Extraordinary (The Extraordinary Saga #4)

Chapter 20

Caeden pressed the golden compass between his palms, willing as much heat into it as he possibly could. Off the top of his head he didn't know the melting point of gold, but it had to be somewhere above a thousand degrees. Was that even in the realm of possibilities?

"Back up!" He shouted. He'd felt what the not-shadows could do, and he'd seen it again today. Jay hadn't known just how much they could mess with you, and as a result he hadn't been cautious enough. He would be fine within a few minutes, but still, seeing him as disoriented as he was - especially when he was moving things with his mind just a moment ago - was nerve-wracking.

Any day now, Rowan thought, looking at Caeden. Come on.

A not-shadow slithered past her ankle, and she almost missed it. They didn't give off any light of their own, so she was relying on Luna's flickering orbs to show where the shimmering specters were. When it moved past her without hesitation, Rowan realized that the golden spirits didn't care as much about individual powers; they wanted the compass. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen.

She conjured up a ball of lighting and aimed towards the thing, careful to stay away from Caeden. Hitting him instead wouldn't do any good. When it made contact, the golden figure writhed, pulsing with lightning, and then vanished completely.

Holy-

Her victory was cut short by Caeden's alarmed shout.

"Rowan, it won't melt!"

"Well, make it hotter!" She yelled back.

He shook his head, coming closer to her so they didn't have to yell. Even from a distance, she could feel the heat coming off of him. "It's maxed out, like it's immune or something. If I had to guess, my hands are at two thousand degrees right now, but it's not doing any good."

Rowan shook her head, blasting another not-shadow as it came up behind her. "There has to be something we can do. I can amplify your fire, it'll work then!"

Caeden's eyes widened. "No. I won't be able to control that much power. And besides, it won't do anything!"

"I've got an idea!" Jordyn cut in from across the cave. Maybe Caeden was right, and there really was nothing he could do. In that case, Rowan had to be flexible. They all did. "Throw it here!"

Caeden did, arcing it high above the heads of anyone else and out of the direct path of any not-shadows. The second it left his hand, he winced. She couldn't hold that - it was a thousand degrees! It would burn her, or anyone, who tried to catch it.

Fortunately some of Jay's sense had returned, and he caught it in midair, the metal hovering just a few inches over his palm.

"It's hot," he told Jordyn.

Jordyn shrugged him off, very aware of the steaming piece of metal floating near her head.

"Peter!" She yelled, pointing at the wall next to them. She could feel the water right outside, millions of gallons filling up the lake. This was Plan B. "Hole!"

Jay couldn't see what Peter was up to, but he was willing to bet it had to do with a not-shadow. He pocketed the compass, which had cooled off some. Still somewhat dazed and disoriented, he wasn't sure why Jordyn had shouted for a hole. That seemed like an odd request.

It made more sense when Peter made a tunnel through the cavern's wall. Right below them, not even two stories down, sat the very lake that had started the ordeal.

Jordyn stared Jay dead in the eyes. "I need you to take the compass and throw it into the lake."

He wasn't sure he'd heard her right. "What?"

She pointed at the lake. "Just do it! I have a plan."

Jay knew not to argue with her when she had an idea, so with a gust of wind he sent the compass down into the lake. What he was not expecting, however, was Jordyn's reaction - she got a running start and cannonballed off of the edge.

She hit the water with a splash and resurfaced a moment later, triumphantly waving the compass in her hand.

"Hey, pendejos!" She yelled. "Come and get it!"

At first Jay thought she was talking about them - which would've been extremely weird considering in all of the eight months that they'd dated, he'd never once heard her curse, even in Spanish. Just because she censored herself in the language she spoke at home didn't mean she hadn't said it. Jay made a note not to let her forget that.

As the not-shadows responded to her call, leaving the cave and flocking towards her in one big cloud of gold, it dawned on him that she was talking to the magical flying spirits. That made only slightly more sense.

They were flying towards her, giving the rest of them time to figure out how to deal with the Aether inside the cavern walls. But still, she couldn't hope to fend them all off, not by herself.

So without a second thought, Jay ran up to the edge of the wall. Before he could hurl himself over, a voice from behind him stopped him.

"If you hit them hard enough, they'll disappear. You two can end this."

It was Rowan. And he didn't doubt her advice.

So without wasting another moment, he jumped towards the lakeshore below.

He landed, not gracefully, but he landed on the sand, using the wind to slow his fall. Unharmed, he spit out grainy bits of the shore and got to his feet. And he saw them, all around Jordyn. The not-shadows.

Jordyn was in her home turf - in the water, so she was doing perfectly fine on her own. But when he arrived, almost fully recovered from both Rowan and the not shadow's power, it really turned the tables in their favor. He yelled to Jordyn what Rowan had told him.

And one by one, the not-shadows began to vanish.