Extraordinary (The Extraordinary Saga #4)

Chapter 16

Immediately, Jay and Peter went to work, stabilizing the place in any way that they could.

Peter had the hardest job, holding up his hands to keep the rocks overhead from falling. Jay helped with that, sending funnels of wind upwards for support so Peter didn't have to hold it all alone. Between the two of them, they were able to keep most of the place intact, until the cracks in the cave started coming from every direction, not just straight ahead.

Someone - Rowan, maybe? - screamed for help as the sides of the cave began to crumble, shouting their names. Peter was so focused, he didn't even hear. Jay turned around, narrowly dodging a chunk of earth that could have easily knocked him out. Then he caught a rock Peter missed in midair and set it gently on the ground.

"Guys, I only have two hands!" He yelled back. He needed one hand to brace the ceiling and one to catch any falling debris in his area - anything more simply wasn't possible. Especially not if the sides and back of the cave were crumbling now too. "Peter and I can't do anything else. You're gonna have to run!"

Hope stepped in and braced the place with plant roots, covering the places Jay and Peter simply couldn't. The twins helped give extra light as their slow retreat became more of a mad dash towards the exit, towards the hole that Rowan had created.

And for a while, it seemed like it was going to work. It really did. But then six new shouts of alarm, all in unison, jerked Jay and Peter's thoughts away from the crumbling cavern, and dirt and rocks fell by the ton, raining around them.

They had failed. The rockslide had begun.

When the noise had quieted down, Peter slowly came to his senses. He was unharmed. In fact, the only issue around him seemed to be the clouds of dust. Hardly any rocks had fallen in his vicinity.

"Everyone okay?" He shouted. Between his power, Jay's, and whatever else the rest of them were hiding, there must've been enough magic - or desperation - in the room to dodge the rockslide.

"I am!" Rowan got to her feet next, aware of the pitch blackness that now surrounded them. Luna's lights had gone out. She called a small ball of lightning to light the place up. Peter's eyes went wide.

"Lightning," he murmured. "Never would've guessed."

Rowan had no idea what that meant, but she nodded anyway. Using her mini-storm as a flashlight, she helped gather the rest of them. Except for some dust in the lungs, everyone was unharmed.

Peter sighed. "I'm sorry. I never should've made that wall. This is what I was worried about," he admitted, gesturing around. "If I change the earth layout, it messes with the infrastructure. Now we have no way out."

"What?"

Peter didn't know who the question had come from, but he addressed it anyway.

"I don't create earth," he said, simplifying his explanation. "All I do is move it around. And I must've pulled some rocks from a bad spot, and now this place collapsed."

"Peter," Jordyn said. "This wasn't you. It was Aether. And we're still going to find a way out. As long as you're here, I'm not worried."

Aether. Jordyn had said it aloud. Had the others heard, or-

"What's... Aether?" Rowan asked, cutting off Peter's thoughts.

Peter hesitated, but that only gave Onyx the time to lead with another question of her own.

"You said this was bigger than we could imagine. What did you mean by that?"

Peter looked towards Jay and Jordyn. He couldn't rightfully tell the others anything without their consent. This was their story, too.

"They deserve to know," Jordyn said softly.

Peter nodded. "Okay." He turned towards the other five, other people also gifted with Aether. Or cursed. The jury was still out.

"When one of my dads was seventeen, his best friend Mark got himself superpowers." That seemed like a good lead in. He had their interest, for sure. They had gathered around him, ready to listen to what he had to say. "It's a really long story and not my business to tell, but everyone who was there agrees Mark had awoken this spirit. It was called Aether. And that spirit never went away. It stayed in this town, right where it was created. It's in Lotus Valley. It's in the not-shadows. It's in us."

"Our powers..." Onyx whispered. "Is that where they come from?"

Peter nodded, feeling a sense of dullness inside him. Instead of the excitement he should've felt every time he thought of magic, he just felt hollow, like he was missing something.

Even in the dark, he could see that Hope had turned a pale shade of grey.

"My dad was there too," she said finally. "When Aether was created. Mark was his step-brother. But you have it wrong. It wasn't Mark's fault."

"Then who's fault was it?" Peter asked. Hope had to be mistaken. She was talking about these people - about his dad's childhood friends - as if they were Greek legends and didn't really exist. No, he couldn't have just gotten the story wrong. There was no story. Just the truth.

"No one's, I assume," Hope admitted. "But if you want to point the finger, it was really because of Mark's girlfriend."

"And you would know this how?" Peter asked.

"Because my dad kept a written firsthand account from the four people who were there. Him, Mark, Mark's girlfriend, and your dad."

"If that's true, why don't you tell me what my dad's name is."

"They only used initials," Hope said. "I didn't even know Mark's real name until today. He was just MC. My dad was HC - Henry Castor. Mark's girlfriend was DR, and your dad was TW."

"TW," Peter repeated under his breath. He looked her in the eye. "Before my dad got married, his name was Tom Walker."

"Damn," Hope said, her green eyes sparking. "I guess that book was right after all."

"Back to the story," Rowan prodded. "How was it Mark's girlfriend's fault? And what happened to them? Where are they now?"

"Well," Hope started, "Mark's girlfriend apparently was born with some connection to Aether, like us. But that was back before that kind of thing was blatantly obvious, like how each of us control one of the elements. So she didn't know what she was capable of, and that caused some kind of reaction, blah, blah, blah. And 'cause of that, here we are."

"What... what happened to Mark?" Onyx asked.

"Yeah, where is he now?" Luna added. "I find it hard to believe he would just disappear in the middle of all this."

Neither Hope nor Peter said anything, because they didn't know the answer. But Caeden, who had been sitting silently, lost in his own thoughts, had finally put the pieces together.

"He died."

Caeden's voice was soft, barely a whisper. Rowan thought she might've imagined it, except that pained look on Caeden's face told her otherwise.

"How... how do you know?"

Caeden blinked hard, fighting back tears.

"Mark was my dad."