The Essential Elements: Boxed Set

by Elle Middaugh

  He shook his head. “How?”

  She slowly looked around the group on the living side of the realms. “Hey, Val. Hey, Sienna.”

  We waved back, and Water element be damned, I started crying.

  “I miss you, Charlene,” I said through strained vocal cords.

  “I miss you all, too.” Then she turned back to Jay. “You have friends, good friends, with true light shining bright inside them. Hold on to that. Don’t let them go. They’ll help you find the light within you.”

  “What if there is none to find?” he asked, so low I almost couldn’t hear him.

  She leaned forward and put her hand up to the mirror-vision. Jay did the same, and a muffled sob escaped his lips as their fingers almost touched.

  “Do you honestly think I would have fallen in love with you if there was no light in your soul?”

  He shook his head in response as the tears burned down his cheeks.

  “That’s right, I wouldn’t have. But I did, Jay. I did fall in love with you, and I will love you forever and ever, but you have got to move on. Take however much time you need and rely on your friends as much as possible, but pick up your broken pieces and put your amazing self back together. It’s my deepest wish to see you happy again.”

  He closed his eyes but nodded once more.

  “Can you promise me that?” Charlene asked gently. “Promise you’ll try?”

  “I swear on my life I’ll try, baby girl. I love you so much.”

  She nodded then her fingers slipped from the mirror. “Good. I love you, too, Jay.”

  My heart was breaking.

  I turned to Kale and nodded because I didn’t think I could speak.

  He took a deep breath and stared at the guy on the other side. “Hale? Is that really you?”

  The guy smiled. “You remember me.”

  “Of course I do. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you, wondering what my life would’ve been like if my twin had survived the crash.”

  The crash? Had his brother died in a car accident? I was ashamed to admit I’d never really asked Kale about his personal life. I needed to remember to be less of a Revolutionist drill sergeant and more of an actual friend.

  “I was seven when I ended up here,” Hale said, glancing around the grayish landscape with a peaceful sort of expression. “But it feels like only yesterday.”

  Kale nodded. “I think time works differently in other realms.”

  “It sure does.”

  Kale hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “Listen, Hale, I know we haven’t spoken in like twelve years, but you’re my brother, my twin, and my other half. I want you to know there’s a part of your spirit that is alive and well within me. I carry you in my heart and in my memories, and if I ever have a little boy of my own, I’m going to name him after you.”

  Hale bowed his head. “I’d be honored, brother. Spirits of the afterlife don’t spend much time dwelling on the world they left behind, but…I’ll never forget you. You’ll always be my other half, too.”

  Kale smiled and nodded then turned to me. “Thank you, Val.”

  “I had no idea,” I said as emotion rushed up to meet me. “I should’ve taken the time to find out. I’m sorry I haven’t been a better friend, and I’m sorry for the loss of your brother.”

  “You’ve been a great friend. This never would have been possible without you, so thank you.”

  Happiness for him only barely outweighed the guilt pooling in my chest.

  “You’re welcome.” Then I turned to Cade and Xavier. “You’re up. I can feel the magic fading, so we’ll have to try to make it quick.”

  Cade nodded. “I can feel it too.”

  Xavier also nodded in agreement, searching his body in confusion.

  “So can I,” Sienna agreed.

  Jay and Kale looked confused, so it must’ve been a champion thing.

  “Hello, my handsome boys,” Delaney said, smiling at her sons. “How have you been?”

  “Good,” Cade said in a raspy voice, like he was barely able to choke out the words.

  “We’ve been good, Mom,” Xavier said at the same time.

  “And your father?”

  Cade shook his head.

  Xavier forced a smile. “He’s taking your loss the hardest.”

  She nodded knowingly. “Don’t let this consume him. You know how he gets. Don’t let it destroy his life. He loves you boys, and he needs to be there for you since I can’t be.”

  “There’s no calming his storm, Mom,” Cade said. “The only thing that will soothe his spirit is avenging you by killing your murderer.”

  “Then his spirit will never be soothed,” she said, surprising us all. “Killing Nicholai is not the answer to his problems. Letting go of his grief, anger, and hatred is what will ultimately bring him peace, not vengeance.”

  Cade sighed. “I learned that the hard way myself.”

  Delaney winked at me but replied to Cade. “I know, son, and I’m very proud of you for that.” Then she brought her full attention back to me. “I’m sorry, Valerie, for the way we treated you. Shadow Sect orders or not, Henrie and I were full-grown adults with minds of our own. We should have done what was right and not just blindly followed orders.”

  My heart suddenly hammered in my chest. Did she just say…the Shadow Sect?

  Ignoring the fear that had lumped in my throat, I forced myself to reply.

  “It’s okay, Delaney, I forgive you, and Henrie, too.”

  She smiled brightly. “Take care of my baby boy?”

  I grinned at Cade. “We’ll take care of each other.”

  “Good.” Next she turned to Sienna. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but if the look in my son’s eye is anything to go by, I hope you two take care of each other, too. Xavier is such a kindhearted person. He needs a girl who will appreciate that.”

  Sienna looked up at him and smiled. “That sounds like exactly what I need…as long as he understands that I’m a work in progress and still have a long, long way to go.”

  Xavier hugged her into his chest. “Take as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Yes! My hopeless romantic heart jumped for joy in my chest. Mission accomplished. Operation Lucia-didn’t-die-for-nothing was finally a success.

  Delaney backed away slowly. “Tell your dad I love him.”

  Cade nodded. “I will. I love you, Mom.”

  “I love you, too. Both of you.”

  “Love you, Mom,” Xavier whispered.

  Then, before I even realized it, it was my turn.

  The magic of the apple wavered, and the vision blurred before refocusing once more.

  “Hello, Valerie,” Alana said with a warm smile.

  It was so odd to think of her as my grandma considering, one, I’d never met her, and two, she didn’t look a day over thirty.

  “Hi,” I replied, falling back on my old socially awkward habit of being virtually unable to carry on a conversation without a lot of help.

  “You look just like your mother,” she said, which I was sure was supposed to be a compliment, but given what my mother had become, I was not so flattered. She seemed to pick up on that. “Come now, why the fallen face? Amelia is a beautiful woman, inside and out.”

  I scoffed. “You’ve been dead for a while now, Grandma. Amelia’s beauty is only skin deep, trust me.”

  She smirked. “You know her so well, do you?”

  “I know enough. She left me and my dad to join…”

  I trailed off, recalling that Alana had bought into Nicholai’s bullshit before and become an Elitist herself—or was that just part of the flawed retelling of history? The part that’d been twisted and skewed into lies over time? According to the gods, hardly any of the actual truth remained.

  She smiled encouragingly. “Go on, dear.”

  The magic wavered again, and the gray faces of our dead friends and relatives blurred in and out of focus before returning to normal. I knew o
ur time was almost up, so I figured I might as well blurt it out.

  “She left us to join up with her father and the Elitists. She’s ended countless lives, and she’s actively trying to enslave humanity.”

  Alana raised a brow. “Did you ever think she might be doing all that in order to keep you safe?”

  I blinked and my brows furrowed. “No. That’s not an option. You don’t commit mass genocide in order to protect one person. That’s freaking wrong.”

  Alana shrugged. “A mother’s love is fierce and sometimes crazy. It drives us to do stupid things, convinces us impossible things are true. Your mother clearly felt this was the best way to protect you, regardless of how immoral it was.”

  I wanted to see things her way, but I just couldn’t.

  “If that’s the case,” I said solemnly, “I wish she would have failed a long time ago.”

  Alana cocked her head. “You would so willingly wish you had died? Wish your mother had died?”

  “If it would have kept so many innocent people from being sacrificed, then yes. Her life and mine are not worth thousands of others.”

  Alana nodded. “Remember that, Valerie. If you do, you just might succeed where your mother and I failed.”

  As I contemplated her cryptic words, a gray shadow passed behind them in the vision. The shadow paused, probably curious about the mirror they were all looking at. It came closer, drifting in and out of focus as the vision wavered again.

  I gasped, unable to believe my eyes.

  “Chase?”

  I knew damn well he was dead—I’d killed him myself—but still, I’d never expected to see him again, even in the afterlife.

  He grinned, looking around our group in peaceful happiness.

  “Valerie, hey! Long time no see!” His eyes, once electric blue, were now dull and lifeless. “And Cade! It’s nice to see you, bro. Sorry about that whole trying-to-kill-you thing. You know, it’s weird—when I was alive, it seemed like the most important thing in the world, but now…I don’t even remember why it mattered so much in the first place.”

  I couldn’t reply. I was too busy gaping.

  “You don’t remember?” Cade asked curiously.

  Chase shrugged. “I think it had something to do with me being evil, but that’s pretty stupid, huh? Now that I’m dead, all the things I used to care about seem pointless. None of it matters anymore.”

  I was still frozen in stunned silence.

  “Anyway,” he said, “I gotta go. It was nice seeing you guys! Have a wonderful life!”

  As his parting words echoed in my mind, the vision faded completely, and we were back in the dusky forest.

  For the longest time, no one said a word.

  Then from the ashes of utter silence, the Elitists attacked.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The fight came out of nowhere, but honestly, I should have been expecting it. Jay might not have alerted them, but Madam Lucia definitely would have.

  And there I had been half-assed mourning her death.

  A man came at me with a double-ended spear. Even through the shadowy darkness, each tip looked sharp as a broadhead arrow and just as lethal.

  I ducked, narrowly avoiding a sliced throat, and tried to come up with a plan. This person was probably an Earth Elemental considering he was using a spear made of wood and metal. I thought back to my training with Elise and how I’d won the fight against her—a trained Shadow Sect agent—and I knew what I needed to use: Fire.

  Thank god I’d been Gifted with the element—or, I supposed I should say, thank Ida. It made me wonder if the gods were watching, right now, to see what us champions would do.

  The next time he swung at me, I reached out and lit the spear on fire, crumbling the shaft into a pile of charcoal.

  Growling, he reached out and uprooted a small tree, spinning it into a giant dart-like weapon and throwing it at me. Again, I burned it into cinders. This gave me the chance to go on the offensive, whipping a few ice spikes at his chest. He created a metallic shield at the last second and blocked my ice, shattering it into tiny glass-like pieces. Realizing I needed him to drop the shield, I threw a molten fireball at him. He blocked it as I’d anticipated, and the shield quickly turned bright red as the lava-like fire dripped down the metal and steamed on the ground.

  He cried out, dropping the shield and cradling his blistered hand, and that gave me the advantage I needed. I quickly threw another round of ice spikes at him, and this time they landed in his neck and chest. Blood leaked from his mouth, and he crashed to the ground.

  A rush of energy filled me, strengthening me and my elements in some unknown way. I hated it, hated the fact that his power was now mine because I’d killed him, but there was no time for self-loathing. The Elitists had come prepared. There were at least a hundred of them and only six of us.

  Thank the gods they’d Gifted four of us.

  At that thought, my gaze darted over to Sienna, who was having a hell of a time trying to control both of her elements. As an ex-Modernist, she didn’t have much practice to begin with, and now on top of her base Wind element, she was forced to deal with Water—an element I knew from experience was very difficult to contain.

  Next, I searched for Xavier. He’d been a Water Elemental all his life, so he was already pretty skilled in that department, but the extra power he now possessed was clearly messing with him. Every time he went to throw a normal sized amount of Water at his opponent, he ended up opening a whole geyser-full of power, blasting not only the enemy but everyone else nearby. Cade and Kale were the only non-Waters on our team, so they were the only ones affected, but none of us needed any extra distractions.

  I rushed over to them and did my best to block Sienna and Xavier’s wayward power so they could continue fighting unhindered. With my remaining element, I blasted a line of intense fire at every Elitist nearby. A handful of them went up in flames, but none of their comrades bothered to try to help. That was the problem with Elitists—they were all selfish, narcissistic bastards.

  The earth vibrated beneath my feet, and that was not a good sign. Cade was an extremely powerful Earth, considering he was Gifted with the element twice over, so for him to miss keeping it in check?

  Dear gods, I wonder if Nicholai is close…

  “He’s not gonna show up yet,” Jay said, suddenly standing right beside me.

  My fear and nervousness must’ve been written all over my face.

  “He wants to kill you himself so he can acquire your power, but he won’t risk coming out into the open like this. He’s too close to actually winning to sabotage everything.”

  My mouth fell open. “He wants my power?”

  Jay gave me a small smile. “You won’t offer it willingly, so he will try to take it.”

  “And he’s seriously close to winning?”

  “Closer than he’s ever been before.” Suddenly Jay’s head whipped up and he pushed my shoulder down. “Duck!”

  I dropped to the ground along with Jay as a rock the size of my head shot through the air above us. If that thing had made contact, it would’ve split my skull like a watermelon.

  Jay raised his brows and cocked his head. “Nicholai won’t be pleased to find his minions coming after you like this. He ordered them to capture you and bring you to him, not kill you. He wants your power, and he sure as hell doesn’t want it going to any of them.”

  Hearing him talk about Nicholai like that made me nervous. It was lucky Ida had read his thoughts and believed he’d seriously changed his ways. If she hadn’t, I’d probably have started doubting him again, and that was not at all what he needed from me as a friend.

  “We’re down to about half,” Jay added, scanning the trees surrounding us. “Let’s kick the other half’s ass.”

  I nodded and he ran left while I sprinted right, putting me closer to Sienna again.

  “Try only using the Wind element!” I shouted over to her as she struggled.

  She snarled and flipped me the
bird. “Did anyone tell your dumb ass to try that when you were wreaking havoc?”

  Um…shit. No, I don’t actually think they did.

  “Sorry. I guess just do your thing and I’ll try to help you contain it as best I can.”

  She gave me a curt nod then got back to fighting.

  I did the same, charging at a Fire Elemental whose whole body was engulfed in flames. His Fire wouldn’t hurt me, nor mine his, but I had Water, which had to count for something.

  I spun in a quick circle, swirled water around me like a whirlpool, and doused out his flames. As soon as they faltered, I created an icy spike, which I wielded as a knife and jabbed into his chest. Blood streamed down his shirt as he growled in pain but didn’t go down. Instead, he jammed a hand into his flesh and singed the wound shut.

  Clever boy.

  Then he charged, using his brute physical strength against me, but I wasn’t a delicate freaking Barbie. I’d been training my ass off for months, and I was ready for this. I dodged at the last second, snaking out of the way and jabbing him in the lower back as he blew past me. He cried out and crashed to the ground, and I took the chance to finish him off. Creating another icy knife, I sank the frosted blade into the back of his neck and he immediately went limp.

  My throat closed off and the urge to puke overwhelmed me.

  I am not a murderer. I am not a murderer. I am not a murderer!

  Dad’s face popped into my mind and I took a few deep gulps of air. I was like my father: a soldier fighting for the greater good. Soldiers weren’t proud of the things they had to do, weren’t flattered when people called them heroes, but they did the necessary shit anyway. That was me: a soldier killing Elitists so they didn’t take over the world.

  Energy bolted through me, rattling my bones and making me itch all over. I scanned the crowd and realized it must’ve been a combination of deaths hitting me at once—the guy on the ground coupled with at least two or three Elementals who’d finally died from the flames I’d doused them in.

  I swallowed hard. I can do this. I am a soldier.