Page 122 of Firestorm
We sat in silence for several moments before Rafe began toying with the trinkets on my coffee table. He knocked one over and it broke into two pieces when it hit the office carpet.
“Why are you here?” I snapped, exasperated.
Rafe straightened up, planting his feet on the carpet and resting his elbows on his knees. “My father called me.”
I sat up straight, the trinket forgotten.
“And?”
“The Link-testing. He knows of her existence. Is her address on file?”
“No,” I answered quickly. “No, I kept it off. I practically made her appear homeless. Will that keep him at bay?”
“Nothing keepsAlexanderaway for long,” Rafe said dryly. “Is her…lover in danger?”
“I know nothing of his affinities,” I said, my hand fisting on my desk at the thought of the fucker. His perfectly coiled hair taunted my nightmares at this point.
“I didn’t ask of his affinities,” Rafe replied, his eyes glinting almost dangerously. “Is he safe?”
I nodded. “He seemed…capable.”
“You’re something else,” Rafe said lightly, watching my reaction. “I say, let’s add him to the Chain.”
“You didn’t see how they were together,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Was it better than what I just saw through the door?” Rafe asked.
“They were…” I blew out a breath, remembering Skye’s lover from the café. How he held her so easily, how they laughed together, how she playfully pushed him away. “Worse than that.” I said finally, jerking my chin toward the door.
Rafe only nodded in reply.
“Seen the weather report lately?”
Rafe was so fucking odd, but my eyes flicked to the window, noting the clouds. “No, why?”
“Another microburst storm just spun out near the Indian Ocean,” he said. “And a tornado just tore through the Midwest.”
“The Midwest is used to tornadoes,” I said.
“November doesn’t typically produce an EF4, Wyatt.” Rafe said, exasperated.
His mind reached out to brush against mine, and I opened myself up to him. He flashed me an image of a map of the continents, with large redXmarks where the storms from this season had hit.
Where are you going with this?I asked him via our minds.
These are all locations where strong family Chains have gonemissing, Rafe explained.
My blood ran cold as my mind sifted through possibilities. Rafe nodded grimly at each of my thoughts while he pointedly ignored his vibrating phone.
Could it be…but she’s in prison.
Rafe shook his head before I’d finished the thought.She’s not. I went through Alejandro’s computer. She’s been in the wind for months. They don’t want the information going public. She escaped in early summer. They have no idea how.
Holy fuck.My breath left me in awhoosh.
Regina Wilson had been put away in Azore Penitentiary over a decade ago for her part in the Gulf Capitol Massacre. It was long suspected that she had little to no control over her affinity for storms and had been on the run for years before she was captured after the massacre.
As it turns out, the authorities were wrong. She had exceptional control over her affinity, even to the point where she was able to change the pressures between the clouds and the ground enough that she could set off a deadly strike of lightning at will.
