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My hands shook as the water ran into the shaking glass. I needed to breathe. The sounds of fighting on the back lawn didn’t help. How could over a dozen people not take down one woman? Yeah, she was immortal until Carmon did something to stop that, but they’d said she could still be injured. What was happening?
Glass in shaky hand, I rushed for the living room. Ten feet from Carmon and Sylee, a person popped up into my way. My feet stopped just in time to not run into Lady Life.
Her dress was ripped and red with blood. Dark hair, matted by blood, fell around shoulders which heaved in furious anger. The Elemental’s back was to me. She didn’t know I was here.
“You conniving child. You think you know what powers you’re messing with, but you have no idea.” I peeked around the raging woman to see Carmon slumped in Sylee’s arms. A small smile tugged at his lips. He’d succeeded. “Now you will pay for your rebellion.”
My stomach fell to the floor as Life lunged for the pair. Sylee wrapped herself around Carmon to protect him, but it wouldn’t be enough. Life would kill them.
Without thought, my arm drew back, and I threw the glass as hard as I could at Life’s head. The material didn’t break but bounced off her hard enough to bring me to her attention. I took an involuntary step back as the shouts from the outside came closer.
Lady Life’s lips curled up in a sneer. “You think you can take me on, little miss Fire? You’re nothing but Neutral trash, incapable of protecting yourself.”
I tilted my chin up in defiance. “Your lover thought the same about me. He laughed. He didn’t laugh so hard when I killed him.”
Brave was not my middle name. No brave bone existed in my body. However, I’d never had a family before now. So, for my family, I could act the part of the insane sister who dies trying to save everyone because she can’t fight and yet draws the fight to her anyway.
Life yelled and launched herself at me. Somewhere she’d found or stolen a knife. Maybe she’d had it on her the entire time. I’d never know, because she sank it into my gut.
I doubled over as a thump reached my ears and Life screamed. An arrow stuck out of her chest. She tried to breathe, tried to pull the shaft out, even, but she failed. Lady Life fell to the floor a second before I collapsed into a fetal position, the knife still sticking out of me.
I’d assumed earlier that I couldn’t shake more. Not so. Being stabbed proved me wrong.
Hot tears fell from my eyes as I sniffled. Carmon hadn’t made us immortal. We’d decided that he needed the strength to take Life’s immortality. No one wanted to take the chance that he weakened before then. Bard and Love still had their immortality. Earth, Lightning, Air, Yavich, and Onyx had all given their immortality to Carmon to give him the strength to help us defeat Life. He’d done well.
My body had cooled again. Heat focused around the wound. My hands were wrapped around the hilt of the knife when Adam knelt in front of me.
“No, no, Brynn!”
I opened my mouth to respond that I’d be okay. Yeah, it was a lie. Nothing came out, so it didn’t matter.
Adam wiped at my tears as some of his own fell. I gave him a smile. I could leave him a good memory of me. We had good memories together. I’d wanted to make more, but what we had was happy.
“Don’t…don’t leave me.” Adam’s chin quivered, and I wanted to wipe the sorrow from his face. He was beautiful, if a man could be.
Jeff, Tessa, Alex, and Nate all knelt beside me, but they didn’t have my full attention. Though, I did catch their forlorn expressions. Something was wrong with my wound. The thought passed through my mind but didn’t stick around.
Searing pain made me scream, and Adam cried harder. Someone had removed the knife, leaving a hole in my middle and me bleeding out faster.
“Move!” The voice didn’t register in my mind, though I’d heard it before. Whoever it was, she was to be obeyed.
A dark-haired beauty in a blue dress knelt in the place the four healers had occupied until the blue woman had come.
“Relax, Sweetheart.” She smiled at me. Adam looked so much like her. Except Adam’s eyes were brown. This woman’s were a brilliant blue. Just like Carmon’s.
The next blink found me in another place surrounded by trees and filled with vegetation of all kinds.
Water began to surround me. I was going to sink!
“Relax, child.” The blue woman smiled down on me. “This is my pool in the Elemental home world. I’m afraid you and I will be the last two to visit this place. It is fading as my siblings fade. Fire, Earth, and Air are gone. Life is dead. Alex has lost his immortality. Love is still immortal with Bard to care for the creatures of his forest, but one immortal Elemental is not enough to hold this world together.
“We never should have left this world when the humans came to theirs. Our influence caused so much pain and anguish. My siblings and I thought we were so great, giving so much to these helpless creatures. They were better off without us.”
Water surrounded everywhere but my face now, and I heard Lady Water, my mother-in-law, through a dampener. She smiled down on me. Her eyes were sad. They made me want to cry.
“Carmon is weak. He needs my immortality. It took more out of him to stop my sister than he’d expected. My immortality is the least I can give. Thousands of years of pain in this world and all the deaths are my fault. Aaron was an amazing man, but I saw what hid itself beneath his kind heart. Bonding with him only fostered the thought of power. I messed up, and my boys and this world suffered because of it.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “They reminded me of Aaron when they were born. I’d just found out he and Life were having an affair before we imprisoned him. Nine months wasn’t enough time to move past my mate’s infidelity, so I gave them to my siblings to raise. I didn’t want to see them.
