“Yes.” I held my hand up, palm forward and let my fire race between my fingers.
Her eyes grew wider. “Gabby?”
Somehow, the hole she’d left inside had been instantly filled when she spoke my name. I nodded, tears filling my own eyes.
She flung herself at me and gripped me in a fierce hug. “What are you doing here?” She stepped back and ran her hands over my head. “What happened to your hair? And how are you a Firemaker?”
I shrugged, unable to explain my genetic abnormality.
“Where’s Jarvis?” she asked.
“Where’s Isaiah?” I countered.
Cat smiled, but it held a sadness I’d felt before. The kind that lingered in my soul when Educator Graham disappeared. When Patches cut me out of his life. When Jarvis kissed me but didn’t choose me for his Council.
A fountain of water bubbled in her palm. “I wrote to Isaiah in Tarpulin last week. I haven’t heard from him yet. I hope he survived.”
“Survived?”
She flipped her hand over, and water cascaded to the ground. “Word in the underground is that Davison sent for any willing Councilmen to come to Gregorio. They were going to hold a council to find out what they could do with their combined powers, what manpower they each could provide for an attack on Tarpulin, and to discuss new policies going forward.” She sighed in a very defeated way.
“About a week ago, Councilman Davison declared open war on Tarpulin. He sent sentries to evict Alex. No one’s seen him or heard from him since.”
The way she spat out the Supremist’s name didn’t go unnoticed. I studied her round face. “What about the other Councilmen? Are they still here?”
“I haven’t seen anyone. The streets are overrun with thugs. The only sentries that are visible are from Tarpulin—and they’re best avoided.” She wandered a few feet away, looking through the orchard. “It’s like they’ve deserted us.”
“But surely they haven’t,” I said. “Maybe they’ve just gone underground.”
“Maybe,” Cat conceded. “Alex is ruthless. She’ll stop at nothing to protect herself and keep her appointment.” Cat brushed her hands together, as if she were dusting off the unpleasant topic. “So you’ve seen Isaiah? Talked to him?”
“Yeah, he’s here.” I frowned. “But I thought he was on that Council with you. Why did he have to try out for another Council?”
“Alex ordered the execution of our entire Council when our Firemaker wouldn’t use his Element to murder innocent Unmanifested government leaders. Rebellions have been springing up in the near villages for the past fifteen months. She sends sentries or goes herself to eliminate the dissenters. Did you know she’s a woman?”
“Yes.”
“Word is spreading all over the Territories.” Cat focused on her hands, wringing them around each other. “She’s killed a lot of people,” Cat finally continued. “She sent sentries to kill our Firemaker, but the rest of us were spared. One of the negotiated points was that we all had to register for the Supremist’s Council openings. It’s better to have a Council than to be a rogue Elemental.”
I nodded, taking her hands and squeezing them. “He’s blind, Cat. Did you know?”
“Of course. The Supremist has quite the temper.”
Disgust clawed at my stomach. My fire burned cold.
“Isaiah said it was an accident, but we know it wasn’t. Somehow, Alex took his sight during his trial. I wasn’t there when it happened, as I’d already fled to Cornish.”
My brain needed time to process everything she’d said. First: I wondered how the Supremist could take someone’s sight. That didn’t mesh with any stories or rumors I’d heard.
Second: Cat was an extremely experienced Watermaiden. If she didn’t make it…what kind of talent did the Supremist have at her disposal?
“When I heard of the Elemental uprising in Gregorio, I came here,” Cat said. “Cornish is an Unmanifested village, and I thought maybe the Councilman here would offer sanctuary for displaced Elementals, but I haven’t been able to get in to see him.”
I brushed her hair off her forehead. “I’m so glad I found you. I have a Council. Well, almost. Isaiah found me, and I have an Airmaster and an Unmanifested. With you, we can be a Council. We can charter.” I said it like it was true, but I still didn’t know if it could be. Adam had said Davison might be able to help us charter until the political and civil unrest settled down, but if Cat hadn’t been able to see him…. Maybe not.
She smiled, that glorious smile that could erase time and distance and pain. “Sounds good, Gabby. Sentries from Tarpulin have been pouring into the city to deal with the increasing Elemental unrest, but I haven’t seen Alex yet. The Unmanifested are either underground, have already fled, or are neutral. It’s dangerous.”
“They’re looking for me,” I said. “You know, because I’m a female Firemaker.” I conveniently left out the fire I’d been accused of setting in Crylon. “But if we have a chartered Council, we’ll have that bond that comes from our powers. We can protect each other.”
“We have to find Councilman Davison first. Or someone with Council authority.”
“Right.” We needed to find Adam, Isaiah, and Hanai too. Moments passed with only the wind sighing in the trees. I tried not to feel like the situation was hopeless, but it felt like getting the sky to crack would be easier than finding a Councilman who didn’t want to be found.
“Okay.” I wiped my hand on my disgusting jeans, suddenly feeling the twelve silent months we’d been apart. “My Unmanifested can feel souls. Let’s see if we can help him find us.”
We both stood there like statues. See, I had no blazing clue how to channel my soul into the universe.
“I have to report back or I won’t get my tokens.” Cat stepped to an unwatered tree. I followed along, lost in the peace of Cat’s voice. But it couldn’t completely erase the uneasiness inside. I needed to find some measure of safety before the air would stop suffocating me. Maybe we’d never find Adam, Hanai, or Isaiah. Maybe we should head for another city, and sneak a charter in under Alex’s nose while she was busy dealing with the uprisings here in Gregorio. I swallowed the doubt about whether chartering would happen at all.
I pulled up my hood when Cat led me back to the man in the blue hat. When I buried my Element, I felt the biting wind for the first time that day.
“Any debris?” the man asked. I recognized the voice as that of the foreman, Rev.
Cat shook her head and held out her hand. Rev dropped three tokens into her palm.
I kept my eyes on the ground as I opened my hand. I gasped at the shock of hot metal when the coins landed in my palm.
I looked up, right into another Firemaker’s eyes.
“Cold today,” he said, seeming to gaze into my soul.
“Yeah,” I answered, trying to sound cold and masculine at the same time.
“Be back tomorrow?”
I shrugged, shifting my feet so they weren’t so close together.
Rev stepped closer. It took everything I had not to reach for the knife at my belt.
“Come back tomorrow, Firemaker. I’ll make sure you get the best section.” His eyes burned golden with his Element. “Maybe an extra token for you and your girlfriend.”
I nodded and swallowed hard.
“Have you registered?”
I laughed nervously—it almost escaped as a giggle. I pulled in a deep breath to gain my composure. “Of course I’ve registered.” I watched Cat round the corner without looking back. I wanted to run to catch her. I couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not again.
Rev nodded, and I forced myself to shuffle forward without lifting my feet all the way.
I half-expected a flaming hand to drop on my shoulder and an order to go to some dungeon office where Felix would be waiting with Elemental cancellers. When nothing happened, I shoved the tokens in my pocket and hurried to catch up to Cat. “Hey,” I hissed as I matched her stride. “That was close.”
Cat gripped my f
orearm, her fingernails digging into my skin. “Did he sense your Element?”
“Yes.” Her tone and wide eyes didn’t offer comfort. “I told him I’d already registered. What does that mean?”
“You ‘register’ with a man named Felix and he says he’s taking names to protect the Elementals. He’s really a—”
“Sentry,” we said together. She gaped at me.
“I’ve met him,” I said. “He works for the—for Alex and his job is to find me.” Saying Alex’s name out loud sounded strange in my mouth.
Cat and I walked along the dirt road until it turned to cement. Dark, industrial buildings crowded close to the street, standing as silent guards.
“Wild tsunamis,” Cat whispered. She gripped my hand as we approached a group of men loitering in a pool of orange light at the corner. Cat held her head high and forced her eyes straight ahead.
“Gotcher self a boyfriend, sugar?” one of them called. I stepped closer to Cat and glared at the man. Two men stood up and moved into the street behind us. I walked faster, but two more blocked the road in front of us.
“You know you can’t pass without paying the toll,” a man said. Greenish bags sagged under his eyes. The man next to him grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
“What’s the toll?” I asked.
“Your tokens…or your body,” Yellow Teeth answered.
I glanced at Cat. No wonder she was so hungry.
“How about you get the blazes out of the way?” I said with as much masculine force as I could muster.
Laughter echoed off the dark buildings. My fire jumped, licking its way along my throat.
“Are you gonna make us?” someone asked. “I think I can take you by myself.”
I thought so too. My heart thumping, I pulled the knife from my waistband. I balanced it the way Adam had taught me as I raised it. The sight of the knife cut off their laughter.
“Move,” I said. “Now. We’re keeping our tokens, and I’m reporting you to Councilman Davison.”
Yellow Teeth and Baggy Eyes backed off the road, their eyes sharp. Cat and I edged by them. When we were safely away, I lowered the knife, grabbed Cat’s hand, and ran.
“Where’d you get that knife?” Cat asked.
“You don’t want to know.”
A whistle sounded behind us, signaling that we were in serious trouble. Everyone recognized the blade of a sentry, and it wasn’t hard to tell I wasn’t sentry material.
Cat cut down an alley between two tall buildings, and I followed. We ducked behind an overflowing dumpster as the most terrifying sound buzzed in my ears.
A sentry vehicle.
“We can’t outrun them,” I panted. “And we’ve gotta change our clothes, and—”
“Psst,” someone hissed from the shadows across the alley. “Get in here.”
I didn’t recognize the hushed voice, and the way Cat whimpered indicated she didn’t either. I edged a little further behind the dumpster, hardly shielding her with my skinny frame.
“Hurry up, Gabbers.”
Severe relief pulled through me as I stood and took Cat with me as I darted across the alley and into a dark doorway. I squeezed my eyes shut, blanketing my senses in absolute blackness. A faint humming filled my head as my therma-vision clicked on. I opened my eyes and saw Isaiah leaning against the doorframe. “Isaiah!” I threw my arms around him and held on tight.
“Hmm, you’re warm,” he whispered. “Who’s with you?”
I stepped back. “I found—”
“Isaiah.” Cat’s voice only shook on the first syllable.
“Cattails,” he breathed. He swept her off her feet, his strong arms engulfing her petite frame.
As I watched him carefully touch her face, feeling every tiny crease, an ember of loneliness swelled inside. He handled her with such gentleness. It made me smile and long for that sweet touch. Educator Graham used to touch my hand that way. I missed her now, as deeply as I ever had.
“Come on, Hanai is upstairs,” Isaiah said. “He sent me down when he felt your soul. Said you were scared. He’s still not doing so great.” He kept hold of Cat and brought her along behind him. A dilapidated room with upturned tables and chairs loomed before me, all in shades of gray. Somehow Isaiah navigated through the mess without stumbling, heading for the stairs behind the bar.
“Where’s Adam?” I asked as we climbed the stairs.
Isaiah hesitated for a half-beat. “He’s not here.”
“Not here?” I echoed, my voice sounding as strange as my head felt. This couldn’t be happening. I had just found Cat, just completed our Council.
“Hanai slept all day, and I didn’t dare leave him to find you or Adam.”
I shuffled down a hallway, unseeing and working hard to keep breathing. Adam was gone. Gone. Not here. In the room, a weak fire burned in the corner with Hanai lying close to the flames.
Isaiah helped Cat to a warm spot by the fire, where she handed him her tokens. “These will get us food. Gabby has some too.”
He took her tokens and collected mine from me. “Where?”
As Cat explained how to find the ration stands, I knelt next to Hanai. I felt strangely protective of him. At the same time, I wanted him to protect me, wrap me in his arms and whisper assurances that we’d be able to charter, that he’d never leave me. Surprised by the strength of my feelings for him, I put a little distance between us.
After Isaiah left, I opened a can of stew, infused it with heat, and forced Cat to eat. She seemed weaker in the firelight. Exhausted. Hanai didn’t look so healthy either. I worried about Cat, but I felt true fear about losing Hanai. For some reason, I couldn’t stomach the thought of being without him.
“Lay down with him,” I told Cat. She didn’t protest. She slid under the cloak and closed her eyes.
With both of them asleep, I felt very alone. The weight of the situation pressed in on me, stealing my ability to breathe. My heart squeezed, squeezed to get the blood to my fingertips.
My stomach growled, and I opened the second to last can of stew. Isaiah could eat the rations he brought back. I finished my meal and leaned against the wall.
My only thought: [ ]
I woke with a start, something burning in my chest. I inhaled deeply, trying to cool the fire. But it refused to die. It screamed Danger!
I sat up and shook Hanai. “Wake up! We gotta go!”
He sat straight up. “What?”
“Fire. Hot. Bad. Wake Cat up and put the cloak on her. I’ll get the backpack.” I pulled the remaining flames from the makeshift fireplace into my body. Just as I heaved the pack on, the door downstairs banged open. Voices shouted—and they didn’t sound like cries of delight.
“Window,” Hanai called, brushing by me with Cat right behind. He pulled her in front of him, and she climbed on the windowsill. “Jump!”
Cat leaped without a sound. Blazing infernos, she had more guts than me. Hanai motioned me forward, but I waved at him to go next. “I’ll buy us some time!”
Heavy footsteps thundered on the stairs. Summoning the hottest fire I possessed, I engulfed the doorway in licking blue flames.
The screams of the men in the hallway sent a ripple of sickness through me. Fighting a wave of nausea, I stepped onto the windowsill and looked down. Only darkness existed, but the raging fire behind me disabled my therma-vision.
I stared into the nothing. No way I could jump. No blazing way.
A lovely melody filled the spaces between the crackling flames. The sentries had brought a Watermaiden.
I took a deep breath and held it. Then I stepped off the ledge. I bit back a scream as the night swallowed me.
The ground never came. Only two stories up, the drop shouldn’t have taken so long.
“Ready?” Adam hovered—yes, hovered—in the air above me. The sight of him made a hysterical laugh burst from my mouth. He was here—he hadn’t defected, hadn’t ran back to his brother. I cried and laughed at the same time, all while Ad
am looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Ready for—?” I choked as he sailed down the alley, pulling me behind him with some invisible air tether. I’d never been so freaked out. Not even the first day my fingertips exploded into flames. See, floating above the ground with nothing underneath me was completely, totally, one-hundred percent life-altering.
Dark buildings flashed by. Adam towed me further and further into the city. Windows glowed in the blackness, and people walked in the streets below. A few minutes later, I sailed down a dark alley and descended to the ground.
I landed clumsily, stumbling forward into Isaiah’s arms. “Gabbers.”
I leaned on him, my legs shaking so bad they couldn’t hold my weight. I breathed deeply, trying not to throw up, but the fresh air didn’t help.
“Sorry,” Adam said, landing lightly next to Isaiah. “I forget flight isn’t for everyone.”
“Isn’t for everyone?” Hanai croaked. He bent over, his hands on his knees. He retched and groaned. “Don’t ever do that again. I’ll walk.”
“They had the exits blocked,” Adam said.
Still gasping for air, I sank to my knees. I agreed with Hanai. Death might have been better than the swirling, rocking motion of the earth.
“Let me have the backpack,” Isaiah said. He took it without an argument from me. Cat stood behind him, twisting her hands, her eyes on Adam.
I could barely breathe. A moan escaped as I put my head in my hands. Flight was definitely not for me, and my stomach clenched painfully. The smell of Hanai’s sickness didn’t help.
What I did next: Threw up.
“Are you okay?” Adam’s voice echoed in my head, but I knew he wasn’t talking to me.
“Yes,” Isaiah answered. “Why are they so sick?” His voice soothed my nerves, and I turned toward him.
“Air travel can do that.”
“We’re in the open here,” Isaiah said. “What’s the plan, Gillman?”
I was half annoyed that Isaiah was already calling Adam by his last name like they were best pals. I was definitely ticked that he was asking Gillman for the plan, but mostly I felt deliriously happy at finally having everyone together. I tried to stand up. That didn’t work. My knees met the concrete again, adding more pain to my nausea.