I was hoping she’d say that. Now I can stare at her legs.
I slip under the sheets, and Audra covers my bruises with the ice—I hate myself for yelping, but it’s freaking cold—and I switch off the light.
“Are you comfortable?” I whisper as she shifts a few times.
“Not really.” She scoots closer, nudging her head into the space between my neck and nonfrozen shoulder. “Better.”
I grin. Who would’ve thought Audra was a snuggler?
Her heat races through me and I realize there might be a flaw to this sharing-a-bed-with-Audra plan. How am I ever going to sleep?
I’m not even sure if I should, in case Raiden sends any more creepy winds. But then Audra whispers the call for a few nearby Easterlies and weaves them into a whirl of soft lullabies, like she used to send me every night. The peaceful calm of their song always kept me safe, and I sink into the feeling, relieved that everything is finally back to the way it used to be.
Audra’s face rushes into my dreams, letting me stare into her eyes. Her dark hair blows wild, tickling my skin as she leans in and whispers that everything will be okay. She sings a song of love and peace, but the words turn sadder, fading into an apology. A promise that she will never leave me again.
I want to tell her that I believe her, but then a dark shape passes over her, stealing her songs and her smile. She turns away from me and screams—a horrible, bone-chilling scream that makes my body thrash as I pull myself upright.
My burning eyes are too blurry to tell me if anything is real, but I see red and black—blood and shadow—mixed with Audra’s desperate cries.
And wind. So much wind.
A tempest of dark drafts, raging and roaring and swallowing everything they touch until there’s nothing left but storm and chaos, ripping at my skin, trying to drag me under. I fight to hold on as haunting laughter drowns out the winds, worming into my brain and making my head throb with every sharp beat.
The storm unravels, growing a head and arms and wild shadowy hair—a Living Storm of Audra that joins an army of others, howling and laughing as they rampage into my valley, tearing apart roads, houses, cars, people—anything that gets in their way.
The Gales rally against them, standing in the line of the Storms as Gus races forward, raising Raiden’s windslicer to slash and shred—but the winds toss him into the sky and tear him apart piece by piece. His agonized screams mix with the thunder of the storm as he crumbles to dust and is lost on the breeze. The rest of the guardians turn and run but the winds swallow them whole, splattering the ground with red as their bodies are twisted into new Storms—an army that keeps growing stronger, feeding off anyone who dares to stand against it. Heading straight to me.
My parents try to run—try to scream—but the Storms are too fast, too merciless as they scoop them up like paper dolls and spit them to the ground in crumpled heaps. Leaving only me, standing in a circle of dead trees as the Storms unravel and Raiden marches forward with an almost gleeful smile.
“I know how to break you,” he tells me, and I want to run somewhere safe.
But everything’s gone.
There’s nowhere left.
He laughs, tossing back his head as he says, “Now you die.”
Searing pain rages through my head, and I feel my body thrash but I can’t pull away, can’t pull my mind back from the horror as Raiden binds me in his wicked winds. Not until a warm breeze whisks inside me and melts away the thick fog.
I tear open my eyes and jump out of bed—so relieved to be in my undestroyed bedroom that my brain barely registers that it was Solana leaning over me instead of Audra.
I collapse to the floor, shaking my head to shove away the dream or nightmare or whatever it was. But as the images replay in my mind I realize it wasn’t any of those things.
It wasn’t even a warning.
It was a promise.
CHAPTER 30
AUDRA
V
ane wouldn’t wake up for me.
I tried screaming his name. Tried shocking him with the heat of our connection, like I’ve done in the past. Nothing helped. Not even a kiss.
Then Solana heard my panicked screams and rushed in, shoved me aside, and crawled on top of him. She sent a Southerly into his mind, whispered a command I’d never heard and . . .
Vane woke up.
His dad cheered and his mom cried and all I could do was stand in the corner like an outsider, wondering why he wouldn’t wake up for me.
“Are the Gales back?” Vane gasps, rubbing the sides of his head as he pulls himself up off the floor and leans back against his bed.
“I heard Gus arrive in the grove about an hour ago,” Solana answers, and Vane whips his head toward her.
“Oh,” he mumbles, “I thought you’d left earlier.”
“No. I started to, but . . . I had nowhere else to go.”