Page 61 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

F ighting through the storm wasn’t easy, but at least Irishen could stay on his feet. He kept dragging Justin with him through the fallen bodies, pouring rain, and howling wind. Somehow, he knew where to go. Felt the pull toward the eye of the storm.

They hadn’t been attacked at first, Elena’s brother had tried to lure him out of the campus. When Justin had refused to go, they had tried to force them to leave. It didn’t take a genius to figure out something was up.

Still, Elena had played it well. They had been following her on the other side of the campus when she’d had someone portal her away, and her brother had stepped in. So, either Hell Realm was involved in Elena’s schemes, or Elena was involved in theirs.

Either way, Irishen’d had enough. Their engagement was over, and his family could bite the dust for all he cared. Elena’s family was more than welcome to declare war on them. He would wipe the floor with Elena and her power if it came to that.

Where she was strong and powerful, he was strong, powerful, and he had spent a lot of time training and learning every trick he could against any fire element. She would lose.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Justin gasped past the wind. Irishen only nodded and kept going.

Slowly, they reached the center of the campus, where the storm was roaring. It took him a moment to realize that all the fighting was over. Only a few beings could withstand the storm enough to even stay upright; the rest were cowering on the ground.

It wasn’t raining so hard anymore, but the wind was whipping around the thickest mist Irishen had ever seen. It felt like needles against his skin, and the wind held a sound—a raging warning to stay back, to stand down.

Most seemed to listen to it. Even Justin was covering his ears as Irishen dragged him forward, refusing to leave him behind.

From a building, more figures emerged, also stumbling over the rubble to get down. Irishen didn’t need to see clearly to know one of them was Hellion, so he changed course to them. They were all moving slowly, but inexorably toward the storm, still raging strong if rainless.

It seemed that Grant could walk on his own, barely and behind Marc, but on his own. Hazard was holding onto Hellion like Justin was to him. They met by the fountain that was still miraculously standing and braced together. No one spoke.

The storm kept raging, but slowly the mist thinned enough to see. Then it wafted away, leaving behind only the wind and two figures standing in the middle of it.

“Sinister,” Hazard sounded relieved.

“This is not his doing,” Marc said. “That power has heir apparent power written all over it, but he’s not one yet. Neither is Wayla.”

The wind wailed in response.

“What. Is. She?” Hellion ground out. Irishen wanted to point out the obvious, but kept his mouth shut. There were enough little inconsistencies, that stormbringer didn’t quite match as well as he would have liked.

“Well,” Grant, the ever-sensible, said, “who and whatever she is, we’d better be prepared to deal with this mess the moment she lets that storm go. It’s winding down.”

He was right. Justin and Hazard were standing on their own now. It looked like Sinister was talking to Wayla, at least based on the way his arms were flying. Irishen took a step forward just as Sinister opened a portal and pulled Wayla through.

The storm died down and left behind only silence.