Page 12 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

“We’ll have to swim back,” I say.

Darius doesn’t look happy about it. “Easy for you to say when you spend all your time in the water. The currents down there will probably kill us. Especially after a storm. There’s a bridge between these two islands for a reason.”

“It’s our only way back,” I point out. “If we don’t, then we’re stuck here until we’re rescued, and that would mean failing.”

I can see the determination on his face as I say that.

He doesn’t want to fail any more than I do.

He can’t afford to. Like me, he has nowhere else to go.

Neither of us are Luminan nobles. We don’t go back to a comfortable life if we wash out of our training.

Either we become elementalists, or there’s nothing.

“All right,” Darius says. “Can you keep the currents from taking us straight out to sea?”

I nod. I’m tired, but even like this, I should be able to keep us safe.

We head down to the shoreline, where the sea is flowing fast in the channel between the islands.

Darius strips off his tunic and boots, obviously not wanting to be dragged down by them while he swims. It means that I get to watch the play of morning sunlight across the lean muscles of his chest and back.

He’s not as muscular as Orion, but his body is defined and tight, hard to take my eyes off.

Darius looks over at me and I can’t tell if he’s annoyed by me staring at him or not.

There’s something in his expression I can’t read.

He ties his tunic around his boots and threads his arm through the neck of the tunic, the boots flung across his back.

I guess he’s taking his stuff with him. He nods to me to let me know he’s ready.

We dive into the water together, and from the first instant, I have to fight to keep the currents from sweeping us away. I push back at them, creating a bubble of stillness for us to swim through, although it’s more of an effort than I thought. Surviving the storm took most of the power I had.

It means that I don’t have any power left when a shark comes up out of the depths, heading straight for us. It’s large, gray and white with dark tips to its fins. Its maw gapes open, ready to strike at us, and I know that here and now, it is far too dangerous for me to stop.

Then Darius is there in the way, a hand out to meet it. He only touches the shark, but I see sparks of lightning jump from his fingers and the shark reels back, whirling and heading back toward the depths of the channel.

A wave of relief floods through me, but I know that we need to keep moving.

There will be other dangers in the channel and my strength won’t last forever to keep the currents at bay.

Darius seems to think the same. He pulls at my arm, and some lingering tingle of electricity dances along my skin as he does so.

Together, we swim for the shore, kicking hard to make progress.

I try to ignore the tiredness running through my body, try to focus solely on the rocks ahead.

I pull myself out, hauling myself up onto those rocks, breathing hard.

Darius emerges beside me, rivulets of water pouring from his dark hair as he pulls himself onto the rocks.

He doesn’t pull his tunic back on. A part of me wishes that he would, simply to make it easier to tear my gaze from him.

I force myself to stand simply because I need to focus on getting back right now, not on Darius.

I can’t afford to be attracted to him. For one thing, it will make my arrangement with Orion far more complicated.

“It looks as though there’s a way up the rocks over there,” I say, pointing.

Darius nods. He puts his boots back on, but not his shirt, slowly drying out under the sun. We both head toward a small route heading up, picking our way over the rocks until we’re able to reach the main path above.

There are signs of destruction on this side of the channel, but they are not as great as on the island where Darius and I had to shelter last night.

That is all but destroyed, the trees largely flattened, many of the rocks fallen, scorch marks everywhere.

Here, there are a few pools of water, several fallen branches, but not much more than that.

It occurs to me that the main reason it isn’t worse is because of us.

Darius and I stopped the storm from getting out of control, stopped Ash and Sybil from destroying everything.

And why did they do that? To lash out in jealousy? Ash is jealous because I came in with a talent for the control of water. Sybil is jealous because of how close she thinks I am with Orion. Are those really good enough reasons to try to kill me?

Not just me. Was Darius’s presence enough to tip them over the edge, get them to try to get rid of an Umbran? Our two lands are not at war, but only because the veil of storms keeps us apart. Yet we still consider them the enemy.

We make our way back toward the main buildings, heading for the gathering space in front of the library. The island is quiet this morning, although that might just be in contrast to the fury of the storm that had gone before.

The others are gathered in front of the library. They all look a little bedraggled, a little tired, as I might expect from people who have been out all night in storm conditions. I look around, trying to make sure that everyone who should be there is there. I see Cara and Aria, Nissa and Orion…

Ash and Sybil.

Darius spots them right around the same time I do. He charges forward before I can even react, stalking over to Ash and not saying a word before he throws a punch that knocks Ash into the dirt.

Ash is on his feet again almost instantly, ready to fight. He throws a kick at Darius, something right out of our combat training, but Darius wheels aside, striking back. Ash blocks, giving ground, and Darius keeps moving forward.

Even as he does so, the others grab for him, seizing him by the arms and holding him there. Ash steps up in front of him, and I see flames growing in his hands. Lightning crackles between Darius’s fingers in response, but there’s no way that he can take on everyone here at once.

“Let him go!” I call out, starting forward. I reach out with my magic for the water in a nearby puddle, flinging it at Ash’s hands, dousing the flames.

“Because of course you would side with the Umbran,” Sybil says from the side in a nasty voice. “How was it, spending the night out there with him?”

I know what she’s implying; I’m sure everyone in the clearing understands that. She wants them all to think that there’s something between Darius and me, that something happened last night. She wants Orion to think it.

It’s tempting to do what Darius did, to step forward and throw a punch. Doing this after trying to kill me… I can’t stand there passively and take that. I start forward, heading straight for her.

“Just what is going on here?” Elemental Mistress Halan demands, stepping in. How long has she been there? How long has she been watching?

“This Umbran attacked me,” Ash says, his face filled with triumph. He jabs a finger my way. “And she seems determined to protect him. She lashed out at me with magic.”

“Both you and Sybil tried to kill us last night!” I snap back.

That stops everyone short. Orion looks shocked. Aria looks angry. Most of the other people there look as though they’re not sure what to think.

“Explain,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “And all of you, let go of the boy. I will decide what happens here, not you.”

I try to get my thoughts in order. “We went out to our assigned spots on the island. The storm hit, and it was far stronger than it should have been. I had to move to higher ground to keep from being swept away. Darius had to do the same. We saw Ash and Sybil together on the next island, using their magic to direct the storm our way, trying to make it stronger. We barely survived by working together.”

“Lies!” Sybil says.

“Do you have any proof of this nonsense?” Ash demands. “Elemental Mistress Halan, she’s making all this up to deflect attention from the part where they broke the rules by teaming up.”

Darius addresses the elemental mistress. “You would have been monitoring the storm. Presumably, you felt it getting stronger. You felt it focused on one island rather than spreading out across the whole chain.”

Elemental Mistress Halan looks thoughtful. “I felt all of that, yes. But that does not prove that these two students brought it about.”

“Did you also feel the part where the storm almost got out of control?” I ask.

I glare at Ash. “Do you realize that you could have killed half the students on Nautica? Darius and I had to draw the storm down onto us, had to pull it in until it burned out, just so it didn’t wash away idiots like you. ”

“So you drew the storm onto your own island?” Sybil says, with a cruel smile. “What was it? Did you want to make sure that you and Darius had more time alone?”

“Enough!” Elemental Mistress Halan orders, in a tone that draws silence from all of us.

“I will not have my students bickering like this. We do not enforce strict discipline at Nautica, because we are training you to be powerful elementalists, able to think, able to act as necessary rather than standing in neat ranks, waiting for orders. But if you continue this, I will see you punished.”

I stand there in silence because I don’t dare do anything else.

“Ash, Sybil, there is, as you say, no proof that you did what Sera claims. But do not believe for a moment that you have gotten away with this. I will be watching you, and if you put a foot out of line, you will be expelled from Nautica. Darius, it is not acceptable for you to attack another student. Remember that you are here solely at the discretion of the elemental masters here.”

She looks at me next. “If you did all you claim to have done, then you have saved your fellow students’ lives. They should remember that. Well done. You have passed the challenge. You all have. Sybil, Ash, Darius, come with me.”

She walks off, the three students following in her wake, leaving me standing alone. Although I’m not alone for long. Orion hurries up to me, presumably wanting to fulfill his role, playing the part of a concerned boyfriend.

“Are you all right?” he asks, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m fine,” I assure him. “I’m just tired.”

Tired from being up all night holding off a storm. Tired, too, of people like Ash and Sybil targeting me.

“I can’t believe that anyone would try to kill you,” Orion says.

“I’m telling the truth, Orion,” I snap.

“No, I know you are,” Orion assures me. “I’m just wondering if they were targeting Darius, rather than you.”

I frown. “Because that would be all right?”

“Not all right, but at least I can understand it. Ash lost his brother in an Umbran raid. Plenty of people’s families have been hurt by them. Even now, the rumor is that they’re pushing at the veil of storms, trying to find a way through.”

“That doesn’t make it right!” I snap again.

“I’m just saying, Darius is… well, it’s dangerous to be around him.”

“If it weren’t for him, I would have died last night.”

I realize that people are staring at us, keeping their distance but obviously interested. I can guess what they’re thinking; that this is really about what Sybil said. That Orion is jealous of Darius.

Is he? No, that can’t be right.

“I don’t want to argue with you,” I say.

“I don’t want to argue, either,” Orion agrees. He puts his arms around me. “I’m just glad you’re safe, Sera.”

I look up into his eyes, trying to decide if he truly means it. I don’t know, and I don’t know if I’m truly safe either.

I get the feeling that Ash and Sybil aren’t done with me yet.