“Yeah, I knew what year it was … My dad, he’s really into classic cars.” I stab the fork into the waffles. “If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have taken the time to look it up.” I pop a bite of waffle into my mouth. “I wasn’t that eager to impress you.”
“Sure you weren’t.” He tosses me a teasing smile.
“I actually wasn’t. My friend Nina convinced me to do it, and I only did it because she pointed out that you weren’t from Honeyton, so the outcome wouldn’t matter because I probably wouldn’t see you again.” I stuff another chunk of waffle into my mouth, mostly to distract myself from my internal embarrassment. “Go figure you ended up being the son of my new guardian. Seriously, it’s like fate hates me or something.”
He slows to a stop as he reaches the edge of the driveway, staring ahead at the road. “Does it hate you, though?”
I’m not even positive if he’s talking to me or himself. Still, I almost reply with a yes, especially after he got so irritated with me for no damn reason when I asked him why he was at the auto body shop. But I can’t bring myself to say so.
The truth is that me ending up with the Everettsons isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’m starting to see that now. In fact, I feel more weightless than I ever have, able to embrace my powers instead of despising them.
Chapter 5
The three of us remain quiet as Foster drives toward the shallow hills that border the town. As we drive, Easton has me rest my head on the console so he can put eye drops into my eyes after I announce I’ll go with water as my element.
“Please don’t play with my eyes again,” I tell Easton as he leans over me. “I hate my eyes being touched.”
The edges of his lips quirk. “But they’re so pretty. I just want to touch them all the time.”
“That is seriously the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard,” I say, wiggling around to get comfortable.
He presses his hand to his chest, mocking being offended. “I tell you your eyes are pretty and all you say is that my compliment is creepy. Wow, that’s cruel.”
“Touching eyes is creepy,” I insist. “Although, I doubt you think so since you have a bunch of eyeballs in your fridge.”
“Hey, I do think that’s creepy,” Easton gives an exaggerated shudder. “If I had my way, Hunter and Holden would keep their science supplies in another fridge, way, way far away from the house. Preferably in another world.”
“Remember that one time they put a jar of demon tongues in there?” Foster says, his face contorted in disgust.
“Wait…” My eyes nearly bulge out of my head. “Demons exist?”
“Um…” Foster trades a look with Easton, who gives a shrug.
“Don’t look at me.” He rolls up the sleeves of his shirt. “You’re the one who said it.”
Foster sighs. “I know.” He looks at me. “Yeah, they exist. But there’s not a lot of them around, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Are there some in this world?” I ask worriedly, acting the opposite of what he told me to do.
“Yeah, but elemental protectors have a sixth sense that lets them know when a demon is present, so demons tend to avoid being near us,” he explains, cranking up the heat.
I still don’t feel any better. I mean… Demons? Demons? “What do they look like?”
“The ones that are here in this world take on a human form,” Easton replies, unscrewing the cap off the eye drops. “But in their true form, they come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some have scales. Some have slimy skin. It really depends on what kind of demon they are.”
“Gross,” I mumble, causing Easton to chuckle.
“Yeah, definitely gross,” he agrees then wiggles the bottle of eye drops in front of my face. “All right, we’re almost to the school, so it’s time to get those pretty eyes of yours hidden.”
Pretty eyes? Is he for reals?
As if sensing my thoughts, he grins. “Your eyes or gorgeous whether you think so or not. And trust me, I’m not the only one who thinks this,” He glances at Foster then holds my eye open with his fingers. “Now hold still.”
I do what he says and then he puts the drops into my eyes. Once my eyes are nice and silvery, looking really freakin’ weird in my opinion, I rest back in the seat and work on finishing my breakfast while taking in my surroundings.
The road we’re driving down is desolate, only a house or two here and there, with mostly trees and spacious fields.
“Is this the town?” I wonder after I’ve finished the last of my waffles.
“Nah. The town’s that way.” Easton nods toward the left. “You can’t see it right now because of the trees and stuff, but even if they weren’t there, it’s hard to see.” He rolls the sleeves of his shirt up. “It’s a really small fucking town.”
“That’s what Max said.” I squint against the sunlight streaming through the clouds. “I want to get a job, but Max said it’d be hard for an out-of-towner to get one.”
“I think you should be okay now that you have powers,” Easton tells me. “When Max said out-of-towners, he actually meant humans.”
I rest my arms on the console. “But humans live here, right? So, how do they work?”
“Most of them work at the factory on the outskirt of town,” Easton explains, combing his fingers through his hair.
“And they never wonder why they don’t get hired elsewhere?” I question skeptically.
“They probably would if it wasn’t for us keeping most of the other shops invisible with magic—they don’t even know most of the places in town exist.” Easton winks at me. “You need to stop thinking like a human. Nothing is simply black and white. In fact, this world is like a damn fucking rainbow with sparkles and everything.”
“I’m starting to realize that, but I’ve also spent most of my life thinking I was human, so it’s sort of hard to break the habit of thinking like one,” I explain then pause. “What I don’t get, though, is how it seems like it’d be so much easier for you guys to just live in your own world. I mean, I know Charlotte said it’s overpopulated, but still, hiding your powers is a pain in the ass. That I understand.”
“It’s not just overpopulation that makes Elemental so unlivable,” Foster says, downshifting as he prepares to make a turn off the highway and onto a paved road that weaves between the trees. “It’s become corrupt because of overpopulation and the increase of elemental protectors of darkness.” He flips on the blinker and turns onto the road. “It’s like that for a lot of worlds, which is why we came here. Although corruption is spreading here, too, like with the hunters.”
I swallow the lump wedged in my throat. “Why the increase in corruption everywhere?”
The air grows so still I can hear the beating of my own heart.
“In Elemental, it’s because all the gods and goddesses died. Well, except for one,” Foster says, tightening his grip on the wheel. “The god of darkness is still alive, so his power has become more prominent.”
A shiver crawls over my body. “Really?”
He nods, his knuckles whitening. “He’s also the god responsible for my grandparents’ deaths.” He shifts the car and decelerates as we reach the trees. “It’s been the god of darkness’s mission to eliminate all the elemental enchanters in our world because, if there were more of us, we could potentially overthrow him and rid the darkness plaguing our world, which he put there. Of course our kind can’t solve the problem of our world dying since only gods and goddesses can feed energy to it.”
“How did they die?” I whisper, tears pooling in my eyes for some bizarre reason. “I mean, the other gods and goddesses.”
“No one knows for sure, but some have speculated that the god of darkness killed them so he could rule on his own.” Foster glances at me, a frown tugging at his lips. Then he reaches across the console and brushes his fingers across my cheek. “Sky, don’t cry. I promise nothing will happen to you. You’re safe with us.”
As he grazes my cheekbones with his
knuckles, I realize tears are dripping down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m crying.” Mortified, I wipe my face with the back of my hand.
“It’s perfectly fine.” He brushes strands of hair out of my face. “You’re handling this better than most.”
“I doubt that.” I rub my eyes, my heart feeling strange, as if a piece has fallen out. “I wish there was something that could help Elemental. It’d be nice to see it one day.”
“It was beautiful once.” He steers down the road with one hand, resting his other on my cheek. “My parents work for the elemental protector organization, and they’ve been working on finding a new source to feed our world ever since the gods and goddesses died. They’ve had a couple of findings, mostly in books and folklore told amongst our kind that suggests that, before the gods and goddesses died, they hid power sources that contained each of their own powers. But, so far, there hasn’t been any proof, so it’s mostly just an urban legend.”
“You and I both know it’s probably just stories.” Easton slides forward and crosses his arms on top of the center console. “If the gods and goddesses left their power sources behind, someone would’ve found them by now.”
“You never know. We used to believe there weren’t any other elemental enchanters, so …” He shrugs, looking ahead.
I track his gaze, and my eyes widen.
Just in front of us, the trees open up to a flat, flowery field that stretches as far as the eye can see. And smack dab in the middle of it is a towering, gothic-like building, three stories high with turrets and everything.
“Is that the academy?” I gape at the building in astonishment.
Foster nods. “Yep, that’s your new school.”
The corners of my lips twitch upward. “It’s actually really awesome looking.”
Smiling, he steers through the iron-gated entrance. “Just wait until you see the inside.”
My smile enlarges until we turn into the parking lot. Then my mood nosedives.
“There’re so many people here,” I note, peering around at all the cars and trucks and the people wandering around. But, are they even people?
“This is the elemental protectors’ section.” Foster parks in the first open spot available, silences the engine, and then points to the left at a smaller building in the distance that has a domed roof and an arched entryway. “That’s where the humans attend and where you’ll go for your human-related classes, like math and English.”
“Our building is better,” I remark, unfastening my seatbelt.
The smile that consumes his face is a combination of amusement and elation.
“What’s that smile for?” I slip my bag over my shoulder and reach for the door handle.
“It’s nothing.” He collects his car keys and shoves open the door. “You just referred to it as our school, like you’ve accepted you’re part of it.”
Wow, he’s right. I hadn’t even noticed.
Unsure of what to make of that—that I’m beginning to accept this new life of mine and so quickly—I decide not to make anything of it, just let it be, and hop out of the car.
The instant my feet touch the asphalt, the gawking starts. Everyone within a fifty-foot radius glances in my direction with curious eyes.
Awesome. This is a socially awkward person’s nightmare.
Summoning a tremulous breath, I round the front of the car toward the driver’s side where Foster is waiting for me.
“This is worse than I thought it’d be,” Easton comments as he climbs out and joins us, slinging his bag over his shoulder then slipping his hands into his pockets and glancing around at all the gawkers. “Gods, people need to get a life. So there’s someone new? It doesn’t give them the right to stare like a bunch of nosey fuckers.”
“Why are they staring?” I ask, sidestepping closer to Foster when a huge guy with bulky muscles and lavender eyes winks at me.
Ice. He’s an elemental protector of ice.
“Fresh meat.” Easton winks at me then grins when I pierce him with a look. He chuckles, but then huffs out a sigh. “It’s probably partially our fault everyone’s staring. We have some friends and everything, but we don’t spend a lot of time with anyone outside our family’s circle. And we’ve never brought anyone to school with us before.”
“Awesome,” I grumble. “I hope they stop soon. I hate being the center of attention.”
Easton rolls his eyes. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, sweetheart.”
“Unless maybe I’m not around you guys,” I point out. Although, the idea of starting this new school without them makes me want to barf.
“They’re still gonna stare at you even if you aren’t.” When puzzlement dances through me, Easton lightly tugs on a strand of my hair. “You’re new, which draws attention. And you’re pretty.”
I resist an eye roll. “Nice try, flirt, but I spent my entire life being either invisible or tormented, so I know you’re full of sh—”
He places a finger over my lips, shushing me. “I’m going to stop you right there. You’re pretty, and I’m sure you haven’t been invisible. You’re just shy. I got that from the first time I met you. But I think your shyness quickly wears off once you’ve been around someone for a bit, especially someone who’s sexy as hell and likes to push your buttons.” He winks at me, his grin cocky.
I disagree with him about me being pretty. Sure, I don’t think I’m ugly, but my looks are average. Not that I care. It’s not like my life is going to be easier if I suddenly become this beautiful swan. My life is my life, and I am who I am, whether I’m pretty or not.
“And as for being tormented,” Easton continues, lowering his finger from my lips. “My bet is it was from guys who thought you were hot but got pissed off when you wouldn’t give them any attention.”
My lips curve downward as his words sink in. “If that’s true, then some guys suck.”
“Some do,” Easton agrees with a nod. “Foster and I aren’t those kinds of guys, though. Just FYI.”
“You were pretty douchey when I first met you,” I remind him, adjusting the handle of my backpack.
He shakes his head. “Nah, I wasn’t douchey. I was just trying to protect something.”
“You mean you’re family?”
His attention fleetingly skates to Foster then back to me. “Sure.”
My brows crinkle as I glance between the two of them. Why does it feel like there’s more they’re not telling me?
Foster and Easton share another look, and then Foster shakes his head, the muscles in his jaw pulsating. Then his forehead creases as his phone buzzes from inside his pocket. Fishing it out, he glances at the message then stuffs his phone away and looks at me.
“My mom can’t make it today,” he tells me. “Her and my dad got called on a couple of different missions, and they’re going to be gone for at least the day.”
“What mission did they get called on?” Easton asks, glancing at his phone.
“I’m not sure.” He shrugs, but another look passes between them.
My gut warns me that they’re definitely keeping stuff from me. A lot of things.
“So, who’s going to check me in to school?” I ask, deciding I’ve had enough of their secret, silent conversations for now. “Or, should I just start tomorrow?” Please say the latter, because this is starting to become too much.
“My mom called the school, and they agreed to let her come in when she gets back from her mission and sign all the paperwork. So, all we need to do today is stop by the main office and pick up your schedule and class supplies. And you should be in all the same classes as mine. Well, mostly the human ones since a lot of my elemental-related courses have prerequisites.” He scratches the back of his neck. “But, if you run into any trouble at any time, you can either text me or send for help down our link.”
“You’re acting nervous right now …” I edgily glance around the parking lot, the building, and ultimately at the people. “I
s it not safe here?”
“No, it is …” But Foster’s heavy reluctance has me concerned. “The school and the walls around it have a ton of powerful protection spells, so only permitted creatures can come here. It’s almost as safe as our house. I just want to make sure you send for help if someone bothers you. I—we want to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible dealing with this new world and learning about your powers.”
“Thanks, but … is your house really safer than a school full of elemental protectors?” I question, because the idea seems a bit crazy.
“My brothers and I are very powerful. In fact, we’re pretty badass.” Foster winks at me, and my traitor stomach does kick flips. As if he knows exactly what’s going on inside me, and maybe he does, he smiles then nods toward the building. “Come on; let’s try not to be late.”
I begrudgingly nod, and then we start to make our way across the parking lot and toward the school. With every step I take, the staring increases and my nerves skyrocket to the point where clouds are rolling in.
As we reach the wide stairway that leads to the double-doored entrance, I just about turn around and bolt as a group of people with the most striking dark eyes appear at the top of the stairway.
Elementals of darkness. I’m not even sure how I know, other than I can sense the darkness flowing off them.
In response to my nerves, lighting lights up the sky like a goddamn blue strobe light.
Foster hastily laces his fingers through mine and guides me closer to him, static buzzing between us.
“You’re fine,” he assures me. “Easton and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Still feeling shaky inside, I latch on to his hand.
“You need to relax,” Easton whispers. “Don’t let them sense your fear.”
I take a deep breath and another, but my pulse remains jittery.
“You’ve got Foster and me right here,” Easton says. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
Enchanted Chaos Series: Sky & Foster's Complete Novel Page 21
