Just Breathe (42 page)

“I think I broke my arm.” He spat more sand from his lips and glanced at his dangling appendage. Fuck, that hurt.

She nodded and squatted beside him. “Let me see.”

Without giving him notice to brace himself, she snapped the two pieces of bone back into place with a gut-churning, excruciating pop. He clenched his jaw so hard, he almost broke a tooth. “A little warning next time?”

She laid her fingers over the break, and healing Earth energy flowed into his skin, weaving the tissues beneath back together. “You’ll be okay.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I’m not sure what happened to the Dreamweaver. I’m going to find Vexx and Whetu and get them out of here. They’ve done their part.” Lips set in an unwavering line, Jet stood and walked toward a patch of burning trees. Dots of blood oozed through the back of her shirt.

Strange. She didn’t seem injured. But he had other things to worry about at the moment.

Gavin flexed his arm, wiggled his fingers. Much better. He got up and jogged to a Fyre bearing down on a cluster of cowering Wyldlings. Without a thought, he hosed the fucker into soggy ash.

Zoe. He needed to find her.

Shouts and cries from the other side of a monster dune drew Gavin’s attention. He clambered to the top and looked down. A hundred or more flying red Elementals darted across the matching crimson sky, dive-bombing unsuspecting Wyldlings. Balls of flaming Fyres detonated like bombs, taking humans with them. The few Sentinels sprinkled into the mix did little to stop the explosions.

Gavin’s heart clenched, paralyzing him. This was fucking hopeless.

Under the Fyres’ attacks, people faded out of existence like snuffed candles, leaving nothing behind but trails of wispy smoke.

Someone had to stop these fuckers.

His pulse kicked into gear and shook him from the momentary daze. Gavin channeled Water to his hands and tore down the hill, pausing only long enough to shoot any Fyres in his path. He landed several hits, but none took any Elementals out. The havoc they’d been wreaking in Realis had fed them well. Another blanket of despair descended like a murder of crows.

But when he reached the bottom of the dune, his dark mood lifted. Blue lights shone from about fifty bodies storming onto the battlefield. They blended with the red sky, tinting it purple.

Zoe’s army of Elementals.

Gavin grinned. She did it.

As the Wæters closed, the Fyres issued a collective gasp. The few who turned tail and ran were promptly caught by bigger Fyres and dragged hissing and spitting to the front lines.

Random vortexes kicked up, powered by Shadows, Fire, and chaos. Burnt emotions scorched the atmosphere. Warring reds and blues snuffed out every other color in the Dreaming. No place for coherent, yellow thought or green physical healing here. The auras, the land, the air itself oozed Fire and Water.

As the Fyres diverted focus from Wyldlings to Wæters, some of the humans got smart and woke up. But many remained—probably too shocked, scared, or panicked to leave. The Wæters’ arrival took a little pressure off the Sentinels and allowed them to help Wyldlings back to Realis. Even with that break, the slaughter continued.

A river of bodies, the Wæters gushed toward the Fyres, their blue limbs targeted, Water blasters powered up. Gavin picked through the group until his gaze stumbled upon his beautiful blond muse, right up front, leading the Elemental charge.

Pride welled in his chest, replacing worry for her safety as he sprinted to her side.

“I gotta say, blue is definitely your color.”

Her head jerked to face him, and she puffed a laugh. “Oh my God. I thought you were dead!” Zoe tossed her arms around him.

Water surged between them, stifling the Fire spluttering in his chest. Damn Scarlet. Gavin broke the hug and tugged Zoe out of the ranks. He nodded to the Elementals. “Looks like they have the Fyres covered. What say you head back to Realis where it’s a wee bit safer? I’m sure you’d—”

“I said I’d see this fight through to the end, and I will. Besides, I’m just getting warmed up.”

Damn. Could he respect this woman any more than he already did?

Jack appeared on Zoe’s other side and slapped the back of his arm. “Gavin. I’m glad you made it out, man. Where are the others?” He glanced around.

“Jet’s grabbing Vexx and Whetu now. Not sure about Xanthos. Byrn…uh…well, he didn’t…” Gavin scratched the back of his head.

Jack’s chin tilted up. “Byrn’s dead?”

“What?” Zoe’s eyes widened.

Screams rose around them. Chaos blurred the scenery into nondescript chunks of blue mixed with dancing red and orange flames. Steamy sulfur tainted the air. The Wæters were
crushing
the Fyres. “I’m sorry, Jack. He’s gone.”

Jack’s top lip quivered. He nodded once, and his gaze fell to the soot beneath their feet before returning to Gavin’s. “I’ve had enough. Let’s finish these bastards off. For Byrn.” The determination in his voice wove a contagious spell.

Gavin’s Water tattoos lit up, shooting beams of light everywhere. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” Liquid energy channeled from his heart, down his arms, to the tips of his fingers. Fire cowered inside his chest. Good.

He took aim at a group of three Fyres bandying a petrified-looking elderly man between them, and mentally ripped the cord damming his Water.

Whoosh!

“Yes!” Zoe shouted as the Fyres melted into red, bubbling slime. She ran to the frightened man and helped him toward the Veil. Pride swelled Gavin’s heart to twice its size. Gods, he loved that woman. Fearless, selfless, and strong. His muse in so many ways.

At Gavin’s side, Jack rolled his shoulders, his hands glowing neon blue. A squadron of five more Fyres swooped down from the acid sky, heading for a clump of trembling humans. Terror lit the Wyldlings’ faces as they fumbled for each other and balled together.

“You ready?” Jack said.

“Yep,” Gavin replied. “On three.”

“One.” Jack shook out his hands, then balled them into fists in front of him. The Fyres screeched in unison, teeth bared under the flames leaping off their faces.

“Two.” Gavin inhaled heavily. Repositioned his aim.

“Three,” they said together and cut loose a double surge of Water. Red bodies arched at awkward angles, curses sizzled from wide-open mouths, and soggy sacks of flesh slopped like wet mud to the ground in a perfect circle around the cluster of Wyldlings. Hell fucking yes. Gavin could get used to fighting beside Jack.

Jack cracked his neck with a jerk left, then right. “That was for Byrn, you assholes.”

Three Fyres swooped in from behind. One barreled Gavin face-first into the dirt, and the other two took Jack. The heat of the thing pressing on Gavin’s back roused Scarlet’s Fire inside him. Screw that. He rolled hard, tossed the Elemental off, and scrambled on top of him, straddling the bastard. Channeling Earth, he pulled back his fist and busted the fucker’s mouth loose from its hinges. Blood dripped down his chin and cheeks, mingling with the ashes into a blackish paste. Red eyes wide and jaw dangling, the Fyre twisted under him, but Gavin went for another blow. And another. His Fire got the better of him for a split second, enjoying the violence a little too much.

Jack stumbled over after having dispatched his Elementals and targeted his blue fingers like a gun on Gavin’s Fyre. He pulled the Watery trigger, and the bastard’s head exploded in a hiss of steam. The Fyre dissolved under Gavin with a terrifying shriek.

“Good show, mate,” Gavin said as he leapt off the remains and bowled into two more. Earth-fueled, he relied on physical strength to take out the weaker Elementals and saved his Water for the bigger ones.

Long fangs dripping acidic saliva flashed as he got caught between two Fyres. He cold-cocked one straight into the other. The impact from the spin dropped them both to the ground. Clouds of fine gray dust puffed up. Gavin conjured a long blue dagger from the Dreaming’s mists and gutted them both as they lay choking. Blood and steam mingled with cries and flailing arms.

Grunts behind him drew Gavin’s attention. Four Fyres surrounded Jack. Kicks, jabs, and elbows whirred from the center of the circle where Jack’s blurry blue form flashed. He moved so fast, Gavin couldn’t even see him.

Gavin jumped on the nearest Fyre’s back, swung his arm up, and thrust the Watery shiv into the demon’s chest. Screeches deafened him as the beast bucked. Gavin held on tight, stabbing the fucker repeatedly until there was nothing left but smoke and the echo of a death cry hanging on the wind.

Jack spun free of a glittering blue whirlpool and landed in a crouch. Three anemic red puddles lay triangulated around his feet.

“You’ve been holding out on me, Jack. I don’t recall you ever teaching me that move.” Fucking hell, it was brilliant.

Jack shined his fingernails on his filthy shirt and blew on them. “It’s my signature attack. They don’t call me Jack ‘Tornado’ Weaver for nothing.”

Gavin high-fived him and turned to check on Zoe. When he did, his heart faltered.

A colossus of steaming red flames as tall as a city block parted the Dreaming’s acid clouds as it lumbered over the dunes. Cries faded to whimpers. Fighting paused. Air thickened to the consistency and color of blood. Every Wyldling, Sentinel, and Elemental turned toward the rhythmic steps flattening everything in the creature’s path.

“What the hell is that?” Gavin rubbed his burning Fire tattoos, which had suddenly lit up like a satellite beacon from outer space. Zoe darted to his side and clutched his hand. Scarlet’s Fire smiled inside his soul. He swallowed.

“‘Hell’ pretty much sums it up. Meet Archelemental Eidan,” Jack said.

Chapter Forty-three

“
That’s
the Fyres’ Archelemental?” Zoe couldn’t believe her bugged-out eyes. He was so big, her brain couldn’t process what it was seeing. The monstrous golem of a beast burning up the sky, choking the wind, shook her to her shoes. Even though he was a half a kilometer away, the heat barreled off him like an inferno.

Gavin turned to Jack. “What are our options?”

Her father shook his head.

“It’s my turn. Come on, we need to get to the ocean.” Zoe grabbed Gavin and Jack’s arms and coaxed them down the beach, into the sea.

On land, Wyldlings scattered like frightened rabbits. The few Sentinels herded unwieldy crowds toward the rift in the Veil linking the two worlds.
Her
two worlds.

Seconds slowed as people overran each other, stumbled, cried, screamed. She understood their panic, but for the first time, she didn’t share it. Memories of a life filled with anxiety attacks, of living in fear of what her body might do at the drop of a hat, flipped like pages before her eyes. She slammed the book closed.

No. I will not allow fear to rule me ever again.

The pissed off Archelemental headed straight for them, but she wasn’t afraid. She had Water. That was all she needed.

Sweat dripped down her face. She clutched Gavin’s hand on one side and took Jack’s on the other. The two most important men in her world puffed out their chests and stood tall. Water rushed between the three of them in waves. Currents danced, power streamed, love surged.

Eidan loomed closer.

Smoky air filled her lungs. In. Out. In. Out. “Are you ready?” she asked.

Jack tightened his grip and nodded.

Gavin flashed a proud smile at her. “Ready.”

She closed her eyes and freed her mind of everything but the whales. Her thoughts merged with theirs inside and outside of the Dreaming. She sensed their emotions ebbing and flowing in the ocean: peace, regret, joy, trust, worry, sadness, loss, and love. Drawing those overwhelming, fluid feelings closer, she welcomed all of them—the happy, the sad, and the neutral—inside her open heart until it brimmed with Water.

Her lids snapped open. Hair thrashed around her face. She focused on the hellacious Archelemental barreling through the Dreaming toward her. And she did the only thing she could.

She sang.

The tune began as this year’s humpback whale song.
Upsweep, drag, chirp. Wop-wop. Squeal.
She repeated the notes and phrases just as the whales she loved had taught her.

The Archelemental continued on course but slowed a bit. Some of the shouting behind her eased.

The music shifted. She shared the story her Elemental friend Guppy had told of an ancient time when whales first came into being. Zoe chronicled the arrival of man, the tragedy of whaling, and the triumph of humanity’s eventual compassion. Focusing on the emotional aspects of the whales’ history, she conjured an ever-growing stream of Water.

Join me, friends. Help me take both of our worlds back from those who wish them harm. Help me bring song back to the Dreaming. Help me restore peace…

Movement surrounded her, but it wasn’t the frenzied, sputtering kind that had dominated the Dreaming moments ago. Now it was fluid.

Her body acting as a tuning fork, she channeled the scattered emotions of millions through her heart and poured them out of her mouth. A great wave welled, rose, peaked…

When it crashed, another precarious levy in the Veil burst and flooded the sleeping realm with water and the loudest, most beautiful, all-encompassing sound she’d ever experienced.

Thousands
of humpbacks rushed through the open gates of the Dreaming, a wash of pure, primary blue drowning nearly every bit of red, save that of the Archelemental fuming toward her, seething with murderous hatred.

Whale voices joined her song. The sheer immensity of sound sloshed and bubbled the sea. They sang in perfect harmony, not a single pitch off, every note in sync. The entire mood of the Dreaming shifted to something deep, lovely, awe-inspiring. The place became a watery blue realm.

The unearthly power of the whales’ majestic entrance and accompanying tidal wave throttled Gavin and Jack from her grip, hurling them in opposite directions. She spun around, worried they might’ve been hurt. Hissing, screeching Fyres took to the skies, clasping hands over ears. Despite their attempts at escape, many fell victim to the Water and evaporated, leaving behind red-tinged puffs of ash.