From Ashes

by Amanda Perry

  I shrug. “Sort of.” I never realized how much I needed a big brother until I found mine. I love how protective he is of me. “It won’t be long before people figure out my name and where I am.” I debate mentioning Dr. Paine and how she’d heard of me, but I don’t know if I want to admit I’m seeing a therapist to Caleb yet.

  “Did they tell you how they want you to handle it or give any guidance?” Dad’s voice is strained with tension.

  “They said it’s up to me.” The start of a headache has me rubbing at my temples. The pain grows quickly, and I groan. “I think I need one of those headache pills. Maybe stress is why my head has been hurting more often, but I’m not liking it at all.”

  “I’ll get you one.” Cassie jumps up and hurries to the downstairs bathroom cabinet.

  Leanne’s eyes are sympathetic while I squint and continue to put pressure on my temples. “It’s probably a combination of everything—the withdrawal, stress, no sleep, no food, too much activity with training, and the attack. We should go get massages.”

  Caleb unwraps his arms from around me and presses his hands on my shoulders. Her suggestion of a massage might be her best yet. He rubs gently but firmly, and I groan aloud at the sweet relief. “Oh, Caleb, that feels amazing.”

  His hands pause briefly, but before I can ask him what’s wrong, he clears his throat and continues to massage my shoulders. All of my abilities to speak disappear. Cassie appears moments later with a cup of water and one of the pills which I take gratefully.

  As soon as I take the medicine, Caleb scoops me up off the stool. He chuckles when I squeal in surprise but doesn’t stop his strides toward the stairs. “I’m taking her upstairs. She needs to rest and, honestly, so do I.”

  “See you guys tomorrow,” I feebly call out over Caleb’s shoulder.

  After a round of goodnights, Caleb hauls me up the stairs and straight to his room. Exhaustion takes over, but I force myself to stay awake a little longer. I desperately need a shower and fresh pajamas.

  “Do you mind if I use your shower?” I gaze longingly at his attached bathroom.

  Caleb scoffs. “Baby, it’s still our bathroom. This is our room, it’s always been ours. You don’t have to ask me to use it.”

  It makes me happy he still thinks of his room as ours. As much as I like my room, I love his more because he’s always called it ours. It feels right to be in his room with him instead of mine.

  With a cheery grin, I hop to my feet and skip to the bathroom. “I’ll be quick. I’m just desperate to feel a little less icky before I sleep.”

  “You could never be icky,” Caleb retorts as I close the door.

  Throughout my shower, I can’t wipe the goofy grin from my face. My world is right again now that Caleb and I have worked out our problem. The whole situation couldn’t have had a better ending. I don’t want to say everything is back to normal, but I’d be happy if we could forget that the last month happened and just be us again.

  Even a quick shower away from Caleb has me pining for him. As wonderful as the hot water feels on my tired body, I need to be closer to him more than I need to breathe right now. I rush through the process of washing up before grabbing my towel and drying off. I take a few extra minutes to dry my hair and brush my teeth with an extra toothbrush from the drawer. I have a feeling Caleb left it there for me because it’s pink and I just don’t see him using it.

  I realize too late that I forgot to grab pajamas before I ran into the shower. A quick search of the bathroom reveals no extra clothing, and I refuse to put on my old, dirty clothes. My only option is to wrap the towel around my body and go into the bedroom for some fresh pajamas. My nerves flare. I don’t know if it’s the best idea to slink out of the bathroom in only a towel, but I don’t have many other options. It’s highly possible I’m overthinking the situation, and it’s not nearly as big of a deal as I’m turning it into.

  With a deep breath, I crack the door and poke my head out. My eyes automatically land on Caleb who is standing in front of the tall cat tree in the corner. He scratches the back of the tiny, black fur ball lying on the tallest platform. She raises her tiny head and yawns like a miniature lion. She lets out a tiny meow in greeting, then goes right back to sleep. It’s a hard life for my little kitten.

  “You got Rose a tree.” The sound of my voice startles Caleb, and he spins around to face me.

  His eyes widen and roam over my body. He swallows hard several times. “Holy shit.”

  “Caleb?” I only mean to get his attention, but he must think I’m waiting on a reply to my earlier statement.

  He rubs the back of his neck with a trembling hand and stumbles over his words. “The tree. I got that. For the cat, for Rose. Yeah, I probably should have asked you if you wanted to get her one, but you weren’t talking to me at the time. I just got it not that long ago.”

  It’s hard to hide the fact I find his rambling adorable. At the same time, I find myself flushing from his attention on my nearly naked body. Obviously, the towel is covering the important parts, but it’s the most exposed I’ve felt in front of him. “I heard you talking to her the day you got it,” I admit sheepishly. It’s partially an attempt to distract myself and him from my current state. “It was sweet of you to get it for her.”

  Caleb’s cheeks turn dark pink. “You heard that, huh?”

  I giggle and nod. “She really loves her tree and you.”

  “She’s grown on me,” Caleb admits as he gives Rose an affectionate scratch on her fuzzy head.

  Rose opens her bright blue eyes and blinks up at him. She presses her silky, black fur-covered back into Caleb’s hand and purrs heavily. “You’re a bossy little thing,” he tells her with a few more strokes. “Okay, Rose, we’re going to bed now.”

  When he turns away from her, she protests with a cross between a huff and a sneeze. He laughs while digging through his dresser drawers, actively avoiding eye contact with me. When he finds one of his shirts, he tosses it to me and turns his back. Without his eyes on me, I press the plain, black shirt to my nose and inhale deeply. His smoky scent washes over me, and instantly, the headache eases.

  “Huh,” I mutter curiously.

  Caleb peeks over his shoulder and raises a brow. “What?”

  “Erm.” My face flushes, and I turn away from him. “Your shirt smells like you.”

  He turns around again, though it isn’t to give me privacy this time. His shoulders shake with silent laughter. I huff indignantly and set his shirt on the bed with more force than necessary before I undo the towel and slide his shirt over my head. Before he notices, I dig through the nightstand drawer on the side of the bed I slept on before and find some of my underthings still in the same place. I grab a pair and slip them on, happy I won’t have to leave the room to go in search of some from my room.

  Caleb coughs to cover his laughter. “Should my clothes smell like someone else?”

  “No,” I sniff. “I just meant that it’s comforting. It’s helping my headache.”

  Caleb’s only response is a curious hum. As I tug the shirt down to rest at the tops of my thighs, he reaches behind his head and grabs a fist full of his shirt, then pulls it over his head. My mouth goes dry while I watch the muscles in his back flex with his movements. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Caleb without a shirt on, and I forgot what a fantastic sight it is.

  He doesn’t notice me drinking in the sight of him as he goes about changing into a pair of gray drawstring pajama pants. He tosses his dirty clothes into his empty hamper, then finally looks over to me and holds his hand out. My foggy brain can’t comprehend what he may want from me. Without thinking, I place my hand in his and step toward him.

  Caleb’s lips twitch. “I was asking for your towel so I could stick it inside the hamper, baby, but I’m good with this, too.”

  “Oh.” My face flushes, but I don’t move away from him, happily lost in his bright blue gaze.

  Caleb’s gaze roams over my face, fire dancing in hi
s eyes when they lock on mine. His body heats, and mine follows suit. I want him to kiss me more than anything, and I’m sure he will at any second.

  He bites his bottom lip, and his brows draw together. He rolls his eyes to the ceiling and takes a deep breath, then steps around me to gather my clothes. “Climb into bed, baby. We both need some rest.”

  I blink several times to clear my head. It takes a second for me to understand his request. With an exaggerated pout, I climb into the bed, but Caleb doesn’t see it. I was sure he was going to kiss me, but then he pulled away. It doesn’t make sense, but one thing I know for sure... I’ll be asking him about it. I learned my lesson about keeping my assumptions and questions to myself, and right now doubts about his feelings linger because of his actions. I refuse to allow another misunderstanding to ruin us.

  Caleb slides into the bed on the opposite side of me, and I roll over, fully intent on asking him why he pulled away from me. Instead, a different question altogether pops out and surprises both of us. “Should we be okay with this?”

  His eyes widen briefly before he frowns. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s just that we were apart for a whole month,” I mutter, wishing I could take back the stupid question. “Now, we’re back to sleeping in the same bed and acting like everything is normal again. Is that wrong or weird?”

  He considers my question for a while, and I grow uncomfortable. I should have kept my mouth shut. “I know I said I’d prove to you how sorry I am, and I will. I’ll earn your trust back.”

  I try to protest, but he holds up a finger to stop me. “Neither of us wanted to be apart from the other, baby. We both suffered unnecessarily. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to spend the next fifty years right beside you, literally. If you’re not ready for us to sleep in the same bed again, then we won’t. But I don’t think there’s a rule book for how we should act after everything that happened, and I don’t think we should suffer any more than we already have. As long as the two of us are on the same page and comfortable, then it’s not wrong.”

  “So, it’s not weird to you?” I scoot closer to him and rest my leg against his.

  He chuckles, but his eyes are worried. “It’s not weird to me at all. Does it feel weird for you to be back with me like this?”

  “It feels right,” I admit quietly.

  Caleb lets out a relieved sigh and wraps his arms around me. He pulls me into his chest, and I can’t help the goofy grin that takes over. “It feels right to me, too.”

  “We have more stuff to talk about, though,” I say through a big yawn. My eyes droop closed, and I feel myself drifting off.

  Caleb laughs again. “I know, baby. First sleep, then talk. Okay?”

  “M-kay.” His idea is too tempting to pass up. I can always ask him why he pulled away tomorrow.

  A kiss is pressed against the top of my head, and I snuggle closer to Caleb. “I love you, baby.”

  I think I tell him I love him, too, just before I slip into a deep, restful sleep.

  Chapter 12

  Caleb and I woke up late the next morning and took our time getting ready for the day. We haven’t talked about anything important yet, but I don’t mind—I know we’ll get around to it soon. Caleb said he had a project to do first. He wanted it to be a surprise, so I had to keep myself busy. As much as I hate being away from him, even by a few feet, I allow him his time to plan whatever surprise he has in mind. For the majority of the day, I remain outside with the girls, working on my affinities.

  When I use my four affinities separately, I can control them as well as everyone else. That fact is a miracle in itself. Most Elementals spend years perfecting their chosen affinity—it only took me a few months to control all four of mine.

  Using more than one affinity at once is a different story. If I try them together, I wear myself out within minutes and have a difficult time finishing what I started. My goal from the start has been to make the stupid diamond I was supposed to make for my test with the council, but unfortunately, I can only make the strange quartz-like gems like the one I made for the council. Cassie used her affinity for Water to wash them off. Apparently, it only requires some intense water pressure, and the compacted dirt covering the rock comes off to show a clean, smooth stone. And five hours of work, all I have to show for all the effort I put in is a desperate need for a nap and a handful of the quartz stones.

  The gems all come out differently so far. Some are similar to the fiery one I made for the council, while others are pure blue or green. They’re all different shapes, too, though the majority are round or oval. Leanne and Cassie made a game out of guessing what the next one will look like, and so far, they’ve lost every round. I even took a shot in the last round, and I was wrong—I suppose it’s anyone’s guess what I’ll make.

  “I’m totally positive the next one is going to turn out all blue.” Cassie inspects one of the fiery stones, turning it over and over in her hand.

  Leanne shakes her head and casts her vote. “I’m betting on an all red one.”

  Cassie scoffs at Leanne’s guess, “She hasn’t made one that’s completely red, yet.”

  Leanne shrugs as if it’s no big deal. “She will.”

  My heart soars at her easy expression of faith in me, but I feel the need to remind them of the original goal. “I’m trying for a diamond, not those random stones I’ve been making. They’re all accidental.”

  “You’ll get there,” Leanne assures me with a gentle smile. “You’re doing a wonderful job, honey. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  Cassie nods. “Yeah, Ri. Look at the cool little stones you’ve made already. No one else would be able to do that. I know you wanted diamonds, but these things are freaking awesome.”

  “Elementals with an affinity for Earth, like Jaxon and myself, can locate the stones and even create some of them. We couldn’t do what you’re doing, though. We can’t use the heat and pressure of Air to form a stone.” Leanne points to the handful of stones on the ground beside her. “What you do is incredible. We only wish we could do that.”

  I consider Leanne’s words for a moment. “I wonder what else I could do if I combine all the elements. I want to master making a diamond-like the council asked of me, but I’d like to try other stuff, too. There aren’t many things that require all the elements, or even just three of them.”

  “Um, hello?” Cassie waves her arms in the air dramatically. “I suggested making a sandcastle the moment you got all of these damn affinities. And I have yet to see my sandcastle.”

  I glance around the grassy backyard and bite my lip to conceal my smile. “But we aren’t at the beach. We don’t even have a sandbox I could use.”

  Cassie rolls her eyes and waves me off. “Semantics.”

  My eyes widen and dart to Leanne who simply chuckles. She knows where my shock comes from without me having to say a word. “She found Mark’s word-of-the-day calendar on his desk. That’s today’s word.”

  My mouth forms an ‘O’, and I nod my understanding. Leanne’s explanation makes a lot more sense than Cassie suddenly using unnecessarily big words.

  “Tomorrow’s word is quandary,” Cassie announces proudly.

  The three of us have a long giggle over Cassie’s new hobby. It’ll be fun to guess what her next word of the day will be and how she’ll fit it into a conversation. The subject of guessing brings me back to the stone I’d been in the middle of forming while Leanne and Cassie guessed what it would be.

  I take in a deep breath and let it out heavily. “I need to finish this stone and see if it’s miraculously formed into a diamond.”

  “Okay, but after this one, we should break for lunch.” Leanne rubs my back and watches me with concerned eyes. “You’re going to wear yourself out if you don’t pace yourself. You’re already shaking.”

  “You’re probably right...” The work I’ve done through the morning has worn me out, but hopefully, a quick break and some food will give me a bit more energy. For
now, I focus my whole being on the half-formed stone in the ground.

  The air around me drops in temperature as I pull every ounce of heat possible from it. I don’t find much heat in the ground, but luckily, fall in California isn’t as chilly as most states and I find what I need. With the stone heated thoroughly, I use Air to apply an intense amount of pressure. This time, I use more pressure than the last and the effort makes me dizzy. Every stone has been a different mixture of pressure, heat, and the earthly components needed. Still, none of them have come out as a diamond. This has the most pressure applied, and I only hope it helps somehow.

  “Potatoes!” Cassie’s holler breaks my concentration and scares the heck out of me.

  I blink up at her with wide eyes. “What in the world are you doing?”

  “Sorry,” she gives me a chagrined smirk. “I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but I got excited.”

  Leanne tilts her head curiously. “You got excited about potatoes?”

  Cassie bounces on the balls of her feet. “Yeah! She could make potatoes for dinner. It’s perfect.”

  “Potatoes?” I repeat slowly.

  “Potatoes!” Cassie confirms. “You could grow them. Then use Water to wash them and even Water with Fire to boil them. Or only Fire to roast them or bake them or something.”

  “What about Air?” Leanne pulls her lips into her mouth tightly. She’s desperately trying to hold in her laughter, but the shaking of her shoulders gives her away.

  Cassie ponders for a few seconds, oblivious to our amusement. “You could use Air to cool them after they’re cooked.”

  I burst into laughter, unable to contain myself anymore. Leanne joins me, and though she tries for indignant, Cassie quickly caves and chuckles along with us.

  Dad slides the backdoor open with the clear intention of saying something. He pauses when he catches sight of the three of us getting our giggles out. He looks on with mirth for a while, his arms crossed over his chest and his back resting against the backdoor frame. His lips twitch when it’s clear we aren’t going to settle anytime soon.