Read The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) for Free Online

arms over my chest and cocking a hip.
    Theo took two menacing steps toward me.
    "My rope will," he replied with a cruel smile.
    I waved my fingers at him, let Fire flare at their tips and said, " Pyrkagia , remember?"
    "Exactly!" he snarled, closing the distance between us. "And not born that way, at a guess."
    "No," I said, agreeing with him and then calling on the Earth to wrap vines around his ankles instead.
    He swore and simply burned them to a crisp. I didn't have it in me to recall them. Singed plants leave me feeling bereft.
    "In any case," he said stalking closer. "I'll use metal chains. You'll only burn yourself if you heat them up."
    "Theodoros," Aktor said, and there was power in his tone I'd never heard before. "Enough."
    We were standing chest to chest. I'm not sure how we'd gotten so close, my eyes had just been for the anger on his face, but here we were, barely a breath between us. He realised it at the same time as me and sprang back.
    "She has bespelled me," Theo said, his breaths a little too quick in coming.
    "No, son. She has not," Aktor advised, leaving me more and more confused, because shouldn't he be the enemy? Why was he defending me now?
    "We really have to get going," Isadora announced into the strained silence. "They'll send guards out to check the surrounding area when they determine Pyrgos no longer harbours you both."
    "And she's coming with us?" Theo asked, indicating me with a nod of his dark haired head.
    My shoulders drooped and suddenly Sonya was beside me, wrapping an arm around my frame.
    "Aktor said it might be rough, but I had no idea," she whispered. "What's happened to Theo?"
    Theo's head turned slowly to look at my best friend and for a moment I saw worry and indecision on his stark features. Of all the people to convince him that something wasn't right with him and not me, it was a human. A human he probably couldn't even remember.
    "Where are we going?" he asked instead, sounding more calm now, but I could see a muscle tense in his jaw. "Auckland is no longer safe?"
    "No, we've been based in Wellington, but Isadora had to return to Auckland for a family obligation and I chose to accompany her just in case. As it happens, it paid off."
    "And I go where Aktor goes," Sonya declared proudly.
    "There's a story there you need to tell me," I muttered.
    She just beamed back at me from behind dusky blonde locks. I also noted that Aktor's face softened on her words.
    "We've become close, Miss Eden," he supplied. "I'll tell you all about it once we're in the car."
    He indicated a large dark sedan parked just across the grass clearing we were on, at the edge of a silent suburban street.
    "Then we should go," Theo suggested, taking a step towards the vehicle, his eyes lingering on me for a second and then purposely turning away when he saw he'd been caught out.
    Everyone started heading towards the car but I grabbed Isadora's arm before she made it too far. Her eyes darted down to where I gripped her and stayed there until I released my grasp.
    "Just tell me this, can he be trusted?" I whispered.
    "They can hear you, you know?" she replied waspishly.
    "Tell me," I said, losing patience.
    "Yes, he can be trusted. He could always be trusted."
    I wanted to question her more, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Isadora had spoken, she was already walking away toward the car. I took one last look around the empty street we were on and wondered if I'd ever return to my home city again. Or if this was it for me. Outcast.
    I could add more names to the list but right now I really was wearing my emotions on my sleeve.
    The car was bigger than I expected. A limousine in fact. Black tinted windows hid the rear seating compartment, and Aktor suggested everyone get in there while he drove up front. He even donned a driver's cap, pulling it down low over is face.
    I was the last to slip through the open back door, finding Theo sitting too close to Isadora and Sonya sitting on the opposite seat eagerly