On Wicked Ground (Solsti Prophecy Book 4) (27 page)

She let out a huge breath and held up both hands for Caine to high five. “I did it!”

“Hell yeah, you did.” Caine grabbed her hands instead of slapping them and tugged her close. “That rocked. You feel okay?”

“Great.” She couldn’t stop a huge grin from spreading across her face.

“You know, your energy signature…” Caine said, eyes bright. “I can sense it. It’s unique.”

Many creatures gave off a trace of energy when they used magic, so his comment made sense. “Really? What’s it like?”

He blew out a breath. “Not good at descriptions, but…it’s kinda like sparks.”

“Sparks?”

“Yeah, along the ground. Never sensed anything like it.” He stepped closer. “It’s probably a good thing that you haven’t been using your power, if it leaves such a rare trace.” A dark look crossed his face. “Better to not use it, and avoid the wrong kind of attention. Like Arawn said, Sebastian could’ve been kidnapped, to force your hand. And you wouldn’t have even known what you truly were.”

She swallowed. All this time, her power had lain inside her, just waiting to be used. “Yeah. I was completely convinced my cloaking ability was all I could do. I never considered anything else.”

“Maybe that was on purpose.” Caine eyed a raven that squawked overhead.

“What do you mean?”

“If the earth healed you, maybe it also provided the cloaking skill to protect you in two ways.” He held up a hand. “One, simply to hide you. And two, to distract you from using your main talent until you were ready or had adequate protection.”

“Wow, I never thought of that.” She dropped her eyes to a patch of scrubby grass at her feet. The “price” of her health seemed insane and needlessly cruel…but if the earth had healed her, and given her more power as a safeguard? It was overwhelming.

She shook her head and shoved the thoughts away. Might as well focus on what she could control, like her ability, rather than what she couldn’t. “I’m going to make a larger crack.” She turned away and studied the dirt ten feet in front of her, clearing her mind of everything save for the image of a foot-wide gash in the ground.

A rolling, barely discernible sensation of power rumbled beneath her feet, only lasting a few seconds. Grass ripped and soil sifted, and there before her lay the gap she had imagined.

She whirled back to face him. “It worked! That was exactly what I wanted to do!”

He stared at the gouge, eyes wide with appreciation. “That has incredible potential in a battle situation. Can you make one even bigger?”

“I bet I can.” She swung back to the jagged ground and projected a mental image of an enormous fault line that split the valley.

Again the ground beneath her feet rumbled and the earth heaved and creaked. Then it split wide.

“Whoa!” Alina backed up into Caine as the earth tore itself in two. A tree toppled into the gouge, its foundation gone. “Oops.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

The crack stretched in length, heading toward the river.

“Can you stop it now? Before it diverts the water?” Caine held a hand up to block the sun as he looked down the valley. “There’s a water sprite colony downstream, several miles away, but we don’t want to cause them any harm.”

“Oh! Yes, I can.”
Stop.
She issued the order with calm assurance, knowing on a deep level that she was in control of every speck of dirt around them.

In a blink, all motion stopped.

The river continued on its original path, bubbling cheerfully, and for second she thought of Brooke. She could make that water do whatever she wanted. And that would definitely come in handy against enemies.

Her eyes returned to the incredible rearrangement of the valley’s topography. “Oh my gosh.”

A huge gash ran the length of the valley, just as she had commanded. Piles of fresh dirt were heaped at the edges. No creatures moved, as if nature had been thoroughly surprised. Only the river lent its rushing sound to the still valley.

“Holy shit.” Caine turned her in his arms. “Alina, do you realize what you can do?”

“Well, yeah. I guess—”

“You could ask the earth to swallow up an
army
.” His voice held wonder and awe. “With your mind. That’s …” He shook his head. “I know you four are powerful. I’ve heard the reports of what your sisters have done. But seeing you do it just brings it all home. Your power can be lethal, just like theirs.”

“Well, but…” She frowned. Did he think she was a danger to anyone?  “That’s good. That’s what we need, right?”

“Yes, it’s what the whole world needs.” He stroked a finger down her cheek. “I think it makes even more sense now, the closeness of your sisters. They were loved, cared for. Even before they were born, look what Ashina did.”

She nodded, feeling the weight of her grandmother’s angst at sending her baby to Earth with a stranger.

“And,” he went on, “that love keeps you on the good side. Keeps you grounded.” He smirked.

“Ha, ha, grounded.” She punched his arm, but was thankful for the joke. “I’ll ground you later.”

“You better.” He winked. “But I mean it. If the wrong females were born with this power, they could destroy the world.”

“True.” And even if she’d lived a life of crime, it was only to survive. Not to make others suffer.

She turned to look again at the gouge. “Let’s take a closer look.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward it.

They stood on the edge and looked down into a ravine about thirty feet deep. She glanced to her right, wincing as she saw the downed tree at the bottom, parts of its roots still connected as if clinging to a lifeline. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“You didn’t mean to do it,” Caine said.

“I know, but the least I can do is get it out of there. If I get it back on the ground, maybe it can still be a home for some kind of critter.” She concentrated on the dirt below the tree and willed it to gather and push the tree up. Slowly, with branches breaking and groaning, the tree was raised up, with a pile of dirt under it. When it reached the surface, Alina visualized the tree on its side at the top of the ravine.

Once again, her power manifested exactly as she told it to.

“I’m gonna close this up now,” she said.

Caine nodded and they walked back from the edge. Concentrating just as she had before, Alina sealed the fault.

Caine’s eyes raked over her, assessing. “How do you feel?”

“Fine! Like I could do that all day.”

“Good. Because I can think of a lot more things for you to do.”

“Now?”

“That’s up to you.”

“Tell me.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “You could open holes, instead of big gashes, maybe under one creature. You could cause a dust storm, maybe.” He frowned. “That might be Nicole’s area. But you could create a wall of earth, or create a gap to keep enemy forces from reaching their destination.”

“Or bring buildings down,” she added.

“Yeah.” He paced in front of her. “There are some predatory species that are hard to bring down. Some who have flame resistant skin and are good swimmers. But you could handle them.”

“This is so cool,” she said. “It feels so good to have a purpose. And to have the gaps filled in. To find my family.”
And to hang out with you
. “Let’s keep practicing.”

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-O
NE

C
AINE
’
S
PHONE
BUZZED
IN
THE
pocket of his fatigues. He pulled it out and saw Brenin’s number on the screen. “Yo.”

“Was that Alina? All of it?” His friend’s voice carried no shortage of wonder.

“Hell yeah, it was.”

Brenin’s low whistle carried through the phone and through the quiet valley. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah.” Caine’s glance dropped to his little Solsti. “We’re gonna work on a few more things. Everything look good on your end?”

“Yup. Everything’s really calm. It’s almost odd.”

“I would agree, but her energy signature is so different…the local creatures may be adjusting to it. Just keep doing what you’re doing.” Caine ended the call and met Alina’s gaze.

“Brenin?” she asked.

He nodded. “He’s impressed. Actually—”

A low rumble started beneath their feet. He reached for Alina. “What are you doing?”

Green, surprised eyes locked with his. “N-nothing. I’m not doing anything.”

“Then what the—”

A wall of earth pushed up from the gouge Alina had just sealed. The air filled with the sound of snapping brush twigs and the scent of freshly turned earth…and something else. The hair on the back of Caine’s neck stood up. He reached for his phone to tell Brenin this was some kind of threat, that this was most definitely not Alina’s doing, when a wail tore through the valley.

Pressed against him, Alina had gone still. The air crackled with her unique energy signature.

Pride at her power warred with wariness and he looked down at her. “Alina?”

“I’m trying anything to make this stop, whatever it is.” Determination laced her words.

The ground beneath them shook so violently that he bent to a crouch, hovering in a fighting stance and shifting his weight just to keep them both upright. The dirt groaned and split apart in a crack that reached from Alina’s gouge toward them with frightening speed.

“Hold on!” Alina shouted, and Caine felt a surge of her power. The edges of the new crack slammed together, creating a cloud of dirt and dust.

“We need to get out of here. This way.” He tugged her hand.

She tried to follow but the soil gave a mighty shove right beneath them, and her hand slipped from his grasp. A fresh gouge split the earth wide. She fell, rolling away on a newly-made decline.

“No!” He roared and dove after her, reaching her by sheer force of will and wrapping his arms around her. They rolled together, faster and faster. Alina’s hands dug into his arms as she held on.

In glimpses in the few seconds he was upright, he saw they were falling toward the new crack in the ground, created in the same place where Alina had opened and resealed the earth. And that wail, which hadn’t stopped, was coming from within. “Can you stop this?” he shouted over the noise.

“I’m trying, but I can’t see where to focus!”

Caine couldn’t stop the jostling and slamming of their bodies into the ground, couldn’t slow their frenzied tumble. The edge of the gap neared. He gritted his teeth and held her tighter. The best he could hope for was to cushion their fall by landing beneath her.

For several seconds they fell, weightless and spiraling into darkness, until they landed with a jolt.

Caine had managed to land on the bottom, and the slam of his body into the ground made his breath whoosh out. Lack of oxygen wasn’t first on his mind, however. “Alina.” He pushed up, sucking air into his lungs and coughing.

Her own coughing came from his side, where she had slid upon impact. “I’m here.” She cast her arm out in an arc. “I can’t see. Where are you?”

He wrapped her in his arms. “I’ve got you.” He pulled her close enough to feel her shaking. “Are you—” 

The space around them vibrated and a fine shower of dust rained down on their heads. Above them, the jagged edges of the gap they’d fallen into rumbled and crept closer together.

Sealing them in with an ominous thud.

Alina shielded her eyes from the falling grit.

Caine leapt to his feet, but the lurching ground made it impossible to stand. The terrain around them groaned as if protesting the barrage of movement. Then it simply ceased. Everything went quiet except for a few clumps of dirt that broke free above and crumbled down. Over to one side, a spray of pebbles bounced and rolled to a stop.

Alina huffed out a breath. “What was that? I should be the only one who can move the earth, right?”

“Yeah, you should be.”

“Whatever it was, it worked faster than I could.” She shook her head. “I tried, but it was so hard to concentrate.”

“I know you tried. Maybe you can do something from down here.” He peered left and right. “We need to get out one way or another.” He pulled out his phone and tried to punch in Brenin’s number, but the device stayed dark. What the hell? Their phones drew power from the realm’s ley lines. They should never stop working. Muttering a curse, he reached into his pocket for the pre-spelled transportation amulet that would bring them back to HQ, and came up empty. He checked the rest of his pockets. Goddamn it. It must have fallen out as they tumbled and slammed down into this…
what exactly is this?

He released a steady breath and took stock of their surroundings. “We’re in some kind of underground cave. It’s huge.” A low screech echoed across the wide space.
What in the fucking hell is that?
“Can you stand?”

“Yes.” She scrambled to her feet, shaking dirt off her clothes, her movements as jittery and nervous as her voice. “What is that noise?”

“No clue, but I think we’re about to find out.” Using the power of his mind, Caine summoned a fireball in his hand. It served as a light for Alina as well as a warning to whatever was down here with them.

The light wavered as it bobbed just above his palm, then shrank to the barest ember as a blast of air shot through them.

“Caine?” She pressed against his side, then gave a little squeak.

He stared in the direction she was looking.
What the fuck?

At one end of the cavern, a reddish shape moved. No,
many
reddish shapes. They glowed with an incandescent light that radiated from within their arms and legs. Vaguely human, their legs didn’t take steps; rather, they seemed to float.

And they moved fast. Red light flared within and sparks raced around and across their tattered clothing. Faces drawn in sneers, they held ancient-looking weapons. Within seconds, Caine and Alina were surrounded.

Caine locked Alina close to his body with one arm and raised his sword with the other.

The forms hovered. Their wails had died down to an eerie, continuous undertone. Dread built in the pit of Caine’s stomach as he assessed the first line of creatures and realized he was looking
through
them. And he could clearly see the next row and the next. They weren’t corporeal?