Chapter Twenty-Three

 

That night, I thrashed in bed while Hydros flooded the ancient city of Atlantis. Clinging to the Dragon Tree, I stretched out my hand toward the slave girl, Monifa, the rising waters swirling around her. Desperate for help, her fingers reached mine, clasping my hand tightly within her grip. I yanked Monifa toward me, carefully keeping her head above the water as the weight of the shackles bound to her ankles threatened to pull her under. Just before she reached the safety of the tree branches, the waters rushed back out to sea, dragging everything with their incredible current. Her fingers slipped through mine as I helplessly watched her sink below the dark water. The echo of her fading scream of panic rang inside my ears.

Suddenly, I was back in California, at the base of the mangled Bay Bridge. Fierce winds whipped my hair and pierced my clothes. I fought off Skye’s tornado, infusing it with a jet of fire and aimed it at Hydros. Suddenly, I reconsidered and tried to alter the course of the fire tornado. But it was too late. Hydros had already fallen. Gaia rushed to her side, cradling her limp form. Gaia’s gaze shifted toward the Bay where another wave grew in the distance.

She will never be truly gone, Pele had said. Hydros’s soul lived on, but in a different form now. Meaning I hadn’t destroyed the threat, only transferred it into another being.

I watched the incoming wave swell to enormous proportions. “Three on one,” I thought grimly. “Just like old times.” I raised my hands upward, prepared to defend myself.

In the distance, the next chosen Water Elemental rode atop the incoming crest, like the big wave surfers Sully and I had watched from our perch on the cliff. I craned my neck, desperate for a glimpse of my new threat when a bright light pierced through the clouds and straight into my window to illuminate my sleeping face.

The full moon.

I leapt out of bed, my brain startlingly alert. Dozens of questions swam through my mind, but they would have to wait. Pele said I needed to meet Hina and the Fire Essence at the next full moon. Hopefully, they might provide some answers to the uncertainty that filled my life. Desperate not to miss this opportunity, I threw on a shirt and shorts and tiptoed from my room, careful not to wake Lulu.

I crept down the hallway and out the front door. I stole down the patio steps slowly, praying they wouldn’t creak under my weight. The moon snuck behind the clouds once more, but I didn’t hesitate. The bright beam through my bedroom window was a beacon, reminding me of the significance of this night.

Barefoot, I jogged across the road toward the coarse black sand on the other side. When I reached the breezy beach, I wrapped my arms nervously around my waist and announced, “Hina, I’m here!” But the beach appeared empty, except for a few pale creatures that scuttled across the sand. Slowly I sat, watching their movements and waiting for Hina to arrive.

A series of hatched trails marked up the sand, each ending by the mouth of a deep protective hole that lay just beyond the water line. A pale ghost crab popped out of the hole, busily scooping sand to form a mound and dig out its home. The trails spread in different directions, but whenever they met, the marks intensified, as if a brief clash occurred in the open arena before the two crabs parted and went their separate ways. I couldn’t help but think of how their nightly rituals paralleled my own life. Regardless of the time or place, I followed my own course until I encountered the other Elementals in another skirmish.

These small crabs, like pale ghosts on the beach, endured an endless battle against the sea similar to the one I must face. It didn’t matter that I had destroyed Hydros if another person took her place. I hoped Pele was right about the importance of this final journey—that it would provide the answers I sought.

I glanced around, wondering where to find Hina when I noticed a shadowy lump curled like a ball under a tall palm tree. Its long fluffy tail lay neatly tucked over its nose as if keeping its moist skin warm in the cool night breeze. I recognized the lump immediately. Kea.

I left my spot on the sand and walked toward her, my footsteps rousing the dog. She lifted her head from under her tail with recognition. She stretched and yawned before rising from her spot. Shaking the sand from her white fur, she trotted over to join me. I patted her head, grateful for her companionship. “How can you stand sleeping there, girl?” I asked her. “Aren’t you afraid a coconut might fall on your head?”

She tilted her head sideways, wearing an amused grin like she meant to say I worried too much. I scratched her belly, making her tongue dangle out one side as she panted contentedly. Suddenly, she paused. Her ears cocked as her nose twitched to sniff the air in an inquisitive way. She closed her mouth and looked upward, detecting the source of the interesting scent.

I followed her gaze toward the mountain that shared her name. Above its summit, thick clouds were backlit in a ghostly glow. Soon the clouds parted, revealing the light of the full moon. I blinked into the brightness, marveling at how the light and dark patches of the moon strongly resembled a human face, warm and caring.

“Is that Hina?” I asked Kea, though I didn’t expect her to understand a word.

Kea’s ears perked forward and she gave a sharp bark, confirming my question, before running off into the shadows.

In that moment, a bright moonbeam stretched toward the ground, right before my feet, as a path that led the goddess Hina to my very spot. Her figure appeared outlined in a silvery glow. Her soft, gray eyes—like the dark fields on the surface of the moon—alighted on me. A smile traced its way across her full lips, pushing her cheeks upward on her rounded face.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said in my most polite voice and gave a deep, reverent bow to the old goddess. “I cannot thank you enough for healing my friend, Cam, and myself.”

Hina spoke in a soft, measured voice. “It’s the least I could do. He has too much life to live and you are still needed. Besides, Pele does not ask many favors of me. And I couldn’t refuse one of such importance.”

My hands sought each other and I anxiously wrung them together. I thought Pele said Hina would answer my questions. Instead, she only seemed to raise more. Why was I needed? Why was it so important for Pele to train me? But Hina volunteered no further details and I feared to press the subject before I completed my final journey…and the rest of my training.

Taking a deep breath to restore my patience, I began, “Pele told me that you can communicate with the departed souls of the past Elementals.”

Hina nodded her round face. “I can.”

“She also said that you could introduce me to the old Fire Elemental.”

“As you wish. The Fire Essence will be here soon,” she said kindly.

“Is there any chance I can speak to Hydros’s Essence, too?”

Hina shook her head. “Give her some time. She is not ready yet.”

With a flash of boldness, I dared to ask, “Well, how about any of the other Essences? Like the Earth Essence?” Perhaps they could provide some background for me to help me better understand my greatest foe.

“There is no Earth Essence,” Hina stated simply.

“No Earth Essence?” My brows pinched together. “What do you mean?”

Before Hina could respond, a washed-out, ghostlike mist swirled by her side. Tinted in a faint shade of orange, the mist quickly took on form, like an apparition of a human. What I imagined had once been a flaming red head of flyaway hair framed a steep nose, square jaw, and intense eyes. I gaped in astonishment and awe when the Fire Essence said in a clear voice, “Gaia is the original Earth Elemental. She is the first and only embodiment of the Earth Element. No others existed before her.”

The Essence leaned toward me and whispered, “That’s why she can be a little on the bossy side at times.”

My mouth fell open. Partially from the shock of the honest revelation of Gaia’s personality and partially because…

“You’re a boy!” I exclaimed.

Mirroring my behavior, he let his jaw drop. “And you’re a girl!” he squeaked in a mocking high-pitched tone.

“But…but…” I stammered, trying to think of a polite way to phrase my surprise. “I thought…well, with me and the other Elementals…”

“That only girls could possess such power? Ha!” He cackled to himself. “As if.”

Hina slowly rolled her wide gray eyes. “Well, you two seem to have hit it off right away,” she said with a surprise dose of sarcasm. “In case you hadn’t already guessed, Jordan, I’d like you to meet the Fire Essence, Brandr.”

“Brandr,” I repeated, letting his name hang on my lips, the word representing a new hope in the form of an alliance against the other Elementals. With his brash attitude and sassy remarks, I couldn’t help but like him from the start.

“It’s Norwegian for ‘fire,’” he explained. “But enough about me. I heard we have some work to do tonight.” He stretched out his arms and legs like he pretended to run a long-distance race. “I hope you’re ready.”

“Pele said it would be dangerous,” I offered, hoping to entice him to elaborate on our destination.

“You have no idea,” he replied, his voice taking a surprisingly serious tone as his intense eyes held mine.

A shiver of fear traveled up my spine. I looked away from his gaze. Suddenly, I missed Liam’s calm, comforting, playful demeanor, so unlike the ghostly form of the one who had previously shared my role. I looked out across the water, remembering the day I spent with Liam at the beach, hoping to draw comfort from that memory before I embarked on this journey into the unknown. The silhouettes of black lava rocks jutted into the indigo water. Moonlight shimmered like quicksilver off each rising wave, spilling over into white churning sea foam that tumbled toward shore. Meanwhile, the tiny crabs—pale like the soul of the past Elemental who stood before me—reappeared on the beach to begin the excavation of their holes once more. The sight before me now seemed so foreign and cold, completely unlike the bright day with Liam. I shivered once more, more frightened than ever about what lay ahead.

“Well, I am sure there is much the two of you need to discuss in preparation for your journey,” Hina said politely, noticing my fear. Before she departed, her gray eyes flashed toward Brandr, as if warning him not to disclose too much.

He nodded in understanding.

I watched the moonbeam dissolve, returning the silvery form of Hina to her place in the sky.

“So where are we going?” I whispered.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” he replied, like an irksome sibling.

I placed my hands on my hips and shifted my weight to one side. “Well, that’s really mature.”

“What can I say?” he said, puffing out his chest. “I guess you know me too well.”

I sighed. “Can you at least tell me how dangerous this journey will be?”

He studied me intently for a moment, his lips drawn into a thin line. His mouth busted into a wide grin, unable to contain his laughter any longer. “Re-lax. Everything will be fine. Besides, by the time we’re through tonight, you’ll scoff at your old powers,” he said, his eyes lit with a mischievous twinkle. As an aside, he added, “You can thank me later.”

My face loosened into a soft smile, hoping what he said held true. Then I would gain the powers I needed to stop the other Elementals so I could continue my quest for a peaceful, ordinary life.