Too quickly, because once more my chin hits the ground. When will I learn? Even still, I got this one down within a matter of minutes.
Kellan’s immediately at my side, hauling me up and stripping the pain from my arm. There’s no time to thank him, though, as another sonic boom nearly sends us sprawling. I scramble over toward the downed shape shifter; Karl bellows from nearby, “Five seconds, Chloe!” And five seconds is longer than I have, because the Elder rouses and immediately charges me. I fumble for my bow, but it’s on me before I can slide the arrow out of the quiver. A pair of quick slashes to my right arm knocks my breath right out of my chest and my bow right out of my fingers. Dammit! I messed up the Elder-proof suits again! And then the Elder is squealing, twisting in agony as it writhes before me. I thank my lucky stars that Kellan is behind me, even as another sonic boom sounds. My hand slams down against the Elder, and within a split second, I’m once more diving toward the dirt.
Or not, because Kellan catches me this time right before I hit the ground. “Will’s got one staked nearby,” he tells me, and before I know it, we’re darting across the clearing as fast as we can. Fire blazes in and out of our path as the four remaining Elders lead the team on a grim chase. Lightning strikes the ground fast and hard, but nobody other than Karl and Will are making sufficient enough contact to be useful.
Only Kellan has been able to get to them from a distance.
One of the Elders hits Will from behind, sending him sprawling. I yell at Kellan to cover Will as I collapse over the pinned shape shifter. It gnashes what looks like smoke fangs at me, and I recoil just long enough for it to stake my leg to the ground.
OH MY EFFING GODS DOES THIS HURT.
I slam my fist against its quasi-solid body, but the pain in me is so intense that I can’t—I can’t—
Stars dance before my eyes. I’ve lost the ability to breathe.
Worse yet, I think the screaming I’m hearing is coming from me.
And then Kellan is there, my face in his hands, as the Elder is swinging its free arm at him, and he’s saying—he’s saying—look at him, I think. He wants me to look at him. Listen to him. And the pain, it subsides enough that the moment I see the monster below us make contact with his arm, I’m able to make it disappear.
Shrieking so ear piercing it leaves my ears bleeding surrounds us, and then the remaining Elders disappear.
“You’re bleeding,” I tell Kellan. My voice shakes just as hard as my limbs do.
He closes his eyes and drops his head against mine. “I’m going to make you sleep now, okay?” he whispers so quietly that surely nobody else can hear him, not when our ears are bleeding like they are. “You’re going to sleep until I get you to the Shamans back at the plane.”
I don’t argue with him.
Surprisingly, Zthane deems the mission a success even though I only managed to take out three Elders. The entire plane ride back, the team was fairly subdued. I think the Blazes and Elemental knew that they’d not even come close to helping contain our enemy. A non with a sword proved more effective, and that must’ve smarted, although nobody had the balls to say it out loud around us. Kellan was on edge the entire time, this time sitting on the other side of me rather than across. To make matters worse, Jonah called him not ten minutes before we landed in Novosibirsk.
I tried not to listen to the call. I really did. But it basically came down to Jonah knowing that Kellan was freaking out, and he wanted to know why and if it was about me. I guess Kellan had been pretty successful at blocking his brother for the most part of the mission, but when I was pinned to the ground and nearly killed (or so Will said, when claiming the Elder’s other sword-arm came perilously close to going straight through the top of my skull before Kellan subdued it), he lost any control he had over shielding the situation from Jonah. So I got to listen to Kellan argue with Jonah about why he was blocking his memories, thanks to the promise Karl extracted earlier, and then flat out lie, claiming it had nothing to do with me.
Relief had nearly melted me straight to the floor of the plane. Jonah was worried—Jonah was calling! Angry as he is, hurt as he is, after everything I’ve done . . . it was a good sign, right?