“Stop it!” she cried. “Michael—”
“He knows,” Michael growled.
“I don’t,” said Hunter, his voice dark. “I don’t have any idea.”
“Hey, Law-and-Order,” said Gabriel. “Let him go.”
Michael didn’t move. “Why?”
“He’s not the Guide. He’s not strong enough. I was on the bridge. I was on the field last night. That guy—it’s not a teenager. And he wouldn’t be bowing to a gun.”
“He knows something.” Michael adjusted his grip on the weapon.
And then Hunter moved.
Becca couldn’t even follow it all. An arm here, a fist there. Michael was suddenly on the ground, disarmed.
The gun was back in Hunter’s hand, pointed at Michael. His feet hadn’t shifted. “You want to keep playing?”
Michael gaped up at him, looking more stunned than hurt.
Gabriel was staring at Hunter. “Dude. I’m going to need to see that again.”
Hunter didn’t put the gun away. “Something tells me you’ll get another chance.”
He’d trapped his emotion somehow, and now had full control of himself. His easy confidence spoke to her, reminded her that Hunter was a friend—or had pretended to be.
“Was it all a lie?” she said. “From the start?”
He didn’t glance up, but his voice was soft. “I never lied to you, Becca. Even at first, when I thought—” He shook his head slightly. “I never lied.”
“How about now?” said Becca. “Do you know where they are?”
“I have no idea where they are.”
“He’s lying,” snapped Michael.
“Why would I lie?” Hunter shot back.
“There has to be another Guide,” she said. She remembered Tyler’s threats, when she’d first met him. “When your father didn’t show up, Tyler and Seth called for another. Would you recognize him? Could you help us—”
“Why would I help them?” said Hunter, keeping his gun trained on Michael.
“You think you’re safe?” said Gabriel. “You’re not a real Guide. What if he comes after you next? You know he’ll stay in town until he finds all the Elementals, finds out who’s a threat. Rogue kid with a gun? Might make the list.”
“Yeah,” said Becca. “What if someone paints a pentagram on your door?”
Their words seemed to hit Hunter like stray bullets, drawing his attention away from Michael.
“What about your grandparents?” Becca paused. “What about your mom?”
Hunter flicked his eyes her way. “Are you threatening me?”
Her heart was threatening to escape her chest. “Yeah. I am. How’s it feel?”
He shook his head. “I’ve never threatened you, Becca. I never wanted to hurt you.”
She didn’t believe that for a minute. All the times he could have told her—confided in her. He’d put a tracking stone on her wrist the first night they’d gone out. He probably followed her to Chris’s house. He’d probably known what had happened on the bridge. All that anger about Chris—he didn’t give a crap about her safety.
“Yeah,” she scoffed. “You’re such a good guy. What were you going to do next? Shoot Gabriel? Shoot me?”
“Becca.” He gave her a wounded look. “You don’t understand—”
“I understand that’s a gun. Didn’t you sit on my couch and tell me people carry guns when they want to kill people? Didn’t you warn me away from Chris because he was nothing but trouble? Chris is a good guy.” Her voice was close to breaking, but she saved it. “Chris helped me last night. He saved me on the beach. Now some guy has kidnapped him or killed him or—” Now her voice did break, and she had to take a heaving breath. “I know you miss your father, Hunter. They miss theirs, too. Nothing will bring your father back. But you could help. You could—”
“I won’t help them.”
“Would you help me?” She wasn’t above begging. She didn’t even have to fake the hitch in her voice. She moved closer, until she was right beside him. “Hunter? Would you help me?”
That got his attention. “Becca, if he’s already taken them, there’s nothing—”
“But you’re strong! They’re strong! You could help.”
“Becca, I can’t.”
She reached out a hand and put it on his arm, gently, so as not to spook him. “There’s been too much violence, Hunter. The Merrick brothers have been tormented since they moved here. They shouldn’t be killed because a bunch of bullies are scared of them.”
He didn’t say anything.
“You saw what Tyler and Seth did to Chris,” she said. “You saw how they came after the Merricks at the party. They are not good guys.”
Hunter was shaking his head. “Becca, I can’t—”
“Did you know Seth and Drew tried to rape me in the middle of this field last night?”
His head jerked up.
“Yeah. They did.” Wow, her voice was actually steady. Strong. “That apology? Crap. They grabbed me and dragged me to the middle of the field and tried to rip my dress off and—”
She stopped. Hunter actually looked stricken.
“They did,” she said, more quietly. “And Chris saved me, while you were off trying to kill Michael. That’s the only reason he was on this field last night, and the only reason the Guide got to him while he was alone. So don’t tell me you can’t get involved.”
“Becca,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I had no—”
“Don’t be sorry!” She wanted to punch him, but he still had his hands wrapped around a gun. “Sorry doesn’t mean anything, Hunter. Do something. Help me.”
He wasn’t looking at Michael anymore, but at her. His expression was a mix of pity and regret, anger and sadness and rage barely contained behind flushed cheeks and rapid breathing.
She stared back at him. “At least put up the gun.”
Hunter glanced at Michael. “Not until he lets go of my feet.”
“Gun first,” said Michael.
“I’m not falling for that again,” said Hunter.
“Then give it to me,” said Becca.
Hunter raised his eyebrows.
Then he sighed, turned the gun sideways, and released the hammer. She swallowed and held her hand out, but he only gave her half a smile.
Then he lifted the edge of his shirt and slid it into a holster at the small of his back.
Now that the gun wasn’t pointed at him, Michael climbed to his feet—slowly. He was watching Casper, who was still growling at him.
“So now you’ll help,” Michael said.
“I’ll help Becca,” Hunter said. He paused and looked out at the field. “Though I don’t know what I can do. I haven’t seen another Guide in town. I’m assuming you’ve tried to track—”
“Yeah,” said Michael.
“Maybe we could create a diversion,” said Gabriel.
They all looked at him.
“You know,” he said. “Make something explode, or call up a storm—” He stopped short, as if remembering his brothers weren’t with them. “Or an earthquake, or something to draw out the Guide.”
“If we go to the center of town,” said Michael, “an earthquake would definitely get his attention—”
“Or,” said Becca, “maybe we could try something completely mundane.”
Now they all looked at her.
She pointed at Casper. “He’s a police dog, isn’t he? Can he track a scent?”
“Sure.” Hunter frowned. “But we’d need something of the Guide’s to track.”
“Maybe not.” She fished the second cell phone from her pocket and held it out. “How about something of Chris’s?”
Becca trudged beside Hunter, following the plume of Casper’s tail as he bounded ahead of them through the underbrush.
“We’ve already come this way,” she said, just to break the silence.
“Looks like an army came through here,” Hunter answered, though she had no idea how he could tell the diff
erence. Just looked like a bunch of brush and branches to her. “Maybe Casper can pick up a second trail.”
She didn’t understand how he could be acting so normally, as if he dealt with things like guns and violence and missing Elementals on a daily basis.
Then again, maybe he did.
“So are you going to tell me?” she said.
“Tell you what?”
Was he deliberately being infuriating? “You said you’re not an Earth,” she said. “So which one are you?”
He laughed and gave her a sidelong glance. “Come on, Becca.”
“Come on what?” she said. “Just—no more games. No more lies. Just tell me.”
Hunter stopped and turned to look down at her. A line appeared between his eyebrows. “You’re serious.”
“Yeah.”
“But—” He frowned. “The way people hassle you at school. You work with dogs. I mean—your mom’s a nurse, for god’s sake. And then, you said Drew tried—on the field last night.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I never thought what it would be like for a girl, but—”
God, she wanted to punch him! “What the hell are you talking about?”
“He’s a Fifth,” said Michael, stepping up beside her.
“Yeah.” Hunter glanced at him, then back at her. That line still hung between his brows. “Like you.”
She shook her head, wishing people would stop assuming she was with the Merricks. “I’m not one of them. Tyler only thought that because I saved Chris that night.”
“You are, Becca,” he said. “You have to be. I can tell—”
“Hunter, I’m not.”
“You are.”
She glanced at Michael and Gabriel, hoping they’d look as skeptical as she felt, but they didn’t.
They looked intrigued.
This was ridiculous. They were wasting time. She looked back at Hunter. “Fine. Prove it.”
“People hassle you, right? Too much.” He tapped his chest. “It’s because our element is all about the spirit. Life. People are drawn to that—”
She scoffed and turned away. “People aren’t drawn to me, Hunter.”
“Hey.” His voice sharpened. “Just because they aren’t nice doesn’t mean they aren’t drawn to you.”
She froze and looked over her shoulder at him, remembering how he said he’d been hassled—to the point that his father had to teach him to physically defend himself.
“Lots of people are bullied,” she said. “Every day. It doesn’t mean they have superpowers.”
He walked back to her. “Not superpowers,” he said softly. “Maybe—maybe just a stronger connection to this element.”
“You felt the power in the sunlight,” said Michael.
Gabriel was nodding, too. “That night in Chris’s bedroom. The fire reached for you—”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” she said. “Nick was making the fire flicker.”
But her conviction was wavering. She kept thinking about the way she’d felt the connection to Nick’s power, that morning in her driveway.
“I knew it right away,” said Hunter. “That night at the party, the way you wanted to help that stupid girl puking in the bushes, or how you wanted to warn Chris about Tyler, or—”
“Maybe I’m just a nice person!” she cried.
Hunter looked startled. “You can’t be both?”
She faltered. This was too much. She couldn’t debate it now. They needed to be looking for Chris and Nick—not arguing over something impossible.
“You saved Chris,” said Michael. “You fought Tyler and Seth for him.”
“But—” She hesitated, unsure whether to give his theory any credence. “I never had some weird event when I hit puberty. I never started setting fires or causing earthquakes or—”
“How about something humanitarian?” said Hunter. “Think back to middle school. Did you volunteer at your mom’s hospital, or in a nursing home, or anything like that?”
“I’m not that nice a person,” she said, making a face. But then she paused, remembering how she used to walk the woods, looking for hurt animals to save.
“You’ve thought of something,” said Hunter.
“It’s nothing. I used to rescue animals. It made my mother crazy. It was just a phase.”
“Aha.” Hunter stepped closer, then spoke low, just for her. “Remember when you kissed me on the dance floor?”
She flushed, then nodded.
“Remember,” he said quietly, “how you felt the power in the room? The connection to the crowd?”
She did. The fire on her lips, the sweat on her body—she remembered it all.
Becca stared up at him.
He must have seen something like acceptance in her eyes. “You believe me. You might not want to admit it yet, but you do.”
“But my parents aren’t like you,” she sputtered. “They’re not—”
“Your mom’s a nurse,” said Michael. “What’s your dad do?”
She bit at her lip, remembering Chris’s comment about Fifths hitting the genetic lottery. “He works with wildlife—”
Casper barked, somewhere in the woods up ahead.
“Come on,” said Hunter. He took off at a run. They followed.
The dog had stopped at the edge of the woods, just before a long stretch of grass that ran beside the creek. Charred branches littered the ground and burns scored the grass.
“Lightning,” said Gabriel, his voice grave. He looked up at the cloudless sky, then back at the ground. “A lot of it.”
“Chris was running for the water,” said Michael.
Casper barked again, spinning in circles.
“He didn’t make it,” said Hunter. “Come on. I think Casper’s found a new scent to follow.”
The dog led them to the road, to the far side of the bridge that had been destroyed. The county had put up concrete barriers and those ROAD CLOSED signs, and some random construction equipment was parked along the side of the road.
“This is where we saw the Guide last Tuesday,” she said. She was starting to get a little breathless from trailing Casper, though the guys weren’t having any trouble. “How far have we gone? Like three miles?”
Gabriel gave her a look. “Like one.”
So she needed more cardio.
“That night of the bridge collapse,” said Hunter. “That’s the first time you saw him? Was he on foot?”
“Yes,” said Gabriel.
“No car?”
Gabriel shook his head. “We chased him off, but he ran for the woods.” He pointed east, toward the tree line on the other side of the road. “We were able to pull a hell of a lot of power from the storm. I thought it was the adrenaline, but I couldn’t generate anywhere near as much last night.”
“No kidding,” said Hunter. He gave her a grim smile. “Becca wasn’t with you.”
Her breath caught, and she wanted to protest.
But she remembered feeling the power that night, too. The strength in the storm, the way the wind and rain had kissed her skin and called for vengeance. “Holy crap,” she whispered.
Hunter nodded, but he looked out at the trees. “What’s beyond those woods? More residential properties?”
“No,” said Michael. “Commercial. A couple strip malls, fast food, a car dealership, that kind of stuff.”
Hunter frowned. “Maybe it’s a dead end, then. Maybe he kept a car there.”
But Casper found a trail right away, leading out of the woods. They stopped behind a McDonald’s, hidden in the shade of the trees. A hundred feet ahead sat a four-lane road, busy with late morning traffic. The drive-thru was packed.
Hunter had a tight grip on Casper’s collar, though the dog was obviously onto a scent. “You guys should wait here.”
“Why?” said Michael. “So you can warn him?”
“No.” Hunter glanced at him, and it wasn’t a friendly look. “Because Casper’s found a trail. A strong one. The Guide might be nearby.”
“Good,” said Gabriel, and now Becca heard the fury in his voice. “Let’s go.”
“Yeah,” said Hunter. “But he’s looking for you. I can check it out, see what we find, then—”
“I don’t care,” said Michael. “I don’t trust you.”
Hunter narrowed his eyes. “Look, man, I don’t have to help you.”
Becca put a hand on Hunter’s arm and looked at Michael. No way she was letting stupid male posturing screw this up. “Do you trust me?”
Michael’s expression hardened, just for a moment. Then she watched something soften in his eyes. He nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
“Come on,” she said to Hunter. “Let’s check it out.” Without waiting for him to agree, she started forward, half sliding down the grassy hill into the McDonald’s parking lot.
Casper bounded past her, then Hunter appeared at her side. “Take it slow,” he said. His voice turned wry. “You had a pentagram on your door, too.”
She swung her head around, unsure what emotions were rattling around in her head. “You knew. All that time, you knew.”
He shrugged, and she didn’t know if that was indifference or embarrassment. “Not all that time. At first I was only sure about you. It wasn’t until that morning in your driveway that I really started to suspect the Merricks.” He paused. “I also thought you were with them.”
“So all that—when you wouldn’t kiss me in the parking lot.” She swallowed. “You thought I was in on some plot to kill your father?”
“No.” His voice was sharp again, and he caught her hand and pulled her into a jog as Casper rounded a corner into the strip mall parking lot. “I knew you couldn’t have done it. I figured that out right away. But I thought maybe the Merricks were using you. And you trusted me. You were an easy link to follow.”
“God.” She shook her head. “And I thought all those rocks were so special. I’m such an idiot—”
“They are,” he said. “They are.” He pulled her to a stop, looking down at her in the middle of the blacktop. The breeze lifted hair from her neck, wrapping around her body and urging her close to him.
“Just the quartz tracked you,” he said. “Everything else did exactly what I said it did.” He paused. “Do you trust me, Becca?”