Elemental Hunger

Chapter Thirty-Four

An intense heat filled my lungs. The smoke I normally found so comforting choked me. The prickling in my skin increased until razor-sharp teeth skated over the surface.

Crackling noises echoed around me, so fire-like and so terrifying at the same time. Because I knew it was my skin burning. My head sizzled, and an uncomfortable sensation pulled along my scalp.

"Shh," someone whispered. Fingers entwined with mine. Shallow breath washed over my cheek. "Gabby, quiet, shh." Hanai's voice held a healing quality all its own. He smelled of wood and cold air. I breathed him in, eliminating the place in my mind where nightmares lived.

#

I sat up, expecting the debilitating pain to sweep through my shoulders. It didn't.

"Magic alive," Hanai breathed.

I tried to focus on his face, but he lingered in a halo of shadow. He leaned forward, and I found wonder in his eyes and love curling his mouth.

"Hanai." I said his name like he could save me from myself. I wanted him to, oh, how I wanted him to.

"You healed yourself."

My skin stretched, creamy and white, down my torso and under the blankets. I snatched the slightly charred sheet and pulled it to my chin. "Clothes—I—"

He held a bundle toward me without removing his eyes from mine. He left the room, trapping me with my own thoughts. After pulling on a pair of jeans and a soft shirt, I tucked a knife in my belt loop. I sat in Hanai's chair and ran my hands over my arms, feeling nothing but silky, smooth skin.

Hanai stepped into the room and locked the door behind him. "We've got to go."

"Go where?" I took the sentry knife he handed me, tucking it into the waistband of my jeans.

"Away from here. Cornish doesn't harbor Elementals, and several Elemental refugees from Tarpulin have arrived." He yanked up the window, and a blast of icy air flooded the room. "And now that everyone in the United Territories knows that Alex is a woman, well, let's just say that Davison has gathered a lot of help."

"The attack against Alex is starting," I said. A loud banging echoed from the front of the house.

"And we want to make sure we're on the right side." Hanai gestured me forward. "We don't need the Cornish guards interrogating us unnecessarily."

I crawled out the window awkwardly, landing on frozen earth. Claws of chilly air robbed me of heat from my Element, and I actually shivered.

Hanai dropped next to me, reaching for my hand. "Pull up your hood. We don't want—" He cut off, staring at my head.

"What?" I reached up and felt...my hair. It fell beyond my shoulders in waves, just like it had before the false accusation of arson in Crylon. That life seemed light years away, as if someone else had lived it.

"Well, maybe you won't need the hood. You look...like a girl." Hanai sounded like he'd never seen a girl before.

"I've always been a girl," I said, gathering my hair into a low ponytail, marveling at its sudden regrowth.

"Yeah, but now, now you look like one."

I slid my hand into his in response. Angry shouts filled the graying morning. We stayed off the roads, which made our trek through the southern wilderness long and tiring. There were a few patches of dirty snow, but most of it had melted. Low brush dotted the landscape, making our trail a wandering one.

A few trees loitered on the horizon to the west, but they were too far away for us to use as cover. At least the ground was mostly flat, if not rocky. We walked until the sunset drew a dark curtain over the sky.

I was just about to ask Hanai if I should build a fire when a wolf howled.