Just Breathe (29 page)

Grinning, Scarlet held on tight and glanced at Gavin’s hand. “Make me.”

He strengthened his will, focused his energy on blasting her to Kingdom Come. Fuck the Fire Oath. When he pumped his fist to get off a round of Water, a jolt of hot lightning sizzled up his arm, electrifying his nerve endings and knocking him to his back. A seizure grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. Vision dimmed. Teeth clamped, scoring his tongue. Unbearable pain pin-balled through limbs and organs and bones, and Gavin joined Trevor in an agonizing horizontal dance through the Dreaming’s ashes.

He tried to lift his head, but a disruption of neurons forbade him. Trevor’s cries dwindled beside him. Scarlet stared down her nose, foot propped on Gavin’s heaving chest, feigned pity forged into her features. She
tsked
. Trevor moaned and then silenced.

The Fire binding him to Scarlet prevented any further action. He couldn’t fight her. Trevor lay dying next to him, his aura bleeding out. She’d stolen his Fire. Not a hint of red. All Gavin could do was stare.

Scarlet leaned into Gavin’s face, close enough to kiss. She swept his hair and slid a hot hand down his cheek. He recoiled, shivered. Bile oozed up his throat.

“I told you Wyldlings would suffer if you didn’t make good on your vow. You did what you had to, and so did I. Now, would you like to try fucking me again?” She slapped his balls and squeezed.

He gritted his teeth and tensed. Unable to fight the intense pull of her Fire, he retaliated in the only way he could. He spit in the bitch’s face.

Eyes searing red, she snarled and sloughed the glop away. In a split second, she straddled him, bucking like a wild horse, claws digging into his neck. “I
will
have you, Gavin. I’ll kill everyone and everything you care about if I have to. You may not love me, but you
belong
to me.”

He imagined throwing her into the nearby dream ocean, choking the life from her as the Water boiled away her skin. Tossing her gelatinous remains to the sharks like chum.

Again he tried in vain to free himself from her grip. Fire held him captive. He was pretty sure Trevor had stopped breathing. Desperate, he yelled as loud as he could, “Jack!”

Scarlet squeezed. Gavin flailed and gasped for air. “You can’t hurt me either,” he eked out.

She bared her teeth in a vicious snarl. The Fire raged within her, igniting her aura with a shock of white, and she wrenched her hand away. Incendius must’ve zapped her like he’d done to Gavin moments before. Gavin grasped his bruised throat and laughed hoarsely. Hurt too much to try anything else.

The pounding roar of a speeding train split the air. Scarlet looked up, and fear glazed her eyes. Gavin’s Dreamsense told him another Sentinel was close. Had to be Jack.

“Kill her,” Gavin shouted.
Gods, please!

Scarlet stabbed him with a deadly glare, then poofed in an explosion of flame at the same moment Jack lobbed a Water bomb big enough to put out a house fire. The shot caught the tail end of the blast. Gavin prayed it did at least a little damage to the bitch.

Muscles still trying to recalibrate after the debilitating zap he’d sustained, Gavin managed to roll to his side and crawled to Trevor’s limp body.

Jack raced over. “What the fuck happened?”

In excruciating pain, Gavin looked for signs of life. Anything. “She sucked Trevor dry. Shit, I gotta return to Realis and take him to a hospital.”

Trevor barely breathed. A hand-shaped burn covered his neck. His aura was almost unreadable. Fuck.

Jack nodded. “You’d better hurry. I found what looks like the Dreamweaver’s Songline, but it’s badly damaged. It’s not much, but it’s all we’ve got. I’ll start tracking the Songline and see where it leads. Catch up with you in Realis later.”

Trevor’s body shimmered and faded. Gavin hoped he was just returning to Realis rather than the alternative. He swallowed hard. If Trevor died—

A thick, slow wave of healing energy rolled into Gavin from Jack. Some strength and control returned. The green spectrum of Jack’s aura dimmed a bit. The bloke had shared some of his Earth. “Thanks, mate. I owe you.”

“Forget it. Now hit the road.” Jack pointed a thumb at the Veil.

Looking through the ghostly membrane, Gavin tracked Trevor’s wilting trail to a familiar lounge room in Realis and found him face down on the floor where he’d likely passed out last night.

Gavin returned to his body at home and sped on the Harley to his mate’s house. Luckily, Trevor only lived a few streets away. He burst through the door, wrenched Trevor over, and searched his neck for a pulse.

Flat line.

Scarlet’s foul odor rolled off the body in nauseating waves.

Gavin shook his friend. “I told you not to fuck around with Scarlet, you asshole. Why didn’t you listen?” Another rough shake.

Limbs trembling and eyes watering, Gavin channeled a bit of Earth Jack had loaned him into the lifeless body.

“Come on, fucker.” He slapped Trevor’s face. “Come on!”

Nothing.

Gavin inhaled a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused the last of his Earth into kicking Trevor’s heart back to life. He envisioned fingers of green energy squeezing the organ, forcing it to pump in a steady beat. When the heart remained still, he targeted a Fire injection directly into the muscle.

One beat.

Two.

Stall.

Gavin shocked the heart again. “I swear to fuck I’ll never give you shit about your bad haircut again if you come out of this, mate.”

Two more beats.

Three…four…five…

Grinning, Gavin whipped out his cell phone and dialed in an ambulance request to emergency services. Then he collapsed on the carpet next to Trevor.

Chapter Thirty

Hints of breaking daylight shone through the shades of Whetu’s eyelids. Morning already? Though her body remained paralyzed, worry had prevented her mind from finding any rest.

A change of plans had brought her to Gavin’s house in the middle of the night. There had been a fire. Had anyone been hurt? How long would she be here? When would that scary Fyre leave? All the jostling had disrupted Whetu’s equilibrium.

With no answers, she reasoned that wasting time worrying about things she couldn’t change was futile. So, she pushed her fears aside and soldiered onward, into the isolated safety of deciphering the maze. Papa would want that.

Her mind unfolded, releasing dimensions of information, growing exponentially. She ventured through twists, turns, curves, and corkscrews. Dead ends, leads, and setbacks consumed her.

Obsessed with finding the key to the maze, she fought off Vexx’s incessant intrusions, but every once in a while, a massive…
breeze
swept in. It was the only word she could think of to describe it. Like the breath of God, it ruffled her thoughts—scattered them like dandelion seeds at the wind’s mercy.

That soft wind filled her soul, lightened it with tiny pockets of crisp air.

Whenever the breeze blew, her mind ascended the currents to peaks beyond the atmosphere, reaching into another world.

Papa had been an Aer Elemental.

She feared she soon would be one, too.

No worries, Whetu. Let the wind whisk your fear into the darkness. Allow only light inside your mind.

These strange revelations and internal dialogues had become more and more frequent with each passing day. What happened to the little girl she’d been a few weeks ago? The person inside her head was far older, wiser than that child. The massive amount of knowledge, the sharp reasoning skills, the impeccable memory—these things frightened her, now that she had an idea where they were leading her.

Into the center of the maze.

Soon she would reach that secret, hidden place. Her knowledge would make her valuable, but it would also put her life at risk. The Fyres who kept her captive in the burn unit at the hospital would be nothing compared to the enemies awaiting her at the door to the Dreaming.

I hear your thoughts tumbling, Whetu.

Vexx again.

I know you’re in there. If you don’t come out soon, I’ll have to force you out, and neither of us wants that. Your brain is going through a metamorphosis. Shortly, you’ll break free of the ties binding you to this human body and ascend into a higher level of consciousness. I can help you through your change, but only if you let me in.

I’m not ready,
Whetu thought.

Vexx paused for a moment, perhaps surprised she finally got a response. Whetu hadn’t wanted to give it to her, but uncertainty and lack of guidance forced her hand.

I understand. You’ll be ready soon. It
has
to be soon, Whetu. The Sentinels must find the entrance into the Dreaming.

I don’t know where it is.

Your father said you did.

I’m…working on it. It’s very complicated.

With a cool, gentle hand, Vexx patted her on the cheek.
Okay. Keep at it. I’m here if you need help. I don’t mean to frighten you, but if the Sentinels can’t secure the door into the Dreaming within the next three days, thousands—maybe even millions of human lives will be lost. Do you see why you’re so important?

Millions? Nobody ever said so many people’s fates rested on her shoulders. She was only a nine-year-old girl. Concentration disrupted again, she said,
I will hurry, Vexx
.

What had Papa done to her?

* * * *

Thick gray clouds masked the light from the sun hanging directly overhead, but there was no stopping the unseasonable heat. Wiping her brow, Zoe scanned the choppy water for blows, though nowadays she relied much more on her inner ear—the one that understood the whales—to help her locate them than her eyes. After the house fire, she was anxious to speak to the Elementals. Maybe they’d have some good news to break the streak of bad luck.

At least her visit to the Dreaming had been successful. With Gavin and Jack out of the house, she dreamed vividly and with purpose all night long. Her efforts to build an army continued to pay off. She focused on educating Wyldlings in the Dreaming, urging them not to panic when ‘nightmares’ struck. She warned that intense, fiery emotions would only feed the demons—which was not an exaggeration—and encouraged humans to spread the message to others.

There’d also been a noticeable increase in the number of Wæter Elementals she encountered over the last week. Most often, she found them waiting along the fringes of the Dreaming, alongside Westbrook and his friends. She tried to let them in, but the marble door still refused to open.

There had to be a way inside. Those Wæters would be a huge asset. Their promises to help when the time came were as good as she could get. The Wæters wanted the Fyres out as much as the Sentinels did, so she trusted them to follow through.

Whoever had the bright idea to keep Elementals out of the Dreaming needed a reality check. This outdated rule of theirs was stupid and served no purpose other than to create unnecessary temptations for corrupt Elementals.

How easy would life in the Dreaming be if Elementals could come and go freely? If Fyres got out of hand, the Wæters would be there to snuff them. Fyres would balance the Aers, Aers would keep Erthes in check, and Erthes would monitor the Wæters. If the Elementals policed themselves, the Sentinels would have a built-in safety net with little need to mediate disputes.

A couple of blows misted the air a few hundred meters away, shaking Zoe out of her musings. Adriene pointed the Zodiac’s bow toward the whales, and Zoe sent out her greeting call.

Have you seen Lily and her calf? Any Wæters?

They’re not far behind us,
came a reply.

In minutes, a crowd of humpback voices diffused through the waves. The chirps and grunts dashed in an excited rush, faster than usual. Pitches rose and electrified the hairs on Zoe’s skin. She’d experienced endorphin highs many times on the water in close encounters with whales, but never a buzz quite like this. Almost as if the air was wired with monofilament superconductors hooked up to a huge wave generator shooting tingly pulses everywhere.

She faced each of the cardinal directions in search of the source. The surface ahead churned with bubbles, and a calf breached out of the water. Its mother followed. Around them, flippers lifted and slapped, tails pounded, bellies flashed white.

What were they so riled about?

Adriene stopped the boat. Zoe grabbed the DTAG-laden pole and propped a bare foot on the bow. Behind her, Dani and Elizabeth grabbed the clipboard and camera.

What’s going on, guys? You having a party? Someone must have forgotten to mail my invitation.
Zoe grinned and readjusted her cap.

It’s a party, all right.
Another round of breaches went off like shots from guns. The voices continued prattling. The fast-paced chatter was worse than hanging out with teenagers at the movie theatre on a Friday night. Zoe shook her head.

Greetings, Zoe,
Lily said.

Zoe scanned the horizon and spotted Lily and Araluen closing from about fifty meters. “Ten o’clock,” she shouted to Adriene amid the loud splashes and rising waves. “I think that’s Lily.”

I must’ve missed all kinds of fun during the storms,
Zoe projected to Lily.

Yes, the Aer Elementals have helped a bit with the weather. They have much to gain by seeing the Fyres put out.

Little Araluen blew. Lily’s wide back appeared under him in the water column. She was still helping him breathe. He should be able to do that without much reminding at this age.

“Lily’s got a calf?” Adriene said.

Zoe nodded. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?”

She crouched down, the pole forgotten.
How are you, Araluen? Feeling any better? Turn around and let me have a look at your fluke.

Lily’s eye watched Zoe from just under the surface. Inscrutable.

Hiding something.

The calf did as he was told and lifted his mauled tail. A few ragged shreds still remained where the orca had taken out the cookie-bite chunk. Zoe wasn’t a veterinarian, but the sickly grayish-white color seemed indicative of infection.