The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) (14 page)

If Mark was an Alchemist he'd seen a thing or two. I couldn't tell if he liked what he'd seen. Something in his rigid exterior told me perhaps he didn't.

I hadn't seen Mark for close to four years. But I realised now that he hadn't just been gone from my life, he'd been lost to me, too.

It felt like I'd not only lived through Gramps' death and betrayal, but now I was looking at a ghost of my brother and facing his disloyalty as well. It hurt. And I hadn't thought I had anywhere left inside me to hurt more. But I'd been wrong about that too.

"So, you're an Alchemist," I said, when it seemed the conversation had stalled.

Mark brought his eyes back to my face. I think he'd been having a staring match with Theo.

"Yes," he said simply.

"How's that working for you?" I asked, feeling so lost and alone all of a sudden.

"I've had better days and you?"

"Me what?"

"How are you, Case?" he whispered.

And suddenly I was angry. So freaking mad. Enough already, world! Enough!

"You really want to know?" I asked, voice raised slightly. "I'll tell you," I snapped and Theo shifted at my side. I didn't waste time looking at him. My anger was all for my family and the only member here right now was Mark. "I thought Gramps was dead, but it turns out he's not. Cool, huh? Oh, and get this, he knew something about a world I never even considered existed and he kept it from me. But you know what? He didn't keep it from my big brother. No. He brought
him
into the fold and left me thinking a crap pile of lies. So, yeah. Life's freaking fantastic. Thanks for asking."

"He was protecting you," came Mark's solicitous reply.

Oh, no. I don't think so.

"So, I wake up after spending a day or two unconscious in a pile of dirt," I added. "Creepy crawlies all over me, rose bushes scratching the crap out of my arms. Then if that's not enough, I burn down half the Amazon forest, killing people while I'm at it, because, you know, that's just how whacked my life has become."

Mark held my infuriated gaze with a sad and compassionate one of his own. It just made me angrier.

"Yeah and Air's not all it's cracked up to be either," I snapped. "That took a traumatic episode and turned it into a frighting one, but you'd think I'd have gotten used to all this crap by now, wouldn't you? Clearly I missed the memo on that front."

He licked his lips, parted them as though to speak, so I leaned forward and kept going.

Not done yet, buster. Nah-uh. Not yet.

"I've been tortured, ridiculed, thrown out of my city, handed over to freaking sadists. Made up to be a princess, pulled down to be an imposter. Experimented on, hunted, chased, imprisoned, starved, carved, fallen in love, had my heart broken, been betrayed more than once. If I had the inclination to add it up, I'd need two hands. That's how many times someone has let me down. And now you. So. Do you really need me to tell you how I am? Or can your freaking selfish, lying, betraying arse figure it fucking well out!"

I was standing by this point, hands fisted, frost coating every surface in the room, the building moaning as the ground shook. Hell, I probably had smoke pouring out of each ear. I knew I was panting. I knew there was green and gold and white blazing from my eyes. I knew I must have looked an absolute fright.

Then Theo said, "She is remarkable, isn't she?" There wasn't awe in his voice, but ice.

My neck felt stiff as I turned my head slowly to look at him. His eyes were blazing gold, staring daggers at my brother.

"And if you think I will let you harm her more than you already have done, you need to think again," he added, in a low growl.

"And you've done much better, princeling?" Mark asked. "Seems to me the part about her heart being broken is all on you."

"She has had my heart since before she became what she is," Theo said mildly. "She will have it still when this is all said and done. What happens in between is on you. Or perhaps your grandfather. But at any rate, it's definitely on the Alchemists and no one else."

I sat down on the sofa again because my legs were shaking.

"Now, you see," Mark drawled, sitting forward in his seat. Theo matched him, moving forward on his side as well. Tension stung like ice picks on the chilled air. "We may have known Casey was the chosen one, but we sure as hell didn't choose her. Why do you think Gramps left NZ? Because he was trying to keep knowledge of her quiet."

"That makes absolutely no sense at all," Theo said abruptly.

"Think about it," Mark explained. "The Alchemists discovered Genesis was approaching." There was that word again. "An
Aether
would be created by
Aetheros
. They did their homework, read the stars and all that crap, and came up with Casey."

"So how does Casey's grandfather leaving protect her?" Theo demanded.

"Because the only way to keep her out of their clutches was to divert their attention from within ranks," Mark said slowly, as though explaining quantum physics to a child. "He did that by going to CERN."

"CERN?" both Theo and I said at once.

"And here's where you're gonna like having me on your side," Mark pointed out. "CERN, or
Centre européen pour la recherche nucléaire
."

"What?" I said as Theo translated, "The European Organisation for Nuclear Research."

What the hell?

"In Geneva," Mark added. "Home to the Alchemists."

Theo sat back on the sofa with a soft exhalation.

"BFFs now?" Mark asked.

"Hold on," I interrupted, ignoring Mark's banal question. "Nuclear research, what's that got to do with Elementals?"

"Not nuclear as in power plants and submarines," Mark retorted. "But nuclear as in particle physics, as in high-energy physics, as in particle accelerators and proton synchrotron boosters. As in  what is the universe made of? And my sweet sister, what it is made up of is Elements. Five of them."

"The fifth Element isn't always around," I said automatically.

"Yeah," he said slowly as Theo added, "That's why."

Mark and I both swung our attention towards him.

"His Highness has got it," Mark exclaimed.

"Got what?" I stupidly asked.

"Why the world's out of balance," they both said at once.

I sat back in my own seat and frowned. "I don't get it," I finally admitted.

"OK," Mark said, leaning forward excitedly. "It's like this. Each Element has a purpose. Earth to keep us grounded and at peace."

"Fire to keep us passionate about our survival," Theo offered.

"Water to keep the oceans in harmony with nature," Mark added.

"Air to balance the weather and keep the atmosphere in good health," Theo finished.

"I've heard that before," I said, trying to remember.

"Hippolytos," Theo provided. Yes, we'd had this discussion back at
Aeras.
How the fifth Element, Quintessence, was designed to keep all Elements working in harmony, needed only when they flux out of balance, affecting the world.

"The storms," I said, quietly. "The bad weather."

"The start of Genesis," Mark whispered.

"What
is
Genesis?" I asked. Both Gramps and Earth had mentioned it.

"Basically, it means 'The beginning,'" Mark explained. "When Genesis starts, an
Aether
is called forth. It's been building for twenty-three years now until it reached a tipping point and Genesis really kicked in."

"What's been building?" I asked.

"Imbalance," Theo offered. "The Amazon rainforest being culled," he added. "Global warming melting polar ice caps. Bush fires out of control in the Australian outback. Man-made CFCs depleting the ozone layer. Imbalance."

All the things we'd discussed at Machu Picchu with Hip.

"You know," I said, staring at Theo in particular. "Hip also said
Ekmetalleftis
were meant to maintain the balance, so it's because of you guys falling down on the job that has led to us being where we are now. Take that a step further," I pushed when he raised a single eyebrow at me in response. "And you might as well say you started Genesis, which means..."

"You guys made my sister an
Aether,"
Mark finished smugly. Then held his hands up in mock surrender at Theo's growl and quickly said, "Don't burn the messenger! Don't burn the messenger!"

"How old are you?" Theo snapped. Mark just smirked.

"Someone's gotta mess with Your Highness," he quipped with a shrug.

I closed my eyes, but when that didn't make the headache that was forming retreat, rubbed the heels of my palms into the sockets.

"
Oraia
," Theo murmured. "You need to eat."

My eyes opened and just because of how I was lying and where I was facing they fell on Mark. For the first time since he'd been here the dance I used to see in his eyes was back. Overshadowing the act he'd been using, the pretence that he was free and easy and didn't have a care. Mark had always been a fun loving guy, but this today had all been a performance until right then.

When he looked at my
Thisavros
and heard the care in his voice directed at me.

Except Theo wasn't my
Thisavros
, so maybe the act was on us now and not Mark.

"I'm fine," I whispered and Theo growled. He was doing that a lot.

My eyes found his disbelieving ones and suddenly we were the only two in the room. Mark disappeared. The imbalance of the world disappeared. Betrayals and mysteries and pain and torture and heartache disappeared. Just us.

He reached out and cupped my cheek and whispered, "Please let me feed you."

My breath escaped in a rush, because the need in his eyes was real.

He wasn't just falling. He'd fallen.

And still it was different from before. Still he looked at me as the woman he'd met one day ago. Less than twenty-four hours ago. Not the girl he'd chased and flirted with for a whole year. Not the innocent he'd introduced to a world of heated passion. Not the person who had grown in more ways than she could count. He saw me as the me now. The complete package.

I might as well have not existed before yesterday.

And that broke my freaking heart.

The journey is half the battle. The journey is half of what makes us, us.

"I'm going to see what Aktor has to eat," I said standing up from the couch. Theo immediately came with me. My eyes darted to Mark, who seemed to be taking in a lot more than I'd realised.

"Didn't you want to find out about
Pyrkagia
?" my big brother asked Theo, seeing my need for escape, offering me an out.

"Yes," I said, enthusiastically. "You get started on that and I'll be right back."

Theo stilled, frowned slightly and then must have seen something in my eyes. Maybe it was panic.

He nodded, reached up and brushed my cheek with the back of his knuckles and then sat back down.

"Bring me something sweet, would ya, sis?" Mark asked. "Or if you can't find sweet, I'll settle for Isadora. Might be time I tried bitter with a twist of sour to it."

I snorted as I crossed the room and went in search of Aktor. I needed clarity and as much as Sonya would offer a shoulder to cry on, tearing up was a one way road I'd never get out of if I went down it now. I needed straight up, no strings attached, give it to me hard.

And OK, maybe Theo was affecting my hormones or something, because that did not sound as above the waist as it should have when thinking of the old butler.

I found him in the kitchen. Not alone.

I hovered at the door until Isadora noticed me, then pretended I'd just arrived and walked in. She narrowed her eyes at me and unable to come up with a snarky comment soon enough, I blurted, "Theo wants you in on the next part of the discussion."

Oh, good grief. Could she have looked any smugger.

"I'll get going then. Are you joining us?" she asked me.

This was playing right into her hands, but I couldn't help feeling she was biting off more than she could chew with my brother. He may have lied to me, hidden stuff from me, maybe even betrayed me - although I was having trouble deciding if that's the right word anymore - but he was my big brother. He'd knock that smug right off her dial and make her choke on it.

Huh. Maybe I had another name to add to that friend list.

"Nah, I'm going to hang out here with Aktor," I said, slipping into a chair.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

Of course she did. Couldn't just take the hand I offered and play it. Had to second guess each move.

Bit like me with her, I suppose.

"Because I've had enough of Mark," I offered with a level glare.

"I'd like to believe that's true," she drawled. "And
Aetheros
knows I understand the sentiment, but something tells me you're lying."