Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
Mireen's mouth hangs open. "A dragon?" she whispers. "Can we see it?"
"Typhon, are you willing to show them?" My stomach flutters with nervous energy.
I sense a world-weary sigh from my elemental, but the widened eyes and audible gasp from Mireen tell me he has revealed himself.
"Holy. Shit." Beck whispers. "You tethered a fucking dragon? Malakai is never going to mess with you again."
"Impossible…" Ambrose breathes.
"He's so cute!" Mireen says, standing and taking a step toward him.
"Tell her if she calls me cute again, I'll eat her and her damned otter."
"Um," I say, taking Mireen's arm. "It might be best to give him some space. He hasn't been around humans in a long time."
"This is untrue. I have been eating them for the past few centuries.”
I'm suddenly thankful my friends can't hear him. His manners need a lot of work.
After a barrage of questions, most of which I answer truthfully, I've caught them up to speed on the "what the hells" and the "how the hells." The only part I haven't mentioned is about my unbound affinity. It was easy enough to claim the silver threads in my mark were just a side-effect of Typhon's ancient power.
Part of me does want to tell them, but I also know even more than I did before. I know what I am is dangerous, even if I don’t fully understand why I’m dangerous yet. Bringing them in will put them at risk, and we've all got more than enough threats against our life as it is. The guilt of keeping secrets from them weighs on me like heavy stones, but I can't risk their lives. This unbound burden is mine to carry, and I won't put it on their shoulders unless I absolutely have to.
Beck's elemental shows itself first. It's a bear that is about half as tall as Beck when on its four legs, and probably taller if it stood on its hind legs.
"Meet Uther," he says, patting the bear on the head. Uther snaps at him, and Beck pulls his hand back with a sheepish smile. "He's grouchy, but we're already becoming fast friends."
His bear looks like he's made of living water of the deepest blue. In most ways, it looks like a bear, except for the peculiar long eyebrows and dangling beard of water on its face.
I don't dare say as much aloud, but I honestly think it's kind of cute.
Mireen's "Ollie" shows himself next. He's the size of a dog and swims through the air with a sleek body that seems made the same way of most water elementals—as if he's a living formation of water. Though the eyes and a few parts, such as its teeth and claws, do seem somewhat more solid. Ollie's "claws" that Mireen bragged about look about as deadly as a cat's.
"You know," Ambrose says. "I have heard that the smaller elementals are often a sign that the primal commands more powerful channeling skills. Maybe Ollie is a little less of a front-line fighter, but he'll bolster your magic as you guys train together."
Mireen scratches his head as Ollie continues to swirl around her. She talks to him in a baby voice. "You could fight on the front lines if you wanted, couldn't you?"
Instead of snapping at her or seeming annoyed, Ollie just curls tighter into her, making me smile. They say elementals are drawn to people who match their own nature. I think it’s true for my friends, but I don’t know if Typhon was exactly a natural pairing for me. At least I hope not, based on his personality.
I feel him growling inside my mind and grin.
Ambrose shows his water hawk, Akaron. The water hawk is perched on Ambrose's shoulders. Despite being smaller than the bear, his claws look substantial enough to do some serious damage, and there's no playfulness in the hawk's deep blue eyes. He actually gives me the slightest nod as I take him in.
I nod back, because I don't want to be rude.
We take a while swapping questions and stories from our time in the elemental plane. I learn that Mireen and Ambrose were able to stick together for the most part, and they didn't face any trouble from fellow students. Both felt called to their elementals, and they had to dive into some deep waters to find them. In a way, it sounds like their experiences were almost identical to what we faced during the water trials as we searched for echoes.
Beck, on the other hand, supposedly had to wrestle Uther because they were both fighting over the same fish. Beck claims he was hungry, and the two reached a stalemate and agreed to share the fish in the end. I’m highly skeptical of the story, but that's not a shock when it comes to Beck. He has a new story about his conquests with girls across campus almost daily, and all of them are "older students we wouldn't know."