Elemental Awakened by Helen Scott
10
Griffin
When the front door swung open and Dres sauntered back in, I could tell he’d done something reckless. “I’ve invited Tessa to dinner tonight,” he said as though it were a normal thing to do.
“What?” I demanded.
After weeks of staying away from her because he didn’t want to reveal too much when he wasn’t certain she was the key, he’s asked her out on a date? My brain couldn’t comprehend it.
As though that wasn’t enough, Kai chose that moment to stroll in, looking like he’d just been dragged through a hedge backward. The cocky grin on his face told us all exactly where he’d been—with some random girl.
“Welcome. You’ve missed quite the morning,” I grumbled as I crossed my arms over my chest.
The man had the whole bad boy, rebel without a cause, give no fucks thing down, and the women around here just ate it up. I wasn’t sure why they were more scared of me than him, because just going by looks, he definitely had a more aggressive vibe, but it was like they could sense what was underneath. They could sense the warrior within me and the engineer within Kai.
We were two very different beasts.
“What’s goin’ on?” Kai asked as he flopped down onto the couch and toed off his boots.
“Dresden asked Tessa to dinner,” Finn said, the tone of his voice letting us all know exactly how he felt about that.
“What? You what?” Kai looked from Finn to Dresden.
I got to sit back and enjoy the show. They always said my people were hotheaded, that we had short tempers, but that was just a bunch of stereotype bullshit.
Dresden sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, making Kai glare at him even harder. Our earther had been forced to cut his hair before we came to the human realm, something that was akin to me giving up my powers. To his people, hair was a symbol of status and power. The longer, thicker, and darker their hair was, the more powerful they were and the more respected by the other members of their society. Since we’d been in the human realm, he’d let it grow, but whenever it started to draw too much attention, he cut it again. It was one of the sacrifices he’d made to be part of this team, one which we never talked about because he was beyond touchy about it, especially if it was after he’d recently cut his hair, like now.
Finally, Dres said, “I asked Tessa to dinner. I want to see what Griff and Finn are talking about. If they think she’s the key, there has to be a reason for it. I want to find out what that is, and the best way to do that is spend some time with her without her either being unconscious or attacked by a distorted. Maybe if I can get a look at what’s going on inside her mind, I’ll understand what’s going on.”
“Or you’re just trying to steal her out from under Finn. Poor guy finally decides to get his dick wet, and you just ignore it? Dick move. Besides, the key is an object, not a person. You’re all huffing the vapors of Hyperborea.” Kai waved his hand in our general direction, dismissing what Finn and I had felt about Tessa.
I wasn’t surprised at all when water droplets appeared out of nowhere and smacked into his face, Finn smirking to himself the whole time, as though we didn’t know he was responsible. He must have pulled the moisture from the air itself, since none of us had any drinks with us.
“I’m taking your side, asshole,” Kai said as he wiped the water from his face and flicked it toward the floor.
“You won’t even consider that she might be the answer we’re looking for, will you?” Finn demanded.
I should have made popcorn.
A derisive snort from came from Dresden, and I knew I’d thought that a little too loudly. I shrugged. I wasn’t going to deny it. They were really getting going, and I could enjoy a good argument as much as the next guy.
“That’s precisely why everyone else thinks your people are hotheads and instigators. You like the conflict,” Dres said, sounding irritated.
He pushed his hand through his hair again, which caused Kai to glare at him once more. The earther sneered as he said, “Don’t act like your people are so perfect. You have your own flaws with all your—”
“At least we don’t place a ridiculous amount of value on our hair!” Dresden had finally snapped.
It was a low blow. None of us ever commented on Kai’s hair. I winced at the silence that fell in the room.
“Go play in Atlantis, flyboy,” Kai growled out as he pushed to his feet and began to stalk out of the room.
“Just so you know,” Dres began before pausing and making sure that Kai wasn’t going to keep walking away. When the earther stopped but didn’t turn, Dres continued, “We’re running low on funds. You know once we run out, we have to go back. Do you really want to go back empty-handed?”
“Of course not!” Kai shouted as he spun to face Dres. “You think I want to tell my people that I failed? That I fought, but not hard enough? You think I want to watch the caretakers’ numbers dwindle and for our realms to collapse? Is that what you think I want? Why the fuck do you think I go out every day? Just because you have your fancy watch and computer doesn’t mean that you know everything. The earth tells me things. I can sense who and what has been around. That’s what I do all day, every day, while you’re in here watching your screens.”
“Maybe if you were more willing to work as a team, we wouldn’t be left wondering what you were doing all the time!” Dres shouted back.
It was rare for the two of them to get into it this badly, but when they did, it usually ended in a fist fight. Since I didn’t want Dres to show up to his date with a black eye, I stood and walked between the two of them, just in time to catch Kai’s punch to my shoulder. I was fortunate that my height difference made it so I didn’t take it to the side of my head.
I turned and glared at Kai before leveling the same look at Dres. “You said it yourself—we don’t have the money or the time to dick around. So why are you provoking him like that?” I turned to Kai. “He’s not trying to flaunt anything or talk down to you. He’s just…being Dres.” I glanced back at the other man and winced, murmuring a quick apology before continuing.
Water smacked Kai and Dres in the face, and Finn stood so the four of us were like a weird triangle. “We’re all stressed. Caretakers are dying out, whether from natural causes or otherwise, and we all know that the fewer caretakers we have, the more unstable the realms become. We aren’t winning any battles fighting among ourselves though. We need to be out there looking for the key, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore it if there are signs that point to something we didn’t expect. Would you ignore it if the key was something that could only be found in this realm? A specific kind of metal or object, one that none of the other realms had? I know you wouldn’t, because you’re not that narrowminded. All I’m asking is that you try to imagine that it could be a person instead. As far as we know, there’s nothing stating that the key is an inanimate object, so why are we putting those constraints on our search?”
Finn had them there. The Atlantean was crazy smart, and though he might look like a meathead, he knew exactly how to keep his body in top form. There was no guessing, no hours of working out in a way that wasn’t helping. No matter what he ate or drank, no matter what he did activity wise, he always counterbalanced to make sure he was at the top of his game. He did it all with what he’d learned when he was experimenting on himself when we first arrived. We didn’t have a lot of the food and drink that this realm had, and our bodies had had to adapt. He spent hours logging everything he ate and drank and did, all so he didn’t become a liability to the team because he let his body get out of shape. He helped all of us with it as well. There was a reason we were all built like athletes, and it wasn’t just the years of training we’d had before we came here.
“I’m willing to keep an open mind, but that’s why I want to cook her dinner, have her here, where we won’t be attacked by any distorted. We’ll be safe and can all relax, and I can take a look in that mind of hers and figure out what the hell makes her so special to the two of you,” Dres said as he glanced between me and Finn.
I shrugged. I wasn’t about to deny that she was special. She was sweet and gentle from what I could tell. I just hoped that if she was the key, those qualities would survive the storm she was about to be hit with.
The thought of her and Dres having dinner together made something twist in my chest. I hadn’t had much of a chance to interact with her last night, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have eyes in my head. The woman was stunning to look at, and I’d seen the many admirers she’d had in the crowd at the party. There was something about her that kept them at arm’s length though. I wasn’t sure what it was yet, but I hoped to find out and figure out a way around it.
Something inside me wanted to get to know her and for her to get to know me. For her to see me for who I really was.
“Fine. Have her over for dinner, but it’ll take a lot more than you boys talking about your feelings to convince me that she’s the key,” Kai growled out before stomping away.
That was the best we were going to get from him, and we all knew it. Finn was evidently satisfied because he sat back down and began fiddling with his watch, checking the reports for distorted and caretaker alerts.
“I’m going to go grocery shopping. Do you need anything?” Dres asked, flicking his keys around in his hand.
I shook my head, and Finn did the same. As soon as Dres was out of the door, I moved toward the kitchen. If he was making her dinner, then they would need some dinner rolls. Fortunately, those were a specialty of mine. I couldn’t cook like Dres could, but this family recipe had been drilled into me while I was a kid. I’d stood next to my grandmother and then my mother as they each made them for our family time and time again, and eventually, when I was old enough, I started helping.
It was a family recipe and part of my heart. I knew she would have no idea what it meant to me, but it was an invitation. I wanted us to get to know one another, and a good way to start that was sharing food, so even if I wasn’t here physically, I could leave a little part of my heart behind for her to find and hopefully enjoy.
Fuck. When did I get so sappy?
I grumbled to myself as I started mixing the ingredients. Whether or not she liked the rolls would be a good indicator of if she would like the food in my realm.
I couldn’t help but hope that she enjoyed them. Just like I couldn’t help but hope that she was the key that we’d been looking for, the one that could save all of us and stabilize our realms once more. Why it would be a human woman I had no idea, but the gods liked to laugh at us, and I bet this had them rolling. If she was the key, we’d make it work. We’d fight tooth and nail to get her back to our realms, to save everyone we cared about back home. I just hoped that once the others came around and realized the same thing Finn and I already suspected, she’d be amenable to the idea.
After all, we’d be asking her to give up her life here for who knew how long while we, or rather she, worked to balance all the realms. Part of me wondered how I would react if I were in the same situation. Suddenly, magic, mythical kingdoms, and dragons would be real, and the whole world would change. Would I give up my life for this cause? I had to hope I would, since I’d already given up my life when I was on the other side of the equation. But this wasn’t about me, it was about her. Would she give up her life here? Give up everything she knew and held dear?
