“I thought you’d never get rid of him,” Spencer finally said, killing the stunned silence. “He was incessantly boring.”
Alec regarded us. “Where was I? Oh, yes. Now that our dear Council head has unfortunately perished, I feel it is only right I take over the Council.”
“You take over the school and then burn it to the ground. You take over the prophecy and kill the one destined to fulfill it. Now you’re head of the Council.” Clay scratched at his beard. “You’re oh for two. The odds are not in your favor on this one.”
“Get out of my sight.”
“What about our duty?” Leo asked.
“Shut up, dude.” Rob pushed him to move.
“What? I really want to know.”
“If you must,” Spencer said. “Your duty is to keep our wells full. We leechers do enjoy a good power leech. You four are most powerful. Adding you to the menu will definitely make the colony happy.”
“You’re going to feed our powers to all your little leecher buddies?” Rob looked ready to punch Spencer this time.
“That’s messed up, man.” Clay curled his lip before regarding Leo. “You had to ask.”
Leo fell silent as we hurried off. Well, as they hurried off. I stayed behind, hovering a few feet above the ground to completely hide my location.
“What are you going to tell Vanessa when she asks about Daddy?” Spencer asked Alec as they stared at Virgil Graves’s body.
“Say the quint did it before she died.”
“Those two did hate each other.”
“I’ll be the one to tell her. She’ll need comforting.”
Eww, dude. Still gross.
“What about Jules?”
“What about her? She can watch. Or, even better, she can join.” They both laughed as they walked off, leaving Graves’s body lying amongst the rest of those dead from this senseless fight.
I lowered myself to the ground in front of Trevor’s small body. He was so young, so naïve, and so damn happy just to be alive. Damn Alec for taking away Trevor’s chance to grow up, to learn about life, to even live.
I fell to my knees and bit back a sob. All Trevor wanted was for me to protect him from the bad. I’d failed at this, as I’d failed at so many other things. Keeping Cressida’s secret. Protecting the ones I loved. Building an army strong enough to defeat the Council. I was a terrible prophecy.
“On second thought.” Alec’s comment caught my attention. “Kill them all. I don’t want to have to look over my shoulder.”
“You sure? I could persuade some to pledge their loyalty to the Council, replenish a few of our numbers. If they refuse, they’ll be sent to Carcerem.”
“Make that put to death. When they return to clean up their mess, capture them.”
“As you wish.” Spencer gave a quick nod and headed off in the direction the guys had disappeared. I had to warn them, had to get to them before they talked the remaining Sentry members into returning, only to be imprisoned. Or worse.
I ran after Spencer and literally hit a wall of air, slamming into it and falling to the ground. What the hell?
Alec appeared above me, smiling down. “Hello, quint. You are a hard one to kill, aren’t you?”
Oh shit.
I slapped my neck and didn’t feel the crystal. That’s when I spotted it two feet away. It must have slipped off when I went down. I didn’t wait for him to strike first and hurled a fireball, slamming it into his chest and knocking him back.
“Alec!” Spencer ran over, saw me, and paled.
“Hiya, Spence. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No. I—I watched you die.”
“Rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated.” I remembered thinking the same thing about my mom when she’d returned after six years. I hit him with light, knowing he’d counter by bringing one of his weaker elements to the surface to take one for the team. It was usually earth, so I called that element and snaked roots around his ankles.
“Montana, please let me take it from here. Please, please, please.” Clay teleported in next to me. “I’ve wanted to kill this guy since the first day I met him.”
“Be my guest.”
Clay grinned and shouted his favorite expletive in joy as if I’d just given him a car at Christmas.
Rob and Bryan popped in together and positioned themselves on either side of me. “I should have known you’d fight us on this, Reed. One of these days, you will listen.”
“Today isn’t that day.”
“My, my, my. The gang’s all here.” Alec sneered. “The only one missing is the water elemental.”
“Behind you, prick.”
Alec spun around to catch the wave of frigid water Leo threw at him. Thick ice coated Alec’s fire hand. The orange glow brightened, immediately melting the ice.
“Crap,” Clay exclaimed right before Spencer covered him in dirt. Damn, I was positive he’d used earth to counter my light call.
“Bryan, help Clay.”
“On it.”
As the opposing air and earth elementals joined forces to battle Spencer, the opposing fire and water elementals joined forces to take on Alec with me. The battle drew a crowd from both sides. Council and Sentry members alike gathered to watch the show.
All but Unibrow, the bitch who’d gone toe to toe with me during the tribunals last fall. I’d burned her one long eyebrow off last time. It’d grown in even thicker this time around. Leo saw her and faced her. “This one is mine.”
She’d nearly killed him during his tribunal. So, yeah. He had every right to get payback.
Alec had almost killed Rob by throwing him off a cliff after I’d made the mistake of calling light and shorting out everyone’s powers. And the time he’d almost killed Rob at the morgue. And all the other times. So, yeah. He had every right to get payback as well.
But Alec von Leer was mine. I rose into the air, feeding off the darkness to charge my cells and power my call. For what I was about to do, I’d need all
