He nodded and then began his own transformation. A few seconds later, his giant tiger stood beside me. Indigo tilted her head just as Keverin, Hudson’s animal, gave her a giant lick on her chest.
“No time for foreplay, mate, I must turn this field to ash. Perhaps later.”
Foreplay? Oh my god, save me now. How would that even work? The daughter of death and a prehistoric tiger? Indigo chuckled. “Don’t fret, Cora, I would only take him in his human form.”
That’s encouraging.
Indigo tensed, her wings arched, and we shot into the sky. The field was even more terrifying from this view. She raised her hands and power tumbled through us. A stream of pure energy shot from her palms, and as she circled the field, sparks caught alight and flames erupted. Keverin stalked around the edge of the blaze, snarling as sparks danced onto his fur. The smoke bloomed into the sky, but I could feel my molecules expelling the toxins. It was a little disconcerting; most people weren’t aware of their molecules.
“I need access to your element to put out the fire,” Indigo stated. That was curious, I didn’t realize she couldn’t just use it. I reached for my power and fed it through to her. She yanked on the water from the lake nearby, and a cloud formed in the sky across from us. She coaxed it over to the field and with a clap of her hands, the water released onto the ground. The flames died and Keverin growled. Oops, he wasn’t a fan of water.
Indigo swooped to the ground just as Keverin shed his fur and an explosion of light revealed a naked Hudson. Indigo perused him and licked her lips.
“Not now,” I said.
“It’s been too long,” she argued.
“We cannot have sex in a burnt field of poisonous plants, you might get a rash.”
Power swelled from nowhere. It sucked the breath from my body and made my flesh tighten. Hudson spun in the direction of the trees we’d trekked through, and Indigo crouched, narrowing her gaze.
“What is it?” Hudson growled.
“Bad guys?” Indigo asked me. Ugh, she was asking if they could be snacks.
“Perhaps.”
Four elementals spilled from the greenery, two men and two women. I recognized three of them, they each represented a different element. I assumed the fourth unknown wielded earth to make an elemental power quad. All of them wore the insignia of The Order, and the ones I recognized reported directly to my grandmother, which meant I could no longer ignore the fact that she was involved.
Indigo’s wings snapped in irritation and they faltered in their approach, clearly unsure of my identity and what I was capable of. “Principal, you are trespassing,” the tall guy with ice-blond hair snapped. Wesley Maidstone—top water wielder in The Order. I was better, but I refused to be used by them.
Hudson ignored him.
“The land is not yours to claim,” Indigo declared. Her voice came out multilayered and the elementals shifted a little, clearly uncomfortable with her presence.
“That was our crop you just burned,” the raven-haired woman said. She was the unknown, but still no match for us.
Indigo shrugged her shoulder. “Oops.”
I mentally palmed my face. This was escalating quickly.
“Leave now, and we will let you live,” Hudson said. He was deceptively calm, and it was one hundred percent more terrifying than if he had roared the words.
Power pulsed around the elementals. Unusual power. “They are packing something extra,” Indigo said to Hudson as I thought the words.
“Agreed.”
“Be careful,” I warned her. “Wait for them to make the first move, we can be in no doubt if we hurt members of The Order that it was self-defense.”
Indigo rolled her eyes.
Wesley gave a subtle jerk of his head and that power coalesced into one force. What the hell? They were combining their efforts. This wasn’t to scare us, they planned to murder us among the ashes of their ruined crop. A green ball of power shot toward us. Indigo snapped out her hand, her pure white energy swallowing the green, fizzling it out.
She tilted her head as the elementals looked worried. They should be. If they had any sense they’d be retreating.
“We can’t let you leave with the knowledge,” Wesley shouted. “Submit to a memory wipe and we can all go about our business.”
“Like fuck am I letting you rummage around in my mind,” Hudson snarled. I was in complete agreement, they could plant anything in there.
