Storm: The Empire Chronicles (16 page)

I
was engulfed
in the wind again. I’d focused on Vera and quickly accepted the energy she sent over. I knew she was putting herself in some pain and discomfort for me, and I wasn’t going to let that sacrifice be in vain.

I reached out, searching through memories of my mother for one strong enough to connect us, but I felt nothing. I panicked. This had all been a waste. But then I felt someone else familiar. It was Nadia. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did. Without thinking about the intelligence of my decision, I reached out for her, surprised by how easy the contact was. I felt a flood of heat, before a series of images flashed before my eyes. They moved so quickly I could barely process them. Then they sped up, and I couldn’t consciously understand what was happening, but I stayed focused. Nadia was sharing them for a reason.

The images stopped as suddenly as they started, and were replaced with Nadia’s voice.
Every witch or warlock has an elemental weakness that makes their power unusable.
The heat and wind subsided. I opened my eyes. Vera was breathing heavily beside me.

“Are you ok?” My chest clenched.

“Yes. That was intense.” Her breathing was still labored.

I looked at her empty hands. “I couldn’t connect with my mom, but I reached Nadia.”

“She was there?” Vera jerked her head back against the seat.

I nodded. “Yes. I think she was giving me a hint of how to destroy Tiffany.”

“And what was it?” Vera rested her hands in her lap.

“Who’s Nadia?” Gemma asked.

“A witch we know.”

“Ok…” Gemma pressed her lips into a firm line.

I had no time to explain anything to her. She’d have to trust me.

I thought about the images. The strongest one was of Tiffany being pulled under the surface of deep black water. “Is the haven right on the water?” I asked Slade. He seemed to know where we were going.

“The town is.”

“Is there a castle there?”

“A castle?” He shook his head. “No, but there are some ruins of an old mansion.”

“Is there a turret?” That part of the image had been crystal clear.

“Maybe.”

“That’s where Tiffany is. That’s where we need to go.” I was sure of it.

“And any ideas of how we’re going to take her down? Are there other witches working for Tiffany? By the way, please tell me Nadia wasn’t working for her.” Vera’s breathing had normalized.

“She wasn’t,” I answered immediately. “I can tell.”

“How?” Slade snapped.

“I just could.” I knew. I couldn’t explain how, but I did. I was getting all too used to knowing things I couldn’t easily explain.

“Whatever it is, we’ll find a way in.” Slade nodded. Despite his annoyance at the situation, he was very confident.

“We will.” Now how was another story.

Slade drove into town slowly, and I looked out both windows. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the town. I searched for signs that there was more below the surface. I found none, but I knew firsthand looks could be deceiving. The sky was starting to darken, early signs of the coming night.

“Do you have any clue where the turret or whatever you saw was?” Slade asked.

“I thought you knew where the mansion was.”

“No. I’ve just heard there’s one here.”

“Pull over and I’ll ask for directions,” Gemma instructed.

“We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves,” Slade argued.

“Yeah but circling around for an hour is going to draw plenty of attention in a small town. Any clue what this mansion is called?”

“The Warden or something?” Slade shrugged.

“Fine. Pull over by that bus stop,” Gemma demanded.

Slade listened and slowed the car. Gemma hopped out and walked over to several older women sitting on a bench. She was smiling when she returned to the car a few minutes later. “Turn right on Elm Street, and then left on Sunnydale.”

“Was I right about the name?” Slade started to drive.

“Not at all. It was called the Marabella, but they understood when I asked about the old mansion.”

“I tried.” Slade followed her instructions and turned on Elm Street. There seemed to be an Elm Street in every town. It always reminded me of Freddie Kruger. I knew monsters like him were real.

“And we all appreciate that.” Vera sighed. She’d been unusually quiet, but I let it be. I knew she didn’t like having a lot of attention drawn to herself.

We found the mansion without too much trouble, and I knew immediately we were in the right place. I recognized the grey and black stones from the visions. Slade drove past it and parked a few blocks down. We waited as the sun began to set. There was no reason to do anything until it was dark.

“So we’re just going to park and walk in?” Gemma asked.

“That was my original plan… but now that we know Tiffany is there and she knows what happened in the veil, it isn’t going to work.”

“How does Tiffany know anything new now?” Slade turned around toward the back.

“She was in the veil,” Vera explained.

“The veil again…” Slade shook his head.

“Evidently a lot happened there.” Gemma unbuckled and kneeled on her seat to look back at us.

“So what are we doing?” Vera sat up. “Are we going in? We didn’t drive all this way to sit in the car.”

“I’m not flying all three of you again. That’s for sure.” The last attempt had completely exhausted me.

“What if you just fly me in?” Vera suggested.

“We’re going with you. We already missed the veil.” Gemma crossed her arms. “We are not missing this. We are supposed to be helping you.”

“If we’re going in, we’re sneaking in. Like I said I’m not flying you all, and I’m not letting Gemma in there if I can’t protect her.”

Gemma balked. “That’s so sexist.”

“I’m being honest.”

“It’s sexist.”

“How are you going to protect yourself?”

“The same way the rest of you are.”

“We need you two to be lookouts.” Vera said resolutely. “If you want to help, you’ll make sure to warn us if you see anyone following us.”

“But we’re not inside so how do we do that? You need to worry about what’s inside.” Gemma gritted her teeth.

“We know there’s going to be a mess inside. It’s the reinforcements that worry me.” Who knew how many creatures Tiffany had working for her?

That’s when I noticed the bright light emanating from the castle. I had no idea what it was, but it couldn’t be good. “We need to do this. You want to come, fine. It’s not my problem. Just know my priority is stopping Tiffany before she destroys everyone else. Get in the way of that, and we’re going to have a problem.”

“Do we bring in all the crystals?” Gemma held up the pouch.

“Yes, but we have to keep them safe.” Vera took the pouch and tied it onto her shorts.

“Haven’t you guys figured out the obvious problem yet?” Slade checked out his side mirror.

“What’s that? I’m not sure that I believe that anything is obvious anymore.”

“Vera is the one with the ability to use the crystals. Even more than Gemma. Wouldn’t it be a mistake to bring her in there?”

It
was
obvious, and I’d already considered the same thing. “But we need Vera to have access to the crystals. I’m strong, but I’m not naïve enough to think I’m going to stop Tiffany and the rest of them empty handed.”

Vera nodded. “Plus Tiffany isn’t working alone. She’s getting her power from somewhere, and we need to figure out where that is.”

“You think you’re going to figure that out by breaking into the haven? I thought the original plan was to get the knowledge and let Vera figure things out somewhere else.” Slade turned around to look at us again.

“That’s it.” Vera’s eyes widened.

“What is?” I waited for what I knew would be a great idea. Vera was full of them.

“First we have to know who’s in there, and you need to explain your visions. Why do you think we need to get her in water?” Vera asked.

“It’s her weakness. Every witch or warlock has an elemental weakness that makes their power unusable…” That’s what the image was. It had been different than the others. It was hazier, as though Nadia was only hoping it would occur.

“Which means you have one too.” Slade really liked to point out things.

“Yes, but we’re not worried about my magic right now. We’re worried about Tiffany’s.”

“And we’re sure she’s in there?” Vera tilted her head.

“Positive.” The closer we got to the haven the more sure I was about the images.

She nodded. “Then I have a plan.”

“What’s your plan?” I asked, fearful that it would end up getting her hurt.

“This road is right on the water, correct?”

“It’s on the Long Island Sound,” Gemma explained. “The ladies who gave me directions explained it has a perfect view across to Long Island from the highest part of the house.”

“We need to get over to the shore. Can everyone stop arguing enough to do that?” Vera asked.

“Yes.”

We started a slow walk across the street toward the dark beach.

Slade stopped short. “What’s the plan?”

“Gemma and Slade, you two need to create a distraction at the main gate. Be careful. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger.”

“Stop worrying about me.” Gemma crossed her arms. “We can do that, but what will you be doing?”

“Jared’s going to fly up and find out what’s going on. The turret he saw has to be the one in the back.” She pointed toward the tallest portion of the mansion.

I looked at Vera. I trusted her, but I still needed to know what she was thinking.

“When do we need to do this?” Slade asked. “How much time do we have?”

“Jared will be ready when you are.” Vera didn’t look at me as she spoke, which made me even more worried.

“All right. We’ll do this your way, but if there’s trouble, we’re not hanging back.”

“We wouldn’t expect you to.” Vera nodded. “Jared, you ready to fly?”

“I’m always ready to fly.” I pulled off my shirt and released my wings.

“We will see you soon.” Vera turned her back to me, giving me the signal to take off. I soared with Vera in my arms.

I didn’t wait long to jump in with the questions. “All right, now tell me. What’s the plan?”

“You are going to do exactly what I said. Check out the turret.”

“You keep saying that, but what will you be doing?”

“I need you to drop me down into the water,” she explained simply. “Don’t ask questions. Just do it.”

“You can’t ask me to do that.” Dropping her anywhere was out of the question.

“Yes I can, and I will. Drop me.” She stared down at the dark water below.

“Why? What are you thinking? Why are you so fixated on the water?” She couldn’t expect me to do something reckless without giving me more information.

“You have to trust me. We don’t have time for this. You need to get ready to act as soon as Gemma and Slade do their part.”

“You can come with me.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I need to do my part alone. And stop stalling. We don’t have time.”

“You better know what you’re doing.” Against my better judgment I released her into the dark water. My chest clenched as she disappeared under the surface.

I flew toward the turret and waited a few minutes. Suddenly a loud explosion sounded from the front of the mansion and the building became alight with commotion. Slade and Gemma had acted fast.

I stayed close to the back of the building while I searched for a window. Nearly all of them had been covered over with boards. I finally found a slit between two boards and peered in.

That’s when I saw her. Mom. I hadn’t seen her since I was a child, but she looked exactly the same as my vague memories and the pictures she’d left behind. She was chained to a rock in the middle of the room, and her eyes were closed. I didn’t think. I ripped the board loose and burst through the glass into the room.

“Mom!” I grabbed her and tried to rouse her, but she didn’t move. I felt her breathing. She was alive. “Mom!”

I heard footsteps and snapped to attention as Tiffany walked into the room. “How nice to see you again, Jared.”

“What did you do to her?” I was prepared to kill Tiffany with my bare hands, but not until she reversed the magic she’d worked on my mother.

“Nothing you need to worry about it.” Tiffany circled the room.

I turned to make sure I never had my back to her. “Tell me.”

“Sure. If you’ll play fair. Tell me where your bear is.”

“No.”

She made puppy dog eyes. “That’s too bad then, isn’t it?”

“What are you trying to accomplish? What could you possibly gain by hurting innocent people?”

“There is no such thing as innocent. I’d have thought you’d have understood that already.”

“There is. And then there are monsters. Like you.”

“You’re a monster too. At least I know plenty of women who would agree. How many of them did you use? Did your little trip back in time remind you of that?”

“It’s the past. I regret what I did, but it’s not close to what you’ve done.”

“I’m going to enjoy killing you.” She grinned.

“You can’t kill me. I’m even more powerful now.” My new Pteron form was strong, and I felt invincible.

She laughed. “How cute. You really don’t know anything about your warlock nature do you, Jared?”

“I know enough.”

“Then you’ll enjoy this.” She held out her hand and sent a burst of bright lightning toward me. My body convulsed as I froze, completely immobile. “Try to fight back.”

“I can’t.”

“Really?” She smiled. “Nadia was right. Lightning is your weakness.”

“Nadia told you nothing.”

“She told me nothing, but she told your mother. And well, your mother and I are connected.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Where is your little bear? She has something that belongs to me.”

“You will never touch Vera.” I spit.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” She sent over another rush of lightning. This time I fell to the floor.

She walked over and stood above me. “I’m going to miss putting you in all these submissive positions, but you’re too much trouble.”

“If you want to kill me, why don’t you just do it?” I taunted.