A Shift in the Air (31 page)

Fergus flinched. “I never meant ya any
harm.” He took a step back, and the ground under their feet
trembled. “I wasn’t whole. Ya knew that, yeah? I never meant to...”
His body language vacillated between bitterness and need. “I can’t
control the pain anymore,” he said. “Help me. Please, Catie. Make
me better. Ya love me, yeah?”

“
Yes, Fergus, only
you.”

His shoulders slumped, his relief
palpable. She seized her chance, taking the last few steps to his
side. With slow purpose, she drew him against her, his angular body
both foreign and familiar. His arms clutched her, embracing her so
tightly she could barely breathe. She slipped her hands around his
waist, dropping the infused and inscribed quartz into his left
pocket with as much skill as a pickpocket, hoping she’d guessed
correctly about which side held his medication. He smelled like
soil freshly churned in preparation for spring, but soon the
fragrance turned thick and choking, and she pulled away as
quickly—and as carefully—as she dared.

“
Take your pills, Fergus.
They’ll make you feel better. And then I’ll give you the book, and
we’ll be together.” Caitlin fingered the leather around her wrist.
The runes flared, the power prickling along her skin. Electricity
permeated the air. She reached for the second piece of quartz in
her own pocket, sending the same energy against the raw stone. She
thought she felt an answer, the subtle vibration of the rune
brought to life. But her nerves dulled her senses, and she couldn’t
be sure.

Fergus withdrew a small bottle from
his right pocket, and she exhaled. He shook several pills free and
stared into his palm, but movement out of the corner of Caitlin’s
eye drew his focus, and he tossed the pills away.

With a wild, desperate snarl, he sent
some of her stolen element hurtling towards the two wolves
approaching from the north. Tierney and Peter crashed into one
another and yelped as they slid and rolled down the hill, back
towards the parking lot. He spun to her, his gaze menacing. “Give
me the book, Catie.”

“
No.” Her power lifted the
small tome, tearing out the pages and shredding them in mid-air.
Mara sent a blast of fire over the scraps of paper with a satisfied
grin.

In Caitlin’s periphery, she caught
sight of Farren’s wolf slinking along a stone barrier and up the
hill again. She’d be hidden from Fergus’s view until she was almost
within striking distance. Caitlin could only see the tips of her
ears.

“
Ya fuckin’ bitch!” Fergus
flew at Caitlin, tackling her around the waist and knocking her to
the ground. His fists found her stomach, then her face, and she let
him, needing the pain. A blast of heat hit Fergus in the shoulder,
and his black shirt caught fire. He bounded away and smothered the
flames with a guttural scream.

Caitlin activated the stone in his
pocket. The runes she’d painstakingly carved into the quartz burned
as she surrounded them with energy. “You don’t control me anymore.”
Her power gathered within her, filling the hole Fergus carved out
years ago. Tongues of Mara’s flames danced along the
grass.

Fergus attacked again, hauling Caitlin
up by her hair and flinging a charm wide. The ground’s subtle
tremor grew until bits of the cliffside broke off and crashed into
the sea below. Mara screamed as the vibration reached her and stole
her balance. Cade howled, his anger shattered by the currents of
power buffeting them.

Held by her braid, Caitlin reached
back to claw at Fergus’s hand while Cade bounded for
Fergus.

“
No!” Caitlin shouted. She
struggled against Fergus’s grip, on her knees as he towered over
her. Her charm faltered on her lips when Fergus wrapped his other
hand around her throat.

A chunk of earth the size of a small
animal flew towards Cade and landed with a sickening crack against
his chest. The wolf yelped and fell. He struggled, got his front
legs under him, but collapsed again. Mara sent a twisting mix of
fire and water towards Caitlin and Fergus. Her green eyes glowed
silver, then amber, and flames flared along her hands.

Caitlin wouldn’t use the quartz’s
power until she had to for fear he’d discover her subterfuge. As
Fergus countered Mara’s fire and water, Caitlin used his
distraction to compel his hold around her neck to weaken. She
gulped a breath. As Mara pulled back to release another blast, she
caught Caitlin’s gaze. A slight nod gave Caitlin only half a second
to draw her element, allowing air to fill her every pore, to sing
along every nerve. Mara’s fire and water hit Caitlin in the chest,
catapulting her into Fergus. They stumbled towards the edge of the
cliff.

For one brief, terrible moment, fire,
water, and air lived within Caitlin. They twisted her insides into
knots as they battled for dominance. The quartz whispered to life,
an answering harmony as she channeled her energy into the hidden
crystal. “You…can’t…have…me.” Whether her words were meant for
Fergus or for the elements warring inside of her, she couldn’t
tell. Perhaps both.

Her world exploded into light and
sound. Flames blackened the grass all around them. Fergus dragged
her backwards, his manic laughter mixing with the roar of the wind
and the hiss of the rain that fell onto the burning
ground.

Caitlin pulled the three elements
closer, twisting in Fergus’s grip and slamming her hand against his
hip. The quartz between them helped serve as a conduit, and a tiny
piece of his element seeped in alongside the other
three.

For a single breath, all four elements
embraced, but the agony overwhelmed her. Caitlin sagged against
Fergus’s hold, and fire, water, and earth slipped from her grasp.
Mara ran towards them, with Cade limping behind her, howling. His
desperate vocalizations pleaded for her to stop, but the look in
her eyes hinted at a need for more. For Fergus’s earth, for
Caitlin’s air.

Air doomed her once, and air would
save her now. Caitlin called as much power as she could muster,
twisted the charm around, and knocked Fergus off his
feet.

He released her, and she landed hard.
“You can’t hurt me anymore.”

Farren’s wolf sailed over the barrier.
She crashed into Fergus’s chest with a growl, and the earth
elemental rolled with her. Her long nose aimed for his throat, but
his arm got in the way. Fergus shouted in pain, then his hand dug
into his left pocket. Caitlin’s gaze glued to his fingers as they
withdrew, a strange relief invading her as the glimmer of a blade
whipped into the air. Then she screamed.

“
Farren!”

Blood gushed over Farren’s silver fur.
Fergus’s knife glinted in the newly born light, dark teardrops
falling from the edge.

Caitlin pushed off the ground, her
fear no match for her fury. “Enough.” With a final glance at the
wolves and at Mara, she took off at a run. Calling upon her
element, she landed on Fergus as she released the charm, launching
both of them over the edge and tumbling through the air.

Mara’s scream carried after
them.

Fergus had chosen his location poorly:
the same cliffs where she’d once thrown her life into the sea. She
knew the landscape well. Thirty feet below, a plateau jutted over
the churning waves.

Her charm slowed their descent, but
the bone-jarring impact left her disoriented. Caitlin struggled
upright, stumbling forward and shaking her head. One solid opening
and she could send him into the sea.

He stared at her as though seeing her
for the first time. Then he pushed himself to unsteady feet,
backing away from the plateau’s edge. “That was foolish. Ya cannot
wish to hurt me, do ya, Catie?” He extended his hand and lowered
his voice. “Ya want to stay with me forever. Come to
me.”

The compulsion charm soothed, and her
will slumped into desire. She could step into his warm embrace, be
with him for the rest of her life. He enveloped her in the
comforting numbness, his solid element promising no more confusion.
One step, two, and she wavered. The rich, earthy scent, at first
welcoming, turned bitter and harsh as another, more powerful aroma
of spice and freshly cut wood called to her. Fergus’s dark eyes
held hers, but as she looked deeper into them, she realized that
they should be clear emeralds. Love, not possession, should be
reflected back to her.

As though a guillotine had severed
their connection, her head snapped back, jarring her reality. “Once
upon a time, Fergus, I was yours. And I would have stayed with you.
I loved who you were.” She lowered her voice to a dagger’s edge.
“But not anymore.”

He stalked towards her, attempting to
strengthen the charm. The dissonance of his elements slid like
sandpaper over one another. The harder he pulled, the deeper she
could reach. When he lunged for her throat, she smiled.

Her hand held the other quartz, and
the runes drew her air and his earth from a swirling melody he
attempted to tame into his own song. Her imbued symbols trapped the
discordant notes, sending a small snap of power over her
skin.

His fingers tightened, severing her
ability to breathe. Shadows swirled in her vision before an
anguished scream pierced the morning. Time slowed, then
stopped.

Neither of them blinked. Fergus’s wild
eyes, which had so often scared her into submission without him
raising a hand, clouded, then cleared. Silence descended, a calm in
the center of a hurricane. Caitlin couldn’t breathe as her element
flowed into her and restored what had been missing for so
long.

Fergus’s hand fell away,
and the two of them flew apart. Suddenly blinking up at the indigo
sky, Caitlin drew her first free breath in years.
Can you suffocate on too much air?
she wondered as a bird flew overhead, skimming the
clouds.

Mara called Caitlin’s name, wolves
howled, and a few feet away, Fergus stared at his hands in
horror.

“
Catie. Help
me.”

Fergus’s whispered words brought her
back. A single tear carved a trail through the dust on his cheek.
Losing her element had left his skin leathery and worn, aging him a
decade in the space of a few seconds.

“
I...” He glanced at her,
but just as quickly looked away. Waves crashed below, a solid,
irregular rhythm that filled Caitlin with peace, though she knew
the illusion would soon pass.

Pain and reality lay on the other side
of this moment.

“
You need to take your
pills,” she said, surprised at the softness in her voice. Digging
into his pocket for the bottle, she shook two of the white spheres
into her hand.

“
No. I don’t need them
now.” His gaze sought the horizon. Where the water gave air
elements a boon, earth scrambled away from the sea’s ambivalent
power. “Nothing can help me now. My worst fears have come
true.”

Caitlin sat beside him in silence. Who
he’d once been, the boy who’d stood between her and bullies in
their small town’s back alleys. Who’d written her letters when he’d
moved far away with his father. Who’d come back to her when he
turned eighteen because he thought he’d found an answer to a world
that beat him down and tried to convince him that what couldn’t be
explained should be expunged. She saw so much of who he’d been. Yet
as he curled in on himself, a fractured shell, she knew Farren had
been right.

“
Killing is not always an
act of retribution, luv. Sometimes, it’s an act of
mercy.”

“
Please, Catie. Ya have to
kill me.”

Emotion burned her eyes, thickening
her voice. “I don’t want to kill you, Fergus. Haven’t we seen
enough death?”

He forced his gaze to hers, revulsion
and disgust curling his lips. “I have. By my own hand. I made ya.
And I see in yer eyes that ya blamed yerself. It wasn’t yer fault.”
His eyes were dry, his timbre ragged as he spoke. “I sought to
fight a wrong, but I didn’t realize what I’d become. So much worse
than my da, than anyone who opposed me. Stop me, Catie. Ya cannot
let me go—ya cannot heal me, as I know ya might wish.” His lips
tugged into a small smile, sadness tempering any cheer. “Yer heart
was the purest I’d ever known—that’s why I wanted ya so badly. I
always hoped ya’d ward off the demons—and as it turns out, I
created them myself.

“
Please. End this. End me.
I don’t deserve yer mercy—but I’m asking for it.”

Her hands shook as she stood and
backed away, tears coursing over cheeks. She lifted her element
before her, the soft wind a balm across her wounds. “I loved you
once, Fergus. For that, I’ll honor your request.” She called down
the clean, pure air, the fullness of her element a rush across her
senses. As she sculpted the fine notes into potency, Fergus
narrowed his eyes against the whipping wind and raised his
hand.

“
He’s alive.”

Caitlin’s charm faltered.
“W-what?”

“
I didn’t kill him. I
couldn’t. Ya loved him, and though I hated him for takin’ ya away
from me, I couldn’t end him. Ya’d never forgive me.”

“
Where is he?” Her hands
fell to her sides, her element dissipating into the sea’s
gale.

“
Promise me you’ll finish
me off. I’m too much of a coward to crawl over the edge on my
own.”