Concentrating on my light and dark together, blending them before calling them, I centered them inside the firenado. He screamed and thrashed. I increased my calls, blending all six elements and centering them on the dark elemental inside the cyclone. His screams grew louder. Only when he fell silent did I kill my calls.
And sucked in a breath at the sight.
Alec von Leer had petrified. Like, literally fossilized. He’d turned into a solid piece of mass, a statue on his knees, fists in the air, a sneer on his face.
A grunt caught my attention as Clay hit Spencer with enough air to knock him down. I ran to his aid and brought up my hands. Spencer brought his up as well, only in surrender. As I looked around, every Council member, every dark elemental, everyone fighting against Sentry lowered their arms as well as their heads.
Sentry members hurried in, each covering a Council member.
“Katy! Look out!”
I turned to see Alec fighting to break free. He lived through that? I blasted him with a massive burst of air. It hit the statue and shattered it into millions of pieces that fell to the ground and turned to dust. Let’s see him live through that.
The wind picked up, the element celebrating the finale of the battle to end all battles, blowing Alec away until there was nothing left on the ground. The rain had stopped, and the gray clouds lifted, revealing sun for the first time in days, weeks, even months.
For the first time since learning of this world, I felt at peace.
The war had finally ended. Just as the prophecy had predicted, come the Ides of March, the elemental world as we knew it would be no longer. And it wasn’t. It was no longer in turmoil. No longer on the verge of being destroyed.
Our world, this world, was finally at peace.
24
Two years later
THE CROWD’S roar was deafening as the final student took the field.
I lifted my gaze to the stands. To my left, the sea of blue blazers gently waved in the bleachers, the water elementals excited to welcome several new students to Aquae. To my right, the red blazers danced in the bleachers, the fire elementals anxious to see if they’d gain any other new residents to Ignis. Behind me, the yellow blazers practically floated in the bleachers, the air elementals bouncing in anticipation of more students joining them in Ventus.
It was the bleachers full of green, the earth elementals, already sensing the placement of the final student in this year’s tribunals. I knew before he stepped foot onto the training field that he belonged in Terrae.
“We have an earth elemental!”
The green blazers went wild. That was it, the last of the students for Clearwater’s inaugural reopening. It had taken us two years and rebuilding an entire elemental—no, an entire magical—world to get to this point. Clearwater was no longer an Academy of Elements. It had transformed into an Academy of the Mystical. All were welcome. Witches. Alchemists. Legends.
And yes, elementals.
So much had changed since the battle to end all battles. The Council fell, and along with it, the fear and anxiety of the Ides of March that had been a yearly occurrence. The prophecy had truly been fulfilled, and not by me, the one they’d declared destined to save our world. I might have started the uprising, but it’d been Stacey Layden who’d made the ultimate sacrifice, just as Cressida Clearwater had.
Speaking of…
I checked the time. If I teleported out, I’d get in a quick visit before I started my office hours at the infirmary. That sounded so adult of me, having office hours. Syd wouldn’t be back from his honeymoon for another week, so I had to cover for us both. He’d taken Rose to Hawaii, married her on the beach, and kept threatening to stay. If I were him, I’d totally do it. A tropical paradise over an island in Washington State that saw more rain than sun.
But Whidbey Island would always be my home, liquid sunshine and all.
As the students poured out of the bleachers and up to their respective houses, I couldn’t help but smile. We did it. It took us two years and help from just about every mystical creature out there to rebuild the school. The paint was barely dry and the west wing was still under construction, but we didn’t want to wait another year to open the academy back up.
Most of the professors had returned. Professor Dobbs and his bow tie to teach Advanced Elementals. Professor Groote, who coincidently resembled a tree yeti with his thin frame and long gangly limbs, returned to teach Earth Primary. Professor Anderson, bad dye job and all, to teach Fire Primary. Good old Professor Geoff Gallen—who Clay still insisted on referring to as GG—to teach Air Primary. And many others. Even Vanessa Graves, who’d left the elemental world and married a Nelem, had returned to help with the rebuild.
I was just about to pop out when my ward began to shimmer. I rubbed my palm and glanced up, spotting the guys walking up looking quite dapper, all four of them. Rob had decided to grow more than a five-o’clock shadow, his strong chin now covered with half an inch of thick whiskers that did amazing things to his dark eyes. As one of the founding members of the Guild—the new governing body that ruled by democracy and not dictatorship—he’d had a say in the dress code.
No more fancy black suits.
He belonged on the cover of a magazine in those dark gray
