Grounding the Storm ✓

Chapter 46

The power of ground flickers at my fingertips. It's warning me. There's another player on the field. I catch at the last second, Silas, behind a mass of my own power hurdling towards me. I throw up that shield, taking part of the force pinning down Darius. The shield is barely enough, and it crumbles underneath Silas's ancient strength. Even with our powers being the same, his age reins superior.

Again, I'm thrown back. But this time I've prepared myself to stop the landing. I create another wall behind my flying body, one that bends back against my weight until I'm standing on my feet again without a scratch. Silas drops his hands and swallows down his fear when I'm advancing towards him, my palms hovering over the ground and twisting the surface like vines underneath.

Everything is shaking. The sky, the ground, my hands. The entire world.

Darius breaks free but he isn't part of this anymore. My power has completely forgotten his existence and ignores as he limps away. No, now my power wants to show these princes exactly who I am.

"You have to stop this!" Silas shouts over the teeth-rattling thunder. Wherever Renit is, he hasn't given up on what is happening overhead. "We don't want to hurt you but if we have to—we will." He gives a glance back at the castle and the king no doubt watching from within.

A deep rumble of laughter breaks loose from the dried surface of my throat. "Hurt me? You've already hurt me!" My voice doesn't sound like my own, it doesn't feel like my own, but it's there. The power swirls around me like a second skin. Dirt, sand, rock; it flutters around my surface. "And you've given me the tools I need to show you what happens why you ruin everything I've loved!"

Behind you, the power whispers. I whirl, just as Renit is ready to drive the pommel of his sword into my skull. The power of ground, taking matters into its own hands, shoves him back. The air leaves his body at the same time it leaves mine. What is happening?

The storm is suffocating me on its own, finding its way into my throat. If Renit can't quell me, then the power will have to do that itself. I remember the Grounding training and all it took to stop Renit's power from ever touching me. I went through the chills and the fever so this could come to be and that will not be wasted. He was there for me then but he won't be there for me now.

Grabbing his power around the throat, I toss it out of me and throw him back again. He rushes at me but at his waist, is bent over and slammed against what is left of their beautiful, cobblestone courtyard. My power wraps around him like a bind. Blood drips from his nose and lips; his nails dig into the stone and grip tight so he can stand.

"See what you've done?" Silas shouts behind me. I will myself to stand against his crumbling frame, in the chaos. Darius is nowhere to be seen, neither are the guards or the king himself. "You've ruined her!"

I take a moment to realize the crown prince is referring to his brother, the witch trying to rise from the cracked stone. If he wasn't worth anything, I might suffocate him the way I nearly did to Darius. He would have died; my power doesn't give in before that. It beckons to me, a second being inside my soul. There are two spirits inside me now, myself and that power—they're both fighting for a spot but I see my strength as half and half. Both of us are in control.

"I didn't—" Renit tries, shaking his head. Blood drips. "I didn't mean to!" He slams his palm against the surface and my power feels that as a threat. It lurches, attempting to attack, and I let it.

His thunder strikes down in defense as well and with that shield, I keep it from breaking through. I am stronger than Renit's power of storm, although it carries a great threat, he is nothing compared to me. That lightning holds a shield over him, crackling white as it deflects the blows that the power of ground will leave behind.