Page 96 of Emerald Flame
She watched as Glissane descended slowly into the small, private space in the middle of the pine forest. His nostrils flared. The wizard was furious.
He glanced from one to the other. “You’ve forged a bond. But, how? You couldn’t have had time to…consummate the act.”
Now standing beside Warren, she slid her hand into his. They were one and her entire body was attuned to his. Her thoughts pressed up against his mind and it would take so little to converse telepathically with him. Yet, somehow, it didn’t seem necessary.
Neither she nor Warren responded to Glissane’s question. Instead, Warren asked, “What do you want, wizard? I’ve never understood. Why bother with Savage Territory or the drug trade?”
Kiara watched a slow smile curve Glissane’s lips. “Power is an addictive substance, more than any drug. I wanted Savage, then Five Bridges.
“Julio and I had plans. Well,Ihad plans. Julio was happy for me to use him because I promised him control of the drug trade in Savage. He would have risen in the cartel ranks which was all he cared about.”
Kiara wanted the truth confirmed on another subject as well. “You used Tonya, didn’t you?”
Glissane shifted his coal-gaze to her. “Yes, but she wasn’t the most willing host. Apparently, she loved Warren even while demented.”
Glissane was a man without a conscience, without the smallest distress that he caused others pain. In fact, she was sure he fed off that pain.
Because of her bond with Warren, she sensed that together, they might be able to rid Five Bridges of a terrible scourge.
Or they would die trying.
She felt Warren rev up his storm power. At the same time, she experienced a companion vibration within her own body. Besides being a witch, she now fully understood what it was to be a wolf even if she would never actually shift. She could sense the needs of the pack within her like a constant series of thoughts, one after the other. It was beautiful and amazing.
She opened that part of her to Warren and just like that, his storm ability began to glide into her, very quietly and quickly, until she was full of the same power.
In a similar way, she engaged her formidable wave power and she felt these abilities drift into Warren. They were both now storm and wave combined.
Glissane set his jaw as he, too, began to engage his battle power, a ferocious wave ability that outmatched Kiara’s. Except now, she shared that ability with Warren and she could summon her storm as well.
When Warren slid behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, she knew exactly what he was doing. The bond was secure, and she could read his intentions as though they were her own.
Glissane crouched and snarled. He brought the darkest part of his wizardness forward. His black eyes turned into deep pits. “You think you can match me? Either of you?”
“No,” Kiara said. “Not on our own. But we’re a team now as you and Julio once were, though much more complete.”
Her storm power surged as did Warren’s. A wind rose like a tornado in their small piece of the forest. It blew in a violent circle around the three of them.
For the first time, Glissane looked worried. “What is this? What are you doing?”
Warren spoke this time. “Our combined force and we’re sending it to you.”
Kiara felt the wave as though it came from the depths of the universe then pushed the storm in and out of her. She watched as the tornado caught Glissane up into the air, forty feet into the pine forest canopy. She rose with Warren to levitate opposite the wizard.
The storm spun Glissane in faster and faster circles. Warren kept his wave and storm power coming, she released it all through her body. Thunder rumbled, and lightning flashed in brilliant arcs all around the wizard.
Their combined storm seemed to reach into Glissane and draw his own power from his body. He could no longer battle their storm. He screamed and writhed in the air.
The lightning flashed in quicker bursts and the thunder became an ear-shattering series of booms.
Suddenly, Glissane’s body twisted. Even through the storm, Kiara heard a violent series of cracks and he fell limp. The wind continued to whirl and support him in the air, but even she could see the wizard was dead.
She and Warren began withdrawing their storm which allowed Glissane’s body to drift back to earth. Warren released his arms from around her, then took her hand. Together, they descended to the place where the wizard had landed.
When Kiara touched down, she had a hard time looking at Glissane. His spine and neck were twisted and broken in more than one place. His tongue was swollen in his mouth and protruded past his lips. His black eyes were open and had reverted to a light blue, the color they must have been before he started down his dark path.
A great evil had been removed from Savage.
She drew close to Warren and couldn’t stop the tears that coursed down her cheeks. She wasn’t weeping for the man dead on the ground. She wept for those he’d hurt and those who had died because of his evil nature.
