“I think that the Council wouldn’t have chosen you if they didn’t think you were the right person for the job.”
He laughed again. “Perhaps the mask I’ve been wearing has been a little too convincing. I may appear calm, but the truth is, I’m terrified by the responsibility.”
“It would be far worse if you weren’t terrified. Leaders make the hard decisions, but the great ones never do it with a light heart.”
Alex leaned back in his seat, and some of the tension seemed to drain from his body.
“How do you do it?” he asked with his head tilted back and his eyes closed.
“Do what?”
“Be so in control.”
Allyra turned to him incredulously, wondering if he was making fun of her. She couldn’t help but burst into laughter when she saw the earnest look on his face. For the first time since the start of The Five Finals, she really laughed. The sound filled her chest, pushing against her ribs until it consumed her. At first, Alex looked at her with surprise, or perhaps concern, but soon enough, he joined her. They laughed for a long time, like a valve releasing the pressure, until neither of them knew what they were laughing about anymore.
Eventually, the laughter died away, like the last notes of a beautiful song. Allyra composed herself and turned to him seriously. “Less than six months ago, my entire life got turned upside down. It seemed like I’d lost everything, including my ability to separate truth from fiction. Frankly, I panicked and nearly lost myself to it. But then someone saved me. He taught me to fight and to find the strength within myself. Most of all, he taught me to trust my instincts and fight for what’s right.”
Alex shot her a searching glance. “He sounds—important to you,” he said carefully.
Allyra smiled at Alex, composing once more the elegant lines of his face to memory as her grasp on the moment slipped and Alex started to fade away, dissolving like early morning mist beneath a rising sun.
His expression tightened as her hold on the memory continued to dissipate. “A storm is coming,” he said, fear suddenly in his voice. “Wake up, Allyra!”
* * *
Allyra slammed back into awareness with the suddenness of a car crash. Instead of the clear blue of Alex’s eyes, she woke to Jason’s indigo ones. Her gaze slipped past him, over the balcony edge, toward the vast desert, toward a view of a world turned to chaos.
A swirling, seething mass of sand and dust, alive in its ferocity, pounded at the bubble of air created by the Assembly of Wind. The sandstorm writhed against the protection around the Atmospheric College. Somewhere beyond the madness, dawn was breaking, but the storm had turned day to night.
For a moment, she thought she’d fallen back into the memory. But no, this was real, and this was now.
“The other pairs?” Allyra asked urgently.
“Six pairs arrived during the night, but there are still five pairs out there,” Jason said tightly.
“Chi? Henri and Adriana?”
“Henri and Adriana are back, but not Chi.”
Allyra got to her feet and scrambled for the edge of the balcony. She cursed under her breath at the sight that greeted her. Just as there was chaos beyond the domed protection, there was chaos within. People were rushing around—aimlessly, at least it seemed that way at first glance. A closer look showed that they were following the orders of High Master Radebe—a single point of calm in the sea of madness.
“What are they doing to help the pairs that are still out there?” she asked.
Jason shook his head, his expression tense. It was then that the true scale of the horror hit Allyra.
“There are rescue teams here, but the storm is too violent for them to go out,” Jason said quietly.
“But—” The words died on her lips, and her mind scrambled, looking for options or solutions. There were none for her to grasp—her mind dominated by emotion where cold logic was required.
“Surely the Group of Winds or whatever they’re called can extend the dome?” she asked desperately, her mind filled with images of Chi mired in the chaos of the sandstorm.
“They’re struggling just to maintain the dome against the storm, they’re not strong enough to push further into it.”
It was then that she knew what she had to do. It had to be the reason why she’d seen that particular memory. The effort had nearly broken Alex, but she had to try. Without a second thought, she took off running toward the edge of the dome, banking on the fact that everyone else was far too busy to notice her. She was right for the most part, except she’d forgotten about Jason. He caught up to her just before she reached the edge of the protective barrier, grabbing her arm and yanking her to a stop.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.
“What needs to be done.”
“And what would that be exactly?”
Allyra tried to pull free from him, but her efforts only made him hold on that much tighter.
“An Atmospheric could stop this storm,” she bit out, furious that he was slowing her down.
“Somehow, you think you’re that Atmospheric?” he asked incredulously. “You might be more powerful than the average Atmospheric, but have you looked out there?”
Jason took hold of her shoulders and turned her toward the storm pounding violently against the dome.
“I’m not blind, I know what I’m doing.”
“No, you don’t. I know you’re new to this, but what you’re proposing is incredibly stupid. There are other Atmospherics here, and none of them are stupid enough to go
