The Essential Elements: Boxed Set

by Elle Middaugh

  “Scholars remain uncertain as to how they found the means, but they eventually began performing rituals of shared power.” Rituals of shared power? What the hell… “It was said to be extremely dangerous, delicate, and immoral by nature, but over the course of the next few years, Alana’s powers slowly drained as Nicholai’s powers gradually increased.

  “Nicholai eventually joined Alana in outpowering Draven and Erion Skyden, though for unknown reasons the four decided to share the leadership responsibilities of the Elite group.

  They were nearing the end of the war, victory well within sight, when the unthinkable happened. A ritual gone horribly awry. Alana, dead. Nicholai, much weaker than he’d been in years. It seemed as if the accumulated powers only lasted as long as the original Elemental did, although as no one knows how they even achieved this power exchange in the first place, it is therefore impossible to know for sure the cause of its failure.”

  “Nicholai disappeared during the fall of the Elite, as did the Skyden brothers,” I whispered to myself. “And nothing has been told of them since.”

  I closed the book and stared off into the nothingness between the endless stretches of trees. Dark trunks, just silhouettes against a shadowed backdrop of vibrant green. It was no longer raining. The whole forest appeared to be holding its breath.

  This opened up a whole new world of possibilities…

  One thing was for certain, though: I could not yet choose sides. The entire reason I’d read the book was to find out the truth, but the truth wasn’t exactly obvious. Marge’s argument was based solely on conjecture, predisposed conspiracy theories. Nicholai’s argument was based solely on opinion, his word against everyone else’s. Even the damn book didn’t know which side to favor, so how could I?

  From the corner of my eye I caught the time on the dash. Five-thirty. I hoped it was now socially acceptable to be late to your own party, because I probably would be. Charlene wouldn’t be mad, though—not that she had much of a right to be; I’d been completely blindsided by the fact that the party was still going on in the first place. If anyone should have been mad, it was me. I wasn’t though, which was fortunate for my emotion-to-power-outburst ratio.

  It took me twenty minutes to drive to East End and ten more to find a parking space on the jam-packed street. Avvie had been right: it seemed everyone who’d been invited had shown up. It wasn’t until six on the dot that I strolled onto the lawn out back and was immediately met with a blaring chorus of Happy Birthday.

  There had to have been more than a hundred faces staring back at me. My pulse quickened. For a moment, my old antisocial habits came soaring back, begging me to hide in a corner and pretend everyone would just go away, but I was able to stomp the old worry down into the dirt and plaster on an only semi-pretend smile. I was a little excited, despite myself.

  Holden and Sienna approached me with a double-decker cake alight with eighteen sparkling candles. I couldn’t help but mirror their gleeful expressions. It was such an innocent event, a birthday party. Such a normal, ordinary thing. It was made that much more beautiful by its simplicity. I didn’t know how many simple, easy moments I had left in life, not now that I was what I was, now that my whole world had completely changed overnight.

  “Happy birthday, dear Valerie,” they sang with magical voices. “Happy birthday to you!”

  Still smiling widely, I took a deep breath and blew out every one of the tiny flames. My partygoers erupted into cheerful applause and shouted more enthusiastic happy birthdays my way as I cut the cake and Charlene began distributing slices. Then the DJ slid a dial and jacked the music back up to a more appropriate, deafening level. Everyone wandered off, mingling in small groups here and there, eating cake and dancing and just genuinely having fun.

  The smile that captured my lips as I gazed up at Holden was full of warmth. “Thank you for this. All of you.” I knew he had to have helped, in addition to countless others. “It’s completely wonderful.”

  He grabbed both of my hands and pulled me closer. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show, but you’re welcome. It’s the least we could do for you. After last night…”

  I shook my head. “Please. Let’s not talk about that now.”

  A soft song floated across the breeze and Holden gently squeezed my hands. “Let’s not talk at all, then. Let’s dance.” Another warm smile took me over before I found myself wrapped in his arms and swaying on the dusky lawn beside the river.

  I hadn’t forgotten his confession from earlier, and being with him that way, I realized how easy it could be to fall in love with him—for anyone. Holden was wonderful and perfect and real. He was strength and warmth and loyalty. I couldn’t imagine anyone lasting long against his charm once he set it upon them—except for me, apparently. I had no idea why. I thought maybe I did love him, I just wasn’t in love with him. Not yet, anyway.

  The thought of Cade and the awareness of losing him immediately crept into my mind like a noxious mist, invading the corners of my consciousness, but I didn’t want to think about him then, I really didn’t. I couldn’t allow reality to ruin this perfect moment of peace and contentment, so I tried my damnedest to push the broken image of his beautiful face away, though it cut and stung me to do so.

  “May I cut in?” a familiar voice asked, good humor lining his tone.

  Holden grinned and backed away. “Of course. As long as Valerie doesn’t mind.”

  I shook my head and took Chase’s hand. He flashed me an award-winning smile, then promised Holden to return me in just a few moments. He led us to a more secluded dance area near the wood line and pulled me closer. “I see you were able to make amends with your friends.”

  I smiled and nodded. “Thank you for taking me to school this morning.”

  “You’re absolutely welcome.” He squeezed my waist then cut to the point. “How are you doing? You seem to be handling things well, so that’s good.”

  I nodded again. “Yes, it’s not as terrible as I’d feared. I have minimal control, I won’t try to deny it, but I’ve found it’s easier than I thought to clean up the mess.”

  Unless I accidentally kill someone.

  The thought occurred so swiftly, I couldn’t hope to take it back. Fearfully, my eyes darted left and right to where the night-damp grass was beginning to freeze like crystal. Cade’s words echoed through my mind. You’re one of the ones who could inevitably kill me, or anyone else, for that matter. Your powers are great, perhaps greater than you can sometimes control. It could very possibly happen. I couldn’t get rid of that stupid boy tonight, no matter how hard I tried.

  Chase read my discomfort, glanced around us, and pulled me closer. “It’ll get easier, Val. You’ll get better at control, not worse.”

  “How do you know? These outbursts are triggered by emotion. I haven’t really experienced anything too overly stimulating in that department yet, and I still lose control. What if something really bad happens? What if I get completely enraged and see nothing but red? Then what?”

  Chase thought about that for a moment. I wished he could have immediately told me that I was worrying too much, but that was a phrase for yesterday and never again. Now that I had the ability to cause extreme destruction, there was no such thing as worrying too much, just perhaps too little.

  With each additional worrisome thought, the ice spread farther, closer to my party guests. Sweat slid along my scalp as my panic continued to rise. If I didn’t stop this disaster from happening, some unsuspecting human was going to get totally freaked out, or worse, I might be single-handedly responsible for the mass exposure my grandfather so badly desired.

  “You can do this, Valerie,” Chase murmured.

  But his words sounded far away to me, muffled by layers and layers of fear. It was the biggest mess I’d almost created, the worst trouble I’d almost gotten into, and the pressure of righting my wrongs felt so intense that I couldn’t breathe. If somebody saw something, anything, then I would be in some very seriou
s shit.

  I tried to pull in my straying Water element, begging it to slink back into my palms and pretend like nothing had ever happened, but it was resistant—or rather, I was resistant, still doubting myself due to the suffocating anxiety pumping through my veins. I took a deep breath and tried again. Ice crawled across the lawn at a snail’s pace now, slowing but still rebelling. It was like I just couldn’t make it stop.

  Then my worst fears began to take hold. The ice reached the outskirts of the party and latched on to someone’s shoe. As it crept up their shin with sickening ease, their eyes darted around until they found mine. Jay! He nodded at me with a seriousness that said both ‘I trust you’ as well as ‘Fix this shit.’

  I nodded back quickly and held my breath as I squeezed my eyes shut. Suddenly Chase’s hands were on my neck, palms warming me, fingers caressing my cheeks.

  “No more chilling thoughts, Valerie,” he whispered calmingly. “There are no alternative outcomes, nothing other than you reining this in, okay?” I nodded despite my doubtfulness. His voice was relaxing me, and I had to cling to that even if I couldn’t believe his words. “You remember your go-to place for relaxing? That forest I helped you imagine?”

  Violently, I thrashed my head. “No, no, no! I can’t do that anymore. Last time the fire almost burned the entire thing down. I had to come up with my own way of dealing with the stress.”

  “All right. Like what?”

  “Not thinking.”

  I hated that I couldn’t just remember to do this on my own, that I needed someone to remind me, coax me into calming the hurricane of emotions building inside when it should have been second nature—I’d been not thinking for years, after all.

  The shimmery red flip-flops from earlier still graced my feet, though in the darkness the shimmer was less noticeable. Focusing on my footwear, I began pacing in any haphazard direction. Step, shadow, step, shadow. As my mind consciously focused on the monotony of my footfalls, my subconscious was able to begin reeling in the ice. Little by little, it skated back into my palms.

  Stealing a glance at Jay, it seemed his feet were now free of my icy bonds. I sighed nervously. There was relief in seeing some progress, but I knew I wasn’t yet off the hook, so my anxiety wasn’t completely alleviated. I resumed my pacing, feeling the glittery ice chips pulling toward my palms like an invisible vortex. Step, step, step, step.

  It probably looked like Chase and I were having an argument, him standing there with his arms crossed, me pacing around as if in irritation. Whatever. That’d be an infinitely better scenario, anyway. Except for his smile. That smug tug of the lips that spoke volumes for his confidence in my abilities, even when I doubted myself. I didn’t know why he believed in me so much, or why he had made it his personal mission to help me overcome my own annihilating self-doubt, but I appreciated it more than I could ever explain. All I could do was wrap my arms around his neck and cling to him like I might never let go. He was steadily becoming my main lifeline, the key to my Elemental success, my grounding wire. It was like…I needed him.

  “Excuse me, Chase. May I have a word with my granddaughter?” Nicholai’s voice cut through our moment in a surprisingly peaceful manner, though we awkwardly dropped the hug and took a step away from each other. Chase glanced in my direction and waited until I nodded before bowing out and walking over to Jay. He kept his eyes on me while they talked, though, apparently not wanting to abandon me to Nicholai completely.

  “Enjoying the party, darling?” he asked with a rich smile.

  I returned it in kind. “Yes, I am. I have some pretty amazing friends.”

  Nicholai raised an eyebrow and glanced at Chase. “I can see that.”

  “Oh, no,” I said quickly. “It’s not like…that.” Right?

  “Of course not,” he said, brushing his comment away like dust. “I’m just glad you’re adapting so well to Elemental life. It seems I have your friends to thank for the smoothness of that transition.”

  I scoffed. “Smooth is hardly the word I’d use to describe it.”

  “Valerie, Elementals who grow up unknowing of what they are have a tendency of going rogue. They lack the ability to control themselves because they lack the understanding. They fear themselves, and so they run, thinking that it will somehow solve something. All it does is cause more problems, of course.” He smiled down at me once more. “And you have two elements to contend with. You’re doing very well, my darling, trust me.”

  I wanted to thank him. For everything. For saving me, helping me, taking the time to explain himself to me, for making me feel like less of an accident waiting to happen. Instead, I blurted out, “I can’t choose sides.”

  His smile morphed into a curious sort of frown. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “Between you and Aunt Marge. I don’t know whose side to choose, who’s right and who’s wrong, so I can’t bring myself to choose at all. Not yet.”

  He heaved a typical sigh. “I assumed you’d say something like that. Valerie, you must know that I am telling the truth. Change must happen in this crazy world, one way or another. Whether or not you’re a willing participant in that change is the question.”

  I backed away a step and cocked my head. “Are you…threatening me?”

  He laughed like sunshine. “Of course not! I’m merely expressing my concern. With your unique set of abilities, I believe you’ll end up helping my cause in the end regardless. I’d just rather you choose my side, that’s all.”

  I crossed my arms. “So you’re not insinuating that you’ll force me to help you?”

  “Absolutely not,” he said swiftly, slicing through the air with his hand. “I want your help, I won’t try to hide that fact, but I would never force you. The thing is…if you have two roads, an easy road and a difficult one, both leading to the same destination, wouldn’t it be more sensible to take the easier of the two?”

  I narrowed my eyes. I knew what he was getting at, but the validity of that example hinged solely on the belief that I would inevitably end up on his side. What if there was another way? A third road, perhaps, leading somewhere else entirely? Why could that not be an option? Why were there never allowed to be any gray areas?

  “I don’t want to answer that,” I said like some bratty teenager.

  He chuckled. “That’s fine. Just…think about it, Valerie. There are consequences for every choice we make, even not choosing, which is still, inadvertently, a choice. Think beyond yourself. You’re the one with all the power, but is it really about you? Or is it about something bigger? When you decide, let me know.” He slipped a little business card into my palm and then squeezed my fingers shut around it. “That’s my personal cell. Call me whenever you need to. No strings attached, though if you decide you’d like to attach some strings and join my cause, I’d be happy about that as well.”

  I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help chuckling a little. “Okay, Grandpa.” I wondered if he sort of hated that title. Being eternally young probably painted the idea of being a grandfather in a dismal sort of light.

  Then my cellphone rang. Part of me suspected it was Nicholai, even though I knew he didn’t have his phone at the moment—or my number—but it wasn’t him. It was restricted, and that could only mean one person: my father!

  “I have to take this,” I said to my grandfather as I tucked his card into a pocket, but I noticed he was already backing away.

  “Of course, my darling. I won’t keep you any longer.”

  I smiled and waved goodbye to him as he drifted off, then hurriedly answered my cell. “Dad?”

  There was a time lapse of about three seconds. “Hey, honey! Happy birthday!” The ship’s payphones could only do so much when it came to spanning half the world.

  “I love you, Dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you for my present! I—”

  “I love you, too, sweetheart. Oops. Sorry, go ahead. Aww, you’re welcome. I told you you’d love it.”

  That happened sometimes, too. If he thought
I was done talking before I actually was, he’d start to reply only to realize three seconds later that he’d cut me off. Long distance conversations were trying affairs.

  I laughed. “Yes, you were right! I definitely love it. It’s perfect.”

  “I’m glad, sweetheart. Listen, I can’t talk long. It’s almost time for my next watch. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, and also tell you some good news.”

  Good news? What could that possibly equate to? But I didn’t have even a split second to ponder it.

  “There!” Cade shouted, pointing a finger at my grandfather with a malevolence in his eyes that I’d never before seen in a real-life human being, only deranged psychos on television. I had no idea where he’d even come from. As far as I knew, he hadn’t been invited. His brother, Xavier, appeared at his right side, and his father, Henrie, limped over to his left. “Prepare to pay for your crimes, you arrogant son of a bitch!”

  At that, he thrust his fist down hard into the earth, creating such a quake that it literally rippled the earth like a wave under everyone’s feet.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Oh my god,” I whispered in utter disbelief before shaking my head and finding my voice. “Dad, I have to go! I love you, bye!”

  “The good news is—” But the time lapse caught up with him. “Oh, okay. Is everything all right? I love you, too, sweetie. Bye…”

  Rain began hammering down like bullets as Xavier pulled them from the sky. Henrie looked like he was trying to sink Nicholai into the dirt, and Cade uprooted a tree. Hovering in mid-air, the tree’s roots began rapidly twisting into an arrowhead of sorts, and once complete, Cade launched it at Nicholai faster than I’d ever imagined a tree flying.

  Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending upon whose side you were on—my grandfather wasn’t actually stuck in place as Henrie had hoped. I thought he had maybe just been momentarily caught off guard, as we all had been. At any rate, he was now moving, dodging oversized tree-arrows. Cade yanked them from the earth and flung them as quickly as he could, but he couldn’t quite hit my grandfather.