by Kate Kelley
Wolfram rubbed his jaw. “It’s not fake. You’ve seen my strength. That kind of strength only comes from finding your mate--”
He could have just stabbed me in the heart with an icicle and gotten it over with.
I laughed humorlessly. “Oh okay, so it’s real, what you have with Adara. In that case, I thought this whole mate thing was supposed to be the love of your life or your other half or something. So tell me, why are you going down on me in a closet on the night of your mating ball?”
Wolfram’s jaw worked, his gaze averted. “Adara may be my mate, but our relationship is a strategic alliance, nothing more. I...lose myself around you. Forgive me.”
I shrugged, feigning indifference at his conflicting words. Had I just been played? I summoned my best ‘I dont give a fuck’ face. “You and I are like water and oil. We don’t mix.”
His eyes flew to mine, piercing my soul and I quaked inwardly. “Yes we do,” he said, his voice surprisingly soft.
Mate. The voice in my head sounded again, so strong I had to physically shake my head to rid the remnants of the voice and the compulsion to say it out loud.
I shoved him with the heel of my hand but he didn’t budge. “Stop playing with me.”
He blinked and his face became stone again. “I’ll be King. I need to mate a highborn. With Adara, it’s merely an alliance, nothing--”
I grabbed the doorknob again, twisting the lock. “Good for fucking you.”
“Wait, Rai.” He didn’t touch me, but my name on his lips would have stopped me anywhere. I faced him and was startled to see the anguish in his eyes.
His voice became harsh. “Don’t go to Baal. I’ll go crazy thinking of his hands on you.”
I laughed harshly, bitter tears stinging my eyes. “In case you hadn’t heard me before, I’ll say it again--I don’t belong to you.” The compulsion to renounce the words I’d just spoken was so strong, that I had to leave immediately or risk humiliation.
I opened the door and fled, knocking directly into Baal’s tense body on my way out of the door. I wondered what he’d heard.
I didn’t look back as I wound my way through the halls, up the stairs, and into my room. I changed into leggings and a t-shirt and boots, then sat at the desk, pen poised over paper for a moment before scrawling a note.
“Went back to Earth to live with my dad. Leave me the hell alone, and don’t follow me. --Lesserborn.”
I packed a small bag, stuffing it with as many clothes and personal items that I could shove into it. I stared longingly at my katana on the nightstand, knowing I couldn’t take it with me to earth, before turning my back on the room and making my way briskly to the bailey.
“Where are you going?”
I ignored Baal’s question, shoving the door open and crossing through the bailey, my boots clicking and echoing against the stone.
“Going to Wildfire?”
I paused. “Really, Baal?”
He grunted. “I know you’re not. Don’t try to go back to Earth, Rai. You’ll lose your powers, being so young. Stay with me.”
I turned, facing him, my heart wrenching at the concern etched into his face. “I don’t belong here. You call me a lesserborn, but you know I’m not. I didn’t come from the city, I came from…” I bit off the words, unable to form them. The fact that I was the daughter of terrorists shook me to my core, and I didn’t want to think about it. “Regardless of my origins, I grew up on Earth and that’s my home. At least there my life won’t be threatened. I can be good ol’ depressed Rai.”
Baal shook his head. “No, you belong--”
I held up a hand, stopping him. “I never knew I was an elemental until a couple weeks ago, and I gave it a good run. I tried it, and it wasn’t for me. I’m back to human things now.”
Baal stared at me, unflinching. “This is your home now. I don’t give a fuck where you came from. You risked your life for us, saved August’s. You’re staying with us.”
My heart clenched. No matter what he said, I wasn’t welcome here. It was only a matter of time before Aiden told his mother what I was, how I was swapped with her precious newborn baby, how my existence led to the murder of her husband. I blinked the tears away from my vision. “Don’t tell Wolfram yet. Let him enjoy his party.”
“Don’t do this, Rai.”
There was real sadness in his voice that gave me pause. “Goodbye, demon boy. It’s been swell.”
He didn’t follow me out into the night, and I wasn’t sure if I was glad or disappointed. Either way, it was for the best.
The stars lit the way as I crossed the footbridge and the grass shushed under my boots up the hill, the only sound in the strange silence. It seemed anticlimactic this way, leaving in the calm quiet of the night.
I walked the worn path until I came upon the transporting stone and stopped a foot away, staring at it. It glowed in the blue moonlight as if bioluminescent.
Where do I belong?
Where is my home?
I thought of my parents, my real ones. They’d given me up--sold me--and no one knew of my existence to look for me. But they wanted me now. They were accepting me now, weren’t they?
Maybe Cole was onto something. Maybe Wildfire was where I belonged, even if my parents were deranged. Maybe I would be accepted there.
My human dad, now that’s someone who’s deranged. Who buys a baby off the black market? A shudder rushed through me. I didn’t belong on earth, not anymore.
I didn’t belong in the Fire Kingdom where I’d be looking behind my back for Aiden’s knife, and where Wolfram would break my heart every time I’d spot him with his mate. And I was as good as dead if I entered the Air Kingdom.
Where do I belong?
Where is my home?
I felt the curiosity burning me from the inside out--my journalism side coming out, a million questions flying through my head which needed answers.
An inkling of a dangerous, hairbrained idea hit me and I turned from the stone, making my way deeper down the moonlit path.
Chapter Twenty Seven
The camp was doused of flames, their torches gone, which surprised me, since they were Fire people. But maybe they really liked their rest, too. How could the guards patrol in the dark? Oh yeah, they had supernatural vision, could pick up flecks of light energy in the dark and use it to see. Maybe they could teach me to do that. Maybe I’d finally learn some things about my power instead of be treated like a child and told not to use my magic, the magic that stretched and itched my palms daily.
An aquatic growl behind me in the swamp forest spurned me forward from the edge of the forest line and I stomped acoss wet, squishy earth toward the Wildfire camp.
That’s all I need is to be swallowed up by a crocodile right before I meet my parents. I mentally kicked myself again for not bringing the katana, but that had been before I followed this idiotic plan to meet my parents. Cole had said they wanted to welcome me into their group, but what if he was lying?
But why would he? What would he gain from lying to me? They were using other elementals in their work---they need my Air powers now. I have the leverage power here.
Not that I would really join them. I didn’t want to terrorize anyone, if that’s really what they’ve been doing. I just wanted to talk to my parents, answers directly from them, their side of the story. I would pretend to join them until I got answers, and then I would think on it.
I stopped in front of the closed drawbridge, watching it as if it might lower and fix my predicament. It didn’t.
I eyed the stone wall on either side of it, rising several feet above my head.
No way I can climb that thing.
A flash of white caught my vision to the right, nad I shifted on my feet, widening my stance for a fight. It took me a minute to figure out what I was seeing.
The white moth.
It fluttered up to the wall, its powdery wings shimmering in the moonlight, and it landed on the top of the wall and shifted its body, so tha
t it was literally looking down at me. I glared at it. Yep, glared at a moth.
Will my life ever be normal?
I continued glaring at it and flinched when it fluttered up again, coming down to hover a foot in front of my face.
I backed up, my fists ready to swat it away, and felt even more ridiculous, scared of a moth. It was a giant moth though, which was much creepier than a normal moth. I felt like it could open its mouth and tear me to pieces with razor sharp teeth. And it had these feather-like feelers on its head, and an intelligence in it’s big black eyes that unnerved me and caused me to avoid its gaze.
The moth flew back up to the wall and disappeared on the other side and I breathed a sigh of relief that it was gone. Why did that thing creep me out so much? Was it even the same moth? There was no way it was the same moth.
I shook my head and approached the drawbridge, placing my hand on the heavy wood. You’d think they would use metal, but perhaps their resources were limited.
I could knock. Maybe there are some guards in the keep.
A fluttering sound assaulted my right ear and the moth was back, beating its powdery wings furiously as it made circles around me.
Okay, this was getting annoying.
I swatted at the moth, but it escaped my attack, continuing to circle around me. I ran back out into the field, trying to keep myself from shrieking lest I got shot by a guard for flailing in front of their camp.
The damn moth kept its pace, circling me like mad with its tiny, furry body. I ducked, crouching low to the ground.
“Rai Black, give yourself up to the heavens.”
The voice came out of nowhere, a female voice gentle and deep and commanding all at the same time, the echoing through my head long after she stopped speaking. I jerked my head up and shaded my face against the moth’s frenzy as I spun round and round, looking for the source of the voice.
Then, I stumbled forward with the force of a gust of wind. Which was odd, given that it had been still the past few days, and especially that night. I’d become extremely sensitive to the variances of wind currents, and I knew the night was still. So where had this gust of wind come from?
The gust of wind circled around with the moth, creating a cyclone around me, and my throat dried out instantly, while my palms turned clammy. In fear, I felt my power rise and I called the air to me, but it wouldn't listen. It was caught up in its tornado.
What the fuck?
My feet left the ground as if I were hoisted up under the armpits by an invisible giant, and I kicked my legs as they dangled. I rose higher and higher in the air until I could see over the wall and into the campground, the moonlight spilling over the slick metal roofs.
Oh my god.
My mind went into overdrive as I desperately reached out for balance, my magic unsteady and frazzled. I tugged at the air again in a desperate attempt for control, and to my relief and surprise, the air sucked into my palms fluidly. I flicked my wrists and I surged forward in the air, toward the campground.
That had not been my goal.
I flicked my wrists again, and surged forward again, this time tilting my body forward slightly to go farther. I figured I might as well land on my own terms, and so I used the power’s hold to my advantage.
I swung my feet forward as I began to descend, the cyclone calming around me, it’s gusts lengthening quietly. The ground rose up to meet me a little too abruptly, and I somersaulted clumsily, my neck cracking uncomfortably in the fall until I was still, flat on my back, directly next to the leader’s building.
Well, okay then. That was one way to get in.
Thanks, stalker moth.
I stood up and brushed myself off. The weight of what just happened hit me--I had flown. And not really by myself. Something had helped me, something larger than me, than the universe. I had felt the enormity of the voice when I’d heard it and knew that it could crush me if it wanted to. Who was it? They’d alluded to the ‘heavens.’
Angels sprouted in my mind, the thought rising on its own accord. A guardian angel in the form of a moth? I shook the thought away--how absurd.
Yet the thought pricked at me, like a thorn that’s left a wound that wouldn’t heal. The thought wasn’t going to leave me alone, this I knew, and it clouded my mind so effectively that I had a hard time remembering what I was even doing in the Wildfire camp.
I blinked at the large, copper building only feet away from me, the sheen dull under the pinpricks of the stars above.
Meet my parents. Right.
Hesitantly, and with shaking limbs, I did the only thing I could think of to do in that moment. I knocked on the front door, and waited.
I waited for minutes--several of them in fact. I stood still, alert, staring at the crack of the door in hopes that it would open. The night was dead silent, so quiet the animal sounds from the bog drifted to me across the field, and a chill reached me that wasn’t previously there. I called the energy to me--the energy that stuck in the air molecules around me, and the chill went away. My Fire still worked.
After another ten minutes, I lifted my fist to knock again and a scratching sound caught my attention, so quiet I didn’t think it was real.
Then a louder, clunkier sound, and the door opened, wide, revealing a person, no two people.
My stomach tried to climb out of my throat and I thought for a moment about praying to the creepy moth to rescue me. Or maybe I could just run.
The woman who stood before me was young, and beautiful. Her hair silky, ending at her hips, and lustrously dark. Her body was thin and muscular, not unlike my own, except she had no hips to speak of, unlike myself. The man who stood next to her wasn’t much taller than her, maybe two inches. And even in the dark, his red hair was fiery, his beard matching it, and his skin shone pearlescent in the pale glow of the moon.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the woman beat me to it, her mouth splitting into a wide, knowing smile, her blue eyes sparkling like the twilight. And when she spoke, her voice was sunshine wrapped in cashmere, and I felt myself closing the distance between us before I could think. “Rai. My daughter. Come in.”
◆◆◆
The interior was a large, open room adorned with modest, wooden furniture and gas lamp fixtures on the walls. There were two doors straight ahead, and one to the right, and I wondered if I’d get a grand tour.
I didn’t, as I was led to a circular wooden table and Babs, my mother, set down a steaming cup of dark liquid in front of me. The scent wafted up toward my nostrils, herbal, acrid.
I never was a huge fan of tea.
The odd thing was, besides everything about the moment, was the fact that I could have sworn I’d seen them before, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was distracting, even as they sat across from me in the minimalistic kitchen, and as I told them about my life, and my father, I couldn’t stop getting caught up in the thought that I Remembered them. Maybe on some subconscious level I remembered them from my birth. But babies didn’t have that good of memories, did they? Or perhaps I was just seeing myself in them.
Babs stopped me as I was getting into the story about finding Evan’s lover in our bed. I’d repeated that part a few times, trying to remember my train of thought. “You look distracted, dear. Perhaps we should explain ourselves.” She looked to MacKay, my dad. He nodded encouragingly, and gave me a warm smile.
I blinked and averted my gaze, staring into my tea. Confusion struck me. This was not what I had expected of the leaders of a rebel terrorist Fire elemental group. The parents that had sold me on the black market. They seemed so...normal. Dare I say, kind?
“Yeah, I do have questions,” I blurted, ready to get to the point.
Babs picked up her tea cup and blew lightly on the steam rising from the dark liquid. “Of course,” she said before taking a gingerly sip.
I took a deep breath and blew it out with puffed cheeks, then, gathering my bearings, I picked up the tea and took a sip, scalding my tongue so that I couldn’t tast
e it. Which was just as well, since I hated tea.I finally blurted it out, thinking of no other way around asking the question. “Why didn’t you want me?” I forced myself to meet their eyes, flicking the direction of my gaze between them. “Why did you sell me?”
MacKay shifted, ready to speak. He tapped the side of his black mug with what appeared to be nervous fingers.
Evil people didn’t get nervous.
“Cole told you some untruthful things. He got the gist of the story down, but not the specifics. He’s a good lad, but he can be a bit...jealous.”
“Volatile,” Babs said at the same time. They shared a grim smile.
I frowned. “Okay…”
MacKay sighed and looked me in the eye. “We wanted you dearly. You must firstly understand this. We wanted nothing more than you.”
He hesitated and I sensed the unease dripping from both of them before Babs took over the conversation. “You were kidnapped. Held for ransom by the Zephyrine. She wanted us to give up our duties, and we did. We stopped living out our mission of defending the Fire Kingdom, but it wasn’t enough. They didn’t give you back.”
My head filled with thoughts, so many flying that I swore I heard a buzzing in between my ears. “So...wait, so did you go after me?”
Babs nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “We did, and we lost so many men that we had to turn back. We filed with the police, but they didn’t believe us when we said you were Air. They were looking for a missing Fire baby, and to our surprise, they did find one..Cole. But the wasn’t ours. We told them he wasn’t ours.”
MacKay spoke up, his voice deep with grief. “But the little lad had no parents, and we were without a child, so we took him in, raised him.”
I rubbed my head, my mind like a knot in a fine chain. I couldn't think straight and my throat stuck together, yet I forced my words out. “You don’t seem surprised to see me.”
MacKay spoke up again, his Scottish accent lilting. “We did, lass. But by then, you were grown. Your magic was so buried, we risked harming you--” he touched his head--”didn’t want to shock you. You had a good job and seemed to be doing well for yourself. Had we known what Evan was like, we would have intervened…”