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“So, how old are you?” asked Fin as we wandered down a trail.
I shrugged. “Not sure.”
Fin glanced at me. “You don’t know much of anything by the sounds of it.”
Did he not even realize how rude he was being? Clenching my jaw, I bowed my head, causing my hair to fall into my eyes. I glared at the red strands, already planning on shaving them off.
“Give me a rough estimate,” said Fin.
“Three hundred and seventy-two was the last birthday I remember.”
“Damn it.” Kicking at the dirt, he shoved his hands in his pocket. “Don’t tell, Zoran. I get so sick of him calling me a baby bird. If he finds out you’re older, he’ll harass me even more.”
I stared at the man’s back as we rounded a bend. Fire creatures were bizarre if they considered him a baby bird. My chest tightened. Maybe he was going to grow into the size of one of those dragons. I swallowed hard. Once again, I was yelling at myself forever going outside of Herminia’s wall.
“Terrin. Hurry up.” He waved for me. “If we don’t hurry, Zoran will notice us missing and send the sirens after us.”
“Sirens?” I increased my pace as my chest tightened. “What sirens?”
The grass curled along the edge of the path toward me. I moved away from it and stayed in the middle of the trail.
“Those.” Fin pointed at the trees where little balls of light were scattered among the branches. “Don’t make them mad. They’ll swarm you.”
I froze. Balls of fire coming at me like a swarm of bees—I was done. “I’m going back.”
“Why?” Fin snatched my wrist. “The gods are fighting. They’re a pain to be around when they’re like this. It could be hours before they calm down.”
“I don’t like fire.” I stared at a siren flying around a flower bush. It was a smaller version of the woman who brought my food.
“Then, don’t piss me off,” Fin replied with a wink.
Crumbling on the inside, I let him lead me down the trail. Why did this world have to be so miserable? I stayed in the center as the plants reached toward my feet. Maybe it was Fin they were attracted to. Pulling my arm free, I put some distance between us, but it didn’t help. The plants never acted this way around me back home.
We entered a clearing.
“This is the fire garden.” He waved his arm through the air. “I guess plants and fire can get along, so there’s hope for us.” Fin gave me a grin over his shoulder. “Sort of.” Clearing his throat, he continued on.
Something tugged on my hair. I turned around to see one of the sirens holding a long red strand. Internally screaming, I yanked it away from her. More joined the first one, and a faint whisper passed among them. This was what the firebird warned me about. They were going to swarm!
“Fin!” Gathering up my hair, I ran after him. I was definitely chopping it off. I’d shave it right to the skin.
Skidding to the end of the trail, I spotted the firebird standing by the edge of a lake. It was the ugliest lake I had ever seen. This is what the garden lived off? A siren dove at my head. I ducked and batted a couple others away.
“Shoo, leave me alone.” I waved my hand overhead.
They were worse than a swarm of gnats.
Fin turned around and groaned. “Terrin, what did you do?”
“Nothing. Tell them to leave me alone.”
“Okay. Duck.”
A fireball flew at my head, scaring off the little girls. I stood still. He had shot fire at my head. I could have been burned! My mouth fell open. I hated this world. Everything was so combustible.
“Sorry about that. They’re weird around strangers.”
“You threw fire—” I patted the side of my head to make sure nothing was sizzling.
Fin shrugged. “I told you to duck. I wasn’t going to hit you.”
Breathing deeply, I twisted my hair together and stepped onto the grass. The warmth that spread up my legs brought me to my knees. I swung my arms through the blades and leaned down to feel it against my cheek. It was perfect. This soil was literally perfect, better than anything I had felt in Herminia’s garden. All my life, I had been working to create something so precise in every aspect. I wanted to dig a hole and just swim in this dirt.
Fin was giving me a look of disgust mixed with confusion. “Are you okay?”
I laughed hesitantly as I noticed my awkward position with my face in the grass. “You have really nice soil here.”
“Yeah.” He chewed on his fingernail. “Is this normal where you come from?”
Quickly climbing to my feet, I sucked in my lips. “It’s been a while. Dirt is kind of my thing.” I wiggled my toes into the ground. This was truly heaven.
“I think you mentioned that—your talent or whatever.” He folded his arm.
We stood awkwardly in the clearing. Neither of us said anything as I continued to scrunch my toes in the grass. If those horrible sirens weren’t hovering nearby, I’d go off on my own and dig myself a fresh pile. It sounded heavenly.
“Hmm... well.” Fin stretched his arms overhead. “I got a thing for fire, so I guess it isn’t that weird.” He pointed to the lake. “Do you want to see?”
“No,” I said firmly. “I’m close enough.”
Fin narrowed his eyes. “Come on. It isn’t that bad. Zoran makes me fly everywhere doing all his stupid errands, and then at night, I get to swim in the lake.”
Backing away, I shook my head. “I’m an earth element, remember?”
Fin motioned to the surrounding trees. “The garden lives off the stuff.”
I continued shaking my head. “Not me. Like I said, I don’t like fire.”
“Thanks a lot,” the firebird muttered.
“I didn't mean it like that.”
He gave me a smirk. “You were scared shitless when you came here, so I don’t buy it.”
“W—we’re just different. I—”
“Fin!” Zoran’s voice echoed through the garden. “Where is Terrin?!”
The firebird sighed. “Sounds like the royal asshole noticed we left.”
I swallowed hard. “We should go back.”
“No, don’t bother. I’ll handle it.” Wings shot out of his back.
Startled, I fell to the ground and scooted into a bush. Flames surrounded the new appendages as they stretched to either side of him.
“I’ll tell Zoran where we’re at. Be back in a minute.” Fin took flight.
This wasn’t happening. I clutched my chest and focused on slowing my breathing. They were called firebirds, but that was beyond what I was expecting. Something smacked me on the side of the head.
“Ow.” Flinching, I clasped the spot and spotted a siren zip off into the trees with a strand of my hair. I was hit again. “Ow! Cut it out.” I swung at her, but she flew out of reach.
More flew at me, yanking out strands.
“Stop it!” I broke a branch off the bush and swung it at them.
The siren hovered around me with their tiny hands pressed to their mouths in horror. I looked at the limb. I had hurt a plant. Curse the gods, Herminia would be horrified.
“I’m sorry.” I lowered the branch. “It wouldn’t have happened if you had stopped when I asked.”
Something slithered along my arm. Roots had formed from the bottom of the limb. “Curse the gods!”
Panicking, I pried it off and threw it on the ground. The roots shot into the dirt, and the bush began to grow. I stumbled backward as it rose high above me. It kept going until it filled the clearing and was taller than the trees around us.
“Oh, no.” I climbed to my feet with my hand over my mouth. Someone was going to notice this.
“Wow!” Fin landed and ran past me. “Do you grow this? Look at this!” He threw his hands into the air. “That is so cool! Way better than the stupid wind shifter.”
“Fin,” said Zoran sharply as he appeared from a cloud of smoke.
The firebird flinched and pressed his lips together. He turned to face the god with an uneasy smile.
“What the hell did you do?” The god’s eyes met mine. He was clearly not as impressed with the oversized bush.
“I...” I motioned to the flickering lights in the trees. “The sirens, they were pulling my hair.”
A gust of air filled with leaves swirled into the clearing. Mahkah appeared. He glanced at the giant tree-bush before giving me the same annoyed expression.
I swallowed hard. “I didn’t mean to.”
“What am I going to do with it?” Zoran groaned, pushing the hair off his forehead. “They’re not even supposed to grow that big. How the hell am I going to get rid of it?” Flames boiled around his shoulders.
A siren yanked at a piece of my hair.
“Stop it.” I shooed her. “Go away.”
“Enough!” Zoran stomped his foot, blackening the earth.
The sirens vanished. I froze as well.
“Curse the gods.” Zoran clenched his jaw. “So”—he motioned to Mahkah—“he’s your element. Figure out what’s wrong with him before Terrin destroys my entire garden.”
The tall, dark man stepped forward. Fin and I parted ways to let him through.
He ran his fingers along the leaves. “Strange.” Snatching my wrist, he pulled me forward. He tilted my head to the side and plucked out a hair.
“Ow.” I jerked back and rubbed the spot.
Kneeling, Mahkah traced his finger through the grass and the ground split open. Laying a seed beside the strand of hair, he drew his finger back along the hole to seal it. The earth started to rumble. Fin and I ran behind Zoran as a tree rose from the ground. Mahkah backed away as the trunk grew thicker. The branches reached toward the sky and surpassed the ones around us. My mouth fell open. I shouldn’t be able to do that. Gathering up my hair, I twisted it into one bundle. This was dangerous.
Fire spread around Zoran’s feet. I jumped away from him.
“Mahkah, what are you doing?!”
The earth god simply watched. “Amazing, that seed was not capable of such a thing.”
I swallowed hard.
The bottom of the trunk started to glow red. Fire raced up the branches. I gasped—the tree! It was burning!
That was it; I was done with this garden. I hurried to the path and raced toward the palace. Arriving at the staircase, I took the steps two at a time and stopped in the doorway to Zoran’s room. Breathing heavily, I gripped my knees. Something was wrong with me. My hair fell in front of my shoulders.
I wanted it off.
Voices came from the balcony, and three figures stood on the other side of the curtains. Scanning the area, I spotted a knife on the table. That would have to work. Grabbing it, I sliced through a section. The red strands fell to the ground in a pile. I hacked at the rest, trying to get it as close to my scalp as possible. The sirens could have it as long as they’d stopped yanking it out of my head.
The curtains parted. “Terrin?” Zoran gave me an unimpressed look. “What are you doing?”
Mahkah moved past him and walked over to examine what I had done. Half my hair was still attached.
“The amount of the floor should be enough. I’ll take the rest.”
“I think not,” stated Zoran. “You can have whatever else grows out of his head. I want all of it.” He turned to his firebird. “Go find some proper scissors.”
Fin hurried off to do as he was told.
Zoran approached and paced around me. I glanced outside to see the burning tree. It started to tip over as the siren pushed it into the lake.
“It wasn’t made for my garden, Terrin.”
I glanced at the fire god—neither was I.
“What’s going on? I thought it was poison,” I said.
“You’re something a little different.” Zoran ran his finger through my hair.
Fin returned and slapped scissors into the god’s outstretched hand.
“Sit down, Terrin,” said Zoran as a vine pulled out a chair. “So, I can fix the mess you’ve made.”