Darkness and Beauty (The Fated Series, #1)

Chapter 37 - Lance - Shit Just Got A Whole Lot Worse

"Clare!" I keep pounding on the invisible wall keeping me and the others from getting any closer to Darius and my sister. The room exploded and It just came out of nowhere, and I can't get to her.
"Clarice!" I want to scream her full name - I want more than anything for her to hear me, but she can't.
I don't know what happened. She came in here, threw me and Kat off the couch, cut it open, and pulled out a small brown bag. Then she read the note and looked at the chain before walking to Darius and pulling out the necklace he's always wearing. One second, they were looking down at the jewelry, the next they were gasping for air and on their knees screaming. We all were in motion in seconds, and all slammed face-first into a damn wall. Even Kat and Thomas cursed when they hit it.
We've been throwing our fists against it ever since, trying to get the wall to break, but it holds strong. I can't even explain what the hell is going on, I just need to get Fauna to stop screaming like that. Like she's being torn apart limb by limb. I can barely see her past the steaming mist created by the colliding water and fire that came out of nowhere. Roses on vines with thorns slither along the ground, and what looks like a tornado is starting to form from the ceiling. All of it just...poofed in. No warning.
We all scream out their names as their voices grow louder. I can barely hear my own voice over their roaring and bangs of the things exploding inside. "Clare! Clare!"
I pound on the wall and just as quickly as it started, it stops. It just...freezes. The flames stop raging and simply turn still as stone. The water freezes into ice, the vines and roses stop their growth, and the tornado stills, but holds its form. There are no more screams, no one calling out their names, and as I go to put my hand against the wall, my hand passes right through and I fall forward.
I slip on the ice but Kat catches my arm and we both drop to Fauna's side. "Clare," I call again as we turn her onto her back. The Dozen flip Darius over, and we all stop when we see what coats their arms. Spindling along her forearms, one is encased in a current of water and the other is a strand of...daffodils? Darius's has a swirling fire around one, and a fuzzy-looking thing around the other. Vladimir waves his hand through it cautiously.
"It's...wind?"
"Yes." Mal, Alex, and Benny unsheath their swords, a wall between us and the woman Fauna dragged in here. I can't see her past Benny's broad frame, nor did I really look at her when my sister rushed in here, panic in her eyes. "They're the four elements. Earth, water, fire, and air." She gestures to the four elements as she recites them. Two to my sister, the last ones to Darius. She's been oddly calm about this whole thing. I don't like it.
"No shit," Kat spits so harshly that I glance over at her. Her chin is tilted downward and she glares heavily at the woman. A look I've seen Fauna do a thousand times.
The lady scoffs and mutters something under her breath that has me standing and positioning myself between her and everyone else. "Who the fuck are you again?"
She sighs as if the question is something I should already know the answer to. Benny and Mal step aside to let me through. I stop dead before I can reach their side, frozen in place when she turns and looks at me with my mother's eyes."My name is Sibella, but you may call me Ella."
"You know what he meant," Alex snarls.
Sibella's eyes never leave mine. "I'm your mother's twin sister."
"Bullshit," I spit despite the twisting feeling in my gut. She's nearly identical to what our mother looked like, only different shades if you knew them both, but the structure was there. Enough so that I almost thought she were still alive and it was all a bad dream, but I watched her die - and much as I may dream and wish and pray against all odds that it was just a dream, no one comes back from what she suffered. So it couldn't be her and I know that, but it still feels as if that night happened all over again the longer I stare at her.
She may look like my mother and may claim to be my mother's twin, but right now she's my last concern. My sister is unconscious from only Gods know what, and as far as I'm concerned, this woman is my first and only subject. "Get her tied down," I say to no one in particular.
The brothers are the first to move. Benny grabs her arm pulling her to the sitting room while Amel goes to get a rope we luckily have nearby thanks to the still lingering fear of Darius's demon coming out to play again. I wait until Benny and my so-called aunt leave the room before kneeling back down at Fauna's side. I check her pulse, still finding it beating. Relief soaks me like a tsunami. Her forehead is burning and dampens my hand with the sweat gathered, and she looks too pale to just be sleeping. A glace to Garrison and I know Darius isn't better off. Slipping my hands under her legs and back and avoiding the things on her arms, I carry her into the other room to the bed.
"I'll go get Siscilla."
"Get the Queen on your way," I tell Kat.
"I'll get the Queen, you get Siscilla," Thomas decides, following her out the door.
I set her on the bed, Vlad and Garrison laying Darius down on the other side. We all surround them, none of us having a clue as to what just happened or what to say or do.
Elements. Screams. An invisible wall.
What the fuck have the Gods been planning?
I can't even sort through it all to form words in my mind. We just stand there all staring at them as they remain unconscious. Ethan walks closer to the bed, and all nine sets of eyes snap at him. He looks at us before looking at Darius. He raises his hand in front of Darius's face, then waves it back and forth. Nothing happens. He tries clapping and snapping by his ear, but Darius doesn't move.
"Will you stop it," Mal whispers when Ethan goes to try something else.
"I'm just seeing if he'll wake up."
"Yeah, well I don't that's working," Winston snaps in an equally hushed tone.
"Fine." Ethan lifts his hand in silent surrender. "I'll slap him."
"No!" We all whisper furiously in unison.
"Well, what do you suggest we do?" he retorts. "Stand in our half circle like witches chanting a demonic prayer in hopes that demons will find their way out of their body?"
"Technically that already happened to Darius," I counter.
"Why are we all whispering?" Osiris – who seems to be the only sensible one at the moment – asks.
Before one of us can answer, a voice from the foyer yells, "What in the Gods names-"
"Shhhhhh," Gabe orders, poking his head out the doorway. He waves the Queen and Siscilla in.
The Queen is still gazing at the elemental mess in the foyer, but Siscilla looks straight to the bed. "By the Saints."
"We don't know what to do," Henry explains.
"I don't know what to do," she confesses, exposing her palms to us, eyes wide with shock. I'm pretty sure the rest of us look exactly like her at the moment.
"Please, Siscilla, we can tell you-"
"What on earth! Darius!" Claritia rushes over to her son, but both Ethan and Osiris stop her before she can touch him. She may be pregnant, but she's still fast on her feet.
"We don't know if it's safe yet," Vlad tells her with an apologetic frown. She looks like she wants to argue, but chooses against it. Her fingers are already tapping nervously on her arms. The small tell of her anxiety rising.
"What's wrong with him?"
"We don't know-"
"Nothing's wrong with him!" Sibella yells from the other room.I hear Benny's muffled warning for her to keep quiet from the other room.
"If I'm going to be figuring this out, then it's best if you're all out of the room in case something happens." Siscilla gestures to the bedroom doors and starts ushering everyone out.
"What's going to happen?" Claritia demands.
"I don't know, but it's better if you're not here if something does."
"But-"
"We'll be outside." Grabbing Kat's hand, I followthe others out of the room. She had this look on her face as she stared down at my sister and Darius that looked all too far off to just be worry. I made her a promise, and I'll keep it. I pull her all the way into the sitting room where Sibella now sits in a chair, her arms and ankles tied to the chair under her. I make sure Kat's sitting at the table and eating before walking up to Sibella.
"You're going to tell us everything because there are two lives on the line, and if you leave one detail out, you'll end up too broken to even open your eyes. And when they're all done with you-" I motion to The Dozen behind me, "-I'll make you wish it was death coming to claim you."
Something like amusement and respect glints in her eyes. I don't bother to back down from her assessing stare. I've lived with them my whole life, her little attempt at toughness is meager, and I'm not letting her return to peace until I know that my sister will be okay.