Groaning, I fall back onto the couch, bracing myself for another lecture. She takes a seat in the corner of the sectional, crossing her legs beneath herself gracefully. “Boys!” I jump at her unexpected yell. “Come join us.”
She moves her gaze down to her nails, picking at them pointlessly, while the other three join us. Zedd sits on the floor, as he always does when he’s overwhelmed, while the twins sprawl on the couch like nothing’s wrong.
Am I the only one mad at Lana? Seriously?
Throwing my head back against the couch, I rub my eyes while Serenity starts her speech.
“Coming from someone who has lost a mate, I support Lana’s decision to leave you behind to train. I wouldn’t wish that sorrow on anyone. If shit hit the fan, don’t for a second tell me you wouldn’t lay your lives down for her. But as you are right now, there is no chance you would succeed. In fact, you’d fucking die, likely taking her with you.”
Her gaze volleys between all of us. “I think, to some extent, Lana has always allowed you to protect her. From everything. She’s depended on you her entire life. Now, she needs to learn to trust in herself and her powers to protect her while she’s alone. There is no chance of victory in this war if she doesn’t.”
Zedd pipes up from the floor. “What if she can’t protect herself until we get there?” He looks to the floor as that thought settles in him, defeated. “She just unlocked her powers. She has no idea the extent of them or what to do with them.”
Shockingly, it’s the twins who answer. Luke moves to a sitting position. “Um, are we still talking about Lana? This is the same girl who’s survived far more than we can ever understand. The same girl who has picked herself up and gotten to her feet more times than we can count.”
Leo adds onto his twin’s statement, “I think it’s easy for us to forget how strong she is without us. Because we can’t stand the thought of her actually being without us.”
Serenity sinks back into her corner of the couch and hums appreciatively with a smile on her face.
A laugh escapes Zedd. I furrow my brow at him as he loses control, folding in half on the floor as he grips his stomach with his unending laughter.
What the fuck is going on?
I’m losing my shit, the twins are suddenly calm, cool, and collected—and mature! —while Zedd is cackling like a maniac.
He manages to wheeze from his spot on the floor, “The twins … the logical ones…” before continuing on his laugh fest.
I frown, feeling like my life is spinning out of control. Nothing makes sense. Nothing feels familiar. Without realizing I even opened my mouth to speak, I say, almost to myself, “I need her to need me.”
The twins share a knowing look before getting up and crossing to me. They settle on either side and once again, I’m left thinking to myself, what the actual fuck?
I eye them warily, wondering what their motive is, before they both open their arms wide and embrace me, falling straight into their theatrics. “Oh, Hale,” Luke says, resting his head in the crook of my neck as he grips my bicep, “We need you. You big, strong man.”
I scoff.
Leo lays his head on my other shoulder. “Oh, Hale! We can’t do this without you. You’re our only hope.”
I laugh lightly. Guess they’re feeling like their normal selves again. Though I won’t admit it out loud, the familiarity of it all calms me down enough for my brain to start working again.
I shake them off me. “Okay, okay. Enough of that.”
Leo jumps to his feet and, with his hands of his hips, looks down at me with a grin. “Good,” he says with a nod. “We were going to cut the theatrics with the severity of the situation but it seems you just can’t survive without our unparalleled humor.” I roll my eyes. The smile on his face drops and he says, “I hope you realize that we meant what we said, Hale. We need you. Our family needs you.”
I nod to myself, letting that sink in. I can’t let my issues get in the way of what we need to be doing right now.
Lana and I can talk about the way she handled this when we have her back.
Locking eyes with Serenity, I say, “Let’s get to the training grounds.”
Zedd
Sweat dribbles down my neck and my heaving chest. I have never pushed myself this hard, mentally or physically, in my life. School work was always a breeze for me and I never much cared for physical exertion.
Yesterday, I would’ve said we’d never trained that hard before. But today, yesterday seems like a warmup.
Broken, battered, and utterly exhausted accurately describes our current state but we haven’t stopped for a break once. The moment one of us looks ready to fall or to call it quits for a five-minute break, we pick him straight up, reminding him without words that we don’t have time to be tired.
Serenity pushes us hard, running us through the training ground obstacle course as her men lob spells at us, pushing us to find ways to combat all elements while our concentration is divided.
Bending at the waist, I rest my hands on my knees, gasping for breath. Sweat rolls down my face and drips down my chin, creating a puddle on the mat.
The energy in our group has changed drastically from when we first began this journey. The twins are much more solemn now, rarely cracking jokes, barely talking much at all. Hale is deadly focused, pushing us to pull more from our bodies, minds, and powers than we’d thought possible.
Logan stalks up behind me and I immediately go on the defense to Serenity’s air mage. We can’t let our guards down for a second anymore. While Hale watched the twins spar earlier, Logan formed a small wind tunnel around him, handing him his ass and spinning him like a washing machine until he gathered his thoughts enough to form a plan of attack. As Logan continued to hurl him around, Hale grew a branch from the ground, wrapping it around his ankles and around himself to build a cocoon, until Logan relented. Hale likely puked in his protective cocoon but he’ll never admit it to us.
Serenity's mates are truly masters of their elements and they’ve taken the time to work with us all individually to bring us up to speed. With her fourth mate, Reese—a water mage—deceased, Serenity has taken on the task of training Luke herself.
As I prepare to defend myself, Logan smiles at me. “You have done a tremendous job developing your defense magic in such a short time,” he admits. I put my hands down as he claps me on the back. “Now, we need to focus on your offensive magic. You may not realize it yet but air, in tandem with offensive and defensive fighting, can be deadly.”
I note that his short, black hair is drenched in sweat, strands plastered to his forehead, as his blue eyes flare with determination. Pride that my brothers and I put up such a fight against these experienced warriors fills me. And I notice how comfortable I feel with Serenity’s mates. I’ve never been one to make friends easily but I’d dare to say that these men have become almost friends to us.
I narrow my eyes at him, suspicious. “I’m afraid to ask but do I need to have my guard up right now? I’m completely spent but just let me know and I’ll collect myself for another round.”
A corner of his mouth tilts up. “As tempting as it is to dump you on your ass again, you’ve given us everything that you had to give to us today. If you all keep up like this, you’ll be ready to go to her in a few weeks at the most.”