Firebird (The Elemental Wars Book 2)

by K. Gorman

  Ketan, standing all the way by the door, felt the room’s temperature rise a few degrees.

  For a moment, no one spoke. No one breathed.

  Aiden shook his head in disgust. “We can’t waste time arguing if it’s maybe a problem. He’ll tell us exactly what he saw en route. And—” He turned to Ketan, as if in afterthought. “—if it turns out to be a lie, we can deal with him then.”

  The look the man gave him at that point wasn’t as intense as Ketan had expected. His lip curled, as if the thought of Ketan lying was little more than an annoyance. A very inconvenient annoyance.

  He swept out of the room. As he left, Ketan caught a look at Roger’s face.

  Roger was smiling. A cold, hard, crooked smile. Full of ice.

  That was when he understood who, exactly, he’d be answering to if his story turned false.

  For the first time since he’d burst free of that building and run into Leloni, he hoped that the black crystal was alive, healthy, and very dangerous. For his sake.

  Chapter 39

  Five minutes after the Mages had left, Chen poked his head in through the door.

  Robin wasn’t sure what to make of the man—he seemed older than he looked, in his thirties as opposed to his twenties, and although he carried a casual air, she suspected he had a more serious side. As if the easy smile could slide off like oil.

  She’d gotten a taste of it once before, when they’d run into that clump of street kids just after the Earth Mage’s first attack.

  Come to think of it, it made sense that he’d be involved now. It was the same sort of situation—same people, same Mage. Almost the same attack.

  At least, Meese had come out better this time. That was progress, right?

  She watched him do a quick scan of the room, eyes like flint. Then, when he spotted her, they softened with recognition. He slipped in, keeping along the wall as he approached her.

  “Still around?” he asked.

  She nodded. She’d found a corner to lean in, since the only chairs left were a couple of sorry-looking, rusted contraptions off to one side. Standing was the best for her version of sleep deprivation. Her current room seemed a little too public for a good REM sleep, and while Meese might have been able to get away with a quick doze, considering her injuries, Robin wasn’t sure how long she needed to stay up. Given that she’d effectively just run away from home, her living quarters were somewhat nonexistent. She could probably find someone to bunk with down here, but otherwise…

  Well, it wasn’t like the Underground’s streets got inclement weather. Or any weather, for that matter. And there were all those empty buildings…

  Except she didn’t have a flashlight. Empty buildings were somewhat less appealing when they were constantly spookily dark.

  It wouldn’t come to that. She could find a place on someone’s couch.

  Hopefully.

  Chen settled into the patch of wall next to her, copying her leaning slant. He crossed his arms over his chest. “How come?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “You weren’t scheduled until Thursday. How come you’re early? Did something happen?”

  She stared. Did he really not know? “I thought it’d be all over the UnderNet by now.”

  “I’ve been aboveground all night, working. Just got in.”

  She blushed. Right. People down here had jobs, too. Jobs other than being part of a serious Underground security force. Did he ever get time off, or were his activities in the Society part of his hobbies?

  He glanced over to the family meeting by the couches. “I take it that something did happen. Care to tell?”

  She blew out her cheeks as she thought, idly rotating her phone in her hand. Its casing felt warm to the touch, and she hoped that didn’t mean the battery was draining faster. Her sleep-deprived mind raced, showing a surprising ability to focus despite the hardship it had survived today. Maybe all that late-night studying had tempered it, like banging steel in a forge.

  Where should she start?

  “Well… first, my brother pointed a gun at Meese and tried to arrest her—did you know they’re calling for the arrest of Mages and anyone connected to them?—and then, we got attacked by robbers at an Underground café, and one of them turned out to be another Fire Elemental, so I think he and Meese had a mini showdown. Then, he turned out to be a good guy, ’cause he helped Meese when we were attacked by the Earth Mage again. Oh, and now all the Mages have gone off to look at some weird, mutating, magic-eating crystal that they think killed the Earth Mage and may or may not be spreading through the Underground, and Meese is leaving the country soon.”

  Okay, so maybe that last part technically hadn’t happened yet, but her brain had snagged it, anyway.

  Chen lifted an eyebrow. “Is that all?”

  “Well…” She nodded to where Meese and her father and uncle had gathered. “They’re also having a family reunion. We thought Meese’s dad was kidnapped by Ryarnese soldiers, but Meese’s uncle managed to bring him here.” She looked up at Chen.

  Silence sat between them. Chen digested her words, his expression carefully blank.

  “So, Ryarnese soldiers are after the Mages?”

  Robin nodded. “Yes.”

  “Has anyone figured out why?”

  “No.”

  He pulled out his phone. In a second, he’d swiped over to a search app. News stories snapped by, pictures shuffling through as he thumbed his way down the news feeds.

  Robin edged closer, peering at the screen. “Anything?”

  “Not on independent media. Just a sec, I’ll switch to National—” His screen splintered, icons rotating as he switched apps.

  A second later, they found what they were looking for.

  “Oh, shit.”

  Chapter 40

  The president stepped up onto the dais, a bound folder of papers clutched neatly in her hands. She squared them together as she moved behind the podium, the soft thud audible over her lapel mic.

  Murmurs hummed in the background. The head of a reporter briefly nudged the bottom of the frame.

  This was raw footage. Fresh. Uncut.

  Robin had seen the president in person once. She’d visited her high school for a special anniversary ceremony—Robin couldn’t remember exactly what. They’d funneled the students out of class and into the gymnasium, where they’d sat on a large set of rickety bleachers that unfolded from the walls. But the school was overcrowded; even with sixteen rows of bleachers and nearly three hundred folding chairs, fifty kids had had to stand along the walls and the aisles.

  The presidential visit had been too important to miss, after all.

  Back then, from the last row of the bleachers, the president had seemed small. But her power had been obvious in the appearance of her guard—casually armed soldiers in formal dress that flanked her left and right, along with others that slipped in between the audience members, their attention not on her but on the crowd.

  As if one of the high-schoolers might open fire.

  That was the picture she remembered—but it was an old picture. She’d just started junior year then.

  And President Rosa was a fourth-term president. She’d led Ryarne throughout most of the war.

  On TV, you couldn’t see her guns. Only her face.

  When she looked up at the camera, her expression was grave.

  “Citizens of Ryarne, I bring bad news.” Her blue eyes seemed to pierce beyond the lens. She was composed. Professional. In control.

  A clamor rose in the room as reporters stood, raising their hands.

  The president made a calming gesture. “Please, I will get to your questions—all of your questions—in a minute. This won’t take long. I know there are rumors, and I am here to clarify what has happened. Please.”

  She looked straight into the camera.

  “First, I would like to confirm what you have heard—Swarzgard is pressing our border. We’ve seen more airstrikes today than in the la
st two months combined. As I speak, their ground troops have moved into Terremain and are converting it into their own operation base. Due to necessity and speed, our own troops left it largely working, with the exception of the city’s shield. Terremain’s Mage, as I understand it, has fled the city. Some say he’s here; others say he’s found ground in Mersetzdeitz. I don’t know, and it isn’t important. What is important is this—”

  By this time, the cell phone’s tiny speaker had carried the newscast’s sound through the room.

  “The Mages,” the president said, “have betrayed us.”

  Robin’s brain numbed. She met Meese’s eyes across the room.

  “Without the Mages,” the president continued, “we have no shield. Without the shield, we have no hope. I have already contacted the Swarzgard government. Tomorrow, we will negotiate our terms for surrender.”

  The newsroom erupted, and the feed’s sound rebalanced to cut the din to a more manageable level. The president waved her arms and called for quiet.

  “In the meantime, I have issued arrest warrants for the Mages and all those connected to them. If you have any information, I urge you to help us catch these traitors. Dead or alive.”

  The video stopped.

  Silence choked the room. Everyone stared, shocked.

  “She’s playing the victim.” Jo sidled in on Chen’s other side. The screen cast a pale glow on her face, highlighting the roundness of her features, the intensity of her eyes. “Redirecting blame to the Mages.”

  “A scapegoat tactic. Smart thing to do, in her shoes.” Meese’s dad had a small voice, but in the quiet room, it carried. “But she’s put us in a rather difficult position.” He met Jo’s eyes across the room. “We can’t stay here.”

  “We’re leaving,” Jo said. “Just as soon as Aiden retrieves his crystal and gets back.”

  “How long will that be?”

  “A while. He has to deal with whatever that black crystal is first, plus get his Fire crystal from the engine. And Aiden can’t teleport while carrying the crystal, so he has to foot it.” Jo’s gaze slid to Meese, who looked small and tired on the couch. “Our Fire Elemental should catch some sleep before we leave. There’s enough time.”

  Meese nodded once. She readjusted her crutch, visibly gritted her teeth, and made to stand. Her father and uncle flocked to help her.

  Together, they navigated around the coffee table and toward the door.

  Robin raised a hand. “Can I sleep with her?”

  All eyes turned on her. Beside her, Jo hid a snicker.

  For the first time in the last two hours, Meese came close to a smile. Her eyes danced.

  “We never did get that sleepover,” she said.

  *

  “I think it was the president who bombed Aiden’s office.”

  A single flame danced between them, illuminating the room’s close walls in a warm, flickering yellow. It floated in midair, an impossible thing of magic.

  Robin found it hard to look away.

  They’d been friends since Meese had started school in Ryarne—going on four months now—but she rarely witnessed Meese’s Elemental side. The fire fascinated her.

  She forced herself to meet her friend’s eyes. “Yeah?”

  The Fire Elemental slumped her face into the pillow. She brushed a brown clump of hair away from her mouth, eyelids drooping closer and closer to sleep.

  “It makes sense now. She’s been planning this for a while.” The end of the sentence warped as Meese stifled a yawn. The fire flickered. Its heat radiated into Robin’s skin.

  In the quiet, she could almost hear it burn.

  “I never trusted her, you know,” Meese added after a minute.

  “Never trust politicians. That’s what everyone says.” Robin shifted, shoving her shoulder farther down on the mattress. “Isn’t that fucked up? They’re the people that are supposed to lead the country. Trust should be a given, you know?”

  “It’s fucked up,” Meese agreed.

  They subsided into a pensive silence for the next few minutes. Robin watched the shadows dance on the walls, followed the line where the ceiling met the wall. The railing at the head of Meese’s bed had spots of rust eating into its metal, but the remaining paint gleamed in the fire like porcelain.

  “Your phone’s blinking,” Meese said.

  Robin knew. It had been blinking for a while now. She hadn’t bothered to check it. If her family wanted to talk to her, they could do it on her terms, when she wanted.

  “I’m not going back.” She stared at the ceiling, aware of Meese’s stare.

  “What?”

  “I’m not going back,” she repeated. Something hardened in her chest as she made the decision, watching the fire’s shadows twist the color and tone of the walls. The very tip of the flame shivered, bright and burning, at the edge of her vision. She glanced over, finally meeting Meese’s alarmed stare. “At least, not while Nathan’s there.”

  “What if your mom takes your side?”

  She shrugged. “She won’t. Never has, never will.”

  The room fell into silence again, and she went back to watching the shadows. It was weird to say it all this way. She’d bitched about her mom to Meese before, but never like this. Before, it had been a rant. Now, it was fact. Simple, hard, concrete fact. It was like something had clicked inside of her, laying out her life in a cold, forensic way.

  A silent understanding passed between them. Meese didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to.

  Their friendship ran deeper than talk.

  “What will you do?” Meese asked.

  Again, she shrugged. “Not sure. I’ll have to get my stuff at some point. Maybe when they’re out.”

  She peeked across the gap, ignoring the fire. Meese still watched her, her brown eyes more attentive than they had been a minute ago.

  “Will you stay down here?”

  “Maybe. I haven’t given it much thought. What about you? You’re going to Mersetzdeitz?”

  Meese nodded. “Aiden has contacts there.”

  “Your dad and uncle, too?”

  “Just Dad. Uncle’s staying here.” Meese pushed her head further into the pillow and pulled the blanket over her shoulder. Her eyes closed, though Robin suspected it was more from exhaustion than stress. They’d been awake a long time, and their eyes had turned an unhealthy shade of bloodshot.

  “I’ll miss you,” she said.

  Meese didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

  *

  Thirty minutes later, the room’s sole electric light exploded. Sparks snapped down from it. Sound blared. She felt the building hum, as if all of the electronics had been turned on at once. Static shook the air, raking fingers down Robin’s nerves.

  She yelped, jolting out of sleep. Her body wouldn’t move right, muscles feeling half-laden with lead. Her heart hammered. The quilt tangled around her limbs as she struggled. She scanned the room and caught sight of Meese’s prone form as the light strobed across the other bed.

  Her blood froze. Was she dead?

  Then, as if someone had thrown a switch, everything stopped.

  The room went dark. Quiet resumed, so thick that she could feel it—like the whole building was listening, holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. Dots of light flashed in her vision, burned there from the lightshow.

  She forced herself to breath. “Meese?”

  A cradle of fire bloomed between them, the same as before. Meese still lay on the bed, facing her. She hadn’t moved.

  An eyelid cracked open.

  “That was probably Kitty. She’s Electric.” The Elemental’s voice sounded muddled.

  When her vision cleared, Robin saw that she talked mostly into the pillow.

  “I guess she woke up.”

  Right. Kitty. Meese had told her about Kitty. Before then, Robin hadn’t even considered an Electric Elemental.

  “She’ll probably come in soon,” Meese said. “We haven’t talked much yet.”
>
  The Elemental turned her head back into the pillow and closed her eyes. A second later, the fire went out.

  Robin waited for her head to clear. Slowly, her heart returned to its normal rhythm.

  She found the blanket on the floor next to her bed, twisted into a tight rope. It took a few minutes to rearrange it onto the mattress. By then, she could hear Meese’s soft breathing resume in the quiet. She lay back down, put her shoulder to the bed, and forced her spine to relax. Her shin ached. She must have hit it at some point.

  Some while later, someone knocked. The door creaked open, sending a thread of dim yellow light slanting across her bed.

  “Meese?”

  “She’s asleep,” Robin grumbled. She blinked at the light. Even without seeing her face, she could guess who was at the door.

  “No, I’m not.” Sheets rustled on the bed next to her. In her peripheral vision, she saw Meese sit up. A lick of flame slipped back into the air. “Come in.”

  The door slid open wider, then shut. Kitty moved in, her slim form shimmying around the edge of the bed. “Did I wake you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.”

  Sleep pulled at Robin’s eyes, but she watched carefully. The fire cast Kitty in an amber glow, putting a coffee stain tint to the small patches of white that appeared on her clothes. She dressed like a rebel, all ripped skinny jeans, punk neon, and skull-faced bandannas. She had three of them—one around her hair, and two twined around her wrist. Her eyes glittered in the light like beetles.

  “Scooch over,” she said to Robin.

  The mattress dipped by her knees when Kitty sat down. The two Elementals watched each other—Meese propped up on an elbow, one eye drooping from sleep, the fire bringing out the red undertones in her newly-brown hair, and Kitty with her legs crossed in front of her, shoulders hunched into a permanent shrug as she locked her elbows in place. The posture reminded Robin of a bird. A buzzard, maybe, or a crow.

  Her dark eyes glittered. The fire flickered between them.

  “You okay?” Meese asked.