CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1)

by McMann, Laney

  She glanced at Plumb, suddenly feeling very alone.

  Plumb smiled. "I'll help you unpack. It'll be fun. Girl's night."

  Kade nodded. "Okay."

  Cole pointed toward the bedroom on the left side of the living room with a grin. "Pick that one. It's the best."

  ***

  "I'm in." The legs of Lindsey's chair hit the ground as she lowered it from leaning back.

  "What do you mean, you're in?" Giselle griped, next to her. "You're still recovering."

  "So's Cole. I'm in." She walked toward the counter in the coffee shop.

  Cole grinned. "G?"

  Giselle made a growling noise. "Like I have a choice?"

  "You have a choice," Danny said. "I don't want you to do this unless you want to."

  "Don't get all protective," she griped. "I'm in."

  "You sure?" Cole sat across the table from her.

  Giselle popped a piece of chocolate scone into her mouth. "Yep."

  "Cool, so...we're doing this in a few days. I have to make sure Kade is comfortable shifting the lines first."

  "Where is she? I'm surprised you don't want her here to help with your ambush on us."

  Cole grabbed a piece of scone off Giselle's plate and popped it in his mouth. "She's safe."

  "Get your own food, stealer." Giselle covered the remaining scone with her hands.

  Lindsey sat back down, handing her a refill of mocha Frappuccino.

  "Still no Kyle on your end?" Cole asked.

  Lindsey shook her head. "Nothing. Thatcher said we have to start easing back into classes. Too suspicious. You really think we can pull this off?" She eyed Cole. "I mean, the Araneum? Even for you, it's a little risky."

  "I have to pull it off. If I don't, the Ward will take Kade when they realize what she is or the Daemoneum will. Neither one is a scenario I'm up for."

  "I still can't believe she's a...you know." Giselle shook her head. "No wonder she looked at me like I was nuts when I told her she was a Primeva."

  "Yeah." Cole sighed. "So, the usual rules apply: no one in the Kinship knows what either of you are doing."

  "Do you have to remind us of that every time you want us to help you with some new covert mission?" Giselle snapped. "We're not stupid."

  "No one said you were stupid, G," Danny piped up.

  Cole's eyes shifted toward the front window. "Jake's here. We'll be in touch." He walked away from the table, Danny at his side.

  "Have any ideas where you're going to start training Kade?" Danny asked.

  Cole grinned. "I have a few."

  26

  "JUST PICTURE IT in your head," Cole repeated as he stood behind Kade in the small cavern that contained the hot spring. "You just need to aim."

  "I am aiming." Every time Kade released a bolt of energy, as Cole called it, it went whistling off in the wrong direction.

  "How did you shatter the Shadows all those years?"

  "With my crystal, mostly. All the other times, my energy just kind of poured out of me. I wasn't directing it. And what’s the difference? When should I use a crystal and when should I use my energy?”

  “Close range, use your crystal. Less possible exposure of the race by humans. Far range, use your energy. If your life is being threatened, use it in front of humans. The Ward will deal with the repercussion of that. Your life comes first.”

  “Okay.”

  He placed his hands on her hips. "You see that circular shape on the wall over there?"

  She leaned back against him. "Can we do this later?"

  Chuckling, he nudged her head off his shoulder. "No. I want you to pretend that's a Shadow on the wall, and you don't have your crystal on you, what do you do?"

  She made a fussy noise, standing up straight.

  Cole grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back against him. "You are the most spoiled, clumsiest, feistiest..."

  She turned around, facing him, eyebrows raised.

  "Softest, warmest, most incredible person I have ever known." He pushed her hair off of her shoulders. "Maybe you need a break."

  She nodded, closing the small distance between them. "I could concentrate better if I took a break." She kissed the edge of his mouth.

  His eyes closed. "If you make the next shot, you can have a long break."

  "Yeah?"

  "Mm hm."

  "Could we get in the water?" She kissed him again.

  "Mm hm."

  She turned around. "That circle right there?"

  "Yeah. Pretend it's a Shadow and let your energy go. Not too hard, we don't want to blast a hole in the wall."

  Kade swiped her hand to the side, and a burst of red energy charged through the air like a loaded missile, and pinged the circular spot across the cave directly in the center. With a smile, she turned back around, wrapping her arms around Cole's neck. "Bullseye."

  His hand went to her jaw. "You knew how to do that all along."

  "Not really," she said. "Lucky shot."

  His hand slid down her neck, to her side, and came to rest at her hip. "You still want to get in the water?"

  "Yeah."

  In one swift motion, he knocked her legs out from under her, cradled her into his arms, and jumped in the spring.

  Kade surfaced, pushing the mess of long hair out of her face. "I have my clothes on!”

  "I brought you more clothes." Cole pulled her toward him. "Over there in that bag, and anyway, you cheated. You didn't need my help."

  "I didn't cheat. I got lucky, and I don't know anything about moving Leylines."

  "It's not that much different. They're just fields of energy, too." He kissed her neck. "Are you mad?"

  "A little. Look at me." She motioned to her sopping wet clothes.

  He kissed her neck again, lower. "You said you wanted to get in the water."

  "Not like this." Kade held up her arms, weighed down by her wet sweatshirt sleeves.

  He smirked, and kissed her again, along her jaw. "You could take that off."

  "That didn't go so well last time," she griped, pulling away from him.

  "Come here, cranky." He lifted the bottom of her sweatshirt.

  "That's probably not the best idea, Cole. It's fine."

  "Just take it off if it's bothering you." He yanked, and in one quick motion the sweatshirt was off, and he'd dropped it on the side of spring. "There. Better?" He turned back to face her and his breath caught.

  "You tell me." She smirked. "I wasn't planning on taking my sweatshirt off seeing as it's thirty degrees, nor did I think I'd get dunked into a pool of steaming hot water so I would have to take it off, revealing to my boyfriend, who doesn't want to see what's underneath, unless it's a bathing suit, that I'm wearing a solid white T-shirt over a solid white bra, both of which, when wet, are likely see through." She raised a brow, but she had no idea if he'd even heard her because his focus hadn't moved from her chest.

  "Yeah..." Cole backed up a step and grabbed her five pound, soaking wet sweatshirt off the side of the pool. "We should probably put this back on."

  "I'm not putting that dead weight back on. You dunked me in here, so you can deal with the view. Just don't look."

  "Don't look?" His eyes got wide. "They're...in my face."

  She laughed. "You're like six foot two, and I'm way shorter than that. They are not in your face."

  "Maybe we should just get out." Cole swam toward the shallower part of the pool, but Kade went under water, swimming past him.

  She surfaced in front of him with a grin. "You don't want to swim? You're virtuous enough to keep your eyes to yourself. Aren't you?"

  "You swim." He hoisted himself out of the water and sat on the edge of the pool, leaning back on his hands. "I'll sit here and stare at the ceiling."

  "Fine." Kade dipped under the water and resurfaced on the other side, hanging on to the edge.

  "So, is your new room okay?" Cole asked, not looking in her direction.

  "It's really nice. Better than I thought it would be
. And my dad's okay? You promise he's not freaking out?"

  "He seemed fine with it. Understanding, really. He said it would make the transition easier since you would be moving into a common house soon, anyway. And like I told you last night, he said he would be by to check on you. He's on call for the next twenty-four hours. Didn't you text him?"

  “Yeah, it's just..."

  "You miss him."

  "He's all I have.” She didn't look at Cole as she said it.

  "Not anymore." He glanced at her and tilted his head. Kade loved it when he did that.

  "I know."

  "So, something's bothering me." He swished his feet back and forth. "What did you mean when you said that Dracon had ways of making you do things?"

  Kade's breath caught. She'd forgotten she let that secret out.

  Cole leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "That's not the response I was hoping for."

  "Dracon said he would hurt the people I care about if I ever told anyone about him," she whispered, averting her eyes. "I don't want him coming after you. Or Giselle. Anyone."

  "Why didn't you tell me that before?" Cole dropped into the water and swam over to her. "Don't worry about us. This is what we do. And we do it very well."

  "I know."

  "Okay?" He tilted his head again, gazing down at her.

  "Okay."

  "I'm sorry I dunked you in the water. Next time we come, I'll let you put your bathing suit on first." He grinned.

  "You've seen everything now," she half laughed. "I don't think it matters."

  "There's my little devil showing her horns again." He reached for her waist, and her shirt billowed out underneath the water, so his hands wrapped bare skin. She sucked in a breath. "And I have not seen everything. There's still a lot of material going on up top, so it's sort of a distorted view."

  "Distorted?"

  "Okay, not distorted...unclear. Only outlines, and shading, and—"

  "Really—" she said in a flat tone. "Outlines and shading? Sounds pretty clear."

  "It's a little bit clear," he admitted, hands skimming over her stomach. "It's not like you're naked. You still have your jeans on." His hands slid up her rib cage and he kissed her neck.

  "If you keep going, I'm going to take your shirt off, too. Just so we're playing fair."

  He groaned and backed away. "I'm starting to hate the word 'virtue.'"

  "I thought you hated the word 'belong'?"

  "I do." He hoisted her out of the water and onto the edge. "I also hate the word, 'thing', and the phrase, 'my own.’ Virtue is about to be added onto the list." He pushed himself out of the water, and sat beside her, leaning back on his hands, his own T-shirt clinging to the hard lines of his chest, shoulders, and stomach.

  "I hate to point this out, since we're discussing virtuous behavior and everything," she said, eyeing him. "But you look way hotter than I do in a wet T-shirt." Her gaze traveled from his broad shoulders, over the defined ripples on his hard stomach, and to the bare strip of exposed skin above the waistline of his jeans. "It's...I mean..." She let out a breath. "Damnnn."

  Cole's eyes turned black, and he snatched her up, and they fell back into the water.

  ***

  Darkness was falling as they made their way back toward the Brotherhood. Street lights dimmed on either side of the rocky road, their existence thinning the higher up in the mountain they drove, until eventually there were none. Only the small round spots of yellow from the Jeep's headlights showed on the road in front of them. Cole's hand rested on Kade's knee, and a slight change of energy rolled through the car. He tensed.

  "What is that?" Kade's gaze roved the dashboard.

  "You feel that?"

  "Yeah."

  "Good. Your instincts are as sharp as mine. You keep surprising me, little bird." Cole gave her a quick grin, but his entire demeanor had changed. Gone from the sweet, loving Cole, to the hard, arrogant one. He pulled the Jeep off the side of the road and yanked the emergency brake. "I need you stay here. Leave the car on and the heat. I don't want you to get cold." He removed his phone from his pocket and texted something with his thumb. "Danny will be here in a minute to get you."

  "What?" Kade glared at him. "I'm not sitting here while you go...where are you going?"

  "I just have to check something. I won't be long." Cole unclipped his seat belt. "But I'd feel better if you were with Danny."

  "Out there? You're going out there, alone?" She thrust her hands toward the pitch black road, bordered by the dense, snow covered forest. "It's pitch black dark."

  "Kade—" Cole's jaw muscles popped.

  She shook her head, noticing that every time he called her Kade something was either wrong or he was serious. "I'm coming with you."

  "Kade—"

  "Stop calling me Kade."

  "Please, stay here, Sparrow. I don't want you hurt. You don't know how to do enough yet. I'll take care of this. Go with Danny, and I'll meet you at the Brotherhood."

  "Take care of what?" Her voice shrilled.

  A rumble shook the ground, shaking the Jeep, and caused her to grab onto the door frame. "What was that?"

  Cole cursed. "That's Jake. The guy who apparently thinks that there is something going on between the two of you. Okay? Don't get out of the car." Anger flashed in his eyes, and Kade saw the falcon in them. It was a relief to recognize the darkness.

  He opened his door, and a cold blast of air swept through the Jeep, freezing her. The ground rumbled again, harder this time, rattling Kade's head against the leather seat.

  "I swear to god, I'm going to kill that kid one of these days." Cole glanced back. "I'll see you in a minute. Lock the doors." He took off like shot. Kade tried to follow his streak of movement across the snow, but he was too fast.

  Without street lights, only darkness pressed against the windows. Nothing but wilderness and wildlife. Animals that would literally eat someone if given the chance. Kade clicked the automatic door locks with a shiver. Not only was the temperature dropping rapidly, even with the heat on, fear was creeping up her neck like spider's legs. No headlights shone in the distance. Danny could've been anywhere when Cole texted him.

  A shout rent through the still night air, followed by a painful, sharp cry. It swept over her like the cut of a knife. She knew that scream. Would have known it anywhere. It was the scream she'd heard when the falcon appeared.

  Cole.

  Terror gripped her, and she practically ripped the door off its frame. She took off through the trees, trying to follow the sound, searching for footsteps to track. There were none. Cole simply moved too fast to leave any.

  Ice crunched under her feet, her boots sunk into the slush, freezing her feet through the suede. Low hanging tree branches, pulled down by the weight of deadly icicles, brushed the side of her face, her arms, threatening to slice through her clothes and skin. The side of the mountain came into view under the waning moon, its hazardous, jagged face shining in the dim light, and Kade made it to the top of a hill.

  Cole stood over an abandoned mine, and Kade knew there were faults everywhere. Growing up in the mountains, she'd been taught to stay away from abandoned coal mines. They could collapse underneath the weight of a person within seconds and swallow their victim whole, burying them alive. But Cole and Jake were fighting across the barren stretch of ice, not with their fists, but with energy.

  Oh. My. God.

  Ribbons of colored light streamed out in every direction. Like spears or knives, the bolts were clearly aimed to do damage. And even though Kade knew about energy, wielding it herself, and she knew all Primordial had that ability, seeing Cole do it was more than she was prepared for. He moved with purpose and grace. Standing tall, his shoulders were broad and proud, and he seemed to welcome the threat.

  Jake's hand shot outward, and a blue band of light caught Cole in the shoulder. He staggered, and Jake ran, wrapping Cole up around his waist. The full weight of his body knocked Cole backward to the ground. Kade stifled a scream.


  "You son of a bitch." Jake stood over Cole like a lion who'd just captured his prey. "You thought you could get away this, and no one would know? She's a Primeva and mine. I should hand you over to the Ward right now. You sorry—"

  A swift kick to the stomach sent Jake flying through the air, silencing whatever else he was going to say. His back slammed into one of the rusted buildings surrounding the mine with a deafening bang, and he slid to the ground.

  "Son of a bitch?" Cole yelled, standing tall, breaths labored and drawn. He paced back and forth, shaking his right arm, energy vibrating off of him in waves of red light. It shimmered on the still night air like ripples on a lake. "That's the best you can do? Slam into me? It's like your signature move now." He wiped his mouth, and something glistened on his hand under the moonlight. Blood. "Fortis fortuna adiuvat."

  Fortune favors the bold.

  Latin again.

  "You still feeling lucky, Jake?" Cole continued pacing like a caged tiger.

  A blue stream of energy blew from Jake's direction, whistling through the night like a bullet, and Cole lifted a bored hand and deflected it, sending it screaming into a cluster of trees, engulfing them in flames. The night lit up like a fireworks display.

  "Had enough?" Cole taunted.

  Jake rose to his feet and released another surge of energy.

  "Guess that's a no." Cole sent the blue wave ricocheting into the sky in a swirl of red. "I don't give a damn what you tell the Warden. Tell him I stole your girl. It'd be true if she were yours. But she isn't."

  Kade's jaw dropped, and she couldn't stop the smile that crept over her face. Shapes moved in her periphery, weaving through the trees, and orange light cast off two faces hidden in the dark. Two faces Cole didn't see. Couldn't have seen with the firelight blazing.

  "Done yet?" He continued to pace like a hopped up wire. "Because I can't play all night. Sorry. Plans."

  Jake didn't respond, or move, still leaning against the rusted building. Something told Kade that Cole wouldn't do anything else unless it was in self-defense. There was a familiarity in Cole's taunts. Giselle said they hated each other, so had Jake, but all the times Kade had seen Cole around him, other than taunting him like the arrogant ass he could be, hatred wasn't what she picked up on.