“Where’s the water elemental?” Spencer asked.
“None of your damn business.” I couldn’t think about Leo right now, not when I had to save my life and the lives of the others here with me.
“Oh, come now.” Spencer cocked his head. “Surely you aren’t down a man in your harem? However will you survive with only three at your beck and call?”
“Like this.” I hurled a fireball, hitting him square in the chest. He stumbled back, his eyes wide with shock. He didn’t hesitate to throw fire back at me. I deflected it with water, countering his call and canceling it out.
“Is that so?” He called air, pushing a wave of disruption barreling toward me.
Clay jumped in front of me and stopped it, holding both hands in the air, an odd grin on his face. “I’ve wanted to do this since the first day I met you.” He sent a wall of air at Spencer, slamming it into him and sending him flying several feet back.
Spencer recovered quickly and opened up the earth beneath Clay’s feet. My air elemental disappeared into the hole. When the ground closed, completely swallowing him, I dropped to my knees and clawed at the grass.
“Clay!”
“When are you going to learn to stop sending a boy to do the prophecy’s job?”
Bryan peeled back the layer of earth covering Clay. “I got this. Get out of here.”
“No way! You know better than to ask me something like that.” This ginger didn’t run from her battles. She finished them.
“Well, look who it is. I trust you enjoyed your time away from reality,” Alec sneered as he eyed Bryan.
“Hardly,” Bryan growled.
Spencer joined in the goading. “Why, hello, earth elemental. Did the void live up to your expectations? If not, we could always send you back.”
That did it. That goddamn mother ducking did it. I jumped to my feet and charged him, claws drawn. No one sends my boyfriend to the void and gets away with it. Before I could reach him, he threw up a wall of air, stopping me.
“You really are tenacious, aren’t you?” He regarded Alec. “Are you quite sure we can’t keep her?”
Alec gave me a look. “Well, I suppose I did promise you a pet.”
Oh, hell to the no. I was no one’s pet. It was time to put these two rabid dogs down for good. I centered my call, focusing my energy on the coldness deep in my veins, throbbing to be released. I didn’t want to tap in to that darkness, but sometimes you had to fight fire with fire.
Or, in this case, darkness with darkness.
The wind picked up around me, spiraling, lifting my hair in the breeze. I called the element to boost me into the air, giving me a better position to attack. The sky darkened, thunder rumbling above, lightning shooting across the sky. That familiar coldness washed over me, hardening me against what I was about to do, exciting me for the same reason.
The storm raging inside me built, intensifying to the point I struggled to contain it. Sparks of energy ignited around me, crackling in eager anticipation of being set free.
Rob ran over and helped Bryan pull Clay from the early grave before it became his final resting place. Once the air elemental was free, he collapsed onto his back and stared at the sky. “I really hate dirt.”
“You’ll live.” Rob tapped his arm with the back of his hand. “Come on. Get up. Our girl needs us.”
Clay sat up and glanced my way. “You sure about that?”
“Reed, no!” Rob’s shout distracted me enough to lower me to the ground. “Do not give in to the darkness.”
“The darkness?” Spencer and Alec questioned in unison, exchanging glances. Alec then turned to Spencer. “What did you do?”
“We’ve been through this. I tried to bind her powers. It didn’t work.”
“You made her stronger, you imbecile.”
“Did I?” Spencer turned on me, hitting me with such a strong blast of air, it sent me rolling. Before I could recover, he hurled a fireball at me. It crashed into the ground like a meteor, carving a deep groove on impact until it slid to a stop. The thundering sound of it digging through the earth filled the air. What the hell? I’d never seen fire do that before.
The fire fizzled out, revealing how it created the crater. A boulder rested in the ground, steaming and angry. It didn’t appreciate being forced to combine with fire and then hurled at me.
I feel ya, buddy. I didn’t so much appreciate it being hurled at me either.
“Very good, charge. But let’s see if you can dodge this one.” Spencer threw a powerful flame. I jumped up and caught it, which was probably the intention. It was enough to distract me while Alec sent another fireball the size of Seattle barreling toward me. I dodged it just in time and flew like Superman off to the side. Both dark elementals chuckled.
Assholes.
“I’m not your charge, Spence. And in case you missed the memo, Alec, I’m no longer the prophecy, so I guess you two are going to have to find someone else to torment.” That someone else just so happened to be my mom. I left that part out.
“So, it’s done.” Alec dropped his call and straightened. “The prophecy has fallen.”
“No,” I said and brought up my finger. “I said I’m no longer the prophecy. Big diff. Huge.”
They continued to grin at each other. “It is done.”
Spencer nodded in agreement.
And then they both teleported out.
I looked from Rob to Clay and finally rested my attention on Bryan. “What was that all about?”
“I think the bigger question is, how’d they get onto the grounds?” Rob glanced around, eyeing the invisible barrier that supposedly kept the students safe from exactly what’d just happened. So far, they’d done a pretty terrible job. Maybe it was time to think of a better way to protect the academy than warding it. “Clay, since you’re interning
