Flame Caller (16 page)

“
I’ll take care of it,”
Alicia said, stepping over the pair.

She lowered her head against the
staggering wind.

“
Xander. Patrick. You need
to stop this.”

Neither man heard her yelling. The
wind stole her words from her lips as soon as they left her mouth.
She frowned and closed her eyes. She channeled the elemental power
to her fingertips. The air around her grew deadly still, a stark
contrast to the gale whirling around her. She could feel the
pressure building in her ears as she cultivated her
power.

The normally sweet, maternal woman’s
brow creased with frustration as she watched the two egotistical
men. She pushed her strength to its limits, knowing that nothing
short of her best would separate the two warriors. When she knew
she had done all she could, she took one strained step forward and
raised her hands above her head.

“
I said stop!”

She slammed her hands down to the
marble floor and an explosion ripped through the air.

Both men were lifted from their feet
by the blast and thrown to the ground. As quickly as it had
arrived, the tornado around the courtyard disappeared. The dark
skies cleared and brilliant sunlight streamed back through the
walls of the waterspout. Even the rolling thunder faded away into
the far distance.

Xander rolled onto his side and
clutched his ringing ears. The pressure had rattled his brain.
There was a faint trickle of blood seeping from his nose and he
reached up and wiped it away.

Across the courtyard, Patrick
struggled to a seated position as well. Between the men, the marble
tiles were shattered. Shards of stonework jutted up toward the sky,
forming rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Xander no longer felt the tug in his
gut as the power pulled at him. It was gone, leaving a hollow wake
in its absence. He felt exhausted, like the unnatural power had
pulled at his very soul. He brought his head up to his
chest.

From the corner of his eyes, he could
see Alicia climbing to her feet as well. Her normally smooth hair
was frizzy and unkempt. Her lips moved but he couldn’t hear
anything through the deafening ringing.

“
What?” he yelled, though
even his words seemed muffled. He was pretty sure he was screaming
far louder than was necessary.

Slowly, the sounds of the world
flooded back into Xander’s ears. He opened and closed his mouth a
couple times, stretching his jaw as Alicia’s words filtered back to
him.

“
Can you two hear me?” she
asked.

Xander struck the side of his head
with his palm, symbolically shaking away the deafness. Across from
him, Patrick mumbled something that sounded like agreement. Xander
nodded as well.

“
Good,” Alicia
said.

Giovanni and Thea, the latter of whom
looked far more disheveled than Xander ever remembered seeing her,
joined Alicia in the middle of the arena. Sammy pushed her way past
the trio and ran to Xander’s side.

“
Are you okay?” she asked
in a low tone that was hard for him to hear. He understood her
intent, however, and nodded to her as well. “I was worried about
you. You didn’t seem like you were in control.”

“
I’m fine,” he muttered
sourly.

Alicia turned her attention back to
Xander. “Are you better now?”

Xander’s eye narrowed as he looked
back at her. “No. I’m really not.”

He pushed himself to his feet,
ignoring the surprised expressions of his aunts and uncles. He
helped Sammy to her feet and pulled her in close.

“
Go get your stuff and
meet me at my house.” He looked over his shoulder to where Patrick
still sat on the shattered ground. “We’re leaving.”

Xander and Sammy pushed off from the
ground and immediately took to the air, passing through the wall of
the waterspout unhindered. Their lightly packed bags were carried
in the buffeted air around them. Neither of them had really spoken
since the episode in the courtyard. Sammy had packed quickly and
joined Xander without bothering to ask where they were going. Even
though Sammy was the recipient of most of Patrick and Thea’s
ridicule, Xander seemed far angrier about the situation.

As they sped over the Gulf of Mexico,
she reached out and took his hand.

The yacht rocked in the tall waves as
it coasted across the Gulf. The crew felt the tug in their core at
the same time. As a group, they looked up at the sky as the
silhouette of two people passed overhead.

A cloaked figure stepped out of the
captain’s quarters and followed the gazes of the other Fire
Warriors. The Wind Warrior’s power was unmistakable, even from
their distance.

General Abraxas pushed back his cowl,
letting the tropical sunlight fall over his burnt face. Reaching
up, he ran a hand over his bald palette, tracing what remained of
the plethora of tattoos over his scalp.

“
Do we follow them, sir?”
one of the Fire Warriors asked as the Wind Warrior fled toward the
mainland.

“
No,” Abraxas hissed. “Let
them go. We stick to the plan. By the time we’re done, the
stragglers will come to us.”

He raised his cowl back over his
melted facial features and turned back toward the captain’s
quarters.

“
Don’t bother me again
until we’re within sight of this ‘strange weather’ everyone keeps
talking about. I’ll be below decks, planning the slaughter of the
Wind Caste.”

The bayou gave way to forest as Xander
and Sammy sped over the landscape. His fingers were interlaced with
hers as they flew side by side. A few packed bags hovered in the
air behind them, seemingly floating of their own volition. A pocket
of air kept both people aloft and buffeted the bags along through
the sky as well.

Neither had really spoken since
leaving the Wind Warriors’ island. Xander had needed the time to
let the blood drain from his face and his racing heart to finally
relax. He had been infuriated enough to leave the island
immediately after his duel with Patrick without so much as a
farewell to any of his aunts and uncles.

Their time aloft had let his blood
cool. He wasn’t sorry he left so hastily. He wasn’t interested in
spending time around people who would use the death of his parents
as some sort of training aid. With some time flying, however, he
started to regret leaving without saying goodbye to his
grandfather. Even though he knew they’d return once some time had
passed, it seemed irresponsible of him to have not even stopped by
the building where his grandfather lay injured.

“
Penny for your thoughts?”
Sammy asked loudly. Despite the pocket of air around them deadening
some of the roar of the wind, it was still loud and heard to hear
one another.

“
I don’t know,” he
admitted. “I feel I have a thousand things bouncing around my brain
and none of them are what I should be worried about. I’m stressed
about my grandfather. I’m angry at Patrick and Thea. I’m
disappointed in Giovanni and Alicia, since they didn’t seem too
interested in stopping Patrick before everything escalated. I’m
worried about what the future holds for you and me.”

“
Those are all good things
to be thinking about. They all matter.”

Xander shook his head. “But the only
thing I should be thinking about is stopping the Fire Caste.
They’re right on the cusp of starting World War III and I’m worried
about someone talking bad about my parents. I need to be grounded
again, to get my head screwed on straight.”

“
Is that where we’re
going?” Sammy asked.

Xander smiled mischievously. “Yeah, we
are. There’s only one person I know that can keep me grounded.
There’s only one guy that’s a big enough jerk to look me in the
face after I got my powers and tell me he wasn’t impressed that now
I could break wind.”

Sammy laughed, despite the seriousness
of the situation ahead of them. “I have to assume you’re talking
about—”

“
Sean,” Xander finished.
He laughed to himself at the thought of his heavyset friend. “That
man gives the best advice in the world, no matter how weird his
advice may be.”

“
But he’s in White Halls,”
Sammy said, her smile fading away to a concerned frown. “The Fire
Warriors are probably still there.”

Xander shrugged as the forest beneath
them gave way to rolling hills, tall corn plants, and symmetrical
rows of vibrant, green soy plants. He knew they were close to the
Tennessee border, which meant it wouldn’t be that much longer until
they arrived at his old hometown.

“
They might be but I’m not
turning back. If they’re there and they’re looking for a
fight…”

“
Which they will be,” she
replied. “Assuming it’s the same Fire Warriors that came with me
when I showed up in town, killing you is the only reason they
exist.”

“
If they’re looking for a
fight,” Xander continued unfazed, “then I’ll give them more than
they can handle.”

Sammy squeezed his hand and flashed
him a nervous smile. “We will. We’ll give them hell
together.”