CHAPTER 8
KADEN
Incessant pounding on the glass window outside the shop broke through Kaden’s concentration. Eryk remained in Kaden’s apartment but their parting words swirled around in his brain and wreaked havoc. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint his father.
Kaden heard conflicting stories from his mother from the time he was young. She always maintained Elementals were evil, selfish beings who only wanted power and glory so they could take over Earth and create a world the same as their old world before. Elementals killed his father when he was only three. His mother drilled that into his head from a very young age.
Eryk, however, insisted the stories were untrue and claimed Kaden would learn the full truth when the timing was right. So far Kaden had yet to discover anything different from what his mother always said. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms, rainstorms, forest fires—these were all the work of elementals. The proof was out there. It couldn’t be clearer. Elementals wanted to destroy Earth.
But, Kaden couldn’t deny, there was something about Raine that wouldn’t let him rest. From the moment he found her and ‘transferred’ to her school, he could sense she was different.
“We’re closed,” Kaden yelled through the paper covering the windows. Whoever was on the other side needed to go away before his head exploded from the thoughts churning inside—mainly thoughts of Raine.
Another round of pounding came from the small silhouette in front of the shop and it didn’t look like this person was about to stop.
Kaden dropped the bracelet and stalked to the front door. Flipping the latch, he swung the door wide as another round of pounding vibrating the wooden door ended on his chest when the door disappeared.
“You,” the familiar pixie voice yelled while her fist continued to beat on his chest.
“Camille,” Kaden said with a sigh as he stilled her hand by taking it between both of his and clamping it to his chest. “What brings you here?”
“What did you do?” She snipped the question at him as she ripped her hand out of his grasp and stalked inside the store.
“Won’t you please come in?” Kaden said to the closing door. He turned to look at Camille whose face was almost as bright red as her hair.
“How could you, Kaden?” She was exasperated. “How could you do that to her?”
“Exactly what did I do?” he questioned.
“Oh, you know what you did.” Camille paced around the small shop, barely missing boxes as she kicked her Converse along the floor in agitation. “Where is it? Where did you put it?”
“Awww. She’s pissed about her bracelet and figured I stole it, huh?”
Camille came to a stop directly in front of him. She craned her neck to see his face, but she didn’t back down. Kaden would have smiled if he wasn’t already preoccupied by thoughts of Raine. “No. She isn’t pissed. She doesn’t even know you have it. But I do.” She poked him in the chest for emphasis. “You exposed her to her powers. She doesn’t even know who she is. And for what?” Camille threw her hands in the air and closed her eyes.
Kaden stood in shocked silence for a moment before he spoke. His voice was quiet and doubtful.
“How can she not know who she is? She has been an Elemental since birth and she’s eighteen today. She wore that blasted thing to hide her powers from us.” He said the words, but doubt formed in his thoughts.
Raine wore the iron bracelet, which he figured she wore to keep off the radar from those hunting Elementals. What he did find strange was that she didn’t notice when he slipped it off her.
“Haven’t you realized how different she is from the rest?” Camille asked. “Her skin never blistered or burned under the iron. Did you happen to grasp that part?”
He hadn’t, Kaden realized. Iron suppressed an Elemental’s powers, which is the reason he figured she wore it. Most Elementals he hunted tried to hide behind an iron curtain, but the mask came with a price. Iron also burnt the skin of Elementals, and Fay, actually. The iron made Raine harder to find, but if a person knew what to look for, iron or not, they could be found.
“How did you find her, Kaden?” Camille asked. “If she wore her bracelet constantly, how did you find her?”
Raine proved harder than the rest, but Kaden assumed it was the bracelet. He never questioned how he could feel her regardless of the iron, and the confusion in his head deepened with Camille’s question. Part of him wondered if Camille was correct. Maybe Raine didn’t know who she was. If that were true, Raine would be in a lot of danger today as her powers flowed uninhibited into her like water through a fire hose.
“I’m merely doing my job,” Kaden said with little conviction.
“That isn’t an answer. How did you find her?”
Kaden cleared his throat and rolled out his shoulders. How could he explain it when he didn’t understand himself? For months, he felt a pull to this place. The pull was so strong, he knew it could only be an Elemental.
Setting himself up to play the part of a transferred high school senior was the easy part. The hard part was deciding which student he felt drawn to. The bracelet gave Raine away. Kaden noticed it the moment they met.
Camille sat quietly, watching Kaden and waiting for him to answer.
“I don’t really know how I found her, if you want an honest answer. I felt the pull and came,” Kaden responded in hushed tones. “I’m doing my job like you’re trying to do yours.”
“You’re a horrible person, Kaden. I can’t believe the seers trusted you. I can’t believe that Aria trusted you. You’re a chosen Guardian. Heaven bless your father for his disappointment.” Kaden flinched at the mention of his father, but he wouldn’t concede. He couldn’t.
“My charge is dead. I’m no longer a Guardian of anything,” he explained with more patience than he felt.
“Says who?” Camille screamed.
“Camille, that is enough.” Eryk’s voice bellowed from the stairs leading to Kaden’s above-store apartment.
“You.” Camille turned her full glare on Eryk as he descended the stairs. She propped her hands on her hips. “You’ve done a great job watching him, haven’t you Eryk?”
“Está marabillosa. Eu sinto a súa falta, doce.” You look amazing. I’ve missed you, sweet one.
“Keep your flattery to yourself. Right now, I don’t want to see either of your faces.”
Eryk stepped closer to Camille, despite the bite in her words, and pulled her into an embrace. He held her there as she breathed in his scent. Camille stood rigid in Eryk’s arms before she melted into his chest and threw her arms around his waist.
Small compared to Eryk, her head came to rest just above his chest. Kaden noticed the top half of her flower and vines tattoo that snaked around one side of her body and peeked out as Eryk’s embrace lifted her shirt slightly.
Camille was also Fay, but unlike Eryk who was a warrior, Camille was a Fay of nature.
“I’ve missed you too, Eryk,” she said by way of apology.
Kaden looked on with the feeling that he was intruding on a private moment between ‘more than friends’ as Camille and Eryk embraced. He watched as Eryk soothed Camille’s nerves and held her in his arms until her hard stance visibly dissipated into thin air. His thoughts drifted back to Raine and how she felt against his body that morning, and he wondered again just what the actual truth was.
“Kaden?” Camille disengaged from Eryk’s embrace and turned to look him in the eyes. “What if your charge isn’t dead? What if the Elemental you are to protect is alive? Would that change how you feel?”
Stunned by the verbalization of the question his mind just asked, Kaden opened his mouth to answer when his pocket vibrated with a new text message. He made no effort to retrieve it because he knew who it would be from. He hadn’t checked in with his employer on the progress of his latest job, and whomever it was was becoming anxious. Kaden left his phone in his pocket and ignored the buzzing as he stared at the bracelet.
Camille and Eryk watched as Kaden picked up the small object from the workbench.
“Is that her bracelet?” Camille asked as she stretched one arm forward, palm up, and wiggled her fingers. “She thought she lost it, you know.”
“I know.” Kaden dropped the bracelet into Camille’s waiting hand. The bracelet looked nothing like it did when he first took it with the intention to destroy the bracelet altogether. When it came time, he couldn’t do it. He felt an overwhelming urge to fix it.
The day they met, Raine talked about her mother and how this bracelet was the only possession she owned of her mother’s. It gave Kaden pause. He couldn’t understand why, but he couldn’t destroy the bracelet. Instead, Kaden stripped the coating, polished it, and added accents of various stones. Now he stared at his work as Camille flipped it over in her hand in confusion.
“It’s . . . beautiful,” Camille said to herself. She leveled a look at Kaden and said, “It was her mothers, did you know?” Kaden nodded. “Her mother had it made when Elementals started to disappear and she feared for her life. The day she arrived at the hospital, she took it off because the doctors said she couldn’t wear it during childbirth. Some silly rule.”
Camille glanced at Eryk with sad eyes as the memories spilled from her heart. Eryk gave her a sympathetic smile before she turned back to Kaden, then focused on the bracelet.
“It was then that Li…uh…Paige was found and killed. She never had a chance to know her daughter before she was taken from this world.”
Camille swiped at the tear that trailed down her cheek. With watery eyes, she looked at Kaden and waited for him to say something.
“I’ve never heard that story.” Kaden was somber. He shouldn’t care, but he did.
“Kaden, there is so much that you don’t know.” Camille’s voice was quiet and almost sad. Eryk cleared his throat and shook his head when their gaze met. Kaden saw the exchange and wondered what it meant.
Camille pulled her attention back to Kaden as she eyed the bracelet suspiciously.
“This is very beautiful, and powerful. I can feel it.” Camille raised her eyebrow as she questioned. “Why?”
Kaden’s phone buzzed again. This time he pulled it from his pocket and threw it on the table.
“I don’t really know,” he said honestly. “I came down here to destroy it this morning, but couldn’t.” Kaden took the bracelet from Camille’s hands and laid it on the workbench. “I held the hammer in my hands and was ready to smash it to pieces, but something changed my mind. I remembered her incredibly blue eyes and how she looked at it with longing when she spoke of her mother. I couldn’t do it.”
Kaden looked from Camille to Eryk and saw the smile that formed on each face.
“Anyway, I stripped the iron off the silver and realized she needed more to her bracelet. She deserves more.”
“Why these stones?” Camille prodded. Kaden realized he’d been staring off into nothingness when Camille’s voice softened, transitioning from harsh to hopeful.
“I just grabbed stones as they came to my mind.”
Camille snatched the bracelet again, taking a closer look at the curlicues that now held stones in different shades of blue and black, all cut in the shape of teardrops. The stones sat on either side of a large, almost clear stone, with the exception of a few cloudy patches throughout.
“A moonstone?” Camille asked with a cocked brow.
Eryk and Camille exchanged looks before Camille turned back to him slack-jawed.
“It’s time,” Eryk said and Camille nodded without taking her eyes off Kaden.
“Time for what?” Kaden asked.
“Kaden?” Camille said as she stepped in front of him. His deep green eyes met her stare and she swallowed.
“Raine is your charge. You’re her Guardian.”
Kaden blinked. “What do you mean my charge? She can’t be. My charge is dead.”
“No, she isn’t. Your father saved her the night he died. She is the one you are to guard. The signs are obvious,” Eryk replied as he looked on. “She must feel different for you.”
Kaden reluctantly nodded. Raine did feel different to him. In a way, he wanted to protect Raine from everything, including himself. However, the voice of his mother haunted him from the deep recesses of his mind. Kaden twitched as he remembered how his mother drilled her hate of Elementals into him.
“Can’t you feel it? She called you here. You heard her over the power of the iron on her arm. She’s yours to protect.” Eryk’s statement made Kaden ache inside. Ever since he touched Raine that morning, he couldn’t think of anything else and it made him angry.
When Kaden didn’t speak, Camille walked to the front door, grabbed her bag off the floor, and swung the front door open.
“Believe it or not, she’s your charge. This much is true,” Camille tossed over her shoulder. “Remember swimming class is during last period and just so you know, Raine is determined not to miss today like she missed all week. I don’t think . . . well, I’m not sure how her body is going to handle that sort of stimulation all at once. It could be too much for her.”
Camille slammed the door behind her, leaving her words to hang in the air.
“Guess I better get to school, just in case,” Kaden finally mumbled.
“Yeah, I guess you better,” Eryk replied stiffly.
If something happened to Raine, it would be his fault, and somehow he felt incredibly guilty about that.
>*< >*< >*<
A lone figure stood outside the jewelery shop and watched Camille huff down the street. She looked the same, but she should since Camille didn’t age.
A smile emerged when the figure realized what Camille’s visit must mean. Kaden found the girl. Now, it was only a matter of time before Kaden discovered, and believed, who Raine really was. But it would be too late by then.
As the figure’s phone vibrated with an incoming text, the figure ducked behind the building and pressed against the brick wall. Camille rounded the corner and stalked past. She mumbled to herself, never noticing the shadow in the alley.
Once she was far enough away, the shadow pulled the phone free and checked the text. It was from the informant, and confirmed their suspicion. Raine was, in fact, the Chosen One, which meant they needed to act now before it was too late. If Kaden really knew the whole story, he would be furious. But that was the beauty of their plan, it was foolproof. There was no way Kaden would find out until it was too late.
CHAPTER 9
RAINE
A small sigh escaped Raine’s lips as the tardy bell rang to start the last period of the day. Raine looked forward to swimming all week. So far, it’d been a crazy day and Raine couldn’t wait to submerge herself in the pool and forget everything.
The attention Raine seemed to receive from every male at school unnerved her all day. The guys would open doors, give sweet and endearing comments, and some even started conversations before and after class, waiting until the last minute to sprint down the hall when the bell rang. That would be normal stuff for most high school girls, Raine supposed, but not for her. Not once in her years at Seaside High had she been the object of so much attention, and it bothered her.
After changing in the locker room, Raine entered the pool area and dropped her towel on the bleachers. With a quick tug of her swim cap and goggles, she was ready to jump in and swim her worries away.
Michael already swam laps in one lane when Raine made her way to the center of the bulkhead, and she dropped into the center lane next to him. Raine sank deep under the water and let the coolness wash over her in a watery embrace. The tension from the day slowly melted away as energy filled her body. When she surfaced, she shook the water from her face as she treaded water. She stretched her arms out, closed her eyes, and rolled her neck from side to side. She felt invigorated. Placing one arm on the bulkhead, she turned when she felt the prickly sensation that someone was staring at her.
“Hey, happy birthday,” Michael
said with a sheepish grin. He never wore a cap in practice, so his hair clung to his face just above his high eyebrows. Michael hung on the lane line and casually kicked his legs beneath the surface as he spoke. They were the only two people in the pool area, which was a normal occurrence every other day, but today was the first time he’d ever spoken to her.
“Ummm, thanks.” Raine rolled her eyes at her ingenious response and suppressed the urge to face-palm herself. She’d been giving these responses to everyone all day.
“You’re a really great swimmer,” Michael said as he stared at her. Apparently, her lack of vocabulary didn’t seem to bother him much. His perfect teeth flashed against this tan face, almost looking florescent
“Yeah? Thanks,” Raine continued her intelligent half of the conversation. When he only smiled, she cleared her throat and forced a coherent sentence out. “So are you. A great swimmer, I mean. You’ve held the school record for two years straight.”
His smile widened and Raine wondered if it actually hurt his face.
“Can I ask you something?” Now that she was talking, she couldn’t stop the question as it rolled off her tongue.
“Ask me anything.”
“I’ve swam here every day for the last two and a half years.”
“Yup, I’ve noticed.”
“You have?” The question burst from her mouth in confusion, her voice pitched at the end. “Why haven’t you ever talked to me before?”
Michael looked her over with wonder in his eyes, a look she’d seen on many of her male classmates that day. It wasn’t a creepy look. It was more as if he was seeing her for the first time. Raine continued to tread water and waited for his response.
“Huh, I don’t really know,” Michael admitted. His palm cupped her cheek in a startling display of affection and Raine became still in the water as his thumb lightly grazed her wet lashes. “Your eyes . . . they’re so blue against the water.”
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