There was the arrogant fire elemental we all knew and loved. I decided not to argue his point, even though my fire matched and even surpassed his at times. Now wasn’t the time to split hairs.
“Okay,” I conceded with a nod. “Let’s start with air since we can all call it. Clay, show us what you got.”
“With pleasure.” He grinned wide and bowed before walking into the center of the circle. “So you know when you call air and it tickles your tummy like when you crest a hill too fast?”
“Tickles your tummy?” I snorted. “What are you, five?”
He laughed and saluted. “On most days, I do channel my inner child, thank you very much for noticing, Montana. Anyway, that sensation when you’re floating for that split second… Push that to the rest of your body. Your air is charging. When your entire body tingles, when you can’t keep still from the buzzing inside you, you’re ready.”
“Ready for what?” I tried to feel the floating sensation and came up empty. The only thing I felt was heat in my cheeks for not getting it.
“For this.” Clay disappeared and reappeared levitating ten feet in the air. He casually strolled around as if walking on an invisible floor before taking a seat in an invisible chair. Nope, an invisible couch that he now stretched out on and stared straight up, his hands laced behind his head. It was very cool.
“How are you doing that?” I still couldn’t feel any tickles in my tummy or any other sensations.
“It’s called control, Montana. My primary and I are always connected.”
“I think I feel something,” Rob announced and tapped his midsection. “It’s like when you get nervous and your stomach flutters.”
“The impervious Rob Emmett gets nervous?” Leo mused.
“No,” he barked back as his face reddened. “I said when you get nervous. Whoa.” He lifted a few feet into the air and spread his arms to stabilize. “Why am I floating?”
Clay sat up. “Your air wants out. Use it to teleport, or levitate like I am. Sometimes, when my element is too charged, I have to pop to the middle of a field of rocks and lift them all at the same time to give it an outlet. I’ve even teleported them around a bit.”
Rob popped out and back in on the other side of the field, waved, and disappeared again. “Up here.” We all looked up to see him on top of a treehouse. He teleported back to us and brushed off his hands. “I think I got it.”
Leo was next and channeled his air to move entire stations, much to the dismay of the blacksmiths and alchemists working at them. After a lot of apologizing and putting everything back where it was, he joined Clay in the invisible living room.
Bryan turned to me. “You feel anything?”
I shook my head. “Is there something wrong with us?”
“Maybe it’s our primary. Since earth and air are opposing elements, maybe it won’t let us channel it the way they can.”
That was disappointing. I wanted more control of my ability to teleport and actually stick the landing. I eyed Clay and Leo ten feet in the air, wondering if I could pop up there or if I’d end up somewhere else, like in the middle of a Council meeting. No matter how hard I tried, how much I concentrated on my destination, I only stuck the landing about half the time.
“Earth elementals rarely have the ability to call air,” Bryan went on. “And even when they do, their air element is weak at best. This I know from experience.”
Not mine. My air was my go-to when I needed to defend myself and didn’t want to set anyone on fire. It was strong. In fact, all my calls were strong.
So why couldn’t I feel the sensation of the air element charging inside me?
Frustrated I wasn’t getting it, I blew my bangs out of my eyes. “Can we move on to another element now?”
“Don’t be a party pooper, Montana. Teleport up here. Don’t make me come down there and get you.”
I didn’t want to land in the void by accident and shook my head. “I’m good.”
“Do the thing,” Leo told Clay, who responded by losing his smile. “You said you’ve been working on it.”
“With rocks, not with a person. I’m not going to experiment on our girl.”
“What thing?” I asked.
When Clay wouldn’t answer, Leo did. “He’s been practicing teleporting objects without touching them. You know, like the way Spencer teleported you to that warehouse against your will.”
Fond memories. Not. It was one of the many times he and his buddy Alec had tried to kill me. And now they ran the academy. A skill like teleporting something without actually touching it would be handy. Not just using the element to move an object, but to actually have it disappear and reappear in your hand could give us a huge advantage.
“Let’s push that cool trick to phase two. For now, let’s try an element not all of us can call. Come down.” I waited until all the guys were back into our huddle. “How about earth?”
Bryan nodded enthusiastically while Clay curled his lip. “No,” Clay whined. “I don’t want to.”
“Element up, you big baby. We did your primary. Now it’s our turn.” I looked to Bryan, who nodded. We stepped back from the circle and raised our arms. The grass beneath our feet grew tall, the blades snaking around the guys’ feet and up their legs. The trees joined in and leaned toward us, their branches’ long skeletal fingers reaching in.
Roots slowly rose out of the ground, weaving into a makeshift chair for me. I took a seat and had it lift me a few feet into the air. “Feel the tingle on your skin? Like an electrical charge?”
“I only feel dirty.” Clay shuddered and kicked the blades of grass from his legs. “Gross.”
Rob ran his fingers along his arm. “That
