Page 23 of A Tempest of Shadows

They didn’t issue a sound, and pieces of bark rained onto me as their toes scraped the tree while they scrambled for purchase. He pulled himself back onto the limb; the Robber knelt on it as he studied the burning remnants of the branch before shifting his attention to me.

A layer of thin cloth covered the thief’s eyes. It must be sheer enough to see through, but it kept his eyes covered. The only parts of him exposed were his nostrils and hands, neither of which did me any good in helping to identify him.

Rising again, the Robber climbed higher before leaping toward another tree. The Robber’s legs kicked as he soared through the air before the man started to fall short of the next tree.

My heart raced in anticipation of finally getting my hands on this dick as I tracked them through the forest. The Robber’s legs scissored, kicking back and forth as they sought to keep themselves airborne.

As the thief descended, more branches battered him until he crashed into another tree. Instead of bouncing off and crashing to the earth, the Robber grunted and somehow managed to keep himself off the ground by enclosing his arm around the trunk.

The Robber hooked his leg over another tree branch and pulled himself up. Before he could completely right himself, I sent another lightning bolt into the tree. With a loud crack, the wood splintered from the top down.

The Robber’s startled cry was drown out by the sound of the tree tilting toward the earth. It had nearly hit the ground when the Robber released his grip and leapt off.

With the speed of one of my bolts, the thief sprinted into the woods, but I wasn’t about to let him get away. He’d stolen from me, and I wouldn’t let him evade my wrath.

Lifting my hand, I drew energy from the sky while the fingers of my other hand pointed to the ground, drawing electricity from it too. I pulled another lightning bolt from the electricity pulsing through the earth and directed it at the man dashing through the trees.

Before he could try climbing into the trees again, I unleashed the lightning; it sizzled across the space separating us. The bolt was about to knock him on his ass when the Robber spun, threw up his hands, and caught the bolt.

With a flick of his wrist, he fired it back at me. My shock over their ability to control the lightning in such a way held me immobile as the bolt streaked toward me.

At the last second, I flung myself to the side to avoid the lightning. It sizzled over my head before crashing into the tree behind me.

What the fuck?

I gawked at the still-smoldering bark above me as I tried to process what happened. The only way someone could have controlled my electricity was if they were also a lightning bearer, but that couldn’t be possible.

I was the only amsirah who was a lightning bearer. It had been that way since my mother’s brother died shortly after my birth.

The amsirah could control the weather, but over the millennia of our existence, only a few possessed the gift to call on lightning. Discovering the existence of another lightning bearer wasn’t something I’d ever considered, but my enemy had proven another one did exist.

Leaping to my feet, I raced after the Robber. Now, I had more than one reason to capture the thief.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ellery

Oh shit. Oh shit. OH SHIT!

The words ran repeatedly through my head as I dashed through the trees. I didn’t dare look back at Ryker; I did not want to see what awaited me there.

What have I done?

I had to return his lightning bolt; I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let it hit me. It wouldn’t have killed me if it did, but it would have knocked me on my ass. Once that happened, he would have had me.

But while I’d stopped him from capturing me, I’d also revealed my biggest secret. And now… now… he knew.

My pulse pounded in my ears, and I was pretty sure my heart was going to rip out of my chest. As I ran, my feet slipped in the leaves and dirt lining the forest floor, something that had never happened to me.

This was my home away from home. These woods were a part of me; I knew them well, and I was slipping when I needed to be my most surefooted.

But now he knew he wasn’t the only lightning bearer and would be more determined to learn who robbed him and turned his power against him.

He’d never let me go if he learned the truth. He may hate me for stealing from him, but my parents had repeatedly warned me as a child to never let anyone know about the amount of power I possessed; they would take me if they knew and find a way to use my abilities for themselves.

Because of that, I’d rarely used any of my hidden powers over the years. The more I used them, and the more practiced I became with them, the more likely I would be to unleash them when I shouldn’t.

I’d used them to protect myself while in the woods, when necessary, but I’d relied more on my arrows and knives for that. And now I’d just gone and fired a lightning bolt back at the man most determined to destroy me!