by Wendi Wilson
“What is this?” The Zephyr said, taking a small step backward.
He looked nervous, and we had him on the run, so I pressed forward.
“Let Shaela go,” I said. “Once she’s free and clear, we’ll tell you who the real December Thorne is.”
His head swiveled from left to right, his black eyes moving between the three of us as his face pinched with fear. He shook his head, his breathing accelerated and his whole body started to tremble. He had no idea who he was dealing with and it scared him.
Good.
Just as I started to feel a little overly confident, he threw his head back and laughed. Easton, Cris, and I exchanged wary glances, wondering if the Zephyr had just lost his damned mind.
“Did you actually think I was so easily fooled? Or frightened?” he asked, his voice strong and booming. “I am Elias, commander of Queen Sebille’s army. I fear nothing.”
On my right, Cris sucked in a sharp breath, but I forced myself to keep my eyes on Elias. The Zephyr waved a hand toward us, and Easton’s Glamour dropped, showing his true form.
“Ah, young Oberon, the king’s grandchild. I think perhaps Queen Sebille will be doubly pleased should I deliver you alongside the abomination,” Elias said, once side of his mouth turning up in a smirk.
My eyes chased to Cris, but his Glamour held, so I refocused on Elias and Easton. I started gathering my power, careful to keep it below the surface. Easton, on the other hand, decided to just let loose with his, sending a blast of air in Elias’s direction.
The Zephyr pumped his wings and hovered above the ground, riding the current like a bird flying against the wind. Once the blast of air passed, he touched back down to Earth gracefully. My eyes darted to Shaela, who was still lying on the ground behind him, her hands and feet tied by golden cords, a cloth gag tied around her head. Her eyes met mine, full of anger that promised revenge against Elias, and I knew she was okay.
“You Sylphids are quite entertaining with your meager displays of power,” Elias said, that awful cocky smirk still on his face. “The one with the girly pink wings was quite amusing, attempting to rescue his girl from me.”
“Charles,” I breathed. Then louder, I demanded “Where is he? What have you done to him?”
Elias hooked a lazy thumb over his shoulder and in a nonchalant voice, said “You’ll find his broken body in that direction.”
I fell back a few steps, my lungs working overtime as I started to hyperventilate. He couldn’t mean—
“You killed him?” Easton asked, his voice cracking with the same emotion I was feeling.
Elias shrugged. “You’ll all be dead by the end of this war, anyway.”
My eyes rolled from left to right, looking at Easton, then Elias and Shaela, then over at Cris, who still maintained his Glamour and looked exactly like me. He appeared to be concentrating very hard, using every bit of his power to hold onto the illusion.
Too bad I was about to blow the whole plan to hell.
I may have been willing to stick to it before. Confuse the Zephyr, use our abilities to overpower him and get Shaela back, then cast him out so he could run back to Sebille with his tail between his legs. But nothing had happened like it was supposed to.
And there I was, my grief at losing another person consuming me. That grief warred for supremacy against my desperate fear for Shaela, and my empathy for what she must be feeling, to lose her first boyfriend like that.
Anger. Grief. Fear. Anger. Grief. Fear.
The emotions cycled over and over through me, fueling my erratic powers as they rose inside me. I vaguely heard Easton calling my name, but all my brain registered was that he was giving away my identity. That Elias would know that I was the real December.
Which was fine with me.
“Come and get me, asshole,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.
The Zephyr’s eye gleamed with anticipation as he took a step forward. A strong wind rushed from his body, whipping my hair back from my face, but I stood strong. I was an unmovable force, my keyed up emotions turning me into something I didn’t recognize. An avenging angel of death.
My body felt lighter as my own power rose to the surface, and within a few seconds I was levitating. I blocked out Easton and Cris, and even Shaela, my vision tunneling until Elias was the only thing I could see or hear.
“Nice trick,” he smirked, completely unafraid.
He flapped his black wings to lift himself off the ground. He zoomed forward, a black blur crossing the space between us. I blinked and he was in front of me, his hands cinching around my throat and cutting off my air supply.
I vaguely heard people shouting, felt the tree branches scratching my skin as gale-forced winds pushed us around the edges of the clearing. Easton was trying to blow him away from me. I gasped for air as Elias’s grip tightened, and my head started to feel foggy and thick.
Just as black spots danced across my vision, Elias loosened his grip just enough for me to suck in a shallow breath. A feeling of relief filled me, replacing all the negative emotions. Then he spoke.
“My queen wants you alive. If I kill you, she’ll be upset with me. And no one survives very long when Sebille is upset with them.”
His lips turned up at the corners, his obsidian eyes shining with delight.
“I will take young Oberon with us, to keep you company and please my queen. The others, unfortunately have to die.”
My eyes darted to Shaela, lying on the ground, bound and gagged. Then Cris, still holding his Glamour with sweat pouring down his temples. Then I thought of Charles. Poor Charles, killed for trying to rescue Shaela. Lying lifeless and alone somewhere out in the dark woods.
Heat built up inside me, so hot I could feel the tingle of it on my skin. The wind shifted, obeying my will, and started to spin around us, gaining speed with every second that passed. The whole area lit up with flickering lights, making shadows dance around us.
Anger. Fear. Grief.
I could feel nothing else. Not the pain of his tightening fingers bruising my skin. Not the burn in my lungs from lack of oxygen as he choked me, his voice demanding that I stop what I was doing immediately.
Anger. Fear. Grief.
I vaguely registered that the flickering lights were actually flames, and that we were surrounded by a wall of fire, cut off from the others. A great rumble filled the air around us, followed by shouts as the ground trembled and split open.
“Stop this,” Elias hissed, his face close to mine.
Rain flooded down upon us, soaking us instantly. The fire continued to rage despite the downpour. The crack of electricity buzzed around us as lightning struck somewhere above the treetops, a deafening boom of thunder following closely behind.
Anger. Grief.
The fear was gone as my body hummed with power. Nothing could touch me. I was invincible.
And this fucking Zephyr was going to pay for what he’d done.
Chapter 26
“December.”
The sound of my name pulled me from the black abyss, a nothingness that I’d swam in forever. Or it could have been two minutes. I had no idea.
Keeping my eyes closed, I moaned as I became aware of pain pulsing through my body. Everything hurt. My skin, my muscles, my bones. My throat.
Elias’s fingers had caused that pain.
My eyes flew open with a gasp. The first thing I saw was Easton. He was beside me, his dirty face streaked with tear tracks. His eyes were red and puffy, and as I watched, he sniffed and rubbed the back of his hand across his nose.
“Are you crying?”
I knew it was a stupid question, particularly after everything we’d just gone through, but I was shocked. I never, in a million years, thought I’d ever see Easton Oberon cry.
“No,” he said.
When I just looked at him with question in my eyes, he leaned in and pressed his wet lips against mine. Pulling back, he stared into my eyes for a moment before speaking.
“I’ve been
trying to wake you up for hours. For hours, there’s been nothing. Not even a flicker of response. I thought I’d lost you, that your burst of power had been too much for you to handle and that you were gone. You didn’t have an aura, D.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, reaching over to cup his cheek.
I looked around for the first time, realizing I was in a bed. The room was unadorned and sterile-looking, most likely in the infirmary. My eyes snapped back to Easton in a panic.
“Shaela?”
“She’s fine,” he said, giving me a soft smile. “Cris, too.”
I sagged back against the pillow with relief before tensing again. Not everyone was okay. Charles…
I choked, then gagged on the emotion clogging my throat. Poor Charles. He was dead, and it was my fault. All. My. Fault.
“D, there’s something I have to tell you,” Easton said.
I shook my head, my eyes stinging with tears as silent sobs wracked my chest. I didn’t want to hear anything else. I couldn’t handle any more. I just couldn’t.
The door opened, creaking softly on its hinges, but I didn’t look to see who it was. I didn’t want any more visitors. I just wanted to wallow in my grief and guilt. It was what I deserved.
A feminine sigh met my ears as the weight of someone sitting bounced against the mattress. Fingers caressed my hair with delicate strokes, making me squeeze my eyes even tighter. I didn’t want to enjoy the comforting touch.
“D,” Shaela’s voice whispered. “Look at me, D.”
I didn’t think I could ever look at her again. Not after what I’d done.
“Is she okay?”
My eyes snapped open at the sound of that voice. My gasp echoed off the walls as I soaked in the sight of him, from his strawberry-blond head to his mud-streaked boots.
“Charles?”
I mouthed the word, but no sound actually came out. He stepped close to the bed and picked up my hand, prying open the fingers that were clenched in the bedsheets. He gripped it between his warm palms, squeezing lightly.
“I’m fine,” he said. “That Zephyr used wind to bash me against a tree trunk over and over again. He thought he killed me, but my heart was still beating. It took a few hours, but my healing powers eventually mended my broken bones enough that I could move. I reached the clearing just as you—”
His words cut off abruptly, and he snapped his mouth shut with a clink of teeth.
“What?” I asked, when no one in the room would meet my eyes. “What happened? What did I do?”
“You killed the Zephyr,” Easton murmured.
“I…what?”
I couldn’t comprehend the words. What did he mean? I couldn’t have…
“What do you remember?” Easton asked, taking my hand after Charles released it and move to put his arm around Shaela.
“I don’t know. The forest. The plan. Elias had Shaela. You and Cris came out looking like me. You dropped your Glamour, but he didn’t. Elias choking me…saying he killed Charles.”
My eyes flashed to the Sylph, taking in his reddish hair and pink wings, his healthy complexion. He looked fine.
“What else?” Easton prompted when I didn’t continue.
“Anger,” I said. “I was so angry and grief-stricken and scared. Those emotions blocked out everything. I remember my power building up. Wind, fire, rain. Did I open up a crevice in the ground?”
Easton nodded, but his eyes were shifty. He was keeping something from me.
“Where’s my ring?” I asked.
“December—”
“Just give it to me, Easton.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the emerald ring, handing it over with a sigh. I slipped it onto my finger as he spoke.
“The nurse took it off when she treated you. I was just holding it for safe-keeping,” he explained.
But I didn’t care about his explanation. I wanted to see his aura.
It was solid blue, and I heaved a relieved sigh. He was worried about me, but didn’t fear me. My killing Elias must have been an accident, then.
“Just tell me, Easton,” I said. “I can take it.”
He glanced at Shaela, who gave him a resigned nod as she swallowed hard. My eyes flicked between them, then to Charles, who just gave me a sympathetic look. What the hell?
“You lost it, December. No one blames you. You thought he’d killed Charles, and he hurt Shaela. He said he was going to kill her, and Cris, too. He planned to take you and me to Sebille as prisoners.”
As he spoke, I remembered that part, and how angry I felt. But after that was just blackness.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“Your arms flew out to your sides and power flooded out from your chest. We could see it, a blinding white light with dark swirling through it. Elias was ripped away from you, then hung suspended in the air.”
“So he escaped?” I asked hopefully.
But I knew the answer to that question. They’d already told me I killed Elias.
With a sorrowful shake of his head, Easton continued. “You wrapped wind around his body, holding him in place. Then you set him on fire. When he burned to death, you dropped his body into the crevice you opened before closing the gap, burying his remains.”
“Oh my God.”
“He said he was going to kill us,” Shaela said, her voice filled with desperation. “And you thought he already killed Charles. No one blames you, D.”
I looked at her, my eyes wide with disbelief. No one blames me? I killed a man in the most vicious and painful of ways, buried the body, and I don’t even remember it.
I knew I was dangerous. I knew that, when I lost my temper or felt overwhelmed with any other emotion, people got hurt. But this? This was too much.
“I’d like to be alone, please.”
“December—” Easton started, but I cut him off.
“Please. Just for a little while.”
Charles nodded, then turned and walked through the door. Shaela wrapped her arms around my neck, whispering about how glad she was that I was okay, and thanking me for saving her before she followed Charles out into the hall. Easton gave me a look that said he’d be back, kissed my forehead, and left me to my thoughts.
I closed my eyes, attempting to picture the scene they’d described, but it was no use. I’d completely blocked it from my memory. I had no recollection of anything after Elias choking me and threatening to kill my best friend and my mentor.
And if I could do those things, burn him to death and dispose of his charred remains, so easily and not remember, what else was I capable of?
Chapter 27
“I can see the wheels turning in your head.”
I looked up from my clasped hands and saw Cris closing the door behind him. I’d been sitting in the infirmary bed, my mind spinning in circles, for nearly an hour since my friends left. I wasn’t ready to see anyone yet, but I knew Cris wouldn’t bend to my wishes like the others had.
I just needed to hear him out, then he’d leave and I could get back to the business of figuring out where to go from here.
“We already determined that you’re not a danger to those who care about you, December.”
“That was before,” I mumbled.
“Before what?” he asked, his voice rising in volume. “Before a demented Zephyr snuck into school property, kidnapped your friends, admitted to killing one and promising to kill two more? Before you had to do something to save yourself from being taken hostage and delivered to the dark queen on a silver platter? You, as well as Easton? She would have killed you both, you know. So that means you saved four lives. Four, December.”
“I understand that, Cris, and I am happy that they’re safe and that Charles is alive. But you don’t understand. The problem is that I don’t remember any of it. I was brutal, without mercy. I killed a man in the most horrible of ways and I didn’t have any control over it.” I looked back down at my lap before murmuring, “I’m too dangerous.”
“Being too dangerous to people who want to hurt you and those you love is not necessarily a bad thing.”
We were going to just have to agree to disagree. I didn’t have the energy, or the strength to argue with him anymore. I was tired. Bone-tired.
A thought struck me and I took the opportunity to change the subject.
“I do remember something strange, though,” I said.
“What was that?” he asked, sitting in the chair next to the bed.
“After Elias figured out I was the real December and attacked me, I looked at you.”
His face darkened, and he cleared his throat, but didn’t make any comment on my observation. When I realized, he wasn’t going to speak, I continued on.
“You were struggling to hold onto the Glamour, Cris. Elias knew you weren’t me, and you didn’t drop the façade. Why?”
“December…I…”
“Did you know him?”
His whole body deflated and he slumped back in the chair. He was silent for the longest time, and I was sure he wasn’t going to answer me.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” he said, his voice low, “but I also can’t tell you the whole truth right now. What I can say is that yes, I did know him. And it was imperative that he not realize who I am.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
Cris shook his head. “All in good time. I care about you, December, and I am here to help you in any way I can. But we need to keep this discussion between us, for now. Do you think you can do that?”
I wanted to say no. I wanted to argue and force him to tell me the truth right then.
But instead, I just nodded my head. He gave me a small smile, tinged with sadness, and stood from his chair. He reached over and brushed my hair back from my forehead before bracing his fingertips beneath my chin, tilting my head back so he could look into my eyes.
“Do not retreat into yourself. Your friends need you just as much as you need them. You won’t hurt them, December. You can’t. Because when it comes to love, the Sylph half of you is the one that’s in charge. And she would never let harm come to any one of them.”
