Let the Sky Fall (Sky Fall #1)(34)

I rack my brain for a brilliant insult to shut him up when I realize what he said. “Tonight? What’s tonight?”

“A movie with you, me, Hannah, and Shels.”

“I can’t.”

“Come on—it was Hannah’s idea, so whatever you did couldn’t have been that big of a turnoff.”

“I didn’t do anything!”

And that reminds me. Audra still has to explain why she ruined my date.

Maybe she was jealous.

Hmm. I like that idea. A lot.

“Dude, are you even listening to me?” Isaac asks.

“Uh, what?”

“I said we’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”

“I told you, I can’t. Sorry.”

I’m not sorry, though. Hannah’s a nice girl—and last night I thought she was what I wanted. I don’t anymore. Not when I have a shot with my dream girl.

Isaac half growls, half sighs. “Fine. But you better be spending the night with a hot girl, and she better be worth abandoning your best friend for. Otherwise, you owe me big-time.”

He’s so spot-on that all I can do is mumble something along the lines of, “Call—talk—later, haveagoodnightbye,” and hang up the phone.

Isaac’s right.

She better be worth all this hassle.

But Audra is.

Even though I know she’ll probably throw more bugs at my head and threaten my life and attack me with winds, I’m looking forward to whatever she has in store for me.

So I throw on fresh clothes, splash some water on my hair, and tell my mom I’m going out. I’m not waiting until sunset to see Audra again.





CHAPTER 18


AUDRA


Screams. Horrible, bone-chilling screams whip around me in an unintelligible blur of noise as rocks, dirt, branches, and so many other things I can’t begin to identify pummel my body.

I stumble, fighting to keep my feet on the ground, refusing to let the gusts carry me away. We can’t fight this storm—it’s already destroyed too much. But I won’t leave without my father.

Something tugs at my wrist, yanking me back a step. I spin around, squinting through the pebbles and dirt and blurry wall of wind to find the outline of a boy’s face. Takes me a second to piece together that I know him.

“We have to go back,” Vane yells.

Before I can answer, a bloodcurdling screech pierces the air.

“Mom?” Vane drops my wrist and races deeper into the storm.

I chase after him, arriving at his side in time to see a woman in a blue dress streak across the sky. She thrashes against the winds that wrap around her like bonds, but she can’t break free.

“Mom!” he screams again, jumping, trying to reach her.

She’s too high.

“Vane?” She thrashes harder. “Run. You have to—”

Her words are carried away by a shifting gust. The sudden flurry alters course, rushes past an uprooted tree, and whips it toward her. I close my eyes, but I can’t block the sickening crunch as one of the jagged branches slams into her, and when I look up her body’s bent at an unnatural angle. Her head lolls to the side. Bloodred rain showers around us.

Vane screams, an unearthly yelp of agony and rage and terror.

I do nothing.

I cannot move.

Cannot think.

Cannot do anything except stare at the broken body in the blue dress, trailing blood through the sky as it whisks into the darkness.

“Audra?” my dad shouts, yanking me out of my daze. “Audra!”

His calls get more frantic when I don’t respond, so I turn, searching the sky until I spot him, fighting his way through the drafts high above me.

“You have to get out of here, Audra. Take Vane and get outside the storm’s path.”

“Not without you.” I start to jump the same way Vane did. There has to be a way to reach my father. Bring him back to me.

Everything in me aches to fly up to him. But I’m not strong enough yet.

“Go, Audra!”

Never, in all my life, have I heard my father so deadly serious. It knocks the fight out of me, lulling me almost into a trance as I turn and do as he ordered. I grab Vane’s hand and drag him away, my feet moving faster with each step I take away from my father, like the winds are spurring me along.

“Keep going,” my father urges. “Don’t come back.”

Somehow we make it to the edge of the storm without being hit by any of the debris raining around us. I shove Vane through the wall of wind to the calmer ground, watching him tumble along the safe, steady earth. I know I’m supposed to follow him, but I can’t leave, can’t abandon my family. I turn to head back, but my father’s voice stops me.

“No, Audra.”

He hovers lower. Still out of reach, but close enough that I can see his tear-filled eyes.

“Go, my darling. And take care of Vane.”

He sends a powerful Easterly to yank me away. I kick and scream and battle the force with everything I have, but I can’t defeat it. It whips me out of the funnel, a few feet from where Vane lies, sobbing. Before I can rise to my feet, the storm explodes.

“Daddy!” I scream, so loud it feels like my throat rips.

The funnel unravels before my eyes, and the threads of winds scatter in every direction. I search the sky for some sign of him, strain my ears for the sound of his voice. But I know I won’t find him. I can feel him in the air all around me, and I know he’s made the sacrifice. Let the winds tear him apart so he can fight them from the inside.