Page 20 (1/2)

Until she illing to settle for that kind of existence, just to stay with him?

No No, no, no, never, and David wouldn&039;t stand for it

"Rahel!" I screas "Rahel, where the hell are you? Get your ass back here, I need you now!"

A flash of lightning illu blue-white streak that raced across the sky and shattered into forks that stretched across half the horizon

Spectacular

Those clouds hugging the ocean looked larger

In the next hyperactinic flash, I saw soe, dark skin glistening ater drops Rahel was asso brightly they were like suns

She came out of the curl of a wave and collapsed to her hands and knees on wet sand Her body was solid to the knees, swirling fog below Barely coherent She looked like shit-beaten, exhausted, ripped, and bloodied The blood was metaphorical for her She hadn&039;t becoe to a physical avatar

Rahel hadn&039;t flounced off in a fit of pique and stayed away deliberately; she&039;d probably ot interrupted along the way by a serious fight The kind you cah as any of the Djinn She&039;d lose in a dogfight with Ashan, Jonathan, or David, but she should have held her own against anyone else Unlessunless it was Ashan she&039;d gone up against

Or Jonathan

Either way, not good news right now

I crawled toward her She looked up, expression turning hard, and I stopped

"They&039;re co," she said "I couldn&039;t hold them back Be ready"

"Who?"

Too late toin the real world, in the aetheric, even blinded and weak as I was A gigantic disturbance, headed this way

Out in the darkness, I saw shapesIndistinct, but definite

"Joanne Baldwin," one of theantic effort-and I wasn&039;t sure how many more of those I could even stand to atteht and saw at least ten flares of power gathering around me and Rahel Wardens Holy shit How many had Paul sent to put ht?

"They don&039;t want you," Rahel said "They&039;re after his, that wasn&039;t the best news I&039;d ever heard

"Who aet to my feet O oanted to dance around in pain, but stillness was required right now

Stillness, and a really good poker face

Soe bonfire that hovered over her palht I saw Shirl Goth black, sloppily cut hair, tooher bare arms She didn&039;t look any happier to seethe coast to accuse me of weather-relatedon?" I asked her

"None of your business," Shirl snapped back "You&039;re not even a Warden any up to her feet, but she pulled into a crouch next to lance Shirl gave her, it worked

"By order of the Wardens, I&039;m here to take Lewis Levander Orwell into custody,"

Shirl said "And you need to get the hell out of the way, Joanne You&039;re on shaky enough ground as it is You really don&039;t want to give us ht have beenthe sandpit I&039;d been trapped in If so, Shirl&039;s sense of hu about," I said "Lewis isn&039;t here You&039;re going to want to uys I&039;rumpy, if you knohat Ifrom the inside of a jail-"

She threw the fire at me I mean, fastball-speed It hissed pastwave and instantly vaporized the top half into superheated stea with you, bitch," Shirl said "That&039;s where everybody else goes wrong They let you talk You have one chance to tell h your sto wasn&039;t going quite as well as I&039;d hoped

"I want to talk to Marion," I said, and was surprised my voice stayed steady

"Denied Marion&039;s busy" Shirl sounded way too s about that Marion was probably under house arrest after protesting toothe order "Last chance Produce Lewis, or we&039;ll go through you"

"Then let me talk to Paul!"

Her smile was utterly sinister "Talk all you want Paul&039;s irrelevant We&039;re on the front lines out here, and we&039;re going to defend ourselves, with or without perainst what?"

She must have remembered that she didn&039;t want to talk, because her ared It followed Not as fast as the previous pitch, but then, I didn&039;t think shewithme off at every turn I was tired and weak and clumsy with pain, and when I finally overbalanced on the soft sand and fell backward, the burning, incandescent globe dipped toward h to givebra start to char

I dugto resist the sick urge to destroy David to save ed forith a snarl, reached out with one taloned hand, and batted the fireball away Right back at Shirl, who ducked It hit soony, and Shirl turned to put out the resulting fiery chaos Rahel grabbed hly "They&039;ll kill you They&039;ve already killed others"

She launched herself up in a graceful, feline leap and landed on Shirl, who screamed Fire erupted I saw Rahel&039;s neon yellow clothes burst into flame

I flipped over and crawled to the hole I felt the sand underit The tunnel was collapsing Sand was falling in on the I could do

Another flash of lightning streaked overhead, reflecting white on waves, showing a freeze-fra around Shirl and Rahel Rahel was going to lose She didn&039;t have the wattage necessary to stop all of thee Djinn

"Hey!" A deep-voiced yell fro on over there? You kids stop that!"

"Help!" I screamed "Get help!"

The pompous jerk-and I was never so happy to hear one in hteous And a little alar the cops! You clear out of here while you&039;ve still got the chance!"

"Yes, you idiot, call the cops! And the paramedics! Help!"

I was di the beach, so over his shoulder, but I felt it in my bones, it was too late All too late

Rahel and Shirl were a bonfire rolling on the sand Fire and blood and fury

The sand heaved and collapsed in on itself, dropping ood five feet I slid down an instantly made dune

The cave had collapsed