Chapter 23

Kai's POV

As Jay and Nya go to look inside of the cave, I sigh, running a hand through my hair. While I don't regret helping give Nya a wake up call, I surely didn't expect the two of them to be together all of the time. I was just trying to reignite her feelings for him so that she'd stop giving him the cold shoulder. I didn't realize that she'd barely been able to hold back.

I haven't asked either of them what went down that night, and frankly, I don't want to know. After they left, I waited like five minutes before heading to the inn. However, as I got closer to the room and heard that the two of them were doing something I definitely wish I never even thought about, I made the choice to not only spend the night with Zane and PIXAL but to also not to ask about what happened. Besides, she has better stuff to do than try to explain the situation.

Clearly, her mind is about to explode. She's put this challenge in front of her, and she's not going to stop until the unnatural elementals are destroyed for good, even if it's the last thing she does.

Then, with her finding out that Jay was still alive, it added a whole extra layer of complexity to her life that she didn't need. It was painfully clear that she still cared about Jay, yet she still held onto her obligation to try things out with Shade again. She made a quick decision to lock Jay out of her heart to let Shade have the first chance, and I knew that she would stay grumpy about it all until she could let some tension off.

Jay being with my sister is weird, really weird, but out of all of the guys in the world, he's probably one of the better ones that could be her soulmate. As much as I hate to admit it, he's pretty damn powerful, and Nya having someone like that by her side is reassuring. Plus, he already knows that if he screws her over again, he'll have to deal with me.

What's even weirder is that she could easily reject him for Shade. Jay is her soulmate, but her and Shade have over 100 times the history than her and Jay. He doesn't sound like a bad guy from what she's said either. He clearly cares a lot about her, even if it gets clouded over by other things sometimes, but Nya needs someone who will always put forth the effort that she needs, and seeing how Jay has pretty much been a lap dog for every girl he's ever been with, it's clear that he doesn't have a problem with that.

"Gosh." I force my shirt off over my head and quickly discard it with a clenched jaw, immediately bringing my hand up to scratch the throbbing mark on my chest. My eyes flutter shut at the temporary relief.

It's been hours of this stinging, itching, throbbing patch of skin torturing me. It fades in and out of intensity, but right now, it's unbearable. I apply pressure to my tattoo in an attempt to block out the feeling, looking down at it with a frown.

The lion taunts me with the crown sitting on its head. It's the crown of my queen, of the woman that was supposed to be mine. Wherever her body ended up, her skin is probably gone at this point, the tattoo gone with it. I'm the only one left in this world with it.

I instantly freeze in my spot, aware of a change in the heat of the environment. Closing my eyes, I focus on their heat signatures, picking out some people about 100 yards away. My heart pounds in my chest as my eyes snap open. I draw heat to my right hand, creating a ball of fire as I whip around to face Zane and PIXAL and the crowd of people that are making ground on them.

From afar I can see 5 figures. Each is distinctly different. They all vary in height, and each have different hair colors. While the tallest one has black hair, their hair colors span from brown to purple to the most heart wrenching scarlett hair that looks identical to Skylor's.

PIXAL and Zane look at me, confused by the ball in my hand cause it looks like I'm staring at them. I ignore them, gritting my teeth at the people who clearly notice I spotted them seeing as how they start to sprint towards us. I whip the ball out of my hand at our attackers. It zooms through the air, sparks flying out of it, before it hits the ground in front of them, and as soon as the dead brush at their feet catches, I disperse the heat, spreading the flame before amplifying it upwards to create a thick wall of fire that blocks their path.

"Your power truly is admirable. Too bad you've abused it." Suddenly, PIXAL and Zane are picked up and thrown to the side of the mountain above the opening where Jay and Nya entered.

My head whips around to spot a man standing behind me, his hands in the air where he suspends my friends while the pain on my chest grows so that it feels like it's gnawing at my flesh. He has a dark complexion and short hair, his dark, emotionless eyes focused on me as he slams my friends into the rocky wall yet again.

Warmth finds my fingers, my hands becoming laced with flames as I narrow my eyes. "Put them down this instant, or I will melt your insides until you are nothing but a pile of goo."

"Stand down, master of fire. It's six to one." That voice, that silky, breath stealing voice instantly makes my heart pound. My head whips to face its owner, and when I see her, my eyes instantly water.

The flames flicker out in my palms, every bit of my attention drawn to her. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail like it always was, stray hairs falling across her forehead. Not a single pimple or blemish is on her skin. I can practically feel its softness beneath my fingers.

But her amber eyes are cold, narrowed while looking anywhere but mine. Her perfect, full lips are pulled back, her nose scrunched as if looking at a pile of garbage. The arms that used to hold me are folded tightly in front of her chest.

A tear slowly falls down my cheek as I take in the sight in front of me. Suddenly, the pain in my chest makes sense. It's because she was so close. My tattoo felt her and wanted me to go to her.

Everything else fades out of view besides her. "Skylor, baby, I..." I take a step towards her, reaching my arms out, but she immediately takes a step back, lifting her hands up.

"Stay back, or you'll regret it." Her jaw is clenched as her hands stay in the air, slightly shaking.

"I'm not going to hurt..." I take a soft step to try to close the gap, but she stares back at me with daggers that pierce my heart.

"Stay back!" she bunches her hands into fists. "Don't even try to play that game again. I'm not stupid enough to fall for it again." Her eyes trail down to my tattoo before she shakes her head.

My arms are thrust back against my will, before a crisp, cold metal is snapped around my wrists. The second it makes contact with my skin, all energy is pulled out of my body, my spark gone. My awareness of the temperatures around me blinks away, and as my eyes widen and my chest tightens, warmth won't go to my fingers. The inability to feel where everyone else is makes me freeze for a moment, the uneasiness locking me up.

I throw my hands back behind me, the chains holding my wrists together colliding with one of the unnatural's jaws as they let out a loud yelp. My jaw clenches as I bounce on my toes, pivoting before landing a firm kick right below the girl's ribs that send her flying backwards.

As she yells, her entire body starts to change. Her hair pulls itself back before fading into a beautiful scarlet. Every feature on her face shifts, rearranging and changing so that she's Skylor. Even her body changes, her outfit turning orange while her waist shrinks.

"Ouch! You hurt me," She grabs onto her side, sounding just like Skylor. I gasp, my throat going dry at the sight.

My hands tremble, the chains clinking in sync with the sound of my friends slamming into a mountain as I fear that the unnatural elementals are closing in on me. Quickly glancing up, the sight of Zane and PIXAL's dented shapes sends me over the edge.

My chest quickly rises and falls, everything falling out of focus as my vision blurs. My skin prickles as my stomach turns into a knot, an intense urge to throw up overtaking me. I close my eyes in hopes of resetting myself, but when I open them, I'm brought back to the castle, staring down at the pile of blood outside of the closet that Lloyd was hiding in the day that everything went wrong.

"This is your fault, Kai. You couldn't protect me," Lloyd says from behind me. My head whips around in the direction of his voice, but he's not there. I spin, my eyes darting to every spot, but I can't find him. "I was hurt because of you. You abandoned me."

My throat tightens up as my eyes water. I start to step around, looking around the room with urgency. "I was coming back to you! I swear!"

"You abandoned Skylor too, and look where she is now, in the hands of the unnatural elementals. She hates you for it. She can't even look you in the eyes."

I cover my ears in an attempt to block out the voice. My hands shake as I tightly shut my eyes. "Stop!"

"And now here you are, too focused on yourself to help PIXAL and Zane, typical," he clicks his tongue afterwards, his voice still just as clear as before.

"Stop talking!"

"Everyone that you love gets hurt. Do you ever wonder why?"

My limbs give out from under me, my knees hitting the ground with a hard thud, a fiery inferno shooting out in every direction.

When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the mountain, on my knees. I can't take in nearly enough air, each breath feeling way too shallow. I look up at a tall black haired girl who towers above me, leaning down to place a blade at my throat. The tip is sharp, piercing through my flesh enough so that blood trickles down my exposed chest.

"Surrender, and we'll stop using your two little friends as entertainment," she digs the blade deeper, making me scrunch up my nose as my lunch threatens to come up.

I take a quick glance at their deep dents before staring at the ground in front of me. "Put them down first."

I hear the clang of them hitting each other as they fall to the ground, and I wince. "I surrender." My heart pounds as the words leave my lips.

The blade is removed from my throat as the girl squats down in front of me. She places her thumb on the cut before tilting my chin up so that I meet her eyes.

"So you're the master of fire?" she scans over my face. A smirk sits on her lips. "The legends of your looks don't do you justice. No wonder you could seduce any girl that laid her eyes on you." She grips my jaw, forcefully turning my head from side to side.

"We need to get going," my eyes snap up to where my girl has her arms crossed. She looks down at the woman in front of me.

My chest aches at the sight of Skylor, every inch of my skin itching to go to her. The throbbing tattoo on my pec doesn't help the matter either.

"Oh come on, I know he's your ex, but you hate him so much that you shouldn't care if I flirt with him. It's not like I'm gonna do anything anyways," the girl that I don't know the name of keeps her hand on my skin, and while her harsh grip will definitely bruise, her words dig even deeper. My chest tightens yet feels empty at the same time. "Besides, we still need to find the masters of water and lighting."

"We'll stretch ourselves too thin if we try to bring two more people back with us. Taking half of their forces is already effective enough. I don't know where they are, but make sure they don't tail us," the man who was throwing Zane and PIXAL around says. He walks around to look at me. He stares down at me with a stone cold expression. "Don't even try to fight back or else your friends will have to pay the price."

A/N: I suck omg I made y'all wait so long again. I'm so sorry

However, next chapter...I think you all are gonna eat it up. It'll be worth the wait (it's nearly half way done since the first POV was supposed to be the back end of this chapter but I decided against it)

Thank you all for waiting! You're the absolute best

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