Let the Sky Fall (Sky Fall #1)(62)

“She’s helping as much as she can.”

I snort. “If that were true, we’d have a whole army at our side.”

“She’s a guardian too, Vane. She’s bound by her oath to serve just as much as I am. Personal connections can’t get in the way.”

Her voice is calm. Detached.

But I don’t buy that she doesn’t care. I mean, dude, I’m not even related to my parents, and I still know they’ll do anything to keep me safe. Even if it means breaking the law or oath or code or whatever. And that’s how it should be.

So I can’t stop myself from saying, “She sounds tough.”

“She can be,” she mumbles under her breath. “Especially since . . .”

I know what she means, even though she doesn’t finish. “Was she better before that?”

“Sometimes.”

She falls quiet, and I figure that’s all she’s going to say. But then she adds, “She used to love to watch me make the birds dance.”

“Dance?” I can’t help picturing a bunch of pigeons twitching their necks to the beat.

“If I’ve connected with a bird, I can command it to flutter and twirl and flip through the sky. My mother used to lie next to me on the grass, and we’d watch them sweep across the clouds. She said it was the one way I reminded her of herself.”

Her voice sounds warmer, lighter with the memory.

“So, what does your mother do as a guardian—besides turn her daughter away in her time of need?”

Audra ignores my snipe. “She keeps watch on the winds. She can feel things in the gusts—traces and warnings and secrets—and she uses her birds to send that information to the Gales so they know of any possible dangers. Right now she’s using her gift to stall the Stormers as long as she can and send warning when they draw close. I expect to hear from her any day.”

Any day.

I know time is counting down quickly, but it gives me goose bumps to hear just how little we have left.

“So what’s your mom’s name?” I ask, partially to get my mind on something else, but mostly because I have to know if the name I heard in my dream is real.

“Arella.”

“Arella.” That explains why she’s the one who told my father we had to move again. She must have caught the Stormer’s trail early.

It also means Audra lied to me when she said my memories were gone forever. I figured as much. But now I know for sure.

I need to know why.

So far none of the fragments I’ve recovered give me any clue. And I’d barely begun a dream tonight when Audra ripped the sheets off me and dragged me out of bed. Which was actually pretty sexy. She can—

“Did you hear me?” Audra asks.

“Sorry. What did you say?”

“I said the Gales will send reinforcements if you have the fourth breakthrough tonight.”

“Oh, sure. Send help after I have the breakthrough that makes me invincible or whatever. Why bother protecting me now, when I’m vulnerable? Idiots.”

She sighs.

“It’s true, and you know it. Do you really expect me to believe you don’t mind that they’d rather let you sacrifice yourself to save me than send you some backup?”

“They just believe in me. Believe that I’m strong enough to handle this.”

“Even if they do, they’re still gambling with your life. And mine.”

She can’t argue with that.

“And how exactly does it help me if you sacrifice yourself? Even if you take out the Stormers, all that does is leave me here like a sitting duck, no way to contact the Gales, just waiting for Raiden to send someone else to come get me. Brilliant plan, guys.”

“It wouldn’t be like that. My mother would know what happened and send for the Gales immediately.”

“So why not just do that in the first place? Why let her daughter die first?”

“You don’t understand.”

“You’re right. What kind of people expect someone to sacrifice their life to save someone else, when they could send help?”

“Because the Gales are under constant attack from Raiden. They can’t spare anyone right now just to save my insignificant life.”

“You’re not insignificant,” I blurt out before I can stop myself.

She clears her throat. “Besides, you wouldn’t be defenseless. I’d pass my gifts to you. Give you my knowledge and skills by letting you breathe me in.”

“Why does that sound creepy?”

“I assure you, it’s not. You just don’t know how the ultimate sacrifice works.”

She takes a breath before she continues. “We have two forms. Our earthly form and our wind form. Our wind form is infinitely more powerful. We’re almost invulnerable to injury, and it gives us a whole other arsenal to fight with. If you have no ties to the earth, you can shift between the two. Like what I did in your room a few nights ago. It’s rarely attempted and hard to achieve and quite painful. But possible.”

“And if you have food or water in your system?”

“Then the parts of yourself that were bound to the earth will crumble and drop away in the shift, and you won’t be able to reclaim them. That’s why the water weakened me so much. I’m grounded until the last drop is gone.”