The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) (32 page)

Another groan into the pillow I'd lifted to my face.

"Perhaps it's payback," Theo announced.

"Payback, Theodoros?" Aktor asked, politely. Too damn politely.

"Yes," Theo replied. "He did catch
us
at the most inopportune moment."

"Oh, kill me now," I muttered with much put-upon pain.

"Well, there you go," Nico agreed. "Payback's a bitch."

"Or you catch your brother screwing one," I added.

There was silence. For a second I thought I might just have gone a little too far on that one.

And then all three men burst out laughing, really enjoying themselves now.

"What's so funny?" Mark's voice sounded out from over my shoulder.

I lifted my head and moved the pillow aside and effected the best "nothing" face I could muster.

Aktor snorted. Actually snorted.

I glared at the old man.

"Just joking around," Theo replied, offering a lifeline. But as Theo didn't often joke around and the world was coming to an end and any jokes right now were inappropriate, no one reached out to grab it.

Thankfully, before anything else could be said, Isadora walked out from between different shelves than my brother had just emerged.

Nico covered his mouth to hide his amusement, Aktor stared up at the arches as though their architecture was the answer to the universe. And Theo just swept lazy eyes up and down Isadora's body, letting her know he was damn well aware of what she had just done.

For the first time ever, I watched Isadora blush. Then look nervously away, as though unsure of his reaction. For my part, I turned my glare on Theo. Because, hello? He shouldn't have been interested in looking at her at all.

But as much as I knew he'd fallen for me, and as much as I knew he loved
me
. He still remembered the Isadora of before. And
that
Dora had been his on-again and off-again lover. For nigh on two thousand years.

Even before all this crap, I'd known loving Theo would not be easy. Now I was acutely aware of exactly how hard loving him was.

I refused to make eye contact with anyone, conscious that they were all too damn observant to have missed the pain that surely registered on my face, a reflection of what I felt in my heart. Instead I looked at Sonya. Still asleep, still with us. And smiling wistfully at something in her dreams.

I hoped they were perfect. I hoped they were everything she could ever have wanted. Because life, as I now knew, was definitely not.

Theo cleared his throat. The room had been way too silent, but I still refused to look at anyone.

"We need everyone together," he announced.

"For what?" Isadora asked, sounding too close for my liking.

"We've no choice but to test our
Stoicheio
," Theo advised. "And it would be best if we were all on hand should something backfire."

"Makes sense," Nico agreed. "Who's going first?"

"I will," I blurted, wanting to feel anything other than this hollowness from knowing nothing had changed, and nothing ever would where Isadora and Theo were concerned. Even pain would be better than this.

"No," Theo announced with authority.

"Why should she get preferential treatment?" Isadora snapped.

A string of the most atrocious words flew through my head, all directed at her. Words I could no further say in public than kick
Aetheros
up the backside for letting his "children" run wild and neglect their chores.

Oh, I wanted to. I wanted to call her every derogatory name under the sun.

I think I might have growled.

"Because as
Aether
she deserves preferential treatment," Theo replied smoothly. "Or have you been too busy to remember the world is coming to an end?"

And that didn't sound bitchy at all. Yeah.

"No busier than you, Theodoros," she purred back.

Was this some sort of jealous lovers spat? I felt sick. Cheese and crackers wanting to come back out and I hadn't even had any ouzo.

"I'll go first," Aktor announced, interrupting whatever staring match was going on between Theo and Isadora. I couldn't be sure they were staring, I just felt the weight of it in the air. I was too busy looking at the ground.

"All right, then," Theo announced. "We should do this next to the fire."

Aktor got up from his seat and headed over to the brazier, I could hear other sets of footfalls following him.

"You don't have to come over," Theo said quietly from behind me. "Stay with Sonya if you'd like."

I looked up and noted that even Nico had moved. The first time I'd seen him out from beneath Sonya's legs. I nodded, not bothering to turn enough to see Theo. Not wanting to see understanding in his eyes, to know he was aware he'd hurt me.

It took a second, maybe two, and then the warmth of his proximity faded and it was just me and my best friend.

"You're missing all the fun," I muttered, getting up from my position on the floor, feeling ancient while I was at it, and then slipping gratefully into Nico's seat, as I lifted Sonya's legs over my lap. I had an uninterrupted view across the space towards the brazier, Aktor lying out on a mattress on the floor, while the others knelt down around him. Isadora glaring across the butler's body at Theo, but because his back was to me, I couldn't be sure if he was glaring right back.

I assumed he was, from the thunderous look on my brother's face right then.

"Just reach out for starters," Theo urged.

"Like a knock on the hearth," Nico added.

"We'll slap you if you can't pull back, breaking the connection," Isadora so helpfully offered.

"Good freaking God, I hate her," I murmured, under my breath.

"Me too," said Sonya, not opening her eyes.

"How long have you been awake?" I asked, my heart skittering inside my chest, the urge to wrap her up in my arms almost too powerful to deny. I was going for cool, but between Isadora the bitch, Theo the mindless ex-lover, and the general state of play in the universe, my voice cracked on every single word.

"Long enough to know the cow's done it again," Sonya muttered. "Thirsty," she rasped on the end.

I reached down and snagged the glass of water Aktor had sitting on the floor and helped her lift her head to drink some. She licked her lips afterwards, still keeping her lids down, and fell back onto the pillow.

"My freaking head hurts," she muttered.

"Maybe they've got some paracetamol around here somewhere. I saw a first-aid kit on one of the shelves."

"Where are we?" she asked, not suggesting I go get any meds, so I remained where I was. She clearly wanted me near and I didn't want to be too far away if the crap hit the fan over by the fire.

Not that I was sure I could do anything to help out, but I think Theo was right. We all needed to be close for this.

"In the cellar," I replied.

"Cool." A lengthy pause followed where I thought she'd fallen asleep again. "What are they doing?"

"Trying to reach their
Stoicheio
."

"Isn't that a bad idea?"

"Only if Isadora doesn't lose consciousness."

Sonya snorted and then groaned. "Don't make me laugh, 'K?"

"'K," I whispered. "You had us worried."

"Nah," she offered. "Just took a wee nap."

"Don't do it again, 'K?"

"I'll try not to," she dryly replied.

I felt a swell of
Pyrkagia
and then Aktor cried out and started shaking, sweat beading his forehead, eyes tightly closed.

"Can you pull back?" Theo called.

"Is he with us?" Isadora asked, hand raised ready to slap.

"She wants to slap him, doesn't she?" Sonya queried, only listening to what was happening, still not trusting she could open her eyes without pain.

"A lot of pent up anger," I offered.

"Yeah, what do you think she'll do if it's Theo on the floor?"

I didn't have an answer for that and Sonya must have realised her mistake because I swear she feigned sleep straight away afterwards.

"I'm fine," Aktor gasped and I let a little breath out I'd been holding.

"Veins on fire?" Isadora asked smugly.

"Quite," Aktor replied shuddering all over.

"Well, there's no point anyone else trying then, is there?" Nico queried. "Two of us had the same result. Mark almost drowned reaching for Water. Casey collapsed and seized when she tried Earth. What else is there?"

"Air," Mark offered.

"Do you really think it will be different?" Isadora asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Liar.

Mark shrugged. "I've got to give it a go, don't I?"

"Ah, hell," I muttered.

"You want to go over there?" Sonya asked, confirming the sleep was faked.

"If I do, I'll punch her in the face and that won't help Mark."

Sonya smiled. "There's my girl," she murmured merrily.

I shook my head at my bloodthirsty best friend.

"All right. Lie down beside Aktor," Theo ordered. "I don't think he's well enough yet to move."

I watched Mark get into position, everyone moving back slightly to allow him room.

"Ready?" Theo asked, quite reasonably.

"No!" my brother snarled back, making me smile this time.

Isadora placed a hand on his shoulder. I sat forward in my seat, making Sonya crack an eyelid and watch me between her lashes.

"Go over," she encouraged.

"And do what? Bite her hand off?"

"That'd work. If she was all gooey-eyes over my man, I'd dig her eyeballs out with a rusty spoon."

"There is something seriously wrong with you," I pointed out sweetly. "Besides, she's not looking at Theo gooey-eyed, she's looking at Mark."

"That bitch!" Sonya declared, wholeheartedly. Then ruined it by adding, "How dare she make your brother enjoy his last few days on this earth!"

"You're no help at all," I complained.

She smiled, eyes closed again.

"You missed me," she offered.

"Yeah," I agreed simply.

"OK," Theo said. "When you're ready."

Mark sucked in a deep breath of air, which was ironic because in the next instant I felt him reach for it.

A chill raced down my arms, setting the fine hairs up on end and making me shiver. Condensation appeared before my lips, even with the fire blazing in the brazier and the room warm only moments ago. An ominous heaviness landed on my shoulders, making me sink down in the sofa, and desperately wanting to cover my head and disappear.

"Mark?" Isadora called, giving him a small shake.

He didn't reply.

"Is he breathing?" Nico asked and I found myself on my feet, even as something was trying to push me back.

I hadn't realised I'd moved. Sonya was struggling to right herself, as her legs, which had been over my lap, had ended up on the stone floor beside the sofa. I opened my mouth to apologise and Air rushed in. A whistling sound filling my ears, followed by a wheeze as I tried to exhale.

I managed to push it out again, so that made me think Air wasn't trying too hard to harm me. But when I went to take a step towards my brother, I was immediately shoved back. A slap of wind in my face, against my chest. Like being punched in the stomach and then being unable to even gasp.

I made a strangled sound and Theo's head lifted searching for me. He was on his feet in an instant, trying to reach my flailing side, but Air was having none of that. Theo roared as he fought against an invisible enemy, the sound abruptly cut off as he was thrown to the ground, unable to draw any breath at all.

Desperate now to reach them. My brother who was once again turning blue and the man I loved despite everything imprisoned on the floor and gasping like a fish out of water.

I made it one step closer, and the whistling became a hissing laugh. So out of place in the cellar.

Without another thought I ordered,
Stop!

The whistling became a humming, as though it was reprimanding me for trying to curtail its fun.

I had no control here. It may have protected me on Mount Victoria as it rained down its vicious anger on earth. But I had the feeling the free pass was over, and Air wanted to play with me now, instead of mankind.

I staggered another step, aware Nico was trying to get up and help me, and Isadora was trying to perform mouth to mouth on Mark, and Aktor was reaching for the fire, from where he lay, trying desperately, but futilely, to fuel himself enough to help out.

I stared at the flickering flames, willing myself to push through the barrier to reach a now non-moving Theo, yelling inside my head frantically for Air to stop.