“What?”Wave gasped.Marc turned to her.
“You stay put in here.The house is warded, you’ll be safe in here.”
“What’s happening?”
“Some Hell Realm dispute.I need to get over there to back up Hellion.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No, you are not,” Grant said from the doorway.Marc rushed to his feet and over to him.Slowly, Wave followed them.
“Wayla, stay,” Marc ordered her one more time.Then they were out of the door, running.Wave debated listening to him for five seconds, and then she was running after them.Fuck staying back if she could help.
The moment she stepped through the door all the energy in the air grabbed her.It messed up her senses and frayed her control to the point that Wave had to focus on containing it.At least it seemed to give a boost to her natural healing, because with every step she could run more easily.
The campus looked like a war zone when Wave ran after Marc and Grant.Or it actually was one, and she refused to fucking stay behind.Yet another massive power surge landed, and Wave felt it demolishing the rest of Tracthesian’s protections.
The air around her changed, and power flowed freely, granting all things access.Those protections should have held even Hell Moon’s power surges, unless someone had tampered with them.There was no doubt in her mind that someone had done so in order to launch this attack.Otherwise, the alarms would have gone off and safeguards would have been deployed.
Hell Moon glinted above in a cloudless sky, beautiful, powerful, dangerous.Instead of being a pure ball of fire like Wave had imagined, it was more like a marble made out of swirls of red, purple, and black.
And apparently, it had decided to focus its attention on Tracthesian Academy, or was it wreaking even more havoc elsewhere?Wave almost fell over as she stumbled over an uprooted tree root.She caught herself against the leaning trunk and winced.
Grant and Marc were small specs far ahead of her, and her body was protesting the sudden exercise.The fact that she was upright was a miracle in itself and purely thanks to the work Ilijas had done.She couldn’t run fast enough, she didn’t have the energy, no matter how fast her body was absorbing power from the air to aid her.
Gritting her teeth, Wave pushed up.Hellion was under attack, and he had helped her when he didn’t have to, apparently even going so far as to cover for the damage she had done and who knew what else.Wave let go of her third shield and let the power seep in even faster.
She wasn’t low on power, but she would need to use everything she had to compensate for her weak disposition.Well, not everything, but enough.Pushing her body to move again, Wave ran.Every step pushed her further, faster, and she burned power to keep up with Marc and Grant.They hadn’t realized she was following them yet.
They ran right to the middle of the campus, where Wave’s pace faltered.The building that held the banquet hall was partly in rubble.There were demons and hell creatures and students and teachers and unlucky bystanders everywhere.It was impossible to distinguish a friend from a foe.
Ignoring all that, Wave kept going.Marc would know where Hellion was.To her horror, the first person she spotted wasn’t Hellion though, but a slumped figure of Zahir.Sinister was standing with his back to Wave and fighting off a group of…fire clan warriors.
What the fuck was going on here?
From what she’d overheard, it had sounded like a Hell Realm dispute.What were nature elementals doing mixed in?Unless… A horrible feeling started crawling up Wave’s throat.This wasn’t some Hell Realm power struggle.This was something more.
She watched as a fire arrow flew toward Sinister’s exposed back.
Maybe he had enough power and internal shields to block it.She should find Hellion…
Cursing, Wave changed course and threw her hand out, pulling up an ice wall at Sinister’s back.
His shoulders flinched, but he didn’t turn from the attack coming at him and Zahir from the front.Wave ground her teeth.Cowards.They were attacking what they saw as a weak link.Well, none of the Powerhouses were weak, but those two weren’t combatants as such.
Sinister kept shielding, but Wave couldn’t spot any offense from him, and they had him pinned, so he couldn’t open a portal.The ground rumbled as Wave got pissed off.
Someone had noticed her shield, and now fireballs were flying her way.Nothing like the little flames from Dr.Kelsey’s class.These would take off a limb if they hit.Still not fatal force, though, Wave noted icily as she wrapped herself in layers of water.
They were pulling in more and more attention.Battle lines were being drawn, and anyone not affiliated with either party tried desperately to get out of the way.Wave pulled up another ice wall as her first one cracked and melted away.
These weren’t some mindless grunts.Not enough to fight any of the Powerhouses one on one but ten to one…
She made it to Sinister’s side just as he fell to one knee.He blinked up at Wave, confused.
“Wayla?What are you doing here?”
“Can you stand?”Wave wasted precious seconds on asking.
