She kept her attention on the horizon, her expression solemn, her gaze troubled. “I’ve been trapped here.”
“Trapped? How?”
“I don’t understand,” she repeated. “I can’t be the academy if I’m in this form.” She glanced at her positive manifestation, which didn’t seem all that positive right now. “You know that.”
“I know that.” It bothered me that she too seemed to struggle with her train of thought. First Bryan, then Trevor. Now Cressida. What did they all have in common?
When it clicked, bile hit the back of my throat. No freakin’ way. They all shared the same primary. A primary I shared as well. Could someone out there have a thing for earth elemental brains? Not like a zombie apocalypsething, but more of a send them to the void thing. Was that why I kept dreaming about the creepy place? Did earth elementals pose some sort of threat to the dark side’s grand scheme? Spencer had been awfully keen on me bringing my earth elemental to him. He’d said that repeatedly.
And then, when Bryan had come to that warehouse to save us all, the dark elementals took him. Not the rest of us, but him specifically. They’d sent his mind into the void, yet protected his body. Why?
“Out of balance,” Cressida muttered as she continued to stare straight ahead.
She’d been saying that since day one. Neither of us knew what that meant, only that we still weren’t anywhere near understanding the full meaning of that statement. I had to believe we’d get to that point someday, hopefully soon. “Cressida, could the dark side be going after the minds of earth elementals? Why would they do that?”
“Life,” she answered so swiftly, so matter-of-factly that I bit back dropping the mother of all cuss words over not making the connection myself. It was the forbidden call of the earth elemental. They had the power to stop a beating heart, aka steal the life force from a person. Could that be it? Could the dark side be trying to build an army of earth elementals? For what purpose? Technically, every elemental had the power to kill someone using a forbidden call. Fire could boil a person’s blood. Water could freeze the water molecules in a person’s body. Air could pull the oxygen from the lungs. Although stopping a beating heart would do the trick, so would any of the other forbidden calls.
It had to be more.
“The Council is forcing the students through tribunal again.” I wrung my hands together as I worked through my thoughts. The answer had to be in there somewhere, lurking just out of reach. Talking it out with Cressida usually brought those answers out of hiding. “Do you remember when I told you my theory that the dark side was creating elementals through dark magic? Turns out I was right. We have a bunch of magically enhanced elementals running around who don’t even know they’re magically enhanced. When the Council discovers one, they take the elemental away for fear they’ll go dark and turn against our side.”
I paused there for questions. She finally pulled her focus from the horizon and re-centered it on me, searching my face with her own troubled gaze. “Taking them where?”
“Carcerem. It’s a prison for dark elementals.”
Her eyes rounded. “They’re locking away our kind?”
“The Council doesn’t see them as one of us. They see them as dark.”
“Dark magic doesn’t make them dark.”
“It’s the intent,” I finished, remembering what Bryan had said once. “The darker the intent, the darker the elemental.”
“That’s right.”
“So why do you think they’re taking away the magically enhanced elementals? They didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think it’s because they’re ticking timebombs or going to turn dark. It’s got to be something more. What is it?”
“Fear.”
That sounded about right. The Council tried to destroy anything they couldn’t control. “Great, so because they’re scared of these elementals, they’re locking them up instead of working with them to help them call, control, and conceal their elements.”
“A governing power ruling by fear and separation has no power at all.”
“Try telling that to the governing power.” We fell silent and both stared at the sun as it slowly set behind the glittering water. The oranges and yellows were mesmerizing as they shimmered on the surface. It hurt my eyes to stare directly at it, and yet I couldn’t look away.
“Brother against brother,” Cressida finally whispered, breaking the long silence. “Again.”
I turned to her. “What do you mean again?”
She faced me as well. “Will families stand by their imprisoned loved ones and risk imprisonment themselves? Or will they hide behind the governing power dividing them for fear they’ll be next if they speak out?”
That didn’t even come close to answering the question. “What do you mean again?” I asked. Again.
“I fled my home to escape a governing power ruling by fear. They destroyed all they didn’t understand under the guise it was for our own protection. All my friends. My family.” Her long hair fell around her face as she lowered her head. I didn’t have to see her expression to picture the sadness. It thickened the tone of her voice. “So many of us were forced into hiding for our own protection.” She practically spit out the last of her words.
“Heed my words, Katy. Soon, good elementals will make impossible choices to avoid persecution. This will tear families apart.” She drew in a deep breath and gave me a sideways look. “Brother against brother.”
We locked gazes as the epiphany settled between us. I swallowed hard and went back to wringing my hands before asking, “This is going to start a civil war, isn’t it?”
She slid her lids closed, and a tear ran down her cheek. “There was a great battle in my time that divided our world and tore families apart even after we’d escaped
