Forged from Flame

by Kasey Mackenzie

  I was equally surprised when Ju Hai handed me a modern iPad and swiped through a few screens. She stopped on a charcoal drawing of a handsome Asian man whose face bore a fierce expression as he raised both hands to send spears of earth shooting toward an unseen enemy. The drawing was black and white, but I could easily envision green light snapping in the air around him. My glance slid to Ju Hai, who had an extremely fond expression on her face as she stared at the man on the screen.

  “Hikaru, I presume?”

  She nodded, gaze locked on the iPad as if reluctant to look away.

  “I assume he was a Dragon like I am a Phoenix? Except without the ability to hijack magic from other Elementals.”

  Another nod, but this time she swiped to a second drawing. This one depicted Hikaru surrounded by four shadowy figures who bore a striking similarity to...My eyes widened, and I glanced at each member of her Quatrain. “One of you did these drawings?”

  She shook her head. “Chin did, actually. She was one of the most highly-sought artists among her original Clan, before she and Yan bonded with Li Ming and Jin and founded Clan Zi. Within two centuries, Hikaru’s mother Yukari had conquered half of the Elemental Clans in East Asia and Hikaru himself had started rallying the other half against her. That second drawing took place another century later.”

  She swiped to a third picture showing a coldly beautiful Asian woman who sent shards of black magic flying toward Hikaru, who was obviously in the early stages of going kamikaze. The woman’s expression somehow conveyed both arrogance and sudden fear as she realized the magical destruction her son was about to unleash.

  “And this scene came another three decades later, when Hikaru sacrificed himself to end Yukari’s reign. Just before she began her attempt to start overthrowing human governments.”

  I blew out a breath. “A woman after our father’s heart, I’m sure.”

  “Indeed,” Ju Hai replied, shadows lurking beneath the surface. I found myself grateful I didn’t have her gift of prophecy. What I could see of human—and Elemental—nature was bad enough.

  She swiped the iPad screen one more time, revealing the digital image of a lengthy scroll bearing Chinese characters rather than another drawing. “Chin is working on translating the few scrolls we have from that time. This one is from a journal of Hikaru’s, where he discussed some of the military strategies he employed against his mother’s forces. These journals should prove useful.”

  Shan broke in at that statement. “Yes, and Wen and I have compiled a list of books on military strategy you should also find helpful.”

  “A little light bedtime reading, eh?”

  He winked at me. “That or you can read them in your copious amounts of free time.”

  We all snickered at that before Ju Hai reclaimed our attention. “We’ll email you digital copies of all this later, and we’re working on getting documents from other Clans pledged to Hikaru, as well as some from overseas Clanmates of our own. Those should help with the strategic side of your education. Now, however, let us turn to the magical.”

  Breena leaned forward. “Hikaru was fairly reticent about how his Mindbending powers worked. He was paranoid about revealing too much to one of his mother’s spies. However, we did pick up a few details here and there.”

  Jake and my siblings were just as intrigued by her words as me. I felt their emotions clearly through the bond. With Bianca, however, I wasn’t quite so sure. There still seemed to be more of a distance between the two of us.

  I pushed that concern away, planning to tackle it in private later. The Clan had enough trust issues where she was concerned. “Please do share these details, wise one.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Smartass.” The trembling of her lips as she fought not to laugh spoiled her attempted rebuke. “Wen mentioned yesterday that some people believe that Mindbenders are able to channel a fifth element, called Spirit, rather than a physical element like the other four. We are actually among those people, based on the comments Hikaru made during life and documents he left behind. He spoke of it manifesting similarly to the others as a band of energy, black in color, but also sparkling with flecks of every other color as well.”

  Recognition widened my eyes. “That’s what I saw when my father struck during the liegebonding ceremony. A thick black cord of light shimmering with multicolored sparks tried to overpower the thread of the four other elements binding Nic and me together.”

  Wen broke in. “And had you noticed that black light or the multicolored sparks before?”

  I frowned and thought back over the past few months since my magical powers had first developed. “I...I don’t think so. If I did, they didn’t register on my radar.”

  Breena pursed her lips. “Then perhaps your ability to see Spirit has to be jump-started just like a wildling’s ability to channel their given element is typically inspired by their first death. The same way a Beholden or Freeholder Elemental generally has their abilities sparked by repeated exposure to other Elementals using their abilities.”

  I tilted my head. “So when Daddy Dearest used Spirit against me, that helped ignite my own ability to recognize the fifth element?”

  She nodded. “Precisely.”

  “Interesting,” Ju Hai remarked. “And it would certainly seem consistent with how we know the other types of Elemental magic work.”

  Breena’s gaze met mine. “This would also seem to confirm that Spirit is indeed a true fifth element. An esoteric element, perhaps, but one nonetheless.”

  I glanced at my liegesworn and bondmate, who all appeared to be nodding in agreement. “No arguments from us. But how am I going to learn this fifth element without another Mindbender to teach me?”

  Dia snickered. “You mean it’s not a good idea to go ask Daddy Dearest can he please call a truce long enough to train you?”

  That inspired further snickers among the group, but Breena just gave a careless shrug. “It’ll be harder, to be sure, and likely more dangerous. But many wildlings manage to teach themselves how to use their abilities until the wildness takes them. And the true first Elementals had to teach themselves. Let’s start by having all five of you embrace your Elemental vision.”

  Ah, now we were finally getting down to business! I took a steadying breath and did just as she requested. Goosebumps pricked my flesh as I felt my liegesworn and bondmate do the same. I zeroed my gaze in on the multicolored magic tying me to the others and, sure enough, I could see tiny threads of shimmering black light dancing in the air. My pulse picked up speed. Awesome! Now that I can see Spirit, that should make actively channeling it way easier!

  Sadly, that did not prove to be true. We passed the next few hours with me trying to grab hold of one of the cords of Spirit only to fail miserably. Every time I started to think I was on the verge of success, my psyche would latch on to one of the physical elements—most often Fire—instead. If not Fire, then it was one of the other three elements courtesy of Jake or my liegesworn’s Elemental hands.

  I finally sat back, sweat-soaked and completely defeated, when the hunger pangs gnawing my insides could no longer be denied. “I have got to eat something or I won’t be able to keep banging my head against this magical wall anymore.”

  Ju Hai sensed the frustration and self-disgust in my voice. “Do not expect this element to come to you any easier than Fire did when you were first learning how to channel it. In fact, it may be more difficult considering that it’s not physical in nature.”

  That lifted my mood just slightly. “Then we can break for lunch?”

  Breena nodded, and I noticed that the two women were the only ones here besides we five and the vigilant Liam. Whom I caught staring at my brother in what I could only assume was distrust, or perhaps...uncertainty? That second emotion was undoubtedly an unfamiliar one for him.

  “Wen and Shan went to help Chef prepare lunch in the farmhouse. Let’s take a two-hour break so you can eat and catch your breath, and then we’ll meet back out here to start again. I k
now you can do this, Cassidy.”

  Well that makes one of us.

  Her words had me secretly jumping for joy. Breena so rarely expressed positive emotions when it came to me channeling magic that her words practically dripped with praise. And I realized she was right. I really could do this. It just wouldn’t be easy, and that suited me fine. Few other things in my life had been. Why should that change now?

  The next few days passed in a blur of magical practice, crushing failures, small successes, eating, sleeping, and studying Hikaru’s writings and strategy in what little free time remained. There were seldom any private moments for me to get to know my liegesworn enough to really bond with them, but I was doing my best. Bianca and Jake spent their rare private moments poring over Colin’s letters and deciphering the clues he’d left for each. The plan was for Bianca, apparently a puzzle solver extraordinaire, to then put together all the pieces and determine just where he’d chosen his final resting place to be.

  Well, final only until we found him and revived his wildling ass.

  The silence from my father after we removed the tracker implanted inside Nic seemed deafening. We could only guess that the fact we’d thwarted his attempt to either mind-control me through my bond with Nic or destroy my bond with Jake had shaken him enough to more carefully consider his next plan of attack. Not that we let that make us drop our guard. We had pulled in every available Clanmate to help bolster our defenses. Scouts had failed to find any sign of Garrett or his forces within a 30-mile radius; but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

  Slowly, I did gain the ability to call upon Spirit at will, just as I had with Fire. Telepathically communicating with my liegesworn and bondmate through our respective bonds came easily to me, but I found it just about impossible to share thoughts with anyone else. Since attempts to do just that resulted in only failure, we turned to mixing Spirit into other spells instead. Unfortunately, that proved to be no more fruitful. And the more I failed, the more frustrated I became.

  Finally, Ju Hai noticed the same thing and ordered us to take a break day. I wanted to argue but couldn’t. Channeling Spirit exhausted me in a way the other elements did not. I’d lost at least 10 pounds over the past week, despite the fact I’d been eating enough food for three linebackers. Exhaustion followed me everywhere I went, even when I woke up from 12 hours of sleep after collapsing during supper one evening.

  Our day off passed peacefully enough, and that evening the entire Clan gathered to share a barbecue dinner in the farmhouse’s ample backyard. We had just begun to eat when several loud chimes clanged, causing every Clanmate to glance in the direction from where we could magically sense trouble originating. Northeast, toward the outer edge of land owned by Clan Zi—where my adoptive family now lived a few miles from my own cabin shared with Jake. They’d fallen in love with the cabin at first sight and refused my gentle pressure to move closer. Now the weight of that distance came crashing down on my spirit.

  My panicked gaze locked onto Jake’s concerned features. I could feel the blood leech from my skin as ice skittered along my veins. “My family!”

  Breena placed a steadying hand upon my shoulder. “The border guards will already be there by now. They’ll protect them until we get there.”

  I clung to that thought as I took off running. The Clan Firsts barked or signed orders to various Clan members while Jake, his parents’ Quatrain, Liam, and (surprisingly without prompting) my brother and sister fell in step behind me. Bianca chose to remain with the Firsts—or rather Li Ming strongly encouraged her to stay for her children’s safety. The nine of us piled into two nearby Clan vehicles and peeled away, kicking up gravel and dust in our wake. Additional Clan members scrambled toward other vehicles to follow, but I focused my attention forward.

  Jake drove our SUV like a bat out of hell, and for once I approved of his crazy driving. Murmurs behind us heralded his family explaining details to my two liegesworn. Terror coated my stomach thickly. Nausea swept across my entire body, and I closed my eyes to fight for control. Panic wouldn’t help me, and it sure as hell wouldn’t help my family.

  “We’re going to reach them in time,” Jake reassured me with steel in his voice. “And if we don’t, we’ll get them back in one piece. I promise you that.”

  His words steadied me as intended, even if I knew there was no way he could guarantee they’d prove true. I closed my eyes to further center myself and considered how I might use Spirit to scout the scene ahead of us. If only my adoptive parents or brothers were Elementals—or my liegesworn. Perhaps then I could follow Elemental flows of magical energy or the bond tying us together to let them know we were on the way. Or better yet, learn what was going on.

  You know what’s going on, a silky voice whispered inside my mind. Your bastard birth father is attacking them to get to you. Only you have the power to stop him. Stop running scared of this new ability. Use it!

  Something about that thought seemed right. Like I could do something active rather than sitting there waiting. My clasped fingers tightened atop my lap, and desperation had me deciding to experiment.

  I pictured my parents in my mind, remembering the amazing times we’d enjoyed over the past couple of months. My brothers were still wary toward me—understandably so since they’d grown up knowing me only as the beloved first child their parents had lost, and then they’d been forced to uproot their lives in order to stay in mine—but we were navigating our way through things as best we could. Just thinking about them had my mother’s face popping to the forefront of my mind. She felt impossibly far away. In truth, she was no more than a few miles from our current location, with that distance rapidly shrinking. Even with my eyes closed, the magical world spread out around me thanks to the fact I had embraced my Elemental vision.

  My breath picked up speed when one of the scarlet bands of energy leading in the direction that we were heading glowed a hundred times brighter as I thought about my mother. I focused my Elemental vision upon that band of Fire and hissed out a breath after realizing that an inky black thread of magic threaded through the red. Almost as if my ability to work Fire was merging with my newly discovered Mindbending powers.

  Instinct kicked in, and I expanded my psychic horizons, sending my Elemental gaze dancing along that shimmering cord of black-tinged Fire. As if it’d been waiting for my surrender to instinct, that cord sucked my conscious mind along a vortex to a spot miles away from where my physical body sat. Slowly, awareness of that body faded into the background, until the swirling energy zipping my consciousness along the scarlet beam of light took center stage by spitting my psyche out in the front yard of my parents’ rambling two-story cabin. Straight into chaos.

  Somehow I could see everything in that location clearly, although a very thin layer of fog leant it a surreal quality. My family shared a spacious two-story cabin with an attached garage. At least a half-dozen of the Clan’s border guards were shepherding my three brothers and father into a waiting pickup truck haphazardly parked across the front walkway, no doubt intending to retreat deeper into Clan territory. They were impeded by an equal number of enemy Elementals who seemed intent on capturing my family. My throat clogged with fear when I realized I could see no sign of my mother. I focused my attention on the cabin’s door, but no convenient flows of Fire led in that direction. A fallen border guard lay bleeding out from a dozen wounds, sprawled across the cabin’s front stoop. That sight filled me with both dread and yet relief that the body didn’t belong to my mother.

  Where is my mother? I internally seethed.

  That demand no sooner crossed my mind than another scarlet flow of Fire flared, drawing my focus to where it stretched out northward. Glittering shards cascaded throughout the red cord, and I didn’t hesitate to surrender to the vortex once more.

  The mental voyage was both shorter and more disorienting, ending not on a stationary location like my parents’ home, but in the bed of an extended cab pickup truck tearing along the rural highway just
outside Clan territory. My mind spun as I tried to keep it focused upon the truck. That goal was tough as hell with the band of Fire ebbing and flowing. It almost seemed to be trying to keep up with the truck by flowing where it naturally would not. That had me gritting my teeth and redoubling my efforts.

  The truck was shiny new and nondescript gray in color. A Ford F-150. I couldn’t see the license plate from my current vantage point—but I did spy a rental sticker from a well-known St. Louis car dealership on the rear window. And on the other side of the glass I saw a blonde-haired figure with its head slumped against the rear passenger window. Several Elementals surrounded her to the left and in the front seat. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see their faces; but then the figure directly next to her shifted to make my mother more comfortable, and I caught a flash of that figure’s side profile. Excitement thundered through me when I recognized the woman as no Elemental at all. Instead, it was someone I loved more than anyone besides Jake and my family, someone who was as much an unwilling captive as my mother.

  My best friend, Sierra “Si Si” Cruz.

  ((Si Si!)) I shouted her name inside my head, only to have her eyes widen and head jerk around; almost as if she’d heard me. Wait. Could she?

  I put every ounce of power behind my mental voice as I could. ((Si Si, can you hear me?))

  ((C—Cass?))

  Holy shit. It actually worked. ((Yes, it’s me. I’m learning some of the same tricks as my father, but don’t let anyone know. We’ve been looking for you everywhere, and now we’re right behind you and Mom. Just hang on.))

  ((I knew you would find me. But you have to hurry, gringa. Dorian is not a patient man!))

  ((Neither is my evil father. Do you know where Dorian’s taking you?))

  ((Somewhere in St. Louis. I don’t think Garrett knows about this abduction of your mother, though. He’s apparently licking his wounds because you kicked his psychic ass. It’s going to take him at least a few days if not a couple weeks to recover his strength. Dorian took advantage of that fact to grab another hostage so you would come after him now. Garrett expected him to be in St. Louis making some sort of move against the Freeholders. But I can’t tell you more than that. Usually I’m so out of my mind from his magic that I have no clue what’s going on around me. But with you here, my mind is clearer than it has been in months.))