I’m freezing and my head feels like it’s in knots. That’s the first thing I become aware of when I open my eyes again. Every limb in my body aches, and my head throbs. It’s also very dark. So dark I question if I don’t have my eyes open. But even after I blink a few times, darkness continues to haunt every inch of my vision. That’s when reality throat punches me.

Brody. The ice. The elemental protector of darkness. The room of darkness.

I’m in the darkness room, and while I have no clue what that is, considering darkness is supposed to be evil …

As adrenaline soars through me, I wait for lightning to light up the room, but that never happens. Instead, the darkness thickens around me.

“Don’t panic. You’re not in here alone.” Brody’s voice floats through the darkness.

I push up on my hands and knees and strain my eyes to see past the darkness.

“You don’t need to be nervous.” This time his breath touches my ear. “I just want to play for a bit.”

I swing my arm back, my fist colliding with his stomach. He grunts in pain, but quickly recovers, grabbing a fistful of my hair.

“Fight all you want, but the only way out of this room is if my friend Anders lets you out, and he’s not going to do that. In fact, he’s standing outside, waiting for me to get done with you, and then he’s going to unleash darkness on you full force.”

I’m guessing Anders is the elemental protector of darkness who helped Brody put me in here. Not that it matters right now. All that does is getting the hell out of here.

Send help down the link. Now, Sky!

The thing is, I’m not sure how the link fully works, but I do my best to allow the fear pulsating through me to current down the invisible link that connects me to all the Everettson brothers—

I gasp as Brody tugs harder on my hair, forcing me to turn over. I instinctively bring my knee up and collide it with his stomach. He curses then climbs on top of me.

“Don’t worry,” he whispers, pinning me down to the floor. “I’ll make it quick.”

I scream, reaching up to hit him, but he captures my wrists and pins my arms down. Then he forces his lips roughly on mine.

Panic slashes through me, and I again attempt to channel my powers, but only silence whispers through my body.

He kisses me harder, slipping his tongue into my mouth. I bite down on it. Instead of pulling away, though, he digs his fingernails into my wrists and bites down on my lip until blood pools out. I whimper in pain, and he chuckles, pressing his lips to mine again.

Why isn’t my kiss making him pass out like Grey? Is it because my powers aren’t working right now? Why aren’t they working?

Both fueled by rage and panic, I dig deeper. For the first time ever, I beg my powers to surface, to blast through the air, to hurt Brody—

One second, Brody is pushing me down to the ground, and the next, he’s tipping over and off me.

I let out a shaky breath as I hurriedly sit up, rubbing my aching wrists and trying to see through the darkness, see what happened to him. But everything is silent. Too silent.

“Look at you. A scared, little lamb,” a voice whispers in my ear. Not Brody’s voice either. No, this voice is a purr, a whisper of evil. Darkness. “Don’t be frightened, little one. Master will be so pleased to hear that you’re here.”

Swoosh.

Something zips past my face and laughs.

“Of course, I can have a little fun first before I tell him.” It laughs in my ear. “Did you know that darkness can cause insanity, usually to those who are weak-minded? Shall we find out just how strong you are?”

“Leave me alone,” I bite out, rising to my feet.

Without being able to see, my equilibrium is off, my balance shaky. And with my powers muted, I can’t do much but stumble around helplessly.

“Oh, I will soon enough, but what awaits for you when I do is going to make what happens next look like the fun part.”

As I part my lips to scream, a puff of air hits me in the chest and the coldness in my body expands, deepens, seeping into my mind and painting horrible memories I’ve never truly let myself fixate on. Of me as a young child, of being left alone all the time, how lonely I felt. The lack of love in my parents’ eyes when they looked at me, as if they wished I hadn’t been born. Of the one time I overheard them whispering about how much they wished they didn’t have to take care of me. That I was a burden.

Tears fill my eyes as the memories shift into images I’ve never seen. Of my parents packing their bags and sneaking out of the house late at night. Of them leaving me behind as they take off to a new life.

A new life without me.

“Leave me alone!” I cry out, throwing my hands over my ears, the blood from my injured lip dripping down my chin.

“Why? Don’t you want to see the truth?” Its cackle echoes around me.

“No!” I scream.

It laughs, the images shifting to all the times I was teased at school. Of when I was humiliated. Of the years I spent keeping my ability a secret. Of the fear I felt, the loneliness, even when I was around my friends.

Over and over again, the images play out until I collapse to my knees and curl up into a ball. Power sparks inside me, but doesn’t lash out into the room. It stays within me, building inside my body, the pain and heat so potent I swear I’m going to die.

“Please make it stop,” I beg, my brain aching from emotional overload. “Please.”

But it only laughs and plays it all over again. “Stop? Why would I ever stop?” But then, contradicting its words, it says, “You’re … Oh, my gods. I need to somehow tell the master of darkness what you are and the condition you’re in.”

I’m unsure how long I lie on the floor, but at some point, I reach a sort of catatonic state.

I should be afraid. Instead, I feel a drop of relief that at least the images have stopped.

“Sky?” a voice cuts through the darkness.

Shit. It’s come back.

“Go away,” I say with my hands still over my ears and my eyes tightly shut. My chest aches, like a deep wound, my eyes hurt from the tears I shed, and my veins are sizzling from the overload of power that was trapped inside my body. “Leave me alone.”

Hands cup my cheeks and warmth douses through my veins, thawing some of the cold but not the agony inside my chest.

I blink my eyes open, fearing who’s found me, but relief hits me at the sight of his eyes.

“Foster,” I croak hoarsely.

Lightning flashes behind the silver in his eyes as he scoops me up in his arms. I’d work up a good protest, but my body feels like lead, heavy and fatigued.

“Who did this to you?” he whispers as he carries me from the darkness room and into the lighted hallway.

People are loitering around, watching us, all their eyes a vibrant shade of either lavender, silver, gold, or green, which means I must be in the elemental’s building.

“It was … It was Brody and a couple of his friends,” I croak out, loathing how feeble I sound. I lower my voice and whisper, “Foster, I think Brody’s still in that room. He tried to kiss me, and I …” I trail off as guilt, fear, and anger rupture through me.

Guilt that I may have hurt someone. Fear that everyone will find out what I am if they discover Brody passed out on the floor. And anger that, deep down, I know what that fucker was going to do to me if kissing me hadn’t knocked him out.

Maybe it makes me sick and twisted, but part of me is glad he’s lying on the floor in the dark, most likely poisoned from the kisses he stole from me.

Foster glances down at me, the lightning in his eyes illuminating behind the grey as he notes my bloody lip.

“Take her,” he bites out, his heart rate thundering like an out of control storm.

I’m shifted into Easton’s arms. He swallows audibly as he stares down at me with a pained expression. I’ve never seen him look so upset.

“Come on; let’s get you out of here,” he utters, then starts down the hallway with me in his arms.

“What about Foster?” I ask, peering behind us.

“Foster will be fine,” he says as he pushes out the door.

As we step outside, I look back into the hallway one last time and catch a glimpse of Foster striding back into the room of darkness, with his fists balled at his sides, looking as if he’s about to commit murder.

Frowning, I look away. I feel like shit, broken and dirty inside. Not to mention pathetic. I mean, it’s my first day at a new school and I’m being carried out like a damsel in distress. Not a good way to start things off. I want to get down and walk with my head held high, but I can barely keep my eyes open.

Fighting to stay awake, I direct my attention back to Easton. He has a grim look on his face as he glances up at the stormy sky.

When I was in that room, I couldn’t channel my powers outside of my body. Even now, the sky is strangely quiet. I wonder why. If it was from the cold Brody’s friend instilled in my body or something else.

“Where was I?” I ask. “I mean, what was that room I was in?”

His gaze drops to me. “That’s the room they use to train elemental protectors to fight darkness. While a creature is in there, their powers are restrained within their bodies, because the training is supposed to be a mental thing, since darkness mostly attacks mentally.”

I swallow the lumped in my throat. “It showed me horrible things … Some, I’m not sure if they were true or not, but they were still horrible.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he says as we reach the car. “And I’m sorry we allowed it to happen … Foster and I could feel your fear, but we had no idea where you were because of the restraint on your power … But we could still feel it… that heat and overwhelming …” He pauses, taking a breath. “Nothing like that will ever happen again. We fucked up this time, but I swear we’ll keep a better eye on you from now on.”

I’m not naïve enough to believe they can watch me twenty-four seven. And honestly, I don’t want them to. What I want is to be able to handle those situations myself. Hopefully, in time, after I’ve learned more about my powers, I can do just that.

In fact, I think I’ll make it a goal—to become the most badass elemental enchanter who’s ever lived, one no one will ever mess with. That way, I can protect myself. With what I am, I really do need to.

“East,” I whisper tiredly. “I think I may have really hurt Brody … He kissed me, and then he tipped over and … He was really silent.”

His expression turns guarded. “Whatever happened to Brody, I’m sure he deserved it. You need to remember that, okay? He tried to hurt you, so he brought this on himself.”

I press my hand to my stomach as my gut ravels into tight knots. “What if I killed him?”

“You didn’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I know a thing or two about elemental enchanters’ powers.” He smiles at me, but it looks all sorts of wrong.

He’s lying.

Something’s wrong.

I did something terrible to Brody.

My powers did something terrible.

Wait …

Images pull at my mind …

“Easton … the darkness in that room … the last thing it said to me was that it needed to somehow go tell its master of darkness what I am and the condition I’m in—”

The roaring of engines cut me off.

I feel a spark of worry blaze through me, but it fizzles out as Easton turns toward two motorcycles zooming in through the gated entrance. The drivers have helmets on, but the way Easton visibly relaxes has me wondering if they’re his brothers.

Two seconds later, my guess is confirmed as Easton mumbles, “Porter and Max are here… They must have felt you.”

“Felt me?” I stare up at him, lost.

“Your fear through the link,” he explains, adjusting me in his arms.

“Oh…” My words get smothered by the loudness of the engines as the motorcycles pull up and park beside us.

The engines shut off, then the drivers climb off and remove their helmets.

“What the fuck happened?” Max tosses his helmet onto the seat of his motorcycle, then rakes his fingers through his dark hair, the strands somehow falling perfectly into place. “We felt something down the link and I…” He massages the center of his chest, as if his heart deeply aches.

Easton’s chest rises and crashes as he releases an unsteady exhale. “This guy Brody has been holding a grudge against Foster for a while, and when he saw Foster with Sky, he decided to get back at Foster by… by locking Sky in the room of darkness.” He shakes his head, the muscle in his jaw pulsating. “Then he tried to kiss her and… fuck. This is so messed up.”

Max pales as he looks down at me. “Are you okay?”

I nod, even though I’m not sure I am. “Yeah… I think so…” A yawn escapes me. “I’m just a bit tired.”

Max frowns in skepticism, but doesn’t call me out on my lie.

As Porter’s eyes fall to me, a pucker forms at his brows. “Why does it feel different?” His gaze rises to Easton, his brow quirking up.

“I don’t know…” Easton lifts a shoulder. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“What’re you talking about?” I ask, glancing between the three of them. “What feels different?”

Porter stares at me with a calculating look on his face, as if he’s deciding whether or not to answer me.

“Nothing,” Easton says quickly. “Look, can you guys take her home? I think I need to go find Foster and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“You probably should. I can feel a lot of anger through the link right now,” Max mutters, stepping toward East. “Give her to me. Porter and I will take her home in the car. Hunter’s on his way too. I think he’s taking a portal, though, so if he gets here in time, we’ll have him ride home with us. You and Foster can drive those home.” He nods at the motorcycles then takes me from Easton’s arms.

“I can walk,” I say with wavering confidence as I move to climb out of his arms.

But Max only holds me tighter against his chest. “Stay still and let me carry you.”

My lips part in a protest, but Porter cuts me off as he steps closer to Max and I and leans over me.

“Honey, you can barely keep your eyes open.” His head angles to his side, then he reaches out and traces his fingers underneath my eyes. “You should try to go to sleep. Let your power rest for a bit. After what happened…” He seals his lips together then trades a quick look with Max.

I want to ask what the hell they’re keeping from me, not that I’d think they’d tell me, but dreamland tugs at my mind, and hastily pulls me under.