by Kat Adams
“The Council raided a summit and took out a clan of dark elementals last night. It was the fourth one this month.” She crossed the room, grabbed the cleaning supplies, and got to work wiping down the equipment. “The battle destroyed a warehouse in Seattle. Thank God there’s always construction down there with them cleaning up the waterfront, so the explosions were blamed on someone hitting a gas line.”
She sprayed the sanitizer and spread it around a bench with a hand towel. “Luckily, it was a young clan. The dark elementals didn’t seem to know how to defend themselves against us.”
“Us?” I picked up on that very critical word. “You were part of the battle?”
“We need powerful callers on the frontlines. The raids are effective, but we need more. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you.”
Please don’t ask me to join the ranks. I had a hard enough time surviving my battle with Alec last year and didn’t want to seek out more dark elementals to fight. “I don’t think I’m ready to take on the whole hunter role just yet.”
She stopped wiping and glanced at me from over her petite shoulder. “I’m not asking you to. You’re too important to this world to put you into that role.”
Yet the Council had no problem painting a target on my head and pitting me against the darkest of dark elementals. Would that be irony? Or hypocrisy? “Then why tell me any of this?”
“For awareness. The dark elementals are beginning to come out of hiding. It’s only a matter of time before one takes Alec’s place and challenges you for supremacy.”
“And when that happens, I’ll be ready to accept that challenge.” I wasn’t happy with the news and even less happy I’d have to watch my back every time I stepped foot outside the warded grounds of the academy. I’d deal with it. I grabbed my gym bag and slung it over my shoulder to go upstairs. “Anything else?”
She went back to cleaning the equipment, making me feel bad. It should be me wiping down everything. I dropped my bag and gathered supplies of my own to get started on the opposite side of the room. Shoving my schedule into the pocket of my leggings, I moved to the row of free weights.
“Did you notice I moved 3C to the morning? I’m teaching a new class in the afternoons. You should have it on your schedule.”
As if being stuck in the same class again wasn’t bad enough, why not make it the first two hours of the day? I was so focused on being stuck back in 3C I hadn’t bothered reading any of my other classes. I pulled my schedule back out and reviewed it, shocked when I saw something other than shop. Did any of my requests make it onto my schedule?
“Arts & Crafts?” I looked at her. “You’re teaching a relief class?” And a dumb relief class, if you asked me. I didn’t need to know how to draw happy trees and had stopped gluing macaroni to pencil boxes when I’d graduated kindergarten.
“It’s only on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” she pointed out, like that made it any better. “Did you see your new room assignment?”
I scanned the schedule until I found it and smiled wide. The disappointment over my schedule melted away as I read the house name over and over. “I’m in Ventus?” That meant I no longer had to endure the torture of rooming with the meanest of the mean girls in Aquae. Since water was my weakest element, it never made sense for me to be stuck in that house. Air, I could handle. It was the one house where I could hang out with the guys since air was our common element. I’d made friends with several air elementals last year when they stepped up to help take down Alec.
Ventus for the win.
“Figured you’d appreciate that.”
“You did this?”
She shrugged and offered a modest nod. “I may have influenced a few room assignments this year.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t say anything to the guys about your new partner.” She moved to the next piece of equipment.
“My what?” I quickly scoured the paper. “There’s nothing here about a partner.”
“What are they calling him, then?” She took the schedule from me and checked it over.
“Him? Him who?”
“Spencer Dalton.” She said the name like it was supposed to mean something. When I didn’t react, she frowned. “Vanessa didn’t have his poster hanging in your room? I figured with all the boy bands your last roommate had pinned to the ceiling, there’d be at least one of the UK’s hottest elemental sensation.”
Dear God, please don’t let him actually be in a boy band. The world still hadn’t recovered from the Backstreet Boys. “Why would he come to Clearwater if he’s some big shot over there?”
“Apparently, he wants to team up with the one who brought down Alec von Leer.”
“I already have a team.” I gathered the towels and tossed them in the basket.
“He’s a quad.”
“I’m a quint,” I countered and grabbed the mop to clean the mats. “The myth-busting first of my kind and all that. The prophecy. Blah, blah, blah.” I dragged the mop across the mats in quick, jerky strokes, my irritation growing. I didn’t want a partner, especially some big hot shot from across the pond. “My schedule is already full. Tell him to team up with someone else.”
“He doesn’t want someone else. He specifically asked to be teamed up with you. Dean Carter said he’d make it happen. It’s only until the spring. Then he’s back in the UK.”
“Let me guess. He’s here through the Ides of March.” I had to share my birthday with the prediction that our world as we knew it would be no more. I turned twenty-one, and instead of an epic night followed by a two-day hangover, I celebrated by taking out the grand poohbah of dark elementals. Talk about overshadowing.
I mopped with more vigor. I needed to burn at least another five thousand calories and drop ten pounds before returning to Clearwater in two days. Between all the takeout and my love for any carb big or small, my pants cried a little whenever I put them on.
Professor Layden finished wiping down the last of the equipment and replaced the supplies in the cabinet. “It’s a key day in our world. Having a powerful quad partner up with you isn’t such a bad idea. Alec isn’t the only dark elemental out there.”
I dipped the mop in the bucket and squeezed the water out before dropping it back to the mat. “How would that look, the quint prophecy, the savior of this world, assigned a partner. Even if I wanted to team up with this guy—and, for the record, I’m not saying yes. Just so we’re clear—you saw my class schedule. I’m in a new primary, apparently a new relief class, and TA’ing for you in 3C on top of Ancient Divination and Elemental History. No way can I take on something like this. Not as a charge, not as a handler. Definitely not as a team player.”
“What if I could get you out of Elemental History?”
I stopped mopping and faced her. History had always been my worst subject. I wanted to shape the future, not try to change the past. “Can you get me out of Arts & Crafts too?”
“I have a feeling you’re going to like that class. Stick it out for a bit and see if you don’t change your mind.”
“Fine. Don’t make me regret this,” I grumbled and dropped the mop in the bucket. I didn’t hate the idea of having someone else help me battle the dark side. The guys were great, but I’d been so focused on protecting them while battling Alec that it’d nearly killed us all.
“Glad you came around. I didn’t want to have to pull the Council card.”
Annoyed the Council had their nose up in everyone’s business, I dropped the mop back in the bucket, splashing water all over the mats. With a groan, I rang it out and mopped up my mess. “It wasn’t really my choice anyway, was it? This S…uh S…” I sounded like I had a slow leak and trailed off. Crap. Why was I so bad at names? “Scotty Do-gooder—”
“Spencer Dalton,” she corrected.
At least I got the initials right. “Spencer Dalton,” I repeated. “This Spencer Dalton was going to be my partner whether I agreed to it or not.”
“I’m just glad it didn’
t come to that. It’ll be good for you both. The star of our world here paired up with the star of the elemental world in the UK. You two are going to be famous.”
And now I totally regretted this.
2
It never ceased to amaze me how much effort the staff put into making a school pristine for the first day, all for it to smell like dry-erase marker and freshly waxed floors. No matter which school I’d stepped foot into, no matter whether it was a Nelem school or the Academy of Elements, they all smelled the same.
At least the floors were shiny.
The dorms were no different. As I dragged my bags through the halls of Ventus, wishing I would’ve invested in a rolling suitcase, I caught all the looks. Heard all the comments.
“What is she doing here?”
“She’s not in this house, is she?”
“Great, she’s like a magnet for dark elementals.”
I found my dorm and dropped my bags in front of the door before turning and addressing my new fan club. “There goes the neighborhood. They’ll let anyone in here. Am I right?” I turned the knob and used my butt to open the door, backing into the room.
“Oh, hell no.”
A painful chill ripped up my spine. I whipped around and dropped my jaw. Oh, hell no. My new roomie was one of the Barbie twins. Since her sister Julie went dark and disappeared after I beat Alec, I’d have to come up with a new name for this one. She was now a solo act.
I forced a smile at the blonde bombshell I didn’t quite hate as much as I hated Vanessa Graves, but she came in a close second. “Hiya, Jess.”
“No. No way are you my new roommate.” She jumped off the bed and marched over. I held my ground and widened my smile along with my stance. She should know by now I didn’t intimidate easily. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
“Right now? Or in general?” I walked around her and dragged my bags to the bed not already draped with so much pink it looked like Puff the Magic Dragon threw up. “Because right now I’m trying really hard to not drop a few key words that would pretty much sum up this situation.” I opened a bag and dumped the contents onto the bed. “In general, I’m thinking the Council has a pretty warped sense of humor.”
“I won’t allow it.” She crossed her arms and jutted out a hip, a gesture she’d picked up from the ice queen herself. It didn’t work with Vanessa, and it wouldn’t work with this one either.
“Oh, please. Call Daddy. Or Mommy. Or whoever it is you have high up in the Council. That worked out so well for Ness last year.”
“She just didn’t call the right person.” Jess arched an eyebrow and brought the phone to her ear, keeping her gaze locked on me. “Auntie Brenda? It’s me.”
You’ve got to kidding me. Did she just say Brenda? As in Brenda the shiny coin perky blonde beeatch that extracted me last year? Of course she’d be related to the Barbie twins.
“Remember when you said the Council would be willing to do whatever it took to make my adjustment as easy as possible? I’m already having such a hard time being back here after everything that’s happened.” Her voice trembled as she whispered, “I don’t think I can do this.”
Were those real tears streaming down her pretty cheeks, sending a hefty amount of mascara drifting in the current? She sniffled and released a shaky breath. “Everything I see reminds me of my sister.” She choked on the last word. “And then…” Sharp intake of breath. Sob. Sniff. “They put the one responsible for it all in the same room as me!” She broke down, sobbing hard.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. I hadn’t been the dark elemental hell-bent on being the supreme ruler of our world. I hadn’t been the one who lured her twin to the dark side. I wasn’t the reason she was now a solo act.
“She’s the reason I couldn’t use my powers for months. Months!”
Okay, yeah. That one was totally me.
Jess nailed me with a warped, malicious look as her lips twisted into a bitch grin. Gone were the tears. Her breathing was suddenly, miraculously back to normal. “I knew I could count on you, Auntie Brenda.” She ended the call and let out a long, satisfied sigh.
Damn, she was good. I applauded her slowly. “Impressive. Looks like acting runs in your family.”
“I wouldn’t start unpacking just yet, quint.” She flipped her blonde mane as she spun on her high heels and bounced out of the room in her too-cute-to-be-allowed little pink outfit. God, how I hated that color.
She called me quint like it was a bad thing. I had the power to call five elements. That was way cooler than being stuck as a single like her. An air single, at that. Air was the easiest element to control, so being a single air elemental wasn’t all that impressive.
I shook my head and had just started unpacking when Lulu, the eccentric mother hen at Clearwater, teleported into the room, scaring the bejebus out of me. Good thing I wasn’t naked. Or worse, was naked and had company. Her frizzy scarlet hair seemed a little brighter, her makeup a little heavier, and she now had a beauty mark I didn’t remember her having last year. Today she had on layers of colorful robes, one for each house at the academy, and a little hat with the same four colors on flags wobbling on the ends of springs. Her choice in outfits usually had me scratching my head, but this time it actually made sense, considering orientation started in less than an hour.
“Welcome back, Katy!” She hugged me tight, smothering me in both her perfume and the robes. “It is so good to see you.”
“Hello, Lulu,” I replied in a muffled voice, wishing she would have knocked so I could have ignored it. “What brings you by?”
“Just making sure you get settled in.” She opened the large wardrobe and inspected the contents, nodding and sending the little flags bobbing. “Looks like everything is in order. Hurry up and change, dear. He’s waiting.”
“Who?”
“Why, Spencer Dalton, of course.”
Of course. “I don’t even get one day back before I have to partner up with this guy?”
“He insisted we present you the instant you arrived.”
“Present me?” I laughed incredulously and shook my head. “I’m not the presentable type. Does he expect me to curtsy too?”
She tilted her head, clearly confused.
“Never mind. Tell him I’ll meet up with him later. I want to get the rest of my stuff put away.”
With a wave of her hand, Lulu sent my clothes into the air, had the element fold them perfectly, and then used air to open the drawers and put everything away.
That had to be the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
“I never thought of using an element to do housework.” And now I’d never not think of doing that.
“Once you change into your house colors, we’ll be on our way.”
Gross. I hated the school’s outfits. The short short skirts, knee-high socks, and cute little buckle shoes were every creeper dude’s schoolgirl fantasy. “I have to wear a uniform to orientation?”
“As does every student. It’s a school function. Besides, it shows off your house. Now, do you need any help?”
I brought up my hand to stop her. “I can manage.”
After changing into the gray pleated skirt, stark white shirt and socks, and slipping on the shoes, I eyed the line of yellow blazers brighter than the sun. Yellow on redheads made us look like we had jaundice. The sweater vests weren’t so bright, so I opted for the lesser of the evils and pulled one from the wardrobe, quickly slipping it on. I’d pay for it with sweat stains, considering it was the end of August and I tended to sweat when it was eighty degrees, even without the sweater. Still, I’d take that over a blazer that could be seen from space.
“Lead the way.” I fully expected Lulu to teleport us to the office, as was her preferred mode of travel, so when she walked out of the room instead of popping, I furrowed my brow as I followed. “We aren’t going to teleport?”
“I thought we could have a little chat, you know, spend some girl time together on our walk.” She made it sound l
ike the trip from the dorms to the main campus was a weeklong journey.
“Okay, but I draw the line at hair braiding.”
“Oh, you.” She smiled warmly and seemed genuinely excited for our little girl-time chat. Wish I could say the same.
“So,” I started when we’d been walking in silence for too long—like two seconds. “What did you want to talk about?”
“How are you?”
“Uh, fine.” It came out as a question.
She slowed and gave me a look. “No, Katy. How are you?”
“Fine,” I repeated, drawing out the word. Was it a trick question? Was I getting the answer wrong?
“You know what that word really means, don’t you? Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional. I wouldn’t label you as any of those things.”
My eyes were so wide, they hurt. Lulu, the one who kept us all in line, just dropped the f-bomb in front of me. Will wonders never cease. I laughed in spite of the shock. “I really am okay.”
“I worry about you.”
“Why?” I already had an entire quad squad constantly worried about me, a professor who’d made it her job to take care of me—which wasn’t necessary, but I appreciated more than she knew—and a Council all up in my business. I didn’t need Lulu smothering me too.
“You’ve had to endure more in your short years than most of us have in our entire life. It isn’t right.”
“Tell that to the Council,” I grumbled. “They’re the ones who declared me the prophecy.”
“And you had to go up against Alec alone.”
“I wasn’t alone. I had the guys with me.”
She shot me a sideways look. “Are you saying they were fighting right alongside you? That the five of you beat him together?” She gave me another look when I took a breath to answer. The air solidified in my lungs before slowly hissing out. “From my understanding, you had to save them while defending yourself from Alec’s attacks. You saved everyone trapped in the ruins. By yourself.”
I know what happened. I didn’t need this walk down nightmare lane. “What’s your point? I beat Alec.”