Chapter 351

“Ari,” Jesse whispers, equally awed, starting to take his fingers away.

“No,” I growl, leaning back, wanting to maintain contact. “Look.”

I lift my chin upwards to the sky, where through the rising smoke we can see more helicopters coming. Four of them.

Rafe glances at me and then touches the radio at his ear, relaying back to our father at the base the events of the attack. I keep my eyes on the approaching Atalaxian forces as a Cadet runs over to Rafe, glancing anxiously at me as he reports casualties amongst the Cadets and requests medics. Rafe orders him to call for aid and then turns to me as the Cadet runs away.

“How are you?” he barks out, his eyes sweeping over me, assessing.

“I’m fine,” I snarl, keeping my eyes on the sky, a cold thrill running through me as I see that these helicopters are likewise heading right for us.

Rafe grabs my chin, trying to force me to look at him, but I just pull it away, keeping my eyes on the sky.

He barks my name again and I glance at him once. “They’re coming Rafe,” I growl.

“Can you do that again, Ari?” he snaps, all business.

I nod. “That and more.”

“And you three?” Rafe asks, clearly addressing Luca, Jackson, and Jesse now. “We’re good?”

They all murmur in the affirmative.

“All right, then,” Rafe murmurs, stepping back in front of the group and turning towards our classmates – all of whom are terribly confused about how the hell we knocked down two Atalaxian war choppers without landing a single shot from the guns. “Hold fire!” Rafe shouts out at the Cadets. “I want these guns quiet! We’re going to play possum for a bit, lure them in.”

The Cadets hesitate only for a moment before barking out the affirmative.

Rafe steps back close to me. “All right, trouble,” he murmurs. “When they get close enough, you take them down.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” I murmur, staring unblinking into the skies.

And then, without my brother’s permission, I send my fire out to meet the enemy.

I pull further on Jackson’s gift, letting the fire rage and feeling a strong pulse of joy and pride coming from him to see me work. Jesse sends more shadows forward, likewise pulling on Jackson’s power through me to fuel them.

When it’s enough, I increase Luca’s wind, splitting the dark inferno before us into two whirlwinds that I send out into the night, heading right for the enemy.

And as my magic plows forward into the darkness, hungry for the taste of metal, for something to burn, I’m shocked at how…

God, how easy it is.

The fire responds to me as if it’s more than some creature at my beck and call – as if it’s me. And I can feel it – feel the taste of the air as the fire and the wind rushes through it, feel the hum of the helicopter as my power races for them.

“Can you…can you see it?” Rafe murmurs, leaning forward, peering into the dark. “The magic, the fire?”

“No,” Jackson murmurs, casually handing him the binoculars from his neck. “I can feel it, though. I know where it is through her.”

“Same,” Jesse murmurs. Luca nods, and Rafe glances at us like we’re all insane.

“Watch now,” I murmur, a smirk pulling at my lip as my twin whirlwinds finally meet their quarry. There a flash of flame in the sky and a huge booming explosion before the darkness takes them. Rafe’s mouth falls open as the first chopper goes down and then the second, as my dark tornados twist in the air, almost reaching for the third and the fourth, pulling them into the swirling mass of punishing heat and consuming them at once, hurling the charred remains to the ground.

My chest heaves a little as I keep the tornados out there turning, read for whatever is next – not because it’s hard or because I’m tired, but because I want more.

I want to – I want to hurt them.

I’m well aware that I’m killing people – that these are not just anonymous drones being sent by Atalaxian forces, but instead manned by real people with homes and families. But somehow, right now, I just – I can’t care.

My wolf instantly pounces on the small part of me that wonders if that makes me a monster, snarling her fury at the thought.

And she is right –

The Atalaxians, they started this war twenty years ago, they began their attack just when my father took his throne because they knew we were already weak. And it’s unlikely that they expected us to stand for more than twenty years, but they continue their pursuit because they want us.

They want Moon Valley’s rich resources and our beautiful land, of course, but they also want our people. They want to bend us to their will and their ways, to enslave our women to their ridiculous concepts of femininity, to use everything that makes us a rich and vibrant nation to feed their empowered class, their royal family.

They have already taken so much from us. They’ve hurt my friend.

And now they’re trying to take me.

Because I’m not a fool – I know who these helicopters are after. Gibson – he knew, somehow, what I could do. And these helicopters are attacking this part of the line because they know, again, somehow, precisely where I’m standing.

So let them come.

And I’ll show them the consequences of trying to hurt me and the ones I love.

I will take them all down one by one if I have to burn myself out to do it.

“Give ‘em hell,” Jackson snarls, squeezing my hand, and my fires flare just as four more helicopters appear in the distance.

“Do you even need me to pretend to give you orders?” Rafe murmurs, glancing at me.

I glance back and don’t say anything. I mean, I don’t want him to feel useless but…we both know the answer to that.

“Dad,” Rafe says, raising a hand to the headpiece on his ear. “I would suggest that you…watch this.”

The helicopters fall as easily as the first six, my fires laying in darkness, waiting to spring up and take them down.

Four planes come after that and they’re craftier, dodging the flames at first, perhaps having learned to use heat-seaking technology in order to see my magic.

But it doesn’t matter – Luca’s winds move faster than the planes can fly.

They, too, fall to the join the others in the charred and steaming graveyard that used to be an empty landscape before us.

We wait for more, but half an hour passes and Rafe orders me to pull the whirlwinds back.

I hesitate, glancing at him, not sure –

“You’re burning Jackson’s energy,” Rafe murmurs, giving me a little glare that clearly lets me know that I’m pushing it – that he’s already let me step outside of the command a lot tonight.

“I’m good,” Jackson murmurs.

“I said to pull back,” Rafe snaps, glaring at him too. “You can start them again if we need them. Right now, we’re reserving our resources and not giving the Atalaxians a chance to figure out what the hell we’ve got going on.”

Realizing that that’s a good point, I sigh and drop Luca’s wind, letting the flames fall to the ground. Then I cut Jackson’s power and feel Jesse’s shadows pulling away.

I let my head drop, closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath as I drop my mates’ hands.

To my surprise, my cousin wraps me in a hug from behind, pulling me back against his chest and pressing a discreet kiss to my cap. “That was amazing, trouble,” he murmurs. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m all right,” I sigh, smiling a little and leaning my weight against him. “Your shadows were cool. Were they…were they sharks today?”

He laughs a little. “Yeah, I was trying something new,” he murmurs.

“You were thinking about Tony,” I whisper, tears again pressing at my lashes. “With the water.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, tucking his mouth close to my ear so only I can hear him. “I was. Don’t tell anyone though, okay? I don’t want people figuring out that I have a heart.”

“Oh, Jess,” I sigh, standing up and turning my head to give him as big a smile I can – which isn’t much. “Stop kidding yourself – we all already know.”