Page 24 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

In the aftermath of the tsunami, water drips from the rocks of the island, flowing slowly now, making its way back down into the ocean. All of us who have taken part in the challenge make our way back along the causeway leading to the main island, leaning on one another for support.

I have my arm around Darius. If I thought that the walk here was hard work, it is nothing compared to the walk back. I can barely keep my eyes open. We move slowly, no one with the strength anymore to do more than shuffle.

Elemental Mistress Halan is waiting for us on the beach. It is getting dark now, the first stars starting to show in the night sky. She looks along the line of us as if counting our numbers. Her expression shows no sign of her feelings.

“You did well,” she says. “The tsunami this year was particularly violent.”

I know that I could just accept the praise, but I’m tired. So tired of being ambushed by the Elemental Hall’s idea of testing. I know that it is meant to be dangerous, but I don’t like being tricked like that.

“You sent us out there to face up to that? You and the other elementalists think that’s a test? We could have all been killed!”

Elemental Mistress Halan doesn’t rise to my anger. I suspect that she’s suffered too many similar outbursts from previous intakes of students to be affected by it.

“I have told all of you before that the Elemental Hall is preparing you for dangerous situations. Becoming an elementalist is not easy, nor is it safe. We wanted to know how you would react in the face of unexpected disaster.”

“And were you prepared for your safety measures to be sabotaged?” Darius asks.

Elemental Mistress Halan looks his way. “What are you saying?”

I answer. “Ash has been working for the Umbrans. He destroyed at least one of the sea gates. He wanted the tsunami to wipe us out.”

A flicker of anger crosses Elemental Mistress Halan’s face. “And where is he now?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. He tried to strangle me, but then the tsunami hit. Maybe he was carried away by it.”

It’s possible that he’s dead. It’s possible that the power of the storm was too great for him and that his body is lying at the bottom of the ocean somewhere. I don’t believe that, though. Not really. Someone like Ash wouldn’t go into a situation like that without a plan to escape.

“He is the one who tried to kill Darius before, too,” I say. “He admitted as much.”

Elemental Mistress Halan’s expression is serious.

“Then, if he should reappear, he will have a number of questions to answer.” She looks from each of us to the next, one by one.

“You think that this test was too harsh. You’re right, it was never meant to be like this.

It was more dangerous than I ever intended.

But think about this: you survived. By working together, by using the skills you have learned, you found a way to pass the test even when it became more than you expected, even when it became something beyond the boundaries of anything we planned.

You should be proud of what you have achieved today.

Go, return to your dormitories. Get food, rest. You’ve earned it. ”

There should be a sense of triumph at having passed a test so difficult, but instead, I just feel drained. Darius leads me away from the beach to the refectory, where we grab a table in a corner away from the others, eating even though I’m not really hungry, knowing that my body needs the fuel.

All of a sudden, I’m shaking, barely able to bring a hunk of bread to my mouth. Darius is there, his hands covering mine.

“It’s all right, Sera. You’re safe.”

I don’t feel safe. It feels as though all the things I didn’t have enough time to feel while Ash was attacking me, while I was holding off the tsunami, are coming to the surface in one unchecked torrent. All the fear, all the adrenaline, is rushing through me, all at once.

Darius moves around the table, holding onto me while I shudder.

“I could have died,” I say. “His hands were around my throat.”

“I know,” Darius replies. His voice is softer and gentler than I’ve heard it before. “But you didn’t. You survived. You saved all of us.”

“Only because you were there,” I point out. “You saved my life, Darius.”

He smiles then, finding humor even in this. “It seems to be what we do for one another. Our thing.”

He’s making a joke out of it, but I know how serious the whole situation was when Ash attacked me. If Darius hadn’t been there, I would be dead now. I hold close to him, still shivering with the aftermath of the adrenaline.

I kiss him, softly, slowly, wanting to take my time, wanting to taste him.

“I love you,” I whisper, low enough that only Darius can hear.

“Do you mean that, Sera?” Darius asks.

I know what he’s asking. He’s wondering if I’m saying it just because I nearly died, just because my body is flooded with emotions that it can barely deal with.

“I mean it,” I insist. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Darius says. Some of my surprise at that must show on my face, because he raises an eyebrow.

“Do you find that so hard to believe, Sera? Do you think you’re so difficult to love?

You’re beautiful, intelligent, kind. You risk yourself to save others, even people like me, who your classmates would probably toss back into the ocean.

The best part is that you barely seem to notice those things.

You’re the most powerful elemental student here, but you don’t act like you’re any better than the rest. You’re special in so many ways. Of course I love you.”

“Still pretty sure you’re describing someone else,” I murmur, leaning against him. I feel so tired now that the last of the adrenaline is gone from my system. I feel as though I might collapse without Darius to hold me up.

“Come on,” he says, helping me to my feet. “Let’s get you out of here.”

We walk from the refectory together, heading out under the starry sky. It is so clear that it seems I can see the whole universe from where I’m standing.

“Are the stars the same in Umbrae?” I ask.

Darius looks up. “A few of the constellations are the same, but they appear in different places in the sky. Umbrae is a whole other half of the world. Do you know that there’s a moon that shines only above it, never above Lumina?”

“There is?” I say. That seems so strange, the skies themselves being utterly different. It’s as if the two kingdoms are on completely different worlds, rather than merely being divided by the veil of storms.

“They say that it is held in place by the emperor’s magi,” Darius says. I feel him shudder. “Always there, always shifting. I prefer these skies. Here, with you.”

“I like having you here too,” I say.

We stay there for a minute or two under the stars, simply staring up at the sky. Then staring at each other, then kissing once again. I don’t know what the future holds for us at the Elemental Hall or beyond it, but for now, I feel as though I’ve found some missing part of myself.

We walk slowly back to the dormitories, and no one seems to mind that we barely make an effort to sneak in together.

I suspect that, after everything the students have been through, no one cares.

Perhaps it helps that I need Darius’s help to make it back there, and to walk up the steps to my room.

I’ve used so much energy today that even now, I feel as though I might fall in a heap and just sleep if he lets go of me.

We make it to the door of my room, and I slip inside, pausing at the threshold.

“Thank you for being there, Sera,” Darius says. “I guess this is where I say goodnight.”

It would be the sensible thing to do. It’s been a long, dangerous day.

We should both get some sleep and see how the world looks in the morning.

We should rest and prepare for whatever they are going to throw at us next.

We should take the time to recover from nearly dying at the hands of a traitorous student.

We should do all of those things, but they aren’t what I want to do right then. Not even close. Instead, I catch hold of Darius, pulling him to me, pulling him into the room.

“Don’t go,” I murmur.

He doesn’t. Not for a long time.