Free Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) by Shannon Mayer Page A

to be more!” She slapped at me as I drove Spirit into her, pushing hard to fill her with its deadly, pulsating light.
    “You will not end me! Astrid cannot die!”
    Her body began to glow, fissures and cracks breaking along her face and skin. Her fingers dug into mine as she tried to pry them off. I tucked my head down and hunched my back.
    “You will not beat me,” she snarled. My fingers slipped, and Astrid skittered from me, her black eyes wide. “Bitch. I will destroy your soul.”
    Every breath I took felt like fire in my lungs and sweat dripped from every part of me. Spirit flickered on the edges of me. I was running out of juice.
    Astrid took a step toward me, and held a hand out. Those miniscule sparkles surrounded her fingers. If I couldn’t get my hands on her, I wasn’t sure I could fight her off.
    A single tear escaped me and I blinked it away. “Then I’m taking you with me.”
    I opened to both Spirit and Earth. The power of the earth flooded through me, and Spirit tangled with it, like lovers long parted.
    Astrid snarled, “No. You won’t.”
    With a burst of speed, I leapt at her. She dodged to the left, her black eyes narrowed as she glared, the sparkling lights darkening to shadows that thrived and danced. I snaked a hand out and grabbed her shoulder. I dug my fingers in until she screamed.
    Last chance. We tumbled to the ground and I wrapped my legs and arms around her and held her tightly to my chest.
    She clawed and screamed, writhed and fought. The shadows drove through my body, filling my nose and mouth until I couldn’t breathe. Spirit and Earth, that was all I had left. I released myself to them, let them pour through me into her.
    She stiffened in my arms. “No. NO!”
    I opened my eyes. Face to face, I saw her eyes fade, the black shadows retreating until there was a pair of everyday normal green eyes looking at me.
    “No,” she whispered.
    Once more her face cracked, tiny fissures running under the skin. They opened, and light poured out of her in rays as though she’d swallowed the sun. Sorrow flowed from her to me. A pain so intense, I couldn’t help but grieve for what I was doing to her.
    That I was the one causing her pain even though I had to. Her green eyes blinked once. “Thank you.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said as I ripped her essence apart. Astrid’s soul, and the darkness that had been in her scattered, first through my mind, and then into the world once more. Only this time she was so small, so miniscule there would be no infection of another grimoire, or person.
    Panting, I realized I was on my hands and knees. Across from me, Giselle sat on the edge of the stairs, her eyes wide. “What happened?”
    “I . . . pulled her apart. Broke her into tiny pieces.”
    “I didn’t know you could do that.”
    “Neither did I.” My voice cracked as though I’d been running in the desert.
    Cactus.
    I turned my head to see him staring at me with eyes nearly as wide as the kid’s. “I didn’t know you could do that either.”
    With a shrug, I pushed to my feet. I shouldn’t have felt embarrassed, yet I did. Like being strong was a sin. Giselle wobbled to me and touched the back of my hand.
    “You feel like him.”
    I felt like him. Like Talan, the one who’d taught her to use her abilities.
    Understanding flowed over me. He had to be a Spirit Elemental. Or maybe a half-breed like me. “Mother goddess, I am not alone.” The words escaped before I could catch them.
    In front of us, Cactus stood over the ashes of the book, his hands still flickering with firelight. “You got a dust pan?” Yeah, those were not the heroic words I’d expected out of him. Yet that was Cactus for you.
    Giselle shook her head.
    “Open the door,” I said, pointing at the back door. He walked over, opened the door, and the wind in the house picked up, blowing out the ashes of the grimoire, and along with it, the feeling in the house settled.
    I touched Giselle’s head. “You understand