Chapter Forty-Two
Aedan
Aedan could see through the fire. Everything had a kind of orange glow, like a sunrise. He was careful not to let it go, just allowed it to burn his own hands, and head. But he hoped it was enough to get his point across. Kari’s wind nearly lifted him off his feet, and he found it a sudden annoyance. Without thinking he lashed a hand out behind him and heard her yelp.
“One last time,” he said. “Let Sam go, and I’ll stay to talk.” He hesitated. “Please.”
“Sergey!” Serena yelled. She sounded like a frightened child, and Aedan fought back a stab of guilt. But within seconds Aedan was doused in what seemed to be a never-ending geyser. His flames went out at once, and he collapsed beneath the weight and shock of it, struggling for breath.
“Enough!” At Serena’s command, the torture ceased, and Aedan began to cough and sputter all over the floor. Another guy towered above him, muscular arms crossed like a challenge. Clutching his stomach, Aedan worked his way to his feet. The stranger had jet-black hair that fell across his forehead, thick eyebrows, and biting blue eyes that seemed as tumultuous as ocean waves. Thick silver manacles hung from his wrists and neck, bits of broken chain still dangling from each. Yeah, he was good looking, but he was also freaky beyond belief, and Aedan shivered.
“Greetings brother,” the guy said in a thick Russian accent. But it was anything but kind. Everything about him screamed “threat” to Aedan.
“You’re the water Elemental,” Aedan said.
“Sergey.” He held out a hand, which Aedan stared at for quite some time until he dropped it.
“You will have to excuse, Aedan. He’s been through so much and mistrusts our motives. Rightfully so,” Serena said, having found her composure once again. She even came over and stroked Aedan’s wet hair back from his face making him jerk away.
“I am sorry, Glorious One,” Sergey said with a slight inclination of his head. The piece of chain dipped along with him. “I sensed something and…” he held up a hand, twisting a wrist to show where he’d presumably broken away from something.
“Glorious One?” Aedan couldn’t stop himself from blurting it out. Sergey stepped forward, ready to attack, and Aedan tensed, more than willing to go at it. Maybe it was just his desire to strike back. Maybe it was more. Either way, his knuckles burned to crack into Sergey’s pretty face.
“Enough,” Serena said, and Sergey stopped obediently. “So you were already free? What was it that you sensed, my dear Sergey?” She stroked his arm like he was some sort of big puppy.
“We had another visitor. It would have been rude not to greet her,” Sergey said. “I felt her disturbance in my magic.”
Aedan’s pulse sped up. His vision blurred for a moment. What had Maya done? It couldn’t be her. No. She was monitoring from a distance. He swallowed just the same.
“And who was she?” Serena prompted, still petting him.
“Circle, I thought. But it was far too easy a fight to be the same Operative Kari had so much trouble with. She looked like you described her though,” he said, grinning toward Kari who still stood near the door. “Red hair. Petite, but how do you American’s say it?” He made a rounded gesture with his hands, and his face twisted into a crazy kind of leer. “Stacked.”
Aedan punched. His fist connected with Sergey’s chin with a loud popping sound, and he staggered backward. And then Aedan’s palms held balls of flame. This time he’d see it coming, and he was ready.
“Stop!” Serena screamed. Fat chance, insane bitch. But then she said the magic words, “Stop or Sam Sparks is dead.”
The flames died. Aedan’s mouth dried up. “What did you do with her?” he finally managed. From the corner, Kari’s eyes widened.
Sergey pressed a hand to his face and cracked his neck. When he spoke, bits of blood sprayed from the corner of his mouth. “Why do you care?”
Aedan squeezed his aching fist a little tighter. “Let’s all get something straight right now. No more innocent people are going to get hurt because of me. If you want me, then you need to let both Sam and Maya go.” Aedan refused to believe she was anything other than alive and unharmed.
“You’re on a first name basis with the Circle Operative?” Sergey’s laugh was as erratic as the rest of him, and Aedan could see where he’d split his lip. “The bitch wants to kill you. All of us.”
Wants. Present tense. She’s alive. “No. She’ll leave us alone. I promise. Just let her out.”
Both Kari and Sergey laughed at that like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. “Oh, Aedan,” Kari said, finally coming over to put a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t seriously believe that load of crap. She’s Circle, born and bred for one purpose and one purpose only. To kill us. Damn, she must be good in bed.”
Aedan shrugged her hand away. “I wouldn’t know, Kari. But I do know Maya.” More laughter. “She could have killed me, but she didn’t.”
“Because she wanted you to lead her to us.” Serena placed a hand on his cheek again. He didn’t dare move this time. He had to keep her happy or Sam and Maya were toast. “Poor dear boy. You have much to learn. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s have a conversation with your friend. That should settle things.”
Aedan tried to steady his racing heart. If he could somehow get Sam and Maya in the same place, he might be able to protect them long enough to get them out of there. He nodded and followed Sergey and Serena through the dark archway, Kari bringing up the rear.
Turned out it was a hallway, and it led past a second with what he assumed were bedrooms, but they veered to the left instead, and into a kitchen overlooking a family room complete with fireplace. Of course, it didn’t look like it had ever been used. Sergey continued on through the French doors to the left of the hearth.
Aedan breathed in the warm dry air, and his thoughts settled for a moment. But only a moment, because Sergey came to a stop at the edge of a pool. A pool in the center of which lay Maya, head and shoulders perched on a tiny island of ice. Her body bobbed lightly in the water, her wrists and ankles tied with what looked like severed garden hose. She was out cold.
“Wake our guest please, Aedan.” Serena stood just behind his shoulder. “Remember, Sam’s welfare is still at stake.”
Sergey motioned for Serena, and the two of them retreated to the doors for a minute. Aedan moved toward the lip of the pool, drawn toward Maya, but Kari stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Don’t be stupid,” she said. “You can’t save her, Aedan. Your best chance of getting Sam back is to do what she says. If you don’t, she’ll just have us do it, and it will be even worse.”
He wanted to say something cruel back to her, but when he looked at her face, all he saw was misery, so instead, he said, “You mean you think she’s going to ask me to kill her?”
“Aedan?” Serena’s voice pulled his attention back to Maya. “Wake her, please. So that we may talk.”
Aedan focused his power, raised a hand, and sent a spark shooting across the water. It grazed Maya’s arm, and he winced as her body flinched in response. Wake up, May, he thought. Please wake up. She groaned a little, her head twisting in a feeble effort to sit.
“Good. But not good enough. Let me show you how it’s done.” Sergey grinned and stepped forward, taking care to knock Aedan so hard he nearly fell in the pool. Then he focused on Maya, and the ice holding her up dispersed into water, letting her slip beneath the surface. Aedan tensed yet again, fire flaring in his stomach as she broke the surface with a huge gasp and splutter.
“You know, brother, that I can make ice so thick that it actually sinks?” Sergey asked. He grinned, and Maya was sucked beneath the water with one last deep breath.
“No!” Aedan shouted, releasing some of the fire. He searched with his senses, finding the coldest signature before him. A small block of ice that seemed to wrap itself around Maya’s ankles. It melted at once.
“Sergey-” Serena warned.
But Sergey’s m
ad eyes were fixed on Aedan. Maya’s head reached toward air again, the surface cracked and solidified, spreading out in a circle across the entire length of the pool, clear and solid. Her head was visible beneath, her hands, still tied, beating against the immovable ice.
“Shall we dance?” Sergey asked. But Aedan barely heard the challenge. All he saw was Maya. Maya suffering from his worst fear. Memories of struggling against the water filling his mouth and nose. The water evaporating slowly from the heat.
Well, he wasn’t four anymore. And he was stronger now. He’d been training. He squeezed his eyes shut, and focused everything he had on the water, letting go with a massive shout of fury. And rather than worrying whether the ice would melt fast enough, he worried only whether Maya would remain free and protected as he’d intended.
He sunk to his knees and didn’t breathe. Not until he’d opened his eyes to find her sitting like a half-drowned cat at the bottom of the empty pool.
Sergey’s fist wiped the smile right off Aedan’s face, and he tumbled forward, into the empty pool, hitting hard on his side as he dropped to the tiled floor. “Shallow end” didn’t mean much when there was no water to cushion his fall.
Chapter Forty-Three
Maya
So much to take in. The pressure of drowning. The release of fresh air. The dull ache in her chest and head.
Maya struggled to her knees but could go no further. She was shaking enough as it was. And seeing Aedan thrown back into the empty pool like that – the force with which he hit bottom.
He looked at her then, and something in his face made her move, the two of them crawling toward each other across the pool floor. Maya’s legs and hands scraped against the edges of the blue tiles. They swam through the insane laughter of the man above, still, she forced herself forward, needing to get to Aedan.
And she was there, or maybe he’d come more to her. It didn’t matter, his arms surrounded her, and she melted into him, grasping his shoulders and pulling him down to hear her words. The words she had to get out.
“I got Sam,” she whispered. Her voice sounded scraped and raspy, and it hurt more than she ever dreamed to speak, but she did it anyway. Quickly. “Bushes, on the side, they’ll find him soon, you have to melt-”
And just like that, she was ripped from his warm, strong arms by the cold grip of the water. She screamed, grasping for his shirt, but he too was being carried away in a whirlwind of water.
Both of them were lifted into the air. Aedan deposited before Serena’s feet, she forced the other way, hanging upside-down and face to face with Kari and Sergey and their outstretched hands.
Focus, Maya. She’d gotten Aedan the message. She’d betrayed the Circle by putting he and his father first. Now she was going to pay. But not without a fight, she was determined on that count.
“It is time Aedan and I had a little chat. Privately,” Serena said. Maya was almost glad she couldn’t see his face. She didn’t want to see the pity – not from him. “Do not kill her, but do try to get the information we need.”
Information? Probably Sam’s whereabouts. Fat chance. She could take the pain. They’d have more luck just searching the grounds. Maybe they assumed she had help…
“Maya-” The pain in his voice made her wince.
“I’m okay, Aedan. They can’t really hurt me.” She hoped he understood what she meant because Sergey’s hand found the side of her face, and her cheek felt like it split open.
“Sergey, control yourself or I will reinforce the bonds next time. Aedan, if you want to help the mortals, you will come with me now. Please.” Serena’s voice was gentle but clear. Did she really think Aedan would fall for her “caring” façade? It was pretty damn clear she was about to be tortured.
“Go,” Maya said. She didn’t want him to see this. She ignored the fact that he was going to be forced to kill her. That was the only explanation for Serena sparing her life now. She’d deal with that when it came.
Aedan’s eyes remained on her right up to the moment he disappeared into the house. Maya let out the breath she’d been holding. She had to help him. Somehow. She had to fix it. Save the world. That was her purpose before, and it had to be again. She wasn’t doing Aedan any favors if she let him turn dark.
Sergey’s hands pulled her head up hard, and his breath washed over her face. She stared right back into his ice-blue eyes without fear. Her head was clear now. She could take the pain. Pain was nothing to her. But not being able to think – well that was something she had a hard time with.
“Where is he?” Sergey breathed, applying pressure to the sides of her head.
“Who?” she asked. “You know if you’re so determined to get answers from me, you’re gonna want to be clearer on the questions.”
Icy fingers of water seemed to materialize from the air and wind themselves around her body, starting at her legs, then sliding beneath her clothes, and circling her neck. They crept up her chin to her nose, wormed inside her nostrils, and made her strain to try to close off access. But of course, she couldn’t. Kari’s wind was pressing down on every inch of her, making it impossible to move.
“Now, if I cover your mouth,” Sergey said, demonstrating with his hand. “You drown.”
Maya’s head bucked beneath his fingers. She blew out hard through her nose, fighting against the water, but couldn’t keep it up, and ended up snorting it. Sergey released her mouth and she gulped at the air.
“Let’s try this again without the cheek,” he said.
“Cheek? Oh, that’s right, Chekov, you’re not from around here. And what’s with you, Kari? You seem awfully shy for a girl who tried to kill me.”
“You do know you’re dead, right?” Kari asked. But it didn’t sound like her heart was in it. Maya considered her, upside down and all.
“Where’s the old man?” Sergey asked again, smacking her hard across the face.
Maya spit a mouthful of blood at him. “Where’s the water coming from? Aedan dried your little pool up like a drop in a skillet.”
“Water is everywhere. Your boyfriend didn’t make it disappear. He merely evaporated it. I can call it back in any form I wish.”
“Fascinating,” she said. “But I still don’t see what’s so all powerful about water. I mean I get the whole fire thing and wind of course. Kari here gave me a healthy respect for that.” She nodded toward the other Elemental.
“You think I give a rat’s ass what you think?” Sergey asked, again squeezing her face between his palms, and forcing her to look at him and not Kari. That gesture told her that he did indeed care. And she smiled as all of the water rained back into the pool below.
“You saved Sam,” Kari said from her other side. Was it Maya’s imagination or did the pressure let up just a bit?
“Damn straight I did,” Maya said. “He didn’t deserve to get wrapped up in all this.”
“You had to have help. There is no way a little girl like you could have released him on your own.” Ah, so we get to the heart of it, Sergey, she thought as the wind carried her toward the pool. Her hair, having long ago come out of its braid swirled and floated like blood along the glistening surface.
“Ever considered that maybe that’s why I don’t seem so concerned?” she asked, then sucked in a deep breath knowing what was coming next.
Chapter Forty-Four
Aedan
Aedan followed Serena reluctantly back inside. He didn’t want to. He wanted to get Sam out, and then Maya. But he understood Maya was trying to tell him to go, and she was right. He had a better shot at this if he could overpower Serena first, while they were separated from the others. So far she didn’t seem all that terrifying. Aside from the thing with her eyes, he hadn’t noticed any magic at all. He kept this thought close to his heart as he trailed behind and into what at first appeared to be an empty bedroom.
But it wasn’t empty. Sure there was no furniture around, but the walls were filled with long gashes and marked with what Aedan was almost sure was d
ried blood. His stomach turned a little, and that was before he saw the broken chains in the corner.
“Keep any hostile animals in here lately? Or is this Sergey’s room?” he asked.
Serena smiled in a melancholy sort of way. “Every Elemental is different. Sergey has had some… trouble adjusting to his power, and for the sake of everyone in a ten-mile radius, I must keep him in line anyway I can. Do not fear, he is quite different from you. I like you, Aedan. You aren’t quite as… wrecked as the others. You’ve missed much in the way of training, but you’ve made up for it in raw emotion. And raw emotion means power. That is the path of the Elementals.” She snaked her arms around his already stiff shoulders and tried once again to look him in the eyes. He wouldn’t take the bait. “Are you afraid to look at me, Aedan?” she asked, tipping his chin with her hand.
He cleared his throat. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“It is time to pledge yourself, Aedan. It’s imperative in fact. We’ve already come closer than we ever have before to reaching the equinox and uniting the Elementals. And I believe it is because of you.”
“I’m not pledging-”
Serena’s long finger settled on his lips, stopping him from completing the thought. In fact, Aedan found his throat suddenly uncooperative. Shit, what had she done to him? His stomach burned as he tried hard not to panic.
“I wanted privacy, Aedan because there is something you and I share that the others need never know about.” That caught his attention. She stroked his face as though wiping away non-existent tears. He shouldn’t have underestimated her. “I was there when it happened,” she whispered. “I saw everything.”
Aedan tried to ask what she was talking about, but his mouth was still glued shut.
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