The Great Hall of the Terra College was still filled with people, but now it was also filled with real joy and delight. This celebration was true and honest, whereas her reality could only pretend at it.
Allyra stared at Alex, and she allowed herself to drown in his blue eyes. In a true moment of weakness, she found herself wanting to fall into his arms. For him to tell her that it would all be okay, that he’d seen a future for them that was secure and safe. But this Alex was not her Alex. He was younger and less burdened, and he didn’t know her at all.
“I’m always trying to do the right thing, but somehow I always find myself making everything worse,” she said hesitantly.
Alex stayed silent, considering her words.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Sometimes following our conscience is the only thing we can do. It’s not always going to be the best thing, or even the right thing, and each decision may not always result in the right outcome. But, I have to believe that the weight of a lifetime of decisions, each one done for the right reasons, will add up to a life worth living.”
There was something so earnest and vulnerable about him and his words—an innocence that would be lost in the coming years.
She smiled weakly and looked up at the crowd. Exuberant music soared as pairs of dancers twirled and weaved together in a beautiful, complex pattern.
“What are you celebrating?” Allyra asked.
Alex’s expression hardened. “A wedding,” he replied shortly.
Allyra looked at the dancers, and through a break in them, she saw the wedding couple in the center. She recognized the dark-haired man holding in his arms a small, slender woman with long red hair braided with delicate white roses.
“It’s your brother’s wedding,” Allyra guessed.
Alex nodded.
“But you’re not happy?” she asked gently.
Alex laughed mockingly, “I didn’t think I was so easy to read.”
He wasn’t, of course, except she knew him. Knew every line and angle of him. Knew every smile and half-smile.
Before he could explain further, Mandla stopped at the table, his arms draped around two gorgeous women—one with light coppery brown skin and long curly brown hair that fell freely to her waist, and the other with hair so blonde that it looked almost white, twisted elaborately on her head.
“What are you doing here all by yourself?” Mandla asked, slurring his words a little. “You’re missing all the fun!”
Alex got to his feet with a grin.
Mandla allowed his companions to turn him around but stopped suddenly, glancing back at Alex. “Oh, the bride has requested to speak to you.”
The smile fell away from Alex’s face. “Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint the bride,” he said shortly.
The memory started to fade.
“Wait!” Allyra shouted out, suddenly desperate for one more moment with Alex.
“Did you do it? Did you travel the world?” she asked.
Alex shook his head and gave her a resigned smile. “I tried to run, but the responsibilities caught up to me.”
And then he faded away.
Chapter 13 – Jamie
Their little breakthrough in team dynamics couldn’t have come at a better time as the focus of their lessons suddenly shifted. The day started as any other; they walked into a lesson, expecting combat training, but found all the weapons cleared away. The room was empty except for their teacher, a Cleaner, his features obscured by the silver mask. He was holding a velvet box, and he opened the box and showed them the contents—four identical diamonds placed around a single larger diamond.
Gemma gasped. “A Gem Nexus,” she whispered.
Their teacher nodded. “Yes. Do you know what purpose it serves?”
“To combine the power of the different Elements,” Gemma replied.
Their instructor nodded once more. “Different gems are aligned to the different Elements. Emeralds to Terras, citrines to Atmospherics, rubies to Infernos, sapphires to Oceanics and, finally, diamonds to Elementals. Diamonds are special because they are they only gem able to resonate to the energy of every Element. Therefore, they can be used to combine the Gifts of different Elements.
“Elementals are able to control all four Elements, but their power can be replicated by a full complement of Gifted working together and combining their powers. Therefore, a Gate could still be opened even if an Elemental were not available.
“Because Elementals have always been rare, it has been the cornerstone of Cleaner training to create full complements of Gifted, to train them to work together and combine their powers. A Gem Nexus is the first step to making the four of you into one.”
Even for a terrible student, such as himself, the concept behind the Gem Nexus was simple enough. The four of them stood at the four cardinal points, forming the cornerstones of a diamond. Pete, the Terra, in the north. Gemma in the east, Jamie in the south, and finally, Eva in the west. The four smaller diamonds were placed between each of them and the largest diamond placed in the center of them all.
Once they were all in place, Pete started the process, calling on his Gift and pouring his energy into the diamond to his left. When he’d found the resonant frequency of the diamond, it would start to glow—the signal for Gemma to join her Gift with his through the diamond between them. The process would be repeated until all four of them were joined, by which time all five diamonds would be glowing.
At least that was the theory.
In practice, it was much, much harder.
The Gift, as with everything in life, was subject to the natural order of things. Every drop of water, from the moment it pushed up through a rock or fell from the sky, raced toward the ocean. Drops of water
