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“Her fire is useless on the water,” Maya said. “I’m going in.”
Lann held her back. “Cain will want him alive.”
“Sure.” She smiled. “I’ll drag him out by his fancy coat tails.”
With Lann’s attention fixed on Clelia and the hydromancist, the hailstones and wind had stopped. Bullets flew over the team’s heads as the soldiers continued their attack.
“Lann!” Joss clenched his jaw so hard it made a crunching sound. “Fucking deal with it.”
Maya was already making her way down the hill. Joss covered for her, shooting left, right, and center. Clelia was on her feet again. The coat of the man on the water caught fire. He pulled his arms from the sleeves and dropped it into the water. His escape route was blocked on land. The only way out for him was farther into the sea. He hovered, looking as if he was going to bolt, but then a wall of water the size of Kilimanjaro climbed into the air.
Sean’s heart stopped beating. Miles of land would be washed away. Only Maya could survive such a blow.
“Maya,” Lann called out in warning just before a powerful bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and struck the dark-haired man on the water.
His large frame shook, and his arms flailed wide. The current ran through his body into the water. When that wave crashed, everything in its path would be charred with the amount of energy Lann had sent into the water. Clelia had no way of outrunning that wave.
Joss jumped to his feet. “No!”
A bullet hissed past his head.
Sean did the only thing he could. He concentrated on the plates under the surface. Rumbling sounded. The earth trembled. The wave was at its peak, about to break.
“Maya!” Joss shouted.
“I’ve got it,” Maya said into the comm system.
Instead of toppling over, the water paused in the air. It curled backward and evened out to a smooth swell. Maya had scarcely restored the sea before the earth cracked open. A canyon erupted along the length of the beach. The soldiers stumbled back, but it was too late. The earth swallowed everything, the soil protesting with a groan as Sean reversed the action to fix the plates. Sand filled up the holes, burying the fish and the bodies. Another rumble, and all was quiet. The evidence of the war that had played out was gone.
The sudden silence was deafening. Hooking the gun sling over his shoulder, Joss sprinted down the hill. Maya caught her breath with her hands on her hips, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Good teamwork, Maya,” Lann said into the system. “I knew you’d catch that wave in time.”
Joss pulled Clelia into his arms. Maya advanced to the edge of the water and threw her gun into the sea, against the hydromancist’s leg, probably as a precaution. In some cases, excess electricity remained. Seeing it was safe, she grabbed the legs of the man floating in the water and dragged his body out onto the sand.
Sean walked down to the beach with Lann to check for survivors, but nothing remained. They followed the shore until they reached Maya where she knelt next to the body of the hydromancist.
“Who was he?” Sean asked. According to his father’s connections, Maya was the only hydromancist.
“Xavier.” When she looked up, there was a sad light in her turquoise eyes.
“You knew him?”
“We met a long time ago in South Africa.” She straightened. “I never thought he’d go over to Godfrey’s side.”
Joss approached with Clelia, holding her tightly with an arm around her shoulders.
Clelia looked down at the man. “Another art lost.”
“Too bad he didn’t transfer it,” Lann said.
Maya grinned. “Who said he didn’t?” She winked at Sean. “Speaking of which.”
They all turned to Sean.
Joss studied him. “You got yours back, I see.”
“And Armelle’s.” Maya patted Sean’s shoulder. “Good job.”
“I need to get to Asia,” he said.
Lann looked at the sky. “Our only means in is via helijet.”
“Done,” Joss said. “It’s landing in five minutes.”
When the commander headed for the jungle, Sean grabbed his arm. “What about Asia?”
“We’ll take you to her.”
Joss’s harsh face was compassionate, and it scared Sean more than all the danger they’d faced since that morning.
They walked in silence to the clearing where the helicopter had landed earlier. The sound of a jet tore through the sky. Sean looked up. The black craft broke the speed of sound, already ahead of the noise that followed. It circled once, hovered, and descended. The force of the blades bent palm trees and flattened bushes. The aircraft looked like a cross between a fighter plane and a helicopter.
Joss sheltered Clelia’s body under his arm and rushed her to the craft while keeping an eye on the surroundings. Lann followed in their steps, the blond braid that hung down his back messy from the strands that had slipped free.
