Awakening (Elementals Book 1)

by Sara Preucil

  “How can you even hesitate?” Emmy crossed and uncrossed her arms over her chest in frustration. “If what Aidan says is true, you’re one of us!”

  One of us.

  Disjointed memories of the parking garage entered Tara’s mind. The shots, the overwhelming anger, and the ceiling collapsing. Had that truly been her doing?

  As if on cue, Aidan appeared from the hall, dressed in black jeans and a green flannel underneath a leather jacket.

  “Are you sure I did that?” Tara asked him quietly.

  “I sure as hell didn’t,” he said, smirking.

  “Of course it was you,” Emmy said impatiently.

  Tara ran her hands through her long hair. She leaned her head back against the couch’s headrest and stared up at the white, textured ceiling.

  “Have you had any strange dreams lately?”

  Slowly, Tara raised her head to gaze at Dylan, who had spoken. She could tell that the look on her face was enough to answer his question, even if she didn’t confess it aloud.

  “So what, are you saying that I can manipulate water or make myself a human torch?” The sarcasm was thick in her voice.

  “Actually,” Dylan replied, “it sounds like you are an earth elemental.”

  Tara cast him a skeptical look.

  “Only one way to find out.” Dylan stood up, crossed the living room, and disappeared out the front door, returning only moments later.

  “Here.” He stuck his fist out in front of Tara.

  She looked at his hand questionably.

  “Put out your hand,” he said exasperatedly, wiggling his fist.

  Slowly, Tara stuck out her hand. Dylan opened his fist, dropping a pebble into her open palm.

  “What am I supposed to do with a tiny rock?”

  “Move it.”

  Chapter 42

  Excuse me?” Tara looked around the room, expecting for one of them to let slip the joke. But they were all looking at her palm expectantly. She sighed. “I wouldn’t even know how.”

  “Your spirit is connected to the earth. Focus on that connection. Let instinct handle the rest.”

  Tara bit her lower lip and stared at the pebble in her palm.

  “I don’t feel anything.” She looked up at the others.

  “You aren’t even trying,” Emmy criticized.

  Tara rolled her eyes and refocused on the pebble. She stared at the rock, taking in its smooth, gray form. And then something odd happened. She felt a slight tingling in her palm around the pebble, like tiny invisible feelers were connecting her skin to the rock. Without a doubt, she knew then that it would work. Telepathically, she urged the feelers to lift the rock, and amazingly, the tiny chunk of earth raised off her palm and hovered a few inches above her skin.

  Tara gasped, and the pebble dropped back into her palm. She stared at it.

  “Ha!” Dylan exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I knew it.”

  “I don’t understand…” Tara trailed off. How was this possible?

  “What else is there to get?” Emmy cut in, sounding annoyed. “You just proved you’re one of us. Why won’t you admit it?” She demanded, crossing her arms across her chest.

  “Because she doesn’t want to be like us.”

  Tara followed Aidan’s voice. His dark eyes were sharp, and he frowned slightly as he watched her.

  Quickly, she turned her head away from his disapproving stare. In truth, he wasn’t wrong. She felt a stab of shame at the thought.

  “Even knowing what you now know, you still want to be in the Order?” Disgust hung thick with Emmy’s question.

  Tara could only shake her head.

  Emmy threw up her hands. She looked at Dylan and Aidan for support. “So now what? We just let her leave? Let her go home and tell the Order where we are?” Emmy was pacing now in front of the couch, her hands clenched at her sides. She cast another glace in Tara’s direction. “Or are we supposed to believe that you wouldn’t do that? That we would actually be safe here?”

  “Em.” Dylan reached out and placed a hand on Emmy’s shoulder, causing her pacing to come to a halt. “Let’s give her a chance to think.”

  “Why?”

  Again, Tara witnessed the unmistakable connection between them as Emmy stared up at Dylan imploringly.

  “After everything they’ve done to us…how can you stand it?” Emmy whispered, her voice wavering.

  Dylan closed his thin fingers around Emmy’s hand and brought it to his lips. Tara dropped her gaze to her own hands, which were clenching the tiny pebble between them. Could she just go home now, and forget everything? If she did go home, what would she say? Could she convince them that she had been taken hostage? Could she hide that she, too, was an elemental? Would the Order find out? What would they do to her? Would they force her to tell them where they could find these three? A knot formed in her stomach at the thought.

  “Okay, how about this? If you’re truly loyal to the Order, why did you help Aidan?” Dylan’s calm voice penetrated her thoughts.

  Tara glanced over at Aidan, who was still watching her, and wondered again about her actions. She thought back to last night. A force of will that hadn’t felt entirely her own had propelled her from her bed and taken her to the Order’s office building.

  What had driven that sudden urge for action?

  She worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked into Aidan’s eyes.

  “I don’t know,” she finally answered, more in response to her spiraling thoughts than Dylan’s question.

  Aidan’s dark eyes broke their connection. She thought she saw disappointment color his expression before he turned away from her.

  “Well, I’m off.” Aidan headed toward the small alcove that led to the front door.

  “Where are you going?” Dylan asked.

  “Aria is still missing.”

  “You can’t go back to Bellingham right now.” Emmy turned to Aidan. “It’s too soon; it isn’t safe.”

  “I don’t have much of a choice,” Aidan argued.

  “Before you go running off, try calling Keegan again. Maybe Aria is with her,” Dylan suggested.

  “Fine.” Aidan fished a phone out of his jacket pocket, and then disappeared down the hall.

  “Who is Keegan?” Tara asked, hearing Aidan’s muffled voice coming from another room.

  Emmy shot her a suspicious look, like Tara was fishing for intel.

  “Aidan’s girlfriend,” Dylan answered, earning himself a look from Emmy.

  “Ah,” was all Tara managed to reply. She felt slightly stunned by that news, although she really didn’t have a reason to be.

  At that moment, Aidan rejoined them. “Keegan hasn’t seen Aria; she is pretty worried too and is going to come up here to help me find her.” He snagged the remote from the table on which sat the television, plopped down on the couch, and turned on the screen.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a shower,” Tara said, feeling grimy.

  Aidan shrugged. “Sure.”

  “Thanks.” Tara got up and headed for the bathroom down the hall. The next couple of hours passed in awkward tension. After showering, Tara asked if she could wash her jeans, and Emmy suddenly claimed that she also needed to do laundry. She escorted Tara to the shared laundry facility in the apartment building, giving Tara the impression that she was being babysat, which, in reality, she probably was. Dinner was a quiet affair; Dylan and Emmy had purchased sub sandwiches, which they ate mutely in front of the television while a rerun of some sitcom played on the screen.

  Depositing her plate in the dishwasher, Tara returned to her borrowed room, where at least there she wouldn’t have to feel the other’s looks that ranged from quizzical to judgmental to hostile. She picked up a worn paperback of Dune that she found sitting on Aidan’s nightstand, sat on the bed, and began to read.

  Not much later, there was knocking at the front door, and Tara heard muffled voices coming from the living room. That must be Keegan, Tara
thought, debating whether she should do the social thing and go meet her. Etiquette won out her desire to stay put, so she set the paperback down on the bed, and begrudgingly left the room.

  At the mouth of the hallway, Tara paused and peeked into the living room. Emmy and Dylan were walking from the entryway, followed by Aidan and a tall, pretty girl whose mane of coppery curls bounced as she walked beside Aidan, her arms wrapped securely around his waist.

  “Don’t worry,” Keegan was saying. “We’ll find her.”

  Feeling intrusive, Tara had to fight a sudden urge to turn around and head back down the hall. Instead, she stepped forward.

  “Who’s this?” Keegan finally noticed Tara. She turned her pretty, freckled face in Tara’s direction, her round, brown eyes narrowing slightly.

  “I’m Tara—”

  “—She’s a member of the Order,” Emmy commented from her perch on the brown recliner.

  “Who has recently discovered that she is also an elemental,” Dylan quickly amended, standing next to Emmy and smirking down at her. Emmy shrugged her shoulders innocently and grinned up at him.

  Keegan stared at Tara, clearly unsure about how to react to this blunt introduction. Aidan didn’t say anything, but carried a suitcase into the living room, setting it beside the couch.

  “Okay…” Keegan finally said, eying Tara uncertainly as she moved to stand next to Aidan.

  There was a short, awkward silence, and then Emmy piped up.

  “Keegan, have you eaten anything? We can make you something.”

  “I can find something,” Keegan said, walking toward the kitchen. As she passed Tara, Keegan glanced briefly at her, raising an eyebrow displeasingly.

  “I’ll just…head back to my room,” Tara murmured. “Unless—” She looked over at Aidan. “Unless you want it back now. I can sleep on the couch.”

  Aidan shook his head. “That’s okay,” he said with the appearance of being gracious. Tara didn’t miss his eyes flick toward the front door. What did he think, that she was planning on running back to Bellingham?

  “Yeah,” Keegan chimed in. “The couch pulls out into a bed, so we’ll be fine out here.”

  “Okay.” Tara hovered in the space between the hall and living room for a moment longer, and then turned around and headed back down the hall.

  “Why is she here?” She heard Keegan ask someone just before she turned into the room, shutting the door behind her louder than she intended. She walked over to Aidan’s bed, and threw herself down on the mattress.

  Why am I here? Tara had never before felt so lost nor so alone.

  Chapter 43

  Shouts tore Briana from a deep sleep. She shot up in bed, listening as her eyes adjusted to the dark.

  Another unintelligible shout echoed from outside. Briana recognized the voice at once. It was her father.

  Eagan.

  Fear gripped Briana’s heart as she leapt from her bed, reaching blindly for her coat in the darkness. There was no way to tell what time it was; it was either early morning or late at night. Why would her father be outside now?

  “What’s going on?” Liam’s sleepy voice asked from across the room. “Was that Da?”

  Ignoring Liam’s questions, Briana threw open their door. She passed their mother who was emerging from her bedroom, wrapping a shawl over her nightdress.

  “Briana! Stay inside!” she called, but Briana was already pulling open their front door, dashing outside. The sky was just beginning to lighten with the early dawn as Briana raced toward the noise.

  She circled around the cottage, running toward the shed. Just ahead, she could see two figures struggling over the threshold of the shed.

  “Da!” she yelled when she caught up to them.

  “Briana, go back inside!” Her father pulled Eagan from the shed, shoving him down to the ground. “He’s a Nationalist soldier. Go back, it isn’t safe!”

  “No, Da. Stop!” Briana grabbed her father’s arm, but he shook her free. Eagan remained on his knees in the dirt, hands raised in front of him. It was clear he wasn’t going to fight back. “Da,” Briana begged, “Eagan means us no harm.”

  Her father’s eyes flashed as he finally turned to look at Briana. “Eagan?” His expression turned murderous. “Briana, how do you know this Nationalist scum’s name?” He rounded back on Eagan. “What have you done to my daughter?!” He yelled, raising his right arm. It was then that Briana noticed that her father was holding a gun. Eagan’s gun.

  “Da, no!” Briana grabbed her father once more, just in time for a shot to ring out. It echoed against Briana’s eardrums, and time seemed to slow. She peeled her eyes away from her father, down to Eagan who was still kneeling, horrified of what she might see. Eagan wavered a little, then grabbed at his right shoulder, where blood started to blossom through his white undershirt, staining it scarlet.

  Eagan looked up from his wound into Briana’s eyes. In those dark eyes she could almost see the possibility of a forever with him. That reality was so clear and good and true, and she knew he felt it as well. She also knew that he felt the heartbreaking impossibility of it all.

  If only she could rewind time. They could have made plans. He could have left, and she would have followed. Her father wouldn’t have found him. They wouldn’t be here right now.

  If only.

  Eagan gave her a sad smile.

  “Don’t you dare look at her,” Briana’s father sneered.

  “Da, please stop!” Briana begged, but he raised the pistol again.

  Eagan dashed forward, catching Briana’s father around the waist, tackling him hard to the ground. The gun went flying out of her father’s hands. Eagan pushed himself off the ground, standing up first, and moving away from Briana’s father.

  But something was wrong. Her father wasn’t moving.

  “Da?” Briana called quietly.

  Footsteps sounded behind Briana.

  “Briana, what’s—oh, no, Niall!” Eileen rushed past Briana, falling to her knees next to her husband.

  Briana took a few agonizing steps closer to her parents. Looking over her mom’s shoulder, Briana gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. A dark pool had formed underneath her father’s head. He was looking up at the lightening sky, his eyes darting back and forth as if unseeing. Briana’s mom gently lifted his head, pushing aside a bloodied rock the size of a fist that he must have collided with. Carefully, she laid his head down on the ground, pressing her hand to the wound at the back.

  The scarlet puddle was growing at an alarming rate.

  “Ma, we need to fetch the doctor,” Briana whispered. But her mother only shook her head as she gazed into her husband’s ashy face.

  A second set of footsteps told Briana that Liam was approaching. She spun around to intercept him, to spare him the sight. But she was too late.

  “Da?” Liam’s brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to process what he was seeing. “Briana, what happened?” He looked up at her, his green eyes round. He seemed so little in that moment. Before Briana could respond, his gaze fell to Eagan. Hatred mutilated the boy’s face. “You!” He shouted. “You did this!”

  Briana finally looked at Eagan. His dark eyes were wide, and he stared at her, beseechingly. “I didn’t mean to,” he choked out.

  “I know,” Briana whispered. She was clinging to the back of Liam’s collar as the boy tried half-heartedly to charge at Eagan.

  Across the dirt lane, Briana could hear doors opening and shutting and voices rising through the mist. Their neighbors must have heard the commotion. She gazed back over her shoulder and could see half a dozen silhouettes moving in the dim light.

  Briana shot Eagan a panicked look. “Go,” she said.

  Eagan shook his head, appearing shocked.

  “Eagan, they’ll kill you.” Briana’s voice grew steadier. “Go. Please.”

  Eagan held her gaze for one more aching moment, and then turned and ran out of sight, toward town, where he would be able to find refuge with his
fellow soldiers. Briana watched him disappear into the mist before turning back to her family. At some point, she had let go of Liam, who was now crouching down next to their mom, his tiny shoulders shaking.

  Briana fell to her knees.

  Anger, loss, sorrow. The emotions built up, consuming Briana, growing to the point where they felt impossible to contain, and Briana desperately wanted to let them out. She wanted to tear a hole in the earth as large and jagged as the hole that had just been carved from her heart. She wanted the ground to swallow everything so she could feel nothing.

  She clutched her fists at her sides as the energy swelled within. The pebbles on the ground around Briana began to rattle. She squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists even tighter. The earth underneath her gave a sudden lurch.

  A rustle of skirts, and a hand squeezed her shoulder.

  “Briana, no! You mustn’t!” Her mother’s whisper sounded far away.

  She could hear the voices approaching. So what if they saw what she could do? So what if they witnessed her gift? The gift she had since birth, passed on from her mother. The ability that no one besides her mother knew about. What more could they do to her?

  The ground lurched again as if it were breathing.

  “Briana, please!” Her mother squeezed her shoulder even tighter. “Think of Liam.”

  Liam.

  He couldn’t lose two family members in one day. For Briana would surely be taken away on charges of witchcraft. She couldn’t do that to him.

  Briana unclenched her fists and let out a breath.

  “Good,” her mother encouraged. Her firm grip on Briana’s shoulder anchored her.