The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) (5 page)

For the first time ever I was scared of Theo Peters. We'd not always seen eye to eye, but even when I first came into my
Gi
powers I'd never feared him the way I feared the look in his eyes right now.

"Come," he snapped when I didn't move. My body jumped and his lips curled. "How old are you?" he growled.

He knew. At least, he used to. "Twenty-three," I whispered, stepping into the harness he held out.

He laughed, it was mirthless. "A baby. You wear your emotions on your sleeve, little one. I can feel your fear."

"Please stop talking," I begged. He'd regret this, when he remembered.
If
he remembered again.

He leaned in, his nose practically touching my cheek and whispered, "You play with Fire, little girl. I'm a prince of
Pyrkagia,
you are
nothing
to me."

He meant in terms of power level, but the words cut too close to the quick.

I shifted, to lift my foot into the other opening of the harness, just wanting this to be over now, and inadvertently brought myself close enough for his nose to touch my skin.

Electricity shot through me, pulling a gasp from my lips and a moan from Theo's.

A hot hand wrapped around my throat as he hauled me back against his chest.

"Stop now, or I will end you," he warned.

"I'm not doing anything." I wasn't, as far as I could tell. But something was happening. The touch of skin on skin awakening every sensation Theo had ever made me feel.

And if the panting of his harsh breaths were anything to go by, and the erection I could feel pressed into my back meant anything, he was feeling every single sensation I'd made him experience in the past as well.

"Witch," he husked. "What are you doing to me?"

"
Thisavros,
" I managed to groan, writhing against his arousal as his free hand cupped my breast.

It was the only explanation I could think of. Our
Thisavros
connection trying to re-establish itself. Reminding us of what we were to each other. Desperately seeking the joining I longed for and Theo had forgotten.

"No!" he growled, thrusting me away from him. I stumbled, tried to right myself, and then promptly fell out of the opening of the cave and met only air.

For a second all I saw was the wild hunger on Theo's face, mixed with a type of abhorrence that shrivelled my soul.

And then the rope caught, the harness thankfully holding and I was hauled up the side of the cliff face, scraping skin, banging elbows and not feeling a thing but despair.

Could this get any worse?

Apparently it could. Because a hand wrapped around my upper arm and hauled me over the lip of the cliff, dumping me on wet grass as I stared up into tired and old hazel eyes that definitely recognised me.

And I recognised them.

"Miss Eden," he said. "It is so good to see you again."

Aktor. The son-of-a-bitch betrayer. I reached out with all my strength and landed a punch to his ancient looking nose.

"Casey!" another familiar voice rang out. "Don't hit him!"

"Wh..what?" I stammered, fear and anger and heartache mixing with shock and happiness and utter confusion. "What are
you
doing here?"

Sonya just smiled, wrapped an arm around a bemused Aktor and fussed over the blood that had already stopped falling from his nose.

Isadora was the one to help me to my feet and with her usual arched tone she advised, "A lot has happened while you've been lying back and daydreaming."

I suppressed the growl. For now.

"Let's get the master up, shall we?" Aktor advised, keeping a good distance between me and himself.

"Yes, let's," Sonya agreed, sounding unlike any Sonya I'd ever known.

I wondered if
this
was the dream, and I was really lying unconscious back in my cell after the doctor had played "Operation" on my insides.

I stayed well away from everyone, including my best friend. Who seemed more than a little comfortable with Aktor and not in the slightest concerned with the nearness of Isadora The Bitch. What had happened since I left New Zealand? How did she even know who these people were?

She knew Theo of course. Had met him several times in the deli. She'd heard me speak of Isadora and probably Aktor as well. But she didn't know what he'd done. That was obviously it. She still thought Aktor was on our side, when in fact Aktor had betrayed us to Theo's father, handing us over to the
Rigas
, delivering the final blow.

Theo appeared over the edge of the cliff, clasping Aktor's hand and beaming up into the face of his old servant. My stomach rolled. I swallowed back the sickening sensation that Theo didn't remember the betrayal at all. I wanted to stay where I was and lick my wounds. Getting close to any of these people would hurt. But Theo was compromised right now. He couldn't remember, therefore he didn't understand the danger.

I couldn't let him get caught unprepared.

I walked towards them, where they were hugging and back slapping and generally behaving like this was a family reunion. I didn't make it more than a few feet before Theo growled.

An honest to God feral growl.

"You haven't contained her?" he asked, ominously. "Dora!" he called. "Find me some rope."

I lifted an eyebrow at him as Aktor started spluttering, Sonya told Theo to pull his head in - Yay, my best friend! - and Isadora tried to calm everyone down.

"Rope? Really? You think rope will hold me?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and cocking a hip.

Theo took two menacing steps toward me.

"My rope will," he replied with a cruel smile.

I waved my fingers at him, let Fire flare at their tips and said, "
Pyrkagia
, remember?"

"Exactly!" he snarled, closing the distance between us. "And not born that way, at a guess."

"No," I said, agreeing with him and then calling on the Earth to wrap vines around his ankles instead.

He swore and simply burned them to a crisp. I didn't have it in me to recall them. Singed plants leave me feeling bereft.

"In any case," he said stalking closer. "I'll use metal chains. You'll only burn yourself if you heat them up."

"Theodoros," Aktor said, and there was power in his tone I'd never heard before. "Enough."

We were standing chest to chest. I'm not sure how we'd gotten so close, my eyes had just been for the anger on his face, but here we were, barely a breath between us. He realised it at the same time as me and sprang back.

"She has bespelled me," Theo said, his breaths a little too quick in coming.

"No, son. She has not," Aktor advised, leaving me more and more confused, because shouldn't he be the enemy? Why was he defending me now?

"We really have to get going," Isadora announced into the strained silence. "They'll send guards out to check the surrounding area when they determine
Pyrgos
no longer harbours you both."

"And she's coming with us?" Theo asked, indicating me with a nod of his dark haired head.

My shoulders drooped and suddenly Sonya was beside me, wrapping an arm around my frame.

"Aktor said it might be rough, but I had no idea," she whispered. "What's happened to Theo?"

Theo's head turned slowly to look at my best friend and for a moment I saw worry and indecision on his stark features. Of all the people to convince him that something wasn't right with him and not me, it was a human. A human he probably couldn't even remember.

"Where are we going?" he asked instead, sounding more calm now, but I could see a muscle tense in his jaw. "Auckland is no longer safe?"

"No, we've been based in Wellington, but Isadora had to return to Auckland for a family obligation and I chose to accompany her just in case. As it happens, it paid off."

"And I go where Aktor goes," Sonya declared proudly.

"There's a story there you need to tell me," I muttered.

She just beamed back at me from behind dusky blonde locks. I also noted that Aktor's face softened on her words.

"We've become close, Miss Eden," he supplied. "I'll tell you all about it once we're in the car."

He indicated a large dark sedan parked just across the grass clearing we were on, at the edge of a silent suburban street.

"Then we should go," Theo suggested, taking a step towards the vehicle, his eyes lingering on me for a second and then purposely turning away when he saw he'd been caught out.

Everyone started heading towards the car but I grabbed Isadora's arm before she made it too far. Her eyes darted down to where I gripped her and stayed there until I released my grasp.

"Just tell me this, can he be trusted?" I whispered.

"They can hear you, you know?" she replied waspishly.

"Tell me," I said, losing patience.

"Yes, he can be trusted. He could always be trusted."

I wanted to question her more, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Isadora had spoken, she was already walking away toward the car. I took one last look around the empty street we were on and wondered if I'd ever return to my home city again. Or if this was it for me. Outcast.

I could add more names to the list but right now I really was wearing my emotions on my sleeve.

The car was bigger than I expected. A limousine in fact. Black tinted windows hid the rear seating compartment, and Aktor suggested everyone get in there while he drove up front. He even donned a driver's cap, pulling it down low over is face.

I was the last to slip through the open back door, finding Theo sitting too close to Isadora and Sonya sitting on the opposite seat eagerly awaiting me. I slid in next to my friend and immediately realised my mistake. Theo was directly opposite me, when he looked up he was looking straight at my face.

He glanced out the side window, the muscle in his jaw still flexing.

I turned sideways and took in my friend. She'd lost some weight and there was a heaviness to her now that bubbly Sonya never had. Her eyes looked older, she wasn't even chewing on the strands of her hair. She sat still, smile in place, but there was a darkness just behind the façade.

"What happened?" I asked, knowing the question was more pertinent than I'd at first thought.

Sonya let a long breath of air out. Then reached for my hand and laced her fingers with mine.

"They came when I was shutting up the shop," she started, her eyes turning haunted and distant. "Two months after you'd left," she added. "If it wasn't for Aktor." And then she stopped, unable to get any more words out, tears filling her big blue eyes, her bottom lip trembling.

I glanced over at Isadora, who had been watching silently from her side of the car.

"The
Rigas
?" I demanded, aware that Theo had stilled.

Isadora nodded. "His guards, in any case."

I let a controlled breath of air out, turning back to my friend.

"How bad?" I whispered.

"Bad enough," came her reply.

"You know what they are? What I am?" She nodded and from the corner of my eye I saw Theo cock his head, his eyes boring into the side of my face. "Can you see the Elements?"

"No. But Aktor explained. And then I met Isadora." She leaned forward and stage whispered, "You were right, she can be a real bitch."

Theo let out a snort and then looked chagrined. Isadora glared at him and shifted a little away in the seat. It would have been perfect, but Theo reached for her hand, entwining it in his, and lifted it to his lips in apology.

"She's not the only one," I murmured, getting a raised eyebrow from him.

"So, Aktor?" I asked in a louder voice, making sure the butler could hear from the front seat.

"I traded my soul and your freedom for your friend, Miss Eden," came his careful and steady reply. "Did I make a mistake?"

I shook my head, which I hoped he saw in the rear view mirror.

"I thought you betrayed us," I commented, feeling so blastedly tired all of a sudden.

"I know," the old man replied. "And in a way I did." Pain etched into every word.

"I don't remember any of this," Theo remarked from his statue like position across the car.

"We'll work on getting your memory back," Isadora soothed.

It should have been me. I should have been reassuring my
Thisavros
. I should have been receiving the soft smile and squeeze of his hand in mine. It should have been me.

Isadora's eyes came up to mine and held my gaze. Neither of us said anything, the car a cesspit of unwanted emotions, moving silently through the darkened Auckland streets.

A private jet waited for us on the tarmac, fuelled and ready to go as soon as we boarded the plane. I walked down to the back of the cabin and sat myself down in a corner seat, fastening my belt and closing my eyes as soon as the engines roared to life, vibrating through the fuselage. Sonya had tried to sit with me, but she'd soon realised I just needed some space. In the end I had the rear part of the cabin to myself as the rest of them got reacquainted, attempting to tell Theo what had been happening in the political realms of
Pyrkagia
.