Page 35 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Naturally occurring thunderstorms usually presented warnings upon their onset: looming thunder, the rise or fall of temperature, or breezes. But this impending storm wasn’t natural. These clouds seemed to have appeared from nowhere, and complete silence stifled the stagnant air.

My head buzzed from dread as I realized this was the work of an Elemental—or worse, an Endarkened.

With my magic repressed, I felt unprepared, but I couldn’t risk revealing myself to Dash.

The sky continued to darken, and footsteps shuffled from around the corner of the farm supply store. With frayed and stained clothing, a woman staggered into view. Upon first glance, matted blonde hair dangled from her patchy scalp. Pallid skin peeked from behind peeling gold flesh. The gold-flecked layer drooped over itself, leaving decomposing skin in its wake. In some spots, the lingering skin was rotten black, where others exposed a graying second layer.

Decaying, dark gray veins dominated her form as they desperately pulsed for the next soul to consume to sustain them.

I stared at the monster before us and realized itwasworse than an Elemental. We were facing an Endarkened.

Kinetics replenished their magic by absorbing external energy waves from the environment or energy-sharing with other Kinetics. Elementals replenished by absorbing the energetic output from living beings’ auras–whether it was Kinetic, Elemental, or human–so long as they didn’t drain it. Becoming Endarkened was what happened when Elementalsdepleted. Once an Elemental depleted an aura to the point of death, an addiction unlike anything humans could imagine overtook their rationality.

Once the aura was consumed, they were thrust into the devolution process of becoming Endarkened. The Endarkening process consisted of three phases to make the complete transformation. Each time they depleted, they furthered the process, falling to the frenzy in increments. It was almost impossible to resist the urge to deplete after the first time. By the final stage, they transformed into decaying, mindless creatures with all sense of their former identity lost in the madness, only seeking auras to absorb. Supernatural auras were more potent to feed their heightened elemental magic, making them even more dangerous.

They needed to be put down at all costs.

I debated risking my identity to Dash to fight off the Endarkened. Before I could act, he charged the woman at full speed. A glint of metal flashed from his hand, and I realized he had a gun. I rolledmy eyes. A bullet couldn’t kill an Elemental, much less an Endarkened. I glanced down at my daggers, realizing I wielded the wrong blades. But activating my Kinetic daggers would expose me to Dash.

The bottom dropped out of the sky, unleashing an onslaught of rain. The Endarkened was a water Elemental who had the ability to control the weather with her increased power. So much for not getting drenched. Water began to pool and rise in front of her, creating a liquid wall that separated her from us.

Dash skidded to a halt before slamming into it, splashing a puddle under his worn boots.

I stood frozen while I thought of a way for us to flee. She wanted our auras. Well, mine, to be exact. So, I did the next best thing.

“Hey!” I yelled to grab her attention. I walked in her direction, giving her a chance to sense my strengthened aura, and stopped at Dash’s side.

The wall of water quivered before it collapsed, gushing over our boots. The Endarkened’s bloodshot eyes squinted before she took a slow sniff of the air.

I adjusted the cowl that covered my mouth and nose. Her shifty eyes cast down to the wet asphalt beneath her feet. In an unexpected move, she dropped to one knee and bowed her head, her ragged curtain of hair shielding her face.

One of my eyebrows peaked at the strange sight, remembering the Endarkened in the prison who’d done the same. I searched around for anyone else nearby. My magic would’ve made it much easier to detect.

Dash gaped at the kneeling Endarkened before he recovered from his surprise. Raising the gun, he aimed at the woman. The click of the weapon yanked the Endarkened from her reverent pose, and a guttural growl reverberated from her chest. The deep cadence shook my bones in response.

She moved to lunge at the teen, but the twitch of his finger pulled the trigger.

Dash didn’t flinch at the powerful kickback of the gun. The thunderous boom disturbed the unnatural storm.

In mid-stride, the Endarkened froze. A gaping black hole gleamed between her reddened eyes. Dark gray blood cascaded from the wound and the corners of her mouth. She staggered, but the wound wasn’t healing. Instead, it seemed to worsen as a range of emotions passed over her features.

Rage, confusion, pain, and fear all morphed across her face. But it was the last one that unsettled me:relief.

The Endarkened folded in on herself, crumbling to the black asphalt as she gasped her final breaths.

I stood bewildered by what just unfolded in front of me. None of it was normal. How had she been able to process the emotion of relief? But I realized as I looked at the teenage boy beside me that he was, in fact, a rebel.

The cold-blooded shot he fired with steel repose said it all. He didn’t question. He didn’t shake. The warmth and kindness in his deep brown eyes had vanished.

With both daggers drawn, I took casual strides to him from behind as he examined the fallen Endarkened. Subtly, I pressed the edge of my dagger against his throat while I dug the tip of the other into his lowest spinal disc. He was much taller, but the arched position I held him in made him compliant.

“Who are you?” I whispered into his ear.

He grunted from the pain in his back, struggling to pull in even breaths. “Why don’t you tell me,” he said, sounding nothing like the scared kid I’d mistaken him for.

I dug my dagger further into his spine, making him squat a fraction. He growled.

“I’ll ask again, Dash. Who are you? And don’t think I won’t fucking kill you if you lie to me.”

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