Martyr by A. R. Kahler Read Free Book Online

watched a group amass in the main square, swarming a person he could only guess was one of his own.
    The screams cut short.
    â€œWe have to get out of here.”
    The hotel lurched again, magic laced through its very foundations. The necromancers were trying to bring the whole town down. He glanced over to Dreya, who knelt beside her brother with her hands on his chest.
    â€œDreya, we have to get to the meeting point.” A wail came from the streets below him. If it was human or undead, he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that the hotel was completely surrounded and ready to collapse. “We need an escape route.”
    â€œThat I can give,” she said. She closed her eyes, and Air blazed in her throat.
    Wind tore through the streets. It whipped rubble and shoved cars, struck through windows and shattered bones. Tenn shielded his eyes as it screamed past him, watched the Howls get swept up like crumpled paper. He didn’t watch for long. With his coat streaming around him, he ran over to the twins and pulled Devon to standing. Dreya still channeled Air, but she helped drag Devon toward the fire escape.
    They rushed down the creaking iron staircase into the back alley. The street was clear, the wind still screaming like a banshee. Tenn kept his eyes slitted, tried to see through the dirt and rain and debris that swarmed around him like wasps. If they could just make it to the lakeshore, they’d be fine.
    He needed to keep Devon out of harm’s way. If another necromancer came along and tapped him again, he’d die. Or worse—he’d become a Howl. Tenn wouldn’t let that happen.
    They ran through the streets, the wind shielding them from the Howls. Blood hammered in Tenn’s ears. Water wanted to fight. Water was tired of running. It felt the pain and agony ripping through the fabric of the city, and it wanted to respond. He kept a tight rein on the power, forced it down, but he didn’t close it off. There was no telling when he might need that edge.
    The streets opened up ahead of them, and the crash of waves filled his ears. They were close. So close. Buildings thinned out into smaller shops, the streets widening into long boulevards of abandoned benches and torn trees.
    Behind them, another roar of fire. The hotel crashed down with a tremor that shook him to his bones. They ran faster.
    The moment they reached the designated meeting point—an obelisk carved with MIAs and worn graffiti—they laid Devon down on the grass. The city burned behind them, brighter than day and hotter than summer. Sweat and rain drenched Tenn’s skin, his breath a ragged pulse in his lungs.
    Seeing Devon there, so quiet, so close to death, brought another body to mind.
    â€œStay here,” he said, beginning to stand. “I have to go back.”
    Dreya grabbed his arm.
    â€œDon’t,” she said. It almost sounded like a command. “You have your orders.”
    He shook his arm free and pulled deeper through Earth. Water howled for control. It churned Jarrett’s image over and over. Jarrett bleeding, Jarrett smiling, Jarrett dying… Water wanted blood, and it would do anything to get it.
    â€œFuck orders,” he whispered. “I’m not standing by while Jarrett’s out there.”
    Dreya bit her lip. The movement was so innocent, so childlike, that for the briefest moment he was reminded that they were all just kids, out here fighting a losing war so everyone else could live. They were fodder.
    She nodded.
    â€œI will support you,” she said. Her Spheres burned brighter as a tornado funneled down in the heart of the city. It roared like a demon, hungry and feral. “Go.”
    Tenn didn’t hesitate. He ran back into the flames.

    If Hell was a city, it would have been this one.
    Tenn raced through the burning buildings, Water writhing in his gut, Earth filling his body with power. Even the bricks were on fire, everything shadow and flame.