We continued onward by foot, full tilt, until we found more and more mushy remains of nutshells collecting on the ground—black walnuts, to be precise.
Cade slowed and looked around. “We’re here.” Kneeling down, he closed his eyes and placed his hands on the earth.
While he felt around, I tied my hair up and checked my feet. They were perfectly smooth, thanks to the icy carpet that spread out around me. Bending to check my feet, though, had accidentally pulled my dress farther up my leg, coaxing a nervous cough out of Cade.
He produced a wisp in his palm that quickly morphed into a swirl of leaves, sap, and balsam gum. When the extra leaves fell away, what was left was a pair of camouflage flats.
He half smiled, half shrugged. “I’ve never had to make a woman’s shoe before,” he said. “But it’s gotta be better than nothing.”
His casual sweetness speared right through my heart. Why, oh why can’t I have you? I accepted the flats with thanks and slid them on.
Silence ensued. We glanced at each other, but then both turned away. The air between us tightened with each unspoken word.
“We can’t rest much longer,” he finally said. “I sensed movement toward the southeast and I have a feeling that’s where they have him.”
I nodded my agreement. The less time Xavier spent captive, the better. I might not have wanted my grandfather dead, but I had some newfound suspicions about his tactics.
Cade licked his lips. “You don’t have to do this with me.”
“Of course I do.”
“No, you don’t. You have no obligation to me, and certainly not to my family. I have no idea what we’re up against. It might be nothing more than a suicide mission.” He shook his head almost dazedly. “I can’t let you die over this.”
“Good,” I said with a nod. “Then don’t let me die, and I won’t let you die either.”
The grin that snuck onto his face was magnetic. I stepped into him, sliding my hands up his chest and neck, caressing his cheeks with my fingers. Our eyes locked. My body hummed with life. Being close to him like that made my whole world feel right, no matter what was going on around me.
“But just in case…” I said, hinting at the worst yet not daring to say it. “I need to feel this one more time.”
I kissed him, slowly and sweetly. Savoring every millisecond that may never happen again. Pouring out emotions I wasn’t sure how to vocalize. Wishing the moment could last forever but knowing it couldn’t. His brother was in danger, and I wouldn’t be responsible for delaying him. I pulled away and took a step back.
He swallowed hard and nodded, acknowledging the fact that we needed to keep moving. He cocked his head toward a section of trees. “This way.”
I cracked my neck and fingers.
With a spray of dirt, we ran deeper into the forest, and surely, deeper into trouble.
Chapter Fourteen
By the time we reached the Elitist camp, my nerves were practically on fire, which was an interesting change, considering my anxiety was usually associated with ice.
Cade crouched down beside me and peered around the left-hand side of a tree as I leaned out to the right. There were about a dozen wooden structures in the valley below us; they looked like tents with leafy tarps. Small fires burned between them, pots simmering over the flames as the smell of smoke and stew meat curled through the trees. Elementals sat talking and walking around. They didn’t seem to be paying too much attention.
“Stay close,” Cade whispered. As if that would be a problem. “I’ll try to keep you from registering on any Earths’ radar.” I nodded my understanding. “There’s a cave over there,” he said. “Do you see it? There are four Elementals hanging around it. I’m betting Xavier’s in there, and that those four are guards representing each element.”
Great.
“Well,” I said with a sigh. “Between the two of us, we’re only missing wind. What can we do to defeat one?”
He exhaled and thought. “Earth can block wind, but only until it erodes. You could use your ice the same way. Fire might be able to raise the temperature enough to cause heat exhaustion, but that would affect the rest of us, too. Same with water being able to lower it…”
I nodded. “And anything we threw at them, they could just blow away before it hit. Could you root them to the ground?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never actually tried it before.”
“Okay,” I said, undeterred. “So you take the Earth and Wind, I’ll take the Fire and Water. When only the Wind is left, we’ll handle them together.”
He nodded. “We need a distraction to keep the others away.”
I glanced down the hill again toward the camp. “I could light the forest on fire?”
“The other Fires could just put it out.”
I smiled. “Not if it’s big enough.”
“Can you control a blaze that size?”
I took a deep breath, remembering my encounter with Elise. “I think so…”
“You think so?” He ruffled his blond hair anxiously. “Whatever, it’s the best we’ve got. How close do you need to be to start the fire?”
I tried to remember my training sessions with Chase. “I can throw fireballs maybe twenty yards, but that would give away our position. It would be better if we could get up close.” I glanced at him. “Is this gonna hurt you? Since you’re an Earth?”
He grimaced. “Not physically.”
“Do you want to try something else?”
“No. I want to get my brother back, and we’re wasting time.” He grabbed my hand to keep me close. “Let’s go.”
We bent down low and carefully made our way toward the camp. Trees and shrubs moved ever so slightly to keep us covered.
Cups and spoons clanged. Elitists were gathering, settling down to have some soup. Their chatter filled the air like the hum of bees. Only the closest ones were discernable.
“I can’t wait to see the look on that smug bastard’s face before he dies,” a guy said.
A woman grinned. “I can’t wait until they take it out on the humans.”
“It’ll certainly be an event to remember,” another guy agreed.
My heart hammered and I refused to look at Cade. There were so many people they could’ve been talking about; I hoped it wasn’t any of the Landstons.
“Tomorrow can’t come fast enough,” the first guy said before slurping some soup.
I bent down to the ground and looked ahead as far as I could see. We would have to be quick—as soon as I created the fire, it would start drawing attention. It would also have to be flawless—there was no room for error as the success of the rescue depended on the diversion.
“We’ll see how much support they still have once his boy’s handsome face is melted off his bones,” the girl said. “Wonder who they’ll put on the air then?”
I hesitated, blood pressure rising. Holden. They were talking about Holden—him, Curwen, and the rest of the Modernists, which now included my father.
“Who cares?” The last guy shrugged.
“We need to employ a good-looking face of our own,” the first man said. “Maybe that would help us further our following, too?”
Cade touched my arm. I glanced at him and nodded. I knew he was trying to subtly urge me on. We weren’t there to spy; we were there to wreak havoc.
I eyed my potential path of destruction again, figuring out exactly where it needed to go. I took a deep breath and held it. This is it. I opened my right hand. Sweaty as it was, I had no trouble producing a plump blue flame.
“Nicholai’s working on it,” the girl replied. “We just need to blow this building up first. Then we’ll have all the time in the world to grow our following.”
Wait.
I squashed my fire.
My flames were blue, very distinctly blue. They would know exactly who had set the blaze, or at the very least, they’d know something seriously strange was up. I needed a different plan.
My eyes glided
over to the little fire where the three Elitists sat talking.
“What are you doing?” Cade whispered in frustration.
I put a finger to my lips and backtracked a few feet, dragging Cade by the fingers. When we were close enough, I made my move.
With my hypnotic inner voice and a little coaxing, I quickly turned the small fire into a deadly blaze. It spread like it was chasing gunpowder and the entire right-hand side of the camp became consumed in an inferno. Heat unfurled quickly and feathered across my face. For non-Fires, I knew it must’ve seared like a bitch.
Elitist Fire Elementals rushed over and began trying to calm the blaze, but I fed it a furious energy they couldn’t hold a candle to. Chaos broke out once everyone realized the flames wouldn’t be contained. I spurred it on, spreading it farther and higher until I was certain there was no reversing the damage.
Cade grit his teeth as he tried to shield his face from the heat, and eventually, he tugged me to the left toward the cave.
The four guards stood anxiously, watching the commotion from the sidelines. Two girls, two guys, their widened eyes reflected the dancing orange flames. We used their preoccupation to sneakily stage our attack.
It only took a moment of observation to figure out which element belonged to which Elemental. My two were easy. The Water was closest to me, a guy with cinnamon hair and well-defined arms. He was wearing a white muscle shirt, unfazed by the cold and not even bothering to hide it. The Fire was a brunette woman with a reverse-bob haircut and bright honey-colored eyes.
Suddenly I felt scared. The goal of this part of the mission wasn’t distraction, it was to defeat these Elementals and rescue Xavier. It was going to be an actual fight, and not like the one I’d had with Elise. There would be the very real possibility of injury or death.
With shaking hands, I created an ice ball and launched it at the Fire. It hit her head with a crack and she slumped to the ground. Instantly, I felt sick. I really didn’t want to hurt her, but I had to. If I didn’t, we’d never get Xavier out. If I had thrown it at the Water, it would have felt more like a cotton ball; he’d have been immune.
Cinnamon Hair looked down at the slumped Fire and over to where the ice ball had come from. When our eyes met, he shouted a quick warning to the other two and charged at me. I tucked, rolled, and shot a stream of fire at him. He quickly put up a shield of water and steam filled the air with a loud hiss, white and hot.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Cade throw a punch at the Earth Elemental. It hadn’t really occurred to me, but I supposed if you couldn’t use your elements against each other, you could still use brute force.
Then the Wind stepped up and let loose a screaming gale, her hair blowing wildly. Cade quickly put up a rocky barricade and ducked behind it. I had just long enough to blink and put up an icy wall of my own before I was nearly blown through the trees like a ragdoll.
Cinnamon Hair used my moment of weakness against me. He leapt into the air and reared back his fist, preparing to land a blow into the side of my head that would drop me instantly. As I braced myself for the impact, ice subconsciously formed a globe around me. He hit softly enough and rolled off the other side. When he landed, I dropped the ice and threw a fireball at him. He jumped to dodge it and I threw another, and another, accidentally herding him into Cade’s territory.
When Cade noticed the third opponent, he slammed a fist into the ground and created a ripple that knocked the Water and Wind off kilter. Quickly, I threw my attention to the Earth, who was still standing. He tried to charge at Cade, but I ignited a line of fire between them. He turned and glared at me, redirecting his attention my way.
Before I could make a play, I was knocked off my feet and dropped face-first onto the ground. Apparently Fire girl had regained consciousness.
Damn.
I turned and whipped a line of ice spikes at her. There was a hollow whoosh as she ignited to melt the ice and an earsplitting scream as a few of them pierced her anyway. I cringed and looked away, just in time to get sideswiped by a rogue tree branch, courtesy of that asshole Earth. The weightless sensation of flying curled in my stomach, disappearing quickly as I smashed into the ground.
All air was knocked from my lungs. For a moment, I even saw colorful dots winking in and out of existence atop a canvass of blackness. When I rolled over, clutching my ribs, I saw Cade taking on the Wind and the Water. From the looks of it, he wasn’t doing much better than I was.
Our plan wasn’t going very well.
Before I rose, I took a punch to the upper back that slammed my face back down into the hardened ground. Blood seeped into my mouth as my lips split. Anger boiled up inside, threatening to spill over.
I pulled a trick from my fight with Elise. Punching the ground, I sapped all the moisture out, using it to form a barricade of icy stalagmites. As the Earth warily backed away, I used that time to stand up and plot my next move.
Cade was in trouble. He’d basically caged himself in with rocks and had no way to regain the upper hand. Wind girl had created a small tornado that was slowly destroying his shelter, and the cinnamon-haired Water was trying to pry Cade’s rocks apart by expanding water into ice.
I glanced back at the other Earth and instead noticed Fire girl writhing on the ground in a small dark puddle. All the color drained from my face. My whole body shook with nausea and dread, but I forced myself to look away.
She would be fine. She would. An Earth would heal her, no long-term damage.
The Earth Elemental began uprooting trees and spinning them into spears. At any moment, he would launch them over my barrier and impale me. There was only one thing I could think to do.
I dropped the ice and ran, sprinting toward Cade as the first spear whistled through the air. It landed a couple feet to my left, close enough to make me jump. I pushed harder but the ground got mushier, sucking at my feet like a plunger. I stole a glance over my shoulder and immediately ducked. A spear whizzed overhead, missing me by mere inches.
I tried to keep going, but I had no solid purchase on the ground. Mercifully, my water element kicked in and rolled out an icy path. With traction, I was finally able to gain real speed. I created a few icy stairs to give me some height then launched into the air.
Mid-freefall, a spear tore through my left shoulder. My heart pounded wildly and I was flooded with adrenaline. I felt the pressure of it, but not the pain—not yet.
When I landed—hard—two things happened at once. First, I instinctively produced an icy dome that arched over Cade and me, encompassing us completely, and second, an explosion of electric blue flames mushroomed out around us, leveling everything in about a thirty-foot radius. Our ice shield disintegrated quickly as I toppled over, suddenly aware of the all-consuming pain in my shoulder and arm.
Cade’s eyes were wide and focused on some point beyond us. The rancid smell of burnt hair and skin permeated the air. My ears rang, muffling all noises but my own helpless whimpering. When Cade finally looked over at me, his lips were moving but I couldn’t hear what he said.
My hearing slowly returned, and eventually I figured out what he was saying: “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.” He was on repeat, perhaps more for himself than me.
When I tried to sit up, pain radiated across my chest. I grit my teeth and dropped back down. Worse, though, a low rumbling had started vibrating from somewhere deep within me. My outsides appeared calm as a lake, but my insides grumbled like an active volcano. Without warning, it burst from my core and rattled through my veins like a freight train. I tried to hold on to something, but it was useless. It was an internal awareness; I wasn’t actually moving at all.
As quickly as it had come, it disappeared. The sensation was just…gone. I was left, yet again, with nothing but pain and a bleeding wound.
“Val,” Cade said in a whispery rush. “Are you okay? We gotta keep moving. Can you stand?”
I nodded and held out the hand attached to my good arm. He pulled me up and led me over to
the cave entrance. Our backs thudded into the cold rocks, trying to squeeze as tightly out of sight as we could. His tin of healing salve was out the next second, balm-covered fingers stabbing into my meaty flesh.
I turned my head to hide my grimace, but at once caught sight of four lifeless bodies, three of which lay charred and smoking on the ground. The forest roared with uncontrollable flames in the background. Smoke poisoned the sky.
My stomach lurched into my throat and I heaved its contents all over the cave floor.
“Valerie,” a female voice said from somewhere in the cave. “So beautiful and grown up. He said you’d come. I could only hope. It’s been such a long time…”
My breath caught. Numbness prickled through my limbs. Dizziness dulled my senses. I knew that voice, but to hear it would be…impossible.
I glanced at Cade, but he’d somehow dematerialized. He was nowhere to be found.
Good. The earth must’ve hidden him.
I wiped the remaining spittle from my mouth and stood up straight. My heart pounded violently. I turned around warily, prepared to face a ghost, one who’d haunted my dreams for the past seven years.
My lookalike stared back at me with soft, baby blue eyes. Her blonde hair was stick straight, parted down the middle, and almost as long as mine. The sweet scent of lilacs touched the air as she took a step closer.
“I’ve missed you, baby girl.”
Chapter Fifteen
This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t really be happening.
“Mom?” My voice was hoarse.
She nodded, smiling sweetly. “Yes, it’s me.”
I swallowed, but the rotten taste in my mouth still lingered. “How?”
She took another step and reached out to touch my face, but I backed away on instinct.
With a sigh, she said, “I faked my death. The car crash was staged—my father’s idea, of course, but a smart one…at least, I thought so at the time.”
As sadness evolved into anger, my voice found a more solid form. “Why? Why would you do that?”
The Essential Elements: Boxed Set Page 43
