The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) (23 page)

Concrete split and broke apart, then soil rose up and out from beneath to sever the advance of Fire. So quick. So simple. A move I could not have perfected, and I was sure the Queen's Guards would have been unable to as well. But the Queen herself made it look like child's play. We stood on concrete, but she was still completely in control.

The Fire was snuffed out as if she'd reached forward and squeezed a candle's flame between her fingers. In the silence that followed she cocked her head and smiled, a chillingly evil grin.

"You waste your efforts, Prince. Stop now and we may let you live," she said, in the type of voice that resonates within your head and body, not just your ears.

Theo was breathing heavily, but otherwise looked completely calm and controlled.

"Let us pass," he countered, in a voice that surprisingly echoed the power of the Queen's, "and we may let
you
live."

I couldn't stop the twitch of my lips, even though I was sure he was bluffing. He sounded so cocky, so arrogantly princely. I loved him for his confidence alone right then.

The Queen only laughed. "Then you are a fool," she declared and before she'd finished her cackle, Theo had attacked.

I was guessing he was sick of being called a fool. This time his Fire connected with a Guard, and in a movement almost as quick as the Queen's had been when she'd protected them before, the Guard's head disconnected from his body and flew through the air.

A moment of stunned
nothing
followed; everyone, including me, surprised that Theo had succeeded. And then, as if the world caught up with the head when it finally slammed into the concrete some ten feet away with a wet splat, everyone moved at once.

The Guards' eyes blazed green, the Queen screamed a warning, but didn't use the theatrics of raising her hands above her head, and the ground beneath us opened up. We started to fall, as space appeared where once solid concrete had been, and sharp tipped roots started shooting out from the sides of our tunnel towards us, as we plummeted deeper and deeper out of sight of the night sky.

Theo burned them as they approached, one after the other, while I finally - and God hadn't that taken long enough? - managed to grasp my
Pyrkagia Stoicheio
and pulled on my Fire to add weight to his. But it wasn't enough to get us out of here and we both knew it. So, without a second thought I pulled on
Gi
as well, using
Pyrkagia
to boost my claim, overriding the Guards, but probably not the
Basilissa
.

I didn't have time to consider if she was about to strike, we had to get out of this pit, before they covered us in soil.
Pyrkagia
burned around us, up the sides of the funnel, like some super-sized cauterising weapon used to stop nature's bleeds. The roots were halted in their tracks, leaving just a blackened wall on all sides, twenty feet deep.

We couldn't jump, we couldn't climb - the roots and vines had been seared off - and
Athanatos
can't fly, as far as I'm aware. All of this was determined within a second of landing in a crouch at the base of the pit the
Gi
had created. Before Theo could offer a solution, and I'm sure he was trying to think of one, I called on the Earth, fuelled my request with the singeing heat of Fire, and demanded it release us from this trap.

It made a sound of pain, that segued into a defiant noise of acquiesce, and then the ground beneath us rose at an unfathomable speed and jettisoned us from the depths, hurtling us through the air over and above the
Basilissa
and her Guards, and then cushioning our fall as our bodies tumbled to the concrete... right next to our car.

"Fuck!" Theo exclaimed, reaching into his trouser pocket and pressing the keyless remote to unlock the vehicle. Thank God he'd been the last one driving. It beeped, as the Earth whispered,
She's rallying. Hurry.

Theo threw up a wall of Fire between us and them, and astonishingly so did Isadora from on top of the roof to the diner. Our plan hadn't gone exactly as intended. One Guard had died, the rest were still happily breathing, and the
Basilissa
, although disgruntled, could hardly be called confused. But Isadora offered what distraction she could, when she saw it was our only chance of escape.

I froze, one hand on the door to the passenger side of the SUV, my eyes searching for her up on top of the diner. I couldn't see her, so I could only hope they wouldn't find her. Which left me feeling all kinds of perplexed, because Isadora wasn't meant to be the reason why we escaped here today. She wasn't meant to be our last chance. She sure as hell wasn't meant to be helping me in any way. But here we were, sliding into the car, Theo starting the engine, and with what seemed an impossible amount of luck, or good timing, or just plain fucked-if-I-know-what, we pulled away. Exiting the carpark, and leaving a confounded
Gi
regiment and a furious
Gi
Queen in our wake.

"Will she be all right?" I asked, breathlessly.

"She's good at hiding, evading capture," Theo replied, but his lips were pressed in that thin line they get into, when something really has him worried.

"Will they follow us?" I asked, gulping in much needed air.

"Maybe," he replied, fingers tightening on the steering wheel, turning his knuckles white, as his foot pressed down harder on the accelerator.

The world flashed by as the Earth cried out its triumph at our escape, then quickly silenced when the
Basilissa
let out a roar of rage. I could hear it; inside my head, all around me. On the air, in the trees that we sped past, in the repetitive thunk of the tyres across uneven pavement. Everywhere. The Queen raged, the sound so terrifyingly close, but instinctively I knew that they weren't able to follow. Whatever Isadora was doing, was pinning them down.

"Man, she's furious," I said, under my breath.

"You can feel her anger?" Theo asked, flicking me a surprised glance, then returning his attention thankfully to the front of the rocketing car.

"I can hear her. Can't you?"

He shook his head.

"What's she saying? Is she following?"

My turn to shake my head, as my grip on the handrail above my head tightened, the speed with which we were travelling making my head spin.

"She's raging, roaring. Nothing coherent. But I feel distance expanding between us. Whatever is holding her back is working."

"Dora," Theo said on a breath of expelled air. And I couldn't find it in myself to correct his use of her nickname, not when she was obviously the reason why we'd escaped at all.

I hated owing her this. I hated acknowledging that in the end she'd pulled through for us, for
me
. And I hated, just as much, that she may now be in danger; fighting for her life, surrounded by the enemy.

I sucked in a long breath of air, preparing to own up to my mistake and admit that I may have misjudged her, when the
Basilissa
growled, a voice laden with contempt...

Alchemist
.
This time you go too far
.

Pain lanced through my mind as whatever the Queen was doing to this
Alchemist
reached me, muffled by distance and the fact that I wasn't her target, but strong enough, invasive enough, to propel me towards oblivion.

"Casey!" Theo cried, but I couldn't answer. And in the brief second before darkness consumed me I heard a voice cry out in agony and defiance inside my head,
She is ours to protect!

Noah.

Confusion consumed me when light met my blinking eyes.

"Shhh," Theo murmured, running a warm wet sponge over my forehead, cradling me closer in his strong and familiar arms. "I'm here,
Oraia
. I'm here."

The crackle of a fire could be heard over his softly whispered words. Then, surprising the hell out of me, Aktor said, "Has she come to?"

"Are you back with us,
Oraia
?" Theo asked with a small quirk of his lips. I reached up automatically and brushed my fingers along his jawline. A natural reflex action to being so close, to being held so intimately, to him. "She may need a few more moments, Aktor," Theo announced, not taking his eyes off my face. "She's a little out of it still."

I blinked, twisted my head to look around the room we were in, but couldn't find Theo's butler.

"He's communicating through the Fire," Theo explained.

"Hello, Miss Eden," Aktor sounded out in amongst the hiss and pop of burning wood .

"I'll never get used to that," I murmured, trying to sit up. Theo fought me for a split second, but then must have taken pity on my pathetic efforts, and instead turned my body to settle into the couch beside him, in front of the hearth.

We were in a cosy little rustic wood panelled cottage; the bed and dining area all in the same large room as the kitchenette and front door. A smaller door led off to what had to be the bathroom on the side. The room was refreshingly decorated, in cool blue and pale yellow furnishings, sheer curtains hung over large oversized window frames, and pot plants galore were dotted throughout the space. Even without the palms and orchids it would have been a pretty room. With them it was spectacular.

"Where are we?" I asked, accepting the glass of water Theo presented me.

"In a cottage for rent half way between Santar
ém and Belém," he replied. "We were lucky," he added, but didn't say more. Whether it was luck that he found a place for us to rest in, or luck that place had a fire we could use to touch base with Aktor, or luck that the
Gi
hadn't found us yet, I didn't know. And right then any of those would suffice.

I nodded, then sipped some more water. Theo was watching me closely. And with Aktor silently waiting at the other end of a Fire telephone call I felt a little under pressure.

"What happened?" Theo finally asked.

No beating about the bush, no let's re-hash the escape, or the
Basilissa's
ability to talk mind to mind. Not even let's decide where to next. No, we were right back in that bathroom, where Isadora lay paralysed on the floor.

"I thought it would be obvious," I managed to say.

"I can guess what transpired, but I'd like to hear your version first," Theo countered.

I glanced at the flames. "Right now?" I asked, thinking this was a conversation best had in private.

"Yes, right now," Theo almost snapped back. He might have had an idea of what had happened to make me lose control in that bathroom, but he was not happy about the outcome nonetheless.

I wasn't sure how to say this, how to address the topic of him having a former
Thisavros
. I really didn't feel comfortable talking about it in front of Aktor, even though the butler was not physically here, he
was
still listening. This was embarrassing, having Theo admit he'd lied, and maybe, just maybe, admit that Melita still meant something to him.

I'd been through hell the past three months, and the past seventy-two hours had not been an improvement. Sure, Theo was here with me now, but he'd brought Isadora. Her presence almost outweighed the pleasure of his. I was tired,
exhausted
, emotionally spent. And he wanted to discuss this. Now.

I shook my head, words failing me. I just wanted to curl up and sleep for a week.

"I would have thought you'd know bringing her would be a mistake," I finally said, after what felt like an excruciatingly painful silent few minutes.

Theo blinked back at me for a suspended moment, then said, voice low and too even, "She helped to save our lives back there, Cassandra." I sucked in a breath to argue, but he beat me to it. "Now, I understand she riled you up. Perhaps goaded you into the attack. But as
Athanatos
we cannot allow ourselves to succumb to cheap tactics such as that. We are above it. You need to learn restraint."

My head jerked in shock, I arched a brow, crossed my arms over my chest, and glared at him. He frowned back.

"I didn't sever her head, Theo," I said very precisely. "If I had no restraint at all she'd be dead."

Aktor started laughing through the fire, his chuckles making the crackle sound like the happy beat to a song. An incongruous song for that particular moment. Theo just ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.

"I know Isadora can be persistent, but she does it because she gets a reaction," he pointed out. "Don't give her one."

"I tried that," I grumbled. "She kept going and going and going. Like a dog with a freaking bone."

"And what was her bone,
Oraia
?" Theo asked in a whisper, moving closer all of a sudden. His arm was placed on the back of the couch behind my shoulders, his nose started nestling into the side of my neck, rubbing in amongst my hair and inhaling.