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CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Ryker

The rage filling my chest caused lightning from the tornado behind me to flash out. It struck against my back, rose around me, and became a cloud of white electricity that pulsed with every step I took.

They were touching her. And if they hurt one hair on her head, I’d shove that hood down their throats and choke them with it while cutting off every one of their body parts.

Thunder quaked the floor until it heaved and splintered apart again. Having no idea where Ellery was anymore, I kept it away from where I’d last seen her, but I couldn’t control the rolling thunder. I was too irate for that.

Startled shouts filled the air as I directed my tornado in front of me. My back would be vulnerable, but the funnel could clear a path through everyone far faster than I could.

Fueled by my fury, the tornado tore into the floor, ripping it apart as it sought to carve a trail to where I’d last seen her. I followed the path it created as the two groups came together behind me to clash again.

Those who remained huddled on the floor cried out as they scrambled to get away from me, the tornado, and the opposing sides. The rain drenching us wasn’t enough to wash away the blood coating the floor; pink rivers ran all around me.

My tornado threw aside the bodies and appendages of those who weren’t fortunate enough to evade the battle. The rebels were rapidly losing ground, and more of their bodies decorated the dance floor as the better-trained guards slaughtered them.

With the tornado guiding my way, I broke free of the mayhem as the hair on my nape rose. I spun and, despite the electricity still encompassing my body, came face-to-face with a rebel with bloodstained clothes and a sword lifted over their head.

The wild look in their eyes told me they’d stopped giving a shit about surviving; they wanted to take out everyone they could before being brought down themselves. They probably considered bringing me down a big triumph with my status as a noble and my abilities, but while someone might eventually kill me, it wouldn’t be them.

With a flick of my wrist, I shot a bolt from the electricity surrounding me. It struck them in the chest and burst from their eyes before flinging them back.

I didn’t feel so much as a flicker of regret over destroying the asshole as they hit the ground and didn’t move again. I spun back toward where I’d last seen Ellery, but she was gone, and so was the rebel who’d seized her.

My gaze shot to the garden doors, but they wouldn’t have had enough time to reach them. Retreating rebels clogged the doors.

Not all the rebels had entirely admitted defeat and run yet, but they had to know they’d lost. I didn’t know what the insurgents planned to do next and didn’t care; only Ellery mattered, and she hadn’t gone that way.

I looked to the doorway leading out of the ballroom and back toward the main hall, but tornadoes blocked the exit. The rebel holding her wouldn’t have taken her that way, and I suspected they were still together; the rebel would most likely try to use her as leverage to escape.

A tornado spun out of the way enough to reveal Samael ushering some guests across the floor toward the dais. He was an asshole, but he wasn’t a coward.

The room was still full of chaos, but some of the rain had eased, and there weren’t as many tornadoes as before, as some of the amsirah who once controlled them either perished or fled. Hail continued to pelt me and the room, but it had eased.

I had to find Ellery before everything settled enough for others to pay attention to me again. That meant I had to pull in my lightning because it was a beacon that would lead them to where I was.

It took some time, but I retracted it while searching for Ellery, but I didn’t see her anywhere on the dance floor. Chaos still reigned, but it hadn’t been long enough since I last saw her for them to vanish into the crowd.

And a rebel wearing a hood wouldn’t blend in easily with the guests and guards. My gaze fell on the pillar thirty feet from where I last saw her.

It would make sense for the rebel to take her there. I believed the rebel was probably trying to leverage her for their freedom, but if I was wrong and they planned to harm her, then I could be far from Ellery by the time I realized I’d chosen wrong.

However, once she was free of this place and all these immortals, she could draw electricity again and torch whoever had taken her. If she was in the right frame of mind after what happened with her mother, and if the rebel hadn’t somehow suppressed her abilities.

With no other options, I decided the pillar was my best choice. When I released my hold over the tornado, my last tether to the lightning I’d managed to suck in from outside vanished.

Sprinting toward the pillar, I didn’t look back as I ducked into the alcove. The tapestry, once covering it, had been ripped free to expose the space, but no one was inside.

Kneeling at the edge of the trapdoor, I found the small latch to lift it and pulled it free. The dim glow from below illuminated a set of stone steps, but no Ellery or rebel.

If she was down here, I’d find her, and I’d kill whoever had taken her.