Smoke Rising: Book III

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Healers finish up with Emery and exit the tent as I stand silently in the corner. Once they're gone, Emery lies back on the cot set up and stares at the ceiling with her hands propped above her head.

"Are you going to keep staring at me?" She says, the color still drained from her face.

I have so many questions for her, I don't even know where to start. So, I just pick one. "How did you survive?"

She pulls a protein bar from behind her, one the healers probably gave her, and rips it open. "They formed a forcefield around me to protect me, transferring all their energy into it right before the bomb fell. At least, I thought it was a forcefield until I learned the bomb went off four days ago. Now I'm thinking it was something else... I don't really know. All I do know is that one second there was a blinding flash of light and the next I was waking up in a crater filled with ash."

She's right. From what I've learned about Elemental and Shadow magic is that a Caster's spells die when they do. Their energy can be transferred, but the magic they actually enact ends the moment their brain turns off. "What happened to your hair?"

It's really not important. It's not like I care that her hair is different. I'd love her if she was bald. But it's just the next question that comes to mind.

"I don't know that either. I just got highlights when I got my magic back from Nicholi." She seems to be taking his death well. But I guess I don't blame her. He wasn't a good father to her. Hell, he wants even an okay father. He imprisoned her, threatened her, forced her to fight, almost got her killed several times, and then he took her magic away. I wanted him dead, maybe she did too. But Mateo... the soldier that once was under my command named Matt Pierce, he was her friend. She slept with him. She has to be at least slightly upset he's dead.

"Why are you here, Eli?" Her voice isn't full of disgust, but it isn't exactly happy either.

"After I realized what you had done, where you had gone, I wanted to help you... but you asked me not to come here, so I went to find Bug, the girl that invented all the magical tech. I rescued Blue from a prison camp and then we broke her out of some secret lab. Then she told us what the Chancellor was planning to do. I tried to find a way to warn you... but it was too late. There was a magical barrier of some sort around the country and I couldn't get to you. So we jumped on a plane and I came to find you and help any survivors."

She throws the empty wrapper on the ground and jumps to her feet. "Im going to kill him, Eli. Im going to burn him alive the same way he burned millions of people. And then I'm going to take over the Americas and free everyone."

"Free them?"

"No more being afraid of Casters, no more being imprisoned by humans. I'm ending this war."

It's a sunny plan. One I wish I truly believed was possible. But it's not. My father, the Chancellor, is now the most powerful man on planet, and he isn't even a Caster. He's surrounded himself with half-bloods and soldiers covered in magical tech. He has weapons that can sense a Caster miles away and guns that can wipe them out before they even sense them. He is unstoppable now.

"Emery, I'm sorry this happened. But he's too dangerous."

She jumps down off the cot and devours the space between us. "I've been underestimated my entire life. But that stops right now." She pushes past me and outside. I follow her out, ready to protest. But by the time my hand reaches her shoulder she's already started.

Electricity climbs up her arms and zap me, making me recoil. She navigates her way through rubble quickly, finding a pile of concrete slabs to climb on top of.