22. Kaida

Struggling to open her eyes, Kaida noticed four black figures surrounding the bed. She growled from deep within her as a warning, not allowing anyone to believe they could take her by force, even if they tried. Kaida called her magic to her, and it quickly flooded through her body before she heard the crackling of the plasmic energy around her hands. A throaty chuckle she recognized made her relax only for a moment before the strength and love from her mates flooded her mate bonds. Kaida sighed and felt the tension in her body ease before her eyes finally managed to open completely. After a few blinks, her vision cleared.

Beckett was to her right, Enzo was to her left, Arlo was at the right foot of the bed, and Esen was at the left foot. They were hiding grim lines in their faces with a smile. It did not fool her for a second as the emotions in the mate bonds settled. There was tension there about which she didn’t know. Something caused them all to try to mask what was happening. She wasn’t going to let that slide.

"What happened?" Her voice was gravelly like she hadn’t had water in days.

Beckett lifted a glass from the side table and, with his magic, filled it to the top. A couple of ice cubes floated at the top. "Drink first. You’ve been out for a few hours."

Kaida lifted her neck just enough to bring down the contents and kept his gaze. Once finished, she set the glass back down on the side table and had a warning rumbling inside her chest.

"What happened?" she demanded to know.

Enzo sighed and grabbed her hand. With a squeeze, he took a deep breath and answered her, "I know what happened with Blaze. Unfortunately, my father came to the island without us knowing."

Kaida’s growl returned. "What?!"

Beckett sent a wave of his calming magic through the bond. Kaida pushed her magic, and it counteracted it. "Stop trying to save me from feeling any emotion other than happiness. I’m allowed to be infuriated that the bastard came into my own home territory without me knowing it! Tell me what the fuck happened to Blaze and how Gemar was on my island without any of us aware of it!"

Kaida noticed their heads bowed in submission as her power surged through the room. It felt harsh for her to do this, but quite frankly, she was tired of feeling fragile because she felt something other than happiness around her mates before they tried to calm her down with their magic.

"We still aren’t fully sure how he got around without someone telling us, but it is because the barrier is down. The old one was at least tied to us four, so we would know when someone was bringing a mate to the island. With it gone, we don’t have that luxury," Beckett explained to her.

"He has Blaze," Enzo finished.

Kaida screamed as the rage poured out of her. The idea of her mate inside Gemar’s hands made her skin crawl. Nothing was good about this; she immediately knew they had to get him back. Kaida jumped off the bed and started to pace.

"How could this happen? Was it Gemar who attacked me, or was it Blaze? How do you know it was Gemar?"

The rapid-fire questioning had the guys scrambling to understand which one to answer first.

Enzo was the first one to recover. "We are not sure if it was Blaze or my father-"

Beckett cleared his throat. "Wrong. I do. I felt something in our bonds. I could see his flame was off. I could really only smell Blaze in that building, too."

Kaida’s heart clenched at hearing it was Blaze. She knew he harbored resentment at being given a mate, but she didn’t think the mate bond would have allowed him actually to harm her.

"That doesn’t mean a damn thing. We know he has a witch doing his bidding. What if the witch could have overridden the mate bond somehow?" Arlo snapped.

Esen nodded in agreement while Beckett and Enzo shared a look. Kaida could feel their uncertainty of Arlo’s explanation. Arlo and Esen wanted to believe Blaze was innocent. They were with her, not wanting to think of Blaze as being able to cause any harm to her. Beckett and Enzo were quite the opposite.

"Mate bonds are not that easily overridden. That is power from The Great Dragon. A Witch cannot overpower a god," Beckett frowned.

At least he isn’t happy about this.

Why would he be? That is someone who he considers a brother.

"Then how would Blaze be able to hurt Kaida in any capacity? Even while fighting, the bond would not allow it to have hurt her in any way now that it is forming."

Then, Enzo had a thought. "Because it wasn’t Blaze at all. It would have to have been my father who hurt her and did something to increase Blaze’s flames to burn through the warded metal."

"That still doesn’t make Blaze the victim here. He could have been under the influence of the Dark Dimension. He could have hurt her easily while under that influence," Beckett rationalized.

"However, Gemar is truly someone who would love to have me out of the way. If he were here and had the opportunity to kill me, why wouldn’t he have jumped on that?" Kaida asked.

"There is a bigger picture here that we aren’t seeing. There is something that Gemar wants, but he hasn’t shown what it is."

The guys looked at each other as if they all shared the same thoughts. Kaida followed their possible train of thought and shuddered.

"He can’t have me for himself. I would rather die."

"It would make sense. You have the possibility of producing more Plasma Dragons. If he could mate with you and even ensure we are dead so he is the only one left available to mate with, then the possibilities would only be a Storm or a Plasma."

She dropped to the floor and tucked her legs to her chest. "That is fucking gross to even consider as an option. I would never mate with him. I wouldn’t ever choose him over my mates! If he would kill you guys, I would just kill myself. I won’t do it, and I will never do it. It is not an option, so I will never consider it. I will kill him or myself first!" Kaida rambled while rocking back and forth.

Her men surrounded her and immediately had her in their arms. It was as if she was getting a giant hug from each of them. Inside the bonds, she could feel their love for her to do anything they could to keep her calm. The only problem was she could not calm down, not with the idea of Gemar trying to force her to be his mate.

"It is only speculation. We don’t actually know if this is what he wants. For all we know, he wants us Elementals dead, so only Enzo remains. That would also be a solution. If he wanted to have the option of producing more plasma dragons under his rule, that would also guarantee the possibility of his desire coming to fruition while still allowing you to maintain a Fated Mate. Your power is something that everyone would want. Gemar will be stupid not to want it when he can control others. The only reason why it does not work on you is because of our mate bonds. Only Enzo will be bonded to you if he kills us Elementals. If that were the case, you would be more susceptible to his ability."

"That actually makes a lot of sense. His power did not work on us while we were there. If it were because of her being bonded to the rest of you, that would mean getting rid of the others would make her more easily controlled."

They all remained on the floor. They let go of her, but they still sat around her so they could give her comfort if she lost control of herself again. She took several deep breaths before a thought crossed her mind.

"So why would he take Blaze?" Kaida asked them.

"The only thing I can think of is to control you. If he has Blaze, then you will do whatever he wants. He could tell you to reject our bonds and only stick with Enzo. That way, his plan of creating more Plasmas would work if that is what he is planning. Less chances of having Elemental dragons if you were only mated to a storm dragon."

Kaida thought about it momentarily, but it still did not feel right. Sure, it was a plan that the king would seem to want since he wanted to control Enzo and her while visiting the kingdom, but it still did not make sense why he would take Blaze. If he wanted to kill the others so she would only be mated to one of them, why take Blaze at all? If he had just murdered Blaze while he was here, that was one less mate to worry about.

"Do you think this is the plan that he is following? Are we overthinking this, or does he just want me out of the way?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, everything sounds too complicated. If he wanted to get rid of my mates so I would only be mated to Enzo, why would he not kill Blaze while he was here? That would be one less mate he would have to worry about. Even if I am more resistant to his ability because of the mate bonds, killing Blaze would mean I would have one less bond to keep me from being able to fight his ability."

No one said anything. She was onto something, and they knew it.

"He kept Blaze alive for a reason. He must want me to come to the kingdom to get him back. Everyone knows what someone will do for their mate. In our history, there has even been someone who burned the entire city down because their mate was murdered. Considering I am more powerful than most, I could level the kingdom if I lost control of myself or my dragon. Keeping Blaze alive would mean he would have a way to control me without using his power."

"If that is the case, you cannot return to the kingdom," Enzo deadpanned.

A growl rose inside Kaida’s throat. "Excuse me?"

"If you are saying is true, you cannot return to the kingdom. It is a setup."

"They have Blaze! How am I supposed to stay here and allow them to hold him captive!"

"You just said it yourself. He knows you would do anything for your mate. Anyone with a mate would know that. My father is mated, and he would do anything for my mother, so he would know you would do anything for Blaze. He is hoping that you will come for him."

"How can I just sit here? Would any of you sit here if I were captured?"

Growls filled the room at that thought, though they all still did not want Kaida back in the kingdom. She could feel it in their bonds. They did not want to walk into a trap.

"I understand you want to get your mate back. We all want him back. He may not be fully bonded to you, but he is clearly supposed to be. However, you are too precious to us even to consider risking you."

Kaida knew that was supposed to comfort her, but it only made her angrier.

"Then you need to figure out what we can do to get him back."

Enzo frowned. "What if we didn’t do anything?"

It felt like a slap across her face. How would Enzo even be able to suggest such a thing? There was no reason to consider leaving Blaze in Gemar’s hands. Was this due to jealousy? Did he not want Blaze back so it could remain just them forever? She understood that Blaze upset an order of things. His bond not being completed was causing a rift, especially since the elementals in the room were snarling at his suggestion, but that was no reason to leave him behind.

"What makes you think that is even an option? He is our brother. It shows that you are an only child and that you would consider leaving someone like a sibling behind."

Enzo put up his sands in a slight surrender. "Just think about it. My father wants us to fight. He wants to show the kingdom how storm dragons are the only ones that should be on the kingdom’s soil. He would love to show the kingdom how Elementals would destroy their homes and that they are savages. If we were to leave the island and find a way to sever the bond between Kaida and Blaze, we would cut the snake at the head. I’m sure we could call Adrien here to put up a new barrier. Instead of this being where those who are rejected come, we would just be where the Elementals resided." The others opened their mouths, but Enzo held another hand to make them wait. "We only have two options here. We either fight for that throne and bring Blaze back or keep the people here safe and live out our days together."

The others shook their heads, and Beckett opened his mouth first. "There is no chance in Hell that I would be able to sit here and live with the fact that I left Blaze behind." The others nodded.

Kaida watched Enzo look from them to her. " What do you think?"

"Both of those options are too heavy for me just to pick and be able to live with it. I need time to think about this."

"I can understand that, but you must also consider that the longer Blaze is there, the longer he is around my father. If you want to fight for him, we must gather people immediately and fly into battle. We cannot waste time with that, but if you want to keep everyone safe here, we must get Adrien back to make the barrier so they are protected."

“There are a lot more mechanics to staying here. We receive shipments of supplies from the kingdom that we cannot grow here."

"And I am sure that we can figure that out, too. The other kingdoms may be obliged to help us because Kaida is Plasma. We can offer protection or alliance so they feel more inclined to help us."

Kaida couldn’t listen anymore. She quickly stood and rushed to the door. The others leaped to their feet to follow her, but she produced a shield, and they ran into it.

"I need to think. I need air to think about this. I have to choose between my mate and everyone else. I do not like this, and I need to think."

As she went downstairs, she could hear them all arguing about upsetting her and wanting to follow her. Once she walked through the door and a gentle breeze brushed her face, she knew she needed to walk to consider both options.

How the hell am I supposed to choose?