by Kat Adams
With the help of a locator spell, of course.
Since I couldn’t picture a place I’d never been, we didn’t use the crystal to get us to the rain forest. And since Clay had the uncanny ability to teleport to places he’d never been, we teleported to the Olympic Peninsula and stuck the landing, courtesy of our air elemental. We wound up in the middle of a forest of huge, huge trees covered in moss. Foliage draped down from the branches, sheltering us in a curtain of green. Thick underbrush buried us up to our knees. Although we heard the rain, the dense flora and fauna growing up the sides of the trees and weaving together above us acted as an umbrella. The smell of wet wood and the fresh outdoors filled the air. I took a deep breath, relishing the fragrance.
“I’ve never been in a rain forest before.” I glanced around, brushing my fingers along soft moss on the side of a tree. It responded by reaching for me. “Cool.”
Clay stepped over to another tree and rested his hand on the trunk as he craned his neck. “Cressida said they travel through the trees by bouncing from leaf to leaf and branch to branch?”
“That’s what she said. Do you sense anything?”
He shook his head and moved to another tree. “Nothing.”
“Maybe it’s the wrong rain forest.”
“I don’t think that matters.” He stepped away from the tree and brought up his hands while closing his eyes. Suddenly, a whisper of wind danced through the branches. Clay lifted his chin toward the movement and dropped his jaw. “That’s not very nice. I like my beard and don’t think it makes me look like a lumberjack at all. Rude.”
We all exchanged glances. I asked, “Uh, Clay? Who are you talking to?”
“You guys didn’t hear that? The voices?”
“I have no doubt you hear voices.” Bryan’s comment earned him a glare.
“There’s a whole group of them laughing and making fun of the way I look. Oh, yeah?” Clay spoke louder, directing his comment to the breeze in the trees that had shifted back toward us. “Well, at least I’m not too embarrassed to show my face in public.”
A whirlwind of air came shooting down from the trees and spun around him, peeling his coat off him and lifting it into the trees. “Hey! That’s my favorite jacket. Give it back. Seriously? Challenge accepted, you little shits.” He rose into the air and chased the wind rushing through the trees, getting his ass handed to him when he came to a branch. It smacked him in the face, tore at his skin, and snagged on his clothes, tearing them. Each branch resulted in another assault and fresh wound.
“Should we help him?”
Rob shook his head. “I don’t think we’d be able to keep up, Reed. Look how fast he’s moving. I’ve never seen him do that before.”
He still looked like he needed help. He was getting shredded. “Are you okay?”
“I got this, Montana. You guys just be ready to catch these little bastards when I send them down your way. That’s right, I’m calling you a little bastard. What are you going to do about it? Holy shit!”
Clay dropped like a lead balloon and would have landed hard had I not called air to soften his fall. He still smacked the ground hard enough to cause the air to whistle from his lungs. “Ouch,” he moaned as he lay perfectly still, staring straight up. “Not cool, pixie punks. First you steal my jacket, then you steal my element. Jerks.”
“Insulting them is not going to convince them to join us.” I helped him to a sitting position. “Ask them to please talk to us.”
“Ask them yourself. They can suck my di—”
“Clay!”
“Fine, jeez. Stop yelling at me.” He groaned into the air. “Attention all you pixie people. The prophecy would like a word. Yes, you heard me. No, not me. Her.”
The wind picked up around me, swirling and lifting my hair. It whispered across my skin but wasn’t cold. It wasn’t warm either. It just…was. Was this a pixie tornado? A pixnado? Was I supposed to talk to them collectively? Or did they have a leader I needed to approach? I had no idea how to talk to pixies. I didn’t hear any of the comments that seemed to offend Clay. How was I supposed to hear them now?
“Hey, that’s my girl you’re talking about.” Clay jumped to his feet. “Say something like that again and I’ll kick your teeny tiny pixie ass.”
“What happened?”
“One of the little bastards thinks he’s being funny by commenting on certain parts of your anatomy. Apparently, your boobs are quite the topic of discussion.”
My jaw dropped, and I crossed my arms over my chest as heat engulfed my face. “Are you serious? That’s wildly inappropriate.” What the hell was wrong with these little monsters?
The pixnado slowed until the wind died away entirely. There was a sudden rush through the trees and then something that sounded like a bunch of squeaking.
And then silence. No squeaks. No wind. Nothing. The entire rain forest stilled.
A noise behind me caught my attention and turned me around. There, not more than ten feet away, stood a greenish-yellow hairless something not more than two feet tall and holding what looked like a walking stick. It had the body of a human, two legs, two arms, one head. Instead of fingers or toes, it had what looked like razor-sharp talons. Its eyes were huge, taking up most of its pinched face, and a wide mouth partially open as it studied me. It had translucent wings like a fly but shaped like a butterfly’s wings and were as big as the little creature.
“Are you the prophecy?” It spoke in a high-pitched voice as if it’d sucked helium.
I nodded, still in a bit of a shock over what I assumed to be the head of the air pixies appearing before me. Was it male? Female? Did pixies have genders? I had so many questions.
But first, I needed to answer the one posed to me. “I am.”
“The one whose destiny has been foretold?”
“Yes.” If it meant the part about being the one standing in the way of the Council destroying the world, at least.
“You understand the sacrifice and accept it? Willingly?”
It wasn’t like I had a choice in the matter. From the day I’d discovered my powers, I had dark elementals gunning for me. If only they’d take a day off, then so would I. Until that happened, I’d continue to sacrifice living a normal life to keep this world safe. “I do.”
“Come, prophecy. Sit with me. Bring the air elemental. The others will remain here.”
“Like hell,” Rob barked.
“No way,” Bryan added.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Leo shook his head.
“Guys.” I cut off their protests. “I got this. Clay will be with me. We won’t be long.”
They all fell silent, but didn’t look happy to do so. Clay, on the other hand, was all too eager to take a walk with a two-foot greenish-yellow butterfly thing with giant bug eyes. Once Clay and I were within the same airspace—if it even breathed air—it lifted the stick and brought it down. In a flash, we disappeared.
We popped out inside a huge, hollowed-out log. I didn’t remember seeing anything this big in the rain forest. And he either grew to almost six feet tall, or we shrank to two feet since we were now the same height. “Where are we?”
“Our home,” it stated in a voice that no longer sounded like he was a member of the Chipmunks. “This tree. The moss. The dew that collects on the leaves. It is all our home.”
“I understand and apologize for invading it without your permission, uh…”
“Humans cannot pronounce my name. You may call me Xye. I speak for my kind. Why does the prophecy seek an audience with the air pixies?”
“I need your help, Xye. The Council is destroying our world. I’m building an uprising to fight them, but can’t defeat them without the air pixies. Will you join us?”
It stood there staring at me, not blinking, not moving, no expression on its face. Did it fall asleep standing up and with its eyes open? I looked to Clay, who shrugged.
Finally, it blinked. “This is not our fight.”
“It�
��s everyone’s fight,” I countered. “The Council is causing tornados, earthquakes, wildfires, floods. The elements are out of balance. The only way to truly unite this world is if we join together and fight a common enemy. Please, Xye. We can’t do this without you.”
It went motionless again. Where was it going when it mentally disappeared like that?
“Maybe we should come back another time when you aren’t so distracted.” Clay reached for my hand. “Come on, Montana. We have three more legends to talk to. Look at this guy. What’s he going to do? Freeze like a little pixie statue? How’s that helping us?”
“Clay, please. Don’t insult him, uh her, uh it in its own home.”
“That ship has sailed, sweetheart. You should have heard some of the names they were calling me.”
It blinked back to life. “They wish to speak to the air elemental. Leave the prophecy with me.”
“Not gonna happen, buddy.”
In a flash, Clay disappeared. I heard his shout on the other side of the log. “Hey!”
Xye blinked those enormous eyes. “My kind are tricksters, always playing jokes.”
“That sounds just like my air elemental.”
“Please, prophecy. Sit with me.” Once I sat and brought my knees to my chest, it went on, “It’s been a long time since an elemental has come into these woods. Some of the pixies believed their existence to be a myth.”
“Funny, elementals think the same thing about pixies.”
“Long ago, our kinds lived in harmony. It was a glorious time, one without war, without famine. When the war broke out between the elementals, we were asked to choose sides much as you are doing now. We refused and were banished from your world. We settled here in this rain forest and have been here ever since. This is our home now, and where we will remain.”
Disappointment deflated me. What if I failed to recruit any of the legends? We’d be defeated by the Council for sure. “You’re saying you won’t help me? Even if it means returning to that glorious time?”
“Prophecy, you must understand.”
“Oh, I understand all right.” My temper took over. I stood and brushed off my backside. “You refused to take a side, and it got your kind banished. You have the choice to right that wrong. Instead of giving them a chance to live a life where they don’t have to mask themselves as the wind in the trees, you’d rather play it safe and hide like a coward. I don’t have that choice. I’m the prophecy. It’s my destiny to save this world with or without you. So, stay here, Xye. Hide out in the rain forest. Deny your kind the chance to unite this world. I have other legends to see.”
I tried to turn and storm off in dramatic effect, but every bone, every muscle, every part of me froze instantly. I couldn’t even move to blink. Xye walked around and stopped in front of me, looking me in the eye. “You don’t fully understand what it means to be the prophecy, the true sacrifice. Only one stands in the way. In the way of what, I ask you?” It blinked, releasing me from the invisible hold.
“I know the prophecy inside and out,” I fired back. “I don’t need yet another interpretation from someone unwilling to fight for it. I’m trying to stop the Council from destroying our world as we know it. The Ides of March is only a few weeks away. We have to be ready.”
“You believe you can stop them.”
“I know I can.” I had to. No one else was going to do it. That fell to me by default. Go, me.
Xye smiled sadly. “Cressida Clearwater thought the same thing and paid the ultimate sacrifice to unite this world. Are you willing to do the same? Because it will come to that, prophecy. Your destiny is to give up your life so others may live.”
Well, fuck a bunch of fuckers.
17
I didn’t say anything as we used the crystal to slice a portal through the air and bring us back to the grove. The Council’s patrol had expanded to the woods behind the academy, so we had to be extra careful making sure the crystal delivered us inside the protective veil and not outside.
Once we were all back in the grove and inside the treehouse, sitting around the table and staring at nothing, the defeat of our first failure still fresh, I lied and said I had a headache so I could be alone to process what Xye had said. Was it right? Did I have to die to save my world? I knew there was always the chance, but I had no idea it was actually the plan. I couldn’t tell the guys until I had the chance to talk to Cressida about it. Knowing they’d never let me out of the grove without at least one of them with me, I’d have to settle for talking to Stace about this. She knew a lot about the prophecy. Maybe she knew a way to fulfill it without it resulting in my death.
The guys respected my request for privacy and were out in the field practicing channeling each other’s elements. Good. That should keep them occupied. I took the two rope bridges to Stace and Renee’s treehouse and knocked on the front opening.
The tall strawberry blonde glanced up from a giant book on a stand and smiled warmly when she spotted me. “Katy, what brings you by?”
“I’m looking for Stace. Have you seen her?”
“She’s on a supply run. The newest recruits ate the last of the red meat. We weren’t anticipating feeding so many.”
Guilt ate at me for bringing so many people into her perfect bubble of paradise. She had no idea when she’d agreed to let me speak to her coven that it’d turn into HQ for Sentry. I didn’t know that either.
“Can you tell her I stopped by?”
“She shouldn’t be much longer if you’d like to come in and share some tea. I was just about to read some leaves. Care to join me?”
Would I ever. I’d never seen anyone read tea leaves before. The concept fascinated me, that a person’s fortune could be told from soggy leaves stuck to the cup. One year ago, I might not have believed it possible. After what I’d seen this year—this month, even—I was open to anything.
Renee set two dainty teacups and saucers on the table, a bag of tea leaves, and the teapot of steaming water. “Have a seat.”
I did in front of one of the cups and awaited instructions, now even more excited. I’d expected to watch her read leaves. I didn’t expect that I’d get to read my own.
“Take a pinch of the leaves and drop them into the cup.” She poured water into each cup once we had our leaves. “As we let the tea steep for a bit and the water to cool, think about the question you want to ask. The more specific the question, the more specific the answer.”
I knew the question I wanted to ask. It was the same question I came to ask Stace. Did I trust a bunch of rando symbols to tell me whether Xye was right or not?
“You seem to be making good progress with Sentry,” Renee mentioned, then sipped her tea.
I did the same, careful not to suck in any of the loose leaves floating in the water. I’d never had tea not trapped in a bag. This was a new experience for me, and not one I much cared for. I had to keep spitting tea leaves back into my cup and picking them off my lips. Even then, some of them broke through my best attempt to block them and went down my throat with the tea. What if I ingested too many? Would we have to start over?
“We’re trying. Having the blacksmiths join us along with the alchemists is good.” I drained my glass until there was more tea leaves than water.
“Good. We’re ready. Now really concentrate on your question and take the cup in your left hand, swirl it like this three times from left to right. That’s it. Carefully turn the cup upside down on the saucer.”
I did and waited for it to do something, unsure what to expect. It wasn’t as if it’d come to life and break into song like in a Disney movie.
“That’s long enough. With your left hand, rotate the cup three times and turn it back over. Place the handle toward yourself. Good.”
“Now what?”
“Now we see what the leaves have to tell us.” She leaned in and studied the leaves. The lines around her mouth turned down into a frown that deepened the more she read the leaves. “Katy, what was your question?”
My heart skipped. “What do you see?”
“That depends on the question.”
Here went nothing. I drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Does being the prophecy mean I have to die to save our world?”
She stilled and lifted her gaze to mine while still leaning over the cup. Blinking to break eye contact, she dropped her attention back to the cup and turned it this way and that, tilting it, righting it, and finally set it back on the saucer. “I see an anchor near the top, which means good luck and a stable love life. You seem to be doing well with the guys. They aren’t going anywhere and will stay by your side until the very end.”
My heart skipped again as I keyed in on that word. “End?”
Renee sat back and pushed the cup away. “The leaves can be interpreted so many different ways.”
“What did you see?”
“I’m not very good at reading them.”
“Renee!” I practically cried, now close to a full-on panic attack. “What did you see?”
She jumped from my outburst. “I see three distinct symbols, none of them good. The hourglass is imminent danger. That alone isn’t surprising considering what we’re up against with the Council. It’s the last two that trouble me. The cross signifies death, and the arrow…well…the arrow points to the person who knew of your fate all along, the person leading you to your destiny.”
“Oh, fun! Tasseography. We haven’t read tea leaves in a very long time.” Stace stood at the opening into the treehouse, all smiles and her hands full of supplies. Renee fell back into the chair as her expression melted. Stace’s smile slid from her face. “What is it?”
I glanced into the teacup and saw what Renee did. The arrow pointed directly at Stacey Layden.
The air whistled from my lungs as I swallowed over and over to keep the tea from coming back up. I covered my mouth and breathed through my fingers, blinking rapidly to stop myself from tearing up over the shock. My friend, my mentor, the woman I trusted as equally as I trusted the guys, knew the truth. Xye was right. I had to die to truly fulfill the prophecy, and Stace had known that all along.