The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2)

by Claire, Nicola

  OK, I couldn't blast her with a wall of Fire, but I could remind her just how powerful a Gi actually is.

  "Is that the best you can do, Isadora?" I asked, fingering a small pot plant that rested on the bench between two sinks. Gi Stoicheio surged through me, welcoming me, soothing me, lifting my spirits up. "Reminding me of the differences between Theo and myself. When it's those differences he's told me he craves."

  And all right, so I was stretching things slightly, but so was she. Two could play at this game.

  She sneered at me, but I felt no swell of Fire, just the glare of gold from her eyes as she tracked my movements, watched the plant sway in the still air of the bathroom. Took in the vibrancy of green in my eyes.

  "Has it not occurred to your very old mind," I said, enjoying her small grimace at my reference to her age, "that Theo has tired of the burn? He seeks something more soothing, less temperamental, to settle with permanently. Someone he can envisage caring for throughout the rest of his life. Or are you so stuck in your ancient ways you cannot understand the needs of a man like Theo? His natural instinct to protect what is his."

  "What would you know of our kind?" she snapped back. "You're just a baby. You haven't even lived yet."

  "You think knowledge is restricted to experience? It's not," I replied, keeping my voice steady, making sure all she saw was a Gi at complete ease. "From the moment I woke up in that pit of Earth I felt it," I whispered, making the leaves on the pot plant tinkle as they brushed their edges together.

  It was a light, ethereal sound, all I could achieve with such a small object. But Theo had told me my touch was so delicate, so exquisite, compared to most Ekmetalleftis. I was counting on Isadora seeing my talents for strengths instead of the party trick it felt like right now.

  "I felt the power that thrummed through my veins, fed my soul," I continued to whisper. "I felt what it was capable of. And I felt Theo's desire to claim it as soon as my Stoicheio brushed his. I didn't need thousands of years to see in his eyes the hunger, the need. All it took was one look at his face to know he'd stop at nothing to have me."

  Oh, this was uncharted territory. I could feel the blush of my audacity and embarrassment rising up my chest. I prayed it never reached my neck, where Isadora would see the ruse for what it was. Yes, Theo wanted me, but I'd initially never thought I was anything more than just a passing intrigue. Every word out of my mouth was my own desire, my own reaction to him. Not his for me. I made it sound real, because I felt it. But I was not the recipient of that fervent hunger, I was the hunger itself. For him.

  "You play a dangerous game, Gi," she purred, enjoying the altercation a little too much. "You are but a passing fad, something to break the boredom. Something disposable when the desire burns itself out."

  Her words were too close to what Theo had said only this morning. Not about us, but about Athanatos in general. "Our very long lives offer little in the way of a challenge at times; we greedily grasp any chance to alleviate that boredom." Too close.

  I bit back.

  "I'm his Thisavros," I spat. "Or had you forgotten that too?"

  She laughed, it was a sound of pure amusement, laced with the bitter tinge of satisfaction.

  My back stiffened at the tone it relayed.

  "Cassandra," she sighed, really laying the superior attitude on thick now. "He's had a Thisavros before."

  No. She was lying. She had to be.

  "I don't believe you," I said, aware the words gave her more ground and buried me.

  "Fifteen hundred years ago," she said, giving me facts I didn't want to hear. Giving her lie credence. "Her name was Melita," she added, and a weight settled over my heart. My hands fisted, the pot plant forgotten. "A Pyrkagia with such beautiful passion, yet such a tender touch. I had thought I'd lost him then, too. But I was patient. And Melita was cast aside, returning him to me."

  Truth echoed in each word, in the pain she voiced when she mentioned her feelings of loss. A true sensation she relived in the telling of this story. I didn't want to acknowledge that the words held any reality at all, but how could I not, when she braced herself through the memory. Fortified her expression and tried to hide the agony she felt.

  She'd failed. I saw her pain. I saw the truth. So in fact, she'd succeeded in the end. Because I believed what she was telling me was the truth.

  I sucked in a shaky breath of air and felt the grip on my emotions slip. Theo was old. Three thousand years old. I knew he'd had lovers before. Even Nico had warned me that Theo had lost those he treasured in the past. His exact words. Those he'd treasured. Thisavros means treasure. Had Nico been referring to Melita, and had the loss been a choice Theo had made?

  My hand covered my mouth, trying to hold the cry of anguish inside. I had no right to feel it. Theo had a past, and the past should remain in the past. But he'd never mentioned a previous Thisavros. I'd believed I was his only one. I'd felt myself special, when I wasn't really that special at all.

  I hated this woman for telling me. I should have thanked her for revealing a secret Theo had chosen to keep. Knowledge is power, and knowing this would help me to protect my heart in the end. Make me stronger. But I didn't feel stronger for knowing. I felt weak in the face of Isadora's self-righteous smirk. The one she'd hidden for most of today.

  It was back now, so was her sneer. So was her cocky superiority. She knew she'd gotten to me. She knew she'd made her point. Slammed that wedge between us a little harder. Made the gap she'd been creating expand.

  I hated her.

  "Oh, you didn't know?" she said innocently. "I was so sure he'd tell you. A warning perhaps, to keep you in line. Theodoros doesn't like his women to behave the same way Melita did. He doesn't like to be reminded of that painful time in his past." She cocked her head to the side and considered me intently for a moment, then added, "But what I can't understand is why he chose another Thisavros who is the spitting image of Melita; his lost love. You may not look like a Pyrkagia, but by Aetheros, you act like Melita to a T."

  I was breathing too quickly. I knew it. Anger and heartache making a volatile mix inside my head. I battled internally to hold on to my Stoicheio, but the Earth's proximity and constant call for help was making it hard. I knew intrinsically not to reach for my Fire, but the Earth, it was there, waiting for me to touch.

  "I wouldn't worry too much, Cassandra," Isadora said softly, as though she was offering me support, not twisting the knife in my heart. "Melita lasted a decade, in our very long lives, that's a blink of an eye. I'm sure you'll recover with time."

  A decade. A decade to fall further in love and have it shattered. I couldn't face it.

  I couldn't let her see that.

  I wrapped my fingers around the potted plant, unaware of what exactly I was doing, and then hurled everything that made up the essence of Gi to me at Isadora. She gasped, placed a delicate hand to her throat, but didn't fight back with Fire. Earth thrummed in the bathroom, rattled the windows and foundations to their core.

  I stumbled, Isadora collapsed to her knees, her hand falling away uselessly... and Theo barged through the door.

  He took the scene in with ever increasing horror. His eyes landing on Isadora first, then me and the vivid green blazing from my eyes, and then the pot plant's leaves I held fisted in my palm.

  "Curare," he breathed. "Casey, you're channelling Strychnos Toxifera. You're paralysing Isadora. Pull back your Stoicheio now."

  I gulped at the stricken look on Theo's face, at the slack look on Isadora's; her chest not rising and falling, her pulse quiet at her throat. With a cry of dismay I released the leaves on the small flowering pot plant and took three hurried steps away, placing my back to the wall of the bathroom. I was shaking from head to toe.

  Theo knelt down next to Isadora, cradling her limp form in his lap, brushing her hair tenderly from her face. The knife twisted deeper. He shook her shoulders, and when that didn't work, out of desperation slapped her twice on the cheek. They were gentle taps; even on t
he edge of disaster Theo was in utter control.

  Her eyes blinked open, taking in Theo's intimate position and then with calculated accuracy, she turned to look at me and whimpered. As though petrified of what I'd do next.

  "It's all right, Dora," Theo murmured. "Casey's released the essence, you're safe."

  "She's unstable, Theodoros," she growled. "She attacked when I hadn't even raised an ounce of Fire."

  Theo glanced towards me, a frown marring that gorgeous face. A face that was becoming a stranger's.

  "Is that true, Casey?"

  I looked between the two of them, seeing Theo's hazel eyes and the matching colour in Isadora's. She'd had a golden glow before, but she had never called on her Stoicheio. To say now that she did would be a lie. I could fudge the truth with her, but with Theo? No.

  I nodded slowly, feeling wretched and despicable and defeated. Isadora had won. She'd planned on containing her Stoicheio all the while hoping I'd call on mine. And she'd only had to use words to achieve it. I felt like the naive, young innocent fool she'd made me out to be. I was not cut out for this cruel immortal world. Experience did count for something, she'd been right all along.

  "I'm sorry," I whispered and Isadora scoffed.

  "She'll do it to you, Theo. Mark my words. She has no control whatsoever."

  Theo looked puzzled, his lips pressed in a firm line, his brow furrowed with consternation. But he didn't argue a word Isadora said. Nor did he release her.

  I wanted to leave, to walk away from them both. To hide my shame and lick my wounds. But Theo's bulk blocked the only door to the room. I was trapped in this nightmare until he willingly let me free.

  The Earth made a sound of sadness and frustration on my behalf, its scent trying to soothe me, but only making the fine hairs across my skin rise. I scratched at my forearms trying to alleviate the sensation that something was off. Something more than this horrid scene playing out before me.

  It took several strained seconds of silence in the room for me to realise, that the Earth's initial sound of sadness and frustration was not because of what had happened here, but because of what was happening outside.

  They are here, the Earth finally whispered. Run.

  Oh God, I'd used my Stoicheio, and not delicately either. I'd pulled on every essence I had in a knee-jerk reaction, and announced my presence to the Gi. I'd brought them down upon us.

  I couldn't have made more of a mess, if I had tried.

  Chapter 15

  She Is Ours To Protect!

  "The Gi are here!" I shouted, taking a natural step towards Theo.

  "What, she called the Gi?" Isadora cried, freeing herself from Theo’s grasp to rise to her feet in a smooth movement, belying her attempts to appear harmed by my attack.

  Theo swept one keen glance over Isadora's battle ready stance and returned golden eyes to me.

  "They felt your Stoicheio," he said, I just nodded and played with my lip nervously in between my teeth. "Which way out?" he asked, directing the question to me.

  "You cannot trust her!" Isadora snarled. Theo and I both ignored her.

  "We're surrounded, but the best bet is out the front door, trees line the rear and they're ready to use them." I could feel the Gi's location through the Earth itself. I don't think it was consciously giving me the information, if it had been I wouldn't have trusted it. But this felt intrinsic, natural in a way much of its communication lately was not.

  "All right, we'll go through the front of the diner. Fully armed," Theo said, giving me a pertinent look.

  Isadora swore and threw her hands up in the air in disgust, but my eyes were locked on Theo's.

  "Are you sure?" I asked, flicking a quick glance at the other woman.

  "Oraia," he said, making my heart fracture into a thousand pieces. "Whatever it takes to protect what is mine." The thousand pieces multiplied to a million. My hand rubbed above my heart before I could stop it. Theo tracked the motion, his face set hard for battle, but his eyes softening slightly at the sight of my pain.

  "Let's do this," he whispered, opening the bathroom door up and ushering Isadora out first.

  He continued to hold it ajar, so I sucked in a deep breath and went to walk past. Before I'd made it out of the doorway he leaned in and brushed his lips against my cheek. A simple, quick movement which said more than any words he could have rushed to voice right now. I had to trust that he saw through Isadora's trickery, that he understood what really had happened in here. What had led me to attack. And in return, I had to push aside my upset and heartache over not being his only Thisavros.

  It still hurt. In a way I never knew existed. Something that had happened centuries ago should not have this sort of power to cause such pain. But it wasn't so much the act, the fact that he may have loved another as much or more than me - that still smarted, but it wasn't the crux of my agony right now. It was more to do with the fact he hadn't told me. He'd kept a previous Thisavros a secret. Why?

  Because his relationship with me was not as good? Because he still pined for Melita?

  I shook my head to clear it of those depressing thoughts. Now was not the time to get distracted with emotional baggage. The Earth was in turmoil, unable to fight the combined power of the Queen's Guards and the Basilissa herself, but wanting to protect me at the same time. I could feel its confusion, its anguish, its despair. I could feel it all, and it made me sick to the stomach that the Gi who wielded that Stoicheio were not in the slightest concerned for its wellbeing.

  The Earth was suffering from more than just deforestation of the Amazon. There was rot within the Gi, the sickly sweet smell of overripe fruit and decaying vegetation. I had smelled it before, but not realised its origin. I'd thought it a natural scent for a rainforest. But this was not the Amazon's rot, this was all the Gi.

  I gagged, coughed through the sensation of tasting something so very off and felt Theo's concerned gaze on my face. I wanted to tell him what I'd discovered, but standing outside the diner, no more than twenty feet in front of the entrance, were a dozen male Guards and one woman.

  "The Basilissa," Theo announced, obviously recognising the Gi Queen. She stood out, and not just because her flowing white dress floated around her ankles unnaturally, or her long, straight, shining brown hair lifted off her shoulders in a display of power humans would find frightening. Green so beautiful it sucked you into its vibrant depths flashed from her narrowed eyes. Apple green, but neon in nature. So unusual, so freaking incredibly beautiful. For a second I wished my eyes blazed that colour too. But then I'd be like her, and I was guessing the Basilissa was no longer entirely sane.

  "How the hell did they get here so fast?" Theo murmured, a question that had been on my mind too.

  The only answer I could think of was, "They must have been trailing us." To have caught up to us, when I just happened to use my Stoicheio, they must have been closer than I'd feared.

  "Oh, this is not good," Isadora breathed on the other side of Theo. An understatement, but I think her words held more weight than I could decipher. "The Rigas will not be pleased I am here," she added, and my stomach clenched.

  "You backing out?" I asked, incredulously.

  "Casey," Theo warned. A common chastisement of late. "Isadora is one of our top agents. This will compromise her cover completely."

  "She can't avoid it now," I pointed out, thinking it was entirely too convenient. Next she'd be saying I should face them on my own and the Prince needed to be protected.

  "I wouldn't consider it, if things hadn't progressed to a precarious position," Isadora offered. "But without my assistance the Pyrkagia will be blind to what is happening in Brazil."

  Theo sighed and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. From where we stood inside the diner we were still hidden from sight from the Gi. There was technically time available to allow Isadora to retreat unseen. But where would she go, and without her, would we survive this confrontation?

  "I could offer cover from the roof," she sugge
sted. "It saves us from showing our hand when we all walk through that door. You're strong, Theodoros. You alone could create an avenue for escape, especially if I offer strategic cover from on high."

  I hated that it made sound tactical sense. I was sure Isadora was only covering her own arse at our expense. I trusted her less now than I did this morning. Our little confrontation in the bathroom had sealed her fate, as far as I was concerned. Which led me to believe having her at our sides would probably not be a sound move either. How the hell could she be trusted there? Anywhere?

  At least if Theo and I managed to slip through, leaving her behind, I wouldn't have to put up with the bitchy comments.

  "I think she's on to something," I said, getting raised eyebrows from both Pyrkagia to my side.

  Theo stared at me for a long time and then muttered several words under his breath. Greek I think, but even Isadora wouldn't have been able to make them out.

  "OK," he announced with finality. "Pyrkagia must protect its assets," he pointed out as his first priority, it seemed.

  "You're one of its assets, too," I countered.

  He smiled, flashing teeth. "Not anymore, Oraia." He turned back to face the windows and in a more subdued voice added, "Cover from the roof could make this work. Isadora, don't show yourself, choose the moment wisely. Casey and I will attack the Guards on either side first. The Basilissa is too strong for now, we'll let her do her thing, but cutting her soldiers down will add confusion. When more than half are culled, that's your signal," he said, turning to look Isadora in the eyes. "Finish off the rest, while Casey and I jointly attack the Basilissa."

  Isadora was nodding, a contemplative look on her face. "They'll be expecting her to be outside your strategy, thinking your goal is the Guards alone. None of them will foresee a change of plan midway through the battle."

  "Exactly," Theo agreed, starting to stretch his neck and shoulders, preparing himself for what was about to come.