Sacrifice by Denise Grover Swank

wild and dangerous before he broke contact and turned away. “We’re taking a half-hour break, then resuming.” He stomped into the house.
    Once he’d gone inside she allowed herself to pat her swollen cheek and wipe the blood from her lip. Tears burned her eyes before it occurred to her that he’d left her outside. Alone.
    Her pulse quickened. He said he’d be gone a half an hour. How far could she get before he realized she was gone?
    Did she dare leave?
    The fact remained that while Raphael’s mental stability deteriorated by the hour, he was the only one who could help her at this point.
    Unless she found Alex.
    The thought made her skin crawl, but Raphael had quickly ascended the list of most hated people in her life, a hard list to climb. Still, there were so many problems with her plan, or lack thereof. She had no idea where Alex was, and Raphael was sure to find her before she got far. He tracked her somehow, and she was sure it had to do with her energy. All the more reason to learn to control it.
    She walked down to the creek that ran in the trees along the back of the property. While she couldn’t run from him yet, she could get away from him for a short while. Kicking off her shoes, she sat on the bank and put her feet in the stream, the water cooling her down. She closed her eyes.
    Raphael freely admitted he withheld information from her. The question was why? He must be spoon-feeding her, only giving her information absolutely necessary to finish this level then move on to the next. But what if she could figure out some of it herself? What if she really did do the very thing he accused her of—progress and hide her true powers from him?
    The idea teased her need to retaliate.
    Raphael controlled the earth. She’d seen him create earthquakes and make trees fall. He could move simple objects. He could control her. The last filled her with anxiety, but if she could figure out how it all worked, she was certain she could stop him and regain her free will.
    Alex was air. Storms and rain and wind. He could probably do other things she hadn’t considered. He could control weather associated with clouds, but could he change climates? Could he control things in the air, such as planes?
    She and Aiden were fire. She already knew she could create massive fires and make small items explode. She could turn men into piles of ash. She could control minds. Surely there was more. The fact that she needed extreme anger to use her power was crippling. During her skirmish with Raphael, her fear overpowered all fury, squashing her energy. She’d learned weeks ago that fear didn’t work for her energy source. Her power was fueled by pure anger. Lord knew she had plenty of anger to go around, but even she had her limits. She had to figure out other sources. And she’d be damned if she told Raphael what she was doing.
    Dipping her foot deeper in the water, Emma let her guard down and thought of Will. If he were alive, he would rip Raphael apart for the way he’d treated her the last two days. But Will wasn’t here and the fact remained that Will was no match for Raphael’s powers. Even if he were alive.
    Raphael had been right. She cried for Will again, but she’d dreamed of him too. A more concrete dream than the previous ones. He appeared to her in the darkness of her grief and not only knew who she was, but held her in his arms and looked down at her with love. But four words in her dream ate at her resolve.
    I’m not dead, Emma .
    She scooped up her hope and held it tight in her fists. Could it be true? Raphael insisted that Will had died.
    Raphael insisted .
    It made sense that he would encourage her to leave Will behind. Raphael saw Will as a threat, even in death. But would he lie to her and tell her that he was dead for his own benefit? Hell, yeah, he’d do it.
    Yet she couldn’t ignore that Will’s presence wasn’t out there anymore. The mark had to be the reason, but if their marks were gone, how could