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“Most elemental protectors like to stick to their own kind. My family didn’t, so we ended up with a bunch of different elements in our bloodlines. Our bloodlines can also be tracked back directly to not only the goddess of ice but also the god of water.”
My eyes are nearly bulging out of my head. “I don’t …” I rub my forehead with the heel of my free hand. “This is a lot to take in.”
“I can imagine.” He squeezes my hand. “Do you want me to prove to you now that it’ll get easier?”
I rub my chilled lips together as I lower my hand. “It’s not going to hurt or make me pass out like I did in the living room, right?”
He shakes his snowflakes-covered head. “That was my fault … I wasn’t expecting so much power to flow between us, and I …” He sinks his teeth into his bottom lip and takes a deep breath. “I won’t let it happen again.”
“Okay.” Talking about me blacking out reminds me of something. “When I blacked out in the living room … I saw … or, well, more like heard darkness speaking to me, telling me it wanted me to be its queen …” I expect him to flip out and call me a freak, but he just offers me an understanding look.
“It happens sometimes with our kind,” he explains solemnly. “Because we have darkness inside us, it calls out, mostly in times of weakness …” He releases a fog-laced exhale. “I’ll teach you how to block it if you want me to. It’s kind of complicated, but”—he scratches his cheek, his flush deepening—“if darkness is already speaking to you, you should probably learn soon. There’s been some elemental enchanters over the course of our history who allowed the darkness to get to them and went insane.”
I gulp. “There aren’t any elemental protectors of darkness at this academy I’m going to, are there …?” I trail off when his expression says all I need to know. “Will I be safe there?”
He nods without missing a beat. “Easton and I will make sure nothing happens to you. And after some time, when you learn how to control your powers better, you’ll be able to protect yourself pretty damn well.” He gives a short, considering pause. “But it’s always best to stay away from the darkness elemental protectors as much as possible.”
“What about humans? It’s cool if I hang out with them, right? I’m assuming so since they go to your—our—school, but they also don’t know you guys exist, so … And you guys acted so weird toward me living with you when you thought I was human, so …” I waver my head from side to side. “I’m a little confused by how that works. Not that I’d ever give up Nina and Gage, just an FYI. They’re my best friends. Always have been.”
He hesitates. “Most of our kind don’t hang out with humans because hiding our powers from them can get complicated. As for the school, there’re two buildings at the academy—one for human-related classes and one for element-related classes. So, for the most part, except for the standard classes, we aren’t around humans very much.”
“But, wouldn’t it be easier to have a separate school?
Or go attend school in your world?”
“Our world is also very overly populated, so a lot of us were sort of forced to come live here.” He rubs a hand across his head, causing the snowflakes in his hair to melt. “As for going to separate schools, it’d probably be easier, but the council thinks it’s better if we attend with humans, not only so we can practice keeping our powers a secret, which is very important, but it also helps us learn to live in the human world.”
I sit back in the snow, the chilled air not bothering me as much as it probably should. “Isn’t it going to be weird for me to start in the middle of the semester? I’m assuming there’s going to be classes related to our powers, yet I know nothing about them.”
“We’re going to have to explain your situation—that you didn’t know what you were until recently. Well, that you didn’t know you were an elemental protector, which does happen sometimes, mostly when one of our kind puts up someone for adoption. And as for classes, you’ll probably just stick to most of the same class you were already taking at your old school, but I think we might want to get you into a couple of basic element related classes so you can start learning about our world more.” He shifts, sitting down in the snow in front of me without releasing his hold on my hand. “But no matter what happens, we can’t let anyone know you’re an elemental enchanter, so you’re going to have to decide on which element you want to be before tomorrow so you can pretend to be that when you’re around other elemental protectors.”
His words make my stomach churn again. I want to pull away from him, curl up in a ball, and melt into the snow just so I don’t have to deal with this, but the idea of letting go of his hand … my fingers won’t budge.
“Do you think …? Do you guys think I was put up for adoption?” I utter quietly.
Pity floods his eyes. “I don’t know, but we’ll find out. In fact, I’m sure my parents are already digging into your history.”
“It’d help if we could just find my parents,” I mutter, tucking my free hand into the pocket of my jacket. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon since the police are pretty much putting zero effort into it.”
“I think my parents are planning on hiring an elf to try to track them down.”
I blink. “Come again?”
He chuckles. “Elves are very good at tracking things.”
“And are very real apparently,” I mumble in shock. “Jesus, this is crazy. First, I find out there’re elemental powers. Then you start talking about gods and goddesses and elves. And then, of course there’s the faerie in your house. Which, FYI, I’m pretty sure he knows what I am.”
He swallows audibly. “Yeah, we already figured that out when my mom went to check on him after you passed out in the living room.”
Weight piles down on my shoulders as the severity of the situation hits me, yet I somehow feel a bit lighter. After years of keeping silent about my powers, it feels almost liberating to be speaking so openly about them. And to someone who understands it.
Of course, that doesn’t make the dangerous world I’ve been thrown into any easier to deal with.
“I’m assuming it’s a bad thing that he knows what I am, and it probably means I’m in danger, right?”
“As much danger as I’m in for him knowing what I am.” He skims his finger along the back of my hand. “We can be in this together, though. You don’t have to go through it alone.”
As much as I like his offer, I hesitate to accept. “I don’t want to sound like a bitch, but just because we’re the only two left of our kind, doesn’t mean we have to be friends. You didn’t even like me until you knew what I was. And then, the first time we met … well, I’m pretty sure you thought I was disgusting.”
