Chapter Forty-Four

Brae

“In order for a lightning rod to protect a structure properly, there must be an outlet for the electricity to travel. It’s usually done through a system of wires that are buried in the ground. The lightning is dispersed into the earth safely that way.

“But we don’t want to disperse it. We want to use it. The pipes can capture the lightning, and you can be at the other end of the wires to receive it. Boom. Instant charge.”

In hearing Marley’s plan, I’d been skeptical. But she was more than a meteorology nerd. She was a storm chaser.

And she didn’t just chase storms.

She caught them.

As I held on to the wires at the end, taking in the one billion volts of electricity and power straight into my bloodstream, I watched her reach up and grab the dagger by the blade.

Blood from her palms spilled on the ground as she took hold of the crystal. A sort of shock wave vibrated through the air, and her back arched. Cassen must’ve felt it, too, because he let go of the dagger. She held still for barely a second, her lips parted, then she fell into the mud, still clutching the enelia blade. Motionless.

Before Cassen could reach down and touch her, I launched myself at him.

She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She’s not…

We soared up into the air as I gripped him by the neck and sent a continuous stream of volts straight into his pulse. He tore my hands from his neck by aiming a sharp kick into my side.

At once, I could feel that his oculi were gone. They’d been stored in that dagger, and without it, he was just a normal enlil. Finally, we were on level playing fields.

Finally…I could tear him apart.

Cassen sliced his arm through the air, commanding the wind to take my head off.

I dropped a few feet, ducking the pressure as it came for me with a vengeance. I urged the wind upward, taking me higher into the clouds, as I gathered the lightning at my fingertips. Cassen dove, but I wouldn’t let him get far. I pointed my fingers down and sent the lightning arcing through the column of clouds. Firing it like an electric missile.

It hit Cassen right at the center of his back—right where Marley’s scar had been. He contorted in midair and lost his grip on the wind. He fell through the sky, his limbs flapping like a doll’s. Tifa flew in, grabbed Cassen around the waist, and hauled him up.

But that was fine.

I’d destroy them both.

I lifted my palms, orbs of electricity gathering in each one. Two for two.

“Brae!” Tifa screamed. “Please!”

Vengeance tore through me, and the spheres of lightning in my hands grew even larger, feeding hungrily off my rage. After everything they’d done, she was daring to ask for mercy?

I lifted my arms, illuminating every dark corner of the column of clouds…ready to throw them. Ready to destroy my own.

My own.

Wasn’t that what had brought us here in the end? Rage. Fighting. Vengeance. Just war upon war upon war.

As much as I loathed them, as much as I wanted to see his blood for hers, I knew this vicious cycle had to end. I didn’t want to be the source of any more death.

In the last second, I held back. The lightning zipped through the sky, blasting both Tifa and Cassen to the ground. But not enough to kill them.

I refocused. Letting go of my wrath and concentrating on the only thing that mattered.

I shot through the clouds, down to earth, the wind batting my wet clothes, and landed just a few feet short of Marley.

I slipped and slid through the mud, scooping her up into my arms. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead. Don’t be…

Her palms were bloody, but they still held the enelia blade. Except the dagger wasn’t glowing anymore. She was.

A soft purplish radiance emanated from her skin. She groaned, twisting in my arms as she blinked against the sprinkling of rain still falling.

With a smile, she lifted a hand to my face and wiped a smear of mud down my cheek. At her touch, I felt them. I felt them all under my skin.

Rain.

Wind.

Lightning.

Calling to me like a raging tempest. A hurricane brewing inside the girl I cradled to my chest.

Even covered in mud, she was beautiful. Her blond curls were caked in the stuff, matted against her skin, and rain droplets peppered her face and collarbone, sparkling from the hint of sunlight through the dispersing clouds. Her blue eyes glowed with a power that didn’t belong to her. It didn’t even belong on this planet.

Those eyes stared into mine, and I felt the earth flip under me.

She wasn’t going anywhere. And now I was trapped in this sweet, sweet torture.

Her fingertips dragged across my jaw. “You need a shower.”