Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (16 page)

I staggered, desperately clinging to the bridge railing as the world tilted.

The ground shuddered and groaned. Concrete continued splintering under the weakened structural integrity and massive slabs broke off the main foundation in rapid succession.
 

Another gust of wind cut across the bridge, howling through the yawning gap now separating me from the others.
 

Behind me, an army of Aquidae battled the gardinels on the shore. In front of me, a forty-foot gap stretched into the darkness.

The icy blue-black depths of the ocean beckoned a hundred yards below.

A cold lump of fear settled in the pit of my stomach.

I wasn’t going to make it.

“Kendra.” Tristan grabbed my waist, lifted me up, and hauled me over the gap.
 

My stomach jumped into my throat and then we landed on the other side.

On Fontesceau, selkies retreated, white light encasing their forms as they shifted then plunged into the icy waters.
 

Instead of following the gardinels into the water, the Aquidae remained along the shore.

They simply watched us as if they were waiting for something.

Three figures approached from the east.

Bastien’s mop of curly hair gleamed in the moonlight.

Beside him, a tall, thin Aquidae dragged a portly demillir.

No, no, no.

“Go back!” I screamed.

It was no use. All the gardinels had already shifted and disappeared underwater.
 

Tristan swore. He leaped off the bridge into the ocean, power crackling as bones snapped and twisted.
 

Dax, Garreth, and a few other gardinels dove after him, blinking white in the night.

But it was too late.

The Aquidae yanked Oliver Moreaux to the shoreline.
 

Across the starry night, the eyes of one of the most respected figures in the elemental world met mine.

Chloe told me her father was in South Carolina, enjoying a quiet, peaceful retirement.

Most of their families don’t even know they’re here. They come to grieve, to forget and be forgotten.

As long as I lived, I would never forget the sheer terror reflected on his face.

Ray drew up beside me, his body trembling uncontrollably. Holden tried to pull him back but Ray shook him off.
 

Wild eyes stared at the slim Aquidae holding Oliver. “Him,” he whispered. “Him.”

A shiver raced down my spine.

Bastien moved forward and punched Oliver, knocking him unconscious.

The tall Aquidae draped Chloe’s father over his shoulders and took off inland. One by one, the other demons followed until only Bastien remained.

He looked straight at me, smiled, and raised his hand. A white rook glimmered in the moonlight.
 

My blood ran cold.

He tossed the chess piece into the raging bonfire, then followed the others and vanished into the night.

A figure raced toward the edge.

“No!” I pushed Cam back.

“Let me go!”

Julian and Alex restrained him from behind. He furiously fought their grip.

“Listen to me.” I shoved his shoulders back. “Damn it, Cam, listen!”

“They took her dad!”

“We’ll get him.” My voice was utterly calm. “I promise you we’ll get him back.”

“When, Irisavie?” Cam’s face was an icy mask of pure rage.

“As soon as we take care of these people.”

He stared at me for another long moment.
 

“Get off me!” He pulled away from Julian and Alex and stormed off.

“Governor.” Jeeves stepped forward, a splotch of black blood smeared across his cheekbone. “We’re awaiting your orders.”

Dozens of gardinels and chevaliers watched me. Frizzy copper hair lit up the night behind them.
 

Charlie’s gaze met mine, her face drawn with shock. At least a hundred more traumatized, wounded, and frightened elementals stood behind her.

All looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to provide an answer I didn’t have.

No matter how much I wanted to pursue the Aquidae and get Oliver back, I had to return to Haverleau.

I needed to win the war, not the battle.

My chest clenched at the thought of facing Chloe.
 

I exhaled. “Arrange for transport to the other communities. Haverleau will take as many evacuees as we can.”

Everyone sprang into action. The order provided purpose and reason during a time when there was none.

I turned back to the island.

Tristan, Dax, and the other gardinels emerged from the waters onto the empty shore.

The bonfire continued to burn, its flames eerily dancing with the darkness.

EIGHT

Haverleau’s iron gates creaked open and exhaustion washed over me. Three days of non-stop travel and sleep deprivation had taken its toll.

The surprise attack on Merbais exposed the weakness of our training system and the way we ran security.

But Fontesceau’s attack revealed a failure in judgment.

Mine.

We’d had knowledge ahead of time. The Governor, the Head Chevalier, and the Warrior Prince ran security.

Yet the Shadow had still managed to get through.

Our line of SUVs pulled into Lumiere’s parking lot. Cam and the others were returning to the dorms and I’d asked our driver to follow them.
 

I needed to speak to her face-to-face.

Someone had already called ahead. Chloe and Aubrey waited for us in front of the steps to the Academy’s administration building.
 

I opened the door. Chloe ran toward me.

“Kendra, I heard what happened at Fontesceau and Pelletier said I needed to talk to you. But he wouldn’t say —” She stopped at the look on my face. “No.”

“I’m sorry, Chlo.” My voice came out rusty. “They took your father.”

“I don’t understand.” She blinked. “Why was he in Fontesceau? He’s supposed to be in Myrtle Beach.”
 

“I—I don’t know. I didn’t even know he was there.”

Her chin quivered. “Where did they take him?”

I shook my head, unable to say anything.

Her face crumpled.
 

Cam pulled her to him. She cried into his chest, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
 

My insides hollowed out and everything went numb.

“We haven’t been able to find him,” Cam said gruffly. “But it doesn’t mean he’s gone, Chlo. He could’ve gotten out. He could’ve escaped.”

Aub approached, her expression unreadable. She’d always had a certain vibrance, an energy that sparkled around her like the crisp bite of fall.
 

But like everyone else in this interminable war, she’d changed.

All that energy had been pulled inward, channeled and molded into a cold, hard determination to see this war through to the end.
 

Chloe lifted her head. “What happened?”

I gave her bare details of the attack.
 

She wiped her eyes. “You watched it happen?”

“The gardinels dove into the ocean. But by the time they reached the shore, he was gone.” I steeled myself. “I was on the bridge.”

“You saw the Shadow take my father and you just stood there?”

Cam touched her. “The bridge was broken —“

She shook him off. “You’re the
sondaleur
. The Shadow wants you, right? Isn’t that why Noelle’s dead? Why my father is gone?” Her tone verged on hysterical. “Aren’t you why Ryder’s gone? Why my mother was turned?”

I wasn’t sure which was worse. The fact that she was saying everything that haunted my nightmares. Or that it was coming from the kindest person I’d ever known.
 

I managed to find my voice. “My focus is on ending this war.”

Cam stiffened. “So her father was expendable?”
 

“No! I … “ This was coming out wrong. “We made a mistake.”
 

We’d thought - no, assumed - Brigette was the target. As the last Clairvoyant, she’d become our foremost priority.

“But I’ll find him.” I swallowed. “I’ll end this.”

“When? After everyone is dead and gone?”

“Chlo —“

She turned and ran across the Quad. Cam took off after her.

Aub silently watched me, her eyes dark and solemn.
 

An empty ache gnawed my chest. I wanted all of it to go away.
 

I wanted Chloe’s pain and Aub’s silence and the grief saturating the air to simply be a nightmare, frightening and horrible but not real.

Why couldn’t I just wake up?

I made myself speak. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Her mouth tightened. “But I’ll make sure she is.”

Despite the implicit criticism of her words, I felt a twinge of relief. At least she was still talking to me.

Aubrey headed for the dorm, then halted. “End it soon, Kendra.”

“I will.”

Afternoon light spilled over the outline of the Academy’s buildings, casting patches of shadows across the ground like a chessboard.
 

A year ago, Ryder, Miriam, Oliver, Marcella, Gabe, and Rhian had welcomed my arrival to Haverleau.
 

Now they were all gone.

If I didn’t do something soon, I’d lose the few remaining people I had left.

I won’t stop until I take everything from you, sondaleur.

I spun and marched toward the waiting car.

Silently, the Royal Gardinel drove me back to the Governing Complex. Icy fury settled into my blood.

Not only were my friends’ families being picked off like flies, but I was also in political trouble. The Council would place the blame for the attacks on Merbais and Fontesceau squarely on me.
 

The Merbais attack happened during the confirmation ceremony, making my first act as Governor a failure. I’d also instinctively moved to protect Brigette in Fontesceau, leaving Oliver Moreaux wide open.

Everything had been meticulously planned to cast doubt on my abilities.
 

That bastard was playing a game and the only way forward was to regain control of the board.
 

By the time I reached my office, only one thought remained.
 

It was time to change the trajectory of this war.

“Getting comfortable?”

Marquisa LeVeq turned away from the window overlooking the gardens. “I’ve always admired the view from this office. You can see all the way to the guest cottage.”

To my left, Marquisas Blanchard and Rosamund perched on the black leather sofa, their faces pinched into judgmental masks. She’d come prepared.

I shut the door behind me and settled behind the mahogany desk. Everything still felt alien, as if I were an imposter trying on shoes far too big.

“If there’s something you’d like to say, Patrice, I suggest you come right out and say it.”

The office was cleverly designed to make the person sitting behind the desk seem larger than they were. Petite Rhian had often appeared like a giant.
 

I straightened and felt a distinct satisfaction as the Marquisas shifted uncomfortably on the sofa.
 

“Oh, of course not.” Patrice sidled away from the window, her fingers trailing across Rhian’s desk. I resisted the urge to take out my dagger.

Instead of joining the others on the sofa, she stopped across from me.

Guess she knew that trick already.

“Although it is interesting that you’ve chosen to stay in the guest cottage rather than inside the Governing House as a…” she paused delicately, “normal Governor would do.”

“I didn’t realize there was a Governor’s manual defining how I should conduct my personal life.”

“A certain degree of decorum is expected. Why, for example, I heard you have quite a few male visitors over.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste. “Recruits or however you call them —“

“Fellow chevaliers and colleagues. Come on.” I flashed my teeth. “Is that your best shot? You can do better than that.”

That wiped the smugness off her face. Her eyes turned frosty.

“Do you still believe you can be Governor after what’s happened in Merbais and Fontesceau?”

“I don’t see anything indicating otherwise.”

She crossed her arms. “How will you deal with rebuilding those communities? Who will lead those projects? What happens to the education of the youth from Merbais and Fontesceau? How much strain has been placed on other communities? How do the number of evacuees we’ve taken in affect Haverleau’s current resources?”

“I have people handling —“

“The Governor is supposed to handle that,” she pointed out. “You’re too busy running around with your boyfriends —“

“If you insult my chevaliers one more time, Marquisa, you will be doing so from a clinic bed.”

She glared. “Not everything can be solved by a fight.”

“I’m aware of that. Funny how I’m not the one picking it.”

“Have you seen your friends?” Marquisa Rosamund piped up from the back. “What have you said to Ms. Rossay and Ms. Moreaux?”

“I said hello.”

Patrice’s mouth tilted up. “There is no denying it now. It’s clear from Oliver’s disappearance that the Shadow is targeting you through innocent civilians —“

“He’s targeting elementals because he wants to win this war,” I amended. “And I’m the only one willing to take him on. Unless you are willing to confront him directly, Patrice. I can let him know, if you’d like. You saw what happened to Miriam Moreaux.” I shrugged and leaned back in the chair. “He seems to have a preference for Redavi ondines.”

She paled slightly at that. “What’s your plan for dealing with this?”

“We counterattack.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Marquisa Blanchard shook her head. “We should be defending ourselves.”

“Yes.” Patrice shot me an imperious look. “Containing and locking down all communities would be a start.”

“That’s impossible,” I said calmly.

Patrice’s eyes narrowed. “Why is defense not a feasible strategy?”

“Because nowhere is safe. The Shadow has created an army and we’re grossly outnumbered and underprepared. No amount of security will keep them out.”