The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) (11 page)

So, I didn't ask any questions, for fear that one would burst free before I could stop it.

"Safe flight," I wished him instead, praying the next few days would go quickly.

"
Oraia
," he murmured. "I have missed you, my sweet little
Gi
. You have no idea how much."

If it was half as much as I had missed him, thinking him gone from me forever, gone from this world forever, then it would have been too much. At least he'd known I lived, and had thought I was being cared for by kin.

I was picking he was going to have a sleepless night, dealing with the knowledge of my reality.

"I've missed you too," I said softly in answer. A simple statement which I could have ruined with so many more words of the heartache and pain I had suffered. I clamped my lips shut. Theo didn't need to hear them. He probably already knew.

"My Casey," he whispered as the flames flared briefly and began to wane. The communication about to be terminated. "I love you,
Oraia.
Eternally."

I didn't get a chance to reply, the flames settled and crackled, changing tone and letting me know he had gone. He'd done it on purpose. Maybe fearful I didn't feel the same anymore and wouldn't return the sentiment. So much had happened, I couldn't blame him that doubt. But was infinitely grateful he'd worn his heart on his sleeve and said the words I so needed to hear.

I promised myself, they would be the first words he heard from my lips when I saw him again.

I watched the fire burn slowly for a few more minutes and then fatigue took over. I'd experience a gamut of emotions today. From fear and terror, to shock and surprise. To an unbelievable amount of wonder and relief. And now, after such a roller-coaster of a day, I needed sleep, and the only emotion that really counted.

Love. My love for Theo. Which was no longer a fool's love, no longer a love never to be requited. But a true love of two souls meant to be together, despite hurdles, despite rules and the parameters of the world they were stuck in. Love that transcends all.

And hopefully, conquers all.

I fell asleep with a smile on my face, vaguely aware that the battle ahead for both Theo and I was not yet won. Not by a long shot.

I became aware that fireworks were exploding in the sky in a multitude of iridescent colours. Electric blue. Dazzling white. Flame red. Sunburst yellow. Vibrant green. Laughter from an invisible source sounded out in my mind, as the dreamscape coalesced around me. A huge bonfire sat in the middle of a farmer's field, sparks floating up in dizzying patterns into a blackened night sky.

I'd seen this bonfire before. In a book my grandfather had given me when I was young. A book titled, 
Heat And The Properties Of Fire.

I spun around searching for my dead grandfather, knowing instinctively that he'd be here. That he'd appear real and alive. And that he had a hell of a lot of questions to answer. I may not be able to trust the sanctity and security of my
Gi Stoicheio
right now, but something told me these dreams were entirely different, and entirely true.

An impossibility, but then much in my world now days was impossible, yet true.

"Gramps," I said when I saw him walk out from behind the larger than life bonfire. He looked the same as he did in the last dream, when he stood beneath the boughs of a Moreton Bay Fig Tree. Much the same as he did the day before he died.

Greying blond hair, swept back off his almost wrinkle free face. Smooth, stubble free cheeks, blue dancing eyes, and a wide, amused grin on his lips. At sixty, he'd appeared forty-five. Never ageing the same way my grandmother did. A fact she continually bemoaned, until he was lost at sea and she realised image was never as important as life.

"What's happening to me?" I demanded, not waiting for him to speak.

He chuckled, a rumble from deep inside his chest. A sound so familiar from my childhood it brought back sudden memories of sitting in his workshop, playing with his wood carving tools, as he told my brother and I stories to pass the time. I realised now, with dawning comprehension, that those stories were about Elements. The Earth and all her beauty. The Fire and all its magnificent power. The Air and all its complex controls over the environment. The Water and its essential part in the world's balance.

My whole life I'd been trained for this moment and never knew it was coming.

My hand found my mouth, covering the sad horror of realisation as it slipped through my lips in a groaned sigh. My grandfather knew about the
Athanatos
. Knew about
Ekmetalleftis.
Knew what I would become.

I felt my knees buckle and the ground rush up to meet me. Gramps took several quick steps towards me, hand outstretched, but when he saw whatever was on my face, stopped in his tracks. He looked in pain, regret tracing the only lines I'd probably ever see on his handsome face.

"You're an Alchemist," I accused, and watched as his head slowly nodded. Oh, sweet hell. This was just not fair.

No one should have to confront the reality of their loved one betraying them to such a degree. I wasn't sure how to swallow this bitter pill. It was choking me, killing me slowly. Destroying what little solace I had left in memories.

"Go away," I blurted, unthinking, uncaring right now. The pain of deception stabbing me right through the chest. "Just leave," I ordered, my voice rising. "How could you do this?!" I shouted, my hands digging into dirt at my sides, the ground in the dreamscape rolling and rumbling to life.

My grandfather looked shocked, his eyes scanning the surroundings and then flicking back to me with mounting surprise.

"Casey, sweetheart," he begged. "You need guidance. Until we reach you, I cannot visit again. It takes an Awakening to allow this to happen. Your next Awakening may not be for months."

"Reach me?" I cried, staring daggers at the man I had once loved so deeply, trusted so much. "You've already
reached
me. Noah the Doctor got me out of that hell hole, no thanks to your little group of power hungry mortals allowing me to be there in the first place.
Because
," I added sarcastically, "it was for the greater good!"

"Oh, sweetheart," he murmured. "There is much at stake."

"No!" I shouted, and with a wave of my hand made the wood in the bonfire explode.

Sending searing hot, flaming charcoal down all around my grandfather. His image wavered as he made a sound of shock mixed with pain, and then the dreamscape followed suit... and exploded.

I woke up sweating, panting for breath, and trying to get my bearings. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.

And the hits just kept coming, didn't they?

I had loaded the fire with more wood before I fell asleep for a second time. Making sure Fire was present in the clearing the Earth had led me to, combining its strength to help keep me hidden. I should have been able to sleep soundly, knowing I was safe. The
Gi
might be able to commandeer my Earth, but they couldn't touch my
Pyrkagia
. I was a stronger enemy now, but I had one enormous failing.

I was an emotional wreck.

Three months imprisoned had nothing on the turmoil of spinning feelings vying for attention inside my head and heart. Theo was alive. I couldn't even begin to assimilate that knowledge without tears streaming down my cheeks. I kept going back to the
Hederin
hallucinations Davos had subjected me to. How real they felt. How I thought I was seeing what had transpired after my sentience was stolen on the
Gi Rigas'
command.

For three months it had been a truth, and I was finding it surprisingly difficult to accept what had happened last night as real.

Even my grandfather's old words of belief being a tangible thing didn't help. All they did was make me relive my bonfire dream.

Fuck. There was no other word for what I was having to deal with right now. Nothing else could come close. My world had been blown apart before yesterday, but somehow it felt like it had detonated all over again last night. Explosive, shattering, shocking, violent in its consequences. My mind couldn't take much more, and even the numbness of sleep didn't help.

I tossed and turned, and before the sun rose I was up and staring blindly into the flames of the fire. Drawn to it, probably because of my
Stoicheio
, but all I could think, as my eyes kept swinging back to the licking yellow-red glow, was once-thought-dead Theo had talked to me through this fire, and my once-thought-dead
Alchemist
grandfather had stood next to one similar in my dream.

I let out a wounded sigh, weighted by my confusion.
Was
Gramps alive and really visiting me in the dreams? I had to assume he was. His body had never been found after the fishing accident. He'd faked his own death. God, another hit.

I pushed thoughts of Gramps aside. I just couldn't cope with the questions and anger that were festering inside. Instead, as I waited for light to brighten the horizon, I let myself dwell on Theo. Another day and I'd have irrefutable proof that Davos had been an evil, lying, piece-of-shit
Gi,
with his use of
Hederin
to make me believe Theo was dead.

I presumed Theo had already boarded a plane by now, but just in case, I crawled closer to the flames, as close as my face could get without singing eyebrows, and whispered, "Theo?"

The flames crackled and hissed, flared a little brighter, I was guessing because I'd used some
Pyrkagia Stoicheio,
and then changed in pitch.

"Miss Eden," Aktor replied through the fire. "Is everything all right?"

A wash of conflicting sensations swept through me. Happiness at hearing Aktor's sweet, familiar voice. Disappointment that it wasn't Theo who answered my call. Regret that I hadn't stayed up last night and insisted we continue to talk. Guilt that I'd allowed my fear of the truth and cowardice rule my decision to let him go.

"Aktor," I said on a rush of air. "How are you?"

He laughed, a small humorous sound. "
I
am fine, Miss Eden. Are you?"

"Exhausted," I admitted truthfully. Emotional turmoil can do that to you. Not to mention running and fighting for your life.

"No doubt," the old butler agreed. "But you will keep going, won't you, my dear?"

"Because there's no other choice?" I offered, knowing exactly how Aktor thought.

"Because he'll be waiting for you in Manaus, Cassandra."

A small smile crept onto my face, making my lips twitch unfamiliarly. He was right. Nothing would stop me from reaching Theo.

"How has he been?" I asked, at length.

There was a long pause, then Aktor, voice quiet and subdued, replied, "It has been a very difficult time for all involved."

"Was he hurt badly?"

"Nothing he couldn't heal physically from."

There was that distinction again. Fire had told me I would be
safe from 'physical' harm
. Both my new
Stoicheio
and Aktor's choice of words were telling.

"How did the
Gi
get away?" I asked, settling in to have at least some of my questions answered. "I would have thought the
Pyrkagia
wouldn't have liked them attacking their Prince."

"No," Aktor murmured. "We were not amused. But surprisingly the battle that ensued was short lived. As soon as the
Gi
Rigas
had you under control, they attempted to restart the volcanic activity beneath the city. Only to realise they were outnumbered when our
Rigas
turned up with Alchemists at his side."

Alchemists siding with
Pyrkagia?
Just whose
side
were the Alchemists really on?

"They abandoned their attacks on Auckland and on Theodoros, for a quick and painless retreat. Unfortunately, our
Rigas
was not concerned with your safety, Cassandra. I am sorry," he added. "There were many
Pyrkagia
shocked that
Anaisthetikos
had been used on you; their long lost Princess."

A small unamused sound slipped out on that.

"Yeah, not so much
their Princess
, I'm afraid. And they knew it."

"So it seems. But we were not aware of this until last night."

I frowned. It was obvious Aktor and Theo had been talking about getting information out of Manaus in the first fire I'd heard their voices in. But it hadn't occurred to me that they didn't know the
Gi
were aware I was not their Princess. I'm not sure why, I just assumed the
Gi
would have made a fuss about that publicly. Obviously not, as far as the
Pyrkagia
are concerned, anyway.