Black Orchid (19 page)

Adelaide,
Griffin, Sheila, and Charlotte were just getting set to go when Adelaide gave
her family one last lingering look.

Family…
something about
that word triggered a thought. Adelaide frowned. She turned her power to see
relationships directly on Ellie and gasped.

She
hurried over and whispered a few words in her friend’s ear. Ellie jerked back,
eyes wide, and then smiled so beautifully that Alex sucked in a deep breath.

“What
was that about?” Griffin asked.

“What?
You couldn’t hear me?”

“Hard
to do when you’re blocking me.”

She
winked. “Nice thing about remembering… I also remember my powers.”

Griffin
raised a single eyebrow but didn’t get a chance to question her further.
Adelaide nodded to Charlotte. “Let’s go.”

They
landed in a large tunnel carved into thick granite.

“Good
luck,” Charlotte said, and then she was gone.

Sheila
looked around, getting her bearings, and then stood eerily still as she reached
out with her power to try to find Nate.

Griffin
and Adelaide both telepathically watched Sheila’s thoughts. All they could see
was a jumbled mess. Sheila saw people with powers as points of glowing lights,
similar to how Selene and Ellie applied their own powers. Adelaide could see
her own bright yellow glow standing beside Griffin’s golden glow and the deep
purple that she guessed was Sheila. But the chaos came from the mass of all the
others, at least a hundred, milling throughout the underground complex.

“How
will you know if it’s Nate?” Adelaide asked.

“Once
I see someone’s unique signature the first time, I can find them again as long
as they aren’t being blocked somehow,” Sheila murmured.

Adelaide’s
gaze lit on a sunset amber glow, and a warmth stole through her. “Is that him?”

“Where?”

“The
orange light up to the left.”

“Yes!”
Sheila cried.

“There’s
someone else with him. Murky brown, you can barely see it…”

“We
go in with my shield up then,” Griffin said.

As
quickly as they could, they followed Sheila through the spider web of tunnels
until they made it to a developed section of the base. Then they moved through
hallways and stairwells, avoiding the elevators. They only passed a few random
people – some in human form, some in wolf. But none of them saw the trio hidden
behind Griffin’s shield, which he could use to reflect the surrounding walls,
essentially making them invisible.

Finally,
they got to a door and Sheila stopped. “This is it.”

In
one fast movement, they opened the door and stepped inside what looked like a
conference room. Nate lay motionless on the long table while a petite girl
stood over him, her hands on his arm. Dark circles under her eyes gave her a
haggard, sleep-deprived look, but Adelaide still recognized her.

Talia
looked up. “Who’s there?” She searched the room but couldn’t see them because
of Griffin’s shield. “I feel you there, whoever you are.”

Any
joy Adelaide felt at finding Nate quickly disappeared. She burned with a rage
so violent that she almost doubled over. Talia was obviously doing to Nate what
she’d done before. Adelaide had never been so convinced of anything in her
life. The shaking she’d feared for so long slammed into her, through her. But
this time, Adelaide welcomed the power fizzing through her veins.

Looking
down, she saw with fascination that her fingernails now looked like talons. She
felt the beast moving beneath her skin, but instead of trying to get out, the
dragon was just a part of her.

“Drop
your shield,” Talia commanded. She smirked when Adelaide appeared before her.
“I thought that was you. Don’t you think this obsession of yours is a little
pathetic? Nate is mine.”

Adelaide
said nothing. Instead she concentrated on stoking the inferno that was brewing
inside her belly.

Talia
blanched as she got a better look at Adelaide’s glowing yellow eyes. Hands held
up to ward off an assault, she started to back away. Adelaide once would have
let the girl go, but the animal inside her had changed her, and so had her
experiences. And now she advanced with single-minded intent on the one person
responsible for more pain in her life than she’d ever thought possible.

“Holy
shit,” Griffin muttered.

Talia
raised her hands. “Don’t—!”  Her words broke into a tortured scream as flames
erupted from Adelaide’s mouth, engulfing the girl in a conflagration of
terrible, bright-yellow heat. Adelaide kept up the stream of fire,
dispassionately fascinated with the sparkling color. She felt no burning inside
her or on her lips. And the shaking was gone, perfect control in its place.

“Adelaide,
stop!” Griffin yelled, grabbing her arm and giving her a shake.

She
snapped her mouth shut, cutting off the blaze. As she watched, the flames
spread through the room. But the fire never touched anyone but Talia, thwarted
by the invisible barrier Griffin had erected.

“Burn
in hell, bitch,” Adelaide spat. She didn’t even feel an ounce of remorse as she
watched her inferno devour the evil girl.

*****

“Adelaide?”

Nate
sat up groggily. Slowly Adelaide pulled her glower from the awful sight in
front of her and looked at him. Seeing him sitting up, she gasped and then
threw herself in his arms.

Nate
held her tightly and buried his face in her hair. When the scents of vanilla
and summer and lemons hit him, he knew for sure that this was real. He felt her
take a shaky breath. After allowing themselves a brief moment to savor the
embrace, he let her pull back and looked her in the eyes. Still glowing yellow
with her power.

“Do…
do you know who I am?” she asked.

Nate
brought his hand up to smooth back a lock of her hair. “Death cannot stop true
love.”

Tears
clogged Adelaide’s throat as she recognized the quote from
The
Princess
Bride
. “You do remember,” she choked out.

“You
came for me,” he murmured. Then realization of exactly what that meant to her
filtered through his foggy mind. He grabbed her arms only to push her away.
“You came for me! Are you crazy?! What were you thinking?!” he yelled.

Adelaide
threw her arms back around him with a little laugh. “You’re mad at me, but I
don’t care. I had to come. I thought that after three days she’d have total
control over you.”

Nate
smiled despite his anxiety. “No. I could feel you there the entire time. I held
on to that.”

“But
I—”

“Much
as I hate to interrupt this reunion, we kinda have to go,” Griffin said.

Nate
glanced over Adelaide’s head. “Hey! You’re human!”

Adelaide
leaned up and placed a swift, soft kiss on Nate’s lips. “No time to explain
anything,” she said. “We’ve got to go.”

He
wanted more, but apparently now wasn’t the time. Nate swung his legs to the
floor. “Just had to get that kiss in, huh?” He winked. “What’s the plan?”

Adelaide
rolled her eyes. “I need to get to where the greatest number of wolves are.
Now.”

Nate
and Sheila helped lead the others through the halls. It didn’t take them long
to get to a large chamber where most of the lights Sheila could see were gathered.
The hallways were now as empty as a ghost town, not a soul in sight. Every
able-bodied person had been assembled in one spot.

They
hid around the corner until Sheila gave the signal. Then they hurried into a
room that looked like a giant hangar big enough to house hundreds of planes.
Quickly,
they
ducked behind
one of the many stone pillars that held the room stable.

“This
is where we mobilize for attacks,” Nate whispered.

They
all looked around, determining their next steps. The room had a concrete floor,
but the ceilings were rock. Any original formations in the cave had been shaved
to create a higher ceiling. Right now, groups of wolves and humans seemed to be
coordinating. But there was a disarray to it that felt off.

Adelaide
and Griffin exchanged grim smiles.

“Nate,
whatever you did to Melanie, those who’d been brainwashed seem to have snapped
out of it,” Griffin said to Nate. “They’re trying to rebel, but the pack hive
mind is still intact and is being controlled by Maddox. He’s forcing them to
obey. Getting them ready to fight.”

“Let’s
try to do something about that then,” Adelaide said. Nate followed close behind
her as she moved to
a
different
spot. He couldn’t stand that she was in such immediate danger. But nothing was
going to touch her. Not while there was breath left in his lungs.

“This
is a good spot,” she said.

Nate
glanced around. They were somewhat protected here but too close to several
groups of wolves.

“Why?”
he asked.

“Because
I need to be able to touch their relationships.”

As
he watched, Adelaide reached out and appeared to wrap her hands around
something floating in mid-air. Having seen her do this before with their own
relationship, he knew that in her mind she could see exactly what she was
holding.

“What’s
she doing?” he asked Griffin, not wanting to break Adelaide’s concentration.

“Severing
the wolf bond,” Griffin answered.

“Can
she do that?” It hadn’t worked when she’d tried it on theirs.

“She’s
got her memory back, so let’s hope so.”

Nate
felt as though something really hard punched him in the gut. He grunted as all
of the air whooshed out of his lungs. She had her memory back.

…What
the hell did that mean for them?

*****

Adelaide
wished she could take a moment to see Nate’s reaction to that news, but she
needed her concentration for the task at hand.

Now,
after helping Griffin connect to the Vyusher, she had an idea of what to do.
These were false relationships, and the only way to break lies was with the
truth.

First,
she forced the healing glow and warmth from her hands into the line she held.
She fed it until the threads that were interconnected throughout the room
shimmered and glittered with her power.

Then
Adelaide visualized all the relationships she could see in her mind. She
pictured the healthy ones, the ones that were whole and honest and real. The
ones that were supportive and true. Then she pictured the ones that had been
forced – ragged and sickly – that were connecting almost all the wolf
metamorphs in the room.

“Adelaide…”
She heard the
low, dark whisper of her name. A chill trickled down her spine, and she tried
to work faster.

“Adelaide,”
Maddox’s voice
was clearer now.
“I can feel you. I can feel that another dragon is close.
Can you feel me?”

“Is
that—?” Griffin started to ask. He’d heard it too.

“What
do you think you’re doing, Adelaide?”
Maddox hissed.

But
she couldn’t let Maddox distract her. She kept working, kept picturing
snapshots of healthy relationships. When she was ready she said, “Griffin, help
me put these images in their minds. On my signal.”

“Got
it.”

Adelaide
took a deep breath. “Now.”

She
heard the collective gasp that went through the room as Griffin started to feed
the pictures in her mind to everyone he could reach. The gasp started to turn
into a grumbling, and then grew louder, turning into shouts of confusion and
anger.

But
the threads she held in her hands, the relationships forced on most of the
people in this room, weren’t breaking. She needed something more. But what?

Suddenly,
a horrible roar filled the entire cavern. People and wolves all crouched low,
searching for the source of clear danger even as they braced for impact. From
the back of the cavity, massive silver wings unfurled, casting a great shadow
across the room.

“Maddox,”
Adelaide whispered.

“I’m
coming for you, little girl,”
he snarled as he landed on all fours.
He started crawling toward them, his tail whipping back and forth behind him
and his talons clacking on the stone flooring. As he moved, wolves and men were
either crushed or sent flying, as Maddox clearly did not care whom or what he
destroyed in his bid to get to her.

Fire
erupted from his maw. But the flames curled back on themselves as they hit
an
invisible wall.
Griffin’s shield.

“Give
it up, Adelaide. We need to go now!” Griffin yelled.

But
Adelaide shook her head. “No! Can you direct his fire between my hands?”

“What?!
Are you crazy?” Sheila screamed. “We have to go.”

“Just
do it!” Adelaide yelled at Griffin.

Suddenly
the silvery flames seemed to tunnel through a small gap until they were
funneling between her hands. As Adelaide watched, the fire struck the jagged
white relationship thread she held. Griffin had managed to keep his shield
between her skin and the inferno, but she could still feel the heat. Adelaide
ignored the burn and held steady.

Maddox
pounded ever closer across the cavern. They only had moments. The shaking
started inside her and Adelaide grunted. She hadn’t expected this, not with her
memory back and better control over her powers. Suddenly, she wasn’t quite so
sure that she could do what she was attempting.

Just
then she felt Nate move up behind her but held up her hand. “No. Not yet. Let
me try to do this myself.”

He
said nothing, but he didn’t move away. He didn’t touch her either.

Adelaide,
even more determined, focused hard, channeling everything she was into control
and will. Nate’s presence had reminded her of just how capable she was. There
was no room for doubt. She knew now what kind of strength she had inside her.

She
had survived
losing her
te’sorthene
to betrayal.
She’d
survived losing her
memory.
She’d
survived learning the truth about who and what she and
Nate were. And she was still here, dammit. She’d bet no other Svatura in
history could say that.

Everything
inside her relaxed. The shaking turned into a pure wave of power.

And
then the cobweb of relationships started to glow with startling brilliance,
white hot with the healing that she’d spun along them with a master’s touch.
Suddenly a sharp, blinding flash burst inside the room. Adelaide had to close
her eyes. When she opened them again, the pack relationship connecting Maddox’s
forces was dissolving in little sparkling starbursts.

She
almost expected to see puffs of smoke, but once the light was gone, nothing
remained. The room almost looked dim after the radiance. The earlier noise fell
into thick silence, and then a cacophony of shouts rose up and filled the large
cavern once more. Shouts of rage and freedom, betrayal and realization.

Maddox
skidded to a halt, so close she felt dwarfed. He twisted on the ground, almost
as if he were in agony. Adelaide felt a small spurt of satisfaction.
She’d
done that.
She’d
made him have a part in destroying one of his most
powerful assets. And she hoped it hurt like hell.

“Time
to go,” Griffin yelled over the noise as shouting turned to violence. “I
reached Charlotte. The Vyusher are in position above ground. She’ll be down in
a second to get us.”

Charlotte
appeared as he stopped speaking. She looked around, confused for a moment. Then
she saw them, and an expression of relief swept across her face.

Before
she could take Griffin’s hand, Maddox regained his bearings with a roar of pure
rage. Fire once again shot from his mouth, this time aimed directly at the
ceiling of granite above his head. Nothing happened for a moment. Then there
was a deep rumbling groan. Seconds later, rock and debris fell with a
thunderous crash. The dragon disappeared up the tunnel he’d created.

With
sudden clarity spurred by adrenaline, Adelaide knew without a doubt what they
had to do to defeat him, but she didn’t have time to explain. Leaping into the
air, she shifted into her falcon form. She ignored the sound of her name being
called.

As
soon as she gained enough space, Adelaide brought forth the dragon. The bulk of
her size, the power in her wings, the sharpness of her teeth, the fire – so
familiar – inside her belly. In an instant they were everything she was. A form
so terrible in its beauty that all who gazed upon her were silenced.

She
didn’t have time to glory in her new gift. Instead, Adelaide followed Maddox.

“Adelaide!”
Nate shouted from below her, terror in his voice.