Wrath of Wind

by Kat Adams

  “All of you?” He bounced his attention to each guy, who all stared back with hard, unwavering expressions, daring him to say something. Spencer’s eyes rounded when he got it. “Oh? Oh. Oh! I see.” His ears turned red.

  Clay stepped forward, his muscles flexed, his chin out. I’d never seen him so stern before. It was unsettling seeing my carefree air elemental so serious, so intimidating. That was Rob’s job. “Since today is air, I’ll be on the training field with you.”

  “Oh, that won’t be necessary.”

  “Oh, but it is.”

  Spencer’s lips tipped up again, amused at Clay’s challenge. He gave one more look to the rest of the guys before conceding with a nod. “Very well. I shall see you on the field.” He regarded me, determination and something else I couldn’t quite place shining in his gaze. “Katy, always a pleasure.”

  Once Spencer was out of earshot, I turned to Clay. “What was that?”

  “He’s not air.”

  “He’s undeclared,” I explained.

  He shook his head. “No, I mean he’s not air, like I didn’t feel it in him. I tried to steal his air when I took his hand. Don’t look at me like that, it was just for fun. But when I tried, the element didn’t respond, like it wasn’t even there.”

  I whipped around and watched Spencer disappear around the corner, heading up to the main hall. “How’s that possible?” I looked to the guys. “Did you all feel your primary in him when you touched?”

  Rob was the first to shake his head. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “No, you were too busy trying to out-alpha him,” Clay said. Rob flipped him off.

  “Now that I think about it,” Bryan jumped in. “I didn’t feel earth in him either.”

  We all turned to Leo, who blinked at us as he scratched his head. “How can he be a quad if none of us felt our element in him?”

  Good question.

  Now I understood why Clay insisted on being on the field.

  We all said our good-byes and headed in opposite directions to get to our next class. Turned out, Ancient Divination was as boring as it sounded. I doodled on my folder the entire hour. As I left the classroom, I still had no idea what the class was about and made a point to ask Professor Layden to switch me back to Elemental History and drop this one. Having Clay in class with me would make it tolerable.

  The fact the guys couldn’t feel any elements when they shook hands with Spencer weighed on me. How’d he get to this point in his life—in his famous career—without any powers? There had to be more to it, and I planned to find out what that more was in today’s training.

  The guys were out on yet another extraction during lunch, so I grabbed a burger and ate it in glorious solitude by hiding out in the ruins. My reasons were twofold. First, I didn’t feel like being social. Or nice. Second, I wanted to talk to Cressida, which I realized now totally contradicted the first reason.

  Cressida’s presence was always strongest here inside this structure. They’d built the stone watch tower on the edge of a cliff overlooking the water to spot enemies closing in before it was too late. Although the other original structures had nothing left but the foundation, this one remained partially standing. After Alec had trapped a group of us inside it last year and collapsed the roof, several earth elementals got together and repaired it, me included. With it now fully enclosed, it was almost pitch-black inside. I hated the dark, especially in this place, so I gently called light, just enough to make my hands glow a faint white.

  “Things aren’t always as they appear,” I repeated the message from before and took a seat on one of the large square stones that used to be part of the wall. “I thought that applied to Professor Layden and her assigning the wrong primary to a student, but now I wonder if you meant that for Spencer. How can he be this famous quad if he has no powers?”

  The wind kicked up, blowing loose leaves and dirt around. She definitely didn’t like my conclusion. Or maybe she didn’t like Spencer. “The guys didn’t feel any of his elements. Not one. Now that I think about it, I didn’t sense his primary like I did with the others at their tribunals. No one is that good at concealing their powers, are they? I guess we’ll find out today when we’re on the field.”

  I stared at the way my hands glowed and played around with increasing and decreasing the strength of my call, which brightened and dimmed the light. If I wanted to be at full strength for today’s training, I needed to kill my call and let it recharge, so I did and stood, not wanting to be here in total darkness. “Good talk.”

  A rock shifted as I made my way to the entrance, blocking me from leaving. “Was there something you wanted to say?” The breeze whirled around me, so I moved deeper inside. Talking to Cressida was worth spending a little bit longer in the dark. “What is it?” A gust of air hit me, surprising me and knocking me back. “What was that for?”

  Another burst of air slammed into me, and I fell onto a large stone. As soon as I sat, the wind died. “You could have just asked me to stay.”

  Open your eyes.

  Ugh, not this again. “Cressida, I already know you can materialize, so if you want to tell me something, just come out instead of smacking me around with one of your elements.”

  The rock shifted, turning me to face the wall. I stood and crossed the room to rest my hand against the cool stone. As soon as I did, I felt a presence behind me and turned.

  Cressida Clearwater appeared before me in her long, flowing robes. “Katy.”

  “Hi, Cressida.” Every time I saw her, I stared. I stared at chestnut hair and beautiful hazel eyes. I stared at flawless skin. I stared at how much she looked just like my mother.

  “Hello, Katy.”

  It still got to me whenever she manifested, this woman from the 1600s. The first supreme elemental. The only supreme elemental, in my opinion. “What’s with the wrath of wind?”

  She smiled warmly, which made me miss my mom so badly, I could barely breathe. “I need you to listen to me very carefully. I can’t stay long. Things are not as they seem.”

  “About Spencer? Professor Layden? What?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The air hardened in my lungs as the world tilted off its axis. Shock rocked through my body. How could she not know? Didn’t spirits have, like, a third eye or something? Weren’t they all-seeing and all that? “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I don’t have all the answers.”

  “But…but…but…” Jesus, I sounded like a car backfiring and shook my head to get my brain to reconnect. “How do you know things aren’t as they seem, then?”

  “I sense it.” She traced the ruins with her gaze and sighed. The wind reacted by whirling around us, sending the leaves spiraling. “The elements are restless, out of balance.”

  “You sound like Bryan.”

  “He hasn’t visited with me in a while.”

  “He’s been busy,” I defended, making a mental note to ask him about it. “All the guys have been super busy with extractions. Why are there suddenly so many new elementals?”

  She lifted her gaze once again. “Out of balance.”

  “You mean there shouldn’t be that many?” When she began to fade, I reached for her. My hands went right through her image. That wasn’t weird at all. “Wait. Don’t go yet.”

  “I can’t be all places at once if I’m here like this. Stay diligent, Katy. Things are not as they seem.”

  With that, she faded, leaving me alone in the dark, feeling even more uncertain about this school year than ever.

  6

  Primary for air was as flighty as the element. Professor Gallen was more concerned with cracking jokes than teaching the class anything about controlling a call. Clay couldn’t stop raving about it as we walked hand in hand to the training field, so I kept the commentary to myself.

  For about three seconds.

  “There’s no way I’ll last in Primary this year if all we do is laugh at the professor’s failed attempts to be f
unny.”

  “What are you talking about?” He gave me a look like I’d just confessed I had no idea how to walk and chew gum at the same time. “GG is hilarious.”

  “GG?”

  “Professor Geoff Gallen. We don’t really stick with formalities in Primary. Aren’t you glad you’re in air this year?”

  “Thrilled.” I stopped before rolling my eyes. I called my great-grandmother GG and could never take a professor seriously if I had to call him the same thing I called the woman who used to forget to put in her teeth.

  Clay removed his blazer and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm. “Man, it’s hot out here. Let’s skip your training and go skinny-dipping.”

  I didn’t hate the idea. “Do you think anyone will notice?”

  “Him, probably.” He pointed straight ahead. I followed the extended index finger and groaned. “It’s your fake handler. Your fandler.”

  That did not make me feel any better.

  Spencer spotted us from across the field and lifted his arm. I started to lift mine in response, thinking he was waving, then dropped it to defend myself just as a massive wave of air slammed into us. Clay flew back several feet. I rolled and came up, thrusting my arms forward and calling air back at him.

  Spencer brought up his hand and stopped my call by using my air against me, knocking me back to the ground. I landed with a grunt, tried to push myself up, and couldn’t. The son of a bitch used my own element to hold me down.

  “Guess that answers the question whether he can call air or not,” I mumbled. Spencer indeed had powers. Strong powers. Stronger powers than mine, at least with air, which didn’t please me in the least.

  He wiped his hands together as if he’d just taken out the garbage and wanted to get the remnants off him and took his time approaching. I still couldn’t get up and growled—yes, literally growled like a beast—when he flashed a haughty expression. “Lesson one: Come to the battlefield ready to battle.”

  I broke through the airfield and rose to my feet, blowing the auburn curtain of hair out of my face. “This isn’t a battlefield. It’s a training field.”

  “Then come to the training field ready to train.” He flicked a quick glance at Clay, who stood and brought up his hands.

  Oh shit.

  Spencer gave him a bored look before flinging his arm as if swatting at an annoying bug. Clay spun into the air and flew back several feet. That did it. I could pick on my guys and use their primary against them during trainings, but I will bust a bitch if anyone else thought they had that right. I glared at Spencer.

  Hello, bitch.

  I hovered a fireball above each palm. Since I couldn’t beat him with air, which I still didn’t understand, I’d hit him with something a little stronger.

  The flames danced in eager anticipation of being let loose on my target. He shook his head and barely lifted a finger. My flames fizzled and died. How’d he do that? Fire was one of my strongest elements. Apparently, his was stronger.

  He faced me. “Lesson two: Always assume your opponent is more powerful.”

  “The hell you say.” I called the water from the ground and created a wave behind him. A little swim might knock him down a few pegs. He countered by calling earth and having the dirt tsunami reach up, consuming the water. The two elements slowly sank down, returning to their original position.

  Well, that sucked.

  Before I could call another element, he tossed me backward with a gust of air. I flipped ass over teakettle and landed on my shoulder. Pain exploded and shot down my arm. Nothing broke, but it sure hurt like hell.

  “Hey!” Clay roared and ran over. He shoved Spencer. Hard. The gloves were off, as were the calls. Now it was good old-fashioned chest-bumping and fisticuffs. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Lessons,” he answered matter-of-factly. Giving Clay another bored look, he added, “As a handler, it’s what you should be doing as well instead of ignoring your charges to challenge me in front of your girlfriend in some failed attempt to protect her. If she is as powerful as I’ve been led to believe, it is she who should be protecting you.” He then flashed a cool, arrogant smile that transformed him from dashing to dick. “Then again, that’s exactly what she did when you went up against Alec von Leer, isn’t it?”

  Clay set his jaw and took a step toward him, not backing down. I’d never seen my air elemental so threatening before. Sure, he challenged authority every chance he got, but he was never violent about it. Right now, with his fists at the ready, he was about to unleash on Spencer. “Blast her like that again, and I’ll kick your ass.” He backed away until he reached me. “Come on, Montana. Let’s go.”

  I took his hand, and together, we turned our backs on Spencer and started off the field.

  Big mistake.

  The blast of air hit us so hard, it sent us flying in separate directions. I used my hands to break my fall and hissed in a breath when I landed on my wrist wrong. It reminded me it’d been broken in something like ten places less than a year ago. It might have healed, but when I hit it wrong—like breaking my fall after being hit in the back by my new handler—it still hurt.

  I jumped to my feet and spun to face Spencer, pissed. “Only cowards attack from behind.”

  “Lesson three: Never assume your opponent will fight fair. Now, are you ready to learn? Or do you still want to challenge me?” He brought up his hands to deliver another blow.

  Clay charged and threw a punch, knocking Spencer back. I didn’t stop him. I only wished I had done it first. He recovered and used Clay’s opposite to attack, calling earth and opening a sinkhole that swallowed him whole.

  “Clay!” I rushed to the hole and reached inside for him. He stretched his arms but couldn’t grasp my hands. The hole began to close. He grunted and winced as the earth squeezed. I screamed at Spencer. “Stop it! You’re crushing him!”

  “That’s the basic idea.”

  I rested my hands on the dirt and pleaded with the element. “Please, don’t do this. Don’t let him make you do something you don’t want to do.” The dirt responded by squeezing Clay tighter. He hollered out in pain.

  If I couldn’t get the elements to respond to my calls, I could at least kill his ability to call and brought up my hand, squaring my palm on him and calling light. It hit him like a beam from a flashlight. He staggered back, and his power over earth dropped. I called the element and willed it to lift Clay from the hole. It did and dropped him on the grass before disappearing into the hole.

  He panted and pushed to sit up. His white shirt was covered in dirt, as was his entire body. The element changed his hair color from deep brown to mud. He brushed dirt from his beard. “Gross. I’m covered in earth.” He used both hands and aggressively scrubbed, knocking more dirt free.

  I helped him to his feet. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded and leaned against me. My light call shorted out his powers too, which was one of the drawbacks of using light. It weakened me, sure, but it didn’t kill my ability to call my other elements. It did, however, kill everyone else’s within the vicinity of my call.

  When I hugged him, we both winced for different reasons. I cradled my hand to my chest as icy pain radiated up my arm, centering from my palm. Clay grabbed his middle. “I think he broke my spleen. You okay?”

  I pulled my hand back and stared at the deep gash in the center my palm, unsure how it got there. In all the chaos of protecting Clay from Spencer, I must have sliced it. I never noticed it before, but I definitely noticed it now. Jesus, it hurt. It was cold, like my hand had been submerged in glacial water.

  “When did you cut your hand?” He took it and brought it up to examine the wound.

  “I don’t know. It wasn’t there a minute ago.”

  “The light, maybe?”

  My elements had never injured me calling them before. “I’ll ask Professor Fowler tomorrow.”

  “You can ask him today. We aren’t staying on this field with that maniac
.”

  “Katy, wait.” Spencer approached, not a hair out of place. The bastard. Clay’s uniform was ruined, his wild hair limp from the weight of the soil coating it. I didn’t look any better. My usually red hair was dirt brown, my shirt and socks no longer white, and my knees were almost black. At least the grime covering the yellow sweater dulled the color enough so it was no longer as bright as the sun.

  “One more step and you’re done.” I brought my hand up to blast Spencer again if he tried anything.

  He held his up in response. “No, please. Allow me to explain.”

  “I’m waiting,” I snapped, keeping my palm squared on him.

  “I may have approached this the wrong way.”

  “You think?” I might have met the one guy who stated the obvious even better than Leo.

  “I’m merely training you the way my handler trained me. It was very effective.”

  “To do what? The only thing you effectively did was piss me off.” I lowered my hand, but only because it throbbed so much, I could no longer hold it up. I held it against my chest.

  He, of course, noticed and nodded at the way I now cradled my newly acquired wound. “Why are you protecting your hand?”

  “I broke my wrist last year,” I lied. Well, I didn’t really lie. That was totally the truth. The reason I held my hand close was totally a lie.

  “Then you’d be holding your wrist.”

  Good point.

  “Come on, Montana.” Clay waved for me to follow him off the field.

  I debated my next move. The pain in my shoulder, my wrist, and now my hand throbbed, but I’d get over it. I thought about Jess and how this asshole had cozied up to her in record time. As much as I wanted to walk away, tell this guy to go back to England or whatever rock he’d crawled out from under, I couldn’t do that. I had a job to do. I had to protect her. Sticking with Spencer kept me close enough to babysit them both.

  “I’m going to stay.”

  Clay stopped and turned. “Come again?”

  I kept my focus on Spencer as he kept his focus on me. I didn’t trust the guy, and he knew it, judging by the way he offered a slithery smile like he’d just proved a point. “I’m going to see how well he fares now that he can’t steal our elements.”