Thin Air

The knee in my back dug in harder when I tried to raise up, driving me flat and helpless. I struggled to reach for power, but whatever they’d done to me up on the aetheric was holding fast. I couldn’t move the weather, or fire, and when I tried to grab for the slow throb of energy in the earth, something slapped me back with stu

Lewis. I’d recognized the handprint of the slap.

“No,” I said quietly. “You can’t. David, you can’t. I’m not a Demon! David, no!”

He walked toward me, put a hand in between my shoulder blades, and nodded to Lewis to let go. The relief of the pressure coming off my back didn’t last, because David’s hand might not have been as heavy, but it was just as effective in restraining me.

“This bottle contains a Dji

“David, no! I’m not a Demon!”

It was no good. He was going to do it. I could see it in his eyes, in the fierce, focused determination on his face. “Please,” I said. I dropped all my defenses, and let him see me as vulnerable as I really was. “Please don’t do this to us.”

His lips thi

“I am her, and if you open that bottle you’re going to find that out, because the Demon won’t migrate, and then you’ll have a much bigger problem! David!” He wasn’t listening to me. I heard the crackle of the wax seal breaking. “David, God, stop it! Our daughter isn’t dead!”

It seemed like, for one second, time stopped. Even the wind ceased to blow. Then it all snapped back with a vengeance, as David snarled and grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked it painfully back, staring into my face with terrifying fury.

“You,” he said, “don’t talk about my daughter. Ever.”

It hurt to talk, but I had no choice. “David, if you open that bottle, you’re making a huge mistake. Imara’s alive. She’s become the Earth Oracle. Go check if you don’t believe me.” I tried to swallow, but the painful angle at which he was holding my head made it almost impossible. “Go on. I’m not going anywhere.”

He was about one second from killing me. Or popping the cork on that sealed bottle. I didn’t know what that would do, but it wouldn’t be good.

I got support from an entirely unexpected quarter: Lewis. He said quietly, “It couldn’t hurt to check.”

“Stay out of it,” David hissed at him.

“What if we’re wrong? Look, I’m the first one to want to believe in miracles, but Joa

“She’s lying!” David’s grip on my hair tightened. I squeaked faintly, sure my neck was on the verge of separating from my shoulders. That would be a real mess.

“Then go and check.” Lewis sounded awfully calm. Almost offhand about it. “She’s not going anywhere. It’s a short trip for you to Sedona and back.”

The pressure on my head relaxed so suddenly it was all I could do to keep my face from bouncing off the road. The push of his hand on my back went away at the same time. I struggled up to my knees, trying to put my shoulders at some angle that didn’t hurt like hell, trying to ignore the cutting ache of the zip-ties on my wrists, and looked around. The other Wardens were standing silently around. Nobody was shifting attention, including Lewis.

David vanished with an audible pop of air.

I let my head drop. Sweat ran down my cheeks, fu

I had no idea what he was going to find, or believe. But at least I had five minutes.

“If you try anything-” Lewis began.

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll kill me,” I finished in a tired mumble. “Save your breath.” What if Imara didn’t appear to David? I hadn’t even considered that maybe he wouldn’t be able to see her, or that she might not want to see him. It had seemed like my only shot, and now that I thought about it, it was thi

He smiled. Cynically. “Always possible,” he said. “Shut up before I seal your mouth.”

He could do it, too. I shut up and concentrated on breathing, and wondering where the hell my Dji

My fingers were tingling. I tried adjusting my wrists, and to my shock I found that the zip-ties were softening. Stretching like rubber bands. I stopped moving after the first second, holding my breath and praying that Lewis-or the other Wardens-hadn’t noticed. It didn’t look like they had. “How’s Marion?” I asked. “I didn’t hurt her, did I?”

“Marion’s fine.” Lewis’s tone said the subject was not only closed but locked. “Last warning. Shut up.”

I’d blurted out the question only to keep him from noticing that I was working my hands free, but the Warden behind me, some young brown-haired surfer dude, yelled a warning. “She’s getting loose!”

Narc.

I abandoned any pretense of trying to keep it low-key, snapped the zip-ties, pushed myself up from the road, and ran for the nearest fallen tree. I dove behind it just as a firebolt zipped toward me, and the wood exploded into splinters and flame. I didn’t stop. I crawled, frantic to find some way, any way, to defend myself, but it was a useless effort. Lewis was blocking me on the aetheric. The other Wardens weren’t as powerful, but they were competent enough, and when I rolled for the shelter of another pile of brush it went up in flame, driving me back. A gust of wind hit me full in the chest and knocked me back, staggering, and I tripped over a sudden profusion of wildly growing tree roots erupting out of the ground to wrap around my feet.

It was over that fast.

The Earth Warden-the young girl of Chinese ancestry, I guessed, who was standing nearest to me-fastened me down with more whipping roots, saw-edged grasses, vines…anything that would hold. I wrestled futilely, then relaxed as a vine wrapped three times around my throat and squeezed.

“Right,” I choked out, and shut my eyes. “I’ll wait here, then.”

The minutes ticked by, each one both torturously slow and unbelievably fast. I could almost see the sand ru

I wondered whether I was going to end up dead at David’s hands, or some crazed, Demon-infected Dji

I sensed the disturbance of air that accompanied David’s arrival, and opened my eyes as he formed, already striding out of the air. He was wearing his coat again, the long olive-drab military coat, and under it his shirt was black, as were his pants. He looked ready for battle, and the look on his face was fierce and focused.

Shit. I’d thrown my last set of dice, and I’d lost.

“Well?” Lewis asked. David didn’t pause, and he didn’t answer. He kept walking, past Lewis, right to me.

Then he ripped the roots out of the ground that held me down, unwrapped the vine from around my neck, and collapsed to a kneeling position to gather me in his arms and rock me slowly back and forth. His hands stroked my back, up and down, then moved up to cup the back of my head. I felt a burst of heat move through me, sealing cuts, healing strained and herniated muscles, infusing me with a warm glow of safety.