Page 47 of The Light Within

Putain! Putain! Putain!

Sheer panic rooted him to the spot. Distantly, he knew his brain should be kicking into overdrive, weighing up which plan of many options was best. Instead, he was frozen, feeling a little more lost with each step Cinn took away from him.

“Quickly!” Elliot yelled.

Blinking, Julien followed Elliot’s command, finally moving. Julien squeezed Elliot’s arm as he joined him. It was okay. Elliot was here. He wouldn’t let anything happen to any of them.

Darcy made to follow him and Elliot. Julien gave her a firm shove, praying she got the message, then pivoted sharply and ran.

It took only a few precious moments to catch up with Cinn. Elliot restrained his left arm while Julien grabbed his right. Their efforts ceased his movements, Cinn’s taut muscles straining against Julien’s tight grip. Cinn’s hoodie was entirely soaked through, and rain ran down his body in rivulets, his brown curls plastered to his forehead.

Julien pushed the soggy strands out of Cinn’s eyes, dull and blank. “Cinn!Mon amour!”

There wasn’t even the slightest flicker of recognition in Cinn’s clouded expression. He only grunted as he once again attempted to overpower them to continue on his path, a train on invisible tracks.

The wind picked up.Non, that wasn’t the right expression, because suddenly it grew to an almost sentient, furious roar. It whipped around them. Like it was stealing the very air from their lungs, every breath becoming a struggle.

All around them, debris was surging towards the bridge, pushed by a wind tunnel. A chaotic urban cyclone—coffee cups, a stray bike tyre, newspapers. Several items slammed into them, the force of the wind growing with every passing second.

One of Julien’s feet slipped. Knocked off balance, his grip slackened and Cinn surged a step forward.

Unable to find the breath to even shout, Julien caught Elliot’s eye. Elliot shook his head wildly.

It would be a futile effort, but he had to try. Julien reached for the windmotes—the air charged with an unlimited supply, a buzzing energetic frenzy of them. He brought an unfathomably high quantity of them under his control, reaching out as far as possible, squeezing his eyes shut for a second for that extra sliver of concentration—

No sooner than he’d begun to channel them—to propel themagainstthe tempest that was sucking them towards imminent doom—they slipped out of his control. The sensation was like holding onto a slipperyfish. Julien was channelling but a drop in the ocean compared to the maelstrom of energy the gale possessed.

Elliot let out a loud roar of frustration, setting his face in a grim line and repositioning himself to push his entire body weight into Cinn.

Julien’s aching muscles strained to the point of shaking, the burn in them something unreal. His heart gave a painful squeeze when he shouted, “It’s no use!”

A powerful surge knocked them forwards, once, then again, even though Julien pushed against Cinn with all his might, clutching his grey hoodie like it was the only thing tethering him to the earth.

How have you let this happen? You only just saved him, and now you’ve marched him straight back into mortal danger.

If this kills him…

A few hot, frustrated tears made their home amongst the rain dripping down Julien’s face.

A wobble of his left knee. His leg gave way, slipping past Cinn’s and landing with a painful smack on the tarmac. Elliot shouted his name—without Julien’s support, Cinn flew forward out of his grip.

Non!

Using the last dregs of his energy, Julien pushed himself forwards, fingertips brushing against the fabric of Cinn’s coat before it was wrenched out of his hand.

Julien stared at his empty palm.

This was it. The moment they lost the battle.

And now, it was better to face the enemy head on than bury their heads in the sand.

Julien gave up resisting, allowing himself to be pulled deeper into the bridge. He grabbed Cinn’s hand, wrapping it firmly around his own. If they were going down, they’d go down together.

With Elliot on one side of Cinn, and Julien on the other, they fastened their gaze ahead of them, to the middle of the bridge, to face their fate.

Three umbraphages, wildly whipping their tendrils of black in every direction. Their shape and space expanded horrifically wide, creating a wall of darkness that stretched the entire width of the bridge. Several cars lay misshapen on their sides, haphazardly strewn across the ground, flung like toys by the hurricane. Even they were being dragged by the powerful tempest, scraping along the ground.

A fork of bright white lightning tore the dark sky in half.

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