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  Carefully settling onto a wooden seat, making sure to keep his back from touching anything, Jamie finally looked up at the three people around him. They had chosen to share in his punishment, to suffer for his offenses. There was nothing he could do but share his secrets. At least some of them.

  He started to speak, and as the first words left his lips, it was as if the floodgates had opened. He found himself telling them about Emma and why he was here. About the Archivist and his plan.

  Afterward, he said once more, “I’m sorry.” The words sounded utterly inadequate, even to his own ears.

  “Why didn’t you just tell us,” Gemma asked. “We could’ve helped you.”

  It wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting. There was no blame or recrimination in her voice. “I couldn’t ask that of you,” Jamie replied, his head bowed. “I couldn’t put you into that kind of danger.”

  “We were in danger anyway,” Eva cut in sharply. “It would’ve been nice to know why.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jamie said again, at a loss for any other words.

  “Just trust us next time,” Pete said quietly, meeting Jamie’s eyes for the first time in a long while. Hazel eyes, soft with more faith and trust than Jamie deserved.

  * * *

  A few days later, when they were all recovered enough to try once more, they completed the Gem Nexus on the first try. Diamonds glowed, and their Gifts forged together—strong and powerful. Every link in the chain was tight and strong. They were whole.

  Jamie stood, joined to Gemma and Eva and through them to Pete. A flood of emotion swept over him. Love, he thought. They were his friends, his family, and he loved them. He was made stronger by them.

  Trust.

  It was more valuable than all the gold in the world.

  Chapter 16 – Allyra

  The Atmospheric College was the location for the Second Final. It was set high on a plateau in the Atacama Desert, built in a series of low, sand-colored domes that blended seamlessly into the desert. There wasn’t much of anything around the Atmospheric College, and ironically, given the extreme altitude, there wasn’t even much Air around the Atmospheric College.

  The fifteen remaining pairs weren’t given any time to acclimatize. They arrived at the Atmospheric College through the Shadow Causeway, and before they could catch their breaths in the thin air, an army of Cleaners materialized around them and wound iron cuffs around their wrists.

  The iron was cool against her skin, yet paradoxically, it seemed to burn into her, sending trails of discomfort flashing through her nerves. If the thin air hadn’t already given her a headache, the iron cuffs certainly succeeded in doing so.

  She glanced at Chi and arched an eyebrow at him. “See you on the flip side,” she said with a wry smile.

  “I’ll save you a drink,” Chi replied with a wide grin.

  He was the last thing she saw before a dark hood was thrown over her head. And in turn, she was thrown into a vehicle to be transported toward the start of the Second Final.

  The driver of the transport made no concession for the shifting sand, driving at breakneck speed over the sand dunes. Perhaps he had a secret desire to be a rally driver, or perhaps he just took sadistic enjoyment in battering and bruising the occupants of his vehicle.

  To call the ride uncomfortable would’ve been a significant understatement. The seats were no more than metal benches, and with her hands cuffed behind her, Allyra was thrown around the interior of the vehicle like a ragdoll. By the time the vehicle pulled to a stop after an interminable amount of time, it was almost a relief to be thrown out onto the hot sand.

  There was a jangle of metal hitting the soft sand before the driver floored the accelerator and the vehicle roared away in a cloud of exhaust smoke and dust, the spinning wheels covering Allyra in a fine spray of sand.

  Awkwardly, she fumbled around in the sand for where she thought the keys had landed.

  “I’ve got them,” announced Jason’s disembodied voice, coming from somewhere to her left.

  “Back into me and give me the keys. I’ll try and unlock your cuffs,” Allyra replied.

  They both shifted toward each other and succeeded only in banging their heads together. Eventually, they managed to shuffle into position with their backs against each other, and Jason dropped the keys into Allyra’s hands. The thin air made her slow and clumsy, so it took a few tries and minutes before she found the keyhole, finally unlocking Jason’s cuffs. Soon after, her own cuffs fell into the sand, and she finally managed to pull the black hood from her head. She took a moment to breathe in whatever air she could and shake her hair free, which was already matted with sweat under the black hood.

  A look around at her surroundings didn’t bolster her spirits. The desert stretched out, flat and barren, to the horizon in all directions. Just mile after mile of nothingness, as far as the eye could see. It was still early in the morning, but already the sun was bearing down with a ferocity she’d never experienced before, not even on the hottest of summer days in Africa. Allyra blinked against the white glare of the sun, but her vision refused to focus with the haze rising off the baking sand.

  Jason took the words from her mouth when he said, “Well, this sucks.”

  There was a backpack at her feet, and Allyra quickly rummaged through the contents, which were meager in the extreme. There were two apples, a canteen filled with water, and two baseball caps—one she put on, and the other she tossed over to Jason. Beyond that, there was only one other thing in the backpack—a map.

  “What is it with these people and their maps?” she asked rhetorically. “If this is the advantage we won from our challenge, then I call foul.”

  Jason held out his hand for the map and she handed it over. He passed his gaze quickly over it. “Well, this is just useless,” he concluded. “There are only landmarks on here, but there’s no way of knowing where we are relative to any of these landmarks.”

  “Yup,” Allyra replied. She’d already glanced at the map and had come to the same conclusion.

  She closed her eyes and reached for her Gift. The world collapsed in a complex tapestry of interwoven threads. She traced the brightest ones, trying to follow them back to the Wellsprings at the Atmospheric College. She had to fight just to keep hold of the threads as her head continued to throb violently. Allyra released her hold on the threads, trying not to retch as her vision swam uncomfortably.

  When she looked up, she found Jason looking just as green, hunched over with his hands on his knees, trying to take long steadying breaths.

  “What do you think?” he gasped out.

  “A hundred and twenty kilometers? Give or take.”

  “Pessimist,” Jason retorted. “I think more like a hundred kilometers.”

  “I’m a realist,” Allyra replied. “Either way, it’s going to take us at least three days to get back, if we’re lucky.”

  “We’re going to need more water than what’s in that canteen.”

  Allyra nodded.

  “What’s your reach with your Gift?” Jason asked.

  Allyra raised her eyebrows as she considered his question. “Right now? Not great, I’m struggling to concentrate. Maybe twenty kilometers with any kind of detail.”

  “I think we should start heading in the direction of the Atmospheric College and stop every couple of hours to check for any of the landmarks on the map.”

  She nodded, still breathing heavily. It was as good a suggestion as any.

  * * *

  After five hours, the sun had reached its apex, and with only one water canteen to share between them, both Jason and Allyra were dehydrated. That, combined with the thin air of the high-altitude Atacama Desert meant they were barely moving at all.

  “Let’s take a break,” Jason panted out, and promptly collapsed to the ground.

  Allyra followed his lead with a little more grace, sinking gratefully to the hot, shifting sand. She dug around in the backpack and handed him the water canteen. He took a m
easured sip from it before handing it back to her. The canteen was already uncomfortably light, and with no prospect of getting more water any time soon, Allyra replaced the cap and stowed the canteen back into the backpack without drinking from it.

  Jason shot her a sidelong glance. “You should drink.”

  “I’m all right,” she replied.

  “You’ll only slow us down if you collapse from dehydration.”

  “And we’re both going to die if we run out of water.”

  “I have no issues with leaving you in this godforsaken desert if you collapse. I don’t care whether the rest of the Gifted shuns me or not.”

  It was almost comforting to know that severe dehydration and heat had done nothing to blunt the edge of Jason’s narcissistic arrogance.

  “Good to know,” Allyra retorted. “Now can you shut up while I try to find us some water?”

  Jason made a display of zipping up his lips and throwing away the key, all with a maddening look on his face.

  She ignored him and reached for her Gift. She pushed past the dizzying discomfort and pushed her Gift out in all directions. Her grasp over the threads was tenuous at best, but she pushed every ounce of energy she had into it. The desert seemed endless as she pushed into it, but suddenly it was there—a well, sunk deep into the sand, into a seam of water deep in the bedrock below.

  Her arm shook as she lifted it and pointed.

  “A well,” she gasped out. “About twenty-five kilometers northeast.”

  Jason silently took the water canteen from the backpack and held it out to her.

  “Drink,” he said shortly. “And I’m not asking.”

  Allyra huffed out a weak laugh but took the canteen from him and took a long draw from it. The water was not just lukewarm now, it had passed well into the territory of hot, but it ran down her parched throat and momentarily cleared her marshmallow-like mind.

  “Let’s go,” she said, getting to her feet, filled with a trickle of renewed energy.

  * * *

  It took them the rest of the afternoon to walk to the well, and when they finally reached it, they fell on the water with frenzied enthusiasm. It was only after they had both drank to the point of feeling slightly ill that they took stock of their situation.

  The sun was fading below the horizon, and the temperature had suddenly taken a dramatic dive. Having spent most of the day roasting under the sun, Allyra now found herself feeling cold. She suppressed a quick shiver and rubbed away some goose bumps that had made an appearance on her arms.

  As the rocks and sand began to cool, an earthy, coppery smell rose from the ground. The desert had never looked more beautiful as when the sun had set. It seemed to come alive under the pale starlight glittering like an infinite array of jewels hung in the sky. An impulsive, utterly ridiculous desire flooded her mind, and all she wanted to do was lie down in the sand and make sand angels while staring at the stars above.

  Perhaps it was sunstroke.

  “We should probably keep moving,” she said, trying to keep the reluctance from her voice. She was bone-achingly tired, but logic dictated that they should travel while it was cooler, allowing them to cover more ground.

  Jason nodded. “Let’s have a look at the map.”

  Allyra spread open the map, and they both dipped their heads down over it.

  Jason pointed out the three pictures of wells on the map. “We’re at one of these.”

  Allyra raised her eyebrows at him—Jason rarely said anything quite so obvious. He had his forehead creased and appeared deep in thought, and Allyra wondered if the sun and thin air had also taken its toll on his normally quick mind.

  “We’re going to need food,” Jason continued slowly.

  “And shade. If we travel during the night, we’ll need shade to rest in during the day.”

  “The Atmospheric College is northwest of us. So, if we’re at this first well and we head northwest, we’ll get to that cluster of rocks that should give us enough shade to rest during the day.”

  “Yeah, but if we’re at this second well, then we’re going to head into at least eighty kilometers of nothing.”

  Jason threw up his arms in frustration. “What do you want me to say?” he snapped. “Fine! We’re lost. I have no idea where we are or if heading northwest means going to our deaths. But what’s your suggestion? Stay here and argue about it?”

  Allyra sighed, and struggled back to her feet. “Fine, let’s go.”

  * * *

  As far as Allyra was concerned, Jason had simply gotten lucky with his guess. But the fact that they were now ensconced under a large cluster of red rocks meant that he had been right and they at least knew where they were on the map.

  She glanced at Jason.

  He was the perfect picture of nonchalant elegance—lying on the sand with his eyes closed and one arm folded behind his head as a makeshift pillow. His long legs were stretched out before him, crossed at the ankles, and a small smile played on the corners of his lips. It was impossible to say how he could look so carelessly relaxed after the day they’d just had, but she was sure that the little sphere of dancing, flickering flame he held in his left hand had something to do with it. His Inferno Gift was allowing him to stay warm.

  She, on the other hand, might actually freeze to death. The huge swing in temperature between the intolerable heat of the day and the current freezing stillness of the night was almost impossible to comprehend. And while she’d spent most of the day wishing she could wear fewer clothes, now she found herself wishing that she had a thick jacket to wrap around herself. Allyra curled into herself, and huddled against the rock, hoping to warm herself with whatever heat the rock had retained from the sun. In truth, it was a futile exercise; any heat had long dissipated into the cloudless sky.

  “Can I interest you in some Gifted warmth?”

  Allyra turned and found Jason staring at her, his dark eyes lit up with a thousand dancing stars by the flickering flame in his hand. She was cold enough to give the offer some real consideration. She was still weighing the pros and cons of spending the night curled up against Jason when he spoke again.

  “I’ve been told on numerous occasions that my arm makes a particularly comfortable pillow,” he said with an exaggerated wink.

  That sealed it.

  “Pass,” she said shortly and turned back to curl up against the rock, wishing she didn’t have to hide her Elemental Gift. A small flame of her own would be particularly welcome at this point.

  The silence enveloped them, and she clenched her jaw together tightly to avoid her teeth chattering.

  “Look, you’re not my first choice of a bedmate either. But I’m too tired to keep a bigger fire going, and if you don’t come here, you’re definitely going to freeze to death.”

  A few months ago, she would’ve held on to her inherent stubbornness, and no amount of cold would’ve driven her to Jason. But, she was older and maybe just a little wiser. If her time in the Between had taught her anything, it was that pride had no place in a fight for survival.

  “Keep your hands to yourself,” she warned, before carefully lying down next to Jason, keeping her back to him.

  “If you want to stay warm, you might want to consider actually touching me.” Jason’s voice was amused.

  Allyra scowled but scooted closer. With her back pushed up against his side, his fierce and wonderful heat bled into her, and within seconds, she drifted into sleep.

  * * *

  The next morning, Allyra jerked awake with the taste of smoke on her tongue and a scream on her lips. She trembled with equal parts desire and fear.

  Allyra could still feel his lips tracing over her collarbone and his fingers tangled in her hair. Worse, she could still taste the smoke twisting down her throat as the world burned.

  She let out a shaky breath.

  “Nightmare?” Jason asked from behind her. “Or what do you call it when you have a bad dream during the day? Daymare?”

  She craned h
er neck and shot him a disbelieving look.

  He was lying in exactly the same position he’d been in before she fell asleep, almost as if he’d turned to stone through the night. She moved gently away from him, aware there was a layer of sweat down her back where she’d been pressed to him. Jason’s heat, so welcome in the cold, was now making her overheat uncomfortably as the temperature rose with the sun in the sky.

  Allyra sat up and winced instantly. It felt like someone had driven a nail through her right eye. “Why do I feel like I have the worst hangover of all time?” she asked rhetorically.

  Allyra struggled to her feet, throwing out a hand to steady herself on the rock as her vision broke out in a multitude of black spots all spreading like fire over a photograph until she saw nothing but black.

  It took two minutes of intense concentration and deep breathing before her vision returned, albeit reluctantly. Even then, her heart thundered abnormally quickly in her chest and she struggled to catch her breath.

  “How in the world does anyone live at the Atmospheric College? This altitude is just about the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever experienced.”

  Jason let out a bark of laughter, which ended in a series of coughs.

  “They don’t,” he gasped out eventually.

  The cogs in her mind moved slowly, rusted together by the lack of air.

  “What?” Allyra asked. “There are people at the Atmospheric College.”

  “So uneducated,” Jason muttered.

  “I feel like crap, but I’m still fully capable of kicking your ass,” Allyra retorted.

  “There are people living at the Atmospheric College,” Jason explained, with over-exaggerated patience. “But they don’t live at this altitude. There’s a pressurized dome around it, maintained by a group of Atmospherics, called the Assembly of Wind.”

  Allyra turned Jason’s words over and over in her head. A spark of an idea threatened to ignite at the back of her mind, but like her, it struggled with the lack of oxygen.