Kaden recognized Donovan from the spring and knew his suspicions were correct. He had known who Raine was the moment they met at the water. Donovan looked bored as he studied his fingers in the far corner of the room.
The others in the room Kaden didn’t recognize. A dirty-blonde haired man crouched by the bed under the window, slightly moving his hands. Each time he did, Raine’s hair would lift a bit and she looked a little relieved, but no one in the room seemed to notice.
A strawberry blonde woman lay chained to the bed and her wrists looked blistered and raw. She had her head turned to the window, but her eyes were closed.
In the back corner of the room stood an old woman who looked like she’d seen better days. She wore a long flowing white dress, and her unkempt thinning white hair hung in strands past her shoulders. She watched the tall bleached blonde man standing next to Kayla with such interest, Kaden could feel the intensity of her stare through the window.
The old woman in the corner shouted and all eyes turned to her.
“Enough. Elzar, finish this. Time is short.”
“Elzar?” Kaden mouthed to Camille when their eyes met, both wide with shock.
“Yes, my dear. Have you not guessed already who I am?” the blonde man next to Kayla said as he took a step forward.
“But, how?” Raine asked. Kaden couldn’t hear her voice through the panes of glass, but he could read her lips and her expression of confusion matched his own.
“The ring.” Donovan’s answer made Kaden snap his gaze to the old woman in the corner who smiled at Raine as she played with a large sapphire on her finger. “It’s how he steals the life from Elementals.”
Kayla turned her head to look out the window. Camille froze in place. Kaden quickly pulled back and pressed his back against the side of the house with a silent prayer Kayla didn’t see him.
After a few moments, Kaden chanced another peek through the glass and found his mother had now entered the room and was staring down at Raine as if she were something on the bottom of her shoe. All eyes were on Raine as Lizzy knelt in front of her.
“You are the reason my family fell apart,” she said, the venom in her voice palpable. “Because of you, my husband died. Because of you, I lost my unborn child, my son was chosen for a life of servitude, and my dreams fell apart. Because of you, I do this.”
Lizzy stood and reached for the ring that the old woman held out to her. She took the ring in her hand and twisted it in her palm. Carefully, she knelt down next to Raine and roughly pulled her middle finger up as far as it would go. Raine flinched as Lizzy placed the ring on her finger and stepped back.
Raine began to shake in her chair, her teeth clenched tight. The anguish on her face made Kaden cringe. He tried to stand, but his legs wouldn’t move. He watched as Raine’s head fell back. Her eyes looked to the ceiling and began to glow.
The ring on her finger burned bright orange as the metal became hot on her skin. The sapphire in the middle of the ring let off a bright blue flame that matched her eyes and everyone in the room took a step back.
The woman in the bed turned her head and opened her eyes as Donovan began to convulse and hit the ground in front of Raine.
“What’s happening?” Lizzy screeched as she stepped back.
Donovan wailed in pain as blue streaks of light arced from his body to Raine’s.
Kaden instinctively connected with Raine the moment he felt her distress. The marking on Raine’s wrist was bright and glowing as Donovan’s power transferred to her in short blasts of energy. She shook violently and thrashed her head from side to side with the intensity of each surge.
Kaden felt every thrust of energy as it entered her body. The power made him fall back against the soft earth as his own body seemed to convulse with the energy. White-hot pain burned the marking on his hand and he clenched his teeth to keep from crying out with each surge he felt.
Within minutes it was over and Kaden relaxed. He felt the moment Donovan stopped transferring power and his mind cleared a fraction before he heard the screams from Kayla and his body tensed again in pain.
“Get the ring off her,” a male voice screamed above Kayla’s cries.
Finally, Kaden relaxed as the ring left Raine’s finger and he felt the transfer of power cease. Kayla’s screams died, but he could still feel Raine’s distress and his marking burned like the devil.
“She’s been marked,” he heard his mother scream once the voices in the room quieted. “She’s been marked!” Kaden heard a loud smack of skin on skin. He felt the pain Raine experienced as her head jolted back from the pressure of the slap his mother just dished out.
“Find Kaden,” she screamed, and Kaden felt another jolt of pain as Raine’s face was punished once more before he lost the connection with her. Raine must have passed out.
“Kaden,” Camille whispered in his ear, her hands soft on his face. He hadn’t realized she was near until that moment. Sweat beaded on his forehead and he blinked to clear his thoughts.
“My mother is coming for me,” Kaden whispered as Camille helped him to his feet so they could retreat into the woods away from the house.
Lizzy stormed from the cabin but missed their retreating forms in her rage. She jumped in her car, turned over the engine, and spun out, throwing rocks from her tires in her wake as she hit the main road.
CHAPTER 25
KADEN
“Kaden,” Camille whispered once they were in the safety of the woods. “Are you okay?”
“What happened back there?” he asked, his strength spent.
“I’m not sure, exactly. But that ring they slipped on Raine’s finger . . . did you see it?”
“Yes. It has a blue stone that lit up like a star once it touched Raine’s skin. I felt the way it leached power from Donovan and Kayla before someone took it off. Donovan, I don’t think he made it.”
“He didn’t,” Camille replied. “That ring, I’ve only heard about it but never knew it really existed. That’s how Elzar has been gaining power.”
“What do you mean?” Kaden asked as he paced across the ground in front of Camille. His strength had finally returned and his anxiousness welled up again.
“The old woman in the room is a witch by the name of Isa. She always loved Elzar and because of her, Maia was destroyed. I’ve heard legends of a ring that disappeared hundreds of years ago, a ring that could drain powers and protect the owner from danger. I never knew of its existence until now. When the ring is placed on the finger of an Elemental, their powers transfer to whoever the owner of the ring wants it to go.” Camille said the last part in hushed tones. “Legend says it will listen and obey its owner. I think it did listen to Raine, and it obeyed her command. The fear she felt inside must have transferred to the ring the moment it touched her skin and she made the ring attack those threats around her.”
Kaden stopped in front of Camille and faced her.
“My mother said it was because she was marked.” Kaden pointed to the marking on his hand that continued to burn. “Is this why the powers transferred to her?”
Camille let out a huff of breath and dropped to sit on the ground in front of Kaden. Kaden watched her play in the dirt with one hand while wielding the plants around her with the other. Kaden dropped to one knee in front of Camille and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“You have to understand, I don’t know much about that ring. It’s the stuff of legends. I do know that when it touched Raine, I could feel a draw of power that snaked outward, probing the room before it settled on Donovan. He was the closest to her and one of her threats so the ring targeted him and drained him of his very life.” Camille’s eyes were distant as she spoke. “When that threat was annihilated, it searched for the next threat—the redhead.”
“Kayla,” Kaden said, his voice flat. When Camille blinked in question, he explained. “I was hired to find her and I did. She’s a nasty piece of work, so it makes sense that Elzar kept her alive.”
Camille nod
ded her understanding and stood.
“I don’t know why the ring obeyed and chose to protect Raine, but I don’t think it’s solely because she was marked under your protection. The marking alone would hinder the transfer of power, possibly making it impossible. Regardless, the ring wouldn’t have obeyed her simply because she was marked and protected. I do think because of the marking that you helped shoulder the intense transfer she endured. I saw the pain you felt and I’m sure Raine couldn’t have handled that alone.” Camille took a long, drawn out breath. “If Elzar has been draining Elementals with this ring, then he is more powerful than we first anticipated. We must get Raine far from here and take her somewhere we can train her to use her powers, all her powers, if we’re ever going to defeat him.” Camille brushed off her backside and turned to walk up the side of the hill.
“All her powers?”
“When the ring transfers powers, it means the powers are taken from one and given to another. She just drained Donovan of his Elemental powers. That means she can now wield earth as if it were her own element.” Camille turned away from Kaden and looked up the hill in thought.
“Where are you going?” Kaden hurriedly asked when he saw she was about to leave.
“I must find Eryk and bring an army to help. You must get Raine out.”
Camille turned her back on Kaden and, in a swirl of green, disappeared in the midst of the plants that engulfed her.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Kaden asked the empty space around him.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, a new incoming call. Kaden knew who it would be before he even looked at the screen.
“Hello, Mother,” he said into his phone. A pained scream greeted him on the other end. “Why didn’t you tell me you were working with Elzar?”
“Would it have made any difference? You were supposed to do a job, Kaden. Not bond with them. Why her?”
“I was chosen, Mother. You know this. Why did you lie to me all these years?”
“She ruined my life,” his mother screamed into the phone. Kaden had to pull it away from his ear. “She killed your father.”
“Raine was just a baby when Father died,” Kaden explained. “How could she be responsible for that? I need answers. I need to know why, Mother.”
“You want answers?” The bite in her words made Kaden flinch. “Your father wouldn’t leave his charge. Aria sucked his life from him a little at a time and you were just as blind to follow suit. We do not owe them anything, but your father wouldn’t put us first. He spent his whole waking life protecting that Elemental, Aria. He put her first, and we paid.”
Kaden was surprised by the anger in his mother’s voice.
“Mom, I thought you loved Aria.”
“I hated her. I hated all she stood for. The night she died, I was so relieved. It took her long enough to succumb to the poison, but she finally did. Then Eryk showed up and called you as a Guardian and all my work to rid our family of this ludicrous obligation blew up in my face.”
“You killed Aria?” Kaden asked in a hushed whisper. Kaden’s rage simmered beneath the surface. It was almost palpable and it made him sick to think his mother was responsible for anyone’s death, especially someone she professed to love once.
“For the family,” she screamed again. “I did it for the family. And if your father hadn’t found out, that little brat of a baby would have died that night, too.”
“How?” The question slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to hear what she had to say because he was afraid he already knew the truth.
“I knew where she was. Aria told me. It was her granddaughter, after all, and she was so proud. She knew that little brat would come and you would be her Guardian. I couldn’t let that happen. After Eryk came, I went to the hospital, but your father followed me. He knew, somehow he knew what I was going to do. He beat me to the room and by the time I got there, the little brat and her father were gone.” Kaden heard a sharp inhale over the line. “He wouldn’t see reason, he wouldn’t listen to me.”
Lizzy’s voice broke on a sob and Kaden could hear her labored breathing through the phone.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“He got in the way. He got in the way.” Lizzy’s voice cracked and Kaden knew what that phrase meant.
“You killed him,” he whispered. “All these years, all those beatings, you made me believe Elementals killed my father, but it was you.”
Silence greeted him and Kaden waited for his mother to respond. What felt like minutes passed and then Kaden heard the screech of tires in the background.
“Elementals killed him, Kaden. Nothing has changed. You’ve ruined everything.” Kaden heard something in her voice that he never heard before, venom so deadly it made the hairs on his neck stand on end. “Where are you, Kaden?”
CHAPTER 26
RAINE
Raine blinked against the throbbing in her head when she woke to find Autumn’s eyes pinned on her. The back of her eyes burned with a searing white-hot pain, but she blinked back the tears.
“Are you okay?” Autumn asked from the bed. The tenderness in her voice was a comfort to Raine as she lifted her head and tried to blink away the moisture in her eyes. Raine nodded gingerly.
“You killed Donovan,” Autumn said. The astonishment in her statement made Raine snap her eyes to the floor where Donovan lay in a heap. “They slipped a ring on your finger, the same one they used to drain my powers. It took his life instead. I’ve never seen it work so fast before. Usually the process is slow and controlled. They used it on me to keep me drained and weak, but . . .”
Raine looked to Autumn and noticed she was still chained to the bed. The look in her eyes wasn’t one of disgust, but bewilderment.
“You really are the Chosen One, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Raine responded truthfully. “They say I am, but . . .”
Raine looked around the room and wondered aloud where everyone went.
“After the ring drained Donovan, it went after Kayla. They got it off your finger before it took too much from her, but she now has a white streak in her hair. Elzar wasn’t happy, and Lizzy was livid.”
“Lizzy is Kaden’s mother,” Raine said to herself, her voice still raw from the heat in the room. “He’s the reason she found me. I’m so stupid. He used me.”
Raine closed her eyes as the stab of betrayal pierced her heart. She foolishly believed that Kaden had changed and their bond was one of friendship—or more.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Raine. You’re not the first to fall for a handsome face and flattering words.” Raine opened her eyes and looked at Autumn. She lay still on the bed, her focus on the ceiling, her gaze distant. “I thought Ryker,” Autumn laughed and corrected herself, “Elzar, actually cared about me. I followed him on my own and look where it got me.”
“We’re getting out of here,” Raine said with determination. Autumn laughed weakly.
Raine felt the familiar probe of her mind and knew Kaden was near. She tried to build the wall around her thoughts, but her weakened body refused to do her will. The air in the room was stifling and she realized the blasting heat accosted her more frequently than it did during the night.
Raine, I’m coming. The thought filtered through her head.
Leave me alone. She ran those words through her head repeatedly, trying to drown out his voice.
It isn’t what you think. Please.
Raine closed her eyes and tried again to shield her mind from Kaden when she heard Autumn gasp from the bed.
Raine turned to see what startled Autumn and saw Kaden working to open the window just above the bed. His forearm up to his elbow was wrapped in a cloth and he was motioning with his free hand for Autumn to turn her head the other way.
Just as Autumn closed her eyes and turned, Kaden punched the glass and it cracked. It didn’t shatter as it does in the movies and Kaden had to hit it again before his hand penetr
ated. Shards fell soundlessly on the bed.
Kaden removed the remaining pieces of glass that had not fallen and placed them on the ground by his feet before he crawled through and dropped to the bed.
“I’m sorry,” he said to Autumn as he stepped off the bed. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and watched him as he made his way to Raine and knelt down in front of her. He produced a knife from his pocket to saw at the ropes binding her to the chair.
Another blast of hot air released but Kaden took the full hit on his back. He slowly turned and looked at the machine on the dresser, his lips downturned into a frown.
“They used that to keep her weak,” Autumn offered.
Kaden stood, stepped to the machine, knelt down, and pulled the plug. He returned to Raine and finished cutting off her bindings before he stood and made his way back to the bed where Autumn lay.
“Name’s Autumn. I’m an Earth Elemental,” Autumn said when he stood over her.
Kaden grabbed hold of the chains binding her to the bed and tugged. They didn’t budge.
“I can’t free you now. I can’t break the chains or pick the lock fast enough. I’ll be back to get you,” Kaden promised, and Raine saw the dejection in her face even though Autumn nodded.
Returning to Raine, Kaden reached out a hand to help steady her as she pushed herself off the chair and wobbled.
“Don’t,” Raine said as she pulled away from him and pinned him with a glare that she hoped chilled his blood. “Don’t touch me.”
“Raine, it isn’t what you think but we don’t have time to discuss it now. My mother is coming back here and if we don’t hurry . . .” Kaden let the sentence trail off but Raine understood.
“Why are you helping me now?” she asked.
“I’ve always been helping you,” Kaden whispered as he stepped closer and pulled Raine into his arms. Unwilling to fight, she collapsed against his chest and let her weak body go limp.
Raine (Elemental Series Book 2) Page 18
