Fate of Elements

by M. Stratton

  He cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because as soon as you knew this happened, you came here to help.”

  “Or to finish the both of you off.”

  “You wouldn’t do that,” I replied.

  “You don’t know me.”

  “No, but I’ve read about you, your history along with all of the Air elements. I’m not saying you don’t hate the fact that I am here and am worried for your people, but I also know you will at least see what happens before making any rash decisions. You wouldn’t risk hurting the people you call family.”

  He nodded. “For now, yes, you are correct.”

  “I’m not naïve enough to think you aren’t considering taking me out now to avoid future trouble.”

  This time he chuckled. “Oh, you’re good.”

  “I know.”

  “I may just like you.”

  “And therefore, allow me to live?” I asked.

  “Possibly.”

  “Well, since we have that settled. Nice weather we’re having.”

  He threw back his head, and his booming laugh filled the forest.

  Looking at both him and Hallet, I was amazed at the difference between the two of them. Erion’s hair had turned from the dark grey when he first arrived to pure white now. His bright blue eyes held humor and intelligence. Where Hallet was so dark and brooding, Erion was light and had a sense of humor.

  “Tell me, do you know of the prophecy?”

  “Yes, I actually had read about it before I stepped through the Skeleton Door.”

  “And what do you think of it? Is it all true?” he asked.

  “We have yet to see.”

  “But you do have the magic of all four elements, I’ve seen that.”

  “Well, your hawk has seen it.”

  “I’ve seen it through his eyes. Just as Naida sees through her whale, Dayna through her lioness, and Hallet, his snake. It’s like using our own eyes to see what we want.”

  “But you aren’t limited to those creatures alone, are you?”

  “No, we can use any animal that identifies with our element. It comes in handy.”

  “I’m sure it does. How well did you know my uncle?”

  “Ahhhh… Charlie. He was quite a character.”

  “I never knew I had an uncle until I received the letter informing me of his death and last will and testament. He left me his entire estate, including the library.”

  “Fate said it was to be that way. You were to be kept in the dark about your heritage until the time was right.”

  “So, all of this was already planned?”

  “Eons ago, and there is nothing we can do about it.” His voice was sharp with bitterness.

  “Why does it make you so angry?” I asked.

  “All of this heartache, all of the battles, the loss, everything was for nothing because it didn’t matter what we did or didn’t do, the end result would be the same. You’d come, put a pretty bow on everything, and make it all perfect.”

  “If it makes you feel better, I’ve never been particular to bows in my life.”

  His smile was slow and sad. “You are very similar to him.” He stood up and looked down at me. “He was a good man, Raina, he brought us stories of your world and shared ours with yours. While there are so many differences, the similarities were there also. I enjoyed many nights talking with him. If he left you any words of wisdom, I’d follow them if I were you.” He turned and started to walk away before changing his mind and returning to me. He crouched down to my level and looked me straight in the eye. “I’m assuming Hallet hasn’t told you what he gains by being the one you choose to love?”

  “What makes you –?”

  “Stop, child. I’m sure he didn’t. Let me share two pieces of information. First, he must wake soon. I’ll call up the Fire Elements and have them take him underground. He’ll heal quicker there. Trust me, you don’t want to be out here and vulnerable if Dayna decides to strike while you are weak. And second, he’d not just be your mate; your powers would merge into him, giving him power over the other elements.”

  My mind whirled, attempting to figure out exactly what it was he was trying to tell me.

  “I’m sure you can imagine what that would mean to the other elements, to have one of their own suddenly more powerful, the right-hand to the new god. I’m afraid if that should happen, he may take revenge against those he feels have wronged his people.”

  Gracefully, he stood up and walked away before disappearing into the sky. Crawling over to Hallet, I lay down next to him, thankful when I could feel his heart beating. I never once thought he’d have some underhanded reason for wanting to help me. Probably because I knew him, I’d dreamt of him. And if I were to be honest with myself, there was a point in every story where loyalties were tested and secrets revealed. If that were the case here, then that meant we were about to go into the final chapter before the end of the story. What would happen then? There were so many possibilities it made my head hurt, and all I wanted to do was curl up in Hallet’s arms and fall asleep. Hearing the lion’s roar, I knew we had run out of time. Dayna was coming.

  Rolling over, I dug my fingers below the surface of the ground, and using Hallet’s fire signature, I called for his second in command, Ronin, hoping my message would get through. I knew he’d be here as quickly as possible for his King.

  “Well, well, well. Look what we have here.” A female voice called from the rock ledge above us. “You don’t look like a god to me.”

  “Why don’t you come closer and get a better look?” I called up to her.

  “No, that’s quite all right. I’m happy up here on my rocks. You know,” her head tipped to the side, “from up here, it’d be so easy to, oh, I don’t know, have a boulder fall on your heads.”

  “I believe you mean head, singular. Somehow I don’t think you want Hallet dead.”

  Her lip curled. “There was a time when I’d give anything for him to love me. But he killed that. Do you know he believes my parents killed his one true love? That was his justification for killing them. We all had lost so much, and still, in his uncontrolled anger, he took out so many. My people’s numbers were depleted by his. No, I wouldn’t shed a tear if he died.”

  It was taking me longer and longer to open my eyes after every blink.

  “Oh, looks like it is past baby’s nap time,” her voice sing-songed from above. “Here, let me help knock you out.”

  I could hear the sound of rocks grinding against each other, and I opened my eyes, gasping. There, about twenty feet above us, was a boulder the size of a large pickup truck.

  “Sweet dreams,” she laughed.

  Suddenly, arms came from under the ground and pulled us down below the dirt. The last thing I heard was Dayna’s scream of rage as I was buried in darkness.

  Hallet

  Slowly, I came awake, aware Raina’s body was draped over mine.

  “Finally,” Ronin said. “I thought you were going all Sleeping Beauty on us, like from the stories Charlie used to tell us.”

  “Shut up.”

  “It’s going to be hard to bring you up to speed if I can’t talk.” Ronin stretched back in his seat and laced his fingers behind his head. He may have looked relaxed, but the swirling red of his eyes gave away his anger.

  “What happened?” I asked, focusing my attention on him while trying not to wake Raina.

  “I’ve been piecing together what happened. The two of you were training and got into a fight. You kept pushing her and she pushed back. So hard, in fact, she used your body to take out half of the forest before slamming you up against a rock wall.”

  I frowned and tested the muscles in my body. “I don’t hurt, or remember what happened.”

  “That’s because she did something to you afterwards. I have no idea what, but it wiped her out so bad she couldn’t lift a finger to protect herself when Erion showed up.”

  A growl sounded
from deep in my chest. The thought of her alone and unprotected with my brother made my blood burn. She needed more training to be able to stand on her own.

  “Before you get angry, you should know he was very pleasant to her. He was calm, almost helpful you could say.”

  “What did he tell her?”

  “Ahhhh, you know him so well. He told her about the merging of her power with the mate she chooses.”

  “Great.”

  “Oh, but that isn’t all, my dear King.”

  “What else could there be?”

  “Dayna.”

  Now my blood ran cold, and my heart raced in fear of what could have happened. “Tell me.”

  “Raina had called to me after Erion left. She was weak, and I almost didn’t realize what I was hearing, so I didn’t get there as soon as I should have. After Dayna had told her you killed her parents and half of her people, she was getting ready to drop a very large boulder on both of your heads when I was able to pull you under. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy. But then again, when is she ever?”

  I closed my eyes and breathed in the sweet scent of Raina sleeping so peacefully next to me. “How long have we been out?”

  “Only for a day.”

  “What?” It took everything I had not to bolt out of bed and start pacing the room. “How can that be?”

  “Do you want to know what I think?”

  “When have you ever asked my permission?”

  “Good point. I’m no expert on this whole ‘we’re getting a new god who walked through the Skeleton Door’ thing, but if I had to take a guess, I would say she somehow tried to heal you, but you got a little something extra in the exchange. Something Erion and Dayna know nothing about.”

  I froze and tried to center myself to see if I could feel what he was talking about. The first thing I noticed was a change in the air quality. As I took a deep breath in, I could do more than smell the scents around me. It was like it had its own color. Its own flow. Cautiously, I thought of a nice, gentle breeze flowing across my skin, cooling it down, and suddenly it was there.

  Reaching out further with my mind, I went through the cracks and underground caves until I found water. Easily, I was able to increase the flow. Moving further up to the surface, I made a field of wildflowers bloom.

  The amount of power flowing through me verged on being uncontrollable. The only reason I was able to contain it was because I was King. If anything, this gave me more respect for Raina. To be able to do what she’d been doing would be considered nothing short of a miracle.

  “How do you know I’m different?”

  “I’m your brother, and I’ve been your best friend for centuries. I know your magical energy better than mine and exactly what you are capable of. Once you opened your eyes, I knew for certain.” He stood up and brought a mirror over to me. “Look at your eyes.”

  The unfamiliar glowing eyes staring back at me were disconcerting. Raina’s healing magic blended all the elements together, and that showed in my eyes. They didn’t swirl with the molten fire of my essence, they also had the other elements mixing in them. I tried to mask my eyes like I’d done thousands of times before, making them pure black, but they wouldn’t change.

  “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the two of you are closer than you’re letting on.” Ronin’s dry sarcasm dripped with each word. “I can’t think of any way a simple healing would have transferred some of her power to you.”

  “No, under normal circumstances I’d agree with you. But she isn’t normal, and she has no training. Maybe it was a mistake.”

  “Please.”

  “Give me a minute.” I closed my eyes, focusing on the forest around the clearing and what creatures would be there. I didn’t want to choose one under Dayna’s rule. I knew it would get back to her, and the last thing I wanted was her to realize more of the prophecy was coming true. Unfortunately, the nearby stream didn’t have a good view of what had transpired, and Ronin had already spoken with my creatures, but they preferred to be underground, in the dark. That left Erion’s charges. Seeking around, I found a small bluebird whose nest was in a tree with a great view of the event.

  Slipping into the mind of a bird wasn’t that different from a snake’s, except as I would have imagined, the bird’s brain was faster and not as cunning as I was used to. Watching the scene unfold was strange, and as I watched myself fly through the trees and smash into the rocks, I could almost feel the pain that somehow had been taken from me.

  From the moment I had first seen Raina I knew she was beautiful, but seeing her instinctively use her magic to get to me quickly and then use her magic to heal me, was mesmerizing. The energy of the elements flowed around her, a tangible thing I could reach out and touch. Sometimes I’d forget she was a god and not of this world. But seeing her like this, it hit home how different she really was.

  Even though I knew it was coming, when the wind picked up and Erion came rushing down to us, it surprised me to see the look on his face. I still didn’t trust him, but maybe time had healed some of the old wounds.

  I couldn’t believe how weak Raina was. How much of herself had she given me? Is this something she could recover from?

  We had been wondering when Dayna would show up. I wasn’t surprised it was when we both were at our weakest. My pride took a hit. I was lying there, passed out, unable to protect her when we were so close to death.

  Watching the boulder fall toward us, even knowing Ronin was able to get us out of there in time, I felt my rage building like a forest fire sweeping across the land.

  “I thought she’d come around.”

  “Hallet, she wears her battle scars like trophies. Her memory is long. She is always going to find a way to make you remember what she has sacrificed, what has been taken from her. She’s been like that since we were young. You can’t change her. No one ever could.”

  “I wonder had she loved Erion instead of me, if things would have been different.”

  “If they had been, then the prophecy wouldn’t have been needed.” He shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

  I sighed. “I’d been holding out hope she’d survive this…”

  “And what? End up one big, happy family? Come on, Hallet, even you know it’s not that cut and dried. Unfortunately, not everyone is going to make it out alive. There is going to be blood and death. We couldn’t keep going on like we had been, something had to change. In the end, it will be better, but getting there is going to be damn hard.”

  “Why can’t you go back to being my witty sidekick and stop being so logical, brother?”

  His smile was crooked. “I’m talented. I can do both.”

  “You’re not getting a medal.”

  “Please, I already have enough.”

  He was right, he did. There was no one else I trusted more than him. He’d stood by my side since we were boys. Always backing me up and protecting me, his King. His body held more scars than mine, and I couldn’t think of life without him. It was one of the things that scared me most about the battle ahead. Losing him, my true brother.

  Raina

  I lay there, keeping my breathing in a deep rhythm as I listened to Hallet and Ronin talk about what had happened. What they didn’t know was I had woken up the same instant he had. It felt so good, lying there in his arms, and it had been so long since I’d simply relaxed that I wanted to enjoy it a little longer.

  When Ronin told Hallet he had changed since I’d healed him, Erion’s words came back to me. Hallet would be just as strong as me. I’d never dreamt of sharing strength with someone. It sounded nice to me, as if I was able to share the weight that had been dropped onto my shoulders when I chose to walk through the Skeleton Door. I continued to lie still and quiet, even when my emotions threatened to overwhelm my control.

  I wondered how he could have become more than his element alone. We’d practiced some simple healing magic, and I’d never had that issue before. Of course, he had been close to death, so m
aybe I put too much of myself into it. The guilt I had felt since I was trying to reverse the damage I had done.

  When Ronin said not everyone was going to make it out alive, I could feel Hallet’s sadness, and it made me wonder if maybe we were connected spiritually now as well. We’d talked about the history of his world, and yes, I’d been able to tell he was sad before, especially talking about the murder of his parents, but not like this. I could feel his heart aching, specifically about losing Ronin.

  He was a good man with a past. He’d made some wrong decisions, but hadn’t everyone? The errors of his past didn’t equal the man he’d become. In this strange world, I had to trust someone. Fate had given me dreams of him for years. I had to completely go with my instincts and believe in him.

  I’d become so attuned to the Skeleton Key, I knew it was still in my pocket. It never moved. Again, I wondered what would happen when this adventure was over. Should I use the key and go back to my other life? Should I stay? This place was so different from where I had come, yet there were some things that were familiar. If I stayed, would I ever truly feel a part of this world? Or would I always be treated differently because in their eyes, in their prophecy, I was a god? Would I be able to step into my rightful place as leader and assimilate to my new role, or would I be just as lonely, isolated by my status as God, as I was going in to work at my office back home?

  As Hallet absently played with a lock of my hair, he continued to talk with Ronin about the coming battle. I knew in my heart of hearts that he would be devastated if I left. When our souls danced together, they created a bond that would forever be recognizable to the other. Would that bond still be there if I walked back through the door? What about after their world was peaceful? Maybe if I wasn’t needed anymore, we wouldn’t feel the same.

  Listening to the deep rumble of their voices and the fire crackling in the fireplace, I again felt completely at ease and relaxed. I had no idea how I could adapt so easily.

  Dayna

  “It’s time. Do you stand with me, or against me?” I asked him.