Chapter 2
2
P
hoenix Safe House
Arizona
“I can’t see her,”
Aislinn huffed in frustration.
Sparks emitted from her long red hair, illuminating the growing darkness as the sun sank beyond the terracotta courtyard of the Phoenix safe house.
“Shouldn’t I be able to see my own sister? Or at least feel her?”
Dale placed a hand on her shoulder. “Try again, my love.”
Her delicate features softened at his words, making her even more beautiful, if that were possible.
“Alright, but I'm going to need more room.”
Dale stepped back, giving her a wide berth.
Kang and Deirdre followed suit. They were gifted counselors with telepathic and empathic powers, here to provide assistance.
Aislinn closed her eyes and stretched out her palms, her wings blazing behind her.
Rings of fire sparked around her, glowing and spinning as she rose into the air.
Dale watched in awe, spellbound. She was like the winged goddess Ellandria herself, for whom their home planet was named after. A more fiery version, perhaps, revered as a prophetess among their kind.
But Aislinn was more than that. She was a map across time and space, able to see into places others could not—past, present, future.
Right now, it was the present that concerned them the most. They needed to find her missing sister before she blew up again.
Aislinn knitted her red brows together in concentration. The flaming rings around her spun faster and her face flushed, straining under the effort.
Minutes passed, and everyone remained silent as she hung in the air, her head tilted toward the emerging stars.
As a mentalist, Dale could sometimes tune in to the images flickering through her mind, but not this time. Nothing came to him.
Finally, the rings around her faded, and she descended to the tiled expanse, then opened her eyes.
“Red rocks. That’s all I see.”
Dale stared out at the desert. “Colorado, maybe?”
She threw her hands in the air. “Or Mars, or anywhere, really.”
He rubbed his eyes, sharing her frustration, too exhausted to make heads or tails of it.
So far, all they had were a bunch of dead ends when it came to her sister Neve. And there was still so much to do between gearing up the Rogue Hunters and planning his return trip to their home world. He hadn’t slept in days and felt like he might nod off at any moment.
“Your personal connection might be hindering your Sight,” Kang suggested to Aislinn. “It's common among human psychics. They're blocked from seeing too much about themselves and those close to them. The same might hold true for Supers.”
“But I don't even know her,” Aislinn protested.
“You don't remember her,” Dale corrected. “But some part of you does.”
Something about Earth affected their memories. His had only come back once he returned to Ellandria.
Kang stroked his goatee in thought. “Your Sight also hinders you from seeing a future with Dale.”
“I don't need to see the future to know I have one with him. I can feel it.”
She graced him with the most beauteous smile, melting his insides.
They did not feel the mating heat the way the others did. By all accounts, they were entirely incompatible. Fire and Wind did not usually mix, but their temporal powers pulled them together like magnets. Whenever they touched, a feeling rippled over him of destiny and timelessness.
“Why don’t we try feeling our way back through the past instead,” Kang proposed. “There might be some clues there, hidden memories of your lost sister.”
Dale pressed his lips together, unsure. Digging around in there could be treacherous. It had nearly killed Hugh when his memories returned. The process was jolting, and he dreaded what it might do to Aislinn. But Kang was a talented psychologist and their most powerful mentalist.
Take care,
Dale warned him.
You may get more than you bargained for.
Kang shot him a mirthful look.
That’s nothing new.
He waved Aislinn toward a chaise lounge.
She folded in her fiery wings and sat gingerly on the edge of the flowery seat. Dale knelt down beside her.
She turned to him. “Hold my hand.”
He took it and kissed it softly. “I shall never let go.”
She quirked a smile at him. “Ever?”
“Well, perhaps when nature calls, or you turn to ash again.”
A sadness washed over him. She would burst into flames soon, and the cycle would start over, taking her from infant to child to teenager to an adult phoenix.
Kang cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?”
“Sure.” Aislinn’s voice quavered, and she tightened her grip on Dale’s hand.
He felt Deirdre release a wave of soothing energy over them as Kang walked Aislinn back in time.
“Now, I want you to relax and think back to your earliest memories. I’ll help you. In three…two…one….”
Aislinn closed her eyes and exhaled, then fell silent.
“I’m falling through a tunnel of bright lights,” she finally said. “Fiona is holding on to me. We’re both scared. Then everything goes black, and there’s pain, so much pain.”
Dale bowed his head, focusing on the images that rose to the surface of her mind.
“And then what?” Kang asked.
“We’re in a hospital somewhere. Fiona has a broken leg. My arm is in a cast. They want to separate us, but she won’t let them. She fights, even with the broken leg.”
Dale grinned. Fiona, Aisinn’s other sister, had always been feisty, and was just as protective of Aislinn as he was of Hugh.
Kang took her back further. “What do you see now?”
“A field and a….stone stage. There’s a circular gate across from it, with strange writing…”
Kang looked at Dale.
Can you see this?
He nodded.
It’s the field where Neve exploded on Ellandria.
“There’s a tall boy with white hair…” Aislinn continued. “It’s you, Dale. And Hugh is there. Someone’s trying to put a crown on his head, but he doesn’t want it.”
“Yes, that was just before the explosion.”
The image rippled like a still pond disturbed by a stone. The stage was the same, but Dale and Hugh were older, and Hugh was accepting a different crown, one Dale had never seen, not even when Hugh became the Crown Prince of Ellandria.
Aislinn stared into the distance, trance-like, and rose to her feet, dropping Dale’s hand.
Rings of fire appeared around her again, and she began to prophesy.
“When in shame
Doth Fire fall,
Earth shall rise
To smite us all
Laying waste to
Water, Fire, Wind
And in darkness plunge
The world again”
Images streamed through her like a rushing river, fast and furious.
A map of their home world sprinkled with crimson. The spots grew larger, staining the capital city of Dùnadunn, engulfing it. The red hue spread out across the other clans’ lands at an alarming rate, and even to the Badlands, under the brown and green banners of
Clann Larr,
the House of Earth.
Soon every land mass was covered in scarlet—every mountain, every hill, every island. The rivers themselves ran with blood and the stones sang out in sorrow.
“All is lost, all is lost…”
Dale’s stomach clenched.
A planetary war.
“Bring her out of it, Kang.”
The psychiatrist attempted to do so, but Aislinn kept going, repeating the words over and over.
“Fire fall…Earth rise…smite us all…”
Kang shook his head. “She’s in deep. I can’t bring her out without causing harm.”
Dale tried another approach. “Aislinn, concentrate on Earth. What do you see?”
She lifted her gaze to the constellations overhead, her eyes moving back and forth, as if reading something. Her voiced dropped to a monotone.
“System failure. Breach imminent. Catastrophic.”
Dale exchanged a concerned look with Kang and Deirdre as she continued, the fiery rings swirling faster and faster around her, crackling with power.
Her wings extended, and she rose high into the air.
“Moving to DEFCON 4.”
Pictures and symbols flashed by too quickly for Dale to make sense of them. Fire. Smoke. Death.
“Status change. DEFCON 3.”
“DEFCON 2.”
“DEFCON 1.”
Dale stood as close as he dared and raised his voice above the din. “Look at me, Aislinn! You need to come out of it.”
Her hazel eyes widened, and she shuddered.
“Launch sequence detected. Catastrophic.”
Dierdre raised her arms and cast a soothing blue light at her, but it had no effect.
In his mind’s eye, Dale saw a shock-wave ripple across the Earth, and then it was burning. Everyone and everything in it was burning.
Aislinn’s eyes welled with tears.
“Catastrophic.”
“Catastrophic.”
“Catastrophic.”
“Cata
—”
“Aislinn!” Dale shouted.
Her eyelids fluttered, and she came to, the color drained from her face. Her wings drooped, and she sank to the ground, the rings of fire dissipating.
Dale caught her in his arms, and she clutched his shirt.
“We need to find my sister. Soon.”