Water Shaper (World Aflame) (25 page)

Xander tried to reach
up, but he immediately touched something sharp just over his head.

“Is anyone else cold?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah,” Sean said. “It’s freezing in here. Where are we?”

The narrow space they were in felt arctic cold, like it was radiating from all around them. Despite his general ambivalence to extreme temperature changes since gaining the Wind Elemental’s power, even he could feel the cold.

“Wilkes,” he said, “do you think you can get to the flashlight?”

He heard the Brit’s camping
pack strike the floor with a clatter. Wilkes rustled around in its interior until he let out a small cry of victory. He turned on the flashlight, and its bright light filled the small chamber they were in.

The light reflected off the white bubble around the four friends. It was nearly smooth, aside from small air bubbles trapped within its shell. Sean reached up and touched the wall gingerly but quickly withdrew his fingers.

“It’s ice,” he said, turning toward Xander with a confused look. “Did you do this?”

Xander shrugged. “I must have but if I
did, it was completely reflexive.”

Jessica stood and ran her hand along the smooth wall of the ice cavern. “I didn’t know you could do this with the water power.”

“I didn’t either. Now that I know I can, though, it opens a lot of new options.”

Jessica turned toward him with a smile but immediately blanched when she saw where he stood. Xander furrowed his brow but followed
her gaze upward. Through the top of the bubble, one of the white, metal poles from the bizarre cage protruded through the ice. It hovered, frozen in place, inches above his head, with a wicked point angled down at him. Xander politely cleared his throat before casually stepping out of the way of the deadly spear.

Sean shivered and looked around the full circumference of the bubble. It wasn’t wide, barely larger than the space between the four friends. Beyond the semi-transparent ice, he could see debris surrounding them. He stood up and walked to the far side, realizing that the area closest to Xander was actually a wall.

“Who was that guy?” Jessica asked.

“He’s the bloke I fought when I ran out of Selfridges,” Wilkes said.

She looked from the Brit back to Xander. The fierce look on his face told her there was more to it than that. “Xander?”

“His name is General Abraxas.”

Sean furrowed his brow, feeling like he’d heard the name before.

“He’s the one that killed my parents and my grandfather,” Xander explained.

Jessica crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Xander.

“Wait,” Sean said, walking over to his friend’s side. “I thought you said Sammy killed him.”

Xander shook his head. “I thought she had. Last time I saw him, he was on fire and running off into the woods. I figured he would have burned to death.”

“I got to see him up close earlier,” Wilkes said. “He doesn’t look like he has a
one scar one him.”

“I know. I saw. He’s not only still alive—he’s stronger than he was before. I don’t know how he
survived, but it had to have been the Fire Elemental.”

“That’s great,” Sean said. “Now we have to worry about the Fire Elemental, too.
”

Now that
Xander was past his surprise at seeing Abraxas alive, he was completely consumed with rage. Abraxas had personally ruined his life, going after his parents as a means to lure the Wind Warriors out of hiding. The injuries his grandfather had sustained during the battle had eventually led to his death.

Xander was beginning to rethink everything else that had occurred since Abraxas supposedly died, wondering how much his hand was involved. The attack on the Wind Warrior island could have easily been coordinated by the Fire Warrior. Even Sammy’s kidnapping could have been his doing. If so, General Abraxas had literally been directly responsible for every hardship he and his loved ones had endured since he first realized he had these elemental powers.

“You want him dead,” Wilkes said. It wasn’t a question.

Xander
nodded, but his mind was elsewhere.

Wilkes grabbed his shoulders and turned him toward
him. “Xander, I need to ask you something, and I need an honest answer.”

Xander nodded again, confusedly.

“You say your bird tried to kill him the first time, right? I’ve watched you out there. You’re tough. You have good control over your powers. You toss these Fire Warriors aside like they’re nothing.”

He stopped
talking, and Xander awaited the question. Instead, Wilkes just stared at him.

“Xander, have you ever actually killed a Fire Warrior?”

Xander paled at the question. He remembered the nauseated feeling he had when he first saw Wilkes shoot one of the warriors, the pool of blood spreading from beneath her body.

Wilkes shook his head. “When we met, you told me this was a war. People die in war. The best you can hope is that it isn’t you. And the way you make sure it isn’t you is to kill them before they have a chance to kill you. You’ve tossed these blokes
about, and I’m sure you’ve hurt them, but every one you haven’t killed is someone willing and able to come back later and kill you, Sean, and Jessica.

“I know you’re a kid. If it weren’t for this insanity, you’d probably be happily sitting at
university, drinking a beer and shagging your girlfriend. But the world’s changed, and it’s time for you to stop being a kid and become a soldier. If you want to win—” he paused, making sure Xander looked him in the eyes. “If you want to win, you’re going to have to be willing to kill.”

“I haven’t killed any of them,” Xander said, realizing just how similar this conversation sounded to the one he recently had with Jessica. He thought of losing his parents, his grandfather, Bart, Robert, and maybe even Sammy. It burned in his heart like a bonfire. “But I’ll do what I have to. I won’t lose anyone else I care about.”

“Good. Use it,” Wilkes said. “Take all that anger and use it against him. But first things first, can you get us out of here?”

The Brit’s smooth voice did more to cool Xander’s anger than the ice surrounding them. Xander bit his lip until he tasted the coppery taste of blood in his mouth.

“I might be able to get us out of here but not without letting him know we’re still alive.”

“One problem at a time, Yank. Get us out of here, and then we’ll worry about Mister Crazy. I’ve already seen he’s not bulletproof, so I’ll deal with him if it comes to that.”

Xander closed his eyes and wondered how he could use his wind power to pry aside the debris covering their icy prison. He strained to feel the wind beyond the collapsed building, but another voice was far louder and refused to be silenced.

“
Your wind won’t save you now
,” the Water Elemental whispered to him through the moisture around him. “
It’s time for you to embrace what you can become.
”

The ice around him whispered, describing the area beyond the frozen cavern. Just beyond the ice, he could feel trickles of water running along the sidewalk. It seeped through the cracks in the wall lying against the bubble. He could see through the droplets as they poured through the far side of the wall and dropped into an open chasm on the far side. Through the stream, he could see a way out of the rubble once they got past the wall.

He opened his eyes and met his friends’ inquisitive stares. Wordlessly, he turned around and faced the side of the bubble against which the wall rested. With a wave of his hand, the ice unfroze along the wall, dripping down and pooling on the floor at his feet.

With the ice aside, he could see the
cracked, concrete wall standing vertical, albeit canted slightly.

“Got a way through there?” Wilkes asked.

Xander felt the water’s eagerness to help. “I will shortly.”

The water at his feet rolled forward, sliding up and over the ice and seeping into the cracks of the wall. It whispered instructions to him, as though it yearned to set him free of his self-imposed prison. He doubted this was a normal power of a Water Warrior. He could practically feel the Water Elemental’s guiding hand along with her impertinent voice.

The water flowed vertically up the wall, defying gravity as droplets slid into the cracks. They marched into position until the water filled all the individual fissures.

Xander focused and a rich blue color
—the deep blue of ocean depths—consumed his eyes. Within the cracks on the wall, the water froze and expanded.

At first, only a single piece of concrete calved from the wall. Quickly, though, the friends heard cracks and pops from within
it. It sounded like popcorn popping within a microwave. Another piece of concrete broke free and fell to the ground at Xander’s feet.

After the piece fell, the area fell silent. Xander stood stoically still, his arms held firmly against his side. The friends crowded against the back of the bubble, anticipating the wall’s collapse that seemed not
to come.

“Xander?” Sean asked. He dared to step toward his friend.

At once, the wall gave one final groan before falling to pieces along the prescribed cracks. It fell with a thunderous roar and a blast of dust. The friends covered their faces with their arms and coughed as the dust filled their narrow chamber.

A gust of wind flushed through the ice bubble, blowing the dust free from the room and replacing it with satisfying fresh air. The
group lowered their arms and stared at Xander. He turned toward them with a smile, the bright light already fading from his eyes.

“Is everyone okay?” he asked.

They nodded. Over Xander’s shoulder, they could see London’s dim light filtering through the rest of the debris.

Wilkes stepped toward the hole. He peered out, examining the narrow passage that led toward the surface.

“If they can sense when you use your power, they certainly would have noticed that.”

Xander nodded. “You’re right.”

“They’ll be waiting for us when we emerge. We’ll be coming out right into a fight.”

Xander cracked his knuckles. “They haven’t seen a fight yet. I’ll give them more than they can handle.”

Xander led the group into the tunnel. It was a tight squeeze, and the rubble pulled at their clothes as they slid past the debris. As he approached the glow of the surface, he took a deep breath and let the wind power surge within him.

He stepped out of the hole and turned quickly, searching for the telltale glow of Fire Warriors.

The area around him was quiet and empty.

He didn’t even feel the churning in his gut when they used their power.

Xander stepped aside and let Wilkes step out of the tunnel. The Brit turned slowly, letting the barrel of his rifle follow his searching gaze. Like Xander, he saw nothing moving. By the time Sean and Jessica emerged, Xander was confident that they were alone.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Sean said. “Where are they?”

“They’ve ambushed us before,” Jessica said. “They could just be lying in wait, ready to throw everything they’ve got at us when we start moving.”

“Maybe,” Xander said, though he wasn’t as sure as he sounded.

Admittedly, it was strange to be alone. Using the power of the Elementals, he knew the Fire Warriors would have felt the pain as much as he did when Abraxas was near.

“If they’re near,” Wilkes said, “there’s nothing we can do about it now. I say we don’t
—how do you American’s say it?—look a gift horse in the mouth? Let’s get as far away as possible before they spring this trap.”

Xander nodded while he scanned the area once more. “Lead the way. Get us to your family so we can get out of this city.”

Wilkes led them on while the others followed closely at his heels.

From the shadows beyond the broken building, Lord Cambion watched as the four rushed away. His stomach still ached from the incredible power the young warrior wielded. There was a faint sense of dread at the thought of facing him in battle, despite the dozens of Fire Warriors that were hidden nearby.

General Abraxas stepped beside him, letting his flaming wings reignite. The fire illuminated the storefront in which they stood.

Cambion looked over at the possessed General and realized he would never be as scared of Xander as he was of the formidable man beside him.

“I don’t understand, my
Lord,” Cambion said, gesturing toward the four friends who were already out of sight. “We could have easily destroyed them when they reemerged from the rubble. They would have already been dead and their heads on spikes along the riverside.”

“Dear Lord Cambion,” Abraxas said with a wicked smile. He crossed his massive arms across his chest. “As
always, you fail to see the big picture. They move through this city with a purpose. They’re looking for someone, someone that matters to them. Someone that they love. We’ll follow them and let them lead us to their loved ones. Then we’ll let them watch as we kill those people in front of them. Then, and only then, will we slaughter the Wind Warrior and his friends.”