“Probably thousands.” Tierney opened his own notebook and showed Eli page after page of a string of consonants written out like anagrams. “We’ve been tryin’ for weeks to get through even a single page. The symbols change at random, too.”
“They change?” It didn’t matter how much he remembered of his parents. Of his mother using her element, of his father watching, scribbling in a little leather…notebook? Caitlin was talking now, but Eli held up his hand. “I…there’s something…I need a minute. Some air.”
“Ya’ can’t, Eli!” Tierney grabbed his arm. “The wards only protect the house, the backyard, and to the end of the driveway.”
“I won’t go far.” He held the young man’s earnest gaze. “I have to touch the earth. To feel its power.”
Eli didn’t protest when Tierney followed him, and thankfully, the werewolf stopped on the flagstones. Sliding his fingers between the blades of grass, Eli sent some of his power into the soil, and within seconds, a deep sense of calm settled over him.
“Paulo! Stop obsessing over those sigils and get your arse in here. Dinner’s ready.”
His father let out a dramatic sigh and winked at Eli. “Your mother doesn’t fancy my studies. She’d rather I stick to one element and stop trying to achieve the impossible.”
“The impossible?” Eli asked.
“One day, you’ll understand, m’ijo. You have a strong spirit, born from the gifts of your ancestors. When you find your purpose, remember this.” Eli’s father clapped a hand on his shoulder and his expression sobered. “That which is written may seem like truth, but it can be reversed. If you own your power and trust your heart.”
What had his father meant? If Da’ had been studying sigils…could there be something else in Eli’s past that would help him understand the ones in Caitlin’s book?
He glanced over his shoulder at Tierney. “If I told you someone had a ‘strong spirit’, what would you think I meant?”
The man went white as a sheet and braced his hands on the wrought iron patio table. “Holy fuckin’ shite.”
Chapter Fourteen
Eli
“You have a strong spirit.That which is written may seem like truth, but it can be reversed.”
He didn’t understand why Tierney and Caitlin were so agitated. “What in the bloody hell did I say?”
Caitlin patted Tierney’s shoulder, though she looked a bit uncomfortable with the contact. “Sit down and find the page that changed five times in one day.” Turning to Eli, she waited for him to sit down and leaned against the desk, facing him. “No one is born with more than one element. Well, no one we’ve ever heard of—besides Mara. She had a hint of fire in her blood for her entire life. Before she learned she was an elemental at all, the fire was slowly killing her.”
“Killing her?”
“Fire and water are opposites,” Caitlin explained. “They cancel each other out. Much like air and earth. Your element is stable. Solid. Mine is ethereal. Change personified. Mara wasn’t using her water, so her fire was stealing the oxygen from her blood.”
“Shite. But now…she has both and she’s not dying. Just losing time.”
Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment. “She took her sister’s element. It’s almost like a split personality. Before, she had just enough fire to make her sick. Now, she has enough to take over completely.”
“I still don’t understand what this has to do with what my father said.” His head was pounding, and all he really wanted was to see Farren.
“Yer father said you had a strongspirit,” Caitlin said. “There aren’t just four elements. There are five.”
“Fuck me. What’s the fifth? Aether?”
“Something of the sort,” Tierney said, glancing up from the book.
“The Thirteen believe they can combine all four elements and create the fifth. The spirit. And if they’re right, the person who can wield spirit could be more powerful than any other being in history.” Caitlin ran a hand through her reddish brown locks. “This is all legend. But that doesn’t really matter. If the Thirteen believe it, they’ll stop at nothing to acquire all four elements, transfer them into one person, and see what happens.”
“These dolts—the Thirteen—are bloody mad. They’re doing all this on ahunch?” Eli couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Surely there must be some proof this is possible.”
“Eli,” Caitlin’s tone held a hint of indulgence, like she was speaking to a child. “What if the proof isyou?”
“Well, that would be mad. My father was earth. Just like my mum. Maybe he experimented with sigils, but that doesn’t mean he was anything other than earth.”
“Except for what happened when they bound your powers.”
