“Hey,” I say, pulling her closer. “Let me take over. You need to rest.”
She smiles. “It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to let us plummet to our deaths.”
“Uh—I can windwalk. How else do you think I got here? Took me a few tries to get it right, but once I figured out how to hear the wind’s undertones, it was easy.”
“Undertones?”
“Yeah. Like right now, the Easterlies are longing to spin to the left. So I would coax them back on path.”
She sucks in a breath.
“What—does something hurt?”
“No, it’s just . . . that’s my father’s gift . . .”
“Is it? Well, I guess you must’ve shared it with me when we bonded.”
Audra shakes her head. “I’ve never heard of gifts passing during a bond. My parents’ didn’t. My mom had hers—my dad had his.”
“Mine too,” Gus mumbles.
Audra’s quiet for so long I have to finally ask, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out what it means. I’ve never heard of bonds sharing languages either, and yet . . .”
I pull her even closer, feeling an explosion of heat rush between us as I whisper, “I think it means we were meant to be together.”
“If you two start making out I will fling you out of the wind bubble,” Gus warns.
I can’t help laughing.
“Later,” I whisper to Audra, loving when I feel her shiver.
I still can’t believe she’s here. Back in my arms after all these weeks.
“Aren’t we supposed to be coming up with a strategy?” Gus asks, and I totally hate him for being right.
We need something better than his grab-and-stab plan, since that didn’t exactly go well in Death Valley. Not that Audra’s attack-the-Living-Storm-all-by-herself plan was much better.
“Why were you there?” I ask, realizing she never explained. “Did you know Raiden was going to be there today?”
“No. Aston told me I should go to Death Valley—but I doubt he knew Raiden was going to be there.”
“Aston?” I want to snuff out the sudden wave of jealousy—but that totally sounds like one of those preppy British guys that girls are always fawning all over.
It doesn’t make me feel any better when Gus asks, “Wait—Aston as in . . . Aston?”
Audra nods.
They both don’t say anything else for so long that my mind has time to turn Aston into the sylph James Bond. Then Audra tells me he’s a crazy ex-Gale who held her hostage in a cave up north, and by the end of her story I’m biting my inner cheek so hard I taste blood.
“Did he . . . ?” I can’t even say it.
She reaches out and strokes my face. “He didn’t hurt me. I think he was mainly just . . . lonely.”
I don’t like the way she says that word—like she almost feels sorry for the guy who tied her up and threatened to kill her. Ex-Gale or not, that’s an automatic qualification for the You Are Dead to Me list I’ve started making.
“You really don’t think he knew Raiden was going there?” Gus asks.
“No, I think that was a fluke. I do believe the Easterlies who coaxed me there knew that Raiden was on his way. But I think Aston sent me because he wanted me to see the Maelstrom.”
This time Gus shivers. “I’ve heard of those.”
Audra stares into the darkness. “It was much more evil than the rumors.”
Evil.
The word gives me a strange flutter in my stomach.
I still haven’t decided how I feel about Arella being trapped in a Maelstrom. But it doesn’t feel like a good sign that Audra sounds so freaked out.
I wonder how she’ll react when I tell her about her mom—not that I have any idea how to do that. I’ll have to find the right time to bring it up.
Not tonight. We have enough going on—and even if we’re safe, I can think of lots of better ways to spend our first night back together.
We whiz past the glowing hotel of a massive Indian casino, which means we’re finally getting close. Audra slows the winds when the weird Cabazon dinosaurs blur by. Then she changes course, steering us into the mountains and setting us down on one of the lower peaks.
I hold my breath as we all listen for signs of a storm.
The sky is clear. The winds calm.
“All the drafts coming from the northeast say nothing about an attack,” Audra says, closing her eyes. “And I feel no unrest in the valley.”
“Me either,” Gus agrees.
We all push our senses as far as they can go, but everything is quiet.
A little too quiet.
“Where are the Gales?” Audra whispers.
“They went to find my father.” Gus’s voice hitches on the word, and he has to clear his throat before he continues. “The Stormers made a false trail, and I guess the Gales haven’t figured it out yet. I’ll use the emergency call to get them back and bring them up to speed.”
“Do you want us to stay with—”
“No,” Gus cuts me off. “I really need some space.”
I nod.
Audra nods too. Then she wraps her arms around me, sending tingling waves of heat through my aching shoulders as I tangle us in Westerlies and fly us back to my house.
All the windows are dark as we touch down on the grass, so my family must still be on the move like I thought. I know I should call them and tell them to come home, but they’re probably safer out there. Plus, Audra and I could use some time alone. We have a lot to figure out.
“So . . . ,” I say after I’ve tested the air to double-check that we’re safe. “Now what?”
“I don’t know.”
She stares at her feet and tucks her hair behind her ear.
It’s bizarre to see her look so shy. Even more bizarre to think that she’s here, standing outside my house, holding my hand.
We’re not broken up.
In fact, I’m pretty sure we’ve never been more together.
All that’s left to figure out is “Your place or mine?”
Her nervous laugh rings through the night.
I pull her closer, wrapping her arms around my neck, and I suck in a breath as the heat of her body sparks against me. I sorta forgot I was shirtless—but I’m very aware of it now.
Very aware of how tiny her tank top is too.
I clear my throat. “Seems like a pretty simple decision to me. On the one hand, your place has scratchy palm leaves. And bugs. And dead things.”
“Dead things?”
“Gavin’s been busy. He’s pretty pissed at you, by the way. He may tear out some of your hair when he sees you.”
“I wouldn’t blame him.” She leans her head against my chest, triggering a new wave of sparks that makes it very hard to breathe.
“So then . . . my place?” I whisper. “No psycho bird. Everything we need to get cleaned up. Then a nice soft bed . . .”
She leans back to look at me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Actually, I think it’s a very good idea. Pretty much the best idea I’ve ever had.”
She smiles and steps up to her tiptoes, pecking me on the lips before she pulls away.
I grab her hands to stop her from leaving. “I promise, I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
She doesn’t look convinced.
I drop my eyes to our hands, twisting our fingers together. “I just . . . I feel like if I let you out of my sight, you might disappear again.”
Sadness seeps into her features and she lifts my hand to her lips, kissing the center of my palm. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then stay with me.”