Under the Winter Sun (Elemental Enchanters Series Book 3) (9 page)

She nodded and cleared her throat self-consciously. “Same goes for  you.”

“Thank you.” The car slowed to a stop and then he cut the engine.

When she peered through the windshield, she gasped. She stared at the calm ocean waves and her pulse quickened.

“I figured you needed some fresh air, so I thought of here. I know being at the Manor is still too hard for you.”

His gesture awed Ava.

She quickly unclasped her seatbelt and jumped out of the car. It was warmer at the beach than at home. The last time she’d been there was with Peter when she explained all of her secrets to him. He’d told her that day that they were invincible together. But, lately she wasn’t feeling that same vibe from him.

“How did we get here so quickly?”

“I drove really fast?” A sly smile played on his lips.

“Wait, you can teleport now?”

“It’s coming back to me.”

“Nothing has come back to me. I still can’t make myself warm.” She trailed behind him as they made their way to the sand. Ava remembered all those days at the waterfall that left her dejected.

He turned around and placed his hands on her arms, staring into her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat. “You
are
water. It is you. It welcomes you. It consoles you. It will know and can sense how fragile you are.”

“Yeah, but all those times I went to the waterfall nothing happened.”

“You have to let it come to you. How many times did you try to force it?”

Ava looked away.

“You can’t be angry or frustrated. Set aside your emotions and relax. Don’t force it. Don’t get discouraged. It will come back to you.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Just close them.”

She did and his hands moved to hers. She hoped he couldn’t tell how fast her heart was beating.

“Listen to the waves. Smell the salty air. Feel the calm breeze. Breathe in. Breathe out.”

She did as he instructed.

“Let it all in. Clear your mind.”

For a second, the energetic rush of power pulsated in her veins, tingling throughout her body.

“Don’t force it.” His fingertips tickled the inside of her wrists and she shivered.

When she opened her eyes, Gabriel’s heated gaze pinned her. He cleared his throat and released her.

“I felt it,” she said.

“Wanna try it in the water?”

She nodded, and removed some articles of clothes. The cool sand exfoliated her feet. Gabriel removed his shirt revealing his smooth chest. The clean lines from the muscles on his chest and arms were visible under the full moon. His pale skin seemed to glow in the natural silver light. She felt her cheeks warm and she looked away. He walked slowly into the water and then dove in.

Taking deep breaths, while clearing her mind, she moved to the edge of the water. Ava blocked her thoughts of Colden dying. Missing Melissa and Jeremy. The war. Peter. Everything. She held her breath as the water wrapped around her feet while smoothing over the white sand. She exhaled once she realized it was warm. The water begged her to join. 

“It’s…
warm
,” she told him once he surfaced. “Are you doing that?”

“I can’t control the temperature of the water. Only myself.”

Were her powers coming back? Her pulse quickened, leaping forward as if it were urging her into the water. Ava stepped in further and then dove underwater. The water surrounded her and like Gabriel said, consoled her. When she surfaced, she felt more alive than she had in the past few weeks. She still couldn’t breathe underwater, but it was a start.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile in a while,” he said.

“It’s exactly what I needed. How did you know this would work?”

He shrugged. “I just did. Come on, I’ll race you.” He gave a playful smile.

“I don’t know if—.” She started to say but he had already began swimming away from her. The waves were calm and for a second she took in the beautiful reflection of the moon and the serenity. Then, she pushed off the floor and swam as fast as she could to catch up to Gabriel.

Racing with him she felt stronger and, for a few moments, forgot everything that ebbed at her mind. The water freed her. After a few races, in which Ava beat him, though she wasn’t sure if he let her win, they sat on the beach. Letting their clothes dry, she peered at the brilliant stars against the inky backdrop. Some were dull, merely flickering into existence every now and then.

It was a perfect night. And the company suited that perfection
.

Ava realized how much she missed being around Gabriel. He had a way of calming her and challenging her. “Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome. But don’t think I did it just for you. I needed it myself.”

“Of course. We should do this more often.”

“The water is always here for you.”

Ava bit her lip. “I meant us. Hanging out. I’ve missed you.” She immediately wished she could take her words back. They sounded too needy. She could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to look up.

“I missed you, too.” He took her hand and her body warmed.

“Thanks. I’m sorry I never called or anything. I guess I just got lost in my own mind.”

“I’m not one to tell people ‘I told you so.’ But you knew it was a bad idea to keep it all inside. You deserve to feel those things, too, Ava.”

“I know. I was afraid of making it worse for Peter.”

“That’s something he’s gotta figure out. He shouldn’t punish you because he can’t ignore everyone. I know it isn’t something that can be done overnight, but still.”

She dug her hand into the sand, feeling its gritty texture between her fingers. “I don’t like sitting around thinking about all this. It’s the waiting. It kills me to know they’re out there and we’re still here. I can’t feel them anymore.” 

“We will find them.”

“How do you know?” She looked up. The moon’s light seemed to make his eyes glow like blue diamonds.

“We have to.” He turned toward the ocean.

“I feel like some whiny person who sits and cries over something instead of
doing
something about it.”

“Well, you are grieving. But if you want to learn how to fight without powers, it does help. I mean, taking out your frustrations on someone? How can that not be good?” He smirked and she rolled her eyes.

He stood and wiped the sand from his hands. “Come on.” He reached for her hand, and she took it. He pulled her up, and Ava held her breath as they were inches apart. “If you don’t want to sit around, we can learn to fight right now.”

“What’s the point of fighting someone who can make me go blind? Or put images in my head? Or set me on fire without my powers?”

“You gotta get rid of that defeatist attitude. If you’re fast enough, you can take them down. Plus, when we do leave to find Havok, there are many…
things
out there that don’t possess any sort of power or ability.” He released her hands. “First, you have to have good balance. Once you’re down on the ground, that’s it. Spread your legs and bend your knees a little.”

Ava did as he instructed.

“Good. Your arms need to be close to your body to block anything. Say I can shoot fire from my hands. If you’re fast enough, you can block the fire from hitting your face and you can duck. While I’m still shooting fire, you can knock me down. So let’s try that.”

Gabriel made a movement with his hands, pretending to shoot fire. Ava ducked, then rushed toward him, but he stopped her.

“Try again. But be quicker.”

Ava lunged at him, pushing him to the ground, and then jumped back so he couldn’t trip her.

“Good!” He praised, getting back on his feet. “You’re fast, so you have to strike fast and get away. If their power is a physical one, you can learn to block it. If their ability is a mental one, keep that shield around your mind. You know what it feels like when someone is trying to get inside your head. Just like when Savina read your mind.”

Ava remembered that very well. Savina asked Ava to tell her who convinced her to see a Necromancer and when Ava refused, Savina reached inside. It felt like a hand had literally grabbed her mind. She shuddered.

“It’s okay. You’re getting very good at hiding your feelings, I noticed, so you have to close off your mind to any emotion as well. Remember to concentrate because what happened on that field could happen again. Though, when we all get our abilities back to full, we will work together. But if someone’s there and takes your powers or negates them, catch them off guard. Once they’re on the ground, if you’ve knocked them pretty hard, you can easily come around and choke them.”

They carried on for a while longer and Ava learned so much in the short time they were out there. She started feeling a little sorry for not training sooner, but maybe it worked better having Gabriel teach her because he seemed to understand her better.

“It’s getting late, we should go,” he said, checking his cell phone. 

“What time is it?”

“It’s almost nine.”

“We’ve been out here for five hours?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’m sure you’re hungry, though.”

“Yeah, I am,” she noticed as her stomach growled. “It’s the first time I’ve been hungry in a while.”

“Means you’re getting better.”

The corner of her mouth twitched.

“Come on. Let’s go eat.”

“I should get home. I’ll eat with my dad.”

He gave her a disbelieving look. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Ava thought he seemed a little disappointed, but she couldn’t tell for sure.

They talked the entire way back to the Manor, and when they arrived, Ava found Peter in the lounge next to the library. He sat on the floor in front of the crackling fireplace with Katarina, Eric, Konstantin, Lance, and Ilya. They were deep in a conversation except Lance, who looked bored.

Eric made his way toward them. “Glad you’re back. Their discussion made me break out in hives. Let’s go eat.”

Gabriel laughed. “Let me change first.”

“Cool. I’ll get Natalia. Grasshopper coming?” He raised his eyebrows at Ava.

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

Eric shrugged and walked out.

She turned to Gabriel. “Grasshopper?”

He rolled his eyes. “He heard me call you that one time.”

She smiled. “Thanks for tonight. I appreciate it.”

“Anytime. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

With a smile, he turned and left the room.

Ava sat next to Peter and Lance. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Peter glanced at her, then turned his attention back to Konstantin who was speaking. Ava still had a hard time understanding him, but maybe it was the topic she didn’t comprehend.

“But the chemical equilibrium doesn’t occur in irreversible reactions,” Peter told them. “The reactions are always equal and don’t change with time.”

“But only some chemical reactions are reversible, not all,” Konstantin said.

“Like atmospheric chemistry,” Katarina said.

Ava had no idea what they were talking about. She felt like an outcast. She yawned and Lance caught her eyes. He shrugged, and she agreed with a small chuckle. “How are you?” she asked him.

He lifted a shoulder. “’Bout the same as you. They’ve been at this for an hour.” He rolled his eyes. Exhaustion wore on his angular face. “Where were you?”

“Oh. Gabriel and I went to practice at the beach.”

“And?”

“He taught me how to fight. He told me how to hide feelings a month ago, but this went further. When I stepped into the water, it was warm.”

“Wow. Really?”

She nodded with a lopsided smile.

“That’s amazing. Natalia is helping me, but I don’t think I’m listening very well.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I’m good at the fighting thing. But sometimes I falter. Then get annoyed and it takes a while to get back to figure it out again. If I hadn’t mimicked Peter’s ability, I’d probably be much worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know how you’re handling this. Some days I feel like I can’t get out of bed. Other days I want to get rid of my anger in unhealthy ways. Being at school doesn’t help.” His eyes watered, and Ava wrapped her arms around him.

“I told Gabriel I didn’t know how he was so calm about everything. He said he was just really good at keeping things inside. I’m trying so hard to do that, but it’s difficult.”

“Have you been blaming yourself still?”

She let out a sigh. “How can I not? I’m getting better, though. I’ve been selfish and ridiculous for the better part of a month and I know it’s been hard on Peter because I put so much pressure on him. He’s been so stressed and grieving for Seth.”

“Well, him being here has definitely helped. He seems to have come around. Even Thomas has started talking to him.”