“Speak of the devil,” said Elias. “We were just talking about you, Ra.”

  “All good I hope.” A young man with dark features stepped forward and shook Elias’s hand. His movements were purposeful, as if he never even shifted without having planned it first. His voice was deep, and he talked with a distinct cadence that Elias assumed was normal for the Egyptian people. He turned to the other man standing next to him. Ra was tall, but this man dwarfed him. If Elias didn’t know he was a professor at Crimson Academy, he would have assumed he was a professional basketball player. He was tan skinned with dark hair as well, but not as dark as Ra’s black locks. His almond-shaped eyes seemed to take in everything around him with a glance. His nose was long and straight, and his mouth a thin line. “Professor Fernis, this is Elias Creed, of Terra Academy,” Ra said with a small indication of his head.

  “Pleased,” said Professor Fernis, extending a long, slender-fingered hand. His voice was smooth like liquid mercury.

  “Likewise,” said Elias.

  “Jax,” said the professor, nodding to Jax. “Long time no see.”

  Jax returned the nod. “Frederick. I trust you’ve been keeping well.” The contrast between the two men was striking. Professor Fernis was slender and suave, with a quiet intensity burning behind his eyes that was almost a tangible thing. He wore dark slacks, a red vest with gilded buttons covering a white button-up shirt, and a long peacoat. Belted to his side was a slender rapier. Jax, with his giant muscles, shaved head, army fatigues, and pistol at his side, looked as if he was about to lead a company of army rangers to war. Ra and Elias both wore simple jeans and t-shirts.

  “Always,” answered Fernis.

  A minute later, there was a sudden blast of wind. Seemingly out of nowhere, two figures stepped into existence. Closest to Elias was he and Ra’s good friend, Aston Spence. At six foot, he was the shortest of the four best friends. He was also the smartest of the bunch. Aston was their resident techy. He could hold his own in a battle but preferred to be behind the screen of a computer hacking into files that not even top government officials could get into. Next to him was a man about three inches shorter and ten inches wider. He wasn’t fat. he was just built like a brick outhouse.

  “Elias, Ra,” Aston said and then motioned to the man next to him. “This is Professor Dawson Hart.”

  Professor Hart gave a slight bow of his head.

  “Nice to meet you, Professor,” Elias said and then introduced him to the others. “It shouldn’t be long now,” Elias started but was cut off by a loud whooshing sound.

  Twenty feet away, the sky opened up, and rain suddenly pounded to the ground, and with it, two people dropped to the surface of the earth.

  “It never gets old seeing you do that, Liam,” Elias said as he walked over to his friend from the Hydro Academy.

  “I do love making an entrance,” Liam said with a wide grin and deep dimples. He shook Elias’s hand and gave him a quick hug. Aston and Ra came over, and Liam greeted them the same away. Then Liam turned to the woman standing next to him. She was average height with shoulder-length brown hair and shrewd blue eyes that took in each of them in quick successive evaluations. “This is Professor Beatrix Warren.”

  Elias and the others introduced themselves, and, once they were all acquainted, Jax gathered the group's attention with his raised hand.

  “I appreciate you all coming when Elias contacted you. It shows me how much you all trust one another to simply drop whatever you had going on and travel across the world to meet us. As I’m sure your own headmasters and headmistresses have been doing, we’ve been monitoring the movement of the dark elementals and their acolytes closely for the past few years because it seems their standard operating procedures have been changing.”

  “It’s indeed concerning,” Professor Warren said as she crossed her arms in front of her. “They’ve never worked together before.”

  Jax nodded. “So, you’ve seen it, too. Acolytes of differing elemental attunements have begun working together.”

  Professors Hart and Fernis both nodded their agreement.

  “The last Mark I checked on,” Professor Hart said, “was being shadowed by a water acolyte and an air acolyte.”

  Jax glanced at Elias. Elias could see in his mentor’s eyes that the problem was more widespread than he thought.

  “This might take longer than I anticipated,” Jax said. “If they’re working together, then we need to stick together as well. We should try and visit as many of our Marks as we can across the globe and find out how many of them, and which ones, are being tailed by acolytes.”

  “Once we gather this information,” Professor Warren said, “what then?”

  “Then we take it back to our respective headmasters and headmistresses and determine when to tell the kings and queens of the elemental kingdoms,” Jax answered. “It will be up to them on how we respond to the new threat. For now, we need to get as much information for them as we can.”

  Elias looked at each of the friends he considered brothers. He could tell by the seriousness in their returned stares that they understood the magnitude of the fact that their four academies were willing to work together in this matter. It was a testimony to just how dangerous the situation was.

  “Let’s do this,” Elias said as he turned back to Jax and motioned for his mentor to open the portal to take them to their first Mark. He bit down on the inside of his cheek as he walked toward the opening portal. It was taking him even farther from Tara. He knew because everything inside of him was screaming at him to turn around, to go back to her. Going against his instincts was like having salt poured on an open wound. He ground his teeth together and forced himself to focus on the task at hand. Once they got where they were going, he’d send Tara a text and hopefully hear back from her quickly. By the side looks he was getting from Ra, Liam, and Aston, they knew something was up. It wouldn’t be long before they were cornering him and forcing him to tell them what was going on. Then again, he thought, as his magic stretched inside of him, apparently attempting to seek out its mate, they probably wouldn’t have to wait long before he had a mental break and blurted it all out. Wouldn’t that be dignifying? “Bloody hell,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled a blade from the scabbard on his back and swung it in a small arc. He rolled his neck as he prepared to walk through the portal, knowing he needed to be ready to face any threat they might accidentally stumble upon. He took a deep breath and let it out as he followed his brothers through the portal, right behind the professors who had joined them.

  “Don’t look so grim, E,” Liam said as they crossed through. “Worst case scenario, we die a warrior's death in battle and our respective academies immortalize us in song.”

  Elias shook his head. “Because nothing says, ‘I love you’ like a good old battle hymn.”

  “Exactly,” Liam said and pounded his chest with a fist before pointing at Elias. “You get me, E. You totally get me. I swear we’re soulmates.”

  “Don’t start that shite again,” Elias growled.

  Ra smirked and Aston chuckled.

  “You had me at hello, Elias, you really did,” Liam went on. “And you’re the wind beneath my wings.”

  “When you let it get to you, it only encourages him to do it more,” Ra pointed out.

  Elias sighed and ignored Liam’s ridiculous quips. No matter how quickly they got the job done, it was still going to take too bloody long.

  Chapter 17

  “Okay, what did you and Elias do on this so-called hike?” Shelly asked from the other end of the phone. “It must have been something amazing because you sound almost cheery. It’s creeping me out and throwing my world off its axis. And I thought you said he was crazy. What happened to that?”

  “We hiked and talked. I realized he wasn’t crazy, that’s it,” Tara said. “I just really like being with him. It’s weird. He’s…” She paused when her phone chimed. “Hold on, I’ve got a text.”

  “Let me know which of your boy toys is wooing you,” Shelly said.

  Tara rolled her eyes as she opened up her text messages. It was from Elias.

  * * *

  Jax called. I’ve been pulled away for a work emergency. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. This is NOT goodbye. I’ll be in touch.

  * * *

  She read the text several times. Why? She didn’t know. It’s not like that was going to make it change. And why was she so upset about it? He’d already told her he was leaving in two days. She’d known he wasn’t staying, but that was before she’d spent the day with him. That was before she’d laughed with him and realized how easy it was to be with him. Now, he was gone, and she had no idea when he’d be back.

  “Tara-bear?” she heard Shelly say through the phone.

  Tara put the phone back to her ear. “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Whoa, why do you sound like a kid who just found out Santa Claus is dead?”

  “He’s not real. Not real means he can’t be dead,” she pointed out. Her voice sounded lifeless even to herself.

  “Actually, St. Nicholas was a real person and spawned the legend of Santa Claus. Real person, real dead.” There was the faint sound of someone else’s voice in the background and then Shelly said, “Of course, I did my homework, Mother. I’ve been sequestered away in my room, all alone, working hard on my assignments that are due next week.” After another bout of a voice in the background and then a door shutting, Shelly returned her attention to Tara. “I totally haven’t done my homework.”

  “I’m shocked.”

  “As much as I love to talk about me,” her friend said, “I’m feeling selfless at the moment and want to talk about you. Who sent you a text that caused you to start acting like a sad robot?”

  Tara laid back on her bed and pressed a hand to her forehead. She could feel a headache coming on. She sighed. “It was from Elias. He’s gone.”

  “Gone?” Shelly asked, her voice perking up. “Since he sent you a text, I’m going to surmise you don’t mean gone like over the rainbow bridge gone.”

  “He’s not a dog.”

  “You haven’t known him long enough to determine if that’s a true statement or not. Don’t be hasty in ruling out possible insults,” Shelly said.

  “He said he got called away on an emergency with Jax, and he didn’t know when he would be back. It’s not a big deal, and I knew he wasn’t going to be here for much longer.” Tara knew Shelly would understand that she was saying these things to convince herself and not her best friend. “He said he would be in touch.”

  “Aw, Tara. I’m sorry. That sucks dragon testicles. You were so excited. I never see you excited. It was a shock to my system but a good shock.” Shelly sounded as forlorn as Tara felt.

  “It’s not the end of the world,” Tara said as she rolled to her side and propped herself up on an elbow.

  “Psh, of course it’s not. You still have me. Speaking of me, I’m coming over. I’m bored and my mom is driving me nuts. Dad’s out of town so she doesn’t have him to drive nuts. I’m getting all her excess nut-driving efforts.”

  “You’re parents adore each other,” Tara said absently.

  “That doesn’t mean my mother doesn’t drive my father nuts. It just means he has the ability to love a crazy woman. I’ll see you in a few,” Shelly said. “I’m going to stop and get ice cream so we can drown your sorrow in it.”

  “It’s not like we broke up. We aren’t even dating,” Tara whined, and she loathed herself for it. Whining from anyone, even herself, was abhorrent.

  “I’m not arguing with you when you’re in this kind of mood. You’ve got no fight. It’s not even fun. See you soon, you paid concubine.”

  Tara tossed the phone to the side, returned to her back, and stared up at the ceiling. Her mind kept replaying her time in the woods with Elias. She couldn’t help but wonder if today would be the last memory she had of him.

  Thirty minutes later, she heard the front door open and close. “Shelly and her damn key,” she muttered under her breath. She’d yet to move from her position on the bed and probably wouldn’t have moved to open the door if Shelly had knocked. So, maybe it was a good thing her friend had made a copy of Tara’s key.

  “Honey, I’m home,” Shelly hollered. A few minutes later, she pushed Tara’s door open and added, “And I brought girly sleepover things to help us bond.”

  “I think we’ve bonded enough over the years,” Tara said as she sat up to look at her friend. “There’s no need to torture me more.”

  “Too bad,” Shelly said as she tossed a bag, no doubt full of her bonding material, on the floor and then plopped herself down next to it. Within seconds, she was pulling out nail polish, a hairbrush, and facial and pedicure supplies. It was like she’d watched every teen movie ever made containing a sleepover scene and taken copious notes for just such an occasion.

  “You need to leave,” Tara said, deadpan.

  “Oh come on.” Shelly held up a bag of round colored balls. “I even brought bath bombs,” she sang.

  Tara’s eyes widened. “I am NOT taking a bath with you.”

  “I find it cute you think I would want to take a bath with you. You have the personality of an irritated crustacean.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t just call me crabby?”

  “Crabs aren’t the only crustaceans in the ocean. Maybe I was calling you a shrimp,” Shelly said with a grin. “Because you’re vertically challenged.”

  Tara stared at her silently for at least a minute and then said, “If we do the bonding crap, will you stop talking?”

  “Absolutely.”

  An hour later, Tara picked up the bath bombs, snatched her phone, and locked herself in the bathroom. She turned on her favorite playlist, ran a hot bath, tossed in a purple bomb, and enjoyed the fact that the music and bath water were drowning out the sound of her BFFF’s voice. Shelly had maintained silence for all of five minutes and, since then, had not shut up. Hopefully, a twenty-minute bath would be enough time for Tara’s little trick to play itself out.

  “You have to come out sometime,” Shelly yelled through the door.

  “Did you like that hot chocolate I made for you?” Tara asked.

  “It was hot chocolate. What’s not to like?”

  “So, you drank it all?”

  There was a pause and then Shelly cursed in Latin. “What did you do to it?”

  “I might have dissolved some melatonin tablets in it. Sleep well, BFFF. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “UGHH!” Shelly growled. “It’s so hard to be mad at you when I respect your sabotaging skills so much.”

  Zuri sat in the branches of an oak tree across the street from Tara’s house. She leaned back against the large trunk and idly fingered the handle of her dagger. The air was still, not even the sound of a dog barking broke the night’s silence. Covered in a camouflage spell, she was completely invisible to passersby. Though she might not admit it, Zuri secretly hoped someone would show up to accost Jax’s Mark. Zuri hadn’t had a good fight in weeks.

  The hunter perked up when a car pulled into the driveway. She relaxed, however, when the Mark’s friend emerged—a teenage girl, tall, skinny, and bubbly climbed out of it. She was singing at the top of her lungs, not even bothering to glance around to see if she was being watched. Oblivious. Was I ever so clueless? Zuri shook her head. Surely not. The girl skipped up to the porch and went inside. The street returned to the peaceful quiet of before.

  As soon as the sun slipped below the horizon, alarm bells went off in Zuri’s head. Elemental power was nearby—either an elemental or an acolyte, she wasn’t sure yet. She watched the lawn closely, trying to detect any shift or change in the atmosphere that might suggest a cloaking spell. Then, she saw it, a figure creeping up the front drive. Zuri registered it as a young human male. Damn. If it were merely a dark elemental, she could simply kill it outright. But with the acolytes, there were certain rules. Humans have to be captured. They can still be redeemed from the dark side, and blah, blah, blah. Ridiculous. The spell covering the human was rudimentary. It would have fooled the average human glancing in the acolyte’s direction, but it didn’t fool Zuri. She slipped silently from her perch and began to stalk toward the intruder. As soon as her feet hit the ground, the acolyte froze. He crouched slowly and spun in a slow circle. Though he was searching hard, Zuri saw his gaze pass over her.

  “I know you’re there,” said the boy.

  Zuri considered ignoring him. But she thought it might be better to see if she could coax some information out of the young one. “Do you?” she asked. “I could have slit your throat a dozen times by now.”

  The boy started and turned in her direction. “Show yourself.”

  “Of course,” she purred. “It doesn’t become an elementalist, all this slinking around in the dark.” Zuri dropped her glamour, and the boy jumped as she appeared not three feet in front of him.

  “Stay back!” He was the one who jumped backward, however, and held up his hands. Invisible orbs of force appeared there.

  “Do you really want to do that, boy?” asked Zuri with a smirk.

  “I know all about you, hunters. I’ve been trained how to fight you. You don’t want to mess with me.”

  Zuri chuckled at the nervousness in the boy’s voice. “I’m sure you have. And I’m sure you would last an entire two, maybe three minutes if you were to attack me. But why would you? I can help you.”

  “I know what they teach in the academies … how to kill elementals.”

  Zuri shrugged. “Only the bad ones.”

  “There are no good or bad elementals. Only strong or weak elementals,” the boy said quickly, as if he’d been waiting for someone to say those exact words and he’d practiced his response in a mirror.