Elemental Betrayal

by Elle Middaugh

  The sirens were still wailing, and strange vibrations started emanating from above. Dust broke away from the ceiling. Someone must’ve been wreaking a hell of a lot of havoc up there.

  I smiled anxiously. “Come on, Pax. Let’s get out of here.”

  He met me at the bars, eyeing the blood warily.

  “I can’t believe drinking blood actually worked,” he muttered.

  I laughed out loud. “Do you just have some sort of thing for vampires?”

  “Not exactly.”

  I shoved my hand out. “Drink it. Quickly. We have others to free and not a lot of time.”

  He took a quick lick and immediately started choking. “It’s not what it’s cracked up to be.”

  I suppressed another laugh and got to work. There weren’t many of us down there, only twelve total.

  Lilly and I took the lead and led the way upstairs. We were like a herd of rhinos, barging through locked doors and ploughing through Sect personnel. We had no idea where we were going, but we were certainly on a mission. When we reached the main floor, I suddenly froze. Holding out my arms, I stopped the rest of the group.

  “What is it?” Lilly asked, her bouncy black curls moving across her face.

  “The wall,” I said, pointing straight ahead of us. “There’s something weird about it…”

  An Earth stepped forward and closed his eyes. When he opened them, we shared a knowing look. “It’s gonna blow.”

  “Everybody back!” I shouted as we scattered.

  A moment later, the wall exploded. Chunks of concrete flew through the air, crashing to the ground like meteors. The earth vibrated fiercely under our feet and all around us. The smell of smoke and chemicals mixed strangely with the telltale scents of the outdoors, and fresh air filtered in with hints of evergreen and summer rain.

  When the chaos seemed to have stopped, I shared a look with Lilly and we carefully picked our way through the debris. Dust covered everything in a fog-like layer, but when it started settling, we saw a man stepping through the wreckage.

  I was flabbergasted. “Holden?”

  Lilly leaned into my ear. “Jesus, your fiancé is hot as hell.”

  “This isn’t him,” I said to her before directing my attention back to Holden. “What are you doing here?”

  He smiled cautiously, almost sarcastically. His coffee-colored eyes pinned me to the spot.

  “Seriously?” He hopped down off a chunk of concrete and strolled toward me. “I risk life and limb to break you free, accomplishing something no Elemental has done before, and you can’t even say thank you?”

  Heat climbed up my cheeks. “I just meant…you’re not who I was expecting to see.”

  This time his grin was downright mocking. “Of course not. No matter what I do, I’m never the one you want. Cade could be sitting on his ass at home playing video games and he’d still be the one you’d choose, wouldn’t he?”

  “But he’s not home sitting on his ass, is he?”

  Holden cocked his head. “Isn’t he?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Where is he, then?”

  “No idea. I haven’t seen him in months.”

  “Then how do you know he’s not looking for me?”

  Holden spread his arms out and spun around in a circle. “I don’t know, Valerie…I guess because if he were looking, he’d be the one standing here right now, not me.”

  He had a damn good point, not that I was going to start doubting Cade’s intentions. In fact, I was now worried about his safety more than ever. Had he been captured, after all?

  I looked around, knowing that at any moment, the Sect would get back on its feet and start shipping out soldiers. “We need to get out of here.”

  Holden crossed his arms and shook his head. “Still no thank you.”

  “Holden, we were this close to breaking out of here by ourselves. One minute longer and we would have passed beyond those walls, and with much less of a mess.” I sighed and allowed myself a small half-smile. “That said…thank you for your efforts. It’s good to know my friends still have my back.”

  “Friends…”

  “Yes, you’re my friend,” I said, driving my point home. “Thank you.”

  “That’s not enough.”

  “Well, it’s all I can give you.”

  He glared and gritted his teeth. “Can, or will?”

  “Both! Listen, we don’t have time for this shit.” I spun around and addressed the recently freed Elementals still following me. “This world is at war. There are a lot of things that have changed since you were captured. I risked my life breaking you out, and now I’m asking you to return the favor. Please. Help me defeat the Elitists.”

  They looked around, unsure. They probably had no clue what I was even talking about.

  A chuckle echoed from up ahead. Bits of rock and debris tumbled downward as another person entered the gaping hole in the wall and stood next to Holden. She crossed her arms and smirked. For the first time in a while, surprise surpassed my severe loathing toward her.

  “Loren? What the hell are you doing here?”

  She glanced at Holden and raised a brow. “You’re right. She really doesn’t know when to say thank you.”

  I dug my heels into the floor and widened my stance, preparing for yet another fight.

  She merely chuckled again. “Oh, Valerie, you’re so narcissistic. As if I came here just to squabble with you…” She shook her head, stepped closer, and addressed the small crowd. “It’s true that we’re on the verge of war, but don’t join the losing side. Don’t join people who—like your lovely previous captors—demand the suppression of your power! Join those of us who are sick of hiding what we are, who are tired of being shamed for it. Join the Elitists! Be who you were always meant to be!”

  “I didn’t realize we were always meant to be tyrants,” I bit back.

  Loren rolled her eyes. “You didn’t realize you even were an Elemental until last year. Your opinion hardly counts. Besides, Elitists are not tyrants.”

  “You want to enslave all of humanity—how is that not tyrannical?”

  The group members’ eyes darted back and forth between us like they were watching a tennis match.

  Loren straightened her posture and held her head high. “Elementals are descendants of the Nature Gods. For fuck’s sake, Valerie, Ida—the Fire Goddess—personally Gifted your family’s line! It is our divine right to rule over humans.”

  She still believed the old stories, but it didn’t matter that her history was flawed. She was still mostly right.

  To my dismay, a few of the Elementals in the crowd nodded their heads.

  I took a deep breath. “No, as descendants of gods, we are not gods, and therefore we are not in the position to divinely rule over humans. We are part of them. We need to protect them.”

  Thankfully, there were also a few who nodded at my words, including Lilly and Paxton.

  Loren stepped right up into my face but continued talking to the crowd. “Do what you want, but the result will be the same. Elementals will rule, and anyone who opposes us will die.”

  With that, she quickly grabbed my wrists and squeezed, crumbling both of my bracelets into a useless pile of dust.

  I screamed in frustration. “God damn you, Loren!”

  A sadistic smile lit her lips. Whispering just loud enough for me to hear, she said, “Good luck trying to be the savior now.” Then she glanced down and sneered. “Nice ring, by the way.”

  She ripped it off my finger, and before I could even blink, she disappeared into the woods beyond the wall.

  24

  Gritting my teeth, I ran into the forest, searching everywhere for her. I must’ve looked like a madwoman darting through the trees, but it was no use. She was already gone. She must have had the help of an Earth Elemental in order to disappear like that.

  I let my head fall back and stared up at the sky as it started to rain.

  My heart ached as the realization set in: I now had zer
o stones to help me control my power, and my engagement ring was gone. It was the last and most important thing I had from Cade. What if I never saw him again? What would I have to remember our love, besides beautiful memories that would surely one day fade away?

  The rain suddenly fell faster, obscuring the woods in a sheet of cascading gray.

  Is it storming because of me?

  Loren was right—I needed the help of those stones. Without them, who knew what sort of havoc I would unintentionally create? Granted, I’d been training for months, but it had always been with the assistance of the stones…stones that were now ruined, scattered like ashes in the Shadow Sect’s back yard.

  Now what the hell was I supposed to do?

  Lilly put a sopping wet hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I’d barely even noticed her approach. My fingertips iced over as I jumped.

  “For what it’s worth,” she said, quickly letting go. “I’m with you.”

  “Me too,” Paxton said from behind us.

  I turned around and saw that half the group remained, nodding their heads. Six powerful Elementals had chosen to fight for our side. That was more than I could have hoped for…but now I wondered if it would even be enough.

  With nothing left to do and feeling terrified of being recaptured, we started the journey home immediately. I was shocked to learn we had been held in West Virginia. Hardly the most predictable place for Shadow Sect Headquarters, but I supposed that was the entire point.

  It would have taken days to make it back on foot, but luckily, Holden had come prepared. His truck was parked and waiting a few miles away. I was certain he hadn’t been prepared for quite so many stowaways, but his truck bed was big enough for the extras.

  I caught up to him as we hiked through the forest undergrowth.

  “I really do owe you a sincere thank you,” I said. “Coming here with every intention of breaking me out, risking your life to do it, and having a getaway planned in case you succeeded…that was really awesome of you.”

  He grinned to himself then finally at me. “You’re welcome.”

  “How did you find me, anyway?”

  “Loren.” He held a tree branch out of my way, and then kept walking. “Her father was captured too, as were other important Elitists that needed freeing. We sort of became reluctant allies in order to achieve what we each wanted.”

  “How did she know where to look? I thought the location of the Sect was super-secret.”

  Holden shot me a flat look. “I’m sure she had help from an Elitist or two who’d been there before and managed to escape.”

  I frowned, taking that all in. “So, she gave you the location—what did you give her?”

  His lips twisted almost sadistically. “That’s confidential.”

  My mind drifted to the plethora of political scandals I’d learned about over the years, and I instantly wondered if he’d exchanged some sort of sexual favor with her. My nose scrunched as I imagined anyone getting close to that bitch. I shivered and pushed the thought away. It was his business what he did with his body or anyone else’s.

  When we got to the truck, he paused, taking my hands in his. To avoid meeting his gaze, I watched Lilly and Paxton climb into the back seat as the rest of our group piled into the bed of the truck. Eventually, I sighed and faced him. The look in his eyes went from hopeful, to…sad. It worried me. I didn’t know what I was about to confront. Another round of guilt as I was forced to break Holden’s heart again and again? God, I wished he’d just stop being so hopeful where I was concerned.

  “Valerie, I don’t know how to say this…”

  I smiled tentatively. “Are you sure it even has to be said?”

  I hoped he’d reconsider putting himself out there to be burned. I didn’t want to keep hurting him. He had to know that.

  He licked his lips and nodded. “It does.”

  “Better just spit it out quickly, then.”

  He pulled his lips in and bit them. “All right. Well, it’s been…weeks since you were captured, and a lot has happened. Nicholai leveled Wellsfield to the ground, killing thousands, and worst of all…”

  What the hell could be worse than that? That was terrible.

  I fought to breathe as my body went numb with fear. Ice splintered out across my skin, causing Holden to gasp and yank his hands away.

  He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Valerie…I’m so sorry, but…”

  Oh god. Someone had died. Someone I loved was gone and I’d never see them again. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to hear this at all. Dad? Sienna? Jay? Please don’t let it be…

  “Cade’s dead, Val.”

  My heart squeezed. My lungs collapsed. My chest practically caved in on itself. An all-encompassing pain washed through every cell in my body as an overwhelming sadness bloomed in my soul, the petals of which quickly wilted and crumbled into dust.

  My legs gave out, and my arms didn’t bother to catch me as I fell. My face smashed into the forest floor, meeting with dirt, twigs, and briars. I felt absolutely nothing.

  “Jesus, Val, are you okay?”

  Holden’s voice was muffled and distant. I vaguely felt his hands on my arms, tugging me up off the ground…ground Cade had control over. I thrashed out of his grasp, crashing back onto the sodden soil in a desperate attempt to cling to whatever piece of Cade I had left. I dug my fingers into the earth, relishing the feel of the dirt caking under my nails, the blades of grass slipping between my fingers.

  I’m here, Cade, I whispered in my head as scalding hot tears burned down the bridge of my nose. Please tell me you’re here, too. Please tell me you’re not really gone…

  “It’s okay, Val,” Holden whispered, stroking my hair. “It’ll be okay.”

  It was not okay. It would never be okay.

  “How did this happen?” I breathed out, barely able to speak through the utter devastation coursing through me.

  Holden didn’t answer right away. I almost thought he hadn’t heard me. Then he said, “Nicholai.”

  My eyes closed knowingly.

  I would kill him.

  It wasn’t a vengeful threat; it was a cold and critical promise. I knew it in the marrow of my bones. I believed it with every ounce of my soul. I would stop at nothing in my quest to end his life. He’d pushed too hard for too long, and he’d finally pushed me right over the fucking edge.

  “An Elitist found him passed out in the West Woods,” Holden continued.

  Because of the poison, I thought, filling in the blanks.

  “They turned him in, and as soon as Nicholai got his hands on him…”

  He killed him.

  Not with his element, because they were both Earths and it would have been physically impossible, but with something more violent and lethal. A gun? A knife? Had he tortured him first? Starved him? Filled his head with lies?

  I gritted my teeth hard enough to crack bone.

  I will kill him.

  I blinked the remaining tears from my eyes and crawled onto my hands and knees. Then, one leg at a time, I rose up to stand. Mud covered the front of my stark white Sect attire and probably my face. I didn’t care.

  I suffered the drive home in absolute silence, face plastered to the passenger window. Every once in a while, I’d listen in on Lilly and Holden discussing current politics. Mostly, though, I concentrated on keeping my elements in check, as severe pain and ruthless anger battled at the fringes of my brain.

  After what felt like an eternity, Holden dropped us all off at the cathedral in Berwindale.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you,” he said with a gentle smile. “Unless…you want me to stay?”

  I shook my head. “No, thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He nodded and drove away, probably back to Center Allegheny.

  I took a deep breath of misty night air and glanced over my shoulder at the six Elementals who’d followed me from the Sect.

  “Welcome to Revolutionist Headquarters,” I said wi
thout a trace of a smile. I didn’t have the energy to muster one up. “The whole town is abandoned, except for us. You can stay wherever you want. We’ll meet at the cathedral in the morning to train.”

  Without the grace of a proper hostess, I disappeared into my house and left them to fend for themselves.

  25

  The next morning, I cracked my tired eyes open, allowing the burn I felt to crawl deeper into my skull. I hadn’t slept more than a few hours, a collection of odd minutes here and there.

  The house had been totally empty when I arrived the night before, and if the silence was anything to go by, I assumed it still was.

  Had they all died? I doubted it, or Holden would have told me as much. So, where were they? Still in Wellsfield, cleaning up Nicholai’s mess? Chasing him farther north, possibly to New York City? Were they hurt and hospitalized? Was Marge okay? Had she made it to Henrie Landston’s house?

  There were so many questions, and no one around to answer them.

  I dragged myself out of bed and into the kitchen. Staring at the empty chairs, it occurred to me that I’d never again eat one of Cade’s all-natural oatmeal breakfasts. It would probably break my heart all over again soon, but for now, I still felt numb. Turning away, I zombied through my morning routine, making a cup of tea and taking it out onto the back patio.

  The air was colder than usual. I wasn’t sure if it was because of me or the storms that were blowing through, though for all I knew, those might’ve been because of me, too.

  I shuffled over to the cathedral after letting my tea go cold.

  Lilly, Paxton, and four others sat on the tall church steps, probably waiting for me. I forced a pathetic excuse for a smile as I approached.

  “Morning,” I said when I was close enough to talk without shouting. “I’m going to be training hard for two weeks then I’m going to take Nicholai head on. You can join me if you want, or you can practice at your own pace. Whatever you want to do is fine. If you’ve changed your mind since yesterday, you are, of course, free to go. No hard feelings.”