The Paladins (35 page)

She nods. “We can do this.” Lightning fast, she rises onto her toes and smashes a kiss against my cheek. “Survive.” And then she’s gone, running toward her forest.

The nearest oak bends and lifts her up. Damned if the thing isn’t walking. All the trees are. They tear their roots from the soil and lumber forward to meet the Draugar.

Trees reach down, plucking zombies from the ground. Branches become arms, twigs work like hands and fingers, tearing dead limbs apart, ripping Draugar heads from their blackened bodies.

Fascinating as that is, I’ve got a band of stinking corpses moving my direction. I send a gust of wind and knock them down.

That’s when I see Gideon.

Forty meters away, a large willow grows in the center of a concrete fountain. Reedy limbs bind our favorite firebug to her trunk. Roots gulp water and rain continuous moisture over him.

Clever. Too much moisture snuffs his ability to make fire. A fact we’d not known before today.

What my friend needs is a proper blow dryer.

Wind adjusts with my specific instructions. While a mild breeze blows over Maddox, I push a hundred times more force against the tree itself, keeping Gideon safe in the eye of my storm.

Leaves strip from the willow’s slender branches. Limbs break and are carried off in the gale. Whenever a Draugar gets too close, I divide the wind at my disposal leaving one hand on the willow, while I blow the zombie away with the other.

It works until too many dead stagger my way, closing in from every direction. Their wrinkled skin resembles dried fruit, although a title like “giant prunes of death” really doesn’t do them justice.

Ferdy takes up the cause, his ax severing the head of the nearest Draugar. Black slime sprays the garden as he lops the arms and legs off another two zombies.

Though I swore eternal hatred for cows, the smelly bugger’s really starting to grow on me.

With the onslaught of dead managed, I angle back to Gideon and his lithesome jailor.

As Raven would say,
Let’s do this!

I send a wind blast strong enough to tear the top off the willow tree. Low light flares near her trunk signaling Gideon’s dry enough to spark.

That’s our boy.

Engulfed in flame, what’s left of the willow falters like a drunken maître d’. Gideon leaps from the fountain and races through the maze, his body glowing like a small sun.

Unfortunately, Desiree spots him, too, and runs a course to intercept.

The great numpty doesn’t notice her. He’s too busy hurtling fireworks into the zombie ranks. Between his fire and Rae’s homicidal trees, few Draugar remain.

Pan breaks from the remaining circle of zombies surrounding him. His hands combust and he hurls a bomb of his own.

The oak supporting Raven catches fire. Her scream sounds more angry than afraid as the flames spread.

Pan launches another comet into the moving forest. Smoke from burning wood blights the sky.

My throat tightens watching the old oak gently place Rae on the ground and out of danger. He rolls in the dirt to smother the flame. Mighty branches claw deep furrows in the earth. His twig-like fingers reach for his brothers, tremble and plead, but they can do nothing to save him. Since my element only feeds fire, I helplessly watch as more trees burn to death.

Gideon blasts Pan with an impressive bolide, and I’m shocked when the fur on his leg lights.

Expression clearly shaken, Pan seems as confused as I am. He puts the fire out and darts behind a row of hedges. It seems we’re not immune to other wielders, but how does that work when we control the same element?

My thoughts are interrupted when Desiree calls water from the fountain and sends it over Gideon in a wide arc.

Raven approaches from the opposite direction, but the wind I send is faster. It nudges the flow of water aside where it splatters harmlessly to the ground. I’m jogging toward Rae, Ferdy’s hooves clacking on the stones at my side. If we time this right, we can catch Desiree in a crossfire.

A long root lassoes Desiree’s ankle and she face-plants. Recovering with a guttural cry, she releases sheets of rain over Raven. The deluge swallows her, but also douses the trees burning nearby. Churning smoke hides Raven from my sight. A perfect time for Pan to attack, but he’s gone missing, and Desiree’s water trick destroyed the damaging forest fires—his best effort yet to stop us.

They don’t seem unified. Confusion swamps me as I puzzle over their strategy, before it strikes me; they don’t have one.

They never thought we’d get this far.

Spitting rain stings my skin, but I’m able to glimpse Raven emerging from the smoke in one piece. Desiree gathers water from the soaked ground and shoots Rae with the strength of a fireman’s hose. I cringe as she goes down, and Desiree pounces.

Gideon is useless in this downpour, but no one told him. He’s barreling through the hedges like a locomotive.

The monsoon blurs my vision. My feet stop moving, heartbeats race, as Raven’s pulled onto her knees. Head forced back, throat exposed, clearly Desiree plans to finish her rival execution style.

My thoughts near hysteria; indecision and fear cripple my brain. That’s when I see a dark shape charging through the rain toward them. Head down, horns pointed forward, the Minotaur aims for Desiree. With nowhere to run, her arm flies out. At first, I think it’s a protective instinct, until I spy the crossbow on her wrist. The one I’d laughed at earlier.

Ferdy, no!

“Teleport!”

Gideon’s yell works as well as a slap.
Shite!
What am I doing?
My body vibrates, and I’m gone. Appearing beside Desiree, I lunge for her arm, my fingers wrapping her shoulder just as the arrow flies from the track.

The Minotaur buckles and falls, snout first. Momentum powers his enormous bulk forward plowing soil like a bulldozer.

Raven screams and throws herself. His weight could crush her, but she’s beyond reason. Her arms wrap Ferdy’s great neck. She whispers between sobs, offering what comfort she can.

In my panic, I forgot to do the one thing that could have saved him. Now, his breathing comes in shallow pants, creating fog at his muzzle. The arrow protrudes above an eye, shaft buried deep. Blood runs from the wound, coating his face, staining the mud. Guilt sours my stomach. I failed him, and he’s done for, poor bloke.

Rae grasps the bull’s meaty hand with both of hers. I deflect the rain, using wind to create an umbrella above them.

Gideon crashes through the last hedge, his gaze falling on me and my prisoner, then the pair in the mud.

The fog at Ferdy’s muzzle fades. His chest stops moving. Raven sniffs, gently lowering Ferdy’s hand. Her fingers move six inches and curl over the bull’s abandoned ax handle. She looks up, face hardened to flint.

Desiree jerks free of my hold and bolts, but Gideon blocks her escape. He wrestles her arms together, pinning her against his chest.

I know who commands the hedge that yanks its roots from the mire and sneaks up behind them. The thick shrub separates down the middle, leans forward, and swallows them both. I can’t see a thing through the mesh of twigs and leaves, but like a heron regurgitating its dinner, the plant vomits Gideon onto the grass while holding onto Desiree. Trapped from the waist down, she fights like a cat until she’s torn and bleeding, but can’t break free.

Raven stands, ax gripped tightly in her hands. Red rimmed eyes tell the story of her grief as she faces the woman responsible.

Water answers Desiree’s frantic call for help with a flash flood that drives us back. Raven’s arm flies up, flagging the trees. They plunk their massive roots into the runoff to drink. A good idea, yet it won’t be enough, because Desiree’s already pulling more water from the ground.

Building her element in height and mass, she forms a static thirty-foot wall as easily as a kid stacks blocks. If I kill her, the water will drop and finish us.

I failed my friends once. I vow not to fail again. And as I study the towering black surf, I know the fight is mine alone. In physics, I never cared to understand turbine aerodynamics, never gave a shite about drag based wind, and now it doesn’t seem to matter. I
am
wind.

Wind is force. It moves. I don’t need to stop the water, just redirect it. I catch Gideon’s eye. He steps forward, but I shake my head. “Leave her to me.”

With a primal scream, Desiree releases her wall.

Impulses from my brain connect to my element sending hurricane force winds to divide the plummeting tsunami.

Water punches the earth on either side of us. It takes all of my strength to keep the crushing water out, but we’re safe within my wind tunnel. As the water recedes, broken tree limbs stab the ground, bones of the dead pile at our feet, providing me with plenty of ammunition. Wind obeys willingly, lifting various items of debris with unseen fingers at my command.

“Pan, help me!” Desiree calls. When he doesn’t appear, she turns to Gideon. “I know what I did was wrong. I know that, but if you let me go, I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again, I promise.”

“It’s far too late for that now,” I say.

Her blue eyes leak the element she wields. They widen as a dozen sharp objects hover near me. Whether because of her connection to Rose, or something else, I hesitate. I still see Rose’s face, hear her voice. I know it’s not true, but it’s as if she died at Desiree’s hand. The woman’s hate is corrosive, all consuming. No matter what she says, she’ll never stop hunting us. I have no choice.

Wind releases its arsenal. Whip fast and accurate, the tibia of a Draugar impales her torso, Ferdy’s ax blade lodges between her neck and shoulder. She’s run through with fragments of wood and bone until her white gown runs red with blood. Her eyes glaze before her head rolls forward.

The rain ceases with her passing. Clouds thin, allowing the sun to peek through.

A strange and sudden sensation leeches through my body. Growing more and more painful as it moves through my system, I double over with a cry.

“What’s wrong?” Gideon asks, and then swears an oath.

The burn in my veins is acidic. I drop to the ground as Gideon crumples alongside me. Whatever’s happening to us isn’t affecting Rae, who crouches helplessly between us.

Is this Pan? A trick of the mind? I shut my eyes to what feels like crushed glass being forced through my arteries. I’m drenched with sweat. My stomach bloats. When I touch puffed-up fingers to my lips, I find them swollen, too. Waves crash against my eardrums. Water leaks from my eyes. Saliva fills my mouth, and I swallow only to have it fill again.

I’m drowning, or think I am. And just when I can’t take anymore, the pain subsides. I lie still, feeling my body tissue absorb the excess fluids. It’s over as fast as it began. Slowly, I open my eyes, and sit up.

“What the hell just happened?” This from Gideon, whose head I notice with some satisfaction is nestled on Raven’s lap.

On a hunch, I raise a finger and point to a nearby puddle. Water jumps several inches. I glance up. “Can either of you … ?”

This time, I ask the trail of water to raise eye level before dropping again. Rae tries with no success.

“Interesting,” I say, rubbing my itchy jaw. Can fire and water exist in one wielder? Pan manages. I lift a gallon or two of water from the ground and dump it on Gideon’s head.

“Do you want to die?” he growls. “I was just drying out.”

“Light up.”

“The hell.” He shakes his head like a dog sending muddy droplets flying. “You know I can’t.”

I think he can. In fact, he already did while fighting off the scorpion, we’d simply forgotten. The idea hit me when Pan was burned earlier. “Humor me. I don’t know why, but I think our elements respond differently when we’re fighting other wielders.”

He argues first, because he’s Gideon, but finally lifts his hand. A snap of his wrist starts a flame reaching all the way to his elbow.

My smile is overly smug, but I really do enjoy being right.

“I’ll be damned.” A grin stretches his face. He turns to show Rae, but she’s slipped away to sit with Ferdy’s body.

“Maddox … ” No one feels worse than I do, but we can’t stay here. “Let’s go before Pan finds his balls.” Since he doesn’t like to lose, I’m guessing that won’t take long.

Gideon’s smile falters as his gaze skims the landscape. Severed body parts already twitch and hop, as though programmed to continue fighting no matter what.

I know he wanted Pan’s head. We all did, but it’s more important we survive. That was my promise to Rae, and I intend to keep it. “Not this time, mate,” I say, by which I mean never.

Gideon catches my pointed stare. I don’t try and persuade him, there’s no need. Still, when he unclenches his jaw, my shoulders relax. His nod is quick before hurrying to Rae.

He will always put her first.

Gideon

Raven leans over her fallen warrior. Silent tears gleam as she says goodbye. “We should bury him.” The words are rough-hewn and shaky.

“We should,” I say, “but we can’t afford the time. He would understand.”

Her quiet sniff breaks my heart. If I had the power, I would make her pain mine. Carry her burdens, wear her tortured skin, breathe every anguished breath.