TWENTY-TWO #2
Wind howls next, whipping around me, twisting through the fire and feeding it until the flames burn hotter.
Water follows, drawn from the air itself, from the shattered fountain, coiling into razor-edged spears around my body.
Earth hums beneath me, ancient and unbending, cracks splintering through the marble floor as though waiting for my command.
I can feel them all. Power pressing in from every direction, thrumming beneath my skin.
This is what I was born for. This is who I am.
But then—a flash of darkness.
A whisper. A shift in the air. And suddenly, the Elements rebel. They don’t move the way I expect. They don’t listen the way they always have before.
What’s happening?
I try to send fire forward, but the wind twists it wrong, spiraling the flames out of control. I try to form ice, but the water resists, shifting unpredictably in the air.
The shadows are interfering. They are twisting the balance.
And I am not ready for that.
The Commander’s chilling laugh cuts through the frenzy, curling around me like a noose.
“What’s the matter, Spiritborn?” he taunts, his voice a mocking purr. “Losing your grip?”
I grit my teeth, trying to regain control of my thoughts, to remember Valen’s lessons, and Thane’s instructions.
Feel it. Don’t force it.
The Elements do not obey—they do not align.
Breathe.
I suck in a sharp breath, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The Elements inside me are too much. Not in the way of power—I can handle power. But chaos changes everything.
In practice, everything had been methodical, precise. But battle is not precise. It’s messy and frantic and cruel.
And I am on my own.
I don’t have Valen watching carefully, instructing me through every motion. I don’t have Thane standing beside me correcting my stance, reminding me to balance, to focus, to breathe. No one is guiding me. No one is stopping me if I go too far.
The realization settles cold in my gut. Because for the first time, I’m the only one responsible for what happens next.
A shadow surges toward me, and I act on instinct. I call everything at once. Fire ignites in my palms. Wind surges through me, wrapping the flames into a spiraling inferno. Water condenses from the air, hardening into jagged ice. The ground beneath me cracks, responding to my need.
And for one brief moment, it’s beautiful. A perfect storm of balance and destruction, swirling around me like a force of nature.
But then, it surges too far. I feel my body lock up, my breath seize, my vision narrow.
The Elements keep building. A primal force.
More. More. More.
I grit my teeth, trying desperately to contain it, to force it back down, but the power isn’t listening. It wants to consume. My body feels like it’s splitting apart, like I was never meant to contain this much power at once.
Breathing becomes difficult. I hear voices shouting my name somewhere beyond the storm, but they sound distant. Distorted.
Because I am losing control. And I don’t know if I can get it back.
I am at the center of the storm.
I try to pull it all back, to rein it in, but the Elements do not want to be contained.
For so long, they have been separate. Now they are one.
And so am I. The storm inside me wants to break free.
I feel myself shattering, coming apart at the seams, dissolving into the Elements themselves. Like if I truly let go, I will never be able to come back.
Like I won’t be Amara anymore.
A scream cuts through the storm.
Somewhere inside the chaos, inside the storm surrounding me and living inside me, I see him.
Kieran.
Falling.
The shadows had been coming for me—and he stopped them.
No. No. No.
A pulse of raw, unchecked power surges through me, but I can’t control it. I can’t stop it from unraveling around me. Wind and fire whip wildly through the ballroom while the earth cracks beneath my feet.
I can feel Thane behind me, his presence solid even inside the chaos, the bond burning inside me, his fire blazing against the darkness as he cuts through the shadows one after another, trying to reach me.
Somewhere far away, Thane is calling my name. But the rabid wind tears the words away before they can reach me.
Kieran is down. And I am losing myself to the storm.
The Elemental surge crashes outward, wild, untethered, brutal.
It grabs at me, ripping strands from my braids, tearing pins from my hair.
I hear the sharp rip of fabric as a part of my crimson dress is torn away, vanishing into the maelstrom.
Wind claws at the remaining folds wrapped around my body.
My earrings are wrenched from my ears, ripped away like fallen stars swallowed by the storm.
The power surges, uncontrolled and ravenous, clawing at my veins, tearing through me with a force too great, too vast, too much.
I scream.
It rips from my throat, raw and uncontained, echoing through the storm, through the battlefield, through the very fabric of my being.
The wind howls with me, spiraling into a violent vortex. Fire explodes outward, a blinding inferno scorching the air. Water lashes like a thousand whips, twisting, uncontrolled. The earth shudders beneath my feet, fracturing, as though answering my pain.
It’s too much. Too much. I can’t hold it.
I am breaking.
I am becoming the storm.
I have wielded all four Elements before. So why can’t I align with them now?
Then it hits me.
I am bonded to Calryx. I am channeling at a level I never have before. This isn’t just me.
It’s us.
I hear Calryx’s voice in my mind, sharp and urgent.
“You must ground yourself! Listen to me! Breathe! Feel me with you! I am with you!”
I try.
Gods, I try.
But the power keeps building, cresting like a wave that refuses to break. And for the first time in my life, a terrifying thought crashes through me. What if I can’t stop it? What if this power isn’t something I control? What if it’s something I survive?
My heartbeat thunders in my ears. I feel lightheaded. Untethered. Weightless and impossibly heavy all at once.
“You are not alone! You and I are bound! We are one!” Calryx’s voice cuts through the storm, stronger now, fierce and unrelenting. “Virelya, you are stronger than this! Do not let it take you!”
The storm inside me still rages, but now I can feel her pushing against the chaos, reaching desperately for me through the bond.
And then, hands. Firm. Real.
Thane.
“Amara!”
His voice cuts through the chaos like a blade, sharp, commanding, pulling me back from the brink. I feel his grip on my arms, solid as the earth beneath my feet, even as everything else spins apart.
How did he get here? How has the magical tempest around me not injured him?
“Breathe!”
I gasp, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The storm rages around me, inside me, through me.
“Look at me!” he orders, his hands sliding upward to cup my face. His skin burns against mine, searing and real. “You are in control! Not the power. You!”
I shake my head, my body trembling, my veins screaming with fire and wind and light and fury.
“I—I don’t know how to stop it.”
The admission breaks something in me.
The fear. The truth. I am afraid. Afraid that I am not strong enough. Afraid that this is who I am now—nothing but power without control.
Thane’s eyes narrow, fierce and absolute.
“YES, YOU DO!” he shouts, his voice a command rather than a plea.
His presence bleeds into me, a beacon in the storm of my unraveling mind. The bond pulls taut, two hands locked together inside the gale.
I cling to it.
To him.
“brEATHE WITH ME!”
His voice booms over the howling wind, cutting through the roar of battle like a blade.
His forehead presses against mine. His breath comes ragged and hot against my lips while dark strands of hair lash wildly across blood-smeared skin.
There’s a gash along his cheek, blood pooling in the hollow just below his eye.
The sleeve of his tunic hangs torn where claws ripped through the fabric wrapped around his arm.
He’s bleeding.
His hands are rough, shaking slightly as he cups my face, holding me together even as the world tears itself apart around us. The Elements are a torrent inside me—wild, erratic, fighting for release.
Thane doesn’t flinch.
“YOU’RE HERE!” he shouts, his voice as fierce as the storm tearing through me. “WITH ME!”
His grip tightens, fingers threading into my hair like he’s afraid I’ll slip away. With our foreheads pressed together, I see the golden flecks in his eyes burn like embers in the darkness.
He wipes away the tears streaming down my face.
Red.
Not tears.
Blood.
Panic claws up my throat, but his voice tears through it instantly.
“Come back!” he demands, as if he can will me back by force alone. “I love you! I need you to come back to me!”