“They wouldn’t dare cross me.”
“So says you.” He stood and closed in on her. She stiffened, clearly bracing herself for another assault. “What else do you have for me, princess?”
She thrust out her chin, and I grinned. That was her standard response right before she told someone off. Finally, she’d put Alec in his place for calling her princess and touching her like he had that right.
But…she didn’t.
“I want more MEs.”
Alec barked out a laugh and moved to the window behind his desk, looking out and clasping his hands behind him. “You already have two. Why do you need more?”
“I have a lot of work I need them to do. It’s too much for two. I need at least twice that.”
“There aren’t enough to go around as it is with so many locked away at Carcerem. The ones left seem to be disappearing. Assigning two more to you takes them away from other pures.”
Vanessa’s lips twisted into the hint of a smile. “I’m okay with that.”
Alec glanced over his shoulder, an amused expression on his face. “How very cold and selfish of you. You truly live up to your nickname of ice queen, don’t you, princess?”
She inhaled sharply but said nothing.
“Very well.” He returned his attention to the window. “I’ll assign you two more.”
“Air elementals. It takes too long for my MEs to do their chores. I need some who can teleport.”
“That won’t please Spencer and his leechers. Air elementals are reserved for them to feed off their powers. You continue to bring me intel on the quint and her little following” —he paused to look at her “—and I’ll give you every elemental sidekick at my disposal.”
Elemental sidekick? Was he kidding with that? As if I didn’t have enough reason to hate him.
“I know of some at Carcerem I wouldn’t mind working for me.”
“We may have to resort to releasing them if the sidekicks continue to disappear.”
“Then I’ll take four.” Vanessa stood and turned to leave.
Alec’s comment stopped her. “If you find me the quint, I’ll give you authority over them all.”
She stopped, her hand on the doorknob. Without looking back, she asked, “Isn’t that my dad’s call?”
Alec chuckled. “For now.”
18
“Elemental sidekicks?” Clay’s laugh was anything but light. He scratched his beard before doing a solid Bieber flip to send the hair off his face. “He really called them that?”
“He really called them that.” I sat at the table and rested my feet on the chair in front of me. Leo moved in behind me and rubbed my shoulders. When he hit a knot, I sighed. “That’s it. Riiiight there.”
“Rob and I were thinking of heading to the mountains to find the snow ghosts. You interested in tagging along?”
“I think we need to divide and conquer. You and Rob try to recruit the snow ghosts while Bryan and I search for Bigfoot.” Now there was a sentence I never thought I’d say.
“What about me?” Clay looked at me like I’d just taken away his birthday.
“Put that big brain of yours to good use and come up with a new way to recruit members. The webcomic is no longer an option, for obvious reasons.”
“I still can’t believe Vanessa of all people cracked our code.” Clay joined us at the table and nodded at Leo. “Do me next.”
“Not going to happen, man.” Leo moved his hands up to work out the kinks in my neck. “My hands are for her only.”
My stomach did a little jig as I warmed to his declaration. That was about as close as it got to having Leo say he loved me.
“Vanessa didn’t crack the code,” I pointed out, my toes curling when Leo hit another perfect spot. I hummed my appreciation. “MEs did.”
“I love it when you make those little noises.” Clay leaned in and kissed me. He danced his tongue along my lower lip. I sucked it into my mouth and really kissed him.
“We can’t leave you guys alone for five minutes.” Rob walked in with Bryan and rested his dark gaze on me. “I talked to Stace. She’s really upset.”
Good mood gone.
I pushed away from Clay and Leo and moved to the other side of the room. “Yeah? Well, she should be.”
“Why?” Clay asked. “What happened?”
“Oh, nothing. Only that Xye was right.”
“Which part?”
“The part about me dying to fulfill the prophecy.” A jolt of unease rocked me. I didn’t want to die, and thought back to the first time I’d been decreed the prophecy. It seemed a lifetime ago, back when I stupidly believed I could take on the world alone. I glanced at my guys. If they hadn’t been with me through it all, I never would have survived. With me not expected to survive this, how would they? “Stace knew and never told me. She’s been grooming me as a sacrifice to save our world all this time.”
Clay wore no expression as he studied me. Leo had lost all his color. Bryan wouldn’t look at me, while Rob wouldn’t look away. The truth hung between us all, weighing down the air in the room. I couldn’t lie to them, tell them I was ready to die, that this was the only way. I had to believe we controlled our own destinies, that our fates weren’t already predetermined. We weren’t just some characters in a book. We were real. This was all real. Too real. I crossed my arms and squeezed, hugging myself.
“I guess that’s it, then.” Clay’s comment drew all our attention. “We lay down our swords and tell everyone to go home.”
“What are you talking about?” I let my arms fall to my sides. “Why would we do that? These people were forced from their homes. They don’t
