Storm Born (19 page)

I blinked rapidly to refocus, long enough to see the man on the roof wasn’t incinerated on the spot. He was lying in the mud in front of the Stormkind.
 

I didn’t know if he was awake or even alive. A twisted part of me hoped he wasn’t. Having your life force drained by a Stormkind wasn’t a fate I would wish on anyone.
 

The Stormkind picked the charred man up by his throat. He didn’t stir as it dangled him. Light glowed from its mouth.
While all of this was happening, one question rolled through my mind:
 

How was I going to get to my family?
 

I was no match for a Stormkind’s power. I had piece of it, but that piece wasn’t enough.
Unless I was smart about how I used it.
 

Fighting the Stormkind one on one wasn’t an option. Using the storm to get into the school?
 

Much more viable.
 

I didn’t use Hadrian’s theory. I couldn’t waste time on figuring out how to weave the tether into the air. Instead, I felt the rain flaring around me, and thought about how I wanted it to be snow instead. I imagined every drop crystallizing into a small white flake, creating an effective white shadow that would cover me until I was in the school.
 

Closing my eyes, I opened myself up to the cool air around me. I let it dance across my face and fingertips. I reveled in the rain pattering and weaving through my hair. The thundering roars from the air filled me with excitement. I could feel the very life of the storm, and knew it would be mine to manipulate.
 

I opened my eyes again, and changed the storm.
 

The rain turned into a white curtain of snow. Soon it was so thick that all I could see was white. I shivered, the chill of the thunderstorm’s wind blasting the snow against me.
 

The downpour hadn’t stopped, and white blasts of light continuing to flash as thunder erupted through the smoky clouds.
 

And now the Stormkind had noticed.
 

It dropped the burned man into the mud and slush, its sparking white eyes searching the blizzard for its brethren. Hadrian mentioned that Stormkind were mostly solitary, so it probably wasn’t happy someone was encroaching on its territory.
 

I bet its mood would swing to joy if it found out I was human.
 

Before its gaze could lock on me, I thought about concealing myself in swirling snow. It wouldn’t make me completely safe, of course, but it was better than the damn thing knowing I was carting around a scrumptious life force.
 

I swung my arms around myself, as though I was throwing a double roundhouse punch. The thick snow responded, spiraling around my body until it was so thick I could hardly see through it myself. It would have to do. I squinted and started running as fast as I could.
 

My boots splashed through the slush, spraying my calves with cold muck. My legs were stiff with the chill from the rain and my clothes were plastered to me, but adrenaline and utter terror were good at boosting my speed.
 

The Stormkind throwing lighting at me kind of helped, too.
 

Blasts of light exploded into the ground mere feet away from me. The world would go totally white, then snap back into a pale version of itself, like someone was flashing a camera in front of my face.
 

I ran ungracefully, the slippery mud, sleet, and wet road threatening to send me flying. Every breath was icy and charged with static, as if I would inhale the next lightning strike. Through the sporadic lightning flashing and flurry of snow protecting me, I managed to see the school. I was close, and one of the windows looked cracked, so I could–
 

The ground disappeared beneath me. I screamed when I lost my balance. I tumbled down a slope, thick mud sticking to me with every turn. I lost my hold on the whirlwind of snow acting as my shield and came to a stop on my stomach, my side bumping against hard brick.
 

Well, at least I reached my destination.
 

Shaking the dizziness from my head, I looked up at the slope I’d fallen down. The Stormkind stood at the top of it, against a background of cycling snow, torrential rain, wild lightning and death-black clouds. Its skeleton and eyes were beacons in the dark, bolts of lightning spitting from its eyes, joints, and hands in angry pulses.
 

It could see me. It knew what I was.
 

It raised its hand and slammed it down like a hammer. The sky exploded overhead, the shaft of lightning mirroring its movement. I shoved to my feet before the blast hit. My back crashed into the brick wall as the bolt pounded into the space where I’d stood. Static made even my drenched hair stand on end. Painful needles danced along my skin.
 

The flash darkened and I threw out my hand, remembering the way Hadrian fought. The spiked walls of ice he’d used against the Mistrals. A sharp chill covered my bones and pushed out of my skin. White frost wrapped around my hand. My palm prickled as shards of ice blasted from it. The ice moved like fire over oil, blurring up the incline and exploding into a jagged wall in front of the Stormkind.
 

Holding the wall in place, I looked over my shoulder and tilted my head up. The window ledge was within jumping distance, even for a short girl like me. I planted my other hand on the wall and sent
frost up its length. I pictured the frost hardening the glass until it fully shattered. I wrapped my arms around my head so my face was protected from the falling glass.
 

Once I thought it was safe, I lowered my arm and jumped for the window ledge. My fingers curled around it while my feet scrabbled for a hold. I used all the muscles in my skinny arms to drag myself to the top of the ledge and hauled my body inside. Light ignited behind me the moment I hit the floor. Brick and pieces of wall blasted inward and coated the floor at my feet.
 

I scrambled up and backed away from the window.
 

That was when I watched the world tilt. I threw my hand out to the wall and grabbed an open locker. I nearly fell into the thing, but maintained my footing. I panted, each breath sawing in and out of my lungs. Tremors wracked my body, each one sharper than the last. The spinning in my head wouldn’t slow down.
 

I breathed through the pain as best as I could. I’d made it into the building. That was half the battle. I mean, I had no idea how I was going to get anyone out safely while the school was sinking with a thunder-Stormkind raging outside, but I would cross those bridges when I came to them. For now, I would rely on adrenaline. It was supposed to numb pain, right?
 

I found my footing and dashed through the bleak, empty hallway.
 

“
Mom! Dad! James!”
 

As I ran, I could hear voices carrying through the hallway below me. I followed its direction, swinging around the corner to the other end of the hall.
A crowd of people were huddled in the corridor, some of them backing against the walls while others shoved each other in search of an exit. A spike of fear went through me when I saw there weren’t anywhere near the three thousand people who had been staying here before I disappeared the second time. A fear that heightened when I glanced in the classrooms and saw they were packed with desperate people trying to punch and push open the windows to escape. SPU soldiers dressed in black uniforms shouted for order, but no one appeared to be listening to them. Their commands couldn’t even be heard amidst all the screams and shouts.
 

Though the number was still far smaller than it had been. If I had to guess, I would say two hundred people stood in front of me. A pathetic fraction of the three thousand I’d seen before.
 

I didn’t see my parents anywhere, so I started calling for them again.
 

“Dad! Mom! James!”
 

From within the crowd up ahead, a familiar face turned at the sound of my voice. My father was a tall man, and it was easy for him to see me over the crush of panicking people.
 

My heart lurched. I’d been worried they might not have been here, they could have left sometime after I disappeared– again– or worse, they had been trapped in the sinking lower level.
 

“
Ava
!” he shouted, pushing people aside to run for me with wide eyes.
 

Sobs choked me when he crushed me into my arms. My mother called my name, rushing up with James in her arms. We embraced, none of my family caring about the mud I was plastering them with.
 

Subtly, I could feel the warm pulse of their life forces inside them, but the sensation was small enough that I could ignore it. I was determined to ignore it as long as I could.
 

My family pulled back and looked at me.
 

“Ava, where have you been?!” my father asked in a choked voice. “You went missing again.”
 

I nodded vigorously. “I know, but I’m safe. I’m okay.” I winced, knowing the last part was a lie. If I was half-Stormkind, I was
far
from okay. “I can’t explain right now. We need to get out of here.”
 

“How?” whimpered Mom. “One of those… those
things
is out there.”
 

Her eyes were filled with fear. So were my little brother’s. James had grabbed my hand sometime during our embrace, and now he refused to let go.
 

If they felt half as terrified as they looked, how would they react when they found out I was one of those
things
myself?
 

I didn’t linger on the thought. I had to trust that they were my family, and they would still love me. After all, I was the same daughter and sister I had been a month ago. Except now I was a little more… complicated.
 

“I can help you,” I said. “But you need to trust me. Can you do that?”
 

James was nodding, agreeing and believing in his big sister as only a child could, but my parents were older and wiser. They knew there was a reason I was asking, and they weren’t going to like it.
 

Forcing myself not to linger about the consequences, I focused on the issue at hand. “The Stormkind out there is one that can make thunderstorms. It’s using the rainwater to sink the school, then electrocuting anyone who tries to escape.”
 

That was enough to scare them. They didn’t need to know the truth– that the electrocution wouldn’t kill them. The Stormkind would rather suck out their life force than burn them to a crisp.
 

“I can distract it and lead you to a window, but as soon as you hit the ground, you have to run as fast and far away as you can.”
 

“How are you going to distract it?” Dad asked, at the same time Mom gasped and exclaimed, “You can’t risk yourself!”
 

I hesitated, then smiled weakly. “This is where the trust part comes in.”
 

They didn’t want to simply accept that response, but a sudden vibration shuddering through the building quickly forced their hand. The Stormkind must have used the power of the storm to strike the school. We couldn’t stay here any longer.
 

The tremble caused every person in the hallway to burst into a cacophony of screams and shouts. The SPU soldiers were overwhelmed, trying to hold back the frenzied masses. Their commands were lost in the chaos.
 

I tried to shout over the crowd to get their attention, but the panic and fear in the air was infectious. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d been transformed– I didn’t even know if I counted as human at this point– but on the outside, I still looked like a skinny, forgettable red-haired girl. Not exactly the figure of an inspiring leader.
 

My eyes scanned the open classrooms, fixing on a toppled metal chair on the floor. I darted inside the room and picked it up from the floor. Waving my parents and brother aside, I gripped the chair with both hands, then hurled it into the ceiling. The chair screeched when it smashed into the roof and clattered loudly onto the floor. The crowd jumped violently, but the noise had gotten enough attention that I could do something.
 

 “I know a way out!” I called to the survivors looking at me. “Everyone who wants to come, follow me!”
 

Like I’d predicted, not everyone followed me. Some sought their own escapes. I couldn’t do anything about that. I wasn’t a leader and would never have the presence of Wonder Woman or Supergirl. But I was doing
something
. I had a way to fight the Stormkind. Bullets were less than useless, and it wasn’t as though the SPU could get a hold of a tempest-blade.
 

My thoughts strayed to Hadrian. I hoped his head was okay. I also hoped he wouldn’t be too mad when he found out I took off. Hesitantly, I reached for the tether. It was smooth and cool around my heart, resting as though it had always been there.
 

Deciding it couldn’t hurt, I reached for the connection in our minds.
 

Hadrian, I know you’re probably pissed, but I could use your help at Park Vista high school right now. That thunder-Stormkind is trying to kill a bunch of people, including my family. I might be able to hold it off, but not for long.
As a desperate afterthought, I added,
Please help me.
 

I snapped the thought off as soon as my family corralled everyone they could from the hallway and classrooms. Satisfied that anyone else would follow when they saw us running or find their own way out, I turned and ran back down the hallway from where I’d come.