Fate's Surrender (Eternal Sorrows Book 3) by Sarra Cannon (android based ebook reader txt) 📕

“How did the recon go?” Crash asked.

They spent the next twenty minutes going over what David had been able to find out in the city that day. From the sound of it the Hudson was completely impassable, just like he’d guessed.

Crash gave him some other places to look at tomorrow.

“Has it been raining there?” Parrish asked.

“Yes, but I think that’s working to my advantage,” David said. “I hardly saw any rotters on the rooftops today. It took some time to get the hang of flying in bad weather, but I was actually able to form a sphere of air around my body so I didn’t get wet. It was fun.”

“And it’s going to rain again tomorrow?” Crash said.

“I think so,” David said. “I’ll check out those places you listed in the morning and we can meet back up this same time tomorrow.”

“Zoe, you’re staying safe in the apartment by yourself?” Parrish asked.

She didn’t like the idea of her sister all alone in a strange place after everything she’d been through, but it was better than having her out where the Dark One might see her.

“I’m fine,” Zoe said. “Stop worrying about me so much.”

But there was a smile in her voice. Parrish couldn’t wait to throw her arms around that little girl. She would never let her go again.

They said goodnight and arranged a time to meet up again the next day.

They followed that same pattern for two more nights, with David doing reconnaissance for Crash during the day and reporting back everything he saw, and with the guardians practicing their abilities.

Sometimes, they practiced in a group, sparring and testing each other’s abilities, and other times, they each practiced on their own.

They’d fallen into a habit of meeting up by the pool each morning around sunrise to meditate and stretch. It had been Karmen’s idea, but it calmed Parrish’s nerves. She’d never tried yoga before the pandemic, but she’d always been drawn to the poses.

There was something about the group yoga that made them feel more connected, too. Like breathing together and joining in the same poses synced them up somehow.

She liked it.

Of course, it was funny to watch Crash try to do some of the more challenging poses.

“What?” he said, laughing. “I’m not as flexible as you guys are.”

Parrish saw him out there practicing and stretching a few times a day with Karmen, though, and he was getting better quickly.

As for their abilities, everyone was getting stronger by the hour, it seemed, and all of them were anxious to unlock more of their memories and powers before New York.

Parrish, for one, had been working on her fire magic. She’d first connected with the ice side of her abilities, and it was the part of her that seemed to come more easily.

But when she embraced her anger and focused on some ember of passion deep inside, she was able to draw up the flames and sparks of her fire side.

Karmen worked with her on this a little bit, and after a while, Crash joined them. By the second evening, all three of them could conjure flames in their palms. Parrish could create sparks of flame on the blade of her sword, too.

Crash was the only one who could create lightning, though. He was working on trying to light up the bullets in his gun with lightning or electricity of some kind, too, the way she did with her sword, but so far, all he’d been able to produce was a few tiny sparks here and there.

He’d found some extra ammo in the garage of the house next door, but he said he didn’t want to waste too much practicing it. Instead, he started spending time working on an ability he called lightning daggers.

“I dreamed about it a couple nights ago, so I’m pretty sure I can get it to work,” he said.

When Parrish wanted to work on her ice abilities, she worked with Noah.

Both of them could now draw up frost with a single thought and spread it to anything they touched.

They practiced with the sand on the beach, placing their icy palms deep into the sand and watching as each grain froze over. After a few hours of practice each morning, they’d both been able to stretch that frost about fifteen feet in front of them.

What was cool was that they also realized if they cast the spell while holding hands, they could make it spread wider and farther than before.

Once they realized their abilities could be amplified when they worked together, they started practicing combinations and patterns that might help them get through a large horde more quickly.

They explained this to David on the second night, and he surprised everyone when he gave them some tips on how to work as a group once they got into the city. He might have only been a kid in this lifetime, but there was no doubt he had some experience coming up with strategies for survival and battle.

The next day, the four of them spent most of the morning working on the formation they planned to use once they got to New York City. It was hard to imagine exactly how it would work once there were rotters surrounding them, but at least they had a general idea of what they planned to do.

Only time would tell if it actually worked, though.

In the evenings after the sun went down, they were all way too exhausted to keep training, even though Parrish wished she could. After all, their success or failure in New York held the fate of at least two worlds. They couldn’t afford to screw this up.

Noah convinced her that they were more likely to screw up if they were too tired to fight, though, and she had to admit that she’d been pushing a little too hard.

Each night, they’d all stayed up together for a while, playing in the heated pool and letting loose. Crash even pulled up a few movies