Elemental Hunger

Chapter Six

Hunger clawed at my belly. I wasn't sure I'd survive the two-mile walk to Adam's cave. We emerged on the main road as the city gates cranked shut for the evening. Weary workers turned in their tools and shuffled into side streets. Some moved toward a single-story hut with a torch burning brightly above the door.

Relief filled my weary body when the gate closed all the way—it would be morning before the sentries could enter.

Adam and I made it to the end of the street before the bells rang. He turned back, frowning.

The gates slowly moved apart, and the hovercraft slipped in through the gap. The Tarpulin sentry jumped down, already scanning the townspeople frozen in the street. Patches joined him, wearing a white bandage on his forehead. I hadn't killed him, and the relief flooding me weakened my knees.

But he still wanted to kill me, so I didn't spend any time rejoicing.

Fighting the urge to run, I ducked between two buildings and then into the shadows behind a shed. I was surprised when Adam joined me.

"This is bad," he breathed, his mouth not moving.

"No kidding." I struggled to keep my voice masculine.

"Shh. Listen."

The Tarpulin sentry had started talking. His booming voice easily carried to us. "...burned to the ground. Though Forrester is an Unmanifested village, if you see this girl—or any Elemental—we need to know."

I sucked in a breath on the word girl. Next to me, Adam was practically hyperventilating.

"What's happening?" I tried to peer around him, but he turned and shoved me away from the main street, toward the trees littering the landscape.

"We gotta go." He ran past me into the grove. My mind had no complaints about leaving the sentries behind, so I followed. My feet, however, throbbed with pain, and I had a hard time keeping up.

Especially since Adam could literally fly. He wove through trees, doubled back, climbed a hill when we could've gone around. We definitely covered more than two miles with the winding route he took to the cave.

When we finally made it, I collapsed in the dirt, thoroughly lost, dizzy, and on the verge of passing out. Chest heaving from the thirty-minute sprint, I closed my eyes and ignored the painful clenching in my gut, the ache in my knee, and the bloody mess I'd find in my socks.

"Sorry," Adam panted. "Didn't...want to be...followed."

"I could barely...keep up with you."

Some scuffling sounded next to me and then Adam's footsteps echoed off the walls.

I sat up, and my head started to spin again. I groaned. "See anything?"

He stood in the cave entrance, a silent silhouette. I ignited one hand.

"Put that out!" he hissed, dragging something in front of the opening. "Tornadoes, Gabe, are you stupid?"

I extinguished my hand before he finished pulling the lattice of branches and leaves into place, drenching the cave in darkness. A lump formed in my throat at the sudden rush of adrenaline I felt. He'd trapped me in this cave.

"Now light us up," he said.

"You got firewood?" I asked, forcing down the panic and trying to act cool.

"Yeah, hang on a sec."

He moved behind me, then dumped some kindling at my feet. He was so close, his body heat melted into mine. I itched to move away from his foreign warmth. Instead, I clapped once, sending droplets of fire splashing to the ground. I held one hand over the wood as it caught fire. Adam teased it with a playful breeze. Within minutes, the flames chased away the shadows and the chill of the stones.