Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) (30 page)

Gary slammed the door and fumbled with all
its locks. “Throw the ice on her! I’ll get the pulley.”

The roar in her head died. They didn't have
long to act. Janelle seized the bucket and let the contents tumble
into the cage.

Ice cubes rained down on Andrina’s head and
gathered around her feet. She cried out again and brushed them off
her.

Janelle ignored her and pulled locks across
the door. There. This might hold her while they figured out what to
do.

Then, she realized that silence had fallen
over the deck.

Everyone had stopped. Her dad, her
uncle—everybody. Even the Elder Council stared at the sight in
front of them, uncertain. If the crowd attacked, they would be far
outnumbered. She looked over to Gary, but he was already moving,
cranking on the lever and hoisting the cage in the air.

Andrina seethed as the cable squeaked and
grew taut above her. “What is the meaning of this?” The cage lifted
more. “Put me down! This is pointless. Oh, when I get out of here
I’m going to—”

“You won’t get out of there. I won’t let you
hurt Janelle.” Gary looked down as he turned the lever in grinding
circles, as if he were averting his eyes. Behind him, the other
Tempests watched in awe, but no one moved. “You can’t change when
you go underwater until Janelle does.”

A jolt ran through Janelle at his words.
Kevin splashed in the water somewhere nearby.

He was planning to kill Andrina right here in
front of everyone, breaking the Tempest law. It filled her with a
strange, empty, hollow feeling, like the world was turning gray and
hard to make out anymore. "Gary, you don't have to make anything up
to me."

Andrina looked to the ocean and gripped the
metal bars. She knew. Ice cubes rained to the deck. Her eyes
widened in horror. “No! You can’t! I’m Tempest High Leader.” She
clawed at the thick bars, but they only gave an inch. The ice had
made her too weak to break out. “Janelle, stop him. Don’t let him
kill your mother!”

More silence. Camellia lay on the deck, where
Andrina had thrown her like a piece of trash.

Andrina cared for nobody. But…Janelle just
couldn't. "Gary--"

Her father appeared at his side before she
could finish. “Gary, hold it right there.”

Gary let go of the lever. Andrina dangled
eight feet above the deck, shivering and standing on one leg. She
stared down at Janelle’s dad with huge eyes, pleading.

“Dad?” Janelle asked. Her voice had returned
to normal. What? Why was he—

He faced her for a second. His eyes were
still bloodshot, and his face, tired. “I won’t have her blood on
either of your hands. Step away from the controls, Gary.”

Gary did.

And her father took his place. He turned the
crank few more times and the cage holding Andrina rose another
foot.

Janelle swallowed. It would end now. She
couldn’t watch. But she couldn’t look away.

“Lucas!” Andrina’s shrill voice washed over
the deck as she worked at prying loose another pair of bars. “You
were my husband. Remember the love we shared.”

Her dad squeezed his eyes shut and trembled
for a long time. “It was a lie.” He slammed his fist down on a
button.

The pulley swung the cage over the water.
Kevin splashed in its shadow.

An arm wrapped around Janelle from the side.
Gary’s. She let him pull her close. Numbness filled her being. The
world blurred around her. It all felt like a movie, or a nightmare
she’d wake up from.

“All of you. Do something!” Andrina ordered
the scattered crowd. She reached through the bars and clawed at the
locks. “Please!”

Janelle whirled around. The Elder Council
watched with arms folded behind their backs. They’d made their
decision. An older man nodded at her father, mouth bent into a
solemn frown. The others all watched with mouths agape. But no one,
not even Ivanna, came forward.

At last, an older man, one of the suited
members of the Elder Council, spoke. "We cannot," he said in a
voice barely under control. "The punishment for murdering another
Tempest is death. The sentence must be carried out."

"But I'm Tempest High Leader, and she
attacked me. I--"

Her father slammed his fist down on the
control panel again.

With a squeal, the pulley lever spun and the
cage dropped.

Kevin’s scream pierced the air before a
metallic thud and a splash silenced him forever.

The cage lurched to the side as it began to
sink. Andrina clawed at the top, gasping for air as water foamed
around her chest. “No! Please! I don’t want to drown!”

Janelle almost ran for her. Almost.

Tina was your mother, Janelle.

She gripped her dolphin necklace tight and
held her breath, burying her eyes in Gary's shirt.

There was a watery sucking sound, and then
nothing. Darkness swam in front of Janelle's eyelids for seemingly
days as Gary rubbed his hand down the back of her shirt. When she
opened her eyes, she found her father feet away, grasping the cable
itself and pulling it until it snapped in two. The broken cable
whipped over the rail and disappeared into the foaming ocean.

Somewhere, a seagull cackled.

Her dad raised a hand to his forehead, leaned
against the pulley, and fell to his knees. He stayed there for an
eternity more.

Janelle stared down at her shoes and at beam
of yellow sunlight creeping over the deck. Only the sound of the
water lapping against the boat filled the air. No tears came. No
sobs. Her mother had just drowned, trapped in rising water like her
nine hundred victims, and she felt…nothing.

Gary released her arm. Her dad’s voice
quavered as he hugged her from the side. “It’s..it’s over, Janelle.
We’re free.”

Free. No Operation Reckoning. No thousands of
deaths.

She leaned against his warmth, unable to
speak and unable to cry. Everything had gone numb. The world seemed
to fade away like an old painting. It no longer mattered.

Until the footsteps tapped closer all around
her.

Janelle’s breath caught. The other Tempests
closed in, the suited Elder Council members leading them. Mr.
Deville and Deon walked behind them, holding Joey up by his arms.
Every set of eyes had landed on her. Staring. And accusing?

She shrank against her father, heart
pounding. They’d come all this way to get ripped apart by Andrina’s
followers. “What now?”

“It’s okay, honey. Stand tall.” He spoke in a
soft voice and gave her a pat on the back. “You’re Tempest High
Leader now.”

“What?” she exploded. Tempest High Leader?
“Me?”

Her father nudged her towards the crowd. “Of
course. You’re Andrina’s only heir. Go ahead.”

The Elder Council stopped two steps away,
eyes locked with hers. And the three men and three women went down
to their knees, bowing their heads.

And one by one, the other Tempests sank to
their knees as the sun rose higher on a new day.

* * * * *

“You finally awake, honey?” Her father leaned
down over her, the early morning sun shining behind him. Leslie
stood against the wall behind him, the color returned to her face.
Her friend was far more relaxed today.

Janelle blinked the sleep from her eyes and
shifted under the covers of the same boat cot she’d tried to sleep
in yesterday morning. The yacht swayed gently underneath as she
eyed the tape player. “Yeah. Did it actually work this time?”

“Hopefully,” Leslie said. “You like, listened
to it all night. It almost put
me
to sleep.”

Janelle agreed. Even without the tape, she
would’ve passed out last night. The day before went by in a blur.
Joey needed medical attention for his broken nose, and was taken on
a speedboat to the Bahamas. Leslie called home to tell her mom she
was alive. Her grandmother’s body had to go back to Alara for a
memorial service. And the Elder Council had made arrangements for
the start of Janelle’s rule. They’d made Janelle stay below decks
for hours yesterday, and she was still here, floating out on the
ocean that still wanted to claim her. By now, if she caught a whiff
of the water, she’d jump in.

It all seemed like a dream now, with the sun
pouring into the yacht and Leslie here, just like in her old
life.

Her father tapped the tape recorder. “You
slept since seven last night, so this must have erased Andrina’s
suggestions for sure. Your natural path has to be restored by now,
so whatever you do, it won’t be destroying New York City.”

“That’s always good to know,” Janelle said,
tossing the pillow to the side and leaning against the wall of her
cubby. Now she could leave Operation Reckoning behind her like some
horrible nightmare. And the other Tempests would have to now, too.
She said so.

Mr. Deville appeared around the corner with
Elise, one of the Elder Council women. She smiled as she looked at
Janelle and fluffed up her white hair. “Ma’am, how are you feeling?
I know you had a long day yesterday.”

Janelle sat up. How was she supposed to feel
after all that? The loss of her newfound grandmother left a hole
inside her somewhere, but the rest…“I don’t know.”

“This has been a big shock for all of us,”
her father piped in. “She had no idea about anything a few days
ago. I've been preparing her, but I had no idea she’d take the
throne so soon. We have a lot to work out. And with my mother and
all—” He didn’t finish.

Janelle wiped fresh tears away, hoping that
no one had seen. Camellia might have killed hundreds, but at the
end, did she regret it? Perhaps she'd been trying to atone for it
by facing Andrina. The thought left an ache in her that wanted to
have another chance to know her a little better.

“Certainly, Lucas. I understand. We’ll be
here to help both of you adjust,” Elise said, clasping her hands
and leaning against a cabinet. “I’m so relieved that monster’s
gone. I had the most horrible feeling she was planning to get rid
of the Elder Council and turn into a dictator.”

“I'm sure she was.” Janelle brought a hand to
her face and stared into it for a while. A few days ago she’d run
from Gary on the beach, unable to believe the truth. Now she was
Tempest High Leader and responsible for almost two thousand
Tempests around the world, according to the Elder Council. It was
too much to absorb. “Dad,” she said, looking up and squinting
against the morning light. “What’s going to happen? I don’t see how
I’m going to go to school. Or college. When do we go home?” She
glanced at Leslie, leaving far more questions unspoken. Her friend
stared back, no doubt thinking along the same lines.
And what
about my friends?

He patted her on the knee. “We’ll be living
on Alara from now on. And we’ve got more than enough money now to
bring in a tutor. You’ll get your diploma, no problem. You can get
into a
very
good college now.” He winked. “You can do this,
Janelle. Lots of Tempest High Leaders have had jobs outside of
politics.” He smiled as Mr. Deville squashed in beside Elise and
Leslie, barely leaving any room around her cubby. “She’s going to
make a much better leader than Andrina, that’s for sure.”

He actually thought she could do this, but
she wasn't so sure.

Janelle swung her legs around the bed as a
thought hit her. Things had changed. She could make things right.
“Elise, we need to send those kids Andrina kidnapped back to their
parents. And call Gary’s mom and let her know he’s okay.”

Elise’s wrinkles deepened as she smiled. “Of
course. Oh, so many people are going to be happy to read about this
in
Surge
tomorrow.”

Her father sat down next to her, glasses
shining. “You’re more cut out for this than you think. It’ll be a
lot of responsibility, but you’ll travel the world with a fortune
at your disposal. You’ve got a private jet in the Bahamas and a
vacation home in Hawaii. And you’re going to be living in a
tropical paradise. We’ll show you the rest of Alara when you get
back. The beach is breathtaking.” He paused. “You could even invite
Leslie for a vacation if you want. It’s not like she doesn’t know
about us now.”

"That would be great," she said, sharing a
smile with Leslie. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. But she felt her
smile die as she recalled his words:
when you get back
. They
only meant one thing.

Maybe one thing she could change now.

She stood as tall as she could, hoping she
looked commanding. “I’m not going to become a hurricane. No Tempest
is going to change ever again if I can help it.”

Elise made a
tsk
sound and shook her
head. “Ma’am, you can’t do anything outside the Natural Law. It’s
there to keep everything running the way it should. And it says
every Tempest must become a storm when their name is up. That
includes you.”

Leslie's face grew pale again. Janelle
couldn't meet her gaze. Her heart raced as she felt all the
sunlight vanish inside her. This was a mistake. She couldn't come
all this way just to have her hope yanked from her like this. She
took a step back and swallowed over a lump in her throat. “If I
don’t change, there won’t be any more hurricanes. It’ll save
thousands of lives.”

Elise folded her arms behind her back. “No.
It’ll kill millions of people, ruin the planet’s ecosystems,
destroy livelihoods, and generally throw everything into
chaos.”

Janelle furrowed her brows. The words hung in
the air. “Huh?”

Her father wiped his palms off on his pants.
“Hank, go get those printouts. This is the talk I wanted to have
with her before she ran away." He extended his hand towards her.
"Come sit on the couch with me, Janelle. Leslie, you’re excused.
Have a safe trip back. And I want Gary to listen in, too. It might
relieve some of his guilt.”

Leslie went above decks to the waiting
speedboat they’d called for yesterday. Deon was taking her back to
civilization. She stopped in the doorway and gave a nervous wave to
Janelle. “See you. Call me when you can.”