Elemental Hunger

Chapter Twenty-Three

I rushed down the hall, my eyes switching from door to door. They were all closed. "Which room, Hanai?"

"He's in the infirmary," he said, keeping pace with me. "Other side of the lobby. He's not awake, Gabby. You won't be able to talk to him."

"I don't care," I said, walking now and trying to push back tears. They spilled down my cheeks anyway. "We're finally all together."

"He's not awake," Hanai said again, but I ignored him. When I barged into the infirmary and found Adam lying on a table, naked except for a sheet across his midsection, I couldn't ignore Hanai's warning any longer.

Adam's skin glistened like half-melted wax, and the color reminded me of the dirty snow in the Outcast settlement. He didn't move, not even so much as a twitch when a doctor stabbed a needle into his arm.

The black lines of the tattoo snaked over every possible inch of his body, all the way to the bottoms of his feet. I covered my hand with my mouth as Davison pressed his fingers against Adam's temple.

"Hanai," he called. "Your gifts are needed." Davison didn't spare me a glance as Hanai crossed the room. Hanai did, his expression full of apology and agony. I wondered what it would cost him to heal Adam.

I didn't have time to ask before a chant filled the air, and Hanai placed his palm over Adam's chest, and then over his face, singing all the while.

#

Back in my room, I removed my Council robes and pulled on the pair of pants Hanai had given me in the Outcast settlement. I matched them with a black T-shirt, mourning the loss of my camisole.

I lost track of time as I stood at the window, watching life pass by. The sound of the door opening and closing registered in my ears, but I didn't turn.

"Are you okay?" Hanai asked, making a slight noise as he settled on the bed.

I just shook my head, trying to sort through how I felt. "I don't think Adam is who we think he is," I said. "Where has he been, you know?"

"I know," he said his voice full of exhaustion.

I turned and found him lying on the bed, his eyes closed as he took deep breaths. "Davison had me use my healing chant to address his wounds. He had four broken ribs."

I crossed the room to him. "Are you okay? Does it hurt you to heal?"

"I'm just not very good at it," he said, his chest heaving with the effort to breathe. "My father had experienced healers in the settlement. It's not my gift, but I'm better than nothing."

Finally, Hanai's breathing quieted, but I knew he wasn't asleep. Then he sat up. "Gabby, I have to tell you something."

He cleared his throat to speak. Then he glanced away. He shifted on the bed and actually made noise doing it.

A queasy feeling stretched in my gut. "Blazes, Hanai. Just spit it out."

"I'm sorry."

"That's what you have to tell me?"

"I'm not who you think I am either." He clenched his jaw and turned away. "I'm not Unmanifested."

I couldn't comprehend Hanai's words. "What?" I managed to choke out.

"I completed the Manifestation of my Spiritual Element yesterday while you were asleep. That's why I've been so sick. Well, I wasn't really sick. More like communing."

Words failed me. I controlled my fire, feeling too hot, like the time Councilman Davison had summoned me.

Hanai's "Element" caused a lot of problems. At the top of the list: We couldn't charter a Council without an Unmanifested member.

Option A: Lie.

I'm so tired of this.

Option B: Report, see what happened.

Perhaps....

"I know you don't believe in the Element of Spirit," he continued. "But that doesn't change the fact that I'm Elemental, just like you."

"I never said I didn't believe in the Element of Spirit. More like I don't know anything about it." I ran my hands over my face as I searched for an Option C.

"What is a Spiritual Element?"

"We talked a lot about gifts of the spirit in my village," he said. "We never called it an Element. Sometimes a child was born with an exceptional gift of healing, or the rare ability to communicate with animals. My father said my mother—" His voice cut off, choked with pain. I realized that I'd never met Hanai's mother, hadn't even thought about her. "My mother had the ability to tell if someone was lying." He looked away. "She died when I was only a year old. I don't remember her."

I didn't want to add to Hanai's obvious pain by telling him that the Element of Spirit didn't sound very useful—that was probably why it wasn't recognized or included on a Council. I seized onto this idea.

"Hania, this isn't a problem. Davison won't accept the Element of Spirit anyway. He'll still say you're Unmanifested."

"Just because he doesn't recognize it as a viable Element, doesn't mean it isn't one." Hanai's gentle voice held great authority. He believed himself a Spiritual Elemental no matter what anyone said.

Option D: Find a new Unmanifested for the Council. But this made my heart stall in a way I hadn't thought possible. At least not with Hanai.

"You can't leave," I said, my mind seizing with panic.

"I have to."

"No, you don't. This is an easy fix. No one has to know. We'll keep this between—"

"I already told Cat."

I paused, stung he'd told her before me. "Okay, so we'll keep this between the three of us. We'll charter our Council, and then we'll replace Adam with an Unmanifested. We'll still have four Elementals with an Unmanifested to represent all segments of society. It's perfect."

"But other Councils—or the people—won't accept the Element of Spirit. And the Airmasters won't be represented on our Council."

Blazes, we'd be lucky to stay alive, let alone get an assignment—no matter what Davison promised. The possibility of using my chartered Council for safety faded into nothing. I felt the same way now as I had the night Jarvis told me to run. Hopeless and desperate. No options. Only the unknown on the horizon.

Except for the certain death that awaited me in Tarpulin.

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Please, please stay."

Hanai stood up. "Okay, I'll stay, but I'm not lying." He left, and I turned back to the window again, completely lost inside my own head.