by Kat Adams
“Take my hand.” Bryan reached out. I did the same. When our hands met, the connection sent a thundering shockwave throughout the ruins, knocking loose some of the stones and raining them down to the ground. I flew back and slammed into a wall. The entire structure vibrated as more rocks fell.
Bryan wound up on the other side of the stone structure. He buried his hands in the dirt, pulling in strength from his primary element. After a few seconds, he stood and faced me. “Are you back?”
“I must destroy you,” I growled as that coldness took over yet again. Yellow sparks flew around me as I charged my powers to unleash on him, the others in this decrepit building, and then the building itself.
A blast from behind hit me hard, throwing me to the ground. I tried to push up, but another blast held me down.
“Stay down, Montana. Syd?”
I saw a flash of bright light.
And then I saw nothing.
14
“I’ve covered the cottage with a few more spells to ensure the Council won’t be able to track us here.” A familiar lisp woke me from my not so peaceful slumber. I pried my heavy lids open to see Stace pacing the length of a cabin of some kind. The walls were wood, as were the floors. Syd Franklin stood over me, watching. His brown hair looked a little grayer at the temples than the last time I saw him, and his large coffee eyes were shadowed by round rimless glasses. I recalled how much he reminded me of a spectacled Dr. Strange, now more than ever with the gray temples.
My head pounded, and it hurt to, well, everything. I don’t think I’d ever hurt so bad, and considering I’d passed out after battling Alec, that said something. I pressed the heel of my hand to my temple and tried to sit up but stopped. No, not stopped voluntarily. Something stopped me. I tried again, but an invisible airfield locked me into a flat position on the couch.
“Let me up.”
“We can’t do that.” Syd moved in and stared deep into my eyes, checking for what, I didn’t know. He thinned his lips when whatever he’d been searching for was either there…or wasn’t. “Not until we know we’re out of the woods.”
“What woods? Where are we?” I tried to push out off the couch and failed.
“A cabin that’s been in my family for years.” Stace approached the couch. Gone were her professor robes, replaced by jean cutoffs and a loose tank top the same dark brown color as the concerned gaze she had locked on me. She looked so normal with her hair down instead of the tight bun she usually wore. I hadn’t seen her outside of the academy since school started. I turned my head and looked out the window, spotting huge trees through the darkness. Apparently, we really were in the woods. “Katy, can you tell us what happened?”
“Where are the guys?” I struggled against the invisible restraints. I had to get to them, had to make sure I didn’t hurt them.
“Back at the academy. It’s after curfew.”
Screw curfew. I shook as I fought the hold air had on me. I tried calling it, not surprised when it didn’t answer. “Let me go!”
Syd’s hands shot up, but Stace lowered them and shook her head. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Are you sure?”
“Quite.” She wouldn’t stop staring at me. “I will keep the airfield on you until I’m sure you won’t try to kill us.”
“Let me up or I will,” I growled through bared teeth, ready to kill her if she did. As fast as the hatred hit me, it disappeared. Thank you, baby Jesus. I didn’t want to kill her and had no idea where that even came from. Then again, I didn’t want to hurt my guys and could have killed them if Syd hadn’t called light and knocked me out.
She regarded Syd. The healer shook his head as he dropped his attention to me. When our gazes snagged, I knew. I saw the truth in his eyes even if he didn’t want to admit it. He removed his glasses to clean them with his shirt.
“I’ve gone dark, haven’t I? That’s why I’m here. I can’t be on school grounds anymore. I won’t get past the protective wards.” Fear and panic wrestled inside me to take over. I panted through the battle. And here I thought being cornered by a dark elemental was the worst thing that could happen to me. I never thought I’d be the dark elemental.
“No.” Stace sliced her hand through the air. “This is something else. I feel it. It’s…”
“Dark magic,” I groaned and dropped my head to the pillow, putting it all together. While I’d been so focused on figuring out what happened to that kid, I failed to realize the dark magic growing inside me. And I let it. I gave in to the cold. I gave in to the darkness. I nearly killed my boyfriends. And none of it was real. Well, it was real in the fact I almost killed them. But my want to kill them wasn’t.
And yet, it felt real. If Clay hadn’t teleported out and gotten the professor—I assumed that was the case—I wouldn’t have stopped. The cold inside had blinded me. I’d felt nothing but rage. Rage and purpose. I’d been determined to destroy everything blocking my path from being the supreme elemental. I didn’t understand how I could possibly go from laughing and joking with them one minute and the next trying to boil Leo’s blood.
“A dark elemental can’t get through the wards protecting the grounds.” Syd replaced his glasses and adjusted them straight.
“And yet, the fact Alec trapped us inside the ruins last year clearly pokes a giant hole in that theory. Besides, you know I was attacked up at the Point the other night. Maybe that weird fog was a spell.”
Stace shook her head. “It would be affecting Clay as well if that were the case. Katy is under some other influence. What happened isn’t her fault.”
My fault or not, I gave in to the cold. I was a monster. I steeled myself against the reasoning that none of this was my fault. It was my fault. Period. I studied my palm. The gash had grown, now carving clear up to my wrist. Whatever was inside me, clawing to get out like a demon escaping hell, came from this cut. “What’s happening to me?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to figure it out. It’ll be okay. I promise.”
She couldn’t make promises like that, and I knew it. Still, I held on to that false promise with everything I had. She took my hand and frowned. “It’s beginning to fester.”
“Could it be the light?” I regarded Syd. “It’s only ever really affected me when I’ve called light. Or, apparently, when light hits me.”
“I’m not sure. But you need to be careful. There’s a reason light is a sanctioned element. You aren’t supposed to be using it without the Council’s approval. You could be reprimanded for it.”
“Oh, who cares? Let them punish me for saving Clay from being buried alive. They’re the ones who thought it was a good idea importing a new handler for me.” Which made no sense. Who was this guy, anyway? What sort of screening did the Council do before bringing him across an ocean to work with me? Not for the first time, I questioned the governing body’s agenda. I also questioned how much they shared with us, as well as what they shared. Something didn’t add up about Spencer Dalton. He wasn’t what he appeared to be, just as Cressida had said.
“When did the wound appear?”
I ground out a petulant sigh. “When I killed Spencer’s call and pulled Clay to safety, I noticed the cut.” I tried to sit up and failed. Again. My irritation grew as I blew my bangs out of my eyes. “It’s been bothering me ever since.”
Stace studied the wound closer. “Bothering you how?”
“Not nearly as much as you are. Back the fuck off, bitch.” As soon as I snapped my reply, I shook my head, shocked I’d say that to her. “Oh God, Stace. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
She didn’t seem the least bit fazed by my threatening outburst and continued to study the wound. “Bothering you how?” she repeated.
“It’s cold all the time. I’m pretty sure the cold that took over and made me go batshit crazy started at this cut. Air won’t answer my call now, and fire isn’t that far behind air on ignoring me—except when I tried to…” I couldn’t finish that statement as the look
on Leo’s face haunted my thoughts. The fear. The shock. The utter betrayal.
“Air won’t answer, you say? Interesting. And you got it when you were calling earth?”
I nodded, staring at the wound.
“I’m going to try something. Syd, stand back and be ready in case this backfires.” She closed her eyes and blew out a deep breath. I found myself doing the same right along with her.
Then I felt it.
A warmth unlike anything I’d ever felt slowly crept into my hand. It grew hotter as it reached the wound. I hissed in a breath as it burned, but I didn’t pull back. Ouch. Ouch. Fucking ouch. I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut to push through the pain. When I swore I was about to burst into flames from the burning torture, I sprang my eyes open to tell her to stop.
Then I saw it.
The gash was half the size and shrinking. My mouth fell open as I stared in amazement. It still hurt, but now I understood why. She must be cauterizing it from the inside out, which was very cool and made me feel like an idiot for not trying that myself. My fire call was a lot stronger than hers. Well, it used to be before the injury.
I called fire to help, hoping it’d listen this time, but stopped when her eyes flew open. “No. Not fire. Earth. Help me and call earth. Combine our element.”
I didn’t understand how earth healed me like this or why it burned, but I did as instructed and focused on my earth element, calling it to the surface without summoning anything physical, like one of those trees surrounding us.
The crash broke my concentration, as well as the airfield holding me to the couch. A large tree shattered the window as it stretched inside. Shards of glass fell to the hardwood floors and stuck in its bark. When it reached me, it slowed to a stop and waited. I rested my hand on it, petting it, soothing it from being disrupted. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to call you.”
It seemed to understand and slowly made its way back out the same way it came in, knocking more glass loose. I smiled and even waved, and swear to God, it waved back. My smile grew.
“Um… What was that?”
I looked at Syd. Why’d he blink at me in clear confusion, maybe even amazement. It wasn’t as if I’d tamed some savage beast. It was a tree, for cripes’ sake.
Stace shared my smile as she nodded her approval, sending a long, long lock of dark waves forward. “It’s her primary.”
This news didn’t surprise me in the least. Everything I’d done last year—the trees dancing as I’d approached the field to my tribunal, discovering I had the ability to call light only after bonding with Bryan, hearing Cressida’s messages when the others couldn’t, and about a frillion other things. It all made perfect sense. “How long have you known?”
“Since the moment we met.”
“But… But… But…” Great, I was back to sounding like a car backfiring. “I don’t want a primary. I want to stay undeclared.” I thought of the guys. If they found out about this, they’d be devastated. Well, Bryan wouldn’t. He’d love the hell out of the fact he’d been right all along.
“You can want to remain undeclared, but earth has a different opinion on the matter. Your mother’s primary was earth,” she stated almost sadly. Thinking of my mom made me sad too, so I related, but for different reasons. “It makes sense yours would be too. You are so much alike.”
“Except for the whole going-dark thing, right?” When no one answered, I repeated with more conviction, my heart in my throat. “Right?”
“You’re not going dark,” she insisted. “But there’s darkness inside you. I feel it when I hold your hand. Your air element is being suppressed somehow. It’s not that it’s ignoring you. It hears you. It just can’t answer.”
“Out of balance.” Just as Cressida had said. The others in the room didn’t know what I knew about Cressida being the academy itself and not just its founder, and I didn’t know if she wanted it known, so I left her out of the story. I remembered the theory the guys and I had come up with before everything went wrong. Maybe the dark magic didn’t like the fact I’d figured it out. “There’s an influx of new elementals, far more than there should be. The guys lost a kid on an extraction earlier today. We think he was under the influence of dark magic.”
Syd’s expression fell. He clearly hadn’t been expecting that awesome bombshell, while Stace simply nodded. Something told me she’d expected it. “I believe you’re right. It’s something we’ve been trying to get ahead of.”
“Stace,” Syd cut in. “Not the time.”
She stood and faced him, craning her neck to meet his eyes. She might be tiny, but damn, could she be fierce. “I disagree. This is exactly the right time. Katy is the prophecy. Whether anyone likes it or not. She has the right to know what she’s up against.”
Well, fuck a duck. That did not sound good.
“What am I up against?”
“I have a theory.”
“So do I.”
She returned to the couch and took a seat. “Tell me.”
I drew in a deep breath as I pushed to a sitting position, grateful she didn’t still have an airfield holding me down. Progress. “My theory is that the dark elementals are trying to increase their numbers. Instead of recruiting true elementals to their side, they’re creating them.”
“How?”
“You’ve heard of leechers, right?” I waited for her to nod. “I think the dark side figured out how to reverse the powers of a leecher, push elements into someone instead of steal them.”
“Interesting theory.” She stood and tapped her finger to her chin as she lifted her gaze as if the vaulted ceiling held the answers. And then she paced. “You think the elemental we lost in the extraction today was created?”
“Rob couldn’t call the kid’s fire. He tried, but it was like his element wouldn’t listen. Or maybe couldn’t, like my air.”
She slowed and released a long, shaky breath. Her shoulders fell as her lungs deflated. “That does explain a few things.” She straightened and regrouped in an instant, her expression still and stoic as she regarded me. A million things passed between us before recognition settled in her expression. She knew I’d picked up on her getting the primaries wrong. “Katy, I—”
“No.” I brought up my hand, stopping her. No one else needed to know what I knew. And now, the fact she knew I knew. “The Council depletes the dark elementals’ numbers almost daily, so they have to do something to add back to their ranks. I think they’re building an army. For what, I have a pretty good guess.”
“It’s all a great story,” Syd said. “But if a person doesn’t possess the power to control an element, no magic can force that. Enhance it, maybe. But not create it out of nothing.”
“He’s right.” Bryan walked into the cabin, his hands tucked into the pockets of his faded jeans, his light shirt stretched across his barrel chest. Rob followed him wearing his normal attire of tank top and shorts, showing off all those rippling muscles. Neither guy slowed as they approached the couch. Bryan didn’t take his gaze off me as he asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ll never be able to apologize enough.” I wrapped my arms around him. When he tried to brush those soft lips against my cheek, I turned and planted one right smack on his mouth. After what I did, a proper kiss was in order. He retreated and rubbed the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly and avoiding looking at Stace or Syd.
Rob stepped forward and knelt to be eye level. I held his dark gaze, ready for judgment. I deserved whatever he dished out. If they were here to break up with me, I wouldn’t blame them. I’d be devastated, but I’d accept it. They couldn’t be with someone they couldn’t trust.
“If you ever try to hide something like this from us again, there will be words, Reed.”
“Y-you’re not breaking up with me?”
He made a face. “Hardly.”
I made a face as well. “But I tried to kill you.”
He shrugged, drawing my attention to his massive shoulders. “You tr
ied. You didn’t succeed. I’ve had ex-girlfriends do worse.”
“Than try to kill you?”
He took my hand and frowned as he spotted not so much as a scar where the wound had been when I’d attacked them. “What the… Bro, check it out.”
Bryan knelt next to Rob and studied my hand, mirroring his frown. “It’s gone. How’d it heal so fast?”
“I countered it with earth,” Stace explained. “It’s a good thing you’re here, Bryan. I’m feeling a little run-down, and she could really use another boost.”
“How’d you know to do that?”
“Something Katy said. She was calling earth right before she noticed the cut. If it really is dark magic at work, it makes sense that the dark elemental responsible would use the opposite element to attack. It would explain why her air element hasn’t been responding. By calling earth and pushing it to her, the element overpowered the spell binding her air.”
“Permanently?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never encountered a spell like this before. I’ll have to do some research. At least we discovered Katy’s primary in the process.”
Both the guys whipped their attention to me. It was Bryan who said, “It’s earth, isn’t it?”
“Surprise,” I sang in a small voice.
15
“Are you sure this is okay?” Bryan kept sitting next to me on the couch, then standing and pacing the length of the room, then sitting again. He repeated the exercise several times.
Stace and Syd had left for the night once she’d convinced the healer the wards she’d placed on the cabin were even stronger than the wards protecting Clearwater. Rob was out on the front porch, giving us privacy. We knew what we needed to do and hated that everyone else knew it too. The bond we shared was between us. Period.
“Why can’t you just transfer your call to me again?” I asked as I watched him pace. It wasn’t like this was the first time we’d ever had sex, ever transferred our powers to each other. We’d done it lots of times. Literally.
