Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(115)

Calix hit Osmost’s talons away, but Kairos was right behind him, tackling Calix around the waist and heaving him onto his back dangerously close to the edge. Kairos reared up, slamming punch after punch to Calix’s face, and we all ran forward.

Calix bucked him off, rolling over to hit Kairos, but Kairos turned them once more and landed more blows.

Calix slammed his fist up through Kairos’s jaw and pushed at the same moment, and Kairos’s body flipped over the edge.

With a scream, I reached out with my power, and I felt rocks shearing off the cliff, but I couldn’t see what I was doing. I couldn’t tell if I had caught him or if I had hit him in the head with a boulder. I ran to the edge, kneeling to look over, but I couldn’t see him.

“Shalia!” Galen yelled, snatching me back from the edge.

Galen dragged me toward the bridge and Rian ran to meet us as Calix yelled, “Kill them! Kill them all!”

There was still an unfinished gap on the bridge, but Galen jumped, and without a question, I jumped after him. He caught me, landing on the highest step and swinging me aside so Rian could jump after us.

The Trifectate men nearly caught Rian, but a big shape cut them off.

“You’ll have to go through me,” Zeph said, and I saw him turn to face the semicircle of men.

I saw Theron move forward, shaking his head. “This isn’t how I wanted this to end, old friend,” Theron said.

Zeph didn’t respond, lunging forward with his khopesh. Rian jumped and stumbled down a stair as the men hesitated, then bellowed as they closed in on my brave guard.

“Go,” Galen ordered Rian. He started running down the stairs, and Galen tugged my waist. “Shalia, go!”

“Not yet!” I yelled, raising my arms and calling up thousands of tiny stones as Zeph twisted and moved, fighting hard.

“Shalia, Calix!” Galen yelled, pointing to where Calix was approaching the stairs.

Taking one of the larger stones, I launched it at his head. It hit him square in the temple, and Calix fell to the ground.

Stretching my fingers, with a shout I sent the brute force of the rocks flying into the faces of the men around Zeph. It wasn’t very precise or fatal, but it earned a moment of distraction.

“Run!” Galen shouted at him.

Zeph ran hard for us, barreling over the edge and hitting first Galen, then me, knocking us back.

Rather than falling onto the stairs, I fell off the side.

For long seconds, I fell through the air. Galen shrank in the air above me and I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

Was this what Kairos felt?

Suddenly, without my intention, a rock came up beneath me, cradling me and easing my fall before stopping it completely.

With a gasp of relief, I got to my feet, holding my hand to my belly as the rock began to rise. I looked down—I couldn’t see Kairos, or where he might have fallen.

A shout from above drew my attention. Other soldiers had jumped across the rock, and Galen and Zeph were fighting them off, struggling to keep their foothold. Zeph drove his fist into a man’s jaw, and the man careened off the rock.

“Down!” I shouted, pointing at the tunnel.

Galen pushed Zeph, and the two men started running down the stairs. I started collapsing it behind them as another soldier jumped and fell into air.

My heart seized, and I sent a rock out to catch him and send him back to the edge of the cliff.

Flying the rock back up to the tunnel, I saw Rian talking to Kata, pale and sitting, clutching her side as blood came through her fingers. “Go into the tunnel and get Kata to the water so she’s stronger. I have to go look for Kairos!” I yelled.

I started to turn away when Galen leaped off the edge, landing on my rock and tilting it hard. I grabbed him, and he wrapped his arms around me. “Whoa,” he said, steadying.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Coming with you,” he said.

“Galen—”

His hands rubbed my arms a tiny bit. “No matter what you find, I don’t want you doing it alone.”

“Duck!” Rian shouted, pointing as an arrow flew, falling short and dropping into the crevasse.

“Go,” I told him. “I’ll be up as soon as I find him.”

He nodded, fixing his stare on Galen. “Keep her safe.”

Galen’s throat bobbed, and his arm wrapped around my waist. “Always.”

Galen brushed a kiss on my cheek, and I nodded at Rian, letting the rock drift downward. I curled my arms around him, leaning my head on his shoulder so I could look one way and he could look the other. I brought us all the way to the churning water in the bottom of the canyon, the wind blowing at my skirt and face and hair, cold where the rest of my body was warm against Galen.

I slowed the rock as it skimmed along the river.

“I didn’t even know there was a river here,” Galen whispered in my ear.

I nodded. “My father took me here once, when I was a child and we hadn’t found food for a long while. We came to hunt.” I pointed behind his back. “Far over that way, there’s an old staircase. It took us hours to climb it.” My fingers curled against him. “Maybe Kairos would go toward it.”

“Shalia,” he said softly. “Do you think he would have survived the fall?”

I shuddered against him. “I don’t know. I tried to catch him,” I said, my voice going so rough it barely escaped my throat. “But I couldn’t see him. I could have—I could have hurt him.”