Elemental Betrayal

by Elle Middaugh

  Xavier swallowed hard. “Let’s hope.”

  Dru chuckled then held out his hand as a stream of blue magic once again pooled into one of my friends.

  “Whoa,” Xavier exclaimed, tone moving from concern to fascination in just a few seconds. “This is freaking awesome!”

  Meg chuckled at him then glanced at Kale and Jay. “Sorry, boys. I think the rest of us are going to choose our champions from the map.”

  Kale put up both hands. “No worries here. Nik’s probably right.”

  Jay shrugged. “I’m not surprised. I didn’t expect to be immediately trusted.”

  “All right, Ida,” Nik said, growing impatient. “Let’s get this shit over with.”

  “I’ll see them off,” Leo said to Ida. “Take the gods to the cave and get them started. I’ll be over soon.”

  Ida nodded her consent. She turned to leave, and that was when I remembered something.

  “Ida, wait!”

  She paused, and I caught up to her.

  “About calling the dead…” I hesitated, trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to ask. “Is there a way to do it without human sacrifice? Especially since I’ll probably just open up the Euphoric realm again—and, speaking of which…are we allowed to come back?”

  Ida smiled wide. “Of course you can come back! As champions, you’re technically now demigods, and demigods will always be welcome in Euphoria.”

  “Awesome! So, about calling the dead…is it possible?”

  “Oh, of course.” She opened her palm and a shiny red apple appeared. “This is one of Eve’s special apples. It’ll do whatever I tell it to, though its effects are short-lived. Anyone who bites into it will have mirror-like access to the afterlife. They are not allowed to enter the realm, but they may look and converse as long as the magic remains.”

  When she was finished with the spell, she handed me the fruit.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now you really must be going. Since Nik, Meg, Taj, and Eve are choosing their champions now, you won’t know who they are. You’ll be forced to find them—a hard enough task considering the human realm is huge—and then convince them to join your cause. I know you’ve been training hard and gathering a loyal following, but you won’t actually stand a chance of beating Nicholai unless all eight of the champions join forces as one.”

  I nodded, because what else was I going to do? We had a mission, we had an objective, and we were a hell of a lot closer to victory than we’d been before we arrived. Still, my stomach clenched uneasily.

  “One more thing, sorry,” I said, stopping her before she turned away. “Nik said Jay might not kill Nicholai if given the chance—does that mean he can’t be trusted?”

  Ida shook her head. “I read nothing of the sort in his thoughts. It seems he really has come back to your side, but he is definitely still filled with hurt and confusion. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be thinking or feeling and, to be honest, I think he needs your guidance and friendship. If he gets that, I think he can be the same Jay he used to be.” She made a brushing motion with both hands. “Now shoo. We all have a lot of work to do before the final showdown with Nicholai. Good luck to you all.”

  “Thank you, Ida.” I wasn’t sure if it was entirely appropriate to hug a god or not, but I pulled her into a warm embrace anyway. “For everything.”

  She squeezed me back before letting go. “You’re welcome, little dove. I know you’ll make me proud.”

  With that, she followed the other gods to the cave of crystals, and I jogged back over to the group to go with Leo.

  He waved his hand, creating another giant vine with cushy leaves and flowers, and motioned for us to climb on. When we did, it grew and stretched out across the baby blue sky between the islands. The journey back seemed much shorter than the trip in. Before I knew it, we were standing in front of the portal and staring into the forest beyond. The severed head of Madam Lucia still lay on the ground where we’d left it.

  Gross.

  “Farewell, champions and Elementals,” Leo said with a wave. “Kick some ass.”

  We all smiled, and Cade answered for the group. “We will.”

  Then just like that, we were through the gash between realms, and the seam was sealed shut behind us.

  12

  As soon as things were back to normal, I held the apple out for everyone to see.

  “Let’s do what we intended to do from the beginning. Let’s finally get some closure.”

  I smiled, took a bite, and then passed the apple to Sienna.

  She hesitated for a moment, staring at the fruit in confusion before taking a bite out of it with a loud crunch then passing it to Jay. We went the whole way around the group then we all sat down in a circle.

  After a moment, a mirror-like, semitransparent vision filled the air in the middle of our circle. Gray faces appeared then disappeared as the magic of the apple seemingly shuffled through the afterlife in search of the proper souls. It was way more advanced than I was expecting. I figured we’d be stumbling around blind with no real clue how to find Charlene or Sienna’s parents.

  But the magic found them easily…and a few unexpected others.

  Apparently, since we’d all taken a bite of the apple, the magic saw fit to find us all a dead soul to communicate with. Sienna had her parents, Jay had Charlene, and Cade and Xavier had their mother, Delaney, whom my grandfather had killed. Kale had some guy I’d never met, one who looked a lot like him, and I had…

  “Alana?” My voice came out as a whisper. I shook my head. “I mean…Grandma?”

  She smiled sweetly and nodded.

  Oh my god! I could hardly believe it.

  Everyone started talking all at once, and it was impossible to get a word in edgewise. I shook my head and put my hands up.

  “Okay, guys, I know this is going to be hard, but we need to take turns. Let’s start with Sienna and her parents then Jay and Charlene since they’re the whole reason we did all of this to begin with. After that we can let Kale talk to his spirit, then Cade and Xavier can talk to Delaney, and I’ll go last.”

  Everyone nodded their agreement and then stared at Sienna.

  She took a deep breath, and her chin quivered. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.” Her voice cracked and she was almost instantly sobbing. Phillipa and Marco had been good friends with my parents when we were growing up, and it hurt me as well to see them like this—lifeless, hollow, gone.

  “Shhh, it’s all right, baby girl,” Phillipa cooed. “We’re here.”

  “It’s wonderful to see you, sweetheart,” Marco said. His arm was around his wife’s shoulders, and he might’ve had a tear in his eye.

  Sienna’s tears were uncontrollable. “I miss you guys so much. I don’t know what to do without you.”

  Phillipa smiled. “Of course you do—just live.”

  “You say that like it’s easy.” She sniffed.

  Marco reached for her, but as realization dawned in his eyes, he slowly lowered his hands. He couldn’t cross realms. He couldn’t touch her.

  “It is easy, kiddo,” he said. “Just be the best version of yourself that you can be and know in your heart that your mother and I will always love you. We’ll always be proud of the young woman you’ve become.”

  Sienna sobbed even harder. “I don’t know how! I feel so empty without you guys, just a shell of the girl I used to be.”

  “You need to find happiness and love,” Marco said with a smile. “That’ll do the trick.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t.”

  Phillipa put her hand on Marco’s leg. “Sienna, you’re beautiful on the outside, but you need to remember you’re also beautiful on the inside. Do you remember that boy Devin in junior high who broke your heart?”

  “How could I forget?” she muttered with a sour expression.

  “He thought you were gorgeous and you adored him, but when you weren’t looking, he moved on to the next pretty face in line. You were crus
hed.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “And you got it in your head that if you wanted a relationship with a happy ending, you were going to have to be the heartbreaker, not the heartbroken. You decided right then and there that you would never have your heart broken like that again, and you didn’t…because you never let anyone get close enough.”

  This time, Sienna stayed silent.

  Who knew one single moment of pain could affect the outcome of someone’s entire life?

  “Any boy who ever broke your heart was a damned fool,” Marco said, “but don’t allow yourself to stay broken. Show the world who you are and show yourself. You’re an Aeris: you’re strong and you’re damn fun to have around. Don’t let your light fade because of some teenage boy who never deserved you.”

  She smiled the first genuine smile I’d seen in months as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Thank you. I love you both so much.”

  “We love you too, sweetheart,” Phillipa said.

  “Let’s let someone else have their turn now, okay?” Marco said, wiping his eyes. “We’ll see you again before you know it.”

  Sienna nodded then buried her face in her hands. I hated to see her crying like this, but I was fairly sure it was a healing sort of cry, not a devastated one.

  Despite the fact that Xavier had said he was giving up on their relationship, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

  I turned to Jay, who was staring hopelessly at Charlene. I was convinced in that moment that he truly was in love with her, no matter what Nicholai had originally sent him to Center Allegheny to do.

  “Hey, Jay,” she said softly.

  “Hey.” His voice was gruff and raw. It was obvious how much he was hurting.

  “You’re as handsome as ever, baby boy. Why are you still pining over me? I’m a ghost.”

  His brows furrowed. “I will never stop pining over you, Charlene Lowrey. You were the best thing that ever happened to me in this life, the light to my darkness. Now you’re gone, and it’s so dark I can’t even see three feet in front of me…”

  She cocked her head and smiled. “No, Jay, listen to me. You are not dark. You might’ve made some bad choices and done some bad things, but you are not a bad person. You are redeemable, baby. You just have to find some inner light and cling to it.”

  He shook his head. “How?”

  She slowly looked around the group on the living side of the realms. “Hey, Val. Hey, Sienna.”

  We waved back, and Water element be damned, I started crying.

  “I miss you, Charlene,” I said through strained vocal cords.

  “I miss you all, too.” Then she turned back to Jay. “You have friends, good friends, with true light shining bright inside them. Hold on to that. Don’t let them go. They’ll help you find the light within you.”

  “What if there is none to find?” he asked, so low I almost couldn’t hear him.

  She leaned forward and put her hand up to the mirror-vision. Jay did the same, and a muffled sob escaped his lips as their fingers almost touched.

  “Do you honestly think I would have fallen in love with you if there was no light in your soul?”

  He shook his head in response as the tears burned down his cheeks.

  “That’s right, I wouldn’t have. But I did, Jay. I did fall in love with you, and I will love you forever and ever, but you have got to move on. Take however much time you need and rely on your friends as much as possible, but pick up your broken pieces and put your amazing self back together. It’s my deepest wish to see you happy again.”

  He closed his eyes but nodded once more.

  “Can you promise me that?” Charlene asked gently. “Promise you’ll try?”

  “I swear on my life I’ll try, baby girl. I love you so much.”

  She nodded then her fingers slipped from the mirror. “Good. I love you, too, Jay.”

  My heart was breaking.

  I turned to Kale and nodded because I didn’t think I could speak.

  He took a deep breath and stared at the guy on the other side. “Hale? Is that really you?”

  The guy smiled. “You remember me.”

  “Of course I do. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you, wondering what my life would’ve been like if my twin had survived the crash.”

  The crash? Had his brother died in a car accident? I was ashamed to admit I’d never really asked Kale about his personal life. I needed to remember to be less of a Revolutionist drill sergeant and more of an actual friend.

  “I was seven when I ended up here,” Hale said, glancing around the grayish landscape with a peaceful sort of expression. “But it feels like only yesterday.”

  Kale nodded. “I think time works differently in other realms.”

  “It sure does.”

  Kale hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “Listen, Hale, I know we haven’t spoken in like twelve years, but you’re my brother, my twin, and my other half. I want you to know there’s a part of your spirit that is alive and well within me. I carry you in my heart and in my memories, and if I ever have a little boy of my own, I’m going to name him after you.”

  Hale bowed his head. “I’d be honored, brother. Spirits of the afterlife don’t spend much time dwelling on the world they left behind, but…I’ll never forget you. You’ll always be my other half, too.”

  Kale smiled and nodded then turned to me. “Thank you, Val.”

  “I had no idea,” I said as emotion rushed up to meet me. “I should’ve taken the time to find out. I’m sorry I haven’t been a better friend, and I’m sorry for the loss of your brother.”

  “You’ve been a great friend. This never would have been possible without you, so thank you.”

  Happiness for him only barely outweighed the guilt pooling in my chest.

  “You’re welcome.” Then I turned to Cade and Xavier. “You’re up. I can feel the magic fading, so we’ll have to try to make it quick.”

  Cade nodded. “I can feel it too.”

  Xavier also nodded in agreement, searching his body in confusion.

  “So can I,” Sienna agreed.

  Jay and Kale looked confused, so it must’ve been a champion thing.

  “Hello, my handsome boys,” Delaney said, smiling at her sons. “How have you been?”

  “Good,” Cade said in a raspy voice, like he was barely able to choke out the words.

  “We’ve been good, Mom,” Xavier said at the same time.

  “And your father?”

  Cade shook his head.

  Xavier forced a smile. “He’s taking your loss the hardest.”

  She nodded knowingly. “Don’t let this consume him. You know how he gets. Don’t let it destroy his life. He loves you boys, and he needs to be there for you since I can’t be.”

  “There’s no calming his storm, Mom,” Cade said. “The only thing that will soothe his spirit is avenging you by killing your murderer.”

  “Then his spirit will never be soothed,” she said, surprising us all. “Killing Nicholai is not the answer to his problems. Letting go of his grief, anger, and hatred is what will ultimately bring him peace, not vengeance.”

  Cade sighed. “I learned that the hard way myself.”

  Delaney winked at me but replied to Cade. “I know, son, and I’m very proud of you for that.” Then she brought her full attention back to me. “I’m sorry, Valerie, for the way we treated you. Shadow Sect orders or not, Henrie and I were full-grown adults with minds of our own. We should have done what was right and not just blindly followed orders.”

  My heart suddenly hammered in my chest. Did she just say…the Shadow Sect?

  Ignoring the fear that had lumped in my throat, I forced myself to reply.

  “It’s okay, Delaney, I forgive you, and Henrie, too.”

  She smiled brightly. “Take care of my baby boy?”

  I grinned at Cade. “We’ll take care of each other.”

  “Good.” Next she turned to
Sienna. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but if the look in my son’s eye is anything to go by, I hope you two take care of each other, too. Xavier is such a kindhearted person. He needs a girl who will appreciate that.”

  Sienna looked up at him and smiled. “That sounds like exactly what I need…as long as he understands that I’m a work in progress and still have a long, long way to go.”

  Xavier hugged her into his chest. “Take as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Yes! My hopeless romantic heart jumped for joy in my chest. Mission accomplished. Operation Lucia-didn’t-die-for-nothing was finally a success.

  Delaney backed away slowly. “Tell your dad I love him.”

  Cade nodded. “I will. I love you, Mom.”

  “I love you, too. Both of you.”

  “Love you, Mom,” Xavier whispered.

  Then, before I even realized it, it was my turn.

  The magic of the apple wavered, and the vision blurred before refocusing once more.

  “Hello, Valerie,” Alana said with a warm smile.

  It was so odd to think of her as my grandma considering, one, I’d never met her, and two, she didn’t look a day over thirty.

  “Hi,” I replied, falling back on my old socially awkward habit of being virtually unable to carry on a conversation without a lot of help.

  “You look just like your mother,” she said, which I was sure was supposed to be a compliment, but given what my mother had become, I was not so flattered. She seemed to pick up on that. “Come now, why the fallen face? Amelia is a beautiful woman, inside and out.”

  I scoffed. “You’ve been dead for a while now, Grandma. Amelia’s beauty is only skin deep, trust me.”

  She smirked. “You know her so well, do you?”

  “I know enough. She left me and my dad to join…”

  I trailed off, recalling that Alana had bought into Nicholai’s bullshit before and become an Elitist herself—or was that just part of the flawed retelling of history? The part that’d been twisted and skewed into lies over time? According to the gods, hardly any of the actual truth remained.