"What news?" Aktor asked, pushing off from his lean on the car when Theo came within hearing distance. Acting as though seeing Theo here was totally expected as well.
"One moment," he shot back at Aktor, his eyes on me.
Before I could take evasive action his hand came up and cupped the nape of my neck and his lips crushed down on mine. He pushed me back until my rear met the door of the car, and then his other hand wrapped around my frame and he really let the kiss go.
I was so startled, so relieved, so surprised and yet so elated, that he was kissing me, I actually kissed him back. And just as I realised what I was doing and was about to push hard against his chest, he pulled away.
Then stole my anger by resting his forehead against mine and closing his eyes as if in agony. My hand came up and cupped his cheek without thought. I couldn't stand seeing Theo in pain.
"Are you all right?" he asked. I nodded against him and watched as he withdrew, gave me one last long look and then turned his attention to Aktor. "What happened? I tried the house, but when there was no answer came straight here."
I stared at him. How did he know we were here?
"Nico happened," Aktor said, voice dark, but pain lanced across his face. Part of that pain was for Theo.
I don't think I ever expected to see such a devastating look on Theo Peter's face. It was as though Aktor had punched him in the stomach. Blood left his cheeks and he even doubled over slightly; eyes wide, mouth open in shock.
"Why?" he whispered.
"For Pyrkagia," Aktor said softly. "He tried to reason with her." At least Aktor wasn't telling Theo about the fact Nico had aimed to kill. Theo had enough to digest for now.
Theo's eyes shifted to mine on Aktor's last words, I held his gaze, saw the question in them, but didn't offer an answer straight away. Instead, I said, "He really was sorry. He just wanted to stop his people from being killed."
"Where is he now?" Theo demanded, the hard look back on his face.
"Cassandra has buried him in the Earth," Aktor replied.
Theo suddenly smiled at me, it didn't quite reach his eyes, but it did banish the dark haunted look for now. "Well done, little Gi. Such talent." He reached out and stroked my cheek, his face softening further with every glide of his thumb across my skin.
"So, once she dealt with him we came here as planned," Aktor said, finishing his side of the story.
"You planned for us to come here?" I asked, looking between the two men.
"A back-up plan, in case things went south quickly and we lost contact with each other. We would rendezvous here, regroup and decide our next move," Theo explained.
Oh. I'd been expecting Aktor to hand me over to the Gi. I'd almost resigned myself to not seeing Theo again. I was suddenly very mad.
"And you didn't think to let me in on that plan?" My hands had made it to my hips as I glared at him. Receiving a small tilt of his lips at the edges in return.
"There's that Fire," Theo murmured. I made a growling sound and resisted the urge to stamp my foot. "But tell me, Oraia. Why are you so angry?" He stepped closer, fully intending to touch me or embrace me or make me melt, I was certain. But I sidestepped and kept space between us. Why? I'm really not sure. Considering this may have been the last few moments we'd have together I was being an absolute fool. But I was a disgruntled one.
"I thought..." I couldn't say it. I couldn't voice my fears. They'd been too real. They'd cut too deep already.
"Casey," Theo murmured, somehow reaching me before I could dodge, and cupping my cheeks in both hands. He bent down and looked me in the eye. "How could you doubt that I would come for you?" He seemed genuinely hurt that I had.
Damn the man, but he confounded me. I sighed and leaned my cheek against his chest, letting him pull me closer and kiss the top of my head. His hands ran over my body, seeking that touch the Pyrkagia crave. And I noticed that I wasn't above Ekmetalleftis quirks. I'd already inhaled deeply to capture his scent.
We stayed like that for several seconds, but it was obvious Aktor was desperate for any news.
"All right," Theo murmured, squeezing me comfortingly, but refusing to letting me go. "This is what I know. The Alchemists have called our bluff and contacted the Gi."
Aktor swore profusely, but Theo just waited for the older man to get it out of his system before he went on.
"It is purely out of spite. The negotiations broke down."
"Negotiations?" I asked, pulling my head up to look at his face.
"From time to time the Alchemists approach and try to convince us to share information again. We can usually handle these attempts to entrap us, but this time they had ammunition."
"Ammunition?" I asked, voice flat. I was guessing exactly what ammunition they had.
Theo shifted slightly, as though uncomfortable about what he was about to divulge.
"Yes," Theo acknowledged my unspoken statement. "They knew about you. I don't know how, but they threatened the elders. And the elders attempted to plead ignorance, but something pushed the Alchemists over the edge."
Aktor stopped pacing and lifted his head to look at him, eyebrow arched.
"I truly believe they are becoming more unstable," Theo said, directing his words to the older man. Aktor frowned. "With time and exposure to our elements anything is possible."
Aktor nodded. "It is a frightening thought," he agreed.
"In any case," Theo continued, never stopping his soft caress of my side as his arm wrapped around me. "They have alerted the Gi to our 'duplicitous involvement' in hiding Casey for over twenty years."
It wasn't true. It just wasn't true. It couldn't be true.
"Casey," Theo murmured, his head dipping down to look directly into my eyes. "Oraia." That one word held such a depth of agony in it. "They truly believe you are this princess." I shook my head back and forth, it was all I was capable of doing. "There is a chance that they are right."
"No!" I managed to gasp and pulled back, escaping his warmth and touch.
Theo looked distraught, but didn't make an attempt to follow me. I started pacing behind Aktor, placing the old man between me and Theo. Which was ridiculous, because one look at the butler and you knew he was in full agreement with his master. I chose to ignore that, just needing some space from Theo's heat, in order to think.
This couldn't be true.
Theo spoke in low words to Aktor, but I heard every thing he said.
"Now we face off against the Alchemists, who are appearing more and more deranged, as well as an enraged Gi regiment, who believe we stole their long lost princess."
"Bloody hell," Aktor muttered. "What now?"
The all important question. Did this news change things? How could it not?
I stopped pacing and raised my face to look at Theo. Who was looking at me with such longing, such desire, and yet such incomprehensible pain. I sucked in a breath at the emotions flowing across his face. There was no mask now. He was open, raw with intense feelings that were slowly crushing him in their weight.
Oh hell. This changed everything. Didn't it?
"Casey," he said softly. The space between us disappeared, even though he hadn't taken a step towards me. I was held captive by that look in his eyes, on his face. I was his in that moment, despite anything that had passed.
My hand came up to his now faded mark on my neck. I hadn’t meant to. It just did. Theo tracked my movement and I watched as his chest rose and fell with each evermore harsh breath of air.
"You are my Thisavros," he said quietly. "I will lay down my life to keep you at my side."
I closed my eyes feeling a type of pain I never knew could exist. Bitter-sweet, so very bitter-sweet. He hadn't marked me again, but he didn't need to. I was his in his heart and I'd wear his mark on mine; on the inside.
His hot breath washed over my face letting me know he was standing before me. I opened my eyes and stared up into the face of the man I loved, who seemed to love me. His hand wrapped around the back of m
y neck and he lay a sweet, chaste kiss across my lips.
"Nothing can change that," he whispered, eyes flashing gold like jewels in the night. "Not the rules. Not the fact that you are Gi and I am Pyrkagia." He paused for breath. "Not even distance."
My eyes closed again on those last words. He'd die to keep me, but if he failed and I was taken to Gi, I would still be his.
"Oh, Theo," I murmured.
"Never forget," he whispered into my ear. "You do not need to wear a mark of mine, just know it in here." His palm rested over my heart, the heat seeping right through my skin and wrapping around it. I lay my head on his chest and sucked in a breath. It was shaky.
"What do we do now?" I managed to ask.
Theo wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my head.
"If we run, we could draw them away from Pyrkagia."
"But they would never forget Pyrkagia's role in all of this," Aktor pointed out, being the unwanted voice of reason. I felt Theo nod above my head.
"If we run, we confirm Pyrkagia's involvement and set my people up for a very long battle ahead." He shifted and lay a kiss in amongst my hair.
"What’s our other option?" I asked, heart heavy.
"We go and talk to them," Theo said, voice low, but definitely not even. "We explain your side of the story, we seek their understanding and permission for you to stay."
Aktor made a sound and Theo stiffened. I guess his sound was the equivalent of a scoff. I had to agree with the butler. We were screwed.
I couldn't, in all good conscience, ask Theo to run with me. He and Aktor were right. Pyrkagia would suffer for our betrayal. I couldn't live with that. But the chances of talking the Gi out of reclaiming something precious they thought lost for twenty years, were slim. You didn't need to be a mathematician to work out those odds.
And we couldn't stay here, on the golf course, and plead ignorance. Fires burned. Trees were being crushed. The Alchemists would only entangle themselves further creating a war the Pyrkagia couldn't win.
The right thing to do was go to the Gi. But I felt like I was sticking a knife in my gut by doing it. I was just waiting for that blade to twist.
"Where are they?" I asked.
"You would know better than us," Theo murmured his reply into my hair.
I took a deep breath in at his words and then pulled gently from his arms. It took a little effort to look up at him, uncertain what visage of pain would greet me. But he was trying valiantly not to show any concern. Not his complete impassive mask, but a faux expression of calm that I knew underneath he didn't feel at all.
I crouched down and dug my fingers into the soil, letting the Earth wash over me, soothe me with its scent and touch.
They are here, it said softly, sadly. Why it would be sad the Gi, its Gi, were here, I did not know. They are angry, the Earth advised. They are reaching deep, searching for something. We cannot stop them. You must try.
"Do you need my blood?" I asked, more than a little alarmed at the Earth's request.
Yes, it whispered, but not yet. Save your essence until it is truly needed. I breathed a sigh of relief, which was short lived. They have found it.
"What?" I said, glancing around the course-way expecting to see Gi jump out from behind the shrubbery at any moment. Theo and Aktor sensed my distress and started looking for threats as well. Heat warmed the small space we were standing in, their Stoicheio ready for attack.
Be ready, the Earth whispered. Once it starts, we cannot stop it without you.
Oh hell no. That did not sound good.
"Once what starts?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
But the Earth didn't need to reply, even if it would have, or could have, because Theo and Aktor sensed it first.
"What is that?" Theo demanded, jumping from where he stood and staring at the ground as though he could see through the grass and soil to beneath.
"It's hot, extremely hot," Aktor returned, walking in a circle and looking at the ground. "And deep." His eyes lifted to Theo and there was horror written across his face. "Oh, Aetheros. They wouldn't."
"They fucking have," Theo exclaimed.
"What?" I shouted, frustrated that neither of them had told me what they'd sense.
Theo turned to me and took the few steps necessary to clasp my upper arms in his hand. "Auckland sits on a volcanic field. Over fifty extinct volcanoes in a twenty kilometre radius of the city centre." He stopped, staring intently at my eyes, waiting for me to get it.
It didn't take long.
"They're heating the volcanoes up, making the Earth unstable enough for them to erupt."
"Yes," Theo said bluntly. "The result could be cataclysmic."
I felt sick to the stomach at that thought. Who were these people to act in such a way? Had they no conscience, or was it simply a threat to get me to come out of hiding? Have those who supposedly held me, hand me over to them.
Oh God, this was bad.
I pulled free of Theo's grasp, feeling tainted by my association, albeit an unwanted association, to the Gi. I hadn't asked for this, but it had landed in my lap and here I was. A part of their world, connected to a group of Ekmetalleftis who would use their Stoicheio to get what they wanted, to hell with the consequences.
I knelt down on the ground and dug my fingers and toes into the soil, reaching deep, searching for what my people had done. There. One kilometre beneath the surface, a sense of burgeoning power was growing. Theo and Aktor could sense the heat of the molten magma, I could sense its awesome strength through the Earth itself. A potency that was threatening to burst to the surface and decimate everything in its path.
How do I stop this, stop them? I asked the Earth. It groaned and shook beneath my knees. I could hear Theo swearing and Aktor crying out in alarm.
The ground shifted, piles of dirt erupting in geysers all around us, destroying the pristine look of the golf course. It was happening and I wasn't sure I was strong enough to stop what the Gi had done. How many did it take for this chain reaction? Twenty-five in a regiment, Isadora had said. Theo mentioned a regiment being here that the Pyrkagia had to face. Could twenty-five Gi do this? And if so, how the freaking hell was I supposed to stop it?
They are here, the Earth whispered. Turn around, it urged and I felt a foreboding chill wash down my spine.
Through the swell and buckle of the ground beneath us, we had all missed the obvious. The Gi had us surrounded. Long brown hair billowing out in waves down past their shoulders, bright green flashing from what I assumed was normally a dark blue in their eyes. They seemed familiar to me, even though I had never laid eyes on them before. A part of me wailed at that knowledge. I did not want to know these people, remembered or just bizarrely connected by a strange sense of familiarity. I didn't want this desire to greet them as kin. They were my enemy as much as Theo's, yet my body, my Stoicheio, told me otherwise.
I stood up and turned in a circle, taking in the thirty or so who made up their numbers. Their gazes were on me, but I wasn't fooled. They were keeping a wary eye on Theo at my back and Aktor off to my side. How did they know I was here, on this golf course?
I let a long breath of air out at the conclusion to that question. The Earth had told them. The Earth whom I trusted above all else had let me down.
Sorry, it whispered, regret evident in its tone. They are too many to deny.
I understood. Together the Gi were too strong. Which meant they were too strong for Theo and definitely too strong for me.
I glanced over my shoulder to catch Theo's eye. He flicked his gaze to mine at the movement and smiled a tight smile. He knew.
"Promise me," I whispered, reaching out to clutch his hand in mine. "Stay alive. No matter what. Do not die."
"Oraia," he murmured.
And then they struck.
Chapter 26
Eternally
It was so fast, faster than I had been when Aktor threw the bolt of Fire at Nico's neck. So fast, I registered Theo's hand slip
ping from mine before I realised what it meant. Saw what they did. In a split fraction of a second he was thrown from my side by the sudden appearance of a root breaking the soil at our feet. It was thick and strong, and swatted him away as though he was nothing but an annoying little fly.
My reaction was wrenched from deep inside my heart. The Earth erupted in a concentrated burst of soil, severing the root in half before it could impale Theo through the chest. He landed in a cushioned wave of the ground undulating, timed to minimise his injuries. He was on his feet, gold glowing in his eyes, Fire spreading out around all three of us, in the next moment. I was sure his response was instinctive. But he held back from sending that wave of power toward the Gi.
But the Gi weren't so hesitant to fight back. The Earth beneath our feet began to bubble and boil, roll and buck, then spew out burning lava from its core. We weren't on a known volcano, but it didn't matter. The Gi were creating a new cone in the middle of the Pakuranga Country Club.
We scattered, to avoid the inferno rising to the surface and spreading lazily outward from a three meter hole that was expanding with every passing second. Aktor ended up on the far side, with Theo and I still within reaching distance of each other. He started toward me, his intention to protect me clearly evident on his face. But before he made it, a geyser of liquefied heat burst from the centre of the hole and headed straight for his head.
He met the blast with a wall of Fire, but it was obvious the Earth's internal heat out-did his own. Before his wall crumbled I sent a spray of soil up and over the geyser, sealing it briefly, but only long enough for Theo to move further away from me and the former projected path of that boiling liquid jet.
In my effort to save him, I'd placed more space between us. No doubt exactly what the Gi had wanted.
Another shot of molten lava spewed forth, directly towards Theo's neck this time. The angle looked perfect, the finesse with which it was wielded let me know the strike would be true. The Gi, like Aktor had warned, were obviously aiming to kill. Severing his neck their only goal. Not just incapacitate, but annihilate. Completely.
The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) Page 25