Power Revealed (The Elementers) (12 page)

“Uh. Um.” Was all either of them could say for a few moments.

A twig snapped nearby causing Raven to look away. “Raven? Justin?” Mr. Hamilton called out.

Rave sucked in a breath and responded, “We’re over here.” When she looked back at Justin, he had taken a few steps away but looked at her with a question in his eyes.

Chapter 16

“Riiinnnggg.” Most of the students snatched up their books and darted for the hallway, but Raven hesitated.

“Justin. Can I talk to you for a moment?” Mr. Hamilton called out over the sound of the school bell.

Raven fidgeted with her books as she watched Justin walk to the front of the classroom. She had spent much of science class trying to figure out how to talk to Justin. For the last few days since training in the forest with Justin and Mr. Hamilton, she felt that Justin had been avoiding her. Not so much physically. She saw him in three of her classes and he said hi. They had even talked about their science project today during class, but that was the focus of class today so he didn’t have much of a choice. She couldn’t quite describe it, but it felt like he had distanced himself from her ever since their training in the forest. She didn’t know how to describe it and she wondered if she had simply imagined it.

When she had touched Justin in the forest, first a bolt of energy shot through her. But after that, she had felt something else entirely. She felt a pull toward Justin that she had never experienced before. It wasn’t the energy. It wasn’t even what she had felt with Eric or any other guy. It was—much more. But why would she be having these feelings? She wasn’t even sure what she had felt and it didn’t make sense. She barely knew Justin. Maybe it was just a result of the fear and adrenalin from falling off the tree.

But why was Justin suddenly avoiding her? At least emotionally avoiding her. She wanted to ask, but what would she say? Nothing came to mind that wouldn’t make her feel ridiculous. At first she thought Justin had felt it to, but he’d been so uninterested in her since then, that she was sure it was one-sided. She tried to forget about it, but she completely failed at such efforts. She just wished she knew if it was all in her head. Then she could put it behind her.

That’s what she needed to do. She needed to prove to herself that it was just some freak occurrence and there was nothing between them. Then she could get back to regular life. She had struggled acting normal around Eric for the last few days and she needed to do something about it.

She slowly placed her books in her bag trying to time things so that she left the classroom when Justin finished talking with Mr. Hamilton. As Justin turned away from Mr. Hamilton’s desk, Raven stopped fidgeting with her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. Justin looked up and hesitated in his step when he saw her, but she wasn’t going to be deterred. It was time to get this over with and put things back to normal.

As they approached the door to the hallway, Justin halted as if he didn’t want to be in close vicinity with her. The feeling of rejection hit Raven, but she steeled herself and walked into the hallway determined to put an end to this craziness. She slowed down forcing Justin to catch up to her. As they turned down a nearly empty hallway she took action.

Justin said something about their science project when she placed her hand on his arm as casually as possible. Considering the fact that her goal was to prove to herself that nothing would happen, the rush of energy took her by surprise again. This time, her knees started to buckle causing her to instinctively grab tighter onto Justin’s arm to avoid falling. She felt his hand grab her other arm helping to stabilize her. Like the previous time, a rush of emotions flooded through her, but this time the buzz of energy remained and grew stronger. Somewhere, in the wash of emotions, she recognized the familiar earth frequency, but so much rushed through her that she struggled to think straight. Part of her knew she needed to let go, but another part of her couldn’t resist the pull toward Justin.

She thought he leaned in closer to her, but she wasn’t sure if she imagined it. Even with all the energy and emotion swirling inside of her, she noticed her heart pounding. She took a deep breath to calm herself, but she breathed in his citrus-woody scent. It reminded her of walking in the rain and the image of Justin with his wet hair and shirt coming into his living room after running in the rain flashed across her mind. She tried to say something, anything, but she couldn’t find her voice. Instead, she heard a different voice. It seemed to be in the distance and calling her name, but the sensation overload prevented her from making sense of it. It called out her name a second time, much louder causing Raven to turn her head.

“Oh!” Nikki, Raven’s best friend, halted a few steps away from Raven. Her jaw dropped open upon seeing Raven in such close proximity to Justin, and not Eric. Justin pulled his arms away and the rush of—whatever it was—drained away from Raven again. She wanted it back. “I, uh, was looking for you. I thought we were going to go to the game.” Nikki said. She paused and looked at Justin and then back at her friend with a sly smile. “But if you’re busy.”

Raven blushed. “No. I–we–were just talking. Nikki, this is Justin. He’s my science project partner.”

“Oh, that’s right. You two are studying biology together.” Nikki smirked and raised her eyebrows.

Raven knew that look and grabbed Nikki’s arm. “Come on. We’re going to be late.” She turned to Justin who stood there with his hands now in his pockets. She wanted him to pull his hands out and touch her, but not with Nikki standing there. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” Justin simply nodded and Raven walked away desperately wanting to know what was going on inside his head.

Chapter 17

Raven zipped her jacket, pulled up her hood, and shoved her hands in her pockets. She normally loved walking in the rain, but it lost some of its appeal when the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. “Where did Mr. Hamilton say we’re going to practice today?”

“What?” Justin asked.

Raven repeated louder to be heard over the howling wind. “Do you know where we’re going? Hopefully, somewhere warmer.”

“I vote for Texas. You need to get your pilot’s license soon so we can escape to the heat when it gets like this.”

Raven was relieved to have Justin cracking jokes and being more like his normal self with her again. But she made a point not to come in contact with him. After touching him yesterday, she knew the events in the forest weren’t from her imagination, but she had a boyfriend and Justin hadn’t shown any interest in being anything other than friends. She just needed to put it behind her and accept being just pals.

“Mr. Hamilton seriously needs to hurry up,” Justin complained while walking toward Mr. Hamilton’s jeep. “I’m freezing. Is it always this cold in April?”

As they neared the edge of the parking lot, Raven sensed a strange energy source nearby and halted mid-step. She tried to focus on the source but the energy pattern was muffled and unusual. It reminded her of a radio station that she couldn’t tune in clearly.

“Raven?” Justin came to a stop and called her name. “Raven?” After a few moments, Raven gently shook her head and her eyes refocused on Justin. “What’s wrong?” Justin asked.

Raven looked around them. “I’m not sure, but I thought I could sense a Wind Elementer nearby. But the link became fuzzy. It was strange.”

“You felt another Elementer?” Justin said.

“I thought I did. I can usually sense them pretty far away, even when they’re not using their powers. But this time it felt like the link was just smudged out. I’ve never felt that before. Weird.” She rotated in a circle looking around, even though the Elementer wasn’t likely to be within sight if she was struggling to sense him or her.

“Huh. Maybe they’re just too far away,” Justin said.

“Maybe.”

Justin looked at his watch as he walked toward Mr. Hamilton’s jeep. “What’s taking Mr. Hamilton so long?”

“I don’t know, he said he’d be done by—” Raven stopped again sensing the energy, but this time it was much stronger. She could feel someone connecting to the wind energy nearby. The wind quickly picked up greater force roaring at the top of its lungs. Her hood blew off her head and the force of the wind caused the rain to begin pelting her face. The energy started vibrating all around her. Spinning around, she squinted through the driving rain and blowing debris, but there was no Elementer in sight except Justin.

“I can feel it too. What’s going on?” Justin yelled over the noise of shaking trees. Everything not tied or rooted down and smaller than a basketball started being picked up and turned into painful projectiles.

“We’d better get back inside,” Raven hollered back.

“What about this Elementer?”

“I don’t know if they’re causing it, but we need to get indoors. Come on!”

Justin scanned one last time and then nodded in agreement. Raven turned to go but she froze when she heard a loud crack that could be heard even over the noise of the storm. She spun around in the direction of the sound to see the power pole at the edge of the parking lot falling directly toward Justin and herself.

She instinctively connected to the Earth element and with all the force she could muster yanked at a huge section of earth creating a massive pile of dirt nearly twice her height between herself and the falling pole. She pushed Justin and herself to the ground behind the temporary protective barrier. Pieces of asphalt flung themselves everywhere. She covered her head with her arms trying to protect herself from the rocks that hit her. The pole struck the pile of dirt with a loud bang. The force of the collision shook through her.

Raven looked over at Justin and he seemed to be fine. Relief poured through her, but then she heard what sounded like bacon being cooked on a human sized frying pan. Unfortunately, it was her bacon that was in danger of being cooked. Her eyes grew wide as she looked up to see that the power line had snapped and the exposed end flung itself toward them like a whip.

Before she had time to stop it, she felt the rush of energy beside her. “Got it!” Justin yelled. Another pile of dirt and asphalt leapt up from the ground, as if shot from a gun, and landed on the exposed end of the power line burying it safely under a large pile of dirt. Raven turned her head to find Justin’s face only inches away from her own. It caught her breath for a moment.

“That didn’t fall on its own, did it?” Justin said.

Raven slowly shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Justin looked around. “Do you still feel the Elementer?”

“They’re no longer connected, but I can kind of sense them.”

“Where are they?”

Raven pulled herself away from Justin and crouched, slowly rotating in a circle. She stopped once she faced the forested park across the street. “Somewhere over there. I think.”

“I’ll be back.” Justin jumped up and immediately sprinted for the park.

“Justin! Wait! It’s not safe!” Raven stood up and stared agape at Justin as he ran toward the threat. She knew it was foolish to go running into the forest if this tempest was caused by someone and their attacker waited for them. But she thought about Justin facing the danger alone and began racing after him. She waited for a car to pass, that seemed to be oblivious to the fallen pole, and then ran across the street. As she headed up the path leading into the forest she heard a loud crack. “Justin!” Raven called out, running in the direction of the sounds.

She rounded two more corners in the path and still couldn’t find him. Her heart beat rapidly, more out of fear than exertion. The forest hung heavy with moss and undergrowth. She slowed down trying to listen for Justin. Suddenly, a twig snapped causing her to jump. She shook her head when she realized that she was the one who stepped on the twig. “Justin,” she called out in a loud whisper.

“Over here,” Justin said.

She quickly rounded a corner in the path and almost ran into him, but she screeched to a halt to avoid connecting with him again. She didn’t want to be losing her focus if there really was someone nearby trying to harm them.