Read Online Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) by Shannon Mayer - Free Book Online

speed. I had to get to her first.
    Whatever Blackbird wanted with her, it couldn’t be good.
    Whether he was there to take Giselle for his own uses or only to slow me in my search for my father, it didn’t matter. Either way, I had to stop him. A fireball shot past me and slammed into Blackbird, sending him backward in a tumble ass over teakettle. The girl cried out and fell to her knees. Peta reached her first and curled her body around her.
    The Reader was barely into her teens, if her size was any indication. A child. Niah had sent us to a child.
    I went to my knees in front of the Reader, facing Blackbird. “Stay down, Giselle.”
    “Who are you?”
    “Friends.”
    “Friends don’t shoot fire at each other,” she said.
    I didn’t dare look back at her. “True, but he is not our friend.”
    Blackbird strode toward us as though he hadn’t been slammed with a fireball. Then again, he carried all five elements . . . it was hard to imagine what would hurt him. Maybe nothing but cold hard steel.
    “Larkspur, you are really beginning to be a pain in my ass.” Blackbird came to a stop twenty feet from us.
    “Consider the feeling mutual.” I stood and pulled my spear from my side, twisting the two halves together. I pointed it at him. “Time to leave, boy.”
    His whole body jerked as if I’d hit him. A sore point, then? He had to be young; being called a boy would only bother a young man trying to prove himself.
    With a grin I whipped the spear forward. “Tell me something: what do you want with Giselle?”
    “I do believe that is none of your business.”
    Needing him to make a mistake, I poked at him. “I’m making it my business, brat.”
    A snarl escaped him, giving more evidence to what I believed. He had a temper and didn’t like people thinking he was too young.
    “My lover wants to speak with her.” He spat the words out as though they cost him.
    “You mean Cassava, don’t you?”
    Blackbird lifted his hands and the wind around us picked up, a gust slamming into me and flipping me backward before I could anchor myself into the ground. I flew through the air, catching glimpses of the scene around me. Peta clawing the ground to hold Giselle firm. Cactus out of sight.
    The ground rushed up and I hit it hard, landing on my hip and shoulder. Rolling, I was on my hands and knees in a flash. Forty feet away, Peta’s fur rippled as the wind hammered her. Giselle screamed as she slipped, her arms wrapped around Peta’s neck.
    “Don’t let him take me!”
    Propelled by the need to protect them both, I ran straight for Blackbird. He saw me coming and I watched the power lines climb his arms. At the last possible second I arced my arm back and threw my spear at him. It flew true straight for his heart.
    He threw himself to the side, catching the blade in his shoulder. Crying out, he touched his arm and twisted his hand over it.
    With a pop of air, he was gone, my spear buried in the ground behind where he’d been. The wind eased immediately, and I stood there, panting with adrenaline as much as exertion.
    “He’s got a Traveling band,” Peta said as I approached them.
    “Yes. Why would he use it now? Not that I wish he’d stayed, but it makes no sense.”
    “Perhaps, he is a coward?” Giselle said softly. “My mentor told me cowards always run when they are first injured.”
    Though her words were true, I doubted that was the case. I didn’t know what the reason was and that bothered me.
    “What’s a Traveling band?” Giselle asked as she sat up. Her tawny hair was in disarray and her pale blue eyes seemed almost transparent as she took me in.
    “Wait.” I crouched in front of her. “Did you hear Peta?”
    “Yes. I’m a Reader. The rules don’t apply to me.” She gave me a tentative smile.
    I held my hand out. “My name is Larkspur. And I am an elemental.”
    She put her hand in mine. “My name is Giselle. I knew you were coming. You have a big job ahead of you. Maybe bigger than you