Chapter Twenty-Seven

 

I felt the blood drain from my face as my jaw hit the ground with a resounding thud, unable to fathom what I’d just witnessed. Gaia had kissed Liam?

Gaia had kissed Liam!

Sure, his expression had stiffened and his head flinched slightly at the caress of her lips against his skin, but he’d made no attempt to stop her. Meaning their presence tonight came as little surprise to him. I had no idea how or why he knew her, but at that moment I didn’t care. Not when that awareness rocked my entire perception of reality, knowing the guy I thought I liked had allowed my enemy to get close to him. Too close, in my opinion.

My eyes turned steely cold, fueled by the pain of his betrayal. A high-pitched stream of questions flowed from my mouth at once, without permitting him the time to respond. “How did this happen? Do you even know who she is? And why did she call you Lir? Doesn’t she know your real name?”

Apology filled Liam’s face. “I thought you’d’ve made the connection by now.”

“Connection? What connection?” I stammered and crept backward, viewing him as a complete stranger.

He shook his head with disappointment. “That Lir is the name of the Irish god of the sea.”

I stared at him blankly. “What are you talking about? How is that something I should’ve known? You never gave me a single clue!”

“Really,” he replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “Not one?”

I was about to utter some witty retort when the answer dawned on me. I thought back to the first time he had introduced himself as Liam Innis Reilly. At the time, I’d considered him a dork for actually stating his middle name. But why else would he have bothered, unless he wanted me to know his initials spelled LIR?

I recalled how the color of his eyes seemed to change with the mood of the ocean, from bright and bold on sunny days to steely blue when rain speckled the sea. And perhaps the biggest clue would’ve been completely obvious to me if I’d ever spent any time underwater in the past. Regardless of Liam’s claims, there was no way he could have produced a viewing bubble underwater.

Unless he was the new Water Elemental.

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before, that I let my infatuation with him impair my perception of reality.

“Oh. My. God,” I gasped, stepping backward. A newfound fear twisted my gut into a tight knot. How did I miss this before? He was long and lean, just like her. His eyes even matched hers in color. Liam’s voice echoed in my head, Lir is the name of the Irish god of the sea. “So you’re actually…?”

“Yep,” Liam said as his lips drew taut. “You guessed it.”

“…Hydros’s twin brother,” I breathed. And all this time I had assumed Shannon’s twin was identical, safe and secure back in their ancient hut in Ireland. Not a boy. Not here. And definitely not Liam, someone I’d thought I knew, someone I’d trusted…someone I thought I was falling for.

I took another step backward, shaking my head in disbelief. “It can’t be. You’re lying.”

Liam’s face steamed. “You think this was easy for me? You killed my sister!” he seethed. “Then Gaia found me. Told me to get close to you. To gain your trust. But that was all.”

I drew in a huge breath, incredulous. “How could you do this to me? I can’t believe that everything we had—everything—was built upon a lie. Our whole relationship was a complete farce, wasn’t it? And you know what’s worse? I actually fell for it.” My chest heaved upon finishing my rant.

Liam took a step toward me. “Jordan, you have to listen. There’s more you need to know. More you must understand.”

“No. No. You’ve had so many chances to tell me before and you didn’t. Why would you possibly think I’m going to listen to you now?”

He stretched out his hand, placing his fingers tenderly upon my arm. “I couldn’t. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.”

I slapped his hand away, despising his touch upon my skin. “Right. And I’m supposed to believe you? After all of this? Well, forget it. I want nothing to do with you. Did you hear me? Nothing. And I swear that is the God-honest truth.”

Skye’s eyes flashed like quicksilver as she took a step forward to aid Liam. But Gaia held up one hand to restrain her, advising, “Give him a minute, Skye. He needs to handle this on his own.”

The Air Elemental pouted. She flitted her stormy eyes toward Gaia, seemingly disappointed to miss the opportunity to defeat me. Crossing her arms over her chest like a petulant child, she shifted her weight to one hip, waiting for the moment to strike.

But I was too infuriated with Liam to concern myself with Skye’s desires, at the moment. I glared at him, my nostrils flaring at his treachery.

“Jordan, don’t you see?” Liam asked, reaching for my hand once more. “None of this was supposed to happen.”

“What are you saying?” I bristled, the truth behind his confession wounding the depths of my heart. His feelings for me had all been a sham.

“I thought you were some heartless, evil person,” Liam explained as his fingers clasped mine. “Who else would take Shannon from me forever? But you weren’t at all what I expected. I only tried to act super helpful so you’d be a fool to turn down my offer. But why did you have to make things so difficult for me? Why did you have to like me back?”

“It was more than like, Liam,” I spat as bitter tears of betrayal built in the corners of my eyes. “I can’t believe I was so blind. You’re right; I was a fool. None of this should’ve ever happened.”

Ripping my hand from his grasp once more, I turned on my heels and ran, my irritating dress trailing behind me. What was I thinking, wearing a ridiculous outfit like this tonight? Or perhaps a better question might have been, what was I thinking, falling for another Elemental? Now I had nowhere to go. No one left to trust.

I had only made it a few paces before I heard Gaia command, “Stop her! We need her, Lir, before we run out of time.” I increased my pace, taking long strides across the cool black sand, eager to be rid of them all forever. My heart pounded inside my chest and my pulse thundered through my veins from Liam’s treachery.

Near the end of the beach, I darted to the right and ducked beneath low branches. I sprinted down the narrow path and bolted to the left, hoping he would lose my trail.

Suddenly, Kea emerged from the darkness and loped by my side. Spinning her head to face mine, her intelligent brown eyes twinkled while she playfully kept my pace. Only for her it looked effortless, like we engaged in a friendly game of tag rather than a race toward freedom. Her panting tongue dangled from her mouth in what appeared an amused grin, as if my unfortunate change of fate somehow humored her.

“You knew. You knew all along, didn’t you?” I accused her in an acidic tone.

My words didn’t faze her. For a trace of a second, I thought I saw her wink at me before a reddish-orange tinge flickered through her eyes. Yet I couldn’t be sure if I’d imagined the change since the color vanished almost as soon as it had appeared. Loping by my side, her mouth widened into a knowing smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I screamed, wheeling on the stray. “You liked him, so I thought it was okay for me to like him, too. And now look what happened. I can’t believe I actually listened to a dog!”

Kea’s mouth closed. She cocked her head to one side, appearing both puzzled and hurt by the anger in my tone. I kicked myself for treating Kea that way. I had no right to yell at her. She was only looking for a little bit of food and attention.

I didn’t have a chance to apologize to my poor, homeless friend because in that very instant, the dog’s body dissolved into a misty trail of vapor that streamed over the black grains of sand and danced on the light sea breeze. In shock, I tripped over my feet and stumbled to the ground. My elbows and knees skidded across the coarse beach as my eyes gaped wide. Utterly stunned at Kea’s mysterious disappearance, I lay on the beach, breathless, staring at the dancing trail. Then, in slow motion, I watched the dog’s vaporous mist inexplicably coalesce into the aged form of Auntie Lulu.