“If I had been, I’d have done something a bit more aggressive, like use my primary to clear the fog.”
As in air to blow it out? Or water to drop the crystals in the air? Or fire to counter both? Or even earth as I had? I wanted to know the answer and asked, “Which element would you have used?”
“Does it matter?”
Hell to the yes, it mattered. “Which one?”
“Why, any of them.” He shot me a haughty look.
Double asshole. “I was drained.”
“Of air,” he clarified before swinging his gaze to Rob. “Clay wasn’t. He could have teleported out, gone for help to fight the, uh…fog.”
He set his jaw and narrowed his glare. “He wasn’t about to leave our girl.”
“The same girl who went up against the darkest elemental himself and won?” When his dig didn’t earn a response, Spencer dug deeper. “The same girl he couldn’t find in the fog? How was being lost in the fog himself in any way helping her?”
I smelled Rob’s call before spotting the wave of flames right before it slammed into Spencer. My handler countered with air, creating a large tornado in retaliation that consumed the flames. I first tried to steal the air, but it ignored me like it had last night. I jumped to fire. A shot of panic ripped through me when it responded by shrinking back. I tried again, more focused on calling the fire to me. It hissed at me like an angry cat, shocking me. Fire was one of my strongest elements. It’d never denied me before.
Well, fine. I had other elements at my beck and call. Since it felt like I’d just taken a cold shower, I concentrated on the cool chills as they peppered my skin. I then stepped between the two guys currently making fools of themselves and brought up a wall of ice. The firenado hit it and fizzled out in a hiss of steam. Rob punched the wall, then kicked it, then called me a name. Real mature.
If he wanted to act like a toddler, I’d treat him like one. “Rob, go back to your charges. Let me work with Spencer alone.”
“No way,” he barked and slammed his fist against the wall again. “I don’t trust the guy.”
“The guy is standing right here,” Spencer ground out.
I ignored him and kept my focus on Rob as I dropped the wall. “I appreciate you wanting to protect me, but I got this. Please, just go.”
“No.”
“Rob. Please. I can handle this on my own.”
“You sure?”
Not in the least, but I knew Spencer wouldn’t work with me on that weird fog if he was constantly trying to one-up Rob. If I wanted to learn how to destroy something elementally made, I had to know how to create it first, just as Spencer said. Since I couldn’t ask Professor Layden about it without giving away that I’d been attacked last night, Spencer was it by default.
Rob bounced his brooding gaze from me to the guy standing behind me. “I’ll be watching.”
“Oh, goodie. I’ll be sure we put on a show.”
“Then I came on the right day.” Professor Layden walked up in her black robes, passing Rob storming off in the opposite direction, her warm gaze on me. At first. But then she shifted her attention to the British heartthrob, and her expression took flight. “Hello, Spencer.”
“Professor,” he greeted with a slow nod, his dancing gaze never leaving her.
Gross. I didn’t want to see any part of his dancing when he looked at my faculty advisor. “Now that we have introductions out of the way.”
“I’d like to try something with you.” Spencer grabbed my hands and placed his back to Professor Layden, lowering his voice. “Did you tell her about the attack last night?”
“No. If she found out, she’d tell the Council, and I’d have them all up in my ass.”
“That sounds very uncomfortable.”
I laughed and nodded. “Trust me, it is.”
“Let’s give her a show, shall we? What’s the first thing you think of when you want to summon fire?”
“The heat. It’s like a fever that burns from the inside out.” Except for today. Today, for whatever reason, I couldn’t feel my fire. My core had cooled to the point my fire wouldn’t come to me. Maybe I was getting sick.
“Channel that heat, bring it to the surface.” He squeezed my hands. I winced when the cut on my hand shot pain up my arm in protest of being disturbed.
I tried to pull back. “You’re hurting me.”
“Push through the pain. You want this.”
“What I want,” I countered, “is for you to let go of my hand.” Irritation heated my cheeks.
“Or you’ll what? Stop fighting me. I’m only giving you what you want.” He gripped my hand harder, digging his thumb into my palm. Fucking ouch. He called fire and shot out a flame, creating a large blazing circle. It burned the brand-new, perfectly groomed grass and continued to grow.
“Katy?” Professor Layden had to shout over the roar of the flames. “Are you all right?”
“Don’t listen to her,” he hissed low, close to my ear. “Don’t listen to that voice inside your head telling me to stop. You listen to me. This is your fire to call, yours to control. Now, I want you to stand inside the circle.”
“And lose my eyebrows? I don’t think so.” I tried to take back my hand, but failed, which only pissed me off. The heat from my irritation grew, spreading throughout my body. At least my fire had returned. If he continued to push me, I’d burst into flames and take great pleasure in burning every inch of him touching me.
“Move to the center of the circle, charge. Do it. Now.”
“How about you bite me, handler? Do it. Now.”
He grabbed my arms. Hard. It startled me, so I wasn’t ready for him to teleport us both smack dab into the center of the blazing circle. As much as I wanted to bury him in a giant hole and wait for him to
