Under an Onyx Sky (Elemental Enchanters Series Book 4) (19 page)

Ava promised herself she wouldn’t get lost in the emotionless abyss again. She would turn off her emotions for the massacre and deal with the consequences later. Though, the thought of turning off her emotions again scared her, because she didn’t like who she became. But she had to do it because she couldn’t handle killing more innocent people.

They traveled inside the tunnels to Moscow. She remembered the first time she had ever been in Russia. Gabriel had teleported them the first time they met. She was wary of him, only because she hadn’t known who he was.

The city wasn’t covered in snow. The air was cool, and the sky was clear with millions of stars above. Their breaths came out in translucent white clouds, and she knew each of them dreaded yet another massacre.

“Let’s get this over with,” Xavier said. He looked tired, and Ava wondered if he ever turned off his emotions or if he knew how.

The genocide started with bombs and explosions, illuminating the sky with an orange glow. The familiar frantic cry of people echoed in the night. They pressed on without showing a single care about what happened to those people.

When it ended, Moscow, just like the previous cities, was leveled, desecrated, and left for dead. Like before, they returned in silence. Ava knew they were expected to go to the tavern to celebrate. But she wasn’t feeling up for it.

It was required though. So after their bland meeting with Havok, they all met at the tavern for the celebration. Ava had a couple of drinks, but she couldn’t get rid of the images of babies drowning. Bodies burning to ashes and that awful acrid smell that she could never forget. Blood splattered all over the streets, buildings, cars, everything. Body parts scattered all over.

Her stomach churned, and the room spun. It was hot, and her vision blurred. The alcohol was finding an exit. She jumped to her feet, knocking the chair back, and raced outside just in time. She heard a few bystanders groan in disgust, but she didn’t care.

Someone handed her a few napkins and a bottle of water, and she took them. “Thanks.”

“It’s getting harder isn’t it?” Xavier asked, kneeling down beside her.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t think the alcohol agreed with me.” She wiped her mouth and tears and met his eyes with a smile. “I’m fine.” She drank some of the cold water and washed out her mouth.

“You don’t have to pretend with me.” He helped her to her feet.

She gave a smile. “I promise. I’m good. I’m just gonna go to my room and sleep.”

“Want me to walk with you?”

“No. You go back in and party.”

“More like drown myself in my sorrows,” he said under his breath. “Feel better.”

“Yeah. I will.” She watched Xavier make his way back inside, and she headed straight for the woods at the edge of the village.

Once she was out of sight, Ava dropped to her knees and drew a shaky breath. Clutching her stomach, she clenched her teeth in an attempt to keep the tears back. She couldn’t keep terrorizing the Ephemerals. She didn’t want to wake up each day knowing she’d killed innocent people. She had to put an end to it. Ava couldn’t take much more of the horror she caused.

A branch broke nearby. Ava jumped. Hands gently grabbed her shoulders. She looked up and saw Gabriel.

She let out a relieved breath, but then the tears overcame her.

“Come on.”

Before she could say anything, he had already teleported them somewhere.

Ava opened her eyes and gasped. Beautiful, vibrant green and blue lights danced like lovers skating on a rink in the moonless sky. The Aurora Borealis. They stood on top of a frozen lake, and the snow-capped mountains around them reflected off the ice. “It’s beautiful. I didn’t know you could teleport outside the castle. Won’t they catch you?”

“They won’t do anything. They won’t find out.”

“How do you know? How did you get away from Eve?”

“I’m using the bathroom.”

“How will you not get caught?”

Gabriel held her from behind. His arms grasped her tightly, and she rested her head against his hard chest. “Stop worrying. For now, just relax.” He kissed her cheek.

“I can’t wait until this is over. I can’t take much more.”

“I know. It kills me that I can’t be with you. I need you, Ava.”

She turned around. “I need you too.”

He leaned down and kissed her. It was slow at first, but then he pressed harder, filling her with the warmth and desire she needed. When his hand moved to her lower back, her heart thrummed. She reached around his neck and pulled him closer.

“I love you, Ava,” he said, breathless.

“I love you. I can’t go back. Why can’t we just run away?”

He tipped her chin up and she met his crystal blue eyes. They were deep and endless like a summer sky bringing happiness. “Because we have to end it. And we can. We just have to hold on a little longer. The Cimmerians are learning the truth, and they’ll wanna fight with us.” He leaned closer, his breath hot on her neck. “Then we can be together and do anything we want.”

She shivered. “I don’t know what I did for you to choose me.”

He took her face in his hands and brought her lips to his. She touched his chest, feeling his sporadic heartbeat. She loved bringing that reaction out of him. He pushed his fingers through her hair, bringing her closer. He held her with an intensity that only made her want to sink deeper into him. His lips found their way to her neck, and then her collarbone.

She slid her hands underneath his shirt, wanting to feel every inch of him. She skimmed her fingers behind the waistband of his boxers, and he gripped her shoulders with a moan. He drew back slightly, staring into her eyes with a desire hot enough to melt the ice below them. “You drive me crazy,” he panted.

She reached up and nibbled on his ears. He dug his fingers into her arms.

“We have to go back,” he said.

She frowned. She didn’t want to go back. “I know.”

“But I will visit you tonight.”

Her heart lurched forward, and she nodded.

“Want one last look?”

She brushed his hair aside, and gazed at him. “Okay. I’m ready.”

“I meant the Northern Lights.”

“You’re all I want to see.”

He smirked and kissed her once more.

He teleported back and there were chaotic voices. They broke apart. Fires spread across the village. Bombs exploded. Shots were fired. Cimmerians screamed and scrambled just like the Ephemerals did. Magic burst in the sky. She didn’t think they were attacking so soon. What was going on? Someone grabbed Ava and pulled her back.

Everything felt like it moved in slow motion. A shot rang out, and Gabriel’s eyes widened. He clutched his chest as blood poured from him.

“Gabriel!” Ava broke free and rushed to him, water at the ready. As soon as her hands touched him, someone seized her and she felt a burning, prickling sensation throughout her body. Her muscles locked, and she collapsed into someone’s arms. Her eyes felt heavy. She never saw Gabriel open his eyes before she went under.

Ava woke paralyzed. She could move her head, but not her body. It was like something pinned her down. She couldn’t even twitch her fingers or struggle. Frantic people rushed around her. Bodies lay next to her in a heap of blood, bruises, and broken bones. Moans and shrill screams filled her ears. It appeared that she was in some cave with lanterns giving off soft yellow light.

She turned her head to the side and saw several unfamiliar faces, but her eyes landed on Anais, arms and legs tied, her back leaning against the cave wall. Thomas was beside her, and then she saw Gabriel on his side, unconscious. At least, she hoped he was just unconscious. Her heart pounded. She had to get to him.

“They keep piling up!” someone screamed. “We have to retreat.”

“Not until they’re all dead.”

“El! We’re going to die before we even make a dent.”

“What’s going on?” Ava shouted.

Then, two faces hovered over her. A man and a woman. The man had soft features and the woman had strong, fierce features. Both were blonde, but the woman had hazel eyes and pale skin, whereas the man was tan with brown eyes.

“It’s wearing off,” the woman said. “Give her another one.”

“Wait! I can heal! Please let me go.”

The woman let out a hard laugh. “No dice.”

“Please! I can heal all of your wounded. We’re on the same side. I want to kill the Cimmerians too.”

The man raised an eyebrow as he held a needle. “You are a Cimmerian.” He seemed interested as he looked at Ava with hope.

“I’m only pretending. It’s all a ruse so we can kill Havok.”

“I’m sure.” The woman nodded at the man. He got to his knees and pressed the needle to Ava’s arm.

“No! Please! My father is an Ephemeral.”

The man stopped and looked back at the woman.

“How can we know you’re telling the truth?” she asked.

“You don’t. You just have to take my word.”

“You’re going to kill us.”

“No. Believe it or not, we’re not all ruthless murderers. We want the same thing.”

“How so?”

Time was running out, and she had to stop talking to this woman so she could save Gabriel. “Let me heal your injured in exchange for our freedom and a chance to tell you our story.”

The woman sighed. “Fine. It isn’t like you can escape.” She exchanged a look with the man, and he switched a syringe.

“This will mobilize you, but I warn you. If you try anything, we can shoot you again with our serum.”

“Fine.”

They both trained their guns on Ava. She assumed the guns housed serum bullets instead of normal ones. The man placed the needle against her vein and pushed the serum inside. She was beginning to hate needles. As soon as Ava could move, she darted toward Gabriel. Willing the water to move over her hands, she let it drip onto his wound sealing it. She smoothed his hair back, and waited. She put her ear to his chest and heard a faint heartbeat. It was all she could hope for at the moment. She kissed his cheek and reluctantly moved to heal others.

Her captors watched in astonishment at her ability to heal. It left them speechless. There were so many, and when she finished she pulled Gabriel’s head into her lap. She tried not to worry about how long it was taking him to wake. He was near death. Just the thought made her chest ache.

“What the hell are you doing?” Anais whispered.

Thomas looked at her for a sign for what to do. Ava took a deep breath.

“That was amazing,” the man said, tucking his gun in the back of his pants. “Thank you. I’m Adam. And this is El.”

“I’m Ava.”

El stepped forward, and had lost her hard edge. She looked defeated now. “It’s too much. We will never win this war.”

“Damn right you won’t,” Anais told her. “Who do you think you are? You actually think you can take us?”

“Shut up,” Ava said.

“What are you going to do? Like you can free yourself out of a paper bag.”

“I can easily knock you out again,” El said. “Tell us your story, Ava.”

Ava could feel Anais and Thomas staring at her, but she ignored them. “I belong to a coven of Elemental Enchanters. Havok has searched his entire life for Elementals. He’s tried for years to make us a part of his army, but we were raised by Enchanters who disagreed with Havok. For years, they fought him and the Cimmerians in order to keep Ephemerals and our own kind safe. A few months ago, Havok kidnapped a few of our coven members, and we journeyed to find them. We joined them under false pretenses, and they believe that our memories have been erased. The man in charge of that didn’t take our memories. Instead, he told us we were the ones to end this.”

“You sneaky traitor!” Anais lashed out. She darted for Ava, but Thomas held her back. “You’ve all been faking this whole time? What about him?” She pointed at Gabriel. “He’s with Eve. Not you. What is going on?”

“We’ve only faked our allegiance to Havok.”

“Wait until we return. Havok will have you dead in no time. And that traitor Klaus.”

“Enough!” El demanded, pointing a gun at Anais.

“So why haven’t you killed him yet?” Adam asked.

“We need more people. Yes, we’re strong, but there are thousands upon thousands of Cimmerians. Once we have enough of an army, we can attack.”

“That, and we’ve hit a snag that’s stopping us,” Thomas said.

“What’s that?” Adam asked.

Ava hesitated, and gripped Gabriel’s shirt. “I’m linked to Havok’s soul.”

Anais gasped, and her jaw dropped. Pity flashed in her eyes. “That’s why you went off the deep end, isn’t it?”

Ava nodded, feeling ashamed.

El lowered her gun. “What does that mean?”

“If I die, he dies.”

A light flickered across El’s eyes. She grabbed Adam’s dagger from his pocket, and lunged at Ava.

She flinched, but then Thomas’s hands lit as he flung himself in front of Ava and Gabriel.

Adam seized El and pulled her back.

“Why are you holding me back? All we have to do is kill her!”

“Yeah, and we’ll have several Cimmerians after us. She just said he searched his entire lifetime for Elementals. You think they won’t hunt us down if we kill him and her?” Adam snatched his athame out of her hands, and she finally stopped struggling with him.

She took a breath and straightened up. “He would be dead, though.”

“And we’d avenge his death,” Anais said, her eyes cold.

“Do you not know how evil he is?” El asked her. “You are sadly misled.”

“How can we possibly kill the strongest Enchanter?” Adam asked, once the dust settled. “We’ve tried to attack so many times and every time we end up short-handed.”

“If you joined us, we could have a bigger army,” Ava said.

El looked to her. “As you can see, we’re down to a very few.”

“I plan on getting some Cimmerians to side with us.”

“Good luck with that one,” Anais said.

Ava turned to her. “Do you know that you were taken from your father who is an Elder? Havok took you, Anais. He brainwashed you. Your parents were never Ephemerals. Your memory was completely erased of Gustav.”

“That’s a good one.”

“Haven’t you ever noticed why you don’t remember anything about growing up in Caprington?”

She opened her mouth, but then stared at Ava. After a few moments, she shook her head, unconvincingly. “No. You’re wrong. Havok would never hurt me.”

“Unless you went against his word. Or rebelled against him.”

“So why did you willingly join?”

“It was all part of the plan.”

“Yeah, you’re lucky Klaus’s charm didn’t work on you.”

“It didn’t work because he didn’t perform one.”

“What are you going to do with this one when you return?” El asked, crossing her arms.

“We can manipulate her mind,” Ava said.

El and Adam raised their eyebrows.

“So you’re just going to toss me aside and mess with my mind?”

“If you don’t side with us. Since you know too much. Not all of us are bad. Some of us grew up around Ephemerals. Mortals,” Ava corrected when she saw El and Adam give confused looks. “I fell in love with a mortal at one point in time. My dad was born one. We’ve spent years, centuries, protecting mortals from Havok. Recently, because we’re undercover so to speak, we’ve had to do horrible things. But we had to do them.”

El nodded with conviction in her eyes. “We do what we must to survive. If that means sacrificing a few lives in order to save mankind, so be it. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. We’ve done our share of terrible things. Things we aren’t proud of, but they were necessary.”

“All of you are insane if you actually think you can take us and Havok,” Anais said. “We are strong and we have the numbers.

“You need to shut up.” Adam crossed over to her and jerked her to her feet.

“Don’t kill her, please,” Ava said.

“You want to save her?”

“It’s not her fault.”

Adam shook his head and released Anais, making her fall on the ground hard.

“I will lead Havok and everyone else back to this cave. We will end all of you.”

“What all ten of us?” Adam asked.

“Just stop okay?” Ava told Anais.

El slowly lowered onto her knees and played with the handle of one of the lanterns. “They’ve killed so many of us. Completely wiped out our town. And they’re attacking whole cities now without a second’s thought.

Ava bit her lip. “That’s because of us.”

“How do you do it?”

“It’s not easy,” Thomas spoke. “They’ve got my girl locked in a cell. I’ve had to torture her for weeks.”

“They make you torture your own kind?”

“Only those who don’t follow Havok. Or they’ll kill them.”

“He killed his son and daughter,” Ava said.

“What would make him do such a thing?”

“Ephem—.” Ava stopped herself. “Mortals killed his first wife and child. They pushed them off a cliff into a ravine. If they survived, they were clearly Enchanters. If they died, they were telling the truth.”

“But weren’t they Enchanters? Couldn’t they have survived?”

“We can still die,” Thomas said. “We have limits, too. If someone pushed us off a cliff, depending on how high the cliff, we’d more than likely die. Unless she jumps off a cliff into water.” He thumbed at Ava.

“Why are you different?”

“I’m the Water Enchanter. I can manipulate, control, and create water.”

El gasped. “I shouldn’t be fascinated, but I am. It’s just that, we were raised to fear you. And to kill you. We’ve always been taught that Enchanters are evil beings. They’ve done nothing but ravage our kind.”

“That’s how the Cimmerians are raised. They are made to believe that all Ephemerals are evil and that they’re the ones killing the Cimmerians’ families.”

Anais scoffed. “That’s because it’s true. Ephemerals did kill my family.”

“Your father is sitting in a cell in Caprington, Anais. Completely powerless, and near death because of all the torture and lack of care.”

Anais opened her mouth, but closed it, and averted her eyes from Ava’s.

Ava looked at El. “I’m so sorry you had to grow up like this. I promise once he’s dead, the nightmare will end for all of us.”

Thomas shook his head. “At a price that I’m not ready to make.” He stared at Ava.

She sighed. “I have to. And no, you can’t talk me out of it.”

“Are you so willing to die, Ava?”

She looked down at Gabriel, studying his strong features, eager to see his beautiful eyes. No, she wasn’t willing to die so easily. She didn’t want to die, but it was the only way. They couldn’t just lock Havok up and torture him until they found the spell to break the curse. And she wasn’t sure her mother was the answer either. She didn’t want to leave Gabriel behind, but she had no choice. Tears blurred her vision, and she wiped her eyes. “You really think I want this?”

“What about what your mom offered?”

“Given my mother’s track record, I don’t think I can trust her. Why would she show up for that? She’s the one that put me in this mess. What would you do if it were you?”

“I would try to find an answer. I would do anything I could in order to break the spell. But you just seem like you’re giving up.”

She wasn’t giving up, and she hated that everyone seemed to think so. “There is no way to break the spell, Thomas. We’ve tried. What else can I do? I’ve accepted my fate.”

“Well, I don’t think many of us have accepted it. We’re still trying to find a way. None of us want to lose you, Ava.”

“I don’t want to die. I didn’t ask for any of this. But this is what happened.”

“How did your soul become linked to his?”

Ava met El’s eyes as Adam sat down next to El. A small group of Hunters gathered behind El and Adam, listening.