“Screw you.” Rob motioned at his shirt. “I already got mine.”
“Call light, Katy.”
Bryan’s request had me shaking my head. It was the only element none of them had the power to control. Well, that and my darkness, but I didn’t want to think about that at the moment. One potentially deadly experiment at a time.
“Okay, fine. You guys better find something to hold on to. When it hits, you’ll immediately weaken.”
None of them moved. Shocker.
I started slow, barely calling light in case this backfired on us and wound up hurting them. My hands glowed a faint white. When the guys didn’t seem affected, I increased the power in my call, brightening the glow around my hands.
Leo was the first to stagger. Could their weakness from my light transfer back to me through the wards? Could me shorting out their powers in turn short out my own? That was an angle we hadn’t considered.
I was just about to kill my call when Clay said, “Hey, check out Leo’s hands.”
Leo lifted his hands and widened his eyes at how they now glowed a faint white. It wasn’t as bright as my hands, but it was still light, and it was coming out of an elemental who didn’t have the power to control it.
“Very cool.” Bryan held up his glowing hands and turned his wrists. “Teach us how to 3C light. Let’s see just how far we can channel each other’s powers.”
It made sense. If me calling light sent light to them, and since none of them were flat on their backs, it didn’t short them out, then in theory they should be able to call it from me. They needed to know how to control such a powerful element. I killed my call and mentally prepared myself, switching from caller to instructor.
“It’s going to hurt at first.” I recalled when the element first came to me right after I’d connected with my primary element, courtesy of amazing sex with Bryan. I’d initially connected with each of my elements during sex with each of my guys. With Rob, we literally had a ring of purple fire around us when we connected for the first time. With Clay, sparks of yellow surrounded us as we connected in midair. For Leo, the waves of water filled my dorm room and waterlogged everything touching the floor.
And then there was Bryan. My connection to him had always been more than physical. Maybe it was the fact we shared the same primary. Maybe it something else. I had no idea what it was, only that no matter what, he always got me. He got everything about me. He might not like everything about me—like my darkness or my propensity for running away instead of staying to face something I didn’t want to face—but he got me.
I faced him. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“If we can all harness the power of all the elements, we’ll be unstoppable. The Council won’t stand a chance.”
“We’re only five people.”
“With an entire army behind us. Come on, Katy. Teach us how to be quints.”
“Plus one,” Clay added. “Don’t forget her darkness.”
I kept my focus on Bryan. He was the one who had the biggest issue with me channeling the darkness inside me. “Do you want me to teach you how to control all my elements?”
He hesitated as he studied me. Eventually, reluctantly, he nodded. “If we’re going to make this work, we need to know how to call everything you have the power to control.”
Which meant we’d need to stay concealed, or the Council’s patrols might pick up our calls on their ECADs (Elemental Call Alert Devices). I turned to Rob. “I guess you get your wish. Let’s take this to the grove.”
15
“Aperi oculos.” I pictured the entrance to the grove and sliced the air. The tear opened, revealing beautiful blue skies, deep green grass, and warmth that oozed out through the opened. I motioned for Bryan to go first since he was already familiar with the grove and all the residents and could introduce our guests.
And they would only be guests. As much as I wanted my guys with me all the time, I had to be smart about this. We all did. It wasn’t about us, not anymore. This was about protecting our world. That was so much bigger than us having the ability to see each other every day.
Once we were all through the portal and inside the invisible bubble, the cold and damp world faded away, replaced by bright skies, a perfect temp of mid-seventies and a warm breeze that kept the trees singing. It really was paradise.
“This place is cool,” Clay declared, swiveling his head and turning in circles to take in everything. The fragrant grassy field where we’d set up stations for the alchemists and blacksmiths. The rope bridges connecting the trees so we could easily move from house to house. Several separate arrangements of seating around firepits so the individual covens could still meet. The arena where we held Sentry meetings. “Which treehouse is ours?”
I didn’t correct him, didn’t inform him he’d only be staying here temporarily while I trained them on how to control all my elements. It would be a battle to get them to agree to leave, a battle I didn’t want to have right now.
We made our way to the training field—a smaller version of the one at the academy—and stood in a circle. “Okay, you all know how to call air, so we’ll leave that one out.”
“No,” Clay butted in. “You know how to call it, sure. But you don’t know how to control it the way I know how to control it.”
“Cocky much?” Bryan lifted his eyebrows.
“Hey, I call it as I see it. It’s not an insult.”
“Chill, bro. He’s right.” Rob’s admission shocked us all. He rarely admitted to anyone being stronger than him. “We all have the ability to call air, but it’s not our primary. Just like when you
