Chapter 7
Freya
Collapsing on my bed, I tried to steady myself.
An hour later, after trying some breathing exercises, meditation, and a mild attempt at yoga, I wasn’t any more settled.
What am I going to do? Mikhail knew something, but that didn’t mean he knew what I was.
He held my fate in his hands, although he’d revealed more about himself in that encounter than anything I said or did had.
Speaking of the things he can do with those hands…
I slammed my eyes shut, trying to block out the memory of what his body felt like, the mindless need to touch him as much as I could.
What concerned me more was my desire to answer him.
When he asked what I was running from, it took more restraint than I cared to admit not to just tell him everything.
He had literally battled the storm to get to me.
I’d felt the strength in his arms and in his ability.
He was a formidable opponent on a good day, but there was no denying his supernatural strength. I had witnessed it firsthand.
I spent the next week dutifully avoiding Mikhail.
The idea of seeing him after all that had happened between us was far too much for me to handle.
To make it even worse, rather than feeling better after my magical typhoon, I was still amped up.
My body felt fizzy, like a can of soda that someone had shaken up and refused to crack open.
I was full of power, and it was trying to get out at any turn.
Stuck in class, having difficulty staying awake, a cool breeze swept through the room, jolting me.
I wasn’t even conscious of what I had been doing those last few days, my magic zipping out of me at various moments.
Feeling the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, I turned to find Bianca staring at me from her reserved seat.
She always sat in the back, surrounded by her closest friends.
One look at her smug face made my powers flare up, and all of a sudden, the armrest I had a death grip on started heating up.
With a wince, I pulled my hand away and took a deep breath, trying to get back to some sort of calm.
I had to go outside again, had to do something to get all that energy out of me.
It was becoming increasingly harder to control.
And as for hiding them, I was just barely doing that.
I was lucky Misha was the one to catch me, even if the fact that he was a shifter was both a blessing and a curse.
My kind were rare, and not many knew about us.
Unlike shifters or vampires, there were too few of us to ever join together and defend ourselves.
Elements didn’t live in communities or travel in packs.
We kept to ourselves, moving often and trying to leave no trace behind.
Our beginning had left us alone, vulnerable, and hunted.
Not to mention that shifters tended to dislike us because we could boost the power of their number one enemy—vampires.
The blood of an Element was like steroids for vampires.
It boosted all their innate abilities, and if they were old enough, they could adapt their connection to the Element while the blood was still in their system.
If Mikhail realized the magic was coming from me, not at me, things could change in a second.
I couldn’t deny the fact that there was something about Mikhail that drew me to him.
I was hypersensitive, acutely aware of where he was whenever we were in the same room.
When he looked at me, it felt like he could read my mind.
With just his ice-blue gaze, it felt like he was sucking me out of the shadows and into the light.
It was exhilarating and terrifying. There couldn’t be anything between us.
I couldn’t have anything distract me from my purpose for being there.
As good as he looked, as delicious as he smelled, as much as I relived the few moments I had spent in his arms, we weren’t meant to be.
The fact that I had to avoid both him and Bianca should have been enough to shut down the response I was having to him.
I wasn’t a sexual being. I wasn’t someone ruled by their desires, so I didn’t know why I turned into a hedonistic fiend as soon as I was around Misha.
Mikhail! I had to stop calling him Misha.
The nickname implied a closeness that didn’t exist—couldn’t exist—between us.
Class ended, and I was still zoned out, desperately trying not to think about Mikhail.
In reality, it was all I had been doing.
I hung back, packing my bag slowly to try to avoid another run-in with Bianca.
I paused. Is this what I am reduced to? Lurking in the shadows, constantly having to hold myself back and let people run over me in the process?
All through dinner, my thoughts kept circling.
Is this what my parents would have wanted?
Is this what my mother meant when she told me to hide?
I stuck to my corner table and kept my head down as I picked at the meal on my plate.
A shiver ran down my spine, alerting me to Mikhail’s presence.
I was proud of the control I had when I didn’t so much as give a blink of acknowledgment when he tried to make his presence known.
Keeping my hand steady grew harder after that, and I gave up on dinner.
Dumping the remnants into the trash, I headed for my room.
Once inside, I looked around the small space, debating what to do with myself.
It felt too tight in there—stifling. I needed open space and fresh air.
Looking out the window, I saw the moon making its way across the sky, and the irresistible urge to get out of the building overtook any rational thought I could have had at that moment.
Quickly dressing and slipping my phone into my pocket, I snuck out of my room as quietly as I could and made my way to one of the back exits.
Technically, students weren’t allowed outside the stone walls after 8 p.m., but I knew that was a rule frequently broken.
Between parties and hookups, there were plenty of grounds for students to slip off to.
Then there were the shifters, who went for runs in their animal forms at least once a month—that I knew of.
Once immersed among the tree cover, I finally felt like I could take a full breath.
I tilted my head back and smiled at the full moon hanging high above me.
Walking slowly through the forest, I spread my hands out so I could feel all the trees and plants as I was passing.
They siphoned energy from me as soon as we touched, and it was exhilarating.
For once, it felt like I was in control, and I made my way through the forest both healing myself and the nature around me.
There was a break in the foliage ahead, and I realized it was the furthest I had ever gone on the university grounds.
As I stepped through the last few trees, I found myself at the shore of a beautiful, calm lake.
It was so still that it looked like glass, with a giant moon reflected on the surface.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I stripped out of my shirt and pants, took off my socks and sneakers, and dove into the lake.
I was expecting the temperature to be shockingly cold, but it was delightfully temperate, like a warm spring.
As soon as I was deep enough, I dunked under the water, letting it surround me.
The water moved with my body, my powers manipulating the drops as I swam and dove.
I played in a way I hadn’t since childhood.
Happy and sated, I rolled onto my back so I could float in the water under the moonlight.
It felt like I was right underneath it, close enough to touch if I reached far enough.
Unsure of how much time had passed, I felt settled for the first time since I had gotten to the school.
The time outdoors, the freedom to use my powers unrestricted for a bit, gave me renewed vigor.
I felt lighter, freer. My skin glowed under the moonlight, and for a moment, I was taken aback by how strong the light was.
I felt connected to everything around me, the water holding me up, the sky looking down on me, the earth that met the lake, where the water gently swelled onto the shore.
The quiet out there was blissful and soothing.
I continued to float, skipping water around my body and gently pushing at the current to make sure I wasn’t straying too far from land.
From far away, an odd sound caught my attention.
It wasn’t the sound of an animal, or the wind, but something more akin to a beep or a click.
Lowering my body into the water, I looked toward the shore to try to identify the sound.
There were shadowy figures I wouldn’t be able to make out even if it were daylight.
I didn’t need light, though, because their auras were familiar.
If I thought I had any chance of catching them, I would have tried to get to the shore faster.
But I knew there was nothing I could do against a clan of shifters, especially in my role as human.
Snorts and giggles drifted toward me before the gaggle of people completely disappeared into the forest.
Slowly and with much less enthusiasm than I’d had diving in, I made my way out of the water.
I was unsurprised to find my belongings missing, leaving me in nothing but the soaking wet bra and underwear I had been swimming in.
The chill in the air had picked up, and it was no longer refreshing.
Cursing Bianca for taking everything down to my shoes and phone, I started the long walk back to the school.