At first, only the sound of Mr. Deville's sobs filled the air. Then the murmurs started.
“…illegal to kill another Tempest…”
“What?”
“…must have gone nuts, the old woman.”
Janelle opened her eyes on the nightmare she’d tried to shut out.
God.
Camellia lay on her side with Andrina grinding her high heel into her shoulder. Her limp hand sat on the pavement only a few feet from Mr. Deville. Her uncle’s chest heaved up and down with every sob.
“Would anyone else like to try this?” Andrina beckoned. She gave Camellia a kick and sent her rolling onto her stomach. "A sad day, this is. We've started fighting amongst ourselves now. If we don't stay united, I fear for our survival."
Janelle’s fists clenched. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Andrina had just--she’d just--
People bit their lips and glanced at each other. Her dad wrestled against the Elder Council, teeth clenched. Gary stared with huge eyes. But no one dared come forward. No one wanted to be the first.
A faint roar started in the back of Janelle’s mind and grew louder like an oncoming train.
Never again could she let Andrina take another life. Any life, human or Tempest. “I would.”
Andrina folded her arms and smiled. “I don’t think you’re in a position to do anything right now, sweetie.”
The roar grew louder in her mind. The puddle of water—ocean water—glared at her in the sunlight. The crowd stood right at its edge…and Gary’s shoes were almost touching it.
Andrina was about to find out how wrong she was.
“Gary,” Janelle whispered. “Splash me.”
He glanced at her with big eyes. “Huh?”
“Just do it!”
Gary swung one foot back as if to punt a football. His captors scrambled to block his foot, but too late.
“No!” Andrina charged forward, heels clicking against the dock.
A silver blob of water raced up for Janelle and washed over her skin.
The train hit. Roaring and tingling filled Janelle’s body. Her birthmark went on fire. A growl escaped her throat as she thrashed against her captors’ grips. Ivanna fell to the side and Kevin backed away. She was free.
Andrina stopped a few feet away. “Don’t play this game with me. You won't win.” A stiff breeze snapped over the deck in warning.
Tremors racked Janelle’s body and her voice came out like a screaming wind. “You killed my grandmother!”
Andrina put her hands on her hips like it was nothing. “She attacked me, Janelle. Everyone here saw that.”
It seemed as if a little toothpick holding her brain up had snapped. She rushed at Andrina. Water splashed around her feet.
But Andrina reached out and seized her arms, stopping her in her tracks. Her grip tightened, sending an ache up Janelle’s arms.
“Don’t make me break these,” she growled, pulling Janelle off the ground. “Because I will if I have to. I’ve been waiting years for the Operation and you’re not going to spoil it.”
The roaring in her head started to fade. The pain in her arms went from an ache to a scream. The effect of the water was wearing off. She tried to bring it back. Nothing. So she struggled to yank her arms from Andrina’s monster grip. Still nothing. If she couldn’t, then—
Andrina dragged her backwards, towards the cage. “Kevin, by the ice! Ivanna, take the pulley!”
Janelle struggled to yank her arms from her grip. But no use. Her feet dangled inches above the deck. She had nothing to push off of. Except—
“No!” She kicked her feet until she found Andrina’s shins.
The Tempest High Leader wobbled and cried out. Her grip loosened—
And Janelle tumbled to the puddle. Water seeped in through her pants. The roar filled her being again and her birthmark came back to life. It was power, and it was all at her disposal.
She shot up and faced Andrina, who rubbed her leg with a grimace. Wind snapped across the deck, blowing her hair into her face. The ocean churned around them. The boat lurched side to side. People screamed. The crowd fell apart and went for the railings.
Janelle stiffened to keep her footing. The roar filled her head. She was doing all this.
“Save this for later. You’ll have plenty of time to show everyone your power,” Andrina shouted, bracing against the wind. “Though I am impressed. Anyone of my stock would have to be a natural at this.”
Andrina looked over her shoulder. At something. At someone.
Janelle spun around.
Alec and the other black-haired man crept closer in ambush, but stopped as her gaze landed on them.
“Back off!”
Her voice washed over the deck in a roar. People jumped. A blast of wind whipped around her and shot at Alec, shoving him back towards her uncle.
Mr. Deville’s eyes widened, but not at Alec. “Watch out!”
She’d turned her back on Andrina.
A gray-sleeved arm wrapped around her neck, constricting her throat. “You fell for that too easy,” Andrina said, pulling her back. “Now be a good girl and help us rise to power.”
Andrina pulled her closer to the cage. She had seconds to act, before the roar faded again. “Let go!” She raised one foot and brought it down on Andrina’s heel with full force.
Crunch.
A howl rang in her ears. Andrina’s arm loosened and Janelle pulled her head through. To safety. To freedom.
“Hey!” Kevin yelled, rushing towards her. Sunglasses bounced on his face as he pushed running bodies out of the way. A woman fell to the deck in his wake, dragging Ivanna with her.
Janelle took a breath and the wind gathered around her, spinning and screaming and pushing Andrina out of the way. People scattered and backed off, even her father, but she had no time to care what they thought of her. Kevin stopped. His mouth fell open. He wasn’t even going to try.
She was doing this all. By herself.
Janelle raised her arms to shoot a blast of wind at him. But someone rushed in front of her, feet thudding on the deck. Black hair bounced up and down. Gary.
Gary rushed through the wind and at Kevin.
Kevin raised his arms, but too late. Two bodies collided and rushed for the railing. A pair of sunglasses shot across the deck as a flailing foot hit them. Kevin cried out as he toppled overboard and hit the water with a splash.
Gary pointed to the cage door. “Now!”
Janelle turned. Andrina stood feet from the cage, grimacing in agony and grabbing her broken foot. Kevin yelled for someone to drop him a rope. Everyone else ran around in confusion. It was now or never.
The roar in Janelle’s head—and the wind around her—started fading. Now! She raised her hands, and the wind did what she wanted this time. It rushed at Andrina like water from a fire hose, whipping at her clothes and sending her tumbling back into the shark cage. She screamed as she landed, but the wind drowned her out.
Gary slammed the door and fumbled with all its locks. “Throw the ice on her! I’ll get the pulley.”
The roar in her head died. They didn't have long to act. Janelle seized the bucket, raised it, and let the contents tumble into the cage.
Ice cubes rained down on Andrina’s head and gathered around her feet. She cried out again and brushed them off her. “What are you doing? My foot’s broken! Someone, let me out of here and call the doctor!”
Janelle ignored her and pulled locks across the door. There. This might hold her while they figured out what to do.
Silence had fallen over the deck.
Everyone had stopped. Her dad, her uncle—everybody. Even the Elder Council stared at the sight in front of them, uncertain. If the crowd attacked, they would be far outnumbered. She looked over to Gary, but he was already moving, cranking on the lever and hoisting the cage in the air.
>
Andrina seethed as the cable squeaked and grew taut above her. “What is the meaning of this?” The cage lifted more. “Put me down! This is pointless. Oh, when I get out of here I’m going to—”
“You won’t get out of there. I won’t let you hurt Janelle.” Gary looked down as he turned the lever in grinding circles, as if he were averting his eyes. Behind him, the other Tempests watched in awe, but no one moved. “You can’t change when you go underwater until Janelle does.”
A jolt ran through Janelle at his words. Kevin splashed in the water somewhere nearby.
He was planning to kill Andrina. In front of everyone. It filled her with a strange, empty, hollow feeling, like the world was turning gray and hard to make out anymore. "Gary, you don't have to make anything up to me."
Andrina looked to the ocean and gripped the metal bars. She knew. Ice cubes rained to the deck. Her eyes widened in horror. “No! You can’t! I’m Tempest High Leader.” She clawed at the thick bars, but they only gave an inch. The ice had made her too weak to break out. “Janelle, stop him. Don’t let him kill your mother!”
More silence. Camellia lay on the deck, where Andrina had thrown her like a piece of trash.
Andrina cared for nobody. But…Janelle just couldn't. "Gary--"
Her father appeared at his side before she could finish. “Gary, hold it right there.”
Gary let go of the lever. Andrina dangled eight feet above the deck, shivering and standing on one leg. She stared down at Janelle’s dad with huge eyes, pleading.
“Dad?” Janelle asked. Her voice had returned to normal. What? Why was he—
He faced her for a second. His eyes were still bloodshot, and his face, tired. “I won’t have her blood on either of your hands. Step away from the controls, Gary.”
Gary did.
And her father took his place. He turned the crank few more times and the cage holding Andrina rose another foot.
Janelle swallowed. It would end now. She couldn’t watch. But she couldn’t look away.
“Lucas!” Andrina’s shrill voice washed over the deck as she worked at prying loose another pair of bars. “You were my husband. Remember the love we shared.”
Her dad squeezed his eyes shut and trembled for a long time. “It was a lie. You were a lie.” He slammed his fist down on a button.
The pulley swung the cage over the water. Kevin splashed in its shadow.
An arm wrapped around Janelle from the side. Gary’s. She let him pull her close. Numbness filled her being. The world sounded distant around her. It all felt like a movie, or a nightmare she’d wake up from.
“All of you. Do something!” Andrina ordered the scattered crowd. She reached through the bars and clawed at the locks. “Please!”
Janelle whirled around. The Elder Council watched with arms folded behind their backs. They’d made their decision. An older man nodded at her father, mouth bent into a solemn frown. The others all watched with mouths agape. But no one, not even Ivanna, came forward.
At last, an older man, one of the suited members of the Elder Council, spoke. "We cannot," he said in a voice barely under control. "The punishment for murdering another Tempest is death. The sentence must be carried out."
"But I'm Tempest High Leader, and she attacked me. I--"
Her father slammed his fist down on the control panel again.
With a squeal, the pulley lever spun and the cage dropped.
Kevin’s scream pierced the air before a metallic thud and a splash silenced him forever.
The cage lurched to the side as it began to sink. Andrina clawed at the top, gasping for air as water foamed around her chest. “No! Please! I don’t want to drown!”
Janelle almost ran for her. Almost.
Tina was your mother, Janelle.
She gripped her dolphin necklace tight and held her breath, burying her eyes in Gary's shirt.
There was a watery sucking sound, a scream…and then nothing.
Darkness swam in front of Janelle's eyelids. For minutes? For days? Gary rubbed his hand down the back of her shirt. When she opened her eyes, she found her father feet away, grasping the cable itself and pulling it until it snapped in two. The broken cable whipped over the rail and disappeared into the foaming ocean.
Somewhere, a seagull cackled.
Her dad raised a hand to his forehead, leaned against the pulley, and fell to his knees. He stayed there for an eternity, unmoving.
Janelle stared down at her shoes and at beam of yellow sunlight creeping over the deck. Only the sound of the water lapping against the boat filled the air. No tears came. No sobs. Her biological mother had just drowned, trapped in rising water like her eight hundred victims, and she felt…nothing.
Gary released her arm. Her dad’s voice quavered as he hugged her from the side. “It’s..it’s over, Janelle. We’re free.”
Free. No Operation Reckoning. No thousands of deaths.
She leaned against his warmth, unable to speak and unable to cry. Everything had gone numb. The world seemed to fade away like an old painting. It no longer mattered.
Until the footsteps tapped closer all around her.
Janelle’s breath caught. The other Tempests closed in, the suited Elder Council members leading them. Mr. Deville and Deon walked behind them, holding Joey up by his arms. Every set of eyes had landed on her. Staring. And accusing?
She shrank against her father, heart pounding. They’d come all this way to get ripped apart by Andrina’s followers. “What now?”
“It’s okay, honey. Stand tall.” He spoke in a soft voice and gave her a pat on the back. “You’re Tempest High Leader now.”
“What?” she exploded. Tempest High Leader? “Me?”
Her father nudged her towards the crowd. “Of course. You’re Andrina’s only heir. Go ahead.”
The Elder Council stopped two steps away, eyes locked with hers. And the three men and three women went down to their knees, bowing their heads.
And one by one, the other Tempests sank to their knees as the sun rose higher on a new day.