LAILAH
TWO
Cami led me to a set of wooden French doors and opened one without knocking.
I followed her in and gaped at the stately office.
It was warm and inviting, but it had a polish that let you know everything in here was expensive.
Beth was working at a contemporary wooden desk with bookshelves and a large tapestry of some crest as the backdrop.
“Come in, please, have a seat,” Beth said, standing and motioning to two love seats framing a low coffee table. “Do you want any coffee or water?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” I said as I took my seat.
“She hates coffee; Lala is more of a tea drinker,” Cami shared.
“Good to know, I will make sure we have tea stocked. Do you have a preference for a particular type?”
“Um, I’m a bit of a chai addict, although I’m fine with most tea,” I answered, feeling awkward that she was being so accommodating, like she thought I was going to be here a lot or something.
Beth just nodded and typed something on her phone before setting it down and crossing her legs to look at me. “Now, I’m not sure where you want to start this conversation, so let's just start with your questions.”
This whole thing had been feeling so surreal that I didn’t really know what I wanted to ask anymore. I took a deep breath and sorted through my thoughts and what happened last night.
“Demons,” I said, looking up at Beth. “One wanted to kill me, and I don’t understand why. I didn’t even know that demons really existed other than in books and religion.”
“Our world has been in a fight behind the scenes for a millennium. Since the fall of man, demons have been hidden in plain sight, doing their best to keep the world in chaos,” Beth said, smoothing her hands down her skirt.
“The angels have been doing what they can to balance out the attacks, but they are limited because they are truly unable to interact with the human race. God’s blessing of free will is not to be affected, even if it is for the greater good.
So the angels created a handful of blessed warriors gifted with abilities to help them battle the demons. ”
Realization slammed into me; Beth was talking about the Elementi. “That story is true?”
“Tell me what you know, and I can fill in the blanks,” Beth said, nodding for me to share.
“Five Knights of the Templar were blessed by an angel with powers to battle evil in the world. When the Knights started to die out, a group separated and became known as the Elementi. They helped those in need, but as time went on, they disappeared from society and became more legend and rumor,” I said.
“That is all correct, but we didn’t fade from the world.
We went underground, literally. We have a whole training facility under the school and this house.
The Elementi are still active to this day, we just needed to become invisible.
The demons got smarter and started hiding in places and positions we couldn’t get to them.
We could no longer fight out in the open like the Templar days.
Nowadays, demons place themselves in a spot where they can influence someone of a higher power.
A secretary to a military general, wife to a politician, advisor to a king.
Without the right place in society, we couldn’t enter the world they were a part of.
That’s when the Elementi came up with the idea of this school.
Its founder, Aiden Ryevick, was a member of the Elementi and our registrar.
Most of his records are kept in the protected records room Mr. Phillips let you have access to,” Beth said.
My head was spinning with the information Beth was sharing with me. “Wait! Is Professor Phillips part of the Elementi?”
“Yes. So is Nona, Professor Whittemore—our sister,” Beth said, glancing at Cami to give me a moment to connect the dots.
I turned so I could look at Cami, and the guilt in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. “You knew this whole time the Elementi were real?” I whispered.
Cami opened her mouth to say something, but Beth cut her off. “I was the one who instructed Cami to keep this information from you. I wanted you to be protected while at school, and since Cami is one of our best warriors, the task fell to her.”
Whipping back around, I narrowed my eyes at Beth. “Are you telling me you knew who and what I was this entire time?”
I felt the betrayal of my best friend like being stabbed in the heart.
I’d survived it once before in high school, but I thought Cami was different.
She understood what it was like to feel used and different.
Knowing that her sister made her keep this from me did not help the situation, since I didn’t trust or know Beth.
“Lailah.” Beth spoke in a calm, steady voice, like you would to a small child.
“Please understand, we wanted to ease you into this world. I didn’t want to take away the chance for you to have a normal college experience, if I could help it.
I placed you with teachers who could direct you into finding out about the Elementi on your own.
We in no way were trying to manipulate you or to harm you. ”
“Did the guys know too?” I snapped. I wasn’t sure I could handle that on top of everything else.
“No, I didn’t tell them about you. They figured it out on their own about a week ago.
They came to me as upset as I can see you are now.
From this point on, there will be no more secrets between us.
There are no locked doors to you here, and I will answer any question you can think to ask.
The Elementi is founded on truth and honor; we would not have been sent you if we had betrayed the angels,” Beth tried to explain, holding her hands out in surrender.
I took a shaky breath, relieved to know the guys hadn’t lied to me this whole time. Then another thought popped into my head. “Did I actually get into this school on my own merit or was it because you knew I was Synergy?”
Beth stilled, looking down at her hands. “Do you remember the ancestry test we had you send in?”
“Of course—it was such an odd thing to ask for.”
“If you hadn’t been Synergy, you wouldn’t have made it into our school on your ACT score alone,” Beth admitted.
I shot to my feet, fury surging through my body. “So you're telling me that NOTHING about being at this school has been real. All of it has been a manipulation to get me to come here so I can be a part of your cult!”
“Lailah, that’s not true —”
“Name one thing you haven’t twisted for your own needs,” I demanded.
“The boys. I wanted to keep them away from you. I never wanted them to meet you until you understood what you were,” Beth said, slumping back against the couch, letting her perfect shell crack a little.
“I should’ve known better than to keep them from you or to lie to you all.
You are made for them; there’s no way they wouldn’t be drawn to you. ”
“Explain,” I bit out, my hands shaking at my side in frustration.
“When the angels blessed the original five warriors, they were told if they stayed true to their task, they would be gifted with the sixth element. This element was to be the turning of the tide, the weapon they needed to win against the Dark Lord.”
“What does that have to do with the guys?”
Beth stood as well and began pacing around the room, trying to ease the tension that was thick around us.
“You are the sixth element, Lailah. No one was ever told what Synergy would be, but Aiden, our school’s founder, said he had a vision showing him it would be a human.
He went so far as to write down this vision in his journals, one that we could read, but the second journal was sealed away from us until Synergy’s power unlocked it.
Even though the council didn’t believe him, we knew better than to ignore the information.
That is when we started to test people who seemed to be drawn to the Elementi.
None of us imagined you would be born in the States.
You are the first American we have ever let enroll in our school, and do you know why? ”
“How could I, you're not very good at sharing information,” I grumbled.
“It never happened before. In the hundreds of years our school has been around, no one from the US has ever applied, until you. I knew even before we had you tested who you were. Nothing was going to keep you away from the boys. The six of you were always meant to be together,” Beth said, pausing to stand in front of me and giving me the full weight of her gaze.
“Synergy’s power is to combine all the elements to become stronger.
To bond and become one unit, with you at the center. ”
My anger washed away, but was replaced by terror as I sank back onto the couch.
Nothing about my life was what I thought it was.
My mind raced trying to process this new revelation.
Did this mean the guys were drawn to me because of what I was, not because they really liked me?
Could this be why I was so comfortable around them?
What does this all mean, now that we all know?
Will they reject me now that they understand?
“Lala, breathe. It’s going to be okay,” Cami said, rubbing her hand up and down my back.
I turned to her, feeling my eyes welling up with tears. “Are you drawn to me too because I’m Synergy? Is our friendship real, or was it all an act?”
Cami looked at me like I slapped her. “How could you even ask me that? Of course our friendship is real. I never once pretended with you. It killed me every time you talked about the Elementi and I couldn’t tell you everything.
Hell, I even encouraged you to connect with the guys against Beth’s instructions. ”
I blinked at that in surprise. Cami ignored her sister's orders to help me get closer to the guys? When I looked over at Beth, I could tell she didn’t know about Cami’s rebellion.
“Thank you. I don’t know if I could handle losing my best friend through all of this,” I said, pulling her into a hug.
“Oh, silly Lala, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” Cami teased, hugging me even tighter.
Feeling my emotions settling down, I took a deep breath and looked at Beth. “What now?”
“We start your training. Now that you have come into your power, we need to make sure that you can control it. Typically, the Five Warriors’ power presents during puberty, which is helpful to hide it happening because your emotions are already more volatile.
For this reason, I am going to ask that you move into the house with the others. ”
“Um, you want me to what? Why would I move into The Manor? Do you have any idea what that would do to me? I have enough trouble with the other girls just being friends with all the guys. If they find out that I’ve moved in with them, I might just get murdered in my sleep.”
“That wouldn’t happen if you stayed here. We have the best security on campus,” Beth said, unbothered by my concerns.
“Beth, don’t be like that. You know how much trouble the girls have been,” Cami snapped, glaring at her sister. “If we do this, there needs to be a plausible reason for it, and right now there isn’t any.”
Suddenly an idea came to me. “What if I finish the semester out in my normal dorm, and then when we leave for holiday break, we can change things up. Lots of people make changes during that time. This way they don’t need to know I’m living in The Manor; they'll just know I’m not in Ashfall anymore. ”
Beth considered this for a moment, tapping her fingers on her chin. Coming to a decision, she pinned me with a look as she leaned forward. “I will allow you to give it a try, but—if anything goes wrong or you lose control, then you're coming back here, no arguments.”
“Deal. I can work with that.”
“I expect you to still attend classes here, on top of your current load,” Beth said, narrowing her eyes at me. “After this semester, we will change your schedule so these special classes take more of a priority.”
“What kind of classes are they?” I asked.
“Elementi history, demon theory, element manipulation, combat, and physical fitness, to start off with.”
“And you want me to add this all to my current class load?” My mouth fell open in disbelief.
Beth stood and grabbed a tablet off her desk, and with a few swipes, looked over something before she answered me. “Hmm, it seems that you changed what I had originally set your schedule up with.”
After I’d been accepted, I’d received a pre-filled class schedule that was far too easy for me to waste my time taking. “They were all easy classes; I knew I could push myself more.”
“As much as I admire that, I did have it arranged so that when you came into your powers we could easily add to your schedule. Now it seems I’ll have to wait till next semester to add them all,” Beth said, making notes on her tablet.
“There are a few areas we can’t neglect.
I am going to inform Professor Phillips and Nona that you will not need to complete the finals for their classes.
I need you to work with them on different subjects right now.
Nona needs to work with you on elemental manipulation, and Professor Phillips will catch you up on Elementi history.
We also need to add in some physical training to help you deal with your new powers. ”
“That makes sense to me. I don’t want to hurt anyone because I don’t know what I’m doing,” I agreed even though dropping my favorite class would suck.
“I’m glad you realize that. When an Elementi Warrior has a meltdown, it can have catastrophic effects. To make sure that doesn’t happen, I want you to keep one of the guys around you as much as possible. They are the only ones who can handle it if your power gets out of control.”
“Can’t I just have Cami with me? I don’t think this will help with my mean girl situation,” I mused before I glanced over at Cami with a questioning look.
“Oh, I’ll be around, but when shit gets real, I’m ducking for cover. The power you have will make me one crispy critter, and I like my pasty-ass skin just like it is.” Cami smirked.
I laughed, relieving some of the fear that was building about me hurting people.
“Do you have any more questions for me?” Beth asked.
“I’m sure I do, but I don’t think I could handle any more information right now. That was a lot to take in,” I answered, rubbing my temples.
“Fair enough. Feel free to ask the boys or Cami if anything else comes to mind. They’ve grown up in this world, so they might not notice doing or saying things that seem weird to you.”
Nodding, I stood and followed Cami out of the office and back upstairs to the common room, where we found the guys throwing cheese puffs and yelling at each other. Cami looked at me and wagged her brows.
“Aren't you a lucky girl to have all that to look forward to for the rest of your life.”
I laughed, drawing the attention of the guys, who changed from yelling at each other to waving us over.