by Kat Adams
“I don’t like to be touched because it’s too personal. A touch. A hug. A kiss.” She shuddered. “It’s all too personal.”
“Even with Dad?”
“We had you, didn’t we? There had to be some touching involved.”
“Gross,” I groaned again. “Don’t talk about sex with Dad. That’s so unsettling.”
She laughed and flipped the single braid behind her. “All I’m saying is I don’t like to be touched, and I know you picked that up from me. Clearly, you’ve made exceptions since coming here to Clearwater.”
And before. I left out the explanation of the way I’d craved the guys’ touch when I’d first discovered I was an elemental.
The tension between us had me searching for an excuse to leave. I didn’t want to upset her and risk having her leave again, so I flashed my brightest smile and drew a breath to say something snarky in the hopes of making her laugh when my phone buzzed. I checked the screen, stiffening when I recognized the number. Stace rarely called me, so to see her number flash across my screen, had me nervous. I swiped to answer. “Hello?”
“Oh, good. You’re still up. Are you on school grounds?” Her soft lisp took flight with the question.
I rolled my eyes and stopped short of growling. Here I thought it was something important, not my faculty advisor checking up on me. “Yes, Professor Layden. You made it clear I wasn’t allowed to leave without your permission.” I caught my mom grinning and returned the gesture.
“That’s not why I’m calling, although I don’t appreciate the tone, Katy.” Her response, so sharp and clipped, cut right through me. It hurt, and I didn’t know why. She was my professor, not my mom.
My mom stood in front of me, making faces and trying to get me to laugh. That was a mom, someone who supported me and made me laugh when I wanted to growl, not someone who only called to check up on me and took every opportunity to lecture me and turn the conversation into some sort of life lesson. Having my mom back made me realize I’d been aligning myself with surrogates since she left. Mindy Wilkerson. Stacey Layden. Now that Samantha Reed had returned, I no longer needed replacement moms. I had the real one six feet from me.
“You know what I don’t appreciate, Stace?” I glanced at my mom, who encouraged me with a nod. It filled my lungs with a bravado I only felt surface deep, if that. Although my stomach twisted at the thought of telling off the professor, that didn’t stop me from putting on a show as my mom watched. “My faculty advisor thinking she has any right to demand to know where I am. You’re my professor, not my mother.”
My mom clapped silently. I smiled as she continued to cheer me on to tell my 3C professor how I really felt. Only… It wasn’t how I really felt, I realized as soon as the words fell from my lips. Stace had been there for me when no one else had. She’d taken me in when I had nowhere to live over the summer. She’d healed me on a hunch when the gash in my hand had nearly turned me dark, and I went on a killing rampage.
“Stace—”
“I had no idea you felt that way,” she said quietly, her tone thick, heavy with disappointment. Jebus on a rainy day. Her response crushed me. I was a terrible human.
I glanced at my mom, who’d lost her smile and now studied my expression, hers settling into a hard, cool, and disapproving look. Now I know where I got the power of my resting bitch face.
“Is it how you feel?” Stace’s question pulled my attention back to her.
Turning from my mom, I replied, “What do you mean?”
“I’m sure you’re there with your mother.”
How’d she know that? “I am.”
“So, I’ll ask again. Is it how you feel? Or is this coming from someone else?”
No hidden meaning there. I fought the urge to glance back at my mom for fear her expression would drive me to say something else I didn’t mean.
“I’m not going to keep you,” she finally said. “I just wanted to check on you and make sure you were okay after today’s tribunals. I heard they were difficult.”
That was just for those of us who were forced to watch. For the kids being tested, it was nothing short of torture. And I got the pleasure of doing that all over again, day after day, until the Council cleared out all the magically enhanced riffraff. Like me. “They were.”
“I’ve asked to be on the field for the remaining tribunals.”
“What about 3C? And why’d you call all the students to class on a Saturday?”
“I wanted to keep them distracted. No one could concentrate, not with what’s happening. Not even the instructor.” She laughed softly, and I imagined her smoothing back her dark hair in the tight bun she always wore. “I don’t approve of the Council wanting the students watching their friends go through tribunal. And, I’ll be honest, I was worried about you.”
Now I felt even worse for attempting to tell her off. “Why? You know it takes a lot more than calling a few elements to drain me.”
“Being around that much concentrated dark magic,” she pointed out. “We know what happens when it calls to the darkness inside you.”
I closed my hand into a fist to hide the damning proof. “You think I’ll go all dark again.”
“The thought had crossed my mind.”
“I’m never going to let the darkness take over,” I whispered fiercely, keeping my voice down so my mom wouldn’t hear. “I’m stronger now. I know how to control it.”
“Make sure you do. If the Council discovers you have a sixth element inside you, a magically enhanced element, they’ll send you to Carcerem permanently.”
“Permanently?” I repeated in shock. Why would me having the ability to call six elements send me to prison? Granted, one of the elements was darkness, so there was that. But that did not make me dark. “But that’s so unfair. I didn’t ask for this.”
“Neither did the MEs. Remember that.”
How could I forget? “They’re just innocent kids.”
“So are you. Let’s not give them any reason to think otherwise.”
I ended the call and turned to tell my mom that Stace would be joining her on the field tomorrow. Disappointment rattled me.
She was gone.
6
Not wanting to spend the rest of the evening in my room and wanting even less to dream about the void, I whipped out my phone and texted the only one of the group with his own place. My fire elemental was now a hunter with the Council patrols. Although I hated the idea of him running around looking for clans of dark elementals, he loved it.
I texted Rob. You home?
Pop over. The guys are here.
My excitement sparked to life. I loved hanging with my guys and closed my eyes to concentrate on Rob’s cabin, teleporting out and landing on the ground just in front of the stairs leading up to the wraparound porch. I’d fallen in love with this place long before I’d known it’d be Rob’s domicile once he left the academy. The D-log walls leading up to a high center peak. The charm of a small cottage I’d expect to see in Montana. The screen door that squawked when the springs holding it closed protested at being disturbed.
The cabin was heavily warded—a requirement for anyone working patrols for the Council—which made me feel an inkling better about Rob living here alone. I paused as I studied the nearly invisible barrier. It shimmered softly, every so often catching the light just right. I looked for a ward resembling the one I’d created today but struck out.
Without warning, my hand began to throb. I glanced at my palm, stiffening when the pulsing glow just beneath my skin radiated outward. I checked the barrier, then dropped my attention back to my hand. If the darkness inside me blocked me from entering the beefed-up barrier created by the added wards, I’d…well… I don’t know what I’d do, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
Cautiously, I reached out and turned my head away from the inevitable carnage as I slipped my arm through the barrier, fully expecting it to eat the flesh from my bones or whatever happened when the wards came across a dark elemental.
To my extreme and giddy relief, my arm slipped through without issue. I released the breath I’d been holding and passed through the protective wall, taking the steps up to the porch.
Clay’s roaring laughter as Bryan shouted at him drew me inside. I’d probably have to break them up. To my surprise, they sat around the coffee table, Bryan and Rob on the couch, Leo in the matching chair, and Clay in one of the dining room chairs. A board game sat on the table between them, colorful funny money stacked neatly in front of each of them, pieces patiently waiting for someone to roll the dice.
“Reed!” Rob waved me in and patted the couch between Bryan and him. “Have a seat. The game is about to commence.”
“You are about to go down, babe.” Leo winked, causing my insides to go a little haywire. He wiped at his brow with the back of his hand.
“I wouldn’t mind that.” Clay waggled his eyebrows, earning a groan from the rest of the group.
I kept my attention on my water elemental. He had a fine film of sweat coating his face, and his cheeks were flush. “Are you okay? Is it your fever?”
“No, it’s just hot in here.”
“Dude, I don’t have AC,” Rob defended. “Call water and cool your core if it’s too warm.”
“I’ll just get another bottle of water.” He stood and left the room.
“Grab beers,” Clay called out.
“You should drink water when it gets this hot,” Leo fired back.
“Beer has water in it. Close enough.”
Bryan rubbed his hands together. “I’ve been waiting for a rematch. I’m pretty sure Clay cheated to win last time.”
Clay threw his head back and laughed into the air. “Whatever, dude. I didn’t have to cheat. You just suck at Elementopoly.”
“Elemen—whoobie whattie?” I asked. It looked like Monopoly, but with the elements in place of the railroads, Carcerem as the jail, and the prophecy as the free space. I didn’t know how I felt about our life as a board game. I definitely didn’t like the prophecy depicted as some free space where you won the kitty in the middle by a lucky roll of the dice and landing on a corner square.
“Elementopoly. It’s like the Nelem board game, but for elementals. Check it out.” Rob waited for me to sit before scooting forward and holding up a little metal board piece in the shape of a flame. “Each piece is an element. You roll the dice and move. If you land on any of the Xs, you choose a red risk card. Land on any of the dollar signs, you grab a green reward card.”
“I’m buying up all the elements this time,” Bryan declared.
“Not if I get them first,” Clay fired back.
“You guys think too small.” Leo walked back into the room, handing out beers while he held a bottle of water to his forehead.
“Are you sick?” I asked. “Is your fever worse? Maybe we should go see Syd tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow.”
“I already told you, I’m fine, just a little warm.” He took a seat and held up a little metal piece resembling a rolling wave. “Now, prepare to lose. Water is going to own Radiance Row. One of you land on this side of the board, I’ll own you.”
“No Boardwalk? Park Place? What about passing Go and collecting two-hundred dollars?” I searched for familiar squares, finding nothing. Even the board was a different color. Instead of the pale aqua, the board was black with white lettering, had street names like Illumination Lane and Shadow Court.
“Nothing like that.” Clay scooped up the remaining pieces. “Do you want to be light? Or dark?”
We all fell silent and blinked at each other. Considering this past week, that was a pretty goddamn loaded question. I didn’t feel like playing before. Now I wanted to burn the board. “Those are my only choices?”
“You can be water.” Leo held out the wave.
“No way, man. Reed is hot. She should be fire.” Rob tried to hand me the flame.
Bryan lifted the mountain-looking piece. “You should be your primary.”
“Way to make me look like the dick.” Clay pushed the piece with lines twirling on one side and rolling into a ball on the other to depict wind toward me. “Here, Montana. Allow me to pass wind.” He snorted at his own joke. We all groaned.
But it broke the tension, which was one of Clay’s many gifts.
“I’ll be light.” I held out my hand and accepted the piece Clay dropped onto my palm. It looked like a little spark with an outward glow. “Cute.”
“You could always go dark.” Clay held up a black blob-looking thing.
“Been there, done that. Not going back. Who goes first?”
“You do,” they all said in unison.
Not about to argue, I rolled the dice. At least those appeared normal. Six sides. Square. White with black dots. I counted my spaces and frowned when I landed on an X. “What’s that again?”
“Risk,” Rob explained. “That’s a red card.”
I pulled a card and read it aloud. “You took last place in a beauty contest and were the only one who entered. Go back three spaces. Rude.” Did a card just call me ugly?
“Read the last part. There’s an option B. That’s why they call it a risk card.”
I moved my thumb. “Reveal a secret and go ahead three spaces.” I glanced at the board. Moving forward would put me on one of the element squares. If I bought it, at least Clay and Bryan wouldn’t keep fighting about which one of them would own them all. My mind made up, I replaced the card. “I made my first ward today.”
“That’s cool.” Clay grinned.
“No way,” whispered Bryan.
“What sort of ward?” Leo asked.
“I haven’t even done that,” whined Rob.
Considering their reactions, that counted as a secret, so I moved ahead three spaces and tallied the money. “I’ll take it.”
“But that’s mine,” Bryan and Clay both complained.
“Looks like it’s mine.” I handed the money to Leo, who handed me back the piece of cardboard designating me as a bona fide property owner.
“Tell us about the ward,” Bryan said and rolled the dice, tapping his piece around the board. He shelled out the money to purchase a green-banded square labeled Evergreen Lane.
“It sort of looked like a sideways S, with this little flip at the end. It glowed.”
“That sounds like a water ward,” Leo explained and picked up the dice, rolling them around in his hand before dropping them on the board. “I’m surprised you chose your weakest element to do something that requires a lot of power. That must have drained you.” He counted the spaces and frowned when he landed on my newly acquired fire element property.
“That’ll be fifty bucks.” I held out my hand, palm up.
“Just wait until you land on Radiance Row.” He handed me the money. “I’ll take you for everything.”
“You have to get there before I do.”
Clay laughed and grabbed the dice. “Ooh, Montana is out for blood. I like it.” He rolled and counted out the spaces, eagerly swiping a red risk card. “Your mom tried to give you away, and no one wanted you. Go back two spaces. Well, that wouldn’t surprise me. Or…” He dropped his attention to the bottom of the card. He then bounced his gaze from Leo to Rob before jumping up and squeezing between Bryan and me. He read from the card. “Kiss the person to your right and move forward two spaces.”
He tossed the card aside, pulled me to my feet, and dipped me before slanting his mouth over mine, tickling me with his soft beard. Licking my lips open, he twisted our tongues together and kissed me hungrily, playfully, nipping at my bottom lip as he stood me up.
“That’s cheating,” Leo pointed out the obvious.
“Frankly, I’m glad he did.” Rob grabbed the card off the floor and replaced it at the bottom of the pile. “I don’t want to kiss the guy.”
“Good point.”
“Your turn, Rob.” I swept my skirt under my legs and took a seat.
He rubbed his hands together and grabbed the dice, rolling double sixes. “Ye
s!” He punched the air.
“How do you do that every freakin’ time?” Leo handed him two hundred dollars.
“It’s all in the wrist, man. Your turn, Reed.”
We played the game for hours. I wound up with all the element properties, which was fitting considering I had the power to call all the elements. Bryan and Clay found other properties to fight over, while Rob played it pretty safe and only bought a few properties here and there and was the first out. Leo did indeed end up owning Radiance Row and ultimately bankrupted us all. I made a mental note to go after those properties next game.
If there was a next game. I didn’t appreciate the insulting risk cards, although they were pretty funny. They were like Cards Against Humanity and Monopoly had a love child. At least the reward cards just handed out money with no strings attached.
By the time we put the game away, it was after midnight. Crap. I had no idea it was that late. Tomorrow was going to come way too fast. I groaned as I dragged my ass off to the hall leading to the two bedrooms. No way did I trust myself to teleport back to the academy as tired as I was. I debated texting Stace to let her know I wouldn’t be back on campus and decided against it. I was almost twenty-two. I didn’t need to check in with anyone. I was no longer the prophecy. I had no reason to follow a curfew.
“Aren’t you going back to Clearwater?” Leo asked when I rounded the corner to the master bedroom.
I peeked back out. “Nope.” I moved farther into the hall.
“But you have to be on the field again tomorrow.”
I backed up to peek out again. “That’s tomorrow. Tonight, I sleep.”
“But, babe.”
“Good night, Leo,” I called out and didn’t stop until I closed the bedroom door behind me. It did nothing to block out their conversation. As I slipped off my shoes and began to undress, I listened in on what they were saying.
“Professor Layden said she shouldn’t leave the school,” Clay stated once I left the room. My usually carefree air elemental had fallen out of character ever since Spencer Dalton had come into, and ultimately attempted to end, our lives. He focused on the rules. More than that, he actually followed them and tried to get others to follow them as well. It was unnerving.
