“I think that’s for the best,” Ryker stated.“We can’t set them free.Are you okay with that?”he asked me.
“No, I’m not, but I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
Ryker pulled me close and kissed the top of my head.
“Are we going to tell the others about her ability with the weathers?”Ianto asked.
“No.For now, we’ll keep it between us,” Ryker said.“It will come out with time, but not yet.They’re still dealing with learning she’s a lightning bearer and that Ivan’s dead.”
“I agree that it’s best to keep this under wraps for now,” Tucker said.
“I have to start training again,” I told them.“Now that we’ve adjusted to life in the woods, it’s time for me to get to work again.”
“I want to watch,” Scarlet said.
“I wouldn’t mind being there too,” Ianto said; Callan and Tucker nodded.
I buried my uneasiness at feeling like a freak show, but I wouldn’t tell them no.
CHAPTERSEVENTY
Ryker
The fog rollingacross the ground crept so thickly it covered the leaves and debris littering the forest floor.Gray tendrils slipped through the trees and into the clearing, where they crept higher until they obscured the bottoms of the trees and concealed the boulders tucked beneath the limbs.
The birds stopped singing, and nearby animals fled deeper into the woods.They sensed the unnaturalness of this mist; it wasn’t often a fog so thick existed.
As it rose higher, a wind howled through the trees as it raced toward the clearing.The leaves rattled, and branches clicked as the trees swayed from the wind.
It whipped into the clearing, where it created a funnel that didn’t disperse the fog but sucked it up and spread it higher until it encased the branches.Rain fell to patter against the leaves and ground.
As the rain fell, lightning flashed throughout the tornado and branched off to the sides.It shot little bolts all around as it sizzled across the clearing and crashed into the targets established for Ellery.She was as deadly accurate with the lightning as she was with an arrow.
Hail whipped out of the tornado.Large balls thudded off the trees, clattered against the rocks, and bashed the targets, swiftly becoming little more than tattered remnants of their former selves.
Power swelled in the air, bringing an almost rhythmic thrumming sound that pulsed around the clearing.Thunder quaked the trees as the ground heaved.
The crack that splintered the earth swallowed some of the fog as it poured inside to obscure the depth of the hole.Beside me, Scarlet gasped as her hand went to her throat.
As the fog thickened, it concealed the lightning until it was dull flashes of light within the thick mist.But it was much more than that, as it destroyed what remained of the target closest to us.
A few feet before us, Ellery’s hair floated around her as her power swelled in the air.Lightning flashed from her palms as snow fell to coat her lashes; the whipping wind lashed the snow into a blizzard that further obscured my vision.
Her eyes had shifted from black with lightning bolts shooting through them to entirely white, as they became what they were when she fully dipped into her power.I worried she wouldn’t come back from this, but she’d controlled herself on the battlefield under far worse conditions.She could pull herself back again now.
“Holy shit,” Tucker breathed as large balls of hail swarmed up the outside of the tornado, turning it white.
A week had passed since we’d returned from the gargoyles.We’d spent much of that time in these woods, training Ellery’s powers and trying to draw more from her as she grew stronger.
And the more she used them, the stronger she became.Her confidence had built with each passing day, and today she was unleashing a bigger display of what she could do.It was fucking amazing.
It had also been a week of sleepless nights as Ellery came to terms with our decision to keep the gargoyles where they were.It wasn’t easy for her, but sometimes doing the right thing wasn’t easy….
Sometimes it wasn’t even the right thing.
She wasn’t the only one grappling with the decision.I knew better than anyone what it was like to be at the mercy of others, and while keeping them imprisoned was the best way to keep Tempest safe, it wasn’t an easy choice to live with.
Leaving them there probably wasn’t the right choice; it was simply the safe one.
