At the end of the hall, he could see a glow coming from underneath one of the closed doors. He knew the room and could have found it even without the lights on. With a smile, he realized that most of the times he had been to Jessica’s room, the lights had been off. It was against the rules for a guy to spend the night in a sorority, even for the order’s president. He knew how to navigate this hallway in the dark for the same reason he knew that the hinges on the screen door leading out of the kitchen only squeaked if you opened the door more than halfway.
Xander paused before the door and knocked gently. He turned the handle and walked in before Jessica had a chance to respond.
“Just come on in,” Jessica said with a frown.
She sat on her bed with her legs dangling over the side. She wasn’t facing Xander when he came in but he had no doubt she knew whom it was. To his surprise, she didn’t look angry. She just looked defeated.
“Can I talk to you?” he asked.
“I’d prefer you didn’t but I don’t think what I say is really going to make a difference.”
Xander took a seat in the wooden chair in front of her computer desk. There was a thick cushion on the bottom of the chair and he sank into memory foam as he got comfortable.
He knew what he wanted to say to her but it seemed abnormally hard to start the conversation. Jessica looked up from where she had been staring at her hands and arched her eyebrows with impatience.
“Why did you come back here, Xander?” she asked softly.
Xander shrugged, not entirely sure he knew the answer anymore. “I just… I wanted to tell you… God, I don’t know.”
“You wanted to tell me what?”
He sighed and looked into her blue eyes. It didn’t take a mind reader to see the pain behind them. “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. You aren’t a bad person but I sure treated you that way. You didn’t deserve what I said and you sure didn’t deserve the way it ended.”
Jessica quietly reached up and wiped away a threatening tear from the corner of her eye. She laughed softly to herself.
“I’m not mad at you for breaking up with me.” She threw her head back and laughed a little louder at the audacity of her last statement. “No, that’s not true. I was mad at you for breaking up with me. I was pissed at you. I’m not saying I’m perfect, because I know I’m not. But I’m a lot better than the way you made me feel.”
Xander looked down at his hands and fidgeted in the seat.
When Jessica spoke again, her voice was much softer and her words thick with emotion. “But you know why I was really mad at you? Because you dumped me for someone that looks just like me. You basically dated me for a few years, and then dumped me for a prettier version of me. That really sucks, Xander.”
He reached behind him and retrieved a tissue from the desk. As he handed it to Jessica, she used it to completely cover her face.
“She’s not a prettier version of you,” Xander said as he placed his hand on her leg.
Jessica looked over the top of her tissue. “So you don’t think she’s prettier than me?”
“That’s not what…” Xander stammered. A thousand wrong answers all flooded through his mind at the same time. “There’s no possible way to answer this that doesn’t get me into trouble, is there?”
Jessica smiled through her tears. “No, Xander, there really isn’t.”
Xander felt a bright flush spread through his cheeks. He had never been so relieved to have a woman let him off the hook.
He took a deep breath and tried to explain. “I didn’t break up with you because some cute new thing walked past me. It’s complicated. We’re, well, we’re kind of destined for one another.”
Jessica furrowed her brow. “Like an arranged marriage?”
Xander laughed. “God, I wish it were that simple. No, I mean actually destined for one another. Like, hand of God stuff.”
Jessica wadded up her tissue and tossed it into the wastebasket beside her bed. She ran fingers beneath her eyes, removing the smudges of mascara that had smeared when she was crying. With a quick cough, she cleared her throat. Aside from the redness in her eyes and the slight puffiness around them, she looked like her old self again.
“Life was so much simpler when you were just a slacker without a future. This whole superhero thing doesn’t suit you.”
Xander smiled, glad to see his old ex-girlfriend back again. “You’re preaching to the choir.”
He stood up and extended his hand to her. “You want to go back and join the others?”
Jessica bit her bottom lip as she stood. “Do I get to spray your new girlfriend with the fire extinguisher?”
Xander laughed and put his arm around her shoulder. “I’d really prefer you didn’t. She knows where I live.”
They stepped toward the door, feeling like old friends finally reunited. As they reached the doorway, the ground beneath their feet lurched. Xander’s arm slipped from Jessica’s shoulder as she dropped to the floor for support. He stumbled forward into the doorframe as the ground beneath him rattled like it was a rodeo bull trying to toss him off.
“What’s happening?” Jessica yelled.
Xander tried to stay upright but found it harder and harder to do. He dropped to his knees and pulled Jessica into the relative safety of the doorway.
“It’s an earthquake…” he said, but his voice trailed off at the implications. He’d experienced a violent earthquake once before but that had only come after Bart died.
The shaking stopped as abruptly as it began. Xander climbed quickly to his feet and ran down the hall, leaving Jessica behind. As he rounded the entry into the common room, he saw Sean and Sammy lying on the floor with their hands protectively over their heads.
“Is everyone okay?” he asked breathlessly.
They both looked up from their spots and slowly stood.
“I think we’re good,” Sean said as he dusted himself off.
“Xander,” Sammy said nervously.
“I know,” he replied. “I know what it means.”
“What does it mean?” Sean interjected.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Sammy said, trying to put his mind at ease. She grabbed both their backpacks and crammed the few items they had taken out back into the bags. “It could just be an after-effect of everything that’s happening across the world. We don’t know if it happened.
“If what happened?” Jessica asked as she walked up behind Xander.
Before he could reply, the first aftershock struck White Halls. The aftershock seemed far more violent than the original earthquake. The television tumbled from its stand and shattered on the floor. Glassware in the kitchen fell from the cupboards and smashed on the counters and on the ground.
A thunderous crack erupted in the room. The drywall along the front of the house split. The seam raced up the wall and across the ceiling, tracing its way to the wall beside where Xander and Jessica stood. Dust poured from the new crack, filling the room with white powder and choking the oxygen out of the room.
The group coughed as they tried to crawl out. In the hallway, the air was clearer, but they still clung to the sides of the hallway for safety.
The aftershock rattled the house for minutes before petering away to a gentle rocking. A few seconds later, the world settled back into relative silence.
“What was that?” Sean blurted. “You guys clearly know something we don’t.”
Xander leapt to his feet only slightly quicker than Sammy. “We need to get back to the island.”
“Where are you going?” Jessica called after them as the two raced toward the front door.
Xander threw open the door and looked out on a seemingly sea of rubble nearby. At least three of the sorority and fraternity houses on the Greek Row had collapsed entirely. Xander counted them lucky that the Tri Delta house had withstood the shaking.
“I need to fly now,” Xander explained as he slipped his arm around Sammy’s waist. “I don’t care if they can sens
e me.”
“Do what you need to do,” she replied, her lips shaking as she said the words.
Xander kicked off the ground and launched quickly into the air, leaving Sean and Jessica standing confusedly in the doorway. As he leveled off high above the sorority house, a boom rocked the sky as he reached supersonic speeds.
Night had retreated and the sun was cresting the horizon by the time Xander and Sammy flew out over the ocean. The waterspout was gone. In fact, the ocean was smooth and calm, stretching to the horizon. The only thing breaking the flat Gulf of Mexico was the Wind Warrior island, canted and resting half-submerged in the water.
The island was in disarray. As Xander and Sammy flew toward it, they could see a few red roofs cresting the lapping waters. Other buildings were barely visible as dark shadows just beneath the surface of the ocean.
The buildings that were still above water were shattered from the impact. Narrow walls were still standing in silhouettes of the buildings they had once been. The roofs and interior walls were crushed into bricks of rubble, resting within the broken frameworks.
Xander landed in a run, dropping his bag as he went, and not bothering to look behind him to see if Sammy was still following. He ran past a couple of houses that still smoldered. Their exteriors were charred, the marble blackened from heat and smoke. There wasn’t any doubt in Xander’s mind what had happened to the Wind Warriors.
“Grandpa,” Xander yelled as he cupped his hands around his mouth. “Giovanni. Alicia. Anyone.”
His screams were met with silence. He had felt the earthquake shaking White Halls, which meant a Wind Warrior had died. Clutching a half wall for support, Xander raised his hand to his mouth and bit back a wave of panic. Sammy caught up to him as he caught his breath. Slipping her arm around him, she laid her head on his shoulder. She saw the scorched marks on the houses around them as well and knew it had been her people that attacked.
“He can’t be dead,” Xander muttered.
“I don’t think your grandfather is,” she answered.
He stood and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “He was already so weak. If they attacked, how could he possibly have walked away from this?”
Sammy didn’t have an answer for him, so she leaned closer and squeezed his arm. Xander pushed away from the wall and looked uphill. The way the island came to rest in the water left the far end a couple dozen feet higher than where they landed. The climb would be difficult, especially since they had to maneuver around the rubble that lined the street. Even the cobblestones were now slick with sea spray, leaving them slippery to climb. Cobblestones were meant for walking on even ground. They became awkward for climbing.
He thought about just flying but didn’t want to risk being too visible as they inspected the island. The Fire Warriors had clearly been there. There was no way to know if they were still around, lying in wait to ambush Xander now that he’d returned.
They didn’t have far to climb. Xander had no intention of checking the far end of the island. His only concern was the ruined central dome and the home nearby in which his grandfather had been recovering. The dome was visible from where he stood, though it was barely recognizable. The bell tower had vanished in a cloud of debris. The roof was collapsed. Large shards of broken stone jutted from its battered interior like spearheads. The central dome had been a sturdy building but it hadn’t stood a chance in the island’s collapse. If the island’s main structure hadn’t withstood the impact, he wondered what chance there would be that the side houses had remained standing. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Xander began scaling the sloped road.
The rubble quickly proved to be a benefit during the climb. The marble slabs were heavy enough that they wouldn’t shift as they used them for support. In between the debris, he strained to find purchase with his shoes on the slick cobblestone.
As they climbed past a ruined building, Xander caught sight of a pale hand jutting from beneath a crumbled wall. His stomach danced in his gut at the sight. He hurried over and tried to lift the stones but they were too heavy for one person alone. Sammy materialized beside him and wordlessly took her place on the far side of the stone. Together, they lifted. Their muscles strained from the weight and Xander gritted his teeth as he lifted.
With a final grunt, they lifted the stone and slid it aside. Beneath the marble debris, the body was barely recognizable as human. Most of the bones had been shattered by the impact. Xander had to look away in disgust. A few important details remained seared into his mind, though. The man—if, in fact, it had been a man—had been clad in dark leather armor and what remained of his head was framed in a halo of pale blonde hair. Despite his queasiness at the sight of the crushed corpse, he smiled slightly to himself. The body had been a Fire Warrior. It hadn’t been a member of his family.
A sob from the far side of the body drew his attention. He turned and found Sammy crouched beside the body, tears streaming down her face. It was easy for Xander to forget that she was a Fire Warrior first, that she had grown up with the people that were trying to kill him.
“Did you know him?” he asked, though he doubted she would have been able to recognize the warrior as the man he had once been.
Sammy shook her head and wiped her eyes. “No. It’s just… I may have betrayed them but these are still my people. It’s hard to see this. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” he said as he walked to her side.
He pulled her into a hug and let her hide her face in his chest. Looking over her head, Xander cringed at the sight. Beyond the ruined house, there were a dozen other Fire Warrior corpses in various stages of ruination. He wasn’t sure how many had died as a result of conflicts with the Wind Warriors and how many had just died from the fall. Either way, he wasn’t eager for Sammy to see that sight.
“Come on,” he said, guiding her gently away from the scene of death behind her. “Let’s go find the others.”
He cast one last glance over his shoulder, catching the gaze of a Fire Caste body who stared at him accusingly, even in death.
They climbed past a few more ruined houses before the streets all converged into what had once been the center of the island. The damage to the central dome seemed far worse up close than what it had been from a distance. Xander cringed as he saw that the entire wall around the front entrance had shattered into little more than a mound of sharpened marble shards.
“We need to find my grandpa,” Xander said as he took her hand.
He paused as they skirted the side of the dome. It had been easy to locate the buildings on the island when it had been held aloft and all the buildings had been whole. Now, everything looked the same. It was impossible to tell where one ruined building ended and another began. He wanted to yell again for his aunts and uncles but was more hesitant after seeing all the Fire Warriors strewn about. There was no way to know if some survived.
“Which way?” Sammy asked, echoing Xander’s concerns.
He looked both directions and chewed on his lip. He shook his head before pointing randomly toward the right of the dome. They stepped off hesitantly. Xander wished he could keep the wind swirling around his legs in preparation. Despite not having his powers for long, he felt naked without the wind summoned in defense. He also couldn’t forget the lesson he just learned in White Halls. The Fire Caste could sense their power the same way the Wind Warriors could sense the flames.
Xander climbed up a sloped marble slab that blocked the way ahead. It rested against a crumbling wall, leaving the far end hanging nearly six feet over the cracked roadway. As Xander reached the crest, he finally had a better view of the area around the dome. He saw what he expected to see—nothing remained standing.
As he scanned the area, his breath caught in his throat when he saw someone moving amongst the rubble of the central dome. It was hard to see the person as they emerged and disappeared quickly behind more jutting shards of stone. Xander looked over his shoulder and waved for Sammy to join him
. She crawled up to the top in time to see the figure emerging once again from the pile of stones.
The man’s dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Dirt coated his face and chest, which was exposed since his tunic had long ago been removed.
Xander leapt to his feet and jumped from the edge of the slab. His feet never touched the ground as he flew toward the figure.
“Giovanni,” he yelled as he landed directly in front of the weary and worn Italian.
Giovanni’s face lit up at the sight of the young Wind Warrior. The Italian wrapped his arms around Xander and buried him in an emotional hug.
“Oh, silly boy, I’m so glad you’re okay,” he muttered.
As they pulled apart, Xander’s furrowed his brow suddenly in concern. “What happened? We saw some dead Fire Warriors. How did they find us?”
Giovanni shook his head. “I don’t know. They showed up in the middle of the night. They were on top of us before we even knew what was happening.”
Xander grabbed the Italian’s arm and squeezed tightly. “When we were in White Halls, we felt the earthquake.”
He left the question hanging but he could read the sadness in Giovanni’s eyes.
“Is everyone okay?” Xander finally asked.
Giovanni shook his head. He tried to explain but Xander could see him choking with emotion.
“Please tell me,” Xander said quietly. He heard Sammy approaching from behind but he didn’t turn. He needed to know the truth first. “Please tell me my grandpa is still alive.”
“He lives,” Giovanni replied with a sad smile. “I was with him when the island fell and was able to fly him to safety.”
“Then who?” Xander frowned. “It was Robert, wasn’t it?”
He cursed himself for not seeing it sooner. Robert had controlled both the waterspout and kept the island aloft. With both gone, he should have been able to guess right away.
“I’m so sorry,” Sammy added, stepping beside Xander.
“He was too weak to fight back when he was attacked,” Giovanni explained. “He couldn’t even fly away after he lost his concentration and the island fell. He’s…” the Italian had to pause as he looked around him at the rubble. “He was still in the dome when it collapsed. I’ve been trying to find him so he could get a proper burial.”
Flame Caller Page 13
