The Tantalising Taste Of Water (Elemental Awakening, Book 4)

by Nicola Claire

  “But that’s just it, Aether,” the Gi said. “Balance. You need a representative from all branches. You’ve said it yourself. Pyrkagia, Nero, Aeras and Gi.”

  “And Alchemist,” Mark added. “The good kind,” he said when several pairs of hardened eyes turned his way.

  “Human, too,” Sonya offered, and suddenly I felt weak.

  Theo reached for me, gripping me under my arm and hauling me against his body for support.

  They were right, but the thought of my best friend, my fragile best friend, facing off against the Alchemists suddenly put everything into perspective.

  “Fuck,” I said. Trust Sonya to quietly make a point when every other person here had been attempting to do so at full volume.

  This is what not being alone means, I thought.

  Aether, my Elements agreed.

  “It was a noble thought,” Theo said softly, brushing my hair back and laying a kiss on my forehead gently. “But you are not alone, nor will you ever be.”

  “It’s me they want,” I argued.

  Theo swallowed thickly. “And maybe it is time you greeted that reality. But you will not greet it without a guard.”

  “And the Alchemists?” I said. “Will you be able to refrain from killing each and every one of them?”

  The silence stretched. I could feel the others waiting for the Prince’s reply. If anyone here had the right to do battle with the Alchemists it was the heir to the Pyrkagia throne. The one man who would eventually replace his demented father. The one Athanatos who would correct the wrongs of the past or repeat them.

  “You make me want to be a better man, Oraia,” Theo murmured. “You make me question the world and my place in it. You have never shied away from your role in this fight. Never once baulked at what faced you.” I thought perhaps he was being generous there. “In the end, you always stand tall,” he said pointedly as if he’d heard my doubts. “You always do what is right. For everyone.”

  He held me close. Kissed me dearly.

  And said, “I will follow you to the ends of this earth, Casey Eden. You are my Thisavros. You are my Queen.”

  “My Queen!” the Gi each said en masse.

  “My Queen,” Pisces roared up to the heavens.

  Queen, Aether said, and something expanded inside. Something vast and deep, dark and yet filled with light. Blazing with stars. Burning with power. Reaching across the world and spearing me in the heart.

  I gasped. The air thickened. Heavy raindrops began to fall. The campfire flared, and the ground shuddered.

  And deep inside my mind, I saw everything. Every inch of scarred earth. Every human who had survived Genesis. Every Athanatos and Alchemist, including Gramps.

  I didn't have time to be happy my grandfather still lived, Aether called. Aether drew me in.

  I tipped my head back and let the stars take me. And every single person who stood with me in former Manaus, and every single Athanatos from around the globe. And every single human who still lived.

  Aether took us all.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Didn’t See That Coming

  New Zealand is not a large place, but with Genesis’ not so delicate hand, it had a heck of a lot more space than previously. Still, every single living person in the world in one small country was pushing it. Even with our worldwide population depleted. But my newly acquired Aether sense told me the humans were farther out, and possibly being held in a suspended parallel state, and only Alchemists and Athanatos were amassed in Auckland itself.

  I suddenly realised Aetheros wasn't just an Athanatos god. Even now at the end, he protected the humans.

  Eternal Aether rest here, your journey’s end on earth is near.

  I don't know who said it. The words reverberated inside my mind. They echoed in the vastness of space. They bounced off brain cells and rebounded off the inside of my skull. I winced. Theo stiffened beside me. A strange silence enveloped the world.

  Welcome, Aether, that same voice said. It seemed smug. Self-righteous. I immediately knew who it was.

  “Alchemist,” I said, unable to keep the snarl from my voice.

  So, I could talk the talk, but I couldn't seem to walk the walk. This freaking Stoicheio stealer had been chasing me down since Noah the Alchemist doctor had freed me from the Gi.

  “Where?” Theo demanded. Pisces raised his spear. I noticed his sea creature brethren surrounded him. None of them looked too happy to have been plucked from Atlantis. Altogether they looked downright frightening, in fact. I hoped the Alchemists were shaking in their boots.

  “I don't know,” I said to Theo. “One of them is talking inside my head.”

  We spun around, recognising the remains of the Pyrkagia Pyrgos in the distance, backlit by the blue sky and a turbulent South Pacific Ocean. But where the Pyrkagia themselves were or the Alchemists who’d just attacked them, I didn’t know. This close to the action, my Aether Spidey-sense only told me they were here. Somewhere.

  “Pyrkagia have survived,” I said to Theo. “I can sense them.”

  “I can as well,” he agreed. “But I cannot see where they are hiding.” Or being kept captive.

  “Where are you?” I shouted to the suspenseful sky. “Show yourself, Alchemist. Or must you hide behind party tricks and stolen powers?”

  Mark sniggered. “I thought you wanted them on your side, Case,” he said. “Way to not offend them.”

  An Alchemist suddenly appeared in a bolt of lightning, halfway between us and the remains of the Pyrgos. I didn't recognise him. I’d never met Noah’s contact. But I’d recognise his voice.

  “Speak,” I demanded, and thunder rolled across the sky.

  Maybe I was angrier than I’d thought. Or the Elements were messing with my mind.

  Rest easy, Aether, breathe free, they said. They seemed to be talking as one all of a sudden.

  I wondered if that was a good thing.

  “You have led us on a merry chase, Aether,” the Alchemist said. Bingo! I’d recognise that nasal voice anywhere.

  “Sorry about Manaus,” I replied sweetly. “It must have been a bummer when I ruined your plans.”

  “Don’t forget Table Mountain,” Nico offered genially. “So close!”

  “Where is my grandfather?” I asked. Sooner or later he’d parade him before me, use him to get to me. Better to have it out in the open from the start.

  “My condolences, Aether,” the man said, sounding, for all intents and purposes, saddened. “He did not survive the Pyrkagia’s wrath.”

  I settled my escalating heartbeat and let Aether steal through me. There! Alive. So, the Alchemists planned on springing him on me at a later time, did they? Surprise me and then crush me all over again.

  I smiled. It was challenging. “He betrayed me long ago,” I said.

  Mark shifted uncomfortably beside me. I could feel his sorrow at Gramps’ supposed death and his shock at my supposed uncaring attitude towards it.

  “You’ve done me a favour, Alchemist,” I said. “Now I don't have to suffer through another boring dream visit getting lectured by a liar.”

  Theo shifted beside me, well aware this was not my normal character speaking.

  I sent Pyrkagia towards him, just a little, just enough to let him know I was still me. To my brother, I soothed with the calming call of sea creatures. Pisces’ eyes met mine across the space between us. He nodded his head briefly.

  The Alchemist burst out laughing and then raised his hand. Lightning struck again, and this time when the brightness subsided, Gramps knelt in the dirt, two Alchemists holding his body down on either side.

  The earth groaned with my fury.

  The Alchemist only laughed harder. “You are magnificent,” he said. “Such beauty in your anger. Such devotion to those you love. He did betray you. And yet you seethe at the treatment he is receiving for his crimes.”

  I stared at him, a sadness reaching down deep inside.

  “How do you think this will end?” I asked
softly.

  “You have one task to perform, Aether, and we will ensure you do it.”

  “The sacrifice?”

  “Yes.”

  “And holding Gramps is for what? Leverage?”

  “Of course. And because he betrayed us.” The Alchemist standing on Gramps’ right-hand side hit him hard with a closed fist to the cheek.

  My grandfather did not make a sound, but the crack of his jaw breaking reached me. I almost stepped forward. It was only Theo’s hold on my arm and Mark’s soft growl beside me that stayed my feet.

  My eyes devoured Gramps’ slumped body. His bowed form. His ragged breaths. His clenched fists tied behind him. There was still fight left in the old man. And if he could still fight when facing his imminent death, then I could still fight for balance. For peace. For harmony.

  For the world’s survival.

  One man was not such a heavy price to pay, was it? But I loved him. I’d never stopped, I realised. Despite the perceived betrayal. Despite the secrets and his staged death. Despite the years of mourning. I still loved him.

  I wished I’d told him that.

  My eyes left the bent but not broken form of my paternal grandfather and landed on the Alchemist.

  “This ends now,” I said.

  “So glad you agree, Aether,” the bastard replied, nasally.

  And then the Alchemists holding Gramps each drew a long sword from out of nowhere. Gramps’ eyes met mine for the briefest of moments which felt like an eternity. Then lightning struck as they brought the blades down in a synchronised motion toward my grandfather’s neck.

  No! Nonononono!

  I was running before Theo could stop me, Mark on my heels, Pisces roaring his head off. The air thickened, the clouds lowered; atmosphere rolling in. In my periphery, I saw the Aeras Rigas raise his hands up and pull down the heavens. The eyes of his people around him blazed pure white. The shaman standing tall among them cackled like a fiend as Air rolled in like a thundercloud.

  The ground heaved, a Gi launched themselves at an Alchemist who had appeared from out of nowhere. An arrow was strung and loosed in lightning quick fashion. The scent of Earth surrounded. Vines rose from the packed dirt, wrapping around the enemy. Fire flared, a wall of flames engulfing them. With a simple thought, I doused it in Water.

  Everywhere around me, Ekmetalleftis of every branch rallied. The clouds opened up and the ground at our feet became a swampy pit of mud, not dry packed dirt, as trees erupted and roots severed limbs and Fire raged all around us.

  I could feel the molten lava deep beneath Auckland’s surface bubble and boil, threatening to erupt. Rangitoto Island out in the Hauraki Gulf exploded. It was like Genesis all over again. But this time, we, the Athanatos, controlled it. The Alchemists stirring up the long-held hatred between them and making it all froth and boil and bubble.

  This was not balance. Or maybe it was. Our anger certainly matched that of the Alchemists. And I thought if the humans were watching this pathetic display of temper tantrums destroying what was left of their world, they'd be pretty freaking angry too.

  Was this the balance Aetheros wanted?

  I started laughing. It was shrill; high pitched. Completely unhinged. I sliced at an Alchemist with a razor sharp vine. I snuffed out the air in another. I drowned a third. But they had such power. Such awesome borrowed power. And that combined strength they’d displayed on top of Table Mountain showed itself again here.

  The vine was swallowed whole by the ground before it could do any real damage. Wind blew in and forced its way down the suffocating Alchemist’s mouth, oxygenating his body. Fire burned off all the water that engulfed the drowned Alchemist, leaving him scorched but able to suck in air, able to breathe freely.

  So powerful. So much more powerful than me. Was it because they combined their power and balanced it perfectly?

  It didn't matter because despite that balance there was no harmony here. Only rage and anger and an emotional quagmire of dark, seething sensations. My stomach twisted. Bile rose up my throat. I felt something kick against the wall of my belly.

  And suddenly everything stopped.

  Silence reigned. A bolt of lightning hung suspended in the air, reaching out but not quite touching its target. I followed its halted trajectory and saw its intended mark.

  Theo. My Thisavros.

  Another kick brought my panicked mind back to my body. I alone could move, could breathe, could think. My hand landed on my stomach. I noticed for the first time; I had a small bump there. No longer smooth, but rounded. And inside my baby kicked me.

  “Hey,” I said, the words sounding surreal in the false silence. “You awake in there, little one?” Another kick; a surge of Pyrkagia warmth throughout my body.

  I smiled, and then the smile fell as Air swirled around my cheeks, stroking lovingly, and raindrops danced across my shoulders, making whimsical patterns to delight me, and vines wrapped themselves carefully around my forehead, little tiny flowers bursting to life, decorating the makeshift crown as it adorned me.

  I reached up and touched it. Then lowered my hand to my belly. Every single being around me was frozen. Stars twinkled between their upraised fists, darted around their loosened arrows, sparked off the tips of tridents and spears and sword blades.

  No one here was able to make Earth and Air and Water and Fire and Quintessence perform. No one but me - and it wasn't me orchestrating this delicate dance - and my unborn baby.

  “Are you doing this?” I asked, feeling entirely too removed from the situation.

  Another kick. A flutter like butterfly wings inside my belly.

  I stroked a palm over my stomach and let out a little whimper.

  “Oh,” I said. “I thought you’d be Pyrkagia.” It was such an inane statement, but right then I couldn’t form an intelligent thought to save myself.

  And I needed to. I wasn't sure how long my child could sustain this. Every Athanatos had a limit to how much power they could draw on. Sooner or later they had to replenish their stores. But I realised as I stood there, that my baby was doing just that. The wall of Fire that had been about to engulf a line of Alchemists, slowly dwindled; I could feel its heat as it raced toward my body. The bubble of Water that surrounded a group of Gi burst, the droplets dancing in the air and then surging towards me. The wind that buffeted a group of Nero, forcing them to roll feet over head over feet, unable to gain purchase against such might, had dissipated; Air streaked towards me in a burst of lightning. The vines that had wrapped themselves around a group of Alchemists, now unravelled and spread across the ground towards me, laying down grass, sinking roots deep into the ground, and then gently climbing my body. The soothing scent of Earth followed.

  I let out a breath. And then another and another. Until finally, I sank to the ground and dug my fingers into the dirt.

  My unborn baby had more power than the Alchemists combined. More power than me, Aetheros’ chosen Aether. My baby drew on everyone and everything.

  “This isn’t right,” I whispered. No one should have this power, and I feared for what this could mean.

  Rest easy, Aether, breathe free, all the Elements said at once. Fear not what you are unable to see.

  “But I can see this,” I said. And I was fearful of what this could mean for my baby.

  I glanced across at Theo. The lightning that had been heading for him had gone. I huffed out a laugh, stroked my belly.

  “You were hungry,” I said to the baby. It kicked me again. “What now?” I asked. Butterfly kisses followed. But no answers.

  Aether grounded in Earth stands strong, my Elements sang. Against all that man does wrong.

  Aether wreathed in Fire burns bright. Lights the darkness of the night.

  Aether lifted on Air flies high. Facing those we fear with just a sigh.

  Aether doused in Water lives on. Another day to fight is gone.

  I closed my eyes. Bowed my head. Tried to breathe through the pain inside.

  Aether wr
apped in Quintessence feels brave.

  Stars began to form around me. Sparkling, dazzling, twinkling.

  They would have been beautiful if I hadn't already been crying.

  Courage enough to do what’s grave, my Elements whispered, completing the riddle.

  Not a riddle, I corrected. A prophecy. Every single thing the Aeras shaman had said had come true. Some not exactly as I had envisaged it; interpretation was still a little skewed when it came to the shaman’s ramblings. And I tried now to view my Stoicheio’s words from a different angle, but no matter what way I looked at it, it still amounted to one thing.

  I had to make a sacrifice. The Nero Rigas had known. The Alchemists had known, too. The Aeras shaman had always known.

  Even Quintessence had said it to me.

  A true sacrifice must cost something.

  What would this cost me?

  I touched my stomach, felt the little fluttering of my baby’s feet as he kicked me. My tear-filled eyes landed on Theo. My Thisavros. My heart. My soul. My King.

  “Well,” I said, after how long sitting there feeling sorry for myself I don’t know. But no one had moved, all the weapons had been broken or melted or removed completely, and my baby still danced a jig inside, drawing on the world’s energy.

  “You’re going to be a handful,” I said, climbing to my feet.

  The statement had been so natural. So real. So right.

  No one was taking our baby. No one.

  I walked over to my Thisavros and laid a kiss on his frozen cheek. Pyrkagia surged, for a moment I thought it just mine. But I felt Theo’s Fire. Wrapped around my Pyrkagia so tightly. Even frozen his Stoicheio wanted to tangle with mine.

  I started crying. I knew what I had to do.

  “All right, little one,” I said, stroking my belly. “Are you ready?” A kick. A flutter. A caress of Air across my cheek. “Your daddy’s going to be pissed you’re not favouring Pyrkagia,” I pointed out. Fire surged, wrapping its warmth around me. “Show off,” I whispered.

  Then I sucked in air. I was really going to do this. Sacrifice something.