Free Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) by Maddy Edwards Page B

ripped the curtains off.
    “What on earth?” I couldn’t see anything at first, then I saw a ball of fire speed past us. I heard the swoosh and imagined I felt the heat. The coach steadied and didn’t throw us wildly around again, but who knew where the next fire ball would be directed.
    “Someone’s throwing fire balls at us,” I yelled.
    “From the ground?” Eighellie cried, her voice filled with shock.
    “Did they get ahold of Dacer’s cannon?” Keegan asked.
    Then the coach started to climb, rising higher and higher until my ears popped and all I could see out the windows was a bank of clouds.
    “Does anyone have a broom?” Eighellie yelled.
    “Yeah, I keep it in my other purse,” Keegan roared from the floor. “No, I don’t have a broom. You can’t go out there!”
    Eighellie searched around frantically, then threw all her weight at the window I had uncovered. She stuck her head out and thrust her ring hand out after her.
    Keegan and I exchanged looks.
    “She’s crazy,” he mouthed to me. I nodded. I couldn’t feel the fire coming, a fact that concerned me. Fire was one of my elements, and I was even stronger now that I connected to essence, yet I couldn’t feel a thing. We had been attacked, and I hadn’t even felt it coming.
    Eighellie stuck her head back in, her blond hair fanning around her shoulders and puffing up on top. “Hold my feet,” she commanded.
    “What?” Keegan gasped.
    “You heard what I said!” she cried. “I need a better angle. Hold my feet.”
    I came forward and grabbed her ankles as she eased back out the window. Keegan’s arms wrapped around me to complete the human chain.
    Eighellie didn’t weigh anything, and I called to the wind to help a little, but it was still nerve-wracking being responsible for Eighellie’s life.
    Holding tight to my friend, I peered out the window. A small orange dot raced toward us from the ground, but I was much more concerned about the one that was so close it was about to hit us.
    Eighellie shot raw black power downward, creating a trail. She wasn’t attacking the fireball directly. She wasn’t even trying to move our coach out of the way. “She’s using magic as a decoy,” I told Keegan, who couldn’t see what was going on.
    “That’s a great idea!” Keegan’s eyes lit up, and I wondered if he was aware of how often Eighellie impressed him. I decided not to tell him, just in case he didn’t realize it.
    The coach continued to race forward so fast that I had to use the muscles in my legs to keep from flying backward. The fireball was growing, but now it didn’t look like it was aiming for us after all. My arms were starting to shake, and I wanted Eighellie to come back inside the damned coach, but she had other plans. When the fireball slammed into the power trail she had left, I felt the coach shake. A small explosion blew soot everywhere. Then there was nothing.
    I tugged on Eighellie’s ankles and she had no choice but to start shifting her weight back into the coach. Once she was back inside she knelt on the floor, breathing hard, hair standing on end. She patted it a couple of times, trying to calm it down, then gave up. Her eyes were bright and wild.
    “That was amazing!” she squealed. “I’ve never done anything like that before!”
    “We need a different plan,” said Keegan.
    “What do you suggest?” I asked.
    “Are we almost to Public?” he yelled.
    “There’s something in front of us,” said Eighellie.
    I leaned my head out the window again and my breath caught. The air was bright with lights and whips and sparkles. We were heading straight toward a canopy of dreams.
    Keegan pushed past me to look out the window, and I moved to give him room. There were no fireballs below us now, and the coach had stopped pitching so wildly, but who knew how long that would last.
    “What the blast is that?” Keegan yelled, bringing his head back in. “Is it friend or foe? I don’t want to fly into that thing.