Storm Front: NA Fantasy/Time Travel (Tesla Time Travelers Book 3) (22 page)

He grunts.

I take a step closer and lay my fingers on his crossed forearms. “There is a future for us—”

He arches an eyebrow, disbelieving.

“I won’t tell you more, but you and I get to be together… Just not yet.”

“Isn’t… This… Sweet.”

I gasp and spin at Penya’s voice. She stands less than ten feet away, arms on her hips, a smug smile on a face I trusted. A face I now despise.

My fingers dig into Constantine’s arm. I can’t exactly tell him this is the person, but he’s a smart man.

I take a step toward her, lightning crackling to life in my palms.

“Ah, ah, ah,” she warns, wagging a finger.

I douse the lightning. This is so not how I planned to ambush her. Once again, she’s one step ahead. “Where’s Tiana?”

She cackles. “You think me stupid, then?” She shakes her head and looks over Constantine then back to me. “You always were weak where he was concerned. Not Tiana. She’s a bright girl. Under
proper
tutelage, she’ll be brilliant. None of what happened here will matter compared to what I have planned for your sister.”

I’m shaking with the need to throttle her, but I have to find out where she has Tiana. I’m close enough to swing a green strand and handcuff her here, but I’m terrified to make any movement. Besides, I have no idea what she’s capable of anymore. A wrong move out of me and she’ll vanish.

We’ve already blown most of the element of surprise, but I do think she wasn’t expecting to see me here yet.

To my left, the air shimmers and before I have time to react, Ilif arrives, his head bowed and manipulating numbers on an electronic clipboard. “Evy, I—” He looks up to greet me, and his face contorts into rage as he sees Penya. He lunges.

“Ilif, no!” I grab for him, but trip on the long tail of the sheet.

Constantine leaps into action and yanks Ilif’s arm, nearly pulling it out of the socket. Ilif kicks Constantine in the shin and twists away. The men wrestle, Ilif throwing more punches than I’d have thought possible. One catches Constantine in the nose and he punches Ilif in the gut, instantly stealing his air and doubling him over. Ilif bites and thrashes, his fury for Penya fueling him. I’m impressed Constantine takes most of Ilif’s fury when he could have knocked him out in the first strike. Ilif is no match, but Constantine will bear marks from the fight.

I keep an eye on Penya, ready to throw my entire arsenal at her to keep her from getting away. She’s busy watching Ilif flail, smiling like this display is making her day.

Finally Constantine wraps his arm around Ilif’s neck and pulls him into a headlock at his side. “Stay still, you idiot.”

We’re all breathing heavy and the air is vibrating with the hair-trigger energy. Constantine cinches his arm tighter. Ilif’s ass is in the air and he’s punching Constantine’s leg while his captor ignores him. He nods at me. “Continue.”

I blink, then gather my thoughts. Holy shit this got out of control fast. I inhale and turn to Penya. Her jovial countenance and laughter at our come-apart extinguishes my patience and I’m instantly drenched in the matter at hand. “Answer the goddamn question,” I spit the words at Penya. The fury at my own foolishness in trusting her pumps through my body as much as my anger at her treatment of Tiana.

“Your sister is fine.”

“That’s
not
what I asked you.” I fist my hands and lean forward. “Where… Is… She?”

“On her way.”

That’s not what I expected. “Where? Here? Home? London?” I’m suddenly frantic. Fractures of lightning erupt from my hands.

She laughs. “You expect me to tell you?”

I’m trembling with the need to punch her, strangle her, torture her until she tells me what I want. Then once Tiana’s safe I might do it again for the pleasure. I turn inward, seeking my source. I block out everything, including Penya so I can figure out what to do next.
 

Tiny strands of lightning flicker at my fingertips, but I curl them into my palms. Colors blend into each other and the smell of sea and earth and oiled leather subsides. I am clear and focused. My emotions dull along with everything else. I inhale and hold my breath. Everyone is waiting on my next move and I have to pick the right one. Ilif and Penya are here together for a reason and I have to let play out. We’ve interfered too much already. I turn to Constantine and touch his arm. “Let him go.”

He does and Ilif straightens, out of breath and suitably mussed. I put a restraining hand on his shoulder and speak softly, “Remember, she still has Tiana and this is the only chance we have to stop her. If you fly off the handle we’ve all lost.”

“I will restrain myself.”

“I hope so.” I nod to him and draw Constantine back a few feet so Ilif and Penya can handle their business. We’re still close enough to intercept them if shit lets loose again.

Penya throws Ilif a small, solid cube like she was perfectly prepared for this moment. “Recognize that?”

Ilif catches it and lifts it, examining the one-inch metallic box, then frowns and shakes his head. “I do not.”

“It’s the detonator I used to set off the fire night in the lab. They’re created in pairs and activated via fingerprint signature.” She holds up a matching one. “We’re paired now and they must stay together. When I leave here without you…” She pantomimes an explosion with her hands, spreading them wide.

“Don’t,” Ilif begs, offering her the cube. “Not again.”

Her face contorts in rage. “You’ve done this to yourself. You deserve to lose your lightning riders. I’ve rigged the lab to blow in concentric circles, starting with your computers.”

Ilif clenches his jaw. “You would have me lose my ability to track the riders, to train new ones, simply so you may seek your revenge? You would sacrifice all the good I’ve done, all the advancements we’ve accomplished… All of it, to hurt me?”

“Yes.” There’s a satisfying sigh in the way she says it and a chill races up my spine.

Ilif’s jaw clenches and he pockets the cube, then wipes a smudge from the end of his tie. I’m not sure if he’s buying time or preparing to launch himself and claw her eyes out.

We’ve had our differences, but I cannot stand by while she tortures him, nor will I allow her to screw up what’s become my own life’s work—and by extension, Nikola’s. If she blows the lab, it won’t keep any of us from arcing, but Ilif has the books in the lab and he’s put a ton of work into helping me. I owe him the same.

I slide my hands behind my back and make a tiny purple ball, ready for whatever they’re about to do.

“I’ll dog you to the ends of time, then,” Ilif says, picking up his head with a renewed fire. “Your detonator will never leave mine… until the day I cut off your hand and keep the fingerprint on the cube until I can diffuse the bomb.”

Whoa.
Apparently he’s tucked his crazy until he needed it. His hatred for her is beyond intense. And I don’t doubt his words for a second.

Her lips pull wide in the grin of a woman who knows her enemy better than he knows himself. She opens her hand and scatters a shimmering web of light. “Not if you tread on this residue.”

I blink, shocked. My lightning snuffs. Holy shit, she’s been busy… and might have been the brains behind this team. I don’t want to know how she’s created residue without arcing. The woman is a genius. Full-bore, straight-crazy genius. Now if Ilif comes at her, he’ll move through the residue, flinging himself into another time. She’s probably handcrafted them so they’re portals to evil, horrible places.

I ease to the left, keeping a sharp eye on Penya, but I want more room between me and Constantine if I need to hurl some lightning bolts, and from the looks of it, the showdown is quickly advancing.

While we watch, Janus finally arrives, pausing at the edge of the field in surprise at the new visitors. I hurry over, racing sideways so I don’t miss a second of the action. “What the hell took you so long?”

He shoves the tunic at me, unsheathes his sword, and marches to stand beside Constantine without answering. I drop the sheet and toss the tunic over my head, then race back to Constantine’s other side. We’re within seconds of Penya making her move.

Constantine feels it too and sends Janus away to round up the men, but they’re not close. It will take hours before they get back. My throat constricts… my men will be of no use in this battle. I’m on my own, so I buckle down and study her every move, wary of being outsmarted again. I will not fail this time.

In a flicker of air and movement, Tiana appears, upright and striding toward Penya, dozens of metal cubes in her outstretched hands.

“Here, Penya. I brought those things you want…” Her voice trails off, and she looks around, eyes wide. Then she spots me.

Everything happens in slow motion. I scream and lunge, realizing she’s activated every one of the detonators and they’re now identified to her fingerprints. I assume didn’t happen on accident and Penya left the matching pairs back in the lab.

We have seconds to live.

In one wide swath of deceit, Penya’s managed to use my baby sister against all of us. The cube she gave Ilif probably wasn’t armed, only a decoy to keep us here and occupied while we waited for Tiana.

“Evy!” Her excitement at seeing me quickly morphs into shock and fear as I leap toward her, desperate to get the bombs away from us before they detonate.

“Tiana, throw those!” I slap the bottom of her hands, sending cubes skyward, then hurl green lightning in every direction, and pull her tight against me as I tuck and hit the ground. We land hard and I try to shift my weight as we land trying to protect both her and my injured arm.

Constantine slams into us, covering me from the explosion shakes the entire compound. The ground rumbles and I tip my chin to the side and suck in air. We’re covered in fine dust and I cough. Throwing them up was incredibly stupid, but my only thought was getting them away from Tiana. I’ll take covered in dirt over being dead any day.

“Evy!” Ilif yells a dozen feet away. “I can’t hold her.”

Constantine pats me down, but I squirm out from underneath him and do my own check of Tiana. She’s going into shock and I shake her. “You okay?”

She blinks and shakes her head. “I didn’t mean—”

“Evy!” Ilif shouts again, his voice more frantic this time. “Do not let her get away!”

I push away from Constantine and leap to my feet, shoving Tiana into his arms. “Keep Tiana safe!”

He wraps an arm around her and lunges toward me to do the same, but I jump out of his reach. “Dammit, Evy.”
 

I race away, keeping an eye on Ilif and Penya. He and I have never tested the limits of how much lightning I can use around him. Until now, I’ve never cared to keep him around, so I’ve used massive quantities to send him away. He’s already flickering with the amount containing Penya. If he touches it, he’ll probably flash and disappear, leaving her to finish her plan, or vanish on her own. Either way, the lab will be gone.

Constantine isn’t about to let me head into danger, so he’s quickly on his feet, hauling Tiana up. She’s terrified and has no idea where she is, so she puts up the same fight Ilif did, kicking and screaming and scratching. Penya didn’t tell her anything about the location she’d sent her to, so the shock of all this is as bad as the explosion. He’ll do whatever he can to keep her safe, and she’ll have to come to grips with being shackled to a warrior. I turn my attention to Ilif, who’s wrestling a dangerous and seriously pissed-off Penya to the dirt.

They grapple, each trying to get the other one’s detonator. Penya’s foot is caught in a bubble of the green lightning and it’s the only thing keeping her tethered here. Without it, she’d have been long gone, and Ilif with her. It’s not going to hold for long the way she’s working her way loose. I’d use more, but if I do, then Ilif will vanish.

My feet falter and I remember to reach for my source instead of rushing into action. Lives are at stake—lives I love.
 

Much as I want to take out Penya, I have to get Tiana home. She can’t stay here, can’t stay anywhere near this level of danger. My sole mission was to get her home safe and I have to hope Ilif can handle this on his own. I can’t help him and I can’t tell him my dilemma or Penya will exploit it. I can’t stay.

I head back to Tiana when three delayed explosions send more mounds of dirt into the air and make a huge crater beside Ilif and Penya. Dirt rains down on all of us, filling my nose and eyes. Ilif shoves his forearm into Penya’s throat, mimicking my move. She gasps and punches him in the ribs. They’re oblivious of everything and until they kill each other, a thousand explosions could detonate without their noticing.

Around us, the shimmering residue winks out, impacted by the concussion. Thank god there’s a failsafe on them, but she’ll have accounted for those. That woman is too damn smart and I’m a fool if I stay and see what else she has up her sleeve. After she destroys Ilif, she’s coming after me. Now’s my chance to get Tiana out of here.

Penya rolls over Ilif and punches him in the face. He bucks and they tumble down the side of the crater in a heap of flailing limbs. Their blows won’t win any points in a match, but each is born of years of pent up anger and frustration. Ilif’s style is manic and I’m afraid to leave him to the task of taking Penya out, but Tiana’s safety is paramount. I’m torn and look up to see Constantine heading toward me, running along the edge of the crater, Tiana in tow with both wrists clasped in his grip.
 

Ten feet separate us.

Along with two small cubes.

Another explosion rocks the ground and strips the side of the crater from beneath Constantine. He teeters and pushes Tiana to me, but there’s nothing for him to gain purchase and they fall backward. I throw twin ropes of yellow lightning, slinging one around him and one around Tiana. The cords wrap twice around their waists and yanks tight.

The weight of both of them pulls me forward and no matter how hard I press my heels into the ground, I slide forward at an alarming rate until I’m teetering on the crater’s lip. I draw the bolts tighter, keeping Constantine and Tiana from falling.