12. Twelve

Twelve

Wind whipped at my hair as we walked out of the great hall. I paused at the top of the steps. The light snow had turned into a blizzard of swirling snowflakes. Hunters milled about the compound, shuttering windows and covering supplies in animal skins.

The kids in the training yard still swung their swords as they sparred in pairs. Their shirts were too thin for this weather. They weren’t even wearing coats.

“A storm’s moving in.” Max shielded her eyes from the wind and squinted at the sky. “I need to help prepare. You all can stay in the great hall with me. There are plenty of rooms.”

I glanced at the twins as Max jogged down the stairs. Skye’s aura whipped around him violently, like it was caught in the storm. Even Shael seemed upset, though instead of surging around him like Skye’s, his aura seemed to have retreated into him. My light had dimmed.

So much for Skye being the one all about controlling his emotions.

“Are the kids okay?” Felix asked when Max was out of earshot. The nearest hunter kid’s sword shook in his grip. He grabbed it with his other hand to steady it.

“This is normal.” I bit my cheek as my father’s words echoed in my mind. You must push through. You will learn true strength. Even if it kills you. “It’s meant to harden them.”

Felix whistled. “Damn. I thought druid traditions were cruel.”

They didn’t know the half of it.

I shook off some of the darkness that rose to the surface and reached for Shael’s hand. He was burning hot. Even more than usual. He was focused on the training yard.

“Hey.” I elbowed him in the ribs, causing him to blink and finally look at me. “Think there’s enough snow yet for a snowball fight?”

“What?”

I shoved him backwards toward the great hall’s entrance and took off. “Last one there’s a scaleless imp!”

I jumped down the stairs in one leap. Shael must have collected himself, because he darted down after me. I scooped up a handful of snow and nailed him in the head. He slowed, and I spun to face him.

Snow dusted off his blood-red hair. “Oh, you’re gonna regret that, Enchantress.”

His aura had returned to normal, and the remains of my snowball melted to steam.

A smile stretched across my face. “Make me.”

I broke into a sprint, weaving between lines of sparring hunter kids, dodging a sword here and there. The flurry was getting thicker. I could barely see ten feet in front of me.

I bent to pick up more snow and felt for Shael’s aura. He’d stopped too.

A snowball emerged from the white-out. I ducked, and it sailed over me, hitting a hunter boy squarely in the face. His sparring partner took the advantage, and she grappled him to the ground.

I winced, but the boy grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it down the back of the girl’s shirt. She yelped and jumped to her feet.

A black dog came loping out of the growing blizzard and skidded to a halt beside me, spraying a line of sparring hunters in snow. They stopped their matches and turned to glare at me.

I pointed at Felix. “It was him. Don’t let those puppy eyes fool you.”

One kid gathered snow in his leather sling and aimed it at Felix while the others made snowballs. Felix whimpered, but I ran in the other direction. “You’re on your own!”

I slowed my pace and held my forearms in front of my face. I could barely make out anything in front of me now. Giggles rose above the howl of the wind.

Shael’s aura slid over my skin before he collided with me, tackling me to the powdery ground. He dumped a pile of snow on me from a sack he’d made out of his shirt.

I spit out snow, laughing. It was the kind of laugh that shook my body and made my belly hurt. I hadn’t laughed like that in months.

“Stop!” I squirmed under his hold as he sprinkled more snow onto my face. “I give up.”

“Say I’m the snowball fight master.”

I narrowed my eyes, taking in his chiseled bare chest before returning to his gloating ruby eyes. “You’re a cruel victor.”

Shael began piling snow into his shirt again.

“Fine!” I sighed and rested my head in the snow. “You’re the snowball fight master.”

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear.” Shael helped me up. I shivered as he wrapped me in his magic, and the snow began to melt.

I tilted my head back to gaze at the gray sky. “The storm’s getting worse.”

“It’s Skye,” Shael said, barely loud enough for me to hear over the wind in my ears.

“I know.”

Skye had always had a tight hold over his emotions and magic. Something must have really been bothering him to make him lose it.

I breathed in the scent of the ocean as Skye’s magic saturated the air. The snow crunched just beyond the curtain of white.

Shael let me go as I scrambled to follow his brother through the blizzard.

“Skye?”

Skye shook his head as I caught up to him. “I have to get out of here.”

I jumped in front of him, forcing him to stop. “You have to tell me what the hell is wrong with you.”

“Hunters,” Skye spat out, like he’d been holding it in since we got here. The veins of his neck strained as he finally looked at me. “You expect me to work with monsters?”

I jerked back. The air rushed out of me like he’d kicked me in the chest. Skye stormed past, slamming into my shoulder as he did.

Was that what he thought of hunters? Of me?

I hugged my stomach.

“Don’t.” Shael’s arms wrapped around me. I hadn’t even noticed him following. “It’s not about you.”

“How could it not be?” My throat closed around my words. Hadn’t I proved it to him yesterday? I was a monster. I’d always been a monster. The corruption just made it easier to give in to my dark impulses.

Shael sighed and rested his forehead against the top of my head. His lips brushed my scalp as he spoke. “After what happened at the Northern Temple, the Aegis helped us flee Porada to an elemental village in Ireland. But it turned out that Earth wasn’t any safer for us.”

I swallowed the mix of emotions that rose in my throat. “Hunters.”

“Yes.” Shael rubbed small circles on my shoulders with his thumbs. “There was a priestess from the Northern Temple, Lianna. She kept us safe and hidden during the massacre. She followed us to Earth, and was like a mother to us. The hunters killed her.”

Well, that made sense why he’d been even grumpier than usual.

I sighed. “I’m going after him.”

“Wait.” Shael’s arms tightened around me as I tried to get free. “That’s a bad idea. You don’t want to be around Skye when he’s upset enough to cause a blizzard. He might say things he doesn’t mean.”

“I’m a big girl.” I prized myself from Shael’s warm embrace and took off in the direction Skye had gone. His trail was already going cold, his footsteps quickly disappearing under a layer of fresh snow.

His footsteps ended in the thick forest outside the compound, but my father had taught me how to track my prey. There. A branch, bare of the heavy snow that covered the others. He’d gone that way.

I shoved my frozen hands into my armpits as I pressed farther into the forest. I hadn’t dressed for a snowstorm this morning, and hunter leathers weren’t quite waterproof. I hopped over a log. The snow had already been brushed off by someone else.

A briny scent tickled my frozen nose. Skye. I squinted into the white flurry. I could barely make out blue and green mana swirling and churning around a crouched silhouette.

Scooping up some snow, I forced my numb hands to form it into a ball and launched it at Skye’s head. Before it made contact, it burst into a cloud of sparkling ice, caught harmlessly on the wind.

I crossed my arms and entered the small clearing. “You’re no fun.”

Skye crouched by a mountain spring that wound through the ice-capped rocks in the small canyon. The rock walls sheltered it from the worst of the storm. I blew into my hands and sat on a rock beside Skye.

He gazed at the crystal-clear water below. Glass-like ice spread from the edges of the small pool.

“You’re gonna have to find a way to mask your aura if you want to hide from me, ya know?” He’d also have to learn not to leave a trail, but I didn’t want to give away all my secrets.

“I wasn’t trying to hide from you,” Skye said. His face was obscured by his untamed dark blue hair. It had grown longer and even wilder since I’d met him.

I never had heart-to-hearts with Skye. Yelling matches? Yes. Fights that ended in an exchange of immature insults? Absolutely. I didn’t know how to treat Skye gently.

“Shael told me what happened.” I pulled on my leather sleeve. “In Ireland.”

Skye sucked in a breath. “He had no business telling—”

“It’s his story too, you selfish oaf.” Now, this was familiar territory. “He must have known you would rather take it to your grave than tell me. Is it because I’m a hunter?”

“What?” Skye’s eyes finally found mine, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “No. You’re not one of them.”

I hugged my knees to my chest. “I was.”

“Exactly. You were. I haven’t seen you as one of them in a long time.” Skye ran his hands through his hair, pushing it away from his face. “You wouldn’t have done what they did. In Ireland.”

I bit my lip. I would have. I’d done worse. And he’ll find out . It’s only a matter of time. “Hunters don’t know any different. They’re isolated, fed lies, and made to fear the unknown.”

“Fear is no excuse.”

“It’s not. There is no excuse for what they did to your village. But that doesn’t mean every hunter is responsible. If I judged a whole race based on one person, I’d think every water elemental is a gloomy prick.”

Skye shook his head. “You can’t understand.”

His aura flashed green, and the ground trembled. More snow shook down from the tree boughs, falling in chunks to the forest floor. California was known for its earthquakes, but I had a feeling this one had more to do with the elemental in front of me than tectonic plates. I’d never met a more powerful elemental than either of the twins. But Skye was like an armed bomb, ready to explode. He’d been keeping all this inside for too long.

“Hunters took something precious from me, too. But I don’t blame the Grays,” I said quietly. My mother had been on my mind since we’d arrived. I wasn’t sure if it was Max’s uncanny resemblance or just being around hunters again. Chills racked my body as the corruption rose. I tried to push it down. “Most simply follow orders from their elders. Max will keep her word, and the Grays will follow. Hunters value family above all else.”

“You’re asking me to trust the Order that burned my village to the ground. They killed children. ”

They killed children. Children ...

His words echoed in my ears above the whistling wind.

I killed …

I swallowed the bile in my throat. “I’m not asking you to trust them. I’m asking you to trust me.”

He’ll never trust me. He knows what I’ve done .

I squeezed my eyes shut. These weren’t my thoughts. He said he didn’t think of me as a hunter anymore.

He won’t say that when he knows the truth.

The wide blue eyes of my first kill filled my mind.

He was just a child . I still carry his blood in a mark on my spine.

“Arsyn?” Skye’s voice filtered through the darkness.

Tell him. He’ll find out, anyway.

I tried to speak, but my words came out as a croak. Numbness was taking over, and it wasn’t from the cold.

“Trust you?” Skye laughed. “How can I be expected to trust a monster?”

No. That wasn’t Skye. I buried my fingers in my hair and pulled at my roots, but I felt … nothing. Reality was blending with the corruption. I didn’t know what to believe.

“Arsyn?” Skye’s voice was desperate. He held me by my upper arms. His magic briefly broke through the darkness. “How do I help you?”

“I was excited for my first hunt.” My lips moved. It was my voice, but I had no control over what I was saying. “At first, it was just to please dear old Dad, but then I got a taste for it.”

I laughed. The sound was sharp and sinister.

Everything shook again. I forced my eyes open, but the forest was nothing but shadow and darkness. Gray. Like what remained of the Aether.

Soft hands held my face, and powerful magic pierced the dark veil that had covered me. Dewdrops gathered on my skin and the earthy smell of growing things filled my senses. When I opened my eyes next, the forest was vivid and clear once more. The bright sun reflected on the shimmering snow.

“Arsyn?” Skye’s face was inches from mine, his wide teal eyes focused on me. His dark eyebrows were drawn together. His breath misted in the cold air between us. “What the fuck just happened?”