The Elemental Diaries - Complete Series

by Andrea Lamoureux

  He dug his fingers into my hair, his forehead touching mine as he whispered, “If Celestia wants to let Vesirus overthrow the world she created, that’s her choice, but I’ll be damned if I stand by and do nothing while he infects the realm I once called home. The others agreed.”

  Despair hit me, and I pulled him closer, my lips starved for his because I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again once this war was over. He met my kiss with the same hunger, taking me away from the blood and the horror, if only for a moment. His essence swirled with mine, breathing new life into me. He tasted of love and joy, of peace and eternal serenity.

  The kiss ended faster than it’d begun.

  We broke apart; him, twirling and leaping through the melee, executing every dark creature in his path. Me, dipping into the reservoir of power, charring and slicing every challenger I met.

  The balance shifted again. We gained some of the ground we’d lost, the bridge fading farther into the distance.

  The elemental guardians lit up the field with their pure, scintillating wings.

  Glowing eyes flickered out as their vessels’ lives ceased.

  Black fog crept along the sticky mud as an unearthly voice rumbled, “Beings of light, prepare to meet your end.” Vesirus.

  Chapter 33

  Vesirus slithered along the trampled, muddy ground like sinister black fog. He wrapped himself around the ankles of a guardian who was too preoccupied with slaying a demon to notice. The guardian froze, his astral body turning black before disintegrating, as though he’d never existed.

  The Dark Lord moved onto his next victim, a soldier with long golden-brown hair, wearing green. The man howled as his limbs perished. I could do nothing as he turned to dust, carried away by the hot breeze.

  Vesirus’s laugh echoed through the world.

  I couldn’t move.

  ‘We have to do something!’ Chel’s cry tore to the forefront of my mind.

  I shook myself. How can we stop that?

  ‘I don’t know, but you better figure something out,’ Seph warned.

  ‘Have faith in the goddess,’ Phyra repeated her earlier advice.

  Faith couldn’t win this war.

  Or maybe it could.

  The fog wiped out two more mortals. It continued, spreading like a deathly plague. It wound its way around the battlefield, taking only those who followed Celestia, and leaving the dark creatures untouched.

  Dread filled me as Vesirus aimed to extinguish Ramiel.

  My guardian sliced one of the dark soldiers from head to toe and spun out of the fog’s reach.

  I bolted for the one being who’d claimed my heart.

  The Dark Lord billowed up, remaking himself into the shape of the demon-god who’d disappeared in the Crystalline Palace as Ramiel spread his wings and flapped franticly to get out of the way.

  I called upon every last drop of my elemental magic, sliding to a halt between the pair. Pure, electrified power poured from me and slammed against the darkness that was my enemy.

  Vesirus threw his head back and boomed to the sky, “Look at what I’ve done to your world, sister. Your children will belong completely to me once I snuff out your pathetic little warrior.”

  I laughed, a bitter sound. “Is that what all of this is? An attempt to get Celestia’s attention? You have failed. She doesn’t care about anyone.”

  “Especially not you.” The Dark Lord shoved against my power.

  I gritted my teeth together and hung on.

  ‘Have faith,’ Zephyra echoed.

  Sweat ran in rivulets down my face. “I do have faith,” I bit out.

  The majority of the armies surrounded us, their fight forgotten to watch this final battle of light against dark. Nothing else mattered. Not anymore.

  ‘Let her light in,’ Phyra pleaded.

  I felt my guardian’s starlit eyes on me. The goddess had made him what he was. Meeting him would’ve been impossible without her. I knew she existed. She did love us. She cared about her children. She believed in us. It was time to believe in her.

  White light flowed through me as a foreign voice crashed through my mind. ‘Auralina Pavanas. My power is yours. It will hurt. Do you accept my aid?’

  “I accept,” I managed through clenched teeth.

  The goddess filled me with her light, and I swore my body was going to explode. Power tore at the seams of my being.

  Celestia’s power rippled out of me in waves, levitating me off the earth. I floated through the air, smashing the darkness with beams of white light.

  Euphoria crushed fear and pain as I gave myself over to the power completely. I no longer felt the other elementals within me. I no longer felt myself.

  Vesirus’s roar split the sky. The darkness ebbed away little by little.

  Lightning flashed and silver washed the earth, sweeping over the battlefield. Demons howled in agony before bursting from existence. The glowing eyes of possessed soldiers dimmed to normal as the dark spirits fled their vessels.

  The Dark Lord shrank until he stood no taller than a mortal man.

  Every muscle, every bone in my body, felt like it was on fire.

  I screamed and pushed harder, a temporary vessel for my goddess.

  Obsidian flames swirled beneath Vesirus’s feet. A hole to Mnyama edged with fiery magma opened. He needed darkness to survive, and Sarantoa no longer contained enough to sustain him. His clawed hands grappled to hold onto me. I stepped back and watched the darkness drag him back to his own world.

  “Celestia will reject your love as she rejected me. You’ll see the truth when the sun ceases to rise, and then you will all follow me!” His last words before the gap between worlds closed, shutting him out of the mortal realm.

  The wraith of King Zaeden leaped from the Dark Lord, trying to escape his new fate in the dark world. Satisfaction settled over me as he was sucked into the abyss with his master, and I knew the other’s spirits survived. The king’s spirit had been trapped inside Vesirus since his death and would remain so forevermore.

  The divinity within me faded, leaving behind only my dwindling elemental magic. I plummeted back to the ground.

  Ramiel caught me in his welcoming arms. Home. “Auralina?” He brushed my blood-crusted hair from my eyes.

  I stared back at him through heavy lids. I didn’t have the energy for more.

  “Auralina, you did it.”

  I tried to smile and failed. “We,” I croaked. “We did it.” Thank you, I said to the spirits of the other elementals.

  ‘It was an honour to fight by your side,’ Sepheus answered first.

  ‘We will never forget,’ Chelela added.

  ‘Celestia be with you.’ Sorrow filled Zephyra’s words.

  The life was draining from me quicker than water from a cracked bucket. “Take me to my sister,” I implored as my guardian stared down at me, his beautiful features drawn.

  He held me to his chest and shot through the air, carrying us both with his massive, pearly wings. I was in too much pain to fear falling. And we were in the Lunar Room within the blink of an eye.

  The ice had melted off the cage holding Star. Its door hung open.

  Adelaide crouched beside my sister, holding her head and rocking back and forth.

  Star watched her, trembling with hate and sadness. When she saw me in Ramiel’s arms, she shot forward. “Aura! Is she…? Put her down on the throne,” she pointed to the silver and white, fur-lined seat.

  My guardian lowered me onto the wide, high-backed chair so that my head rested on one of the diamond-encrusted arms while my feet hung over the other.

  “Sister.” Starella touched my cheek. “I want you to know that I—” She faltered. “I never meant any of it to happen. I was only a child. And when Father saw you use your power… I didn’t know what to do!” She clasped my blood-covered hand. “You should be queen.”

  I managed to turn my face enough to look upon her.

  Her indigo gaze filled with warmth. Her shorn ha
ir hung in chunks down to her ears. Wariness claimed her beauty, but it would return. I saw glory behind her despair. She’d heal. My destiny, it wasn’t her fault. Vesirus may very well have won the war if my life had taken a different path. Everything was as it should be.

  Spectators filed into the Lunar Room, bearing witness to this final exchange between the last two royals of Ventosa.

  The air thinned. I felt so cold.

  I curled my fingers around my sister’s hand and told her with my last breath, “I forgive you, Star.”

  Percifal

  “All hail Queen Auralina!” Queen Starella shouted.

  “All Hail Queen Auralina,” I roared back with the crowd.

  Every single person inside the Lunar Room bowed deeply as the silver-haired elemental guardian lifted the deceased queen off the throne.

  “Take her to my royal bathing chamber,” the wary queen bade, though it was more of a request than an order. “I’ll see to it that my handmaids prepare her for the Chamber of Eternal Rest.”

  “Make sure she is given a ceremony worthy of her service to the realm,” I said with squared shoulders. Starella may be a ruler, but she wasn’t my queen.

  Aura’s sister closed her eyes “Of course. Thank you.”

  I slipped away without notice, the Chamber of Eternal Rest my destination.

  I rubbed my hands together to warm them as I entered the icy underground tomb. The preserved bodies of Ventosa’s royals lay in frosted coffins throughout the long cave drenched in shades of white and blue. Carved words stared back at me from the bases of each coffin, names and positions of the deceased royal they encased. Goosebumps spread along my arms and tickled the back of my neck. This was a sacred place not meant for my eyes.

  A strand of red hair stole my attention, and the eerie feeling fell to the back of my mind.

  A soft nicker came from the shadows. Antarus clopped forward, his horned head lowered.

  I bowed to Celestia’s magnificent warrior. “Thank you for watching over them.”

  The unicorn flared its nostrils as it blew out a breath.

  I stepped closer to him, my palm outstretched, a signal of subservience.

  Before I came within reach, he reared up, and light flashed through the cave as Antarus left our realm.

  I breathed in and rushed to the open glass cube and curled my fingers over the edge, peering down at the face of the woman I loved. “Zephyra!”

  Her eyelids fluttered and opened. Her mouth moved as she searched for words. “Percifal? Is it truly you?” Her mass of fire-red hair lay like a wild halo around her head. Dirt caked her freckled, ivory face, making it appear ashen. Her clothes were filthy and torn, but in her gaze, I saw only peace. My beloved fire elemental was going to be all right.

  I nodded and helped her sit up.

  She ran her calloused hand over my unshaven jaw, searching my face with her brilliant green eyes. “We did it. Vesirus is gone.”

  I pulled her closer and kissed her chapped, but perfect, lips. I’d missed this. I’d missed her.

  She broke the kiss, her mouth drawing downward. “Aura… she’s…”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “She gave her life for us. For all of us.”

  I ran my thumb over her dirt-smudged cheek. “We will make sure her sacrifice was worth it. We will live the best lives we can.”

  She clutched my shoulders. Tears spilled from her eyes. “I thought you were dead.”

  I held onto the strongest woman I’d ever met, rocking her gently. She’d shown so much bravery. If she needed to fall apart now that the war was won to be able to move on, I’d be there with her every step of the way.

  “Ahem.” The other strongest woman I’d ever met cleared her throat. My sister waited with her hands on her hips, watching us from beside Sepheus, who towered over her short form.

  Phyra released me.

  I embraced Chel, who squeezed me hard in return and said, “Brother, you don’t know how happy I am to see you. I worried I’d have to tell Mother you’d died a hero.”

  “No, you’re stuck with me I’m afraid,” I chuckled into her thick hair.

  She let me go and smacked my arm. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

  “I’ll do my best.” I tousled her already disheveled dark hair.

  “You’re a true warrior.” Sepheus held his hand out.

  I shook it and thumped him on the back. “As are you, my friend.”

  Phyra sidled up beside me, and I draped my arm over her shoulders. “I could use a bath,” she wrinkled her cute little nose.

  “We all could,” Chel admitted, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

  “Let’s go find Queen Starella,” I suggested. “I’m sure she’ll be eager to indulge us with everything we need.”

  As it turned out, she did that and more. We were allowed luxuries reserved for royals.

  We promised to stay until Auralina was laid down in the Chamber of Eternal Rest beside her mother. And before we left, the Queen of Ventosa threw a celebration grander than any I’d attended before to honour all of the elementals and those who fought with them. They still had lots to rebuild. It wouldn’t be easy, but we’d won the war. We’d all manage the aftermath content with that fact.

  Finally, with our own mess to clean up, our own kingdoms to look after, the time to return home came. Home… I wondered what waited for me back in Aquila, the Kingdom of Water.

  Zephyra

  The two young girls with coppery curls trotted around their mother, giggling as they tried to catch each other in the golden light.

  Adelaide watched them with a proud smile, the sun setting over the cliff, casting a shine over her gold locks. The pale rose-coloured gown rippled around her legs in the warm breeze.

  We both thanked Celestia her twins had been with their nurse at one of the manors surrounding Solis when their parents became possessed with dark spirits and pandemonium had broken loose. The kind-hearted woman had kept them safely hidden from the world until the war had ended.

  I rested my elbows on the stone railing of the balcony outside of the queen’s chambers. “I shall have to leave for Aquila in a few sunrises,” I told her in a solemn tone.

  I had stayed with my cousin after travelling from Ventosa to help her with her grief over her husband, King Peyton. Her daughters’ nurse would help her raise the two girls, but I enjoyed spending time with them. I wanted to be part of their lives. And Addy needed me on those nights when she didn’t want to be alone. I curled up next to her while she cried herself to sleep. I couldn’t imagine losing Percifal. I’d be more broken than my cousin if I’d lost him.

  “Yes.” She turned her smile on me, pulling me from my thoughts. “You have a crown to claim.”

  She spoke the truth. In his letter to me, Percifal had written that the people of Aquila had decided they wanted him to be their new king, and he’d accepted with gratitude. His coronation would happen as soon as I joined his side. The irony of how my adventure outside the palace walls began didn’t escape me.

  I bent down and picked up my niece, Emmalina, and kissed her on the head. She squealed happily in my arms until I put her down, and then she went back to chasing her sister. I put my chin on my fist. “It’s funny. I never wanted to be a queen, and yet I find myself excited to rule by Percifal’s side. The responsibilities I once feared no longer frighten me.”

  “That’s because it’s different when you’re sharing them with someone you love.” Addy winked.

  “And if you need anything, you can always count on me,” I assured her, taking the death of her husband into consideration.

  “Thank you,” she replied. The wounds on her heart would always be there, but time would help them fade.

  “You must promise to bring the girls to visit soon.”

  My two beautiful nieces, one with olive eyes and one with emerald, skipped and pulled at their mother’s skirts. “Yes, Mother. Can we?” Emmalina begged.

  Her sister, Ysabel, p
olity asked, “May we please visit Aunt Zephy?”

  She put her arms around them both and beamed at me with the radiant smile I loved. “Of course, we will.

  Chelela

  Clouds of dust followed me and the yellow, hump-backed beast I rode through the sun-bleached cobble-stone streets. A camel, the man with beads woven into his dark braids who’d sold me the animal had called it. He’d driven a hard bargain, but I’d had the funds to convince him to hand the beast over. The other elementals and I were gifted with enough gold and jewels to last us a lifetime. Not to mention the fact that my brother was now a king. Gold could buy a person many things; a camel, whips, blades… the silence of an emperor’s guards.

  The dark-eyed island people, dressed in loose, brightly coloured clothing, stared at me as I wound through the faded, square buildings. I didn’t know if it was due to my pale skin, or the tight, blue leather armour and the half a dozen weapons I wore. I kept my lips upturned in a soft smile and my eyes focused on the street straight ahead.

  Sweat clung to my back and pooled between each of my thighs and the leather saddle thanks to the unrelenting sun blazing down from the deep blue sky.

  My mount lazily clomped along with half-closed lids. I tried to make him move faster, but my efforts were fruitless. Stubborn animal.

  I’d thought a lot about Seph on my journey across the sea to the desert island. My heart ached substantially from his absence, but I would see him again. I would go to Terra and meet the wonderful Queen Nicola he spoke so fondly of and her newborn child, his cousin by blood. But before I could happily settle down, I needed to complete this one last task, avenging the life of my father. The man responsible for his death lost his life when Vesirus took the king’s body for himself, but the one who owned the blade that’d spilled my father’s blood still breathed.

  The sun dipped a little lower by the time the round, azure building came into view. I pulled back on the reins and swung my leg over the saddle and hopped to the ground. I tied the camel to a post outside and stepped between two pots of marigolds to knock on the small door. A wide-eyed girl, who could be no older than fourteen, opened it a crack.