Ivy has located Mere and Avia, but they haven’t been able to find Asha.
Asha was captured by the Order, and before she is tortured again, she is smuggled out. She is dressed up as a soldier and travels with Clay and his brothers on a mission outside the Order. Unknown to Asha, Clay’s mission is to take her sisters. Sisters she doesn’t even know she has.
Chapter Nine excerpt – battle
Asha found it rather odd to track ‘most wanted’ villains to
such serene and lovely surroundings, but she understood better than
most, appearances meant nothing. She’d found scum in the most
beautiful places, as well as the expected slums and undergrounds.
Someone, she assumed it was Paul since he was on point,
called the order from the other end of the line, and a rocket squealed
and launched toward the cabin. It struck the roof, and the ground
shook. The house exploded in flames.
After being without her power, Asha had to fight the urge to
control it and spur it on. The fire burned hot and contained, and the
connection swept over her. She was back. Hypnotized she reached
out to touch it, just for a moment to reassure herself
“She has power.”
The voice was low, the pilot. The only one of Clay’s
brothers who hadn’t spoken earlier. Oh, shit. Wait…how?
“I know,” Clay snapped.
He knows? Asha scanned the field. Just go now. The battle
chaos was her only chance for cover. The ground shook again, harder
this time.
Clay swiveled to his brother. “Rio?”
“It’s not me.”
Forget cover, go now.
With a crack and rumble, the ground surrounding the cabin
broke apart, and water burst from the earth. It sprayed as strong as
any fire hose up and over the cabin. The pounding force was like a
waterfall in reverse, and the flames sputtered and died.
She had never seen anything like it, an enormous water
fountain extinguishing fire burning that hot. The cabin door, charred
and still smoking, flew off its hinges and onto the flooded grass.
Three figures ran out into the early morning glare. Asha took
off her helmet and slouchy hood, but her eyes weren’t playing tricks.
She could see them clearly, even across the distance, and her
stomach dropped. They stopped short, facing an army with guns raised. No.
“Fire.”
“Stop!” Her scream was too late; the soldiers fired. She
didn’t have time to act; they were sitting ducks. She prepared for
their thrashing bodies, but like a swarm of hovering locusts, the
bullets stopped in mid-air and dropped.
What? She couldn’t get her mind around the scene unfolding
before her. She’d lost control of her body. Her muscles wouldn’t
move.
“Hold your fire,” Clay shouted, but the soldiers continued
shooting. His brothers were the only ones not attacking. They had to
be as shocked by the falling bullets as she was. She couldn’t blame
them. She was as still and as useless as a rock, unable to move or act,
only watch in growing disbelief. Three young women stood against
an army.
“Asha,” yelled one of the girls, her eyes were even brighter
green than Clay’s. “We’re your sisters. We’ve been looking for you.”
Sisters? Black hair and blue eyes fired a small pistol
dropping two soldiers. Green eyes stomped her foot, and the ground
lurched. The snow rolled like a wave across the ground toward the
soldiers. Stones and boulders erupted in front of them, stacking
magically into a huge wall blocking the offensive.
Asha shook her head.
“I’m Ivy, and this is Avia and Mere. You belong with us, but
we have to get out of here.”
Asha’s feet finally moved, one step and then another, but a
deafening crack echoed from behind her, and she spun back. The
wall, cracking and splitting, opened to reveal Clay behind it, his
shaking hand outstretched.
He pushed through the shattered wall, and his brothers
climbed over the debris after him. Soldiers followed, halting in side-by-
side formation.
They opened fire once again, but black hair and blue
eyes…Mere, shot back, emptying the clip. Throwing the useless gun
at the enemy, it sailed into the air and hit one of their targets,
knocking him to the ground. She whooped and clapped her hands.
They were facing an army out in the open, but they were giving them
a fight.
“Thanks for the boost, Avia,” Mere shouted, a grin clear on
her face. She was enjoying herself.
Avia, her white-haired sister, threw her hands out, and the air
waved and glimmered in front of her. The bullets stopped again and
dropped silently. It’d been her. Avia continued to block the soldiers'
constant fire somehow. Beside her, Mere raised her arms as water
swelled from the ground. She lowered her hands in front of her face.
The geyser bent, sending thunderous pressure against the line.
Water battered at the soldiers, and they fell and slammed
into each other. The water sprayed and flooded the ground.
The geyser had caused the break she needed, and Asha took
advantage of the lapse. Sprinting toward her sisters, she sent one of
her smaller fireballs at the soldiers. The men still standing swung
their guns to her and opened fire again.
Clay yelled as she ran, and the ground lurched again, so
violently it knocked her off her feet. Soldiers fired wildly, with their
fingers still on the triggers as they fell. Thankfully they did more
damage to each other than to her.
The moment Asha hit the cold, wet ground, she sprang up,
sprinting again for her sisters. Clay commanded the men to stop. But
back on their feet, the soldiers held their positions, firing as before.
Asha made it to them just as Avia went to her knees.
“I’m draining,” Avia said.
Asha scanned her enemy. They had lost a few soldiers, but
there were still so many left. Her confusion had spiraled into anger
and now peaked into rage. She sent flames racing along the ground
with her left hand, and more fireballs from her right, taking out three
or four at the same time.
The field rippled again, and mud and water gathered and
formed an enormous wave coming from the opposite side. It crested,
and met the fire, extinguishing it just before it reached the line.
Steam billowed and rolled back across the field toward them.
Raging, frantic, screamed commands came from the trees
behind the soldiers.
Asha hurled more fire at them as the bullets kept coming.
She hesitated a moment. Clay would die if she went any further…but
he was with them.
She shook her head. What’s wrong with you? He’d captured
her, killed her friends, and he was fighting on the side of those trying
to kill her. They’d already tortured her, and it was a miracle she’d
survived it. Now it was her turn to hurt him back.
Doubt and fury battled within her. He’d seduced her into
caring for him, and he was the enemy. He’d been part of a massacre
killing her friends, he’d kidnapped her, and he’d been her jailer in
that horrible place. Why did she need to keep reminding herself of
those things?
The dream of the man in the cave returned like a warning she
must heed. She couldn’t trust him, and even though she’d always
understood that, she was behaving as if she’d forgotten. Filled with
fresh strength, she sent another blanket of fire, but this one rose
effortlessly into a wall toward him.
“Stop,” Clay yelled in the distance. The fire sped forward.
Wind pushed and slowed the flames, more water rose again to meet
it, but couldn’t stop it completely. Her fire engulfed their right flank,
and thirty soldiers fell burning.
The remaining soldiers kept firing. A familiar squeal rose
above the din. Christ. “Rocket,” she cried, warning her sisters and
swept her hand in front of her. The rolling fire sped back toward the
line. But the rocket was already coming; she couldn’t stop it. She
braced, but nothing happened. It got eerily quiet; she opened her
eyes, and blinked and blinked again. Her eyes couldn’t be seeing
what was right there before them.
A massive, thick wall had risen silently between the two
sides, but the wall was made of water, stretching across the field,
clear and still as glass and at least fifty meters thick. She could see
the rocket floating within, defused and immobile.
Even the soldiers had stopped shooting and stared. It was
Mere, her grinning, clapping sister, who’d called it and held it, her
arms outstretched in the thick, pulsing silence.
The water started to move and swirl, frothing inside the wall,
“I can’t…guys. I can’t hold it, get ready.” The wall dropped soaking
into the field, and Ivy sent the ground rolling and knocked the men
off their feet again. Mere swayed, falling, as a shot rang out in the
silence and fresh blood sprayed across the soggy grass.
“No,” Ivy screamed. She lunged and dropped beside Mere.
Avia’s shield came up, catching the new onslaught, but a
second too late. One bullet got through and hit Mere in the shoulder.
Buzzing pounded in Asha’s ears; her vision tinted red, her
pain and fear forgotten, replaced by fury. It rolled, building until she
feared she might blow the whole place away and kill her newfound
sisters in the process.
A dirty root, thick as a baseball bat, surged from the ground
across the field and whipped in the air curling and winding until it
hovered, pointing at the soldiers. Snapping forward as fast as a
cobra’s attack, it speared Mere’s shooter through the chest, lifting
him into the air. He struggled and fought, his arms and legs flailing
as he slid down the long root, like a bead on a thread. Ivy guided it
on with her finger, and it shot through the line, impaling the soldiers
one by one and sewing them together.
It was gruesome but effective, and it distracted Asha from her
spinning frenzy, letting her focus on the battle at hand. Clay plunged
his hands into the mud as the root sped toward him and his brothers.
“Clay, look out,” Asha screamed, now warning her enemy.
Ivy dropped her hand, and the branch fell at his feet. Soldiers
still twitched and squirmed on the branch like fish on a line.
Avia threw her hands out, and the remaining soldiers blew
back into the trees.
Ivy laid both hands over Mere’s shoulder applying pressure
to stop her bleeding.
Mere gasped and opened her eyes. “Ouch,” she whispered,
her voice hoarse.
“Hold on,” Ivy said. She pushed her right hand into the
ground and pulled out bright green and red weeds, squeezing them to
mush. Ivy lifted her hand; the blood had slowed enough for her to spread
the weeds over the wounds. She pulled three long thin vines
poking from the ground beside her and laid them over Mere’s
shoulder.
Mere tilted her head toward Ivy with a questioning look, but
she jumped as the vines stretched and wrapped over her shoulder and
under her arm like a bandage.
“Too tight?” Ivy asked. She stood, reaching out to Mere.
Asha caught her breath.
Mere shook her head, “It’s perfect.” With her hand on her
shoulder and Ivy’s help, Mere got to her feet, testing the vine
bandage. “Amazing, thank you.”
Asha turned back to the trees, Clay had flown back with the
rest, but came sprinting out, running toward them. She shifted
forward, compelled like a magnet to go to him.
“No, don’t,” Avia yelled.
Her sister’s voice stopped her and shook her from her trance.
Clay charged.
What on earth was she doing? He was the enemy, and she
moved toward him like a ship to a siren.
“Take her!”
The command was shouted from the trees. Clay reached out,
but light shimmered between them knocking him back. It was Avia’s
shield, and he battered at it like an angry bee bouncing off a window
but still fighting to get through. He was going to take her again, take
her back there.
Ivy grasped her hand, towing her over to Mere and Avia.
“Hurry, we need to hold hands,” she said.
Avia’s shield fell.
Clay ran toward them.
“It will be okay. I promise,” Ivy said. The earth opened up
beneath their feet, and they dropped below ground.
**
This scene was my favorite for the pure fun of it.
When you have four powerful sisters as the story’s main characters, showing their powers off was always going to be the best. Preparing for this scene didn’t take much, I just had to bring the characters together in the right setting and let them take over. And they did.
Asha is there to fight with the Order or to escape, she isn’t entirely sure which. But after the first rocket hits the cabin and she sees her sisters, she knows who they are and where she needs to be. Asha knows them as soon as she sees them.
I love the battle-primed expert soldier, Asha, frozen in shock at seeing her sisters. The moment Avia stops the bullets with air it sinks in, Asha is not alone. She has sisters, and they have power too.
Asha’s solo mercenary life is over. She has a family, a family in danger, sisters she needs to protect. This is the moment Asha’s character turns from self-sustaining soldier to protective sister.
I wanted this scene to show the abilities of each character with a bit of their personality. Asha is the only true soldier of the sisters. Mere, Ivy, and Avia can fight back, impressively even, but they don’t have the training Asha has had.
Mere is very powerful, but her skills are rooted in defense as are Avia’s. Avia must use all her focus and power to push the bullets back with her air shield. Ivy is the least battle-ready, that is until Mere is shot. Seeing Mere fall forces Ivy’s true nature to come out, and her vengeance is vicious.
Asha would normally wipe out the enemy with little effort and less remorse, especially in defense of her new found sisters, but infuriating feelings for Clay smother her rage. This is the moment she knows she is in too deep with Clay.
Clay is the one who initially captured Asha. During the battle, Asha discovers Clay and his brothers have elemental power too. The first men to ever hold such power.
And Asha is shocked again.
How much fun did I have writing the sisters in battle? Too much. (I almost wish I could write their battle scenes forever.)
Interested? Check out Unbalanced on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and at the Champagne Bookstore.
nice excerpt
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