Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

brAN

I stare in disbelief at the remnants of what was a blazing fire just seconds ago. What the fuck?

No, seriously… what the fuck ?

Cody makes a squeaking noise. “Number four. Oh my god, Bran, it’s option four!”

“Option four?” a voice asks, but I’m too busy having an existential crisis to care. Flame just… And the fire… He’s actually the living embodiment of fire. Everything they’ve told us is true.

“Is he okay? Do we need to get him to a hospital or something?” I recognize that voice. It’s the guy I thought was an arsonist but isn’t. Is it weird that, even though this means there’s an arsonist running around unchecked and unidentified, I’m relieved? Now I don’t have to feel guilty about the attraction I was pretending not to feel when I thought he was setting wildfires.

Though, since he’s not human , that attraction can just get back in its box.

Wait, was that bigoted? Am I a bigot for thinking nothing can happen between a human and a…

I blink slowly, then pull my gaze away from the smoldering wood in the firepit. Cody has a ridiculous grin on his face, but the other… people? Are they people?

“Are you people?” I blurt.

George laughs. I don’t think it’s all that funny, myself.

“Get the vodka,” Flame tells Perry, then glances at me. “Wait, did you say you prefer tequila?”

“I’m not getting drunk,” I declare. I have a teenager to look after and drive home. I have responsibilities… Fuck, now that I know the end of the world is coming, am I obligated to do something?

“He’s fine,” Cody says blithely. “Sometimes he just needs processing time. Here, Bran, sit down and do your thing while I talk to the guys.”

That jerks me back to reality. I’m supposed to be looking after him, not the other way around.

“I’m fine. It’s all fine. Just… a surprise.” I take a deep breath. “Okay. So Flame isn’t an arsonist?”

Flame shakes his head. “No. Every time you’ve seen me at a wildfire, it’s because I was keeping an eye on it and sometimes helping.”

I remember the way we suddenly got the blaze from the other day under control, even though we’d been seriously worried we wouldn’t be able to. It was like the fire just… gave up. None of us thought it was weird—sometimes it just happens that way.

Though now that I think of it, those times are usually when I or someone else has seen Flame hanging around.

“Can you tell how the fires are started?” I ask hopefully. “If you’re not the arsonist, we don’t have a goddamn clue who is.”

“What arsonist?” River asks. “I haven’t seen anything about arson in the news.”

Cody holds up both hands. “Stop. Please. Before we change the subject to arson, can we talk about everything else?” He flops down into one of the chairs around the firepit—the last empty one. I sit on the arm, because I recognize that tone. This could take a while.

“What do you want to know?” Aether asks. “You’re part of our group now.”

River and Perry both wince. “Could you make that sound less cult-ish?” Perry asks, then glances at me. “It’s not a cult,” he adds reassuringly.

“This is probably freaking you out. I only learned everything a few months back. I thought I was having a tumor-induced hallucination… or drowning,” River puts in helpfully. “Aqua swam up to me while I was scuba diving sixty feet deep, wearing only a smile and flamingo board shorts.”

That makes me feel a lot better. “What convinced you?” I ask, and he shrugs.

“They were either telling the truth, or I was in a coma dreaming the whole thing. That might still be true, but at least in my coma, I’ve got a hot boyfriend and am helping to save the world.”

“I don’t think I’m in a coma,” I mutter. Though it’s possible smoke inhalation… No. I haven’t been close enough to that kind of danger for a year, and I doubt I would have dreamed the mundanity that the past year has been. Or at least I hope I haven’t—talk about a lack of imagination.

“You’re not in a coma, because it’s true,” my baby brother declares gleefully. “Okay. So, you’re not using your advantages to your benefit,” he instructs.

Six adults who don’t know him well stare blankly. The seventh—Zephyr—does too, but he was already doing that before, so I don’t think it’s Cody’s fault.

“We’re not?” Flame asks. “What advantages are those?”

George nods. “What he said. And what’s the benefit?”

Cody holds up his hands in a “picture this” gesture. “You’re incarnated elements here to save the world, but you’re trying to do it without help. There’s billions of humans on this planet, and fuck knows how many corporations that only care about profit. They’re the real enemy. You can’t stop them without law changes, and since politicians take money from these companies, you can’t change the law without voter pressure. For that, you need awareness.”

“Yes,” Flame says. “We know. We’ve been?—”

“Blah blah,” Cody interrupts, his enthusiasm drowning out manners. I open my mouth to chide him, then see the amusement—and attention—on everyone’s faces and decide to let it slide this one time. “Whatever you’ve been doing, it’s not enough. I didn’t know about it, and I live in the same area as you, have an interest in the environment, and am chronically online. I’ll also be eligible to vote in a year and a half and have a voting adult in my home who cares about the same things I do. I’m one hundred percent a part of your target audience, especially because I’ll share things online and boost your reach… but I didn’t know you existed. You can’t beat them on your own. You need help.”

“We have help,” Aether says brightly. “That’s why you’re here. We needed help, and we got River, and now you and Bran.” He smiles, and somehow I find myself smiling back, even though my brain is thinking what the fuck?

“Ignore him,” Flame says. “He’s been saying stuff like that lately but has no explanation for it. The thing is, you keep saying you didn’t know we existed, and that’s for a reason. You saw how your brother reacted when he heard what we are. Other people will do the same, and then anything we say will get ignored because they think we’re crackpots.”

“Or worse, someone will think it’s a good idea to target us to ‘prove’ we’re not what we say we are,” Perry adds. “Flame’s already been arrested once.”

Flame looks over at me. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

I wince. “Uh… yeah. Sorry. I really thought you were the arsonist—a lot of us did.”

“I’m not saying you need to announce that you’re superheroes,” Cody says, doggedly dragging the conversation back to what he wants to talk about. “I’m saying you need better PR. Although, yeah, you could use the whole elements thing as a gimmick. I said that to Bran before. But I’d do it as like a specialty thing—Aqua took on that name and dyed his hair blue because he works most closely with marine conservation. Make it your marketing plan, not your identity.”

“Oh my god,” River says with dawning awareness.

“Fuck me,” Perry declares at the same time. They exchange glances. “Why didn’t we think of that? We’re the humans. We grew up in this world.”

River shakes his head. “We’re millennials. We don’t like interacting with people. This is the domain of younger generations.”

I laugh out loud, and Cody shoves me off the arm of the chair. We’ve had that exact conversation before when he tried to get me onto whatever the newest social media platform is. I barely keep up with my Facebook profile… and whatever Twitter’s called now. I still haven’t updated the app, even though it keeps telling me I have to.

“I like YouTube,” Aqua declares apropos of nothing. “I can watch ocean videos.”

Cody grins at him. “Right? YouTube is good. And TikTok—you’d love that. You guys don’t even have a website. You need to be a go-to source for people looking for information. You need to be promoting conservation charities. If you’re not reaching everyone in your local area, how’re you gonna reach everyone in the world?”

I fold my arms across my pride-puffed chest. My kid brother is awesome.

“That could work,” George muses, looking at Flame. “Right? We’re making some headway, but the kid?—”

“Hey!” Cody protests.

“—is right. We’re not reaching enough people fast enough, and the ones we’re reaching were already on our side. We need some kind of widespread education.”

“I’m not disagreeing,” Flame says. “He is right. But unless Perry and River want to?—”

“No,” the two humans—wow, never thought I’d refer to anyone like that—chorus.

“Hard pass,” Perry adds. “I like my Insta, but only because it’s not work.”

Flame looks at George. “Do you want to volunteer to learn PR and online… stuff?”

The expression on George’s face is answer enough. Although… “Is that a tremor?” I ask. “Please tell me you’re not?—”

“It’s fine,” George assures me. “Totally under control… as long as nobody tries to make me do online stuff.”

“Of course we won’t,” Aether proclaims, his tone implying that’s the stupidest thing he ever heard. I don’t know George well, but I’m inclined to think he might be right. “Cody’s going to do it.”

“Yes!” my brother exclaims.

“Excuse me?” I shake my head, even though I know he was hoping for this opportunity. “Cody has school. And—” And what? I don’t approve? Because I do. I’m just worried about… something. Him working with nonhumans? Maybe I am bigoted, after all.

“Bran.” The crestfallen look Cody gives me would have changed my mind even if I wasn’t already on the fence. “I could do this and school. Setting up a social media presence for a non-profit environmental group will look so good on my college applications.” He gives me big eyes. “Please?”

I sigh. “Yeah. But it can’t?—”

“Interfere with school, I know.” His grin is back. “It won’t; you know it won’t.”

I do. He can do this and school easily—I’ve been worried about how bored he’s been lately. Still, I can’t help looking worriedly at the other adults.

Crap, are they even adults? Did they have a childhood, or did they just appear one day as full-grown humans?

I watch Cody and Aqua high-five and do some kind of fist-bumping thing and decide I don’t really want to know the answer.

“Before anybody gets too carried away,” Flame says, “maybe Cody can tell us what he has in mind. Aether?—”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it,” Aether tells him with a happy smile. “It’s the thing that’s supposed to happen. Bran and Cody are meant to be here to help us. So wonderful.”

Sure. Wonderful. “Me too?” I double-check. This guy might be the essence of all life, but he’s a little loose on solid details, and I’m the kind of man who likes plans and routines. “I’m not so good with the online stuff.” I slide a glance at George. “See how I can say that without causing an earthquake?”

The whole group laughs—Perry practically cackles—and George raises a brow. “Pretty brave for a human. You know I can make the ground open up under you, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why I got so mouthy,” I admit. “I don’t usually tease people I just met.”

Aether beams at me. “It’s because you’re family now,” he says. “We’re not people you just met. We’re all in this together.”

Perry winces. “Babe, seriously, less with the Kool-Aid vibe. We’re trying to convince Bran that we’re safe people for his teenage brother to hang around with.”

“Bran knows it’s true,” Aether counters. “He’s meant to be here with us.” His eyes flick toward Flame, and I involuntarily follow his gaze.

Lust and something else begin to stir in me.