The Essential Elements: Boxed Set

by Elle Middaugh

  I shouldn’t have been yelling at Sienna about this. It wasn’t her fault she’d landed in the middle of a shit-storm, but I was so damn tired of the secrets.

  “I think I should let Holden decide how to answer that one,” she said softly.

  I’d forgotten I’d even asked her a question, but my heart sank at her words. “You mean he’s been keeping secrets from me too?”

  The front door slammed and a riot might’ve been going on downstairs. I could hear multiple raised voices and shit breaking. Sienna and I both held our breath and tried to listen, but suddenly there were rapid footfalls coming up the stairs.

  The doorknob rattled. I glanced at her, face white with fear. Then a knock. “Valerie? Sienna? It’s Holden. Open up, please.” I exhaled a jagged breath as Sienna rose and unlocked the door.

  His eyes scanned the room until they lit unswervingly on me. “Valerie,” he breathed before rushing over and kneeling beside me. “Val, are you okay? Were you hurt?”

  I shook my head, but I couldn’t talk or else I might cry.

  I had no idea what was going on, and nobody seemed willing to fill me in. I was so relieved that Holden was okay, but he looked like an absolute mess. Blood caked to the side of his face where it had once run from a gash near his hairline, his face and arms were seared slightly pink from the fire, and all sorts of cuts and gashes lined his upper body; I could see them through the tears in his shirt.

  “Are you okay, Holden?” Sienna asked pointedly.

  “I’m fine,” he said, brushing the comment away before glaring viciously at her. “But they crossed the line tonight. They put us all in danger, and I’m going to beat his stupid ass.”

  “Who?” I asked sharply as I sat up in Holden’s bed.

  He swallowed, then lifted his head to the ceiling in irresolution. He didn’t want to tell me either.

  “Damn it!” I screamed as I rose from his bed with my fists clenched. The tears were spilling now. “I’m scared and confused! And everyone I ever trusted or cared about is lying to me! If you won’t tell me the truth, then take me home. If that’s the case, then don’t you ever speak to me again. Never. Any of you!”

  Sienna got up silently and gripped the door handle. “I won’t tell a soul if you decide to tell her,” she whispered to her cousin. “But either way, I’ll be downstairs if you need me.” Then she glanced at me. “I’m so sorry, Valerie. I hope this all makes sense soon.” She disappeared behind the door.

  I crossed my arms and bounced my foot, nervously awaiting Holden’s response. I could tell he was choosing his direction and his words extremely carefully. I just hoped he wasn’t planning to spin a web of lies.

  He took a deep breath, then licked his lips. “You asked me who I wanted to beat up,” he began carefully. “The answer is Cade.”

  “Why?” I protested.

  He grabbed my hands and squeezed, shaking his head. “You need to give me a little time, okay? Some things are small enough that I can hedge around them without causing much damage, but others aren’t so simple.” He smiled warmly, but sorrowfully, and I wanted so badly to believe that he was being sincere.

  I sniffed and swiped at my eyes. “Sienna said that what happened tonight was ‘forbidden’. She said someone revealed something they shouldn’t have. Supposedly, that someone was Cade. Is that true?”

  Holden nodded. “Yes, that’s true. Cade, and a few others.”

  “What really happened, Holden? It doesn’t make any sense…”

  He reached for my face, then hesitated, weighing the air between us. When I didn’t curl away, he pulled me into a gentle embrace. His lips brushed the top of my head before he whispered, “Do you trust me?”

  I almost laughed, but instead, I sniffed. “I don’t know who to trust any more…”

  He leaned down and looked into my pale blue eyes. “Please, Val, just give me four days. Four tiny days to sort all this out, and then I’ll tell you absolutely everything.”

  “What difference does four days make? If you know the truth, you should just tell me now.”

  He swallowed hard and bit back the silent ‘I can’t’ that I’d heard so frequently in the past few days. “That may be true,” he agreed, as cautiously as he could. “But this is an extremely delicate issue, and I need to be absolutely certain that I’m going about it perfectly. I don’t want a single hair to be out of place in this.”

  I scrubbed a hand across my tired face. “Holden, this sounds like an excuse to buy more time so you can fabricate an elaborate lie.”

  He stared at me knowingly. “Your birthday is in four days, right?”

  Frowning, I asked, “Yes? But what does that have anything to do with anything?”

  “Everything,” he admitted, then smiled and kissed my fingers. “I think this is all going to figure itself out by then, but if it doesn’t, I’ll tell you everything myself, I swear.” He ran a finger along my chin, tipping my face up to his. “Please?”

  I sighed my reluctant concession, and he knew he’d won. He dropped his forehead to mine, and his relief swam circles around me. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I whispered. “I’m ready to go home now.”

  “Okay,” he agreed gently. “I’ll drive you.”

  I wanted to trust him, but I wouldn’t be waiting until my birthday. I would find out the next day. There was still one other person I could ask…

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aunt Marge didn’t return from the environmental convention until nearly eight o’clock at night, and I thought I was going to go out of my mind by then.

  I was sitting in the den on the green velvet sofa, leafing through The Elemental Basics, when I heard the door. It was an intentional setup. I figured it was as good a plan as any to try and convince her that I needed to understand this shit.

  She set her keys down on the table; I could hear the rattle from where I sat.

  “Valerie?”

  “In the den,” I called sweetly—as best I could, anyway. This had the potential to head south very quickly, and I wasn’t going to act like I wasn’t nervous.

  Her footsteps echoed through the kitchen, and then the living room.

  I held my breath and turned a page.

  She gasped when she saw me, a braided look of shock, fear, and anger lighting her features. “What on earth are you doing?”

  “Reading,” I said before turning another page.

  “How did you get that book unlocked?”

  I winced. “With the key from the mantle.”

  Marge lowered herself lightly beside me. She looked conflicted, torn between wanting to yell at me and wanting to play it off. “Why choose that book?” she asked, putting a finger on it.

  I shut it, then glanced at her. “Because I needed answers, and it seemed like the likeliest book to have them.” I nervously crossed my legs. “Strange things keep happening that I can’t understand or explain, and I feel like everyone knows what’s going on…except me.” I took a deep breath and added, “That’s kinda why I’m out here. I wanted to ask you some questions…”

  Marge sat pensively for a few long moments. “Two questions of my own before yours?”

  “Sure.”

  She unfolded her hands and put up a finger. “First, who’s ‘everyone’? As in, what are their names?” Before I could answer, she raised another finger. “Second, what inexplicable ‘things’ are happening?”

  My mind was spinning through the mess, trying to sort it out. “Cade, Holden, Sienna—”

  “No, no.” She shook her head. “Last names, too, if you please.”

  “Okay…Cade Landston, Holden Michaels, and Sienna Aeris. I don’t know Chase’s last name, but he’s Holden’s best friend.”

  Marge’s nostrils flared slightly, like she was taking a deep breath but trying to remain calm. She never said a word, so I answered her other question.

  “They keep telling me ‘I can’t.’ I can’t tell you why. I can’t explain it to you. I can’t,
it’s forbidden.”

  I sighed. I knew how ridiculous this sounded.

  “But I saw some shit, Aunt Marge… I’m talking…an entire bonfire went out like a light. Trees went up in flames, and then they suddenly went out. I don’t know…I almost fell, but I swear the wind kept me up. And it rained and hailed. All of it, out of nowhere. I just… I don’t understand…”

  Marge had refolded her hands and was staring at her interlaced fingers. “Why ask me?”

  I tapped the book. “Because you own this. And all these,” I said, gesturing to the rest of the ancient leather-bound tomes. “Because…I think maybe you know something I don’t, too.”

  Marge worked her lips like she might’ve been chewing something. Indecision flitted across her face, but only for a moment. “Fuck it.” Never had I ever heard such language out of Marge; I almost giggled in shock. “But I’m gonna need a drink for this particular conversation. So are you. Come on.”

  I followed her into the kitchen, watching as she whipped up two cups of herbal tea. The tincture she added in drops smelled strong and strange and maybe alcoholic. Maybe that was the point; Marge was spiking the tea. She handed me a cup then lead me back into the den.

  The Elemental Basics was laying on the couch. She scooped it up, flipping through the pages almost curiously. If she’d read it before, it must’ve been a long time ago. She sank into the velvety sofa and patted the seat beside her.

  I grabbed my tea, then sat immediately, unsure of what to expect. The tea was an odd mixture of bitter and sweet as it hit my tongue, and it made me shake my head involuntarily. Even so, I took another sip before abandoning the cup on a little rounded end table.

  Aunt Marge sighed. “Your friends are right. Speaking of these things is strictly forbidden, but I don’t talk to anyone, and nobody around here knows about me, anyway. They say, ‘if you wish another to keep your secret, keep it first, yourself.’ But…you’re my niece, and this is your mother’s history and legacy, too, and I feel you deserve to hear it. Can I trust you with our secret?”

  I nodded. As nervous as I was to hear whatever she was going to say, I could at least swear to never sell them out. “Yes.”

  She nodded and smiled, then flipped to the Fire section of The Elemental Basics. “Your mother and I hail from a long line of Elementals, beings who can manipulate the four cardinal elements however we deem fit.”

  She held the page, but closed the book so I could see the cover. “Wind, water, fire, and earth.” She then flipped back to where she’d marked her place. “Your mother was a Fire Elemental, meaning she had the ability to control fire.”

  My mind flashed back to the woods—fire flicking on and off like a light switch—then to my nightmares—watching her car explode when it crashed to the bottom of the mountain. Could every fire be controlled?

  Marge turned to the section on earth. “I am an Earth Elemental,” she said warmly, proudly. “I can make things grow, manipulate the rocks and sand and soil, even create earthquakes and landslides.”

  “The earthquake,” I whispered. “From the other day. It was you?”

  Marge reached for her teacup, chuckling softly. “No, dear. I have much more control than that.” She took a smiling sip. “Many more years of practice. Whoever created that earthquake was young.”

  “My age?” If my friends were already in on the secret, did that mean that they were Elementals, too? Or did they just know of them? “What are the restrictions on sharing this secret?”

  Aunt Marge took one last sip before setting the cup back down. “Only Elementals are to know about Elementals.

  “When an Elemental reproduces with another Elemental, the result is an Elemental child, but the parent can only pass along their particular genes once. After that, producing more children becomes impossible.

  “For example. My and your mother’s father, Nicholai, was an Earth Elemental. Our mother, Alana, was a Fire Elemental. When I was born an Earth, my father could no longer pass on his elemental genes. So, when Amelia came along a couple years later, she was a Fire by default. Our parents could never produce another Elemental child after that.” Marge licked her lips almost nervously. “But we never talk about them, understand? Especially Nicholai.”

  Curiosity was slashing at me with a knife. “Why not?”

  “Don’t,” Aunt Marge said with a sharp shake of her head. “I mean it. Don’t.”

  Okay… I wasn’t sure what to think of any of this. The calm manner in which Marge was discussing all of this with me made me believe her undoubtedly. The events I’d witnessed in the woods backed up her theory, but logic and science bitch-slapped that idea right in the mouth.

  Marge continued. “When an Elemental reproduces with a human, there is an absolute zero percent chance of producing an Elemental child. It takes two, to be cliché.

  “Knowing what we know about Nicholai, Alana, and our family Gift…” Marge began with a fearful expression, “Amelia and I swore to never have children.”

  I frowned. “Well, obviously that didn’t happen. You had Elise and Mom had me. So what changed?”

  She smiled warmly and grabbed my hand. “Your mother fell in love with your father. She figured it would be safe, since he wasn’t an Elemental.”

  “So I won’t ever control an element?” I asked. My disappointment was an elephant in the corner.

  Marge sighed. “I’m sorry, Valerie. If your father had been Elemental, Amelia would have never married him. If he were Elemental, you would come to your powers on your eighteenth birthday, but he wasn’t, as far as I know.”

  So that’s why Holden wanted to wait until my birthday, to see if I just magically turned into a fire-wielding badass. Ugh, if only.

  Then she grabbed her tea and looked away. “As for me…pregnancy was forced on me.”

  The silence was cold and sharp and somehow smelled of antiseptic. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. I almost couldn’t believe I’d heard it right. Aunt Marge had been raped? The wrongness of that statement curled up in my stomach like a rock and sank. Oh my god…

  “Does Elise know?”

  “Of course, dear,” she said with a small smile. “But she also knows that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change the fact that I am her mother, and I love her more than anything in the world.”

  I needed to change the subject. Somehow, saying ‘sorry’ didn’t feel nearly adequate enough, but there was nothing else I could say. I cleared my throat and asked, “So, what’s our family Gift?”

  She flipped through the book absently. “In the beginning, there were two Elementals for each element, a male and a female, eight in total. For some reason, the female Fire, Ida, was favored above the others. Because of this, she was gifted with the ability to wield two elements. A second power slot, if you will.”

  “What was her second element?”

  “For Ida, an extra Fire gene. It increased her power and ability exponentially. Every alternating generation after her, however, was said to receive the genes of both parents, whatever they were. Obviously, one would always be Fire, but given our history of refusing to intermix, there has never been a Gifted Elemental whose second power was not an extra Fire gene.”

  “Elementals don’t intermix?” I asked curiously.

  She shrugged lightly. “They do now. But it’s a recent development, just in the past five hundred years or so.”

  I stretched my neck and tried to reason this out. “So…we’re the descendants of Ida? And every other generation produces a duel-wielding Elemental?”

  “Precisely. I’m not a Fire, so I shouldn’t carry the Gifted gene, but I still feared for Elise until the day she turned eighteen. If she had somehow been Gifted…” The threat hovered in the air above our heads, waiting to fall, but Marge held it up, refusing to finish that sentence. I had a feeling it had something to do with Nicholai. He seemed to be the only thing she wasn’t openly discussing.

  “What is Elise’s element?”

  Marge smiled.
“Earth. Like me.”

  “I don’t want to sound skeptical…” I said, immediately sounding skeptical. “But do you think you could give me a demonstration?”

  No questions asked, Marge held out her hand, palm facing up. A smoky wisp twisted in her hand, as if awaiting her command.

  No. Freaking. Way.

  “This wisp is twisting. That’s the default for Earth. It can turn into anything that falls within the jurisdiction of my element.” She wiggled her fingers a touch and it morphed into a tiny seed. From the seed, a sapling began to break free and grow. Sprouting roots, branches, and leaves out of the gray. As vivid color began to bleed through the smoke, the tree suddenly became solid and real.

  Marge handed it to me. I reached out hesitantly, as if it might morph again somehow, but I took it in my hands. It was sturdy. The roots were lifelike and almost rubbery. The bark was rough and smelled earthy. The leaves had little veins that spread across the green, and when I tore it, it didn’t feel like plastic or paper.

  Screw logic and science. I glanced at Aunt Marge. “This is real, isn’t it?”

  She nodded, smiling sympathetically. “It would have been easier if you had just been raised with this knowledge, I know, but it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

  I handed her back the tree. “What about my friends?”

  “What about them?” she asked as she drained the color out of the tree and turned it back into a puff of smoke.

  “Uh…” That was freaking crazy! Um…anyway... “My friends,” I said. “Do you think they’re Elementals, too?”

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “Can they be honest with me now that I know about Elementals?”

  She pursed her lips. “I suppose so, yes, but when you explain to them how you know, you must leave me out of it, all right? I’ve worked very hard to become invisible, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

  “Of course,” I agreed immediately. I was still reeling from the first part: no more lies! My friends and I could finally have an open and honest relationship. It was exactly what I’d hoped for. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”