But she had never cared to experience this…romantic love. The idea of this intimacy, this social expectation that turned the strongest of men into sniveling puddles and women of power into self-conscious wrecks, held no appeal to her. And she was more than happy with that. She had her earth, her fellow elementals, and herself—and that was enough.
What she was determinedlynothappy about was this rain. As she and her four companions foraged the mountains of Aataran, she found herself envying the powers of the other three—which was not something that happened often.
Kai was easily redirecting the rain away from her body, while Aidan had created some sort of heat barrier that caused the water and ice to evaporate before reaching his skin. Rynn had cocooned himself and Isla in a bubble of air that no precipitation could penetrate.
Jade, on the other hand, looked like a soaking wet cat. She could practically feel her earth mocking her.
It was only their second day searching Aataran with their newfound purpose: to find the other half of the prophecy that was etched in her mountains on Iona. Now that she had an inkling of where to direct her focus, her earth spoke to her. Something living in this range called to her, begging her to reach out and find it. It was as if the rock and stone were trying to tell her their secrets, whispering the ancient history embedded deep in the bones of the earth. A tug in her chest grew stronger when they approached the south side of the mountain range, like a thread tied to her ribcage that had caught onto something and pulled her nearer. That was where they had been focusing their attention for the past day.
Granted, that still left a hundred miles of rocky expanse to cover. They had searched every nook and cranny they’d come across, every cave and river and forest. Jade wasn’t sure what, exactly, to look for. Would it be similar to the one on Iona, with words carved into the wall of a cave somewhere? Or something smaller, such as a hidden scroll or stone tablet? She supposed it was too much to ask for there to simply be a large sign and arrow pointing down to the prophecy.
“It’s probably time to call it for today,” Aidan said from behind her. He and Kai had just emerged from another cave they had been searching. Jade noted Kai’s flushed cheeks and Aidan’s disheveled blue shirt under his thick cloak.
Interesting.
Jade nodded, a puff of air escaping her lips and taking a cloudy form in the frigid dusk. The temperature plummeted as the sun began its descent. Cold raindrops slowly turned to icy mist, the sky darkening ominously with a threat of heavy storms hanging in the air.
As they carefully made their way down the south side of the slippery mountain, Rynn suddenly extended his arm in front of Jade and shoved Isla behind his back with his other hand, his features sharp and vigilant.
Before Jade knew what was happening, a speeding arrow stopped within an inch of her face.
She growled and, with a thrust of her arm, a large wall of rock shot up in front of them. Isla gasped and took a step back as several more arrows hit the makeshift shield and fell onto the icy ground.
“Raiders,” Aidan said with a feral grin, cracking his neck side to side. “This should be fun.”
A large spear came whirling through the air from a ledge seventy feet or so above them. The tip of the weapon sliced against Isla’s arm, sharp enough to draw blood. Isla yanked back and burrowed closer to Rynn.
A quiet, dangerous sort of calm settled over his face like a shadow. The same spear that lay in the snow at Isla’s feet, surrounded by drops of ruby red, slowly raised into the air, carried on unseen hands of wind. Without warning, it was launched back in the direction it came from, whistling through the rain until it hit its target.
A loud cry and a thud came from above them.
“We don’t kill the humans, Rynn! Not if we can help it,” Kai chided him.
“Then maybe someone should tell them not to shoot at us,” Aidan said. Rynn turned his back on Kai as if he hadn’t heard her and pulled Isla toward a cave a few feet behind them.
“I will keep her safe here. I assume you all can handle this?” he asked Jade with a raised eyebrow. She shot him a look of annoyance and flicked her fingers, the ground beneath his feet trembling in response. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said as he and Isla retreated.
“Come on, Jade. Let down the wall. I want to have some fun,” Aidan insisted with a grin, a fire already stoked at his fingertips.
Jade did as he asked.
A group of six brutish men rushed at them, bellowing war cries, all kinds of weapons raised—shining spears, razor-sharp knives, freshly cut bows and arrows.
“That’s it?” Aidan asked, disappointed. One of the attackers shot another arrow at Aidan’s head and, with a snap of his fingers, it caught fire and turned to ash. A ball of thick flames appeared in his hand as he aimed it at the two closest men.
“How many times do I have to tell you? Don’t kill the—”
“Don’t kill the humans, I know, I know.” Aidan smiled devilishly as he interrupted Kai’s exasperated plea and released the ball of flames. It landed at the feet of one of the men, exploding and catching his clothes on fire. He cried out and fell to the cold ground, trying to quash the small inferno. The other man had no fire on him, but he too dropped to his knees, writhing in pain. With a quick glimpse at Aidan, Jade saw his head cocked to the side and his fiery eyes locked on his victim. She didn’t want to know what phantom agony he was subjecting the raider to with his mind.
One of the remaining men charged straight for Kai. Perhaps he thought she was the least threatening of the three, for he bore a casual grin and smacked his lips.
How wrong he was.
With a flip of her hair, Kai had the man gasping for air. Water trickled from his mouth, his body convulsing as he fell to his knees. She was drowning him from the inside.
Jade raised an eyebrow and summoned a strand of vines to wrap around two of the other men’s throats, hands, and feet. “What was that about not killing them?” she called out.
“Oh, he still has about thirty seconds until he’s in real trouble.”
