by Kat Adams
It was also on the opposite side of where I wanted to be. The infirmary was now a good quarter mile away.
“What the hell, Rob?” I punched him in the arm, cracking several knuckles. Ouch. I shook out my hand and worked my fingers, confirming I didn’t break them. He laughed in response, the ass. I shoved him. Hard. “I need to check on Leo.”
“You need to control your shit, Reed.” He gently pushed me back. When I returned the gesture, but much harder and with the help of my air, he stumbled back. “Uncool, Reed. I’m trying to help you.”
“You’re trying to stop me from checking on Leo,” I countered. “Why?” I then turned to Clay and Bryan, who exchanged guilty glances. “Why are you all trying to stop me?”
Rob tilted his head from side to side. “You kind of attacked a member of the Council.”
“She attacked Leo! You did too.” I shoved him again.
He brought up his hands to ward off any further attacks. “That’s why we brought you out here, to explain. I already told you that you and I were gonna have words.”
“Leo told us about wanting to go through the final tribunal,” Clay explained. “Knowing how stellarly open and upfront the Council is about, well, everything… I suggested we take a trip to the cabin to talk it out with Rob since he’s our inside man. Bry was already there.”
“That’s the real reason you were all at the cabin?” I looked around, locking glances with each of them, searching for the truth. When I had no reason to doubt them—not that I ever did, but I was, after all, me—I nodded. “Okay, so you were all there to have a powwow without me. Awesome. At least it wasn’t to play that stupid board game.”
“It’s not stupid!” Bryan and Clay exclaimed at the same time, both ready to defend their stand to the death if their stern looks had anything to say about it.
“Okay,” I sang and brought up my hands. “You’re both twelve.” I regarded Rob. “What does any of this have to do with keeping me from checking on Leo?”
“You attacked a member of the Council. Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in for what you did to Trina? She lost her eyebrows.”
“Good riddance, unibrow.” Clay lifted his fist. I bumped it.
We blew apart, both flying in opposite directions, landing on our asses. I rolled to my feet and had my hands at the ready to blast Rob for being such an asshole.
But it wasn’t Rob who hit me with a fireball.
I was stunned when I looked up to see not only Alec standing there but Spencer by his side. My heart hit my throat and the bottom of my feet at the same time. How the hell did they get past the barrier? Clearwater was warded. None of this made any sense.
“What the… What?”
“Happy to see me?” Alec asked, the snarl curling his thin lips. Same sharklike eyes. Same stringy black hair curtaining his skeletal face. Same dirty black leather duster that made him look like he’d just come from an Assassin’s Creed cosplay event. The scar bisecting the right side of his face still made him seriously fugly.
“I’m never happy to see you, Alec.” I smiled sweetly. “Or haven’t you gotten that through your head? No means no, dick.”
“I’m sure she’s happy to see me,” Spencer declared in that haughty British accent. His shaggy blond hair had recovered from the singeing I’d given him at the warehouse. His eyebrows had come back too. No way did hair grow that fast, so he must have cast a spell to restore himself back to his irritatingly gorgeous, underwear model appearance. He scraped that blue gaze over me, causing me to shudder uncomfortably. “I’ve missed you, Katy.”
“We literally saw each other yesterday. Remember when I nearly killed you? Ring a bell?”
“Nearly being the opportune word.”
I so very much hated the British invasion known as Spencer Dalton.
Alec glanced at Spencer, who glanced back at the grand poohbah of dark elementals with a grin. “I believe she’s looking for a challenge.”
“I believe you are right.”
“Oh my God. Tweedledum and Dumber, would you two just please get on with it? If you’re here to destroy me, then destroy me. Do not talk me to death.”
“Where’s the water elemental?” Spencer asked.
“None of your damn business.” I couldn’t think about Leo right now, not when I had to save my life and the lives of the others here with me.
“Oh, come now.” Spencer cocked his head. “Surely you aren’t down a man in your harem? However will you survive with only three at your beck and call?”
“Like this.” I hurled a fireball, hitting him square in the chest. He stumbled back, his eyes wide with shock. He didn’t hesitate to throw fire back at me. I deflected it with water, countering his call and canceling it out.
“Is that so?” He called air, pushing a wave of disruption barreling toward me.
Clay jumped in front of me and stopped it, holding both hands in the air, an odd grin on his face. “I’ve wanted to do this since the first day I met you.” He sent a wall of air at Spencer, slamming it into him and sending him flying several feet back.
Spencer recovered quickly and opened up the earth beneath Clay’s feet. My air elemental disappeared into the hole. When the ground closed, completely swallowing him, I dropped to my knees and clawed at the grass.
“Clay!”
“When are you going to learn to stop sending a boy to do the prophecy’s job?”
Bryan peeled back the layer of earth covering Clay. “I got this. Get out of here.”
“No way! You know better than to ask me something like that.” This ginger didn’t run from her battles. She finished them.
“Well, look who it is. I trust you enjoyed your time away from reality,” Alec sneered as he eyed Bryan.
“Hardly,” Bryan growled.
Spencer joined in the goading. “Why, hello, earth elemental. Did the void live up to your expectations? If not, we could always send you back.”
That did it. That goddamn mother ducking did it. I jumped to my feet and charged him, claws drawn. No one sends my boyfriend to the void and gets away with it. Before I could reach him, he threw up a wall of air, stopping me.
“You really are tenacious, aren’t you?” He regarded Alec. “Are you quite sure we can’t keep her?”
Alec gave me a look. “Well, I suppose I did promise you a pet.”
Oh, hell to the no. I was no one’s pet. It was time to put these two rabid dogs down for good. I centered my call, focusing my energy on the coldness deep in my veins, throbbing to be released. I didn’t want to tap in to that darkness, but sometimes you had to fight fire with fire.
Or, in this case, darkness with darkness.
The wind picked up around me, spiraling, lifting my hair in the breeze. I called the element to boost me into the air, giving me a better position to attack. The sky darkened, thunder rumbling above, lightning shooting across the sky. That familiar coldness washed over me, hardening me against what I was about to do, exciting me for the same reason.
The storm raging inside me built, intensifying to the point I struggled to contain it. Sparks of energy ignited around me, crackling in eager anticipation of being set free.
Rob ran over and helped Bryan pull Clay from the early grave before it became his final resting place. Once the air elemental was free, he collapsed onto his back and stared at the sky. “I really hate dirt.”
“You’ll live.” Rob tapped his arm with the back of his hand. “Come on. Get up. Our girl needs us.”
Clay sat up and glanced my way. “You sure about that?”
“Reed, no!” Rob’s shout distracted me enough to lower me to the ground. “Do not give in to the darkness.”
“The darkness?” Spencer and Alec questioned in unison, exchanging glances. Alec then turned to Spencer. “What did you do?”
“We’ve been through this. I tried to bind her powers. It didn’t work.”
“You made her stronger, you imbecile.”
“Did I?” Spence
r turned on me, hitting me with such a strong blast of air, it sent me rolling. Before I could recover, he hurled a fireball at me. It crashed into the ground like a meteor, carving a deep groove on impact until it slid to a stop. The thundering sound of it digging through the earth filled the air. What the hell? I’d never seen fire do that before.
The fire fizzled out, revealing how it created the crater. A boulder rested in the ground, steaming and angry. It didn’t appreciate being forced to combine with fire and then hurled at me.
I feel ya, buddy. I didn’t so much appreciate it being hurled at me either.
“Very good, charge. But let’s see if you can dodge this one.” Spencer threw a powerful flame. I jumped up and caught it, which was probably the intention. It was enough to distract me while Alec sent another fireball the size of Seattle barreling toward me. I dodged it just in time and flew like Superman off to the side. Both dark elementals chuckled.
Assholes.
“I’m not your charge, Spence. And in case you missed the memo, Alec, I’m no longer the prophecy, so I guess you two are going to have to find someone else to torment.” That someone else just so happened to be my mom. I left that part out.
“So, it’s done.” Alec dropped his call and straightened. “The prophecy has fallen.”
“No,” I said and brought up my finger. “I said I’m no longer the prophecy. Big diff. Huge.”
They continued to grin at each other. “It is done.”
Spencer nodded in agreement.
And then they both teleported out.
I looked from Rob to Clay and finally rested my attention on Bryan. “What was that all about?”
“I think the bigger question is, how’d they get onto the grounds?” Rob glanced around, eyeing the invisible barrier that supposedly kept the students safe from exactly what’d just happened. So far, they’d done a pretty terrible job. Maybe it was time to think of a better way to protect the academy than warding it. “Clay, since you’re interning for the headmaster now, you’d better let him know dark elementals somehow broke through the barrier. I’ll let the Council know.”
He nodded, knocking dirt free from his hair. He then shook like a dog, sending dust flying. “I think I’ll shower first.”
“I’ll talk to Stace,” I offered. “She might know how they got through.”
Bryan hadn’t said anything, only stared at me, blinking with wide eyes. He took several steps back as if I’d just grown a set of horns and a pointy tail.
“Bryan?”
“W-what was that?”
“What was what?” I shot a confused look to Rob and Clay before returning it to him. “Are you okay?”
“You went dark.”
“Well, yeah. That’s what happens when I tap in to the darkness inside me.”
His mouth fell open as he retreated more. “You’re dark?”
“Bro?” Rob stepped forward. “You do remember what happened, don’t you? Our girl isn’t really dark. She has a sixth element now. You don’t remember the cut? The way you two, uh, healed it?”
The look of fear sweeping over his expression, the worry swirling in his gaze, shattered my heart. He shook his head. “I don’t remember.”
Oh no. Oh, God no. What was happening to my earth elemental? Was that memory spell slowly robbing him of his good memories too? Or was this something else? Was this a result of the void slowly robbing him of his mind entirely?
“We’d better get you to Syd.” I grasped for his hand.
He jerked it back and moved out of my reach. “I’ll go on my own.”
“Bryan?” I whimpered. His reaction to the thought of any contact with me crushed me.
“What the hell, dude?” Clay was immediately by my side, challenging the opposite elemental, as per usual. “Are you serious with this right now? First you claim you don’t remember anything about the void, and now you insult our girl?” He shoved Bryan. “What the actual, dude?”
Bryan shoved Clay right back. He was so much bigger than the air elemental that the contact sent Clay stumbling back. “She’s dark, man. What the hell do you expect? I can’t be around anything dark.”
“She is our girl. How can you say something like that?”
“How can you say something like that?” I said at the same time, blinking at him, not understanding why he suddenly acted like a stranger to me. I get the void might be messing with his head, but this was us. I always thought we had that type of bond that got us through anything, including some stupid spell that erased memories or a void that robbed people of their sanity.
Clearly, I was wrong.
“You know what?” I backed away, my hands up. This was not a battle I wanted to fight right now. I’d just survived another attack by dark elementals, and on school grounds. Again. I needed to talk to Stace and let her know about the barrier. “It’s all good.”
“No, Montana. It’s not all good.”
“Clay, drop it. Bryan has some issues he’s dealing with. We all do. I’m going to go talk to Stace and then check on Leo. You go talk to Dean Carter.”
“But—”
Rob jumped in, cutting him off. “I’ll talk to the Council. They have to know what just happened. This is the first time dark elementals have breached the barrier without any help from someone on the inside.”
“That we know of,” I pointed out. “Alec got through with the help of Jules.”
“Inside help,” he pointed out right back, a triumphant grin tilting the corners of his lips.
“Spencer got through without any help.”
“Magically enhanced.”
Like that made any difference. Like any reason made a difference. Dark elementals had invaded our academy. This was war. It also further proved I didn’t attack those two water elementals.
Dark elementals were among us.
10
I paced in the shadows outside the infirmary while Rob checked on Unibrow—Trina. Chewing on my nails, a nasty habit I’d picked up from Stace over the summer, I walked back and forth, rocking from foot to foot, eyeing the front entrance, and starting the cycle all over again.
When Rob pushed through the doors and stepped onto the front porch, I practically mauled him as I rushed up the stairs. “Tell me everything. Is he okay? What’s happening? Did he suffer any permanent damage? Is he okay? Tell me everything!” I grabbed him by the collar and shook him.
“Reed.” He grasped my hands, lowering them in his. “Trina is going to be okay.”
“I don’t care about her.”
“But you should.” He nailed me with a hard look that had me shrinking back. “That’s the problem. You are acting without thinking about the consequences. You know who else does that?”
“Let me guess. Every dark elemental.” I stopped short of rolling my eyes.
“And a few unstable good ones,” he replied, softening his expression. He didn’t have to actually say it for me to pick up his meaning. “I told Stace about Alec and Spencer. She’s going to the Council and wants me to stay here with you.”
“Good, then you can come with me to check on Leo.” I tried to push past him to get inside, but he stopped me. “What are you doing?”
“He’s sleeping. Syd said not to disturb him and to come back later.”
That was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do. My boyfriend was lying in a hospital bed because of me. I needed to be by his side. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. Come on, let’s get out of here. We could both use a little distraction.” He teleported us to the cabin, landing us directly in the master bedroom.
“Well, I guess you don’t waste any time, now do you?”
His answer came in a swift move, literally sweeping me off my feet and catching me in a dip right before I hit the floor. He dropped his dark gaze to my mouth and licked his lips. “Why waste time when we both know what we want?”
Adrenaline surged through my body when he kissed me so deep, so passionately, I felt it in my next life. H
e licked my lips open and attacked my tongue with his. Dear God, did this guy know how to kiss. I found myself moaning into his mouth as our connection strengthened.
He straightened us without breaking the kiss and went for the buttons on my shirt. As much as I wanted to have sex with him—and I really wanted to have sex with him—this was happening way too fast.
I flattened my hands on his chest and pushed him back enough for me to catch my breath. “Jesus Jiminy, man. Slow down. What’s got you so…so…”
“Horny,” he answered and took a step toward me. A smile slowly tipped his lips. “All this battling with first years has me worked up. It’s got to be affecting you too. I can smell it.”
“Eww, dude. Gross.”
He laughed low, the sound rumbling from his chest and settling into the air between us. “I smell the scent of your call, Reed. Just like the first day we met. It’s like a drug in my system.”
“It is?” That was news.
He took another step and stretched out his hand. “Absolutely. Now, let’s stop fooling around and start fooling around.”
I wished I didn’t love how dominant he got when we were together. The power. The control. He loomed over me, his broad shoulders and all that muscle dwarfing me even though I was only half a foot shorter. I held my ground as he invaded my personal space, a wicked glimmer in his ever-darkening gaze.
“Rob, I—” was all I got out before he pounced and scooped me into his arms. I screamed out a giggle in surprise and did a pretty shoddy job of fighting off the big bad wolf. Why bother? The way he looked at me, coupled with the heat from his kiss, had me buzzed and ready for a little horizontal action. I wrapped my arms around his neck and watched him as he walked us to the bed. When he unceremoniously dropped me onto the mattress, I screamed again.
I screamed a third time when he launched into the air and landed right on top of me, catching himself with his elbows before crushing me. The impact still sent the air whistling from my lungs. I gasped to refill them.
