The Elementalists

Chapter 28

Kass

I look up, calling, screaming Rai's name. The sun sets over the capsule as it bursts apart; a bonfire in the sky. 

The explosion sends a shock through the earth. I feel every inch, every speck of dust and chunk of rock shrieking as it slashes through them right to the core. A pain more than anyone, anything, can bear.

'It's okay.' I cringe, their pain my pain too. 'Please, please—'

I can't fix this. Rai was wrong. He really was wrong about a lot of things.

No more, the earth sobs. No more, no more, can't take any MORE—

'I want to go home.'

Glancing over my shoulder, almost blinded by tears, I see Sammi collapse beside me, her shoulders heavy with exhaustion.

'Please, Kass,' she whispers, sinking onto her hands and knees. 'Please. Take us home.'

With a jolt in my heart, I realise, it's over. The capsule's gone, pieces scattered into the wind. We can go home.

I sit up, easing my arms out of the ground, ignoring the screams of every rock I pass: don't leave us, please, don't leave us. . .

Pockets, pockets. . . I dig deep into my cloak, desperate. Quick, where's the wormhole, we need to go home—

Wait, my heart says, with a slow, solemn frown. Home? Where is home?

My fingers close around the wormhole as I blink at Sammi. Rai crashes to a halt beside us.

NO MORE, the ground screams. CANNOT TAKE ANY MORE—

And I realise, with terrifying clarity, that everything we've experienced up on the mountain so far has just been a taster. A starter.

My hands shoot back to the ground but too late—the mountain had already given us its final warning. I barely have time to raise my head and look into my friends' eyes, before—

BOOM.

                                                                                                *

Flames. Smoke. Everything, so hot. . .

Burning. . . My mouth is so dry. . .

A light, bright, too bright, above me—

No. Someone's shaking me—no. I just want to sleep. . .

A sound. What is that sound? It's . . . weird.

Singing?

I can hear singing?

Oh god. Am I dead?

Is this what death feels like? There are arms around me, holding me.

I open my eyes.

No. I'm not dead.

Or at least, if I am—

I'm in hell.

*

Everything around me is wet.