An agonized cry reached my ears, the sound excruciating, one I belatedly realized was my own. Everything glimmered in shades of blue around me, a rippling effect of my overheated aura.
Focus, I told myself. Rein it in.
Only, I didn’t know how because I was too full of energized substance to accept any more.
I ripped at the choker around my neck, needing my earth, hoping to hide in the source to find my stability once more.
There, I thought, my element immediately responding despite the device encircling my neck. Whether I’d somehow deactivated it or overrode it, I wasn’t sure, but my beautiful gifts responded and grounded me with the familiarity of soil and earth.
I rooted myself to the ground, reveling in my birthright and locking onto my royal line to find sanctuary in my home element.
Every inhale filled me with floral aromas, and every exhale calmed the fire, until finally I surfaced enough to survey my surroundings in a burnt courtyard shrouded in sunlight.
Blue embers danced in the air, drawing my focus to the damage around me.
I opened my mouth, but no sound escaped me, only another whimper of pain as the flames began to build once more inside me.
Oh, no...
My stomach heaved, a cramp building in my lower abdomen and churning with unrepressed power.
“We need to ground her!” someone shouted. It sounded like Kols, but that couldn’t be right.
“And how the fuck do we do that?” Hmm, Shade, my mind supplied, his presence providing a temporary balm to my rioting soul. Mate.
“I have an idea.” That still reminded me of Kols, some part of me recognizing his aura nearby. Or perhaps in me. After all, he was my earth mate now. Sort of. Maybe.
What have I done?
Everything went quiet once more beneath another pulsing wave of excruciating pain that crushed me to my very soul. I curled into a ball on the ground, seeking the utopia only created by true balance.
It eluded me, my talents too fierce and untamed to heed any sort of order.
I whimpered, then jolted as a hand clamped onto my throat, giving it a squeeze. “We’re going to help you,” a deep voice informed me.
Zeph.
He guided me to my back, his palm squeezing when I tried to curl into myself once more. “We need you like this,” he explained, his thigh settling between mine.
Skin to skin.
I frowned.
Why am I naked?
“This had better work,” Shade said, his lips suddenly by my ear as he stretched out alongside me.
“If it doesn’t, there’s only one other alternative,” Kols replied, his mouth near my opposite ear, his warmth seeping into my side.
“Kols,” I managed to say, my throat dry as I tried to look at him, to apologize, to ask where he’d come from or how he’d arrived.
“Don’t,” he replied, his tone harsh.
Pain splintered in my chest, only to be overwhelmed by the lava pouring through my being. I could try again later. Assuming I survived this next blast of heat.
Zeph released my throat, his hand traveling down my torso to my hip as he settled between my splayed thighs.
“What are...?” Another pulsating shock of heat silenced my question, thwarting my ability to focus on anything other than the quakes rocketing my limbs.