Elemental Hunger (23 page)

“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 Adam 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.

“Cat,” I whispered. “Sing…sing me a song.”

Her calming voice began a melody, but not a water song. My fire leaped at the pureness in her voice. My head cleared, and the cramping in my gut stopped. Icy hands helped me lie down. Adam’s familiar gloved fingers stroked my cheek and my shorn hair. I kept my eyes closed, completely entranced in the music.

The last note faded away. “Thank you,” I said. “How’s Hanai?”

“Better,” he said. “Good call on the singing.”

I sat up and blinked on my therma-vision. Cat cried out, but Adam chuckled. “And Gabby thinks riding the air is weird.”

I glared at him. Even in the yellows and oranges of my vision, he was so sexy my breath caught in my throat.

“I’m freezing,” he said. “Come warm me up.”

I walked past Isaiah and stepped into Adam’s welcoming embrace, laying my head against his chest. The tension I’d held in my shoulders for days faded. He allowed himself to relax into my arms for just a moment before stiffening again.

“Adam, this is Cat,” I said, pushing away from him and gesturing toward her.

“It’s dark,” he said. “We don’t all have freaky vision.”

“All right, simmer down,” I said.

“Light us up already. I can hear the poor girl’s teeth chattering.”

I ignited my hands as I closed my eyes. Tangerine flickers of light danced against my eyelids. The hum of the therma-vision faded, leaving a dull ache in my head. I opened my eyes.

Adam’s smile in the firelight was beautiful. It slid off his face at the same time Cat screeched.

Terrified, she backed away. She clawed at the wall behind her, her mouth moving with no sound. Tears streamed down her face.

“Cat, it’s okay,” I said over her wails. “This is our Airmaster, Adam Gillman.”

She shook her head and closed her eyes, her lovely features painted with sheer fright.

Adam’s expression was impossible to read. He’d lost his normal confidence, and he swallowed several times. His shoulders drooped as his gaze settled on the ground. He looked
ashamed.

“What’s the deal?” I asked.

“She—I—we’ve met,” he whispered to the cement.

Hot blazes,
I thought. Under what circumstances could Adam and Cat have met?

Isaiah stepped in front of her, smoothing her hair off her forehead and whispering to her.

I left Adam’s side and joined them. “Isaiah?” I whispered.

He shook his head, his mouth set in a determined line. “Cattails? Stop crying, all right? It’s okay.”

But tears continued slithering from her eyes. “He killed Reggie, Isaiah. Alex sent him to kill
us
.”

My internal fire melted into a cold river. Adam said there were things he’d done that he wasn’t proud of. But murder?

I turned back to Adam, a dozen emotions teeming inside. I couldn’t order the words, couldn’t find the questions I needed to ask. I strode forward, my heart keeping double-time.

“Gabby.” Adam stopped me with that one agonizing word. I faced him, remembering how easily the lies rolled off his tongue, how true they burned in my ears. I pulled him further away from the others, so we could have some privacy to discuss this new development.

“I didn’t—dammit! I was a
sentry
, my brother’s protégé. I told you I’d done a lot of bad things.”

Was that a confession? I inhaled, wishing there was some smoke nearby to help me calm down. I needed Cat to charter the Council, just as much as I needed Adam. An inferno of indecision raged inside.

He ran his hands over his face. “Please say something. Tell me what to do.”

I studied him for a moment. Grief streaked the lines around his eyes. His voice carried his torment. I didn’t think he could fake that. I reached toward his face, stopping before touching him. He grazed my fingers with two of his. A slight tremor ran through his body.

“Don’t run,” I said. “It’ll work out. Cat just needs some time.” I stretched up and kissed his unyielding mouth. “Don’t run.”