Indigo's Owl [Indigo Rewrite]

Chapter 38 - Traitor

Athira didn't need to hear any more. She pushed the Black-bound Elite behind her where he vanished into the bubble of invisibility for Reader to search while she engulfed the next Elite and repeated the process.

She forced herself to pre-plan every movement, to focus on keeping her actions calculated and precise. Pull in an Elite, ask her question, hand them over to Reader. There was no room for acting on impulse — not when one, errant flicker of annoyance might unravel what was left of her self-control.

That plan started to crack when she turned back from shoving the third Elite at Reader and realised the remaining two had fled.

With her jaw clenched and her breaths forcibly even, Athira took to the air and followed them.

They hadn't gone far. Athira found them a block away, looking rather agitated as they spoke with four new Elites. She coiled Black around her arm and gave them a cursory glance, mentally preparing herself to engulf all six at once. None of them looked like anything special — just more fodder to waste her time — until the tall female in a blue suit looked up.

Her gaze locked with Athira's, and everything else froze.

Athira wasn't close enough to make out the female's face, but the style of her golden-blonde hair was all too familiar. Her blue suit wasn't quite right for an Elite, but she wore no binders. No restraints. She was just standing there beside them, like—

The female raised her hand and pointed at Athira, drawing the attention of the Elites she stood with. They all turned, began yelling things about surrendering and landing slowly with her hands on the ground, but Athira hardly heard them as the golden-haired female took two steps backwards away from the group and ran.

We were given a tip from a reliable source.

Silence wiped away any semblance of a plan as impulse took over and drove Athira forward.

In three seconds, she'd overtaken the running female.

In two, she'd landed hard on the ground in front of her.

And in just one, Athira found herself face to face with Talia.

Talia had known Indigo were looking for Wardens. She'd known that they'd spoken with Grandma. She'd known where Athira and Shift had been last night. Most damning of all was that despite not being arrested with the rest of the team, Talia had somehow ended up in the Warden's secret base where she now stood, completely unrestrained.

Talia's blue eyes were wide as she skidded to a halt. "Athira! We have to—"

"I'm the Owl to you, elemental," said Athira with a sneer. "And there is no we. Not after what you've done."

"What?" said Talia, glancing over her shoulder at the fight that'd broken out with the Elites behind her. "Are you—"

"Selling me out to the Elites, I get," said Athira stiffly. "But your team? What, were they guilty by association, or just collateral damage to get at me?"

Realisation dawned on Talia's face, quickly honing into anger. "I didn't sell out anyone! Not even yo—"

Black engulfed Talia, cutting her off.

"Do not lie to me," hissed Athira, fighting the urge to close her fist and snap every bone in the elemental's body. "You betrayed them."

"I'm not!" said Talia, lifting her chin away from the Black creeping up her throat. "I didn't betray anyone, you psycho!"

One chance, whispered a faint, fading voice in the back of Athira's head, a dying beam of light in the darkness that was drowning her. Give her one chance to explain herself.