Page 10 of The Lost Elemental

A wind picked up out of nowhere, circling around the room and then tightening in on Kai. His eyes flared, that blue-green swirling and sparking.

“I don’t know if you want to play that game, Riv.” Giant plumes of water erupted from Kai’s hands. They arched and circled Riven. “Just remember, I won’t take your shit like your little cling-on worshippers.”

“Boys!” Sinclair shouted. “Do not make me report this incident to the headmaster. I’m sure he would have some choice words for your fathers.”

In an instant, the wind died down. The water swirling through the air disappeared as if it had never existed. I blinked a few times. I’d seen small acts of power. A water elemental guiding the rain away from himself. A fire elemental growing the size of a candle flame. But I’d never experienced someone creating something from nothing.

Sinclair turned back to me. “Now, where were we? Oh yes, you have no idea who your father is?”

“No. He bailed right after I was born.”

She made a humming noise in the back of her throat. “Your mother never told you a name?”

“No, and it’s not something I bring up.” Whenever I did, a shadow passed over her eyes. Had she loved him? Had she known he was an elemental? I pushed that thought from my mind. She would’ve told me long before today if she had.

“We’ll need to speak with your mother, gather any information we can to trace your lineage in case you are indeed powerful.”

Riven muttered something under his breath.

I ignored him. “So, you only care about my parentage if I’m powerful?”

“That’s not what I said,” Sinclair spluttered.

Kai wrapped an arm around her shoulders, grinning. “But it’s what you meant, Sinny.”

He turned to me, not losing hold of the dean. “It’s just the way it all works. Gotta keep track of every elemental powerful enough to do some damage.”

“Quincy said it could just be a weird binding spell.” Panic clogged my throat. That had to be true.

Kai shrugged, giving me another wink. “Either way, you’re stuck with us for a while.”

“What does that mean, stuck with you?”

His grin widened, a true mischievous joy in it this time. And that emotion hit me somewhere in the chest, making my whole world go a little fuzzy.

“You’re coming to Kingwood Academy.”

6

They just had to make me ride with him. Golden God, I could handle. I knew there was kindness underneath that too-gorgeous-for-his-own-good exterior. But Riven? I would’ve rather thrown myself from the moving vehicle across six lanes of traffic.

I reached for the door handle as Riven slowed to stop at a traffic light. I pulled hard. Nothing happened.

Riven’s lips twitched in the rearview mirror. “Child locks.”

I let out a low growl.

Kai twisted in the front passenger seat, making an exaggerated pout. “Trying to run away from our destined love? I get it. It’s scary.”

Riven sighed. “As soon as you sleep with her once, you’ll be the one doing the running.”

I glared daggers in the side of Riven’s face. “I’m not sleeping with anyone.”

I’d seen elemental guys charm the hell out of some of my classmates. They gave them pretty promises they never intended to keep. The girls were left brokenhearted in the dust. The last thing on my agenda was falling for a playboy.

My gaze pulled to the other side of the vehicle. As if simply thinking about Kai meant I had to seek him out with my eyes. He stared at the passing buildings as we made our way from the nice part of the city where the testing was taking place to the rough section I lived in.

The pull was for more than to just study him. There was this simmering yearning to understand just what it was Kai was hiding beneath that carefree exterior. Even the mask he wore now, at rest, wasn’t exactly right.