I didn’t know what to say. How could I possibly explain everything without telling her the truth? I was vaguely aware of Jaiden and Noah looking at Cassandra and me in confusion.
“Are you pregnant?” Cassandra cocked her head, her eyes traveling over my body.
“What? No. I...” I stammered.
Her eyes focused on Jaiden and Noah, a frown deepening on her forehead. Then she took a step forward and pulled me into a fierce hug. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much!” She lowered her head, so her lips touched my ear. “Did someone kidnap you? If you need help, just give me a sign, okay?”
I held on to her for a moment, my muscles weak. “No, it’s all fine, really. My trip was totally unplanned. I met some childhood friends and they were going to this awesome country on another continent, so I decided to go with them. I wanted to call you, but my phone died and later...” My voice trailed off as I realized how stupid and silly my story sounded. I wouldn’t just go off on some trip in the middle of the academic year and come back without calling or saying anything. Cassandra knew that, too, because her eyebrows shot up.
My element found its way out of me and reached for Cassandra’s mind. I didn’t want to do this to my friend, but I had no choice. Cassandra would be too suspicious now that she’d gotten to see me. She’d never believe any of my parents’ excuses and she’d probably try to contact me again. I definitely couldn’t go on a second imaginary trip to the middle of nowhere.
I slowly dug into her mind, glad that she couldn’t feel what I was doing. “You’ve talked to me a couple of times during the last four months. I told you that I was happy on my trips. You never saw me here. When Isabel asks you, tell her I briefly contacted you, that everything’s fine, and that I’ll be back soon. Now go get some coffee.”
Without a word, Cassandra turned on her heel and walked away. I breathed out a sigh of relief, wiping perspiration off my forehead. No one was looking at me, which meant no one knew what I’d just done. Well, no one except Jaiden and Noah, who gave me an incredulous stare.
“Did you just do what I think you did?” Noah asked.
“Yeah.”
“You could have explained it to her somehow. If she’s truly your friend...”
“We don’t have time for this. Let’s go,” I said, unwilling to dwell on what consequences my mind control might have on my friend. One part of me knew I should feel guilty, but the contentment of my element completely overpowered it.
As soon as we stepped through the glass door of the library, I saw Marissa sitting at one of the tables, her head perking up, and her face brightening. She jumped to her feet and threw herself into Noah’s arms without hesitation. “It’s you! You’re all fine! Thank God!” she cried. “I’ve missed you so, so much.”
“Marissa, you need to go back to the island. It’s not safe here,” I said, giving her arm a gentle squeeze. “Do you know where the others are? They have to leave the city, too. Elemontera is after all of you.”
“We came here to help you,” Marissa said, letting go of Noah, and shot a glare at Jaiden. “Well, everyone except Kenna. She couldn’t come. But now that I’ve found you, we can all go back to the island!”
“No, we can’t, but you really have to go,” Noah said, shaking his wrist with the bracelet.
Marissa blinked. “We’re not going back without you. We risked so much to get to you.”
“I’m sorry, but we can’t leave. Elemontera recruited us and they’re threatening my family and everyone we care about. And these bracelets we have track our every move and might be able to kill us. I don’t even know if there’s a way to take them off.” I didn’t want to tell her about the device Jaiden and I had stolen because I didn’t want to give her false hope.
Even if we managed to use the device and block Elemontera’s trackers for some time, that didn’t mean we’d have enough time to find a way to take off the damn things. Besides, Elemontera could still have some backup signal we didn’t know about that could alert them that we were trying to get rid of the bracelets.
“Moira is right,” Jaiden said. “You should leave as soon as possible or we’ll be forced to hunt you down. You wouldn’t last long in Elemontera, believe me.”
“No, there has to be something we can do!” Marissa said, throwing her hands up in despair, a pinched expression on her face.
“There isn’t. Go back to the island.” Noah placed a hand on her shoulder. “Please, Marissa. We need you to be safe. Let us deal with Elemontera. We can take care of ourselves.”
“No.” Marissa shook her head, tears sparkling in her eyes. “I’m not going anywhere until we figure this out. I can take a photo of the bracelet and try to find out what it’s made of.”
Jaiden folded his arms, his jaw clenched. “You’re going back to Roivenna. Now.”
“I’m not.” She bared her teeth.
“Yes, you are!” Jaiden snapped. “Whether you want to or not.”
Marissa snorted. “What are you going to do? Mind control me? Wow. Is that the thanks we all get for trying to save your ass? If you do that, I swear I’ll find a way to make you pay for it!”
“No one is mind-controlling anyone!” Noah said, pulling Marissa closer to him as if he didn’t trust Jaiden and me, and thought that putting himself in between would protect her. “Marissa, we don’t have much time. Ashley, Sam, and Bailey are in danger. Elemontera didn’t send only us after you. Please, you have to understand.”
She sniffled. “But...”
“No. You have to go,” Noah said. “I’m begging you.”
“I guess I could lay low for a while. I have some friends here who are helping me.” She sighed, her shoulders slumped.
“What friends?” Jaiden asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Don’t answer that! It’s better we don’t know,” Noah said. “I assume you got rid of the tracker Elemontera had put on you?”
Marissa nodded. “It’s gone. A friend told me what to do.”
I frowned. “Are you sure you can trust these people?”
“Pretty sure,” she said. “Don’t worry. They know a lot about Elemontera. They’ll...”
A shadow moved at the edge of my vision and I saw a dark-haired guy watching me intently, a book in his hand. Another guy was inching closer from across the room and a girl on our right eyed us carefully. They didn’t look like students. “Marissa, are your friends here, maybe?” I asked.
She flinched and shook her head. “Why would they be...?”
My element didn’t even have to be called out. I captured her mind before she could even think about pushing me out, which she probably wouldn’t be able to do anyway. “Look around you. Are they here?”
Her head turned in the direction of the guy with a book, her eyes widening slightly. “Yes,” she choked out, her face a grimace of pain.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Noah yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders. I let my element slip out of Marissa’s head as I glared at him, prying his fingers off me.
“I don’t know who those people are, but we have to go,” I whispered.
“What the hell was that for?” Marissa lifted her chin, her lips curling.
“Get down!” Jaiden yelled, shoving me aside. A fireball whizzed only a couple of inches from my head and hit the shelves. Marissa and Noah crouched under the table, but a wave of water forced them to crawl away.
Jaiden swore. “One of them is like us.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he meant, but then sharp pain stabbed at my skull and I gathered all of my energy to kick the intruder out of my mind. So one of these elementals could control minds like us, but if they were Marissa’s friends and had been helping her, why the hell were they attacking us? I deflected a fireball with one of my own and caught pieces and crumbles of earth into a net of my air.
Books and papers flew through the air, the shelves cracking under the force of elements. Marissa was on her feet, protected by a wall of water. Her mouth was moving and
I had a feeling she was trying to talk to her friends, but no one paid any attention to her. Actually, none of the attacks seemed to be aimed at her.
Noah had seized control of one of the plants that was in the corner of the room, and its roots grew as they crept across the room toward one of our attackers, who immediately singed them with fire. A shimmering thread snaked itself around Noah’s neck, but I cut it before it made contact with his mind. Jaiden formed a whirlwind and guided it across the room, and I felt invisible fingers wrap themselves around my neck.
The grip on my neck was getting stronger, so I stumbled to my feet and tried to find my attacker. Was this an attempt to kill me or only incapacitate me? My air tugged at the shimmering, but it wasn’t strong enough to free me. I closed my eyes and let my element travel down the shimmering to find its source. A strong barrier tried to prevent me from sneaking into my attacker’s mind, but after a few attempts, I broke inside, willing the person to stop.
Non-elemental air filled my lungs as I gasped, the grip loosening completely. But as I tried to command the person to leave, a wave of elemental energy ploughed through, and my element returned to me. The person with mind-controlling ability must have realized what I’d been doing and intervened. The library was in chaos. Many books were burned and ripped, some were drowned in puddles of water, some buried under piles of earth. Even the windows had shattered, and we were hiding behind the protective walls of our elements and the furniture that hadn’t been destroyed.
Something beeped not far from me, and I saw Jaiden reaching into his jacket, the wet strands of his hair falling into his eyes. He was sitting behind an overturned table and he kicked at the shard of glass at his feet. “Elemontera sent backup here. They caught Sam and the others.” He clenched his jaw, taking out a gun. Jumping to his feet and letting his shield of air drop, he fired four times at someone I couldn’t see from my hiding place. I slouched against a cabinet, or what was left of it, cursing Elemontera for getting their hands on Sam, Ashley, and Bailey. How the hell were we supposed to save them now?
“Keep them busy!” Jaiden yelled to Noah as he threw himself to the ground next to me, avoiding the bullets, which someone had sent right back at him and ended up hitting the wall instead. I might have had doubts before, but now I was sure these people were really trying to kill us. I just didn’t know why.
“Get Marissa out of here,” Jaiden said, his eyes intent on mine. “Where is the device?”
I slipped my hand into my jacket and took out the device.
He bent his head as plaster started falling all over us, and he created a shield of air all around us. “The agents will probably come here, so they won’t have time to take the others to our headquarters. The van should be somewhere nearby, but don’t let anyone see you attacking our agents, okay? Use this.” He snatched the device from me and pointed at a barely perceptible opening. “Press here and it will hide you from Elemontera; hopefully long enough for you to free everyone.” He handed it back. “You’ll have to be very careful.”
“Okay.” I put the device in my pocket, aware of the risks that came with using it. “Do you think the agents already put bracelets on everyone? Can I just send them away with the device?”
“I don’t think they would give them bracelets like ours without taking them in first, maybe only temporary ones. Those can be taken off easily. But if they have bracelets like ours, don’t even think about sending them off with the device. It could stop working or they could decide to use the bracelet to kill because, unlike us, the others aren’t that valuable to Elemontera.” He peered through a gap in the cabinet. “Now go get Marissa. I’ll cover you. Noah and I will come after you as soon as we can.”
I hopped to my feet, turning myself into air, and zoomed toward Marissa while dodging fireballs, waterballs, and clouds of dust. Noah and Jaiden did a good job of keeping the attackers busy, so I turned visible, grabbed Marissa’s hand and we ran down the hall.
Chapter 16
“I swear I didn’t know they’d be trying to kill you,” Marissa said as we ran for one of the emergency exits. The university must have contacted the cops or started evacuating students, so it wouldn’t be good if anyone saw us.
“I know,” I said, stopping to check if anyone was hiding around the corner. “Do you have any idea who they really are or what they want?”
“No, I...” Marissa looked at me as we raced toward the door. “Where are we going? You’re not planning to hand me over to Elemontera, are you?”
“I’d never do that.” I wasn’t surprised that Marissa was suspicious, especially after what happened with her so-called friends. “But the others have been captured and we have to do something.” I sent a blast of air at the door, which burst open, triggering an alarm. “Do you realize now how stupid it was of all of you to come here to look for Noah, Jaiden, and me?” I pulled her to a stop and peeked outside to check if any of Elemontera’s agents were nearby.
She chewed on her lip. “Umm, sorry. But we had a different plan in our heads. Things just didn’t work out how we wanted them to.”
“Okay. Run for those trees and stay hidden.” I pointed at the thick trees and bushes. “I need to find out where Elemontera is holding the others and then I’ll come back for you.”
Marissa nodded and broke into a run. I rushed toward the other side of the building, but as I came closer to the entrance, I realized a large crowd had gathered in front of it, and the cops were trying to keep everyone at bay. But the only people who were allowed to pass through were familiar. Of course, who else would be allowed in if not Elemontera?
I spotted Nick standing farther away from the building as other agents went inside. His brow wrinkled as he saw me approaching. “Oh, good to see you’re alive,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. We were after an elemental and then more popped out of nowhere.” I ran a hand through my hair, grimacing as my fingers brushed against a sore spot on my head. I couldn’t even remember how that had happened. “Jaiden and Noah are still trying to fight whoever attacked us, but our target escaped... Have you seen her?”
“Nope. Haven’t seen anyone.” He lifted his tablet and looked at it. “No one sent any kind of alerts.”
“Can I check something?” I extended my hand.
Nick eyed me up and down but finally handed over the tablet. “Sure.”
I tried to find any info about where the captured elementals were, but all I could see were the positions of agents. “I heard you caught the other elementals. So where are they? I’m afraid the girl could be going after them and might try to free them.” I returned the tablet to him.
“Don’t worry. The guards will get her if she comes near.” He waved his hand.
“I know, but... are they near? I don’t want the girl to run away.” I tilted my head, placing my hands on my hips. “Don’t you want to make sure everything’s fine there?”
“Yeah, they’re near, but I can’t tell you where. I have my orders,” he said flatly.
“But I’m just another agent. You can tell me.” I wasn’t sure if he didn’t trust me and was trying to protect the elemental he thought had escaped or he was afraid Elemontera would do something to him if they found out he’d told me what he wasn’t supposed to. I didn’t remember any rule that said we couldn’t share information on missions, but maybe this was different. It wouldn’t surprise me if Elemontera didn’t trust me with the location of their potential new recruits.
“Sorry. I could show you, but I don’t want to get in trouble.” His mouth twisted, a sour expression on his face.
“I see.” I stepped closer to him, leaning in so I could whisper into his ear. “At least give me a hint or something. I can make you forget if you wish to. Well, not really erase your memory, but make sure you don’t know or can’t tell what happened.”
He gaped at me. “You’re not going after the elemental, are you? You want to... No, you can’t!” His eyes were wide. “They’ll kill you!”
/>
“Those elementals are your sister’s friends. And if they are captured and interrogated, they might tell where she is!” I hissed, and he blanched. Wonderful. Now he already knew too much. I’d have to mind control him to make sure he wouldn’t be able to recall any of this if Elemontera forced Jaiden or me to interrogate him for some reason because there’d be no way to avoid a disaster. “Why don’t you come with me? We’ll say we spotted the girl and are in pursuit. I can fix your memories later.”
“But if we get caught...” His eyes were troubled, his fists slightly clenched. “It’s not worth the risk for me.”
I licked my lips. I could probably try to force him to do whatever I wanted, but Jaiden had already done enough damage. Nick wasn’t my enemy. He’d helped me get through my training. I couldn’t simply shove my element into his brain. “Okay. I’ll offer you a deal. If you show me where the elementals are, I’ll do my best to undo what Jaiden had done to you.”
He jerked his head back, giving me an incredulous stare. “You can’t do that. It’s my mind, my sanity, you’re talking about. I won’t let you mess with it! You can’t know if it’s even possible to undo what’s been done to me.”
I glanced back at the building. We so didn’t have time for this. “I can try. Wouldn’t you want to see your sister again without fear that you’ll have to hurt her?”
“No. You can’t be offering this to me.” He kept shaking his head. “You know Elemontera values your abilities, so they might cut you some slack, but...”
“Please, Nick.” I touched his arm, but he pulled away. “If you don’t want your sister to be captured and brought before you, you’ll help me save those elementals. Please!”
“Okay. Okay! Damn it!” he said through his teeth. “How are we going to do this?”
“Send out the alert that we’re in pursuit of another elemental. I have something that will help us.” I patted the pocket with the device. “Do you think you could turn my friend into air and carry her with you? I don’t want to mess something up or slow us down.” I hadn’t really been planning on taking Marissa with me, but I was afraid that if I sent her back to her car, someone would track her down or she’d try to help and refuse to leave.
Invisible Page 9
