by Kat Adams
I had to adjust several times to get comfortable, his contact making me overly warm, which didn’t make sense. Leo was usually cool to the touch. I wrote it off to me being hot enough for the both of us. “I’m not allowed to use light without permission, but when I know how to heal someone without using something that’ll short him out, I get my hand slapped.”
“Syd’s the healer, babe. Maybe you should listen to him. He had to stop you several times today before you took the field and got yourself killed by friendly fire.”
“You were there?”
“We had to be.”
“Clay wasn’t.”
He looked at me.
“Never mind.” I shook my head. Clay Williams rarely stuck around for anything serious. Clearly, tribunals fell into that category.
“Bryan only stayed a few hours before sneaking away to study for his alchemy exam. Clay popped back in to give a play-by-play of the battles closest to us, which was both amusing and disturbing.”
“Which was the disturbing part? The battles or Clay’s commentary?”
“Both.”
We laughed. He ran his hand up and down my arm. It relaxed me enough to stop clenching my teeth. “This explains the new wards at Rob’s place. He said the Council was there when he got home, beefing up the barrier around the cabin. How many enhanced elementals did they find today?”
“Fourteen.” Fourteen scared kids who had no idea they’d been magically enhanced. Fourteen now ex-students escorted off the field by Council members. Some went willingly. Others, not so much.
That wasn’t the worst part. It was how they’d been discovered. The Council members were brutal in their attacks, pushing the young elementals into calling an element they didn’t mean—or didn’t know how—to call with more power than elementally possible at their age. Even Rob battled without mercy, ruthlessly drawing fire and returning it with so much force, I’d had to save one of the kids he’d battled.
“I don’t like the way they’re going about this.” I played with the buttons on his shirt. “Keeping everyone on the field, forcing them to watch as they wait for their own tribunal. By the time the third round of students took the field, they were already so freaked out, half called the wrong element by mistake.”
“How do you know?”
Oh, crap. I never told anyone about my ability to sense an elemental’s primary. Could I trust Leo to keep my secret? I knew the answer before my brain finished forming the question. Of course, I could. I trusted all my guys. With my life. With my heart. And now, with my latest secret.
“When Clay and I were watching the tribunals at the beginning of the year, I sort of sensed the elemental’s primary before Professor Layden announced it.”
He stiffened, pushing away to look me in the eye. “How’d you touch them?”
“I didn’t.” I held his gaze as I bit my lower lip.
“You just…sensed it?”
“I just sensed it. There’s something else…” I drew in a breath and did a quick head swivel to make sure we were alone in Aquae’s common room. “Professor Layden declared the wrong primary on one of the kids.”
“Oh shit.” He stiffened. “That’s not good. The academy relies on her to declare an elemental’s primary. She gets that wrong…” He blew out a breath.
“He’s one of the fourteen the Council found today. She declared him air when I know he’s fire. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I know it’s because the dark magic enhancing his powers forced air into him. The element wanted back out, so it pushed its way to the surface. That’s what the professor felt. It wasn’t the kid’s primary. It was the element trying to escape.”
“I hate how much sense that makes.” He nodded in agreement. “I wonder how many of them are here.”
“I guess we’ll find out. The tribunals are over for today, but there’s another round of them tomorrow. More first years. There’re too many of them to get through in one day, even with the number of Council members testing the students. And, lucky me, I get to be there for every one of them.”
Leo played with my hair, pulling up a few ginger locks and slowly releasing them. “Speaking of tribunals, they rejected my request to complete my final tribunal until I’ve been tested. So that’s awesome.”
“What?” I pushed off his chest and scooted to the edge of the chair. Although it thrilled me to know he’d be around for a little while longer, the disappointment clouding his usually vibrant gaze weighed on me. “Can they do that?”
“Apparently, they can.” He thrust his fingers through his hair, sending his wild blond curls off in every direction. “At least they’re letting me test first tomorrow to get it out of the way.”
“But you’ve been here, like, five years. The enhanced elementals didn’t start showing up until this year.”
“That we know of.”
We let that hang between us. He was right. We’d only just learned of the dark elementals using magic to enhance young elementals. What if they’d been doing it for years? What if half the adult elementals out there were magically enhanced? Spells ran out, so by the time they’d gone through their final tribunal and graduated from the academy, they would have had to cast the spell again.
I leaned against him, settling in closer to have him cool me down. Since water was his primary, his body temp usually stayed pretty low, just like his demeanor, so when I had to move away before I broke into a sweat from the amount of heat he generated, I questioned it. “Why are you so hot?”
He grinned. “Baby, I’m always hot.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. “You know what I mean. You’re usually cool to the touch.”
“Maybe I feel a little warm, but it’s the end of summer and hot outside. So there’s that.”
“You sure? Syd mentioned you had a slight fever. Is there anything you want to tell me?”
“Babe, I’m fine. I’ve just been running a little hotter than usual. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
That look in his eyes gave him away. He didn’t believe it was nothing. Whatever it was had him worried. And now it had me worried too. “Tell me the truth.”
He sighed, long and audibly, before offering a curt nod. “I’ve been running a fever.”
“For how long?”
“Maybe a couple of months.”
My heart hit the roof of my mouth as panic jolted me. “A couple of months? Leo, you’re a water elemental. A fever is bad.”
“If it makes you feel better, I’ll go see Syd tomorrow after tribunals.”
“You’d better.” I settled back in and endured the sweaty heat radiating off him. “How long do you think the enhancement spell lasts?”
“Well, judging by the one you cast to force water to obey your call, no more than six months.”
“That’s good.”
“That’s only because the person who cast it wasn’t a strong witch and didn’t know what she was doing. Imagine if you did. Someone with a lot of power, like a sorcerer, could probably get it to last a year or more.”
“That’s not good.” Which meant even third years could be magically enhanced and not know it. Fourth years and beyond would have to know since they’d have to have another spell cast to keep the enhanced powers. Well, unless they were the ones casting the spell.
I thought about that spell my mom had cast on Bryan to make him forget about the void. Was she powerful enough to enhance an elemental’s powers? Not that she’d ever do something like that. Then again, I never thought she’d drug me to keep my powers from manifesting, so there was that lovely doubt plaguing my thoughts.
No, no way would my mom have anything to do with the shit storm taking place. Her reappearance had to be purely coincidental. She’d come back to save me, just as she’d disappeared to save me. Everything she’d done, she’d done for me.
Even stealing my title, which I still hadn’t confronted her about. But I would. In fact, maybe I should head over to the infirmary to pay her a visit. I pushed out of the c
hair. “I’m heading out.”
“Curfew isn’t until ten o’clock.”
I needed to talk to my mom alone and didn’t want him offering to escort me to the infirmary, so I didn’t tell him where I was headed. “I’ve got a big day ahead of me. Besides, none of us got much sleep last night. I need a solid night of peaceful slumber.” Not that I’d get one if the creepy void paid me another visit in my dreams.
After we said our good-byes, I shuffled outside, down the path leading to the infirmary, and paused when a shadow out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Was that someone over by the warded barrier? The sun had set, and darkness settled over the grounds, so I couldn’t tell.
I didn’t want to go anywhere near the barrier until I knew my hand wouldn’t start glowing again. How would I explain that to the Council? Oh, don’t worry about me. It’s only a little darkness magically forced into my body through a cut that’s no longer there but still lights up whenever I’m near the barrier. No big.
I stepped off the porch and slowly approached the shadow. If someone was messing with the wards again, I’d cut them down. It took the professors over a week to bring the barrier back up to full force after Jules had used Vanessa to bring it down.
The closer I got, the more I recognized the silhouette. Long chestnut hair pulled back in a braid. Black Cat Woman suit covering her athletic frame. She had her hands up, and when I drew close enough, I heard her chanting softly.
“Mom?”
She whipped around and lowered her arms. Her eyes were wide at first, but she quickly recovered with a quick nod in greeting. “Hello, sweetie. What are you doing here?”
“I live here. How about you?”
“I live here too.” She flashed a forced smile. It took her several seconds to lower her bitch guard. Memories of all the uncomfortable silences and awkward avoidances flooded my thoughts. Growing up, I remembered her having this setting and also remembered how bad it’d gotten, especially leading up to when she left.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m great,” she exclaimed, way too exaggerated. “I mean, what’s not great about this? I’m no longer in hiding, worried about the Council’s agenda when it comes to you. I’m here. I’m with you. I can protect you now. It’s everything, Katybug. Everything.”
I so wanted to hug her right now, but considering how much we’d hugged in the past twenty-four hours, I held back. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too.” She drew in a deep breath and studied the wards. “There’s so much to do. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to go house hunting today. Tomorrow’s not looking any better. Until these tribunals are over, we’ll probably have to put the hunt on hold.”
Disappointment weighed me down on her canceling our first outing as mother and daughter since she’d returned, but I didn’t blame her. This was on the Council, not my mom. “Fair enough.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got a job to do. The garbage isn’t going to take itself out.”
Odd statement. I’d hardly refer to the MEs we’d encountered today as garbage. They were just a bunch of scared little kids with no clue that they’d been magically enhanced and were now residents of the elemental prison. I seriously hoped they had a special ward for them, like a school with a playground.
“Why does the Council think sending them to Carcerem is the answer?”
“We can’t have them intermingling with real elementals.”
“They are real elementals,” I defended and crossed my arms. “It’s not their fault someone forced an element into them using dark magic. Sending them to prison is overreacting a bit, don’t you think?”
“No. They deserve to be locked up.”
I slowly lowered my arms as my mouth fell open. Did she really just say that? “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m absolutely serious, Katy. They have no place in this world and should be kept separate from those of us with naturally superior powers.” Her forced smile was gone, replaced by a cool, steely expression.
It made me shudder to the point I had to turn away to regroup. I hated that look and had grown up avoiding it at any cost. I finally returned my attention to her. “Forever?”
“No, silly.” Her warm expression returned, giving me whiplash at how fast she went from hot to cold to hot again. “Just until we find a more appropriate place to house them permanently.”
“House them? Mom, they’re not criminals. They have homes. They have families. You’ve taken all that away from them.”
She brought up her hand and turned her head, shutting me down. “I’m through arguing with you about this, young lady. I am the prophecy and my decision is final.”
Whoa. That escalated quickly. I never had that kind of power when I’d been the prophecy—like, oh, last week when I’d saved our world from annihilation again. Knowing arguing with her would get me nowhere and could send her away again, I dropped it and made a mental note to talk to Stace about it later.
“Speaking of the prophecy, what happened today? You said you were going to tell Stephens I wanted to keep it.”
“I tried. He wants someone older, someone he trusts.”
Ouch. “He doesn’t trust me?” Then why would he keep declaring me the prophecy, for crying out loud. That made absolutely zero sense.
“He doesn’t know you,” she countered.
Neither do you, not anymore. “Yeah, I guess.”
She waved off my concern. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll fulfill the prophecy together if it’s that important to you.”
I didn’t like how flippant she was over something so absolutely not flippant and swallowed down the rest of my comments about her taking the prophecy from me by changing the subject, redirecting it to her. “What are you doing?”
That seemed to be the correct approach. She beamed proudly as she nodded at the barrier. “Adding wards. We’ve got magically enhanced elementals to expose and ultimately protect the academy against. I know a few tricks to strengthen the wards. They’re already designed to sense when something’s out of balance. I’m just building on that.”
“How?” It sounded incredibly cool.
She glanced over her shoulder, a grin curling her lips. “Join me. I’ll show you.”
I jumped at the chance to learn how to create a ward, especially with my mom—our first mother/daughter activity since she’d returned—and hurried to her side, mimicking her stance by bringing up my arms, palms out toward the barrier.
“You’ve got every element inside you, which means you can both create and bring down wards. Once a ward is brought down, it must be destroyed and a new one created to take its place. Otherwise, it’ll always be susceptible to the opposing element.” She stepped behind me and held up my wrists. “Point your hands like this. Now, close your eyes and concentrate on an element.”
“Which one?”
“Your choice. Pick one.”
I didn’t want to set anything on fire—especially my mom—so that one was out. Air was too easy and, to be honest, I wanted to impress her, so I called my primary. The ground rumbled as the earth stirred beneath our feet.
“Whoa, sweetie. How about you not bury us. Switch to something a little more controlled.”
Controlled? Earth was the most controlled element I, well, controlled. Still, I didn’t want her to stop showing me how to create a ward, so I killed my call and switched to water. It was by far my weakest element. I pulled in a deep breath and let it out, settling my mind on my task. The tingling began at the tip of my fingers and moved down my hands. When the sensation hit my right palm, I tensed, expecting it to draw out the pulsing glow. It didn’t disturb the under gash—I couldn’t simply call it a gash since it was under my skin, so under gash was the best I could come up with. The tingling turned to a numbing sensation as it continued traveling up my arms. I didn’t like it and pulled in my call.
“Open your eyes.”
I did and spotted a new ward softly shimmering a foot in front of me. Rounded
at the top, with a wavelike flip to the left, it was the most beautiful, magical thing I’d ever scene. I reached for it, but my mom’s hand on my arm stopped me.
“I…wouldn’t do that.”
I pulled back, not understanding the power of the wards, only that they were powerful enough to create a protective barrier around the school. “Why not?”
She cautiously extended her index finger and barely touched the ward. It sparked angrily, shooting a bolt of energy and striking the tip of her finger. She yanked her hand back while using air to push the ward up and over, attaching it to the barrier twenty feet or more into the air. It continued to spark, hissing and spitting at us, until it finally calmed enough to slowly, almost reluctantly, fade into the background with the rest of the wards.
“That’s why.” She slowly backed away from the barrier, her attention on the ward. “They really don’t like to be touched.”
“Something we have in common.”
She studied me. “Yet being touched by four men doesn’t bother you?”
“Mom,” I groaned. Not this again. “It’s not like we’re, uh, touching at the same time.”
“Then why, Katy? Why four? Why not one? Or even two? Four seems a bit excessive.”
“Can we please not talk about this?” I refused to justify my life choices to someone who’d been absent from my life for the past six years.
“Fine.” Her tone closed the subject even if her word hadn’t. “Do you know why I don’t like to be touched?”
“You used to say it was because you didn’t know where my hands had been.”
“I mean in general. How often did you ever see your dad and me hold hands?”
Now that I thought about it, pretty much never. “I guess I didn’t notice that before.”