Elementris, Exposure, Eruption Box set: The Vangeretta Curse Series

by Christina Mobley

  “Tell me.”

  He went still for a moment

  “Just spit it out, Zack!”

  He took a step back from her, “I think we should find the others,” he looked up, “the others in our circle.”

  Lyssa tilted her head, “Why? How would that help?”

  “It has to help. What if one of them knows where she lives, where she is? She watches over all five of us. She can help us cover this whole thing up.”

  Lyssa shook her head, “I don’t know.” She shook her head slowly, “What about the house? This is the only way I know to save it and Ms. Shelby would never think that this is a good idea.” She stared at him, “Can’t we just find a way for me to hide out until I do the interview, or some way to get away from Dana and find my own interview? Maybe there is some way I could explain it so that they see I’m not a witch.”

  “So, you’re still going through with this?”

  Lyssa turned to face him, “I don’t flipping know! What else can I do? I just have to find a way to make people understand.”

  Anger swept his blue eyes, “After all this? I would think this would be enough to teach you a lesson. What are you going to do? You can’t go to school. You’ve already lost your job at Backfats. You’re not going to get rich from this, Lyssa.” He snatched the front door open, “You’re going to be made out to be a freak. If that’s what you’re going to do, stay the hell away from me. I don’t want to be a freak. It’s just a house, Lyssa!” He slammed the door.

  She ran to it, snatching it back open, “Zack, wait!”

  He paused, “What?”

  “I don’t have any choice. Where the hell would I go? Foster care? This is my only option. I don’t have another choice,” she said.

  “Yes, you do.” He slammed his foot down on the pedal and took off on the bike.

  Lyssa rushed back to the sofa and fell face-first into it, not caring about the dust. She felt so confused and desperately wished she could talk to her father one more time.

  Her hand slid across something smooth. She opened her eyes and picked up a white envelope from between the cushions. She sat straight up, sniffed back tears and stared at her name, her real name, written across the front.

  May-Lyssa Relic

  Her hands shook as she opened the small white envelope. Inside she found a key and a small, neatly folded, letter.

  She pulled the letter out and began reading.

  May-Lyssa,

  I have been trying to find a way to contact you for a long time. I did not know how the Relic’s would take it, so I thought a letter would be best. I’m not sure if they told you about me. If they haven’t, this may come as a shock. I am your real mother. As hard as I have tried to go on with my life, you have always been everywhere I look. I debated over finding you for a long time and I finally decided you deserve to know the truth. I assume by this time you know about your ability.

  I don’t know how to lay everything out in a letter. If you want to know more, the key is for a safety deposit box. The details are on the back side of this letter. I have to be careful to protect myself. I will explain more about that if you decide to contact me.

  Lyssa quickly folded the letter and stuffed it in her pocket. “Where the hell did this come from? Did Zack drop it?”

  She ran the whole mile to Zack’s house, only to find that he wasn’t home. She walked towards her house slowly. A headache pulsed in her temples and her legs were so tired. The biggest question she had right now drained her completely. “How does she know? She knows! She knew about my gift before I exposed myself. She knew. Is that why she did it, gave me up? Why did she do it? Why would Zack have the letter?”

  …Ava…

  Ava had no idea if what she was about to do would work or not but she needed to know that Alec was okay and the only way she could think to find out was to try to contact him through a dream. She had been thinking about it all day and now she was ready to give it a try. Alec’s grandmother had told her that their bond allowed the dream visits to work both ways. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to make it work, but she was going to try it. “It’ll work; it has to.”

  She began her preparations by taking a long hot bath to relax; then she dressed in her most comfy pajamas and sprayed Alec’s cologne all over her bed. She grabbed his picture from the nightstand and nestled comfortably under the covers and closed her eyes. Hugging Alec’s picture to her chest, she settled down to go to sleep. As she lay there she thought about Alec and her need to reach him somehow. She thought about his strong fingers and the way he could touch her so softly with them. She thought about her last night with him. The night they had finally given in to each other. Her heart thumped against her chest as she thought about that night, his touch, his urgent kiss, his… “Stop! You’re never going to fall asleep thinking about that!”

  Sighing, she admitted defeat. There was no way she could make herself go to sleep now. She turned on her side and looked at the map on her wall. She connected to places all the time now; maybe she could connect to Alec the same way. She knew he was somewhere in California so she focused all of her attention on that part of the map. Taking a deep breath, she began to allow the magic to work its way through her body. The familiar tingling raced through her body and she worked to keep her focus.

  It was working! She was at a beach and the sun was burning so fiercely that its brightness left spots in her vision. She smelled the salty air and heard the soothing waves. As much as she liked this place, she doubted he would be at the beach, so she tried again. She was amazed as a new vision formed in her mind. She was seeing the back side of a tall building. There was a young blonde-haired boy there; he looked just a little over twelve or thirteen. One arm was full of papers and his other was reaching up towards a light pole and stapling one of the papers to it. The flyer said ‘Missing,” and below that there was a picture of her. “What the hell!?!”

  Startled, she lost her concentration. She sat up and frowned. She knew that there was a website with her listed as a missing teen. That was what had sent Alec out to begin with, seeing those flyers. Now she had seen them too. She really was in danger; the Waevern were not going to give up. They were still looking for her and as long as they were, she was not safe anywhere but on the island. It had been easy to not worry about it before tonight, but she wasn’t fooled anymore. Someone was after her. Someone wanted to harm her and Alec was going after that person and putting himself in danger.

  She paced the floor for hours before she finally climbed back into her bed. She was so worried about Alec. She felt a great need to protect him, and truly understood the great lengths he was willing to go for her. She wanted to do the same for him. She thought about what Vincent had said this morning. What he’d said about her leaving and putting her guards in danger made more sense to her now. She was a target. Her leaving the island behind Alec’s back would have been a betrayal of his trust, and very dangerous for them both of them.

  Hours later when the dream world finally took her, she saw the flyers blowing in the wind. The boy was running. He stopped abruptly and suddenly he was pinned against a wall. As the vision changed she realized that it was Shawn who had halted the boy’s flight. And then she saw him. Alec! He grabbed the boy by the shirt pulling him towards him. He was furious. “Who told you to do this? Who gave you those flyers?” he asked the boy.

  “Some guy,” the boy said with a crack in his voice. “Wait, wait! Whoa!” He said as Alec shifted his grip, “I know who you guys are. You’re, uh..., you’re Clutch guards. For the queen; the evil queen who lives on that island.”

  “Who told you that she was evil?” Alec growled.

  “The…,” the boy paused and shook his head. “No, I ain’t telling you guys nothing.” He lifted his chin in defiance but his eyes reflected his fear.

  Ava watched Alec’s face soften as he recognized the attempt at bravery. He relaxed his hold and said, “Listen, I don’t know what you’ve been told but we’re the good guys
. Are you…?” Alec paused and Ava knew what he was asking. So did the boy.

  He lifted his free hand tossed it out. Flame surrounded his palm. He smiled proudly.

  Alec nodded, grabbed the boys arm, and said, “We need to talk. What’s your name?”

  “Reid,” the boy said.

  Alec didn’t respond though. Instead, he looked distracted. He looked in the direction that Ava was watching from. He blinked and tilted his head, then he whispered her name. It was the sweetest, most wonderful sound she had ever heard. “Ava?”

  She woke up with her heart pounding, not from fear this time though. She felt exhilarated. She sprang from her bed and spun in a circle. She had done it! She had connected with Alec in her dreams. He was okay. He’d said her name! She stopped. “Was this some new part of the bond?” She had been asleep and he awake; could he connect with her the same way? It was an exciting thought. She jumped onto her bed and grabbed his pillow. Hugging it to her chest, she smiled widely and sank back onto her own pillow with him on her mind and in her heart. She lay there for a little while, but she was too excited to go back to sleep.

  She got up and began to go through her morning routine. She tilted her head as she sensed a commotion downstairs, then she heard her; Brea! Ava rushed from her room; she’d heard Brea’s voice echoing up the staircase. It wasn’t surprising that she could hear Brea all the way up in her room. Brea wasn’t exactly quiet. Adulthood definitely had not changed that about her.

  “Ava,” Brea called out as Ava appeared at the bottom of the staircase.

  “You’re finally here,” Ava rushed over and hugged her. Even though Brea had been away from home as long as Ava had, she smelled like home. That distinct muddy water and honey smell that Ava loved.

  Brea pulled back, “I have so much to tell you!” She smiled, fluffing the back of her hair, “You like it?”

  Ava leaned forward, as Brea turned from side to side showing off her new haircut. “Yeah, it’s cute on you.” Ava grabbed her hand “Let’s go upstairs and catch up. You have to tell me everything.”

  Up in the room, they propped their backs against pillows as Brea told her what college was like. “The room is sort of small.” She glanced around, “Nothing like the castle you have here.” She lifted her brows and grinned.

  Ava tilted her head, “Quit complaining, you have your own room here and it’s almost the same size as mine.”

  “I know.” Brea leaned back on her pillow and propped herself up, “I just wish I could get here more often. It’s so weird. When I imagined going off to college, I always pictured you there with me. It’s strange, you not being there. Sometimes when I’m in class, I think how odd it is that you’re here on the island and that you’re Mother Nature.” She sat forward, “When I hear the news, or someone refer to Mother Nature, I always think about you. If only the world knew that Mother Nature is a real person.”

  “Actually,” Ava sat forward, “If we don’t figure out what to do, the world might find out.”

  “What!?!” Brea sprang the rest of the way up, “What are you talking about?”

  “You haven’t seen the news the past few days have you?”

  “No, I took two flights and met Thomas in Miami. I don’t really watch the news anyway.”

  Ava sighed, “There’s this sixteen year old girl. Her name is Lyssa.” She shook her head, “She’s on the news purposely showing what she can do with her water element.”

  “I thought Keepers were assigned to all of the kids you find out about. What are you going to do? What does her Keeper say?”

  “We can’t find her Keeper.”

  “What about the Clutch? Send them to get her and bring her back here.”

  “We can’t just go kidnap her. I mean, we could, but with all of this being so public it would be a really bad idea.” Ava sat back, “Besides I would hate to take her from her family against her will. It’s one thing to train Greens over the summer for the guard and help them deceive their families about where they really are, but I don’t want to go snatch her up. What would I do after that? Lock her up on the island like Lareina would?”

  “You have to do something.” Brea narrowed her eyes, “Why the hell would anybody purposely expose those born of the Element? I mean, I could understand if it was a little five-year-old or something.”

  “Most five-year-olds don’t have enough control to show it off to anyone.” Ava chewed her lip, “We have to find some way to talk to this girl, without taking a chance of further exposing ourselves.”

  “What if I go talk to her?” Brea stood.

  “No way.” Ava stood now too, “Too risky. I mean, we don’t know what’s going on yet. The Waevern could be setting us up to be exposed. Lyssa being on the news could be the bait. I would never risk something happening to you.”

  “Wow,” Brea rocked back on her heels. “This is bad. What if no one believes her though?”

  “It’s kind of hard not to believe. I mean, she has already shown she can manipulate water.”

  “Yeah, well,” Brea sat down, “I mean, even if she tells the world about the others or Element Island, it’s not like she has any real proof…right?”

  “She could never tell them where the island is, but we don’t know who is working with her or what exactly she knows. The news said she would be going on talk shows. What if she appears on one and tells everyone everything? Maybe she doesn’t have proof, but if that story is shown to the world and something happens, it’s going to be hard for us to hide it. Right now it’s pretty easy to cover up little incidents in the community of those born of the Element.”

  Brea glanced around the room, “Where is Alec?”

  “On a mission.” Ava smiled, thinking of the dream for the thousandth time today.

  “When will he be back?” Brea asked.

  “I don’t know. There is no phone service on the island, but…”

  Brea cut her off. “You really should make that a priority now that you’re the ruler and all.” Brea said, more than a little sarcastically.

  Ava rolled her eyes, “I might be able to rattle the earth or make someone forget short periods in their life, but I can’t magically have phone service piped to an invisible island.”

  “There has to be some way.”

  “Well, if there is, I haven’t found it yet. The only form of communication we have is the mail that goes to the meeting house in Miami. The Clutch guards have cell phones, of course, but they only work away from the island. Thomas and the other senior Clutch guards have tried to reach them every time they are away from the island, but we don’t want to compromise whatever is going on. Knowing Alec, he feels that it’s too risky to contact any of us right now. He’s probably worried that whoever is after me will find some way to trace the call.”

  “He will be back in time for your birthday though, right?” Brea asked.

  Ava nodded excitedly, wanting to share her new discovery with Brea. “I’m sure he will. That’s still a little while away.” Last year’s festival quickly crossed her mind. She shook it away. “Anyway…,”

  “What’s Alec doing on this mission anyway? Is he dealing with the Lyssa thing?” Brea cut her off again. She had a tendency to try to talk over people. They both did when they hadn’t seen each other in a while.

  Exasperated, but holding onto her patience, Ava answered her. “No, they are looking for the new leader of The Waevern. Whoever the guy is, he’s covering his tracks well. He’s made threats about killing me, so Alec won’t stop until he finds him. He’s been gone for almost a month.” “A whole month,” she thought. She wanted desperately for him to return, but she did feel better now, knowing he was okay.

  “Wow, that long?” Brea ran her fingers through her hair, “That’s a long time to be gone from the island. You have no idea when he will be back?”

  “Actually he’s somewhere in California. You won’t believe…”

  “What about the dream thing?”

  Ava tossed Alec’s pillo
w at her, “If you would quit interrupting me I’ve been trying to tell you something about that!”

  Brea pretended to zip her lips the like they had done as children and sat up straight. “Go ahead, your majesty. This queen thing is really going to your head.” She shook her head and smiled.

  “Shut up, Brea.” Ava laughed, “An-y-way.

  “Go ahead,” Brea bowed her head, “Your, royal highness, your awesomeness, your great and mighty royal fannyness.”

  Ava laughed, “Are you done?”

  “Hold on.” Brea held up a finger, “No, yep. Okay, I’m good. Go ahead, my queenie.”

  “Okay, so yesterday I was releasing a guy that washed up and suddenly it felt like Alec was there with me…

  “Someone washed up?”

  “Interrupting again!”

  “Whoops.” Brea pretended to zip her lips again.

  “Okay. So, it only lasted like a second, but the feeling was so strong. Then it was gone. I thought I imagined the whole thing, but last night I decided to try and connect with him, you know, like I do with the weather? It worked! I saw this boy putting up flyers with my picture on them.”

  Brea’s mouth opened.

  Ava held up her finger, “Wait! That happened while I was awake. I wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with Alec, but when I went to sleep I saw him! He was chasing the boy. The boy has the fire element and he knows about the island. He called me an evil queen.” Ava frowned and shook her head, “Beside the point. Anyway, at the end of the dream, Alec looked right at me and said my name. I think he saw me. I think the bond is letting us connect when we’re awake.” Breathless, Ava stopped.

  “Okay, question one.” Brea said, “Did you say the flyers had your picture on them?”

  “Yeah, they say “Missing.”

  “What picture are they using?” Brea asked.

  “My yearbook picture. Why?”

  “Please tell me it’s not the one you had taken on the day we woke up late; the day you wore that ridiculous pink shirt?”