, but he pushed me back down every time. We were both so stubborn we could probably do this all day.
When I moved to stand again, Fen wrapped his arms around me from behind, laughing. “It’s okay, killer. There’s lots to do, but we’ve got time. Thanks to you.”
I sank back into his embrace, not wanting to admit that standing up that fast so many times had made my head spin. “Can I at least go downstairs? I want to see Noble.”
They all shared a look, and I was already preparing my arguments when Jae nodded. “He wants to see you too.”
He rose from the bed, offering me his arm. I took it gratefully. My legs felt jelly-like, and my muscles quivered slightly with the effort of holding me up. But mostly, I just wanted to be close to Jae, to feel his calming presence like a balm. He pressed a kiss to my temple before leading me toward the door.
As we walked slowly down the stairs, I shot a glance at him. “Why was I out for so long? You and Corin healed me, right? So that should’ve been that.”
“You almost completely drained your magic, Lana. I was exhausted after that fight, and I’m a highly trained mage. You’d never used anywhere near the amount of power you did that night, and when you brought down the cave walls… you were tapping into what was left of your life force along with your magic.”
I blanched. “Shit. So I really am lucky to be alive.”
“More than lucky.” We hit the bottom step, and he turned to me, speaking softly. “There were two magical pulses right after you started tearing down the room. It was the magic Rain stole. The small amount he took this time, and everything he took the first time.”
I gaped at him. “That’s what those flashes of light were?”
“Yes. My best guess is that when you destroyed the machine, it released the magic he was currently drawing. And when that exploded, it disrupted the stabilized magic from his first pull.”
“So… where is it now?”
He shrugged, gesturing to indicate the world at large. “Out there. We all felt the pulses of power. And Asprix can’t verify this, but I believe they’re what awakened the glimmer of magic inside Corin.”
My mind reeled. But before I could formulate a response, I was wheeled around and pulled into an energetic embrace.
“Well done, Crow! Well fucking done!”
“Hey,” Akio growled from the stairs behind us. “Be gentle. She just woke up.”
“Oh come on, Akio!” Fen laughed, barreling down the steps. “Just because you’re a delicate flower doesn’t mean she is too. I bet she could kick your ass right now.” He squeezed my shoulder as he passed, leaning in to whisper in my ear, “Are you okay though?”
I nodded, holding back a laugh. He was just as overprotective as the others, but I appreciated that he at least pretended not to be. And I could kick Akio’s ass. Maybe not right this second, but I had plans for the future that definitely involved slamming him into a wall… or the floor… or whatever furniture happened to be around.
Noble seemed to get the hint after even Jae gave him a threatening look. He pulled back and held me at arm’s length, his already sharp features made even more angular by the wide smile that stretched across his face. His penetrating gaze took in my face, and behind the almost manic energy that always seemed to exude from him, I felt his concern.
“I’m fine, Noble. Really. What about you? You took the palace? Did we lose many people?”
Jae tugged me away from the Resistance leader and helped me into the large sitting room. I sank onto the couch gratefully. I was feeling more like myself with
every passing minute, but it would be a while yet before I was up to full strength.
The rest of my four settled around me, and Noble followed us in, leaning over the back of one of the beautifully upholstered chairs.
He pursed his lips for a moment, his jaw tensing. “Our losses weren’t catastrophic, but we did lose fighters. If Olene Romo hadn’t shown up when she did, it would’ve been much worse.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I spoke around the lump in my throat. “I’m sorry, Noble. Gods, I hate this. So many lives, gone. It’s such a waste.”
He shook his head, his expression hard.
“No. Not a waste. Not if we don’t let it become one.” He paced away from the chair, his energy spiking again as his eyes lit with an inner fire. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that quote. ‘To reap the harvest of perpetual peace, by this one bloody trial of sharp war.’”
“Yeah? What about it?” I tilted my head to the side, my pulse already quickening to match his fervent passion.
“We’ve been through the bloody trial. We fought the war. Now it’s up to us to make sure those who fought didn’t lose their lives in vain. We need to stop the cycle of hate and violence and start something new, something better.” He rubbed the back of his neck, his wide smile breaking forth again. “It’s not going to be easy. It’s gonna be hard as hell. But I know we can do it.”
Chapter 27
One Year Later
“So, what do you think?” Corin wrapped his arms around me from behind, and I dropped my head back against his chest, blinking away the tears blurring my eyes.
“I think… it’s fucking beautiful.”
The Pacific Ocean spread out before us, the cool blue water dyed orange and red by the rays of the setting sun. Soft waves rolled across the water, and the taste of salt lingered on my tongue. Gulls cried softly overhead, circling and wheeling through the air. My bare feet sank into the wet sand as foamy waves licked at my toes.
“Is it like you imagined it would be?” His voice was soft and warm in my ear.
“No,” I whispered. “It’s better.”