Elemental Awakened by Helen Scott
21
Tessa
When Finn came back in fresh jeans and a clean T-shirt, we moved through to sit on the couch, coffee in hand. I watched as he moved, the fabric of the shirt tugging at his shoulders and biceps, and I wondered if he purposely bought shirts that were too small for him so he could show off.
Dres snorted, and I realized that he’d heard my thoughts.
“Sorry,” he said, looking embarrassed. “You project exceptionally well.”
“Do you want to hear my thoughts?” I asked, unsure how I would feel if everyone’s inner monologues were opened up to me.
“I try not to listen, but it’s helpful to see what’s going on, if someone’s been compromised, if they are too emotional to put things into words, if we’re in a situation where we can’t talk aloud, that kind of thing. I can teach you how to muffle your thoughts or shut me out though if you want?”
“That might be best,” I said, my mind wandering back to Finn’s muscles and how they had felt under my hands.
“Yeah, maybe,” Dres replied, his voice sounding strangled as he moved to rest his ankle on the opposite knee.
“So, we need to explain the situation to you, don’t we?” Finn mused, his eyes dancing between Dres and me like waves batting a bird about on the surface.
“Seeing as how I have no idea what the situation is, I’d say yeah, you do. Especially if it’s something that’s keeping me from going home or going back to work.” I sipped on my hot bean water and let it comfort me from the inside out.
“Remember that deal we struck?” Finn asked, and I nodded. “You get overwhelmed, just say the word and we’ll take a break, but you need to understand what you’ve stumbled on if you ever want to be able to go home.”
I nodded again, not trusting my voice to sound strong, since it felt like someone was about to drop a bomb on me.
“Okay.” Finn exhaled a deep breath and dove in. “You know how I said I live in Atlantis? Well, Atlantis is another realm. There are four of them, with this one, where we are right now, being the fifth realm. Sometimes we call it the origin realm. Each of us comes from a different realm where magic is as common as carbon atoms. It suffuses everything. The very air we breathe is laced with it. In fact, some argue that it’s the only reason we can breathe in certain realms.
“For eons we’ve been searching for a key that is described in a prophecy. Each of our realms chooses from its best and brightest, those with the most potential at puberty to be trained as a team to search for the key. The reason behind all this is the demons that have been attacking you. They want to merge all five realms together into one magic and human filled place—one that only they will control. They’re a faction that is fighting to gain more power and more space, and they want to enslave humans to do it. What they are ignoring is how this would happen. It’s not like five realms can merge without any damage. Millions of people would die because of it, human and…nonhuman alike.”
“And you think I’m the key?” I asked when he paused. He nodded, so I followed up with, “Why?”
“Partially because the distorted want to kill you, and usually, humans are below their notice, partially because the caretakers—the dragons you see—appear to be drawn to you, and partially because you fit the description of the prophecy, albeit in a strange way.”
“What are the dragons, I mean, caretakers? What do they have to do with all of this?” I started biting my nail, the one that was just a little longer than all the others, so I had something concentrate and focus on while they threw all this magical shit at me.
“They are the beings that helped create the four realms, the ones that give our realms the strength to survive independently of this one.”
“And what am I supposed to do as this key?” Pressure was building in my chest, and I knew I was getting close to losing my shit.
“That we don’t know. Ever since the distorted started to search for the key, the rest of the prophecy disappeared from public record and became the most closely guarded secret. Any teams that are sent out with hopes of finding the key have specific instructions of what to do should they succeed. So my hope is that you’ll come with us so we can find out what the hell is going on and save the five realms from complete destruction.”
The front door banged open in that moment, and Kai came rushing in. His eyes met mine, but then he looked away and I knew that if he could avoid looking at me at all, he would. It was the slight panic that crinkled the edges of his eyes that made my chest tighten even further though. Something was wrong.
“I’ve been followed by distorted all morning,” Kai growled out as he moved to one side of the curtain that had been drawn in the living room.
When he pulled it to the side, I could see a man and woman standing across the street by a lamp post, staring at the house as bold as brass. I hadn’t expected to actually see anyone when he moved the curtain, but there they were, looking like some weird store mannequins or something. As we watched, they slowly walked across the street until they were standing on the sidewalk right outside what I guessed were the property boundary lines.
“These are the demons who want to kill me?” I whispered.
“These are just distorted,” Griff said, dismissing them with a wave of his hand. “There will be actual demons that want to kill you too. But we’ll protect you from all that if you decide to come with us. It’s up to you though, dove.” He smiled over at me at the end, but there was a sadness that tinged the edges and it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Sure, the fate of all five realms is up to a human girl, makes total sense,” Kai ground out.
I wanted to snap at him, but I also didn’t want to interact with him, didn’t want to chance him insulting me again.
“Kai…” Dres sighed in reprimand.
“What? You think this shit is normal? If she decides she doesn’t want to come with us, then she will doom trillions of people and millions of demons to death. Yet you’re all acting as though she’s deciding what movie to watch.”
“Don’t we want the demons to die? Then they can’t hurt people anymore,” I said, unable to keep my mouth shut anymore.
“Ohhhh, they didn’t tell you everything yet. Well, please, allow me to finish up,” Kai said as he turned and strode toward me. His eyes flashed with emotions, but they were processing too fast for me to keep track of. “We’re all demons, sweetheart. All four of us, everyone in the four realms, we are what terrified humans so may years ago that they had to give us horns and tails and make us evil. Humans are only found here, in this realm. The other four realms, well, they are just stuffed full of demons. Want to save us all now?” he sneered.
The whole time he’d been talking, I’d felt my temper rising until I couldn’t hold it back any more. “I am sick of your shit, asshole. Didn’t your mama ever teach you if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all? I don’t know what your problem with me is, I don’t know why you think I’m a whore, and frankly, I don’t care. It’s not like I’m ever going to want to touch you again. If I want to sleep with any of your roommates, hell, all of your roommates at once, then it won’t matter because we’re all consenting adults and your narrowminded opinion holds no sway over me. As for you being demons, fine. I don’t give a shit. You’re not evil, and that’s all I need to know. I’m certainly not going to doom five realms worth of people to death or hell or whatever it is that will happen just because you’re a jerk.”
Finn started a slow clap, and Griff joined him while Dres scowled, first at Kai, then at the two of them.
“I’m going to gear up. She needs to make a decision, and we need to report back with or without her,” Kai said before storming off upstairs. His boots slammed against every step, and once he was upstairs, what I assumed was a bedroom door slammed shut and we could still hear him moving around. Drawers were being pulled out with such force that they were squealing in protest, while what I was guessing was a closet or maybe private bathroom door slammed against a wall, all of which were followed by stomping footsteps.
“He’s like a fucking teenager,” I muttered as I looked up at the cracked white paint on the ceiling.
“Sometimes, very much so, other times, he’s older than all of us,” Dres said cryptically.
“So he outed us. Do you want to run for the hills?” Griff asked.
“No, like I said to him, you’re not evil, that much is obvious. Just because you use the term ‘demon’ to identify yourselves doesn’t mean anything to me. Like pit bulls aren’t evil, they’re just dogs, but way too many people hear that name and jump to the wrong conclusion.” I shrugged.
“Did you just call us dogs?” Griff raised one eyebrow at me, which when paired with his wicked grin, made my body respond in all sorts of ways that were not appropriate, considering Dres could probably pick up on my every thought.
“It was an analogy!” I said with a groan, exasperated. My heart was beating fast in my chest, the adrenaline from confronting Kai roaring through my veins as I tried to calm down and also process everything they were saying.
“Guys can you give us a minute?” Finn asked, his voice as smooth as honey.
Dres and Griff both nodded and made their way out of the living room area and upstairs from what I could tell, while Finn moved from the armchair he’d been occupying to kneeling in front of me on the floor. I tried to pull him up onto the couch to sit with me, but the stubborn man stayed put and it felt like I was trying to move a boulder.
“Tell me the truth, sweetheart. Are you okay with us being demons?” he asked as he tucked an errant strand of hair behind my ear and trailed his knuckles over my face.
“I wouldn’t lie to you,” I said quietly. “Not after everything…” My lip trembled, and I had to swallow hard to stop myself from crying just because I was so overwhelmed. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. Are you upset about Kai?” he asked gently, and I nodded. That was certainly part of it. I didn’t want to be upset by the jerk who was still banging around upstairs, but I couldn’t help what I was feeling.
“You can kiss whomever you want, whenever you want, and no one should make you feel bad about it.” He smiled up at me, and as the lines of his face wobbled slightly, I realized that even though I’d tried so hard not to, I was tearing up. I’d expected anger, hurt, betrayal to come from him, not reassurance and understanding. “Listen, the four of us have been training together since we were just kids. We know each other forward and backward. Sometimes, we have even shared women, so no one, not even Kai, is truly going to be upset with you for kissing, hell, for sleeping with any of us. You are important. I don’t know how or why you’re the key, at least not yet, but you have the ability to stabilize all five realms and maybe even save us from ourselves. I see us tearing each other apart as clear as day, and I know it’s only a matter of time before that happens, but maybe now that we’ve found you, now we can finally find out what the next steps are. Maybe we can get back to that sense of brotherhood that we used to have. If you’ll help us?”
I scooted off the couch and almost straddled him on the floor. “I’d already said I’d help you, silly.”
Kneeling there with him, it felt like much more than a simple agreement. It felt like a promise of a future, one that was completely different than what I’d planned, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I’d never been normal. I hadn’t had a normal upbringing, or schooling, or anything really for that matter, past the age of eight. It had taken me a long time to realize that normal wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and if these guys were going to offer me adventure and look at me like Finn was in that moment, like I was infinitely precious, then I’d be willing to sacrifice what was left of my normalcy for them.
“You would have to come to Atlantis with us.” Finn’s words were soft, and he said them with enough resignation that it was clear he thought this would change my mind.
I was quiet for a moment while his eyes searched mine before I asked, “May I kiss you? You can totally say no if you—”
He was in front of me, pressing his desert rose lips to mine before I could even finish speaking. A warm rush of sensation swept over my body as I moved as close to him as I could, meeting him kiss for kiss, breath for breath. This wasn’t the desperate raging passion of before, this was something sweeter, calmer, deeper. This was us sealing our promise to one another that we would always be truthful, that we would always support one another, even though we barely knew each other.
When I pulled back, it felt like waves were lapping at my soul, pulling me closer and closer to him. After a second of adjusting and awkward laughter while we tried not to kick each other, I was seated firmly in his lap while his slow, languid kisses stoked a fire in me that was hotter than ever before, and yet wasn’t raging and trying to take over. His hands cupped my ass for a moment before splaying up my back and holding me close.
“Does this feel…?” I asked as we both took a deep breath of air.
“Like more than just a kiss?” he asked in response.
I nodded, biting my lower lip. His eyes tracked the movement, and we both sat there in silence while I watched him try to formulate words. I was willing to wait for his answer, for his thoughts to be ordered. The more pensive he looked, the greater the nerves in my belly became. Those nerves quickly turned to dread as his eyebrows drew together and he looked at me with sympathy written all over his face.
“It does, it feels… We feel important, but I need you to know that we can’t go any further in this realm, no matter how much I may want to. If you come back to Atlantis with us, then we can see if we still want to go further, but I’m sorry, I just can’t do anything like that in this realm.”
“That’s okay,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I like just kissing you, unless you don’t want to do that? Which is fine, of course.”
“I enjoy kissing you very much, my little siren.” He grinned.
“Oh, good. I was hoping you’d say that,” I replied as he dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose.
“I want to tell you something, and I don’t want you to take offense or be mad at Dres. Remember we’re a team and we function as a cohesive unit, well, most of the time.”
The nerves came flooding back. “Okay…”
“Dres told us what you shared with him about your glove. I wanted you to know that we knew, and that I hope in time, you won’t feel as though you need to wear it around us. You’re beautiful just as you are, glove or no.”
My chest went tight. I hadn’t been with anyone since high school who knew about my history and I was comfortable enough around to go without my glove. As I sat there and absorbed his words, I knew that the safety I felt around these men was something from beyond my world or realm or whatever, and maybe beyond theirs too, but it was real and it wasn’t just magic.
I pulled my hands to my lap and undid the strap that held the glove closed around my wrist and pulled the black nylon that felt more like satin from my hand, letting the cool air caress my skin. The warped, puckered skin was still slightly red after all these years, something that the doctors had said would never go away unless I had expensive cosmetic procedures. It almost looked like a Lichtenberg figure, as though my body had been struck by lightning instead of my mother’s personal brand of crazy. My pinky finger was distorted because of the tight skin, being pulled in a way that wasn’t natural, while the side of my hand was indented from the flesh that had been burned away.
Finn slowly reached for my hand, and I had to fight the impulse to tuck it away and out of sight. When he picked it up, it was as though he were handling a butterfly and trying not to damage its wings. With utmost care, he brought his lips to my damaged skin and laid the softest, lightest kiss upon it.
When he pulled back, he looked me dead in the eye with more compassion than I’d seen any of them display until that point. “I will only say this one more time—if you don’t want to come with us, you don’t have to. We might be wrong about you being the key, and even if we’re right, the realms probably wouldn’t end within your lifetime.”
“That’s not the point though, is it? If I don’t help, then more people than I can actually comprehend will die, humans and demons both. Do you have wings?” I asked, the question popping out so randomly that at first, I didn’t realize my brain had connected to my mouth to make me say it out loud.
With a nonchalant shrug, Finn replied, “Some do, some don’t.”
“Do you?” I asked, feeling cheeky.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he said with a wink.
I desperately wanted to know. I wanted to find out as much about him as I could, but at the same time, this idea of going back to Atlantis with him was terrifying. Could I even survive there? Wasn’t it all underwater? I had so many questions and not enough answers.
