Chapter 35 - Above Cursed Winds

Currents licked along her skin, the massive drafts resonating through the open space keen to comply with Jeremiah’s every whim. No one ever gave a thought to the atmospheric gases that made up the heavens, just as they wouldn’t register the wind until it moved against them.

Breathe in, breathe out.

It filled her lungs with an unconscious need, autonomous and invariable. And just like air, Zia never felt the psychic punch of Jeremiah’s ability until he used it.

And it was powerful.

Every muscle in his torso was corded, the tension wafting off his body unbearable strong. A delirious static filled the space around them, whispering an unintelligible sound.

But one look at Rona, and Zia had known it wasn’t meaningless. Concentration marred the vampire’s face, her every attention focused on the noise. As if she could hear it … and could understand.

Gut clenching painfully, Zia refocused on the Elemental at the center of their protective circle. Nero didn’t have any choice but to plead with him, having originally come to Zia’s home to seek his assistance. He’d known what happened even before she said it.

Now, the Elemental was saving their lives, doing the impossible because Nero had asked.

Her chest tightened. Even without the ghosting mating bond between them, she could sense the debilitating bleakness surrounding Jeremiah. If she felt it this keenly, Nero would’ve been drowning in his pain.

Gideon had taken position behind Jeremiah in support, holding him as the wind Elemental’s consciousness faded from his body. Nearly the same height, the two Elementals stood stock still, the position familiar enough that they’d obviously done this thousands of times.

And then, as she watched, Jeremiah simply dissolved. One moment, he was standing, and the next, Gideon was jerking backward, his wide golden eyes unreadable. Staggering as he tried to right himself, the naked fear that washed over Zia’s senses iced her veins.

Nero was the first to speak. “What happened? Where is he?”

Gideon didn’t respond, transfixed to the place where Jeremiah had disappeared. Rona was by his side instantly, looking equally fearful.

“Gideon, did he … did he become his element?”

“I—he’s—he’s never …” The monarch looked as though he’d lost himself to shock. “Jeremiah has never become his element before.”

“What does that mean, Gideon?”

Zia’s focus snapped to Nero, her sovereign’s anxiety ratcheting up with every passing second. When Gideon responded, it was between shaky breaths. “Jeremiah dissolved into his element, became one with it, in order to move the hurricane.” A panicked shake of his head. “He’s never attempted it before. Air Elementals usually can’t.”

“But he’ll be fine, right?” Surprised to hear her own voice, Zia’s arms curled her arms around herself protectively. “He’ll come back?”

The dread swamping Gideon’s features too potent to ignore. Rona grasped her husband’s shoulder, trying to steady the male who’d become as pale as death.

The vampire spoke in low tones, just audible above the roar of wind. “From what I know, Elementals can let go into their elements, but it’s exceptionally rare. Only the strongest attempt it. Gideon became one with the earth to save my life once, and he paid the price to return, but the majority of Elementals only become their elements for one reason.”

Zia almost didn’t want to ask, “What reason?”

Rona offered a tearful smile as Gideon shuddered beside her. “To end their lives.”

Momentarily, Zia could only stare, dumbfounded. As tears burned trails on her face, she couldn’t help but glance at Key, desperate for a reason. But the woman was silent, those lightning-pierced eyes trained on the sky.

Shivering against the fear that suddenly swamped her, Zia began to sob. She had driven Jeremiah to this point. All the cruel things she’d said in her rejection had been too harsh for him to return from.

“Sovereign.”

Key’s voice broke her out of her cascading thoughts, and Nero asked, “What do you know, Key?”

“Jeremiah has successfully moved the hurricane.” Eyes still trained on the sky above, Zia snarled low under her breath, catching the future-teller’s attention.

“Where is he, Key?”

“In the air,” came the maddening response. “He’s reconverging, Gideon. He’ll return to us.”

Startling out his stupor, Gideon looked up, his eyes searching the clouds. No longer panicked, Zia scrutinized the now-clearing sky. Clouds that’d once been dark with malicious intent were dissolving into a hazy grey. Key’s attention, however, was transfixed on Zia, no longer minding the skies.

With a growl, Zia set upon her. “Where is he, Key?”

Her gaze slowly, deliberately, dragged skyward towards the north. Zia squinted. To her horror, she caught sight of his body plummeting toward the earth. Jeremiah was falling.

A shriek of terror escaped her just as Key said, “Go get your mate, Zia.”

Wings spreading behind her, Zia launched into the air, fighting the remaining drafts that threatened to down her. Biting chill tore at her skin while she kept her eyes trained on Jeremiah’s descent.

The Elemental was clearly unconscious, making no attempts to right himself or catch his fall. Every second that passed saw him closer to certain death. Straining her wings, she flew upward, riding the drafts with blistering speed to catch him. Closer, closer, closer, then finally, her arms locked around his waist.

The smell of warm sunshine invaded her senses, the bond pulsing between them as her wings flared out to resist his descent. Her primaries caught the wind as it calmed around them, the element that claimed him feeling almost sentient.

Downward they went, Zia’s arms linked around her fated mate. Jeremiah was a massive male, his clothes waterlogged, and it took everything within her to keep them from plummeting toward the earth in a spiraling freefall. Tendons and muscle pulled taut, her wings vibrating with tension.

Fear spread through her limbs. Jeremiah had suffered her harshest treatment and still protected her people. Then, he’d literally dissolved himself into his element to get away.

The water in the air slicked down her face, accompanying her tears. One thought eclipsed them all: she couldn’t lose him. Zia had wanted to push him away—for his own good—but she couldn’t stand to feel his heartbreak.

Jeremiah was still in danger.

Unless … had this been his fall? Had Key’s prophecy already come true?

Desperate for answers, she searched the rapidly approaching ground for the Foreseer, but the woman was already gone. She instinctively realized her friend wouldn’t answer her.

When her feet finally hit the earth, Zia breathed a sigh of relief. She lay a still unconscious Jeremiah on the rain-slicked ground. Gideon was immediately at his side.

“Jeremiah, wake up,” the monarch commanded. “Come back to us, brother.”

Gideon’s knuckles connected abrasively with Jeremiah’s sternum through his sweat and rain-soaked shirt, unforgivingly attempting to wake the other man. Rona collapsed on his other side; her fingertips trailed to his neck. Two fingers searched for the pulse, and her shoulders slumped in relief when she found it.

“He needs rest, Nero.”

“Rise and shine, buddy,” Gideon said, the Elemental still rasping his knuckles against Jeremiah’s sternum. “I need to know that you’re okay.”

The slashes of his red eyebrows drew together, a soft groan loosening from his throat. “Present.”

Zia stifled her cry of relief, her fingers threading through his shoulder-length hair on impulse. When Jeremiah opened his eyes, everyone froze.

What’d once been summer blue was now an unearthly shade of crystal. A startling turquoise lay along the outer edges, overlaid with a gemlike silver. It made his entire iris seem like a cloud. The sky itself was ensnared in his eyes.

The effect held her in its thrall until Jeremiah closed his eyes once more, and his body lost any trace of tension. He lay before them now, completely unconscious once more.

“Is it just me, or did his eyes change color?”

Nero’s voice jerked her back to the present. “You aren’t seeing things; they definitely changed. Gideon, has that happened before? Where an Elemental becomes their element and then returns to this form?”

Glancing at the other Elemental, Zia was struck for the first time by the eerie canvas of his irises. “No, I don’t know of any other Elemental this has happened to—other than myself.”

“Did you notice any change?” Zia asked. “Other than your eyes?”

She sensed the exact moment Gideon had an epiphany. “You mean other than the fact that I’m now mostly immune to death?”

Zia physically shook off the taste of everyone’s puzzlement.

“We have to get Jeremiah to safety. Out of the rain.”

Nero nodded, “Where shall we take him, Zia?”

The answer her soul offered was immediate: to her bed, where he belonged. Regardless of their current circumstance, she couldn’t see him vulnerable anywhere else. Even if she had already rejected him, and their mating bond would go no further, it didn’t mean her soul wasn’t irrevocably tied to his.

“Is he your mate, Zia?”

Gideon’s question startled her, but as she met his gaze, she slowly nodded. “The bond exists. But it can be allowed to go no further.”

“Have you rejected him?”

“I haven’t severed the bond, but I informed Jeremiah this would be the end of anything between us.”

When Gideon didn’t respond, she cautiously studied his features. Shadowed eyes betrayed his disappointment in her.

“I’ll teleport us,” Nero spoke softly in the tense atmosphere.

Moments later, Jeremiah was in her bed. Gently, she gathered a light quilt from a box by the wall, spreading it over him. The Elemental was panting, sweat beading along his brow, and she could sense his erratic heartbeat even without touching him.

“How can I help him, Gideon?”

“After such a colossal use of energy, he’ll be dormant for some time, perhaps a week or longer. If I was to compare it to something Raeths go through, I'd say it’s similar to a recoil. He’ll be unable to use his gifts, or even feel the wind. For all intents and purposes, defenseless.”

Zia’s heart kicked. Without notifying his monarch of her intentions, she reached out toward where Jeremiah lay. Small cuts—abrasions from where droplets of water had sliced through his skin—marred his otherwise perfect body.

As soon as her hands were on him, his heartbeat calmed, and their immature bond thrummed inside her soul. His weariness was apparent both in his physical form and his fleeting consciousness, and he’d undoubtedly be under for a long time before he woke.

Nero muttered an apology before teleporting away, leaving Zia alone with the Elemental monarch and his wife. A yearning scrubbed abrasively at her psyche, and she turned to Gideon.

“Ask me, Gideon.”

Something darkened in his features before he inclined his chin. “You rejected him.”

“I did.”

Gideon’s lip curled though he tried hard to control the impulse. “What did you say to him? He was broken when I found him, just before Nero called for his assistance.”

Wilting at the news, Zia closed her eyes, keeping her hands on Jeremiah’s chilled skin. “I needed him to leave. I was—I wasn’t kind.”

“Why?”

“His life is at stake if he stays with me.” The unabridged truth couldn’t come out, but they could connect the dots. “If we finalize our mating bond, he’ll die.”

“How can you know that?”

She swallowed, her throat thick. “Key. She foresaw it centuries ago.”

Gideon and Rona exchanged a look. “If what you say is true, I won’t let him risk his life—knowingly or not—not even for matehood. Today was proof he’s already walking the line. Jeremiah never would’ve risked himself like that had he been in his right mind, no matter how much the rest of us pressured and asked for the impossible.”

A tentative knock on the door startled all of them. “Mom?”

“Hey, Boo.”

Shy, Myko slowly crept up to where she was still seated on the bed. “Is—is Jeremiah gonna be okay?”

“He’ll be okay, baby, he just needs to rest.” Retracting her hand from where it’d warmed his skin, Zia pressed a kiss into Myko’s forehead.

“Is he gonna stay with us, mom?”

Zia froze, reeling from the innocent question. And when those dark indigo eyes blinked endearingly up at her, tears misted her gaze for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.

She tugged Myko into her side. “Jeremiah can’t stay with us, baby. He’s got his whole life in Paracel where he lives. He’s—he’s happy there.”

It was a lie. When Zia caught Gideon’s eye, he knew it as well as she did, and Rona’s downcast features said the same.

Myko sniffled, his head resting comfortably under Zia’s chin. “But he’s my best friend, mom. And I think he’s yours, too.”

Zia could only comb through Myko’s ebony locks and murmur soothing things to her son while her mind tied itself in knots. What he had said was perfectly true. The connection forged between them went beyond matehood and romance.

Jeremiah had been in their lives for less than a week and already he’d become integral to their continuing existence. Without him here, the house would feel empty. Every time she’d look at the kitchen cabinets, run water in Myko’s bathroom, or climb the stairs, she’d be reminded of the Elemental who’d done those things without prompting—simply because he’d seen a need and filled it.

From playing with her son to massaging her scalp, Jeremiah had offered them exactly what they needed. A friend for Myko, and a mate for her. Squeezing her eyes shut, Zia battled with her decision.

When she’d asked Jeremiah to leave, she’d stolen happiness from not only herself and Myko, but from the Elemental, too. If he hadn’t voiced as much, it was because he’d been far too good to her in the aftermath of her poisonous words.

Jeremiah hadn’t stooped to her level.

Regardless, the issue of Zia’s curse was still potentially unsolved. She remembered her earlier stray thought: Jeremiah had fallen from the skies already.

Key’s prophecies were arcane and obscure, but part of what she’d said had come to pass. As she thought through the nuances of the prediction she’d lived her life by, she wondered if Jeremiah was safe. Perhaps there was no longer any risk.

Later that night, Zia was still mulling over the possibility and a feeling that it had been too easy. Myko was snoring soundly in his own bed for the night, and Gideon and Rona had returned to their borrowed condo, leaving Jeremiah in Zia’s capable hands. The wind Elemental hadn’t so much as moved in the hours since his feat earlier today, and he continued to slumber upstairs.

A psychic knock sounded only moments later, and she responded immediately. Sovereign.

Zia, may I come visit?

As soon as she accepted, he teleported into her living room. Emanating pure power, the buzz of his residual psychic conversation with another sovereign lingered in the air around him.

“I have news.” Her sovereign took a seat when she motioned to an open recliner. “Isaiah has reached out to inquire about Myko. He’s offered to aid in his training and become his mentor.”

“Isaiah? The Sylth sovereign?”

“He apparently has the gift of Vision, and he’s heard that Myko’s ability might be similar. He reached out to me via telepathy just after we brought Jeremiah back here.”

Worry ran riot among sparking notes of hope. “How did he hear about Myko? My son has never left the island; no one knows about what he can do.”

“Seems our Elemental friend upstairs pulled some strings. Isaiah is mated to Rukia, another one of Paracel’s leaders. Jeremiah knew of Isaiah’s ability and took the initiative to ask for a favor. Clearly, we owe him for more than just saving us all today.”

Zia teeth scoured a line on her lip, hunching over as emotions assaulted her. When they’d flown together just days ago, she’d mentioned a Raeth with the gift of Vision could be of help, in passing. The Elemental had taken the murmured hope and found a solution.

“Jeremiah asked on Myko’s behalf?”

“He knew Myko was struggling. I’m sorry, Zia, I didn’t know about Isaiah’s gift, or I would’ve asked earlier.”

Biting her lip, Zia asked, “But you trust Isaiah? He’d be good to Myko? Safe?”

Nero cracked a grin. “Yes, I do. Had you asked me even two years ago, I probably would’ve said no. But he’s mated, has a child of his own. And believe me when I say he’s a different person now.”

While it went a long way toward soothing her inner mama bear, Zia only nodded briskly. “As long as you’re vouching for him, then yes, I’d love for Isaiah to help. Myko needs it.”

“We’ll have to thank Jeremiah when he’s awake.” Nero looked toward the stairs. “Has his condition changed at all?”

“No, but Gideon said it’d be a while.” Nervously pulling at the hem of her shirt, Zia asked, “Nero, has Key ever said anything to you about—about Jeremiah’s ‘fall’? I can’t help but hope that today might’ve been what she meant.”

“As you know, Key never shares insight with me about her visions, and even when she does, it’s cryptic.” Nero sat back in the chair, the leather huffing as the massive Raeth male settled in. “Hell, she’s told me next to nothing about my own mate, other than giving me a visual and a few snippets of our future together.”

Zia admitted, “I love her to death, but sometimes, I really hate her.”

He gave her a genuine smile of mutual understanding. “You let me know once you’ve talked it over with Myko. If he’s game, let’s do it.”