Tethered 02 - Conjure (6 page)

I managed a polite smile of my own, but was sure it looked strained. At the moment I wasn’t thinking of anything magickal or even about the initiation. Instead, I was thinking of the simple fact that I was sitting in my grandmother’s house with all my birth mother’s best friends from growing up and neither my grandmother nor my mother were here with me.

Then, I thought of how I didn’t even know what my mother looked like—what attributes of hers I’d been given due to genetics. This thought had never bothered me more than right now, in this moment.

“I’m fine, really,” I lied.

Callie’s mother squeezed my arm as though she hadn’t believed a single word I’d just said. “You look just like her, you know?” she whispered to me in a sympathetic tone.

“Admer said the same thing, but I don’t know if I believe it. I’ve never seen a picture of her.”

Mrs. Yates eyes narrowed. “Never? I’ll have to fix that. I’ll dig through my old photo albums when I get home and send Callie by tomorrow with some pictures for you.”

“Thank you, I’d like that.” My nerves lessened some.

Knowing I would soon be able to compare myself to old pictures of my mother seemed to dull the adoption weeping I’d been doing internally while sitting in everyone’s presence tonight.

Charles, Kace’s father, sipped his coffee as he cast his greenish-blue eyes directly on me. “So, Addison, what questions do you have for us? Any?”

Everyone’s eyes seemed to shift to me then. I didn’t enjoy being the center of attention, especially not in a room full of near strangers. I’d made a list earlier, after Kace and I had finished cleaning the house—and doing other things—but I couldn’t remember the questions I’d wanted to ask now that I’d been put on the spot.

“Umm.” I thought for a moment. “How are we created? Does it take two Elementals?”

My face flushed as I realized I’d practically asked them all to have an Elemental sex ed moment with me. Why had that been the question I chose at ask first?

“Well, Addison,” Adam started, and I instantly wished I could slap him just from the tone of his voice. “When two Elementals love one another—”

He didn’t get to finish. His mother smacked him square on the back on the head. “Don’t you start your condescending bullshit, Adam. I thought I taught you better than that.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter when I heard his tiny-framed mother cuss. She just didn’t seem like the type. She appeared to be so sweet—the type you’d imagine to use made-up words for curse words, even when in the presence of adults, like sugar for shit or fudge for fuck, but not the type to use the
actual
word.

Looks could be deceiving, and in this case it was true.

“Being an Elemental is a dominant gene, honey. It doesn’t matter if two Elementals come together to form a child or one Elemental and one non-Elemental,” Adam’s mother, Della, said.

“My husband was a non-Elemental,” Mrs. Yates said. “Actually, the majority of us had one non-Elemental spouse.”

“Oh.” My thoughts came back to my mother. Obviously, she was an Elemental. Did this mean that my father wasn’t? Just as quickly as the thought came, it went, and I glanced around the room as another thought penetrated my mind: Which of Kace’s parents was the non?

Charles, Kace’s father, must have taken note of my curiosity. “I’m the Elemental; my wife is the non. Della is an Elemental and Edgar is the non. Admer and Susan, Callie’s mother, are Elementals as well, obviously. All of us, plus your mother, were our initiated group. There were a total of five of us before your mother, Angela, left.”

I wondered for a moment why none of them hooked up. Was it because their elements didn’t mesh well? Was there not a strong attraction between them like with Kace and me?

“Why didn’t any of you…you know, hook up?” I asked, unable to think of a better way to phrase my question.

Charles smiled at me and I felt Kace shift uncomfortably beside me. “There’s always a bond between corresponding elements, but it isn’t always physical. The four of you are lucky to have it be such a way for you.”

“What are your elements?” I asked without realizing I’d spoken aloud until it was too late to stop myself from asking another question that seemed too personal.

“Mine is Earth,” Charles answered, surprising me completely. I would have thought he would have said Air like Kace.

“Water.” Della smiled.

“Air,” Susan said softly from beside me.

My eyes shifted to Admer while I waited for him to tell me his element. Something I’d wanted to know for a while.

“Water,” he said, meeting my gaze.

“Your mother was Fire, same as you,” Susan said before I could ask.

I thought of everyone’s elements and wondered why I seemed to be the only one whose element matched their parent’s.

“Why do your elements not match up with theirs?” I asked, motioning between Kace and his father, hoping it wasn’t another stupid question.

No one answered me right away and I wondered if it was some sort of anomaly. Was it not common to have the same element as one of your parents? I mean, there were only four flipping elements after all.

Dear God, if they told me it was some freakish thing they couldn’t explain, I was going to have heart failure. It never ended well for those people in books or movies. They always had to fight some massive evil or undergo some huge transformation as though they were now royalty. All I wanted was to figure all of this magick out and at the end of the day still be me without any added labels. Being adopted was enough. Being an Elemental now was enough. Being freaking tethered to Theo was more than enough.

I could not handle another label.

Susan was the one who finally answered. “It’s always a tossup. You never know what element your child will have, or even what element you have for that matter, at birth. Each of us learned of our element on our own as we grew up. You’re more attracted to certain things, aren’t you?” she asked. “For instance, I was always attracted to the wind. To me, that’s one of the best feelings in the world—to have it brushing against your skin. I’m sure you feel the same about the sun.”

I nodded. It was true. I had always enjoyed sunshine, and heat in general. It was like I craved warmth and sunbeams on a daily basis.

“As for how your mother’s element is the same as yours, no one can really say. It just is.” Susan shrugged. There was something off about her demeanor now though. In fact, that strangeness seemed to stem from everyone in the room except me.

“Okay…” I dragged the word out and met Kace’s eyes.

His lips pursed together and his eyes grew icy. He knew something and I got the impression he was ticked I wasn’t being told. His eyes flicked to Admer and I followed his gaze.

Admer was staring at me with that same odd sense of fascination he had the first time he’d met me at the bookstore. A shiver went down my spine and I wondered what was going on.

“Well, I’m starved. We should eat before the food gets cold,” Della said loudly, shattering the odd vibe of the room.

There were murmurs of response as we all stood up and made our way to the gaudy room that was my dining room. The food came from Collette’s and included a few standard pasta dishes to choose from. I ate, but wasn’t as hungry as I normally would have been. The topic of conversation took on an easygoing note as we all discussed the town and its beautiful scenery for a while.

After dinner, we all moved back to the living room and continued with the intense conversation from before.

“I hate to shift gears back to the initiation, but do you have any questions about it?” Della asked after an awkward silence had fallen across the room again.

“I think we all do,” Adam said from beside Callie. He stood at the entrance to the living room, leaning against the wall.

“Generally, the rite is not spoken about until all four elements are present and each initiate is of age to understand the type of powers they will gain,” Admer said, his deep green eyes never leaving me, never blinking, as though he could hear the questions as they formed in my mind. “We were ready, or so we thought, at age sixteen.”

“None of you know about it?” I asked, glancing at Adam and Callie before shifting in my seat to look at Kace too.

Kace shook his head. “No.”

Relief trickled through me at this knowledge. I wasn’t the only one in the dark right now. The others would be learning something as well tonight.

“I’ve waited forever to hear this,” Adam said, leaning into Callie a little more. He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his head into her shoulder. Callie’s blue eyes darted around the room from one parent to another before settling on Admer as he spoke.

“It must be performed on a waxing moon as well as on a Monday night,” Admer said, his smooth voice floating through the silent room that buzzed with anticipation from the three uninitiated Elementals.

What the hell was a waxing moon, and why did this spell have to be performed on a Monday night? Then, I remembered the list of the magickal days of the week in the Elemental Book of Shadows I’d found in the attic. There had been certain spells you preformed on certain days of the week. I couldn’t remember what Monday meant though.

Kace’s hand on my knee tightened and then released. “A waxing moon is when it appears to grow from a new moon into a full moon. And Monday is significant because it’s said to be connected with the moon. It’s also a good time for initiations and drawing power to you,” he whispered for my ears only as Admer continued to talk.

“It will have to be performed at midnight—the witching hour—and you will all be expected to wear some form of cotton clothing that is preferably loose fitting. This allows the magick the ability to freely flow through you without any restrictions.”

“Does this mean we get to go commando style then?” Adam sneered. Callie’s eyes widened and her cheeks flushed from where she stood in his arms, her back pressed against his chest.

“Yes, Adam, it means just that,” his mother said in a stern voice. She rolled her eyes as though she couldn’t contain her disapproval of his words.

“Cool,” Adam insisted, ignoring his mother’s eye roll and snide tone.

“You don’t wear robes or anything? Are colors restricted?” I asked, realizing as soon as the questions slipped from my lips they made it sound as though I would be attending, when in fact I hadn’t yet decided what I was going to do.

Admer’s eyes lit up at my questions, and the excitement reflected in their deep green did not go unnoticed by me. “Preferably something of your element color—which for you would be red.”

“Okay,” I managed and then shifted in my seat, straightening my back while trying to appear as though it were just a normal question and didn’t hold any significance toward my decision.

“Everything else will be taken care of by the original initiates,” Admer said, his eyes moving between the four of us newbies. “Well, in the case Addison should decide to agree to becoming initiated, that is.”

The tone in which Admer had said the words implied a dare, and I could feel the eyes of everyone in the room touch me at some point while I stared at my coffee table, knowing now was not the time to speak or make eye contact with any of them. Raw hope filled the air and I didn’t want to crush it just yet, but I didn’t want to add to it either.