TERRA (The Elements Series Book 2)

by Tracy Korn

  The viscous blue fluid puddling in Cal's bottom hand pulls back into itself until it's nearly gone, and the same little ears and pointy nose begin peeking out from the top of his other hand again until the blue, glowing bat is caged again by his fingers.

  "They only do it if they feel threatened, so if we can manage significantly less whaling around, it'll probably stay whole," Cal says, staring down his nose at me.

  "See, it's harmless," Liddick says, reaching to carefully scratch the thing on the head again. "Touch it."

  "No! I don't want to touch it! I've already touched it. Did you miss the part where I was touching it?!" I babble. Liddick smile cracks into laughter, and I rake my fingers through my hair to make sure there are no more pieces of that animal entangled in it just like the gel worm was in the scene Vox showed me…and the second I realize what I'm doing, I feel the air rush at me all at once. In the scene…it was wet just like this, and the pieces came back together…I think, frozen where I stand as Liddick meets my eyes.

  Rip, this isn't a worm. It's not exactly like what you saw, he thinks, but my heart still hammers in my chest. The vision is coming true, and now I'm terrified to remember that it also showed Fraya screaming…that Vox was on fire.

  Cal releases the weird gelatinous bat into the mouth of the corridor, where it follows the others. He shakes his head, then wipes his hands on his pants as Zoe smiles, and I swear I see her open her fist to deposit a little red flame, which then lights a torch mounted in the wall. She reaches for it, then holds it to the etchings on the far left of the cave.

  "Lots of things down here make their own light too, like those worms out there," she says.

  "Did you just…was that fire in your hand?" I ask, stunned, but she just angles her head at me and raises an eyebrow.

  "Well, yeah. The DNA treatment, remember? All of us can do it," Zoe says like it's as common as a weather update, and my heart drops to the bottom of my chest.

  Liddick…Vox was on fire like this in the message she sent me in the corridor. It's all coming true! I think.

  Maybe she was just trying to show us their abilities. Don't jump to conclusions, he replies, but I see the muscles in his jaw tense. He's not all right with this either.

  "Everyone descended from the six lines, plus those we've treated has their gifts," Veece says, nodding to Dell and Zoe. "We're all untouchable by fire, by heat, and we we're immune to the pressure this far below the surface."

  "But you can produce fire too? It's not just a defense ability?" I ask, and just as I finish, a tiny red flame snaps to life in the center of Dell's hand. In seconds, it's a small collection of flames about the size of one of the wall torches. I raise my fingers to it, and can feel the heat several inches away. Dell studies my face, then his eyebrow quirks at the same time as the corner of his mouth. "That's amazing," I say, and he winks at me again like he did when he and Alec first pulled us through the corridor.

  "Well, this probably won't be near as entertaining, but here's the Origin Wall," Zoe says, breaking my hypnosis with the fire. "You want to know which way Vox went, best just to see the whole thing spread out, wise?" she asks. Liddick nods in reply, then glances over at me with a new focus in his eyes.

  "This is the map of everything out there? Everything on the way to the mountain?" I ask.

  "More," Veece says, gesturing to the bottom of the wall. "All these words down here, that's what my father recited up at the Gathering," he adds, then points to the three dots hovering over each side of the upside down, stacked letter Vs, and then at a diamond shape just below that. "These six dots are stars—they're supposed to represent the six families. That's what the script down here says," he explains. I take a step closer to the wall and see that the diamonds and other etchings are almost the same as the marks Vox and the Vishan have.

  I raise my hand to the wall and start to shake off the last of the random chills that stupid little bat gave me, then trace the diamond shaped maze at the bottom of the carving. Above it, seven inverted arrows are connected by a line up the middle like the veins of a leaf. A regular looking, open arrow with two dots over it and another diamond inside are above that.

  "And this is where Vox went?" I ask.

  "Yes, that's the Motherland, the first great peak Jove talked about," Cal answers. "And those two dots represent the two who went to the stars."

  "It's here," Veece adds, pointing to his chin. "And the path to the stars…that's these two inverted arrows, the diamond, and the two skies here." He points to the pattern on the bridge of his nose and the diamond between his eyes, then to the arrows on his forehead with the three dots on each side.

  "And this maze?" I say, pointing to the woven diamond pattern that both Vox and the Vishan have on their chest. "Vox said these were her lands?"

  "The Vishan lands. In-terra," Cal says with a clip of aggravation in his voice. "Vox's tattoos aren't complete. These are the seven biomes, the templates for the climates on the surface. We call it the Rush—she's missing the line that connects them on her throat, see?" he adds, pointing to his neck, and then to his chin. "She's missing the Motherland diamond here too."

  "So how will she know where to go?" I ask.

  "Probably the same way she's always known. You saw the maps she tattooed on herself from all her other treks," Liddick says.

  "But this isn't exactly Skyboard or even the Badlands. She has no point of reference here."

  "Sure she does," Zoe says. "You can see the Motherland from here. It's the Rush in between that might complicate the whole endeavor some."

  "Some," Cal and Dell both say at the same time, and Cal chuffs a laugh as they exchange glances. "Some is just the beginning."

  "You said we could see it from here—the mountain. Will you show us?" I ask Zoe.

  "Love to, but we're about out of time for tonight," she says, pulling her own nearly red cycle stone from her pocket. "They're going to sound curfew when this turns red, and we still need to walk back up to the Hall," she adds, putting the stone away and then returning the torch to the wall where she claps it out with both hands. It takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the relative brightness of the white and yellow light after the red torch.

  "Tomorrow," Veece says as we turn back into the corridor. "We'll take you to the Lookout Pier. You'll need your sleep tonight." A feeling of hope washes over me as I nod at him, then turn to Liddick.

  It's a good sign, don't you think…that they'll help us get through the Rush? Can't you feel it? I ask Liddick in my thoughts as we leave the cave, but he just keeps staring straight ahead, and then slows to a stop along with the others after a few more steps. Did you hear me? Don't you feel it? I add, compelled to giggle until I grip his sleeve and the ridiculous giddiness tempers.

  "Jazz…" I hear my name in front of us, and immediately turn my head in the direction of it. All at once the flood of happiness crashes over me again, and before I realize I've taken one step, I've taken so many that I'm halfway down the corridor.

  "Arco!"

  CHAPTER 19

  Layers

  Arco exhales like he's just thrown off a heavy pack, and the next time I blink, his arms are closing around me and lifting me off the ground. His skin is cool against my cheek and smells like the sea—the damp fabric of his dive suit pressing against my neck as he starts to laugh.

  "It's all right," he repeats through my rambling apologies for pushing him away at the top of the waterfall, and I start laughing too once I finally unlock my arms from around his neck. I take a deep breath before I look up to see the same runaway smile he couldn't control when he first kissed me by the moon pool. Heat spreads over my cheeks at the memory of him rushing in without even thinking, of feeling his hands on my face, and the way his lips moved over mine.

  "How did you get down the falls?" Liddick asks abruptly from behind me, which makes me refocus.

  "Short version?" Avis starts. "We were rappelling, but then our new friends here came out of nowhere and tried pulling our lines b
ack up. Tieg jerked one of them right off the edge!" he laughs as he cranes his neck, presumably to find either Tieg or the person who fell.

  "Is he all right?" I automatically scan everyone until I see a tall Badlander boy narrowing his eyes at Avis as he bends to wring out his soaked shirt. He straightens to his full, imposing height, and I can see that his lean torso is bright with fresh scratches that run up his side.

  "I'm fine," he snarls as Cal and Dell try not to laugh.

  "We didn't know they were helping until we jumped the rest of the way down and landed in the pool. If it weren't for their sonar device…" Arco adds, taking a deep breath as he looks at me, then shakes his head and closes his eyes in a long blink. "I can't even think about you down there with that thing swimming right underneath…" he trails off again before looking over his shoulder at a Badlander girl behind him. Her skin is bronze in the hazy white and yellow light of the glow worm walls, and her short, black hair falls back from her forehead in choppy angles. "Thank you," he nods to her.

  "Ty chased off the worm, I just kept Jesse from killing you after the all-clear," she shrugs, angling her head back to the boy with the scratches near the wall. He glares at her as he shakes water from his short, dark hair, then crosses to the opening in the rock ahead of us, his wet shirt still dripping in his hand.

  "If the soup is gone, I'm throwing them off the Lookout Pier," he says, jerking his chin at Tieg. "He's first."

  Dell and Cal erupt in laughter now, earning them both a shove from the boy as he pushes through the fissure.

  "Glad you're not swallowed, Jesse!" Zoe calls after him, then begins laughing too. Tieg just rolls his eyes and sighs, too exhausted to care as Veece blows out a breath.

  "And you probably can't forget Jesse," he says with a nod at the opening in the wall. "Ty helped him bring you in earlier, and this is Kesh," he adds, gesturing first to another tall, lean boy standing with Myra and Joss, then to the girl with the choppy, dark hair. Kesh nods unceremoniously at us, and Ty raises two fingers to his forehead before taking off the leather pouch slung across his chest, his short brown hair wet and clinging to his forehead.

  "It's curfew—come on." Dell looks at his now very red stone, then leads us toward the fissure.

  This is the corridor we came through—the one where they grabbed us? I think toward Liddick as we walk, and when he doesn't answer right away, I turn to him.

  Looks like it, he finally says without turning back, and a cold wave washes over me.

  What's wrong? I ask him, then watch him crossing to Dez, a suffocating heaviness in his wake.

  Nothing—I'll fix it, he answers, but then Tieg moves to Dez's side, cutting off his trajectory. We fall in behind them, and I feel Liddick's impatience silently explode.

  Hey…I call to him in my head, and after a second, he finally looks over to me. Tieg isn't going to give you the chance to fix anything. I can explain to her that you only jumped down the falls after me because we're friends, if it will help? I offer, but he just chuffs a laugh.

  Help who, Rip? You? His words are clipped even in my head and hang in the air as another thrum of adrenaline fires straight through me. All at once I feel seen again, accountable, and this time it makes me angry.

  Liddick, you may be able to read my thoughts, but that does not mean you know how I feel, I answer as my heart starts pounding. He turns to look directly at me over his shoulder, his eyes sparking as he opens his mouth, then bites back whatever he was going to say, forcing the muscles in his jaw to jump as he pushes through the fissure in front of us.

  I blow out a breath just as we empty into the same cave where we first met Zoe, Cal, Alec, and Dell. The walls now reflect the deep red glow of the torches instead of the brighter green from earlier, and when we reach the top of the connecting corridor, Center Hall is full of people. Dell and Cal join the tall boy who was intent on soup at the cook pot—did Zoe call him Jesse?—where he is fortunately ladling some into a bowl, and I smile at the passing realization that none of us will be tossed off the pier tonight.

  Liddick doesn't react to my observation, and I'm not sure if the pressure in my chest now is because of his residual guilt over not explaining his feelings about me to Dez, or really about the moments with him like this when I know he's not entirely wrong—moments when he can see even what I don't want to see. I've made it clear to both of us that we can't be anything more than friends because I can't let myself get caught up…I can't lose sight of consequences the way I do with him, especially not now when there is so much at stake. I look over to him again, but he only scrubs his hands over his face before walking back toward the stone circle where everyone is eating.

  "Let's go before Jesse hollows that pot," Kesh says to Arco and Ty, her dark eyes kind, almost maternal, even though she must be about the same age as we are.

  "If he hollows it, he'll be the one launched off the Lookout," Ty grins through feigned bravado. "I'll see to that personally," he adds with an escaping laugh as he holds out a hand for Kesh to go up to the cook pot first, and I can't help but smile. He puts off the same kind of warmth as Myra, which is a welcome relief considering the ice wall now between Liddick and me, and I don't even know what to begin to say to Dez.

  Kesh smiles, then nods graciously to Ty before they both walk with Zoe toward the others, and Arco's arm tightens around me.

  "What's wrong?" he says in a soft, low voice that still startles me. I take a deep breath and look up at him, unsure how to explain.

  "Just everything with Dez and Liddick," I finally say, aware of how vague it is, but there's just too much to say and I don't know how to begin. He studies my face for a second before he answers me, and I can tell he's trying to choose his words.

  "It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt around him. Maybe he'll be more careful now," he offers, and I feel compelled to remind him that we've been wrong about Liddick—that he was only immersing himself in the virtuo-cines and Skyboard culture to find out more about what happened to his brothers. How has Arco forgotten this already? I wonder, feeling an ember of anger start to melt the ice in my stomach. "You know he was just trying to protect everyone," I finally say, trying to keep the note of chastisement out of my voice, but he only sighs.

  "He was still reckless with her, and he deserves what he's getting now because of that."

  "He just wanted to help her after Pitt…" I trail off, still in disbelief that he's really gone.

  "He's been letting her fawn all over him since before anything happened to Pitt. Tieg even caught them making out, remember? He's just careless, Jazz. You can't act that way with someone without it setting up an expectation that you're together," Arco adds, and in the same moment I want to fall through one of the cracks in the walls because if Liddick is guilty of setting up an expectation, then I most definitely am, despite trying not to talk about how I feel about Arco until I'm sure myself. How did this happen? I smile weakly at him as we walk toward the cook pot where Vita ladles a bowl of soup for him, and I feel distant from everyone as we take a seat on one of the flat stones in the circle.

  Crite, you think too much. Liddick says in my head as he finds somewhere to sit. I open my eyes to see him pressing his lips into a thin smile. My own thoughts, everyone else's conversation about the Vishan and about how the Badlanders got down here, all the words running in the background stop as I search myself for a justifying response.

  I'd have more figured out if I did, I say, and his mouth pulls to a smile.

  Thanks for trying to make him see just now, Liddick adds, glancing at Arco, who is riveted by whatever Veece is saying as everyone finishes their soup. But everything will always be black and white to him.

  Well, he's not wrong about how Dez feels. Did you forget to tell her things were as casual as you thought?

  Rip, how could they be anything else after just a few days? We maybe had five minutes where things got heated, and that's when Spaulding walked up and went atomic. After that, we were escaping an implod
ing, two-ton Leviathan and burying her brother…no real opportunity for defining the parameters of a relationship in all that, you know? he answers, only half-committing to the sarcasm as he pushes a hand through his light hair, lifting it back to expose the darker roots.

  Do you care about her? I ask, and this makes his eyes flash to mine.

  Yeah, I mean, as much as can be expected for barely knowing her, he finally answers, then shakes his head and looks away. Crite, I'm not a sociopath.

  Well, maybe that will just get stronger. Maybe it will be everything you want if you give it a chance? I hear the words in my head, feel them take shape quickly before they lose their nerve, and he just stares at me in that way that's too intense, too focused to outrun.

  Is that what you're doing with Hart? Hoping? He leans in over his knees and clasps his hands in front of him as his eyes pin me to my seat, and another flare of adrenaline lights in my chest.

  This isn't about me, Liddick.

  Isn't it? he asks, now with an edge in his voice. The only difference between you and me is you won't just let your feelings be what they are…you keep trying to make them fit this life plan you're still clinging to, but if you haven't noticed, that blew up the second they slapped these bracelet cuffs on us. We have to make a new way now whether we're ready or not, Rip. Liddick suddenly darts a glance to Arco, who is sitting next to me, then gets to his feet along with several of the others who then start migrating toward the sleeping areas. I do know how you feel. Does he?

  "Hey," Arco says, nudging me in the ribs, and I look up at him, startled. "Did you hear me?"

  "What? No, I mean…sorry. What?" I say, shaking my head to bring myself back into the moment as Liddick disappears behind some of the crowd.