Page 117 of Touched

She’s going to decapitate him. His small daggers don’t stand a chance against that.

Cyrus sees her intent and counters, yelling, “Move!” They shift as one and her blade strikes against Cyrus’s ax. The metals meet. Loud clangs fill the air like screams as he staggers into Callum’s back from the force.

The FaeDorcha continue to circle them while Callum and Cyrus turn, blocking and meeting every thrust of their blades. But they’re outnumbered. Both are covered in blood. I see cuts and gouges along their chests and arms, and Callum is limping.

I need to help them!

But anything I send their way could also injure them.

What do I do?

A loud, booming voice beside me breaks me from my horrified trance. “Aeris!”

It’s Da. He sees my Kindred and his son in the middle of a waking nightmare. Devyn appears beside him. She gasps, “The FaeDorcha are desperate and enraged. They did not expect us to fight. We’ve overtaken them. But…” She stares at Cyrus and Callum. “We must help them.” Fear consumes her face.

Da nods, quickly saying, “Can you ground them? Your affinity is Earth, and you have a connection with my son… Can you reach him?” Devyn shakes her head no, pain and frustration evident within her beautiful face. Da sighs before quickly saying, “Use whatever you can to hold them down.Groundthem. Youcando that.”

His attention turns to me, without waiting for her to respond. “We haveoneshot, Aeris. I need you to cloak Cyrus and Callum with an impenetrable dome of air. You must do this to protect them. Use the air and push themdown. I’m going to create a tornado and suck the FaeDorcha into the highest points of the atmosphere. It will not kill them. And what goes up must come down, but I can send the storm away as soon as they’re above ground.”

“This is dangerous… we could bury Cyrus and Callum, but this is the only way.”

He wants me to use the air to push them into the ground?

Cyrus can control the Earth. He can protect them…

But if he doesn’t know, they’ll be buried alive…

Devyn locks eyes with me. I read her loud and clear. We both know this is what we have to do. We nod as one.

Her hands move, and suddenly, roots emerge from the ground beneath Callum’s and Cyrus’s feet. They wrap around their ankles, calves, and knees. Both look down, uncertain of what’s happening. The roots continue to twine around them, rising up their legs and thighs, anchoring them to the ground. The wind begins to swirl and strengthen around us. Da shouts, “Now! Do itnow, Aeris!”

Using everything within me, I conjure a mighty storm, but instead of releasing it up or out, I concentrate on covering only Callum and Cyrus, directing it down. It forms above their heads. The air becomes so thick, it’s white. It begins to descend around them, like they’re wrapped in a cloud. But not a wispy and feathery one. This is a thick, impenetrable wall of air.

The FaeDorcha are also confused by what’s happening. They stop and stare before looking to each other for some sort of explanation. Kalilith sees the air dome begin to cover my Kindred and my brother, protecting them, separating them from her and her puppets. Rage takes over her hideous face, contorting it even more. Even from this distance, I watch her eyes turn into solid black orbs. Shrieking with malice, she swings her sword with all her might.

The dome reaches the ground as I stagger under the weight of the perilous control I have, trying desperately to stop it from continuing past the barrier of the earth.

Da is panting with exertion, his hair is flying around his face in the wind. My own is whipping about, slapping me in the face and leaving lash marks along my face, arms, and chest. Devyn, too, is intent on her purpose, fiercely concentrating, her brow creased and her lips devoid of color from the density of pressing them together.

Da flings his arms wide, encompassing the sky. The FaeDorcha are immediately jerked off their feet and sucked up. They become black specs within the snarling, swirling, ominous black and gray mass.

I’ve never seen anything like this…

It roars so loudly my head feels as though it will explode. My ears burn with the need to relieve the pressure, and beneath my nose feels wet. I scream but I don’t even know if sound comes out.

As the enormous, angry tornado disappears into the atmosphere, Da collapses onto the ground beside me. I do the same, trying desperately not to black out.

* * *

What the fuck is happening?

Is Cyrus doing this? Is he trying to have the earth swallow us like a sinkhole?

And that wind… that pressure. It’s so intense. Like it’s trying to drive us beneath the surface. The air isso thick and heavy, I cannot breathe.

Is this how I die?

The roots suddenly stop climbing. They’ve just about reached my hips. I’m tucked so tightly against Cyrus’s back that our wings are entangled.

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