EarthBorn (The Elemental Born Book 1) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty Three

~

Ethan

Together, Zak and I carried him inside, Kaia telling us that we needed to find Grace. “That injury has been caused by magic. No pack doctor or medical practitioner is going to be able to make a blind bit of difference. It’s going to take magic to save him.”

The house was practically empty now, my father having evacuated everyone to the tunnels below, making it easy to move him quickly. The tunnel entrance was located in the basement, hidden behind a false wall and racks of shelving.

Laying Frankie down on the cold hard floor, Jennifer placed his head in her lap. Running to the hidden access panel that would open the hidden door, I entered the combination. The lock clicked and I heard the whirl of gears moving as the door began to open, revealing Grace waiting for us. “What happened?” she asked, rushing to aid my friend.

“The demon hit him with some kind of energy. It seems to be spreading, like some kind of infection.”

Lifting his shirt and looking down at the injury, Grace’s hands shook and her face went pale. “Not an infection… a curse.”

Fucking perfect!

“What do we do?” Kaia pleaded, tears swimming in her eyes. Moving over to her, I pulled her into my arms, pressing my lips to her forehead, trying to give her the comfort she needed. She blamed herself, as always.

“There is nothing we can…” Grace began to say, only to stop, her eyes going wide and mouth agape as her stared at Kaia. “Where did you get that?”

“Get what?” Kaia asked, looking at the elder woman in confusion.

“The stone, Kaia. Where did you get the Earthstone?”

“Oh, Ethan had it. He found it down in the vault before the ritual and chose it as my gift.”

Smiling warmly, Grace nodded, holding her hand out to Kaia. “Fate really is shining kindly on us today.”

Releasing my hold I allowed Kaia to join the Crone kneeling beside Frankie. “It will take very powerful magic to counter this curse. If left to fester, it will kill his human half and destroy the kind spirit of the wolf within, leaving a wild, uncontrollable wolf behind. But I believe that together, along with the Earthstone and his mate being present, we can pull him back and rid him of the curse.”

“We’re not mated,” Jennifer mumbled sadly.

“Not yet, but you are his mate. He and his wolf have already accepted that. The question is, have you?”

She hadn’t before, her mother’s relationship with her stepfather affecting her. Could she do so now?

“Yes,” she sobbed. “Yes, I accept it.”

Zak and I watched in amazement as the women surrounded our friend, all placing their hands upon him. The Earthstone was removed from around Kaia’s neck and placed over his heart.

My wolf didn’t like that his mate was touching another male, and from the sound of it, neither did Zak’s, but we held our tongues and kept the wolves leased. ‘They’re trying to save our friend’s life,’ I reminded my wolf, not that it stopped his growls.

As they began to chant, the air in the room vibrated with magic. Hearing a noise, I looked up to see my father and Ryan standing in the entrance to the tunnel, a mixture of shock and relief upon their faces at finding us alive.

The Earthstone began to glow, a deep green mist seeming to swirl within it. Moving around the room, looking down at my mate, I saw that her eyes were mimicking the colours of the stone.

As the women worked their magic, the wound on Frankie’s side that had, at first, looked like a burn but had since become surrounded by black spidery veins spreading out through his body, began to heal.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Frankie shot up into a sitting position, clutching his now uninjured side. “What happened?” he gasped, looking around the room. When his eyes found Jennifer, tears running down her face, he pulled her to him, crushing his mouth to hers.

“I'm so sorry,” she cried. “I'm sorry I was so mean to you.”

Looking around, I noticed that everyone in the room now seemed unsure of what to do, trying to avert their eyes from the two lovebirds.

“Awkward!” Dyanna laughed, breaking the tension.

Indicating Kaia over, I wrapped her in my arms, holding her tightly against my chest as I took in her scent, calming both my wolf and myself that she was safe. “Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you for saving my friend, my pack, my family.”

Smiling up at me, with more happiness in her eyes than I had seen since she was a child, she said, “No need to thank me, Ethan, they’re my family too.”

Yes, they were. Not only had Kaia accepted me as her mate, her protector, but she had also accepted my friends, my pack, my world. And in that moment, I couldn’t have been happier. Capturing her lips, I poured all of the love I held in my heart for her into that kiss. Letting her know just how much I loved her. And I always would.

Epilogue

~

Kaia

One week later…

Life was good, something I never thought it would be. But here I was, with my mate by my side as the Alpha announced, not just the mating of Ethan and I, but of Frankie and Jennifer also.

To say Frankie had been at death’s door, it hadn’t taken him long to drag Jennifer off and claim her, an hour or two at most. I swear, if we hadn’t been there, he probably would have pounced on her then and there in the basement. But I was happy for him. His wolf was finally at peace, and I felt a little less guilty about stealing his friend away from him.

Once the Alpha had finished his address to the pack, the celebration started. The weather was warm and sunny so the entire pack had gathered out on the lawn to throw a huge BBQ. We ate, danced and laughed. It was perfect.

Well, it was almost perfect. You see, there was just one little problem, I couldn’t get what Abaddon had said out of my head.

‘I only need to kill
one
Elemental… just one to stop the prophecy from being fulfilled.’

I was safe, for now. He wouldn’t kill me, not when he wanted my powers for himself, but what about the other Elementals? Was he hunting them now? As I sat here celebrating with my new family, were they running for their lives?

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Ethan asked, noticing the changes in my mood.

“Just thinking about the others?”

“What others?” Frankie asked as he flopped down on the ground next to us, pulling Jennifer into his lap and nuzzling her neck. He couldn’t keep his hands off her for even a minute.

“The other Elementals. Abaddon may have given up on me, for now at least, but he hasn’t them. Even now they are in danger.”

“But won’t they be calling for their protectors too, like you did? I mean, the rules have changed for all of you.”

“They might be, but then again, they might not.”

All Covens were secretive, and if they had an Elemental witch they were even more so. Grace had been present at my birth and was the only Crone that knew of my existence. If she hadn’t been there, I don’t know if my parents would have ever told anyone once they realised what I was.

What if, because of all the secrets, the others didn’t know about the change to the rules? Not all covens were in touch with the Crones. What if, because Grace couldn’t and wouldn’t tell the others about what had happened here with Abaddon, they weren’t prepared for what was to come?

“I need to find them, Ethan.”

“I know,” he replied, his acceptance and worry clear.

“And you will.” Grace’s musical voice flowed through the trees as she moved out of the woods carrying an old scroll in her hands. She had disappeared back to the farm the day after Abaddon’s visit and even though we had spoken briefly beforehand, I hadn’t seen her since. “You need to find the others, Kaia, and quickly, before time runs out.”

“But how? How do I find them? Not even you know where or who they are,” I moaned, frustrated as hell with the situation. I had gone over the book written by the first Earth witch over and over during nights since the attack. I wasn’t sleeping well, my nights filled with strange dreams that left me shaken and panicked. Every time I woke, I read those pages, hoping to find something new, something that would help me figure things out. But that book only told of the past, the history of my powers.

“By using your power, Kaia. Even though you have never met there is still a connection between you all. You can use that connection to find the others, to help them find their protectors and join with them as you did Ethan. Once that happens and all four of you are together to reunite your powers, then and only then can the demon Abaddon be destroyed.”

No pressure then.

“Well, aren’t you the life and soul of the party,” Dyanna remarked as she and Zak walked over to join us.

Smiling at her great grandchild, she said, “I take it that you have decided to live here. I noticed this morning that your room had been cleaned out.”

“Dyanna?” I gasped. “You cleared out your room and moved here without telling her?”

“She wasn’t there when we went round, and I didn’t think she would want to hear Zak and me at it all day and night, so I decided to move here straight away.”

“Definitely not.”

And they were. I was already fed up of hearing them go at it. Though Ethan had commented that if they kept us awake with their moans and shouts one more night we would have to let loose and annoy them with our noise.

“So where were you? You don’t usually go anywhere but the barn,” I asked.  

Sitting beside us on the blanket we had stretched out on, she unrolled the scroll and laid it down for us all to see. “I wanted to show you this, Kaia.”

Sitting up, I gazed down. It was an old poem, one that all Wiccans were brought up knowing. Why she wanted to show me this I had no idea. Leaning over to read the fancy lettering I realised that this version was different from the one I knew, had more parts to the verses.

Earth is the strength that binds them together, the animal of her mate will protect like no other.

Air is one that comes on swift winds, her mate from the skies will give her wings.

Water is the one who rushes along, her mate of the night will set her right.

Reading the poem over and over again, there was one question that kept rolling around in my head. “But where is Fire? It says nothing of Fire.”

Come to think of it, the part about Fire I had heard growing up had always been so strange that I hadn’t actually believed that it was the real verse anyway. But to have no mention of Fire at all, in what I could only guess was the original poem, was just plain strange.

“No, it doesn’t. I'm not sure why exactly, but that part has been missing for a long time now. But there is a saying, one I know you have heard before many times in your youth.”

“
Fire never dies
,” I replied instantly, the words branded into my brain. “But what does that mean?”

Sighing, she said, “I honestly don’t know. But I hope that one day you can tell me.”

~

A few days later, our bags packed and placed in Ethan’s SUV and we waved goodbye to the pack. But not to our friends it turned out. Despite my objections, the whole bunch of them, Dyanna and Zak, Frankie and Jennifer, had decided to join us on our journey.

“You do realise how dangerous this trip is going to be, right? That we will with no doubt face Abaddon again?”

“We know, and we don’t care,” Dyanna stated, curled up in Zak’s lap in the back seat as we headed out of town.

“And you’re okay with this, Jennifer?” I asked, turning to look at my new loved up friend. “After your mate almost died?”

Leaning her head against Frankie’s chest, the smile of a well-satisfied woman graced her face. “But he didn’t. You saved him, Kaia. You and the others. Now we owe you, and we want to help in any way we can. So we’re coming with you.”

I could have argued with them all day, told them how crazy and stupid them joining us was, but I knew that nothing I could say would change their minds.

“Okay, sweetheart, kind of need a clue as to where we are going,” Ethan said from the driver’s seat beside me. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes, sending my senses out, attempting to find the girl I had seen in my dreams the previous night.

Nightmares had plagued me since the attack but I had been struggling to remember them once I awoke. But not last night. Why the dreams had suddenly been so clear to me I do not know, all I did know was that I needed to find a young girl and save her from the pain swiftly flying her way.

I’d awoken from the terrifying dream with sweat covering my body. I was shaking and trembled within Ethan’s embrace, tears rolling down my cheeks. Every time I had closed my eyes I could still see her, sense her even.

Eventually I’d calmed down enough to talk about what I had seen, felt. “I was in a place of power similar to the Circle, but there were six stones, not four, and they weren’t placed around it but along one side. A girl stood in before them. No, not a girl… an Elemental. I think she was performing the ritual, calling her protector, but then the demon attacked, laying waste to all those around her.” And that had been the horrifying thing about it. The demon really had been holding back with me and my friends.

“What happened to her?”

“I’m not sure. I woke up just before he reached her.”

“Well don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” Ethan whispered, his warm lips running down my neck as he tried to distract me. “It was just a dream.”

But it wasn’t. I knew in my gut that the dream had been real, or, at least, would become real if we didn’t get there first.

I don’t know how long I sat there, unmoving, sending my senses out looking for god knows what, when I suddenly felt a breeze upon my face, the scent of fresh air filling my nose. Opening my eyes, I expected to find the window open, but looking around, they were all shut. Checking the air-con, I found that that was turned off too. Concentrating once more, I searched for it, searched for that cool scent of summer air. This time, I found it a lot quicker.

Somehow, deep in my gut, I just knew that I had found an Elemental, that I had found Air. Quickly giving Ethan directions, we set off, praying that if we didn’t get there in time, that her protector would.