Restless (Element Preservers, #4) (28 page)
Read Restless (Element Preservers, #4) Online
Authors: Alycia Linwood
Tags: #Romance, #new adult, #Magic, #young adult, #teen, #elemental magic, #contemporary fantasy, #elemental
“They’re right where we want them,” Lily said. “And they are confused. Oliver is blocking their only way out, so now we should attack them with all we’ve got.” She licked her dry lips and pressed a finger to her ear, probably to turn on the device so that everyone could hear her. “Create shields of air and advance forward. This way we will be able to see them and attack. Use other elements on our targets, but be careful to avoid the shields. Your elemental energy must go above the shields too.”
What Lily ordered us to do made perfect sense because, even if we used our elements in the distance and they didn’t touch our body, the elemental energy still hung in the air and could weaken the shields. I called to my air and formed a shield in front of Adrian and me as we ran forward. Adrenaline surged through my veins, alleviating the pain in my shoulder.
We stopped at a safe distance from the soldiers and Adrian positioned himself for the attack. His ice went above my shield and found the nearest target.
“If someone had brought the element collectors here, we’d have tons of energy.” Adrian chuckled as ice shards jerked the gun out of a soldier’s hand.
“Yeah, but our bodies would be drained. And the fight would continue with weapons, and we don’t really have enough guns for everyone.” I watched as fire swallowed Adrian’s ice.
“I know.” His eyes sparkled with mischief. “I’m just trying to distract you.”
“I guess it’s working.” Of course, it stopped working as soon as I said that, so the pain in my shoulder doubled. Elements kept hitting against my shield, pounding on it and threatening to tear it to pieces. “I don’t think I can hold this up for much longer.”
“Hey, come here and help us!” Adrian yelled to one carrier, who quickly came to our side and formed his own shield in front of mine. I let out a sigh of relief and dropped my shield. It wasn’t easy to keep up a seven feet tall and wide shield of air while you were injured and other elements kept smashing into it.
Adrian threw more ice shards, but they were either swerved, melted or blown into bits. People around us kept falling to the ground, one by one, as their shields were destroyed. Two carriers, a man and a woman, stood side by side, holding hands. They tried to use their water elements together, but the elements canceled out each other.
“They’re fighting back,” Lily shouted. “We’re losing ground!”
“We have to do something.” Frustration and worry creased Adrian’s forehead.
“I’m afraid the government figured out what we were trying to do and sent a backup,” Lily said, replacing the magazine in her gun. “If the backup gets here, we’ll be sandwiched between them and the soldiers.”
If the backup arrived, we’d have the worst case scenario, but what could we do? The shield in front of us disappeared and a strong gust of air hit Adrian and sent him flying. He rolled over the ground, scraping his arms and knees, but managed to get up. The soldiers advanced on us, forcing us to back down.
A buzzing sound broke through all the fighting noise and I looked up. A helicopter flew just above us, probably assessing the situation. Fuck. Now the government would receive a full report of our position and I knew it wouldn’t take them long to come up with a plan. We would be an easy target.
Someone tried to reach the helicopter with an element, but every attempt failed because the helicopter was too high and had protection against the elemental attacks. I looked back at the advancing soldiers and bit my lip so hard that I tasted blood. What could we do to fight them off fast enough? Single elemental attacks were obviously of no use as someone always managed to block them or avoid them. Using two or more elements together didn’t work because they destroyed one another, unless... Unless all the elements in question belonged to one person. That was it! I could use all of my elements together. We’d see how they’d fend
that
off.
I reached for all three of my elements, pushing them out. Fire and air surged out of me, but air was so weak that it only managed to create a light breeze. I tried again, this time not even controlling myself, but my elements refused to come out together.
“Fuck!” I kicked at the ground, causing a wave of pain to shoot up my shoulder, and I cried out. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself enough to try again. This time even my fire refused to cooperate and extinguished itself as soon as it left my fingertips.
I ran my hand through my hair and turned around, facing Adrian. I tilted my head at him, another idea springing to my mind. “Touch me,” I said.
Chapter 34
“Touch me. Please,” I repeated. Adrian’s eyes went wide, his lips slightly parted.
“Adrian, it’s the only way. I need to lose control.”
“Guys, the backup is coming! They’ll be here in a couple of minutes!” Lily yelled, her voice shaking with panic. If Lily couldn’t stay calm, then we all ought to be worried.
I nodded at Adrian, giving him a small smile. A thousand of emotions flashed across his face, and I knew he was torn about what to do.
Finally, he closed his eyes for a moment and strode over to me. Placing his hands on both sides of my head, he pulled me close to him, his lips crashing against mine. His kiss was deep and urgent, his tongue plunging into my mouth, trying to drink me in and sending shivers all over my body. For a second, there was no pain, no danger, no fear. Only him. Only him and me.
He pulled away, breathless, his forehead resting against mine. “Show them what you can do,” he whispered, and let go of me.
My feet almost gave way under me as elements danced in front of my eyes. I felt as if I was about to be torn apart, my breath stuck in my chest. Turning toward the soldiers, I let all of my elements out of me. Fire and water erupted together like a geyser, side by side, held together by air. I forced the air to start spinning like a tornado and pushed it forward.
The soldiers shouted, some fleeing, some attacking my elemental cocktail tornado. Their attacks were useless, though, because my tornado didn’t waver. I fed it more of my energy, making it bigger and stronger until the whole street was glowing with my elements. A couple of more tornadoes similar to mine, but smaller, went down the street. Other carriers with more elements must have realized they could use all of their elements too, but they could probably do it at will, not like me.
The tornadoes were ruthless in their advance, destroying everything in their path and sending bodies flying. Soldiers ran and screamed as the ground shook beneath them. I admired the beauty of my elements for a while. They were draining my energy pretty fast, but I continued to fuel them. Some of the other tornadoes already disappeared, giving the soldiers space to escape.
I forced more energy out of me, steering the tornado to the left. In a couple of moments, it would hit the end of the street and there’d be no place left to hide. I fell to my knees, feeling dizzy. Cold sweat trickled down my back and my forehead, but I couldn’t stop now. Adrian’s gray-blue eyes were full of worry and I flashed him a weak smile.
I could see Lily running toward us and I gave one final push to my tornado. Something exploded not far from us and I toppled to the ground, my eyes closing.
“Ria, no!” Adrian yelled. Hands grabbed at me while I floated in the air, or maybe I wasn’t floating at all. My mind was like jelly, too tired to think. Someone brushed my hair from my face.
“We’ve got them for now. Let’s consider this as a win of one small battle and get out of here before more come. Quick!”
“She can’t move!”
“Then pick her up and take her with you.”
Someone lifted me in the air and I was weightless. Darkness settled around me, preventing my heavy eyelids from opening.
“I love you,” a voice whispered, resonating in my head. My lips twitched, but it was too late to form words. I was falling deeper into the darkness and losing my senses.
And just like that, I was gone.
###
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