Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3)

by H. M. Sandlin

  “Sean is going to win,” Sasha said snidely.

  “Probably,” I agreed. Sasha stared at me. “What?” I asked.

  “You aren’t going to support your friend?”

  “I would, but I doubt Richard will give it his all, he doesn’t like taking part in stupid games like this.” I knew I shouldn’t goad her, but she really irritated me.

  “You’re only saying that because you know Sean is the better elemental.”

  “Ok,” I responded, sounding bored.

  She started to talk again, but Tider shushed her. I turned to watch as Richard dropped into a fighting stance. Mr. Mitchel counted down, and both guys made their weapons appear.

  “Go,” yelled Mr.Mitchel. Richard exploded into action, spinning away from Sean as their weapons crashed together. Richard grimaced as icicles flew toward his body. He used air to whisk them away and hit Sean with one in the calf.

  Sean yelled and lost control of his weapon for a second. I glanced over at the judges. Their reactions worried me. They were enjoying the fight a little too much. The only one who looked bothered was Mr. Burwel. He saw me watching them and turned away.

  I looked back to see Richard fall to one knee, acting like he was getting tired. He held his sword out and pushed air at Sean. A gust of wind knocked Sean back, but he got right back up and tried to wrap water around Richard. Richard easily cut through it with his sword.

  While he was cutting the ropes of water, Sean took the opportunity and threw his ax at Richard. Richard could have avoided it. I saw him start to push it away with a burst of wind, but then he turned and let the wind miss the ax. The ax continued along its path and bit into Richard’s shoulder.

  Richard dropped to his knees as Mr. Burwel stood up and announced the end of the battle. Richard pulled the ax out of his shoulder and turned his face away from the council. When our eyes met, he winked. I relaxed. He was ok.

  Mr. Burwel hurried to Richard and gave him a potion to drink. Within minutes his shoulder stopped bleeding, and he was escorted over to us as the council members, and Mr. Mitchel whispered. Sean walked over with his chest puffed up.

  When he tried to brag, Mr. Burwel gave him a look and sent a small amount of magic at him. I saw Sean’s body grow rigid, and his eyes widen in fear. It took only seconds for the rigidity to wear off, but Sean didn’t say another word. I was really starting to like Mr. Burwel. Maybe we really could get him on our side, I thought.

  “Sally, Sasha, it’s your turn. Come out to the center of the room,” Mr. Mitchel said.

  I walked slowly behind Sasha. She was confident she would win this fight. I wasn’t going to let her. She would be insufferable if she won, and Mr. Mitchel would know I hadn’t used my full powers. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe Sasha could beat me.

  As he spoke, he looked at me and smirked. He thought he had me trapped and would find out how powerful I was. Once I beat Sasha, I would be going up against Sean, who I could let beat me easily, claiming exhaustion. It would stop our fight from getting out of control and wouldn’t let Mr. Mitchel know any more about my powers.

  Mr. Mitchel started the countdown, and I created my short sword. I watched Sasha create her dagger. She was moving before Mr. Mitchel said go. I watched as she rolled to her left, expecting me to attack her head-on. Instead, I stayed a few feet from her, backing up a few steps and moving sideways.

  When she realized I wasn’t going to attack, she came after me. She held her dagger up, and a stream of fire poured out of the tip, surrounding me. I used air to create a small bubble around me, keeping the fire from touching my skin.

  Sasha continued the fire longer than she should have. When it finally died down, her dagger was shimmering. She was getting too tired to keep her focus on it. I slammed my weapon forward, letting a blast of air hit Sasha in the chest, knocking her to the ground. She jumped up and tried to send a fireball at me from her dagger. It was weak, and I had plenty of time to dodge it.

  I sent another blast of air at Sasha, knocking her off her feet. This time she was slower getting up. She tried to run at me, using her dagger to cut through the wall of air in her way. I didn’t make it very strong. I wanted the council to think I was only a little stronger than Sasha.

  When she got close, she reached out and swiped her dagger at me. I swung my short sword at her wrist. I blunted the edge of the sword with air so it wouldn’t cut Sasha and slammed it into her hand. Her fingers opened up around her dagger, and she dropped it as she screamed. Her dagger disappeared, and she fell to her knees, cradling her hand. The hit was hard enough to bruise her hand but not break it.

  Mr. Burwel called an end to our fight and walked over to Sasha. He checked her hand but didn’t give her a healing potion as he announced it wasn’t broken.

  “Why don’t I get a healing potion?” she asked.

  “We only use those for extreme cases. Your hand will be fine in a day or two.”

  Sasha grumbled the whole way back to the protective area. I stayed out in the center of the dome to fight Sean, but Mr. Mitchel stood up.

  “I want to see Sean fight Johnathon,” he said, using Tider’s real name.

  “But the plan was for Sean to fight Sally next. We know Johnathon will probably beat Sean. We need to see who is more powerful, Sean or Sally,” Mr. Burwel said.

  “I am changing it. Sean has proven that he should be given a chance to try to take on Johnathon. It wouldn’t be fair to make him take on Sally first.”

  “Fine.” Mr. Burwel gestured for me to go back into the protective area, and Sean and Tider stepped out. Tider looked pissed. We all knew something was up with Mr. Mitchel changing the fight. We didn’t know what he had planned though. Leaving me to the last fight wouldn’t be good. Something bad was going to happen. Mr. Mitchel wanted to know about my powers too much.

  I reached out for Tider’s mind and was swept away in the anger simmering inside him. “Tider,” I yelled in his head. It took multiple tries, but I finally got his attention.

  “Sally, you shouldn’t be in my head. I need to focus.”

  “You could beat Sean in your sleep if you really wanted to,” I scoffed. “What is wrong? Why are you so angry?”

  “Sean knew this was going to happen. He was bragging about getting a chance to fight me while you were fighting Sasha. He overheard Mr. Mitchel saying he had special plans for you. He created something specifically for you to fight. He is going to do something awful to try to reveal your powers.”

  I wasn’t surprised to hear that. I knew something was wrong. “Don’t worry about it, Tider. I will be fine. Don’t let them see you lose control. I’m sure they would love that.”

  “I won’t, but I am going to give Sean what he deserves. I am going to use all my power on him. He won’t know what’s coming.”

  “Don’t do anything you will regret,” I said as Mr. Mitchel said go. I left Tider’s head and watched the fight. Tider didn’t even try to move away from Sean. Instead, he pulled all of his power to him and slammed it into his weapon. He threw the chakram away from himself and used a burst of air to push Sean backward.

  Sean forgot about the chakram and tried to get closer to Tider so he could hit him with the ax. As he reached up to swing, the chakram came back at Tider. Tider turned, and Sean turned with him. The chakram silently flew toward the side of Sean’s neck. He didn’t even realize it was coming. I watched in horror as the chakram came closer. It stopped as it touched Sean’s neck.

  Mr. Burwel stood up and raced over along with the rest of the men. When they got closer, they were all stopped by a barrier Tider put up.

  “I could have easily killed him,” he said, slowly allowing the chakram to disappear. Only a thin line of blood was visible on Sean’s neck. “Instead, I stopped my weapon so it wouldn’t take his head off. This game you are playing is dangerous. You shouldn’t be allowing children to fight.” He released the barrier, and the men fell forward.

  “I knew Johnathon was the strongest,” one of
the council said after they made sure Sean was ok, “but I didn’t realize he was that powerful. He will be stronger than his father one day.”

  “He is obviously the winner here,” the other council member said.

  “Not really,” Mr. Mitchel said. “As you all saw, Johnathon is too powerful to be considered on the same level as his classmates. He would do the same to Sally if we allowed him to fight her. It’s not a fair test of her skills. She could be hurt, but we need to finish the test. We still don’t know if she is ready to be in a masters class. She only fought Sasha, who was too weak for her. I’m sure we can all agree Sasha is not ready for these classes.”

  They all nodded. “Richard has already fought and would be a good match for her, but they are very good friends and won’t fight each other. Sean is not in any condition to fight again after that.” They turned toward Sean. He was still pale and shaky.

  “What do you propose?” the first councilman asked.

  “I have a spell that I have used with other students to see if they were really ready for masters classes. I propose using that to test Sally.”

  “That spell is not to be used without the council’s permission any longer,” Mr. Burwel interjected.

  “We have four members of the council here. That is all we need to take a vote when the rest of the council isn’t here.”

  “But,” Mr. Burwel tried to say.

  “There are no buts. We must finish the test,” Mr. Mitchel said.

  “Everyone in favor of testing Sally with my spell, raise your hand.” Both councilmen and Mr. Mitchel raised their hands. “Those against?” Mr. Burwel raised his hand. “Then it is agreed. We will test Sally with my spell and see how she does.” I looked at Richard in shock.

  “What just happened?” I asked in his mind.

  “We fell right into his trap. This is what he had planned the whole time. Somehow he knew Tider would act that way with Sean and push himself out of the competition. This was all arranged.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He will try to hurt me to get me to use my powers.” Richard didn’t have an answer for me, and I could see the same desperate look on his face that had to be on mine.

  “Sally, come out here,” Mr. Mitchel said.

  “I decided I don’t want to take master-level classes.”

  “Why? Are you scared of fighting a spell?”

  “No, I just don’t want to be in classes where someone could get hurt.”

  “Too bad, Sally. You show enough potential that you need to be trained. We can’t let an untrained elemental walk around. It could cause trouble for everyone. Remember what happened with the last person who wasn’t trained?” Mr. Mitchel asked the councilmen. They both nodded.

  “He is right,” one of the councilmen said. “We need to know your powers, or you could be a danger to everyone. You will have to fight.” I looked at Mr. Burwel, but he had his head down. He knew what was happening was wrong. I looked toward the door.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Mr. Mitchel said quietly so only I could hear him. “I know where your parents are, and I will have one of my men take them if you don’t complete this test.”

  I shook inside, knowing he could hurt my mom and dad if he wanted to. “Fine,” I said. I relayed the information to Richard and Tider. Tider immediately took his phone out to text our security friend Gary at the Ireland haven where my parents were staying and get them to safety.

  I looked at Mr. Mitchel. “Let’s get this over with,” I said and stalked to the center of the room. “Mr. Burwel,” I called. He looked up at me. “Please make sure they don’t hurt me too badly during this test and make sure the council knows I am doing this against my will.”

  Mr. Burwel nodded.

  “Sally, be careful,” Richard said in my head.

  “I can’t. Tell Abby to be ready to go. I won’t be able to keep my powers hidden. If they try to take me, I’m going to have to fight my way out of here.”

  “I don’t think it will be that bad. The council doesn’t want anyone getting hurt even if Mr. Mitchel does. We will fight with you as soon as you give the word. We are ready.”

  I looked at Richard and Tider. They were both pissed and waiting to use their magic. I hid my smile. They would help me if I needed it. I pulled away from Richard as Mr. Mitchel raised his arms and chanted a spell in ancient. He said it low enough that I couldn’t catch most of the words. The ones I did hear startled me. It sounded like he was creating a spell that would fight me in every element. I couldn’t be sure that’s what it was though.

  The air in front of me coalesced into a dark figure. A hood covered its face, and I could only see darkness underneath it. The sleeves of its cloak rose, but no hands were visible. One of the arms pointed toward me, and I ducked, almost being seared by a thin line of fire. I created the weapon that I was supposed to be fighting with. I didn’t want to give Mr. Mitchel any reason to say he needed to test me again if I made it through this.

  The figure moved quickly and sent a stream of water at me next. It froze on its way to me, making a thin blade that would pierce through my skin easily. I slashed at it with my short word shattering it. I felt cold magic seeping into my hands through my sword and looked down in shock. Without focusing, I could see a little magic clinging to my hands. I jumped as the figure came after me again. I sent a wall of air at it and focused my attention back on my hands while it was busy trying to break through my wall.

  The magic from the figure wasn’t dissipating. Instead, it was trying to work its way up my hands, and it was pulling at my air magic. I pulled my magic back and watched the dark figure’s magic try to grasp it. I used a sharp burst of air to push the dark magic off of me. As soon as I got it off, it disappeared.

  Mr. Mitchel was using a spell to capture my magic so he could use it later. That’s what this figure did. He made it look like a fight, but really it was sucking magic out of elementals. This is what we were worried about Mr. Damon having.

  I told Richard about it quickly while trying to stay away from the thing. We needed to find out how both Mr. Mitchel and Mr. Damon had this power. I didn’t know how to fight it. If I touched it, it would get stuck to me again and steal my magic. I kept throwing magic at it from a distance, only using air.

  The more attacks I dodged, the faster the figure got. As I tried to slip past it again, it reached out and caught me on the arm with a spear of ice. Immediately I felt that cold sinking feeling and tried to push it off. It was harder to get off this time, and I felt my energy level drop. It kept coming after me while I was distracted and stabbed me in the side with a dagger made of air. The magic started sucking at my air magic, and I struggled with the dark magic.

  I felt the figure moving closer again and tried to dodge, but it hit me on the other side with a flaming sword. I cried out as the flame cut into my side. The flames cauterized the wound, which kept me from bleeding, but the dark magic clung to me, causing me to fall to my knees. My head felt light, and I became dizzy. I could hear Mr. Burwel yelling at Mr. Mitchel to stop, but Mr. Mitchel wouldn’t stop until the figure was done testing me.

  I heard Richard in my head, begging me to get up. I saw the figure getting ready to hit me again, this time with a sword made of earth. If I didn’t get this magic off of me, Mr. Mitchel would find out I had true elemental magic. I felt connections open to the water elemental king and the air elemental queen. They poured more power into me and told me to fight back.

  With the extra magic, I was able to wipe the dark magic off of me and stand. As the figure came at me, I threw my hands up. I let the air stream out of one hand while water flowed from the other. They met each other in front of the figure and merged, becoming completely different.

  A purple mist settled over the figure, and I could hear Sievroth in my head telling me to add fire to the mist to destroy the figure. I closed my eyes and followed Sievroth’s directions, sending a giant fireball toward
the mist. As soon as it hit, the mist exploded, destroying the figure and all the dark magic in the room. Mr. Mitchel screamed out in pain, and the other councilmen stared at me. I collapsed as the connections inside me closed, and I was able to feel my wounds.

  Mr. Burwel and my friends ran to me. Mr. Burwel tried to give me a healing potion, but I passed out before I could take it. I lost too much blood, and the dark magic depleted all of my energy. The last thing I saw was Mr. Mitchel lying on the floor by the councilmen. I smiled as I slipped into darkness.

  Chapter Nine

  I opened my eyes slowly. I was getting tired of waking up after falling unconscious. I looked around and realized I was in Mrs. Newton’s room. She was standing over me looking down, a small frown on her face.

  “You are lucky, Sally, someone is watching over you. These wounds should have killed you. Even with my magic, they aren’t going to heal easily. They will leave scars too. Whatever Mr. Mitchel hit you with wasn’t ordinary magic.”

  “It was dark magic,” I told her. I heard a gasp behind her and tried to see who else was in the room, but a sharp pain in my side caused me to fall back against the cot I was laying on.

  I heard someone move closer. “Are you sure it was dark magic?” Mrs. Newton asked.

  “Positive. It was trying to suck the magic out of me. Every time I was hit by the figure Mr. Mitchel created, dark magic would stick to me and start pulling on my own magic.”

  “Will she be ok?” A lady’s voice asked as she moved into my line of sight. I had seen her before, but I wasn’t sure where.

  “Yes, I will help her,” Mrs. Newton said.

  “I must tell the rest of the council about this. If what she says is true, and I believe she is being honest, then Mr. Mitchel is not who we thought he was. We don’t believe in dark magic.” She looked down at me. “I’m sorry, Sally. This never should have happened to you. I don’t know how we didn’t realize what Mr. Mitchel was doing. He has been taken back to the council already. He is in a coma. Whatever you did caused his magic to backfire on him. You will be safe here now.” The lady left the room before I had time to say anything.