Elemental Hunger

  “Hanai?” I asked.

  “This is beyond what I can heal.”

  Adam, who had been mixing a mud concoction, slathered it over Jarvis’s fingers, hands, and wrists. The fire went out. He ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt, slopped mud on it, and laid it over Jarvis’s forehead.

  He used his air to try to smother the flames dancing over Jarvis’s clothes, but they continued to blaze. Adam cursed. “I’ll see if there are any Elemental cancellers in the car. His Element is killing him.” He stood and strode back to the sentry vehicle.

  I could not watch the flames incinerate Jarvis. I held my palm over his stomach and urged the fire to leave him. It rushed into my body, expanding into every crevice. And, blazes, it was hot.

  I fell backward, consumed by Jarvis’s power.

  “Gabby,” he murmured. His voice sounded so weak, so unlike the Firemaker I’d once known and loved.

  I scrambled back to him. “I’m here.”

  “I’m—I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” I whispered, pressing my hand to his forehead. “You’re going to be fine.”

  “I—I set the fire in Crylon.” He reached blindly for my hand. I gripped his between both of mine, shock quieting my reassurances.

  “Don’t let her…do to you…what she did to me.” He coughed, and this time the red was blood and not flames. “I’m c-cold. S-so c-cold.”

  “I took your Element. You were—” I cut off as he endured another round of coughing. I flinched away from the sound until it quieted.

  I looked down.

  He was dead.

  The flames burned twenty feet high. I watched them jump, refusing to breathe through my nose. I kept my eyes on the pinnacle of the pyre so I wouldn’t have to see the mournful eyes of Hanai. Or the angry glare of Adam. I really didn’t care who saw the smoke. Alex knew we were coming anyway.

  “The timeline is too fast,” Adam had argued. “Davison and his Council aren’t ready.”

  I didn’t care. He’d requested I come Tarpulin. He better blazing get ready.

  I watched the smoke ascend into the sky so I wouldn’t have to watch Jarvis’s flesh melt away, his bones blacken. Yet the images engrained themselves into my memory anyway. Something wet tickled my face. I didn’t wipe away the tears. I didn’t do anything. Just watched the flames, flickering in the crush of dark surrounding me. Focused on drawing breath one more time. Then another. The smoke would’ve brought serenity, but comfort was not welcome at this funeral.

  Eventually, I brought my knees to my chest and rested my head on them. The sobs came. My shoulders heaved, my heart wailed, my soul emptied itself into the tears and hiccups.

  For my dear Jarvis. My dutiful Educator Graham. My former roommate Patches.

  For my friends and Councilmembers Cat and Isaiah.

  For two people I loved: Adam and Hanai.

  And for myself.

  I cried and cried, even when Hanai wrapped me in the comfort and security of his arms.

  Dawn brought with it a city. Like a great fish hoisting itself out of deep water, Tarpulin rose from the depths of darkness with the sun. The waves reflected gold and pink into the sky. Just before the water, the city lay in a sprawling circle, a tall spire in the center stretching above the other buildings. Streets radiated from the Supremist’s fortress to an impenetrable city wall.

  On the southwest edge of the circle, a mountain reached into the morning sky. My fire burned hotter at the thought of what lay underneath: The Elemental school. The mound of earth spilled right over the towering wall.

  Beyond the wall lay endless plains.

  With a mass of sentries already headed our way.

  I got to my feet as icy tendrils of wind kissed the sweat coating my body and turned it into a layer of frost.

  “Adam.” I stumbled toward the hovercraft without looking away from the approaching sentries. Maybe they’re Davison’s, I thought, but I knew I was deluding myself. No matter whose they were, Adam would be able to read their minds.

  He sat up, his eyes bloodshot, before I could pound on the window. In the next moment, he wrenched open the door. “What is it?”

  I pointed toward the advancing sea of black.

  “Sentries,” we said at the same time.

  “Not ours,” Adam added, cocking his head to the side.

  To his credit, he didn’t scold me for revealing our position with Jarvis’s funeral pyre. He simply squeezed my hand and turned toward the vehicle. “Hanai. Wake up, man. We’ve got trouble. Gabby, get in the car.”

  Before I could take a step, a pillar of earth shot into the sky. A hulking man landed lightly next to the chasm, a steely glint in his eye.

  “Mr. Gillman,” he said.

  Adam stepped forward, pushing me behind him. “Lucas.”

  “Alex would like a word.” Lucas-the-Earthmover folded his arms.

  Adam didn’t answer. Hanai stepped next to me, sliding his hand into mine. This time, though, the desperation coursing through my bloodstream didn’t melt away. Lucas’s face relaxed instead.

  “She doesn’t need Adam,” Hanai said, his voice quiet but filled with authority. “Tell her you couldn’t find us.”

  Lucas almost smiled—or what I imagine would pass for a smile on his rough face. He leaped into the tunnel he’d made without another word.

  “Holy tornadoes, Hanai,” Adam said. “Unbelievable Element you’ve got there.” He turned toward me. “Get in the—”

  “Halt!”

  Five sentries—with guns pointed—stood before us. A moment later, a rush of wind blew my hair back, announcing the arrival of an Airmaster. He stepped from behind the sentries, clearly the reason they had arrived so fast.

  “Hi, Theodore.” Adam spoke without a hint of camaraderie. The Airmaster growled before taking off again, flying back toward Tarpulin.

  A sentry sneered and lifted a black box to his mouth. “We have the Elementals.”

  The box beeped, and a female voice said, “If they try to flee, kill them.”

  We stood there, the three of us staring down the barrels of five guns. In my head, I asked Adam a hundred times what we were going to do, but he didn’t move a single muscle.

  Minutes stretched into forever. Finally, the Supremist arrived, wearing a luxurious set of crimson robes. Her hair stood only half an inch long, and her cheekbones were sharp and angled. She appraised me with anger flowing freely through her expression.

  Relief flooded me. I’d accomplished what Davison wanted. If I could survive, I might actually have a chance at having a real Council, with a real city.

  “Adam.” She raised her hand and the sentries lowered their weapons. “Is that girl in your custody?”

  “You’re a girl too,” I snarled before I could quiet the words.

  “And now everyone knows it,” Hanai added.

  The Supremist trained her murderous eyes on me and then him before settling back on Adam. “So it seems.”

  For the first time, Adam shifted nervously.

  “I know you used your air—” she started.

  “Yes, I did,” he interrupted her.

  Something like betrayal—maybe hurt?—flickered across her face. Then she strengthened her jaw. “But—why?”

  Adam’s shoulders tightened. “Because I don’t agree with your policies.”

  “Because I’m a w—”

  “Your gender has nothing to do with it.”

  Pieces slid into place. Jarvis set that fire in Crylon. That had happened at about the same time the news came out that Alex was a woman.

  In the middle of it all…Adam.

  I pressed back into the vehicle.

  “Not me, Gabby,” he whispered. “Felix went to Crylon. Felix has been giving orders, fixing mistakes. I defected last year, remember?”

  “How did you spread the rumor that Alex was a woman if you were with me in Forrester and then in the Outcast settlement?”

  Adam glared past me toward Alex. “I told you
once, Gabriella, the air tells me everything. I can use it to send messages to others. Remember how I asked Isaiah to come be our Earthmover?”

  I nodded.

  “I sent air messages to all the Councilmen across the entire United Territories, first to let them know about Alex, and then to see if they would join Davison’s uprising. Word travels fast.” He didn’t look away from Alex once.

  Before I could process what he’d said, my feet turned cold. Icy cold. I fell to my knees as my fire ebbed away. I moaned as I felt the heat of another fire. Alex’s rage, her intense hatred of Adam, seeped into my soul. Strangely, I wanted nothing more than to watch him burn.

  A hand, made entirely of angry fire, grew in front of me. It reared and slapped Adam hard across the face. When he righted himself, his cheek was unmarred, perfect. I absorbed the flames into my body, where the heat boiled under my skin. It raged throughout my senses.

  But it didn’t hurt.

  Because it was my fire. That—woman—had stolen—my—Element. No wonder she hadn’t been able to hurt Adam, my bonded Airmaster, a chartered member of my Council.

  I regained my feet, flames pouring from my hands. “Don’t you dare take my power again.”

  I took two steps forward, vaguely aware that Hanai had said my name.

  Alex tipped her head back, and laughed. The sound fueled my rage. She signaled, and someone behind her threw something.

  Adam launched a funnel of air, sending the Elemental cancellers far to the right. “Nice try. We know as many tricks as you.”

  Alex cocked her head, a coy smile tugging at her lips. “Do you?”

  “Yeah—” A strange, choking sound came from Adam’s throat. He crashed to his knees, his hands clutching his chest.

  “Stop it!” Hysteria entered my voice, though I tried to keep my emotions in check. I’d only taken one step when the cool whisper of metal touched the back of my neck.

  It wasn’t a knife, but worse. The fire inside iced over and fled into the Element-cancelling metal. “No,” I croaked.

  Alex ran her fingers through my hair, causing me to flinch away from the chill of her hands. “You and I have much in common, Gabriella.”

  I glanced up, expecting to see hatred in every line of her face. I didn’t find it. More like fascination.

  “No,” Hanai answered for me. “She is not like you.”

  Alex turned her calculating gaze on him. “Oh? And how would you know, Unmanifested?”

  Hanai’s mouth curled. “I am not Unmanifested.”

  “Oh?” Alex said again.

  “I’m just like you,” Hanai continued. “You and I are the same.”

  Alex looked at him like she was entertaining a mental patient. “What?”

  “We’re both Spiritual Elementals.”

  The mood around me lightened. Everything turned spongy and soft, like maybe I could lie down and indulge in a long nap. And when I woke, the world would be right. Spring would blossom with pinks and yellows and greens. My Council would be together. We’d be standing on a tall tower in a grand city on the edge of the ocean.

  Alex screamed, shattering the blissful images in my head.

  “You—stop it—” Her breath came in gasps, and her eyes sparked with hatred. “I am the Spiritual Elemental. Me!”

  “You are not as special as you think.” Hanai clenched his fists, his body tense from shoulders to feet.

  Holy hot blazes. Alex is a Spiritual Elemental. Hanai had said he didn’t know the full range of his powers, but they could obviously do more than control emotions—like borrow Elements from others.

  Alex flew at Hanai, her fingers splayed, clawing at his throat. The air crackled with her emotion. Lightning struck with fury. Rain pelted the earth, each drop angrier than the last.

  Hanai stumbled and fell with the Supremist on top of him. My emotions—along with Alex’s—raged inside. Her anger mingled with mine, twisting until I couldn’t distinguish her fury from mine. I flung the unsecured cancellers away and stood, fire flowing from my fingertips.

  My situation: Adam lay bound with cancellers, blood oozing from his nose. He squinted into the storm. His skin shone with a waxy sheen as hail pummeled down.

  At least I knew he hadn’t lied to me, but that knowledge did little to ease the storm escalating inside.

  “Alex.” I spoke, but the sound didn’t carry through the weather. Then, just as fast as the skies had cried, they stopped. Blue sky broke through—along with the sound of Hanai’s laughter.

  Such happy, carefree laughter. It didn’t erase the tornado inside. If anything, it coiled faster, tighter, stronger. Because I’d never heard Hanai laugh like that.

  He shoved Alex off him, still laughing as if they were frolicking in a grassy meadow instead of fighting in the midst of a hailstorm.

  “Leave him alone!” I commanded. She didn’t. She pulled on the warmth of the earth, encircling him in a ring of fire so tight the icon of flames danced in his eyes.

  “Gabby, don’t,” he said, his voice filled with pain. I couldn’t tell if it was emotional or physical. Probably both.

  “Let him go,” I said to Alex. “And release those cancellers from Adam.”

  Alex turned and focused on me, her eyes narrow slits of hostility. “I do not take orders from children.”

  “They are my Councilmembers. You will leave them alone.”

  Alex laughed, high and cruel. “You have no Councilmembers.”

  I strode up to her and punched her with a flaming fist. “Yes. I do. Release them.”

  Alex stumbled back, but not a single sentry came to her aid. They stood there with vacant eyes and open mouths, like they weren’t sure what was happening. I barely had time to think Hanai must be controlling them before I realized one thing: I’d just punched the Supremist. Fury mixed with fear inside my stomach. Where were Davison’s sentries? He’d said he had legions stationed here.

  “You have no Councilmembers,” Alex sneered again. “No friends. Jarvis is dead. And you killed your sentry friend in the Outcast settlement.” A cruel smile snaked across her face.

  Patches. My heart fractured a little more at the realization that the fire I had thrown had injured him.

  Her grin broadened. Inside, my fury bloomed. “Release my Airmaster,” I growled. “And I believe you have my Earthmover and Watermaiden imprisoned in Tarpulin.”

  Instead of responding, Alex stretched her hand toward me and gripped an invisible rope, twisting her fist and pulling it toward her.

  My sight abandoned me. Sounds clamored around me, but the sun was blotted out. I felt a hole widen in my soul, felt my fire flee toward the opening, felt myself moving forward against my will. Alex’s cruel laughter mocked me in the darkness.

  A blast of steam punched me, causing me to fall to my knees. A flaming hand gripped my hair and jerked my head back. The smell of burning hair choked me.

  “You’re as stupid as Jarvis,” Alex hissed. “He resisted too. If you give in, it hurts less. Or so I’m told.”

  Wet streaks coated my cheeks. The sky bled, coating the backs of my eyelids with fire and blood. My soul leaked out. My own Element was killing me, the flames consuming me from the inside out. Everything felt hot and dry and scratchy. This is what death feels like, I thought.

  Alex had her hand in my hair, and suddenly the tip of one finger pressed against my scalp. I seized the fire—the heat she had stolen from the earth. It filled me like a much-needed breath after a long time underwater.

  Still on my knees, I kicked off my shoes. I wiggled my toes, burying them deep in the cold dirt. Heat exploded out when I called it upward.

  My vision blazed to life. Unfamiliar fire exploded from both hands, and Alex stumbled away from me. I shot flames toward her. She dropped to the ground to avoid the blast, and the group of sentries behind her took the brunt of it. Their screams entered my awareness, but my fire was not my own anymore.

  The new heat, and pressure, and lava raged inside, consuming me. A dam brok
e, letting the fire gush out and over and everywhere. Encouraged by the smoke, I smoothly walked forward and pulled Alex to her feet. She whimpered, a pathetic sound that brought a sneer to my lips.

  “Davison will never let you live,” she said. Though I knew she’d spoken out of desperation, I still hesitated. “He needs to regain control,” she continued. “He wants to rule the Territories. He’ll use whoever he has to, and dispose of anyone who gets in his way. Me. You. Anyone.”

  Whether it was true or not, I didn’t care. Her words only served to fuel my anger. I slapped her, hard, across the face. To her credit, she didn’t cry out. She cradled her cheek, the blood mixing with the smoke in a crimson river of ash. That wasn’t a pleasant sight—and the smell made my stomach lurch.

  The wind curled around me, wrapping me in rage. “Let Hanai and Adam go.”

  “Adam is a silly boy who only does what serves him best,” Alex spat. “Remember that, Gabriella. He doesn’t love you. He abandoned me at the most crucial time. He’ll abandon you too.”

  A cold fury built in my chest, adding more emotions to the fire already seething inside. I drew back to slap Alex again, but she caught my wrist.

  Big mistake. For both of us.

  I absorbed her body heat. She crumpled to the ground, her mouth opening in a soft “oh!” of surprise.

  “Gabby! Don’t!” Hanai’s voice carried on the wind, a mere fragment of thought. I saw him running toward me, but he was moving so slow, so slow.

  I couldn’t contain the new thermal energy I’d taken from Alex. It had to be released. I screamed, the sound tearing my throat and rending the air.

  The fire took with it all the frustration, the betrayal, the agony. The loneliness. Flames surged and frothed and singed. Spurts of blazing plasma coated the nearby trees, scorching them black.

  I tried to stop it, tried to hold in the agony, the unbearable heat. But it was not mine, and it did not obey. I wept through it all. The atmosphere joined me, releasing fat droplets of rain that didn’t quench my fire. Sparks rained too, falling from the sky where I continued to send my pain. Every blast, every inferno, every tear helped rid my body of the agony I couldn’t endure.