Page 67 of The Lost Elemental

“What is she doing?” Atlas asked in wonder. “I can feel it.”

I kept pulling, my hands fisting with the effort as I panted.

“That’s enough. I’ve got it,” Phoenix said.

But I continued to pull anyway. This was my mess.

“Aura, stop,” Atlas ordered.

I kept going.

He shook me. “Look!”

My eyes flew open, and my control snapped. But it didn’t matter. The only thing left was a tiny flame dancing on Phoenix’s palm. He closed his hand around it and then the fire was gone altogether.

I wavered on my feet and Atlas steadied me. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, unable to take my eyes off of Phoenix. “What was that?”

“Elementals’ magic has an effect on each other. If your magic is compatible, intimacy can magnify it,” Phoenix explained. “In our case, it really magnifies it.”

“You mean it supercharges it,” Atlas mumbled.

“I could’ve killed you,” I whispered.

Phoenix was in front of me in a flash, his hands going to my face. “No. This wasn’t on you, it’s on me. I should’ve done a smaller test—”

I ripped myself out of his hold. “Don’t touch me.”

Hurt flared in those dark eyes.

“I-I’ll hurt you,” I stammered. That fire could’ve burned Phoenix alive or even worse. “I could make you combust—”

“You won’t.”

I shook my head back and forth in a staccato beat. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry—I-I need to go.”

Phoenix called my name, but I was already running. It was too much. I couldn’t be responsible for that kind of destruction. For destroying another person.

My lungs burned, but I pushed myself harder. Tree branches smacked my arms and slapped my face, but I kept running. I could just make out the campus through the trees. Almost there. Almost away from the flames and the knowledge that I could kill anyone who touched me.

A force slammed into me, throwing me back. My skull smacked against the thick trunk of a pine. Stars swam across my vision. And then I saw nothing at all.

36

I fought against the darkness, forcing my eyes open in long, slow blinks. Air swirled around me, holding me captive as I tried to get my bearings. Everything came together in snapshots. Quick bursts of images that had panic setting in.

Drue sneered as she stalked towards me. “Time for someone to learn their place.”

I thrashed against the invisible hold of the air. The fact that I couldn’t see it, couldn’t truly fight against it, only had the panic rooting deeper. Memories flashed in my mind. The smell of smoke curling in the air. The heat singeing my skin. Flames licking around me.

Drue laughed as I clawed at the air. “Sorry, mutt. Not even your fucked up mutant powers are going to help you now.”

The blow came out of nowhere. A harsh uppercut that landed right under my ribs and forced all the air from my lungs. I coughed and sputtered.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” She went for my face this time, a punch to my cheekbone that had me seeing stars.

The world spun around me, and I lost my footing, but the air swirling around me kept me upright. My gaze jerked around, searching for the master of the air. I knew it wasn’t Drue. She was too focused on beating me to a bloody pulp to control this level of power. And her powers were bound. It had to be someone older.