Kai's POV

My sister snores as she lies curled up in a ball on the seat of my carriage. When she finally dozed off, I draped a blanket over her to keep her warm, so a chill didn't wake her up. She deserves the sleep. The discovery that her soulmate is still alive hit her hard. She's convinced he left her by choice. I don't think that's the case.

When Jay arrived at my place, he was an absolute mess. He wasn't with Zane (which I'm now curious about since they left Nya's place together), so something big must have happened. He was covered in filth and looked like a wreck. Clearly, something was really wrong.

When he said that he "lost" his soulmate, I assumed she died (like anyone would), but here she is, lying in front of me. Did he think that she died? There's no way since Nya made it seem like she didn't leave their house for a long time. Something else must've happened.

I look at her with empathy. I know how it feels to lose your soulmate. It hurts. It feels like your heart is constantly being squeezed. It feels like your appetite is so little that you're going to die of starvation without realizing it. It feels like you've lost yourself. It feels like you'll never be happy again.

I want to be mad at Jay for making her feel like this. Hell, Jay and her being soulmates in general makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I can't be mad at him. I know damn well how hard it must have been to leave her.

How Nya is feeling is exactly how I never wanted Skylor to feel. I never wanted her to feel like I didn't love her, like I wouldn't do anything for her. I left because I had to, and Jay must've left because he had to. That's hard for Nya to understand (which makes sense cause I'd feel the same way if I was in her shoes), but I'm sure Jay will help clear things up when we see him. If I find out that he left her without reason, however, I won't hesitate to rough him up a little on Nya's behalf.

I watch us drive past trees through the window. Just how far we've traveled from home is unsettling. It's been hundreds of years since I went outside of my kingdom. The world has definitely changed, and even though I've been getting news about it, I'm still sure I'm not ready to go out there. I'm still a wanted man after all.

But I'll be fine. I'm the master of fire. Even if I'm wanted, their new technology surely can't beat me, can it? Something that's more powerful than the elemental masters of creation is a scary thought. We'd be completely vulnerable for the first time in history.

"Morning," grumbling, my sister rubs her eyes, looking over at me. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Why would I? I wasn't up that long without you anyways," I reassure her. "We're going to get there today. I don't know when though. I haven't asked our driver."

"Joy," she snarks, sitting up and combing her fingers through her hair. She's clearly working hard to keep her feelings contained. She's a lot calmer (on the outside at least) than yesterday, but it's still clear how she's feeling.

"Once we get him to join us, are we going to go save the elemental army that's kidnapped, or are we going to try to find another one of us?" I ask her. I kind of blindly came along (not that I would do anything different if I were to do it again), so I'm curious about her plan moving forward. I have no idea where her head is at with any of it. How many of us is she hoping to find? Having two is a miracle in itself.

"We should go in as strong as possible, but we can't wait too long to save the army. There are people I care about that are captured. I say we try to get at least 3 of you all before going in just to prevent being caught. What exactly do you know about where they're being held?" she asks, her forehead wrinkled with worry.

"It's swarmed with unnatural elementals, but that's about it. I just had my scouts watching for our own protection," I admit. "Is someone special to you inside of there?"

"Yeah, my best friend, Aspen, is in there. Plus, Shade is in there, too," her voice is heavy. She's clearly feeling guilty.

"Shade is still alive? That's funny. He was a teenager when everything went down, but he worshiped the five of us before that. Ah, I miss the little guy," I run a hand through my hair thinking about the small, shy boy from so long ago. He had long, black hair that draped over his eyes, skin so pale it was nearly gray, and was as thin as a twig. He didn't talk much to anyone other than the four of us, always trying to help us with anything he could. It was adorable.

Nya's eyes widen. "You know Shade?"

"Knew, yeah. Why?" I answer casually. "It's been like, 630 years, so he's probably changed a lot."

"Well, he hates the 5 of you for starters," she starts.

I shake my head. "Typical fake fan, dropping out once things look bad."
"In his defense, everyone thought you were murderers."

"But we weren't, which is a very important detail."

"True. Shade and I have an interesting relationship..."

"Like brother and sister? Nya, I'm not threatened by him. I'm the original," I reassure her, but I seem to completely miss the mark by the way her face stays hesitant.

"No, no, not like that. He and I...we're in an on and off relationship. We have been for several hundreds of years now..." she drifts off, blushing and unable to meet my eyes. My jaw drops.

How was Nya able to date again after she lost her soulmate? As someone who tried to fall in love again, I can't believe she was able to. I always compared everything the person did to Skylor, whether it was how they laughed or acted or anything. It only resulted in me feeling more alone. The fact that she could overcome that is insane.

On top of that, any ideas I had about Nya's type are completely thrown out the window. Unless Shade is a completely different person now, he and Jay were pretty much exact opposites of each other. Shade still looked up to Jay, but they had very few things in common. Hey, I guess their taste in girls is similar.

"You and Shade are dating?" I double check that I heard it right.

"Technically no. We're on a break. I initiated it right before I left, so when I heard he got captured..." she sighs, looking out the window as she rubs her left shoulder.

My heart aches for her. I can't even imagine how messy her mind is. I thought it was bad before, but now there's a whole other layer I knew nothing about. She has to worry about saving Shade and what to do in their relationship while also dealing with the whole Jay situation.

I move from my seat and sit next to her, wrapping my arms around her while pulling her into my side. I don't care if she came into my life less than a week ago. She's my baby sister, and if she needs comforting, I'm going to comfort her.

"We're going to get him back. Don't worry," I rest my head on top of hers.

"I'm just worried that we'll be too late. We have no idea who is behind the unnatural elementals. They could be murdering actual elementals," she admits before squeezing her shoulder. My attention is instantly drawn to her possible injury.

"Is there something wrong with your shoulder?" I ask with concern. She's been messing with it.

"It's just stinging a bit. I'm fine," she shrugs it off. However, after a few seconds, her face freezes. "We're close, like close close."

"Huh? How do you know?"

"My tattoo is stinging just like it was when I.... when I first met him," she remembers.

"Huh, I thought the whole 'soulmate sting' thing only happens once, but I guess things reset after this much time," I say my thoughts. Seeing her discomfort, I add, "If you want, you can stay here while I get him."

"No, no, no. It's fine. I'd rather be there to try to convince him if he slams the door in your face," she gives me a forced, closed mouth smile. "I'll be fine. Besides, I want answers."

---

?'s POV

I sit at my desk, looking at the map in front of me. My troops have been searching every inch of the land for 6 people, and not a single one of them have been found. It's a monumental headache considering that each one of them is someone who can stop my plan in some way. The more of them here under my control, the more secure I'll be.

When I ordered my elementals to ambush the elemental army, I assumed they'd be able to capture all of them, so I'd only have to deal with the masters of creation and not those little gnats. However, the master of water slipped away. Having her out in the world is a liability. She's our number one priority. Who knows what she's up to.

If my plan is to work, every variable needs to be under my control. I need the entire elemental army, so no one else can counter me. The elemental masters of creation will slowly come out of hiding to fight me one at a time, the fractures of their past too deep for them to unite again, and I'll be able to beat them all with my elementals. Then, I can finally get what I want.

When I hear a knock on my door, I respond, "Come in!" without looking up from my map.

The door squeaks open and closes behind someone. "There is a village that reported seeing the master of water several days ago. She was traveling through there, Master," at the news, I look up at Neuro before looking back down.

"Did you dispatch troops to reprimand her?" I ask, my voice hard.

"We were going to, but I wanted to check in with you before because there is someone else accompanying her," he nervously informs me.

His words pull all focus from my map. My head snaps up, "Who was with her?"

"They said it was a boy that looked like he was in his late teens or early twenties. He had brown hair and was in phenomenal shape. The two of them were traveling in a red and gold carriage," he informs me. My fingers suffocate the pencil I was holding. It snaps in two.

"The master of fire. Of course she went to him first," I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to keep my composure and mask the annoyance that just flared up.

"The master of fire? If she is under his protection, shouldn't we let her be free? We cannot counter him, Master. It would be a suicide mission," Neuro advises, but he advises horribly.

"The girl is trying to unite the elemental masters of creation, that brat. We have to cut the head off of the snake before it coils around us," I decide. Waiting any longer would be detrimental.

"How? If their powers are as grand as the stories say, we would need a dozen of us to counter him, and that would be if he didn't decide to sear us on the spot," he questions, clearly fearing for his own safety.

I sigh, standing up and pushing my chair in. "Let's just say that I have a secret weapon that's... fireproof, one would say. Follow me, I need your help."

Walking to the wall of my chamber, I press in the second brick down. My bookshelf slides out of the way, revealing a hidden walkway. I walk down it with determination, and he follows me. After about a minute of walking through the pitch black, I strike a match and light a torch on the wall. I know its location from being down here many, many times. About ten seconds later, we reach a door.

I pull out the key and slip it into the lock. When the door opens, I light another torch on the wall and repeat the gesture around the perimeter of the room. Once they are all lit, the orange glint is clearly visible.

When I glance over at the shock on Neuro's face, I'm proud of my handiwork.

"After 628 years, sleeping beauty is finally ready to come out of her amber encased sleep. Welcome to the present, Princess Skylor."

A/N: Hi everyone! I'm so sorry for the late update! Life has been busy. Break starts next week though, so expect some more updates!

I know there were some of you guys who predicted Skylor still being around, but she's in the possession of the bad guys! I bet you guys didn't expect that!

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