“Yeah, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that one. Who wants another beer?” Rob’s voice grew louder as he entered the kitchen. The sound of bottles rattling when he opened and closed the fridge lifted into the air. “Why would her mom take that from her? She had to know how important it is to her.”
No shit.
“Who cares?” Bryan’s bark surprised me. Judging by the silence that followed his comment, it surprised the guys too.
“I care, dick hole.” Clay’s growl didn’t surprise me. He and Bryan butted heads more often than not.
“I care too.” Leo’s agreement with the air elemental was par for the course. Those two usually agreed on everything.
“What’s up with you, bro?” Rob was closer to Bryan than the other two. My guys paired up, so Rob and Bryan had their bromance, and Clay and Leo had theirs. And all four of them had me. “You’ve been off since you got back from the void.”
“I don’t know if I was ever really there.”
“But you said—”
“I know what I said, Rob. I remember that part. I just don’t remember actually being there.”
There was a long pause before Leo spoke up. “Because you weren’t there, at least not physically.”
I stopped unbuttoning my shirt and rose off the bed, padding over to the door and opening it slightly to make sure I heard every word.
“Is that what happened to your parents?” Bryan asked.
“None of your fucking business is what happened,” Clay shouted.
“It’s okay, Clay.” Leo’s voice was soft, quiet, his tone sad. I’d never heard him sound like that before. I didn’t like it. It hurt my heart.
“It’s not okay, man. Bry is being a dick.”
“He just asked a question.”
“A question he already knows the answer to.”
“I do?”
Another long, long pause.
“Bro,” Rob started. “Leo’s told us this story, like, three times.”
“I don’t remember,” Bryan replied, his tone now laced with tight anxiety. “How is it I can’t remember?”
“The void does that,” Leo explained, his voice even more strained. “At least that’s how it’s been explained to me.”
“By who?”
“My grandparents. My parents told them about it before they completely went insane.” He drew in a deep breath I felt more than heard. “Dark elementals caught and tortured my parents, slipping them in and out of the void without them knowing until one day they just never came back. My grandparents passed on the stories my parents told them.”
Oh, sweet baby Jesus. I had no idea and never bothered to ask, which made me the worst human on the planet. What girlfriend didn’t ask why her boyfriend had been raised by his grandparents?
I totally won the worst girlfriend of the year award. Thank you very much for such an esteemed reward. It’s an honor just to be nominated.
Said no girlfriend ever.
“What’s the big deal, then?” Bryan asked.
“Jesus, man.” Clay sounded even angrier now. “What the hell is the matter with you? His parents disappear on their way to an elemental symposium at Clearwater, and you act like it’s a burden to hear the story? I should kick your ass just for that alone.”
“Chill, dude.” Rob spoke up. “I don’t think he’s faking it. Bry, bro. What’s the deal?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just don’t remember.”
“How’d we meet?”
Bryan laughed, drawing a smile from me. I loved his laugh and wished he’d release the melodic sound more often. “My first day at Clearwater. I’d been granted provisional acceptance, given my family’s past. Everyone was positive the Council had allowed a dark elemental into the academy and avoided me. Everyone but you.”
“At least that memory is solid. The rest…not so much.”
“Wait,” Clay snapped. “Are you telling me our boy Bry’s mind is on a little vacay?”
“Blow me.”
There was a loud crash and a lot of cussing as, no doubt, Clay did exactly what Bryan said and sent him flying across the room.
“I told you to choose your words better, dude.”
“How about I break your face?”
“Ooh, good comeback.”
“Would you guys knock it off? Reed is trying to sleep.”
“Hey, Rob?” Leo spoke up after a long pause. “With all this magically enhanced elemental stuff happening, do you know if the Council still plans to put you guys through a hearing after what happened on that last extraction?”
“They haven’t said,” Rob replied. “But my guess is there won’t be a hearing, not now that they have their hands full with all the tribunals on the students at the academy.”
“We still lost a kid,” Clay pointed out.
“A magically enhanced kid.”
They all fell silent. I was just about to close the door when Bryan’s question stopped me. “Uh, guys? I, um… I don’t remember what happened on the last extraction.”
“What?” Rob barked.
“You’ve got to me shitting me,” Clay added.
Leo didn’t say anything. I imagined him blinking at Bryan in shock.
It was Rob who explained in a sharp, clipped tone. “We were called in to extract a new fire elemental. His element was unstable, angry. I couldn’t control it. Turns out he was magically enhanced and couldn’t handle that much power. He, uh… He didn’t make it.”
“Oh shit,” Bryan stated numbly. “Now I remember. He burst into flames.”
“Yeah. On that happy note, I’m going to get some air.”
The sound of the screen door screeching cut through the thick silence as Rob stepped onto the porch. I thought of going out to him, comforting him as he replayed one of the worst days of his life, but decided to give him his space.
I closed the bedroom door, my lids so heavy at this point, I barely had the energy to drag myself to the bed. I collapsed on the mattress and crawled to the top, dropping my head on the pillow and finding sleep instantly.
The void pulled me in, dropping me smack dab in the middle of a deep hole, which was weird since there didn’t seem to be any top or bottom to the hollowness. It was like an abyss, no beginning, no ending. It just was.
People shuffled around in catatonic states, staring straight ahead, narrowly
