Lex ran toward Noah and me, rubbing his hands together. “I’ve got a good vibe this time. Probe is set. Let’s go.”
The hail rained sideways, cutting into bare flesh and making everyone squint and shield their eyes.
Elliott whooped and cackled with the same energy that lit my core on fire as he stood by the vehicle, face turned to the sky. “Come on. Do it.”
I was about to follow the team when movement in the field caught my eye. Certain it was more flying debris, I almost called a warning. But it wasn’t debris. With the storm-darkened day and the activity above us, it was no wonder I hadn’t noticed earlier. Someone from Olivia’s team had wandered far from the road, deep into an unplanted farmer’s field, farther than was safe under the circumstances.
With a growing funnel bearing down on us, fleeing was imperative. We didn’t want to play chicken much longer. If it touched down right here, and it looked promising, the dangerwas real. Who the hell was stupid enough to stray that far from a getaway vehicle under these conditions? Didn’t they see what was happening?
I glanced at Olivia and the rest of her team, who seemed to have come to the same conclusion as us. It was time to split. The bug was built to withstand high-force winds, but even we weren’t sticking around to test its integrity. Olivia’s car would get tossed like a tin can.
As they scrambled to her vehicle, they didn’t seem to realize one of their members was missing. Scanning their group, I immediately picked out the absent member. Olivia, Jazz, Roe, and Maggie.
I returned my attention to the field and the wanderer. Their fifth member seemed to have no clue they were in serious danger.
“Oz!” Noah grabbed my arm and dragged me to the car. “Move it. If she drops here, we’re fucked.”
Everyone else was in the bug, ready to fly.
A jolt of fear seized my lungs as I turned back to Olivia’s team. I knew who was standing in the field, oblivious to the unfolding danger and forgotten by the rest of the Wind Riders.
Gale.
I took off at a sprint.
“What the fuck?” Noah yelled.
Hail hammered my face as the vortex took shape, growing stronger and stretching toward the ground. The wind increased, making the run almost impossible. I kept one eye on the threat and the other on Gale.
Missile-like branches torn from a nearby tree flew through the air. One came within feet of Gale, startling him so he fell on his ass.
The hairs on my arms stood on end, and my blood felt electric. The roar of the storm echoed in my bones and vibrated through my teeth.
I reached Gale and snagged his collar, heaving him to his feet. “Come on, Dorothy. Time to split before someone drops a tornado on you.”
I got him upright and shoved him toward the road, encouraging him to run. He tripped and stumbled, so I fisted his shirt and pushed him ahead. When he glanced back, wild-eyed and terrified, I grinned.
“Watch where you’re going.”
As we got closer to the road, I noticed Noah stood by the bug, filming the whole rescue operation. The rest of the guys were in the vehicle, waiting to fly.
Olivia and her team were gone.
Gale seemed to realize it at the same time I did, and he stumbled to a stop. “She left me?”
I didn’t know what to tell him, and there was no time. I snagged his arm and pushed him toward the bug. “Guess you’re with us now.”
Deep down, I wasn’t sad about it.
11
Gale
What was happening? One minute, I was staring into a growing vortex, communing with God; the next, I was swept off my feet and thrust into Ozrik’s severely modified chase vehicle, where I landed among a group of strangers who stared as if I’d come from a different planet.
Ozrik tumbled in after me, and the driver punched the gas before the door was closed.
I jolted, the sudden motion sending me crashing into one of the strangers, who shoved me off with an irritated pinch of the brow. Too frazzled, I couldn’t put names to faces, even though I’d shamefully binge-watched their YouTube channel over the past week under the cover of darkness and with headphones pressed to my ears. In all fairness, during those sessions, only one person interested me. The rest were background noise.
