The Essential Elements: Boxed Set

by Elle Middaugh

  Cade shook his head again, like he was fighting the strange poison and losing. “Okay. I’ll call my dad and tell him to pick up Marge. We’ll meet back up at home when the effects have worn off.”

  I nodded. “Fine.”

  He nodded. “Fine.”

  I huffed and spun around, marching into the woods on the right. From behind my back, I heard him growl and do the same.

  Stupid Brad and his stupid mutant poison. Stupid Cade and his stubborn, opinionated ass.

  The more I entertained my anger, the more furious I became. It seethed beneath my skin like a fever, coursing through my veins in boiling waves.

  Suddenly, the rosy lens of my vision darkened, and the world blurred. Trees rocked from left to right as I stumbled through the trunks, tripping in the undergrowth. I landed in a briar bush but never even felt the sting of the thorns. It was like my whole body had gone numb. My head rolled and I tried to push up onto my feet, but I merely crashed back to the ground. The rose veil was getting darker, slowly fading into pure black.

  The last thing I remembered thinking was that I was no longer mad.

  I was terrified.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Consciousness stirred, but I couldn’t seem to open my eyes.

  I was moving, but my legs weren’t. My body bounced, as if carried on a cart, and my head throbbed with a pain strong enough to split my skull in two. My eyelids fluttered, cracking open only slightly to let in a vicious beam of blinding sunlight. I jerked, squeezing them shut once more as a new wave of pain assaulted my head.

  Someone laughed in the distance.

  It was a familiar laugh, one that scratched at the back of my mind, demanding I remember.

  I peeled my eyes open once more. Forest floated by, seen through the bars of a cage.

  I’m in a cage?

  Water filled my vision as the pain became too intense, and I was forced to close my eyes again. Tears streaked down my cheeks, but I could feel myself becoming more aware, more awake, and more alert. A few more tries and my eyes would likely stay open without watering.

  I blinked a few times to clear my vision then peered ahead as far as I could.

  Fucking Brad Rosenthorn was pulling the cart. He’d apparently kidnapped me and was most likely delivering me right into the awaiting hands of my psychotic grandfather.

  Great.

  I built up a blaze and tried to melt the bars, but it was no use. They remained cool as steel. Clearly, they were element-proof.

  Extra great.

  My memory was fuzzy, but I strained to remember what had happened before I woke up locked in the cage. Snippets of pictures and colors cut in and out of my mind, images of gems, trees, and faces…Cade glaring, Henrie crying, Marge bruised and bloody. I shook my head to try to rattle the crazy images into making some sort of sense, but it was difficult, like trudging through sludge.

  Where did Brad fit into all of this? I knew finding that answer was an important key to unlocking this mystery, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  I licked my lips, instantly regretting it as the bitter tang of chemicals clung to my tongue.

  Poison. I couldn’t drag up the memory, but for some reason I was certain it was true. I’d been poisoned, probably by Brad.

  Damn it! I wished I could remember…

  I grabbed the bars of my cage and squeezed, accidentally drawing my gaze to the glimmering ring on my finger. More memories came flooding back: Cade proposing to me under the willow tree and making a new bracelet to help me control my Fire, him telling me we’d all been poisoned…

  If he’d been poisoned too, where was he?

  I scanned the woods all around, but Brad and I were the only people in sight.

  “Ah, you’re awake,” he said with a chuckle. “Glad my poison didn’t knock you out for too long.”

  I swallowed hard, wishing I could piece together the entire puzzle, but I couldn’t.

  “You’re an asshole,” I croaked, surprised to find my voice so raw. Had I been screaming?

  He shrugged. “I’ve certainly been called worse.”

  I didn’t doubt it.

  I growled in frustration and yanked at the bars. The element-proof rope could be cut with a knife; perhaps these bars could be destroyed by a natural means too? It was a stupid question, really. What sort of tools did I have that could saw through metal? Exactly none.

  “Where are you taking me?” I demanded, changing tactics.

  He scoffed. “Where do you think? Nicholai is going to reward me handsomely when I show up on his doorstep with you.”

  Of course.

  I had to escape before it was too late, but I felt so helpless. I was trapped with no physical means of escape.

  I shakily stood and began pacing. My stomach rolled at the movement, making me want to puke, but I swallowed down the urge.

  What would Cade do? He was always so resourceful. The first thing he’d probably try would be picking the lock. I had nothing, though, not even a bobby pin that would help me, not to mention the fact that I’d yet to truly master the skill.

  I could probably jam the wheels with something. It wouldn’t stop us for long, but maybe it’d be long enough for Brad to come back and attempt to dislodge it. If he got close enough and I could grab hold of him, I might be able to negotiate my way out. I glanced around the cart and beyond it into the woods, but there was nothing close enough that would help.

  I growled and paced faster. Think, Valerie, think!

  I wished beyond anything I had some sort of superhuman strength. If I could only punch my way through, or spread the bars apart with my bare hands…but no. I was just screwed.

  Suddenly, the cart stopped. Brad cocked his ear toward the woods. Glancing through the trees, he narrowed his dark eyes.

  I followed his lead and scanned the horizon, but I saw nothing, heard nothing strange. I wasn’t an Earth, though; it didn’t speak to me like that. Leaves blew peacefully on the breeze. Shafts of light drifted down through gaps in the canopy’s ceiling. Birds chirped, squirrels played, and nothing seemed out of place.

  I spun around to the other side of the woods, and a face suddenly materialized out of nowhere. Only eyes were visible through the black serpentine outfit. More eyes appeared a few feet to the right, then more—at least a dozen sets of determined eyes staring right at me.

  Sect Soldiers. Shit!

  I backed away from the bars and fire erupted across my skin, an involuntary reaction. It was strange, because Water was usually the element that took over in the face of fear. In frustration, I tucked them back in. They’d do no good from within the cage, would just weaken my power reserves.

  A soldier stepped toward me, but Brad immediately threw a whole tree trunk at him. The guy staggered backward, and at least five others went down with him, pinned to the ground.

  The remaining soldiers scattered gracefully, unfazed by the attack. They moved quickly, surrounding Brad in one fluid motion.

  But he seemed to be prepared. He widened his stance and grew long, whip-like vines from his palms. Flinging them intimidatingly, he waited for anyone to get too close. A soldier lunged at him, but his vines snapped at the guy’s legs and dropped him to the ground, where he was promptly swallowed up by the soil.

  My eyes widened. Brad was apparently no man to piss off. He didn’t play to win; he played to annihilate.

  The next soldier moved in, and as he did, another soldier used the moment of distraction to attack. The sound of ice shattering like glass chimed through the air before I even saw him launch the spike. It didn’t get anywhere near Brad, and that Elemental was quickly sucked into the soil as well.

  Fire plumed with a loud hiss as the other Sect soldier struck. The scent of smoke touched my nose as the Elemental went down, wrapped in a heap of burning vines.

  Brad regrew the missing vines quickly and readjusted his footing.

  An Earth uprooted a large oak beside me. Thick rubbery tubers and thin hair-like roots dangled
in the air with chunks of dirt clinging on for dear life. Then it was gone, flying through the air at a breakneck speed. I doubted it would hurt him much, but it was still a stunning sight.

  Brad punched a fist into the ground, causing shock waves to reverberate all around him like a ripple. Elementals were knocked to the ground, trees were felled, and by some miracle, my cart was overturned.

  I frantically searched the encasement for some new weakness, some point I could escape through, but there was nothing. The bars were still strong as ever.

  My new vantage point only allowed me to see legs below the knee and flying debris. I couldn’t see the actual players, but from my position at ground level, I at least had access to some natural materials.

  The cage was tricky. An Earth wouldn’t be able to create a rock and smash the lock because the cage wouldn’t allow it, but maybe I could grab a preexisting rock and bash the hell out of it. It just might work because there was no Elemental power involved.

  I was going to have to figure the damn things out eventually: the cages, the ropes, the gloves, and whatever else. There had to be some method to the strange rules that allowed the anti-magic to work.

  There were no overly large rocks in sight, but I was running out of time. I grabbed the closest one with the most weight and hammered the lock as hard as I could, over and over and over until teensy tiny dents formed in the metal, but no progress was made toward actually escaping.

  Snarling, I paused and listened to the sounds of the fighting beyond the cage: deep rumbles akin to thunder, sharp cuts of air as objects tore through, crackles of fire, and the howling of winds. I heard the stomping of feet, grunting and groaning and sometimes crying out, the slap of skin on skin, and growls of frustration. I had no idea how much longer it would last or who would come out on top in the end.

  Grabbing the bars, I desperately tried to pry them apart. Of course, they didn’t move. I pulled even harder, gritting my teeth against the pressure, feeling my face redden from the futility of it. Nothing worked.

  A loud boom rattled through the forest, vibrating the floor of my enclosure. I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but when whole trees began raining from the sky, I had a feeling shit had hit the fan. They pierced the earth like giant javelins. There was no way anything in their trajectory would survive. I couldn’t see where they were coming from, so I waited apprehensively for any sign or signal to move.

  One minute, I was in an empty cage, then the next a tree had punched down through the roof. With a screech, it tore through the metal floor and lodged itself in the middle. It gave me a very small amount of room to work with, but I was beyond grateful it’d somehow managed to miss impaling me.

  My brain worked in overdrive.

  The cage resisted Elemental damage…anything created on the inside couldn’t escape to the outside…but what if something from the outside had been introduced to the inside? Say, I don’t know, a whole tree—could I incinerate it? And if so, could I escape through the hole in the roof it left behind?

  I relit my hands and upped my output until fire blazed into the trunk. It took several seconds, but soon the bark caught and started spreading up toward the branches and leaves.

  I didn’t have time to wait for it to burn naturally, though. Stretching my fingers wide, I willed more power into the blaze, making it hotter. Bluish white flames lit the cage in an ethereal glow. The trunk started crumbling into ash, and I prayed Brad was too busy to notice. Anyone who saw that light would probably know exactly what I was doing.

  A few moments later, the last bit of tree inside the cage crumbled. The rest of it, outside of the metal box, became unbalanced and fell to the ground. As it did, the hole in the roof was exposed, allowing me access to climb through. I found a spot where the metal wasn’t razor sharp and heaved myself out. Immediately, the sensation of power hit my senses. It was like my body knew instinctively that my elements could flow freely again.

  A Sect soldier noticed me before I could run, and before I could blink, a net was spiraling through the air in my direction. They badly wanted me contained but not dead, and I had to wonder why. If the balance was of utmost importance and I was directly contradicting that law, wouldn’t they simply want to eliminate me as quickly as possible? It was what I’d probably do if I were them.

  I hid behind the cage, and the net missed entrapping me by mere inches.

  When the soldier realized she’d missed the mark, she stormed over to me, turquoise eyes gleaming with malevolence.

  I hung my head for a brief second. Elise. It had to be her. She was determined and persistent, and she would stop at nothing to succeed at her job—even if it meant capturing her own cousin.

  I quickly formed an iceball in one hand and a fireball in the other.

  The closer she got, the slower she moved. Experience steered her motions rather than anger. I would have to be extremely mindful if I wanted to have any chance of escaping her in this mode. She was the one who’d taught me to fight. She knew everything I knew, and she knew it better than I did.

  We circled each other, focused only on the other person’s eyes. It didn’t matter that shit was exploding just a few of yards away, that it was raining daggers of ice, the earth was quaking constantly beneath our feet, and the wind was threatening to blow the very leaves off the remaining trees. It was just me and her.

  She reached for a stick and spun it around, reminding me of that time at the safe house the previous winter. She had been my opponent then, too, but ultimately still on my side.

  My, how things had changed.

  I inhaled slowly and exhaled even slower. All sound muted as I concentrated on my breath. She would strike at any moment. I had to be prepared.

  When she stopped spinning the stick, she aimed it at me. For a moment, neither of us moved. Then she unleashed the brunt of her skills. The earth whipped beneath my feet, knocking me off balance. I rolled to the side, but she cuffed me in the back with the stick and sent me sailing to the ground. I pushed myself up and launched an iceball at her. It hit her in the shoulder, and though she grimaced, it didn’t stop her assault. The ground rolled again, launching me into the air then dropping me down hard. A tree quickly bent to the side and attempted to crush me.

  Damn it. Not this again.

  I really didn’t want to have to torch the entire forest just to beat her, but I hadn’t been able to think of an alternative then, and I couldn’t now either. The fire in my palm roared to greater heights, taking on a life of its own. It relished the destruction, more so now than it ever had.

  I pushed my hand in her direction and fire spewed like a waterfall, drenching everything in flames. The grass beneath our feet immediately shriveled up and died, the leaves incinerated instantly.

  The show of power attracted other Sect soldiers who decided I was a greater threat than Brad. It quickly became half against him and half against me. I wouldn’t be able to hold them off for long, but I had no plans of seeing either Nicholai or Exis today.

  I continued spewing flames from my hand, spinning in a slow circle until everyone backed away except my fellow Fires. When they moved closer, I sent out a blast of snow and ice. The sparkling crystals glittered as they crashed into bodies and shattered on the forest floor.

  That was when I noticed a strange fog drifting through the trees. It hovered near the ground, apparently too heavy to float higher up, and soon surrounded everyone. I tried to ignore it, but it was seriously freaking me out.

  I pushed my palm out, expecting another wave of flames to erupt, but nothing happened. Frowning, I shoved it forward again. Still nothing.

  In fact, the earth had stopped rumbling, and the wind was no longer blowing. No ice flew through the air like spears, and no fire crackled and diminished the forest to ashes.

  What the hell was that fog doing to us?

  I glanced at Brad, who was too busy trying to force the earth the move to notice me.

  Then a woman appeared. The curves of her body were
evident even through the glossy plastic suit she wore. She had a helmet on, so I couldn’t see so much as an inch of her eyes or skin. She got within a few feet of me and put her hand on her hip. With the other hand, she pointed right at me.

  It was suddenly obvious that my time was up.

  Panicked, I tensed my fingers with every inch of muscle I had. Still, no power came. It was like I was completely ordinary, like my powers had been nothing but a dream I’d just woken up from.

  Elise walked up to me and stared me down. I swallowed hard and glanced around. Everyone appeared to be waiting for something, but I had no idea what.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brad go down. If they’d taken him out, I was next, and without my power, I had no chance of defeating them. Instinctively, I darted for the trees, weaving in and out of the trunks and pushing my legs as fast as they could go.

  Adrenaline fueled my entire body, but it wasn’t enough.

  A net tore through the air and caught my foot, sending me skidding through the dirt as I fell. I scrambled to my feet, but another net enveloped me, and another.

  No, no no no! I cried inside. This could not possibly be happening. I’d never actually believed I’d get caught by the Shadow Sect, yet there I was, clawing at the ground with no chance of escape in sight.

  Elise stepped up to me again. She had a syringe in her hand and a look of determination in her eyes.

  My chin quivered, but I refused to let her see me cry. The last thing I remembered feeling as the needle jabbed into my neck was the utter hopelessness of defeat.

  Chapter Nineteen

  An antiseptic scent stung my nose, startling me into consciousness.

  Lights surrounded me, so bright I could barely open my eyes. Even the floor seemed to be lit up. Forcing my eyelids open, I squinted at my environment. I was in a small square room with glowing walls. Only one side of the box wasn’t lit up, and it had glass bars from floor to ceiling. Just beyond the bars was a wide hallway that looked like a giant cavern with glowing crystal stalactites hanging from the vaulted ceiling. Across the hall was another illuminated room that looked just like mine—beautiful, but strange and ominous.