Forgotten Elements
Chapter 17

Rather than create another rift in an attempt to make it back to the Land of plenty, we decided it was best to explore the realm. I wanted confirmation that one of my fellow elementals was the one causing this mess, and hopefully, I’d get a chance to question them.

It was an ambitious move to drain a realm and would result in their death. It was too much magic for the body to handle at once without exploding like Heath, or so it had been theorized since, as far as I knew, no one was dumb enough to attempt this.

If they somehow found a way to not only drain a realm but survive doing so, they hadn’t learned it from a Mythic.

Should they continue on this path, there would be serious consequences. Not just with these realms and those connected to them, but within their own bodies, if they don’t die first, just like what supposedly happened to the fabled sisters. Although, I think the effects here might be worse with the magnitude of the power. The realms were all built on balance, countering each other. Take one realm away, and it makes the surrounding realms unstable until it replaces equilibrium again—if it found equilibrium.

When we began learning to use magic as children, one of the first things taught to us was the prices and costs that came with it. Using magic in this way always had a price, and the consequences were usually not worth it, at least in my mind. I just couldn’t see how extra power was worth turning into a soulless monster, especially when done on purpose.

Parker and I bounced theories back and forth, having shoved the mind-blowing kiss to the back burner for the most part. My energy levels were nowhere near back to normal, but at least I was able to walk on my own without my legs buckling.

For once, I almost wished I was wearing the foot prisons that were shoes since my body naturally wanted to connect to the elements. My energy probably would’ve returned sooner if I hadn’t withheld myself from nature, but there was no way I would be involved in this gross misuse of energy transference. I refused to add my magic to the mix for this asshole to steal.

With the possibility that it was one of the elementals from the retreat, it made me rethink everything. I knew Heath betrayed us to save his own skin, and because of that, I assumed that had been the case with the others. But what if I was wrong and the others had been promised power instead? It didn’t change anything in the grand scheme, they were still the assholes who betrayed us, and I was still planning on kicking their asses, but it did make me wonder what this thing’s endgame was. Clearly, this was more than just killing us and draining our magic.

“We won’t know anything about their possible plans until we replace out the species of this thing,” Parker said as he redid his hair. A frown pulled at his face as his movements slowed, and he glanced my way. “Do you think the way they are pulling from the elements is similar to the parasitical elementals?”

He was referring to the former deity-like beings that escaped the rift before the patch was put in place. Each of the race’s magics was warped and parasitical in nature. The elementals stole and killed any element they pulled from.

While it was easy to just assume this was the same, I wasn’t too sure. Not only were the magic and effects different, but they had completely killed whatever they were in contact with. The process was also quick and near instant, while this was a slow drain.

Heaving out a sigh, I told Parker to give me a moment as I knelt in the grass that was more prickly and stiffer than it should’ve been. I took a deep breath as I pressed my hands to the ground and closed my eyes, searching into the magic of the realm. Like with waves crashing and receding from a beach, I felt the ebb and flow of the magic. Like with the other realm, rather than swirling and circling around, it was sucked up by the ley lines, racing toward a singular point. When I checked the air magic, I found it too, followed a similar path.

“It’s different,” I confirmed as I disconnected from the realm’s magic that tried pulling at my own to replenish its depleting reserves. My eyes fluttered open, and I found Parker squatting in front of me with his elbows resting on his knees. “They’re pulling from a singular location.”

Parker stroked his jaw as he glanced around, squinting at our surroundings. “Can you safely follow the energy trail?”

“Easily,” I said as I went to stand up but stumbled from the weakness still invading my body. Parker grabbed my waist, stopping me from stumbling to the side, and pulled me closer in the process. The close proximity to him and the feeling of his hands on my waist had me losing my train of thought. “They umm, aren’t bothering to hide the trail, meaning they either don’t care if they’re followed or—”

“They want us to follow,” Parker finished. His lips tipped up into a small grin as amusement shone in his eyes. “But even if it’s a trap, you did say you wanted to replace them and beat their asses.”

Rolling my eyes, I sighed and shoved the messy strands of hair out of my face. “Yeah, but that was before we knew they were juiced up on stolen realm magic.” I blew out a sharp breath as I considered all the levels we were fucked.

“Scared?” Parker taunted, cocking an eyebrow. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to rile me up so I’d agree to prove him wrong, but I wouldn’t take the bait. After feeling the surge of magic racing through the ley lines, I was no longer sure this was a good idea.

“Cautious.”

“We won’t know who’s doing this or what they’re trying to accomplish by standing around.”

Letting out a groan, I pulled away from him and rubbed my forehead as I thought it over. “I know, I know, you’re right.”

“I’m sorry, I must’ve misheard you. I’m what?” He tilted his head toward me, cupping his hand to his ear.

The look I gave him showcased how unamused I was while silently telling him he was an idiot. “I can’t stand you sometimes,” I muttered as I turned away and began following the magic’s migration pattern. All the while, I shielded my magic from the elements.

“Only sometimes?” He asked, sounding way too amused as he easily caught up to me.

“Keep it up, and I’ll push you off the first cliff we come across,” I grumbled, my lips twitching when he tipped his head back and laughed. The sound was rich, and I nearly stumbled a step as I watched him.

I couldn’t say how long we walked in silence since I still didn’t have my wristband to check the time. The air crackled between us with tension and energy. My focus kept drifting over to him, subtly watching him through my peripheral vision. I had a feeling he was actively slowing down his pace so he wouldn’t accidentally leave me behind, not that he could since I was the one leading the way.

The silence between us wasn’t awkward, but I still felt the need to break it.

“You know, I still can’t get over the fact that Wyatt is your uncle.”

Maybe it was a random thing to blurt out, but it was the truth. When Jade told the rest of us, we were all baffled, having not realized it despite them sharing similar features. When I found out, I was pissed at how Wyatt had the nerve to send a babysitter to watch us. I ripped into Parker the next time I saw him. The only thing that stopped me from laying into him more was Ari coming to his aid.

She said he was telling the truth when he said he hadn’t been sent to spy on us. Apparently, he’d grown bored and wanted a change of scenery, and Wyatt suggested he move to the Convergence point. He also suggested the house next door to us but hadn’t told him anything about us.

“Yeah, you’re not the first to say that. To be honest, until almost a year ago, I hadn’t seen him in nearly fifteen years,” Parker said lightly as he ducked beneath a low-hanging tree branch. He looked so at ease out here, even though we were hunting down a traitorous realm killer.

“How old were you when you last saw him?” I asked, trying to keep my tone casual as I fished for more information.

Parker didn’t try to hide his laugh. “Twenty-one, maybe twenty-two.”

“Was he always such a grumpy asshole?” Wow, that was a tactless question. Maybe Jade was rubbing off on me.

Parker pursed his lips as he considered my question for several long moments. “I think the years in isolation haven’t helped him, but the ‘grumpy asshole’ as you so eloquently phrased it, has always been there. Well, it has been as long as I’ve known him.”

“Is this your subtle way of hinting that he became an asshole after breaking off his mating bond with Gemini?” He glanced over at me, raising an eyebrow as he reached out to grab my waist and helped me over an exposed root. I would’ve been fine without his help, but I hadn’t minded since it was an excuse to be touched by him.

“He told Jade about how he broke things off because he wasn’t in love with her,” I answered his silent question with a shrug.

“It still affected him, breaking off the mating, knowing his friend was hurting and he was the cause. Even though he understood her hatred of him, it still hurt to have someone who was once his best friend hating him. You probably don’t know this, but Gemini was originally from our court. Her parents, grandparents, and even her great-grandparents are still living there. But once Wyatt broke things off, she couldn’t stand living there anymore and switched courts.”

I felt for Gemini and how awful it must’ve been. There she was, mated to the man she was in love with, thinking she had everything, only for the rug to be ripped from beneath her feet. She still held an obvious grudge against Wyatt, we’d all noticed it right away, but those feelings hadn’t transferred to Parker.

While I sympathized with what Gemini went through, I also could see Wyatt’s side and felt for him. If he wasn’t completely in love with her, then he was right to break it off for both of their sakes.

Maybe he should’ve done so before they were mated, but it was hard to know what you’d do in that situation.

“Just so there aren’t any more surprises, how many more siblings does he have?” I couldn’t deny I was curious about their family—most likely because I was becoming obsessed with Parker.

“My mother is the oldest. Stella came almost fifteen years later, and Wyatt is the youngest by over twenty years. My mother never had any interest in politics, and Wyatt never had the temperament to deal politics, so Stella took the throne,” he said with a casual shrug.

“I would’ve thought Wyatt was the middle child,” I muttered under my breath, knowing full well I was a middle child.

Parker chuckled, tipping his head back, managing not to run into a tree. “I told you mine, it’s only fair you tell me yours.

“Technically, you only told me about your aunt and uncle,” I pointed, my lips twitching at the grin Parker shot my way. “I have five siblings: two older by only a couple of years. Most of my siblings are girls, except for my older brother.”

Parker let out a low whistle, and I chuckled as I nodded. Six children in thirty years was a lot for Mythics. For the most part, siblings in our realm were like Wyatt and his sisters, with at least a decade between them. It wasn’t like in the human realm where they had a limited amount of time to have children. With our kind, a woman could have a child at forty or even when she was a thousand.

“Yeah, when Jade met my parents and found out how many siblings I have, she told my dad to get off my mom.”

Parker choked out a surprised laugh. “With anyone else, I’d say there was no way they’d say that.”

I let out a chuckle as I remembered Jade’s baffled expression when she saw my brother and sisters. The look on my dad’s face when Jade told him to ‘Get off her already, dude’ was something I’d never forget. My mother had laughed so hard she choked on the water she’d been drinking.

“For the record, I only have an older sister and younger brother,” Parker said once he got his laughter under control.

“By how much?” I was seriously prying at this point, but I couldn’t help my curiosity.

“Nine years between my sister and myself, and eight with my brother.”

“Your family seems to like having three kids.”

It wasn’t lost on me that Parker and his siblings were the only children from Wyatt and his siblings—although that could easily change—and therefore, were the current heirs to the Blue Moon Court. I didn’t let myself dwell on this though, otherwise, I’d drive myself crazy.

We quickly moved on to less probing questions when he asked about my retreat so far—other than the murders, obviously. I kept some of the details to myself since they were meant to be a secret, but I told him everything that was allowed. After I shared what I’d been up to, he told me about everything that had been going on in the Convergence point. Thankfully, it had been fairly uneventful. The worst thing to happen was someone screamed at Alora when she was in the Water Court for her weekly meeting. Apparently, Reed kicked their ass before they could even finish their shitty words.

It was nice to have a chance to talk to him. Too bad our leisurely stroll through the forest soon ended.