The Elementals Collection

by L. B. Gilbert

  Salvador stopped breathing.

  “I’m kidding!” Gia held out her hand. He studied it for a moment before taking it. Unexpectedly, his fingers moved to intertwine with hers, tightening reflexively.

  “It will be fine.”

  “You already said that.”

  “And I meant it.” Waving her hand, Gia made the ground go soft, letting it absorb them without further delay.

  Salvador clutched Gia’s hand as the ground opened above their heads—except, until a moment ago, they didn’t have heads.

  At first, the ride was exciting. He’d taken Gia’s hand, and they’d sank into the ground as if they were in an elevator platform lowering into a top-secret superhero lair.

  But then the ground had closed over their heads… and his skin had dissolved. The line of demarcation that marked the end of him to the rest of the existence had suddenly vanished. Dust to dust. In a snap, they’d started moving—the essence of him and Gia propelling through solid matter like a tremor rolling through the ground during an earthquake.

  It was the sort of mind-bending trip that could threaten one’s sense of self. A lesser mind might break. But even though he didn’t have a hand, he could still feel Gia holding him the entire time.

  No sooner had he gotten ahold of himself, then bam—the ride was over. They’d shot up, then the ground spit them out. Staggering, Salvador caught himself before he fell flat on his face.

  It was as if they’d been on a lift that came to a sudden stop… or like standing on top of a freight train that had crashed into a wall.

  Gia, of course, didn’t stumble. She continued to hold his hand until he recovered his equilibrium.

  “That—that reminds me of the time I did ayahuasca after mushrooms,” he said once he was sure he wasn’t going to hurl.

  Gia actually winced as if this was a memory she shared. “Not a combination or sequence I’d recommend.”

  Neither would he. That lesson had been learned the hard way.

  “It was during the experimental phase of my healing practice,” he explained. “I was exploring the possibility of using those as treatments for trauma. I decided on micro-doses of the mushrooms and nixed the ayahuasca.”

  “Wise, but you could have read that in Dusay’s Guide to Healing Hallucinogens without the self-experimentation,” she said, referring to a native text popular with practitioners of alternative medicine.

  Salvador pivoted, checking out their surroundings. There were in a clearing between a bunch of trees—deciduous this time, not tropical. “I don’t give my patients anything I wouldn’t take myself.”

  He turned to find Gia studying him. It wasn’t interrogation-mode scrutiny, more like she’d just realized something.

  “You’re very unusual for a Delavordo.”

  Was that a compliment? Yes, it had to be.

  “Thank you.” He gestured around them. “This looks like the woods around my parents’ house.”

  “We are across from the property,” she confirmed. “Most of the surrounding land is warded except for a narrow strip leading up to the drive.”

  “Can’t you deactivate them?” He’d always been warned that no ward—no matter how well-crafted—was Elemental-proof.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want to be rude. Speaking of…”

  She extended her hand. A plant popped up beside them. As he watched with wide eyes, it grew, the stems bifurcating and sprouting leaves. Then buds appeared, blooming into lush blood-red flowers. They intertwined, forming a bouquet. When Gia put out a hand, the bunch landed in it, the knot of stems severing at their base as if the bush had shed it.

  “Remind me to have you visit my medicinal herb garden when this is over… Is the bouquet for my mother?”

  The unusual flowers were in her favorite shade.

  Gia inclined her head. “It is customary to bring your hostess a gift before you raid her vault.”

  Despite his trepidation, he laughed, which was probably what she’d intended. But he stopped when she put a hand on his arm. “I know I’m putting you in a difficult position, but I don’t intend to let you trade any promises for the artifact. According to the Covenant, I can confiscate anything that poses a threat to the Supernatural world. This one does, in more way than one.”

  “Yeah,” he drawled. “Somehow, I don’t think flowers, no matter how lovely, are going to make up for confiscating Ciro’s divining rod.”

  At least he was already an outcast. His father couldn’t disown him twice.

  Gia nodded toward the flowers. “This particular flower is the species Arabella used to cure her beast in the seventh century.”

  Salvador stared. Somehow, it didn’t surprise him to hear the fable was true. Most legends were. “That wasn’t the version of the story I heard.”

  Her careless shrug did interesting things to the bodice of Gia’s shirt. “Yeah, that one is wrong. It wasn’t roses.”

  She pushed the bouquet into his hand, then nudged him forward. They began to walk north.

  A few minutes later, the house appeared behind the ornate wrought-iron fence. They weren’t in front of the main or south gate, but somewhere in between.

  His eyebrow rose. “Are we supposed to jump the fence?”

  As if on cue, the metal bars gave way like theater curtains.

  “Show-off,” he muttered.

  Giggling, Gia waved him through the opening. The infectious sound wrapped around him, giving his internal organs a pleasant buzz. Behind them, bars closed with a flap, settling back into the ground noiselessly.

  They circled around the side of the house, coming up the long gravel path to the front door. In front, the sprawling three-story mansion loomed like behemoth rising out of the water.

  The house was a recent addition to the family holdings—only about a century old, which was practically new compared to some of their European properties. Everything about the house, from its fresh coat of stucco to the meticulously maintained flower beds, spoke to wealth and a level of control and oversight that bordered on the maniacal.

  “Home sweet home,” he muttered. The place hadn’t changed much in the last decade. The cars in the driveway were different, newer models of luxury cars. Someone was even driving a Tesla, but one unlike any he’d seen before. This car had to have been custom made. It had sleek space-age lines and a muted sparkle, almost as if someone had embedded precious metals under a layer of smoky acrylic.

  He rubbed his eyes. “Is that even street legal?” Sure, an effort had been made to mute the brilliance of the finish, but the car would still blind other drivers. It was a highway pileup waiting to happen.

  He turned back to the house, wondering if his parents had been informed of their arrival.

  “Not yet,” Gia answered.

  “So now you’re a mind reader on top of everything else?” he asked.

  “Nope.” She patted him on the back. “But I don’t need to be. It’s all over your face. I can tell no one in the house is scrambling to arm themselves with defensive weapons. They’re all either at rest or moving at a leisurely pace.”

  He wondered what kind of spell she cast to be able to read everyone, then realized one was unnecessary. Gia had probably read their locations via the composition of their bones.

  Hmm… that would be handy to test osteoporosis in my older patients.

  “You know with my masking spell, we can stand out here all day, but it rather defeats the purpose of our visit,” she said after a minute.

  “Right…”

  Salvador offered his arm. With a courtly nod, Gia took it, handing him the bouquet.

  Taking one last look at the house, he sucked in a deep breath before leading her up the front steps. He straightened his shoulders, then pressed the doorbell.

  “You are acting like this is a social call to put me at ease, right?” he asked as they waited for the butler to answer the door.

  “Is that what I’m doing?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

  He
glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Why had this woman—who by rights should consider him her mortal enemy—become the rock he was holding onto?

  “I wish it were real,” he whispered, seized by melancholia.

  Gia snapped her head around to study him quizzically. Her lips parted, and he prepared for a blistering set down or at least a question for clarification. Instead, she closed her mouth and patted his arm.

  Ouch. Pity from an Elemental. Definitely time to get ahold of yourself.

  Salvador turned back to the door as it opened. The shock on the butler’s face was cartoonish.

  “Hello, Gerardo,” he said, inclining his head.

  “Señor Salvador!” Gerardo staggered back as Gia marched forward, dragging Salvador in her wake.

  They entered the grand foyer. Doric columns surrounded the polished marble floor. Embedded in the center was an elaborately rendered Delavordo family crest edged in gilt. Above them, the vaulted ceiling was painted with a fresco done in the style of the Renaissance masters. At the moment, it showed a long-distant ancestor hunting down a stag. The animal had just crashed to the ground. It stopped when he focused on it.

  Gia glanced up. “Bespelled?” she asked.

  “Yes. But it only moves when you’re not looking at it. The scene changes periodically—great moments in Delavordo family history.”

  He was grateful she didn’t laugh or make a cutting remark in front of Gerardo. The butler would have been wounded. When someone was in service to one of the Seven, the family’s pride was their own.

  Gia took the bouquet, then handed it to the servant. “For the lady of the house,” she said.

  Gerardo barely looked at her as he accepted the bouquet. His rheumy eyes were still fixed on Salvador. “May I ask if your parents are expecting you?”

  “No. I didn’t know I was coming until today,” he said. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

  “I see.” Gerardo’s gaze fell on the bouquet. He blinked, drawing the inevitable conclusion. “I’ll go inform your mother and father that you’re here…with a guest.”

  He left with the offering, having failed to recognize Gia. But then… how many people actually knew what she looked like? For many black-magic practitioners, the Earth Elemental was probably the last thing they ever saw.

  Insert ‘what a way to go’ joke here…

  “You know he’s up there suggesting I finally came home to introduce a prospective bride,” he told Gia as she studied the decor.

  “I don’t think they’ll be suffering under that particular misconception for long.” She patted him on the back. “Why don’t you go up and explain? I’ll wait here.”

  “That might be easier,” he agreed. It would be a short reprieve, but if he could postpone the fireworks long enough to explain to his parents that he was trying to save all magic, they might not come out with guns blazing.

  With heavy feet, he followed in Gerardo’s wake, trudging toward the infinity-spiral grand staircase at the far end of the foyer. The artwork on the walls had changed, but so had the configuration of the doors leading out of the room. Mother had been redecorating again.

  Using magic to rearrange the structure of the building took a lot of juice, but that had never been an issue in the Delavordo household. Wholesale rearrangements didn’t happen at the same speed or scale as the stairways at the fictional Hogwarts, but Salvador had grown up accustomed to having to hunt for the kitchen’s new location. At least the position of the master suite never changed. It occupied the central space behind the stairs on the top floor.

  Salvador half-expected one of his cousins to jump out at him the way they had as children, but it was strangely quiet. Well, they were old enough to be bored by hanging out at the Grand Palais. They were probably abroad in more exciting places like Barbados or Transylvania.

  Small blessings. But he knew better than to expect his parents to be totally alone. His mother and father were both from large families. Fulgencio was the oldest of thirteen, his mother was one of seven, both numbers with occult significance. It was no secret why their families had arranged the match. As far as the Seven were concerned, it was considered only partially successful because they produced only one gifted child—him. An heir and a spare were de rigeur when one was the head of a family, but his mother had trouble conceiving after he was born.

  Unlike Delavordos of days past, Fulgencio hadn’t divorced her for a younger, more fertile model. His mother would have been far better off if he had. He reached the top-floor landing when the door to the master suite swung open. His mother appeared in the doorway, closely followed by his father.

  Fulgencio Delavordo was as tall as Salvador, but he was much leaner. Salvador barely looked at him. He couldn’t tear his eyes from his mother.

  Lucia Delavordo was a well-preserved petite woman with fine aristocratic features. Salvador had his mother’s nose and chin, but he got his height from his father’s side of the family. But discounting Lucia because of her size and delicate appearance was a mistake, possibly a fatal one.

  He was frozen with shock at his mother’s appearance, but for an entirely different reason.

  Pushing away his shock, he rounded on his father. “What the hell?” he burst out, waving at his mother’s burgeoning stomach. “After everything that happened, how could you do this again?”

  His childhood had been far from idyllic, but the worst moments had surrounded his mother’s many miscarriages.

  “Hello to you, too,” Fulgencio said sarcastically, drawing himself up to his full height.

  “You promised you would stop trying. I thought this madness was over.”

  “As if you cared about your mother’s health and welfare,” his father snapped. “You abandoned your family.”

  Salvador gave his father’s accusation the attention it deserved, which meant he completely ignored it. “How many times do we have to go through this!”

  “Anyone who abandons their family the way you did doesn’t get to lecture me—”

  “She almost died the last time,” Salvador interrupted, shouting now. “She almost died every time!”

  “Enough,” Lucia said crisply. “This was my decision. I did what I had to do to secure our family’s legacy. In case you forgot, according to you, I no longer have a son.”

  Unbelievable.

  “Our house is in no danger of dying out.” The Delavordo family tree was so thickly branched it resembled a bush.

  “Is that because you’ve finally forgotten your foolishness and have decided to come home?” Lucia asked. “Does the woman you brought with you have anything to do with your decision?”

  “What woman?” Fulgencio asked, apparently late to the game.

  “The one who brought me those lovely flowers,” she said, pointing to the bouquet. Sometime during the argument, Gerardo had found a vase for the bouquet. He’d set it on the antique Hermes table in the entrance of the master suite. Afterward, he’d wisely disappeared.

  His father frowned at the display. “So, after all this time, we’re supposed to believe he’s brought someone home for our approval?” Fulgencio put his hands on his hips, throwing Salvador a disparaging glance. “I don’t think so. What the hell are you up to?”

  “Nothing much. Just trying to save magic.”

  Lucia’s patrician nose wrinkled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Salvador closed his eyes, shoving his fingers through his hair. “I mean I didn’t come home with a girl. I came home because the Earth Elemental needs something from the family vault, and I accompanied her.”

  His father’s face contorted. “What?”

  Lucia’s recovery was quicker. “You brought one of those things here?”

  Salvador took a deep breath. “Actually, she brought me, and she has a name. I believe you know it—Gia.”

  “What could she possibly want? Our family is not in violation of the Covenant.”

  “Not at the moment,” he muttered. That we know of…


  His father swore explosively as he made for the stairs.

  “Where are you going?” his mother called.

  Fulgencio paused. “That thing wouldn’t need him to come here for access to the vault,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at Salvador. “The only use he serves is as a distraction. It’s already inside.”

  Salvador wanted to argue, but his father was right.

  “She can’t do that,” his mother scoffed, following at a more sedate pace. Sighing, Salvador fell in step behind her.

  His mind went back to the iron bars parting like the Red Sea. “Of course she can.”

  “How?” Lucia scoffed. “Our vault is the most heavily warded room in the hemisphere. The door has over twenty different spells ensuring no one gets in without your father or me, as we are the current keepers.”

  He followed her down the stairs. “She’s not going in through the door, Mother. Gia is the Earth Elemental. She can just walk through the wall.”

  21

  Salvador offered his mother his arm on the way down to the basement.

  “How far along are you?” he asked. Prenatal care was a big part of his practice.

  “Six months.” Lucia’s tone was crisp. “And before you ask, it’s going well. No problems at all.”

  “It’s different this time,” he finished as they reached the basement landing. “Where have I heard that before?”

  Stopping, she rounded on him, but she didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. Lucia could say everything with her eyes.

  “Mother, I know we don’t agree on a great many things, but this was supposed to be one we did see eye to eye on.” He lowered his voice. “I just don’t want you to go through something terrible again.”

  Lucia looked down at her stomach, vulnerability creeping into her expression. “It is different this time,” she whispered.

  Salvador took a deep breath. He hadn’t seen his parents in years. Yet, less than ten minutes into their reunion, and it felt as if he’d never left.