Grounding the Storm ✓

Chapter 35

I wipe the blood dripping from my lips. Through the pounding in my skull, I make out Piper's distant mumbling asking me if I'm all right so I nod. If there was any other answer given, if I collapsed onto the ground, she would decide there was no other option than to end this training session. And that cannot happen.

We're so close. I was within hand's reach of his complicated power when it reached up with his fist and punch me directly in the teeth. Not by his hand, I have to remember. Likely, he's watching from wherever he's trapped inside of his body. Renit can't say or do anything to stop the blows, same with me trying to stop Darius. It's impossible.

"One more time," I grind out. I spit blood onto the grass. Lightning crackles at Renit's fingertips and his eyes bore down on me, waiting for another attempt. His power has become so fickle that the magic lets me try—only to fail. His power loves to devour my failure.

Piper steps under the safe cover of the trees with a titanium shield. Thunder booms overhead. She brought a shield out here after a lightning strike Renit sent after her lifted her feet off the ground, and she slammed into the trunk of a tree. After breaking two ribs, she decided not to take the chance again. Renit almost received a beating for the injuries afterward.

I slowly walk towards Renit and he watches me the entire way. Not the way Darius would watch me or Celestine, but with him, Renit's power notices me as his enemy and it must do everything in his power to take me down.

I've tried pinning him to the ground with my power. He screams and thrashes but sends down a lightning bolt, attempting to kill me so he can break free. That is out of the question. I stay on my toes and try to soothe the power the way nature would soothe the thrashing waves of the ocean during a storm. A cleansing, a removal of the harsh energy as old as time.

I place my hand against his chest, directly underneath the nuummite hanging from the gold chain. He hasn't taken it off as far as I've seen, not even when he takes a bath or changes his clothes from one pair of training shirts to the other—whether light armor or an entire creation entirely. The necklace is part of him now, as it is me.

Immediately, I shove down on his power with my limited time. The power of ground snakes through and bites at the storm, taking chunks at a time. A dark wave settles over his very intense and trained essence. As the storm attempts to rage on, I use all my effort to snuff it out. The strain takes me with it, wrapping a rope around my ankle and tugging, but the storm backs away. It recoils into the corner of Renit's magic reserve but I push towards it, moving as fast as a viper and clamping my jaw down on the strength.

The power thrashes, screaming, and light flashes at the end of the tunnel. His power is giving up. I push harder and the thunder stops, for a second, the clouds depart. Renit's power surges, slamming against my own and his hand grabs mine, throwing it to the side. As I've grown used to, I attempt to move out of the way of the blow coming. But I'm too late, as usual.

His boot drives into my stomach and all the air leaves my body as I fly and slam against the somewhat soft ground. I groan but don't move so Piper can do what she needs to stop his power. With the titanium shield, she moves swiftly across the clearing, combating his power. Her boots dig into the ground as Renit blasts lightning against the shield and it dies when hitting the surface.

With her face gritted into strain, she skids and stumbles her way towards him like wind is pushing at her from every direction. It's not until a perfectly placed lightning strike hits the bottom corner of the shield that the cover is ripped from her hands. Piper stands there, defenseless, as Renit's power forces another lightning strike to knock the shield away.

His power makes him chuckle, and he raises a hand, lightning crackling over his tanned skin, I think this is it. The end of Piper. But Renit screams.