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CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

Ryker

Working with the women and older children, we formed a chain up the hillside to help each other climb. The younger children clung to Tucker’s, Callan’s, and my backs while two of them dangled off Ianto.

It took some doing, but eventually, we settled everyone inside the alcove. As Callan promised, it was a tight fit. Though some rain funneled into the entrance, the back of the alcove remained dry, and that’s where the women and children huddled.

Despite the day’s warmth, they shivered as they held each other. It wasn’t cold inside the alcove, but apprehension was creeping in now that their adrenaline was wearing off.

Magnetic storms usually lasted two to seven days but averaged around three. I hoped this was a fast-moving one; without any food, life in the alcove would soon become unbearable, not to mention everyone would have to relieve themselves. At least the rain provided plenty of water.

Those were problems for later. They were safe beneath the dirt roof and the dangling tree roots. Those trees might come down and tear away some of the ceiling, but they were holding steady and had survived prior storms. I hoped they were strong enough to weather this one too.

I settled near the entrance where the rain still fell against my left side but didn’t batter me as much, as the shelter offered some protection from it. Tucker sat across from me while Callan and Ianto settled beside us.

Ianto hunched up with his head between his shoulders and his legs against his chest. He would be a cramped mess after this, but there was nowhere to retreat and no room for anyone to lie down.

“Perfect timing for a storm,” Tucker said.

I studied the rain while pondering what was happening with the Heart as lightning flashed. The energy of its power called to me, but I repressed my lightning until it stopped flashing over my fingers.

Once my light extinguished, shadows took over the alcove, but the lightning flashing outside illuminated those in the far back. As the storm raged, I felt the pull of something deeper within the earth; it tugged at me with every beat of my heart.

I’d never experienced anything like it during the other magnetic storms, but that stone had awakened something in me. I’d buried it after leaving the town behind, yet this storm had reawakened a primitive beast inside me, and it craved Ellery.

“Good thing it’s not the winter,” Ianto said. “It would be a blizzard out there.”

I fisted and opened my hands as my teeth ground together. My body hummed with the need to return outside and embrace the lightning.

As the storm built, so did my desire to be in it, absorbing it and finding the only one who could unleash the tempest growing inside me. And not only could she unleash it, but she could also sate it.

It was too small to stand inside the alcove; I could barely sit without my back and head hitting the ceiling, but I wanted to rise and pace… move .

I had to go out there and find whatever was calling to me. I had to know what the storm would feel like without worry for the others.

Something jerked at my soul, demanding I listen to it. It was determined to get me out there, going toward what?

And then I knew. “Ellery.”

“What?” Callan asked.

“Ellery. She’s out there. I have to go.”

Tucker seized my arm when I went to leave. “How do you know that?”

“I just know. She’s looking for us. You’ll be safe here; I’ll be back after I find her.”

“Ryker—”

Whatever Tucker was about to say died away when he saw my face. She was out there, and I had to get to her.

He released my arm. “Be safe.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I find her.”

I slipped out of the alcove and slid back down the hill.