I stole a final glance at Cade before a tear streamed down my cheek. We’d come this far already, and the damage had already been done—might as well finish it. I let the Fire within me loose, and blue flames zipped around us. Then I let the Water out, forming a wall of jagged ice inside the flames.
Jay nodded and threw the head in the middle, face down in the dirt.
“Now, think of the one thing you care about most,” he said. “Let the raw emotion fill you with its power.”
I closed my eyes, and a million images hit me at once, each vying for a millisecond of my attention: Cade laughing, Cade smiling, Cade smirking…training, cooking, healing. Every image was of him…him kissing me, touching me, holding me. I loved him more than anything. How could I have done this to him? Made him fear me like this?
Tears streamed freely down my cheeks, burning my skin in their wake. Not even my aquamarine bracelet could keep the water at bay.
“Do you have your image?” Jay asked quietly, knowing full well I must have.
I merely nodded.
Suddenly, he placed a dagger in my hand.
“Now concentrate all that energy into opening a portal into the other realm. Cut a slice in the air before you. Imagine it as a curtain you can peel apart, revealing the afterlife behind it.”
I couldn’t believe I was about to try this.
Keeping my eyes closed so I didn’t lose focus or nerve, I reached up with the dagger and slowly dragged it down the imaginary scene before me. The forest opened up and a tall thin crack formed out of nowhere. The farther I dragged the knife, the wider the crack became, revealing a beautiful landscape beyond. Floating islands, cascading waterfalls, flowering vines, scents sweeter than honey, sounds more melodious than the most beautiful song, streets of gold, a palace of diamonds, every magnificent creature you could imagine—it was mesmerizing and completely overwhelming.
I gasped, barely able to breathe, and opened my eyes to break the illusion, but the same scene was laid out before me when I did so.
“Can you guys see what I see?” I asked in timidity and awe.
“Yes,” Sienna replied breathlessly, reaching out to touch the opening I’d created.
Jay frowned, eyes darting around almost nervously. “This isn’t right.”
I turned to him, astounded. “What do you mean this isn’t right?”
“I mean this,” he said, gesturing to the magnificent world before us. “This isn’t the afterlife. It’s supposed to be dull and gray, peaceful and mild. But this…I have no idea what this is.”
Suddenly, a face appeared before us. It belonged to a woman, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She had long, wavy black hair and was wearing a gown like scarlet and dawn and flame that shimmered in the golden light.
She leaned forward, partially entering our world, and took my hand. Her skin was softer than silk.
“Hello, Valerie. It’s wonderful to finally meet you face to face. Come, we have much to talk about.” Then she glanced at the petrified faces around me. “All of you, come!”
She pulled me through, into whatever lay beyond.
Chapter Ten
“Ida!” a voice called from a nearby island. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Where’d you go?”
Ida?
My mind ground to a screeching halt.
Ida, as in the Ida? The Goddess of Fire? That Ida?
“No worries, Leo!” she called back sweetly. “We have company.”
“This is Euphoria, my love,” the voice replied, sounding amused and a lot closer this time. “We don’t receive guests.”
She grinned at me and winked. “We do now.”
The golden head of a man came into view over the crest of a hill, then a face—the most gorgeous face I’d ever seen on a man. Finally, his entire being was visible, rippling with poised muscle nearly hidden under a brown robe lined in white fur…an absolute image of perfection.
He was silent as he strolled up next to Ida, staring at us with a curious glint in his pale green eyes. The pair looked like a match made in heaven, and suddenly, I gasped.
“Is this…Heaven?”
The man had called the place Euphoria, and as far as I knew, there was no place quite as euphoric as the immortal resting place of the gods.
He grinned, a beautifully heart-stopping thing, and glanced down at Ida. “Where did you find these people?”
She pointed behind us at the slice in the air. The forest back home loomed silently in the distance.
“You made her too powerful,” the man muttered.
My whole body was alight with the tingling of nerves. What would they do to us now that we’d intruded on their world? We were clearly never meant to arrive there. How the hell had it even happened?
“Nonsense, Leo,” she said, placing a hand on his chest. “This is perfect. When Nik sees what she can do, he just might join our cause.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “Nik won’t be swayed so easily.”
Ida smirked. “Then my little doves will simply have to convince him otherwise.”
She eyed us all adoringly, and I realized we were the little doves in question.
I reached out and took Cade’s hand, relieved when he didn’t snatch it away. I needed the comfort of his touch, the power of his protection—even if he was seriously pissed at me.
Ida’s gaze followed my movement and landed square on Cade. “I’m so glad Leo saved your life. You’re the perfect match for my little champion.”
Cade cleared his throat and swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, but…Ida? Leo? Nik? You guys are…the original Elemental gods?”
They nodded. Ida looked tickled pink while Leo smirked and looked properly dignified.
Xavier leaned in and whispered, “Should we, like, bow down or something?”
My gaze moved from him to Sienna to Kale to Jay and back to Cade. I had no idea what reverence was required when meeting with gods. Honestly, I’d only become an Elemental myself half a year earlier, and I’d never really learned much of the history or culture.
“No need to bow,” Ida insisted with a gentle smile. “But please, come! The others need to meet you as soon as possible.”
With a flourish of his hand, Leo created a flowering vine that lifted us up on its leaves and glided us over a few of the closer islands. The impossibility of it all coupled with my minor fear of heights had me clinging to Cade even tighter.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, snuggling my face into his neck. “I’m so sorry. I never should have done this.”
He sighed. “It’s okay, Val. Your heart was in the right place, even if your head went completely fucking brain-dead for a second.”
A laugh bubbled out of me in spite of the circumstances, making me seem slightly unhinged.
“So, you forgive me?”
He narrowed his emerald eyes on me and nodded. “I do.”
“Do you think we’re going to die?”
“One might argue we’re already dead, considering where we are right now.”
“But…Jay said this wasn’t the afterlife.”
Cade chuckled. “No, it’s Euphoria, a place we could never hope to ascend to even after death.”
For some reason, he made it sound foreboding.
“Is it dangerous here?”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. “I have no idea. No one has ever been here before—or at least no one who has ever lived to tell the tale.”
“Oh, dear god.”
“Yes?” Leo called back with a cheeky grin. Apparently, they could hear our whisperings.
I swallowed hard. “Oh, not you, your…godliness.”
I had no idea what to call someone so holy and powerful.
“Promise me this,” Cade said, lifting my chin so our eyes were lost in each other’s gazing. “If we do somehow make it out of here alive, you will never, under any circumstances, keep shit like this from me again. Can you do that?”
It seemed simple enough to nod and sa
y yes, but…if I hadn’t kept this from him, if he’d convinced me not to do it, we wouldn’t be floating along in Euphoria right now. In a way, me keeping this shit to myself had been exactly what I needed to do. What if I needed to do something like this again? What if keeping it from him was the only way for it to come to pass?
Ida chuckled and gazed at me over her shoulder. “Valerie, my sweet Fire child, Leo chose this man as his champion, just as I have chosen you as mine. As such, you can and should trust and rely on one another completely.”
Then Leo glanced over his shoulder and grinned at Cade. “Even if that means giving her free rein to do reckless things you don’t necessarily agree with, such as bestowing Elementals with extra powers.”
“They needed it,” she insisted, curling closer into his side. “And when Nik meets them, he’ll agree that we need a few more. They all will.”
Leo lifted her hand up to his lips and laid a kiss on it. “I hope you’re right, my love, for their sakes.”
Fear pooled in my belly and rushed through my limbs, making my fingers and toes go numb.
“Excuse me?” Jay said, claiming the gods’ attention. “Will we ever be able to speak to the dead? That’s the whole reason I’m here, and if not, I’d really like to just go home.”
Leo smirked. “I think Dru will appreciate his…spirit.”
Ida giggled. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“This is Euphoria, little Water boy,” Leo said. “No dead souls reside here. I also cannot simply let you leave. My wife has plans for you. So, kick back and relax, as you might be here for quite some time.”
Jay glowered while I gasped.
“But we don’t have that kind of time,” I protested. “If we don’t get back as soon as possible, Nicholai is going to attack another human city.”
“Trust me, child,” Ida trilled, sounding like she didn’t have a care in the world. “Time in Euphoria doesn’t work like it does in your realm. It essentially stands still, ceases to exist. If you’re returned home, it will be as if nothing ever happened.”
I swallowed hard and accidentally looked beneath us, stunned to find myself strung out across a void of pure baby blue sky. We were currently hovering between islands as Leo’s vine led the way to…wherever. I had a feeling if I fell, I’d be falling forever.
Leo pointed to an island in the distance. It was a beach with tall rocky cliffs in the background and pure white sand in the fore. Waterfalls cascaded down, dropping off the edge of the island, the mist eventually fading away. A bonfire blazed at the shoreline, surrounded by crystalline rocks.
The closer we got, the more detail I could see.
A net had been strung up across the sand, and there were six people—gods—playing with some sort of ball, three on three. They seemed to be using whatever powers they possessed to keep the ball in motion—gusts of wind, plumes of fire, waves of water, and curling vines. The ball must have been made of something extremely durable to endure all the elements like that.
Ida smiled wide and waved her hand above her head. “Kya! Meg! Eve!”
Three female heads turned to stare at us.
Ida waved again. “Nik! Dru! Taj! Come meet our new guests!”
The three males turned to stare at us, too, and the ball they were playing with dropped unceremoniously to the ground on their side.
One of the goddesses shouted and pointed across the net. “Ha! We win!”
“Bullshit. That’s cheating,” a god replied with a scowl.
Leo turned to us and smirked. “Gods are very competitive. That’s part of the reason Ida is having such trouble convincing them.”
“Convincing them of what?” Jay asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.
“To Gift anyone extra power, of course. They’re opposing her simply because they can.”
Sienna frowned. “Why would they need to? I thought only Ida had the Gift.”
Leo chuckled. “Is that what they’re telling you these days? Shit just keeps getting farther and farther from the truth.”
Our vine touched down on the edge of the beach, just beyond the waves that lapped at the shore, and we carefully stepped off.
The other gods and goddesses walked over immediately, looking both impossibly beautiful and dangerously guarded.
“What the hell is this?” asked a god with jagged auburn hair while gesturing in our general direction.
Ida smiled. “Nik, this is my champion, Valerie, Leo’s champion, Cade, and their friends, whom I hope you’ll all get to know better and possibly even sponsor yourselves.”
A goddess in a grayish-lavender gown threw her head back and groaned. “Ugh, not this again, Ida.”
“They need us, Meg,” Ida insisted. “The balance is already upset.”
The balance? Thoughts of the Shadow Sect instantly filled my mind. Hopefully the gods and the Sect weren’t related in any way…
“We’re not,” Leo murmured under his breath, giving me a knowing look.
I blinked and my blood went cold. The gods can…read our minds?
His smile brightened. “Gods can do whatever they want, little champion.”
Great. Just great.
“It is, isn’t it?” the auburn-haired guy replied with a wicked grin.
“You chose a relative of your previous champion,” another goddess noted, looking right at me. She, like Ida, had dark wavy hair, but her skin tone was a deep tan, and her dark eyes angled upward at the outer corners. Her dress was a sparkling dark blue.
Ida nodded. “Yes, but she’s one of yours, Kya. Water was her base before I Gifted her with Fire.”
“I can tell,” the goddess, Kya, said with a tiny grin.
“Wait, so…I’m a Water Elemental first and foremost?”
Kya nodded. “You are.”
“My two elements aren’t equal?”
Kya put a hand on her hip, eyeing me thoughtfully. “That very much depends on how much Fire Ida decided to give you. She’s very…liberal in that way.”
“I gave her enough,” Ida said with a wink. “Now, let’s get to some proper introductions, shall we?”
Leo lifted his hand, and trees sprouted right out of the sand. They bent and contorted, shaping themselves into a sort of outdoor furniture with leaves and flower petals for cushions.
Cade and I sat on one, Sienna and Jay sat on another, and Xavier and Kale on yet another. The other gods and goddesses did the same, and before I knew it, we were all in a circle staring at one another across the bonfire.
Ida gestured to the auburn-haired man. “Nik, God of Fire.”
No surprise there. Aside from his hair, he was also wearing red swimming trunks. Red apparently equaled Fire. I glanced back at Ida, admiring the delicate red dress she wore that sparkled in the Euphoric sunshine like thousands of rubies.
Then she pointed to the woman beside him. “Meg, Goddess of Wind.”
Meg waved at no one in particular, jostling her long brown hair. She was the one dressed in the grayish-lavender gown, and I deduced that gray equaled Wind. I turned to find her male counterpart and caught sight of a super-tan guy whose curly brown hair had golden tips. His swimming trunks were silver, so I assumed he was the Wind god.
After Meg, Ida pointed to a goddess in a breezy green dress. “Eve, Goddess of Earth.”
I nodded. It made sense and was easy enough to remember. I turned to Leo, who was sitting with his arm draped casually around Ida’s shoulders. His robe was brown, which made sense, too, as it was another color closely associated with Earth.
Next to Eve, a brown-skinned man with the clearest blue eyes I’d ever seen sat with his elbows on his knees. His shorts were as blue as his eyes with white accents.
“Dru, God of Water.”
He nodded to us, and Ida moved on to the next set of seats.
“Kya, Goddess of Water.”
Kya, whom we’d already sort of met, grinned and crossed her tanned legs, which were visible through the long slit in her dark blue dre
ss.
Next to her was the guy with the gold-tipped curls, the one I assumed was a Wind.
“Taj,” Ida said, “God of Wind.”
Bingo.
Then she gestured to herself and Leo. “And, of course, you know us. Leo, God of Earth, and Ida, Goddess of Fire.” She smiled at me. “Valerie, if you wouldn’t mind introducing us to your companions, please.”
I blinked, completely caught off guard, though honestly, I should’ve seen that coming. Clearing my throat, I gestured to Cade, who sat on my right. “Cade Landston, Earth Elemental.” Then I pointed to myself. “Valerie Moore…”
I hesitated. Up until a few minutes earlier, I’d always just assumed I was inherently Gifted with both elements. Now I knew otherwise.
“Water Elemental, Gifted with Fire powers.”
I turned to my left and went right down the line. “Sienna Aeris, Wind Elemental. Jay Walsh, Water Elemental. Xavier Landston, Water Elemental. And Kale Ashton, Fire Elemental.”
They all waved on cue, and once the introductions were over, I had no freaking clue what to do. The silence was strange. I felt self-conscious and unsure, but the gods all sat there with peaceful yet contemplative expressions on their faces.
“So, why are you here?” Nik finally asked, eyeing us one by one.
A nervous smile raced across my lips. “That’s an interesting story, actually. You see, Jay and I were trying to complete a dark ritual that would enable us to speak to the dead, and needless to say, it went incredibly wrong.”
“You used too much power,” Kya said with a grin. “No other Elemental would have been able to do what you just did.”
I glanced at Ida. “Not even Nicholai?”
Nik’s expression hardened. “Who’s Nicholai?”
Ida sighed. “I really wish you’d have paid closer attention to the human realm all these years.”
“Are we all just going to sit here,” said Meg, the goddess in the purple-gray dress, “and completely ignore the fact that this girl and her friend were using dark magic to summon dead spirits?”
Everyone’s gaze turned to me, dark and unreadable. I stole a quick peek at Jay as my blood ran cold. His expression mirrored mine. I supposed this was the moment of truth.
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