The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) (28 page)

"
Who are you?
" I whispered, lowering my arms finally and feeling the blood begin to trickle back down towards my fingers.

"Child," he said, voice softening, but his face remaining that detached impassive all
Athanatos
seem able to do. "I am your father."

The words meant something, I knew they did. But in that second I just felt numb.

My blood finally made it to the tip of my index finger and dropped to the waiting soil below. The Earth breathed out a soothing sigh, settling beneath us finally, quelling the inferno that had threatened all of Auckland city.

Is this true?
I asked it. My voice inside my head sounded hollow.

He is the Gi
Rigas
, the Earth replied.

Is he my father?
I pushed, but the Earth remained ominously silent.
Answer me?
I demanded, at last feeling something other than numb; an almost frantic need to have this denied.

"It will not speak out of line," the
Gi
Rigas
said, well aware of the questions I'd been asking the Earth, it seemed. I had no idea what he meant by that threatening statement though. And it was threatening, I just knew.

"I don't know you," I insisted, searching for something more intelligent to throw up as argument to this impressive, yet slightly scary man.

"No. But that does not change the fact that you are
Gi
."

And
that
argument was not one I could deny any longer.

Heaven help me, but this was actually happening. My world was slipping away.

I may not have fully accepted what I had become, but I had accepted that of all the
Ekmetalleftis
, I
was
Gi
.

I looked around the half destroyed golf course, taking in the sight of a battered, but still hanging in there, Aktor. The angry, but strangely quiet
Pyrkagia
, watching this unfold with wary eyes. And a mud covered, exhausted and defeated looking Theo.

What should I do?

I didn't want to leave Auckland. I knew this with a certainty that rocked my soul. I didn't want to leave my home, my city. That was a given from the start. But this ache, this
agony
of impending separation, was not for that. But for Theo.

My Theo.

"I don't want to leave," I said, voice and heart broken, but somehow the words reached his ears.

His gold flecked eyes flicked over to the
Gi Rigas
and I watched as he straightened his back and held his head up high.

"I request permission to speak to the princess," he said in a strong, level voice.

My head jerked back at his petition, at the finality of those words. What they acknowledged. What they said to all those present;
Pyrkagia
,
Gi
... and me. I forced my eyes to leave the face I had come to know so well, and take in the response on the face of the man I knew not at all. The
Gi Rigas
surveyed Theo with mild intrigue. It had to be an act. He'd just been trying to kill him moments ago, almost succeeded, and now he was being civil?

"Very well, Prince of
Pyrkagia
," he said regally, as though gifting Theo a boon. "But try anything and we will attack your city."

Theo's eyes shifted to my face, a question there that I couldn’t quite decipher. Was he asking me if I controlled the Earth? I didn't. I had stopped the eruption from happening, but I had the feeling that the
Rigas
held more sway than any of us could ever know. The fact that he'd listened in on my mental conversation with the Earth earlier was enough to let me know he was powerful. Very powerful indeed.

Theo nodded, reading something on my face. Maybe my inability to answer the question was answer enough. He walked the short distance to where I stood and looked down at me. I could tell he wanted to reach out and touch, to seek comfort through that sense. But he just clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides and stared at me.

Several seconds ticked by.

Finally, he found his voice. "Sweet little
Gi
," he whispered. I was unsure if anyone else could hear him, but the Earth rushed through me and put my mind at rest.

We will shield your words, your blood has strengthened us.

I glanced down at my hand, noting that I'd actually been bleeding this entire time and all that blood had been soaked up greedily by the Earth. I breathed a sigh of relief. The
Gi
hadn't noticed, I was sure, otherwise they would have done something to prevent it. The more of my blood the Earth had, the stronger it seemed to become. I wondered if it would become strong enough to banish them, to win a battle against its own people.

I knew, though, that was wishful thinking.

"They can't hear you," I said softly back to Theo, and watched his eyebrow arch in that familiar way it always does.

"But you're not in control here, are you?" he queried.

"No. There's too many of them for the Earth to fight back." And why would it? The
Gi
belong to the Earth. I saw the same conclusion on Theo's face. I breathed out slowly through the pain of defeat. Because this was a defeat, wasn't it?

"I don't want to leave," I whispered again. The one sentence shouting to be let out in my head.

"And I don't want you to go," he admitted, shifting closer, letting the heat of his body wrap around my frame, the only part of him which could openly embrace me right now.

"But you're letting me go anyway," I replied, through a tight throat.

"Casey," he said, and I watched stunned as tears welled in his eyes. "I will never let you go. Do you hear me? You are mine. My
Thisavros
." The words were a vow, but I sensed a 'but' in there all the same. He closed his eyes, fists clenched tightly still at his sides and let a ragged breath of air out. "I will find a way for us to be together," he said when his eyes opened, covering me in a golden glow. "I will find a way back to you. One that they can't fight against. I promise."

Oh heavy, heavy heart. How could this hurt so much? I was fighting back the tears, but all that did was create more and more of them, making Theo appear blurred and my throat close completely, while my body sunk in on itself.

"Dear, sweet Casey Eden," Theo murmured, his
Stoicheio
finally unable to resist soothing me. "No matter what, they are your kin. They mean you no harm. All they desire is you home, safe."

"I'm not one of them!" I insisted.

"Oh, but Cassandra. You are."

I didn't care about the
Gi
watching. I didn't even care, in that moment, about the
Gi Rigas'
threat. I launched myself into Theo's arms and sobbed against his chest.

This was really happening. God help me somehow to survive the pain.

"Think of it as an opportunity to learn, Casey," Theo whispered in my ear, his voice cracking even as his hands smoothed a path down my back. "Learn the
Gi
Ekmetalleftis
history. Hone your skills. Stay strong." He ducked his head down and lifted up my chin with the tips of his finger and thumb. "Because I
will
come for you. We
will
be together one day. I promise you that."

One day. One day in the future to an
Athanatos
could mean decades, centuries away. Hell, Theo was over three thousand years old. I couldn't find solace in his words. The length of time available was too much for my mind to comprehend and accept.

I was losing Theo.

And he was letting me go.

"There has to be some way," I pleaded, swiping at the moisture on my face. Theo's thumbs came up and wiped across my cheeks, helping to smooth them dry again.

There were more tears, I knew it, but I was fiercely trying to hold the rest of them inside.

"I would lay down my life for you, Casey. You know this," he whispered. "If you were to ask me, I would lay down my brethren's lives as well."

A strained silence stretched out between us. He was offering to force the
Pyrkagia
to go to war for me. Against the might of the
Gi
, who had already proven they weren't above total destruction of a city in order to get what they wanted. Who had already proven that they were a match for
Pyrkagia
, and more than a match for Theo.

And
I
wasn't strong enough to stop them either. I'd halted proceedings tonight, barely, but the
Rigas
scared me. I could feel a depth of power to his
Stoicheio
that had no comparison. We would not win this battle and that was even before the Alchemists regrouped, returned and decided to join in as well.

This was my city. For Auckland and its people; my parents, Sonya, even the
Pyrkagia
, I would not cling to what I wanted to be mine, by sacrificing them.

Turning away from Theo to face an unknown future with people I didn't recognise, but strangely felt connected to, was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. Nothing would ever come close again, I was sure. But this was a battle that Theo and I would lose. There was no denying that.

And although Theo had made his promises to find a way back to me, I vowed to myself to do the same right then. I
would
find a way to be with Theo. No matter how long it takes.

Hope still existed, even as I felt imaginary chains wrap around my body, pulling me away from those I loved. And with that resolute hope came something else just as miraculous.

A line had definitely been drawn in the sand now, and with one last deep intake of fortifying breath, I crossed it. Until that moment I had not truly believed. But I did now. I chose to believe the dream conversation with my grandfather. I chose to believe everything that I could do now was because of what I had become. Two days in a pit of dirt, four days connected to the Earth. And now this.

Acceptance of what I had become felt...
liberating
. I was a
Gi Ekmetalleftis
. And I had the rest of my very long immortal life to get what I wanted.

And I wanted Theodoros Petropoulos. He
would
be mine.

"I love you," I whispered in answer, seeing the comprehension of what my declaration meant mixed with the joy of hearing my words wash over Theo's face.

I didn't say it to hear him say it back. Theo Peters was a hard
Athanatos
, bred to handle loss and sacrifice, styled to never show his inner thoughts. Oh, he slipped occasionally, but he was very good at what and who he was. Powerful, arrogant, princely.

But then, Theo Peters was also the most confounding man I had ever met.

He reached forward and wrapped me up in one final embrace. I savoured it. I closed my eyes and prayed I'd never forget his warmth, his Fire, his scent. Never forget this moment. His lips brushed across my ear, his breath washed down my neck and his
Stoicheio
reached inside the very core of me, and touched my heart and soul.

And he rasped, "And I love you too, Casey Eden. Eternally."

Dear sweet heaven, he'd said it. He'd said the words. So beautiful, so bitter-sweet, so heartbreakingly poignant.

A sobbed breath hitched in my throat, an ache so real I felt it in my blood, in my bones. He loved me. And I loved him.

Theo reached down and cupped my chin with his finger and thumb, tilting my tear stained face up to his. With an unimaginable depth of pain and sadness, he leaned in and touched his lips to mine. Softly. Tenderly. Too briefly.

Then he was gone. Walking away and taking a part of me with him.

How did I survive this? How?

My knees gave out first, then my breath, my heart, as pain tore through my chest. My fingers digging into the soil at my sides automatically, seeking comfort, desperate for relief from the ache.

And as the
Pyrkagia
prepared to leave the golf course I heard a hardened command inside my head, sinking barbs right into my heart.

Anaisthetikos, now!
the
Gi Rigas'
voice echoed in my mind. I don't think he knew I could hear him. My fingers dug further into the Earth, determined to catch his next words.
And kill her Thisavros
.

My mouth opened in a scream, but only I could hear my warning shout. The last thing I saw, before my world became an insular bright white haze and nothing else, was a thick vine wrapped around Theo's neck. Blood pooling on his collar as skin was torn.

My screams never stopped; an aching, heart-wrenching accompaniment, as the vision of my beloved fighting for his life was seared on my mind...