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“So you kept us at a distance because of a prophecy?” Dalton asked, looking at Clara.
She shook her head, but then nodded. “Yes and no. I hated you for being born sons instead of daughters because the prophecy would have to be fulfilled. Being linked to your father, I could also feel his greed to have you. Whether it was your blood or your allegiance, I didn’t know, but he’d found a way to break into my mind and take the information he wanted. I thought, if I could keep all of you separate, I could keep him from you and knowing about you.”
“So, you hated us, and you tried to protect us? This is insane.” Chris stood and pulled his mate with him to the kitchen, where he filled a glass full of water and brought it back for Carmon.
Carmon took a long drink before speaking again. “So when Life came to us and told us we needed mates to beat the Mindolin, that pushed the prophecy forward as well. We’ve gained links with the Ladies, and they’ve taken on our missing Elemental abilities, but is there another reason?”
Life looked at Carmon with an expression I couldn’t place. “The water will not help you, Lord Carmon. And you are no longer under the effects from the Mindolin.”
What am I missing?There was something huge here, and I couldn’t figure it out on my own.
Carmon is a Water Elemental like Mom and a Life Elemental like Aunt Mercy.Adam’s response put a few things into perspective.He asked Chris to bring him some water because he’s not feeling well. Water usually rejuvenates Cal as much as blood does.
So, she said the water won’t help him. Then what will?
Adam sighed in my head.I don’t know.
“What are you talking about?” Sylee asked as Carmon held his head with one hand.
Life smiled at her. “Your links all came together because your power runs together. I’ve withheld most of Carmon’s Life abilities because he was not strong enough on his own to handle them. Once the links were shared between all of you, Carmon gained the ability to handle more of his Life Elemental powers.” The glass fell from Carmon’s hand and shattered on the floor. Adam reached around me to help Carmon when he collapsed. “It’s still a lot for Carmon’s body to handle, but he’ll grow used to the power.”
“You’re sure?” Jeff came to Carmon’s aid as well.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Life answered as blood dripped from Carmon’s nose. “The power has been building with each addition of an Elemental mate. Carmon hasn’t noticed the change.”
“What do we do now?” Drew asked from his seat, still holding a baby. “The Mindolin wants my babies still, doesn’t he? He plans to do to them what he did to Lightning’s son?”
Life nodded. “He does.” Drew’s eyes darkened. “The Elementals will protect you as long as they can. Water’s connection to the Mindolin makes us a liability, so we will leave you now and help where we can. The army opposing the Mindolin is meeting in Cambria. Be there soon.”
All the Elementals disappeared, leaving the rest of us alone in the cabin’s living room.
“I don’t think I’m alone when I say that didn’t go as expected.” Dalton leaned back and stared up at the ceiling.
Jeff stood, and Adam laid Carmon on a couch with Sylee taking his place to hover over her mate.
“He’ll be fine, just like Life said.” Jeff returned to his seat looking tired.
“I’ve always wondered a lot of things,” Chris remarked, “but I think I’d rather go back to being ignorant.”
Drew kept passing Adam looks while Adam pretended to ignore his brother. Drew’s casual glances filled with meaning I couldn’t read, then changed to glares the longer Adam sat there.
What is going on?Adam’s uncertainty couldn’t be missed, and again I was tired of being in the dark.
Carmon’s down. Sylee is helping him, which she should. As the Fire Elemental, that leaves me in charge.
Okay, so hop to it.
You don’t understand, Brynn. Leading isn’t my thing. Cal is good at it, and I’m good at backing him up, but I hate leading. I get it that Carmon hates it too at times, but I’m not a good leader. I’ll just get everyone killed or something.
I put up a finger to Drew, requesting he give Adam and me a few minutes before he became really upset at Adam for ignoring his duty.
“Come with me.” I grabbed Adam’s hand and pulled him until we were outside. When we were alone, I turned on him. “What are you talking about?”
“Whenever I’m in charge, I don’t know. I’m not good at it. I’m not good at delegating. I’m not awesome at trusting my team. The last time I was in charge, Drew kept having dreams about Jasmine. He kept telling me we needed to search for a hive, but I kept thinking he was losing his mind.” Adam paced the porch while the snow evaporated around us from the heat coming from him. “If he’d listened to me, Jazz would be dead or bound to a Vampire forever. My niece and nephews wouldn’t exist. Drew would be a violent monster still. All because I just wanted to get back home and ignore the problems of the world. I wanted to be back and wait for Carmon to arrive from his honeymoon so I wouldn’t need to make the life and death decisions anymore.
“I can’t handle it if someone is hurt on my watch, Brynn. Everyone here is too important to me to lose them because of a bad decision. It’s not like I haven’t made any. Hiding you, not having a strong enough backbone to bring you forward until now, yeah, that’s the stupidest of my bad decisions. I loved you. I still do. I should have shouted it to the world. I should have allowed your love to change me instead of staying on the same track I was on.
“We could have defeated him earlier today had I brought you back. I kept pushing it off. And why? Because I was scared.” Tears fell down his cheeks. “Scared that after all this time, you would have moved on and wouldn’t want me, since I’d left you months ago. I was scared you’d be hurt like the other girls. Scared I couldn’t protect you like you deserve. What if I fail everyone else like I failed you?”
