Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(2)

The moment I saw it, I halted, and Kata slammed into my back. I barely noticed her as I looked around us.

Hundreds of thousands of tiny droplets of water hung suspended in the air around us. The fine scatter of mist caught the glimmer of a far-off shaft of moonlight at the surface and refracted it, sharing it among the tiny beads of water until the whole cavern looked like it had swallowed all the stars of the night sky.

I laughed, delighted, and Kata moved forward, letting the drops break over her like tiny kisses. I touched them with my fingertips, watching the little bubbles break into smaller and smaller pieces, still suspended, still standing at attention for Kata.

The cave knew her. In this place of water, her power was strong, beautiful, magical. As I gazed over such wonder, I felt spirits pressing close around me, protecting me, filling me with faith. Tomorrow would be perfect, and this marriage that would take me away from my family would be the beginning of a long and eternal peace.

My sacrifice would protect my people.

Kata turned in a slow circle, a happy smile on her face, and the water coated her skin. In the desert she was always dry, her pale skin cracked and sore, aching for the water, but here she was whole. Here she was everything she was born to be.

Her power, and the way the world responded to it, was the most stunning thing I’d ever seen.

And then, at some unseen command from her, the water droplets fell, those around me slipping over my skin like a tiny burst of rain.

The light dimmed without them, and I went for the torch on the wall, scraping my hand as I grabbed it. I struck the flint. When it flared to life, I saw Kata skimming out of her desert clothes, tossing them to the side as she dove into the water.

I put the torch back in its holder and followed her, jumping into the water with a massive splash, the sound mixing with our laughter and skittering around the whole cavern.

“Oh,” I said, standing in the shallow water as I saw red blooming in the water.

“What did you do?” Kata said, looking at the blood coming from a short gash on my hand.

“I thought I just scratched myself,” I told her.

“Here,” she said, but before the word was even out, her hand touched my hand, and I watched the small wound close up and fade, the scar turning pink to white in the space of a breath.

“How do you do that?” I whispered.

“It’s the water,” she told me. “I can feel the water in your skin, in your blood. I can make it answer my command.”

I had known Kata so very long, and yet I understood so little about her abilities still. “Thank you,” I said as her hand fell away.

She waved at me. “I love this place,” Kata said, shifting to float on her back. I kicked my way over to her, floating on my back beside her, looking up at the long mineral spines that hung above us like wet, shining teeth.

“I know you do,” I told her. “Now tell me about your trip. Did you find the earth temple?”

“It’s called an Aede,” she said. “And yes.”

I looked at her, my heart suddenly aching. “So they’re all open now, and you can rest.” I looked away. “But I won’t be here anymore.”

“Rest.” She stared at the ceiling. “All the powers have come back to the world, yes. But I can’t rest, Shalia. Can’t you tell? There’s nothing different? Nothing happened to you when I opened the earth element?”

I put my legs down so I could look over at her. “Not this again.”

She did the same. “You have the potential for an elemental power. I know that you do. And nothing changed when I opened the other elements, so it has to be earth.”

“Just because I think of you as my sister doesn’t mean we actually are.”

She drew a breath like my mother did when we were being difficult. “Shalia, it’s not about families. Maybe it was, years ago, but when my people were murdered, the elements—they found places of extreme power and hid. Until I let the elements out again, no one could use them.”

“I know all this,” I told her. “I know that’s why you left, to go find these temples and crack the elements open like an egg. But it doesn’t mean I’m an islander.”

“No,” she said hotly. “It means everything changed when my people died. It means that anyone can have these powers now. I have no control over who receives them. They’re everywhere in the world, not just in the islands. And I can feel it in you, as certain as whether or not you’re breathing, that you have a power. The elements have been awakened. This was the last Aede, so you should be able to use your power by now.” She frowned, looking into the water. “If I did it right. No. I’m sure I did it right.”

When she first told me I had the potential for an elemental power, I had been thrilled. She could control water, and over time she had even developed the ability to heal things. I was in awe of her, and it would have been so exciting to share that with her.

But I couldn’t, not ever. I’d accepted that—probably around the time she kept leaving me, kept choosing these temples over our friendship. “I don’t have a power,” I said again. “And it doesn’t even matter.”

“It does,” she told me. “Now more than ever. Your future husband has declared the Elementae to be traitors, and their powers illegal. More than that, he’s persecuted them.”