Time didn’t mean much in the caves, so I was surprised to see light peeking through as we crawled toward the entrance. The others followed behind me. Our excitement filled the air and I dove out of the tree trunk.
Right away, my senses were assaulted with freshness. As the others climbed out, I took in a few deep breaths, enjoying the warmth against my skin. The evening was approaching, the sun casting deeper shadows and adding a little more depth to the colors.
I missed this, I missed life. My surrounding hummed with it. The air, the trees, the plants, the life. Everything was filled with it and I loved it. I wanted to reach out, but I remembered the behessif and kept my magic to myself.
“Shit,” someone said, and I looked over at Tyren. His expression blanked as he focused on something further out. Venni was stiff too. In fact, most of the group was as they focused on something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, moving next to Shanton and Tyren.
“They’re here,” Shanton said.
“Who is?”
“The elementalists.”
I looked to where everyone was focusing and noted the shadows were a little deeper and something was moving.
Then three cloaked figures stepped out. They wore silvery white robes that went down to their feet, their hoods pulled up to hide their faces in the shadows.
I felt nothing from them. Nothing at all. Not a drop of magic or energy, and that only proved how strong they were to hide their signature.
As they approached, they moved as one, the smoothness in their steps giving them the impression of hovering over the ground. When they were about fifteen feet away, they stopped, the stillness of their movements eerie.
“What are they doing here?” Millie whispered.
“Isn’t this good?” I asked. “You wanted to see them afterward. They saved you a trip.”
Shanton’s expression tightened. “Not necessarily. They could be here for another reason.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Maybe to meet the one to make it through our gauntlet,” one of the elementalists said, and I jumped. The voice was completely smooth and soft, enthralling. Male. I focused on one cloaked figure and then another, not sure which one had spoken. Their eyes were hidden in the depths of their cloaks, but I could feel them prodding me and overlooking Shanton.
I could feel the dragon’s irritation at this slight. He was a dragon. No one overlooked him. Except the elementalists apparently.
“Child, what is your name?” a different male voice asked. This one was smoky with a nice lilt to the words, calling for my attention.
I glanced at Shanton. He was glaring but held himself back. I reached up and felt the coiled strength in his biceps, ready to lash out. He didn’t shake me off, instead stilling underneath my touch.
“Dr. Laila Porter,” I finally answered, knowing they were talking to me.
“Laila,” he said, adding a spin to the pronunciation of my name, dragging out the first part an extra beat. “You were not expected.”
Why were they ignoring Shanton? I glanced at him again. His eyes were mere slits now. The dragon in him was ready to come out and play. They couldn’t ignore him much longer without risking his fury.
“How so?” I asked, hoping Shanton got himself under control. I rubbed his arm, attempting to calm him down. They needed to give us answers before he tore into them, and a small part of me wasn’t so sure he’d win, not against them.
“You should not exist,” a third voice joined in. Female this time “You were not planned.”
Their words were a spear through my heart, and I flinched. When my hand fell from Shanton’s arm, he let out a low growl. Their words rang true and were too close to home. I knew I wasn’t wanted. I was a damn dumpster baby. Whoever had left me there couldn’t even be bothered to at least bring me to the hospital or put me where I would have easily been found.
Instead, they put me in a dumpster to starve, without anyone knowing, not even the garbage men who would have taken me away with the rest of the trash.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.
“You are one of us,” the second voice said, the one with the lilt to the voice.
“No, she’s ours,” Davies said, coming to stand at my side. I smiled at him because frankly, I was too confused about what was going on or what they meant.
They didn’t acknowledge Davies and that made me bristle. How dare they ignore him.
“You are an elementalist,” the third cloaked figure said, with a slight cultured accent. She sounded like she was talking down to me.
“I’m no one you need to concern yourself with,” I said, not liking where this was going. I’d spent years wondering about where I came from, now was not the time I wanted to find out.
None of them moved, but their curiosity permeated the air around me. My skin prickled, and I fought to not rub my arms. I thought about the pregnant woman who died in the caves, about the dreho they created, the bones of the child, and just the fact that they were sucking the life out of Nature.
My opinion of them wasn’t that high.
“Oh, we definitely need to concern ourselves with you. You made it through the gauntlet.” The female reached up and lowered her hood, revealing white hair in a pixie cut and glowing green eyes.
“Shit,” someone said, and I was thinking the same exact thing.
Shit.
My eyes did that when I used magic. Glowed like that. I hadn’t met anyone else with eyes like mine. Until now.
The other two lowered their hoods to also reveal their glowing green eyes.
“You are no doubt ours,” the man with the smoky voice said. He had a shaved head and dark skin, his eyes popping out against the dark skin tone. His lip twitched, and I fought against a scowl. For all I knew, he was reading my mind.
Asshole.
His lip twitched again.
Yeah, he definitely was. I blanked out my mind, not wanting him to get a sense of my real thoughts. I built up all my protective shields, wrapping them tightly around myself. The man tilted his head to the side, intrigued.
The third man had a full head of thick, wavy black hair. The strands almost covered his eyes. All his features were sharp, including his stare. He was borderline scowling, trying to decide if he should commit to the expression or not.
Seeing the three of them together confused me. I couldn’t pinpoint their age. They spoke like they were older, but they looked like they were in their peak of life, youthfulness surrounding their features.
“We came to get you,” the man with the dark hair said, his voice wrapping around me and demanding my soul listen to him. He definitely had a dangerous ability to force others to his will.
I gritted my teeth, fighting against his words. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said.
The woman’s eyes widened, and she glanced at the guy trying to enthrall me. They exchanged looks before turning back to us. The fact that they knew they were trying to manipulate my will and didn’t care infuriated me. They had no bounds, no care for what was right and wrong.
“You will. You’ll need to, to know who you are,” the woman said.
“I know who I am. I’m Dr. Laila Porter, a nineteen-year-old magical genius. My job is to explore magic, and everything I know, I taught myself. If I want to do something, I’ll figure out how to do it. I don’t need you to teach me. I’ll teach myself.”
All three figures were now scowling at me, clearly not impressed with my little rant. I wasn’t going to back down, though. I couldn’t give up the person I’d fought so hard to become, and I did not trust them. I longed to know all the nitty gritty details about myself, but my growing dislike for them already overshadowed that want.
“Laila,” Shanton said softly, and I released a shaky breath, not even realizing I was trembling with barely suppressed rage.
“I’m good,” I whispered.
“You really have no interest in learning about your kind?” the man with the enthralling voice asked.
“I have no interest in getting to know someone who hasn’t even thought to introduce themselves.”
“My apologies,” the woman spoke and stepped forward. She didn’t sound like she was sorry. “My name is Elaria. I am of the Highborn. When we heard about a group making it through our gauntlet, I decided it best I come. To my right is Zenek and to my left is Jekez. They are my protectors.”
“Highborn?” I asked.
“Yes.” She didn’t expand. She either thought I should already know or decided I wasn’t privy to the information. “We have so much we wish to teach you,” she said. “Training needs to start right away.”
“Hold up,” Davies said, stepping forward. “She doesn’t need to do shit. Especially with people like you.”
“Watch yourself, human,” Zenek said. He was the one with the enthralling voice.
Davies didn’t back down as the elementalist wanted. “No, you watch yourself. This isn’t how it works. You don’t get to come here and start pushing your weight around to get what you want.”
“Davies, stop,” Venni said, grabbing onto his friend’s shoulder.
“Dragon,” Elaria said, finally acknowledging him. “I didn’t realize your kind has weakened so much to allow a human to step out of line.”
Anger blossomed inside me, scorching hot. “Enough,” I said, magic coating that one word as the command sent a rumble through the ground.
Someone swore, but all I could see was the haughtiness in Elaria’s expression. I wanted to tear it off.
“Davies is right. You don’t get to dictate anything in my life. You don’t get to come here and make demands of me.” The rumbling grew louder as my anger fed my magic. They did not get to talk about Davies like that. Nor Shanton.
“Calm,” Rhett whispered from behind, his hand touching my lower back. His calming touch was too late though. I was seeing red.
“No.” I stepped closer to the elementalists. Their eyes were wide now with a mixture of awe and surprise. “I refuse to let them speak about my friends like this. You don’t get to look down on us, not after we cleaned up your mess. You owe us a fucking favor.”
“We owe you nothing.”
“No,” Shanton finally spoke. “You do.”
All three sets of eyes finally focused Shanton. His eyes were hard, and he didn’t shrink under their stare. I doubted he shrunk under anyone’s stare. “We saved your people.”
“No, you took something that should have been left behind,” Elaria said.
“Nature welcomed our help. That should you tell you something.”
Zenek opened his mouth to say something, but a roar interrupted us. The sound of it was all too familiar.
“Shit, Laila, I think you summoned it back to us,” Davies said.
My head whipped around as I tried to narrow down the source of the noise as I drew my magic back into me, swallowing the anger that had released it in the first place. Another roar echoed around us, but I couldn’t pinpoint where.
Large hands gripped my shoulder, and I was yanked back, now surrounded by the group. Even Chez was in the circle with me.
Rustling drew our attention to the right and then the behessif bounded out, its powerful legs helping it to land between us and the elementalists. I expected it to turn toward us and pounce, but instead it turned toward Elaria and hunched down. Its tail wagged back in forth, the barbs on it just as excited to sink into someone.
“Call off your pet,” Jezek said.
“Not ours,” Shanton said. “Maybe you should take it as a warning to leave.”
“I thought you wanted something from us?” Elaria asked.
“And I’ll get it,” he clipped out.
I stared at Shanton’s massive back, at the way his muscles bunched underneath his shirt. He gave off the impression that he was cool and collected, but the way he held himself said otherwise.
Once again, I had to question what he wanted from them.
Elaria tried to move closer.
“We wanted to meet Laila and get to know her. Whether she accepts it or not, she’s family.”
“No,” I said, forcing my way through the wall of bodies. “You’re not family and frankly, you’ll never be.”
The behessif reacted to my voice with a low growl directed at the elementalists. I stared at it, trying to figure it out.
“You made an impression,” Jezek said, his smoky voice low as he stared at the lion creature.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He loves your magic. He’s yours now.”
My eyes widened as I focused on the creature, taking in the shimmering gray coat with the black dots, the massive size. I never thought I would be a cat person and yet, here one was.
“I don’t need a pet.”
Jezek shrugged. “He’s yours now, always.”
I glanced at Davies and Venni with wide eyes. “What the hell am I supposed to do with that thing? He’s too big!”
“We’ll figure it out later,” Shanton growled out.
“Shutting up,” I said and then pressed my lips together.
Shanton shook his head before facing the elementalists. “We can reconvene in a couple of days to discuss the terms behind returning your artifact and getting you on the way to mending your relationship with Nature.”
“Very well, but under one condition,” Elaria said with a gleam in her eyes.
“What?”
“Laila must be present.”
“No,” I said. “I want nothing to do with you.”
“You are not giving us an opportunity. You already have an opinion of us without truly getting to know us.”
“Oh, I got to you know your people well enough in those caves,” I said, seething now. The ground rumbled, the behessif going along with it too. “The fact that you would do this to the land, to kill it off so you can have a gauntlet to shove people into tells me exactly what I want to know about you.”
“Laila,” Shanton warned, but he stopped when I sent him a scathing look. I was out for blood. Elementalist blood to be specific.
“The dreho. How can you make a creature like that and leave it to suffer for hundreds of years? I also found your special little room. The room with no way out if you weren’t powerful enough to teleport. There were so many in there. Bones of children. A pregnant woman. That is why I refuse to have anything to do with you. You forced a pregnant woman to her death.”
“I see,” Elaria said. “You should know that space has not been used since we put the artifact in there.”
“Oh? Does that mean you have another?” I asked.
They didn’t respond. Didn’t move. Didn’t fucking do anything.
“I thought so,” I said, my voice cold enough to freeze the air.
“She’ll be there,” Shanton said.
“No, I—”
“Enough, Dr. Porter,” Shanton snapped, and his energy lashed out, reminding me exactly what he was capable of doing. “You need to get over yourself and realize this is about more than just you.”
I gaped at him before glaring at the ground, my cheeks heating with humiliation. I had let my emotions drive me while I was on the job.
They talked about a meeting time and place. The air grew thick, there was a soft popping noise, and then the elementalists were gone.
We stood there for a few moments, staring at the spot where they’d disappeared. The behessif let out a yowling noise before turning toward us, but not moving closer. It sat there, staring at me.
Shanton ignored the behessif and walked off with Chez and his team behind him. He didn’t even spare me a glance or a word.
“Come on, Babe,” Davies said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pushing me forward with him. “Let’s get cleaned and then out of here.”
“We’re stuck here until after the meeting,” I grumbled. I’d love to go back to Springer right now if it were possible.
Davies grinned. “Then let’s get some rest and then wake up ready to take on the world.”
I laughed, the stress slipping away. I was okay. My guys were okay.
And while I didn’t want anything to do with the elementalists, maybe I’d finally get some answers. Or I’d start a war I wouldn’t be able to win.