“I’m going to count to three, and then you’ll lower your sticks to light the pyre,” my mom said.
Mira and I nodded.
“One, two,” she said, and anticipation built inside me with each number she counted off. “Three.”
I kneeled down and touched the fiery end of my stick to the wood at the bottom of the pyre. The flame caught hold, whooshing along the pyre in seconds. I dropped the stick, and it disappeared with the wood surrounding it.
The bonfire lit up the beach, and the flames crackled and popped as they climbed toward the sky. Warmth emanated from the fire onto my face, the heat curling toward me and begging me to move closer.
I did. Sparks flew out, and I was vaguely aware of them landing on my arms. They were warm, but it didn’t hurt.
“Gemma.” Rebecca’s sharp voice pulled me out of the moment. “Be careful. You’ll burn yourself.”
I took a small step back and looked around the fire at Mira.
My twin stood over a meter away from the flames, watching me with wide, scared eyes. A breeze blew around her, and she drew in a long, deep breath of the salty air.
She and the others stood around the fire in an even circle. I was the only one out of place, standing so close to the flames. So I took a few steps back and completed the circle. I glanced over my shoulder as the top of the sun disappeared behind the horizon, making way for twilight.
My mom nodded at me, and continued. “Now that the fire is ready, all four elements are with us in the cove,” she said. “It’s time to call them into our circle. As I speak the name of each element, focus on it and picture it joining us. Once the elements are fully present, I’ll proceed with the spell.”
“How will we know when they’re present?” Kelly frowned.
“Trust me,” my mom said. “You’ll know.” She looked to Mira and then to me. “If you’re the chosen twins, then once the ceremony is complete, one of the four elements will claim you. Absorb your element, and control it. Understood?”
“Understood,” I said, and Mira repeated the same.
My mom waited a few seconds, and then she began. “Earth,” she said, and I burrowed my toes in the sand.
A deep, resounding buzz traveled up through the bottoms of my feet and through my body. The sand grounded me, and it felt like roots grew up through my feet, holding me steady and fusing me with the earth.
“Air,” she continued, making me hyper-aware of the breeze brushing against my skin. “Water,” she said, and I closed my eyes to listen to the waves lapping the shore behind me. “Fire.”
The bonfire popped and burned higher. Sparks flared out of it like fireflies. The sharp smell of smoke filled the air, and the warmth coming off the flames caressed my skin like a blanket.
The others also gazed into the fire, as if they felt it, too. Even Kelly had uncrossed her arms and dropped the attitude.
“Welcome to our circle,” my mom said, as if the elements were living beings that could hear and understand.
The fire danced higher, the sand warmed, the breeze stirred, and the waves crashed louder.
My heart was pounding so fast that I barely remembered to breathe.
It’s happening. It’s really, truly happening.
My mom raised the book and started reciting the spell. It was in Latin, but the foreign language flowed off her tongue so easily that she sounded like she spoke it fluently. The light of the flame flickered over her skin, and I could have sworn I saw a slight sheen of yellow magic shimmer around her.
She said the final word, then looked back up.
Thunder rumbled so loudly that the ground vibrated, followed by an ear-splitting crack and bright white lightning.
And then, chaos.
Heat seared through my veins, my blood bubbling to a boil. Wind rushed around us, and the sand slithered over my feet. The fire grew so tall that it looked like it was trying to touch the stars, and rain fell from the sky in buckets, soaking me in an instant. The rain was so heavy that it blinded me, yet the fire still burned strong.
“Claim your elements!” my mom screamed over the howling wind. “Absorb them into your bodies!”
I threw my head back, closed my eyes, and opened up my palms. Earth, fire, wind, water, I thought, trying to connect with them like we’d done in the beginning of the ceremony. Which one of you is mine?
The heat intensified and surrounded me. The sand crawled over my ankles, then up my legs and over my body, covering me completely. I should have been suffocating. I should have burned. But the sand burrowed inside me, followed by the heat that warmed my skin.
Fire and earth.
They were mine.
I opened my eyes and saw the final bits of flames surrounding my arms before they died out.
Except they hadn’t died out.
They’d fused with my soul.
The bonfire still burned, but at a normal height, like it had been before we’d done the spell. And the rain had stopped falling—everywhere but where Mira was standing.
I walked slightly around the fire to get a better look at my sister. Except I could barely see her. The rain had joined with the wind, so she was standing in the center of a waterspout that touched the sky.
“Mira!” I screamed. “Stop fighting it! Close your eyes and relax! Let your elements inside!”
My mom rushed over to me and took my hands, her eyes wide with fear.
What would happen if Mira failed?
Was it possible to fail?
Terror coursed through me, and my mom yelped and yanked her hands out of mine like I’d scalded her.
I glanced at her hands—they were red. I had scalded her.
Before I had time to contemplate what I’d done, the rain stopped falling around Mira. The wind slowed, revealing my sister on her knees in the sand. Tears streamed down her face, and she ran her hands along her arms, as if making sure she was still in one piece.
I ran to her, fell down to my knees next to her, and wrapped my arms around her. She was dry, despite the downpour that had surrounded her moments ago. She trembled as she cried.
“You did it,” I said. “We did it.”
“Yeah.” Her voice shook. “We did.”
Then a piercing squawk sounded from above, and a giant red-eyed bird tucked its wings to its sides and dived toward the cove.
5
Gemma
I cursed and pulled Mira to the side.
But the bird wasn’t heading toward us.
It flew straight down to Kelly, who stood there frozen, her mouth open in surprise. It dug its claws into her shoulders, opened its wings, and Kelly screamed as it flew her up to the top of the cliffs. Her shrieks filled the air as she dangled between the bird’s hind legs—legs that looked like they belonged on a giant cat. Its fur-tipped tail whipped around behind her.
That thing was no bird.
“Kelly!” her mom—Sasha—screamed, and then she looked to me and Mira. “DO SOMETHING!”
Do what?
Flames from the bonfire flickered in the corner of my eye.
Fire.
One of my elements.
I raised my hands toward the monster, heat coursed through me, and a line of fire shot out of my palms.
But I redirected my aim and shot the blaze of fire into the empty sky. Because if I burned the bird, then I burned Kelly.