Let The Wind Rise (Sky Fall, #3)(32)

“So this is why you asked to be up here,” Raiden says, reaching through the bars and grabbing my ankle.

He tries to drag me toward him, but I kick his hand away.

“You think you’re safe from me over there?” he asks as I crawl out of his reach.

He calls for a guard, and the Stormer with the scars pounds up the stairs.

“She just had the fourth breakthrough,” Raiden tells him, “and it looks like he’s about to.”

All eyes focus on Gus as he exhales a shuddering breath and rolls to his side, coughing and thrashing.

I hug him as tight as I can, too relieved to have him back to care that Raiden’s shouting orders to the Stormer.

But as my Westerly shield blankets itself around me, I hear Raiden snap, “Take them back to the dungeon! Get them away from the wind.”

Before the Stormer can act, a thunderous explosion shakes the tower.

Smoky red-orange light pours through the window—the unmistakable glow of a raging fire.





CHAPTER 17


VANE


Okay, so firewhirls are freaking awesome.

I can’t believe they aren’t the Gales’ go-to weapon.

Mind you, they look pretty wimpy as I make them—just a tiny dust devil that I toss a few scattered sparks in.

But once I shout, “Engulf!” and the heat mixes with all the rushing oxygen? It turns into a hundred-foot spinning death spiral shooting red-hot flames in every direction—which might actually be why I haven’t seen the Gales use them. I’m pretty sure I would’ve burned off all my appendages if I’d been in charge.

But Aston’s a pro when it comes to violence.

He takes out half the Stormers with his very first blow. The rest put up a better fight—but he still wipes them out with three drafts to spare and uses the leftover winds to carry us to the top of a tree several miles away, so we can regroup.

“You’re holding up rather well,” he says, his eyes narrowing at me. “Especially considering we smell like roasted Stormer.”

“Ugh—you didn’t need to put it like that,” Solana groans as she tangles a fresh Southerly around me to keep me warm.

I switch to mouth breathing to dodge the smell—but honestly, I’m doing okay.

“I wonder if it’s because the firewhirls were the Westerly’s idea,” I mumble. “Maybe it knows what my limits are. Or maybe it knew how desperate our situation was. Or . . . I don’t know, maybe I’m getting tougher.”

“Definitely not the last one,” Aston tells me. “But this is progress. From now on, you ask your little winds what they want you to do and obey. Maybe you’ll actually get through this.”

“Let’s hope,” I agree, calling down a fresh Westerly and tangling it into another shield. “So what now?”

“Now we play good news, bad news,” Aston says. “The good news is, we survived Raiden’s trap. I’m sure we’ve also succeeded in royally pissing him off. And the smoke and glare from the fires will make it much harder to track you.”

“And the bad news?” Solana asks.

“Yeah, and what’s with this ‘you’ stuff?” I add. “Don’t you mean ‘we’?”

Aston becomes very interested in his ruined hands. “The bad news is . . . my part in this little adventure has come to an end.”

A million different reactions spin through my head—most of them involving another kick to the nuts.

But losing my temper isn’t going to make him want to stick around.

“You said you’d help us rescue Audra and Gus,” Solana reminds him.

“Actually, I said I’d help you come up with a plan. And I’ll still do that.”

“You’re weaseling out on a technicality?” I snap.

His eyes flash, and I can tell he has one of his snide comebacks ready to go. But by the time he speaks, the words come out through a sigh.

“The truth is . . . I was force-fed a rather large dish of reality while we were stuck in that tunnel,” he mumbles. “And I’ve had to admit that I can’t risk letting Raiden capture me. Not because I’m afraid of what he’ll do to me. Because I’m afraid of what I’ll do. Raiden is as addictive as the power of pain. The more you’re around him, the more you see the logic behind his decisions, until you can’t remember why you ever resisted. I almost let him turn me into his shiny new tool last time, and if he gets ahold of me again, I’m not sure what I’ll do. So you can hate me for abandoning you—but I promise, it’s better that I leave you now than end up fighting against you.”

It’s the most humble, sincere thing Aston has said this whole journey—and I can’t really fault him for it.

But I’d gotten very used to the idea of having him there to fight all the Stormers if we needed him. . . .

I take a deep breath. “Fine. We can do this without you.”

“You can,” Aston agrees. “And you can also do it without her.”

He grabs Arella’s arms, binding her in broken winds with the same motion.

“If you think—”

“Let me stop you from saying anything especially foolish,” Aston interrupts me, “and remind you that she can’t be trusted around Raiden either.”