Jamie’s Cleaner training made him quick to link up with her, his power both familiar and comforting as it flowed into hers. Finally, Smith added his power to theirs and completed the Diamond Nexus. The threads were no longer discernible as being from the individual Elements; instead, they combined to form something that was more. Once all four of the outer diamonds were glowing, they turned to focus their combined Gifts toward the large, central diamond.
It started to glow, brighter and brighter, as they poured their Gifts into it. Their combined power pushed against the Elemental ward, and it flexed like a rubber band but refused to give. Allyra poured more of herself into the Diamond Nexus—now that she had made the decision to break the ward, she intended to give everything she had to it. But, out of the periphery of her vision, she saw John stagger—he was reaching the limits of his power, and the Diamond Nexus would only work for as long as all four of them remained standing.
The two diamonds on either side of John started to dim, and she knew that their time was quickly running out. She glanced at Jamie and saw the desperation drawn clearly on his face. She’d always been good at making quick decisions, and she made one now—she would test her Elemental Gift against the ward. While they were connected to the Diamond Nexus, it would be impossible to tell the difference between their combined Gifts and her individual Elemental Gift.
In the split second before John fell, Allyra reached into the core of her power and shoved everything she had in one single, massive surge toward the Diamond Nexus. The ward flexed again, and for a moment, it remained intact, equal to the force of her Gift. But then, a small flaw formed in the ward, and like a crack in glass, it spread, faster than lightning, until the entire ward shattered in a massive explosion as her Gift forced its way through.
She was one heartbeat too slow to pull her Gift back, and the central diamond shone so brightly that it was impossible to look directly at it. The light broke through the darkness, a single, brief beam that broke through the treetops.
Utterly spent, she staggered backward, her head pounding. Through bleary eyes, she saw Jamie, John, and Smith collapse with the explosion, but it was Laureline that caught her attention. She ran into the cabin and returned seconds later stuffing something metallic wrapped in a red cloth into her bag. Allyra tried to regain her balance to get a better look, but whatever Laureline had come for was now hidden in her bag, and she was running away without a backward glance.
Chapter 21 – Jamie
The ward shattered and Jamie’s mind seemed to shatter with it. Pain raged through his head like a red-hot poker driven straight through his skull. He collapsed to the ground, slamming his spine into a tree root. He barely had the strength to turn aside as he retched, bile running up his throat, as corrosive as acid.
Allyra grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to his feet. “Run!” she screamed.
The broken pieces of his mind struggled to comprehend what she was asking him to do. Her pull on him was insistent, and he fought to get to his feet and found his balance wanting, as his stomach heaved again.
Seconds later, Rob grabbed his other arm, and between him and Allyra, they managed to pull Jamie up into a stumbling run. His head screamed at the jolting motion, and his clumsy legs tripped over yet another tree root, and he fell to his knees.
Rob hauled him to his feet again and something whizzed past his head. “Shit!” Rob cursed as he ducked to avoid the arrow.
Jamie glanced backward and finally saw what they were running from—four dark, hooded shapes wearing silver masks. Cleaners. There was no hiding the massive surge of power that had been released with the breaking of the Elemental ward—it would have been felt by the Gifted for hundreds of miles around. Now the Cleaners had come to investigate the source of such a huge explosion of power.
Another volley of arrows came at them, and Jamie moved to duck, though he knew it to be pointless with an Atmospheric in the Cleaner’s ranks—a Gifted guided arrow would find its target soon enough. However, before an arrow could find its mark, the entire volley slammed into an invisible wall.
He glanced at Allyra. She had her hand held up, and then she flicked her wrist and sent the arrows flying back toward the Cleaners, winding them through the trees. A scream suggested at least one had found its mark.
Allyra turned to them. “Run!” she screamed again, and this time, Jamie grasped the urgency and forced his legs into a stumbling sprint, guided still by Rob’s hand on his arm.
As much as he might have wanted to run, his body simply didn’t have the strength to even keep up a stumble for long. He tripped over yet another root and fell, dragging Rob down with him. His brother tried yet again to get him to his feet, but Jamie’s vision wavered, his breathing unsteady, forcing him to fight just to remain conscious.
“He can’t get up,” Rob said to Allyra over his prone body.
Jamie wanted to tell them to run, to leave him behind, but he was too slow and Allyra was pulling and shoving him behind a tree.
“You need to stay still,” she whispered to him and Rob. “We can’t hide with an Atmospheric chasing us, but if you keep still, I can
