Page 51 of The Lost Elemental

Atlas’s eyes flared. “I could have it in me.”

“Never. Your instinct is to help, to ease someone’s pain, not to intensify it. If you had cruelty in you, then you wouldn’t have stopped to help a drenched girl in the middle of a nervous breakdown.”

The corner of his mouth kicked up. “I don’t know, you were pretty damn adorable. It was probably selfish on my part.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, the drowned rat look really works for me.”

He chuckled, but the sound fell away, his expression sobering. “You’re not scared of me. Not after I told you…”

I squeezed the back of his neck. “I could never be scared of you. The safest I’ve ever felt is with you and Phoenix and Kai.”

Hope bloomed in those hazel depths. “Good.”

I had been braced for a comment about how weird it was for me to feel that with all three of these men, but there was nothing. Just simple acceptance.

Atlas tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering in the strands. “I’ll do anything I can to help you master your affinities. We can start now, and once we know exactly what we’re dealing with, and you’re unbound, we can dig into the intensive training.”

My stomach twisted as anxiety rooted itself there. “Unless I detonate the entire campus when they unbind me.”

“That isn’t going to happen.”

I flopped back onto my pillows, everything from the past week hitting me like a ton of bricks. “I’m so tired. Of the secrets and unknowns. Of assholish people everywhere. Of not being able to let my guard down. I miss home. My routine, my room. I miss my mom and Charlie so much it hurts.”

I rubbed the spot on my sternum where I felt the pain. It was all just too much.

Atlas’s brows pulled together. “Charlie?”

My lips twitched as I took in the hint of jealousy in his voice. “My little brother. He’s ten and the best.” The hint of a smile died. “This is going to be the longest we haven’t spoken.”

Atlas’s expression softened. “That might be something I can help with right now.”

He slid a sleek-looking phone out of his pocket. “Do you know their numbers by heart?”

I jerked upright, nodding like a bobblehead. Mom and I had scrounged to get Charlie his own phone since there were times he walked home from school alone. “It’ll work to call the human realm?”

“It can call to any realm.” Atlas handed the device to me, punching in a series of numbers. “Now, just dial like you normally would.”

My fingers flew over the keypad and seconds later, it was ringing. I held my breath as I waited.

Charlie’s face filled the screen. “Hello?”

“You broke your promise. You’re already taller.”

He grinned into the camera. “Aura! I thought you couldn’t call for two weeks.”

“My friend let me use his phone so I could check up on you.” I tilted the camera towards Atlas, who gave a wave.

“Hi, Charlie.”

His eyes bugged. “Are you a freaking giant?”

Atlas coughed out a laugh. “Not that I know of.”

“What’s your affinity? I bet it’s fire. Aura, do you know what yours is yet?”

And so started the barrage of questions. Charlie asked everything about classes, the food, the campus, and whether I’d seen any elementals blow anything up yet. I left out my incident earlier today in my answer. Getting him to switch topics to his own life was like pulling teeth.

“What about Mom? Where is she?”