Page 10 of Unbound

"Kill her."

And then, more clearly and powerfully than any of the words before…

"Unbound."

Movement catches my eye just as I feel heat flare against my left cheek. I whirl and see the huge fire elemental has raised a hand toward me. In that split-second, I know he plans to kill me.

This is it. This is how it ends.

My eyes lock with the fire elemental's molten gaze, and in that moment, I see only hatred—a burning need to erase me from existence. Time slows to a crawl.

Fire erupts from the elemental in a swirling vortex of flashing red and orange. The heat is so intense my skin blisters instantly, my hair crisping at the ends. I throw my arms up uselessly, a scream tearing from my throat.

But then the heat and the roar of fire is gone—replaced by the cool rush of water surrounding me in a perfect, shifting sphere. The water soothes my scorched skin, the pain ebbing away like a retreating tide.

The water elemental. He's saving me from the fire elemental. But why?

Steam rushes away from the outside of the sphere in a deafening hiss, even as the fire elemental roars in rage and blasts more magic toward me. Through the distorted wall of water, I see the water elemental standing between us, one arm extended toward me, the other toward the fire being.

"Do you truly fear a human so deeply, Pyraxis?"The water elemental's thoughts ripple through my mind like waves lapping at the shore.

"You dare call me a coward?"The fire elemental's response is more of a bestial roar than true words, burning through my thoughts.

"No. I ask you to seek understanding. Destruction will bring no answers, old friend. We need to exercise calm. Serenity. Patience."The water elemental's mental voice is deep and steady, like the ocean depths.

"And if our patience allows her power to fester? To destroy balance? To kill more of our kind?"It's the Earth elemental speaking now, her thoughts heavy and slow like the movement of mountains.

"If the fates bring her now, then she IS balance."The air elemental's voice is light and quick."We should let the winds of fate blow as they blow. It's not our job to stand in their way."

"We should kill her now and put an end to it,"Pyraxis hisses, flames licking at the edges of my water shield.

"Our destruction, or our salvation,"the water elemental says."We will not know which future she might create if we destroy her now. All we can know is to continue as we have… we’ve seen the folly in this."

"Our actions here may be of no consequence, in the end,”the air elemental adds.“We should do nothing. We should let fate flow as it flows, as it will always flow."

When the water sphere finally thins, Pyraxis glares at me but doesn't raise his arm again."I still wish to kill her,"he says in my mind, his voice scorching my thoughts.

I decide I'm officially not a fan of "Pyraxis." In fact, he can get fucked.

"She thinks insolent thoughts."The fire elemental's flame-face contorts with rage. Heat blooms from his direction again and the air fills with the scent of embers and ash.

My eyes go wide in sudden terror. He can hear my thoughts?

The water elemental approaches me, those unfathomable eyes studying me with new intensity."We all can. And you should not be able to understand us when we speak to one another. We must usually... shout... to be heard by those who haven't yet formed the primal tether."

The water elemental gestures, and a small pedestal rises from the floor with a grinding of stone, bearing what looks like a shallow bowl of silver liquid that shimmers with an inner light.

Understanding that I'm meant to place my hand in the liquid, I do so hesitantly. The silver substance is neither hot nor cold, but tingles against my skin as if alive. When I withdraw my hand, I see a mark has appeared—not the colored elemental symbols I've seen on primals or the other students, but a strange, silvery spiral that shifts and changes as I look at it, never quite the same from one moment to the next.

"Go,"comes an impression from all four elementals at once, the combined force of their minds making my ears ring.

"What does this mean?" I ask, staring at the mark on my hand. "What am I supposed to do with this? What am I?"

My voice rises with each question, panic edging in as I realize they're about to send me away with nothing but cryptic warnings and a mark I don't understand.

Instead of answering, a door appears in the wall at the side of the room—one that wasn't visible before.

I hesitate, looking back at Nolan's still form. "What about them?" I gesture to the bodies. "They deserve better than to be left here like discarded trash. They had families, hopes, dreams?—"

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