Elemental

Chapter One

 “Ki?” Bree’s eyes sparkled questioningly, and she snapped her fingers from side to side in front of my face. “Kiara! Wake up, dude! You’ve be unresponsive for five minutes!”

I gazed at her blankly, and some part in the back of my mind registered who she was. Sun-bleached blond hair, excited golden eyes, two rows of perfect, straight white teeth. “Kiara? What’d you see this time?

I swallowed roughly. My mouth felt like sandpaper; my movements were slow and sluggish. I cleared my throat. “Me.” My voice came out as a scratchy whisper, a note of solemnity lost in the wind.

“No, I mean, who’s dying? Or going to die? Or in trouble? She persisted, her voice slightly impatient.

“Me,” I croaked, louder this time. My voice cracked. Why didn’t she understand that I wanted to be alone? Why didn’t she just let me crawl out of here and up to my room? Couldn’t she see that all I wanted to do right now was wallow in solitude and misery?

Bree’s eyes widened, recognition blooming. “You don’t mean – I mean, you didn’t see – surely not–”

“I saw me, okay? I saw me!” I burst out, and all energy seemed to leave my body at that moment, leaving me defeated. I sagged against the west wall of the kitchen, my shirt catching against the rough texture and riding up my torso, revealing a strip of pale white skin above my midriff as my back scraped against the harsh surface. I didn’t move to adjust it. I didn’t care.

 “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, Kiara.” She whispered, shaking her head slowly. Her eyes blinked rapidly in a desperate attempt to force the tears away. It didn’t work.

I sprung up quickly to face her and my voice grew louder; I was almost shouting now. Moisture pricked at the onyx globes set in my face. “Yes, it does! My visions aren’t exactly subjective, Bree! You know that, I know that, Nikolai knows that!”

“What do I know?” A deep voice came from behind me, rich and inviting and – okay, stop it, Kiara. You are seventeen. You are not some boy crazy girl who collects boyfriends in her purse like she has nothing better to do. You can't afford to be, I thought bitterly.

Despite all of that, though, my heart rate quickened and a shiver ran up my spine as his breath hit the back of my neck, causing the hairs to stand up on end. I slowly turned around, avoiding his alluring, silvery gray eyes as I brushed past him. "It doesn't matter."

Bree shrieked behind me. "How can you say that?" Her voice babbled on annoyingly and I tuned her out as I stalked through the doorway, exiting the nondescript kitchen. She started to follow me but I formed shadows in the shape of a hand that slammed the door behind me. The lock clicked.

I bounded up the stairs that were just outside of the kitchen, ignoring Bree's screams to open the door that instant or she was going to turn me into ripen wheat to feed to her pet goat Lucky. Good heavens. I rolled my eyes. Children of Light could be so temperamental sometimes. Seriously.

Once she calmed down she'd be fine, but hopefully she didn't try anything until then. We wouldn't want her to accidentally blast the house apart. That could be a little messy. Just a little, though... You should have seen what she did to the boarding school last April. One comment from Tammi-with-an-i about her hair color not being natural and BOOM! There went Tammi-with-an-i along with the entire science department.

Well, actually, Tammi-with-an-i was okay. She suffered a few minor burns and scars. Mostly on her face, but she was fine! Mostly.... We did find out one thing though, besides the fact that you get expelled if you try to blow up the head cheerleader’s head and also successfully destroy the building in which your least favorite subjects resides: Tammi-with-an-i was actually a brunette; the uh, hair transplants didn’t exactly work. Eh heh. I guess you learn something new every day, huh?