Page 146 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Elementals were nothing like he’d taught me growing up. I would protect them in any way I could. I was meant to be their leader, and I’d show him tonight that he fucked up by creating me.

Shoving daggers and knives into my pockets, I grabbed four swords. Two went into the holster at my back in the shape of an X while I held onto the other two. River barely contained her rage with her curled lip and sharp expression. Kodiak remained silent as he finished strapping blades in holsters along the Elemental tattoos marking his thick arms. Sweet Katia transformed into a fearsome warrior with not a shred of fear in her eyes.

Without a word, we dashed back outside into the melee, hoping we weren’t running into devastation.

Chapter 52

Gray

Isprinted into the chaos with Kodiak and River flanking me from behind. Katia hung back to take on the intruders on the fringes.

With a sword in each hand, I slashed the throat of a Kinetic locked in combat with an Elemental without slowing my pace. I whacked through any Kinetic Warrior I reached, clearing a path through the mayhem.

Currents and Elemental magic clashed across the entire property of the Hollow. Weapons clanged viciously as the song of death accompanied the crimson painting the grass.

Wanting to hold onto my magic reserves, I relegated myself to my blades for the moment. I sliced another throat, and when the woman’s eyes went wide, and her body slackened, I searched over her shoulders for any familiar faces—one in particular—as I felthimacross the lawn.

I glimpsed Chrome’s metallic hair, slinging water droplets from its ends as he fought like a one-man army in his specific death dance in the rain. He was alive and okay. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw him with my own eyes. I pushed forward, landing a punch in the temple of a man with orange hair before shoving my Elemental blade in the space between his ribs. The Elemental he’d been locked in combat with didn’t have a weapon. I tossedone of my swords to him and moved along, sliding a spare one from my back.

I chopped at the backs of knees, impaled warriors from the front, and hacked necks as I held Chrome in my sights. He worked fluidly with his metal element and was throwing his opponents with a blast of some sort. I had never seen him wield his Kinetic ability before. He held it close to himself at all times.

Not far from Chrome, Orion flew—literally—across the battlefield, using his air magic to propel him around to run his sword through skulls and spines. The calm and compassionate Orion I was accustomed to was gone as I saw a thirst for violence and vengeance I never thought I’d see in him. Gone was the sadness in his Caribbean-Sea eyes, and in them stood nothing but cunning rage.

River and Blaize fought together with water and fire magic. The siblings intertwined their elements into a rope that charged a Kinetic that River sparred with. At the last second, the elements parted, the water rope moving up the warrior’s nose while Blaize’s fire rope coiled around his ankles and licked his body, consuming his screams in flames.

A hot blast of heat slammed into my side. I cried out and ducked, sensing a weapon swinging at my head. I kicked the side of a kneecap.

“Fucking abomination.”

I launched an electric blue blast at my attacker. The warrior seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He stumbled back a few steps with a grimace, then charged me with a sword raised high.

I let him come. “Your king raped a powerful Elemental to conceive me, so take that shit up with him.”

My air element rose to the surface within me, a breeze whipping through my hair. As I prepared to launch a blast at him, the Kinetic’s beady eyes widened. I glanced down at the roots, twining up his legs and climbing up his torso and chest before reaching his throat. Looking for the source, I spotted Void a few paces away, shoving his sword into the heart of an opponent.

Grateful for Void’s help, I took the opportunity to conjure air to throw a knife from my weapons belt into the Kinetic’s eye. “I never fucking liked you.” I shoved the blade in deeper with my element. “Sexist pig.”

Continuing to run, I spotted Onyx locked in a magically induced Kinetic duel with a blue-haired female. Green currents ran up her arms and neck, indicating her microwave magic.

Fuck.

My boot collided with a woman in the gut before running my blade through her throat. Rain poured into my eyes, the work of the water Elementals. I directed air to push others out of my path so I could help Onyx. Microwave magic didn’t fuck around.

The ground shook behind me. I stumbled, dodging a small sonic blast aimed at my head. I spun, finding Kodiak opening a chasm in the ground swallowing Kinetic Warriors before closing the gap. Large rocks from underground flew up and knocked into several attackers, leaving other Elementals to impale or behead them.

Void joined Kodiak to work together with earth magic. Void never slowed with his spear while using the limbs from trees as extra weapons to skewer. The roots responded to his command to wrap around throats, squeezing until the eyes bulged from their heads, and they collapsed to the ground.

Still, somehow, more Kinetic Warriors arrived just as quickly as we wiped them out. And sadly, there were too many gilded-skinned Elementals lying lifeless on the lawn. I remembered Onyx and raced toward him and the blue-haired Kinetic. I recognized her. I was pretty sure that was Onyx’s ex-girlfriend. How healthy.

I sensed Chrome before metallic hair and silver currents reflected in my peripheral a distance away. He sliced his double-edged sword clean through the neck of a Kinetic. As the body collapsed, his blood-coated face shone as the rain washed it down his neck.

Our eyes locked. He did a quick scan over my body, pure savagery illuminating his clenched jaw as he gazed at all the blood. Goose bumps raised on my arms. I felt his anger rise, threatening to scald me from theinside out. Without pulling his eyes from me, he held an arm out, releasing a pulsing blast into a threat rushing me that I was unaware of, obliterating them into entrails.

My mouth widened in shock, but he soon threw himself back into battle. Onyx still fought the blue-haired Kinetic, but I caught Aella several feet away, locked in a fight with a Kinetic, who attacked her with sonic blasts. Aella stood on a raised platform of compact air that carried her around, dodging his blasts as she lashed a whip at him. He deflected each strike with small sonic blasts, releasing thunderous booms that broke the sound barrier.

A Kinetic sprinted toward me, face twisted in disgust at my gilded skin and rainbow eyes. I smiled, sending a sharp gust of air at his feet, sweeping them from the ground. The Kinetic crashed onto the mud, slipping in a hurry to get back to his feet. He lookedsofamiliar, too.

Salmon hair jolted my memory as I recognized Mills, the bartender from my fateful birthday revel. “Ah, Vermillion, was it?” I purred, stalking closer. “I see you’ve earned yourself quite the promotion since we last met.”

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