FURY OF EARTH
THE ACADEMY OF ELEMENTS 4
KAT ADAMS
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
More Adams Family
About the Author
PROLOGUE
BRYAN GUNDERSON - EARTH
There were certain things in life you could count on, at least for the most part. Some were a given: happiness. Sorrow. The occasional dark elemental wreaking havoc on the world. Others were things we put off until they could no longer be avoided: cleaning your dorm room. Papers worth half your grade.
Death.
It was the last one that kept me up at night. When I did find sleep, it woke me up in the middle of the night with a racing heart and sweaty palms. I wasn’t scared to die. The fear tightening my chest and making it hard to breathe at times wasn’t for me.
It was for the crazy, beautiful redhead destined to save our world.
When I’d first met Katy Reed, had those hazel eyes pull me in, those full lips taunt me to capture them with mine, I knew I was in trouble. Technically, I’d been off the market at the time, but that hadn’t stopped me from wanting her, craving her, and nearly going out of my mind because I couldn’t have her.
I’d watched her bond with my three best friends. With Rob, their love was quick to ignite and explosive whenever they got near each other. Their element burned hotter through their bond and made them both crazy-powerful fire elementals. With Clay, their love was playful, light, and unpredictable. The element they shared was off the charts after they bonded, which made them both even stronger air elementals. With Leo, their love came easily, like they’d known each other since the beginning of time. Although water was her weakest element, when she and Leo were together, she was still a stronger water elemental than most.
And then there was me. Katy and I shared the same primary element. I’d known it from the first time we’d been in the same room. I didn’t even have to touch her to feel her power, it was that strong, the pull to bond with her all that much harder to resist. Elementals who share a primary like we do are naturally drawn to each other.
Like I needed any help in that department. When we’d bonded, united both our elements and our souls, it was an experience unlike anything I could have ever imagined. It was unlike anything any of us could have imagined.
It was what transformed her into a quint. Once she’d bonded with four of the elements, the fifth element had emerged. Light, bright and powerful, came only to those elementals with enough control to contain it, and never combined with other powers.
Until Katy.
With the ability to control five elements, she was the most powerful elemental of our time.
And then that sixth element had snuck in. Darkness. Cold, exact, heartless. It took everything she had to keep it in check. Even then, at times it still broke free. That was never a good thing and usually resulted in her trying to kill us.
But I digress…
I knew without a doubt she’d be the one to fulfill the prophecy. She had a strength within her few possessed. It wasn’t her ability to control all the elements, although that in itself made her the only one of our kind. It wasn’t her stepping into the role of the prophecy without hesitation before she knew about our world. It wasn’t even her ability to keep four headstrong guys on our toes as we did whatever it took to keep her safe, which proved to be harder than it originally sounded when we’d made the pact to protect the prophecy at any cost.
No.
It was her ability to selflessly disregard her own needs as she took on dark elemental after dark elemental, conquered insurmountable odds, and suffered devastating losses. The dark forces after her were far beyond anyone’s comprehension, even mine. Now those dark forces were closing in. I felt them, felt their power calling to me, to the darkness hiding somewhere in the deepest parts of my soul. It was getting harder and harder to resist, especially when the woman I’d fallen in love with had darkness in her too. We’d already bonded our earth elements, strengthening our control over the element, linking us together on another level, a metaphysical level. Our primary grounded us, stopped us from tapping into that darkness hovering just below the surface.
But what if that wasn’t enough? What if we somehow bonded the darkness, made it even stronger? Would we be strong enough to resist the temptation of using our powers for personal gain and risk the wrath of the Council coming down on us? Or worse, spending the rest of our lives either locked up in Carcerem or our powers bound by an elemutus.
Or would we both give in and turn to the dark side so many had already accused us of joining?
My family’s history of darkness, everyone’s fears of me following in my granddad’s footsteps, kept me walking a tight path, never stepping one toe out of line. He’d done such terrible things: kidnapping and torturing Nelem children for his own amusement, wiping out entire families that spoke out against him, even killing my own father for standing up to him. I’d had to be extra careful, extra controlled, to prove I wasn’t dark. Time and time again.
Now that Katy was on the verge of truly fulfilling the prophecy and defeating the dark forces once and for all, the pact her four guys had made years before, to protect the prophecy and love her until the very end, would be put to the test. Nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to face.
The annihilation of our world.
At the hands of the very woman we vowed to protect.
1
Once upon a time, in
