Lost Causes (13 page)

It didn’t take long for Sera to cut off all escape routes. As one tree after another lit up, figures emerged from the tropical forest, coughing and swatting at the small sparks on their clothes and hair. As soon as the forest was clear, Sera extinguished the fire, limiting the damage as best she could.

Water magic stretched toward the ocean behind me, absorbing its healing power.

My fear receded. This wasn’t an ambush by the invisible first. No, this was the devil we already knew.

I leapt to my feet and strode toward Deborah, who managed to maintain her dignity despite her singed clothes and sweating face.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Michael stood next to her, his shaking hands holding an enormous device I’d only seen on nature shows when zoologists tranquilized elephants. It still contained several darts.

“Thirty days. Thirty days in which you weren’t supposed to track, ambush, and/or drug me.” I eyed the darts, hoping they didn’t hold anything more permanent than the anti-magic serum. “You couldn’t even do that. How the hell did you find us?”

I blinked as a spear of light hit my eyes, then vanished. A small woman attempted to hide behind the trunk of a palm tree. She’d wrapped her fingers around the metal necklace that had given away her presence. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin, trying to hide her fear.

She appeared to be in her late twenties, and she was small. Barefoot, she’d be lucky to reach five feet, and her weight might not cross into triple digits. Though her hair and eyes were both black, I picked up no hint of fire magic. I did, however, spot a rectangular bag resting on her hip—the kind Vivian always carried with her. Unlike Vivian’s bag, hers was decorated with a large Hello Kitty patch. She wore purple instead of blue, but I had no doubt it was the same person I’d spotted in the SUV outside Luke’s hut.

“Josiah’s files. You’re the one who took them.”

She managed a weak smile.

Sera closed the distance between them. She didn’t often get to look down on people, and she took full advantage of the intimidating position. “Considering that you’re helping them find us so they can execute my sister, you should stop smiling.”

The woman hurried to obey.

The stranger wasn’t important. She’d already done all the damage she could. The real threat stood before me.

“What was the plan? Knock me out or kill me?”

Deborah didn’t answer. Michael looked more than moderately terrified when Mac moved closer.

“Not kill,” Michael turned the gun so we could view the darts in greater detail. “We wouldn’t do that, not with…” His eyes jumped from Mac to Sera to Luke. They wouldn’t harm me, not with my powerful friends watching.

“How much of that stuff do you have?” I asked.

Deborah’s expression never changed. “We constructed a laboratory to produce large batches of the drug. It ensured we had enough for Trent Pond’s daily dose.”

“You drug him every day?” It was a horrifying thought. If my power felt dull after three months of semi-regular doses, his must seem like it had been ground to dust.

The sides of Deborah’s mouth quirked upwards, her version of a grin. “A single drop. That’s all.”

“And?” I asked.

Behind Deborah, the ferns twitched. Sera’s eyes followed mine, her muscles tensing.

“The results are promising,” Deborah said.

My attention snapped back to the council leader. We’d never tried such a tiny dose. I struggled to control my voice. “What does promising mean? Could it really work, in the right formula and the right dosage? Deborah, if there’s a real chance, this can end right here.”

Her lips tightened, a red slash across her face. “Trent Pond never murdered anyone. You have. The punishment for killing another elemental, regardless of the circumstances, is well known. Besides, we already offered you the opportunity to live as Trent does. You rejected it.”

I took a deep breath and prepared to deliver an argument worthy of Perry Mason, though likely with more babbling. Something about how I couldn’t be responsible for the murder if I wasn’t sane, and I couldn’t be destroyed for being a dual if there was any hope of a cure, and even humans were merciful enough to allow an insanity defense. Sure, the argument had a few holes, but it was all I had.

Before I could speak the first word, Deborah’s knees buckled and she stumbled to the ground. Michael followed, whimpering as a brown rock smacked against the back of his skull.

I was shoved behind a Mac-shaped wall. I peered around him to see who was attacking, and more to the point, how we could convince them to stop throwing rocks.

Except they weren’t rocks. Whoever was hidden in the trees was throwing coconuts at us.

Mac grunted as one of the projectiles hit him in his left shoulder, but that was the only sign he felt pain.

The others weren’t doing so well. Deborah and Michael were crawling to the safety of the ocean. Most of the coconuts missed them, but more than a few made contact. Michael abandoned the tranquilizer gun in favor of speed.

Sera and Luke darted from side to side, champion players in the game of coconut dodgeball.

I goggled at the sight. “Someone please tell me we’re not being attacked with fruit.”

They’d told me I couldn’t access my magic. No one said I couldn’t use my utter lack of self-preservation instincts.

“Stop!” I darted around Mac before he could stop me. I needed to swerve and duck more than once, and one husk scraped my ear. “We don’t mean any harm,” I called.

That was exactly what movie aliens would say before they took over a planet, so I tried again.

“Okay, some of them do. If they’re dressed in white Calvin Klein, they obviously don’t belong on the island. Completely inappropriate wardrobe. I have no idea why they’re here, so feel free to use a coconut cannon on them.” Yes. That was much better. “The rest of us, we want to talk to the one who has long called this home.”

I dodged two more coconuts, but they weren’t thrown with quite as much enthusiasm. “I understand she can help me.” At that, the assault stopped completely.

“The island does not accept fulls.” A disembodied voice floated from the trees. It was husky, and it could have belonged to either a man or a woman.

“They’re the only fulls!” I pointed at the two council members, now standing knee-high in the water. “You can totally reject them.”

The voice didn’t speak again.

“The fire is three-quarters. The tall brown-haired man isn’t an elemental. I have no idea what the short woman is, so do whatever you want with her.”

The short woman sent me a dark glare. I smiled.

“My name is Jet,” she told me, her spine straight. “If you’re willing to doom me, at least use my name.”

The silence grew heavy, waiting. I’d hoped they wouldn’t notice my omissions. Luke gave me an almost imperceptible nod.

“The other man and I are duals.” I braced for a reaction.

I’d expected gasps of horror. Instead, an average-sized woman stepped forward. Her expression contained far more curiosity than concern.

She had a medium build, and her bright blue-green eyes and light blond hair marked her as a strong beach. She also appeared healthy, well-fed, and not even a little like she’d been trapped and abused for decades.

“Really?” Her head swiveled between me and Luke. She paid no attention to the others. “How fascinating. I’ve only heard stories. Can you show me?”

“Ade,” Sera warned.

Luke hurried to my side, a ball of fire already forming in his palm. A second later, the air changed, becoming as dry and scorching as any desert breeze.

The woman’s face lifted in wonder. “My goodness. You’re the same?”

“I’m water instead of desert, but yes.”

“They can’t be here.” The husky voice spoke again. “They’re fulls. They should all be sent from here immediately.”

“It’s a technicality,” I insisted. “We’re really two halves.” I hoped the islanders weren’t taught basic fractions.

The blond tapped her finger against her chin. “Eila will want to judge for herself. They’re powerful. That could benefit all of us.”

“It’s too risky.”

I squinted through the vegetation, trying to catch sight of the person so determined to get rid of us.

“It’s not your decision.” The blond peered over my shoulder. “It’s hers.”

I spun around—and froze.

Someone new had joined our group. Someone with ever-changing eyes and hair, who seemed to hold ancient power while simultaneously appearing light enough to float away on a strong breeze.

The woman—the creature—who held my life in her hands.

And she looked pissed.

CHAPTER 14

L
ike the one in Utah, the creature’s appearance constantly altered, but it was more of a steady dissolve than the manic switches I’d seen before. Her hair fell in shifting streaks of gold and black. I thought her eyes were gray until I spotted the black ring around her irises. The colors traded places, and soon charcoal eyes were outlined by the gray of river stones. The other elements all had their turn. Though her coloring varied, her body looked human and solid.

My muscles tensed, waiting for an assault. It never came.

Instead, she stared at Deborah and Michael, still standing in the ocean.

Tendrils of water gripped their thighs and hauled them backwards. The council flew through the air, landing at least five hundred feet out to sea. Whatever countermeasures two of the most powerful elementals in the world were using, they weren’t working.

That was unsettling.

On the other hand, they were now so far away that they were no longer a threat. It was just me, my friends, a bunch of coconut-throwing locals, and a first that could cure or kill me.

For now, she wasn’t interested in us. “Fulls.” The anger I sensed earlier had faded into resignation. “They are not welcome.”

The islanders didn’t react. They’d heard the proclamation before.

She never spoke with a single voice. A gentle chorus emerged from her throat, soprano and alto and contralto all harmonizing. It was closer to music than speech. It was beautiful, but also alien, and the words themselves sounded strained, like she needed to run each syllable through a translator before she could speak.

The first watched the council members bobbing in the ocean. A rush of power flew past me, and they moved further out to sea.

“Eila?” The blond woman approached. She didn’t show even a hint of fear. “Their boat is on the western shore.”

A minute later, it floated next to Michael and Deborah. The first observed them long enough to confirm they would take advantage of her generosity and sail away.

Only when the boat was out of sight did she speak again. “They were with you?”

The first didn’t turn. One moment she gazed at the ocean, and the next she faced me, but I caught no movement between the two positions.

“No. Nope. Not at all. They arrived before us.” I spoke in a rush, too overwhelmed with relief to make any sense. Not only had the first removed the bane of my existence, but she’d done it while not acting like a homicidal maniac. She even seemed to have a name, one that wasn’t “Your Almighty Evilness.”

“They sought you.”

Note to self: don’t lie to a creature of unknown abilities.

“They did, but trust me, we didn’t seek them. You can kick them off the island as many times as you like.” When she didn’t interrupt me—or try to murder me—I decided to go for broke. “We’re seeking you, actually.”

She didn’t respond.

Instead, Eila moved between me and my friends, studying each of us. To say she walked would grant her movement a human quality it simply didn’t possess. She didn’t glide or fly or anything like that. It was more that she willed herself to be in a new place and her body chose to comply in as little time as possible.

Jet dropped her eyes under the power of that gaze.

“Human.” The first sounded puzzled. “You see me.”

When Jet didn’t contradict her, Eila stood before the blond, who put out her hands with no hesitation. Eila wrapped her fingers around the other woman’s wrists.

The blond’s expression became drawn, and the first began to disintegrate. I could make out her face and form, but it looked like she was made of particles rather than flesh and blood, countless specks of magic all shaped like a woman.

“Thank you, Tricia.” There was no mouth to speak the words, but they rang across the beach.

The particles spread a hundred feet in either direction before falling to the ground. I couldn’t see Eila anymore, but I could sense her. The ground below me grew rich with power, the land itself absorbing the magic she’d taken from Tricia.

When she was done, the first assumed her former shape and returned to Jet. Jet’s eyes darted from one person to another as she struggled to grasp what was happening, but she gave no indication she saw the first standing directly before her. Eila nodded, satisfied.

The creature zapped to Sera next. My sister hadn’t yielded in a staring contest in her life, and she wasn’t about to end that streak now. She didn’t lower her eyes. Eila’s lips turned up, a movement so slight I wasn’t certain I’d seen it.

“You are familiar.” For at least a minute, the first was motionless, lost in thoughts I couldn’t begin to guess. “Please stay.” She laid a hand on Sera’s forearm, and in an instant my sister’s confrontational glare softened into what I could only call pleasure.

When Eila reached Mac, there was no mistaking her reaction. She beamed, a smile so bright and pleased they could have used it in a toothpaste commercial. My spine stiffened and my fingers curled into claws. Only I got to look at Mac like that, and even I attempted to be a little subtle about it.

When she touched him, he didn’t jerk away, not even when she slid her palms over his shoulders and gripped his biceps tighter than was really necessary. “Shifter,” she sighed, her earlier joy increased exponentially. She continued to explore his muscles, eyes soft and unfocused as she traced his abdominals. I wouldn’t have imagined the firsts were vulnerable to such a messy human weakness as lust, but she was doing her best to prove me wrong.

Her hands wandered lower, and I found myself having a protracted coughing fit.

She glanced at me, her ever-changing eyes seeing through my falsehood in a second, and she smiled. “You believe he is yours.”

Mac’s tense expression vanished, replaced by ecstasy.

I dug my nails into my palms to keep them from clawing at the creature’s eyes.

After a short eternity, she released Mac and came to me and Luke. Her smile dropped and her eyes darkened. She examined our entire bodies, hair and bones and fingers. I was pretty sure she gave my cuticles a good assessment before she was done. I braced for the tendrils of magic, that invading touch I’d encountered in Utah, but nothing came.

“Two halves,” she said to me.

She pressed a hand against Luke’s chest, then yanked it backwards as if burned. “Whole.” She grew agitated, her appearance changing faster and her body vibrating. “Unacceptable.”

Eyes and hair so dark they seemed to swallow light, she placed her palms against his chest again. This time, the touch wasn’t tentative.

From what I’d seen, Luke was pretty good at the whole stoic cowboy thing, but when Eila dug her fingers into his muscles, he screamed, high-pitched and desperate. I’d heard similar noises in the forest when prey didn’t run outrun the carnivores.

As quickly as she’d begun the torture, she released him. Luke staggered and fell, unable to support himself.

Eila was already there to catch him. He landed with his head in her lap like a child. With gentle touches, she soothed him. When he stopped shaking, she pressed all ten fingers against his cheeks until he felt the same bliss the others had.

“You are safe,” she whispered, placing his head on the ground, the gentle movement a loving contrast to the agony she’d caused him.

I hurried to him and crouched at his side. “Luke?” I repeated his name, more frantically each time. At last he focused on my face. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Eila answered for him. “Two halves are acceptable.”

I studied Luke, praying I’d misunderstood and his magic was still fused together. His small head shake disabused me of that hope. She’d taken the threads apart. We’d come here for one cure and within an hour we needed two. I wanted to scream.

I was the only one left to examine closely. I stood, drawing the movement out as long as I could.

“You are the reason.” I sensed no malice from her, nor the ravenous hunger I’d felt from the other creature. She was curious, perhaps, and pleased.

Then she wrapped both hands around my neck. It was possible I’d misjudged her intent.

Fingers kneaded my skin, testing the tendons and muscles and outlining the thick arteries. Mac growled, loud and insistent. She ignored him. All her attention was focused on my neck.

I struggled to fill my lungs, but already my airway was closing. Sera’s fireball crashed into Eila’s chest and dissolved.

I heard shouts and curses as the others fought to reach me. Sand crawled up their feet and gripped their ankles, the restraints as inescapable as any iron cuffs.

I couldn’t access my power. Not when it would almost certainly be the last time I ever did so.

I gripped her wrists and yanked. Her hands didn’t budge an inch.

My vision grew dark at the edges. I lashed out with my right foot, kicking wildly. It connected with her shin, and I didn’t think she felt it. She moved with me, an easy step. We were dancing partners in a macabre waltz.

My legs turned leaden, all energy fled. I had nothing left.

Nothing except myself, and I placed the entirety of my will into my eyes before raising them to her. The creature’s own eyes were now a pure gray, as cool and sedate as any water while she choked the life from me.

I squeezed my arms between hers and shoved, putting every ounce of strength I possessed into the fight.

I slammed into the ground, then gulped air as fast as I could, feeding my starving lungs. My friends yelled my name, unable to move toward me while the sand grasped their ankles. The first studied me, as I did her.

I hadn’t freed myself. She’d let me go.

I stumbled to my feet. Whatever she had planned for me, I would meet it standing up.

“You wish to live.” Her lips moved, but the words were inside my head.

“I want to do more than live.” My voice was low and raspy, but it still sounded overloud. “I want to be whole.”

I didn’t know if that was the correct answer. Eila’s face changed constantly, but it was impossible to read.

Eila stood before me. She ran her fingertips from my temple to my chin, the touch as soft as a butterfly’s. My skin tingled, then all my pain disappeared. My breathing was no longer ragged, and though I couldn’t see my neck, I knew it wouldn’t bruise. My mind settled, my desires and fears and regrets growing quiet.

“Please stay. All of you.” The words were melodious, even sweet.

“How long do people usually live on the island?” Sera’s sharp voice cut through Eila’s gentle tones.

She blinked at Sera, uncomprehending. “This is their home.”

I caught Sera’s eye, warning her to drop the subject.

“Now it is your home. The others will guide you.”

The land opened before her. She stepped into the hole and floated downwards. The sand swirled, covering the small tunnel she’d created. There was no sign she’d ever been there.

It took longer than I expected to reach our destination. The vegetation increased as we walked inland. I lost count of how many different ferns and flowering plants I saw, the colors so lush and rich it seemed rude to just call them purple or red.

The residents might as well have been walking on flat linoleum. Sera was almost as at ease. She’d spent decades traversing similar islands. The rest of us stepped cautiously between plants. More than once, tiny geckos raced before us, their technicolor green bodies impossible to miss.

Jet had stayed behind. She’d watched us leave with confused and worried eyes. I felt sorry for her until I remembered she’d been the council’s lapdog. Besides, she had access to all the coconuts she could eat. She wouldn’t starve. If I was feeling generous, we might even grab her on our way off the island.

Despite Eila’s ominous statement that this was now our home, I needed to believe we’d escape. Somehow.

We followed four of the residents. The leader was too far away for me to make out anything, but her movements were stiff with anger. I guessed she was the elemental who objected to our presence. She rushed through the trees as if she couldn’t get away from us fast enough.

The guides in the middle cast furtive glances over their shoulders, attempting to study us without being too obvious and failing. Tricia, the beach elemental we’d met when we arrived, acted like our unofficial guide.

I wasn’t surprised to encounter a beach in Hawaii, though overall they weren’t very common. Beaches were a late addition to the elemental family. They didn’t exist until the stones eroded and became sand, and by then the world’s original creation magic was dimming. They were weaker than the rest of us, even the full-blooded ones.

Birds flew from branch to branch and various critters skittered away as we passed. “There are spiders here, aren’t there?” I asked, stepping around yet another gigantic fern. “Really big hairy spiders.”

Sera glanced back at me. “A few. I’d worry more about the teeny tiny ones. The sort that climb into your clothes and you don’t even notice.”

“Not helping.”

I didn’t talk much after that, preferring to listen to the strange noises of this unfamiliar place. It reminded me of the quiet found only during a blackout, when every electronic hum died and only the sounds of nature remained. We could hear the ocean and the trees, the small animals and our own soft steps, but that was it. Whoever lived here, they hadn’t embraced the twentieth century, let alone the current one.

As we walked, the vegetation grew more orderly and we found ourselves walking between rows of lychee, papaya, and passionfruit trees. Mac snagged several as he passed, unable to resist the lure of fresh fruit after months of strawberry Pop-Tarts.

At last, Tricia pulled back a heavy veil of low-hanging branches, revealing an area that had been cleared of vegetation. It was an oval, at least a thousand feet long, and it was set in the shadow of the mountain. Tents of various shapes and sizes were spaced evenly around the edge. It was a motley collection of camping tents, lean-tos, and a few more permanent structures built of wood and canvas. There were two in the center that were almost the size of a big top from the circus, likely the communal areas. It was all decidedly less ethereal than I’d expect in the home of the world’s original magic.