Chapter 12 #2
An hour of walking took us away from the gravesite and into the full spectrum of heat from the rising red orb.
Until a low roll of distant thunder stopped me in my tracks. I know that sound. I’d lived through the sound at camp before the earth split.
The rumble came again.
Poppy’s eyes flew open. “Well, fuck. Come on.”
There was nowhere to run where we’d escape the quake. Nowhere to go to avoid the sand opening up beneath and sucking us down.
Poppy took off across the dunes in the wrong direction. Rather than escape, she bolted toward the sound, forcing me to take off after her toward the epicenter of the quake.
Ahead, storm clouds swallowed the sky. Lightning pulsed from their depths.
Once again, Poppy leaped the dunes with incredible agility. I stumbled after her but at least I wasn’t sinking up to my knees this time.
An elemental rattle punched at my senses, echoing in my ears. The closer we got to the storm, the harder it was to think, the black shadow stretching inky fingers across the sand.
A darker flash was the only warning we got when a boulder shot out of nowhere. It erupted through sand like a stone through water and knocked Poppy flat.
Another one rose, but before I yelled out a warning, Poppy jumped up. The boulders split into round and distinct pieces and formed a wall leading us away from the storm.
I held out an arm she had no choice but to take. “Are you okay?” My fingers locked around her wrist before she fell again.
“I’ll be fine. I think. Whatever this is doesn’t seem like it’s hurting us. Maybe it’s on our side?”
Sides. It all came down to what side of the line you stood on.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Beneath the storm’s weight, the rest of Prospi became a black seething mass. Only the boulders provided a definitive direction. Hazy clouds swirled overhead, writhing, monstrous. We followed the jutting earth with nowhere else to go.
The broken earth led us right to the edge of the storm. Hair on my forearm lifted at the static charge in the air and the stench of ozone burned the inside of my nose.
Another few steps brought us to the edge of the crest and the sharp incline on the other side. Sand plummeted into a downward cut into deep, rushing water below.
Poppy rested her hands on her hips. “Isn’t this an unnatural sight! A damn river surrounds the city,” she said over the roar of thunder. “Hey, at least we found it.”
“But there’s no way to get inside without drowning!” I yelled back.
“We stick to the river. It’s got to veer off eventually. Or we find a space shallow enough to cross,” Poppy said.
I stared dubiously at the water rushing fast enough to form white foamy crests and whirlpools.
“Again, your magic would come in really handy right now. I wish you could send us over the river or at least form some kind of bridge with sand.”
“You’re the one with the power to form a bridge.” Poppy wasn’t happy about it. “But look.” She pointed. “We’re not alone.”
Large creatures stalked along the opposite bank. The Dryads. My jaw dropped.
“Dryads are giant, weighted trees. They sink like stones in water, so this is not a moat. This is not their doing. The storms must have done this.”
“Supernatural storms,” I added.
“No shit. This isn’t their rainy season either. So now the Dryads are trapped. What are you going to do about it?”
There was something familiar about the tree creatures. From this distance, the figures were small, too small to make out any details. One of them lifted a limb and the tip of it split off into five twig fragments like fingers.
Pieces clicked into place at last.
We’d come here to clear the storm and help liberate the Dryads. Exactly like Poppy’s vision.
I grabbed for Poppy’s cloak to keep her from walking away. “I can stop the storm from here.”
“You haven’t had enough rest to tackle a storm like this. And that’s not saying anything about your training.” Poppy looked over her shoulder to glare at me. “You’re not ready for it.”
“This is why we unlocked my powers. So I’d be able to help.” Stinging rain continued to pelt us at a slant.
“The unlocking process is what got us to this place,” she insisted. “This is the repercussion, but you’re not equipped to handle something of this magnitude so soon after freeing yourself from the blood curse.”
“My magic is working while yours isn’t.”
I took a risk in throwing it in her face. Guilt immediately hit when she blanched, but the thought of leaving the Dryads to the raging white water was worse.
“The goal is to clear the storms and save them, right?”
Poppy ground her teeth together. “Again, you are not versed enough with the elements to make an attempt.”
“I have to try.”
I dropped my hold on her and closed my eyes, arms relaxed at my sides. Poppy was right. I needed the practice and we hadn’t gotten around to it. I’d barely gotten out of the death curse intact.
But I’d done something incredible at EverRose without even thinking about it. What if I actually honed my focus and sent the same amount of energy toward this storm instead?
What would happen?
My lungs were too shriveled to maintain the deep breathing exercises I forced them through. I tuned out the water and the dull drone of thunder in the background. I'd never been big into mediation. My mind wandered too much to focus.
Rather than wrangle it, I let it go.
And when I was ready, I lifted my face to the storm and the wind lifting small whirlwinds of water off the ground.
My magic appeared on its own, ready to use, ready to be aimed and fired.
I’m strong. I’m ready.
I let my energy fly up toward the boiling pulse of clouds and the flashes of light in its heart. Power lifted inside of me and burned on the way out. It ripped free as if from my very pores, thrown like a javelin up into the sky.
“Tavi, be careful!” Poppy’s warning came from somewhere else.
I couldn’t touch her, couldn’t reach her, and she couldn’t reach me.
Scatter.
I sent the thought into the clouds. Once they dispersed, I’d work on the river. The storm had to go first.
Power flowed out of me and carried my intention into the clouds. And somehow, it made contact. A lightning strike halted halfway to earth as though someone pressed pause.
A smile lifted my cheeks. Until the magic latched onto the energy of the storm. Until it tightened in my gut and used my ribs as anchors.
My power took on a life of its own, like the storm, drawing thunder and lightning to me. Both lashed out with an energy too potent to ignore.
The vision came in flashes of color like memory, like I’d experienced it in reality rather than in my subconscious. The storm, the horrible flood, and the Dryads trapped by a current they were too weak to fight despite their size. The castle of sand destroyed and the city lost to the waves.
The storm continued to lash out at me. It sent shockwaves along the bond, and when I tried to pull my energy free, it clung tight.
Poppy screamed at me. She shook me to get me to drop the connection.
Let go.
The command disappeared in a roll of thunder close enough to blast the hair away from my face. The infinite well inside of me, the one that would never run dry, shuddered. I fell to my knees and the storm sent raindrops like needles to torment me.
Sand ground into my skin as the elements revolted and the storm fought against me.
Poppy’s scream cut off. So did the rain. So did everything when the storm sent a fork of lightning down and it struck right through me.