The Essential Elements: Boxed Set

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The Essential Elements: Boxed Set Page 52

by Elle Middaugh


  He looked down, giving me an odd sort of look. “I’m not stupid, Valerie. I know you’re not just gonna let me walk.”

  I tried to shake my head. “Just go, Chase. We don’t want to fight.”

  “Of course you don’t,” he said. “Its two on one and I’m annihilating you.”

  Gritting my teeth, I bucked and slammed the back of my head into his already bloodied face, effectively breaking his chokehold.

  He staggered back, and Cade charged him again. They were a lethal ball of limbs, scraping and clawing along the forest floor. I wanted to jump in, but it was too difficult with them so close to each other’s throats.

  Then suddenly, before I could even process what was going on, a close-range fireball flew from Chase’s hand. There was no time to react. It hit Cade square in the chest, leaving behind a charred crater the size of a cantaloupe.

  Cade dropped to the ground, and all I could do was scream, the sound ethereal. It rushed from my throat like a wave of broken glass, cutting me from the inside out.

  “Cade!” I shrieked, rushing to him.

  He blinked, emerald eyes wide and beautiful in their confusion. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move.

  I felt Chase’s power charging up for the final blow.

  Anger rattled through my bones like a stampede. My mind went red. Only a few words were discernible in my thoughts and they blazed around on repeat: I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!

  When he let the fireball loose, I completely lost it. I screamed with such fury and violence that it clattered off the branches above us. An explosion of jagged ice spikes erupted out of me, the biggest I’d ever created. They tore through whole trees. Through Chase. Blood ran from his mouth in a steady stream. It gushed down the thick spikes that impaled him.

  No sick feeling overcame me at the sight. Maybe it did get easier…

  Power surged within me, energizing and changing me. I’d killed him. In doing so, my power had altered further, I just didn’t yet know how. I didn’t even care; Cade was lying lifeless on the ground.

  The earth began to rumble.

  With trembling hands, I searched his pockets for the salve.

  Cracks spidered out across the ground.

  When I found the tin, I frantically prayed the hole in his chest wasn’t too big to be mended. I opened it and a lump formed in my throat, cutting off all air. It was empty—he’d used it all on healing the bomb victims.

  No, no, no! I cried in my mind and maybe out loud. With a shaky finger, I scraped out every last bit of balm hiding in the bottom rim. There wasn’t even a pea-sized amount. I touched it to a small piece of his scorched skin and started to cry. It would never work. He would die.

  Deep crevices opened up, swallowing random chunks of the ground whole.

  It didn’t matter that, at any moment, I might fall into a pit of death. My only concern was Cade, though I was pretty sure the earth’s crumbling was because of him.

  “Help me!” I screamed. My voice echoed frighteningly off the mountains. The darkness seemed to smother my words before anyone could hear, not that there was anyone around.

  Trees creaked and groaned, uprooted and felled by the tumultuous earth. Branches snapped off and splintered.

  I couldn’t see Cade’s chest moving. The thought of checking his pulse crossed my mind, but I couldn’t work up the nerve. If he was gone, there would be no hope, and I so desperately needed to hope.

  “Someone help me!”

  Sobs overcame me and I dropped my forehead to his. My throat burned like battery acid. The only relief was crying harder. My entire body ached from the excruciating pain of grief.

  “I’m so sorry, Cade,” I cried, barely getting the words out. “I’m so sorry I don’t know what to do, please stay with me, I’m sorry…”

  Suddenly the earth stopped shaking.

  “No…” I whispered, pulling a terrified hand to my mouth. Did that mean he was…?

  Cracks began resealing. Trees righted and re-rooted themselves.

  “No!” I screamed.

  I scrambled to the remaining crevices, desperately trying to pry them back apart, but I wasn’t an Earth; I had no control over such things. When I ultimately failed, I dropped to the ground in a broken heap of sobbing tears.

  “Valerie?” a voice whispered.

  I gasped and looked up through bleary eyes.

  “Aunt Marge!”

  “What on earth is going on, dear girl?”

  I stood and ran to her, hugging her tightly.

  She held me patiently, just stroking my hair. When she finally pulled away, she knelt to the ground next to Cade.

  “This is that Landston boy you love so much,” she murmured.

  I didn’t deny it. More tears welled and spilled. I couldn’t even inhale without stuttering, so I held my breath.

  “This must be why the earth is in so much turmoil…”

  She looked around. Tree roots were slowly writhing like snakes. The ground was rolling in uneasy waves. Suddenly, it all stopped. I knew she must’ve commanded it to, like she apparently had a few minutes before.

  She glanced up, eyeing me intensely. “Did you do this to him? Was it an accident?”

  My tear-filled eyes went wide. “No, I would never! Not even by accident.” I stabbed a finger at Chase’s body. It had nearly been obscured by dirt and piles of broken ice. “It was him.”

  It was obvious from the blood on the ice what had happened, but she didn’t mention it.

  She cocked her head. “And who is he?”

  “Chase Theron. I thought he was a friend, but all this time he’s been working for Nicholai.”

  “Nicholai?” She raised a curious brow. “Not ‘grandfather dearest’?”

  I swallowed, lips trembling. “Not anymore. You were right, Aunt Marge. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner.” I thought about telling her that Amelia was alive, but we’d already wasted enough time. “Never mind the bad guys. What can we do for Cade?”

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We need to get him to the house. I have a variety of medicinal concoctions stored in the root cellar.”

  “Is there anything we can do now? I’m scared that he’s—”

  “He’s not dead,” she said softly. She looked at the forest around us; it was moving again. “The earth seems to be feeding him energy. I’ve never seen this before.”

  With a flick of her hand, curly plants sprouted from the ground. They were like ferns, but with thicker stalks, feather-soft but sturdy. They lifted Cade off the ground and passed him from frond to frond. Each had just enough time to catch him and move him to the next sprout before coiling back into the dirt.

  While there were certainly more time-consuming and physically exhausting ways of transporting him, I was still unbearably impatient. I’d never been a nail biter, but the urge overcame me on multiple occasions. My stomach had spun itself into knots. My skin was tingling and itchy. It felt like it was taking forever to get through the woods. I needed to know that Cade would be all right, needed to see his eyes open, hear his voice, feel his touch.

  The wait was utterly torturous.

  When we finally arrived in Aunt Marge’s back yard, she led us to a place I’d never been. She split open a thicket of rhododendrons, revealing an old door, only half on its hinges, tucked into the side of a hill. She carefully pulled it open and led us down a few stone steps into a damp underground cellar.

  The walls were perfectly smooth and square, despite the fact that dirt tended to crumble. Shelves were carved right into the walls. On them were hundreds of corked glass bottles and vials. Some contained what looked like dry weeds or herbs. Others held liquid tinctures ranging in color from honey gold to ink black.

  Aunt Marge took a match and lit a small lantern hanging in the back corner. In the dim light, she rummaged through her stash. She ended up with an armful of vials that, altogether, created a strange cocktail of potent aromas. I had no idea what might’ve been in them, but I pr
ayed they healed better than they smelled.

  As she got to work grinding and mixing, I took a seat next to Cade and continued chewing my nails.

  “Amelia’s alive,” I said, blurting it out as a distraction from Cade’s unnerving stillness.

  Marge paused. “What did you say?”

  I glanced at her. “She’s been alive all this time, but she’s evil. Just like Nicholai.”

  Marge blinked. “No, that can’t be true.”

  “Which part? That she’s alive, or that she’s evil? Oh, and I have a half-brother.”

  She hovered over the bowl of powdered herbs, hands motionless. “How can that be? I saw the sight of the accident myself…”

  “Did you see the body?”

  “Yes. There was an open-casket funeral and everything.”

  I thought back to the conversation I’d had with my mother.

  “Well, she said she faked her death. I’m sure she was thorough. She might’ve used a lookalike mannequin, or worse, a lookalike corpse. Neither would surprise me at this point.”

  Marge shook her head slowly. “And a brother? How old?”

  “I think she said he was six. He’s a Water like his father—not my father, though. His name’s Kendrick.”

  “Have you met him?”

  “No. I don’t plan to, either.”

  She smiled faintly. “He’s your blood, Valerie.”

  “He’s her blood, not mine.”

  “Your blood is her blood,” she said, but thankfully, she didn’t press the issue. “Speaking of your blood…”

  She handed me a cloth and a tin of salve.

  “Wet that and clean your face. Apply a small smattering to the cut afterward, and it should heal up in no time.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  I’d somehow almost forgotten about that first hit, though I remembered in a damn hurry once I started cleaning it. Throbbing pain echoed through my cheek and jawbone.

  I sighed, glancing at Cade. The aching in my face was nothing compared to the aching in my heart, or the pain he was no doubt feeling.

  “I still can’t believe she remarried,” I said, distracting myself yet again.

  I smeared some salve onto my cheek and set the tin aside.

  Marge’s smile warmed and she got back to grinding.

  “Dear girl, your mother has been married many, many times over the years. Do you remember the story I told you once before? About the man who appeared from the woods after Amelia had reprimanded some foul-mouthed guards? His name was David. He was her first husband.”

  She eyed me almost sternly.

  “It was difficult to tell you that tale without giving Elementals away. It’d happened centuries ago, mind you.”

  Centuries… It was still difficult to fathom. I glanced at Cade. If we both lived for hundreds of years, would we be together in the end? Or would we fall apart and remarry dozens of times, like my mother had? I hoped I wasn’t so shallow, but I supposed only time could tell.

  Marge had me add some water to her mixture, which formed a greenish-brown paste that smelled strongly of lavender and citrusy thyme. Gently, she cut away the charred material of his jacket and undershirt. The meaty hole in Cade’s chest looked even worse without clothing to hide behind. She layered the paste over the wound and covered it with a white kerchief.

  She then got to work on another mixture, adding in a white, fuzzy-looking substance.

  My brows furrowed. “What’s that?”

  “Penicillium,” she replied with a smile. “It will help keep the wound from becoming infected while it heals. That’s what most of this is at the moment. I’ve also added some things to speed up the healing process, but it will take some days.”

  “Days?” I said, astounded. Usually their healing concoctions worked in minutes or hours.

  She smiled at me, but her head cocked curiously to the side. “Do you think it’s easy for one to be brought back from near death?”

  I sighed. “No, I suppose not.”

  Marge stopped stirring her newest mixture, bringing one hand to her hip and one to her sweat-beaded forehead.

  “Why don’t you do something else, Valerie dear? The Landston boy won’t be conscious for at least another day.”

  “No.” My head shook violently. “I’m not leaving him.”

  She smiled knowingly. “I’m sure you have other things to attend to.”

  I blinked.

  A hurricane of memories and emotions flooded my mind.

  The restaurant had just been blown up. I needed to find my dad, Sienna, Xavier, Holden, and Jay. I needed to know if they were all okay. I needed to know if the victims I’d helped had survived. I needed to know Curwen’s next move, and Nicholai’s. I couldn’t afford to get behind in all this.

  More than any of that, though, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Cade.

  As if reading my mind, she gestured to the ground. It was slithering like a pit of snakes.

  “He’ll be fine,” she insisted. “The earth is making sure of it.”

  I hesitated, slowly rising. “I suppose I should at least check on my dad and Sienna…but I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

  She glanced at the wall where a clock might’ve hung, but didn’t.

  “It’s after midnight already, take your time and get some rest.”

  It made me think of the old adage. “There is no rest for the wicked,” I quoted.

  “You are not wicked, Valerie Elaine.”

  I chuckled at her serious tone.

  “I know, it’s just a saying.” Though, given my track record and family history, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was true. “Love you, Aunt Marge.”

  “I love you too, dear.”

  As she got back to work on her homemade antibiotics, I gazed back down at Cade. How could I have let this happen? If it weren’t for the earth, he would be…

  My chin quivered and I bent down to kiss his forehead.

  Because he couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t hold it back, I whispered, “I love you.”

  Then, before I could change my mind, I stepped out into the cold night air. It was quiet. The wind howled on the other side of the mountain, but the breeze hadn’t really carried that far. Perhaps Holden or Sienna was angry? Hopefully not hurt…

  Tugging the pieces of my tattered red dress together, I set my bare feet into motion.

  It was strange, traveling alone in the dark. Something that used to terrify me now felt completely painless. I knew I could defend myself against criminals or kidnappers. Even the vilest of people were still just humans. Elementals were the most dangerous animals in the forest, and even amongst them, I was pretty high on the food chain.

  “Hello Valerie,” a voice said from the dark.

  Startled, I jumped a mile and froze in place.

  “We need to talk.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I cocked my head to the side and slowly spun around.

  “Elise?”

  Her smile was tiny. “Yes, it’s me.”

  “What are you doing here? I thought with the way you left, you wouldn’t be coming back.”

  She chuckled and leaned against a tree. “I go where I’m told.”

  “And you were told to come back?”

  She nodded. “To talk to you.”

  My brows darted up to my hairline. “Me?”

  She looked all around us, hesitating like we might be being watched. Then she took a few steps closer.

  “She wants to see you,” Elise whispered.

  I took a step back. “Who does?”

  “The leader of the Shadow Sect.”

  My heart picked up the pace. I’d never heard the name before, but it didn’t sound particularly pleasant. The leader of said group wanted to see me? Why?

  “What the hell is the Shadow Sect?” I asked.

  She crossed her arms. “My organization.”

  “You mean the super secret one you never tell anyone anything about?”

&n
bsp; She rolled her turquoise eyes. “That’s the one.”

  “What the hell do they want with me?”

  Elise looked around again, eyes lingering between the trees. “This isn’t the place. Let’s go to Mom’s and I’ll fill you in.”

  I shook my head. “I just came from there. Nicholai bombed a building tonight. I need to check on my dad and my friends.”

  “I heard about that,” she said, voice low. She looked like she wanted to murder him. She’d have to wait in line.

  “I’ll be back at Aunt Marge’s at dawn,” I said. “I can meet you then.”

  She bobbed her head, contemplating.

  “All right.” Then she eyed me closely. “Be careful, Valerie.”

  “I will.”

  “No, I mean it. You need to be alert at all times. Remember your training?”

  I sighed and nodded.

  I wasn’t annoyed at her; I was irritated with myself. My inattentiveness had the potential to mean sudden death before I could even spell it. Nicholai could order his Elitist pawns to kill me at any moment. I had to be more careful than I’d been so far.

  “I’ll see you in a few hours,” she said softly, dismissing me.

  I nodded and took off running. For some reason, I felt like crying.

  There were so many things going on…my mother being alive, Nicholai bombing Sol and Lune, Cade nearly dying, the potential that my friends might’ve been lying to me, the fact that I had a half-brother, the Shadow Sect wanting to talk to me… Each thing was another pebble on the pile, which was starting to feel like a mountain—one that was practically smothering me.

  I ran to my house to check on Dad first. There were no lights on, not even a porch light shining outside. His car wasn’t parked in the drive. He was probably out on Modernist duties, maybe even still at the restaurant.

  I jogged upstairs, stripping out of my once sexy red dress and finally putting on something more manageable again—skinny jeans, a long-sleeved tee, and sneakers instead of bare feet. Then I went back downstairs.

  Picking my way across the dark living room, I pulled back the curtains and gazed across the river to Sienna’s house. Her bedroom light was on.

  I rushed out back and ran across the river as if it were solid as pavement.

 

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