Satisfied she was in good hands I went after Mark, in the direction I'd seen him scampering.
I hadn't thought to take a candle or torch, but thankfully one was on a shelf as I progressed further away from the fire. I had to climb up to grab it, but with illumination in hand I set off again. I should have called out. It would have made perfect sense. But the dark, deserted corridors, the dust and cobweb covered vintages, and the eerie quiet of the far reaches of the cellar made my throat close up and my lips remain sealed.
It wasn't as though I'd swallow a spider or anything, just a sense of solitude that shouldn't be disturbed.
I'd made a grave mistake, because as I homed in on soft sounds coming from just ahead, and awareness of what I was actually hearing registered, it was too late. The light from the flickering candle reached them, splashing shadows across bare skin, reflecting back off sweat soaked flesh, showing me an image I really would have preferred to have been spared.
"Oh, dear freaking God," I muttered, spinning and placing my back to the spectacle.
"Casey!" Mark hissed. "Fucking hell. Go away!"
I cringed.
"We need..." I started.
"Just, fuck, Casey!" Mark added. "Ah." He attempted to sound less aggravated. "Give us five minutes, OK?"
"Five minutes?" Isadora asked in amusement.
"Well," my brother purred. Actually purred! "Maybe fifteen."
"That's better," she said and then moaned.
Oh, crap.
I left in a hurry, feeling the blush cover the top half of my body, muttering curses under my breath and brushing cobwebs wildly from my face. I burst out into the arched area, spotting Theo emerge from his gap between shelves, and threw myself down on the cushions in front of the others, covering my face with my hands and groaning out loud.
"What is it?" Theo asked, appearing in an instant beside me.
"You don't want to know," I moaned between my spread fingers.
Aktor started laughing, Nico's chuckles could be heard in the background as well.
"What's happened?" Theo pressed.
"Did you get an eyeful, Casey?" Nico asked, amusement clear in his tone.
"Ah," said Theo, settling himself down on the floor beside me. "Learn anything?" he asked in such an innocent voice it must have been contrived.
"Don't even go there," I growled back at both of them.
"It is a natural thing, Miss Eden," Aktor pointed out, enjoying himself too much as well.
"Not for my brother," I argued.
"What?" Nico burst out. "He's never done it?"
I groaned again, shaking my head in dismay. You should never, ever, catch your brother screwing a woman against shelves holding hundred year old bottles of claret. Oh, freaking hell. The woman was older than the wine.
Another groan into the pillow I'd lifted to my face.
"Perhaps it's payback," Theo announced.
"Payback, Theodoros?" Aktor asked, politely. Too damn politely.
"Yes," Theo replied. "He did catch us at the most inopportune moment."
"Oh, kill me now," I muttered with much put-upon pain.
"Well, there you go," Nico agreed. "Payback's a bitch."
"Or you catch your brother screwing one," I added.
There was silence. For a second I thought I might just have gone a little too far on that one.
And then all three men burst out laughing, really enjoying themselves now.
"What's so funny?" Mark's voice sounded out from over my shoulder.
I lifted my head and moved the pillow aside and effected the best "nothing" face I could muster.
Aktor snorted. Actually snorted.
I glared at the old man.
"Just joking around," Theo replied, offering a lifeline. But as Theo didn't often joke around and the world was coming to an end and any jokes right now were inappropriate, no one reached out to grab it.
Thankfully, before anything else could be said, Isadora walked out from between different shelves than my brother had just emerged.
Nico covered his mouth to hide his amusement, Aktor stared up at the arches as though their architecture was the answer to the universe. And Theo just swept lazy eyes up and down Isadora's body, letting her know he was damn well aware of what she had just done.
For the first time ever, I watched Isadora blush. Then look nervously away, as though unsure of his reaction. For my part, I turned my glare on Theo. Because, hello? He shouldn't have been interested in looking at her at all.
But as much as I knew he'd fallen for me, and as much as I knew he loved me. He still remembered the Isadora of before. And that Dora had been his on-again and off-again lover. For nigh on two thousand years.
Even before all this crap, I'd known loving Theo would not be easy. Now I was acutely aware of exactly how hard loving him was.
I refused to make eye contact with anyone, conscious that they were all too damn observant to have missed the pain that surely registered on my face, a reflection of what I felt in my heart. Instead I looked at Sonya. Still asleep, still with us. And smiling wistfully at something in her dreams.
I hoped they were perfect. I hoped they were everything she could ever have wanted. Because life, as I now knew, was definitely not.
Chapter 23
There Was No Freaking Way I Wanted To Argue With That
Theo cleared his throat. The room had been way too silent, but I still refused to look at anyone.
"We need everyone together," he announced.
"For what?" Isadora asked, sounding too close for my liking.
"We've no choice but to test our Stoicheio," Theo advised. "And it would be best if we were all on hand should something backfire."
"Makes sense," Nico agreed. "Who's going first?"
"I will," I blurted, wanting to feel anything other than this hollowness from knowing nothing had changed, and nothing ever would where Isadora and Theo were concerned. Even pain would be better than this.
"No," Theo announced with authority.
"Why should she get preferential treatment?" Isadora snapped.
A string of the most atrocious words flew through my head, all directed at her. Words I could no further say in public than kick Aetheros up the backside for letting his "children" run wild and neglect their chores.
Oh, I wanted to. I wanted to call her every derogatory name under the sun.
I think I might have growled.
"Because as Aether she deserves preferential treatment," Theo replied smoothly. "Or have you been too busy to remember the world is coming to an end?"
And that didn't sound bitchy at all. Yeah.
"No busier than you, Theodoros," she purred back.
Was this some sort of jealous lovers spat? I felt sick. Cheese and crackers wanting to come back out and I hadn't even had any ouzo.
"I'll go first," Aktor announced, interrupting whatever staring match was going on between Theo and Isadora. I couldn't be sure they were staring, I just felt the weight of it in the air. I was too busy looking at the ground.
"All right, then," Theo announced. "We should do this next to the fire."
Aktor got up from his seat and headed over to the brazier, I could hear other sets of footfalls following him.
"You don't have to come over," Theo said quietly from behind me. "Stay with Sonya if you'd like."
I looked up and noted that even Nico had moved. The first time I'd seen him out from beneath Sonya's legs. I nodded, not bothering to turn enough to see Theo. Not wanting to see understanding in his eyes, to know he was aware he'd hurt me.
It took a second, maybe two, and then the warmth of his proximity faded and it was just me and my best friend.
"You're missing all the fun," I muttered, getting up from my position on the floor, feeling ancient while I was at it, and then slipping gratefully into Nico's seat, as I lifted Sonya's legs over my lap. I had an uninterrupted view across the space towards the brazier, Aktor lying out on a mattress on the floor, while
the others knelt down around him. Isadora glaring across the butler's body at Theo, but because his back was to me, I couldn't be sure if he was glaring right back.
I assumed he was, from the thunderous look on my brother's face right then.
"Just reach out for starters," Theo urged.
"Like a knock on the hearth," Nico added.
"We'll slap you if you can't pull back, breaking the connection," Isadora so helpfully offered.
"Good freaking God, I hate her," I murmured, under my breath.
"Me too," said Sonya, not opening her eyes.
"How long have you been awake?" I asked, my heart skittering inside my chest, the urge to wrap her up in my arms almost too powerful to deny. I was going for cool, but between Isadora the bitch, Theo the mindless ex-lover, and the general state of play in the universe, my voice cracked on every single word.
"Long enough to know the cow's done it again," Sonya muttered. "Thirsty," she rasped on the end.
I reached down and snagged the glass of water Aktor had sitting on the floor and helped her lift her head to drink some. She licked her lips afterwards, still keeping her lids down, and fell back onto the pillow.
"My freaking head hurts," she muttered.
"Maybe they've got some paracetamol around here somewhere. I saw a first-aid kit on one of the shelves."
"Where are we?" she asked, not suggesting I go get any meds, so I remained where I was. She clearly wanted me near and I didn't want to be too far away if the crap hit the fan over by the fire.
Not that I was sure I could do anything to help out, but I think Theo was right. We all needed to be close for this.
"In the cellar," I replied.
"Cool." A lengthy pause followed where I thought she'd fallen asleep again. "What are they doing?"
"Trying to reach their Stoicheio."
"Isn't that a bad idea?"
"Only if Isadora doesn't lose consciousness."
Sonya snorted and then groaned. "Don't make me laugh, 'K?"
"'K," I whispered. "You had us worried."
"Nah," she offered. "Just took a wee nap."
"Don't do it again, 'K?"
"I'll try not to," she dryly replied.
I felt a swell of Pyrkagia and then Aktor cried out and started shaking, sweat beading his forehead, eyes tightly closed.
"Can you pull back?" Theo called.
"Is he with us?" Isadora asked, hand raised ready to slap.
"She wants to slap him, doesn't she?" Sonya queried, only listening to what was happening, still not trusting she could open her eyes without pain.
"A lot of pent up anger," I offered.
"Yeah, what do you think she'll do if it's Theo on the floor?"
I didn't have an answer for that and Sonya must have realised her mistake because I swear she feigned sleep straight away afterwards.
"I'm fine," Aktor gasped and I let a little breath out I'd been holding.
"Veins on fire?" Isadora asked smugly.
"Quite," Aktor replied shuddering all over.
"Well, there's no point anyone else trying then, is there?" Nico queried. "Two of us had the same result. Mark almost drowned reaching for Water. Casey collapsed and seized when she tried Earth. What else is there?"
"Air," Mark offered.
"Do you really think it will be different?" Isadora asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Liar.
Mark shrugged. "I've got to give it a go, don't I?"
"Ah, hell," I muttered.
"You want to go over there?" Sonya asked, confirming the sleep was faked.
"If I do, I'll punch her in the face and that won't help Mark."
Sonya smiled. "There's my girl," she murmured merrily.
I shook my head at my bloodthirsty best friend.
"All right. Lie down beside Aktor," Theo ordered. "I don't think he's well enough yet to move."
I watched Mark get into position, everyone moving back slightly to allow him room.
"Ready?" Theo asked, quite reasonably.
"No!" my brother snarled back, making me smile this time.
Isadora placed a hand on his shoulder. I sat forward in my seat, making Sonya crack an eyelid and watch me between her lashes.
"Go over," she encouraged.
"And do what? Bite her hand off?"
"That'd work. If she was all gooey-eyes over my man, I'd dig her eyeballs out with a rusty spoon."
"There is something seriously wrong with you," I pointed out sweetly. "Besides, she's not looking at Theo gooey-eyed, she's looking at Mark."
"That bitch!" Sonya declared, wholeheartedly. Then ruined it by adding, "How dare she make your brother enjoy his last few days on this earth!"
"You're no help at all," I complained.
She smiled, eyes closed again.
"You missed me," she offered.
"Yeah," I agreed simply.
"OK," Theo said. "When you're ready."
Mark sucked in a deep breath of air, which was ironic because in the next instant I felt him reach for it.
A chill raced down my arms, setting the fine hairs up on end and making me shiver. Condensation appeared before my lips, even with the fire blazing in the brazier and the room warm only moments ago. An ominous heaviness landed on my shoulders, making me sink down in the sofa, and desperately wanting to cover my head and disappear.
"Mark?" Isadora called, giving him a small shake.
He didn't reply.
"Is he breathing?" Nico asked and I found myself on my feet, even as something was trying to push me back.
I hadn't realised I'd moved. Sonya was struggling to right herself, as her legs, which had been over my lap, had ended up on the stone floor beside the sofa. I opened my mouth to apologise and Air rushed in. A whistling sound filling my ears, followed by a wheeze as I tried to exhale.
I managed to push it out again, so that made me think Air wasn't trying too hard to harm me. But when I went to take a step towards my brother, I was immediately shoved back. A slap of wind in my face, against my chest. Like being punched in the stomach and then being unable to even gasp.
I made a strangled sound and Theo's head lifted searching for me. He was on his feet in an instant, trying to reach my flailing side, but Air was having none of that. Theo roared as he fought against an invisible enemy, the sound abruptly cut off as he was thrown to the ground, unable to draw any breath at all.
Desperate now to reach them. My brother who was once again turning blue and the man I loved despite everything imprisoned on the floor and gasping like a fish out of water.
I made it one step closer, and the whistling became a hissing laugh. So out of place in the cellar.
Without another thought I ordered, Stop!
The whistling became a humming, as though it was reprimanding me for trying to curtail its fun.
I had no control here. It may have protected me on Mount Victoria as it rained down its vicious anger on earth. But I had the feeling the free pass was over, and Air wanted to play with me now, instead of mankind.
I staggered another step, aware Nico was trying to get up and help me, and Isadora was trying to perform mouth to mouth on Mark, and Aktor was reaching for the fire, from where he lay, trying desperately, but futilely, to fuel himself enough to help out.
I stared at the flickering flames, willing myself to push through the barrier to reach a now non-moving Theo, yelling inside my head frantically for Air to stop.
It wasn't listening. I hadn't expected it to. But I sure as hell hadn't expected the flames in the fire to flare even higher as though Pyrkagia was about to join in the fun as well.
We couldn't battle one Stoicheio, how the hell would we fight two at once?
I lifted a heavy arm, reaching my hand out towards the flames and called Fire.
It had been instinctive. A desperate action to stop the inevitable.
Air swirled around me, lifting the hair on my head off my shoulders, while Fire spat and hissed in the brazier licking heated fingers
over my skin.
Earth, I called, needing more strength to fight them. Knowing I couldn't hold them off much longer like this. I was down to one knee, just a short distance from Theo, unable to touch him, unable to save him, unable to stop this.
The ground shook, the arched columns swaying but not crumbling. The massive springs at their bases absorbing the shudder and shift of the soil. Dust rained down. A bottle smashed behind me. The scent of full bodied red wine met my nose as the high pitched scream of wind whistling assailed my ears and the touch of heated flames lashed at my skin.
Mark shuddered. His back arched. And then somehow, I don't know how, maybe I'd distracted Air enough to give him a reprieve, maybe the bitch had actually revived him, but somehow he sat up, and stared me in the eyes.
"What do you need?" he yelled, but I could only read his lips. The sounds in the cellar were deafening, the roar of Fire, the rumble of the Earth, the howl of Air.
Three Stoicheio couldn't stop this. Could four?
"Water!" I shouted back, my words whipped away in the frenzy.
I could hardly see anymore, a black shroud covering my eyes, or that could have been the dust we'd unsettled in this mini battle of wills. Because I knew this was small, nothing like Genesis and its power to upset the world. This was me and them and a test to see if I had what it took to contain them.
I didn't. I was sure of it. I was on two knees now, no longer breathing, no longer moving, about to pass out.
And then Sonya appeared, the glass of water in her hand that she hadn't quite managed to finish, and she threw the bloody thing in my face.
Er, not what I'd been thinking. Water hadn't Awakened, and right now when it might have been helpful, it sure as hell wasn't going to accommodate me.
But Mark was there, touching my cheeks, calling Water, making the drops of liquid rise up in a funnel and swirl around our heads.
And something else was there, that I couldn't quite identify but I knew it was not of this world. A presence, a show of support. Something that felt missing, but filled the emptiness inside. It made no sense, but I reached out to grasp it, hold it tight, and willed myself not to black out just yet.
Then screeches and bangs and crashes and even the odd flare of lightning, all in too small an enclosed space. People shouted; it sounded like hundreds of them, but there was only seven of us here. But I could hear the roar of many voices, all raised and shouting and trying to get me to do something.
The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) Page 22