Water: The Elementals Book Three

by L. B. Gilbert

  Her mother gasped. “How can you say that? Jordan was your mate. You’re still in mourning for him.”

  Serin turned to the window, her eyes fixed on the sea. “I do mourn him. He was everything I could have asked for, and certainly more than most of my predecessors had. But he wasn’t the one the Mother intended for me. She had someone far different in mind.”

  Dalasini shook her head. “I don’t believe that. You are wrong. The Mother is silent. You don’t know what She intended.”

  “My other sisters knew when they’d met their mates. It may have taken Diana a bit longer to recognize Alec for what he was, but she came around just as I have.” But again, knowing what Daniel was meant nothing. Fated mates didn’t equal happily ever after, not in their world.

  “That simply isn’t possible.” Dalasini was shaken, but adamant.

  “I’m afraid it is.”

  “But Jordan—”

  Serin held up her hand. “Jordan was…an obligation. A burden. Now that he’s gone, I’m free.” She hated to put it so bluntly, but she had to make her mother understand.

  Tears welled in her mother’s eyes. “But…but I thought you were happy. It’s the only thing we wanted.”

  Serin shook her head. “That isn’t why.”

  “What?”

  “I said that wasn’t why you wanted to bond me to Jordan. Not really.” She studied her mother’s face, saw the similarities to herself there.

  Serin chose her next words with care. “I used to believe you were determined to make sure I had a child, so that our bloodline would continue and we would again be chosen to serve Her. It used to hurt me. You see, I believed you had no faith in me to survive—that you thought I would be one of those Elementals who died early in service. You and Father both. I thought you were nervous I wouldn’t reproduce. I often asked myself why you didn’t have another child.”

  She cocked her head, reading the truth in her mother’s shuttered expression. “I’m close, but there’s more, isn’t there?”

  Dalasini’s jaw clenched. Tears glowed like diamonds in her eyes. She pointed at the door, in the direction of the living room. “That human had the gall to imply that I don’t know you—that I don’t truly love you. But I never dreamed you would believe the same thing.”

  “Of course you love me.” Serin released a breath. “I didn’t mean that you didn’t. But why did you show it this way—why insist on bonding me off before the century mark of my service was even over? I never understood what your hurry was.”

  Dalasini’s hands shook as she brushed a stray hair back from her face. When she spoke, her words were halting and strained. “I was honored when you were chosen. But I was terrified, too, and not just because of the danger you would face.” Discreetly, her mother wiped under her eye.

  Serin was too tired for evasion. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  There was a long silence. “Marina,” Dalasini whispered. “I never told you about Marina.”

  Serin’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Who is Marina?”

  “She was my sister. And she was chosen, too.” The tears were coursing unchecked down Dalasini’s cheeks now.

  “And she died before I was born?” Serin had been told her mother was an only child. Marina wasn’t recorded in the archives.

  Unless the records are hidden. But if that was true, Gia must have known. Why hadn’t she told her?

  “Marina served before you were born and only very briefly.” Her mother’s expression was remote, desolate. “She was older than I—stronger, brighter. Truly gifted among a community full of blessed people. We knew she would be chosen long before she was of age. It was inevitable. Marina was everything I wanted to be. I worshipped her and resented her a little, too, the way younger siblings do sometimes.”

  Serin reached for her mother’s hand, feeling the pain coming from the other woman.

  “She didn’t die in battle.” Their fallen were honored. Everyone knew their names. An Elemental who died in battle was revered.

  “No. She…lasted a little over a year.”

  “I don’t understand.” Marina hadn’t gotten sick and died. That didn’t happen to an Elemental in service.

  “She…returned to the sea,” her mother said in a choked whisper.

  Oh. Of course.

  There was a saying on the island. The people of T’Kaieri were of the sea. When someone returned to the sea, it meant they had died. But to say that about a Water Elemental was meant in a literal way.

  “My sister heard the siren’s call of the ocean,” Dalasini continued. “She tried to ignore it, but she couldn’t. It ended up consuming her. When you were chosen, I wanted to stop it. But I couldn’t. After all, it was a great honor. Plus, you chose to serve of your own free will. But I worried each day that you would give yourself up to the ocean and never return. When we suggested you bond with Jordan, it was to give you an anchor, something to hold onto. I wanted to make sure you had a reason to return to the world every day.”

  Her mother covered her face with her hands.

  Serin sighed, but she couldn’t soften this. Her mother had to know the truth. “You do realize it had the opposite effect, right?”

  Dalasini sobbed. “I didn’t until now.”

  Serin pulled her mother’s hands away from her face, keeping hold of one and rubbing the back of it soothingly, but she still didn’t understand, not all of it. “I served more than eighty years without incident. Why pressure me to bond with Jordan after all that time?”

  “The elders never speak of the Water Elementals who gave up, but our history is long. My sister went early in her service, but the call of the sea gets louder over time. Often those Waters who choose the sea do it after their century of service.”

  “Ah.” Serin hadn’t realized. It was strongly suggested that all the island’s candidates read their predecessors histories, but most of the records stopped when their service ended. If there was more, it wasn’t custom for the archivists to add it to their reading list.

  “Do you understand now?”

  Serin took a deep breath, dislodging a bit of weight she’d been carrying on her shoulders for years. She squeezed Dalasini’s hand. “I do.”

  “But do you forgive me? For pressuring you to bond?”

  Serin wasn’t certain, but she nodded anyway. “I’ve always known you had my best interests at heart. Never doubt that.”

  Her mother rose, still shaky. “Good. I…uh…I will speak to your father about Daniel. He will learn to accept him.”

  A corner of Serin’s lips turned up. “Will you?”

  Dalasini’s mouth opened and closed. “He’s what I always wanted for you.”

  Her mother didn’t mean a human mate. She thought Serin had found her anchor.

  Dalasini left after promising to make Serin’s favorite meal for dinner that night.

  Once the door closed behind her, Serin turned back to the window. “Did you catch all that?”

  Romero stepped into view. He’d been standing out there leaning against the wall for some time. “You were holding back. What is it you didn’t you tell her?”

  Serin leaned forward, staring at his handsome human face. How odd that the Mother would decide this was the man for her. “The call of the sea, the one that whispers in your ear, beckoning you to come…”

  “Yeah, that one. I want to know more about it.”

  He was so fierce Serin assumed he’d heard the call, too, but that didn’t surprise her somehow. Nothing about Romero would shock her at this point.

  “It doesn’t get louder as time goes on,” she said after a pause. “It’s there from day one, as loud and as clear as you are speaking now.”

  His dark face paled. “Holy shit.”

  She shrugged. “Do you know that Irish expression?”

  “There are lots of Irish expressions.” Daniel’s voice was flat. “Which one do you mean?”

  Serin put her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. “A body can get
used to anything—even hanging.”

  Romero stopped, spinning around at the top of the bluffs in wonder. The jagged rock line above the ocean gave him a spectacular view of the beach and ocean on one side and the island temple on the other. In the center was the mountain, a dormant volcano.

  Was that music? It almost sounded like the wind was playing faintly on a set of pipes. That’s so weird. I am Julie fucking Andrews spinning like a fool on a mountaintop.

  It was amazing but strange. Everything about this place was strange in a wondrous and jaw-dropping kind of way. There were plants everywhere, along with lichen and moss, and more mushrooms than he’d ever seen outside of a grocery store.

  The air was rich with the scent of flowers, the breeze cooling. Serin had told him everything that grew on the island was edible or medicinal. Even the gorgeous blooms were one or the other. Nothing was ornamental. The water that ran down from Mount Siba was the most delicious thing he’d ever drunk. The island boasted numerous springs and hidden pools, even a lagoon on the east side. The ocean around them was so clear sharks and seals could be spotted miles away from shore. He’d even seen a few whales.

  The entire island had an air of unreality. It was as if he’d wandered onto a holodeck. He’d been exploring for a few hours, ever since the healers had shooed him out of Serin’s room that morning.

  “This place is fucking incredible,” he said aloud after a moment. There wasn’t a soul in sight, but he knew he wasn’t alone.

  “You’re getting very good at that.”

  He pivoted to see Gia standing a few feet away. “You can’t have hiked all the way up this path without me hearing you,” he said, checking around his feet in case he was about to step into a hole.

  “No.” Gia was amused. “I didn’t come up the path. But you can relax; I closed it.”

  “Yeah, I’m just surprised at how quietly you can do that.”

  He hadn’t caught her coming out of the ground when she’d come to Serin in that alley because he’d been fixed on Serin and the bullet hole in her stomach. The rest had happened like a movie being played on fast forward. He’d turned to see Gia’s arm grabbing Ray. His partner had flown through the air and then there had been that unvoiced ultimatum.

  “I’m not leaving her,” he yelled at Gia, clutching Serin’s limp body to him. Loki had come up behind him, grasping his shoulders in silent support.

  Gia had stared at him, her eyes narrowed, and then she’d simply given him a short nod. Before he’d known it, the ground was closing over his head. If it made a sound, he’d missed it, but again, he’d been cradling a bleeding Serin in his arms. Gia had been holding on to them all.

  And I thought traveling via drain pipe had been freaky. It didn’t compare to racing through the soil like a tremor in the earth’s crust. He didn’t ever want to do that again. It was too much like being buried alive.

  “I need the phone Serin confiscated from the arms dealer,” Gia said.

  He should have guessed she hadn’t come up here to chat. “Oh, uh, sorry. I don’t have it on me. Serin said your magic might be able to get more from the damaged memory card.”

  Gia cocked her head. “You sound skeptical, Agent Romero.”

  “No,” he assured her. “Not anymore. Not after what I’ve seen. I can have it sent somewhere to be picked up, but I think I’m out of range here.”

  He pulled out his work phone to show it to her. It had no bars.

  “There are no cell towers on T’Kaieri,” Gia replied, reaching for the phone. She took it out of his hand before waving her fingers over it. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t reach your people.”

  Golden sunlight lit the underside of her palm. She touched the cover of the phone, transferring a bit of sparkle. Then she held it out to him.

  He hesitated, wondering if the Lithium battery could handle magic without exploding.

  “It’s quite safe. I have a way with electronics.”

  He nodded. “I believe Loki mentioned that. I’ll tell the office I’m having a specialist examine it. I should also text my partner, make an excuse for what happened.”

  “And to explain where you went,” she added dryly.

  “Yeah,” Daniel muttered, racking his brain for a suitable lie for his superiors. Disappearing on a Friday night had given him a little leeway, but that was swiftly running out. He took the phone, noting with surprise it was cool to the touch. He was about to call the lab tech when Gia put a hand over his.

  “Tell them a courier will pick it up. Logan can have it here in a couple of hours.”

  Nodding, he dialed. An automated message came up. Grimacing, he left a voicemail.

  “They’re just screening,” he explained as he hung up. “If you can pull out more of the recipe, can you help Serin heal faster?”

  “Unlikely. She’s doing as well as any of us can expect at this point. No, I’m searching for something else.”

  “Shit.” Shaking his head at his stupidity, he pulled out the phone again. “I forgot something. The recipe wasn’t from a text or an email. There was a recording.”

  He dug through the files app. “Our people couldn’t decipher anything of significance in the background, but maybe there’s something your magic ears can pick up.”

  Gia wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a werewolf, but I’ll do my best.”

  Daniel pressed play. The man’s voice began, droning slightly, listing herbs and chemicals like someone dictating a shopping list. It cut off before it was complete. Daniel was about to play the next one when Gia snatched the phone away. One look at her face made him hurriedly step back.

  The fires of hell lit her eyes. No, not hell. It was lava and molten rocks, like the brutal burning light at the core of the world.

  “What is it?” Daniel was a seasoned investigator. He knew when someone had realized a person they trusted had screwed them over. He’d seen that expression dozens of times. “You know the voice, don’t you? Who is it?”

  The fire banked higher. “It belongs to a dead man. The words, however, are someone else’s.” She slapped the phone back in his hand. “Don’t play that for anyone but Serin. I have to go.”

  Suddenly, the ground opened like quicksand beneath her. Daniel scrambled back as the hole gaped wide. He landed on his ass. Worried the ground would solidify around his legs before he could get them out, he skittered back from the pit like a crab.

  Gia was gone before he could get back on his feet.

  27

  Serin picked her way through the archive sub-basement. There was no reason to be here, but her curiosity had gotten the best of her.

  Noomi, the head archivist, was unavailable, but her assistant Ksenia cracked the moment Serin asked for Marina’s records. The thin volume was on its own pedestal. Even though the elders and her family never mentioned her by name, the archivists could always be counted on to find a place of honor for one of their own.

  She flipped through the book, reading the brief notes on her aunt’s different missions. Her short tenure had been spectacular. So much promise…But this life wasn’t for everyone.

  Serin bit her lip, tears stinging her eyes for a woman she never met but should have known. She forced her attention back to the page, intent on reading every account before meeting Daniel and her parents for dinner.

  That was an event she was more than happy to put off.

  “Serin.”

  Romero was coming down the aisle, deftly hopping over the books the archivists had left stacked on the floor. His hair was windblown, and he was wearing a pair of jeans that would make a nun take a second look.

  Her heart leapt at the sight of him.

  Stop that, she scolded herself. No matter what Gia said, this Romero situation was not cut and dried. Maybe if she had met him ten years from now when she was scheduled to give up her position…

  A snapshot of his face when she’d been shot flitted through her mind as he stopped in front of her. He cared. She didn’t want him to, but there it
was, an unasked-for gift. This was going to end badly once he saw her for what she truly was—a killer.

  The Mother had a lot to answer for.

  “I drowned the Reaper. You know that, right?”

  Daniel stopped short. “I, um, yeah. I guess I knew that.”

  She cleared her throat. “I didn’t mean to blurt it aloud like that. But I just wanted to be clear about what I do. We are not the same.”

  His expression blanked. “I never said we were the same.”

  Her hands went up. The air grew heavier despite the many anti-humidity spells in place to protect the books and scrolls. “You have implied that our jobs are similar. Nothing could be further from the truth. On my cases, the suspect has already been judged.”

  “By a jury?”

  “By the Mother and the universe.”

  He cleared his throat. “Let me guess. This is the part where you tell me you’re the executioner. After which you inform me that I won’t be able to handle it because I represent law and order as a DEA agent?”

  “In a nutshell…yes”

  “Believe it or not, I pieced together the details of what you do a long time ago. And I actually have a lot to say about it and us, but I’m afraid we don’t have time.”

  He pulled out his phone, putting his hand on her shoulder to offer some form of comfort. Judging from Gia’s reaction, this was going to be a shock. Opening the phone to the right file, he pressed play.

  Serin was quiet, her creased forehead her only outward sign of emotion.

  “I was expecting a bigger reaction.”

  Serin wrapped her arms around herself, staring into the middle distance with remote eyes. He nudged her, and she blinked.

  “It’s nothing earth-shattering,” she murmured.

  “Really? Because Gia literally shattered the earth when she heard it, then disappeared right before telling me to play it only for you.”

  Serin nodded absently.

  “It’s your ex, isn’t it? The one who died.” He’d heard bits and pieces, but he hadn’t wanted to press Serin for the whole story. He assumed she’d tell him in her own time.