Fire under my skin…
Branding my flesh…
I can feel it all over me…
Feel them all over me…
My head pulsates as images of that day sear against my mind, of being trapped, of the laughter, of the wandering hands—
“East!” Foster shouts, yanking me from the memories.
I don’t respond right away. I’d left the living room because Sky had gotten under my skin and I was about to lose control over my powers. If I hadn’t have left, Foster would’ve given me that look, the one that lets me know he’s aware of how I’m feeling and he’s disappointed with me. The look always makes me feel guilty.
I could try to blame my feelings on the altered link, but I’m not Foster would believe the lie.
“East, I need your help!” Foster yells louder, panic ringing in his voice.
I yank myself from my pity party, get up, and hurry out to the living room, figuring Sky lost control of her powers, something that happens occasionally, but not as frequently as it used to. But when I enter the room, I realize the situation is way more severe than I thought.
“What in the…” Shock floods my body as I take in the scene before me.
Wind is swirling through the air and is laced with tendrils of darkness, the ceiling is one giant storm cloud, lightning is zapping down from the clouds and cracking the icy floor apart, and even with the ice glazing everything, somehow water has flooded the entire area. In the center of it all, Sky is crouched down with her hands thrown over her ears and smoke is swirling across her arms.
My gaze darts to Foster. “What the hell happened?”
His eyes are wide as he tears his gaze off Sky. “She was asking all these questions and then I kissed her… And she felt so guilty…” He swallows hard. “It made me feel too many things and I think I lost control of my projection ability and some of my memories spilled into her.”
Shit. This can’t be good. “Which memories?”
He takes a deep breath. “The one where I talked to Max about burying Brody and not telling Sky he’s dead.”
I let out a string of curses as I stride across the room toward him, zigzagging around the bolts of lightning. “I had a feeling that keeping this from her was going to come back and bite us in the ass.” I shake my head. “We should’ve just told her about it when it happened.”
“She wouldn’t have taken it any better if we had,” he says, crouching down in front of Sky. “You’ve felt enough of what she’s feeling through the link that you should know by now that she’s the kind of creature who feels guilt over a lot of things. Even things that aren’t her fault.”
“I know, but keeping it a secret from her probably hurt her.” I crouch down near Sky and reach for her, but Foster captures my hand.
“Don’t touch her,” he warns. “If you do, darkness could spill into you.”
“I don’t give a shit about that.” I reach for her again, but he smacks my hand away.
“You can’t help her if darkness gets a hold of you… Look, I know you want to help her…” He blows out an uneven breath and mutters, “Probably almost as much as I do.”
I squirm a bit, realizing some of my emotions are leaking down the link. That rarely happened until the link between Sky and my brothers and I was altered. I’m not sure why it happens now, why it’s suddenly difficult for me to keep my thoughts and feelings to myself.
“If we can’t touch her, then how the hell do we get darkness out of her?” Pain clutches my chest as my gaze lands on Sky. She appears frozen, the darkness swelling around her like a cloud, building and preparing for a storm. “If we don’t do something soon, she’ll end up getting possessed by it forever.”
I know this because Foster once told me that our grandpa, who was also an elemental enchanter, told him that if he ever completely gave into the power of darkness, that it could end up possessing him forever. And then he would end up like the elemental protectors of darkness, most of which are cold, uncaring, selfish bastards who usually end up going the evil route.
“I know,” Foster says, his voice barely audible above the wind. He studies Sky, his face set in deep contemplation. “I think we need to find a way to get her attention. Maybe if we can, it’ll get her to snap out of her trance, at least enough that we can try to get her to block out the darkness before it takes her completely over.”
I smash my lips together to fight back the words wanting to leave my lips.
Foster glances at me with his brow lifted. “You think I’m wrong?”
“I’m not sure, but considering the pain she must be in right now… the guilt she has to be feeling over this…” My brows dip. “Why can’t I feel her guilt or pain right now?”
Foster opens and flexes his hands. “I’m not positive, but I’m guessing darkness is taking over her mind, which means it’s probably taking over the link too and blocking us out.” He shakes his head. “I don’t like not being connected to her, especially with this going on.”
I nod in agreement, trying to stay as calm as possible, be the East everyone thinks they know. “I agree that we need to snap her out of her trance… My bet is she’s stuck in her own thoughts of guilt and that’s why she can’t hear us. Well, either that or darkness is in her head. But like you said, if we can somehow communicate with her… maybe get inside her mind…” An idea occurs to me, one I know he’s not going to like, but that needs to be said. “Fost, if Sky does have a dream seer ability like we believe she does, maybe we could send him into her head and—”
“No,” he cuts me off with a firm look. “I already considered that and it’s too dangerous. Plus, there’s not even a way to get him here to try it.”
I drag my hand across my face, wiping the raindrops off my skin, and giving myself a second to put together a persuasive argument. While my plan is not ideal, it could be a solution to this problem, and a way to save Sky.
“We could get him here,” I say. “If we risk opening an unsecured portal and pulling him through it.”
He gapes at me. “No fucking way. Do you know how dangerous that’d be? Not just to open the portal but to just yank him through it and hope nothing else comes in with him.”
“I understand the risk, but letting Sky remain this way isn’t any better,” I stress. “You of all people should understand that.”
He seals his lips together, the muscles in his jaw pulsating. “And what happens if the god of darkness gets into the portal that we open? Then we’ll probably lose her to darkness forever.”
I fling my hand in Sky’s direction. “Darkness is already here, man. Sure, it’s not the god of darkness, but his power is consuming her. And if she has a dream seer ability, you know he’s probably in her head.”
He balls his hands into fists, gritting his teeth so hard his jaw pops. “You’re forgetting one small problem with your plan.”
“There’s more than just one small problem with it,” I point out. “But it might be our only option.”
He blows out a heavy exhale. “Okay, let's say that somehow we manage to open a portal and get him to us without the god of darkness getting in here too. And he’s actually able to use his ability to get inside Sky’s mind. It still doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to talk her out of her trance before darkness completely consumes her.” He roughly yanks his fingers through his hair. “I’m not sure anyone we’ll be able to talk her out of letting her guilt go.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be able to just talk her out of feeling guilty. I mean, he can try, but…” I hesitate to continue, knowing he’s going to get even more upset when I tell him the rest of my idea. But then I glance at Sky, surrounded by a funnel of wispy darkness, and realize time is too pressing for me to be worrying about Foster’s feelings. “I was thinking he could use his ability to, well, you know, temporarily block darkness from her mind and body.”
“You want him to tether his soul to her’s…” He gives me the dirtiest look ever. “Are you out of your da
mn mind?”
“It might be our only option. And it doesn’t have to be permanent. In fact, it’s not even a long-term solution since soul tethering eventually fades. And when it does, more than likely darkness will consume Sky again. At least until she deals with her guilt over Brody. But this will give us some time to help her get over her guilt or at least find another solution to get darkness out of her permanently.”
He remains silent, his muscles wound up in knots, his hands clenched into fists.
“Look, I know this isn’t an ideal solution,” I say. “But it might be our only chance unless you have a better idea.” I know he doesn’t have one, though. I can sense it through the link and through his reluctant silence. “And you need to make a decision fast before we run out of time,” I add, giving a pressing glance in Sky’s direction.
He remains silent for so long I start to wonder if maybe he’s not going to ever answer, and I’m going to have to step in and make the decision.
But then he releases a trapped breath. “If we do this… If we let him tether her soul to his, what’re we supposed to do afterward? Like you said, it’s not a long-term solution.”
I really don’t have a damn clue and it’s kind of weird to be the one making the decisions. Usually Foster is the one doing it, mostly because he’s usually the most responsible of us. But I guess it’s time for me to step up. I just hope I don’t fuck it up like I do with a lot of other things.
“We’ll have to figure that out later,” I decide to be vague on purpose since I don’t really have an answer to his question. “But doing this will buy us some time.”
“And what happens if she’s tethered to him forever?” he bites out, lightning blazing above us. “You know that happens sometimes. Not a lot… But sometimes.”
“Would you rather her soul end up tethered to him forever? Or for her to end up becoming a prisoner to darkness forever?” I shift my position as the water flooding the floor rises higher and soaks through my jeans. “And honestly, you need to think of the bigger picture. She’s the power source to the elemental enchanter god, which means that if darkness gets ahold of her, then the god of darkness may be able to control her power, which means we’re all fucked.”
He starts breathing heavily.
I feel bad for him. I really do. While I’ve always kind of had a choice whether or not to be with someone, he never has. In fact, for most of his life he believed he was the only elemental enchanter left. Then Sky came along, a girl he wanted before he even knew what she was, and he finally thought he didn’t have to be alone. But if we do what I’m suggesting, that might change everything. Although, things were already kind of messed up because of the altered link. But the link should be able to be fixed if we can get Sky to Hunter. However, this soul-tethering thing could end up being permanent if her soul decides to latch onto his. It all really depends on how connected she feels with who I refer to as the weirdest of my brothers. If it weren’t for the altered link, I’d say she’d be fine, but with the weirdness going on between Sky and my brothers…
I guess I can see why Foster is hesitating, but still, like I said, there’s a bigger picture to this.
“You want me to try to get ahold of mom?” I ask when he remains silent for a dangerous amount of time. “Maybe she can help us make a decision. It might take some time to track her down, but I can try.”
He shakes his head from side to side. “It’ll take too long…” He takes a deep breath, then another before pushing to his feet. “Let’s do it, but we need to make sure we’re prepared in case the god of darkness tries to get through the portal. In fact, we might end up having a battle on our hands.”
He’s right. Trying to pull someone through a portal without them knowing is super dangerous as it is. And we’re going to have to do it through a portal that the god of darkness might try to slip through.
“Maybe it’d be better if we went to him instead of trying to bring him here,” I suggest as I rise to my feet and wring out the front of my soaked shirt.
He gapes at me. “You want us to leave the safety of this world and go to who the hell knows where, since we have no damn clue where he is, and just hope everything will turn out okay?”
“If we go to him, we can be more sneaky about it since we’ll be the ones controlling the portal. But if we open a portal that leads to here and try to suck him through it, it means all sorts of other creatures could get sucked through with him, including the god of darkness,” I say. “Plus, this world has been making my powers weak, and if it affects him the same way, he might not be able to help her as easily here as he would someplace else.”
He mulls over what I said with a frown. “I get what you’re saying, but leaving the safety of this world is risky.”
“Neither solution is ideal,” I point out. “But we have to do one of them before…” I glance at Sky.
I can barely see her through the cloud of wisps twirling around her, but if I look close enough, I can make out her eyes. The normally lightning blue color has changed into a shadowy grey, showing how far into the darkness she’s gone. I hope that’s not a permanent thing because I really love her eyes. But I guess that’s not important right now.
Foster gives me a dirty look with his brows arched. “Are you seriously checking her out right now?”
“No.” Well, I was checking out her eyes, but I’m not going to tell him that. “So which one are we doing?” I ask, shoving thoughts of Sky’s eyes aside.
He glances from Sky, then back to me and blows out an exhausted breath. “I guess let’s take her to him.”
Unsure whether to be relieved or worried about his decision, I still nod. “All right, let’s do this then.”
“Where do you think he is?” Foster asks as he raises his hands and starts to channel his power, lightning sparking across his skin.
I do the same, my skin dewing with raindrops. “Well, he’s supposed to be with Max, Hunter, and Holden, but you never really know with him,” I reply with a shrug, pretending to be calmer than I am.
Out of all our brothers, Foster and I have had the least amount of practice with creating a random portal that doesn’t have a set location. Plus, my powers have been a bit unstable in this world, so there’s a chance we might mess this up. But I try not to think about that and focus on letting my power emerge and combine with Foster’s.
Swirls of multicolored light begin circling between us.
“Hopefully he’s some place safe,” Foster mutters worriedly.
“Hopefully, but I wouldn’t count on it.” Sucking in a breath, I stick out my hand. “Are you ready for this?”
“No.” But he places his hand against mine anyway and utters, “Make us a portal that takes us to Porter.”
Foster
I know we don’t have a lot of options right now, but getting Porter’s help with this is one of the last things I wanted to do. It’s not like I don’t like my brother, but ever since the incident where he tried to travel through a secured magical signal without practicing first, he hasn’t been the same. The attempt to remove his spirit from his body altered his body, soul, and mind and he actually died for a moment because of it. When he came back to life… Well, he was never the same. And not just because his personality had changed. No, in order for him to come back, he had to become another creature. A creature that can sometimes be dangerous if he loses control of his desires.
I try not to focus on this, though, as Easton and I struggle to create a portal in the middle of the living room of the cabin. We’re a little shaky when it comes to creating portals without a precise location, and it doesn’t help that Sky’s powers are causing chaos to blow all over the room. But somehow we manage to get a fairly strong portal circling in front of us as we combine our powers.
Once a circular rainbow tinted-light portal is steadily formed, I withdraw my hand from Easton’s.
“I hope it leads to the right place,” I utter one of my worries aloud.
“I’m sure it w
ill,” East says, pushing to his feet.
I’m not sure if he believes his words, since East is usually the optimistic one in these types of situations. I used to believe that’s how he was, but over the last handful of days, I’ve felt his sadness occasionally flickering down the link, and it makes me question if perhaps my twin brother puts on a façade. I haven’t had time to bring it up to him, though, but eventually I’m going to. Even if he is attracted to Sky and annoying me right now, he’s still my brother and I care about him.
“I’m assuming you want to carry her through the portal,” East says to me, that sadness briefly seeping through the link.
Nodding, I move to pick Sky up, but pause when a revelation smacks me across the face.
I step back and yank my fingers through my hair. “Fuck, how are we supposed to get her through the portal? We can’t touch her without darkness slipping into us too.”
He frowns but then his eyes light up. “Maybe we could put her on a blanket and pull it through.”
“How are we supposed to get her onto the blanket, though?” I point out, throwing a panicked glance over my shoulder at the portal.
The longer it stays open, the more likely the god of darkness can get through. We do have some time since right now we’re controlling the entrance. But the moment we step inside, all bets are off. I still think we were right to do it this way, though, instead of bringing Porter to us. Not only would that allow all sorts of creatures to be sucked through the portal with him, but it’s dangerous to suck someone through a portal without them knowing. We could always try to track Porter down and bring him to us, but that takes time. Plus, like East said, this world has been screwing with his powers and could do the same thing to Porter.
East glances at Sky and any of his calmness dissipates. “Shit, why didn’t we think about this before we opened the portal?"
Iridescent Chaos: (Enchanted Chaos, Book 3) Page 4
