Blown (Elemental Series Book 2) (23 page)

And then the funnel touched down.

Chapter Eighteen

Madison was sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, her unfocused gaze aimed at the floor, when Angela’s oddly observant voice remarked, “The wind is picking up…”

All eyes turned toward the large windows then, where they could see for themselves the proof of her words. The trees in the yard beyond were swaying noticeably with a breeze that hadn’t been there half an hour before. It wasn’t enough of a wind to cause any damage, and it was certainly the kind of unpredictable gust that would barely get passing attention from anyone else. But to them—to Madison—it was dangerous.

Brooke was the next to speak, her voice quiet and hesitant as she asked, “It could … just be a coincidence, right?”

“It could,” Lillian replied in a tone not unlike Angela’s. There was a layer to her voice, however, that indicated she didn’t think much of coincidences.

And Madison knew better. Madison knew that it wasn’t a coincidence. She knew that, despite the fact that he was a good twenty minutes away, that wind was Nate’s. She could feel it all the way to her bones. And that they could see the side effects of whatever he was doing from this distance was terrifying. As she watched the tops of the trees sway, almost as if they were dancing, Madison felt her stomach clench and her eyes begin to burn. She didn’t want to cry in front of them.

They all jumped, startled, when Madison’s phone started ringing.

“Sorry,” Madison mumbled self-consciously as she tugged her phone from her front pocket. She was about to hit “ignore” when she realized that the caller was her mother, and guilt settled over the rest of her emotions. She felt like she’d been ignoring her mother a lot lately.
And I could use a distraction
. “I should take this,” Madison said softly as she pushed to her feet. She kept her head down as she fought to contain her tears; she didn’t want her mother to hear them in her voice.

“Hi, Mama,” she said, phone at her ear, as she stepped into the hall.

“I was going to wait until later to call,” Missy began, a faint laugh behind her calm, casual tone, “but then I remembered that I’m not the only one who doesn’t have to go into work right now. So I thought ‘why not?’”

Madison tried to lift her lips, hoping to put the smile into her voice, but the effort seemed too much. So she settled for hoping and replied, “That makes sense to me.”

“And speaking of jobs,” Missy continued, “Your friend Logan responded to my email last night. Now how is he related to Nate again? They’re brothers, right?”

She took a long, deep breath and slumped against the wall outside of the library. She had hoped her mother would be calling to update her on the local gossip, but she should have known better.

“Madison?” Missy asked, noting the strange silence that greeted her question.

Quickly catching herself, Madison managed, “Oh, yes, they’re brothers. Did Logan answer your questions? I thought it sounded pretty good for you.”

Missy was quiet for a long minute. And then, finally, she asked, “M, what’s the matter? You sound upset.”

Please don’t.
She didn’t want to be asked those questions. Putting on what she hoped was a convincing smile, she said, “I’m sorry, Mama. I’m just distracted is all. Could I maybe call you later?”

“Madison Price,” Missy said firmly, “don’t you lie to me. There’s something going on that you’re not telling me about, and I can’t help if I don’t know what it is. Now you just sit right down and make time for me.”

Madison cringed. Never, not once, had she gotten out of it when her mother took that tone. But she
couldn’t
tell her the truth—she had promised Nate. And she didn’t have a good alternative story to tell. “Mama, I … I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean you can’t? The only secrets you’re allowed to keep from your mother are the kind that get wrapped and put under a tree,” Missy scolded.

If only life were that simple, Mama.
She opened her mouth to argue her stance, but before a single word could slip free she noticed movement in her peripheral vision. And then Lillian had stepped into her line of sight, a small, understanding smile on her face. Sensing that the older woman had something to say, Madison said, “Hold on a minute, Mama.”

Keeping her voice quiet, Lillian held out a small box of tissues and said, “We should never have asked you to lie to your mother. Please, tell her anything you need to. And, if it would be easier, I’d be happy to talk to her.”

Madison accepted the tissues and finally managed a small smile. “Thank you, but I’ll tell her.”

Lillian inclined her head and moved to open the library door for her. “Take your time,” she whispered as Madison passed.

With another nod at Nate’s mother, Madison moved toward the large window seat to make herself comfortable. She could still see the dancing trees on the other side of the glass, but a part of her was afraid she’d regret it if she looked away. “Mama,” she said again, “you might want to be sitting down for this.”

****

Blake was breathing heavily as he and Jacob continued their seemingly endless game of deadly dodge ball. Jacob would throw another bolt of lightning and Blake would somehow manage to dive out of the way, but the attacks always had an effect. Blake was eternally grateful to the clouds overhead that were helping to trap a little extra moisture in the air. Both combatants were distracted, however, when the wind started to rapidly increase around them. Blake could only hope his brother was faring all right.

****

Dean’s temper had long since boiled over. Eric was reckless, wildly raining lightning bolts down around his opponent and hoping one of them would connect. The excess electricity was certainly taking its toll on Dean, but each strike sparked a small fire when it connected with the ground or a tree, and those flames rejuvenated him. And, he’d noticed, Eric’s aim didn’t seem to be all that good. If it weren’t for the kid’s speed, the fight would probably even be over already. But Eric’s almost-constant chuckling stalled when the wind picked up, whipping around them and giving extra life to the flames. Deciding he would only worry when the wind stopped, Dean moved to press his advantage.

****

Logan had quickly discovered Emma was a tricky fighter. As soon as she’d realized that he would be her opponent, she had scrambled toward a tree with relatively low-hanging branches and climbed. She obviously knew better than to stay on solid ground when standing against him. And her aim wasn’t bad, either. More than once, Logan had been forced to dive entirely underground to avoid a strike. But that was okay, because the longer he lingered beneath the surface the more strength he regained. And there was a slight problem with her hide-in-a-tree strategy: trees were very solidly rooted to the earth beneath them. Still, he paused when he breached the surface again, noting that the wind was much stronger than before. But he knew he couldn’t help Nate until his own fight was finished.

****

Victor had resorted to bringing down bolts of lightning at every angle, hoping he would get lucky and strike his invisible opponent. The tornado was fully formed now and the tree he was clinging to wouldn’t be holding strong much longer. Already it lurched with the pull of the wind.

“Coward!” Victor cried uselessly. He could barely hear his own words now, and keeping his feet on the ground was almost impossible. His back already hurt, and he was concerned that his opponent might have done some damage when he’d been thrown into the tree, but he refused to surrender. So he tried the only recourse he had left. He closed his eyes and drew upon his power, grabbing hold of the clouds he’d summoned earlier and willing them to disperse.

The approaching tornado faltered, spinning in place for a moment as the surrounding atmosphere began to change.

But it resumed its pace a beat later, moving rapidly toward Victor.

The edges of the clouds were thinning and pulling away, but they weren’t leaving quickly enough. The tree Victor was clinging to still struggled against its roots, stretching up toward the sky eagerly. And Victor had a problem. The trunk of the tree was too large for him to wrap his arms entirely around, so his fingers were digging painfully into the bark as he sought to anchor himself. But it was no longer working.

The tornado was upon him and his feet were in the air as he was being pulled upside down and backwards toward the sky. He cried out as his fingers began slipping, dragging painfully along the trunk of the tree. And then a tendril of wind wrapped around his torso, tugging deliberately and yanking him entirely into the air.

Victor summoned another bolt of lightning, hoping the invisible rope still coiled around him was Nate, but the lightning seemed to have no effect. He was still soaring through the air, spinning around in the tornado and struggling to breathe. His screams were lost practically before they could fall from his lips and he no longer had any sense of direction. He could only assume that he was up, though whether that meant his feet were pointed toward the sky or the ground he wasn’t so sure.

And then, without any warning at all, the tornado dispersed and he was falling.

****

“Doesn’t it just
burn you up
,” Eric taunted as he dodged another blast of fire, “to know that your enemy was
so close
the entire time?” He poked his head around another tree, smirking broadly, and added, “And you never even suspected me!”

Dean cursed, angry and frustrated, and released a heavy breath. The burning flames around them flared in response. “I’d shut up if I were you, kid.”

“You know, I have to say,” Eric continued as he spun and abandoned that tree for a larger, sturdier one, “I expected more of a fight from you!” He turned another arrogant smirk toward Dean, slowing down enough to throw an arm forward and aim another bolt of lightning in his direction.

“Funny,” Dean quipped, throwing himself through the nearest wall of flames and rolling back to his feet, all the while ignoring the faint throb in his ankle. He came up several yards closer to the younger man, and he added darkly, “I was gonna say just the opposite.” He waited until Eric’s eyes registered comprehension of the insult before swinging his arms forward to better direct the surrounding flames.

But even as Eric cried out, eyes wide in terror, and turned to run through the tree line, toward where Emma was fighting with Logan, Dean came to a realization of his own. The fierce wind that had been tearing at them for the past several minutes had vanished without a trace.

Dean’s eyes snapped back to the foliage, where Eric had disappeared, but he hesitated. He was concerned that Nate was likely in trouble, and he couldn’t ignore that, so he turned back toward the clearing. However, after taking only two long strides, thunder crashed overhead in the opposite direction, and Dean recognized the flash of lightning that indicated Blake was still struggling with his own opponent as well, and again he cursed. But Blake was closer.

****

Emma gasped, choking on air as she pushed herself to her elbows and attempted to crawl forward. She lifted her eyes to her opponent and leveled a glare at him. The glare lingered as if she were struggling to concentrate and the air thickened with fresh electricity as she summoned more lightning. And hurled it straight at Logan’s head.

Logan ducked, letting the lightning crash somewhere behind him, and noticed that she was still managing to crawl forward. For a moment he was curious as to why she would actually crawl
toward
him, but an image of Kirk flashed through his mind and he understood. She was trying to get close enough to electrocute him through touch. He frowned at her and a knee-high wall of rock sprang up, directly in her path and effectively cutting her off. But it wasn’t until she made a strangled gasping sound in surprise, which he heard clearly, that Logan realized the wind had died down. He was sure it had still been whipping around them a minute before, and concern immediately twisted his stomach.

Emma shifted, ignoring her obvious pain, and lifted one hand to better aim her next bolt of lightning. She would strike him dead if it killed her.

Logan’s attention returned to her when he saw her hand rise above the wall separating them. He knew what she was planning, but now he was fueled with worry for his brother. Any traces of mercy he’d been thinking about showing were gone, so he flicked his gaze toward the still-raised spear of earth that he’d used to knock her from the tree, which was still impaling the branch she’d been resting on, and the spear collapsed. When it pulled back, the dangling branch was finally severed. It fell out and slightly sideways, dropping over the backs of Emma’s calves and knees.

But she was still conscious, which meant she was still able to attack. So he grabbed hold of the earth directly beneath her, needing to break her concentration, and bucked her backwards. The angle was horrible, considering the weight of the branch on top of her, and as she went airborne she screamed—partially in agony and partially in fear—before she was slammed once more against the tree.

Logan waited long enough to see her eyes roll up in her head, and even as she began to topple forward he turned and sank beneath the ground.

****

Blake barely managed to dodge Jacob’s latest barrage of lightning, coming to a stop behind a soon-to-be-burning tree and sucking in a breath. Jacob was holding his position stubbornly, but his accuracy with the lightning made it difficult for Blake to get close to him.