Windburn

Around us, the sand trembled and shifted. Peta swayed on my shoulder, wrapping her tail around my neck for balance. “I don’t like this.”

“Neither do I. But the choices are limited at best.”

As I drew closer, I sucked in an angry breath. The attackers were none other than the coven from Greece. I looked for Winters, searching for his demon-infested body. But he, at least, was missing from the group. They fired balls of flame and burning arrows up into the sky, while a portion of them manipulated the winds, driving the dragon and The Bastard closer within range.

Ten of them, working in concert to bring down a Tracker. What could Elle have done to piss them off? Sure, she had an attitude, but I doubted that was enough to cause this sort of problem.

Something else then.

“Focus, Lark, or you’ll get us both killed.”

Peta was right.

I stopped behind the witch closest to me, leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I warned you not to cross my path again.”

She spun, her blue eyes wide. I softened the ground under her feet with a thought, sucking her down into the sand. The others turned one by one by one.

“I wondered if you’d be here with the winged Bastard.” A man, warlock, stepped forward. “I will deal with her. The rest of you, capture Elena. Orion wants her alive.”

Well, that was interesting. The warlock stepped toward me and I softened the ground enough to slow him down. One warlock was going to prove very little problem.

He flicked all his fingers at me and a burst of light shot at my face. I closed my eyes and dropped to my knees.

“Lark, I can’t see!” Peta yelped.

I blinked several times. I couldn’t see either, but Peta didn’t know that. “Hang onto me.”

Straining to hear his footsteps over the sounds of battle and the roaring of a dragon above us was useless. I stood and took a few steps back as the warlock laughed. “You can’t run away. I have you now. Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. I think Winters would like to get to know you too.”

He was moving, walking as he spoke until he was right behind me. I spun and kicked out, my foot connecting with his soft midsection by the feel of it. He let out a grunt and I dropped to my knees. “Peta, do you trust me?”

“Mother goddess, what are you going to do?”

I swallowed hard. “Something new.”

She shimmied off my shoulder and into my arms. I grabbed her and tucked her inside my vest. “No matter what happens, don’t let go.”

A whimper escaped her, but that was it.

I buried my hands into the sand and called the earth up.

All of it, every last piece I could reach. Power roared through me and bit back the scream that built in my throat. Sand whirled around us, but in my mind all I could see was a wave of the earth pouring over the witches, burying them deep into the ground where they could no longer harm anyone.

In my mind, I saw the sands turn into an ocean that raged on the winds of a storm, a hurricane of the earth that would wipe out those who would do us harm.

Screams erupted around us, cries for help as the world bucked and writhed under me, rising to my call.

I ignored them, feeding my power into the wave I saw in my mind, crashing it over them, swallowing them up. Hands wrapped around my throat. “You fucking bitch!”

The warlock squeezed and I buried my hands deeper into the earth, softening it under us both. I could survive being buried, I was sure of it. Him, not so much. A wave of sand pulled him away from me in a jerk as we sunk past my waist.

The world trembled with the power that surged through me and I reveled in it, feeling . . . unstoppable.

I kept my mouth and eyes shut but the sand still got into them. I didn’t ease off until I could hear nothing but the whisper of sand on sand. Slowly I pulled my hands out, laying them on top of the tiny grains. My face was covered in grit, glued on with sweat.

“Thank you.” The ground seemed to answer with the slightest of rumbles. Not the mother goddess . . . but the earth itself.

From inside my vest Peta shifted, breaking my concentration. “Are you done?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“I have sand in places no cat should have sand,” she spat out, literally, as she climbed from my vest. I was more than a little afraid to open my eyes. What if I still could not see? How in the seven hells would I find my father then?

I opened my left eye first and a sigh of relief slid from me. Though my eyes were gritty with sand, and the backs of them ached from the flash burn, I could see again.

I stood and dusted off my pants and vest. Around us the world was silent, the sand flat and unmoving, though the landscape had shifted. It looked as though I’d pulled the sand out of the desert toward the ocean, creating a new peninsula.

“Holy fucking shit. Was that for real?”

I turned to see Elle approach me, Bram beside her and Cactus pulling up the rear. Elle’s eyes were wide.

“Did you have a good enough view of what I’m capable of?” I crossed my arms, mimicking her earlier stance.

She glanced at Bram, then nodded. “Yeah. You’ve got yourself a deal. A favor then.”

Peta cleared her throat. “Technically, you just did her a favor. You wiped out those looking for her.”

I didn’t answer Elle right away but then said, “You sure that’s what you wanted to say?”

Her lips tightened. “Fine, you fucking well saved our asses. That what you want?”

I nodded. “Yes. Now we can look for my father.”