Elemental (16 page)

I held my breath, waiting for what I knew
was going to happen, what I wanted to happen.

With just a slight tilt of his head,
Cailen’s lips pressed against mine. They were soft and tender at
first, moving carefully with my own. But as the electric current
crashed through us, I felt his need rise. He pressed me tighter to
him and his kissing became urgent, almost rough.

His hand moved from my cheek to the back of
my neck, pinning me to him. There it twisted into my hair and
formed into a fist.

Every cell in my body hummed. I never wanted
it to end. I ached to think it had to. No, it wouldn’t end—I’d make
sure of it. Except…

I ripped away from him, gasping for air.
Stupid, ridiculous air. When I tilted my head back up, searching
for his lips, they were gone.

Cailen pulled away, chuckling.

I sighed. So much for never ending.

He brushed my hair away from my face. “I’ve
missed you so much.”

I scrunched my nose, giddy and drunk with it
all. “How did you find me again?”

“The same way we found you the first time.”
He laughed.

I waited for more, but he didn’t finish.
“You’re going to have to explain a little better than that.”

“I wonder how much you can handle,
though.”

My heart dropped into my stomach, and I
turned away. “Trust me. I’ve gone through a lot these last few
days.” My voice shook. “I doubt there’s anything that will surprise
me anymore.”

Cailen was instantly anxious. He grabbed my
hand to turn me around and stroked my face. “What’s wrong? What
happened?”

His concern surprised me and sent the tears
pouring—stupid, traitorous tears. I wiped them away before they
could run down my cheeks, but I knew my eyes were red and swollen
and there was no hiding
that
. “It’s nothing.” My voice broke
and I knew he’d hear the lie.

“Ella, tell me.”

I shook my head.

His hand cupped my cheek. “Please.”

That electric current coursed through my
blood at his touch again. It charged my blood and made my head
swim. I couldn’t think, much less feel anything but the current of
pure warmth pulsing in my veins. He wrapped me in his strong,
capable arms. I tucked my face into his chest and released the
stress of the past three days in the downpour of my tears. His
cloak was soaked within a matter of seconds. “I don’t know who I am
anymore. So much has happened and I don’t know how to deal with
it.” I didn’t know why I trusted this boy, who was by all rights a
stranger. I didn’t know why I felt completely and utterly at
home—safe—with him. Maybe because, deep down, I knew he wasn’t a
stranger. He was the boy who’d stayed with me in my memory
throughout all the years of my captivity.

Cailen didn’t say anything. He just rubbed
circles on my back and pressed his cheek against the top of my
head. His silence comforted me. I knew I could talk to him, tell
him everything. “When I left
Sho’ful
, I thought… well, I
didn’t know what to think. To be honest, I didn’t put much thought
into my escape, but I definitely did
not
think I’d start
shooting fire and air out of my hands, and that some crazy little
man would say I’m some prophesied Destructor, or that I’d have to
worry about not killing people when sometimes that’s all I want to
do…” I let the words trail off. Something was wrong. The muscles in
Cailen’s arms tightened around me and I was immediately ashamed.
I’d admitted to being a monster, the worst kind.

He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me away
just a little. One of his hands rested under my chin and tilted my
face up to look at him. His tight, narrowed eyes studied me for
what seemed like forever. I grew uncomfortable under his gaze and
tried to pull away, but his hand under my chin would not let me go.
Eventually his green eyes softened and he smiled.

I exhaled. I hadn’t realized until then I’d
been holding my breath.

Cailen released me and backed away. He left
me feeling slightly dizzy from the lack of oxygen and intense
inspection, and completely alone and isolated with the distance he
put between us.

His eyes flickered to my chest. “I’d like to
talk to this ‘crazy little man.’” All trace of his smile was gone,
replaced with a cold, uncaring stare.

“Oh… well…” I shook my head to clear my
thoughts. “I think he’s sleeping.” I gestured toward the house with
its dark windows. I was a little confused and very overwhelmed. The
abrupt change in Cailen’s demeanor was staggering. He was being…
careful, as if he knew I was a bomb about ready to go off. “At
least, I didn’t see him when I was in the house.”

Cailen nodded. “It’s late.”

“Would you like to come in and wait until
the morning?”

“I didn’t want to stay that long. And…” He
let the thought drift off without finishing.

“Oh.” I didn’t know what I’d expected, but
the disappointment surging through me right then knocked the breath
out of me.

“I need to get you home, but I
need
to know what this man knows.”

My heart thudded against my chest and my
lips pulled up into a wide grin. Cailen wanted me to go with him?
But then I thought about Meir and a weight sank into my stomach. I
couldn’t just leave him.

Cailen frowned and continued, “I guess
waiting until the morning won’t hurt, if…” he paused and his eyes
turned on me, penetrating me, “…if I have your permission to stay
and talk to him.”

“Of course,” I whispered. “I have a
lot
of questions for you, too.” And he was going to answer
every one of them.

He shook his head and frowned. “Don’t you
think you should get some sleep?”

“I slept the whole day away.” I shrugged,
trying to ignore how deeply his sharpness dug.

I don’t think my attempt at lightheartedness
fooled him because his eyes softened and he reached—slowly, with
control—out to brush his hand against my cheek. The electricity at
his touch made my head swim. “Okay,” he smiled, “I’ll answer
some
of your questions.”

I led him through the house back to my room.
He walked silently beside me, his eyes roving the dark corridors.
He stopped once, when we were at the top of the stairs, to look
back down at the messy foyer with its books and doodads. After a
few seconds, he just motioned for me to continue leading him
without a word or explanation. My room was at the end of the second
floor corridor on the right of the house. The door stood wide open
with all the lights on and pouring out into the hallway. I only
remembered turning on the lamp and I had thought I closed the
door.

Malik stepped out of the room, the glow from
the lights darkening his silhouette. “I leave for a couple of
minutes to go…” his eyes flitted to Cailen behind me “…to the
bathroom and you decide to escape,” he growled. “Didn’t you listen
to a damn thing I said earlier?”

Cailen stiffened and put one foot forward to
stand between Malik and me. I grabbed his arm and moved around
him.

“Malik, calm down.” I hurried through the
words. “I only went out for some fresh air. If I was really
escaping, would I have come back?”

He wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. He
and Cailen stood like two frozen statues, glaring at each other.
Even without touching him, I felt the electricity shooting out of
Cailen, but it wasn’t the same as before. It was sinister, and no
longer directed at me.

“Cailen, stop.” I grabbed his shoulders and
tried to force him to bend down to look at me. When he tilted his
head to look at me, his green eyes were burning. “Malik is a
friend. He’s
my
friend.” As I said the words, I realized
they were true. How did
that
happen? How did I go from
wanting to kill this guy to actually liking him in just two
days?

Shock and horror mingled with Cailen’s rage.
He spoke through clenched teeth. “A Mamood is your friend?”

I ducked my head. “Well, kind of… yeah.”

He took a deep breath and returned his
raptor gaze to Malik. “What kind of friend growls at a lady?”

I laughed out loud and even I could hear I
was on the verge of becoming hysterical. “Oh, that’s just Malik. I
tick him off a lot.”

Malik chuckled behind me. I fought the urge
to relax, though, until I saw Cailen’s shoulders drop and his eyes
returned to mine.

He exhaled through his nose with his lips
pursed. “I’m sorry for overreacting. Let’s go into your room. You
have questions for me.”

“Yes,” said Malik. I turned to see his arm
extended toward the bright room and a huge grin on his face.
“Let’s.”

So now Malik wanted to be the funny man. I
didn’t know a Mamood could have a sense of humor, though I failed
to grasp just what was so funny about humiliating me. Cailen
bristled, but otherwise said nothing as he brushed past the dark
man in his robes. I followed behind with my eyes to the floor and
blood pooling in my cheeks.

When I walked through the doorway, the huge
room felt much smaller than before. I rushed to my unmade bed and
sat down with my legs crossed. I didn’t exactly know my motivation
behind the move. Maybe it was because my mind was running wild with
the assumptions I was afraid were going through Cailen’s head, and
I wanted to hide the messy sheets. Surely he wouldn’t actually
think that Malik and I…

But when I saw Cailen’s face turn a deep
burgundy, I knew that he could, and he did. Malik plopped onto the
bed beside me and laughed. I whipped my head around and glared at
him. The thought of burning him from the inside out flashed across
my mind like a dark specter.

With my hands pressed against my temples to
force the image out, I jumped off the bed before I did anything too
rash and sat down on the floor in front of the fireplace. Cailen
took his cloak off, set a bag that’d been strapped across his back
onto the floor, and sat next to me. With our backs to Malik, I
allowed myself to calm down. I wasn’t going to let the Mamood get
to me like that again.

The bed creaked behind me and Malik let out
a contented sigh as I stared at the empty, and surprisingly clean,
fireplace, waiting for my muscles to loosen and the tingle to
subside. Cailen seemed content to wait by my side. I caught him
sneaking glances my way two or three times, and I was consumed with
wonder about what he was thinking.

Calmer, I took a deep breath and looked up
at him. He was staring down at me, his green eyes shimmering. There
was a hardness to his features that made me think he was still
being careful, like he suddenly didn’t know how to act around
me.

After a while, though, he smiled. “Have you
decided against the interrogation?”

I rolled my eyes. That was a good, blasé
reaction. I couldn’t let him know just how much he was getting to
me. “Not exactly.” I looked down at my hands. “I’m just trying to
decide where to start.”

“Start with the simplest and work your way
up from there.”

Though I desperately wanted to know why he’d
come looking for me in the first place, I decided the how was the
easiest to answer—it was also the one he’d avoided earlier. “How
did you find me?”

His jaw tightened. “I thought I said start
with the simplest.”

“That is simple!”

“Pick a different one… for now. I’ll answer
this one later, when you know more.”

He was definitely keeping something from me,
I was sure of it now. He shifted away from me, making the gap
between us wider.

I huffed. It may not have been the most
mature thing to do, but I was getting annoyed. “Fine. What happened
outside? Why did you attack me?”

He laughed. “I wasn’t attacking you, Ella.
You were going to run away from me and I didn’t feel like chasing
you.”

“I wasn’t running away from you! I didn’t
even know you were there.”

His eyebrows drew down and he frowned. “You
mean you didn’t feel—” He scooted away another inch and looked
away.

“Didn’t feel what?”

“Next question.”

“You haven’t even answered any of the first
ones yet!” This was getting ridiculous. He was being too evasive
and I wasn’t in the mood for it. I wanted answers.

“Cailen, look…” I gritted my teeth and
pressed my fists against my thighs. “I already know I’m an
Auri—whatever that is—so you can stop with these half-answers that
lead to nothing. That little man I told you about only told me
enough to make me go crazy with questions, so I would appreciate it
if you were straight with me.”

He held my gaze, studying me. All he would
find was my firm resolve to know the truth.

He sighed. “How much did he tell you about
the Auri?”

I smiled. Finally! He didn’t look too eager
to give away any information, but at least he was willing. “He said
we could control the elements: fire, air, and water.” I looked
down. “He said that one of us could…” I coughed “…control all
three.”

His eyes darkened. “And?”

“And…” I gulped. I knew where he was going
with this. Cailen had seen me using two of the elements earlier
that night. He already knew what I supposedly was. “He said that
the one who could do all three was the leader, the
Aur-something.”

“Aurume.”

“Yeah, that’s it!” I smiled again, trying to
lighten his mood. It didn’t seem to work.

Cailen closed his eyes. “I didn’t want you
to know any of this yet. It’s too much to throw at a person all at
once.”

“Like I said, I’ve gone through a lot these
past three days. It was actually a relief to get
some
answers.”

He considered this for a second, and then
let it go. “What else did he tell you?”

“That was it.” Annoying, but true.

“So that’s where your questions for me come
in, I take it.” Cailen chuckled. It was beautiful, perfect, and
sent the electricity humming.

It was hard for me to think past the
numbness in my head, so I just nodded.