Blake and Raven were waiting for me at one of our emergency meeting spots outside the city. Neither Blake nor Raven made any move in my direction when I landed near them, my body turning visible again.
“It’s all clear,” a voice behind my back said, and I glanced above my shoulder to see Ulry standing there. Blake nodded at him, and Ulry immediately went away.
“What? Did you think I was being followed?” I asked as I approached them, trying to appear as calm as possible.
“Honestly, we weren’t even sure you’d be coming,” Raven said. “How did you escape?”
“Oh, I found a way. Sorry I couldn’t come sooner. The agents were tracking me through the whole city. I barely managed to escape them.” I crossed my arms. “I’m glad you two are okay. I didn’t know if some of the agents had gone after you.”
“They were after us,” Blake said. “But we shook them off in the crowd of people who were for some reason fighting with their elements.”
“We have to be more careful,” Raven said. “Lily’s team is using more advanced technology and has different ways to track us, and our higher elemental energy levels give us away if we’re in low energy areas.”
“Maybe we should team up with magic disease carriers.” I chuckled. “At least they’d be able to tell us how strong elements were in a particular area.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Blake said, eyeing me suspiciously. “We need to find the Strong and end this once and for all. I hope you didn’t lose the book.”
“Nope.” I grinned at him. “It’s still with me.”
“Did any of Lily’s men try to talk to you?” Raven asked.
“Why?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
Blake sighed. “Ulry was almost attacked by two of Lily’s agents today, and they were trying to convince him that they were his friends, like real friends. As if they’d known each other forever. They even told him they’d reunite him with his sister. He isn’t sure what they were trying to achieve, but he escaped them and called his sister just in case, and she’s still safe miles away from here.”
“What?” I frowned.
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on. I guess they’re trying to manipulate us with their stories and turn us against each other. They know there are powerful elementals in our group, so they’re probably trying to find a way to divide us,” Blake said. “They haven’t told you anything like that, have they? You at least know you’re strong enough not to get mind-controlled, but the others like Ulry... Raven and I assured him it’s all fine, and he understands, but... I’m afraid for the others.”
I bit down on my lip, remembering that blonde woman who had been trying to convince me she was my mother. “That’s strange. No one spoke to me, so I really don’t know what Lily’s plan is. Maybe you’re right. Maybe she’s trying to divide our group. It would make it easier for her to take us out.”
“Yeah, we made sure to tell everyone about this new tactic. I hope no one will fall for it,” Blake said, taking a step toward me, but I backed away. His eyebrows drew together. “Are you still mad at me?”
“Yes, yes I am,” I said. “But let’s focus on the important thing here, and that’s finding the Strong.”
“We actually mind-controlled some people into helping us with that while you were gone.” A smug smile appeared on Raven’s face. “One of those elementals that Zavina told us about has a family. Two daughters and a son. They’re all old enough to be able to use their elements. The records say they all have one element, but of course, that might be a lie.”
“Great.” I was glad there was some progress in our search. “Are we going to pay them a visit?”
“Of course we are, but we have to be careful. We should use our elements less so that Lily’s team can’t detect us,” Blake said.
“I have a better idea.” I grinned. “Raven, you should find some random elementals in various parts of the city and mind control them to use their elements. Get them to fight each other or whatever. Just make enough distraction for the cops and Lily’s energy level detectors. Oh, and make sure the people never realize they were mind-controlled.”
“Why not? Imagine how crazy things would get if people found out any of them could be mind-controlled to do whatever we want them to?” Blake smirked.
“We haven’t found the Strong yet. We can’t risk starting a war before we have enough power,” I said. “And we’d caused enough rumors already.”
“You’re right.” Blake’s body started to shimmer. “Let’s find the Strong.”
I nodded and turned into air. As we rose into the air, I prayed the Strong was close. Things were falling apart around me, and I wanted to complete the ritual so I could see who exactly had been lying to me. If it were someone powerful enough to mind control me, and maybe Blake and the others too, then I’d need all the power I could get to fight him.
“What exactly did you tell them to do?” I asked Raven as I saw a strong burst of water rising above the buildings at the other end of the city. Police sirens could be heard from everywhere.
“I arranged a little competition.” Raven’s voice was filled with amusement. “No one will know it was us.”
“Good,” I said, and we landed in the backyard of the house where Tori Rivas lived with her family. Everything around the house was quiet, and the windows were dark.
“Do you think they’re inside? Sleeping, maybe?” Raven asked.
“No idea. Let’s go check.” Blake turned into air again and surged toward the house. I followed him, but as we circled around, we realized there wasn’t even a tiny hole for us to go through. The house seemed to be completely sealed off.
“I have a feeling she knows about tainted elementals,” I whispered.
“Then what do we do? Break down the door?” Raven asked.
“No.” I turned visible and pointed at the tiny red light that was blinking high above the door. “We’d trigger an alarm.”
“So what?” Blake materialized next to me. “By the time the cops get here, we can find our Strong.”
“We could try, but what if they have a bunker or panic room inside? If the woman is paranoid, she could lock everything down and we wouldn’t be able to get inside. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if all or some of the rooms in the house were element-proof.”
“I brought a gun,” Blake said.
I shook my head. “I doubt it would help us much. And we don’t want to accidentally shoot the Strong.”
A tick started in Blake’s jaw. “Now what? We just wait here until someone opens the door or comes out?”
Waiting seemed like the best option, but we were all impatient, and we didn’t want to be in one place for too long because Lily’s patrols could spot us. “No, we can’t wait. We have to draw them out.”
“Are we going to ring the bell or what?” Raven asked.
I looked around the yard. The white fence was pretty high, which meant the neighbors would have trouble seeing what was going on, and the tall pine trees were shielding most of the house. Maybe that was why Tori had chosen this house. Privacy would mean a lot to her if she had special kids. “No, they’d never come out for no good reason or open the door to unknown people, unless...”
“Unless what?” Blake asked.
“We ring the bell and start using our elements in front of the house, pretending it’s for that challenge Raven started. You know, we pretend to be some drunk teens,” I said.
Blake gave me a skeptical look. “They’re going to call the cops on us.”
“No, they won’t. I don’t think they like to draw attention to themselves. Someone will come out to try to send us away or even open a window to yell at us. That’s all we need.”
“Lily’s team will detect energy levels here, too, and send someone for us.” Raven crossed her arms, chewing on her lower lip.
“True, they could do that, but do they really have that many agents to check on every single spike of energy? And we don’t have to use much energy, just a little. We can yell and sing or something.” I lightly punched Blake on the shoulder. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sing.”
“I don’t like to sing.” He pressed his lips into a tight line.
“Really?” I arched an eyebrow at him.
“Really. But I can kick things around and make a racket.” His eyes fell on the wooden chairs and a table.
“Good. Let’s do this,” I said. “And remember, we’re looking for even the smallest opportunity. Just turn into air and slip inside. Even if it turns out we can’t use our elements inside, we’ll figure something out.”
I called to my fire and threw a small fireball into the air, letting out a loud shriek.
Raven rang the bell. “Anybody home?” she yelled and started giggling. “Hope not!”
Blake had broken the chair into pieces and was stomping over the wood. A dim light started to glow inside, and I carefully watched the house. Blake threw a sharp piece of wood at the window and I caught it with my air before it could hit the glass. I gave him a warning look. I didn’t know if we could break any windows without triggering an alarm, and I was afraid that if Tori thought she couldn’t deal with us herself, she’d call the cops, privacy be damned. So it was better she just thought we were a bunch of drunk kids.
I toyed with another fireball in my hand as the attic window slid open a bit.
“Get off my property! Now!” someone yelled. A rifle was pointed through the opening, and a shot was fired. I had no idea where the bullet had gone, because I immediately turned myself into air and rushed toward the window. Someone gasped, pulling back the rifle, but I had already slipped inside.