Page 58 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

W ave was dreaming. She was in the middle of a glorious storm. Salt water splashed on her face and fed her soul. Every cell in her body was brimming with power, ready to be used. The world around her shook with it.

When another shake hit her, Wave’s eyes flew open, and her gaze immediately landed on Marc, who was sitting on her bed. The house was actually shaking.

“Shh, it’s all right. Just another power surge. The campus is warded against the worst of it and the house doubly so.”

“Oh.” That was all she could say, her mind slowly catching up. “Power surge. You mean Hell Moon is rising?”

“Yes, in an hour or so.”

“And it’s already shaking the ground?”

“Don’t worry. There’s no saying where the actual surges hit. This is just a little warm-up.”

“How do students who don’t know enough shielding handle this?”

Marc looked meaningfully at her but still answered. “There are safe bunkers for anyone wanting to use one. But most students know enough to deflect or evade power surges. Unless an uncharacteristically strong one lands near.”

“Hmm.” Wave stretched and then sat up. “I think I need to dress up.”

“You should rest. Ilijas said you need rest,” Marc argued.

“I can rest dressed up. I don’t like the feeling in the air.”

“What feeling is that?”

Wave was silent for a moment and then shivered.

Her siren side was straining and writhing, simultaneously reaching out and pulling back.

It made Wave dizzy. She made sure to check her voice, no accidental siren spells allowed, before replying.

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right.

But I haven’t ever witnessed Hell Moon either. Is it cloudy?”

“It’s a clear night,” Marc responded. He didn’t stop Wave from getting out of the bed, and she looked around.

“Any clothes here for me?”

He sighed and then nodded. “Yeah. Jarred moved all your stuff here, just look in the closet.”

Wave went digging and found that all the clothes they had gotten for her were there. She would process that later; for now, she just needed to get dressed. Yoga pants and a tank top with a hoodie sounded about right.

When she climbed back into the bed, Marc eyed her. “Hungry?”

Wave’s stomach answered that one with a loud gurgling. She nodded. Marc looked reluctant but offered, “I think you can come downstairs to eat if you feel up to it.”

“Thanks.” Wave followed him downstairs slowly. She felt dizzy and fragile. Still way better than she ever imagined possible after pulling in the storm. Ilijas was pure magic in the healing department.

Quietly, she sat at the kitchen island while Marc made her a sandwich and a bowl of yogurt with fruit. They sat in silence as she ate, and once she had rinsed off the dishes and put them into the dishwasher, Marc motioned for her to follow him to the living room.

“Why didn’t you tell me you can shield, Wayla?”

She bit back the sigh. “I already told you. I wanted to learn the way you do it. It’s so much better.”

Marc sat down on the sofa and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

He looked too hot like that; Wave just wanted to crawl into his lap and forget that anything ever happened.

When he didn’t speak and just stared at her, she sat next to him.

That way, she could face forward and not look at him.

“I can shield,” she said quietly.

“What kind of shield?”

“And that is the reason why I didn’t tell you.”

“What?” he now sounded completely baffled.

“I can’t answer that question and I didn’t want to lie… or risk you figuring it out.”

“So, you lied about not being able to shield? Do you know how worried we’ve been about you?” He sounded angry, and Wave twisted to face him.

“No,” she said. “I didn’t… even think about that.”

Now he looked furious. “What? You didn’t think of us—me at all.”

“No! That’s not what I meant,” Wave hurried to explain. “I meant… I meant that I didn’t think you’d be worried about me. Why would you be?”

“Wayla,” he growled, then took a deep breath and looked at her for a long time. “Gods. I can tell you really mean that. You really, honest to god, think that we wouldn’t be worried. I don’t know which is worse.”

“With me, both are probably bad,” Wave mumbled under her breath and turned away again. “I’m sorry. I never meant to worry you, okay?”

“No, it’s not ‘okay’,” Marc spat out. Wave flinched back, and Marc growled, looking disgusted. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I didn’t think you would, but I can tell my presence is causing… issues. Maybe I should get back to my dorm.”

“You are not going anywhere with Hell Moon rising.”

“But I can shield. You don’t need to worry. I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Wayla, you take one step toward that door and I’ll haul you over my shoulder and lock you in the basement.” Marc was dead serious with his threat, Wave could tell.

“Fine, I—” The whole house shook hard enough for some of the paintings to fall to the floor. Marc’s phone chimed, and he pulled it out.

“What?”

Wave couldn’t hear what was said on the other side, but Marc’s expression told her it was nothing good.

“Where? How many?”

Again, a short silence, and then Marc shouted, “Grant! Hellion is under attack! We need to move, now!”

“Coming!” Grant’s voice replied from deeper in the house.

“What?” Wave gasped. Marc turned to her.

“You stay put in here. The house is warded, you’ll be safe in here.”

“What’s happening?”

“Some Hell Realm dispute. I need to get over there to back up Hellion.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you are not,” Grant said from the doorway. Marc rushed to his feet and over to him. Slowly, Wave followed them.

“Wayla, stay,” Marc ordered her one more time. Then they were out of the door, running. Wave debated listening to him for five seconds, and then she was running after them. Fuck staying back if she could help.

The moment she stepped through the door all the energy in the air grabbed her. It messed up her senses and frayed her control to the point that Wave had to focus on containing it. At least it seemed to give a boost to her natural healing, because with every step she could run more easily.

The campus looked like a war zone when Wave ran after Marc and Grant. Or it actually was one, and she refused to fucking stay behind. Yet another massive power surge landed, and Wave felt it demolishing the rest of Tracthesian’s protections.

The air around her changed, and power flowed freely, granting all things access.

Those protections should have held even Hell Moon’s power surges, unless someone had tampered with them.

There was no doubt in her mind that someone had done so in order to launch this attack.

Otherwise, the alarms would have gone off and safeguards would have been deployed.

Hell Moon glinted above in a cloudless sky, beautiful, powerful, dangerous. Instead of being a pure ball of fire like Wave had imagined, it was more like a marble made out of swirls of red, purple, and black.

And apparently, it had decided to focus its attention on Tracthesian Academy, or was it wreaking even more havoc elsewhere? Wave almost fell over as she stumbled over an uprooted tree root. She caught herself against the leaning trunk and winced.

Grant and Marc were small specs far ahead of her, and her body was protesting the sudden exercise.

The fact that she was upright was a miracle in itself and purely thanks to the work Ilijas had done.

She couldn’t run fast enough, she didn’t have the energy, no matter how fast her body was absorbing power from the air to aid her.

Gritting her teeth, Wave pushed up. Hellion was under attack, and he had helped her when he didn’t have to, apparently even going so far as to cover for the damage she had done and who knew what else. Wave let go of her third shield and let the power seep in even faster.

She wasn’t low on power, but she would need to use everything she had to compensate for her weak disposition.

Well, not everything, but enough. Pushing her body to move again, Wave ran.

Every step pushed her further, faster, and she burned power to keep up with Marc and Grant.

They hadn’t realized she was following them yet.

They ran right to the middle of the campus, where Wave’s pace faltered. The building that held the banquet hall was partly in rubble. There were demons and hell creatures and students and teachers and unlucky bystanders everywhere. It was impossible to distinguish a friend from a foe.

Ignoring all that, Wave kept going. Marc would know where Hellion was. To her horror, the first person she spotted wasn’t Hellion though, but a slumped figure of Zahir. Sinister was standing with his back to Wave and fighting off a group of… fire clan warriors.

What the fuck was going on here?

From what she’d overheard, it had sounded like a Hell Realm dispute. What were nature elementals doing mixed in? Unless… A horrible feeling started crawling up Wave’s throat. This wasn’t some Hell Realm power struggle. This was something more.

She watched as a fire arrow flew toward Sinister’s exposed back.

Maybe he had enough power and internal shields to block it. She should find Hellion…

Cursing, Wave changed course and threw her hand out, pulling up an ice wall at Sinister’s back.

His shoulders flinched, but he didn’t turn from the attack coming at him and Zahir from the front. Wave ground her teeth. Cowards. They were attacking what they saw as a weak link. Well, none of the Powerhouses were weak, but those two weren’t combatants as such.

Sinister kept shielding, but Wave couldn’t spot any offense from him, and they had him pinned, so he couldn’t open a portal. The ground rumbled as Wave got pissed off.

Someone had noticed her shield, and now fireballs were flying her way. Nothing like the little flames from Dr. Kelsey’s class. These would take off a limb if they hit. Still not fatal force, though, Wave noted icily as she wrapped herself in layers of water.

They were pulling in more and more attention. Battle lines were being drawn, and anyone not affiliated with either party tried desperately to get out of the way. Wave pulled up another ice wall as her first one cracked and melted away.

These weren’t some mindless grunts. Not enough to fight any of the Powerhouses one on one but ten to one…

She made it to Sinister’s side just as he fell to one knee. He blinked up at Wave, confused.

“Wayla? What are you doing here?”

“Can you stand?” Wave wasted precious seconds on asking.

She had to keep pulling external shields up one after another, a feat that wouldn’t be possible in her current state without the Hell Moon pulsing with power and boosting her tidal-reliant powers.

Then there was all the excess free power floating around as well.

Unfortunately, it was free power, which meant their attackers had some access to the same reserves. No doubt part of the plan.

“You need to get out of here,” Sinister shouted over the fire crackling and sizzling against her ice.

“No. Can you fucking stand?”

Sinister pushed to his feet, wobbling. “Yes.”

“Good. Take Zahir and portal him out of here. I’ll cover you.”

“What—how did you—”

“I know you can portal him. Now fucking do it!” Wave shouted. “I can’t hold all of them for long.”

It seemed that Sinister caught up only then that they were in a nice little ice bubble. Even the ground was frozen over. Just then, a massive fire wall slammed into her shield and evaporated it. Wave caught Elena’s smirk on the other side.

“Go!” she screamed at Sinister and pulled in more power from the air. Her body creaked and cracked down to her bones. Fuck it hurt. She wasn’t meant to hold this much as once, not without her well fortifying her.

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Can you take two?”

Sinister choked, and that was all Wave needed to know.

“Go!”

Her shield fell, and heat singed her skin as she pushed Sinister behind her. Then the world swayed, and she knew his portal was open.

Shouts increased, and more fire poured in. So, they were trying to capture them, not kill. Wave’s stomach settled, and she knew without watching that Sinister and Zahir were gone. Good. Now she didn’t need to be so gods damned careful.

Wave smiled widely at Elena. “Catch this, bitch.”

The lightning bolt flew out of Wave’s hand, and a barrage of them followed it.

The air crackled as electricity met fire.

Standing alone, Wave kept the group of twenty or so engaged.

Worry gnawed at her stomach over Hellion, but this was the best she could do.

Keep these fuckers out of his hair and hope that he could take care of himself.