The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) (27 page)

"Once what starts?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

But the Earth didn't need to reply, even if it would have, or could have, because Theo and Aktor sensed it first.

"What
is
that?" Theo demanded, jumping from where he stood and staring at the ground as though he could see through the grass and soil to beneath.

"It's hot, extremely hot," Aktor returned, walking in a circle and looking at the ground. "And deep." His eyes lifted to Theo and there was horror written across his face. "Oh,
Aetheros
. They wouldn't."

"They fucking have," Theo exclaimed.

"What?" I shouted, frustrated that neither of them had told me what they'd sense.

Theo turned to me and took the few steps necessary to clasp my upper arms in his hand. "Auckland sits on a volcanic field. Over fifty extinct volcanoes in a twenty kilometre radius of the city centre." He stopped, staring intently at my eyes, waiting for me to get it.

It didn't take long.

"They're heating the volcanoes up, making the Earth unstable enough for them to erupt."

"Yes," Theo said bluntly. "The result could be cataclysmic."

I felt sick to the stomach at that thought. Who were these people to act in such a way? Had they no conscience, or was it simply a threat to get me to come out of hiding? Have those who supposedly held me, hand me over to them.

Oh God, this was bad.

I pulled free of Theo's grasp, feeling tainted by my association, albeit an unwanted association, to the
Gi
. I hadn't asked for this, but it had landed in my lap and here I was. A part of their world, connected to a group of
Ekmetalleftis
who would use their
Stoicheio
to get what they wanted, to hell with the consequences.

I knelt down on the ground and dug my fingers and toes into the soil, reaching deep, searching for what my people had done. There. One kilometre beneath the surface, a sense of burgeoning power was growing. Theo and Aktor could sense the heat of the molten magma, I could sense its awesome strength through the Earth itself. A potency that was threatening to burst to the surface and decimate everything in its path.

How do I stop this, stop them?
I asked the Earth. It groaned and shook beneath my knees. I could hear Theo swearing and Aktor crying out in alarm.

The ground shifted, piles of dirt erupting in geysers all around us, destroying the pristine look of the golf course. It was happening and I wasn't sure I was strong enough to stop what the
Gi
had done. How many did it take for this chain reaction? Twenty-five in a regiment, Isadora had said. Theo mentioned a regiment being here that the
Pyrkagia
had to face. Could twenty-five
Gi
do this? And if so, how the freaking hell was I supposed to stop it?

They are here,
the Earth whispered.
Turn around
, it urged and I felt a foreboding chill wash down my spine.

Through the swell and buckle of the ground beneath us, we had all missed the obvious. The
Gi
had us surrounded. Long brown hair billowing out in waves down past their shoulders, bright green flashing from what I assumed was normally a dark blue in their eyes. They seemed familiar to me, even though I had never laid eyes on them before. A part of me wailed at that knowledge. I did not want to know these people, remembered or just bizarrely connected by a strange sense of familiarity. I didn't want this desire to greet them as kin. They were my enemy as much as Theo's, yet my body, my
Stoicheio,
told me otherwise.

I stood up and turned in a circle, taking in the thirty or so who made up their numbers. Their gazes were on me, but I wasn't fooled. They were keeping a wary eye on Theo at my back and Aktor off to my side. How did they know I was here, on this golf course?

I let a long breath of air out at the conclusion to that question. The Earth had told them. The Earth whom I trusted above all else had let me down.

Sorry,
it whispered, regret evident in its tone.
They are too many to deny
.

I understood. Together the
Gi
were too strong. Which meant they were too strong for Theo and definitely too strong for me.

I glanced over my shoulder to catch Theo's eye. He flicked his gaze to mine at the movement and smiled a tight smile. He knew.

"Promise me," I whispered, reaching out to clutch his hand in mine. "Stay alive. No matter what. Do not die."

"
Oraia,
" he murmured.

And then they struck.

It was so fast, faster than I had been when Aktor threw the bolt of Fire at Nico's neck. So fast, I registered Theo's hand slipping from mine before I realised what it meant. Saw what they did. In a split fraction of a second he was thrown from my side by the sudden appearance of a root breaking the soil at our feet. It was thick and strong, and swatted him away as though he was nothing but an annoying little fly.

My reaction was wrenched from deep inside my heart. The Earth erupted in a concentrated burst of soil, severing the root in half before it could impale Theo through the chest. He landed in a cushioned wave of the ground undulating, timed to minimise his injuries. He was on his feet, gold glowing in his eyes, Fire spreading out around all three of us, in the next moment. I was sure his response was instinctive. But he held back from sending that wave of power toward the
Gi
.

But the
Gi
weren't so hesitant to fight back. The Earth beneath our feet began to bubble and boil, roll and buck, then spew out burning lava from its core. We weren't on a known volcano, but it didn't matter. The
Gi
were creating a new cone in the middle of the Pakuranga Country Club.

We scattered, to avoid the inferno rising to the surface and spreading lazily outward from a three meter hole that was expanding with every passing second. Aktor ended up on the far side, with Theo and I still within reaching distance of each other. He started toward me, his intention to protect me clearly evident on his face. But before he made it, a geyser of liquefied heat burst from the centre of the hole and headed straight for his head.

He met the blast with a wall of Fire, but it was obvious the Earth's internal heat out-did his own. Before his wall crumbled I sent a spray of soil up and over the geyser, sealing it briefly, but only long enough for Theo to move further away from me and the former projected path of that boiling liquid jet.

In my effort to save him, I'd placed more space between us. No doubt exactly what the
Gi
had wanted.

Another shot of molten lava spewed forth, directly towards Theo's neck this time. The angle looked perfect, the finesse with which it was wielded let me know the strike would be true. The
Gi
, like Aktor had warned, were obviously aiming to kill. Severing his neck their only goal. Not just incapacitate, but annihilate. Completely.

I scrambled to smother the blast of liquid fire; the Earth responding to my command, but immediately seeking Theo's death in the next instant. For every directive I gave it, the
Gi
worked to circumvent my attempts. If it wasn't for Theo's own abilities, he would have succumbed by now. But at least my efforts were not making it easy for the
Gi
either.

Still, neither Theo nor I could prevent the onslaught completely; there were simply too many
Gi
to fight. I needed to do more than just command the Earth.

I rounded to face the closest of those
Ekmetalleftis
surrounding us and screamed, "Stop!"

The Earth groaned and protested, but didn't cease its assault on Theo and Aktor. I couldn't reach the old man, but he was somehow holding his own. I think that was because the
Gi
knew he wasn't the greater threat. I shouldn't have reached for Theo's hand when they arrived. I shouldn't have shown them how close we were. It had been a tragic mistake. They were relentless in their attacks on him now.
Because of me.

He managed to dodge a few more blows and block others with his Fire. I succeeded in diverting those roots that shot unexpectedly out of the ground with a harsh blast of concentrated soil to break or divert their projection. But if I was tiring from the effort each counterstrike cost, then Theo probably was as well.

Sweat coated his brow and ash covered his clothes. He was stumbling, and retreating, purely on defence and nothing more. And slowly, torturously, being taken further and further away from me.

I fell to my knees, grasped the soil beneath my hands and pounded the Earth desperately.
Stop!
I commanded and a brief interlude of peace followed my words. Only to be shattered by a brightening glow of green from the
Gi's
eyes and recommencement of the ground rolling beneath us.

I needed to use my blood, but I didn't have a thorny vine or sharp blade to slice my skin. I dug my fingernails into the flesh of my forearm, but they just left small crescent moon shapes and a minimal amount of red that refused to drip. And as soon as I started to call on the Earth for a thorny vine to aid me, the
Gi
struck again.

And again.

And again.

And suddenly... they succeeded.

Theo got swallowed by the ground so swiftly, all I saw was a flash of gold from his eyes as he disappeared. I couldn't breathe for fear. But adrenaline coursed through me, speeding my heart rate, escalating my respirations, and making panic become a friend. I reached deep inside myself, using the fear and adrenaline to focus my concentration. To command the Earth to bring Theo to the surface again. It took everything in me, and left me panting for breath and coated in sweat. But despite my effort, despite the adrenaline flowing through my veins, my attempt was still harried and therefore too unskilled. I was so
desperate
to save his life, my execution was less than perfect.

Twice more he crawled out of the soil and clambered up the sides of a still deep pit.

Twice more I had to pull on empty reserves to get the Earth to bend to my will.

I was shattered and beaten. And so was Theo. How long had we been fighting? Seconds? Minutes? It felt like hours. We were losing and there was
nothing
we could do to stop it.

I didn't even have time to wallow in that fact.

A geyser erupted a foot away, just as Theo successfully - and miraculously - emerged from the pit. I screamed in utter defeat, as my command to the Earth, to push Theo in the opposite direction to safety, left him more harmed than saved. In my rush to avoid that lethal spray, I had injured him. The realisation of
that
almost hurt me as much as it surely did him.

He looked terrible.
Awful
. Utterly exhausted in his own efforts to fight off attacks from magically appearing branches and vines, while he avoided the lethal spray of a geyser, or the boiling liquefied heat of lava. He managed to incinerate those branches and vines that I couldn't reach quickly enough, as they wrapped around his ankles trying to pull him beneath the ground, or towards the lava, again and again.

And my attempts to rescue him were just compounding the effects.

I wanted to cry. I wanted it all to end. But my desires meant absolutely nothing. I was a pawn, a chess piece, an insignificant part of a greater thing.

And to top it off, all I could think, all I could repeat inside my head, was that my Earth, the Earth that talked to
me
and followed
my
commands, was trying to kill my
Thisavros
. I felt strangely abandoned in my hour of need. A desolate feeling that had no right to exist when we were fighting for Theo's life.

I pleaded with the Earth to stop.

I shouted aloud and in my head for an end to this madness.

But still the Earth returned after each command, with renewed effort and a deathly presence to finish Theo off. The
Gi
were bloodthirsty in their attempts to separate me from Theo. They ignored all of my pleas. They hounded him in a wave attack, one after the other commanding the Earth in groups of ten or more at a time.

The level of power they wielded when combined was unfathomable, neither Theo nor I had a hope of fighting them off. But still we both tried. Still he fought to get to me, laid down his life again and again to keep me at his side.

It was like watching a piece of you get ripped away, ripped apart. Slowly destroyed. I used every ounce of energy I had left to battle them. To protect him. To save his life.

But I was failing.

Please don't die
, I pleaded in my head, no longer able to cry the words aloud.
Stay alive,
I begged. For him. For me.
Don't give up
. But he couldn't hear me and even if he could, it wasn't enough. I wasn't strong enough to defend him and summon something suitable to cut my skin and spill my blood. The Earth had told me it needed my essence to fight this number of
Gi
. But I couldn't save Theo and give the Earth blood at the same time. It was too much, too many, they were too fast.

They knew what they were doing; wearing me down, keeping me occupied, and ultimately, killing Theo in the process. I was so mad, but so tired, I couldn't even sob in distress.

I don't know how much time passed, it had already felt like hours when Theo battled his way out of that pit, only to face a lethal geyser. And since then we'd fought thick roots and sharp vines, boiling mud pools and sulphuric smelling water fountains. And the rolling, groaning, tumbling soil of the Earth. Split asunder, moaning in pain, as though the Earth itself was being destroyed, not just the man I loved with all my heart.

I'd already acknowledged Theo would die. I hadn't accepted it, but the kernel of that thought had taken root inside my mind, and like the insidious deathly branches that shot from the soil towards my
Thisavros
, it dug deeper and deeper into my psyche, threatening to suck me down into a bleak and dark abyss.

But at some stage, at some point in amongst the dark thoughts and bleak world my mind was submitting to, a bright flare of light pierced the black of night... with a most welcomed ray of promise.

The
Pyrkagia
arrived.

Called by all the destruction and Fire. Maybe just aware that their prince was slowly dying. It didn't matter, their appearance meant one thing.
Hope
.

Whatever had happened with the Alchemists, the
Pyrkagia
had survived. And their success couldn't have been better timed. Still, I glanced around expecting to see some strange humans wielding stolen
Ekmetalleftis
power, but none sprang out behind the dark bushes and trees. Just the
Pyrkagia
. No one else.

I didn't have energy enough to be thankful for that fact.

Silent tears were streaming down my cheeks by now, but the sight of the
Pyrkagia
at least filled me with the warmth of hope and promise. They immediately began to surround Theo with their own
Stoicheio.
Dozens of
Pyrkagia
protecting my
Thisavros
better than I was able to do.

I turned my attention to the
Gi
, finally managing to concentrate enough to demand the Earth produce a thorn laden vine. With it grasped painfully in my hand I sliced my wrist, without delay, and then held my arm aloft.

"Stop!" I shouted above the noise of bubbling lava, the groaning of the Earth and the crackle of
Pyrkagia
Fire. "Stop now, or I..." Or I what? Kill you all? Feed the Earth and miraculously save the day with my blood alone? I had absolutely no idea what giving my blood to the Earth would do. It had insinuated that with it, the Earth would be strong enough to deny the
Gi
, but it had never said it would be strong enough to do more than that.

"Daughter," a
Gi
said loudly then, voice level and entirely devoid of emotion.

He walked out of the row of
Ekmetalleftis
that faced off against us
.
I don't think they included me as their enemy, as their efforts had solely been focused on Theo, until reinforcements made them stop. But they should have.

"Calm yourself. We mean you no harm," the
Gi
added.

"You harm what is mine," I panted through gritted teeth, and watched as the collective
Gi
sucked in a simultaneous breath, then glanced at each other with ill concealed shock and mild disgust.

"He is not yours," the man pointed out evenly. "You do not belong here with
them
. You are
Gi
."

If one more person used that excuse to convince me of something I did not want, I was going to scream. But conversation was better than the battle we had just had, than the battle Theo had just barely survived. So I held the frustrated shriek inside.

"I don't even know you," I said instead, staggering to my feet, better to confront him. The man had taken several steps closer, I wanted to be prepared.

"Don't you?" he asked cocking his head to the side and flashing the most alluring shade of green in his eyes.

I felt the Earth's call immediately. I felt the deep seated sense of familiarity that I had glimpsed upon the
Gi's
arrival. I felt the connection that made me believe I was tethered to a rope that led directly to this man. A pull that I was finding harder and harder to deny.