Let the Sky Fall (Sky Fall #1)(90)

Her chest heaves as she gasps for breath, and I grin when I see her flushed cheeks. The light in her eyes. Her swollen lips.

I did that.

And God—I want to do it some more.

I cradle her face in my hands and kiss her again, slower this time. Like we have all the time in the world. Because we do. We’re safe. The Stormers are gone and . . .

Memories I’m trying not to think about flash before my eyes and everything in me twists upside down and inside out. I break away, holding my head like that could wrangle my thoughts away from the horror show still replaying in my mind.

“What’s wrong?” Audra asks, stroking my cheek.

Her touch calms the panic a little. “I can’t. Not with . . .”

She frowns for a second, and then I see her put the pieces together. Her eyes dart to the place I’m trying not to look.

Even with the added strength from my bond to Audra, I’m not sure I can see it—him. See his lifeless, broken form. Not without going back to the dark place I sank into.

“Close your eyes,” she whispers when I start to shake again.

I don’t argue. I squeeze my eyes shut and press my hands against my ears. But I still feel the winds Audra calls to wrap around the body and float it far, far away.

Somewhere out there is the other Stormer I knocked from the sky. I shiver, even though the sky has cleared and the heat’s beating down in full force.

I hope we never find him.

I can accept what I’ve done—sort of. But I know it’ll haunt me forever. And I don’t ever want to do it again.

Which leaves the bigger question.

I force my eyes open and take Audra’s hands. “Now what?”

“I have no idea. I need to speak with my mother. I hope she isn’t . . .” She looks away.

I’m glad. She misses the way my face twists with rage.

I haven’t forgotten what the Stormer told me about Arella abandoning us during the fight. She made that whole big show, claiming she’d planned to back us up all along. And then she ran. She has to be the most selfish, pathetic coward I’ve—

“I’d better use the emergency call,” Audra says, interrupting my venomous thoughts. “That should tell her where we are. It’ll alert the Gales, too.”

“Whoa—hang on. There’s an emergency call?”

She won’t look at me, and her cheeks flush.

I squeeze the bridge of my nose. “So all this time you could’ve just made a call to the Gales and asked for help?”

“It isn’t that simple. The emergency call broadcasts our precise location for all to see. As long as Raiden didn’t know exactly where we were, it would’ve been too dangerous to use it. But he knows we’re here now, after all the turbulence we’ve caused.”

She stands and whispers the call for an Easterly, a Northerly, and a Southerly and twists them in a pattern that feels familiar—even though I’ve never seen her do it before. Maybe that has something to do with our bond.

She cups her hands around her mouth and blows into the mini cyclone, then whispers, “Launch.”

The funnel narrows until it looks like a piece of rope. It streaks into the sky so high I can’t see where it ends.

She sits back beside me and I take her hand. “Now we wait.”

I can think of a few ways we can pass the time. But I know Audra’s worrying her mother won’t come back.

And I’m trying to figure out what I’ll say when she does.

My blood runs cold when I hear a rush of wind behind us.

“Mother,” Audra says, jumping to her feet.

I stand too, grabbing Audra’s hand to keep her at my side.

Arella rushes toward us. “I’ve been so worried.”

“Really?” I hold out my free arm to block her from getting too close. “Then where have you been this whole time?”

Arella stops, looking just the right amount of annoyed and ashamed. “I’ve been making my way back here. The Stormers bound me in their stripped winds and launched me into the sky. I barely managed to stop my fall, which is the only reason I survived. And they shot me so far into the desert it took me ages to make my way back.”

“Ages,” I repeat. “You couldn’t just fly back?”

“Vane, what’s wrong?” Audra asks.

“One of the Stormers told me your mom bailed on us during the fight. Ran away with her tail between her legs and left us to fend for ourselves.”

“Well, obviously he lied,” Arella insists without so much as blinking.

I’ll give her one thing—she’s a much smoother liar than her daughter. But she’s still full of crap.

“Really? ’Cause you don’t look like someone who was overpowered and flung into the middle of the desert. You don’t have a scratch on you.”

Arella tries to hold my gaze, but breaks eye contact first.

Guilty.

“I landed in a soft sand dune,” she finally explains.

I snort. “Seriously? That’s the best you’ve got?”

She doesn’t have a speck of sand on her.

“You left us?” Audra asks her mother, though she sounds more sad than angry. “When did you leave?”

“I didn’t—”

I cut Arella off before she can tell another lie. “The Stormer said she ran off as soon as they found where we were hiding—which was thanks to your stupid bird, by the way. I told you he was evil.”