Fire {Elements of Power 1}

Chapter Thirty Seven: Roxy

Roxy:

I tugged furiously at the manacles, trying desperately to pull my hands loose. I felt so useless. Stuck on the sidelines with no way to help. I couldn't see Brae amongst the fighters, but I knew he'd be there somewhere, fighting to the end for his friends. He must hate me, thinking I betrayed him after what he'd said that afternoon.

I was forced to watch, anguished as Avery battled with one of the Arcan girls. She was nearly taken out a few times, but almost got the better of her in the end before the Brizans got involved. As desperate as I was for her to win, I was a little pleased that the Arcan escaped unharmed. Brae would never forgive me if his friends got hurt, even if I could ever get him to believe that this wasn't my fault.

The earth around me began to shake and I noticed Erica a few metres away sending violent tremors in the direction of a group of Helians who were thrown to the floor, as though they were made of paper. My legs shaking I tried to stumble towards them, Lorelie following behind me silently like she had been Controlled to do. Erica turned her attention away from the Helians to help the Arcan kid, Brody, who was laid out on the floor, barely moving.

But I had spotted something else in the group of Helians she had toppled over and I made my way over to them desperately.

"Hey Rox!" Avery grinned widely as I approached and I was quick to conceal the manacles behind my back. She didn't know what had gone on and I didn't want to give her reason to doubt me. "Look what we caught!" She waved her hand in the direction of the figure I had been making my way towards. My blood boiled.

He was standing in the centre of the Helians. His warms brown eyes had lost all their spark and he gazed, unseeing, into the distance. "We are going to be rewarded big time for this!" Avery laughed gleefully. "He is completely under our Control. He's not going anywhere."

My heart stopped in my chest. They couldn't have Brae. They just couldn't. Everything was falling apart. I fought back the tears that were threatening to spill out of my eyes and forced myself to smile. "This is fantastic, Ave. I guess that's one down two to go in terms of the leaders." I grinned harder, trying to hide my fear. "How about you guys target Erica next - those earthquakes are pretty annoying." I needed to get her out of the way so that I could try to help Brae. I needed to save him.

"You can leave Brae with me if you like." I forced my voice to sound a lot calmer than I felt and gestured to Lorelie who stood beside me vacantly. "I appear to be collecting them."

Ave grinned. "Awesome. We'll get right on in Roxy. Did you see the freak lightning earlier? I didn't think that any of them could do that!"

I shrugged, eager for her to leave. "Maybe it was the weather - we don't control everything."

"Ah but we soon will." She smiled. "Have you seen Cin around? I thought he was in charge of this whole counter assault."

"Not for a while, but he was in a really bad mood when I saw him last, so I'd steer clear if I was you." If I wanted any chance at saving Brae, I needed to stop Avery from finding out the truth. That meant keeping her away from Cin.