The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 47: Earth

Harry covered his arms and legs in spiky icicles and quickly formed a long, thick one in his hands. Evalynn jumped out of the tree, her arms in her fighting stance. I held out my sword that Harry had recovered for me, and out of the corner of my eye, I realized both Derek and Thomas were unarmed.

"Need a weapon?" I offered Derek my sword, but he refused with a grin.

"Nah, Skylark. I got this."

He raised his hands above his head, and slowly squeezed his hands into fists. A loud snapping sound filled my ears, and two thick branches flew into his hands. He handed one to Thomas and held his several feet in front of him with his powers.

"When did you learn to use your element?" I asked, surprised. I had never seen Derek use in element before.

He gave me a sideways grin, the very one that had reeled me in at the homecoming dance. "I've been practicing."

I simply shrugged, and glanced around at everyone else, ready to fight the slowly advancing pack of wolves. "Everybody ready?"

Derek sent his branch flying through the shadowed forest. There was a yelp, a snarl and a thud as a wolf body hit the ground. The branch came back and and landed in Derek's hand with a satisfying smack. The tip had obviously been sharpened on its trip to the wolf, and it was soaked with blood and fur. He gave me a wicked grin. "Hell yeah."

"Okay, guys." Thomas brandished his thick branch. "We gotta keep the wolves away from the tree they're in, okay? The smell of blood up there will just make them all the worse, got it?"

"Skylar?" Diamond called down from the tree. "Can you come up here please?"

"I'm about to kick some wolf ass, Di, can it wait?"

"No, it can't."

"Diamond," I sighed angrily, holding my sword out in front of me, ready to follow Derek, Evalynn and Thomas into the woods to keep the wolves at bay.

"It's Jamie...he's asking for you."

I froze after two steps, and glanced over at Harry who was next to me.

"Go," He jerked his head back toward the tree. "But give me your sword. Thomas will need some better protection"

I tossed Harry my sword, and turned to go, but I heard metal clatter to the ground and in an instant I was wrapped up in Harry's arms. The ice covering his arms made my back achingly cold, but I didn't care one bit. I buried my face into his chest, and let out a shaky breath.

"He never loved me." I mumbled into his chest.

"I know, Sky."

"You always loved me. Right?"

"More than anything." Harry pressed his cold lips to the top of my head.

I pulled back a little, and looked up into his caramel brown eyes. He ducked his head a little, and I brushed the little curls on the top of his head to the side. "Harry?"

"Yeah, Sky?"

"Yes." Then I gave him a quick kiss on his lips, and scaled my way up the tree.

***Derek's POV

Fucking hell, they were everywhere. Sure, playing baseball with a couple wolves and a tree branch roughly the size of David was fun. Really fun. But it was also kind of hard, because I had to cover Thomas' back as well.

Eventually Harry joined us, throwing Thomas Skylar's sword. He assured me Skylar was fine, and then proceeded to nail a wolf to a tree with a huge icicle.

"Badass," I grinned at him, smashing another wolf back.

He grinned back at me. "Badass." He agreed. He thrust his icicle covered arm back, and caught a wolf directly in the heart. He grimaced as blood dripped onto his arm, and he shook the wolf off. "By the way, Der." Harry grunted as he thrust another long icicle into a wolf's side. He shot me a wicked grin. "She said yes."

***Skylar's POV

"Jamie?" I slowly climbed up onto the branch he was lying on. Diamond was holding him, making sure he wasn't going to fall out of the tree.

"Skylar.." His voice was raspy, and my heart lurched in my chest. He looked terrible. "Skylar, I-" He was aruptly cut off as started coughing. Blood dripped out of his mouth, and before I knew it, I was pulling him out of Diamond's arms and into mine.

"Oh, god, Jamie." My voice hitched in my throat, as Diamond climbed down branches to be with Tony.

Jamie grabbed my hand with his blood covered one. "I'm dying, Skylar." He whispered weakly.

"No," I said firmly. "No, you are not. I won't allow it."

"Skylar, stop, just listen to me."

"But, Jamie-"

"Skylar, please."

"What?"

"I lied."

"Yeah, I know that, why are you telling me again?" I said, suddenly bitter.

"No, I mean I lied about lying."

My heart skipped a beat. "What?"

"I lied about pretending to be in love with you."

"What?" I wasn't sure whether or not to be angry or relieved. "Why?" I sputtered, not trying to sound angry.

"Because," Jamie coughed weakly again. "You have to be with him."

"Wha- With Harry?"

"Yeah, you have to be with him. Your children." Jamie let out a very shaky breath. "Your children are going to be very important someday. You have to be with him."

"I told him yes, Jamie. I'm going to marry Harry."

A faint smile flickered over Jamie's face, his eyes half-closed. "Good." His word came out as a weak breath.

Before I could reply, a snarling came from down around the tree. I glanced down to see four wolves circling the tree.

"Shit," I muttered. "I'll be right back, Jamie. Stay awake, okay?" I demanded. He simply nodded.

I jumped down out of the tree, and landed directly on one of the wolves backs. The wolf collapsed with a crunch.

"Skylar, what the hell are you doing?!" Evie yelled down at me. "You don't have a weapon!"

"I don't need one!" I grunted. I found the water inside a wolf's body and used it to slam the wolf directly into a tree. As the other one advanced, I picked up the branch Thomas had abandoned and swung it with all my might at a wolf's head. Hot blood spattered onto my arms, clothes and face. The branch had snapped when it smashed the wolf's head, and I was left with half a foot of splintered wood, and one wolf left.

I took a step back to gain more ground to throw the final wolf by the water in him, but I tripped over a root. My head slammed into the ground, and for a few seconds my vision went black. C'mon, I yelled at myself. Concentrate!

My head felt like it was split in half, and I couldn't see straight. I could sense the wolf walking closer to me. The low snarling was getting louder, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. My arms wouldn't obey me, and my world kept spinning.

"Skylar!" I heard Evie shout, her voice pure terror. "Skylar, move please! Do something!"

Sit up, sit up, sit up. Using all my will power, I managed to sit up, causing everything to spin even more. I could vaguely see the wolf crouching low, ready to pounce on top of me.

"Skylar, please! Do something!" Evie sobbed from up in the tree.

Everything that happened next, seemed to happen in a single second. The wolf pounced. A tree branch above me rustled. Somebody tumbled out of the tree right as the wolf jumped, and landed right in the wolf's jaws.

It was Jamie.