by Mia Marshall
Instead, I forced a grin and focused on the good news. “So you’ve decided to give up the siren call of the stage, after all?”
“It turns out I missed auditions while tromping all over Tahoe with you lot. Besides, they were doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream this year. Why that play is considered a classic is beyond me. I mean, fairies and spells? How ludicrous.”
It was a plausible excuse. I didn’t believe it for a minute. “Of course. The part where the man turns into a donkey is particularly far-fetched.”
He didn’t smile, but neither did I. Without warning, sincerity sprouted through the facade of good humor I was trying to maintain. “We’ll miss you. I’ll miss you. I’m glad you’re at least staying in the state.”
He rolled his eyes. “You do know I will be fifteen minutes away, yes?” The words were caustic, but he smiled and quickly rubbed his cheek against my shoulder.
Outside, we heard the unmistakable growl of Sera’s Mustang. Simon shifted and flew out the window, leaving me to carry his discarded clothes and bag downstairs.
By the time I joined him outside, he was hugging Vivian. She didn’t seem to mind that he was doing so completely naked. She was thin and pale, but she was wearing a Star Fleet Academy t-shirt and smiling. That was the Vivian I knew, and I rushed for her as soon as Simon let go. She felt fragile, and I thought if I wrapped my arms too tightly about her, she would break. I released her after a quick hug, unwilling to push her too far. She’d helped us break Eleanor’s password and gave us control of the implants, but she wasn’t back, not yet.
Olivia, waiting impatiently in the driver’s seat, was proof enough of that.
“Did you thank your mom for me?” she asked. I nodded. Once my mother had recovered her energy in the lake, she’d promptly expended it by healing the shifters’ memories. As a group, we’d discussed whether to leave the block that prevented them from remembering their time in the lab. Two voices had come out strongly against that plan, and somehow my mother and I had convinced a bunch of shifters to follow the advice of a couple of elementals. The children’s abductions were now part of who they were. There was no protecting them from that.
There was only one person she’d been unable to help. Whatever I’d done to him, it had altered him too much. She had no idea where to even begin undoing the changes I’d caused.
Vivian had been next on my mother’s list. She’d healed my friend in two hours. The doctors were, of course, mystified, but we figured we’d just given them at least one new journal article.
Sera stepped onto the porch, Vivian’s bag in hand. She gripped it tightly, and I knew she was debating whether to actually hand it over. “You don’t have to do this, you know. This is still the woman who ignored you for weeks. Also, I have it on good authority she watches a lot of reality TV.”
Vivian shrugged. “She loves me.”
Sera was unimpressed. “There are different kinds of love, Vivian, and some last longer than others. Just remember that your room will still be here when you get sick of watching repeats of The Biggest Loser, okay?” She carried the bag to Olivia’s car and threw it in the trunk, avoiding eye contact with the woman inside the car. I don’t know if Olivia could hear Sera’s words, but she didn’t look happy.
I wasn’t ready to say good-bye, not yet. So long as they remained at the cabin, there was a chance they’d change their minds. They might stay.
Denial, it seemed, had all sorts of uses.
“There are some people here that want to thank you for deactivating the implants. Can’t you stay?” I tried to keep the pleading tone from my voice. I failed.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I need to be away from all this for a while. Please understand.”
I couldn’t argue. I knew exactly why she had to leave. Our lives had been one disaster after another for months on end, and I couldn’t promise her that wouldn’t continue. Too many questions were still unanswered, too many problems still needed to be faced. I might want her at my side, but I couldn’t demand she stay there. It wouldn’t be fair.
This whole maturity thing kind of sucked sometimes.
“Do what you have to do,” I said, to both Vivian and Simon. I felt something tight release with the words, a sense of letting go of something I’d not known I was holding. Fear that they wouldn’t come back, perhaps.
Simon climbed in the back seat, still naked. Olivia attempted a straight face, but I could see the shock she was trying to hide. Somehow, that cheered me up immeasurably. If she was going to steal Vivian from us, at least Simon was making her work for it.
Vivian struggled back into the passenger seat, her movements stiff. Her recovery wasn’t complete.
She closed the door, and the car reversed slowly down the drive. We raised our hands in silent farewell, watching until they were out of sight.
“This doesn’t feel right,” I told Sera.
“Damn straight it doesn’t.” Her face was expressionless, as it always was when she felt strong emotions.
“They might be happy, though.” I didn’t mean to sound as doubtful as I did.
“For a while, they will. Then Simon will tire of eating raw deer instead of canned tuna, and he’ll find his way back. And those two? They’re doomed.” Her tone left no room for argument.
“What makes you so sure?”
“Seriously? Their names are Olivia and Vivian. Liv and Viv. That is way too twee to last. Two months, tops.”
“So we just let them go.” I knew that’s exactly what we had to do, but I needed to hear someone else say it.
“Well, you know. Free will and all that.”
“Then what happens?”
She turned to me, and finally a smile cracked her face. “Then we put the band back together.”
I nodded, accepting the truth of her words. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a start.
We walked through the house, needing to break the news to our visitors that the guest of honor wouldn’t be joining the party. The shifters had all set up camp on our back porch the moment they heard Vivian was being released that day. Ever since she’d saved their children from Eleanor’s implants, our earth friend had become something of a folk hero to the shifters. If asked, I thought Will and Carmen might compose a song in her honor.
It gave me hope for the future of elemental-shifter relations.
Through the sliding glass door, I watched our guests. Will and Carmen stood at the railing overlooking the river. They weren’t talking, but peace hung over them, and I thought James and Pamela would find fewer obstacles to their future happiness, at least from their families.
Miriam sat in a corner with a half-drained bottle of booze, teaching Brandon and Mary how to play quarters and winning handily, despite playing two sober opponents. When she saw me, she winked, then sent another coin soaring into the cup.
And standing at the grill, where salmon cooked on one side and pancakes lay neatly across the griddle on the other half, was the reason I got out of bed each morning. I stood at the door, not quite ready to join everyone’s celebration.
Mac knew I was there instantly, and his eyes met mine. He smiled, and for that moment my sadness over Simon and Vivian disappeared. Mac was safe, and alive, and he knew me. Nothing else mattered.
“Dude, watch the fire,” Brandon muttered, unimpressed by our display.
Our eyes dropped to where the unattended fire had seized its chance, eagerly seeking freedom through the iron bars of the grill. Without a second thought, I grabbed a quick ball of water and dropped it, killing the fire with a sharp sizzle. At least I managed to save the pancakes.
I pulled the magic back toward me, but it came unwillingly. It wanted to play. It wanted to dance with the other magic it found, the familiar power that lingered just a few feet away. That small hint of elemental magic that hadn’t returned to me the night Mac died.
Several uninvited drops of water slithered down the back of my shirt. They played against my skin, drawing circles across my sho
ulder blades. I met Mac’s gaze again, and again he smiled, this time with more than a hint of devilry.
No one else noticed. No one else knew, and we had no plans to change that anytime soon.
We weren’t together. We couldn’t be, not with so many questions still unanswered. But we weren’t apart, either.
I wrenched my eyes away from his and looked at each face in turn.
In theory, everything was terrible. I wasn’t sure if I’d put the agents on probation or they’d done so to me, but the end result was the same: I had no job. I was about to receive a banishment sentence from the council. My father was a murderous psychopath whose existence threatened the lives of everyone I loved. My own magic was slowly shifting, pushing me closer to a mental state I still didn’t understand. Two of my best friends had just left, off to explore new lives. And just for good measure, I may have turned Mac into a magical freak of nature.
My world was getting stranger and less predictable by the day, full of new people and new puzzles. I thought that might be a good thing.
Balance, I decided, was a myth. It implied stagnation. It was something we told ourselves when we needed to believe we had a semblance of control over our own lives. Things changed, constantly. People entered and left our lives, sometimes several times. We adapted and grew, or we didn’t and shriveled. It was our choice to make.
I made my choice. I stepped onto the porch, and I let my world get a little bit bigger.
Acknowledgments
At times, this book felt like something of a beast (pun totally intended)—a lumbering, uncontrollable creature determined to have its way. These are the people who helped me tame it, and I am beyond grateful for all their hard work.
My editor, Kaari Busick, continues to be my greatest champion, and her love for the Elements series helps keep me excited about writing it, even on those days when it feels like I’d have better luck bench-pressing grizzly bears than meeting my word count.
Sarah Goshman, publicist extraordinaire, has done an amazing job helping readers discover the Elements series, and I cannot thank her enough for her work.
Carrie Stewart has helped in so many ways, both big and little, that I can’t even begin to list them all. Suffice it to say this book would not have been published without her.
Special thanks to my tireless betas, Jessica, Rachel, and Shelly, who assured me I hadn’t taken the series completely off the rails while also pointing out an embarrassing number of plot holes and unclear motivations. Thanks as well to Carol, for generously volunteering her time to review the final draft, and to Cynthia Fliege, for creating another fabulous cover.
Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care were the source of my improved knowledge about the local wildlife population and the reason I now know bears adore watermelon and bobcats only pee in water—important information to possess, I’m sure you’ll agree. They have an open house every August, and if you’re visiting Tahoe, it’s definitely worth the trip.
Thanks to the citizens of Truckee for not screaming too loudly about the way I frequently install buildings where none exist and insist on raising the town’s crime rate.
Finally, thanks to the readers who have become invested in the Elements world. It still amazes me that others are connecting with these characters and places I love, and I am thrilled to share them with you.
Elements, Etc.
The Elements series, in order:
Broken Elements
Shifting Selves
Turning Tides (available May 2014)
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Thanks for reading!
About the Author
Mia Marshall has always been obsessed with stories. When younger, her version of cleaning her room involved neatly organizing her books, then ignoring all other messes in favor of re-reading The Wizard of Oz series just one more time. As an adult, she earned an unnecessary number of degrees in literature, education, and film. She planned to spend the rest of her life teaching stories to others, but she became distracted and started writing those stories herself.
Mia has lived all over the US west coast and throughout the UK. These days, she lives somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where she is hard at work on the next Elements book.
Shifting Selves
Copyright © 2013 by Mia Marshall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any matter whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except where permitted by law.
Printed in the United States of America.
Publisher's Note:
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Resemblances to actual locales or events or persons living or dead is coincidental.
ISBN 978-0-9889761-4-6
ISBN 978-0-9889761-3-9 (ebook)
Match Books Press, LLC
http://matchbookspress.com
