Just Breathe (43 page)

Jack bobbed on the shimmering ocean a hundred meters to her left. He laughed as he shook his shaggy locks, gave her a thumbs up sign, and swam to assist the surprised-looking Sentinels and Wyldlings.

Not daring to lose her place in the music, Zoe continued singing. She spotted Gavin off to her right. Flailing Fyres scrambled in the air. He shot them with watery bursts, but they kept coming, their feet hovering just above the sea. These guys were stronger than the typical Elementals. Zoe frowned and wished more Water to Gavin.

A raucous rip of thunder rang out behind her. When Zoe turned around, the Archelemental was nearly upon her. Though the Water she’d helped bring in saturated the Dreaming, it was no match for Eidan’s Fire. As he flew past fifty or so Wyldlings clamoring for escape, the slightest brush of his heat vaporized them, leaving no traces of humanity behind. Zoe’s pulse tripped. No!

Eidan’s grotesque face filled with a cruel smile. Evil laughter dueled with the whale song.

Dear God. She was going to die like them.

I love you, Gavin
, she thought.
I love you.

There was nothing to do but sing louder.

Her skin crackled. Hair went up in flames. Her face melded to her skull. She held on to the blue with every ounce of strength. It was all she had.

Human life snuffed out from every side.

I love you, Gavin. I love you. I love you. I—

Another tidal wave of sight and song rolled in faster than a blink and batted her out of Eidan’s path like an insignificant bit of free-floating plankton at the mercy of the ocean’s whims. A familiar voice joined the chorus.

Lily.

* * * *

Fucking hell, it was Lily.

As Gavin flailed in the churning sea, desperate to see if Zoe still breathed, cool Water flowed over his burns. He pulled heavily on his stored Earth to speed up the healing process. Heat left his bones, and the liquefied calcium within re-solidified. Muscles and tendons thickened, mending to their original smooth state. The lines of his tattoos reformed, digging deep into his arms, and the four Elemental colors burst to vibrant, glittering life.

Eidan clutched his ears and bared fiery teeth like a wounded wolf. Lava dripped from sharp canine points, sizzling the ocean with geyser-like steam. He veered toward the great singing whale.

Earth energy fueling his arms and legs, Gavin paddled against the churning currents in vain toward his badly burned muse.

Dear gods, please let her live. Please let her be okay.

Zoe surfaced and shook her head. Her blackened flesh was already healing, thanks to all the Water pumping through her. Within seconds, her skin lightened to its original color. A soft smile curved her pouty lips as she waved.

Limbs trembling with hope, he grinned.

Scarlet’s Fire battered against his chest. His pounding, Water-laden heart squelched it.

No room for you here anymore. This is Zoe’s home.

A sudden rush of a different kind of Fire brushed him from above. He directed Water to his fists and swung them upward.

Sinnder.

His control snapped, his itchy fingers ready to blast the fucker into oblivion. Sinnder held up both hands in surrender, then quickly covered his ears against the continuing onslaught of the whale song.

“Wait. I need your help,” Sinnder shouted. His expression was urgent.

“What could I possibly help
you
with,
lackey
?”

“Pest control. You’ve got a direct line to the queen bee. You can lead me to her.” The muscles in Sinnder’s face hardened as he centered his pointed gaze on Gavin’s chest.

Torn between what his heart wanted and what his head knew to be true, Gavin hesitated. Sinnder had proven himself a liar and a thief on countless occasions. Gavin needed Scarlet dead so badly, it hurt, and he couldn’t take her out himself.

But Sinnder could.

A phrase from Yileen’s whale tooth prophecy stabbed his brain like an ice pick:

The Sentinel clutches gifts in his heart,

Destroying destroyers with guile, not fists…

Gavin lowered his Watery weapons. “Why do you want her?”

A slow smile edged onto Sinnder’s lips. “Same reason you do.” He glanced over Gavin’s shoulder to the chaos surrounding Eidan and Lily. “We don’t have much time. Your girlfriend will be fine.”

Gavin twisted his bobbing body to face Zoe. Surrounded by singing whales, she seemed okay, but he’d never forgive himself if she got hurt again—especially if he could have been there to protect her.

“Now or never, Sentinel. This is a limited time offer.” Sinnder’s brow creased, and he struggled to gain traction in the air above the rising water level. His complexion darkened to a sickly shade of gray. Threads of red wove through his light brown irises.

The whale song had to be doing a number on him. The few remaining Fyres howled and scrambled for escape to Realis. Random waves reached up and snatched many of them into the depths, leaving nothing behind but thin lines of smoke.

Aside from a few stragglers, only Lily and Eidan were left, and the whale had put herself in front of Zoe. Gavin’s resolve wavered. He looked to his lover, tenseness knotting his shoulders.

Then three dark-haired men rose simultaneously from the waves—one on each side, and the third behind Lily.

Holy. Fucking. Hell.

The Tongans.

Lit up like blue Christmas trees in Sydney Harbour, the trio laid hands on the whale. Blinding white light erupted from the three points, and Lily’s body grew to match Eidan’s size. Navy blue outlines defined her edges, but the bulk of the whale became transparent with Water.

The Mother is reborn unto another,

Returning the third Element to its noble station.

When all this comes to pass,

Then shall Balance in the Fortieth Great Age be restored.

Gavin sucked in a mighty breath and grinned. Lily had risen to her Archelemental position.

Sinnder clenched his jaw and fled to the Veil.

Lily had far more power than Gavin to keep his muse safe now, and though Zoe wanted to see Scarlet dead as badly as he did, he couldn’t risk bringing her along. Sinnder’s motives were too questionable. He’d have to go this one alone.

Gavin waved at Zoe and pointed in the direction Sinnder had gone. Zoe tilted her head, looked at Lily, then nodded.

He mouthed, ‘I love you,’ and laid a fist over his heart.

She blew him a kiss and smiled. ‘I love you, too,’ her lips replied.

His muse’s angelic voice and the image of her surrounded by singing whales seared into his memory, drowning Scarlet’s sputtering Fire under fathoms of Water.

You wanted me? Here I come, bitch.

Chapter Forty-four

In stunned awe, Zoe laid her head on Lily’s side and absorbed the scene before her like an IMAX movie.

The Tongans braced themselves against Lily and channeled Water into the whale as the flaming Archelemental colossus streaked toward them. The sea rose and fell with fifty-foot tidal waves. Whales sang. Their perfectly tuned melody packed enough Water to steam flying red figures into oblivion without even touching them.

One by one, dozens of human Wæter Elementals, who only days ago had professed their unwavering loyalty to Lana, swam over and joined Lily, too. As each pair of hands landed on the whale’s skin, Lily’s Water brightened. Soon, it blinded. Behind closed lids, Zoe concentrated on the blue infiltrating her body. She wasn’t an Elemental, but she had plenty to share. She’d give it all if she had to.
Take it, Lily. Take everything.

As Water pumped from countless sources clinging to the great whale’s body, the volume of Lily’s song grew. Vibrations shook the ocean, the air, the Dreaming itself.

Zoe opened her eyes. The Fyres were gone—presumably having either died or abandoned their posts. Screaming Eidan swooped in. Thousands of humpback voices—whale and Elemental—lifted the tune to its climax. The music buoyed, swallowing searing heat and exchanging it for liquid emotion. The intensity must’ve been too much for the Dreaming. The tension that had owned the realm for months popped like an egg yolk, and blue saturated
everything
—the chorus of singing voices, the coolness caressing Zoe’s skin, the ocean air, the salty sea. The
entire
Dreaming was blue.

An eardrum shattering bellow sizzled out of Eidan, and his humanoid body reverted to formless, twisting flames. Steam drenched the sky. The Archelemental inferno dwindled. With no choice but to succumb to the Water or get the hell out while he still had a chance, Eidan screeched out of existence, leaving a heated warning in his wake: “Incendius will have his revenge.”

Bring it,
Zoe thought.

The moment he was gone, the ocean calmed. The wind died. Terror and panic dissipated, swallowed by the sea of peace. It was like the Fyres had never even been there.

Victory cries rang out. Tears, laughter, celebration. The whales sang a new song of hope and light. Zoe laughed, too.

The Dreaming was free.

* * * *

Fire roared in his ears as Sinnder tumbled out of the Dreaming through the rent in the Veil and splattered like a wet dishrag to the floor of the empty warehouse where the Dreamweaver had been held.

His skin riddled with Water blisters, Sinnder was in agony. Which just made
Him
angrier.

Shit. Shit. Shit… He could
not
lose it here. Too many people around. He had enough blood on his hands already. The only blood he needed now was Scarlet’s. No one else could get hurt because of what she’d done to him.

Once he devoured her, he’d be free.

He lay on the cold, unforgiving cement, willing the Fire into submission. No good. Too big. He’d lost control…couldn’t do it…

A zap of crackling electricity jolted him out of his frenzy. Gavin climbed out of the shimmery hole. How Sinnder envied him. For so many reasons.

“You decided to join me.” Sinnder put on a show of false bravado, hoping his calm voice would squelch the rage inside of him.

“What’s the plan? I want this bitch done.” Gavin rubbed his glowing red tattoos.

He
licked his lips in reply.

Not him,
Sinnder warned.

Using Firesight, Sinnder glanced at the red blaring through Gavin’s shirt. “You’ve got the leash that’ll lead me to Scarlet. I’ll do her for you.”

Gavin shook his head. “No. She’s mine. After the hell she put Zoe and me through, I’m gonna hammer the final nail in her coffin.”

I don’t think so.

Sinnder and his Master grinned. “You can’t take her alone, mate.” And Sinnder had as much claim over her as Gavin. Even more.

Gavin studied him for a long moment, probably reading his aura. “Let’s go.” He started for the door.

“Whatever you say.” Sinnder followed him.

Whatever
I
say,
He
whispered, grinding against Sinnder’s cock.

Mind on something else… Hurry…

“You and Zoe worked out your differences, I see. She’s a nice girl.” He flashed a smile as he walked beside Gavin through the corridors.

Gavin paused and faced him. “Do you enjoy being Eidan and Scarlet’s lapdog?”

The Master rumbled, coursing heat through his extremities. Sinnder barely managed to keep a puff of smoke from escaping his nostrils.

Gavin cocked a brow. Must’ve noticed the red shifting in Sinnder’s aura. “You deny it?”

Sinnder grunted and continued onward. “I don’t deny it.”

I do.

They stepped out of the warehouse into the dark. Luckily at this late hour, no one else was around. Gavin led him to his car, and they drove off.

“When this is over, I don’t want to see your face again.” Gavin clutched the wheel, his knuckles white.

“I’m sure you won’t.” Sinnder’s blisters had started to heal, thanks to his Master’s gifts. He felt stronger already. He worked his fingers open and closed, testing their strength.

I always take good care of you.

Too true. Though he might have preferred Hawthorne’s healing to his Master’s. What would her hands have felt like on his skin? Cool. Soothing. Different. He closed his eyes for a moment.

Forget her,
the Master hissed.

He wished he could.

Sinnder rested his arm against the window and rapped it lightly with his knuckles. Worry sprouted and tangled its vines through his aching chest. What if Scarlet was out in the open? He was pretty sure he had enough Fire to kill her after the damage she’d sustained in the battle, but if he lost control…

He’d waited a thousand years. What was another few days? Or weeks?

No more waiting. If you don’t do it now, I will.

He straightened. The leather seat protested under him.

Gavin turned to him at a stoplight, beads of sweat dotting his face. He wound down the window. “Are you always this agitated?”

“Only when Wæter Archelementals try to drown me.”
And a millennium’s worth of hunting comes to an end.

The burn swelled within his soul, doubling its size. Sinnder tightened his internal grip, but he’d lost some ground. Shit, he had to get out of this car.

“How close are we?” He squirmed, begged
Him
to wait a little while longer.

Gavin rubbed his chest. “Fuck, mate, can you turn the heat down? It’s bad enough I’ve got
her
to contend with—”

“How close?” The words came out as a dangerous growl. Sinnder’s insides itched like mad, and no amount of mental scratching provided relief.

“I dunno. Maybe ten minutes.”

“Just tell me where she is.” He bit down on his tongue and focused on the pain.

“No deal. I have to see her die with my own eyes. If I let you go without me, I’ll never know for sure that she’s gone for good.”

“Drive faster.” His voice was slowly becoming someone else’s. Deepening, growing, projecting… And Sinnder not only knew, but
feared
that voice.