Academy of Elements: Earth

Chapter 23: From A Wound Blood Blooms

Ice dances between my fingers as the slow hum of the airplane turns the world numb. Nora lies asleep curled in the chair across from me, a wool blanket wrapped around her. I hadn't told anyone yet what I had discovered, Nora would be the first to know followed by Ella and the rest of the Gifted Six.

I turn to look out the window, the conflating sun and ocean of crimson and gold, no clouds dotting the horizon except for the large wall of gray behind us.

Tomorrow we'd get to Herta Macer and in three days school would start again.

The private jet lurches up, a result of the turbulence and I slowly leash my powers, drawing in the endless frozen waters of wrath. The plane rocks again, this time bumping side ways, a different sort of rocking. Nora catches my eye, her brow raised in concern.

Maybe out of peer extinct, or perhaps the constant fear I lived in, I draw on the threads of Magical Essence, slowly filling myself with fresh energy, not that I was lacking any.

And then the silence.

Everything seems to halt for a second, the world pausing before a drop into chaos. Fire erupts from somewhere and I push myself to the ground. Someone was on the plane.

Biting my lip I take a steak knife from the plate of food I had just finished, the serrated edge shining in the calming dusk. A beeping sound comes from above, the fire sensors triggered. The door to Nora and I's private section rolls open, and before a pale, withered Death Hunter can attack me, lightning crackling on his hands, the steak knife embeds itself in his eye. He rocks back roaring with pain as I jump onto him pulling the knife from his eye and freezing his neck. I stop at the second, Nora cracking his neck.

The silence fills the world again.

Water rushes down the walkway between booths, the plane dipping from the added weight. Dipping my hand into the water I feel for the threads of magic sensing whether or not of it was Brennen's magic or someone else's.

The absence of a calm rage sends me freezing the water, sending shards of it towards where it had flown from. Haley twirls from her cabin, vines wrapping around the neck of a girl, barely out of high school by the looks of it. With a grunt Haley's elbow knocks in the back of the young girls head and she falls to the ground.

"Duck." Haley whispers and I do so, dropping to the ground as Haley hurls a dagger made of polished wood into the open mouth of a Death Hunter.

The sound of a helicopter comes, as four men run into the tight space. Denen sends bolts of lightning through the air, two of the men twitching to the ground as their hair rises. Ella lets out a vicious snarl and throws a plate into the face of the third male, Nora finishing the last of with a simple blast of ice to the face.

The helicopter comes closer and as I rush forward to the open door of the cockpit panic fills me. The two pilots lie dead, their throats slit from ear to ear. And through the blood-stained window, I watch a helicopter fly into the plane.

Fire and fury erupts blasting from my feet as the side of the plane is blasted apart. Brennen washing out the fire. I lift my hand blocking the small patch open to the air off.

The wing burns as the plane slowly spirals down. Taking charge Aira struggles to strand, and I feel the power she draws in. Again the silence comes so loud and true that when the air starts screaming its deafening.

Aira screams as she balances the plane, wrapping it in a cocoon of power. Fire catches to the nose of the plane as we descend, speeds descent pushing us all, except Aira, to the back of the plane.

Her hair blows in a typhoon of power as she braces the plane for impact, the south island of New Zealand appearing too fast. I had faith in Aira's powers, we all did, but as the tree's surrounding the field reach for us, I hold Nora's hand, tears falling from her eyes. I squeeze it three times, it'll be alright.