Okay, so firewhirls are freaking awesome.
I can’t believe they aren’t the Gales’ go-to weapon.
Mind you, they look pretty wimpy as I make them—just a tiny dust devil that I toss a few scattered sparks in.
But once I shout, “Engulf!” and the heat mixes with all the rushing oxygen? It turns into a hundred-foot spinning death spiral shooting red-hot flames in every direction—which might actually be why I haven’t seen the Gales use them. I’m pretty sure I would’ve burned off all my appendages if I’d been in charge.
But Aston’s a pro when it comes to violence.
He takes out half the Stormers with his very first blow. The rest put up a better fight—but he still wipes them out with three drafts to spare and uses the leftover winds to carry us to the top of a tree several miles away, so we can regroup.
“You’re holding up rather well,” he says, his eyes narrowing at me. “Especially considering we smell like roasted Stormer.”
“Ugh—you didn’t need to put it like that,” Solana groans as she tangles a fresh Southerly around me to keep me warm.
I switch to mouth breathing to dodge the smell—but honestly, I’m doing okay.
“I wonder if it’s because the firewhirls were the Westerly’s idea,” I mumble. “Maybe it knows what my limits are. Or maybe it knew how desperate our situation was. Or . . . I don’t know, maybe I’m getting tougher.”
“Definitely not the last one,” Aston tells me. “But this is progress. From now on, you ask your little winds what they want you to do and obey. Maybe you’ll actually get through this.”
“Let’s hope,” I agree, calling down a fresh Westerly and tangling it into another shield. “So what now?”
“Now we play good news, bad news,” Aston says. “The good news is, we survived Raiden’s trap. I’m sure we’ve also succeeded in royally pissing him off. And the smoke and glare from the fires will make it much harder to track you.”
“And the bad news?” Solana asks.
“Yeah, and what’s with this ‘you’ stuff?” I add. “Don’t you mean ‘we’?”
Aston becomes very interested in his ruined hands. “The bad news is . . . my part in this little adventure has come to an end.”
A million different reactions spin through my head—most of them involving another kick to the nuts.
But losing my temper isn’t going to make him want to stick around.
“You said you’d help us rescue Audra and Gus,” Solana reminds him.
“Actually, I said I’d help you come up with a plan. And I’ll still do that.”
“You’re weaseling out on a technicality?” I snap.
His eyes flash, and I can tell he has one of his snide comebacks ready to go. But by the time he speaks, the words come out through a sigh.
“The truth is . . . I was force-fed a rather large dish of reality while we were stuck in that tunnel,” he mumbles. “And I’ve had to admit that I can’t risk letting Raiden capture me. Not because I’m afraid of what he’ll do to me. Because I’m afraid of what I’ll do. Raiden is as addictive as the power of pain. The more you’re around him, the more you see the logic behind his decisions, until you can’t remember why you ever resisted. I almost let him turn me into his shiny new tool last time, and if he gets ahold of me again, I’m not sure what I’ll do. So you can hate me for abandoning you—but I promise, it’s better that I leave you now than end up fighting against you.”
It’s the most humble, sincere thing Aston has said this whole journey—and I can’t really fault him for it.
But I’d gotten very used to the idea of having him there to fight all the Stormers if we needed him. . . .
I take a deep breath. “Fine. We can do this without you.”
“You can,” Aston agrees. “And you can also do it without her.”
He grabs Arella’s arms, binding her in broken winds with the same motion.
“If you think—”
“Let me stop you from saying anything especially foolish,” Aston interrupts me, “and remind you that she can’t be trusted around Raiden either.”
“Raiden holds no power over me,” Arella argues.
“Oh really?” Aston asks. “So then you wanted to betray your daughter?”
When she doesn’t respond, he adds, “If you truly want to save your girl, leave her rescue to people who might actually be able to help her.”
“Don’t pretend like you’re doing this for Audra,” Arella snaps. “You just want my pain.”
Aston doesn’t deny it. “But if that were all this was about, there are other much more exciting ways to force it out of you. So stop pouting and try doing what’s best for your daughter for once in her life.”
“You think she cares whether my daughter lives or dies?” Arella shouts, turning the full weight of her glare on Solana. “Do you think she’s safe from Raiden’s corruption? She’s already succumbed to the power of pain!”
“To save your life,” Solana snaps.