by Kat Adams
RAGE OF STORMS
THE ACADEMY OF ELEMENTS 3
KAT ADAMS
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Fury of Earth
More Adams Family
About the Author
PROLOGUE
LEO JACKSON - WATER
It was times like this that made me really hate being an elemental.
Non-elementals wouldn’t be in a dark warehouse, searching for someone who’d vanished right in front of us. No, Nelems would be at home, chilling and watching this unfold on Netflix.
But not me. Not my friends, who’d become my brothers. Not my girl, who’d grown into the love of my life. We currently lived it, this stranger-than-fiction life, as we carried out the pact we’d made just over a year ago.
Four loves are stronger than one.
I thought about the woman who’d brought us all together. Her melodic laughter. Her level of crazy that challenged us at every step just to keep up with her. Her bravado that was only surface deep. She pretended to be so tough, like nothing got to her, but I saw a vulnerable side to her, one that had every protective instinct in my body screaming to react. She’d taken on the weight of the universe without hesitation, stepped into the role of the prophecy without understanding the impact being the one destined to save our world would have on her life.
What a woman.
Katy Reed was more than a girlfriend. To me. To the rest of the guys. She was our life force, the air in our lungs, the reason we bonded as one cohesive unit.
And, currently, she was the reason I seemed to be stuck inside a dark warehouse.
Bryan, Clay, Rob, and I shared a brotherhood forged through our connection to our girl. When one disappeared, we all felt it, like we’d lost a limb. Bryan, our earth elemental with more baggage than an international flight, had gone missing. We weren’t whole without all of us together. We’d find him. That was the only option.
I peeled my shirt from my sweat-soaked chest and used it as a makeshift fan, blowing inside it to cool me down when the slight breeze from fanning myself didn’t work. Ever since meeting Katy, I’d run overly hot, overly sensitive to everything around me. Especially around her. I couldn’t get enough of her. One taste, and I was hooked. She was like a drug boiling in my veins, a literal fever consuming me, each day making me hotter and hotter.
The fever grew worse in times of stress, like now. It was dark, unbearably hot inside the metal building, and I was pretty sure the rats were forming an alliance to coordinate an attack. The sooner I got out of here, the better. It wasn’t the heat of the summer making me uncomfortable, though that didn’t help. I hadn’t been able to shake this spike in my body’s temp for months now. I hadn’t said anything to Katy. I didn’t want her to worry. She already had enough to worry about, what with her being the one destined to save our world.
But truth be told, I was more than a little worried. A fever could be dangerous to a water elemental. We ran cool, relaxed, and went with the flow. This heat building inside me had me the exact opposite. I was too hot, too uptight, and wanted to kick the ass of everyone who looked at me wrong. It made no sense, which was why I hadn’t said anything. I’d push through it. It was just a fever, right?
I still couldn’t believe how lucky we were. Katy chose us—all of us—to be with her. She’d bonded with Rob first, our hotheaded ringleader, which suited the rest of us just fine. Fire elementals like Rob were short-tempered and unpredictable. Our redheaded beauty tamed the savage beast.
With Clay, she had a similar effect. The carefree air elemental had grown a bit more focused, a bit more responsible, since bonding with Katy. Being with her had forced him to grow up. He still kept us laughing, reminding us life didn’t have to be so serious all the time.
It was now my turn to fully bond with the most magnificent woman on the planet, to merge my water element with hers and strengthen our connection, to forge an unbreakable bond. I wondered what about me would change, improve, and mature through our bond, just as had happened with Rob and Clay. Only one way to find out.
Once I got out of this damn warehouse.
1
Clearly, rumors of my mom’s death had been greatly exaggerated.
She stared at me, this woman I hadn’t seen nor heard from in six years, no expression on her familiar face—a face so similar to mine, it was almost like looking in a mirror. She was taller than me, thinner, and had longer hair that’d gone white at the temples.
And she was still unbelievably beautiful.
“Hello, Katy.” When she smiled, it lit up her amazing hazel eyes. It lit up my tortured soul. I never thought I’d see her again.
“Mom?” I wiped the tears from my cheeks. “How…?” I didn’t know what else to say. I stood there, frozen, not even able to breathe.
“My Katybug.”
Despite the fact she didn’t like to be touched—another thing she and I had in common—I sprinted to her and hugged her, the embrace so tight, so fiercely emotional, I didn’t hold back as more tears streamed down my face. She stiffened but didn’t push me back as I feared she’d do. Since I hadn’t had any contact with her, physical or otherwise, in over half a decade, I banked on her making an exception.
“I’ve missed you so much.” She smoothed her hand over my hair. “Oh sweetie. Please don’t cry. I’m here now. I’m right here.”
No way could I talk as I blubbered all over her shoulder. The logjam of emotions clogged my throat and made it a struggle to pull in a breath. By the time we ended the embrace, several more members of the patrol had joined the crowd now watching our reunion outside an abandoned warehouse.
“My baby.” She brushed a thumb across my cheek, wiping away more tears. “I can’t believe what a beautiful woman you’ve grown into. I’ve missed so much being away. I’m sorry I’ve been gone for so long.”
Her comment brought me back to reality. Yes, she’d been away for a long time. No calls. No hints that she wasn’t dead. Nothing but radio silence. Was I thrilled to see her? Hell to the yes.
But she had some ’splaining to do.
“About that—” The rest of my statement was cut off by an unsettling stir from the crowd as it parted. I turned and stopped short of rolling my eyes. Of course, the Council would crash the party.
Albert Stephens and several of his band of merry men in black approached, each of them focused on my mom and me. Mainly her. The head of the Council stepped forward and swung his pale gaze my way, nodded once like that meant something, then regarded my mom.
“Samantha.” He nodded at her too, and it still meant nothing. “How good it is to see you.”
His words and his body language told two very different stories. He stood rigid, his expression a cool, unfriendly resting dick face, as he remained several feet away. I looked to my mom, who seemed about as happy to see him as he was to see her. She held her ground as this aging man assessed her with an icy stare.
“You’ll need to come with us,” he finally said.
This time, she nodded as if she’d expected him to make the request.
I shook my head. Vehemently. I just got her back. I didn’t want to lose he
r again. “No. No way. No. Just…no.”
“It’s okay.” She rested her hand on my shoulder. “They just want to ask me some questions.”
So did I, but now I had to stand in line behind a bunch of men in black. “But—”
“Katy.” She cut me off sharply. Apparently, her being absent for six years hadn’t softened her mom voice. “It’s okay.” She regarded Stephens. “We knew this day would come, Albert.”
Those words. I swayed and leaned against Bryan as he caught me before I collapsed from the weight of those six words. Why did people keep using that saying like it somehow explained the shit show of chaos happening around them? My dad when my mom had disappeared. My dad again when he’d quite happily written me out of his life after I’d come into my powers. And now, my mom for reasons I didn’t understand.
“You overestimate my understanding behind your disappearance.” Stephens motioned for two men to retrieve my mom. “Take her.”
She brought up her hand to stop them. “I can walk fine on my own, thank you.”
Way to go, Mom.
As the Council led her off, she glanced over her shoulder to Bryan. “Take her to the infirmary. Make sure you’re both okay. I’ll meet you there.”
He nodded and grasped my arm, drawing my attention. “Come on, Katy.”
“No.” I jerked out of his hold and turned to chase after my mom, but they’d already teleported out, leaving me there to stare at where they were just standing. “No,” I whispered as everything darkened. She was gone. I’d lost her again. “No!”
“Montana.” Clay stopped next to Bryan. “She’ll meet us at the infirmary. Come on.”
“But…” I couldn’t stop staring at the vacant spot.
“Reed?” Rob appeared, a bandage covering the gash on his forehead he’d earned during the battle inside the warehouse. He took my hand, running his thumb along my palm. “Let us take you to Syd.”
“No!” I jerked my hand back. “I’m fine. I don’t need an infirmary. I need to know where they took her.”
“Ask her when you see her at the infirmary.” Bryan yawned and rolled his large shoulders, looking no worse for wear than when I’d seen him hours ago. No warehouse smudges on his school uniform, unlike the rest of us. No bumps or bruises, scrapes or anything else to mark up his beautiful face. Not even a hair out of place. “Come on, Katy. You want to see your mom again, then we need to pay Syd a visit.”
I looked at all of them. Bryan, the largest of the group, with his short brown hair always so neatly combed, his hazel eyes swirling with worry as he studied me. Rob, our tall, dark, and handsome ringleader, his five o’clock shadow more like a ten o’clock shadow after he was out all night searching for Bryan. Clay, always ready with a smile that lit up his brilliant emerald eyes, his wild brown hair even more untamed than normal, his soft beard caked with warehouse dirt.
“Wait.” I pushed them back when they closed in. “Where’s Leo?”
“He’ll just Uber it back to the academy,” Clay said.
I wanted all my guys. “Find him. If we leave, we leave together.”
He rolled those glorious eyes and groaned. “Fine. I’ll be right back. So bossy.” He popped out.
“You okay?” Bryan asked.
No, I wasn’t okay. I was the exact opposite of okay. My mom, presumed dead for the past six years, had just reappeared in my life. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I was overjoyed, of course, but I was also very, very confused. Where had she been? How’d she find Bryan and rescue him from the dark elementals who had taken him? Alec von Leer and Spencer Dalton weren’t exactly the type to hand him over if someone said please.
I’d been so focused on my mom, I completely forgot Bryan had been taken by the grand poohbah of dark elementals and his sidekick, whose eyebrows I’d singed off in our last battle. “Are you okay? Where’d they take you?”
“How about I tell you all about it after we get out of here?” He glanced around at all the Council members staring at us, waiting for us to…what? Jump on a unicycle and start juggling?
Clay popped back in with a sickly-looking Leo. His crazy blond curls were limp and plastered to his sweat-soaked baby face. He had a bump on his forehead the size of a small mountain and looked as if he’d rolled around on the floor of the warehouse. His color had drained, and he leaned forward, his hands on his knees, and drew in several breaths. “God, I hate teleporting.” He finally straightened and bounced his rounded blue eyes at each of us. “What’d I miss?”
“Our boy Bry is back. Montana’s mom helped him escape, which we’re all a bit fuzzy on the details. Oh, she’s not dead, which is important to note. The Council took her. The end.” Clay grasped his arm and then mine. “Ready?”
“Wait—” was all Leo got out before we popped into the void.
Even though we landed by Cressida Clearwater’s statue at the academy seconds later, my insides still had time to wrestle with my outsides. I rested my hand on the cool bronze material that made up her robes, immediately feeling the peace wash over me. Cressida had the power to do that. Every time.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, thrusting his fingers through his mess of blond curls, pulling them off his face. “I really hate teleporting.”
“I’m regretting that breakfast burrito.” I pressed my fist to my stomach and leaned against him. He pulled me close. Although my water elemental was emotionally detached—which fit me perfectly—he loved to touch. And I loved his touch. It soothed me, relaxed me into a euphoric state, so I rested my head on his firm shoulder.
“How about we take this party to the ruins?” Bryan’s request popped the bubble of anxiety I’d been bouncing around in since my mom reappeared. I didn’t want to go back to the ruins. Not now, maybe not ever. Nothing good came from when we were all in that dilapidated structure of stones and rotted wood. I turned into a different person there. A darker person. A dangerous person.
“Why’d we pop out here?” I motioned to the statue. “We need to be at the infirmary.” Besides, if we didn’t go to the infirmary, my mom wouldn’t know how to find us. I couldn’t risk her disappearing again.
Leo slipped his hand into mine and laced our fingers together. He pushed his control to me, calming me even more. I hadn’t realized I needed the extra boost until he gave it to me. I loved that my guys knew me well enough to know when I needed a little help from my friends even when I didn’t know it. “It’s just on the other side of campus. We can walk.”
I didn’t want to waste the time walking when a quick teleport would have us there in an instant. Squeezing Leo’s hand to keep us connected, I focused on the front steps of the elemental hospital and teleported out, landing us exactly where I’d hoped. Thank you, baby Jesus. I usually struggled to stick my landings and was grateful to my air element for listening to me this time.
“I really hate—”
“Teleporting,” I finished for him. “I know. I’m not a huge fan either, but I wanted to get here as soon as possible.”
I faced him and took a closer look at his appearance. Warehouse grime covered his face and made his striking crystal-blue eyes stand out even more. His usually sun-bleached blond hair was dark from the grit mangled in it. He’d probably gotten that impressive lump on his forehead when one of the dark elementals tackled him in the black fog Bryan had created to disorient them. It disoriented us all.
“You need a shower.” I glanced at my scraped legs, knees black from whatever I’d picked up rolling around the warehouse floor. I’d have to throw away this uniform. No way would the socks and shirt ever be white again. I checked my arms and curled my lip at the layers of gross coating my skin. “We both do.”
“We could conserve water and shower together.” He grinned and shrugged out of his no-longer-blue blazer, slinging it over his shoulder before opening the door. “Let’s do this first, and then…”
“Do each other.” I snorted and walked inside the infirmary. A hot shower with a gorgeous guy
rubbing me down sounded amazing. Spending the rest of the night wrapped in his arms was exactly what I needed.
But, I couldn’t. Not until I saw my mom again, talked to her, held her hand so she couldn’t disappear again without taking me with her. I didn’t want to leave, and I wouldn’t stay away, but at least then I’d know where she went.
The infirmary was practically deserted this late, with only a few rooms occupied. Leo and I walked through a set of double doors that led to a waiting room lined with rows of gray chairs against off-white walls, and took seats. I’d never been at the infirmary voluntarily and didn’t know if there was a place to check in like at a Nelem doctor’s office. “Do we just sit here and wait? Is Syd even here?”
“He’ll be here in a few minutes,” Bryan answered as he and the rest of the guys joined us. “I had to wake him up. It’s really late.”
“Or really early, depending on your life choices.” I checked the wall clock and made a face. Three in the morning was one of those times of the night—or morning—where no one should be awake. It was unnatural. The bars were all closed. No stores were open yet. It was just a filler hour between the end of the night before and the beginning of the next day.
And I was awake to bear witness, which didn’t please me. I collapsed in the chair and released a jaw-popping yawn. Now that the battle had ended and my earth elemental had returned from whatever the hell they’d taken him to, I could finally relax a little.
I rested my head on the back of the chair as I asked, “Where’d they take you, Bryan?”
He melted into a chair facing us against the far wall. Rob hesitated, glancing between Bryan and me, before taking a seat next to Bryan. Clay practically jumped into the seat on my left since Leo sat to my right.
“I don’t really know,” Bryan finally started. He combed his fingers through his short hair and hung his head. “It was dark. There were all these people walking around in a zombie-like state. Staring straight ahead, no expressions, eyes wide. There was no sound even though I called out for you guys.” He lifted his head, darting a troubled gaze between all of us before settling it on me. “I yelled, but nothing came out. It was so quiet, it hurt my ears.”
