Chapter 99

Ellery

I gazed in horror at the battle unfolding before me. The last time I’d seen Ryker, blood was pouring from a gash in his neck, but he’d vanished soon after, and I had no idea where he was anymore.

When they first burst free of the homes to converge on the town green, a few guards tried climbing the roof to come after us. Ianto had torn off their heads and the rest didn’t see us as they rushed past to join the fray.

The guards were like ants swarming over something to tear it apart and devour it. There were so many of them. We’d taken out dozens with our arrows, but my quiver had run empty, and I couldn’t help anymore.

I sat helplessly with my bow dangling from my hand as the aristocrat’s guards destroyed everything we’d labored to build. Sitting beside me, the giant’s mouth hung ajar as he gazed at the bloody massacre.

Tucker briefly swelled out of the crowd, but hands clawed at him as they pulled him back into the bloody mess. I had to do something to help, but with my arrows gone, I could only do one thing.

Ryker wouldn’t be happy about it, and I didn’t care. There was no way I would sit uselessly by while these monsters destroyed him.

I won’t lose him too.

“Stay down the best you can and help me break off the lightning rods!” I shouted at Ianto.

I threw my bow aside and scrambled to my feet. It scraped down the roof tiles before plunging over the side.

“What? Why?” he sputtered.

“Just do it!” I snapped.

I didn’t look back at the giant as, with my hands out at my sides for balance, I scampered down the roof’s peak, around the chimney, and toward the lightning rod at the end of the house. I kicked it five times before it flew off into the night.

“We should go,” Ianto said. “He’d want me to get you out of here.”

“ Do it !”

I ran back toward the chimney and off to the other side of the home. It was a small building, so I didn’t have to run far to the next rod.

I only had to kick this one three times before it fell away. As I ran back to the chimney, I saw that Ianto had taken out the other two lightning rods and was standing at the front of the building.

Stopping beside him, I refused to look at the battle as I pulled the dagger at my side free.

“Ellery, I promised Ryker I’d get you out of here if things went wrong.” Ianto’s hand fell on my arm, halting my dagger. “We have to go.”

I yanked my arm away from him. “Not all promises can be kept, and if you try to make me leave, so help me, I’ll blast your ass off this roof.”

“ Huh ?”

I ignored him; he’d soon learn what I’d meant. Placing the blade against my shirt, I sliced it upward, cleaving it in two to expose the bindings beneath.

That wouldn’t be enough.

I willed myself to calm down and steady my hand before I placed the dagger to my bindings and started sawing them in half. Despite my intended care, I still cut myself multiple times, and blood soon rolled freely down my exposed skin as the screams below intensified.

“What are you doing?” Ianto demanded.

When I finished, I tore away the bindings and my shirt to completely expose my breasts to all those below.

“Holy shit,” Ianto turned his head away from me. “Ellery, what the fuck are you doing?”

Once I was exposed, and there was no way anyone could miss that I was a woman , I sheathed my dagger. They would know, without a doubt, I wasn’t Ryker.

Lifting my hand, I took a deep breath while I prepared myself for the revelation and hell I was about to unleash. Up until now, I’d tried to avoid killing anyone. Was it possible I had slaughtered someone? Yes, but I didn’t know for sure.

Not only would my lightning kill someone below, but all of Tempest would soon learn a female lightning bearer existed. While they didn’t know it was me , I was about to become the most hunted amsirah in Tempest.

However, I didn’t have a choice as I was sure Ryker was about to release his power too. If he unleashed his lightning, there would be no covering who he was, and he’d become hunted. He had to remain free.

It was probably only seconds before he started firing bolts at his attackers, as we were clearly losing this fight. Do it now!

I didn’t take the time to think through the consequences of what I was about to do. One of the secrets I’d kept hidden for years was about to be revealed, but I knew the consequences of my inaction , and they weren’t acceptable.

Lifting my hand to the sky, I drew on the electricity in the air. My power swelled and crackled against my fingertips as it sought to break free.

“Ellery—”

“Get down!” I commanded. “Unless you want them to see you.”

And if they saw the giant, there would be no denying who he was.

“What?”

“ GET DOWN !”

Ianto crouched down but didn’t flatten himself to the roof. It would have to do.

I didn’t hear what else Ianto had to say as a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, hit my extended fingertips, went through me, and shot out toward the battle below.

I’d kept my ability hidden for so long, but that time was over, and a new time was beginning. What that new time would bring, I didn’t know, and while I liked to think it couldn’t be any worse than this… it could.

The oppressed amsirah were about to learn something unique existed in this realm, and I was fighting for them. The aristocrats would also learn the same, except they’d know I stood against them, and would do everything they could to make me pay for that.

Things in Tempest were about to change forever.