Adam repeated the same words. As he did, Isaiah started to shake. By the time Hanai finished, Isaiah opened his eyes. The earth trembled beneath us, and dirt fell from the ceiling.
“Whoa,” he said, finally coming to consciousness. “That was so weird. I heard you calling, but I couldn’t answer.” He sat up, rubbing his hands over his face. “Thanks, Gabbers.”
I smiled at the old nickname. Blazes, I’d missed Isaiah more than I’d realized. “Sure.” I watched him pick up a handful of earth and rub it between his fingers. I knew how he felt. See, I kept my hands burning just to renew my power.
Adam settled against the wall. “Now that we’re all awake, maybe we could do a reading lesson until it’s dark enough to travel.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Great. Hanai, I’ll work with you. Isaiah, can you teach Gabby how to spell her name?” Adam cleared his throat and avoided my narrowed eyes. I guess he didn’t want to “mess up” again.
He moved to the other side of Hanai to write in the dirt. The tattoo only extended halfway up his face now. Even as I watched, the topmost line faded from across the bridge of his nose.
He looked up and caught me staring. He smiled and inside, my stomach melted.
“Blazes,” I murmured under my breath. I looked away, burning the sight of his twinkling eyes and playful grin in my memory.
“You ready?” Isaiah asked. “Your name is G-A-B-B-Y. Here.” He took my un-burning hand with his dark fingers and guided me as he wrote the letters. “The first letter is a G. Guh.” As always, his fingers on mine felt like security.
“What happened to you, Isaiah? Where’s Cat?”
“She had to leave Tarpulin.” His voice came out as a mere whisper. His grip on my hand tightened. “I was forced to stay and audition for a new Council.”
“What Council? Where did Cat go?”
“She’s in Gregorio. The Unmanifested rebellion has allowed her to hide. The Supremist is exterminating excess Elementals, and they know they’re next if they don’t do something. Most Councilmen disagree with Alex, but she’s powerful and has a slew of faithful supporters, so….”
My breath caught. “Is Cat—?”
“I heard from her last week. She’s hiding her Element, waiting for me to come.”
“What happened?”
“The Supremist wanted me to demonstrate my earthmoving abilities to be on her Council. She dismissed Cat.” He said it like those few words would explain everything. But they didn’t.
“And your eyes…?”
He squeezed them shut as if they still hurt.
“I’m sorry, Isaiah. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay.” He squeezed my fingers. “Can we talk about it later?”
I cleared my throat to cover up my embarrassment. “Sure.”
Isaiah didn’t harbor any tension in his face. He helped me with the rest of the letters in my name, and then the alphabet. He never mentioned Cat, or his blindness, again.
An hour later, I couldn’t feel the spark of another Firemaker. So Isaiah blasted a hole in the ground and created a soil staircase to the surface. A few stars winked a greeting from the navy blue sky. I was secretly glad to be above ground again. Tunneling wasn’t my idea of fun.
My teeth chattered as I breathed in the icy air. We hadn’t even left yet, and already exhaustion consumed me. See, sleeping out in the open didn’t appeal to me. At least I wasn’t alone anymore—at least physically. The walls around my heart had lowered, but hadn’t completely dissolved.
I kept my eyes down, navigating through the snow by stepping in Isaiah’s footprints. No one spoke for the first couple of hours, and I simply existed inside my own skin. For once, I didn’t wish I was someone else, existing somewhere else, doing something else.
The only resistance I met was the complaining of my stomach. Adam wore the backpack under his cloak, and he never passed anything forward.
Then Isaiah started singing. He had a deep voice that carried easily in the midnight silence. He sang in a different language, but the words wrapped me in comfort.
We trudged on until the darkness turned charcoal, and then gray. Isaiah quieted and cleared an underground cave. He left a hole the size of my fist in the ceiling for air. I crawled to a corner, intending to sleep forever.
Until Adam popped the top of a can. “Some light, Gabby, please.”
I held out one hand, illuminating the small space.
Frost coated Hanai’s eyebrows, and Isaiah’s shoulders shook with chilly tremors. I scooted closer, urging both hands to fill with jumping flames.
Even Adam’s face shone bright pink, stained from the chilly wind. Hanai held his stiff fingers over my fire, groaning as they warmed.
“What does this say?” Adam turned the can so I could see.
I studied the letters. “No idea.”
“Beef jerky,” Adam said.
“Okay, beef jerky. Sounds great.” My stomach growled.
Adam took three strips of meat from the can and passed it around to the rest of us.
I took mine and smelled it. Lots of salt. I bit off a large piece and chewed. Lots of salt was the understatement of the century. More like more salt than beef. I didn’t care, though, and almost inhaled my three pieces. Even so, I finished last.
Adam removed his cloak. He spread it on the ground, splaying it wide enough for all of us to lie on. He slid to the far edge and lay down. “Isaiah,” he said. “Sleep.”
Isaiah settled next to him, and Hanai looked at me pointedly. I also removed my cloak before lying next to Isaiah. Hanai spread the second cloak over all of us and wriggled underneath. The cloak on the bottom made the ground pillow soft, and the top cloak kept me plenty warm.
The air pressed down. Blazes, I felt trapped again. Sandwiched between two boys. Even though one of them was an old friend, my heart hammered. Hanai touched my shoulder and whispered, “Settle, Gabby. It’s okay.”
But it so wasn’t.
My tension bled out as Hanai pressed gently into my shoulder. I took several calming breaths and rolled onto my side.
Hanai rolled too, and now he faced me. “I’m cold.”
“We all are,” Adam growled. “Except the Firemaker.”
A spark of irritation flared inside. Like it was my fault I didn’t feel the cold the way he did. I traced my fingertip along the hem of the magic cloak. It smoked but didn’t catch the flame. My heat infused it, turning the cloak into a heated blanket.
“Thank you, Gabbers,” Isaiah said, his voice heavy with sleep.
I smiled in the dark as Hanai sighed.
So there, I couldn’t help thinking, wishing Adam could hear my thoughts.
His soft chuckle lingered in my ears as I fell asleep.
When I woke up, my face was pressed into Isaiah’s chest. He held me like a lover, his breath cascading over my neck. Hanai was nestled right up behind me, his left arm draped around my waist.
I stiffened as I sucked in a breath.
Adam chuckled. “Looks cozy.”
I couldn’t move, though I desperately wanted to. Isaiah’s arm weighed as much as my whole body. As I struggled, Hanai snuggled closer.
“I’ll help,” Adam said. “Hanai, wake up, man. Time to go.” He nudged Hanai with his boot. Hanai groaned and mumbled something rude. His grip on my body tightened.
“Sorry, I tried.” Adam laughed again, moving away.
I maneuvered my hands up to Isaiah’s chest. I pushed as hard as I could, infusing my hands with heat. He moaned and rolled onto his back. That allowed me to slip out from under his arm. As I did, I felt the cloak. Ice cold. No wonder they had latched onto me.
I poured more heat into it and found Adam in the corner, stuffing cans into his backpack. He shifted away from me as I sat next to him, blowing on his fingers, his breath fogging in front of us.
“I can help.” I traced my pointer finger down the zipper of his coat. The metal blazed with warmth. Though I didn’t see Adam smile, I f
elt the heat of it in my face.
I didn’t think I could survive another night of trudging through the snow. When I told Adam, he agreed.
“Plus, we’re leaving tracks,” I said. “Felix and Alex won’t have any trouble finding us.”
“They’re not looking.”
“What?”
“They’ll just head to Gregorio. They know that’s where we’ll go. They know that’s where the rogue Elementals are hiding.”
“How do they know that?”
“They downloaded everything I knew. It’s not like I wanted to tell them.” His voice carried that annoying sentry tone.
“Of course not.” Mine sounded forced. “Maybe we should go somewhere else.”
Adam exhaled, and I couldn’t read his eyes in the fading twilight. “Well, we need your friend Cat. Real bad. With her, we’ll have a full Council. Alex won’t be able to touch us without major consequences if we complete the chartering.”
“Alex is crazy,” I said. “No way she’ll approve our Council.” I didn’t like the way the words sounded coming out, but I knew they were true.
“Doesn’t matter,” Adam said. “She doesn’t get to approve the magical bond. She might never give us an apprenticeship or a city, but at least we’ll be alive.”
“We’ll have each other,” I murmured.
“We can protect each other,” Adam added.
I studied him and found as much earnest desperation in his expression as I felt coursing through my body. “So we try to get Councilman Davison to charter the Council.”
“With things as politically unstable as they are in Gregorio, anything is possible,” Adam said. “Maybe we can sneak in and complete the charter without anyone knowing.”
I thought about that for a minute, wanting to act my part but not knowing how. “Yeah, but Alex and Felix are probably already there, telling Davison how awful I am.” A flicker of fear made my breath catch. “Or looking for Cat.” I hoped she was still alive, that we’d find her in Gregorio first. She was smart; she’d know how to lie low until Isaiah came for her.
“Nah. Gregorio is far,” Adam said. “At least a couple of days by vehicle. It took me nine days to get to the Outcast settlement on foot.”
“I knew you’d been there before,” I said, interested in hearing the story of how he found the Outcast settlement.
Adam laughed softly. He fumbled for my hand. He wore gloves, protecting his skin from mine. I was surprised at the snag of disappointment I felt that I couldn’t press my skin to his. I shifted closer to him as he moved toward me.
“Yeah, I was almost dead the first time Chief Tavar found me. I hadn’t eaten for three days.”
“Really? Three days?” My stomach recoiled at the thought.
“Yeah. What about you? You said you’d tell me how you ended up in Forrester when we weren’t seconds from dying. I think we’ve got a couple of hours at least.”
I sighed. The selection ceremony, the fire, Jarvis, the escape, the knives, hiding in the warehouse, and cutting my hair were unhappy memories. Things I’d rather forget.
Adam inhaled the scent of my hair. “You don’t have to tell me,” he murmured.
With those words, I wanted him to know. So I told him about the fire I was accused of setting in Crylon. How Jarvis had known about my Element. About throwing the can of soup at Patches, stealing his knives, and vomiting in the street.
As I spoke, the weight of my life lightened, and Adam now shared some of my burden. With a start, I realized he’d already carved a place in my life—whether I liked it or not.
He rubbed his thumb along my wrist, silent. Then he said, “You’re brave. I’m glad you found me in that clearing.” He placed his hand on my cheek. Slowly and carefully, he pulled me closer. The armor guarding his emotions cracked. His eyes filled with warmth. With pleading. With an edge of fear. He kissed me like his life depended on having his mouth on mine.
He pulled away too soon. “So you are my girl,” he whispered. “I was worried when I saw you in Isaiah’s arms.”
I smiled despite the fire raging just beneath my skin. I brushed my fingers through his hair, trying to find the courage to speak. For the blazes, I couldn’t.
He chuckled, sending a vibration through my chest. “You never tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m not thinking anything,” I said. At least nothing I could say out loud. To a guy.
“Right.” Adam trailed one gloved finger over my jaw. “Here’s something I’m thinking: Kissing you hurts like hell. But it’s sure worth it.”
I giggled, mortified at the girly sound coming from my mouth. But it sounded better than anything I could’ve said. Sudden worry seized me. What if I wasn’t good at kissing?
Halfway through my analysis of how Adam pressed his lips to mine, how they moved, he squeezed my shoulder. “Come on. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
I choked on a breath, trying to reel my thoughts into normalcy again. “Um, I’m sorry it hurts. I like—” I clamped my mouth shut, thankful for the deepening darkness that hid the blush creeping into my cheeks.
Adam rubbed my upper arm. “Don’t worry about it. If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t.”
So maybe I was doing it right. He certainly was.
The silence sounded loud, the memory of his lips on mine still fresh. His steady breathing next to me, the pressure of his fingers on my bicep, reminded me how close we were. I wanted to kiss him again, yet it terrified me at the same time.
Isaiah yelled in his sleep, and Adam slid away. I leaned against the wall with my eyes closed.
“Sorry.” The weight of Adam’s gaze penetrated the near-darkness. He moved close enough that I smelled the warmth of his skin. “I’ve never felt anything like what I feel with you. The rush—or the pain. When I’m with you, when I touch you, it hurts. When I’m not, I feel like I’m dying.” We were so close, I heard him swallow. “I’m yours, as long as you want me.”
A million emotions exploded inside. First: Relief. He wanted me. He was mine. To kiss, to consult with, to charter a Council with.
Second: Happiness. He wanted me.
I leaned forward, touching my mouth to his. My blood turned to lava. Especially when he moaned, “Gabby—”
“Boulders and landslides,” Isaiah swore. “I’m glad I’m blind. Are you guys decent? Hanai?”
“He’s out cold,” Adam said, standing up. “And we’re more than decent.”
The fire inside died with his distance. Still, a smile stole across my face. Interrupted or not, kissing Adam was amazing.
“Hanai wasn’t kidding when he said you had it bad for her.”
“Can it, Isaiah,” Adam said.
Isaiah sat up and stretched. He made an inhuman noise that echoed through the underground cavern. He looked like he was yawning but he sounded like he was dying a slow and painful death. I clapped my hand over my ears as the sound intensified in pitch.
Adam started chewing Isaiah out for being so obnoxious, but I couldn’t look away from Hanai.
He hadn’t moved, even with the ruckus around him. I knelt at his side, pressing my fingers to his neck. His pulse felt thready and weak. I closed my eyes and willed my therma-vision to kick in. What I got: A miracle.
When I scanned Hanai, his body temperature registered way too low. I pulled off the useless cloak and placed both hands flat against his chest. I engulfed him with heat until his body glowed bright red.
“Adam,” I called over my shoulder. “He’s freezing and barely breathing.”
“I don’t have any medicine,” Adam said, kneeling next to me. “Isaiah, do you?”
“Nope.”
I met Adam’s worried gaze before I shook Hanai. “Wake up, Hanai. I need you.” My voice cracked on the last word.
The last of the daylight disappeared as I struggled to keep the tears from falling. Adam shook Hanai a little harder. Just then, I sensed the smoke. It was hot, hot, hot, filling my entire being with foggy goodness
.
Status: Moving fast.
“Guys,” I said. “I’ve got an idea, but we gotta move. Adam, try to wake him up. Isaiah, help me pack.”
Adam rolled Hanai off the cloak and threw it to Isaiah. “What’s up, Gabby?”
“A train,” I said. “Heading south—and fast. We need to be on it.” I shoved the other cloak in the backpack and helped Isaiah put it on. He widened the hole in the ceiling and rode a wave of earth to the surface.
He brought me up next, and it was strange to feel something so solid shift underneath me. I steadied myself on my hands and knees, willing myself not to throw up. By the time I had control of my stomach, Hanai was moaning next to me.
“Hanai?” I put my hand to his forehead in a motherly action.
“He’s barely awake,” Adam said.
“Right. You two help him. This way.” I strode toward a vast expanse of flat land. Adam kept a stream of encouragement going. Hanai coughed several times and then groaned.
I scanned for the train. The smoke teased my soul, but I couldn’t see it.
“There,” Isaiah said, pointing to the right. It was freaky that a blind guy could spot the train before me.
But there it was. The black steam engine crested a gentle rise in the plain, the puffs of smoke pouring into the chilly night air.
“Come on, guys. It’s not stopping for us.”
“It’s moving fast,” Isaiah said. “How are you planning to get on?”
I grabbed his hand. “Run and jump. You’re with me. Adam, can you manage with Hanai?”
“Gabby, I don’t—”
I spun around, my Element shooting to my fingertips. Hanai, pale and panting, leaned heavily on Adam. Neither one of them looked like they could run, let alone hop on a moving train.
“This is the fastest way to Gregorio. I’m not tromping through the snow eating salty garbage for the next nine days. Let’s go. Now.” Without waiting for an answer, I turned and started running, thankful Chief Tavar had healed my feet.
Isaiah matched my pace, and the footsteps of Adam and Hanai pounded behind me.
Elemental Hunger Page 13
