{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK V} The Journey Across Water

Closure

25: Closure

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

"NO!" Sasha roared, rising from her seat. Her palms blazed with heat. Red jets of flame shot out from the centre of her hands. Without much thought, she angled them straight at Olivia.

Olivia stamped her foot, and a huge cloud of moss billowed in front of her. Sasha set it ablaze, and it disintegrated, or would have, if Olivia hadn't instantly replaced it with another shield. They kept going for a moment, how they had at the end of the Hunger Games style war game the two of them and the rest of the Councillors had set up just over two weeks ago. "You can't blame me." She pointed out. "It was you who threw the packet of biscuits, so as much as I'm sure you dislike it, it is your fault."

"No, it's YOUR FAULT!" Sasha shouted. "This never would have happened if you hadn't... if you hadn't FORCED me to this stupid deal!"

Olivia remained surprisingly calm, despite that flames were swirling around the walls of the lounge, surrounding them in a march as red as the wall with the fireplace. "That was actually your idea." She said. "You also can't blame me for that."

"URGH!" Sasha slammed down on the seat in defeat. The flames around the room dissipated. She turned away, and buried her face in the red cushion.

Olivia waited a moment. "Hay fever?"

"Yeah." Sasha agreed, still not turning around. "It really gets to me this time of year." She paused. "How much do you think they all heard? About Lucinda the first time? About-"

"The walkie-talkie's still on." Oliva warned. "Watch your words."

Sasha turned round, grabbed a fist of tissues, and climbed over the seat to the booth behind them, so she was right up close to the microphone of the high technology advanced communications device, and there was no doubt that everybody could hear her. Olivia Green had won. For the five millionth time.

And, Sasha was fairly determined, the last time.

"F***ing emergency Councillor meeting." She whispered. "In the f***ing lounge. F***ing now." Then, having switched it off, added to Olivia: "You better open up the doors."

Olivia frowned. "You've calmed down."

Sasha smiled, the same way a little child might when the chocolate tin was left out open. "Only because you're going to come up with a lovely lie about us deciding to take up a creative writing course or something. I'm not letting anyone think anything I said back then was true. Got it?"

Olivia shook her head. "Sasha, any excuses you want to make, you're going to have to do it yourself."

"Why?"

"I'm leaving." Olivia told her. "To find Les Serpents Rouges."

*

All eight of them were assembled in the sofas in the TV. Yeah, eight, despite there being seven Elements so seven houses. Blame the magical force of pestering little sisters.

Sasha had collapsed down next to Ethan, the councillor of the House of Technology, who was also her Willow Forest boyfriend. Or, at least, he had been. Sasha gulped. What if even Ethan didn't care about her anymore?

On the next sofa along was Josie from Air, and Rachael from Death. The two of them were Olivia's ultimate gal pals, and had met way before she had returned to Willow Forest two years ago. How they had all managed to stand flicking through Girl Talk together, Sasha had no idea. Opposite them, Rock was fiddling with the Velcro on a cushion, while Pebble lay down on the sofa with her lag in the air (because why not). Out of the two Miner sisters, only Rock, the older once, was supposed to be the Councillor of Earth, but since Pebble had also been on the run with Olivia it had seemed unfair to leave her out, so she'd kind of wormed her way in. Just over a month ago, Rock and Pebble had been kidnapped by Felix (and two death Wolves, mightily named George and Molly) and Sasha had had to traipse all the way to Echo Valley, Felix's base in the Lake District to get ehm back. Brave enough to take the armchair opposite Olivia was the Councillor from Water, Luke. Luke was two years older than Sasha, and was kind of the only guy who had got close to Olivia without finding cacti in his shoes. Well, close enough for them to get their tongues in each other's mouths, anyway.