Circle of Elements: Water and Wind Collide Read online

Asher took them from her slowly, still not believing the kindness. Maybe these people are okay.

  We hugged and told her thank you, then loaded in and found our way to school.

  The school looked just like the others I had been to, except no metal detectors or guards. It had trees and picnic tables off to the side by a wall made of glass. The inside had round tables spread around, I assumed it was the lunchroom. We walked to the front office that held an older lady with a gentle smile. She gave us our schedules and wished us a good first day.

  We had all the same classes except first, third, and last. He walked me to my advanced English class.

  “If you wouldn’t be so freaking smart we would have been in the same class.” He told me at the door.

  “Well one of us had to get the brains.” I teased with a grin. Asher was smart, and he knew he was. He just didn’t love the work like I did. He didn’t have a lot of patients with sitting still.

  He pretended to scowl at me before moving on to his normal English class. I walked in and the teacher introduced me to the class while I blushed a deep red. Great. The class snickered as I moved to an empty seat as he directed.

  The girl in front turned around to me and looked at me. “You have the most wicked eyes I’ve ever seen.” She told me. She was kinda creeping me out with the intense look.

  “Thanks?” I answered. Ok, you can stop the staring now.

  “So, I’m Kira, and we don’t get many newbies here. So, you will be getting a lot of looks.” I figured, happens at every school no matter the size.

  “Ella,” I told her. “My brother and I are from Chicago.”

  “Oh, so you have a brother?” She asked slyly. “What grade is he in?”

  “Same, we’re twins.”

  “Is he cute?” She winked. Who asks that to the sister? I mean, come on, really?

  “Eww.” I replied, “So not the person to ask that.” I mean, gross, he’s my brother.

  She laughed and turned to face the teacher who was calling the class to order. I felt my wrist start to tingle so I was idly tracing the pattern with my finger. I looked up and a boy with dark brown hair was staring at me. I dropped my head and covered my mark with the bracelets I wore. When I looked back up he was still staring, but he looked curious. I looked back down at my notebook I was writing in and waited for class to be over. I needed to escape this class, I could feel his gaze, it was unnerving. What was his problem?

  When the bell rang, I looked up and there he was. “Hello, my name is Christian.” His voice was smooth and deep, sending chills down my spine, and not the bad kind.

  He was so tall, I had to crane my neck to look up at him. He had to be at least six-two or more, maybe taller than Asher. He had dark brown hair that fell to his shoulders and blue eyes, wait I thought I could almost see a little lighter blue in the center almost like...

  “Your name is...” He prompted.

  “Ella…” I cleared my throat. Nerves will do that to you. “My name is Ella.”

  I was getting a little scared, the eyes... he couldn’t be one of us. Could he? We had never come across anyone like us before. What are the chances of running into someone like us in this small town? Crap. I could feel the air getting chilled around us, I have got to get control of it better. I saw him shudder and tilt his head and saw a small smile. Like he knew I had a secret... and he knew what it was. This getting weird way too fast.

  “Umm... Well, I should go...umm, my brother’s waiting for me.” I stuttered. What if he is like us? What would that mean? Could he be trusted or should we just pick up and run?

  I could feel his gaze on me as I rushed past him and out of the class. He couldn’t be one of us, could he? What if he was dangerous? We know next to nothing of our kind. I rushed into my math class and saw Asher was already there, surrounded by girls already… of course. I rolled my eyes and headed towards him. He moved the backpack he had in the seat in front of him to block all the gawking girls.

  I sat down and turned to face him. “We need to talk Ash, after class.” Away from the gaggle of girls.

  He nodded. Shooting me a curious look, and turned to introduce me to the group of girls he was entertaining. “Ladies, this is my twin sister, Ella.” He told them with his ‘girl getting’ smile.

  “Oh, is this your brother?” Kira said, coming and sitting in the seat next to me. She had a wide smile on. Oh boy, here we go.

  “Yes. Kira, meet my brother, Asher.” I said distractedly. I was still fretting over the boy… Christian. That was his name. I remember him saying it, I think.

  Asher gave her a dazzling smile and she just about swooned. Good god just like every other school. He’s going to be Mr. Popular in a matter of days. The girls all introduced themselves to me then turned their attention back to Asher. I would never remember their names anyway, they won’t be hanging around for me. Even Kira was engrossed with him. I shook my head at him and he stuck his tongue out at me. Butthead.

  We turned to face the teacher as he made us come up and introduce ourselves. What is the deal with these small-town teachers embarrassing the new kids? Of course, Asher wasn’t embarrassed, he loved the attention. He was good with people. If I told him I thought Christian might be one of us… he might overreact. I can’t do that yet. I don’t want to move again, and he looks happy here. The Coopers actually seemed nice and things could be different here. No, I’ll wait and see if he really is one of us… then I’ll tell Asher. Yeah, that’s better than rushing head-first into it.

  After answering several questions about if we are twins, where’d we come from and all the other endless questions, we moved back to our seats. Math went as usual, me passing Asher the answers and him tugging my hair when he needed a problem solved. I rolled my eyes so much I wouldn’t be surprised if they got stuck one of these times.

  The bell finally rang and Asher pulled me aside. “What did you need to talk to me about?” He asked me with worry. His eyes shifted from side to side, ready to run if needed. Ready to jump in the line of fire to protect me.

  “Don’t worry about it, it was nothing. We can talk at home.” I tried to smooth it over. Just let him have a while to settle in. It’ll give me time to find out if my suspicion is real or not.

  “You’re sure? You can tell me anything, Ell. You know that.” He said in his brotherly voice. He wasn’t convinced yet.

  “Yes, I know.” I gave him a hug. He seemed pacified enough with the answer. Well, that’s something at least. We headed off to gym and he went to the boy’s locker room to change, and I went to the girl’s.

  “Your brother is totally hot!” Kira squealed as soon as she saw me walk in. Great, another admirer. I needed to put a stop to this before she realizes he wouldn’t ever settle with anyone.

  “He’s also a total player,” I warned. “I love him, but I would stay away, Kira. He has broken a lot of girls’ hearts. We move too much to put down roots so he tends to play the field.” I told her honestly. I didn’t want to have to deal with the aftermath. She seemed like a good person so far, and I really could use a friend… a real one. Even if she was a little too bubbly for me.

  She looked thoughtful but didn’t say anything while we changed into our gym clothes. I tried. Every girl thought she would be the one to tame Asher Roster, it would take someone special, someone that had the patience of a saint to accomplish that. And somehow, I didn’t think Kira had that patience.

  They didn’t have assigned gym clothes here so we had to bring our own. I brought a pair of black shorts and a red tank top. Luckily, I saw a lot of the girls were wearing tanks too. Kira grabbed my hand and led me to the gym room. Great, we are going to be playing dodgeball. What fun to be had at getting hit with a ball. Whoever thought it was a good idea to invent a game, that has kids bruising other kids with bouncy balls the size of your head, had issues. I rolled my eyes and stood next to Kira while the coach explained the rules.

  I looked over at Asher and saw that Christian was standing behind him.
Crap! He was looking at my brother with that same curious look he gave me. Crap was going to hit the fan, I just knew it.

  The teams got assigned and Kira and I got put on the same team, but Christian and Asher got put on the other side. My brother winked at me and I smiled. When the game started, I saw that even though Christian barely moved- just a step here and there- he never got hit. I got hit out early in the game, of course. So, I sat and watched my team get wiped while Christian and my brother were the last ones standing. I saw them shake hands then my brother’s eyes widened. Here we go, it was true then. I rushed to my brother’s side while everyone else headed back to change.

  “Asher! Stop, you can’t do this here.” I whispered fiercely, grabbing his arm. Eyeing the kids still milling about.

  “You knew!” He turned to me and I could see the amber in his eyes had flamed, he was on the edge. I have got to get him calmed down.

  “No, I suspected. You have got to calm down before you set the place on fire, Ash.” I told in the same tone he used with me. Asher was so angry his arms were shaking, I’ve got get him back under control before we were all found out.

  Christian just stood and watched, not saying anything. I saw my brothers hand catch fire and I acted quickly. I placed my hand on his arm and spread my cold through him. When I saw his teeth start to chatter, I gathered a ball of water in my palm and then placed my hand in his, putting out the flame.

  “Damn it, stop doing that Ella!” He roared at me before turning to Christian with a fierceness that promised violence. “You’re like us, right? Are you dangerous?” Blunt. That was my brother. Like the guy was just going to be like, ‘yeah, I’m dangerous. I’m here to kill you both’.

  “Depends...” Well, crap on a cracker. “You two are unregistered rogues, that is not a good thing,” Christian replied evenly, eyeing my brother.

  “Rogues?” I asked the same time my brother yelled, “Depends?!” Asher, hush! Hot-headed butthead. Registered? What the…? And what the heck was a rogue?

  Christian looked at both of us for a minute and let out a breath before explaining what he meant. “You two have no idea what you are, do you?” He pulled off his watch and showed us the symbol he had, it wasn’t like ours but it was in the same spot. “We must talk… at lunch. Meet me outside and I will explain.” He said then walked off without so much as a see ya later. Well then.

  “You have got to be kidding me. If he thinks we are going to run off with him...” Asher started, but I quickly interrupted him.

  “He can tell us who we are, what we are. Ash, I need to know.”

  He looked down at me for a long time. I knew my eyes were wide and pleading. Finally, he nodded once before stalking off without another word to me. Well, that went well I suppose. At least no one was hurt yet, and nothing caught fire other than my brother’s hand.

  I changed as quickly as I could and told Kira I would see her after lunch then ran to meet my brother. He was waiting for me by the gym door, radiating heat. If anyone got too near they would feel something. They might not know what, but the heat he was putting off was not normal. We headed outside and followed a waiting Christian. He stopped on the other side of the school where there were no windows and turned to look at us.

  “First, we normally kill rogues but...” Christian started but was quickly interrupted by the ball of flame my brother launched at him. I gasped. Christian dodged then let out a blast of wind that threw Asher up in the air and held him there. Fudgesicles!

  I quickly reacted to seeing my brother in trouble. Meek I may be, but I will protect my brother. “Let him down.” My voice was low. He may be a pain, but he was my pain. And this guy was not about to threaten Asher.

  He was still focused on my brother who had flames trailing up his arms, still swirling in the air. I threw a stream on icy water towards Christian, hitting him straight on and he dropped my brother with an aggravated huff.

  “Stop, or I will freeze you to the spot you stand,” I told him evenly. Now I grow a backbone? Who would have thought?

  “He started it!” He huffed, teeth chattering from the cold. It was kind of cute. No. No, it wasn’t. He was an unknown. Definitely not cute… in any way. Nope.

  “First you tell us we were rogues, then say you are going to kill us.” I shot back, eyeing the boy. “Did you expect us to just say ‘go ahead and kill us since you have a reason’?”

  “He didn’t let me finish! I was going to say, we normally kill rogues but seeing as you two don’t know anything, I don’t think it will be necessary. Now can I finish what I was going to say before your brother tries to fry me and you freeze me to death, woman?!” He shouted. Oh.

  I let my water stream fizzle out and grabbed my brother's hand, and together we sprayed him with the warm water. Ash could have dried him... but where would be the fun in that?

  “Better?” I asked nicely. See? We can all be friendly here. No reason to kill each other in broad daylight, in school of all places.

  He nodded briskly and sat up, still eyeing us. But began to speak, “We are called Casters, we protect humans from the monsters. Aging slows for us around sixteen then it takes about a hundred years to age one year. We have groups where we learn all this as children. I do not know why you two were not involved.” He said almost in one breath. I guess he was trying to say all he could before Asher and I reacted again.

  Asher and I couldn’t say anything we just looked at him with our mouths open. How many others were there? We age slow? Oh, my God! This is so unreal. I was first to speak.

  “What kind of monsters are out there?” I was thinking about big, blue, furry, under-the-bed type of monsters.

  “Oh, the normal, weres, shifters, vamps, fairies, demons. Most of them hate us, and if they find one of us, figure out what we are… they will not hesitate to kill us. We do not kill unless provoked. We do not want to start another war,” He answered. He still looked a bit peeved. Too bad.

  “The marks?” I asked, thinking about my own and wondering of the meaning.

  “The marks show who you belong to, your family. Each family has different marks. When a caster finds his chosen, err, um, like, soul-mate, both casters will form identical marks on the back of the neck, it makes their powers stronger. You will gain each other’s powers. But it’s rare to find your chosen. Our numbers are low and it is said when you find the other half of your soul, he or she with become your chosen one. Not everyone finds a chosen, most fall in love the normal way, but sometimes… you get the other half of your soul. You will also get another mark on your other wrist when you join a circle, same one as your circle family.”

  Again, we just stood there not knowing what to say. I sat on the grass and looked up at the clouds. Asher way quieter than I think I’ve ever known him to be. And that showed his level of shock all in its self.

  “How old are you?” I asked him, flabbergasted.

  “One hundred and two years old.” He said as my mouth dropped. He chuckled. Wow, he certainly doesn’t look it. What would it be like to look the same age for so long?

  “Have you found your...” I tried, waving my hand like I could pull the word of the air. What did he call it again?

  “No. Like I said, it’s rare.” He answered with a sigh. I was still looking at the sky. I just can’t believe it. That was a lot to take in at once.

  “Are there any more like us here?” Asher asked quietly, finally chiming in.

  “A few,” Christian replied. “Only one goes to this school to help watch, and her name is Cora. She and the others are a part of my circle.” He was looking at my brother. At least they weren’t trying to kill each other anymore. Asher seemed as stunned as I was. This was a turn of events we could have never seen coming.

  “Can you ask her not to kill us?” I asked in a small voice. I mean, I kinda like being alive and all.

  He smiled. “Yes, I will tell her not to kill you. You have no need to fear me.” He had softened his voice towards the end.

  “W
hat is circle exactly?” Asher asked, sounding more curious than scared now. He adapts fast. My head was still spinning.

  “It is a group of casters that protects an area, the strongest leads while the rest are required to do as he or she says. We are not human, so our rules are different. We heal fast but not instantly, and we take our rules very seriously.” Christian told us. Warning my brother with a look. Asher’s not hard to read, anyone could tell he can be a troublemaker. He’s always had trouble with any kind of rules. This should be interesting.

  “Can you train us to control our power?” I asked. I would love to master control over them. And I knew Asher could use the help too.

  “Zarya! Hush, we don’t know that we can trust them yet.” Asher reprimanded me sharply. I just rolled my eyes, like he knew we didn’t need the help. Christian seemed honest enough, if he wanted to hurt us he would have done it already instead of explaining everything to us.

  “Water Priestess? Where did you get the name if you have never been taught?” Christian asked me with obvious curiosity.

  “We don’t remember much of our father but we do remember some small things. He used to call us different names when we got in trouble, so we tend to do it to each other. So, I assumed our parents gave us the middle names. I didn’t know it meant anything.” Who would have thought a middle name could mean anything other than just something silly, like princess or flower, or something?

  “Middle names are given to us by the council when they decide what you are, or how powerful you will be. Water Priestess is a very powerful water name. What is yours?” He asked, looking towards Asher.

  Asher rolled his eyes before replying curtly. “Nuriel.” He needed to knock off the attitude before Christian thought we were too much trouble and just ended us.

  “Fire of God, also very powerful. How did you two get along all these years without being discovered?” He sounded seriously confused. I mean, it wasn’t that hard. Kids can easily get lost in the system. And we kept to ourselves a lot, we didn’t let anyone in our little twin club.

  “What is yours?” I asked shyly, ignoring his question. I’m not ready to tell this guy everything yet. He may seem nice, but he hasn’t earned our trust yet.