Suddenly, thick vines sprung from the sandy ground and twisted around his legs. They worked their way up to his arms, pinning them to his sides, and he let out a murderous growl.
And then the rage was gone.
It was like a cloud had been lifted from his mind. He snapped his head to the side, panic rising. “Kai? What’s going on? Jade—let me go, this is really tight!”
Relief crossed Kai’s face as she slowly let the water drip away from her hands.
But Jade wasn’t letting go. Her lips curled, contorting her features into a blindingly beautiful monster. Aidan swallowed as Jade squeezed her outstretched hand and the vines around him tightened even further. He wheezed in pain before closing his eyes.He had to get out of this.
A split second later, he felt a tug in his core as his entire body erupted in bright flames, the vines burning and falling back to the sand in crispy tatters. He grunted and quickly got to his feet, spinning on his heel to face Jade.
The earth elemental’s eyes were wide. “I’m sorry, Aidan. He got to me—” Her words were cut off as her gaze fixed on something behind Aidan. Turning his neck, he cursed.
Rynn
Rynn swore his heart stopped when he saw Kai.
Her back was to the ocean, her arms held wide at her sides as the water rose like a wall behind her. Its shadow covered the entire beach around them, growing larger and larger as the wind and salt sprayed their faces.
The barrier of water, easily fifty feet high, came crashing down upon them with a mighty roar that shook the earth.
Faster than a breath, Rynn moved to stand before Jade and Aidan, his hands shielded above his head. He summoned all of his power, all the strength of the wind, and it exploded from his body like a ravaging cyclone. The trees behind them creaked and groaned, the sand forming chaotic swirls at their feet as his hair lashed violently in his face.
It worked. The water stopped moving.
It was as if it had hit solid brick, curling in on itself as it splashed against Rynn’s thick air defense. His muscles and mind strained against the force. He could not hold this for long.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jade throw her hands onto the sand. The ground rippled away from her and toward Kai, gaining strength until it rose high enough to cause Kai to topple forward. Her concentration broke, and the water filtered backward into its normal state.
Rynn released the wind, his entire body sagging with exhaustion.
But he was unable to rest.
The king appeared before him, his eyes alight with mischief. It was the first time Rynn had been this close to the bastard, yet familiarity triggered in the recesses of his mind.
“I think it’s your turn,” the king said with a smile. His black eyes consumed Rynn as he whispered, “Stop them.”
The anger, the need for vengeance and total domination, bashed against Rynn’s insides. Without thinking, he set his eyes on the first figure he could find and fashioned his wind into a sharp whip. He flung it at the woman before him, baring his teeth in satisfaction when she went flying through the air toward the pointed rocks and trees of the jungle.
To his disappointment, the female clung to vines that materialized from nowhere, right before she would have impaled herself on a jutting boulder.
“Rynn!” she shouted, but it was too late for her pleas. Rynn swirled an enormous twister of sand around his body. He built and built momentum, feeling weak shots of fire, water, and earth trying to breach the wind. They were no match for his wrath. With a blast of energy pulled from deep in his chest, he let it go, sending a wave of strong air careening to each of his opponents.
Two of them went down. Rynn laughed.
“Rynn, stop! He’s in your head. You don’t want to do this!” The only one left standing shouted as she scrambled toward him. Her eyes were deep brown, her face grim and determined.
“Oh, but I think youdowant to do this. I think you’ve wanted to do this for a very long time,” the man whispered in Rynn’s ear.
Rynn formed his hands into a ball, his mind working through the best way to end her—this thorn in his flesh.
Then, with a shock and an urgent gasp of breath, Rynn fell onto the soft sand. The violence within him had disappeared, leaving him weary in his bones.Sothatis what the dark king’s influence feels like, he thought.
Rynn glanced across the beach at Isla and saw with a stab of bitterness that Sebastian was still with her. How could he be in two places at once? Rynn had never experienced magic such as this.
Motion from the side distracted him. Jade extended a palm, almost as if she was slamming it into an invisible force in front of her. Her face showed triumph, until a shudder overtook her, and she jerked her neck toward Kai and Aidan, who were lying on their backs in the sand.
Jade let out a feral, unearthly cry.
