“Stand down, Reed.” Rob walked out from behind Clay, standing shoulder to shoulder next to my air elemental. Having my own boyfriends attacking me didn’t shock me nearly as much as who stood with them, his hand up, palm facing me.
“You’re out of control, charge.” Spencer spoke in that damn haughty voice I hated. “Clearly, we’ll need to work on that.”
“B-b-but you’re dark.” There went me impersonating a backfiring car again. The coldness racing through my veins melted away. I looked at him, he at me, for what felt like an eternity.
“Am I? Or are you?”
I stood and dropped my jaw as more and more members of the patrol joined them, facing me. “What are you all doing standing there? Standing with him? He’s using dark magic to enhance his powers. Can’t you see it?”
They all stared back at me. Even the dark elemental whose neck I’d nearly snapped blinked at me, fear evident in her gaze.
“We got her to the infirmary as fast as we could.” Brooks returned and stood with the line of elementals looking at me like I was the bad guy and not the ones who’d attacked us, who’d nearly killed Stacey Layden. His eyes saddened as he regarded me. “It was as fast as we could, but…” He released a ragged sigh.
Hearing that broke me. I shook my head. It couldn’t be true. She wasn’t gone. She couldn’t be. “No.”
“Montana…”
“No!” I refused to believe it and backed away. Another parental figure—gone.
Spencer stepped forward. “Katy.”
“No! Stay away from me!” I continued to retreat. They were closing in. They were all closing in, choosing their side. The crushing blow blinded me and fueled my actions. I had to get away from them, had to clear my head and plan my next move.
So I teleported out.
19
Where the hell was I?
In my haste to escape—okay, run away—I didn’t think about where my teleport would take me, only on how much I hated Spencer Dalton, which would explain why I had no clue where I was now. It looked like a dark, deserted alley, which was never good. And it was cold, which made no sense. It was still summer. I drew in a deep breath. Why did it smell like oil and seawater?
Something tells me we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
I didn’t trust myself in my current state of mind to stick the landing of another teleport, so I whipped out my phone to order an Uber. No service. Holding my phone in the air, I walked around in search of the elusive signal and dropped my arm when that failed. The buildings flanking me probably blocked it, so I moved out of the alley and onto a sidewalk in front of a line of storefronts, grateful at the sight.
Civilization. People walked up and down the sidewalks, in and out of the stores, and made me feel a heck of a lot better that I hadn’t teleported to somewhere so remote I was the only living thing for miles.
I glanced around and spotted the source of the smells. Several ships were drydocked and in various stages of repair as they sat in a line in front of huge docks.
I’d landed at a port. Which port was the question. I checked my phone for a signal, surprised to still have no service. I moved away from the ships being repaired and toward the docks, where hundreds of masts were scattered across the skyline like toothpicks. Surely there’d be a signal over there.
“Pardon me.” The comment wasn’t directed at me, wasn’t even near me, but the accent had me jumping back into the shadows. A very distinctive head of shaggy blond hair stood out of the crowd. What the hell was he doing here? Was he looking for me? Were others looking for me? How’d he know where I landed when I didn’t know where I’d landed?
Careful not to be seen, I followed Spencer as he weaved through the people and hurried along the sidewalk, darting from the shadow of the buildings to hide behind a parked car. Then a giant mailbox. Then another car. When he disappeared around a corner, I waited a few ticks before turning the corner.
And immediately jumped back when he slowed and glanced behind him. Shit. Did he see me? I peeked around the building and confirmed he’d started walking again, this time a little faster and toward a metal building with a huge sliding door. A warehouse, more than likely for repairing boats, considering where I was.
I followed. When he paused at the entrance and glanced behind him again, I ducked behind a forklift. The screech of metal against metal pulled my attention back to the entrance as the large door slid open enough for him to walk inside. It slid closed again.
Glancing around to make sure no one followed me the way I followed him, I hurried to the side of the warehouse and swept it with my gaze, looking for a way inside without having to use that monster of a noisy door. I spotted a ladder attached to the building and moved to it, hoisting myself up to the flat roof. I hated heights of any kind and swallowed my fear, telling myself I’d just use one of my elements to catch me if I fell instead of me breaking every bone in my body on impact with the cement.
I could use my elements to lift me to the roof, but didn’t want to risk Spencer smelling my call. He knew the scent of my call, considering he’d been with me every day since school started, training me, torturing me, and being a general pain in the ass.
I pulled myself over the side and planted my feet firmly on the roof, searching my surroundings before moving to a set of windows providing natural light into the
