Restless (Element Preservers, #4) (27 page)

“Ria, can you see this building?” Lily pointed at the map and I nodded. “I will tell my men to gather into small groups and wait for you there. You will have to memorize the map because I don’t want you to get lost somewhere.”

“I can do that.” I focused on the map and studied all the streets around the building I was supposed to reach. It didn’t seem that hard to get there, but I knew I would have to take shortcuts and different paths to avoid the fight. It would be a shame if someone killed me before I had the chance to find Lily’s men. After she showed Adrian where to go, Lily focused on the map.

“We need to push the army back and corner them at the end of this street.” She dug her fingernail into the right spot on the map, leaving an indent. “Oliver and I will lead the biggest groups and try to do the most damage. If I had a choice, I’d never send someone as young and as inexperienced as you two. So, all I want you to do is lead your groups forward how I showed you and try not to get killed.”

“Sounds easy.” A smile tugged at Adrian’s lips.

“Yeah, a piece of cake.” We both knew that was not true, but we had to do it anyway. Lily opened her mouth to say something, but then she must have seen the expressions on our faces because she closed her mouth and walked off.

Chapter 33

When we were armed and ready, we walked out on the street. Adrian winked at me before going north, and I went east. As soon as I couldn’t see him anymore, my anxiety rose. We hadn’t even said a proper goodbye to each other in case something happened to one of us, but if there was one thing I could never do, it was that.

I jogged through the alleys that would lead me to my group, hearing the sounds of the fight in the distance. It was unusual to see the streets so empty of people, but I supposed everyone had fled or was hiding somewhere inside. An abandoned car stood in the middle of the street, blocking my path.

As I walked around it, a man dressed in military clothes came out of one of the buildings on my right, his eyes meeting mine, his hand going for his rifle. I raised my gun and fired, hitting him in the neck. He collapsed to the ground, a shocked expression on his face, blood spurting everywhere. I looked away, and felt his element calling to me, but it was gone before I could even reach him.

I didn’t want to think about the man I’d killed, but my thoughts kept flying to him, forcing me to question whether he had a family or whether he’d have shot me if I’d tried to talk to him first. Maybe he’d have recognized me, but I seriously doubted that. The government must have already given the orders to shoot me on sight.

As I came around the corner, I was greeted by dead bodies. I ran, trying not to see and breathe in the smell of death. Men, women, children... Their eyes open, pleading, their hands outstretched or holding onto their loved ones. I tore my gaze away, suddenly not sorry I’d shot the man. Who knew how many he had killed?

The shouts and the shooting didn’t sound so distant anymore, and I knew I had to hurry. The fight wasn’t somewhere far, far away from me, but right here. The smell of burning flesh made my stomach twist, but I had to keep going.

Lily had always feared it would come to this, and the full-blown war hadn’t even started yet. Now I knew why she’d tried to stop my brother so desperately. I’d wanted to stop him too, but I couldn’t have imagined a small armed conflict between the protesters and the government could do so much damage and take so many lives. I didn’t want to think what could happen if we didn’t stop the government now.

I slowed down when I reached the street Lily had told me about. Focusing on the buildings around me, I tried to spot the one which had a lily drawn on it. Doors hung from their hinges, windows lay broken, people peered from the cracks and hid when they noticed me. I could feel their elements fluttering inside the houses like trapped butterflies. There was so much fear and despair around me, but I refused to succumb to it.

I stepped over the debris and check out a couple of broken doors, but none of them had an image of a lily. Maybe I should have asked Lily to clarify how her men planned to draw the lily because I could easily mistake a badly drawn flower for a different kind of mark. Something black caught my eye across the street and I found myself in front of a closed door. A lily was drawn with a black marker across the upper half of the door. Or at least I thought the shape resembled a lily.

The door looked untouched and the house was big, even though some of the windows were broken. This had to be the house I was looking for. I could feel a couple of very weak elements, but I couldn’t tell where exactly they were. Maybe they were in the house next to this one, or maybe Lily’s men took some of the protesters with them. Gathering my courage, I raised my left hand and knocked on the door. My gun was ready in my other hand as I stepped a little on the left from the door. I didn’t want someone to shoot through the door and hit me.

A tall man with a rifle opened the door, his green eyes raking over me. He was wearing all black, just like I was, so I raised my hands in the air and I hoped I was in the right place. “Lily sent me,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “She told you I’d be coming.”

A man with short black hair and thick beard came to join his friend, his blue eyes taking me in. “It’s her. I know her. I’ve seen her on the TV.”

I gave them a small smile. Finally there was something good about being on the TV all the time. The tall man lowered his rifle, but he didn’t look too happy about it. I was a bit surprised they hadn’t seen me during one of Lily’s meetings, but maybe they hadn’t been there or hadn’t paid attention. It wasn’t like I could remember them either.

“We need to go. Fast,” I said, my voice urgent. “I’ll show you the way.”

“Lily told us about that,” the man with the beard said.

“This
girl
will lead us?” The other man curled his lip at me. We so didn’t have time for this.

“If you’re scared, you can leave,” I said, meeting his gaze. He grunted, but he followed me as I started running down the street. A wave of people burst through the door and spilled onto the street. Wow, I’d never expected to see so many people. Where had they all been hiding? Lily’s men must have convinced many protesters to join them because I could swear there were twice as many people than Lily had told me there would be.

“Ria? Can you hear me?” Lily’s voice rang in my ear. “You need to get moving. Now!”

I pressed the button on the device, careful not to put too much pressure on it. “We’re on the move.”

“Four minutes.”

The connection between Lily and me broke and I turned around to face my group. “Hurry up! We have four minutes to reach our destination. Those of you who have weapons and elements come to the front!” I took off, not bothering to check if they had followed my orders. I had far more important things to do, such as make sure we were going in the right direction. Lily hadn’t wanted to risk someone overhearing our plan, so I was the only one in my group who knew where we were going.

I fell back in step with the first row of my group just at the moment when something whizzed by me. Pain erupted from my stomach and my breath was knocked out of me. Something caught fire and I realized it was a man who was hiding behind wooden blocks. Glancing down, I ran my fingers over my stomach and found a bullet embedded in my vest. The spot where it hit me hurt like hell, but I wasn’t bleeding. The man who had been next to me, however, was lying in a pool of blood.

“Are you alright?” a man asked, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah. I only have a hole in my vest.” I squeezed the bullet out and threw it to the ground. “We need to go.”

The man let go of me, and every element in a two-mile radius started buzzing in my mind, calling to me and nearly sending me to my knees. What the fuck? This wasn’t supposed to happen, at least not so soon. Something was wrong with me. Again. But I didn’t have time to dwell on it, so I forced my feet to move. Licking my dry lips, I pushed elements out of my mind. They screamed and roared, fighting for my attention. The doctor must have been right when he’d told me my new element wouldn’t hold for long in such dire circumstances.

Luckily for me, or maybe not, my attention was needed elsewhere. Men dressed in military clothes came into view and I decided to try out my new fire. As I sent a wave of fireballs at the men, my group dispersed around me and started the attack with their own elements and weapons.

I could see surprise flash across the soldiers’ faces, and some of them pulled back in hopes to avoid the attack. Happy to see the soldiers were moving in the direction we wanted them to, I sent another wave of fireballs. It was very fortunate that the soldiers couldn’t sense elements of those with weak ones and couldn’t detect carriers, so they hadn’t seen us coming until we were upon them.

As I took another step forward, all earth elements in the area pulsed stronger in my mind, making me dizzy. I hadn’t even noticed a mini-tornado coming my way until another one crashed into it and they both disappeared, leaving only a breeze to ruffle my hair. The carrier next to me gasped, his hands flying to his throat, his eyes going wide. Someone was choking him with air.

I found my own air inside of me and sent it toward the man. A ripple went through the air as the two elements collided. The man took in a gasping breath, his hands falling to his sides. He nodded at me, a smile quirking his lips. I smiled back at him, but my suit caught on fire and I quickly doused it with my water. Damn it. I shouldn’t let anything distract me or things could go very wrong.

A wave of dust spread around us, blinding me for a moment. Someone coughed, and I covered my mouth and nose with my hand. While my group tried to disperse the dust, the soldiers were having a hard time with the mist. When the air was as clear as it could get, I realized we had managed to push the soldiers back a bit farther. Our advance hadn’t come without a price and bodies lay on the ground.

Not far from me, a carrier was kneeling on the ground with a dead body in his lap, his eyes closed, his face delirious. He must have taken the dead man’s element. I wondered if I’d looked as creepy as he did when I’d taken Ethan’s element. The ground shifted beneath my feet and I stumbled forward, driven by some invisible force. An image of vast, bare land filled my mind, blocking out every other sensation. Even the screams and shouts faded around me until there was nothing but soft buzzing in my ears.

Water splashed my face and the image of the land broke into pieces. Shit. My disease had nearly gotten me killed. I barely managed to avoid another water attack when the ground started to shake, but this time it was real and not a figment of my imagination. The branches of a nearby tree elongated and sprang at me. I raised my gun and fired at them, blowing them to bits. Focusing on my fire, I set the rest of tree ablaze.

Another earthquake rocked the ground and I nearly fell. Something scratched my cheek and I touched the cut with my finger, coming away with blood. The soldiers were still retreating, which meant that Lily’s techs had managed to block the communication system that the soldiers were using. Our numbers were dwindling as the fight went on and I had no idea for how long we could keep this up. Sooner or later, the soldiers would realize we weren’t as dangerous as we wanted them to believe.

Earth tugged on my consciousness again, pushing me to go in its direction against my will. I tried to fight it off, but its grip on me was too strong. More elements rained down on my senses, each one of them getting stronger and confusing me. I stopped, no longer under the influence of earth. It was funny how I could resist elements better when they all fought for me rather than only one.

A woman threw a fireball in my direction, but I caught it with my fire and sent it back at the woman. She stumbled back, disappearing in a cloud of dust. Hot searing pain shot through my shoulder as a bullet pierced my skin. I cried out, pressing my fingers against the wound.

One of the carriers saw me and came running toward me, tearing off a piece of his shirt. He tied the black fabric around my shoulder and broke my contact with the world of elements.

“Thanks.” I blinked, and the man ran off. My shoulder hurt like hell, blood seeping through the bandage. But I was ready to forget all about it when the pull of elements became even stronger. I fought to put one foot in front of the other and keep going.

The street in front of me resembled a wilderness. All the trees were down, debris covered the sidewalk, the trash was on fire and the pavement was filled with holes and cracks. But at least we’d managed to push the soldiers to the widest street. I spotted Adrian across from me just as he froze a soldier’s arm. The man screamed, trying to get the ice off, and he finally ran down the street.

Adrian’s black hair was wet and caked with mud. He had a couple of scratches on his face, and there was a long cut on his pants, revealing a bloody trail on his leg. I ran toward him, creating a wall of fire behind him so that the soldier who was standing behind his back couldn’t attack him. He jumped back, startled, but then he saw me and smiled.

Profound joy found its way to my heart and I almost whooped. He was alive! I hadn’t even known until this moment how scared I was that I’d never see him again. Before I had a chance to say something to him, Lily rushed between us with her men. I looked around us and saw elements flying through the air, men falling, bullets bouncing off the pavement. But most of the soldiers were cornered toward the end of the street. We had done it! Now we only had to figure it out how to defeat them.