Playing With Fire (Power of Four Book 2)

by SF Mazhar

  Kyran held out the sword for all to see and recognise.

  “Your lies are starting to unravel, Neriah!” he called. “It’s time you told everyone the truth!”

  The Hunters around Neriah aimed their guns at Kyran. A swipe of the mighty Blade and the crowd were thrown back by the force of a tornado. Many scrambled forward on their hands and knees, guns in shaky hands, and tried to take aim again. But it was no use. Kyran was gone. A moment later, so were the vamages.

  ***

  “What the hell is going on?”

  Skyler was beside himself. He had a nasty-looking cut on his temple, which leaked a thin trail of blood down the side of his face, but he didn’t even seem to realise it. He was lost in his anger, demanding answers from the oldest Elemental, as they all were once again gathered at the clifftop.

  “How can he wield my Blade?” Skyler thundered.

  “Sky, calm down,” Ella said, reaching out for him.

  Skyler pushed her away, his fury-filled eyes on Neriah. “He took my Blade! That sword is mine by birthright. How the hell can he touch it and not have the power drained out of him?”

  Neriah stood in silence, head dropped and eyes narrowed. He was working things out in his mind, completely ignoring Skyler and the shell-shocked crowd that had gathered around him.

  “Neriah!” Skyler cried. “Answer me! What’s going on?”

  Neriah raised his head at last and looked over at Skyler. He took in a deep breath.

  “We have to set up the Gate,” he said. “We’ll talk once we get back–”

  “NO!” Skyler raged. “We’ll talk here! Right now!”

  “Sky.” Ella grabbed his arm in a tight grip. “Get a hold of yourself.”

  Skyler didn’t fight to get free. His eyes didn’t waver from Neriah. The usually cold, arrogant and proud Skyler Avira was close to breaking point, and as much as Aaron had once wanted to see Skyler knocked down a peg or two, he found he couldn’t stand the sight of him like this.

  Neriah glanced to the crowd of Hunters around them. “We need to set up the Gate,” he repeated. “The rest of you keep watch, in case we get any more unwanted guests.”

  The crowd obediently moved away. Kate shared a look with her husband but followed the rest of the Hunters, leaving only Chris, Aaron, Skyler and Ella with Neriah.

  Skyler pulled his arm out of Ella’s grip. “How did he do it?” he asked.

  “Why are you demanding answers from him?” Ella asked angrily. “What makes you think Neriah knows what’s going on?”

  “He knows,” Skyler said, talking to Ella but his bloodshot eyes stayed on Neriah. “He knows what’s going on. I can see it.” He stepped forward, even when Ella tried to pull him back. “Tell me,” he said to Neriah. “Just tell me what’s going on. How can he take my Blade without the legacy?”

  “He can’t,” Neriah replied.

  Skyler fell silent, blue eyes wide.

  “Then how did he do it?” Ella asked, looking as lost as Aaron felt.

  Neriah kept his gaze on Skyler and with every passing second, the violet eyes grew more solemn. “Kyran can’t have wielded the Blade of Avira without the legacy for Air,” he said quietly.

  Aaron watched as understanding fell over Skyler, making him choke and stagger back a step.

  “He...He has my legacy?” Skyler asked.

  Neriah didn’t answer, but there was no need. The sheer grief and guilt on his face gave the answer for him.

  “How?” Skyler asked and it looked like the shock was either going to kill him or make him go mad. “How can...What the hell is going on?”

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” Ella said.

  “Why does that son of a demon have my legacy?” Skyler cried.

  Neriah shook his head. “Skyler, I don’t–”

  “Tell him, Neriah,” Chris interrupted.

  Everyone stopped and turned to look at him, but Chris was staring at Neriah, his expression sombre and pained. “He has a right to know,” he said quietly.

  Skyler looked between Chris and Neriah, clearly shocked that Chris – the Elemental missing from their world for nearly the last decade and a half – knew what was going on when he didn’t.

  “Tell me what?” Skyler asked, and now Aaron could see the fear on him.

  Neriah was staring past Skyler, holding Chris’s eyes. For a heartbeat, no one spoke. They just stood in tense silence. Then Neriah closed his eyes with a defeated sigh.

  “He’s right,” he breathed. “You have the right to know what’s going on, Skyler.” He looked at Skyler, Ella and then Aaron. “But what I’m about to tell you stays within the Elemental circle.”

  Aaron and Ella nodded, but Skyler stood rigid with tight fists at his side.

  Neriah took a moment before turning to look at Skyler. “Kyran has your legacy,” he said, “because Hadrian took it from James before he killed him.”

  Skyler reacted like someone had hit him. He flinched back, eyes wide and filled with disbelief.

  “That’s impossible!” Ella fought back. “You can’t force anyone to give up their legacy. And Hadrian already had his own legacy. An Elemental can only have power over one of the elements.”

  Neriah smiled but it was filled with bitter pain.

  “Yes,” he said quietly. “An Elemental can have full power over only one element. Mages can use all four elements but there is only one they have a strong affinity for. We can’t have full control over all four elements. It’s not possible, since Aric the Great, married a human, and rendered his offspring with this disadvantage. Our humanity is our weakness. And so on and so on.” He looked from Ella to Skyler. “That’s what we all believe. These are the facts that we are taught, the rules we are brought up with.” He closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. “It’s not true.” His words were whispered but they rang in everyone’s ears. “None of it is true.”

  Ella stepped forward, looking confused and scared. “Neriah, what are you saying?”

  “What you’re hearing,” Neriah replied. “Our foremother was a human. We have always thought that was the reason mages can’t have full control of all four elements.” He shook his head. “But it’s not true. Our humanity doesn’t make us weak. It doesn’t stop us from having all four powers.”

  “So what does?” Ella asked.

  Neriah held her eyes. “Aric,” he said. “He’s the one who split the powers. He chose to give one element to each of his eldest four. Afton, Avira, Adams…” He hesitated for a moment before concluding the list. “Aedus. He gave them full power of only one element in the hopes of keeping them together. He thought that by giving his children only one power each, he would keep them forever united in the fight against demons. The Elementals would need one another to stay strong.” He quietened for a moment. “It worked. For centuries, we believed that alone we were but one power, but together, we had the power of four. There was nothing that could stand in the way of the Elementals. We ruled the realm, protected the humans, fought the demons. We won because all four Elementals knew they needed each other to remain strong.” His violet eyes darkened with pain. “Until Hadrian found out what Aric did, and decided our forefather had wronged us, so he set out to correct that mistake.”

  “How did Hadrian find out what Aric had done?” Ella asked.

  Neriah closed his eyes tightly and brought up a hand to rub at his face. “Because of me,” he said heavily.

  Ella gaped at him, in too much shock to say anything.

  “It’s a long story,” Neriah said. “One I don’t have the heart to tell.” He looked at his niece. “It was my fault. Hadrian and I were searching for something else when we stumbled across Aric’s secret. We didn’t tell anyone what we had found out,” Neriah said, looking over at Chris. “Not even the other Elementals. We were young at the time and foolish enough to believe that we held some sort of power over the rest by knowing something no one else did.” He closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “If there is anything, anything, I regre
t more than all the other mistakes I’ve made, it’s this. I would give everything I have to go back in time and stop myself and Hadrian from learning what Aric had done.” He dropped his head and, for a moment, he simply stood there, weighed down by guilt and remorse. He straightened up but looked like he was fighting to remain composed.

  “Hadrian was adamant that if Aric had split the powers himself, that meant mages were capable of holding all four powers. He was desperate to test his theory, to find a way to return mages to what they were supposed to be – beings with the power of all four elements.” He shook his head. “He became obsessed with it. It was all he would talk about, think about. After a few years of struggling to find a way, he gave up. I thought that was the end of it.” His eyes went to Chris and both men shared a look. “But then Hadrian found a reason to go back to his research. He believed that Aric left clues in his sermons, to allow mages to find a way to have all four powers if they were willing to do what was necessary.”

  Aaron could see the tension in Neriah’s strong, broad shoulders. He could read the heartbreak in his eyes, the anger in the tight line of his jaw.

  “The one thing that was repeated in almost every sermon of Aric was his most famous saying: nothing is more powerful than blood.” Then, quietly, Neriah added, “And everyone knows our powers are our life-source. Power flows in our veins; it’s in our very blood.”

  It all fell together with a click, like the missing piece of a puzzle that Aaron didn’t even realise he was putting together in his mind.

  “That’s it,” Aaron breathed. “That’s why Hadrian turned into a vamage.” He looked up to find confirmation in Neriah’s pained eyes. Nothing is more powerful than blood. That’s what Naina had said too, and that mages never understood that. Aaron stepped closer. “Hadrian became a vamage so he could drink blood – blood that holds the power of a mage.”

  Neriah nodded. “He took Aric’s words and twisted them, believing that Aric was hinting at a way to gain all four powers, rather than preaching about the importance of family, of brotherhood. He became a vamage, gave up his purity – put that down as the ‘price’ he had to pay to become, what he believed, was a mage in its truest form. A mage with all four powers, all four legacies.” He turned back to Skyler. “When he attacked James, he didn’t just take James’s life, he took his power, his legacy from him too.”

  Skyler stared at Neriah with a broken expression. “You knew?” he asked. “All this time, you knew I didn’t have the legacy?” His eyes, which had filled with tears, blazed with anger. “The legacy never passed to my father after Uncle James died. It never came to me because Hadrian had taken it. You knew that and you still let me believe I was the legacy holder?”

  “You’re the rightful owner of that legacy,” Neriah said. “I’ve been trying to get you back your birthright.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Skyler asked. “Why?” he screamed and his rage kicked dust swirls up into the air.

  But Neriah didn’t use his element in retaliation. He just stared at Skyler with guilt-ridden eyes.

  “I hoped I would never have to,” he replied. “I wanted to get to Hadrian and take back your birthright before you came of age and realised your legacy was missing.”

  Skyler shook his head, fury emanating from him in waves. The air around them heated up, making prickling sweat gather on their skin.

  “I trusted you.” Skyler hissed the words. “I believed you. I believed that my core wasn’t strong enough, that my legacy was lying dormant inside me. I worked day and night to get better! I trained, I fought. I went out on every damn hunt, all of it to make my core stronger, to get my legacy to awaken.” His eyes blazed with anger. “And all that time, you knew I didn’t have the legacy. You lied to me!”

  “Skyler–” Neriah reached for him but Skyler shoved his hand away, stepping back.

  “Why?” he bellowed. “Why did you lie to me? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Neriah faltered and Skyler’s slitted eyes widened.

  “You thought I would leave,” he said in realisation. Neriah didn’t say anything, but again, his silence confirmed Skyler’s accusation. “You thought I would go to Hadrian?” Skyler asked. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Many before you have left to go to Hadrian,” Neriah said. “How could I be sure that you wouldn’t too?”

  Skyler was staring at him with disgust. “I wouldn’t align myself with a demon!” he spat.

  “How do you think Hadrian got so many mages to turn?” Neriah asked. “How do you think his army of vamages came about?” Now anger was replacing the guilt and Neriah once again looked like the fearless leader of the mages. “I kept the truth I learnt about Aric and his purposeful splitting of the powers to myself, but Hadrian didn’t. He tells mages they can have all four powers. He turns them using greed, promising them what they can’t have as mages. That’s why we’ve lost so many. Who do you know Skyler, that wouldn’t give everything they’ve got to have full power over all four elements?”

  Skyler didn’t say anything, but his fists were clenched tightly at his sides.

  “After Hadrian killed James, I told Chris and your father about what Aric had done,” Neriah said to Skyler. “All the Elementals knew the truth and all of us decided to keep it a secret, so no mage would turn, like Hadrian did. So no other mage would be tempted to forsake their purity in their greed for power.”

  “I would never give up my purity,” Skyler said. “If you knew me at all, you would know I would rather die than turn into a vamage.” He started walking away.

  “Skyler–” Neriah called to him.

  “I don’t know what’s more insulting,” Skyler said, turning to look at him. “To know that the mage I followed like a father lied to me all my life, or to know he thought so little of me that he believed I would choose to become a demon if he told me the truth.”

  Neriah didn’t say anything. Skyler walked away. He pulled off the ivory coat, the thing that marked him as the legacy holder for the element of Air, and dropped it to the ground. He didn’t look back even once.

  “Sky,” Ella yelled. She ran after him and picked up his coat. “Sky? Sky, wait! Please.”

  Neriah remained where he was, staring at Skyler’s retreating form, watching Ella chase after him. He took in a deep breath and turned to face the only two Elementals left. He tried to smile at Aaron, but it came across as little more than a grimace.

  “We should set up the Gate,” he said. “This one should be a lot more stronger, with two legacy holders setting it up.”

  Aaron realised that all the times Skyler had set up Gates, they hadn’t been as strong as everyone thought. Skyler was an Elemental, the last Avira, but he wasn’t the legacy holder.

  Chris made to follow after Neriah but stopped when Aaron didn’t move.

  “Aaron?” he called. “Come on.”

  Aaron shook his head. After everything that had happened, this was the last thing anyone wanted to hear, but Aaron didn’t have a choice. “You don’t need me to set up the Gate,” he said to Neriah. “Not if you want it set up by two legacy holders.”

  Neriah frowned, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

  “What do you mean?” Chris asked.

  Aaron took in a steadying breath. “I mean,” he started in a quiet voice. “I’m not the legacy holder, Dad. You are.”

  23

  Dangerous Plans

  “Are you certain about this?”

  “Yes, sir, completely certain.”

  Hadrian sat back in his seat, brow furrowed in thought. “Then we can’t waste another moment.”

  Sitting at his left, Machado inclined his head. “What would you like us to do?”

  Hadrian didn’t speak right away. He tapped his fingers on the rich mahogany table at which he was sitting. “Get together a team,” he said. “I want his every move watched. Where he goes, who he meets. I want every minute of his existence under surveillance.”

  “Yes, sir,” Machado replied
.

  “Don’t underestimate him,” Hadrian warned. “Raoul may be a Lycan, but he’s no fool. And if what you’ve said is true, and Raoul wants to find the Blades of Aric, then he’ll put his full force into tracking them down. If he gets to them, he’ll block access to them.”

  “We have the location of the Blade of Adams narrowed down to one of four possible places,” Machado reported. “Both the Blades of Aedus and Afton are with their legacy holders and so are safe from Raoul.” His eyes darted to the boy sitting at Hadrian’s right hand. “But it would help if all of us knew where the Blade of Avira was being kept.”

  Up until now, Kyran was putting on a good show of acting oblivious to the meeting, but he couldn’t quite hold back his smirk at Machado’s last remark.

  Hadrian turned his head to look at his son and smiled. “Kyran?”

  Kyran lifted his head and met Machado’s eyes. “It’s safe,” he said. “When it’s time to use the Blade, I can easily get to it. That’s all you need to know.”

  Machado’s carefully arranged expression slipped and his annoyance surfaced. “If you can’t trust your own, Kyran–”

  “You lot aren’t my own,” Kyran interrupted. “And the only one who is, already knows the location.”

  Machado looked to Hadrian, to see the leader of the vamages give a small shrug. “He wants to keep it a secret,” he said.

  Under the table, Machado’s hands curled into fists. “With all due respect, sir,” he started, “this isn’t a matter of child’s play, where you indulge your son by keeping his secret.” His glittery blue eyes flashed with anger. “This is a matter of security. The Blades of Aric are a very real, very dangerous, threat and treating them as anything less is–”

  “I know what the Blades of Aric are and what they are capable of,” Hadrian cut in. “The one who holds the legacies knows the location of the Blades. That’s all that matters. You don’t have to fret over it.”