Elemental (25 page)

I considered this for a moment. “So what
does that mean?”

His eyes returned to mine. “Pairs are
selected at a very young age. When those two young ones release
their wings for the very first time, the drilium from both Auri
react with each other, changing each other, infusing with one
another, and become a matched set.”

“And?” I could tell there was more.

“The drilium never forgets the bond. The
pairs call to each other and when they’re close, the chemicals
react. But when they’re apart, they grow weak. Bonded pairs can’t
live without each other.” He half-smiled, but wiped it away almost
immediately. “Only the strongest can survive the kind of separation
we went through. If we hadn’t been reunited, our bodies would
eventually have become so weak they wouldn’t have been able to
support themselves.”

So that was the secret. That was the
lie
. The hovering cloud of fury sank to the ground as the
cold truth threatened to choke me. Every feeling I’d had for
him—and whatever he felt for me—was completely contrived. He was
only here because he didn’t want to die, not because of some
long-ago friendship we might’ve had. Not because he cared.

No wonder he’d wanted to keep it from me. He
just wanted to string me along and keep me close because of his own
selfishness.

“None of it was real,” I murmured. For him
or me. And that was the worst part; my own body had betrayed
me.

“That’s not true!” He tried to take a step
forward, but I slammed him against the wall. “Ella, please listen
to me. I was ecstatic when they told me we were to be bonded.”

“Of course you were.” My voice was dead. I
couldn’t feel anything for him anymore, not even hate. “Who
wouldn’t be overjoyed to be stuck with the Aurume?”

Horror crossed his face and I almost
believed it. But then I remembered what a great liar he’d been.
Like all the times he’d told me there were no more secrets, no more
surprises.

“I never cared about that.
Never
. You
were my best friend. Of course I wanted to be with you!”

“How can you expect me to believe a word
that comes out of your mouth?” I leaned toward him. “You let Meir
die. If you cared even an ounce for me, you would’ve known to
protect him as vehemently as you protected me.”

Cailen’s face fell. “I didn’t know. I didn’t
see.”

I threw every bit of force I could muster at
him. His head smacked against the wall and his body fell limp.

No, Cailen hadn’t seen because he was too
busy worrying about himself. I’d been a fool to ever trust him—a
fool to ever trust anyone.

That’s when I turned on Malik.

“Ella, don’t.”

Silly Malik—he actually thought he could
calm me down this time. It might’ve worked in the past, but now I
wanted
him
to suffer.

I ordered the gale to swirl around me.
Cailen slumped to the floor. A cursory glance let me see he was
still alive and healing slowly. No matter how angry I was with him,
I wouldn’t become the monster I feared.

Blood pooled around his head.

I turned to Malik. “You knew the Mamood
would attack the shuttles.”

“I knew it was a possibility.” His voice
stayed neutral.

“No!” I roared and threw the wind at him. He
slammed against the wall just as Cailen had. A glimmer of fear
skittered across his face for a second before he could replace it
with his infuriatingly calm façade.

I wanted to see that fear again.

“More than a possibility! You knew it would
happen!” He’d risked all our lives to keep his damn Mamood secrets.
Now my savior—the only person who’d never let me down—was dead. A
new idea crossed my mind—if he didn’t want to admit to the murder
he’d helped his people commit, I’d take the breath from his lungs
as payment.

Terror twisted every smooth feature on
Malik’s face as I drew the air out of his lungs. He didn’t hold
back; he let me see it all. His face turned red, then blue. When
his eyes rolled up and his head slumped against his shoulder, I let
him go.

Though the monster raged just beneath the
surface, I refused to let it take complete control. I wouldn’t sink
to their level and be responsible for their deaths.

I turned my back on Malik and focused the
blue points of light against the door. Metal creaked and groaned
against the strain, but after just a few seconds of fight, it gave
up. The door flew away, ripping most of the wall away with it. It
slammed into the wall across the hall and fell to the floor with a
loud thud and a clang. The soldiers were in full panic mode as they
brought their rifles up and pointed them at me. The air hummed as
the weapons charged, but not quick enough to stop me. I shoved them
away with a burst of air and turned back the way we’d come.

The soldiers outside my room started firing.
I froze. They were too fast; I couldn’t stop them in time. Red
beams slammed into me. I cringed, waiting for the scorching pain. I
felt only a tingling warmth, a tickle.

I looked down. The energy dispersed
throughout my dress, crackling and fizzing out.

Interesting.

That gave me a new idea. Whatever material
the dress was made out of, it obviously had special protective
abilities. I wondered if the cloak did as well. Cailen had seemed
to value the dresses. He said I’d need them, especially now the
Mamood had arrived.

I pushed air at the three soldiers and
barely noticed as they flew down the hall. I had something far more
important to attend to. I blew the door away from my room and
retrieved the cloak—it still lay on the bed where I’d thrown it
earlier. I didn’t really want to traverse the entire underground
bunker. There was no way to tell how big it was—though I assumed it
must have been massive if it could shelter the entire Soltakian
military—and I had no way to know how to get out the conventional
way, regardless. I did have another option available to me,
though.

Transport.

The tingling in my blood submitted to my
beckoning, urging the flesh to separate and release the wings
beneath. My beautiful white wings burst forth, bold and iridescent,
and I concentrated on Ranen’s estate as I let them flap.

Swirls of grey and silver light intermingled
and eventually gave way to green and black, rolling in and out like
waves on the seashore. When I was sure I had reached my desired
destination, I halted my wings and folded them back beneath my
skin.

Soltak’s green moon illuminated the black
night, casting hazy shadows on the ground. Ranen’s crumbled home
stood as a perfect testament to my life: everything good, strong,
and beautiful must eventually perish. Those red points of light I’d
carefully ignored were now at the forefront of my attention. I drew
only a dozen of the lights together—just a spark—and let the flame
dance a few inches in front of me.

“Manoo!” I knew he would hear me. His
servant, Fire, was certainly listening. “I’m here! I’m not running
anymore! Come and face me!”

The spark flickered, and then twisted in the
air and grew, swirling and morphing. The flames swelled in the
shape of a ball for just a second before they twisted in on
themselves and the form of a faceless man stood crackling in front
of me. It threw its head back and laughed, deep and menacing. “Is
this my Destructor? A little girl?”

My teeth snapped shut even as hints of
terror started to percolate in my blood. “I am the one chosen by
El.”

“Then El must have a sense of humor. Or He
has no idea what He’s doing. You are not ready to face me… But I
gladly accept the offer.”

I waited, but he didn’t move. “Then fight
me! Don’t just stand there like a coward!” Perhaps egging him on
wasn’t the best course of action, but I was beyond the ability to
reason. This… thing… whatever he was… was responsible for Meir’s
death. There was nothing I wanted more than to make Manoo share in
that fate.

“No.”

“What?” My blood burned for release. I
craved the destructive force required to bring him down like water.
I shook my head and growled.

“I’m not going to fight you.” The fiery form
took one step closer to me and hissed. “I’m going to destroy
you.”

The flames erupted into waves and swirled
around me, trapping me inside. I pushed at the lights, ordering
them to bend to my will, but they did not obey. Fire was in
control.

Fury boiled out of me and I screamed.

Chapter
Twenty
:

Back to Hell

My captors kept me on a very tight leash.
Literally. As soon as they were able to maneuver around the fiery
cage that’d trapped me on Ranen’s estate, they’d shackled my neck
and wrists with some kind of energy bracelets—the same energy
that’d buzzed through
Sho’ful
, making my muscles feel like
mush—and hauled me onto one of their fighters. I was helpless—and
infuriated—as Fire hovered just inches away, ready to burn me to
the ground if I did anything to escape or fight back.

The Mamood Capital planet of Kalhandthar was
exactly as I’d always imagined it to be: cold, hard, and
utilitarian. The only thing remotely beautiful—and really, it was
more gaudy than anything with its rotund pillars and red and gold
mosaics—was Manoo’s temple at the Kofra’s palace.

We were greeted on the palace grounds by the
Kofra himself in his burgundy and gold robes, a troop of Tarmean
soldiers, and three massive hounds who stood like sentinels at the
Kofra’s side.

My stomach twisted. I knew beyond any doubt
those were the same kind of hounds as the ones on
Sho’ful
.
They were exactly as I’d always pictured them: big and mean with
lots of teeth, and frothing at the mouth. As soon as the dozen or
so of my captors escorted me down the ramp onto the palace lawn
with rifles pointed at my head and chest, the hounds started
howling and clawing at the ground to get at me. Inadequately-sized
men held what appeared to be very flimsy chains around the hounds’
necks.

Though terror made sweat bead on my skin, I
didn’t falter. There was no doubt in my mind Manoo and his
followers would revel in seeing my fear, but I would not give it to
them. I tried not to think about Ranen’s warning that if I went
down this particular path—sacrifice—I would lose. That line of
thinking wouldn’t help me keep my cool façade.

The Kofra glided up to me as soon as my
party halted a few yards away from him. He was younger—a lot
younger—than I would’ve guessed. Though I’d never known much about
Mamood politics, I did know it centered around the Kofra. I’d
always assumed he was some crumpled old man wasting away on his
throne. The boy staring back at me with raptor eyes barely looked
older than Cailen or Malik.

“Welcome.” He dipped his head then spread
his arms out toward the men behind him. “We’ve been eagerly
awaiting your arrival.”

I almost laughed at his absurd greeting. His
expression remained innocent, as if he hadn’t amassed his men to
murder me, but was instead welcoming me to some quaint gathering of
friends.

When I said nothing, he continued, “I hope
you were treated well on your way here. I would hate to learn any
of my people behaved rudely to one such as yourself.” His words
dripped like honey off the tongue. So sweet and pure, I was
half-inclined to believe them.

But I remembered what the Mamood had done to
Meir and his words lost their power. This Kofra was the enemy.

I glared back at his smug smile. “They let
me sleep, but I can’t say much good about them.” I lifted my
wrists. “They did put me in chains, after all.”

He chuckled and looked adoringly at the men
pointing rifles at me. “For their protection alone, I assure
you.”

I just shook my head. Ridiculous. What was
going on in this man’s head? Did he actually think I was the bad
guy here? They deserved El’s judgment.

Manoo, though, wasn’t playing along. I’d
hoped he would fight me on Soltak, ending it there, but coward that
he was, he seemed insistent I just bow down and offer myself up as
his tasty little meal.

The Kofra stepped to my side and wrapped his
arm around my shoulders. His soldiers tensed and gripped their
rifles. He didn’t seem to notice their anxiety. “Come, let us get
you prepared. We still have some time before the ceremony and you
must gather your strength.”

Instinctively, I looked to the sky. The
afternoon sun hovered at eye level above the horizon, turning the
clouds ablaze with bright reds and oranges.

With a wary eye, I watched him as he led me
to his palace. There was something not quite right. I’d expected
beatings and starvation, not these kind words. My presuppositions
were being threatened, but I clung to them with all my strength. I
needed the hate to boil in my blood in order to find the strength
to do what needed to be done. If I wasn’t careful, this man would
undermine all my intentions.

His soldiers didn’t leave his side. They
marched in formation with the Kofra’s hounds leading the pack as we
left the grounds behind and traversed the wide, marble halls.
Despite the man’s seeming indifference and robust confidence, those
under him were not so easily assuaged. It didn’t seem to matter to
them that I had at least two hundred rifles pointed at me and three
hounds ready to rip my throat out the moment I made a wrong move.
For a moment, I got a glimpse of what it meant to be the
Destructor. Their fear was not determined or undermined by my
petite and half-starved form; they knew I was something more
underneath this physical mirage.