by Kate Kelley
“You obviously don’t understand blocking magic,” he said in a flat voice.
I huffed out a breath. “Well my magic isn’t blocked.”
“We’ve been through that already. You don’t know how to use it.”
“So what, you’re just going to give up? Let her kill you?”
Wolfram was quiet and the moon slid behind a cloud, shading him from view. “I always have a plan.”
“Care to enlighten me, oh wise one?”
“It doesn’t concern you.”
I stopped. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
He paused. “Well, you are Air. It’s easy to form an alliance--”
“Fuck you.” I sniffed and eyed the window above me.
Another pause. “You use that word quite freely.”
“Yeah, sorry I’m not a regal princess from a faraway castle. I grew up in the 21st century and women use curse words.”
“Not all,” he said, as if implying that some women were classier than others.
I gave him my best eyebrow quirk even though I couldn’t see him in the dark.
Gah, if only I could summon air power to break the chains or...the wall maybe. The breeze through the window called to me, submitted to me.
“How do they train Fire Elementals?” I asked the darkness.
Wolfram appeared in the moonlight near the bars. “You train your whole life, from infancy. It’s like learning a language. And then you go through classes around puberty, when the magic blossoms fully. If you’re really good, you train with masters into adulthood. Military take a similar path.”
“Were you military?”
“Yes.” A darkness crept into the word.
“Can you teach me, now? Just a few tips.”
“I know very little about Air magic.”
“But you know a little?”
He hesitated. “Yes…”
I got as close to the bars between us as I could and reached to him with all the desperation I had in me with my fists curled at my sides. “Please.”
A moment of silence impregnated the air between us. I sighed and leaned against the wall.
“First of all, get rid of that.” His voice had a rough edge to it that sent a tingle up my spine.
I peered over at him. “Get rid of what?”
“The self-pity. The pity for me. That won’t help your magic strengthen.”
I leapt off the wall, hope flaring in my chest. “You’ll teach me?”
“Block all soft feelings from your head and your heart. Think of something that angers you. Something so woven into your memories that it’s a part of yourself.”
My dad’s face popped up in my head. All of the emotional abuse I endured, the mental manipulation. Every time he said I wasn’t smart enough, thin enough, pretty enough. That I would never finish school, that I would never amount to anything in the real world unless I whored myself out to a rich prick.
Evan. I thought of him too. Soon, my body hummed with something deeply buried under layers within me.
“Now,” Wolfram’s voice was gravel, and it grated on my nerves. I was angry at him too. “Call the wind to you. Bring it into that place the magic spilled out during the Souta. Turn that pain into power.”
I closed my eyes and felt the breeze, every tinge, every time a piece of hair was picked up. I felt every touch of the wind and concentrated on it until I saw blue swirls behind my eyes, sweat beaded on my forehead and my fingers tingled.
“Now, feel that weight in your palms. Feel that power, that mass, in your hands. It’s real, and you can throw it, just as you can throw anything else that is solid. It’s yours. Throw it at the wall.”
I flicked my wrists in an instinctual action that defied sense and a pouring of wind flew from my hands, rumbling the wall and the floor we stood on with a slight tremor.
My eyes flew open in alarm and I looked over at Wolfram. I saw his lips curled in a smile. “I shouldn’t have doubted you, what with that attitude of yours.”
I laughed. “Attitude? I normally don’t have one of those. Not until I--”
Not until I met you.
“--moved to Emerald,” I finished.
“Where did you live before?”
I was caught off guard by his question. “The city.”
“By yourself?”
“My fiance and I lived together.”
“Mmm, and you aren't with him now?”
“Do you think I would be homeless and in this mess if I was still with him?” My face burned and I was unsure why he was asking me these questions. I almost asked him if he had a wife when he cut me off.
“He didn’t allow you to have an attitude.” It was a statement rather than a question.
My face burned in shame. “Yeah, I let him walk all over me for years.” My ego deflated like a balloon. I felt so small suddenly.
“Not anymore.”
Wolfram’s voice was softer, an understanding behind his words that affected me in ways I didn’t think it could. I thought I was over it. Apparently I was wrong.
Mist sprang to my eyes and I was thankful for the dark.
“No,” I said, “Not anymore.”
Wolfram’s chains rattled against the stone floor as he sat against his cell wall. “If you can practice concentrating on your power and that anger, maybe you can grow it strong enough to break the chains.”
It seemed metaphorical, as if breaking my physical chains would break my mental and emotional ones tied to Evan and my dad.
“I will,” I said, my voice hoarse.
I sat down, crossed my legs and placed my hands on my knees, the way I’d seen the hippie, white yoga girls do it when they were practicing meditation in their home videos.
Night shifted across the sky as I sat, for how long, I didn’t know. I thought about my ties to my dad and to Evan, thought about my helplessness, the used feeling they both gave me, and the anger followed. I welcomed the breeze, called it to me, then stood and flicked my wrists, rushing wind into the bars separating Wolfram and me.
I did this all night long until at last, when pink dawn lit the cell, I flicked my wrists and the bars creaked as I held onto my power, and finally, SNAP.
I sank to my knees and Wolfram jumped up from his slumber, staring at the snapped bars in disbelief. I wished I could have bottled up that wonder in his eyes. I laughed, my bleary eyes welling with tears.
The next flick of my wrist cracked my chains, and I wrenched my hands free.
I rubbed my wrists as I stumbled over the snapped bars and into Wolfram’s cell.
He watched me like he was seeing me for the first time. And for the first time, I felt powerful. Like I could do anything. He took a step toward me, and his breathing turned harsh. “You don’t have to do this. Go now. If you help me, they’ll execute you too.”
I looked into his black eyes, noting the hair that shrouded part of his face. I noticed his skin looked pale--ghostly pale. “Why did you save those people from the fires? You didn’t know them. You didn’t have to do it.”
He averted his gaze. “Because I was the only one who could.”
“Exactly. Now give me those clamps. I’m busting you out of here, kid.” I touched his wrist and flinched back--his skin was ice cold. Like, corpse cold.
“My, oh my. I greatly underestimated the girl.”
Shit.We hadn’t heard her open the door during the chaos.
I whirled around, blocking Wolfram from Zephyrine’s view.
She chuckled merrily, as if purely delighted. “You’re powerful. Congratulations. We can use that in our Kingdom.”
I glowered at her. “Not interested. Thanks.”
Her features sobered, save for the glint in her eye. “Step aside and I’ll excuse you from treason.”
“I’m not a citizen of your Kingdom. I’m from Earth. As of right now, I’m a prisoner of war. You kidnapped me and illegally imprisoned me--”
Another shrill laugh escaped the old Queen’s throat. “Earth no l
onger applies here, nor do any of their asinine rules. Step aside.” She edged closer, her hands raised.
I had no doubt in my mind that she could best me, destroy me if she wanted to. There was a reason she was Air Queen, after all.
“Move, Peterson.” Wolfram spoke harshly behind me, his breath on the back of my neck.
I bit back a growl. Again, with the impersonal name.
“Do as he says, little girl,” Zephyrine singsonged.
I took a deep breath to quell the rising anger inside of me. I wasn’t moving, that much was I was certain of. How to best the Air Queen I wasn’t certain of.
Wolfram’s cold words were back, resounding in the small cell. “You aren’t strong enough, Peterson. Leave it be. Go back to Earth and live on the street for all I care, but don’t fucking pretend you can do this, Princess.”
A sharp spark of anger flamed inside me. How dare he call me princess after all I’ve gone through, after all he’d put me through, and the trust I put in him to get here.
Zephyrine signed in the air and a gale of wind blew back my hair. She circled her hands high above her head and a whisper of a cyclone appeared above her--she was summoning a tornado.
Hell.
As the wind rose and circulated, the anger rose inside me along with it until my own fingers hummed and burned with magic.
I wasn’t sure how the next thing happened, but I was lifted into the air by the cyclone, spinning horizontally until I hit the ceiling, my head cracking against the rough stone. I felt blood drip down my scalp as the wind held me against the ceiling as if a giant hand pushed me against it. A drop of my blood ran over my forehead and splattered on the stone floor below.
I watched as Zephyrine approached Wolfram, and placed her hands on his ears. I realized then that she’d crush his skull with the force of her magic. Instantly, I saw red and all that mattered was preventing her from hurting Wolfram.
I raised my hands and directed them at Zephyrine, and forced my magic out. The next thing I knew, a deafening roar exploded in my ear and I was on the ground, staring at the unseeing eyes of the Air Queen, her head misshapen as a piece of rubble crushed part of her skull.
Someone lifted me up and carried me across the smoky, rubble-filled place. Cell bars were here and there, and a heavy oak door was hanging from its hinges. We crossed through and bounded down the stairs where we met several guards in disarray.
Wolfram torched them with a blow of flame and they screamed, desperately rolling on the ground to put out the fire. We ran--well, Wolfram did, and somehow made it down another set of stairs without attracting attention. By the time we were outside, shouts from the castle rose up around black smoke. I felt the power of the wind at my back, knowing they were extinguishing the flames.
Wolfram ran through thick trees, carrying me until I wriggled out of his arms and ran at his side. My right ankle smarted but it was negligible compared to the pain of my trapped magic the day before.
After several more minutes I stopped abruptly, my chest heaving. We were deep in the forest, the day’s humidity setting in, even as early as it was. I wasn’t a runner.
Wolfram paused, looking back at me. “We have to get to the stone.”
“How far?” I asked, my hands on my knees.
“Less than thirty. I can carry you.”
“No--I’m sick of being carried--”
He lifted me up anyway and set out again. “You’re too slow.”
I growled in response as clasped his neck, moving his hair away from the back of his neck so that I didn’t pull it. It was surprisingly soft and my fingers lingered in the tresses. He glanced sharply at me as if I’d slapped him.
Finally, the stone was in sight, and as we made our way to it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I instinctively looked up, and saw a gaggle of flying, black-robed men descending on us.
I swiped my hand toward them and a billow of black smoke rose from my fingertips, clouding their view. I heard choking as I smacked my hands on the stone, Wolfram pushed me upwards and I scrambled to the top. Wolfram appeared next to me.
Zephryine’s servant boy--the one who likely struck me and rendered me unconscious, ran full speed toward us, pointing a bony finger at me, hatred blaring in his eyes. “Abomination!” he screamed, reaching us just as we shrunk into space and vanished.
Chapter Thirteen
Wolfram opened the driver’s door of a car in the parking garage.
“Is this yours?” I asked, as I climbed in.
He put his finger in the ignition and sparked it, with magic, presumably. It roared to life. “No,” he said as he shifted into reverse and sped out of the garage.
“Uhh, okay, so you have killed the Air Queen and stolen a car today. Cool.”
Wolfram gave me a guarded sidelong glance. “That was you.”
I looked at him. “Me what?”
“You killed the Air Queen.”
I stared at his profile, trying to find the humor in his face that was surely there. Except, there was one issue. Wolfram didn’t joke.
“I? Did that?” Hadn’t there been an explosion?
Wolfram turned swiftly into reverse and peeled out of the garage and into the road. After a few minutes, buildings and houses started scattering outside of my window. I saw skyscrapers ahead.
“Don’t ask me how,” he said, “That was an explosion. You also created smoke back there.”
A chill raced up my spine. “...so?”
He looked at me as we turned into the alley where his apartment was. “Air Elementals don’t create smoke. Neither do Fire elementals.”
He passed his apartment building and drove to the end of the road, where we hit a dead end. He parked the car on the road and kept it running as he got out, crossed to my side and opened my door. I stared at him, gaping.
He made an impatient sound in his throat, reached over and unbuckled my seatbelt, then gently pulled me up. I recovered, swallowing, as he shut my door. I caught up with him as he strode toward a large stone across a field. “So...what does that mean about me?” I asked as we reached the stone.
Wolfram hoisted me up and jumped up afterward and we flashed out of sight and onto another stone, the one by the cave.
As soon as we entered the inky blackness of the cave, Wolfram lit his hand and I was able to see the musty cavern as the daylight faded at my back. “I don’t know what it means,” Wolfram finally said.
We walked in silence until we reached the other side. When we emerged, I spotted his car sitting exactly where it had been before. When we got in, he pulled a key out of his jeans pocket and started the car and when we backed up, I felt the ripple when we hit the border between realms.
We were back on Earth, finally.
So why did I feel like shit?
It was snowing, heavily, and I noticed ice on the road. The sun was setting here.
Where would I stay? I imagined all of my stuff was sitting in a dumpster by now. All those crockpots, my grandfather clock.
“Can I use your phone?” I asked as we passed into the small downtown section of Emerald. We turned right at a stoplight.
“Why?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “To call my dad?”
Wolfram chewed his inner lip, his eyes on the road.
“I would use my own but you threw it out of a moving vehicle. Remember that?”
We pulled up in front of the office I found him in before this whole mess started. He pressed a button on his shade and a hidden metal garage lifted silently next to the office building.
“Do you live here or something?” I asked.
Okay, so he was being silent again.
He parked in the garage and I got out. A bike hung from hooks above me and a woodworking table with shavings and various tools stood by the door. Wolfram opened the door to the building/house and I followed, unsure of what else to do. I closed the door behind me and it clicked loudly in the empty building. This side of the building looked homier. I peeked
to the left and saw a hallway that led to a kitchen much like the one in his Fire Kingdom apartment and across from that, a cozy living room. Directly in front of me was a door with an old fashioned knob. I opened it and a wooden staircase led to an upstairs area that probably held bedrooms.
“You can stay in a room up there.”
Wolfram’s deep voice sounded at my back and I jumped and hit him in the stomach. It was hard as steel.
“Is that how you treat your host?”
I reared back. “More jokes. I can’t handle it.” I peered back up the stairs, then back to Wolfram. “Thanks for the invitation, but I can’t. I need to call my dad--”
“You aren’t calling your father.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You have authority over my personal life now?”
A muscle in his tensed. “We don’t know what your father knows at this point or where his loyalties lie.”
I blinked. “My father is human. He’s a CEO of a hospital and he makes a shit ton of money, and, yes, he’s a gigantic ass. But he’s not colluding with a demon terrorist group from another realm, I can assure you.”
Wolfram clasped his hands behind his back, his strong chin pointing down as he averted his gaze. “We can’t know that for certain.”
“Well, I can. Give me the phone or I’ll just go to a payphone. The cold doesn’t bother me anymore.”
“I can’t let you leave.”
I dipped my head until I caught his downcast gaze, forcing him to look at me. “You can’t just keep me here.”
I stood up and grabbed the door knob to the garage when Wolfram grabbed my wrist. Our eyes met. His were bright copper. I had learned enough by now that it meant he was angry.
“I’m the explosion girl, remember? I killed a Queen. My own Queen. So unless you want to suffer the same fate, I suggest you back off.”
Wolfram’s lips curled up and widened into a brilliant smile, momentarily knocking me out of my senses and angering me at the same time.
I growled at him, a new thing for me. But it took the edge off. Ever since my magic came in, I felt volatile, like a shook up soda bottle. I could explode if you opened me up at the wrong moment.
