Page 8 of Truthfinder’s Promise

Six of Nova’s team closest to the moat tumbled over the side. Valkyrie dropped to her knees, Aspect saturating the air as her fist punched into the earth. She sank her arm up to her elbow, using enhanced strength to anchor herself. Valkyrie grabbed Meredith with her free hand and Nova did the same with Siren.

Meredith rode it out, eyes closed against the stinging winds and clutching to Val’s arm with everything she had. She really didn’t want to find out firsthand if anything lived in the moat.

The winds died off as quickly as they’d come, but Meredith didn’t trust the reprieve enough to stand up yet.

“There’s no one out here,” Nova growled. “Elementals can’t do this shit from indoors.”

Correction, Meredith thought, normal Elementals can’t do this shit from indoors. It all came together and she started laughing, at which point everyone understandably looked at her like she’d lost it.

“It’s the kids,” she managed in between wheezes of laughter. “There isn’t any security here. The only ones left are the kids.”

Adults, much as some of them might geek out over the idea of a moat, were unlikely to actually build one. Furthermore, adults who had been met by a Council Battle Aspect crew would not have offered them the option to simply leave. They would know that anyone under the authority of the Aspect Council would simply return with a larger group if necessary.

But a bunch of scared kids who maybe didn’t even know what the Aspect Society was, depending on what Elijah had told them? Oh, yeah, those kids would build a moat. And try to knock people into it.

Speaking of people in the moat… Panicked thrashing sounded below and then Siren called, “I’ve got it!” Her eyes went a little dreamy and out of focus and the thrashing stopped.

Meredith wanted to see what manner of creatures Siren had subdued, but she also didn’t want to find out what else the kids had in their bag of tricks, since they clearly had at least one Elemental who could summon high-force winds without needing to step foot outside of the house.

Meredith rose up on her knees, keeping hold of Valkyrie’s arm.

“What are you doing?” Valkyrie hissed.

“Testing a theory,” Meredith murmured. She took a deep breath and yelled. “Elijah Winters is dead. She—” Meredith pointed at Valkyrie “—killed him. We know what he was doing here and we can guarantee nothing like that will happen to you again.”

The wind swirled ominously around her, shoving her hair into her face until all she could see was a blonde cloud. Getting the tangles out of it later was going to be an absolute delight.

She tried again. “If you don’t want to spend the rest of your lives running from shadows, let’s talk.”

“I don’t think—” Valkyrie cut off when the front door opened.

“We can talk,” a new voice called—or maybe the same voice, just less concerned with trying to sound like an adult. “But you try anything and we’ve got worse things than the alligators in the moat.”

There were alligators in the moat? Sweet.