Forgotten Elements

Artemis

In the end, I got my way, and Wyatt created a portal to the nearby village. The houses were made of stone and were simple in shape and build. Like the other village, none of them were taller than a single story.

Now that I was on the island, the pull was more intense and impossible to ignore. Not only did the feeling that something important was here keep nagging me, but so did the stupid headache that made me want to curl up in a ball.

It was almost like my feet were moving of their own accord, even though that wasn’t possible.

“Where do you think you’re going? We should stay in the one place until the locals come to talk to us,” Reed said as he caught up to me. It wasn’t a difficult feat since I hadn’t been moving fast, and his legs were longer than mine.

“You don’t sense the energy?” It was the pull I’d been feeling, yanking me toward the source: a wildfire of ancient magic that felt so familiar and soothing. While my head was throbbing, my body was buzzing with excitement.

“What energy?” Wyatt asked as he trailed behind us.

I would’ve tried to explain it, but another stab of pure agony attacked my head, this time it was in the middle of my forehead. I was just barely able to hold back any sounds, gritting my teeth and squeezing my eyes shut. My steps stuttered, but other than that, I hid it fairly well.

Eventually, we came across a square house with cobblestone walls. My steps halted as I stared at the building. The ancient energy emanated from there. Even my spirit animal felt it, clawing at the barrier between us. It was almost like I could hear her whimpers.

My hand shook as I raised my hand to knock. While I had no idea what to expect, there was a part of me that was excited.

A few seconds went by before the door cracked open, and a blonde woman’s face appeared, warily watching us. Her eyebrows were pulled together and shot up when she saw us, surprised to be seeing outsiders. “What are you doing here?”

“I sense the magic now,” Wyatt murmured, but the woman still heard it.

Her breathing picked up as her wide eyes bounced between the three of us. She tried to shut the door, but I caught it before she could close it. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

She gave me a dubious look, still trying to close the door on us. “Magnus sent us,” I quickly said, which was technically true. Although he didn’t specifically send us here, but she didn’t need to know that.

I hadn’t thought her eyes could get any wider, but I was wrong. She wrenched the door open and stepped aside to let us in. Her reaction to us was beyond what I witnessed in the other village, piquing my curiosity. It had to have something to do with the ancient energy I felt buzzing through the room that had my spirit animal going crazy. As I scanned the small and cramped space, my gaze snagged on the chain around her neck that dipped into the front of her baggy sweater.

Son of a fucking bitch.

I made eye contact with the others, subtly touching my necklace and flicking my gaze toward the woman. Realization crossed their features as they glanced her way and realized the source of the energy.

She was carrying one of those damn keys and therefore a guardian.

With the other keys, the guardians hadn’t been the same race as the key. Starling had carried the blood mage one. Gemini had the “death mage” key, and Alora had the sorceress one. That only left the summoner key for the one she was carrying. It made sense she chose to live out here. It was off-grid, making it easier for her to hide the power from her necklace.

These damn keys. It had been nice to get a break from them and that fucking prison realm these past few months, even with the deadline hanging over our heads. With how we hadn’t heard a single thing about them lately, it was easy to pretend they didn’t exist, but I guess we no longer had that luxury.

The headache was a constant at this point and was somewhat manageable, but as I considered the keys as she offered us some water, it spiked. Turning away from the others, I placed my hand on the wall, squeezing my eyes shut and mashing my lips together until it eased.

Rather than try to put her at ease—something I was no longer in the mood for with how irritable my spirit animal was feeling—I jumped straight to the point. “We know you’re a guardian.” I touched my own necklace, just in case she hadn’t heard the term guardian in regard to the keys.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lie. She made it obvious with how her gaze was darting around.

“This would go a whole lot quicker if we had Lor with us,” I muttered under my breath.

Reed gave me a look that said I was a dumbass for recommending that we bring a necromancer here. If this woman was unsettled by us being here, she’d lose her shit at seeing a necromancer. With how isolated they were from our realm, they didn’t know we had a necromancer living in the Convergence point. It was why we had her stay behind. Well, that and she wasn’t allowed to leave the realm without permission.

It was a part of her probation. The bracelet that tracked her magic usage and location could prevent her from going through a rift. Whenever she wanted to go into the human realm, she had to get permission from Caspian, and he would give it by infusing his magic into the bracelet.

The woman appeared both confused and still a little nervous as she shifted between her feet and fidgeted. “Our friend Alora is also a guardian. She has a necklace similar to yours, only hers is filled with sorceress magic,” Reed explained, softening his voice to put her at ease.

Her movements were hesitant as she pulled on her chain and revealed a rough-cut crystal as the pendant, the same as the others. Only this one was a vibrant green, the shade so bright and multifaceted it almost appeared fake.

I had the strangest urge to both move closer to the key but also get the hell away from it.

Before I could examine this feeling and the tug toward the necklace further, the ground shook. The combination of the rumbling ground and the disconnect between my spirit animal and myself led to me slamming onto the stone floor. Son of a bitch, that fucking hurt.

This shit was growing out of control. After all of this was sorted, I was getting to the bottom of whatever this was.

“Stay inside,” Wyatt said, pointing at the woman as he and Reed ran outside.

My limbs felt heavier than usual, sluggish even, as I stumbled to my feet and followed them out the door. As I ran, I attempted to summon energy from my spirit animal, but it was like she was asleep. Not even minutes ago, she was chafing against me, but now it was like all the energy had been sucked dry.

With all my focus on her and not falling on my face, I hadn’t noticed the elemental coming up from behind me. A gust of wind slammed into me and sent me flying to the side. Getting to my feet was far from fast or dignified, which allowed him to close the distance between us. He grabbed me by my throat, picking me up off my feet and cutting off my air. I clawed at his hands and kicked at him, but my movements were uncoordinated.

Not even the fear of death roused my spirit animal, and trust me, I was afraid.

He slammed me back against the unforgiving stone of a building, and pure pain ricocheted through my body. I was finally able to suck in air as his hold on my neck eased. His hand tangled in my hair and jerked my head back at an awkward and painful angle.

My vision was filled with black spots from nearly passing out and hitting my head, but it finally cleared enough for me to realize I recognized this fucker. I’d only seen him once over seven months ago, but I always remembered a colossal douchebag. It was one of my special skills.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” he hissed in my ear moments before slamming my head into the wall hard enough for me to see stars. When he slammed my head into the wall a second time, my world went black.