by Kat Adams
As we drew close to October, summer faded away, along with the warmth. The island was once again cold, gray, and wet, and would stay this way until spring. The days were getting shorter and shorter, and I was getting more and more depressed that we didn’t live in the land of perpetual sunshine. Why couldn’t Cressida have started the academy on a Hawaiian island instead of one in Washington State?
I didn’t have training after classes since I was no longer the prophecy. That still stung. Now that Leo was a new fire caller, he got to be back on the field on Tuesdays to learn how to call, control, and conceal his newest element. That had also earned him a place back in 3C. I was now a TA to one of my boyfriends. There was a God.
Of course, it didn’t please him any. My detached surfer dude, the cool-as-a-cucumber, non-wave creator, seemed to have developed a hair-trigger temper, which had everything to do with his new element, I was sure.
My relationship with my mom hadn’t improved any. It hadn’t gotten any worse, so there was that. After she’d called me out that day on the field, convinced Dean Carter to have me tested, and then seemed pissed that I’d actually passed, neither of us had gone out of our way to see each other. It was weird having her back and still not seeing her. I didn’t know which was worse. Having her gone, I could accept us never seeing each other for obvious reasons. Having her return and still never seeing her? That I couldn’t wrap my brain around.
So, as much as I knew it’d turn into a shit show, I’d texted her and asked if we could meet for coffee. It took her two days to respond, but she eventually did and had even picked the place. Now here I sat in a café near the port, butterflies on crack fluttering around in my stomach as I waited for her to show.
I’d never been at this café before. It was small, only a half dozen bright two-seater round tables, each painted a different—and very loud—color. The sun peeked through the gray clouds for the first time in weeks and shone through the large windows that made up three of the four walls.
“Relax, babe.” Leo took my hand. I’d brought him with me for two reasons. Reason #1: To keep me calm and push his control to me if I needed it. Reason #2: My mom asked me to bring him, which I’d agreed to for fear she’d refuse to meet me without him. I still wasn’t comfortable with how much of an interest she’d taken in my boyfriend. Well, at least this boyfriend.
I laced our fingers together. “Thank you for coming.”
His smile warmed me from the inside out. He lifted our hands and kissed my knuckles, his deep blue gaze glittering like sunlight on the water. “Always.”
We waited another ten minutes. With each second ticking away, my heart sank lower and lower. I stared at the flaking orange paint covering the surface of our table, fighting the urge to pick at it to give my hands something to do.
“She’s not coming,” I finally admitted, deflated.
“I’m sorry, babe.” He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close, kissing the top of my head. No lies that she’d be here any minute or something must have come up. No pretending it wasn’t exactly what it was. Leo didn’t play that game. He was a straight shooter, one of the many things I loved about the guy.
I pushed the empty mug designed in the shape of a crunched-up can—which was both clever and challenging to drink from without spilling coffee down your front, and which I’d failed at the latter—across the table to the empty chair and stood. “Thanks for your time, Mom.”
“Want to go do something?” Leo asked once we stood outside the café.
Shoving on my stocking cap to protect my ears from the wind that’d picked up since the weather had turned, I nodded. I didn’t want to go back to campus and just sit around, sulking about the depressing aspects of my life. I didn’t want to think about having a dad who’d written me off the first chance he’d gotten. Or about having a mom who’d rather spend time with, well, anyone other than her only daughter after being gone for over half a decade.
“Yeah, sure.” I didn’t bother trying to sound convincing.
“Try to contain your enthusiasm.” He took my hand and led me away from the café, the opposite way of the school.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
“Leo, you know I don’t like surprises.” Considering pretty much every surprise I’d received since learning I was an elemental had been in the form of a dark elemental trying to kill me.
He glanced back at me as he dragged me down the damp sidewalk, his eyes all a-glitter. “Interested in getting a little wet?”
“Leo, I don’t—” was all I got out before he teleported us, shocking the bejebus out of me. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and squeezed my eyes shut for fear of recognizing the void from my nightmares.
“You can open your eyes. Come on, babe,” he encouraged after I shook my head vehemently. “You’re totally fine.”
I opened one and cautiously glanced around, immediately recognizing it as Leo’s favorite surfing hole. “Now you’re okay with teleporting?”
“Not even a little, but we’ve only got a few more hours of daylight, and I didn’t want to waste it waiting for an Uber.”
Said Leo, like, never. “What’s going on with you?”
“For this, I’ll risk the upset stomach. Come on.” He grabbed my hand and literally dragged me down to the jetty, stopping only to kick off his shoes and jeans.
“Um, Leo?” I glanced around at no one, but still. We were in the middle of everything, and he was now in his boxers.
“Take off your pants.”
“I will not take off my pants,” I hissed and looked around.
He ran toward the end of the jetty. “Suit yourself. You’ll sink right to the bottom when those jeans get waterlogged. Trust me, I know that from experience. It’s much better to take them off and have something dry to change into after you’re done.”
“Done doing what?”
“This.” He used air to lift himself. I widened my eyes until they hurt, shocked he’d do something like this in public. What if a Nelem saw him? I hurried after him, if for no other reason than to stop him before he exposed our entire world.
As I reached forward to catch him before he jumped, he pulled me into his air bubble and sent us both over the edge, crashing toward the water. “Leeeeeeeooooooo!” I screamed like a girl—yes, I said it—and windmilled my arms. If we survived this, I was going to kill him.
We landed on top of the water as if he’d planned it. We didn’t sink, which I had fully expected. The weather was unstable enough for the waves to carry us to a secluded cove out of the way of any prying eyes. No one was out on any of the jetties on this cold, dreary, drizzly day anyway.
“Take my hand.” Leo stretched out his arm.
Gladly. Water was my weakest element and not my biggest fan. Couple that with the weight of the waterlogged jeans and the fact I wasn’t all that strong of a swimmer, and I’d be a goner if the bay decided to drag me out to sea.
He positioned me in front of him, his hands on my hips, his body pressed against mine, and called the water. The wave rose beneath our feet, lifting us and gently pushing us forward. My stomach fluttered in a good way. This was actually fun. I called and created a surfboard of air, giving us a platform to balance our weight. The wave carried us a few more feet before dying down.
“Again,” I said eagerly and had the air board float us out. Leo called a bigger wave that we rode all the way back in. The butterflies returned and erupted inside my stomach. “Again.” I giggled.
Leo laughed and held me closer, keeping me warm with his overheated body temp, reminding me of his unstable new element. We repeated the motions, me having the air board float us out, him calling a rolling wave to push us back to shore. It was awesome, more fun than I’d expected.
“Ready for something new?” he asked after we’d floated out and positioned ourselves for another ride in.
I nodded and braced myself. When he called a huge wave that curled over our heads, my jaw dropped.
“Leo?” I squeaked out. If that thing came down, I’d be a goner for sure.
He wrapped his arm around my waist and held my back to his hard chest. “Relax, babe. I’m right here. Now, reach up.”
Reluctantly, positive the wave would eat my arm, I slowly pushed my fingers through the water barrier and back out. It didn’t crash down on me, so I did it again, this time moving my hand around, gently petting the surface. It was soft. Cold, but soft.
I continued to run my fingers through the water as we rode the inside of the wave to the shore. My heart beat so fast by the time we reached dry land again, I felt dizzy. Leo called the water to gently carry us all the way up the jetty and set us on the rocks.
“Wow,” I breathed. I held my hand over my stomach as it settled. “That was actually fun.”
“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.” He quickly dressed as I stood watch. After combing his fingers through his crazy blond curls, he led us off the jetty. “It was how I stayed sane after my parents, well, you know. Anyway, my element has always been there for me, keeping me calm, giving me an outlet when I needed it. I figured after your mom didn’t show, you needed a distraction, a way to find your calm.”
He sounded so Zen. “Thank you. I did need that.”
“I know.” He took my hand and squeezed.
“Let’s head back to the academy.” Even though the barrier was still weak, it was better than nothing. I might not be the prophecy any longer, but dark elementals were still gunning for me. I’d rather not be off campus longer than necessary. Besides, I wanted to tell Cressida about my latest adventure. She’d not gotten any better, but she hadn’t gotten any worse, either. She couldn’t leave the school grounds for obvious reasons, so she lived vicariously through me. It’d become our nightly ritual, me going to the ruins to pay her a visit and tell her about my day, her sharing something similar about her time.
At least I had one mother figure willing to spend time with me.
As we walked away from the jetty, a crisp wind lifted my damp hair and bit at my ears. Ah, crap. When did my stocking cap fall off? I’d already called air and blended it with fire to dry my clothes, completely forgetting about my favorite part of my outfit. “We have to go back. I lost my hat.”
He nodded and did an about-face. We walked out onto the jetty and searched the shoreline below. I pointed out the green lump of soggy yarn gently lapping against a rock whenever the water lifted it. “There it is.”
I called air and had the element bring the hat to me, blending my call with fire once again to heat the air and dry the material so by the time the hat fell into my hands, it was dry. I pulled it onto my head and tucked my ears under the gloriously warm protection. Turning to face Leo, I grinned. “All better.”
His eyes were as wide as the dinner plates at the dining hall. I didn’t get the chance to ask why before he yelled, “Katy, look out!”
The wave came up behind me and crashed down, dragging me off the jetty. I bounced off the sharp rocks as I fought against the element. My hand smacked against a rock. My head slammed into something hard, and I saw stars. I couldn’t breathe and panicked, flailing my arms to push my face to the surface. I did and sucked in a breath right before another wave pulled me back under, thrashing me against the rocks.
“Katy!”
I barely heard Leo. Why wasn’t he calling the water? Why wasn’t he helping me?
My lungs burned in protest as the water refused to allow me to surface and take another breath. I tried calling air to push me out of the water, but nothing happened. Same with calling water. With the last bit of strength I had, I called earth.
A giant bed of sand and gravel lifted me a foot above the surface. I gasped and coughed up water as I pulled in a lungful of precious air. The water reached onto the bed of earth, grabbing for me. My element countered with a wall of sand, protecting me. The two elements battled, the water trying to get around the earth’s protective barrier, the earth slapping it down each time. Eventually, the water hissed and growled as it slowly receded.
I glanced up as a shadow slowly came into view, figuring it was Leo. But he didn’t have long chestnut hair. Or hazel eyes. Or curves. As the shadow came into focus, I had to blink several times. “Mom?”
“Katy!” Leo yelled as he came rushing over. I blinked again.
The shadow had disappeared.
“Babe.” He dropped to his knees and pulled me into his arms. “Are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“I have no idea. The water just swallowed you. I tried calling it, but it resisted. It’s never done that before.”
Just like my calls when Spencer had stolen them. I sat up and glanced out at the water. It was calm, even serene, and nothing like the angry element it’d been moments ago. I pushed my hair off my face and frowned. Dammit. I’d lost my hat again.
That didn’t bother me nearly as much as seeing my mom right after the earth had rescued me. The only thought I had…
Did my own mother just attack me and with an element she couldn’t control?
19
I didn’t say anything as we Ubered it back to the academy. Leo insisted on staying with me, but I convinced him I was fine and just wanted to rest alone in my room. He’d no doubt tell the guys what happened, and they’d all start texting me, popping into my room, or both. That left me little time to sneak to the ruins and talk to Cressida. Maybe she’d know what happened.
After quickly changing into dry clothes—it was surprisingly hard to walk in jeans that had been elementally dried—I teleported to the ruins to save time and hurried inside. “Cressida?”
No answer, which was weird. She’d been trapped in here for weeks.
“Cressida?” I called out louder.
Still nothing. And still weird.
I didn’t feel her presence either. Frowning, I walked along the stone walls of the gutted structure, past the curved staircase leading up to where the watchtower used to stand, around the large square stones that used to be part of the walls, and finally paused at the large opening facing the water.
Shuddering at the memory of how the element had tried to take me, I shook my head. “What did I ever do to you?” I asked the water bitterly. “I thought we’d moved past the whole spell thing. I told you I was sorry. You seemed to accept my apology. But then you did what you did today. How could you?”
The waves crashing against the rocks below fell silent as the element slowed, proverbially hanging its head.
“You should feel bad. You almost killed me.”
Water droplets that had collected on the surrounding grass merged together to create a puddle. It shuddered and then stilled.
“Stop trying to apologize,” I snapped.
It shuddered again. And then stilled again.
“I said stop. Can’t you even follow a basic command?”
It began to dance, shooting up mini streams as if I’d just shouted out bingo.
And it clicked. “You didn’t have control, did you? Someone else commanded you to attack me.”
The puddle went crazy, mini waves crashing down. It then stilled again, waiting.
I knelt and placed my hand on the surface, closing my eyes and concentrating on connecting with my element. It didn’t want to do what it had. I couldn’t be mad at it when it didn’t have control over what it had done. It was ashamed. I sensed it. “I understand.”
The puddle dispersed, returning the droplets of water to the grass. A few held back and crawled up my hand. They wrapped around my fingers, hugging me. I smiled and played with them as they rolled around, moving my hand this way and that before releasing them to the grass, where they returned to their original position on the blades.
I dropped my smile and whipped around when I heard feet scraping against the dirt, my hands at the ready to call whatever element I needed to protect me.
“Whoa.” My mom had her hands up as well. “It’s just me.”
She had on robes, a lot of robes of al
l different colors that ruffled in a weird-smelling, nonexistent breeze. It reminded me of burnt human hair. Speaking of…her hair seemed different. Longer, somehow. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she looked just like the woman I came to here to visit.
Mom? Or Cressida? Why couldn’t my brain make any sense of reality? It couldn’t be my mom. First, I saw her shadow at the jetty. Now here in the ruins when it was clearly Cressida. Something didn’t work in my brain. It felt heavy, if that were even possible.
“How’d you know to find me here?” Instead of at the café where we were supposed to meet?
“It’s where I always go to be alone. You know that.” She entered the ruins and glanced around. “It’s my home.”
“Cressida?”
“Who else could it be?” She smiled, though the warmth never reached her eyes as it usually did. And she wouldn’t look directly at me, which was something else that didn’t fit. Cressida usually held uncomfortably long eye contact.
“I thought you couldn’t leave the ruins.”
She kept in constant motion, pacing around the inside of the shell, touching the stone walls, running her fingers along the seams. “I can do what I can do.”
Like that was an answer. “Where’ve you been?”
“Watching.” She turned to me. “Always watching.”
Clearly, I was losing my marbles. She looked like Cressida. She gave cryptic answers like Cressida. And yet…she didn’t feel like Cressida. “Mom?”
“Why are you having such a hard time focusing?”
“I’m not. I’m just…” I had no words. My brain fuzzed over as a dark fog invaded my thoughts, blocking out any sense of coherency.
Fog.
Dark fog.
Magic fog. The same kind of fog that had trapped Clay and me up at the Point. The same kind of fog that had distracted us to the point we’d almost gotten to Stace too late. The exact same fog that Bryan had created right before he’d disappeared.
Or had he been the one to create it at all?
I jerked my attention to the woman claiming to be Cressida Clearwater. Yes, she’d transformed into a positive manifestation since the barrier had begun to weaken—I still maintain my innocence on that one—but she’d never given off the vibe I picked up now. Something was off. Something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.