The Elementals

by Erin Forbes

  Fire & Ice:

  The Elementals

  Book One

  Erin Forbes

  Copyright © 2018 by Erin Forbes

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author.

  Cover Design Copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Zemanek/Seedlings Design Studio

  www.fireandicebookseries.com

  Third paperback edition 2018

  ISBN-10: 1514644150

  ISBN-13: 978-1514644157

  Fire & Ice:

  The Elementals

  Book One

  Erin Forbes

  For my parents,

  who have always supported my wild and fantastic dreams.

  The Academy for Gifted Youth

  Students

  Alice Hanley ~ a lion-hearted girl with fire in her veins and flames in her heart

  Emery Hanley ~ a pale-faced girl with icy blue eyes and water in the palm of her hand

  Ariadne Moss ~ her laughter brings us a gentle breeze

  Juniper Stone ~ a tall and wild-haired girl whose gift is just as natural as her name

  Ronan O’Reilly ~ a freckle-faced boy with an unbreakable habit of causing things to levitate

  Kade O’Reilly ~ feathered friend to our heroine

  Violet Holloway ~ a peculiar girl with lavender hair and eyes that change color with her own emotions

  Holland Shepard ~ a proper young girl with the Gift of giving color to even the dullest of objects

  Grayson Fields ~ a golden-haired boy with light in his hands

  Sage Pine ~ wolf-girl

  Hugo Stone ~ brother of Juniper Stone

  Avery Russell Bentley Nolan

  Staff

  Zara Hawthorne ~ Headmistress of the Academy

  Professor Georgina Iris Professor Eleanora O’Connor Sir Theodore Barrington

  Ms. Ruby Lane

  Ms. Augusta Emerson

  Mr. Oliver O’ Reilly

  Professor Blakely Biddle

  The Guardians of Aisling

  Emerson ~ a burly Irish wolfhound with shimmering golden eyes

  Lachlan ~ the finest archer in all of Aisling

  Those who dwell in Aisling…

  Willoughby ~ an indecisive old troll who lives deep within the White Birch Forest

  The Droplet Faeries ~ a species of tiny faeries who carry water droplets atop their heads and build villages out of the flowers that they tend

  The Creatures of the Night Oak Forest ~ invisible to the eye, but not to the mind

  Historical Figures of the Realm

  Silas Casper ~ founder of The Academy for Gifted Youth

  Wolfgang Gregory ~ responsible for the curse upon the Night Oak Forest

  PROLOGUE

  A s I hurried down the old staircase and entered the sun-filled living room, I almost expected to discover a celebration. It was my thirteenth birthday, and my family had always been the cheerful sort. Nevertheless, that day greeted me with an eerie silence, which dared to break the glass of every window in our household.

  “Alice.”

  I turned my head to greet my twin sister, Emery, who stood in the empty hallway. Something about the tone of her voice struck me. Perhaps it was the uncertainty or crack in her words as she spoke, but I knew something dreadful had happened.

  “We need to talk,” she murmured.

  “What's wrong?”

  My sister gave no response as her blue eyes fluttered with an unreadable expression. She turned around and walked toward the front door. I followed slowly behind. Glancing into the kitchen on my way out of the house, I noticed our mother and father were nowhere to be found. My heart was racing, and my mind was lost in a cloud of confusion.

  “What is wrong, Emery?” I repeated as we stepped onto the farmhouse porch.

  After gently closing the door behind us, my sister turned to look at me. Her nightgown was draped an awkward three inches above her ankles. The ivory fabric swayed with the grace of the autumn wind. Emery’s snow-blonde hair was clipped behind her ears. As her eyes darted around with an expression of concern, my question was thrown away with the breeze.

  After taking one last glance at my sister, my gaze settled on the female figure that huddled between the flowers on the other side of the yard. I hurried down the front porch steps, before making my way over to the garden. My bare feet burned the grass with every step, and concern fueled the fire that rushed through my veins.

  My mother glanced up from her work, but she did not speak a word as we rushed through the garden gates.

  “What is going on?” I demanded.

  The woman slid off her working gloves and placed them beside a blossoming patch of strawberries. She remained focused on the emerald plants, although her hands fumbled with unease. “The watering can is empty, Emery." Mother sighed, attempting to avoid my question. “Would you care to refill it for me?”

  “Please answer me,” I pleaded with her.

  “I think it would be best if we spoke about this matter with your father,” she responded before picking up the watering can.

  “Tell him to come down here!” Emery and I spoke in unison.

  Our mother sighed before closing her brown eyes. They were almost identical to mine; however, behind them lingered a very different Gift. Our mother could speak to others with nothing more than her thoughts. Even when she was miles away from home, she always managed to step into the mind of her red-haired daughter.

  “He is coming,” she said as she opened her eyes.

  After a long moment, our father appeared at the door of the house. A sorrowful expression was settled in the crease between his brows. As we made our way out of the garden, the tall man crossed the expanse of grass. I was beginning to anticipate the news that our parents were destined to share.

  “We have something to tell both of you,” our father announced as we settled down upon the earth. In his hands, he held a small wooden box. A key protruded from its lock, and the opening rested slightly ajar.

  “We haven’t been entirely honest with the two of you,” our mother added.

  “Did something happen?” I questioned, noticing the tears that stained her cheeks.

  “Your grandmother has passed away,” Father murmured, allowing his gaze to drop with a broken spirit.

  “A young man was here, early this morning, as a messenger from the realm of Aisling. He delivered the news,” our mother explained. “He brought a gift that your grandmother promised to share with both of you.”

  My mother’s strawberry-blonde hair danced gently in the autumn breeze. After pulling up the latch on the tiny wooden box, she placed it gently on the grass. It contained a note and an old cloth bag. The woman’s eyes hid the same look of uncertainty that I had seen in those of my sister.

  “Your Gifts are very important,” our mother told us. “You must remember this, dear girls. You are anything but ordinary, even for the extraordinary.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  I woke early that morning with glittering eyes as the dawn light danced across my bedroom floor. My twin sister stood on the other side of the room. Her wavy blonde hair had already been tied back into a perfect french braid. She stood quietly at her bedside, packing her suitcase with an abundance of clothes and heavy-looking books. Emery glanced over her shoulder and seemed almost surprised to see me awake. I stared at her in confusion before my stomach lurched with the sudden realization of what day it was.

  “I didn’t expect you to be up already.” Emery laughed.

  “I may as well have been up all night,” I groaned before dropping my head back into the comfort of my pillow.

  As my sister smirked, I caught sight of the childish laughter behind her pale eyes. Emery knew I ha
d been dreading this day, and I knew she had been looking forward to it.

  “I don’t think this situation is as terrible as you have made it out to be,” my sister murmured, attempting to console me.

  “How would you know, Emery?” I responded before standing up and walking toward my wardrobe.

  “We are talking about the Academy,” she replied. “Both our parents and our grandparents have attended the school. Why are you so nervous?”

  I thought about this question for a moment and realized I was not entirely sure of an answer. Truthfully, I wasn’t quite sure of anything at the moment. A knot was beginning to form in my chest, protecting my heart from the moments that were destined to unfold.

  Perhaps this would be the proper time to explain.

  My family is far from average. I suppose one might believe magic runs through our veins. Even so, many people would be fooled by such a statement, for magic is not as it has been told. It is not like in the fairy tales, where there are evil witches, dragons, and princesses with hair long enough to grow down the side of a tower. In my world, magic is more like a Gift.

  There are places where enchantment is hidden from the average eye, and there are people who refuse to see it. Despite this truth, the faint sparks linger in every shadowed corner of the world. Although it often takes the form of a flickering ember, magic can be found in the heart of each individual.

  Three years had passed since the day I discovered my Gift, although I had not grown much fonder of it. A fire had always been so much easier for me to start than it was for me to extinguish.

  Glancing back over my shoulder, I noticed Emery was watching me with a careful expression. Her cerulean eyes flooded with uncertainty. I knew she was trying to read me. My sister always knew when something was wrong; however, there were moments when I wished she did not. I attempted to block out her gaze by keeping myself occupied. My emotions were too complicated for her to understand.

  I opened the door to my wardrobe with haste, only to realize every shelf was abandoned. After rolling my eyes, I pulled a suitcase out from under my bed and fiddled through the stacks of clothing. The majority of my wardrobe was useless in the realm of Aisling, as the popular attire resembled that of medieval ages.

  We were leaving for our very first year at the Academy for Gifted Youth, which is a highly respected boarding school within the realm of Aisling. The ancient school was founded nearly a thousand years ago, and it was created for the children of the Gifted society. Despite my dream of visiting the realm of Aisling, my spirit was never fond of change.

  Before the age of thirteen, my life was practically ordinary. My youth did not contain a noticeable trace of magic, as I did not believe in the existence of such a thing. The fantasy of fairies and dragons was never a phase in my childhood. I read the stories and recognized each one as fiction.

  Even so, this strange reality eventually came crashing down on both of the Hanley sisters, as our parents attempted to explain that every fickle fable was real. My family originated from Aisling, and my parents moved to the ordinary world during my infancy. I did not remember any of this, and my sister and I knew nothing about our true origin before the day of our thirteenth birthday.

  That was when everything had changed.

  Our parents began to homeschool us after we found out about our Gifts. This idea was brilliant in my opinion. I never had to worry about the occasional ball of fire that dared to burst from the palm of my hand, or the fact that my hair would quite literally go up in flames at the sight of a complicated math problem.

  Many of my friends questioned the reason for my departure, and I never found a proper explanation for the matter. The best of my former classmates attempted to reach the Hanley residence by telephone, but my father eventually ran out of excuses for my busy schedule. The majority of old classmates quit contact after that moment; however, a few of them occasionally sent a letter destined to collect dust behind my desk. This may seem a bit harsh, but the topic of my departure was never easy to avoid. The letters eventually stopped, as my friends began to assume I had moved to an address they would never know.

  Emery and I grew close in those three years. We had always been there for each other as sisters, but now the two of us were practically inseparable. There were times when I believed she knew me better than anyone in the world.

  I sighed with exasperation as I tumbled onto my back, examining the constellations of glow-in-the-dark stars scattered across the ceiling. I was not surprised to learn my sister was happy about the idea of leaving home.

  We had always been complete opposites.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen, where my mother was flipping pancakes on the stove. A thin layer of steam was beginning to cloud the window above the sink. The fresh scent of melted berries floated through the air. The table was prepared for breakfast. This seemed quite peculiar, as the sun had just barely risen. Even so, I pulled out a chair and sat down at the smooth oak table.

  Emery walked in a few moments later, dropping her suitcase neatly beside the door. I had packed several days in advance, convinced such action would help me forget about leaving. Evidently, the strategy had failed.

  After a few minutes, our mother placed a plate of blueberry pancakes on the island counter. She topped it off with a glass cover and gestured to the front door. Emery sighed as though she were suddenly out of energy. Despite a moment of complaint, I managed to pull my sister in the direction of the door. We laced up our paddock boots before rushing out into the cold morning air.

  The misty morning dew soaked the foot of our boots as we jogged through the field. A faint trace of birdsong floated through the air, following us through the barn doors. Four giant heads peeked out of their stalls and whinnied a greeting. My sister hurried over to her horse, Wellington, and slid his halter over his huge gray face. I unlocked the bottom half of the Dutch door that led to my horse’s stall. The gentle creature stood beside the entrance, tossing her head with impatience. My right hand ran over her gleaming chestnut coat. As I secured her halter, she poked at the carrot in my jacket pocket.

  Felicity was a tall and well-muscled quarter horse mare with three socks and a heart for jumping. Wellington was a big-boned thoroughbred gelding, who would gladly take part in anything you threw his way. Despite their differences, the two horses were the most loyal of companions.

  ◆◆◆

  As we reached the end of the path that ran down the foggy hillside, I pushed open the paddock gate and led my horse inside. I gave the chestnut mare one last stroke on the neck before leaving her to graze.

  As I followed Emery up the trail, a quiet sadness overwhelmed my spirit. A terrible realization dawned on me; in less than a few hours, I would no longer have this experience in my daily life. I was destined to live at the boarding school until winter break. My resentment for the idea of leaving seemed to grow with this thought, but I was reminded I did not have any other choice.

  A vast blue and pink horizon spread out as we walked back to the barn. The dew-covered hillside was beginning to grow a little brighter, as the sun rose steadily behind the trees. The distant melody of songbirds flowed like a whisper through the morning air. I was going to miss this place more than anyone would ever know.

  ◆◆◆

  “If we care to have any hope of arriving before the portal opens, we will need to leave the house before eight o’clock,” my father commented as we stumbled through the kitchen door.

  I nodded hastily in response as we joined our parents for breakfast. It was not long before I found myself in the middle of a lecture, while the rest of my family carried on conversation about the Academy for Gifted Youth. I chugged down a glass of orange juice in an attempt to hide my agitation. My emotions revealed as a spark ignited at my fingertips, setting one of the napkins on fire. I stared at the burning cloth in silence before whisking my hand over the flames. Unfortunately, it was too late for me, as a stream of water came bursting
from the direction of my twin sister. My long red hair was instantly drenched.

  Emery’s eyes rounded like two bright moons, while a roar of laughter escaped from our father. The embarrassment was overwhelming; my entire family knew I was unable to control my fire. I snatched the last bite of my blueberry pancake and hurried up the stairwell. There was exactly one hour before we needed to leave, although it seemed no longer than a moment.