The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3)

by Nicola Claire

  Oh, it was still raining. I hadn't even noticed.

  "Are you ill?" he asked, concern marring his handsome, but equally wet face.

  I wasn't ill. I was just waking up to reality.

  "Did you get everything we need?" I asked.

  He grunted, an unamused sound, as Mark slipped out of the store before a large group of military looking men rounded the corner and started ordering everyone back from the shop frontage, taking over control of the street from the civilians. Who, in the end, hadn't done that bad a job.

  "We have to fix this," I added, when he didn't answer my question.

  "What, Oraia? Where do you need fixing?"

  I tried to laugh. It didn't work.

  "This," I said instead. "Everything."

  "Is she all right?" Mark asked, pulling his overflowing trolley up against the side of the car as well.

  "I'm not sure," Theo answered, proceeding to check me over physically with his hands. "Load the car, before anyone decides it'd be easy to take ours than battle inside that store," Theo ordered, his eyes on my face, my body, wherever his hands currently were.

  "I'm fine," I murmured.

  "You don't look fine. What happened?"

  "Humanity fought back."

  "Excuse me?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

  "This is our world now," I added, looking over his shoulder and watching the men in fatigues line up the thugs with bats while holding big looking guns. The guns won. "We need to fix it."

  "Casey," he said softly. "We'll fix it."

  "Do you know how?" I asked, hopefully, my eyes coming back to his.

  "Oraia, you need to rest." Not an answer I had expected nor wanted. Not an answer at all.

  But he'd missed the point anyway. I wasn't tired. I wasn't suffering from shock. My eyes were wide open. My heart beating steady within my chest. The ache I felt a backdrop to the need to fix this.

  "I'm fine," I said with conviction, pushing up from the ground and forcing him to move back or be knocked over.

  "You are?" he asked sceptically.

  "I've got no idea how to, but I do know we have to fix this."

  "So you keep saying," he said slowly and softly, looking at me as though he thought I might have lost the plot.

  And as I watched the scene of forced order assert itself across the street and the looks on the faces of the survivors of this first round of Genesis - and yes, I was sure this was only the first - change from fear and loss and confusion, to a hope laced still with shock, I realised it would be an easy assumption to make. That I might have lost the plot.

  But with that change in atmosphere on the streets of a Wellington inner city suburb, in the rubble left by the destructive force of an Elemental world gone out of whack, I also knew that hope was a powerful force. Offering direction, absorbing misery, reinforcing the need to survive.

  And most of all, bringing out a strength that some would not have known they possessed, but found the will to dig deep enough to find it inside.

  Just like I did, sitting in the dirt and muck of a broken road, leaning against an SUV in the rain.

  "In the car," Theo instructed softly. His attention on my face leading me to believe he still didn't think I had recovered yet.

  And maybe recovered was too complete a word to use for how I felt. I certainly couldn't stop the images of that young weeping child or the frightened impotent pensioner from flashing through my mind. But I did feel a shift within me. A monumental type of change within my soul.

  As Theo slipped into the rear of the car taking me with him, letting Mark drive the vehicle back to the house, I looked into his hazel eyes and realised that there were levels of immediacy. I'd already acknowledged that this Theo was, in a way, my Theo too. That to have one, I could survive without the other. In addition, I was aware that reconnecting with our Elements was more important than even that. Than me and Theo. Than having my Thisavros back.

  And finally, I acknowledged that nothing was more significant, more paramount than fixing what was wrong in this world. For me. For Theo. For Athanatos, Humans and yes, even the Alchemists. Because we all had a right to survive, and we all had a right to exist in a healthy world.

  Can you hear me? I asked all my Stoicheio, even those I hadn't yet come to possess, whilst making sure I didn't actually reach for them.

  I hadn't expected an answer, nor did I get one. I just had to believe that they could hear.

  I'm coming, I whispered in my mind. You are not alone, I added, remembering Theo's same words to me last night. I will find a way to fix this, I vowed.

  Silence.

  And as the rain fell harder and the winds picked up and a fire, burning in a pile of rubble we passed, flared towards the sky in a move the precipitation should have arrested.

  And as the ground rumbled beneath our tyres.

  I knew that they had heard.

  Chapter 13

  Haven't You Heard A Freaking Word I've Said?

  "I've managed to salvage three rooms, as well as the utility and this one, for our use," Aktor advised, once we'd returned to our ramshackle base. "The cellar is also a possibility, but will require further investigation as a fallback position, should we need it."

  We were standing in what had been the library, at the rear of the building, behind the stairs. Aktor and Sonya had turned it into a makeshift living area, with couches and a table and benches and a stove over an open fire in the hearth. A kettle was whistling merrily as though the world hadn't come to an abrupt end.

  "The utility room is through the destroyed kitchen but is ideally suited as a wash house," the butler was saying, as he wrapped a tea towel around the heated handle of the kettle. It occurred to me that had he had access to his Element he wouldn't have needed to take such precautions.

  I glanced at the fire burning brightly in the hearth.

  "Did you use Pyrkagia to start that?" I asked.

  Aktor shook his head. "Sonya found matches."

  She smiled brightly from where she was slicing bread with a sharp knife on a side table, set up with utensils and crockery clearly dug out from the ruins of the kitchen. They'd done a remarkable job making a home for us in amongst the destruction the earthquake had caused. My gaze, though, kept looking up at the ceiling expecting it to come tumbling down on our heads at any second.

  "It's quite safe, Miss Eden," the butler said, pouring the boiled water into several waiting mugs. "I have been aloft and removed any unnecessary weight, testing the structure quite thoroughly. There are parts of the house which are precarious, but this room, as well as those already set up, are sound, I assure you."

  "I trust you, Aktor," I said, from my position on an overstuffed couch with surprisingly minor wear and tear. Theo had forced me to put my feet up despite the copious amounts of trips they were making with supplies. He still didn't believe I was not in shock.

  "I have also set up a rain collection system outside to help with ablutions and such," the old man was adding, each bit of information offered when Theo and Mark were back in the room to hear. Isadora and Nico hadn't returned yet, and the concern for their lengthy absence was felt by all.

  "You've done a remarkable job," Theo offered, finishing up stacking our provisions against a far wall Aktor had set aside. "But I'm famished," he announced. "Pilfering makes you hungry."

  "You pilfered?" I asked, astounded.

  He cocked his head at me and said, "Disaster?" and nothing else.

  "That's no excuse at all," I countered.

  "Here we go," Mark advised, sinking into the couch opposite me. "Take it like a man, Your High-and-mighty. She'll only keep prodding and poking until you relent in any case."

  "I do not prod and poke," I argued. "Anyway," hands crossed over chest, "this is exactly the point I was trying to make in the car."

  They hadn't listened to me then either, still thinking I wasn't of sound mind.

  "We have a choice to make at a time like this, and by we," I said, looking at each person in t
hat room, Athanatos, Human and Alchemist, "I mean everyone on this planet. Pull together, rise above it and make things right, or succumb to fear and panic and animalistic behaviour in order to just survive. We need to be better than that," I concluded.

  "See?" Mark said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Then starting to hum under his breath.

  I threw a cushion at him.

  "It's an altruistic view, Cassandra," Theo advised, moving to sit beside me on the couch. "But those who are not prepared to fight for their survival will not prevail. History has proven this."

  "Those who are not prepared to fight for the good of all right now will die with the rest of the population when Genesis finishes," I said softly.

  Theo looked at me for a long, long moment and then whispered, "What do you suggest, Oraia?" As though I had the answers to all of this.

  I let out a breath of air. OK. Right. Time to put my money where my mouth is. Which was ironic, because Theo clearly hadn't put his money where the pilfering occurred. And no, nothing was actually funny about any of this, I was just procrastinating.

  "OK," I said. "It's going to get worse."

  "Probably," Theo agreed.

  "And we need to fix it," I added.

  "But how?" he queried. I don't think he was being obstinate on purpose, I actually think he was trying to push me to work this out myself. Kind of like a self taught lesson. But he didn't know me, like he used to know me. Like my Theo had known me.

  And now was not the time to be reminded of that.

  "We need to reach our Elements first," I declared.

  Theo tilted his head slightly in a move that was meant to encourage me to go on.

  "We can't fix this without re-establishing that connection," I said.

  "But how?" Mark asked, clearly listening in on the conversation despite looking asleep right now.

  I didn't have a definitive answer. The only thing I could think of was trying.

  Hardly world saving material.

  "We attempt to reach them in short burst, limiting the fallout," I offered.

  "What if that doesn't work?" Mark helpfully asked.

  I narrowed my eyes at his still tipped back head.

  "We keep trying. We believe we'll get through eventually. We don't give up."

  "Hardly scientific," Mark supplied.

  "Do you have a better idea, Alchemist?" I asked, and saw Theo's lips twitch out of the corner of my eye.

  "No," Mark replied on a sigh, tilting his head back down and looking towards me. "And you're right. Without Fire we can't communicate with Pyrkagia and see what's happening there. Without Air we can't move through lightning where we need to go. Without Water we can't battle the next Genesis threat which could well be flooding. Without Earth we can't be certain the earthquakes have stopped."

  "Not to mention the role in balance those Elements play," Theo added. "Without being able to manipulate them, things could well just keep getting worse."

  "But it won't be easy," Aktor advised from the table, where he was setting out bowls and spoons and what smelled like a delicious chicken soup in a large pot. "I've tried to establish communications through Fire and it almost laid me flat."

  "I had to slap him to bring him around once," Sonya offered, her lip retreating between her teeth at the fraught memory that evoked.

  "I tried to use Air out on that street," I admitted and Theo stilled. "Some thugs were terrorising an old lady and I thought I might be able to help."

  "Did it work?" Theo ask, voice strained.

  "No. I thought I blew a blood vessel in my head." Perhaps not the wisest thing to say to a man like Theo who had decided despite not feeling like he was my Thisavros that he'd act like one anyway; possessive, protective, over the top.

  "Yeah, Water was a bust too," Mark offered, trying to get Theo's intense attention off me. Once a big brother, always a big brother. "Getting rain to miss me is second nature, but when I automatically tried outside earlier I felt like I was drowning instead."

  "So doing this won't be easy," I admitted. "But it has to be done."

  Theo let out a pained sigh and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as though he had a tension headache.

  "We do it in pairs," he announced. "One person attempting to re-establish contact. The other making sure they don't do it for too long and compromise themselves."

  "And we do it the bedrooms," Aktor added.

  "Why?" I asked, thinking here was as good as anywhere.

  "Because it will be too traumatic for some," he replied steadily, not looking at anyone in particular, but all of us knowing he was referring to Sonya. "And this room is for pleasure. Even in war, one must have a place to recoup and reset." He smiled across the room at me, then announced, "Lunch is served."

  Mark jumped up from his seat and slipped onto the bench beside a waiting Sonya, as Theo reached out and took my hand, helping me to my feet.

  "We will get through this," he whispered against my ear.

  "I know we will," I whispered back, because we didn't have a choice.

  "You're amazing," he added. "You never give up."

  My eyes came up to his, a warmth rushing through me at the respect and admiration I could see there. Then heating further when he let me see the attraction he felt as well.

  None of it was Pyrkagia but it felt just as potent.

  "Despite knowing these attempts to reconnect will be painful," he remarked in a normal level of volume as he turned toward the table and helped me onto a seat, "you push for it against all resistance because you know we have no choice."

  "Casey has always been a fighter," Sonya remarked from down by the bread.

  I threw my friend a smile.

  "I can see that," Theo replied, sliding in beside me on the bench and making sure his thigh pressed against the length of mine.

  It surprised me that I was still capable of feeling such conflicting emotions. I thought there was enough serious responsibility being weighed that I wouldn't have any space for how Theo made me feel. How his leg against mine was an intimate move making excitement and anticipation surge through my body and light it on fire. But how his words reminded me that he still didn't remember everything we were to each other, everything we'd already discovered about each other, making my heart feel heavy and sadness to bloom.

  It was a quandary boiling inside, leaving me as unbalanced as the world.

  "I wonder where Nico and Isadora are?" Sonya asked into the silence, as we consumed a miraculously delicious meal despite Aktor having had to work with such compromised kitchen facilities.

  "They decided to go further afield, to get an idea of scale to the disaster," Theo advised.

  "They'll be along before you know it," the butler added in what had to be an outright guess.

  "So, we try to re-establish our Stoicheio," I offered, attempting to make Sonya forget her worry over where Nico was. I was sure she wasn't too bothered about Isadora's absence. She was my best friend, after all. "And while we're doing that, try to find out what's happening in the world."

  "I managed to tune into the Civil Defence radio station," Aktor advised, falling into my strategizing and distract Sonya plan with ease. "The whole country has been affected and from what they could establish, the entire world."

  "As we suspected," Theo murmured around a mouthful of soup.

  "Well, we'll start small and then move big," I announced, making Theo smile as he lifted another spoonful to his mouth.

  "We have a plan, then," Aktor agreed. "Stoicheio, communications, and then reassess."

  That about summed it and for now it would have to do.

  We finished the meal in silence, each lost to their own thoughts. If the others were like me, their minds would be filled with turbulent worries. Fears and concerns, doubts and depression. But I worked with the belief that we would succeed and banished those negative emotions with sheer force of will.

  My grandfather would have been proud. Which made me wonder just how th
e Alchemists had fared. They'd been more aware of what was coming than anyone. Had they taken precautions? And did that mean they were now in a stronger position than us?

  When the lunch was finished and Sonya began clearing the table, I gripped my brother's arm and hauled him into a corner of the room, away from the rest. Theo was discussing the provisions we'd brought with Aktor, planning on how long they'd last and what else needed to be done to ensure we could stay on the property safely. I used their momentary distraction to corner Mark.

  "What?" he asked in that ineloquent and confrontational way only a sibling could manage.

  "Tell me about the Alchemists," I demanded.

  "Whoa!" he said, hands up in mock surrender. "You only have to ask, sister."

  "That's what I'm doing. Quit being a dumb-arse."

  "Your language skills have taken a turn for the worse, Casey," he remarked, sitting down on a two seater sofa and patting the space beside him. I glared as I obliged. "What do you want to know?" he said in a more resigned tone of voice.

  "How prepared were they for this?"

  His eyes widened slightly and he looked at me as though seeing me for the first time.

  "Prepared," he finally replied.

  "So, they'll have access to the Elements still. Not be cut-off," I further explained.

  "Yes, undoubtedly," he said with a slow nod.

  "But you are? Cut-off, I mean."

  "I wasn't at CERN," he said.

  "How does that work?"

  He let out a beleaguered breath of air on a sigh. "Twenty-three years this has been written in the stars. And even before that, the leaders were well versed in history. They knew a Genesis would come again. It's been and gone before. This isn't the first time Aetheros has called forth an Aether."

  It wasn't exactly news to me. The Aeras shaman had said as much in one of his riddles. Aether comes, Aether goes. Aether puts on quite a show.

  "How did the last one die?" I asked, quietly.