Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Gray
As Chrome turned to leave, Slate finally released me from around the waist. The battle raged on around us, blades clanging, their orange and blue colliding to light up the night sky.
Every so often, the ground would rumble beneath me.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted the earth cleaving in two and heard screams as people disappeared into the gaping crevice.
The wind lashed against us wildly from the air Elementals, while the colorful bursts of the Kinetics’ magic electrified the vicinity.
Seeing Chrome again was the most heart-shattering moment I’d experienced since the day at the King’s Palace.
It was him, but it wasn’t at the same time.
The man standing before me was a warped version of Chrome.
Despite the black hoodie he wore that covered his arms, I glimpsed the blackened veins protruding where his currents used to be on his throat and neck, climbing high enough to kiss the bottom of his jaw.
While his hair remained the same—reflective and chromatic—his eyes were wrong.
They were empty. Emotionless. Obsidian irises replaced the turbulent metal that usually spoke of his emotions.
There was nothing within them that resembled the Chrome I’d fallen in love with.
Not the man who sat at my bedside only a few days before and returned my mother’s letter.
A man materialized in front of him, causing Chrome to skid to a halt. I watched as Shadow stood just a foot before him. The smug expression on his face said it all: he’d caught Chrome by surprise.
Slate grabbed my wrist, warning me not to intervene. “Do you know who that is?” I asked as he batted away another attack. Why did that guy look so familiar?
Slate squeezed my wrist. “Yeah,” he said, bewildered. “I think I do.”
“Who?” I demanded.
Chrome and the mysterious Kinetic spoke in hushed tones at a distance too far to hear. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but in the midst of the battle raging around us, I was lucky only to catch snippets.
“I—killed you.” Chrome’s new shadows slithered from his arms like ebony ribbons.
“...thought you did,” said the Kinetic. The more I looked at him from a distance, the more I began to notice similar traits to not just Chrome, but also to…
That was impossible. Right?
Chrome’s shadows lashed out at Shadow, striking for his throat, but our escaped prisoner blocked it with shadows of his own. Where Chrome’s shadows seemed solid, Shadow’s were much more incorporeal, like a heavy shade cast by the sun.
Attacks pinged off my shield, and I knew what I needed to do; I just hoped I’d be able to do it without Chrome’s help this time.
I shook off Slate’s grasp on my wrist, turning to face him. “This needs to end. Now.”
Slate’s brows scrunched. “What do you have planned, Princess?”
I quirked a nostalgic smile at the nickname. “Just ground me,” I said, then added, “Please.” My eyes flitted back and forth between Slate’s, searching for the cracks in his promise to stand by my side no matter what.
Slate held my gaze, swallowing as he dipped his chin. “Of course.”
I pivoted, spotting Chrome and his old nemesis face off with one another in a battle of weird shadows and blades. The mysterious Kinetic kept absorbing Chrome’s shadows every time they struck at him. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Grim, and I knew Chrome must’ve been thinking the same thing.
Maintaining my shield, I dove into my magic, feeling for it deep in my essence. The electricity igniting my energy was ready to burst. I looked up at the sky, focusing on the electromagnetic particles building above us.
As static electricity lifted the hairs on my body, I called out to Slate, standing at my shoulder, “Grab my hands!”
Without hesitation, I felt his palms grip mine as he moved to stand before me, blocking Chrome from my view. “Focus on me.” He held my gaze, his irises shifting from the hazel I’d always known and loved into a bright silver. “I can take it, Gray.”
He was right. I had been worried that I’d hurt him—or worse, kill him—with this power. But when his body lit up with a silver glow, I settled. My questions could wait until later. For now, I had to save my people before Chrome and his friend led us all to our deaths.
I felt the rise of the energetic tension. While letting it build, I kept my eyes on Slate, knowing he felt it all and hoping he would be okay in the end.
After several seconds, I released the energy, unleashing a brutal lightning storm across the Hollow’s grounds like I had the last time Kinetics attacked the Hollow before Chrome and I ended up at the King’s Palace to save Scarlett and Cotton.
I allowed Slate’s steadfast calm to stabilize me, not permitting my power to consume or burn me out.
It was almost as if he absorbed what excess magic rolled off me.
What he did with it afterward, I wasn’t sure.
Silver light blinded the night, followed by an electric crack that zapped through the air just before it struck the ground, taking several Kinetics with it.
I tried my best to guide the strikes like Chrome had in the previous battle, where he’d directed the strikes through his magic, but it was extremely difficult, given that I was dealing with the power of Mother Nature.
My body began to quake from the effort and the immense energy I carried alone. The strength of it felt like it would melt my brain if I kept it up much longer.
“Don’t resist the power, Gray!” Slate called out to me. “You’re not only the vessel of the power, but you are the power. Don’t defy it, and it will work with you!”
I exhaled, nodding in agreement. Slate had never guided me wrong in the past when it came to training. And obviously, he’d picked up a thing or two during his time in Arcadia.
Relaxing, I released the resistance holding me back, allowing my essence to slip into the electromagnetic energy.
I set free the worry stifling me, trusting that Slate was strong enough to act as a conduit.
I rained down strike after strike, feeling for my targets through energy alone.
I moved multiple strikes all throughout the Hollow’s grounds, even hitting the lodge itself twice, where I sensed Kinetics within our home.
By the time I finished, my body and magic were drained. My legs buckled, but Slate caught me by the arms before I hit the ground. “Nope. You never bow for anyone, remember?”
Through droopy lids, I peered up at him, lifting one side of my smile. “Mushweed. I need it.”
Slate nodded, leaning forward to reach into my hoodie’s pocket to retrieve the tin can.
Pulling back while holding me up underneath my arms, he said, “You got them, Princess. But we can’t stay here anymore with the wards down.”
I hadn’t given myself the chance to look around yet.
My vision began to blur from exhaustion, and I wasn't ready to see the damage.
I popped off the lid of the tin can, pinching a bit of the herb and placing it on my tongue.
As I waited for it to kick in, I looked up at Slate; his eyes had returned to their normal hazel shade.
“What’s happened to you since you left? How are you so powerful now?” I asked him, my voice weak.
Slate continued to hold me up, not seeming weakened in the slightest. “I’ve always been this strong, Gray. I just had to hide it for a long time because of Forest.”
“But how?” I pushed. As the mushweed set in, my limbs began feeling more solid and less like gelatin.
“I’ll tell you more about it later once things settle,” Slate assured me, casting another glance around the Hollow at what I knew would be devastation. “But for now, let’s handle this crisis.”
I jolted, taking a step aside to peer around Slate. Chrome had vanished. Grief momentarily seized my ability to breathe as I remembered the way he’d last looked at me. Vulnerability had shone there, and the quicksilver had returned to his eyes, making me question if I’d imagined it.
Shadow, however, still remained. His gaze pierced through me, demanding my attention before he disappeared in a black cloud.
We lost too many Elementals. Bodies and severed limbs littered the Hollow’s grounds. The lodge was nearly destroyed, and I fought back the heavy emotional wave that threatened to steal me away in a riptide.
Everyone in our crew had survived and worked diligently to find all the injured Elementals.
We didn’t know where or how we would get them the help they needed, since we couldn’t stay here.
The healer’s ward had been destroyed by one of my strikes.
Apparently, Kinetics had breached it and were ransacking the place while killing Elementals they came across.
After realizing that not everyone in our close circle had been accounted for, I halted, my spine straightening as I searched the grounds. I pushed out my awareness, seeking a specific energetic source, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s Orion?” I asked Slate.
Slate scrunched his forehead as he scanned the area. “I haven’t seen him. Or felt him.”
My heart fell. “Me neither.”
He had to be okay. Nothing could happen to Orion.
“Would that happen to be the guy with blond hair?” A male voice came from behind me.
Slate and I whipped around, and I conjured a dagger to press to Shadow’s throat. “Where is he?”
The mysterious Kinetic, who somehow survived my lightning strikes, held his hands up, cocking a crooked smirk. “Don’t shoot the messenger. Just check by the barn where you rudely locked me away.”
I narrowed my eyes, staring at the oddly familiar man. “You’re coming with us,” I said, snatching him by his sleeve. “Why do you look like Chrome?” I demanded as I dragged him along.
Shadow chuckled. “Because he’s my brother. I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out yet.”
I slammed to a halt, jerking him to a stop beside me. Gaping at him, I shook my head. “How is that possible?”