*A multi-perspective continuation of the Elemental series- find the rest in the archives!
🔥Kenna King- Embers
I woke up in a pool of blood, a sea of red. I was drowning in fire, throat burning, head throbbing. My memories were a hazy fog rolling over a roiling sea of thoughts- Why am I here? What happened? With a groan, I tried to stabilize myself with my hand to sit up only to find ropes knotted around my wrists.
Where am I? The floor pitched and swayed wildly beneath my feet, the sky seeming to swim above me. Visions barraged my mind’s eye, a jumble of places and colors all crying out for my attention, sounds blurring into an ear-splitting static. Waves crashing. Dawn rising over an infinite sea. Thunder rumbling like a beast uncaged. Black hair in the wind. Fire. Talia’s meek voice rising louder and louder, screaming in desperation. Burn marks. Howling gales. A desert. A herd of dark figures. Blood on white sheets.
I screamed, thrashing on the floor as the static shrieked louder and louder. Yanking on the ropes that bound me, shrieking, my head splitting apart with visions. Pain rattled through my skull as the jumbled fragments of memories hurtled through my mind like a freight train derailed. Blonde hair flying in the wind. Stormy skies. Silver heels broken on the floor. Shattered glass glinting like crystals under a fiery sun. Men’s guttural yells followed by crack across the head. Black flooding my vision, an unforgiving tide swelling and pitching a boat like a monster ravaging the dusk.
I was a rock in the middle of a raging river, overtaken by a tsunami of colors and memories, a million sounds compiled into a static roar. Out of the torrents, one word arose like a silver salmon leaping from the crashing waves. Kidnapping.
It all stopped abruptly, gone in an instant like a light switch flicked to off. A strange calm took over my mind. Kidnapped. The ropes around my hands and feet were bindings, the dark figures my kidnappers. I stopped thrashing, feeling the heat that had unconsciously flooded to my wrists. White hot. These ropes had been designed for me, to quench my fire. Fury bloomed in my heart, curses pouring out of my mouth so fluently that my mother would be appalled enough to suspend my access to pizza- pizza…
My stomach panged with hunger, a longing for sauce and cheese so intense I retched on the deck. That was all it took to set me off. The uncharacteristic calm evaporated immediately into madness, thrashing and screaming, not caring about the blood that soaked my clothes. I focused all the fire I had on my wrists and forced my hands apart as hard as I could, viciously attacking the bindings. I was going to get out. No matter what it took.
đź’§Talia Thorn- Storm
The dock was slippery beneath my feet, slicked by a sheen of rain and the spray of the surf. Petrichor. That was the perfect word to describe it- the earthy smell after rain. Positano’s bustling harbor was silent in the early light of day as dawn reigned on the horizon, painting the world in red and gold. The fiery sun reminded me of Kenna, her fierce eyes splashed with playfulness as she had conjured sparks to heat up my room service food. The gold reminded me of Selene’s star necklace, pulsating and glowing hot against her throat. When I had asked if it hurt, she had said, “No. It’s white hot and ice cold all at once, like being wrapped in starlight.” I had smiled at just how wondrous it was to be within two feet of a real star.
Each memory was like a knife to my gut. The kidnappers should be here, in the harbor with Sea. After asking around town for a girl connected to the ocean, desperately fumbling through conversations with locals in sloppy Italian, I had found her. Daria. The man had smiled and said, in broken English, “It’s one form of the name Darya. In Persian, it means “sea.”” I had been so close, gone to her house that was nestled right along the sandy, sparkling coast. The door had been unlocked, footsteps leading out to the water. They had taken her.
Now, standing in an abandoned harbor, I collapsed to my knees. I had to find Earth next, I knew. And I had to get there before the kidnappers did. A light, drizzling rain began to fall in time with my melancholy heart. I could see the silhouette of a sailboat on the horizon, just a speck in the distance taking my friends, my only hope, taking everything out to sea.
✨Selene- Starlight
Glowing hazel eyes shone down on me, lit with some furious fire. I looked around the dreamscape, taking in the clouds and starry night sky above me, the cascading golden gown I had worn that night in the dream. Everything was the perfect image of when I had first been reunited with her. The pavilion and my throne, studded with colorful planets and constellations delicately etched into the frame. The strappy silver heels on my toes and glowing gold wreath of stars sitting queen-like atop my head. Everything was the same. But this time, Artemis’s hazel eyes weren’t alight with joy. They were alight with fury.
“Artemis? Why did you bring me here?” My voice echoed across the clouds, rolling away in waves of echoes until it faded away into the dusk. She put a pale hand on my shoulder, gripping it fiercely.
“Selene. Do you know what you are doing? Assembling the Elemental goddesses? Trying to overthrow the original gods and goddesses?” Her silvery voice cracked, and she trailed her fingers down my collar bone, where my star necklace pulsated and thrummed in time with my heart. The one thing I loved most in the world. A gift from Artemis. I flung a hand up protectively, clasping the chain and the glass orb in my fingers.
“You know that I’m doing the right thing, don’t you? The Olympians are corrupt! They cause earthquakes and hurricanes over silly spats, whip up tornados every day. Smite innocents for fun! Immortality has made them heartless. Can’t you see?”
“You fool. How could you turn your back on me, your best friend?” Artemis seethed, the pain of my betrayal glittering fiercely in her luminous eyes. There was no reasoning with her, I knew it. I moved to walk away, and she lunged for me, auburn hair whipping in the breeze. I shrieked as she yanked my necklace off. The chain snapped. My heart sank.
“NO! My star!” I cried, tears spilling out in torrents. The chain hung limp in her dainty fingers, trembling as her hand quaked. The star glowed and thrummed inside its glass orb, bursting with light like a distress signal. Flashing gold, shuddering and shining white hot. Crying out for me, to rest on my neck and glitter like it always had.
“Why,” I heaved, staggering forward to meet her eye to eye, “do you stand with the Olympians? Join me. Us. Help us get away from these kidnappers on Earth. Please.” She laughed, eyes glimmering with an inhuman rage. Cold. Merciless.
“I sent them, Selene. The Elementals were cast down to Earth for a reason. You are immature teenagers, reckless, just humans with silly gifts.” She paused, running a finger over the necklace like she had years ago when she had given it to me. Her hands weren’t gentle like they had been. They were rippling with power, fingers tensed to crush the fragile glass.
“If Heaven wanted you to rule, you would be here. But you are nothing more than Mira Casse. You can never be Selene. Never.” I lunged for her and she deftly side-stepped, sending me sprawling face first into the clouds. By the time I turned to face her, cottony tufts clinging to my hair, I knew it was too late. Artemis, my best friend, the gentle, confident huntress looked me right in the eyes. And crushed to orb.
My scream was lost in the roar as the star burst into a supernova, a blinding white light exploding into the dusk.
*********************
The dream fell away and I lurched upright, clawing at my throat. Blood soaked my hands, my hair dripped crimson. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that my necklace was gone, and in its place was nothing but pale skin and a tiny, star shaped scar. I couldn’t breath. I was naked without it.
Surveying the deck through tear-blurred eyes, I saw Kenna, upright and howling curse words like a banshee, thrashing against her bonds. She was barely recognizable, a mess of dark brown hair and blood stained skin. When she saw me she paused for a millisecond before yanking her wrists apart, shrieking at the top of her lungs. The whole ship was a mess of blood, screams ringing out across the water as the Positano shore faded away in the distance. The kidnappers stood on the bow, talking calmly amongst themselves. Artemis’s mercenaries. What a mess. How could you, Artemis?
I brought the rope to my teeth, chewing at them to no avail. The kidnappers didn’t even flinch as Kenna wailed on and I joined her, cursing the gods, shrieking Artemis’s name until my throat tore. They stayed calm, discussing routes and the weather, unaffected; Not even a reaction anymore- Kenna must have been going at this for a while.
I smiled sadly. I’d grown fond of her and her tireless personality. Then, I saw her. Another girl, passed out on the deck with a rag in her mouth. She was lithe, her thin form hugged by a black bathing suit. Just a girl, about my age with sunkissed skin and incredibly wavy black hair. Blood flowed like a river from her abdomen, gushing out and filling the air with the metallic tang of blood. The wound was ugly, a mass of torn flesh. Sea. It must be sea.
I put my head in my hands (as best as I could with bound wrists.) They have her. Storm was too late. There was hope yet. Talia could find Earth in time, I knew it. She could find the courage, and in the meantime Kenna and I would come up with a plan. With something. Hope usually flew in on swift wings like an angel or a shooting star. This time, it was a fight to keep it alive. I sighed, looking at Sea’s bloody chest rising and falling with ragged breaths. Too late.
Life and Lemons 