I rolled my eyes then cracked my back, neck, and fingers. “All right,” I whispered to myself as I stretched out my aching quads. “Let’s do this.”
When I got out back, Chase stood smirking about twenty yards away from me in the middle of the trees. Hands outstretched, each palm held a little ball of flickering fire. “Warm up. Let’s see your guns.”
I sighed but began charging and channeling my power. Gray smoke swirled from each of my palms, color quickly bleeding into it, giving it life and substance. The left-hand wisp became a burning flame, so hot it mostly glowed a vibrant blue with just a hint of the stereotypical orange. The wisp on the right liquefied into sparkling water, reflecting the nearby flames like diamonds.
“Good,” Chase said with an appreciative nod. “So, during the past few months we’ve gone over how to control your fire, and how to reel it back in once you’ve lost control. We’ve gone over some offensive tactics, as well as some general strategic moves and plays, but today is defense. In other words,” he said with a devious grin, “how do you contain someone else’s chaos?”
At that, the trees surrounding Chase immediately burst into flames. Fire licked up the rough trunks and scurried rampantly across the bare, brittle branches. In rapid succession, he threw fireballs at the trees the initial burst hadn’t touched. Before I had a chance to blink, let alone figure out a plan, half the forest was on fire. The heat alone would smother Elise and Jay, and coupled with the billowing smoke, it could prove lethal.
As if on cue, Elise darted out back, a look of cold determination on her face. Almost immediately, she crossed her arms and glared at Chase, keeping a healthy distance from the flames. The smile that lit up his face was so radiant it could kill. It stabbed my chest like a set of fangs, slowly leaking venom into my system.
“You dumbass!” she shouted, half gesturing to, half shielding herself from the mess. “I thought an enemy was attacking! Instead, you’re just screaming our location out to them. Put the damn flames out!”
His grin widened, if that was possible. “No can do, beautiful. This is Valerie’s task.”
I narrowed my eyes and took a deep breath of scorching air, irritation mixing with the smoke in my lungs. Forcing my legs into a calm stride, I entered the heart of the destruction and spun in a circle. It was vivid and completely captivating, all heat and ruin and power. It spoke to my soul.
I dropped my eyelids shut, more feeling the fire than anything. Its power was familiar to me, yet oddly foreign, like an accent painting the language a slightly different color. Chase and I both spoke the Fire lingo, but his dialect was not the same as mine. It was harsh and guttural—less talk, more action.
I opened my eyes into a narrow gaze and spied him through the flames. His image wavered like a mirage in the heat.
Being surrounded by Elementals meant drowning in a sea of beautiful faces, and it was easy to be flighty under those circumstances. How could I not want to experience every handsome guy at least once in some way?
I was finally beginning to realize, though, that gorgeousness was now my new norm. All Elementals were inherently gorgeous, and beauty was no longer the strongest pull when it came to attraction. Beauty had become dull.
Honestly, it was embarrassing how quickly I’d jumped from Cade to Holden, and from Holden to Chase. Being ditched for Elise was karma at its finest, even if she didn’t want him in return.
I rolled my eyes to clear my stupid thoughts then held out my hands. Spinning in a slow circle, I focused on the blaze all around me. Come, I thought. Come to me. My inner voice was suddenly hypnotic, ensnaring, almost not my own, except I could feel it radiating from my soul. The heat shimmered, enchanting me as the fire began funneling quickly into my awaiting palms.
Commanding these flames seemed almost too easy; they graciously obeyed even my slightest whim.
The circle of destruction quickly shrank as each tree snuffed out immediately after the last. I pulled it ever closer to me until there was just a single tree left aflame. Then, with a smug eyebrow raised, I doused it out entirely.
I spun around, eyes landing on the two of them with a little more contempt than I meant to reveal and a little more cockiness than I knew I possessed. Elise looked extremely impressed. Chase looked like a deer in the headlights.
“Class dismissed?” I asked him, my voice syrupy sweet. Then I directed my gaze to Elise. “I’m ready to go home now.”
She shook her head, arms still crossed. “We’ve talked about this, Valerie.”
“We have,” I agreed.
When we’d run away from Center Allegheny, the entire Elemental population had been locked in a brutal faceoff against my grandfather, Nicholai, and his ninja-like army of followers. None of us had any idea who had lived or died in that fight, as even Elise seemed to be cut off from information while we remained at the safe house.
“We’ve given things enough time to cool down,” I said. “We’ve stayed a month longer than necessary in order for me to gain further control. I’m not perfect—never will be—but I’m a hell of a lot better than I was three months ago.”
I licked my lips and glanced back and forth between them. Chase was still silent with shock.
“I can control average emotional outbursts. I can counter, deflect, and dissolve enemy Elemental attacks. I am physically stronger and more fit as well, and I can survive on my own in the wild if need be. I’m ready to go home.”
Still she shook her head. “You understand how to handle like adversaries, but what about the two Elements you don’t control?” She uncrossed her arms and walked closer to me, picking up a charred branch from the ground.
The skill with which she spun the stick had my head reeling—she was like a damn samurai. Her fingers knew exactly where to touch. Her body knew exactly where to move. When she slammed the burnt stick down into the ground, the earth formed a wave that knocked me off my feet. I managed to tuck and roll then land gracefully, but I couldn’t deny that I had zero control over her element. I had no idea how to block or counterattack against an Earth Elemental.
She narrowed her eyes. “If you can beat me, we can go home.”
I mirrored her expression with an added shot of aggression. I might not have known exactly what I was doing, but I sure as hell had to try.
“Game. On.”
Chapter Two
I knelt down closer to the ground, wishing I had something other than earth to stand on.
Chase had retreated to the rotten safe house roof for a better view of the action, effectively getting his ass out of the crossfire that was about to ensue. Jay hadn’t yet returned from swimming at the lake a few miles away, but our audience didn’t matter. My mind was racing faster than my legs ever could, strategizing and coordinating moves and countermoves.
Geologically speaking, what were my options? Water could erode earth in both liquid and solid form, so I could probably use it as a sound defense. A strong enough fire could disintegrate any plant life, perhaps even melt the rocks and ores into magma—liquid fire—but…which Elemental would magma favor? Probably Earth.
Elise eyed me carefully, taking inventory of my strengths and weaknesses, placing the pieces exactly where she wanted them in her mind. The fact of the matter was, I dwarfed her when it came to Elemental strength and power. My downfall was simply inexperience. I hadn’t had enough practice with war to become very fluid in action. If she played heavy on the offense, attacking me quickly and rapidly, I wasn’t sure what sort of chance I’d stand. I needed time to think things through; I couldn’t just act instinctively like her, because fighting wasn’t yet an instinct for me.
With no warning, she rolled to her left and reached for a tree, which immediately whipped down to pummel me. I rolled, too, barely avoiding being crushed as the bark splintered into the dirt. The tree slowly righted itself.
I glared at her. “Are you trying to kill me? I didn’t realize this was a battle to the death.”
She grinned. “It’s not. You
have good enough reflexes that I knew you’d escape that.”
“Narrowly.”
She merely shrugged. Then she raised her arms to the sky and more trees lit up with life. I’m not sure how, but I could tell they would reenact the last scenario to the tenth power. How the hell could I dodge an entire forest of walloping trees?
I didn’t have time to ponder that question as trunk after trunk bent down and crushed the ground behind my last breathless footfall. I sprinted and dodged and contorted my way around the trees while I tried to come up with some sort of offensive tactic. Then a root rose and tripped me up, sending me crashing to the ground on my hands and knees. I had a split second to act before I lost the fight sooner than it had even started.
Annoyance flared brightly just beneath my skin. When I punched the earth with all my might, jagged claws of ice shot up all around me. The earth turned soft and sandy within my frozen circle of protection, and that might’ve confused me if I’d had a free minute to do anything but merely catalogue the events taking place all around me. The trees impaled themselves on the thick icicles, not quite reaching me, and they couldn’t retreat afterward, either. They were stuck, but so was I, and there were more trees already lined up to smack down until my ice cracked and shattered. I had to get out. At my will, a hole formed in the ice and I slipped through, but I immediately had to roll out of the way of another angry tree.
The irritation simmering in my system was quickly reaching its boiling point; the fire within was clawing to get out. As another tree came screaming toward me in an effort to smash me into dust, I let it loose.
A deafening explosion of white-hot heat and vibrant blue flames burst out of me like a dome, razing the nearby forest into nothing but cinders and sand and molten pockets of glass and melted rock. I’d tried to rein it in as soon as I sensed the sheer amount of raw power blasting out of me, but clearly I failed. The only vegetation left was a mushy heap of dead grass and fallen leaves. It was as if an invisible line had been drawn a mere foot from Elise’s toes. My side of the forest was practically erased, like it never existed.
I shot a desperate glance into Elise’s wide turquoise eyes. She was perfectly alive, perfectly unharmed, and perfectly terrified—and yes, even terror looked flawless on her. My lips pursed and I turned my head away. How had I gone from adoring her to envying her like this?
A person would have to be blind to not see how stunning Elise was, but I was also quite striking; we could practically pass for twins. While I no longer had a crush on Chase, it still stung that he’d chosen her over me. The twisted feeling it gave me in my stomach was the closest thing to jealousy I’d ever felt—no, it was jealousy. I was pretty sure I deserved to feel it, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
I knelt down carefully and scooped up a handful of sand, watching it slip through my grasp and fall dead to the ground. Elise also sank to her knees, warily studying the grains that escaped my hold and slipped away on the breeze.
“Water hydrates earth,” she said distantly. I glanced at her and she nodded. “Without it, earth is nothing more than dust on the wind. When you smashed the ground, you syphoned out the water, leaving behind this powdery, sand-like soil.” Her eyes bored into mine without moving, and it made me want to look away. “You spared me.”
I scoffed but smiled a little afterward. “You said it wasn’t life or death.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be. I wouldn’t have killed you, but accidents do happen…and when I saw the blaze you unleashed, I think I saw my life flash before my eyes.” She licked her lips, and I noticed they were dry and colorless.
Perhaps I really had almost killed her.
I’d let that fire loose, gambled my cousin’s life on the threadbare hope that I had enough control to spare her—what the hell did that say about me? Shame bobbed its head above the surface of my thoughts, but pride dunked it back down and drowned it. All of this had happened for a reason, one reason alone.
“I’m ready to go home, Elise,” I said again. My voice was soft despite the firmness of my words. I wasn’t feeling up to fighting anymore, even verbally.
She swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes, it’s time to go.”
Her eyes lifted up to Chase, who still sat perched on the roof, motionless as a statue. I couldn’t tell what might’ve been floating around in his mind, but I’d have bet fear topped it off like a frothy layer of sea foam.
“Get down, Chase,” she said. “Time to go home.”
Jay appeared silently behind me, his palms squeezing my shoulders before he walked around and offered me a hand up. I took it gracefully, watching as Chase and Elise entered the safe house. I didn’t resist as he pulled me into a protective hug.
Into my hair, he mumbled, “What the hell happened here?”
I sighed and shook my head against his shoulder.
“Elise made me fight her. She wouldn’t let me leave if I failed.”
“Ever?” he asked incredulously.
“No, not ever. Just…not for a long time, more weeks, maybe months. I had to prove I was ready.” I sighed, backed away, and lifted my arms in an exaggerated shrug. “I guess I won.”
Jay’s lips formed a thin line as he took in the carnage that used to be the forest. When his assessment was complete, his eyes narrowed and homed in on me.
“You know we have to fix this.”
I just stared at him. He was probably right, but I had no idea where to start.
He jerked his head to the side, inviting me to follow him as he walked to the center of the mess. Hands pulling at the sky, he coaxed a darker and darker layer of gray to appear in the clouds. After initially being dumbfounded, I realized I too had the ability to call storms, so I joined him.
“Easy, Val…” he warned in a low voice. “We don’t need a monsoon, just a steady, healing rain.”
I nodded and gently coaxed the water to fall with soft pleas and sweet wishes; it seemed the most effective way for me to achieve the delicacy Jay desired.
As the rain fell, the sand and dust began slurping up the water, slowly transforming before my very eyes into the dirt-like substance it had once been. Trees—what was left of them—hissed as the droplets hit their charred branches. Steam rose up through the rain, creating a heavy fog that slunk remorsefully along the scorched forest floor. My heart sank at the sight; I could almost feel the pain of my destruction.
I glanced down at the makeshift sneakers Elise had fashioned for me out of random plant parts. They were covered in mud. I had to smile because not long ago that would have made me cringe. Now it made me happy. Mud meant I was somehow, somewhat, reversing the damage I’d just caused.
Jay nodded when he was satisfied. We then walked to the cabin, allowing the rain to continue on even after we’d gone. When we entered through the doorway, there was zero evidence of any water involvement. My hair was still silky smooth. My clothes were airy. Jay looked dry too—another perk of being a Water, I supposed.
Catching Elise off guard while on land would’ve been nearly impossible as she was an Earth, but Chase looked rather surprised to see us, flustered even. He quickly strode over to the opposite side of the room and busied himself with folding blankets and putting them back in the cupboard where we’d originally found them. It must’ve been courtesy to leave the place as clean and ready for the next unfortunate guests as possible.
I eyed him suspiciously as my gaze slid onto Elise. She wasn’t even looking at me, just scrubbing away at the few dishes we had dirtied and left sitting in the sink. Jay walked over and grabbed a towel, drying them off and putting them away as she sat them on a mat on the counter. With nothing else to do, I grabbed a broom and began sweeping the dirt on the floor into a dusty pile.
It didn’t take us long to have the little house completely tidied up. Since none of us had brought any possessions of our own—not even a change of clothes—we had nothing to pack up. Hands in the pockets of my jacket, I watched as Elise locked up the front door and slid
the key beneath the doormat. She backed away slowly as if, like me, she couldn’t quite believe we were heading back.
Jay grabbed my hand and squeezed before releasing it. “You ready for this?”
I knew exactly what he meant, and no, I wasn’t ready for it. I twirled my hair and shook my head in silent reply. Were our friends even going to be there when we returned? We didn’t know. Were we ready to face a possibility like that? Probably not.
The same battle that had driven us to the safe house and potentially killed our friends had achieved another detrimental effect: it had exposed our kind. Elementals were no longer hidden in plain sight. The humans knew about us now, and what that ultimately boiled down to was anyone’s guess.
Would they wage war against us? Capture us and study us? Enslave us and use us for our power? Loathe us, but learn to live with us? Some of my theories were farfetched, I knew, but given enough time, anything was possible.
Jay wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close.
“They’re okay, Val,” he said with forced certainty, but his arm soon slipped, lifeless like his conviction, and he let me go. “We have to have faith that they’re okay. There’s nothing else to believe.”
“I know,” I said, the words so quiet even I almost couldn’t hear them. There really was nothing else.
What would we do if we returned home only to find it completely wiped out, all of our family and friends dead in a heaping pile of rot and ruin?
“Don’t think about it,” Jay demanded, his gaze boring into the side of my head, somehow effectively reading my thoughts. He was probably entertaining the same horrid vision.
I nodded then glanced at Elise as she took the head of the group.
“Everybody feeling up for a run?” she asked. “We’ll get there in about three and a half hours that way.”
Chase hopped anxiously from foot to foot. “Let’s do it.”
“The sooner the better,” Jay agreed solemnly.
I merely nodded again.
The Essential Elements: Boxed Set Page 31
