Page 11 of The Lost Elemental

His lush mouth pulled up the slightest bit, as if he could never have anyone see him as anything but perfectly carefree. There were no lines straining around his eyes or across his brow. But as I took in his jaw, I noticed tiny flickers of movement. So small the average person would’ve never noticed them.

“What are you staring at?” Riven barked.

I bit back a curse as I jolted in my seat. “Jealous, Riv?”

He gripped the steering wheel so tightly I swore I heard the leather creak. “You aren’t permitted to call me that.”

“You aren’t permitted to snap at me like a rabid dog. I take that back, it’s an insult to rabid dogs.”

Kai snickered. “Have I said recently how much I love that one?” He glanced back at me with a wink. “You can stare at me anytime.”

Annoyance flickered to life somewhere deep. “I was trying to figure out why you insist on wearing this happy-go-lucky mask when there’s obviously so much rage simmering underneath it, you’re practically drowning in it.”

The entire SUV went completely silent. The only sound came from the engine and passing vehicles. Kai stared at me, those blue-green irises pinning me to the spot. For the first time, he was suspicious of me, suspect in the way Riven was.

It hurt, that suspicion. Cut deeper than I wanted to admit. But I didn’t look away. And I refused to take my words back because there was some bizarre need to see beneath the mask.

We stayed locked like that for I didn’t know how many moments. Then there was a flash of something. It was so quick I almost missed it.

Pain. So much it clawed at my chest.

Betrayal. The kind that meant you’d never open your life to another.

Fury. Enough to burn the world down around him.

And then it was simply gone. Kai grinned, his dimples flexing in his cheeks. “Doesn’t help anyone to dwell on the shitty things. Might as well focus on the good.”

Riven rolled his eyes as he turned onto another street. “You mean running away from every responsibility in front of you?”

“It’s called fun, Riv. You should try it sometime. But it might require removing the stick from your ass for two point five seconds.”

I choked on a laugh.

“He should have some fun once in a while, don’t you think, Aura?”

It was the first time I’d heard my name from Kai’s mouth. It sounded like a languid stretch, as if he caressed each letter with his tongue. I gripped the edge of the seat, trying desperately to clear those thoughts from my mind. “I’m pretty sure psychopaths don’t have fun.”

Kai’s lips twitched. “If you think Riven is a psycho, just wait until you meet Phoenix.”

I groaned, tipping my head back against the seat. “I really can’t take another one of you.”

“What do you think she’ll do when she realizes there are four of us?” Kai asked Riven in a stage whisper.

“Stop encouraging her. It’s not like you’re going to be her friend when we get back to the Academy.”

Riven’s words stung even though they shouldn’t have. I might’ve gone to public school, but I was a watcher. Curious about the world around me. I saw the games the elementals played. Everything was about power and prestige. I didn’t have either of those at my disposal.

“Stop being a cranky dipshit.”

The guys began to bicker back and forth, and I did my best to tune them out. Turning to stare out the tinted window, my chest tightened at the familiar sights. Neighborhood restaurants of every cuisine imaginable. The secondhand shop where I found the best leather jacket imaginable. The convenience store where Lainey and I would buy our weight in candy on the way home from school every day.

Crap. Lainey. I felt for the pocket of my dress where I’d stashed my cellphone after putting it on silent that morning. Pulling it out, my eyes bugged. Eighty-two missed calls. Sixteen messages.

I pulled up the text screen.

Lainey: What the hell happened? Someone said the power blew.

I kept scrolling to the end of her barrage of questions.