She smiled encouragingly. “Go on, dear.”
The magic wavered again, and the gray faces of our dead friends and relatives blurred in and out of focus before returning to normal. I knew our time was almost up, so I figured I might as well blurt it out.
“She left us to join up with her father and the Elitists. She’s ended countless lives, and she’s actively trying to enslave humanity.”
Alana raised a brow. “Did you ever think she might be doing all that in order to keep you safe?”
I blinked and my brows furrowed. “No. That’s not an option. You don’t commit mass genocide in order to protect one person. That’s freaking wrong.”
Alana shrugged. “A mother’s love is fierce and sometimes crazy. It drives us to do stupid things, convinces us impossible things are true. Your mother clearly felt this was the best way to protect you, regardless of how immoral it was.”
I wanted to see things her way, but I just couldn’t.
“If that’s the case,” I said solemnly, “I wish she would have failed a long time ago.”
Alana cocked her head. “You would so willingly wish you had died? Wish your mother had died?”
“If it would have kept so many innocent people from being sacrificed, then yes. Her life and mine are not worth thousands of others.”
Alana nodded. “Remember that, Valerie. If you do, you just might succeed where your mother and I failed.”
As I contemplated her cryptic words, a gray shadow passed behind them in the vision. The shadow paused, probably curious about the mirror they were all looking at. It came closer, drifting in and out of focus as the vision wavered again.
I gasped, unable to believe my eyes.
“Chase?”
I knew damn well he was dead—I’d killed him myself—but still, I’d never expected to see him again, even in the afterlife.
He grinned, looking around our group in peaceful happiness.
“Valerie, hey! Long time no see!” His eyes, once electric blue, were now dull and lifeless. “And Cade! It’s nice to see you, bro. Sorry about that whole trying-to-kill-you thing. You know, it’s weird—when I was alive, it seemed like the most important thing in the world, but now…I don’t even remember why it mattered so much in the first place.”
I couldn’t reply. I was too busy gaping.
“You don’t remember?” Cade asked curiously.
Chase shrugged. “I think it had something to do with me being evil, but that’s pretty stupid, huh? Now that I’m dead, all the things I used to care about seem pointless. None of it matters anymore.”
I was still frozen in stunned silence.
“Anyway,” he said, “I gotta go. It was nice seeing you guys! Have a wonderful life!”
As his parting words echoed in my mind, the vision faded completely, and we were back in the dusky forest.
For the longest time, no one said a word.
Then from the ashes of utter silence, the Elitists attacked.
13
The fight came out of nowhere, but honestly, I should have been expecting it. Jay might not have alerted them, but Madam Lucia definitely would have.
And there I had been half-assed mourning her death.
A man came at me with a double-ended spear. Even through the shadowy darkness, each tip looked sharp as a broadhead arrow and just as lethal.
I ducked, narrowly avoiding a sliced throat, and tried to come up with a plan. This person was probably an Earth Elemental considering he was using a spear made of wood and metal. I thought back to my training with Elise and how I’d won the fight against her—a trained Shadow Sect agent—and I knew what I needed to use: Fire.
Thank god I’d been Gifted with the element—or, I supposed I should say, thank Ida. It made me wonder if the gods were watching, right now, to see what us champions would do.
The next time he swung at me, I reached out and lit the spear on fire, crumbling the shaft into a pile of charcoal.
Growling, he reached out and uprooted a small tree, spinning it into a giant dart-like weapon and throwing it at me. Again, I burned it into cinders. This gave me the chance to go on the offensive, whipping a few ice spikes at his chest. He created a metallic shield at the last second and blocked my ice, shattering it into tiny glass-like pieces. Realizing I needed him to drop the shield, I threw a molten fireball at him. He blocked it as I’d anticipated, and the shield quickly turned bright red as the lava-like fire dripped down the metal and steamed on the ground.
He cried out, dropping the shield and cradling his blistered hand, and that gave me the advantage I needed. I quickly threw another round of ice spikes at him, and this time they landed in his neck and chest. Blood leaked from his mouth, and he crashed to the ground.
A rush of energy filled me, strengthening me and my elements in some unknown way. I hated it, hated the fact that his power was now mine because I’d killed him, but there was no time for self-loathing. The Elitists had come prepared. There were at least a hundred of them and only six of us.
Thank the gods they’d Gifted four of us.
At that thought, my gaze darted over to Sienna, who was having a hell of a time trying to control both of her elements. As an ex-Modernist, she didn’t have much practice to begin with, and now on top of her base Wind element, she was forced to deal with Water—an element I knew from experience was very difficult to contain.
Next, I searched for Xavier. He’d been a Water Elemental all his life, so he was already pretty skilled in that department, but the extra power he now possessed was clearly messing with him. Every time he went to throw a normal sized amount of Water at his opponent, he ended up opening a whole geyser-full of power, blasting not only the enemy but everyone else nearby. Cade and Kale were the only non-Waters on our team, so they were the only ones affected, but none of us needed any extra distractions.
I rushed over to them and did my best to block Sienna and Xavier’s wayward power so they could continue fighting unhindered. With my remaining element, I blasted a line of intense fire at every Elitist nearby. A handful of them went up in flames, but none of their comrades bothered to try to help. That was the problem with Elitists—they were all selfish, narcissistic bastards.
The earth vibrated beneath my feet, and that was not a good sign. Cade was an extremely powerful Earth, considering he was Gifted with the element twice over, so for him to miss keeping it in check?
Dear gods, I wonder if Nicholai is close…
“He’s not gonna show up yet,” Jay said, suddenly standing right beside me.
My fear and nervousness must’ve been written all over my face.
“He wants to kill you himself so he can acquire your power, but he won’t risk coming out into the open like this. He’s too close to actually winning to sabotage everything.”
My mouth fell open. “He wants my power?”
Jay gave me a small smile. “You won’t offer it willingly, so he will try to take it.”
“And he’s seriously close to winning?”
“Closer than he’s ever been before.” Suddenly Jay’s head whipped up and he pushed my shoulder down. “Duck!”
I dropped to the ground along with Jay as a rock the size of my head shot through the air above us. If that thing had made contact, it would’ve split my skull like a watermelon.
Jay raised his brows and cocked his head. “Nicholai won’t be pleased to find his minions coming after you like this. He ordered them to capture you and bring you to him, not kill you. He wants your power, and he sure as hell doesn’t want it going to any of them.”
Hearing him talk about Nicholai like that made me nervous. It was lucky Ida had read his thoughts and believed he’d seriously changed his ways. If she hadn’t, I’d probably have started doubting him again, and that was not at all what he needed from me as a friend.
“We’re down to about half,” Jay added, scanning the trees surrounding us. “Let’s kick the other half’s ass.”
I nodded and he ran
left while I sprinted right, putting me closer to Sienna again.
“Try only using the Wind element!” I shouted over to her as she struggled.
She snarled and flipped me the bird. “Did anyone tell your dumb ass to try that when you were wreaking havoc?”
Um…shit. No, I don’t actually think they did.
“Sorry. I guess just do your thing and I’ll try to help you contain it as best I can.”
She gave me a curt nod then got back to fighting.
I did the same, charging at a Fire Elemental whose whole body was engulfed in flames. His Fire wouldn’t hurt me, nor mine his, but I had Water, which had to count for something.
I spun in a quick circle, swirled water around me like a whirlpool, and doused out his flames. As soon as they faltered, I created an icy spike, which I wielded as a knife and jabbed into his chest. Blood streamed down his shirt as he growled in pain but didn’t go down. Instead, he jammed a hand into his flesh and singed the wound shut.
Clever boy.
Then he charged, using his brute physical strength against me, but I wasn’t a delicate freaking Barbie. I’d been training my ass off for months, and I was ready for this. I dodged at the last second, snaking out of the way and jabbing him in the lower back as he blew past me. He cried out and crashed to the ground, and I took the chance to finish him off. Creating another icy knife, I sank the frosted blade into the back of his neck and he immediately went limp.
My throat closed off and the urge to puke overwhelmed me.
I am not a murderer. I am not a murderer. I am not a murderer!
Dad’s face popped into my mind and I took a few deep gulps of air. I was like my father: a soldier fighting for the greater good. Soldiers weren’t proud of the things they had to do, weren’t flattered when people called them heroes, but they did the necessary shit anyway. That was me: a soldier killing Elitists so they didn’t take over the world.
Energy bolted through me, rattling my bones and making me itch all over. I scanned the crowd and realized it must’ve been a combination of deaths hitting me at once—the guy on the ground coupled with at least two or three Elementals who’d finally died from the flames I’d doused them in.
I swallowed hard. I can do this. I am a soldier.
Suddenly, a sticky ball of snow smacked me in the side of the head. It shouldn’t have affected me, but it had. I reached up and tried to dust it off, but it strung between my head and my fingers like melted cheese.
What the hell?
Next thing I knew, Loren Marlowe’s smirking face was right in front of me.
“Hello again, Valerie,” she said in a cocky tone. “Fancy seeing you here.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure it’s a total shock.”
Her eyes slid to the cheesy snow entangling me and she grinned. “You like my evolved powers? They’re pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.”
She moved her pointer finger in a circle, and suddenly I was being wrapped in a sloppy cocoon.
Growling, I thrashed around, willing my Water to get rid of it, but my element seemed to be scared of hers. It didn’t want to challenge her.
Fine.
I called to the Fire within, and it erupted out of me in a searing hot dome of blue heat. The sticky snow melted further, dripping down my body enough to allow me to break free.
Loren just laughed, and it pissed me off to no end.
I’d just received an ass-load of extra power, and it was time to see how my own elements had evolved. Keeping with my Fire element, I reached out and created a whip-like line of flames. The core of the line was white-hot, and the flames that licked all around it were jagged and blue. It looked absolutely deadly as it stretched out and wrapped itself around Loren’s neck.
Dear gods, what have I done? No one should have power like this. It made me wonder what sort of shit Nicholai and my mother must’ve had up their sleeves.
Enough, I called to my Fire, but it simply hissed at me in return. It didn’t want to listen. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, as my Fire was pretty defiant. Loren’s hair had caught on fire and she was screaming bloody murder, and as much as I wanted her gone, I really didn’t want to see it happen like this.
I lowered my mental voice a few octaves and allowed my tone to turn compelling and seductive.
Enough, I said again. Come to me.
Slowly, it obeyed, but instead of retreating from Loren’s neck, it dragged her over to me with it. When it was close enough, I unwrapped it and tucked it safely back into my palm.
Loren glared at me, but her neck was raw and blistered, and there was a healthy dose of fear cowering in her lake blue eyes.
I licked my lips and tried to play it cool.
“As you can see, my powers have evolved, too. I wouldn’t mess with me if I were you.”
She sneered, turning bold all of a sudden, and her voice came out in a choppy, harsh whisper. “Oh yes of course—Valerie, the saintliest of all Elementals, the one so against killing and campaigning for power…has been killing and campaigning for power. You’re such a fucking hypocrite.”
I glared at her, daring her words to bounce off me like rubber, but some of them stuck anyway. She was, unfortunately, correct. The difference was, my campaign was for the greater good of everyone; hers and the Elitists’ was only for the good of themselves. And, as far as I knew, the only people I’d killed were Elitists. I was probably doing the world a freaking favor.
“What are you doing?” Jay shouted at me from across the forest. “Why didn’t you kill her?”
My stomach churned and guilt settled back in.
It was complicated.
Loren had never been my friend, but she wasn’t just another faceless minion, either. I knew her from school, and killing her felt…I don’t know, maybe not wrong, because she’d obviously killed a number of innocent people and she was always trying to steal my boyfriend away, but I guess it felt…difficult.
Ida must’ve been biting her nails up there in Euphoria. If I couldn’t even kill this bitch from high school, how was I supposed to kill Nicholai, a blood relative, and win the bet?
Of course, it ultimately wasn’t about the bet. It was about getting the other gods to Gift more Elementals so that, together, the eight of us might stand a chance at ending the war—and Nicholai.
Which meant we shouldn’t be wasting our time fighting these Elitists. We should have been searching high and low, trying to find the four other Gifteds and recruit them to our cause.
I had no idea if the gods would explain to their champions what was going on or if they’d simply ift the power and let them figure it out on their own. Technically, even Ida had done that, though I certainly hadn’t figured it out on my own. It had taken an accidental trip to Euphoria to realize what had happened.
But, now that I knew, I could explain the situation to the other Gifteds—if we were ever able to find them, that is. Knowing Nik, he would purposefully choose a champion who was ten thousand miles away. Meg would probably do the same just for shits and giggles, and who knew what Eve or Taj would decide? Hopefully they’d be a bit more sympathetic.
Loren grinned, looking from Jay back to me. “Yeah, Valerie, why didn’t you just kill me? Are you too scared?”
“Right,” I deadpanned. “I got that kickass fire-whip by being ‘too scared’ to kill people.”
Loren held out her hand, a necklace dangling from her fingers—my necklace, the fire opal I’d traded Madam Lucia in exchange for the spellbook.
“Or maybe,” Loren began, watching me closely, “you just can’t control your Fire without this?”
I swallowed hard. It was true that I worried about my control without the opal, and now that I had the chance to get it back, I didn’t want to leave without it.
“What do you want, Loren?”
“You think I want to trade?” She laughed out loud. “No, Valerie. I just want to crush you…like this.”
I had no freaking clue
how she did it—she surely couldn’t have been that strong—but with the squeeze of her fist, my beautiful sunset-colored gem slowly crumbled to the forest floor in a trail of glittering dust.
I clenched my teeth against the urge to scream.
Son of a bitch!
I would be leaving emptyhanded after all. In fact, I would never get the stone back, would possibly never control my Fire so well again.
Almost as if it sensed this, my Fire roared to life beneath my skin, igniting my entire body in dangerous blue flames.
I stalked closer to Loren, who backed away just as quickly.
“You will pay for that.”
She glared at me but stepped back even farther. “We’ll see.”
Her eyes scanned the remaining few Elitists with stoic resignation.
“Move out!” she shouted as best as she could with her raspy voice. “We’ll try again once we get new reinforcements!” Then she turned her hateful glare on me. “And when we do, you’re as good as dead.”
With that, they ran over the crest of the nearest mountain and disappeared.
14
As quickly as the fight had started, it was over, and all was dark and silent once more.
I stood there full of roiling emotions, each hissing past each other like a pit of venomous snakes in my mind. My friends panted and clutched their wounds. Cade removed his tin of salve and began healing as many cuts and gashes as he could, and we all moved back together in a huddle of sorts.
“Everybody okay?” I asked. They all nodded. “We need to get back home, now. I don’t know how soon they’ll attack again, but we have a lot of shit to sort out before they do.”
“Agreed,” Sienna said with a determined glare.
By the time we got back to Berwindale, the town was deeply asleep under the heavy veil of night. Tiny lights twinkled from windows and front doors, mirroring the stellar sky above. It was a beautiful sight, like something I’d expect to see on one of the islands in Euphoria. What a shame the human world was in so much turmoil that we couldn’t stop to enjoy things such as these.
Elemental Betrayal Page 10
