No argument there.
As I stood in absolute silence, my ears rang as I strained to listen for any little noise. The inky mist oozed closer to me, closing me in. Movement to my left caught my eye, and I whipped in that direction, staring into the darkness. Nothing stared back, no glowing eyes or frightening dark elemental glaring back at me. “Something is out there.”
“Is this the same kind of fog that attacked you at the Point?” Brooks asked.
I didn’t ask how he knew about the attack. “Yep.” It was also the first time I swore I spotted Alec lurking in the shadows, but I left that part out. “Same smell too.”
“It’s dark magic.”
Clay spoke up. “God, I hate these guys. Why can’t they use their power for good?”
A twig snapped to my right, and we all stiffened. When another snapped to my left, we faced that direction. Then a noise behind us sent us whipping around again.
Son of a blowfish. We were surrounded. How many other members of the patrol were being surrounded at this very moment? How many had already been surrounded? How many were still left after the inevitable—and outnumbered—attack?
“You know,” I called out into the gray air. “It’s rude to sneak up on a person. Why don’t you all be nice elementals and introduce yourselves?”
A low, guttural growl echoed in the darkness. I was oddly calm as I looked off into the shadows of the darkness.
The blast of air came out of nowhere. I didn’t have a chance to warn the others before it hit us, sending us flying in opposite directions.
“Montana!”
“Find Stace! I got this.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Clay, I got this. Go!” I sent air in the direction the blast had come from and heard a grunt as it hit someone. I created a ring of fire around me like Spencer had done during one of our lessons. The flames changed from orange to red to purple as I increased my call, growing the ring. If the fire stole all the oxygen, the fog wouldn’t have any way to travel and would, hopefully, die.
I concentrated on the heat burning through every inch of my skin. My clothes smoldered as my body grew hotter and hotter. I called air to me, trapping it inside the ring and using it to create a tornado of fire. It spun fast, faster, sucking in the fog and shooting it straight up into the sky. It worked and cleared the air.
That’s when I saw them. Four dark elementals, each standing around me like points on a compass, all dressed in head-to-toe black. Clearly, there was a dress code to be a dark elemental. I didn’t recognize any of them. Not that it mattered. I smelled their stench. That was good enough for me.
Using my innate ability to feel an elemental’s primary, I pegged each one with their primary element and, in one swift move, hit them with their opposites.
Earth slammed into the tree behind him, the force of the air attack too great for the barrel-chested guy to fight. He bounced when he landed and stayed down. Water charged, her long dark hair flowing behind her, but when I hit her with a fireball, she fell to the ground and rolled. Fire didn’t fare any better, not with a thick layer of ice covering his thin frame.
Air, however, brought up her hand, halting the roots snaking around her. What the hell? An opposites caller? I didn’t know the dark side had any of those. She fluffed her dirty blonde hair like stealing my call made her the more powerful elemental.
I couldn’t wait to prove her wrong.
When I felt her stealing my air element, I narrowed my glare. Why were dark elementals so predictable? This chick looked like she’s been around awhile, with deep lines on her forehead that made her look like she had a permafrown. The crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes weren’t from smiling, I was pretty sure. She should know how to at least shake things up a bit.
Instead, she done exactly what I’d expected. I looked at her. “Dark magic? Really?”
“Really really.” She waved her hand, sending me flying. I landed on my wrist wrong and heard a pop. A rush of pain shot up my arm.
Great. I really hoped I didn’t just rebreak my wrist. Whether or not a new cast was in my future, this bitch was going down. I spun in a crouched position and threw icy water at her. It hit her square in the middle of her chest. She flew back and slammed into a tree. I nodded at the tree, and it reached down to trap her in its large branches. This time, she couldn’t slow their movement.
“What the hell?” She thrashed but couldn’t break free of the tree’s hold. The lines on her face deepened as she realized her predicament.
I smiled, impressed at not only my ability, but the tree’s grip. “Thank you.”
She shrieked in rage when she realized she couldn’t move.
“Jesus, lady. What’s with the banshee impression?” I wiggled my finger in my ear as it rang.
“How are you doing this!”
I ignored her and checked the rest of the dark elementals. I didn’t kill any of them, but I did knock them out. I’d take the win. Glancing behind me, I spotted Brooks and Clay battling—and winning—against a dark elemental and let them have their fun. I figured I’d get what I needed out of the one still conscious, and approached.
She snarled and narrowed beady black eyes at me. “You’d better kill me, quint. Because as soon as I’m free, I’ll kill you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I shook my head and tightened my ponytail to keep my hair out of my eyes. “Don’t any of you have better names for me than quint? I mean, that’s like me calling you trio. Not really an insult, you know?”
“How about I call you dilute?” She grinned coolly.
Again with that dumb insult. Maybe if I’d grown up in
