by Kat Adams
Speaking of weather…
“What’s up with the weird natural disasters lately?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s definitely not natural. The earthquake last week, the tornado and waterspout this week, and wildfires. That’s four elements all acting out. Something has them upset.” Bryan returned to the radio and switched it back on. Tinny music filled the silence.
“Gee, can’t imagine what that could possibly be.” I motioned to the field below us, at all the residents of the grove focused on their assignments. Alchemists creating medicine and other treatments. Blacksmiths creating weapons. Witches casting spells to strengthen the potency of the medicines and charm the weapons. We’d managed to recruit two healers I recognized from the tribunals last fall, both working with the alchemists to stock up on everything we need to have our own infirmary. The grove had become its own self-sustaining community.
A community with the single, solitary purpose of taking down the corrupt Council before it destroyed our world.
Bryan found a different radio station. When the headline teaser came across the airwaves, he stiffened. “A pharmacist on Whidbey Island has been arrested in connection to a bomb threat. That story and more, after the break.”
I joined him at the radio. Neither of us spoke as we impatiently waited through commercial after commercial until the news came back on. No, that wasn’t true. Bryan chanted don’t be Merle throughout the entire break.
“Authorities arrested a man they say is responsible for the bomb threat that evacuated the Tacoma Dome during the boat show last weekend. When they raided the house of Merle Brooks, age seventy-six, they found several powders and metals in various stages of being melted down.”
“Shit.” Bryan stood and walked to the other side of the room. His shoulders rose and fell with his labored breathing. “Son of a bitch!” He kicked one of the chairs at the table, knocking it over.
I’d never seen him lose his temper like that and went to him, pulling him into my arms. Something was up with my earth elemental. He’d been going dark as of late, using forbidden calls, and in front of Nelems. He’d been giving in to his darkness more and more. It worried me that my darkness fueled his.
He accepted the hug and buried his face against my neck. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. I just held my guy close and hoped Merle had a good lawyer.
“Fucking Council,” he ground out, breaking our embrace. “Katy, we have to do something. We can’t let them get away with this. Based on what they found at Merle’s place, he was still practicing alchemy. This was the Council’s way of sending a message to the alchemists.”
“But why involve Nelems? We have our own prison.”
“Carcerem is designed for elementals. They keep the prisoners controlled by muting their powers with elemutuses. That won’t work on alchemists. He’ll still be able to practice.”
“What can we do? It’s not like we can break him out.”
“No, but we can bail him out. And we can retaliate. If the Council thinks it can restore order by using scare tactics, we’re just going to have to show them how wrong they are. Sentry needs to make a stand, and I know how.”
“How?”
“We get the custodian to help.”
I didn’t know how much I liked this plan. Enlisting the custodian meant putting the control in someone else’s hands. I wasn’t a big fan of losing control. “We don’t even know who that is.”
“Does it matter? We’ve trusted them enough to send recruits our way. We need to trust them enough to make some noise, create a little chaos. Graves will have the Council chase down the source, diverting their attention away from Sentry long enough for us to close in.”
He righted the chair and took a seat, reaching for my sketch pad and opening it to this week’s webisode. When I joined him at the table, he pushed the pad in front of me. “How much time do you need to redo the message?”
WITHIN TWO HOURS, we had the new panels done and uploaded, courtesy of a guy who stepped outside the coffee house to make a call and left his laptop open on the table. No one saw me thanks to the crystal around my neck. By the time the guy returned, I’d already finished and helped myself to the bagel and untouched cup of glorious coffee. It’d been so long since I had the luxury of a fancy overpriced latte, I couldn’t help myself. I left enough money for him to buy another and then some. God, what I would have given to have seen the look on his face when he came back to find money instead of his order.
Shockingly enough, Bryan hadn’t lectured me on my lack of morals, which was very un-Bryan-like. That was more Clay’s style, especially when Bryan fist-bumped me for stealing a stranger’s breakfast.
Now here we stood inside the ruins at the academy, perfectly hidden by the necklace wrapped around both our necks. Bryan and I wiggled close, wrapped in each other’s arms to accommodate the leather strap encasing us. We both turned our heads toward the opening and pressed our faces cheek to cheek. Although we were technically fugitives and on the run, he’d still found the time to shave, his skin smooth as silk. I loved his musky scent, a cross between fresh air and a field full of fragrant grass.
I drew in a deep breath and whispered, “You smell amazing.”
“Well, I did shower today, so bonus points for me.”
Leaning in, I pressed my nose to his chest and inhaled sharply, suppressing the moan hovering at the edge of my lips. A noise froze us both. Was that a sigh?
I held my breath and listened for anything out of place. A voice. The clearing of a throat. Pounding footsteps growing louder as someone approached. Nothing stood out, so we waited.
“Are you sure she’ll show?”
No, I wasn’t sure. At all. I nodded anyway. “I warned her we were coming and needed to talk to her.”
“She’s never manifested to me before. Maybe I should wait outside.”
“We have to stay hidden. If we split up, only one of us can wear the crystal.” I adjusted so my voice wouldn’t be muffled by Bryan’s enormous chest. “Cressida? Are you here? Can you please show yourself? We really need your help.”
Open your eyes.
I perked up. “She’s here.”
“Where?” Bryan jerked his head back and forth as best he couldn’t without smacking into mine as I did the same.
This wasn’t working. I couldn’t move around with us restrained like this. Against Serenity’s clear instructions, I removed the necklace and tucked it into my front pocket.
“What are you doing? We’re going to get caught.” Bryan’s eyes were wide, rounded, as he shrank down as best he could at his size. He glanced around and quickly darted into the shadows before whispering fiercely, “Katy! Get over here. Someone is going to see you.”
I’d risk it. My conversation with Cressida took precedence over my anxiety of getting caught. Besides, it was cold, rainy, and a quarter mile from campus. No one would be out in this weather or that far from the main hall, not on a day like today. I hoped. “Cressida? We don’t have much time. Please, please, show yourself. I’m trying to build an army and can’t do that without you.”
Open your eyes.
Dammit. I didn’t have time for this. “Cressida, please!”
“Katy, keep your voice down.” Bryan’s disembodied voice echoed through the stone structure.
I thinned my lips as my frustration edged higher. Why wasn’t she manifesting? Didn’t she understand what was at stake here? Maybe I needed to take it up a notch, stop pleading with her as Katy to Cressida. Or witch to witch. I needed to make this about the prophecy. It always came back to that.
“I’m here as the prophecy and need to speak to the original prophecy. This is about saving our world. It’s going to take us joining forces for this to work.”
“Holy shit,” Bryan muttered, drawing my attention and sending me around. Cressida Clearwater stood at the opening facing the cliff overlooking the water, looking as regal as ever with her long flowing chestnut hair and kind hazel eyes. Her robes w
ere exceptionally billowy thanks to the wind floating up from the waves below.
“Hello, Katy.” As she greeted me, she smiled warmly.
I fought the urge to run into her arms. She’d been there for me both during and after my mom had tried to discredit me and, when that hadn’t worked, tried to kill me. Several times. She’d been there to listen to me when Spencer Dalton had come to the academy to bind my powers, which backfired on him and magically enhanced me with a sixth element. She’d been there to help me realize it was perfectly acceptable not to choose one guy over the other.
She’d been there through it all.
“Cressida.” My voice cracked as emotions tightened my throat. I swallowed several times and had to look away to regroup.
“Bryan, please come out. Join us.”
Slowly, he sidestepped out of the shadows, one arm clasping the other at the elbow, his head slightly bowed. “Uh, hi?”
“Bryan Gunderson,” I said once I took his hand and dragged the scaredy-cat the rest of the way. “Meet Cressida Clearwater, the original prophecy.”
“We’ve met.” She folded her hands in front of her. “Haven’t we, Bryan?”
“Never like this, like actually seeing you.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
We’d have to push through the awkward intro and get to the meat of the reason why we’d risked entering enemy territory to see her. “Cressida, we’re gaining in numbers, but it’s not enough. The Council, they’re targeting people, innocent people, and sending them away. A powerful alchemist was sent to a Nelem jail for something he didn’t do. We collected enough money to post his bail and have someone we trust taking care of that. But how long before the Council does something like this again? What if it’s worse than a bogus bomb threat? We have to take a stand before the Council destroys this world.”
“How would I be able to help? This is beyond my reach.”
Crap. I was afraid she’d say that.
“But not yours.”
I was afraid she’d say that too. I thrust my fingers through my hair. “I’m trying to reach more, but it’s taking too long. By the time we have enough to go up against the Council and all its blind followers, it’ll be too late. Isn’t there anything you can do? Something I’m not thinking of? Secret underground mole people? Or maybe mermaids with razor-sharp fins?”
Her head pulled back as her shoulders pushed forward. She turned away and stared out the opening toward the water, suddenly lost in her thoughts. Okay, maybe my examples took it too far. I wanted to scream at her to say something—patience was never one of my virtues—but I remained silent and waited.
She moved to the opening and folded her hands in front of her. “In my time, the great war that divided my world also separated us from nature.”
That made no sense. We literally had the power to call nature. “What do you mean?”
“Humans aren’t the only beings capable of controlling the elements. There are others like us, but not like us. Wanting no part of a war between the elementals, they were driven away when it broke out. Seek their help.”
“Are you talking about the leechers? Because if you are, they’re already here siding with the Council.” And I hated every last one of them. It was as if Spencer Dalton had seventy-five clones.
“She’s talking about legends,” Bryan explained. “The stuff in elemental nursery rhymes. My mom would read me the stories when I was a kid. It’s just myths and fairy tales.”
“And yet so many retell the exact story, describe the characters in the same manner. A yeti living in the woods, yet no one has ever captured him, as if he becomes one with the earth as soon as strangers are present. Air pixies traveling through the trees by leaping from leaf to leaf, leaving a trail of pixie dust often mistaken as mildew. For every element, there is a living, breathing creature that is one with it. The snow ghosts of the mountains. Air pixies of the rain forest. Yetis in the woods. Lava snakes in volcanos. Unite them, and you reunite our world. Only then will we truly be in balance.”
I tilted my head and waited for her to go on. When she didn’t, I tilted it the other way as I struggled to process the message. “Are you saying I need to recruit these legends to fight for our side? Why would they join the fight when you said they were driven away by the war in your time?”
“Our world is also their world.”
“And the Nelems’ world. And everyone else’s. Every living thing.”
“One world,” Bryan added.
“One world,” I repeated in agreement. We stared at each other, blinking as that sank in. “The Council and its dark followers aren’t just destroying our world by conjuring up these fake natural disasters. They’re destroying everyone’s world. If they succeed, the world as anyone—anything—knows it will be no more.”
And now I knew how I was going to convince the legends to join us.
“We need to go.” I reached for Bryan’s hand.
Cressida intercepted it by grasping my wrist, studying my palm. The lines around her mouth grew into a frown. “You’re warded.”
“We both are.” Bryan held up his hand to prove his point.
She glanced at his palm before dropping her attention back to mine. “Who did this?”
“An elder witch. It’s supposed to protect us. It also bonds us and gives us the ability to sense each other. According to her, we can borrow each other’s elements through the bond.”
“She’s right. You are connected now in every way.” Her frown deepened.
“Then why do you look like that’s bad news?”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” My heart skipped. “How?”
“There’s a reason why the others don’t have the power to call all the elements as you have. Their bodies were never meant to command that level of control.”
Bryan and I exchanged looks. He didn’t have to say anything. The worry tightening his expression matched the anxiety tightening my chest. If I called an element they couldn’t, like light, it could do serious damage. I returned my attention to Cressida. “What if we don’t tap into each other’s elements?”
“That won’t be possible. Every call will be felt. Every point of pleasure, and every point of pain.”
Shit and shinola. This was exactly what I’d feared. If one of us fell, we’d all fall. What if Spencer tried to steal the air from Leo’s lungs again? Would we all choke and collapse? We won our battles because we helped each other. When one fell, someone would pick that person back up. It was always five against one with us. Until now. “This makes us weaker as a unit, doesn’t it?”
“No. You’re protected. No elemental attack can harm any of you so long as you’re warded. Forbidden calls will always be a threat. I don’t know if the ward will protect you from those.”
“But they are always used with negative intent. That’s literally what the ward protects us from.”
She stilled and locked gazes with me. “Is that what she told you? That this ward protects from negative intent? Those exact words?”
Uh-oh. Why did I feel like I just screwed up by telling her that? Did I just get Renee in trouble? “Um…yes?”
“It’s only negative intent if the caller believes it to be negative.”
“I don’t understand.” Or maybe I did and just didn’t like the answer. “Are you saying if someone attacks one of us believing that killing us is the right thing to do, the ward won’t protect us?”
“Precisely. This ward won’t protect you from negative intent unless the one to attack you believes what they are doing is wrong.”
Well, that’s just fucking peachy. That pretty much left out every dark elemental.
“So this ward will protect us from anyone casting a spell on us or enhancing us or anything like that, but only if they believe what they’re doing is wrong?”
“Yes, exactly. And there’s more.”
Of course, there was.
“The very ward protecting you will also prohibit you from tapping
into the dark element inside you. You believe that darkness is negative.”
“Because it is, so that’s a good thing,” Bryan was quick to say before glancing between us. Neither of us was as eager to jump to that conclusion. The darkness inside me was like a power boost and had saved me on multiple occasions. “Isn’t it?”
“It’s a part of her now. Denying any part of who you are is unwise. Heed my warning, Katy. Your dark element will find a way, one out of your control.”
I stared at my hand, at the faint shimmering M. “You think we should have her remove the ward?”
“The ward is unnecessary. You don’t need something like that to tie you together. Rely on your connection as a unit, not on a bond forced by a spell.”
She was right. Absolutely right. The guys and I didn’t need a ward to link us. We were already connected. It was our love that bonded us. Bryan and I looked at each other and gave affirming nods. It was settled.
“We need to bring the guys back to the grove with us.”
“Let me text Rob’s burner.” Bryan pulled out his burner and thumbed the message. Rob texted back almost immediately. “They’re in. He gave me an address where to meet them. Let’s go.” He tucked the phone into his back pocket as he regarded Cressida. “It was, uh, nice meeting you.”
She took his hands in hers. “Guard your life force. As with you sharing pleasure and pain, if one of you falls…”
“We all fall down,” I sang bitterly, having already made that conclusion. Hearing it come from the original prophecy didn’t make me feel any better. “Can we teleport to the address?”
Bryan shook his head and took his hands back. “I’ve never been there. If I can’t picture it, concentrate on the location, I can’t stick the landing. Clay’s the only one who can do that.”
“Where is it?”
“Seattle.”
“The city?” Shit. That was two hours away by car, which neither of us had. If we took the ferry, we’d shave off half an hour and could find an Uber faster on that side of the water. I checked the time on my burner. “If we use the crystal to get to the dock, we’ll make the next ferry. Thank you, Cressida. We’ll try to visit you again soon.”
