Rage of Storms

by Kat Adams

  On that happy note, I refocused my thoughts on unpacking.

  My stuff sat on the single bed set against the wall opposite the door. As soon as I unzipped my duffel, my gaze landed on my sketch pad. I pulled it out and studied the drawing. I was no Michelangelo, but I didn’t suck. Amethyst needed a nose job, and Onyx needed a face—I refused to give him the one I’d drawn at the science center and immortalize Alec—so I’d have to come up with another plan. Other than that, the webcomic was pretty solid.

  I wheeled the chair to the desk and took a seat, playing around with sketches, debating adding a few new characters. Letting my mind go, my instincts took over. I sketched. And I sketched. And I sketched. It was an amazing stress reliever and something I didn’t know I’d missed until now. By the time I set the pencils off to the side, my lids were heavy and my vision blurry from staring at the pages for too long.

  My stomach grumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten, so I pushed away from the desk and took a last glance at the sketches as I stood.

  And froze as my breath hitched.

  I’d drawn a thin boy with messy blond hair, wide brown eyes, and giant owlish glasses that took up half his face. It was little Trevor Carson. I thumbed through the pages, shaking my head. Over and over, I’d drawn him. One image winning the battle against a giant rock monster. Another with him casting a spell that warded him against dark elementals entering his mind. And yet another with him training with Amethyst, her showing him the ins and outs of being an elemental.

  With a sigh, I set the sketch pad back on the desk and left my dorm before I got all emotional thinking about the kid again. I hated the Council for putting him through this, for putting any of the elementals through this. It wasn’t right. They weren’t hurting anyone. What was the harm in allowing them to remain at the academy?

  That question tunneled into my thoughts and took hold. What was the harm? Some of them had been here over a year and hadn’t turned against the Council. They hadn’t detonated like ticking bombs out of time. They hadn’t gone dark. Sending them to Carcerem, forcing them to remain locked up? Now that would turn them against the Council. This whole shit show of sentencing innocent elementals to prison for being magically enhanced was practically guaranteeing which side they’d be on when war broke out.

  I needed to talk to Stace, but considering how I’d treated her the last time we’d talked, I doubted she’d be all that open about something this monumental. Rob was too new of a member for them to tell him the why behind any of his orders. I didn’t want to talk my mom, as bad as that sounded. She’d been avoiding me, and, to be honest, I wasn’t that upset about it. I’d gone almost six years without her. It was awesome to have her back, to know she hadn’t died after all, but she was…different now.

  Sure, she’d always run hot and cold. That, I understood and dealt with. She’d always avoided getting too emotionally invested in anything I did. Again, I dealt with it. That didn’t make her a bad mom. It just didn’t make her my emotional support pillar. That had come from my dad.

  Which was why it’d cut me so deeply when he’d written me off as soon as I’d come into my powers. He’d cut me off before then, really, when my mom had disappeared.

  Now she was more than hot and cold, or emotionally distant. It was as if being around me was some sort of burden on her. Truth be told, she’d acted like that before she left. I’d just forgotten that side of her, the one that would rather lie about having something to do and hide out in her room than help me with my homework. Or the one that agreed to take me shopping for school clothes and left me at the mall.

  I didn’t want to think about all the terrible things my mom had done in the past. They were in the past. She was also the first one to offer me advice when someone at school bullied me, the first to throw out her no-touching rule and hug me after an epically bad day. She’d defend me when other parents called me weird. That was the mom I wanted to remember, not the one who’d sometimes look at me like I was a stranger.

  And she was back now. This tension between us would go away once we had the chance to spend some Q time together. I had to believe that.

  Back to my other troubling train of thought. Was being a magically enhanced elemental so bad? Granted, that forced power had nearly consumed me, but I got it back under control. Removing the students from Clearwater didn’t remove their need to learn to control their powers. If anything, they should remain at the academy and be taught the 3Cs of call, control, conceal. What if the spells that magically enhanced the elementals never wore off? Did anyone ever think of that? Was Carcerem strong enough to hold in dozens of young elementals who’d grow stronger as time went on? Or was that the real ticking timebomb?

  Steeling myself against that lovely epiphany, I changed course from the dining hall to the ruins. Food could wait. My need for answers couldn’t.

  I didn’t even bother with Cressida’s statue and instead made a beeline for the ruins. For the conversation I wanted to have, we needed privacy.

  “Cressida,” I practically shouted as I marched into the hollow stone structure. “We need to talk.”

  “Hello, Katy.”

  I tripped over my own two feet when the original supreme elemental greeted me, completely manifested. She typically didn’t show herself without me coaxing her out, and then only after she repeated her catch phrase of open your eyes about ten times.

  She was still as beautiful as ever with her long, long chestnut hair, haunting hazel eyes, and graciously flowing robes. Her smile, so warm and welcoming, was like a hug for my eyes, heart, and soul. “Oh, uh… Hi.”

  “I knew you’d come to see me. Eventually.” Her smile faltered.

  Guilt impaled me. “Look, I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you for a few days. It’s not like we talk every day. What’s with the positive manifestation?”

  “I’ve been like this for two settings of the sun.” She walked to the hole in the wall facing the ocean and stared at the horizon. “I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t understand either.” I joined her at the opening and carefully peeked at how close we were to the cliff, to the fifty-foot drop straight down to the rocks below. The waves crashed angrily against them, the two elements in an eternal battle. “Are you saying you can’t be everywhere right now?”

  She kept her attention on the horizon, her expression solemn, her gaze troubled. “I’ve been trapped here.”

  “Trapped? How?”

  “I don’t understand,” she repeated. “I can’t be the academy if I’m in this form.” She glanced at her positive manifestation, which didn’t seem all that positive right now. “You know that.”

  “I know that.” It bothered me that she too seemed to struggle with her train of thought. First Bryan, then Trevor. Now Cressida. What did they all have in common?

  When it clicked, bile hit the back of my throat. No freakin’ way. They all shared the same primary. A primary I shared as well. Could someone out there have a thing for earth elemental brains? Not like a zombie apocalypse thing, but more of a send them to the void thing. Was that why I kept dreaming about the creepy place? Did earth elementals pose some sort of threat to the dark side’s grand scheme? Spencer had been awfully keen on me bringing my earth elemental to him. He’d said that repeatedly.

  And then, when Bryan had come to that warehouse to save us all, the dark elementals took him. Not the rest of us, but him specifically. They’d sent his mind into the void, yet protected his body. Why?

  “Out of balance,” Cressida muttered as she continued to stare straight ahead.

  She’d been saying that since day one. Neither of us knew what that meant, only that we still weren’t anywhere near understanding the full meaning of that statement. I had to believe we’d get to that point someday, hopefully soon. “Cressida, could the dark side be going after the minds of earth elementals? Why would they do that?”

  “Life,” she answered so swiftly, so matter-of-factly that I bit back dropping the mother of all cuss
words over not making the connection myself. It was the forbidden call of the earth elemental. They had the power to stop a beating heart, aka steal the life force from a person. Could that be it? Could the dark side be trying to build an army of earth elementals? For what purpose? Technically, every elemental had the power to kill someone using a forbidden call. Fire could boil a person’s blood. Water could freeze the water molecules in a person’s body. Air could pull the oxygen from the lungs. Although stopping a beating heart would do the trick, so would any of the other forbidden calls.

  It had to be more.

  “The Council is forcing the students through tribunal again.” I wrung my hands together as I worked through my thoughts. The answer had to be in there somewhere, lurking just out of reach. Talking it out with Cressida usually brought those answers out of hiding. “Do you remember when I told you my theory that the dark side was creating elementals through dark magic? Turns out I was right. We have a bunch of magically enhanced elementals running around who don’t even know they’re magically enhanced. When the Council discovers one, they take the elemental away for fear they’ll go dark and turn against our side.”

  I paused there for questions. She finally pulled her focus from the horizon and re-centered it on me, searching my face with her own troubled gaze. “Taking them where?”

  “Carcerem. It’s a prison for dark elementals.”

  Her eyes rounded. “They’re locking away our kind?”

  “The Council doesn’t see them as one of us. They see them as dark.”

  “Dark magic doesn’t make them dark.”

  “It’s the intent,” I finished, remembering what Bryan had said once. “The darker the intent, the darker the elemental.”

  “That’s right.”

  “So why do you think they’re taking away the magically enhanced elementals? They didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think it’s because they’re ticking timebombs or going to turn dark. It’s got to be something more. What is it?”

  “Fear.”

  That sounded about right. The Council tried to destroy anything they couldn’t control. “Great, so because they’re scared of these elementals, they’re locking them up instead of working with them to help them call, control, and conceal their elements.”

  “A governing power ruling by fear and separation has no power at all.”

  “Try telling that to the governing power.” We fell silent and both stared at the sun as it slowly set behind the glittering water. The oranges and yellows were mesmerizing as they shimmered on the surface. It hurt my eyes to stare directly at it, and yet I couldn’t look away.

  “Brother against brother,” Cressida finally whispered, breaking the long silence. “Again.”

  I turned to her. “What do you mean again?”

  She faced me as well. “Will families stand by their imprisoned loved ones and risk imprisonment themselves? Or will they hide behind the governing power dividing them for fear they’ll be next if they speak out?”

  That didn’t even come close to answering the question. “What do you mean again?” I asked. Again.

  “I fled my home to escape a governing power ruling by fear. They destroyed all they didn’t understand under the guise it was for our own protection. All my friends. My family.” Her long hair fell around her face as she lowered her head. I didn’t have to see her expression to picture the sadness. It thickened the tone of her voice. “So many of us were forced into hiding for our own protection.” She practically spit out the last of her words.

  “Heed my words, Katy. Soon, good elementals will make impossible choices to avoid persecution. This will tear families apart.” She drew in a deep breath and gave me a sideways look. “Brother against brother.”

  We locked gazes as the epiphany settled between us. I swallowed hard and went back to wringing my hands before asking, “This is going to start a civil war, isn’t it?”

  She slid her lids closed, and a tear ran down her cheek. “There was a great battle in my time that divided our world and tore families apart even after we’d escaped persecution. Some wanted to govern our new world using the very means that had forced us to flee our home. Others wanted a new life without any rules. Neither side had been willing to compromise.”

  “What happened?” I whispered, unable to do anything more.

  “A world divided. There were no winners. We battled each other, destroying our own kind one by one.”

  That sounded way too familiar. They say history repeats itself. I’d just never experienced it firsthand until now. “Is that what’s happening now, you think? The dark side is the side with no rules. Our side is the one governing by fear. We’re reliving what happened in your time. How did you stop it from destroying your world?”

  She raised her head and squared her shoulders proudly. “One stood in the way.”

  The prophecy. That was what it came down to. Always. “You stopped it, didn’t you?”

  “I became the academy.”

  It took me a bit to put it together. When it clicked, my heart pinched. “You died to protect our world.”

  “Our world as we knew it became no more. I was no longer in this form you see now. I cast a spell that merged my essence with the academy. With the help of the wards, I created a barrier of protection around the school, protecting my kind by preventing the others from further destroying them.”

  A lot of good her sacrifice had done. The wards were failing, the barrier weakening, and the dark elementals popped in and out like it was their job. “The wards aren’t keeping the others away anymore. It’s like the barrier is broken or something.”

  “Weak. Just as trees grow old and lose their strength as they rot away, so must all life.”

  “Are the wards alive?”

  “No, only I am. I’m no longer enough to keep the barrier strong.” She faced me and took my hands in hers. They were warm, strong. “Perhaps my time being one with the academy has come to an end.”

  What? No. No! I squeezed her hands. “No way, Cressida. You are the academy. Without you, there is no school.”

  “I’m so tired, Katy. Being in this form drains me. I can’t keep going much longer.”

  “You have to try. I’ll find a way to fix the barrier. I’ll create new wards, stronger wards. My mom showed me how.”

  She stilled, studying me. “Your mother. She’s here?”

  I didn’t like her reaction. At all. “I already told you that.”

  “When?”

  Was she asking about when I told her? Or when my mom returned? Regardless, they were close enough within the same timeframe. “A couple of days ago.”

  “Two settings of the sun,” she repeated before glancing out the opening, once again at the horizon. “Now three.”

  Hold the phone. Did she just accuse my mom of having something to do with her being trapped in her human form? They had nothing to do with each other. Sure, they’d happened around the same time. And sure, my mom had been acting weird ever since she’d returned. And okay, sure, a lot of the shit show that’d taken place had started after she’d come back. Still, none of those coincidences had anything to do with each other.

  I dropped her hands and turned to leave before I said something I’d regret. I didn’t know how long spirits or essences or whatever Cressida Clearwater was held grudges, but I was pretty sure eternity wasn’t off the table.

  “You’re leaving,” she stated, her tone drooping with sadness.

  “I have to check on Leo.” I thumbed toward the direction of the infirmary as I backed away.

  “What’s wrong with the water elemental?”

  Cressida knew everything about me, mainly because I couldn’t keep a secret to save my life. “He’s in the infirmary.” Because of me. I left out that last part. “He’s, uh… He’s sick.”

  “Things are not as they seem.”

  Not this again. “Can you give me more to go on? And do not say—”

  “Out of balance.”

  I wanted t
o scream. These cryptic answers did nothing but give me anxiety. “I gotta go.”

  “Katy?”

  I paused at the entrance and glanced back over my shoulder.

  “He’s not sick. The wards, they are sick.”

  “How are the wards sick?”

  “They have the fever.”

  What did that even mean? Was that why the barrier seemed to be failing? Were the wards breaking down like they had…what? A cold? The flu? Bubonic Plague? What? I didn’t know, and Cressida wouldn’t be able to tell me, but I did know someone to ask. Someone whose parents were geeky scientists who studied rare diseases.

  “I’ll figure it out,” I promised and bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from speaking another lie.

  13

  Darkness had already settled across campus by the time I made it back to the dorms. Cressida’s words played over and over again in my mind. The wards had the fever. How did objects get sick? It wasn’t as if they had the ability to catch the common cold. What could possibly infect something inanimate?

  I texted Clay as soon as I returned to my room and, seconds later, he popped in, looking as good as ever in a brown tank top and cutoffs, his wildly untamed hair wet, his beard freshly trimmed. He smelled amazing, a mixture of a fresh shower and his musky scent, and made my mouth water to see if he tasted as good as he looked.

  “What’s on your mind, valentine?” He winked and grinned wide, showing off his perfect teeth and sending my heart into spasms. “See what I did there? Calling you by your Nelem name? Goddamn, I’m funny.”

  “You should let other people tell you that.” I repeated Leo’s words and kicked off my shoes before pulling my hair free of the tie, shaking it loose.

  “Now, take off the socks. Do it reeeeaaaal slow and toss them Daddy’s way, baby.” He made a come-here motion with his fingers.

  I shot my hair tie at him, smacking him square in the chin. The elastic caught in this beard. “Say something like that again, and I’ll take out an eye.”