I glared a hole in the back of his head, but he never turned. My anxiety grew with each passing mile. I fretted over the secrecy of his new mission, and what it could possibly mean. I labored over why he needed to take Cat and no one else. Not even another sentry.
I caught Isaiah’s eye when we reached Junction. I couldn’t read his expression, but I could tell he was worried too. He kept looking at Cat, who refused to look up from the lump of bread she’d been given. After she finished eating, she kept her eyes on the wild grass.
When it was time to move out, she cast a panic-filled look to Isaiah, who was powerless to help her. I felt the same sense of hopelessness. But unless I broke ranks and disobeyed orders, my path laid to the south. I lingered near the back of the pack, watching Felix and Cat until I couldn’t see them anymore.
I reluctantly followed my squad, moving to position myself next to Isaiah. He didn’t know I could read minds, but now he knew I was an Airmaster. We simply walked next to one another. For the sake keeping up appearances, I pretended to be nothing but one hundred percent loyal to my Supremist, to my sentry squad, and to Felix.
But as I moved further and further from my brother, a splinter worked its way into my mind. Sentries never completed assignments alone. We operated in pairs for our own safety, as well as to ensure accurate reporting. Yet no one else in the squad had received a transmission carrying a new assignment.
Perhaps Alex is sending someone from Tarpulin to meet him. This thought satisfied me for a good long while. I kept out everyone’s thoughts and maintained a respectable distance from them all as we bedded down for the night.
In the morning, the air felt different. Too heavy, choked with debris. I had awoken first, of course, and strained to see anything in the still-dark sky. I smelled nothing, but suddenly I knew the air had been poisoned with smoke.
Quickly, before I could reason or think, I stole away from the squad. When I felt like I had put enough distance between me and them, I called on my air.
It filled my very soul, whispered through my hair, and dashed around me in playful patterns. I didn’t know much about what I could and couldn’t do, but I knew Airmasters could ride the wind. And I needed to get to Cornish as fast as possible.
I pulled the air currents into a cushion, stepped onto it, and flew.
I arrived on the outskirts of Cornish at dawn, all barricades against the thoughts of others down. I sent the air away, opting to enter this Unmanifested village without my Element. A thin ribbon of gray smoke lifted into the sky, and I hurried toward it.
The ashes of a once-large building still smoldered, but there was no sign of anyone around. Footprints pocked the ground, and I crouched to appraise them. I discovered Felix’s heavy sentry boots, and the lighter imprints of Cat’s shoes.
They’d been here, and not long ago according to the wetness still contained in the mud. I stood, scanning the village in every direction. This building had stood in the center, with several log cabins clustered nearby. The fire had kissed some of those, but not consumed them. I moved between two structures and found more houses, not as neatly or as elaborately constructed. The market lay to my right, the well to my left. Beyond the city center, dwellings filled the village. No one seemed to be awake yet—or perhaps they were simply staying indoors today.
I didn’t know what or who had caused the fire. I didn’t much care. Cat and Felix should be nearby, and most likely out in the open. It took me less than a half hour to circumvent the city, and they weren’t found. Frustrated, I stopped, closed my eyes, and listened.
A few faint thoughts came from inside the nearest house, and they were filled with fear. Maybe the job isn’t done, I thought.
I strode to the front door of the house and knocked on it several times. A startled gasp came from within. “Open the door,” I said, hating how authoritative my voice sounded. “I need the location of the sentry and Watermaiden who were here.”
Several long seconds passed before the door cracked an inch. “I don’t know anything.” A man stood in the doorway, his body and face concealing the view inside the house.
“You know what happened here,” I said. “Tell me that.”
“A Firemaker came and set our village offices on fire.”
I blinked, unsure of how to respond. Why would someone do that? Whose orders were they acting under?
“And the Watermaiden?” I finally asked.
“She put the flames out.” The narrow strip of face I could see contained only one eye, but fear dominated his expression. “I don’t know what’s going on in the Elemental world. We didn’t do anything.”
“Where is the Watermaiden now?”
The man looked over his shoulder, though I couldn’t detect anyone else’s thoughts within the house. “I heard that they’d found refuge in a house on the west side of town.”
“Which house?” I asked. I couldn’t waste any more time trying to find Felix’s thoughts. He could be asleep, or shielding me, or already gone.
“It’s yellow.” The man frowned. “I don’t know anything else.” He closed the door, and the lock clicked into position.
I leapt from the porch, heading west. I searched for any hint of yellow, somehow feeling desperate, and like my time was almost up. Time for what, I didn’t know.
After only a few minutes, a run-down, yellow house came into view. The backyard of the house bordered the wild, and in this village without a wall, the grasses and weeds looked like they were making themselves at home.
I hurried up the steps and tried the doorknob. Locked. I sprinted around the back, only to find that the house had no back door. I peered in a window, finding a dirty kitchen and a mismatched table and chairs.
No Felix. No Cat.
I listened for their thoughts and heard only silence.
Adrenaline pumped through me as I moved back to the front of the house. This was the only yellow house on the street. The only yellow house I’d seen at all.
Suddenly, a scream rent the air. The sound came from inside the house. I was up the stairs and kicking the door before I could think. Once inside the house, I heard Felix’s thoughts, loud and pulsing.
She’s mine. I want her. I deserve her.
I knew what he was going to do, and it wasn’t what Cat wanted. I didn’t take the time to find her thoughts. I didn’t take the time to think.
I lifted my hands, gathering the air currents and coaxing them into alternating patterns. When they were furious and competing, I unleashed them into the atmosphere.
I retreated to the porch while the roof rattled. I ducked around the side of the house, waiting for Felix to exit. He didn’t.
I re-entered the house, searching for his mind. In the kitchen, I found a door leading down, with muffled sobs coming up. I sent a blast of icy air down the stairs, and Felix cursed.
Satisfied, I shook the cupboards, the doors, the windows. I made the air batter them until the glass shattered. Only then did I hear footsteps on the stairs.
I leaped out the exit created by the broken window, and ducked. I continued attacking the house, riling the air currents into tornadoes. Tarpaper and tiles from the roof joined the fray.
“What should we do?” I heard Cat ask.
“Stay here,” Felix barked. His boot steps moved away from the back of the house. I wanted to send a cushion of air through the window to retrieve Cat, but I didn’t dare. If she was gone when Felix returned, I felt certain he’d kill her when he found her. And I had no way of explaining my presence in Cornish.
The storm howling through the sky mirrored the one I felt escalating inside myself. I felt misled, lied to, betrayed—by my own brother. He’d told me for years that the life of sentry was noble and respected.
The Elementals in Hesterton hadn’t looked at me with respect. My mission wasn’t about nobility. They’d eyed me with fear and loathing; my mission was simply about satisfying the whims of the Supremist.
The fissures that had begun in Hesterton, and whi
ch had widened on the march from Junction, broke completely open. I didn’t know how I was going to return to Tarpulin like nothing had happened.
Because something had happened. I’d become an Airmaster. An Elemental who protected others. I thought that was what I’d be doing as a sentry—protecting my Councilman. Maybe I still could be noble, I didn’t know. What I did know: I didn’t want another mission that required me to murder innocent people.
Though I’d been trained to assassinate, I’d been led to believe that meant I’d be taking out the bad guys who wanted to take out Alex. Never once was I told that Alex was the bad guy.
I shook the troubling thoughts from my head, still coiling and releasing air currents into tornadoes. It began to rain, and combined with the wind, I’d started a terrific storm.
I stumbled away from the house, dodging flying debris as I squinted into the darkening sky. I had the brief thought that I could probably stop the wind, cool the tornadoes. But I didn’t want to.
I found refuge in an abandoned warehouse that had cement footings, deciding to let nature blow itself out.
Mother Nature turned out to be as cruel as the Supremist, as unforgiving as Felix. The storm howled and ravaged Cornish for two days. When the wind finally calmed, I uncurled from my fetal position, my stomach clawing itself inside out.
I stumbled into the village, to the market. I had no money, and the Unmanifested weren’t exactly excited to see me. Finally a baker handed me a pork bun with the words, “Time for you to leave town, sentry.”
I agreed with him, so I nodded my thanks and headed back to the warehouse where I’d been hiding. I wasn’t sure what my next move was, but I knew I could get back to Tarpulin before Felix—if I decided to return to Tarpulin at all.
I tamed the westerly skimming the ground, making it coil and rise into the sky. It brushed my hair as it went, and I almost heard it whisper to me. I smiled, wanting to learn more about my Element.
“Adam!” someone called, and I froze, desperately hoping the man hadn’t seen me use my Element. I swallowed the last of my breakfast before turning.
Felix strode toward me, Cat in tow. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
I didn’t know how much of a lie I could tell. As sentries, we were trained to watch for signs of fibbing.
“I came to help you, but that storm hit and I was caught outside.”
“Helluva tornado,” Felix said. “Almost tore the roof off the house where we were staying.”
I cocked my head and listened to Cat’s thoughts. She hated Felix, but I also heard her think, I’m grateful for that tornado. It saved me.
I took a deep breath, relief and gratitude singing through me too. Felix had always been arrogant and assertive. I just hadn’t realized how far he’d go to get what he wanted. I wondered what else he’d taken from people that they didn’t want to give.
I blocked his thoughts, unwilling to live inside his head anymore.
“Did you get a new mission?” Felix asked.
“I saw the smoke from the fire,” I answered evasively. “I was worried about you.”
“So you abandoned your orders.”
I shrugged, though my heart leaped into my throat. “I suppose so. But there were ten sentries with three Elementals. I felt like it was safe to leave them to come help you.”
“Hmm.” Felix squinted at me, like he was the one who could read minds and he didn’t like what he heard. “Well, let’s get back to Tarpulin. We’re behind schedule.”
“This is your whole report?” Belfast asked, looking up from the desk in his office.
“Yes, sir,” I said, staring straight ahead. I’d repeated the report so many times, I didn’t need to look at it to get all the fabricated details right.
“Airmaster Shane Mendelson killed his own Firemaker?” Belfast’s scrutiny of me was beginning to erode the mask I so carefully wore.
“Yes, sir. Smothered him right in front of me.”
He leaned away, my peripheral vision catching him as he folded his arms. “Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, sir. Have you asked him?”
Belfast shot to a standing position. “You dare to instruct me in how to handle prisoners? Of course I have asked him.”
I ignored the drops of spittle that landed on my hands. I didn’t move, not even a twitch. “Then you know why he killed his Firemaker.”
I knew what the report said. I just didn’t know why everyone on Reggie’s Council was going along with the lie. Shane had admitted to murdering Reggie, claiming that they’d all wanted to complete the orders to kill the Unmanifested in Trenton—all except Reggie.
So when they’d been caught, Shane decided to take matters into his own hands, killing the only person who’d really disobeyed. They’d fled after the murder, only to turn themselves in, claiming they wanted to return to Tarpulin for the opportunity to find a new Council, a new Firemaker, one who would follow the Supremist’s orders.
“I hear they have registered to be selected in the field trials,” I said. “As per the negotiations Commander Gillman orchestrated in Hesterton.”
Belfast didn’t grace me with an answer. He simply glared at my report like it was false. I listened for his mind and found him thinking exactly that. I just don’t know how to prove it, he thought.
I contained the smile I felt growing inside.
“And then you left your squad in the middle of the night?”
“It was dawn, sir,” I said. “And I felt that Felix was in trouble—which he was.”
“Yet his report does not detail anything he was unable to handle. How exactly did you help him?”
I hadn’t helped him, but I had saved Cat from a terrible fate. I hadn’t detailed that in the report, though. In fact, nothing that had happened in Cornish was official. No one knew; not Felix, not Cat, not anyone. And I was determined to keep it that way.
“Mr. Gillman?” Belfast asked.
“Well, he didn’t really need my help, but I was there just in case.”
“Then you got caught in the storm.”
“Yes, sir.”
He glared at me thinking, There’s something not quite right, but I don’t know what it is.
I kept my attention on the wall, refusing to give him anything he could use to fan the flames of his thoughts. Because he was right, and the last thing I needed was him paying more attention to me.
“You’re dismissed,” he finally said, sweeping my report into a drawer.
I left quickly, without looking back. I didn’t feel safe until I made it to my quarters. Even with the door bolted, I couldn’t settle down. It wasn’t until I stepped onto the balcony and called to the sea breeze that I felt like I could actually breathe.
The next day, I was assigned to stand guard at the field trial interviews. Alex stood at the head of his conference room, his dirty blond hair shaved close to his scalp. His shoulders were broad, radiating authority. He had sharp cheekbones that framed ice-blue eyes that I’d seen fiery with anger on more than one occasion.
The Elementals who had registered for the open positions on Alex’s Council marched in, and I caught Isaiah’s eye. I needed to speak with him privately, but I hadn’t had time. And I certainly couldn’t be seen fraternizing with him openly.
Alex’s Earthmover had been reassigned to a supervisory Council that had been appointed to oversee the cities in the Northern Territories. His Watermaiden had gone to Lewiston to take a Council spot for a woman who had died. So Alex needed a new Earthmover and a new Watermaiden. He’d been holding registration, conducting interviews, and demanding demonstrations during a field trial. He hadn’t found anyone satisfactory yet.
I’d never attended the demonstrations before, something I’d been grateful for, because I knew they lasted forever. I stood at attention near a door leading out the side of Alex’s conference room as he called the interviews to order.
He started with the Watermaidens, first calling them to the front of the room a
nd grilling them with questions like, “How high can you throw water? Can you heat it?”
Of course, they all gave nearly identical answers. They’d attended similar training programs, even if they had come from all over the United Territories. Alex appraised each one after the interview, dismissing about half of them—Cat included.
I couldn’t tell if she was upset or relieved. She fled so fast, she barely had time to shoot a glance at Isaiah, who waited near the north wall. He looked calm and relaxed, even leaning against the stones like he was watching a concert in the park.
Alex began the process again with the Earthmovers, and I wasn’t sure what kind of answers he was looking for. When it was Isaiah’s turn, I held my breath.
“Can you burrow?” Alex asked.
“Of course,” Isaiah replied.
“Make sinkholes?”
“Yes.” Isaiah sounded tired.
By the fifth question, he stared straight into Alex’s eyes. “I can do anything and everything that involves earth. I’m not answering another question.” He returned to his casual position against the wall, his dark eyes practically glowing with contempt.
My heart pulsed erratically. He couldn’t speak to Alex like that—and I heard Alex think the same thing. His thoughts were wicked, all about wanting Isaiah on his Council only so he could ruin him more publicly.
My feet itched to move forward, but I forced myself to remain still. My gaze volleyed between Isaiah and Alex, who were still locked in a silent battle of wills. I couldn’t find Isaiah’s thoughts through all the people in the room, but his murderous look said it all. What are you going to do about it?
Alex could—and would, I now realized—do plenty. I expected him to unleash a fury of flames toward the Earthmover, incinerating anyone who didn’t get out of the way fast enough. I mentally ran through my first aid training for burns. Every sentry completed six courses on how to mend everything from a broken leg to whiplash. I knew CPR, how to give another my breath underwater, and how to treat burns with only a bar of soap. Anything an Elemental could do to hurt another person, I knew how to fix.