"Let me guess. You thought blowing shit up would be a faster way to get the job done?" A smile tugs at my lips and Liam grins sheepishly.
"Maybe," he says.
"Did it work?" Sebastian asks.
"Not really." Liam shrugs and we all laugh.
I reluctantly pull out of Sebastian's embrace and crack my knuckles. "Alright, boys, back to work. These trees won't move themselves."
Sebastian groans and I clap my hands together and close my eyes, re-centering myself in my power. I tug on the chord of earth magic I need and carefully release it, moving it into the roots of the great conifer before me. This is a delicate process, uprooting an old growth and replanting it. Initially I destroyed several trees, but the dryads performed a transformation ceremony for them so we could use them to build houses and tools instead. Still, we've been trying to save as much of nature as we could. Like this beauty before me.
I can hear the tree speaking to my soul and I realize it doesn't want to move. It likes its spot just fine, thank you very much.
I frown. Would you be willing to reshape yourself? To become shelter for a family in need? I ask through a mental connection that has formed between us.
We are cleaning this particular area for housing.
This has been our work for a few weeks now. Using my combination of elemental magic along with each of the brothers' unique skills, we have been uprooting and moving trees, plowing fields, laying foundations for housing, paving roads, and creating infrastructures for a new town.
The tree considers my request, and I send it images of the people I'm trying to help. The children who will laugh and dance and play here, the mothers who will nurse their children, and the parents who will nourish their families, who will work the land to grow and thrive.
The tree agrees to a transformation, and I have to think fast, as I haven't tried anything like this before.
"Change of plans," I say as I grab my bag and pull out my sketch book. I quickly draw an idea forming in my mind. I study the structure of the tree to create the body of the home, and as I do, another consciousness tugs at me.
The tree, sensing my thoughts, helps me form an image of what it would like to be. It has a grand trunk, large enough to drive several carriages through, and it wants to expand, to be even grander.
In surprise, I realize it wants to connect to the tree near it, to bond with her, to create something with her, so I stretch my magic and seek her permission for this plan.
She agrees, and somehow this spell becomes something more. A partnership. A marriage of a kind. Their roots have been touching, connected, and now they will become one.
Callia appears beside me, as suddenly as she always does. "This is a wonderful test of your magic," she says, delighted. Her ebony skin shines like liquid and her silver eyes practically glow as she instructs me. "You'll need to use all of your elements for this. Air and Earth to help shape. Fire to burn away what's not needed and water to temper and strengthen what is. Light to give it life and Darkness to strip that which no longer serves. For in any transformation, there is death. We cannot give birth to new life, to new forms, without it."
I sigh but nod. I still have a hard time using the Darkness within me without worrying it will corrupt my soul, but I know I must embrace all the elements for there to be true balance.
I reach for Sebastian and Liam's hands and grip them hard, pulling their power into me as well.
We all work better when we are together, we have found.
Cole pushes into my memories, and I shake off the thought of what our family could be if he were here to complete it. I can't think of him right now, I must focus.
Exhaling, I release my magic into the trees and their roots expand as they twist and reshape, growing in new directions, intertwining as they form themselves into a new kind of creation that so far only exists in my sketchbook.
Sweat beads on my lip. Heat pulses in me. I feel Elijah and Derek approach. I sense when they take their brothers' hands, forming a circle, sending me more magic, more power.
The energy within me builds and builds and is expelled in a wave of magic that pulses out of us all and into the ground, the trees, and the air around us. The earth shakes and cracks as the wind rises, whipping my hair into my face.
I grip Sebastian and Liam's hands harder to preserve our connection.
And when the earth and wind settle, when the magic retreats back into me, I open my eyes and gasp.
Before us stands a beautiful new house, an organic and living structure made from the trees themselves, with gently curved walls and a sloped roof twined with vines.
"How did you do that?" a voice behind us asks.
I turn to see Lily looking on in awe.
"I don't know," I say, releasing my death grip on the brothers and stretching my sore fingers. "The trees helped."
Lily smiles, and it lights up her face. "They are so happy. None of us have ever seen anything like this."
She runs a hand through her hot pink hair—the new color of the week— and looks around, stunned. "The others want this too. The entire grove wants to be made into houses," she says. "Except that one," she says, pointing to one off to the side. "He would like to be moved closer to the water. He's thirsty."
I laugh. "I think that can be arranged."
The Night brothers are still silent, staring at the house we just created, then staring at me with stunned expressions.
Liam pulls me against his chest and brushes a lock of hair out of my face. His golden eyes are full of admiration and awe. "You amaze me," he says, and before I can respond he leans in and claims my lips with his. A spark ignites between us, as it always does when we touch, and I lose myself in the softness of his lips and the hardness of his body pressed against mine.
His tongue teases my bottom lip, and I moan in desire as need flares in me.
But before we set the forest on fire, I pull away, panting.
He releases me reluctantly with a wicked grin. "Later, we will finish what we started."
I flush red and sigh again, wishing later was now.
Instead I turn to the home we just helped build and step through the impressive French doors making up the entrance. Not only have the trees formed this structure, but they have furnished it as well. A table, counters, chairs, bed frames, all made from the living trees. It's incredible.
Derek steps next to me and slips an arm around my waist. The Water Druid always has a calming effect on me. And though he's been working just as hard as all of us, he's managed to stay much cleaner. His close-cropped dark hair is still neat and tidy. His button-up shirt and pants dust free. I don't know how he manages it. He glances down at me with his sapphire eyes and smiles. "You've truly surpassed yourself."
My magic is still radiating out of me as I look up to him. "Do you think Lyx'Ara and her people will like it?"
"They will love it," Derek promises.
The Light Dragon lives with her people, and has been foraging the forests helping them make ends meet since the world's expansion. Some have died without proper shelter and food, thus creating the urgent need for a town, for protection, and for sustenance. She asked us for help and we were happy to offer it, though it meant putting nearly all of our legal work on hold.
Derek has handled a few minor cases as needed, but mostly we have been here, all day, every day, working tirelessly to create a new world.