Page 85 of The Lost Elemental

I couldn’t explain the reaction, but rage pulsed through me in hot waves, mixing with the image I’d been focusing on of the water flowing through me. One moment I was staring at Drue, tempted to rip her arm from her body, and the next I was flying over my desk, water spurting from my feet.

“Crap!” I yelped as panic coursed through me.

The entire class whirled in my direction. There were plenty of choice words. Freak. Psycho. Witch. Were there witches in this world? That would explain a lot.

“Shit,” Kai barked. Kai lifted his hands, using his own water to encircle my own. “I’ve got it contained, but I can’t pull her down.”

Riven strode in my direction. “Deep breaths, Aura. You have to relax.”

“I-I can’t.” My breaths only came faster as I floated towards the ceiling. Shit. Shit. Shit.

A moment later Riven was hovering next to me in the air. “Look at me.”

“I don’t think looking at you is going to help.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know you hate me and that’s just going to make me panic more.”

Riven took my hands in his. “I don’t hate you, Aura.”

Was that the first time he’d said my name? I thought so. The way it slipped from his lips, it was as if it had been spoken in a foreign language. And I had no choice to obey.

I met his gaze. It held me captive. As if it alone could’ve held me air-bound. “What if I fall?”

“You won’t fall.”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky, and I’ll break my neck.”

He squeezed my hands. “Focus, Aura.”

There was my name from his lips again. That alone had my heart doing an erratic dance.

“Picture the water slowly draining out of you, as if you were a balloon.”

I gave a jerky nod and closed my eyes. I imagined that life force flowing through me slowly dissipating.

“That’s it. Nice and easy.”

I let out a little more with each breath until I felt solid ground beneath my feet and my eyes flew open.

Riven dropped my hands in an instant. “You have to learn to control the bit of the affinity you have access to.”

“I’m trying.”

“She’s out of control,” Drue hissed. “I can’t believe you’d even let her in class.”

Riven sent Drue a withering stare. “That’s not your choice to make. And it’s best you remember that.”

Her head instantly bowed as he stalked towards the front of the classroom.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Riven’s back. What had just happened? For the first time I’d seen some empathy in his glacier eyes. And more than that. My hands still buzzed from his touch.

44

Winding through the hallways, I listened to the dwindling sounds of students. Even though this was the elemental version of college, there was that same instinct to bolt after the last bell rung. I felt the pull too. I would’ve given anything for my bed and a long nap. Instead, I trudged towards the library.

Stepping inside the cocoon of quiet, I breathed a little deeper and inhaled the familiar scent of books. Instantly, a little more calm found me. I released on this roller coaster of a day. The meeting with Headmaster Acker. The run-in with King Zephyr. Losing control in water class. Riven being…nice.