"Now we face off against the Alchemists, who are appearing more and more deranged, as well as an enraged Gi regiment, who believe we stole their long lost princess."
"Bloody hell," Aktor muttered. "What now?"
The all important question. Did this news change things? How could it not?
I stopped pacing and raised my face to look at Theo. Who was looking at me with such longing, such desire, and yet such incomprehensible pain. I sucked in a breath at the emotions flowing across his face. There was no mask now. He was open, raw with intense feelings that were slowly crushing him in their weight.
Oh hell. This changed everything. Didn't it?
"Casey," he said softly. The space between us disappeared, even though he hadn't taken a step towards me. I was held captive by that look in his eyes, on his face. I was his in that moment, despite anything that had passed.
My hand came up to his now faded mark on my neck. I hadn’t meant to. It just did. Theo tracked my movement and I watched as his chest rose and fell with each evermore harsh breath of air.
"You are my Thisavros," he said quietly. "I will lay down my life to keep you at my side."
I closed my eyes feeling a type of pain I never knew could exist. Bitter-sweet, so very bitter-sweet. He hadn't marked me again, but he didn't need to. I was his in his heart and I'd wear his mark on mine; on the inside.
His hot breath washed over my face letting me know he was standing before me. I opened my eyes and stared up into the face of the man I loved, who seemed to love me. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck and he lay a sweet, chaste kiss across my lips.
"Nothing can change that," he whispered, eyes flashing gold like jewels in the night. "Not the rules. Not the fact that you are Gi and I am Pyrkagia." He paused for breath. "Not even distance."
My eyes closed again on those last words. He'd die to keep me, but if he failed and I was taken to Gi, I would still be his.
"Oh, Theo," I murmured.
"Never forget," he whispered into my ear. "You do not need to wear a mark of mine, just know it in here." His palm rested over my heart, the heat seeping right through my skin and wrapping around it. I lay my head on his chest and sucked in a breath. It was shaky.
"What do we do now?" I managed to ask.
Theo wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my head.
"If we run, we could draw them away from Pyrkagia."
"But they would never forget Pyrkagia's role in all of this," Aktor pointed out, being the unwanted voice of reason. I felt Theo nod above my head.
"If we run, we confirm Pyrkagia's involvement and set my people up for a very long battle ahead." He shifted and lay a kiss in amongst my hair.
"What’s our other option?" I asked, heart heavy.
"We go and talk to them," Theo said, voice low, but definitely not even. "We explain your side of the story, we seek their understanding and permission for you to stay."
Aktor made a sound and Theo stiffened. I guess his sound was the equivalent of a scoff. I had to agree with the butler. We were screwed.
I couldn't, in all good conscience, ask Theo to run with me. He and Aktor were right. Pyrkagia would suffer for our betrayal. I couldn't live with that. But the chances of talking the Gi out of reclaiming something precious they thought lost for twenty years, were slim. You didn't need to be a mathematician to work out those odds.
And we couldn't stay here, on the golf course, and plead ignorance. Fires burned. Trees were being crushed. The Alchemists would only entangle themselves further creating a war the Pyrkagia couldn't win.
The right thing to do was go to the Gi. But I felt like I was sticking a knife in my gut by doing it. I was just waiting for that blade to twist.
"Where are they?" I asked.
"You would know better than us," Theo murmured his reply into my hair.
I took a deep breath in at his words and then pulled gently from his arms. It took a little effort to look up at him, uncertain what visage of pain would greet me. But he was trying valiantly not to show any concern. Not his complete impassive mask, but a faux expression of calm that I knew underneath he didn't feel at all.
I crouched down and dug my fingers into the soil, letting the Earth wash over me, soothe me with its scent and touch.
They are here, it said softly, sadly. Why it would be sad the Gi, its Gi, were here, I did not know. They are angry, the Earth advised. They are reaching deep, searching for something. We cannot stop them. You must try.
"Do you need my blood?" I asked, more than a little alarmed at the Earth's request.
Yes, it whispered, but not yet. Save your essence until it is truly needed. I breathed a sigh of relief, which was short lived. They have found it.
"What?" I said, glancing around the course-way expecting to see Gi jump out from behind the shrubbery at any moment. Theo and Aktor sensed my distress and started looking for threats as well. Heat warmed the small space we were standing in, their Stoicheio ready for attack.
Be ready, the Earth whispered. Once it starts, we cannot stop it without you.
Oh hell no. That did not sound good.
"Once what starts?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
But the Earth didn't need to reply, even if it would have, or could have, because Theo and Aktor sensed it first.
"What is that?" Theo demanded, jumping from where he stood and staring at the ground as though he could see through the grass and soil to beneath.
"It's hot, extremely hot," Aktor returned, walking in a circle and looking at the ground. "And deep." His eyes lifted to Theo and there was horror written across his face. "Oh, Aetheros. They wouldn't."
"They fucking have," Theo exclaimed.
"What?" I shouted, frustrated that neither of them had told me what they'd sense.
Theo turned to me and took the few steps necessary to clasp my upper arms in his hand. "Auckland sits on a volcanic field. Over fifty extinct volcanoes in a twenty kilometre radius of the city centre." He stopped, staring intently at my eyes, waiting for me to get it.
It didn't take long.
"They're heating the volcanoes up, making the Earth unstable enough for them to erupt."
"Yes," Theo said bluntly. "The result could be cataclysmic."
I felt sick to the stomach at that thought. Who were these people to act in such a way? Had they no conscience, or was it simply a threat to get me to come out of hiding? Have those who supposedly held me, hand me over to them.
Oh God, this was bad.
I pulled free of Theo's grasp, feeling tainted by my association, albeit an unwanted association, to the Gi. I hadn't asked for this, but it had landed in my lap and here I was. A part of their world, connected to a group of Ekmetalleftis who would use their Stoicheio to get what they wanted, to hell with the consequences.
I knelt down on the ground and dug my fingers and toes into the soil, reaching deep, searching for what my people had done. There. One kilometre beneath the surface, a sense of burgeoning power was growing. Theo and Aktor could sense the heat of the molten magma, I could sense its awesome strength through the Earth itself. A potency that was threatening to burst to the surface and decimate everything in its path.
How do I stop this, stop them? I asked the Earth. It groaned and shook beneath my knees. I could hear Theo swearing and Aktor crying out in alarm.
The ground shifted, piles of dirt erupting in geysers all around us, destroying the pristine look of the golf course. It was happening and I wasn't sure I was strong enough to stop what the Gi had done. How many did it take for this chain reaction? Twenty-five in a regiment, Isadora had said. Theo mentioned a regiment being here that the Pyrkagia had to face. Could twenty-five Gi do this? And if so, how the freaking hell was I supposed to stop it?
They are here, the Earth whispered. Turn around, it urged and I felt a foreboding chill wash down my spine.
Through the swell and buckle of the ground beneath us, we had all missed the obvious. The Gi had us su
rrounded. Long brown hair billowing out in waves down past their shoulders, bright green flashing from what I assumed was normally a dark blue in their eyes. They seemed familiar to me, even though I had never laid eyes on them before. A part of me wailed at that knowledge. I did not want to know these people, remembered or just bizarrely connected by a strange sense of familiarity. I didn't want this desire to greet them as kin. They were my enemy as much as Theo's, yet my body, my Stoicheio, told me otherwise.
I stood up and turned in a circle, taking in the thirty or so who made up their numbers. Their gazes were on me, but I wasn't fooled. They were keeping a wary eye on Theo at my back and Aktor off to my side. How did they know I was here, on this golf course?
I let a long breath of air out at the conclusion to that question. The Earth had told them. The Earth whom I trusted above all else had let me down.
Sorry, it whispered, regret evident in its tone. They are too many to deny.
I understood. Together the Gi were too strong. Which meant they were too strong for Theo and definitely too strong for me.
I glanced over my shoulder to catch Theo's eye. He flicked his gaze to mine at the movement and smiled a tight smile. He knew.
"Promise me," I whispered, reaching out to clutch his hand in mine. "Stay alive. No matter what. Do not die."
"Oraia," he murmured.
And then they struck.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eternally
It was so fast, faster than I had been when Aktor threw the bolt of Fire at Nico's neck. So fast, I registered Theo's hand slipping from mine before I realised what it meant. Saw what they did. In a split fraction of a second he was thrown from my side by the sudden appearance of a root breaking the soil at our feet. It was thick and strong, and swatted him away as though he was nothing but an annoying little fly.
My reaction was wrenched from deep inside my heart. The Earth erupted in a concentrated burst of soil, severing the root in half before it could impale Theo through the chest. He landed in a cushioned wave of the ground undulating, timed to minimise his injuries. He was on his feet, gold glowing in his eyes, Fire spreading out around all three of us, in the next moment. I was sure his response was instinctive. But he held back from sending that wave of power toward the Gi.
But the Gi weren't so hesitant to fight back. The Earth beneath our feet began to bubble and boil, roll and buck, then spew out burning lava from its core. We weren't on a known volcano, but it didn't matter. The Gi were creating a new cone in the middle of the Pakuranga Country Club.
We scattered, to avoid the inferno rising to the surface and spreading lazily outward from a three meter hole that was expanding with every passing second. Aktor ended up on the far side, with Theo and I still within reaching distance of each other. He started toward me, his intention to protect me clearly evident on his face. But before he made it, a geyser of liquefied heat burst from the centre of the hole and headed straight for his head.
He met the blast with a wall of Fire, but it was obvious the Earth's internal heat out-did his own. Before his wall crumbled I sent a spray of soil up and over the geyser, sealing it briefly, but only long enough for Theo to move further away from me and the former projected path of that boiling liquid jet.
In my effort to save him, I'd placed more space between us. No doubt exactly what the Gi had wanted.
Another shot of molten lava spewed forth, directly towards Theo's neck this time. The angle looked perfect, the finesse with which it was wielded let me know the strike would be true. The Gi, like Aktor had warned, were obviously aiming to kill. Severing his neck their only goal. Not just incapacitate, but annihilate. Completely.
I scrambled to smother the blast of liquid fire; the Earth responding to my command, but immediately seeking Theo's death in the next instant. For every directive I gave it, the Gi worked to circumvent my attempts. If it wasn't for Theo's own abilities, he would have succumbed by now. But at least my efforts were not making it easy for the Gi either.
Still, neither Theo nor I could prevent the onslaught completely; there were simply too many Gi to fight. I needed to do more than just command the Earth.
I rounded to face the closest of those Ekmetalleftis surrounding us and screamed, "Stop!"
The Earth groaned and protested, but didn't cease its assault on Theo and Aktor. I couldn't reach the old man, but he was somehow holding his own. I think that was because the Gi knew he wasn't the greater threat. I shouldn't have reached for Theo's hand when they arrived. I shouldn't have shown them how close we were. It had been a tragic mistake. They were relentless in their attacks on him now. Because of me.
He managed to dodge a few more blows and block others with his Fire. I succeeded in diverting those roots that shot unexpectedly out of the ground with a harsh blast of concentrated soil to break or divert their projection. But if I was tiring from the effort each counterstrike cost, then Theo probably was as well.
Sweat coated his brow and ash covered his clothes. He was stumbling, and retreating, purely on defence and nothing more. And slowly, torturously, being taken further and further away from me.
I fell to my knees, grasped the soil beneath my hands and pounded the Earth desperately. Stop! I commanded and a brief interlude of peace followed my words. Only to be shattered by a brightening glow of green from the Gi's eyes and recommencement of the ground rolling beneath us.
I needed to use my blood, but I didn't have a thorny vine or sharp blade to slice my skin. I dug my fingernails into the flesh of my forearm, but they just left small crescent moon shapes and a minimal amount of red that refused to drip. And as soon as I started to call on the Earth for a thorny vine to aid me, the Gi struck again.
And again.
And again.
And suddenly... they succeeded.
Theo got swallowed by the ground so swiftly, all I saw was a flash of gold from his eyes as he disappeared. I couldn't breathe for fear. But adrenaline coursed through me, speeding my heart rate, escalating my respirations, and making panic become a friend. I reached deep inside myself, using the fear and adrenaline to focus my concentration. To command the Earth to bring Theo to the surface again. It took everything in me, and left me panting for breath and coated in sweat. But despite my effort, despite the adrenaline flowing through my veins, my attempt was still harried and therefore too unskilled. I was so desperate to save his life, my execution was less than perfect.
Twice more he crawled out of the soil and clambered up the sides of a still deep pit.
Twice more I had to pull on empty reserves to get the Earth to bend to my will.
I was shattered and beaten. And so was Theo. How long had we been fighting? Seconds? Minutes? It felt like hours. We were losing and there was nothing we could do to stop it.
I didn't even have time to wallow in that fact.
A geyser erupted a foot away, just as Theo successfully - and miraculously - emerged from the pit. I screamed in utter defeat, as my command to the Earth, to push Theo in the opposite direction to safety, left him more harmed than saved. In my rush to avoid that lethal spray, I had injured him. The realisation of that almost hurt me as much as it surely did him.
He looked terrible. Awful. Utterly exhausted in his own efforts to fight off attacks from magically appearing branches and vines, while he avoided the lethal spray of a geyser, or the boiling liquefied heat of lava. He managed to incinerate those branches and vines that I couldn't reach quickly enough, as they wrapped around his ankles trying to pull him beneath the ground, or towards the lava, again and again.
And my attempts to rescue him were just compounding the effects.
I wanted to cry. I wanted it all to end. But my desires meant absolutely nothing. I was a pawn, a chess piece, an insignificant part of a greater thing.
And to top it off, all I could think, all I could repeat inside my head, was that my Earth, the Earth that talked to me and followed my commands, was trying to kill my Thisavros. I felt strangely abandoned in m
y hour of need. A desolate feeling that had no right to exist when we were fighting for Theo's life.
I pleaded with the Earth to stop.
I shouted aloud and in my head for an end to this madness.
But still the Earth returned after each command, with renewed effort and a deathly presence to finish Theo off. The Gi were bloodthirsty in their attempts to separate me from Theo. They ignored all of my pleas. They hounded him in a wave attack, one after the other commanding the Earth in groups of ten or more at a time.
The level of power they wielded when combined was unfathomable, neither Theo nor I had a hope of fighting them off. But still we both tried. Still he fought to get to me, laid down his life again and again to keep me at his side.
It was like watching a piece of you get ripped away, ripped apart. Slowly destroyed. I used every ounce of energy I had left to battle them. To protect him. To save his life.
But I was failing.
Please don't die, I pleaded in my head, no longer able to cry the words aloud. Stay alive, I begged. For him. For me. Don't give up. But he couldn't hear me and even if he could, it wasn't enough. I wasn't strong enough to defend him and summon something suitable to cut my skin and spill my blood. The Earth had told me it needed my essence to fight this number of Gi. But I couldn't save Theo and give the Earth blood at the same time. It was too much, too many, they were too fast.
They knew what they were doing; wearing me down, keeping me occupied, and ultimately, killing Theo in the process. I was so mad, but so tired, I couldn't even sob in distress.
I don't know how much time passed, it had already felt like hours when Theo battled his way out of that pit, only to face a lethal geyser. And since then we'd fought thick roots and sharp vines, boiling mud pools and sulphuric smelling water fountains. And the rolling, groaning, tumbling soil of the Earth. Split asunder, moaning in pain, as though the Earth itself was being destroyed, not just the man I loved with all my heart.
I'd already acknowledged Theo would die. I hadn't accepted it, but the kernel of that thought had taken root inside my mind, and like the insidious deathly branches that shot from the soil towards my Thisavros, it dug deeper and deeper into my psyche, threatening to suck me down into a bleak and dark abyss.
Elemental Awakening Book Bundle Page 26
