Page 75 of Above Cursed Winds

His path became clear before him. He’d yearned for a home and here was his opportunity to find one forever. “I can attempt, Nero.”

The dizzying sensation of the teleport churned in his stomach, his feet finding solid ground half a second later. Vision clearing, Jeremiah found himself among Nero’s lieutenants, all of whom looked at him with varying degrees of hope and wariness.

Jeremiah didn’t turn toward Zia, knowing instinctively that she’d remained in his blind spot. He looked toward the oncoming storm, the eye of which was to make landfall within the hour.

Air began to churn around his skin, bracketing his body with the heated water that’d accompanied it. Behind him, Gideon’s hand gripped his neck, supporting him against the elements as Jeremiah focused on what he was about to do.

Drawing upon his power, the air thickened around them, the music of the impending storm falling away. Replacing it was the beating drum of life that coursed through every molecule of his element. It whispered in his ears.

A voice. A song. A melody.

Rona’s gasp accompanied it, and her reverent tone followed. “She speaks to you.”

Behind him, Gideon asked, “Who?”

“It’s a voice,” the vampire who’d borrowed his power said. “It whispers. The wind whispers to him. I’ve never heard it before this very moment. And only now because …”

“Rona,” Jeremiah said quietly. “Be still. I must listen.”

Immediate silence followed his ask. Digging deep, his consciousness shot into the sky and its winds. Torrents of air coiled around him. Water vapor and torrential rain circulated, the roar of it abrasive against the welcoming warmth of his own element.

The liquid churning within the storm would make this near impossible. As Jeremiah’s consciousness began assessing the situation, the category five hurricane winds siphoned, rotating with wind speeds of more than one hundred sixty miles per hour.

With each passing second, Jeremiah realized the path he’d chosen was the only possible solution. There was no other choice if he wanted to save everyone around him. And he owed them all this much.

Diving back into his physical body, he turned to the sovereign bristling beside him. “Nero, I can’t stop this. It’s miles wide, and the water within is whirling at a rate that would take both Rukia and I to dissipate. It’s too soon after she had her child—she isn’t back to full strength, and no one else can match her skill.”

“What about an Amp?” another lieutenant asked. “Could an Amp supplement your abilities?”

“No.” Luna shook her head. “Amps don’t work on Elemental powers.”

Nero grimaced. “Then shield us, Jeremiah. Shield us from the danger.”

“If everything on the island is destroyed except your clan, Nero, the humans will suspect supernatural involvement,” Gideon spoke softly, his hand falling away from Jeremiah’s neck.

“I can’t save them; I can’t move them.” A rush of desolation beat against them, emanating from the sovereign. “I can’t stop this.”

Jeremiah looked at Gideon, as if wanting to engrave his friend’s features permanently into his heart. “Instead of stopping the hurricane, I could move it. Ensure the winds redirect before they ever reach the shore.”

Gideon nodded sharply. “Try. Try Jeremiah.”

It was all the blessing he needed. Spearing back into the sky, his sentience began shifting the winds as they battered into him, the currents moving as he willed them.

Every debilitating second he intentionally forced the winds to alter was a second he staggered. The colossal use of power began to beat at his psyche, the sheer strength needed to dissipate the immense hurricane nearing the limit of his endurance.

Separated as he was from his physical body, his attention was split, divided when he needed all of his strength to do the impossible. It’d take only seconds, his body complying with the demand as if he was simply taking a breath.

The effects were unknown. But what everyone needed from him couldn’t be clearer.

Myko needed him to stop failing. Gideon, above all, had the right to ask him to not be useless for once. Rona, Nero, Luna … Zia. If she thought of him in the future, he could only hope she wouldn’t remember a worthless man.

In a heartbeat, one single breath, Jeremiah physically devested of his body, dissolving every molecule of his being into his element.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Currents licked along her skin, the massive drafts resonating through the open space keen to comply with Jeremiah’s every whim. No one ever gave a thought to the atmospheric gases that made up the heavens, just as they wouldn’t register the wind until it moved against them.

Breathe in, breathe out.

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