AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where’s Brynn? Where are we?” I tried to push myself up again, but Chris pushed me down.
“Brynn’s alive.” He knew what I needed to hear first. “She hasn’t woken up yet, but she’s warming up. That’s why Cal and I spooned you. Outside of you, I control the warmest element. Cal is the smallest. Sorry. I know we’re grown men and cuddling in our underwear isn’t cool, but we had to get you warm or you were going to die like Leo. So, I’m sorry if you’re angry about it, but I wasn’t about to allow my brother to die when I could do something to stop it.”
Chris’ voice cracked. His fear came across plain as day, and his voice rose with each word.
“I’m not upset.” I looked forward again. Cal hadn’t stirred. “Is he okay?”
“Life knew he wasn’t ready to take all of her powers on at once. She opened the floodgates and is drowning him in his own power. You owe Sylee a big thanks for allowing him to stay with us and warm you up. I’m not sure she’s slept. Someone’s been pacing outside our door for hours.
“Grace and Dalton are taking care of their kids. Jazz and Drew are doing the same. Sophie and Tessa are caring for Brynn along with Nate and Alex. The girls got her into a warm bath just in time, Alex said. Jeff’s still healing.
“Zhaine, Onyx, Olivia, Lilith, and even Bard are here along with Yavich. He’s a quiet guy, but he respects you, Adam.”
I sat up. “Any word on Mom?”
Chris sighed. “No, and none of the Elementals know where she is. Marcus is now in charge of them, scary thought, and I think he’s under the impression Mom’s dead. He could be wrong. Yavich isn’t dead after centuries.”
During our conversation I’d come to recognize the room we were in and relaxed. The three of us were lying in Drew and Jazz’s bed at the cabin. It was probably the biggest bed around and meant we were close to everyone else.
“Is it safe to be here?” I asked, finally pushing myself up to a sitting position after knocking Chris’ hand away as he tried to push me back down.
“Is it safe anywhere?” Chris stood and pulled his pants and shirt on. “Cambria survived the attack. The Mindolin’s army is scattered, and Dad’s dead. Life is still out there, but no one besides the people in this house know she’s turned against us. That makes us enemies number, what, one through twenty?”
“So, does she want the babies, or was that a diversion too?” I rubbed at my face. I needed to wake up so I wouldn’t topple over on my way to find Brynn.
“To be honest, no one knows what is true and what isn’t. We’ve got three seers in the house, but as you can see,” he pointed at Cal, “that one’s out of commission until his head and body adjust to the power dump Life did. Onyx can’t see much without her pool, but that’s been destroyed since she left. I’ll give you two guesses as to who did that. Onyx is just lucky she wasn’t there. Then the third seer is a week old. No offense to Taylee, but she won’t be much help.”
“I need to see Brynn.” Chris was already aware of that as he shoved my shirt over my head and started dressing me like I was a baby again. I had to laugh at him. “I’ve got this, you know?”
Chris blushed. “Yeah, sorry. I’m just still a little concerned and overwhelmed. I just feel like I need to be doing something. Last night, I wasn’t much help with Brynn and the Mindolin. Zhaine, Yavich, and I did what we could, but we didn’t have as much influence over the temperature as you guys and the Air Elementals did.”
“Every little bit helped, Chris. Even your body heat. Standing together, united, that’s what we need to do. We stood together last night, and we won part of the battle. Now help me up, and we can win the war.” I held my hand out to Chris, and he smiled.
“When did you get all leadership material on me?” His grin was goofy, and he looked happier.
“It’s been a long few days.” Of course, Chris knew that, being attacked by Dad’s creatures and all, but he just nodded at me without complaining. I’d been the one pretty safe in Mount Pickett.
“I’ll take you to Brynn.” Chris stayed close in case I relapsed and fell over.
My brother was right. Sylee paced outside Drew’s bedroom door. Her eyes whipped up to see Chris and me in the doorway, and I couldn’t help but grin at her.
“Thank you, Sylee, for giving Cal up for the night. I really appreciate it. He’s still sleeping.” I stepped back and Chris did the same to allow our sister in. We closed the door behind us.
“Come on. She’s in your old room.” Chris led me from one end of the upstairs to the other. Two sets of staircases led down to the open main level we could see from the balcony, but we bypassed them to continue to the bedrooms Drew had built on the opposite side of the house from his room. “She’s wrapped up in an electric blanket now.”
“Did your link come back?” Last I knew, Chris couldn’t talk to anyone through his link.
“Yeah. Everyone’s came back online after the Mindolin died.”
Over the balcony railing, Drew walked back and forth along the back wall, bouncing a baby. Dalton held his little one as well. Grace must have had the older child.
They are keeping the children, aren’t they?I asked Chris as we rounded the far corner to the balcony with the bedrooms.
They are. The little girl won’t be separated from them. She’s having nightmares of the fire. No one can help her better to move past those than Dalton.Chris turned sorry eyes on our Air Elemental brother.
Each of my brothers had suffered so much in our lives. Drew and I hadn’t been put through as much as the others. That didn’t seem fair. It was our size and the fact our elements were near to the top in the Elemental dominance list that had saved us. Leo had put Dalton through some horrible things, including burning him alive at the age of four. Leo wouldn’t pay for that. He was dead. Death didn’t count as payback for hurting my brother, and his good deed at the end of his life didn’t make up for it either.
I leaned against the balcony and watched the two men before speaking.Thank you, Drew, for allowing the guys and me in your bed.
