The Essential Elements: Boxed Set

by Elle Middaugh

  “And not you,” I said, clinging to him tighter.

  He squeezed me again. “And not you.” I could feel the erratic beating of his heart against his chest. “God, I thought we’d lost you…” He pulled away and delved into my eyes again. “How, Valerie? I mean, it’s pretty obvious that you were wrong about your genetics and that you’re actually an Elemental. But…how? How were you able to survive the fire and also somehow coat yourself in ice?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Were you not listening to what Nicholai said to me last night?”

  He shook his head. “I think we were all trying to listen in, but I, at least, couldn’t hear anything more than unintelligible mutterings.”

  My hands slid down his arms and we both directed our attention once again to the waters beneath us. “According to Nicholai,” I began tentatively, “I have what is considered the Gift. My bloodline stems from the very first Fire Elemental, who was blessed with the ability to wield two elements.”

  “Ida…” he said slowly, apparently recalling the history for himself.

  “Yeah,” I agreed uncertainly. Having only just learned of this history a few days ago myself, it felt odd speaking about it with any conviction.

  He nodded. “That certainly explains a lot.”

  “I guess,” I agreed with a slightly flat smile. I had no idea what I was talking about. “So everyone knows I survived?”

  “Yeah. Most of them are completely freaked out. They’ve never seen an Elemental who can do what you did. They’re scared of you, Val, and frankly, I think they should be after what they did to you…”

  I chuckled humorlessly. “They don’t have to fear me, Chase—not my wrath, anyway; I don’t have any wrath. If they fear anything, they should fear the fact that I have no idea how to deal with what I now am. No idea how I’ll react when my emotions eventually get the best of me.” I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Of that, even I’m scared.”

  Right on cue, as I let the fear sink into my bones and begin to overwhelm me, I noticed the edges of the river beginning to freeze. It spread slowly, but noticeably, cracking as it splintered into deeper waters. I glanced at Chase and realized I could see his breath. “Oh, no…” I muttered, terrified. “No, no, no! Help me!”

  “Calm down, Valerie,” he demanded as he moved his hands to either side of my face. “Don’t think about it.”

  I was panicking, and that directly correlated to the speed at which the ice was spreading. “I can’t just not think about it!” I cried. He held my head in place, but my eyes still darted toward the half-frozen river in terror.

  “Rule number one, Val, keep your emotions in check.” He rattled my head almost violently. “Hey! Look at me.” Reluctantly, I did. “If you can’t calm your fears, then at least don’t entertain them. Think about something else. Anything else! Think of…shit, I don’t know. Um…”

  He glanced away, then as an idea sparked, he bored his eyes right back into the depths of mine. His intensity was almost palpable, so much so that it was already helping to distract me from my fears. As he began a narration, I found myself getting lost in his soothing words.

  “Imagine a still forest. The trees are tall, so tall you can’t see the top. Their thick leaves blot out the sun except for a few shards that illuminate the natural particles floating in the fresh air. The dirt is soft beneath your feet, almost spongy. It’s dim, and quiet, and calm. You feel light and peaceful. You’re not thinking about anything, or feeling anything. You’re just breathing, taking in the tranquility all around you.” He paused before adding, “This is your place, Val. When you feel overwhelmed again, you force your mind into this forest. You will yourself to relax. You’ll soon realize, this is all in your head. Emotions can provoke your power, but ultimately, it’s your thoughts that control it all.”

  He licked his lips and turned his head toward the river, daring to peer over the banister and assess the damage. When he glanced back at me, he was beaming. “You did it. Look.”

  I took a deep breath and looked over the edge: nothing but peaceful, flowing water; no ice in sight. I felt like I might collapse from the extent of my relief. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “Honestly, I’m just glad you favor ice to flooding.” He chuckled then grinned at me. “I can’t really help much when it comes to your Water side, but I’m more than willing to assist you with Fire wielding. Any time you want.”

  “Seriously?” After he nodded, my elation took over and I pulled him into another suffocating hug. “Oh, that would be wonderful! Thank you, Chase!”

  “No problem, Val. I’m sure it’ll be my pleasure, but I gotta go now. I have class in a half hour. Can I give you a ride somewhere first?”

  I thought about it.

  Chase probably wouldn’t mind if I asked him to take me home to Aunt Marge’s, even if it made him a little late, but I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to go to school. To see my friends and wrap my arms around them, too.

  I knew how foolhardy an idea that might be. I’d literally just watched my powers spiral out of control over almost nothing, but I’d also witnessed myself reining them in. I was fairly certain that nothing too emotionally-provoking would go down at school.

  “Drop me off at school?” I asked innocently.

  He raised a brow at me in challenge. “You really think that’s the best idea?”

  I smiled sweetly. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

  He laughed right out loud. “Well, in that case…”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ten minutes later, I found myself standing outside the front doors of the high school. I held my breath as I stared at my reflection in the glass. Inside, my Elemental friends were going about their day as if nothing had ever happened—a show for the unsuspecting humans. I wished so badly that it was true, that it was just pretend, that somehow nothing had changed, at least not between me and them.

  Ever since I’d learned about my family’s Elemental heritage, I’d longed to be a part of it. Now that I was, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hoped my friends would still see me as the same old Valerie and treat me as they always had, but I was worried that they’d be, as Chase had said, terrified of me. I didn’t want them to shun me for any reason, least of all fear.

  I exhaled and pushed quickly through the doors.

  In the office, I stepped up to the long counter and waited until one of the secretaries became available. A tiny woman with a mousy face and squeaky voice called me over a moment later.

  “Name?” she asked me. She was clearly new.

  “Valerie Moore.”

  She smiled to appear at ease, but her nerves were evident in the slight quiver of her fingers as they hovered atop a computer keyboard. “All right, Valerie. How can I help you?”

  I gestured to the door. “I’m late. I just got here because it’s my birthday and my grandfather took me out for breakfast.”

  She smiled genuinely this time. “That sounds wonderful. Happy birthday, by the way! Let me just add you to the attendance list…and write you out a hall pass…and you’re good to go!”

  “May I ask what period it is?”

  She glanced at her wristwatch. “Ten o’clock. Second period is just beginning.”

  Advanced Chemistry. My smile was boardwalk-wide. I would get to see Holden first.

  “Thank you!” I called over my shoulder as I rushed out the door.

  I took the stairs up to Mrs. Caldwell’s room two at a time and rushed down the hall. I felt breathless, but not from the exercise, more from the nervousness. Just shy of the door, I stopped short and glanced in the room. A few students were sitting at their desks doing work, but most of them were messing around at the lab tables as usual.

  I took a deep breath, which did little to relieve the breathlessness trapped in my lungs, and I walked in. Mrs. Caldwell smiled, glanced at my hall pass briefly, then told me to take my seat. Holden had noticed me by that point. Everyone had. The normal people shrugged my tardiness
off easily and got back to work, minding their own business, but Holden’s eyes were huge. The expression on his face warred with fear, uncertainty, and genuine happiness. As the three emotions alternated, so did mine. I wanted everything to stay the same, but I already knew that it had all changed.

  “Look who decided to show up,” Avvie muttered with a sarcastic grin. “The birthday girl.”

  Surprise caught me momentarily off guard. “How’d you know that?”

  Avvie fluttered a colorful piece of paper like a fan. “Only the entire senior class got invited to your party tonight.”

  Oh. My. God. Surely Charlene hadn’t gone through with the party plans after what had transpired the night before…

  I snagged the invitation and quickly looked it over. Sure enough, there was a party scheduled for that evening at Charlene’s place along the river, just a few houses up from Holden’s. Six o’clock until…whenever. Be ready to dance!

  Great.

  I threw the invite on the table in front of Avvie and smiled at Holden. “Will you be coming to my birthday bash tonight?”

  His lips spread into a smile, but I saw him swallow a little nervously. “I wouldn’t miss it, babe.”

  “No one would,” Avvie muttered dryly. “From what I’ve heard, everyone who got invited is planning on attending.”

  Ugh.

  I put my hands on Holden’s knees, which jerked involuntarily, and I leaned into his ear. “We really need to talk.”

  He nodded against my head and whispered back, “I know. Just…watch where you’re putting your palms for a little while, okay?”

  “Sorry…” I leaned back and removed my hands, pulling them discretely into fists.

  Holden’s leg began jittering like crazy and I thought he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. Indecision swam behind his eyes before he turned his gaze back to me. He leaned in and whispered, “You wanna get outta here?”

  “What?”

  “Like, the whole crew. All of us. During lunch. Just grab a pizza and sit in the parking lot and talk about everything that’s been going on.”

  The hopefulness in my tone could’ve almost passed for desperation. “Yes!” I breathed in a rush. “I would very much like to do that.”

  He smiled genuinely for the first time since I’d walked in. It had been a couple days since I’d last seen him; I hadn’t realized how much I missed him.

  We spent the rest of second period in feather-light conversation, carefully avoiding anything even remotely tied to the previous night. After that, I spent third period being watched like a hawk by Kale. My nerves were grating against my skin, and I realized how foolish it had been to return to school so soon. Yes, it’d be a godsend to see my friends in a few minutes, but I hadn’t realized how emotionally stimulating it could be to just sit and wait. Luckily, I managed.

  After third period, Holden and I roamed the halls collecting our friends. Jay and Charlene, Bear and Emilie, and Sienna and her new boyfriend, Boone Crawford. I’d seen him around, but never talked to him. I guessed he was a Modernist, too, and friends with the crew, just not close enough to hang out until now.

  Everybody accumulated around their respective trucks while Jay and Charlene left to grab the pizzas. As I leaned against the cool silver of Holden’s passenger side door, a question I’d been wondering about for a little while came to mind.

  I glanced at Holden. “As Elementals, shouldn’t you be even more concerned about the environment than the rest of the ignorant masses?”

  Holden chuckled. “Nope.”

  “Nope?” I asked, surprised.

  “Nope,” he reiterated. “As Elementals, we control the weather and the environment. Any pollution the humans cause, we can get rid of. Any erratic weather patterns blamed on the earth or atmosphere are caused by us.”

  Seriously? “So, all these gas-guzzling trucks…?”

  He shook his head. “Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. Whatever pollution it causes is irrelevant. As a Wind, I can get rid of it myself. It’s all just an in-depth cover-up for Elemental incidents.”

  Unbelievable.

  The rest of the time was spent in a semi-awkward silence; no one wanted to start the actual conversation without the entire crew present. Fortunately, Jay and Charlene got back fifteen minutes later. Unfortunately, that left us less than a half hour to have our little discussion.

  Holden laid out a blanket on the pavement next to his truck and everyone formed a natural sort of circle around the edges. Jay divvied out slices of cheesy goodness, while Charlene passed around cups and a two-liter bottle of soda.

  Boone didn’t look uncomfortable at all as he leaned back on an elbow, to my mild surprise. He appeared like he’d been best friends with us forever. It was sweet, actually, though I wondered if he’d actually stick around in a few more days once Sienna found a new flavor of the week.

  Once everybody had a drink and at least one slice of pizza, conversation finally ensued.

  We took turns expressing our joy and gratefulness that all of us had survived, which unexpectedly ended with Emilie in tears. Holden explained to me that her father was one of those who had died the night before. Mr. Clayton wasn’t the nicest person I’d ever met, but I felt bad for Emilie, nonetheless. I told her that I was sorry, but I of all people knew how hollow those words were. Still, seeing as how it had been my aunt who had inadvertently killed him, I felt half-assed responsible.

  Next we discussed the inevitable: my grand Elemental entrance. They told me how confusing it was to watch me ice over. How terrifying it was to see me erupt into those horrible blue flames. How utterly unprepared anyone had been to witness such an impossible event. I didn’t blame them, of course. I couldn’t exactly say I was prepared for it, myself, but I described to them as best I could what had been explained to me not so long ago: that I was an Elemental with not just one, but two elements under my control—or rather, in my possession. To say I controlled either of them would have been the overstatement of the year.

  I explained the history of Ida, though I knew very little of it, and I explained how the Gift seemingly skipped generations. Bear, in particular, appeared almost suspicious of my account of the details. As a Fire himself, I was sure he felt he should’ve known more in general about these things, at least more than me, but there was nothing I could do or say about that, obviously. I was no expert either.

  It made me mentally kick myself for not reading the book Marge had slipped under my door that morning. It would have been mighty helpful to know jack-shit anything about what I was talking about.

  Then I timidly asked the question that worried me most of all. “You guys aren’t scared of me…are you?”

  “Of course not,” Jay said with a blasé wave of his hand. “You’re only a badass boss now.”

  That got a chuckle out of the crew, me included—me especially, actually. I bowed my head appreciatively. “Thanks, Jay.”

  “That blond-haired guy, on the other hand…” Charlene said.

  “…and that crazy, homicidal woman,” Emilie finished vehemently with a shudder.

  Charlene nodded. “They were scary.”

  Boone chipped in, “I’ve never seen Elementals so powerful. Are you related to them? They seemed to know you and want to protect you.”

  I nodded, slowly at first and then with more conviction. “Yes. The woman…” But I couldn’t sell Aunt Marge out. “I don’t really want to talk about that…”

  Holden reached over and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay Val. We all know who your Aunt Marge is; it’s a small town. We just didn’t know she was Elemental.”

  That had caught me by surprise. I shook my head to diffuse my shock and slowly continued on. “Um, anyway… the man is Nicholai. Believe it or not, he’s my grandfather.”

  Boone shrugged. “Elementals are extremely long-lived. It’s not surprising your grandfather looks so young.”

  He’s ancient! I wanted to protest, but I didn’t. I didn’t know why.
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br />   “So, what now?” Sienna asked as she pulled at a fuzzy on the blanket.

  Holden sighed and glanced at me. “I don’t know.”

  “Our families can’t protest to having Valerie around now that she’s an Elemental,” Jay said, looking around.

  Holden didn’t seem to think that was such a given. “But the adults are much more scared of her than we are. They fear the consequences of such power.”

  “Like what?” I asked. “Do they think I’ll fail a calculus test and burn the whole town to the ground? Or that I’ll get in an argument with someone and freeze them solid?”

  The silence that followed was basically heartbreaking. I guessed the off-the-wall examples I’d come up with weren’t so farfetched, after all. Is that what they all thought of me now? That I was an uncontrollable monster?

  “That could happen to any one of you,” I pressed. “Cade caused an earthquake because of being jealous of Holden. No one criminalized him. Loren created a wicked thunderstorm because she was jealous of me. I mean…these things happen, right? That’s why you use the excuse of weather to cover up the evidence. Right?”

  Jay nodded. “She’s right, of course.”

  “Of course,” Holden agreed a little too forcefully. “But that’s not the point. I still don’t know how easy it’ll be to convince them to let her stay.”

  My brows rose. Let me stay? I could feel the anger starting to build, the molten power beginning to stir within my veins. “They’ve already banned me?” I looked around the circle with razor-sharp eyes. “What about my family, have they banned them, too? Do they really think telling us to leave is going to work? If we’re so damn powerful, how do they honestly expect to command us?”

  “They can’t,” Charlene muttered, shaking her head.

  “And that’s what they’re so afraid of,” Emilie finished almost coldly. “That defiance. That rift that’s spreading by the second, driving us further apart. Further beneath you.”