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"Get Moku inside!" I shouted to hi he would do as I asked

I didn’t knohere I was running to, exactly, knew only that I was trying to get away fro tourists who obviously didn’t know enough to get in out of the rain

I stopped running about a e of a sheltered alcove that had been corip on the terrible power and rage that would consu through audy Christ, then? Had all thosetiet the water churning and to send sand flying in all directions It was okay, I told et back some semblance of control Moku was fine Tiamat hadn’t been able to hurt hiet him to come to her

But she had tried She had tried to hurt hi I had done, everything I had given up, had been for nothing Tiamat was still a threat to my family and I hadn’t been there to protect theo that Tiamat would have no use for my brothers That, supposedly, neither Rio nor Moku possessed the kind of power I had and therefore wouldn’t be of any interest to Tiamat Obviously that wasn’t the case Of course, that was probably why Hailana had lied Because she’d known there was no way I could possibly build a life under the ocean if ht had the power sizzling through my every cell The wind circled y of it And by the electricity that flowed intome into some kind of semi-conductor

Feeling like I would be ripped apart at any second, not knohat else to do, I threwoutward It scorchedthe sky in half as lightning bolt after lightning bolt slah Still I could feel the poelling, building, until I was all but consuy, this ht Tia, made the storm where I’d nearly killed Kona see here on the beach, wind ripping pastthe earth as thunder booht this ory-five hurricane Grasping desperately for sanity in a world gone crazy around you

Closing my eyes, I tried to focus, tried to find a way to harness the energy, to bring it all back inside e, too powerful So instead, I fought to channel it, to send it blasting into the sand, into the earth

My first attempt knocked me off my feet, threw me five yards back into the rocky walls of the cave I hit hard enough to knock the breath right out of , helpless seconds I just sat there with aching lungs, trying to figure out why the world was going fuzzy aroundstop? Or would , I would spawn a tsuna to take the chance, I forced myself to my feet Stumbled closer to the water

"Te distance, and I alnored the across the sand towarda hand out The power behind the moveround, as the lightning continued to strike around hiain, when he had co That time, the ocean had healed him, but Mark wasn’t selkie If he ca away, trying to get as far down the beach as possible Anything to give Mark a chance to get away Only he wasn’t trying to h the as so strong that he’d lose his footing every few steps, he was gaining ground, refusing to give up

"Mark, no!" I screa was lost in the wind that whirled and roared around us

Terrified, desperate, I turned away, flungI had Energy exploded out ofof power that went on and on and on I could feel Mark struggling through the wind behindto reach me, but I couldn’t turn around If I lost focus now, even for aand thunder were dying down a little more with each second that I continued to blast --the waves They were growing larger and choppier, hitting the beach faster and higher than they ever had before I tried to pull back, to te into the water, but it was too little, too late

A few hundred feet out, a huge wall of water was starting to build, each of the waves flowing into it, adding to it, even as it ht in horror, as I watched the swell seethe and grow

"Holy shit!" Mark said, staring up at what had to be a forty-foot wall of water "Teet out of here Now!"

"This is my fault," I told hirab on, to pull me to his version of safety, but the second he touched ht off his feet He didn’t fly all the way to the cave, like I had, but he hit the ground several feet away I wanted to run to him, to check and rowing even higher, and I had the feeling if I sodown, not just on Mark and hborhood

I kept ht into the ocean--into the giant tsunami that loomed above us--but I closed my eyes, breathed deep Tried to clear my mind and center ht me It was harder than it had ever been, with not only one of the guys I loved in the line of fire, but also my entire family

I would not do this to them I would not hurt one more person that I loved Not like this, not with the powers that y inside of herself I could--I would--do the sa else would make me just like Tiamat

As I calmed myself down--narrowed my attention, controlled my emotions--I becae and the terror, ic that burned inside of ainst lanced down as I tried to gather enough strength to end this, and saw, atheart of the Pacific but no bigger than the average oyster shell, it looked like so many of the pieces on the top shelf of ave me pause Splintered, for one second, the concentration I had worked so hard not to let falter