Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

STORM

I’ve never had a day like this in my life, and I would have thought it would take me a lot longer—like maybe a decade—to process it all, but the second I step onto the beach with Zephyr and the wind whips past me, all the chaos fades away. I can think clearly again, and the bottom line is the same: I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I can’t deny that being around Zephyr makes me feel something I can’t even explain.

Ugh. If I were listening to someone else say that, I’d smile politely, try not to roll my eyes, and prepare for the inevitable fallout when their heart got broken. I’ve actually done that in the past, while wondering how my usually intelligent friends could be so stupid.

I owe those friends a massive apology right now, because I’m walking along the beach with a man—element? Being?—who I’m pretty sure I’m going to spend the rest of my life with, even though we only met a few hours ago. And he’s not human. None of my friends fell in love with nonhumans… unless you count the guy Kaley dated a few years back. He was definitely the equivalent of slime scraped from the bottom of a sewer.

Zephyr’s not like that. Our connection isn’t like the one Kaley claimed to have with sewer scum guy, and anyway, I’m not going to announce that I’m running off to Vegas to marry a guy I’ve only known two days, like Kaley did, forcing my friends to lie about how they’d love to be there for the wedding, and could it be delayed for just two weeks? (Those two weeks made a huge, eye-opening difference.)

No, I’m going to be sensible about this. Perry says that now I’m “part of the family,” I get access to their trust and basically can live a life of leisure except for the time I devote to the cause. Which sounds cult-ish when I say it like that, but it’s really not. Regardless, until I’m sure of myself and everything else, I’ll only spend what I would have been earning in my salaried role. I’ll do the work I was originally hired for, and I’ll live in my apartment… minus the occasional sleepover with Zephyr, because I’m not stupid. I’m going to take things slow and steady, the way I would with any regular guy I met, and either my certainty about my feelings will strengthen or I’ll realize it was the haze of lust and attraction.

It’s not, though. Zeph and I are fated; I know It deep In my soul. After lunch, he followed me and Cody down to the office off the garage and sat quietly by the open window while we worked. I guess technically he was working too, listening to everything the air tells him. He says the breeze only brings him important news when I’m around, because it’s so interested in me that it wants him to be able to concentrate on me. Which gets confusing when you consider the fact that he is the breeze. It’s just another part of his consciousness. So… he likes me enough to want to overcome himself so he can pay attention to me. I never really considered myself to be that interesting.

Cody’s done some really great work getting everything set up, and I was initially worried that he would be resistant to the idea of me making changes. Sure, he’s not going to be around when I do it, but he’s a family member, and if he whines to his brother or the others, they might decide to limit the scope of my work. It was a groundless concern, though, because when I tentatively broached the ideas I had—like rebranding, redesigning the website, and tweaking the social media format—he was enthusiastic.

“I’m basically winging it,” he admitted. “I love what the guys are doing and I’m committed to it, but I’m making it up as I go along and learning from whatever resources are out there. That’s why I told them to hire a pro.”

Overall, my first day at the new job was incredibly positive and productive… and weird. My friends are going to ask me about it, and I’m going to need to be very careful of what I say. Talking about my fated boyfriend who’s the incarnation of the element of air is likely to get me an intervention and possibly an appointment with a mental health professional. Instead, I think I’ll tell them that I’ve got an incredible workspace right on the beach—true—a fun and supportive group of employers—also true—a job that I’m going to enjoy—still completely accurate—and a guy I think I could have a thing with—a complete understatement, since I think I might have been born solely for the purpose of being with him.

With a little sigh, I let those thoughts go and let myself just enjoy the beach and the company of the man beside me. The sun is still pretty high but dipping toward the western horizon, and aside from a couple of intrepid after-work joggers and a woman with a toddler, we have this stretch of coastline to ourselves.

“How do you stand how beautiful it is?” I blurt, then feel heat rise in my cheeks. “Never mind. I’m sure it’s not anywhere as beautiful as it used to be. Humans have done a lot of damage, and anyway, you’re part of it all, so?—”

“Sometimes I love it so much I think it might kill me,” he interrupts. “I can’t even be killed, not the way most humans can, but I still think I could die from how amazing this planet is.” He smiles at me. “The fact that you can see that means so much. I knew it the moment I saw you. You glowed at me, and the whispering went quiet.”

For a second, I can’t breathe. That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me. I reach out and tentatively brush my hand against his. He immediately latches on, twining our fingers together. His palm is warm against mine, and a little eddy of air whirls around us. It feels… happy. Can air be happy?

Wait… Zeph is air. Does that mean Zephyr is happy to be holding my hand? I hope so, because holding hands with him makes me happy. So, so happy.

“I’m glad,” I say finally. I don’t know what else to say to express myself, but that’s the bottom line. He makes me happy, and I’m glad I make him happy too. “Is… this might be a stupid question, but is there a way to get things back to the way they were? I know that Perry might decide enough’s been done to prevent, I don’t know, an apocalypse, but is there a way to undo the damage that’s been done?”

He’s quiet for a long time, and I tip my face up to the sun. I’m almost afraid to hear his answer, but I need to know in order to do my job to the best of my ability. The faint hum of traffic meshes with the rhythmic crashing of waves, and a little farther down the beach, a gaggle of seagulls are battling over something I can’t see, their squawks carrying on the air.

“Nothing’s impossible,” Zephyr replies at last. “But with the number of humans on this planet, I can’t see a way to fully heal all the harm. Even with the development of green technology, there’s a natural amount of atmospheric stress humans create just by breathing.” He shrugs. “That’s okay. The planet is designed to sustain life. Humans will eventually die out naturally—it’s the way of things. We just don’t want it to happen before your time is supposed to be up. That’s why we’re here. Our job is to restore balance to the planet as it is now.” He shrugs. “If we can’t succeed, then the planet will take over, and that’s not going to end well for a lot of species.”

I mull that over. “So what you’re saying is that the planet will do everything it can to survive? Does that mean it has a consciousness too?”

Zephyr stops walking suddenly, pulling me to a halt as well. My bare feet skid a tiny bit in the warm sand. “I’ve never considered that,” he says thoughtfully. “If it does, it’s nothing the air’s ever touched… but I suppose it wouldn’t be corporeal, would it?”

“Aether’s the consciousness of life itself,” I say slowly. “Gaia, if we’re going to borrow from existing belief systems. He’s tied in to everything living, but he’s here to try to prevent an apocalyptic destruction of humankind. Perry’s his opposite, but he’s also doing everything he can toward the same end—and he’s purely human, right? That’s what you guys said.”

He nods and starts walking again, the breeze dancing around us. “That’s right. He needs to be completely of the earth to give us the perspective we need.”

“But they’re soul mates. Two halves of a whole. Maybe the whole is the consciousness of the planet. Aether is life; Perry is the cessation of life. The rest of you specialize in subsections of the planet, but together, they’re the… management team, so to speak. I don’t know.” I’ve talked myself into a corner, and I’m not even sure what for. It doesn’t matter, in the end. All that matters is that we do our best to prevent Perry from needing to make any tough calls.

“You should mention this to the others,” Zephyr says. “Especially George. He likes philosophy, though I’ve always thought it was just because it gives him a reason to argue with people.”

I laugh. “I look forward to meeting him.”

For a few moments, we walk in silence, then I clear my throat and broach another subject.

“So… how do you see things going with us? I’m a big believer in communicating expectations in relationships. Especially when the situation is complicated, which I think you’ll agree this is.” I snap my mouth closed before the rambling can continue.

Zeph gives my hand a little squeeze. “I’ve never been in a relationship, so I have no expectations. I want us to spend time together and be happy.”

Speechless. I’m speechless.

“I want that too,” I manage, smiling at him. “Um… you’ve really never been in a relationship?”

He shrugs. “Nope. Not the kind you’re talking about. There have been sexual encounters, but most of those don’t go well either.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. “Is it… I mean, it’s not because… Are you completely human-shaped?” He doesn’t have a tentacle or anything down there , right?

He doesn’t seem to get the implication, because he glances curiously at me. “Of course I’m completely human-shaped. In this incarnation, I am human. I’m just also a bit more.”

That doesn’t really answer the tentacle question. I’m going to guess no, since tentacles are more of an ocean thing, and he’s the air element.

“But people tend to get annoyed when I become distracted during sex. It’s not that I can’t continue, but they prefer to have my full attention while I’m making them orgasm,” he explains matter-of-factly just as we stroll past two power-walking senior citizens.

I shoot them an apologetic smile, but they don’t notice. The taller one has lowered his sunglasses to study Zephyr, while the shorter mutters, “I bet they do.” I stifle a chuckle, because Zeph’s still talking.

“I won’t have that problem when we’re together. Every ounce of my focus will be on you.”