Elemental Reality (17 page)

“Ooh,” Lola said in awe. “What color are wind and water? Are they both blue? What about electricity? And I’m guessing fire is red, correct?”

“Wind is baby blue. Water is more a neon green. Electricity is white. And fire is bright orange.”

“Wicked cool,” Lola exclaimed. It was good to see her bouncy side back after the incident with the Elders.

We continued conjuring our elements, each time doing it with ease and to the same accord. I was having so much fun playing around with my new powers I didn’t want to stop. I was like a little kid on Christmas morning who got a toy they’d been waiting for all year.

“Hello, Erika,” a bubbly voice sang out.

Lola and I stopped what we were doing and looked toward the voice. Three women approached us.

“So glad you could join us, ladies. I’d like to introduce you to Callie and Lola Pierce. Girls, I’d like you to meet Trixie, Kat, and Bri. They’re three of our instructors, and the best at what they do. Trixie will help you with your electricity, though she can’t conjurer it herself. Kat is amazing with water, and Bri can burn your eyebrows off your face without you feeling a thing. They’ll teach you how to manipulate the elements.”

“Hi, ladies,” Trixie greeted cheerily.

“What’s up?” Bri said with nonchalance.

“How are you ladies doing?” Kat asked, looking motherly.

“Nice to meet you,” I said with a smile. “Who will be helping us with earth and wind?”

“I’m helping with wind,” Erika answered. “Jennie and Noelle will be helping you with earth.”

“Why two?” Lola asked.

“Well, they’re twins. Jennie is better at conjuring and Noelle is better at manipulating,” Erika replied.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“They’ll be here in a few hours. But until then I thought I’d teach you ladies how to stun and disorient with your minds,” Bri said seriously.

“What? No way. Dad didn’t tell us about that.” Lola looked like she was so happy she might overdose on joy.

Bri winked at me while Lola started going all squinty eyes at a bush. “Oh yeah,” Bri continued, nonplused. “I’ll even teach you how to melt your opponents brain.”

Lola put all her concentration on the burnt bush, hoping to make it burst into flames with only her mind.

“Wow. This is a sad, sad day,” I said. “I’m so ashamed of for my family right now.”

The trainers chuckled. It took Lola a few seconds to realize what I was saying. Embarrassed, Lola tried to play if off as if she knew all along.

“No, really,” I continued, rubbing it in. “You give Pierces around the world a bad name.”

“You’re a brat,” Bri said. “I like you already; you’ll fit in with my constant lines of snark.” She laughed and held her hand up for a high-five. I returned, pleased I bested Lola.

“Let’s get started. Callie, I want you to work with Trixie first, and Lola, you can work with Bri. Kat and I will observe.” Erika held up a clipboard.

Lola followed Bri farther into the training field as we went in the opposite direction. Trixie was around my height and appeared to be in her lower twenties. But I couldn’t be sure since we didn’t physically age as fast as a human would. Which was no dirt off my shoulders.

“When I manipulate the physical element of electricity will it hurt?” I asked.

“You mean if a bolt of lightning strikes you?” Trixie’s voice was amused.

“Yeah,” I said nervously.

She laughed. “It shouldn’t. It’s your element. None of the elements can do much damage to you unless you’re not prepared or accepting of them. Right now it may be uncomfortable because your powers are new and you haven’t mentally trained yourself with them. When your mind becomes attuned with them it’ll be as easy as breathing.”

“Lovely. Uncomfortable things make me happy,” I said sarcastically. “So how do I, ya know, become attuned?”

“Like this.” She stretched her arm straight out and kept her palm face up. “Think about the element you want.” Her hand glowed a bright orange. “Feel the element stir in your body.” The glow grew brighter. “Harness it and manipulate it in your mind then—” Fire exploded on her palm. “—mold it.”

“That’s awesome,” I said, my mouth hanging open. Though she really didn’t give good instructions, I thought I got the gist of it. “Let me try.”

I replicated her actions and did everything she told me to do, but something went wrong. Deafening cracks exploded in my ears as not one, but four bolts of lightning struck along my arm. The jolt was awful. It felt like I’d stuck my finger in a light socket as the electricity flowed through my veins. I glanced at my arm and noticed red welts appeared where I had been struck. I let out an audible gasp before Trixie ran over and grasped my arm in her hands. The worried look painted on her face frightened me. Determined, I tried it again. Something crackled on my palm before a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and struck it. I closed my fingers around it, then slowly opened them to reveal a ball of electricity. I giggled uncontrollably. Maybe even a little hysterically.

22

Born for This

“Well that’s different,” Trixie said in shock. “I’ve never seen that before.” That didn’t sound too good. She rolled my arm over and ran her fingers down it, trying to figure out what happened. I watched as the electricity under my skin followed her touch. It was like an electrical jolt every time it moved. Not painful exactly, but it tingled. Almost as if my arm was in a constant state of waking up after being asleep.

“What does this mean?” I asked, my breath heavy.

“I have no idea.”

That was helpful. She moved closer, and the sun reflected off her dark brown hair. Her gaze went to my arm, and in just the right light the natural red highlights that streaked her hair glittered.

“Did it hurt?” she wondered.

“It felt like I played jungle gym on the power lines. There are welts.” I turned my arm over to show her, but they were gone.

“Where?” she asked, confused.

“Weird. There were huge red welts just a second ago,” I protested, leaving out “I swear I’m not crazy.”

“That
is
weird, but you’re fine, right?” She looked me over, even lifting my legs and checking under my shoes. “All limbs are still attached.”

“Yeah,” I guessed.

“I’d ask if you wanna try it again, but I’d rather not see this happen for the second time. Maybe we can do it later, give your body some time to recover?” She looked me in the eyes. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue with a hint of green flecks.

“S-sure.” Stuttering: my forte.

I stuck my hand out, mesmerized. The crackle of static sounded before an electrical current wrapped around my hand. The current proceeded to curl itself around my arm like a snake and didn’t stop until my entire body was immersed in a vibrant strand of electricity.

“Whoa,” I whispered before looking at Trixie.

She stood frozen in front of me, mouth ajar and unblinking.

“Say something, you’re freaking me out,” I pleaded.

“Group meeting,” she shouted and ran past me toward Erika and Kat. Bri followed suit and left behind a fiery Lola who was in a fit of laughter.

I paid close attention to Lola to see how she would go about stopping the flames that engulfed her from head to toe. I knew it should have terrified me, but it didn’t. Maybe subconsciously I expected this to happen. She moved her fingers to her lips and blew on them; the flames vanished immediately, as if she were a giant birthday candle. She caught me staring and gave a cocky wink before she joined me. She made her hand into a gun and pointed it at me, dipping her thumb as if pressing a trigger. The tip of her pointer finger caught fire again, and she smiled at me. Then she blew over her finger again, leaving smoke to waft lazily into the air.

“How’d you know to do that?” I crossed my arms over my chest, jealous.

“Knowing, I am.”

“Okay Yoda, how do I stop electricity?”

“Snap your fingers,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“How is snapping my fingers going to do anything?”

“Remember when I was snapping my fingers to get my powers to come out? Well, maybe it works the same way?”

“Maybe we should ask first?” My eyes automatically glanced toward the sky, glaring. I wasn’t ready to become the human lightning rod again.

Lola regarded the group of ladies huddled together in deep conversation. “Go ahead; you break up the pow-wow.”

I sighed and snapped my fingers, giving into her suggestion. The current ceased, and I was back to my “normal” self again. Not that I was ever normal. I glanced at Lola who had a smug look on her face. “I hate when you’re right,” I grudgingly admitted.

“That’s ’cause I got all the good genes in the family. Duh.”

“Whatever. You got all the leftovers. You’re like all of Thanksgiving’s leftovers mixed together and cooked in a microwave.” I stuck out my tongue. “I was baked, you were nuked.”

“That’s right. I’m all the good stuff mixed together and heated to just the right sexiness,” she joked, waving a hand over her leg as she exposed it.

“Oh, shut up.” I rolled my eyes with a grin.

“So veering off the topic of my sexiness, did you happen to see any hot guys?”

“You mean besides Oli?”

Lola shook her head at my question. “Trust me, I already know how sexy that piece of man-meat is.” She clawed the air.

“No. I haven’t seen anyone.”

“Maybe they’re afraid of us?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Could have to do with the Demon showing up when we did.”

“Well, boo; I wanted to see my picks for a potential soul mate.” She pouted. “I bet he’s tall, hunky, and knows how to lick me in all the—”

I threw up a hand. “Ew. Stop now. Way too much information. And I don’t think you can actually pick out your soul mate.”

“If he’s going to get all soul-matey on me, then I better have some say.” She narrowed her eyes with her hands on her hips.

“So you haven’t felt a pull to anyone?” I asked, curious.

“Am I supposed to? Were you pulled to Oliver? Did he fling himself to one knee and hold up the golden key to unlock your chastity belt? Oh my God. Did you two get nekkid and . . .” She rotated her hips suggestively.

“Lola!”

“What? I would have stripped him naked as soon as I found out. I mean . . . don’t you wonder what’s down there.” She circled her hand in the region of her groin.

“Of course not.” Not yet, anyway. My face flushed at the thought, and Lola smirked. “The first night I saw him I was so attracted to him I might have done all kinds of undress in front of the crowd. But then Cayden blocked me. After that the pull was still there, but not as strong. Still, I can’t deny he turns me into Jell-O.”

“I hope I feel it soon.” She sighed and glanced toward the trainers who were still huddled with their heads together. “What do you think they’re talking about?”

“Us, for sure. Trixie was freaked when I was wrapped in electricity.”

“So was Bri. She looked like a fish out of water when I caught fire. Think our elements are crazy because of us never learning them until now?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“Do you think they’ll tell us?”

“Who knows?”

The group finally disbanded, and the four of them walked our way.

“We’re going to switch trainers. Callie, you’ll be with Kat, and Lola, you come with me,” Erika informed, crooking a finger at Lola. Bri and Trixie gave us tiny waves and walked away.

I wondered what they were talking about. They both looked a mix between grim and frightened. But why?

Erika led Lola away to train with wind while Kat stayed behind to train me with water.

“Kat, is everything okay?”

“Of course, sweetie. Why do you ask?”

“Because you had a group meeting after our powers went crazy.” I raised an eyebrow. We weren’t slow.

“Oh, that was nothing. Everything is fine.” She gave me a smile that I assumed was supposed to be reassuring, but there was no reassurance in it. Her tone was so fake Barbie didn’t hold a candle.

“Okay, great. Can we start now?” Frustrated? Definitely.

“Sure. Let’s do it.”

Water was much easier to control but still went crazy just like my electricity did. As I conjured it, a cyclone of water fell from the sky and slammed into me—surprisingly I wasn’t knocked on my ass. It ran through my body before finally making an appearance in my palms. Kat was as shocked as Trixie when she saw this anomaly. But there was something else written on her face. Fear. Again. I wasn’t sure if she was afraid of me or of what my elements could do.

“So,” she said as she inched away, “I think we’re done with the water lesson today. Erika,” she practically screamed out. “Let’s switch.”

She walked away from me in a hurry and met Erika halfway. She whispered something to her and continued on her way to Lola. Before Erika could say anything, I spoke up.

“Why are you so afraid of us?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, dear.” Erika looked nervous.

“Yes you do. Don’t treat me like a moron, please. Is there something wrong with our elements? Why can’t we control them like you guys can?”

Erika sighed. “There’s nothing wrong with your elements—that’s not the question you should be asking.”

“Then what is?”

“The question is why can’t we control them like you two can?”

I stared at her in surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re different. We don’t know how to train you properly. There are certain things you have to learn on your own.”

“Like?”

“A lot of things. You girls don’t need training from us. Your elements are far superior to ours. You should be training us.”

“That’s not possible.” My knees wobbled, and I hoped they wouldn’t give out.

“It is possible. Bring forth wind for me.”

I relaxed the best I could with all things considered and mimicked what I was taught. I should have expected something crazy to happen, but secretly wished it were null and void this time around. Boy was I wrong. A tornado came to life and was drawn to me. I wasn’t sure if I should run or stop summoning it altogether. The closer it got, the more my fear swelled. The tail end of it lifted off the ground and touched down in my hand. My whole body vibrated as this giant twister became a part of me, thrashing my hair. The tornado consumed me, blowing through my body. I stared at my hand in alarm as I tried to find my voice.

“We don’t fear you, we have fear
for
you. We know you’d never bring harm to us. The mere fact there are now two Faeries stronger than the Elders who can destroy both of them on their own puts fear in us. There has never been a couple stronger than Nevaeh and Mace, which is why they’ve been the Elders for such a long time.”

“We don’t want to scare anyone. We just want to rescue our mom,” I said anxiously. “And we’d take any help you’d be willing to give us.”

“The trainers and I have discussed that issue.” Erika paused. I held my breath. She finally continued. “We have agreed to help you and will talk it over with our husbands to make sure they will agree also.”

I opened my mouth to say something when a child-like voice bellowed behind me.

“Hi, Erika. Hope we’re not too late.”

“Sorry we took so long. Jennie took forever to pack. I didn’t think we’d ever leave San Antonio.”

I turned around, expecting to see a child but was startled to see two identical women waltzing toward us. The only difference between the two was their hair. One had a deep red and the other a midnight black.

“Noelle. Jennie. Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Erika said in her normal cheery voice.

“Hey, it’s not a problem. I was happy to come back and help,” the dark-haired girl said.

“Same here,” said the red head.

“Wonderful.” Erika turned to us. “Callie. Lola. This is—” she pointed to the dark-haired girl “—Noelle and—” then to the red head “—Jennie. They will be teaching you earth.”

“Hello,” I said as Lola gave them a smile and wave.

“It’s great to meet you girls. Let’s get started, shall we?” Noelle asked.

“It’s going to be so much fun,” Jennie finished for her.

“Before we start, can we just show you what we can do?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“Go right ahead.”

I glanced at Lola who was giving me her “what the hell?” look, and I pulled her out of earshot of the others.

“Let’s just show them what we can do and get it over with. Okay?”

“No problem. What do you think’s gonna happen with this element? Buried alive?”

I shivered involuntarily. “I have no idea, but we’re about to find out.”

We went through the motions again. Nothing too crazy happened at first, but I always had a problem with speaking too soon. A tremor began in the pit of my stomach and literally rolled through my arms—they looked just like the ground during an undulating earthquake—before reaching my quavering fingertips and shooting out and into the ground, causing waves of earth in front of us. The waves became violent from two of us doing it at the same time. I didn’t want the ground to crack.

“Close your hand Lola. Make it stop,” I said rather calmly, surprising both of us.

We balled our fists at the same time to make the earthquake stop and turned around slowly to make sure the girls were still there. All six stared, scared and shocked. Noelle broke the silence. “Teach us to do that.” Her hands were on her hips as if she were jealous, but there was sheer excitement painted on her face.

One by one, they all relaxed. Kat no longer had fear in her eyes but excitement.

“Well,” Erika started. “It looks like you, um, passed the test. You clearly don’t need our training skills. Trixie and Bri gathered our husbands and informed them we wanted to help you, and they agreed. We’ll all stand by your side in the fight to save your mom. You have our word.”