“Not him,” Tory hissed, her eyes spilling venom in his direction.
“Agreed.” I nodded.
The long-haired guy stood forward next and my gaze scraped over his muscular frame. Everything about him was tempting and distinctly predatory. “Air focus, House Aer. Life with us is a breeze.” His eyes swept our way and he smiled. It looked pretty genuine and my shoulders relaxed a little. Yep. He looked like the one. Especially as the last one, Darius, was built like a fortress and had eyes as sharp as knives.
“Fire focus, House Ignis. We aren't for the faint of heart. And frankly I don't see anyone in this line-up who’s good enough to join us.” He glared at us as if daring us to join his House and I could almost see him thinking up ways to make our lives insufferable if we did.
Nova moved along the line of twelve students beside us and one by one they picked from the two Elements they'd been gifted and joined their House Captains. The pretty girl who'd glared at us in the Awakening chose Seth, running forward and wrapping her arms around him.
“Baby!” she cried, tossing a straight golden lock over her shoulder.
Seth squeezed her against his athletic body and I wondered for half a second what an embrace from those arms might feel like. “So glad you got air, Kylie,” he said but his eyes didn't say the same thing. “What’s your other Element?”
She swatted his chest. “You know I got Earth, Sethy, I’m a Capricorn.” She leaned up for a kiss and he rammed his tongue down her throat in an overt display that lasted nearly a whole minute. Nice.
The line finally dwindled away until only Tory and I remained.
“Air?” I confirmed with her in a quiet voice. She nodded, opening her mouth to announce it when Nova spoke.
“You will have to pick differently girls I'm afraid. Each House is very competitive and we encourage everyone to take part in the healthy rivalry. As you have so much power, it wouldn't be fair for one House to be at such an advantage.”
Horror bloomed in my chest. Part with Tory? My twin? I mean…we were independent but we were also a constant in each other's lives. She was like my left arm. I could manage without it most of the time but if it was cut off I wouldn't be whole.
Tory looked to me with a dark frown. “Well that’s just perfect.”
“We'll be housed separately?” I confirmed with Nova.
“Ohh are you gonna cry?” Max called to me and I wanted to rip his face off for it as sniggers filled the room.
I swallowed hard, shaking my head as I tried to inwardly deal with my surging emotions.
“I choose fire,” Tory announced loudly, brushing her fingers over my back for the briefest of moments. She leaned in to speak in my ear and I felt a goodbye passing between us. “Take air but don't take any shit.”
She stalked away, standing beside Darius who gave her a calculating look which told me she was gonna be in trouble with him. My gut unravelled as she joined the most demonic-looking Heir in the entire line up. She never had taken the easy route in life. But I wished she’d done so just this once.
“Air,” I said, trying to keep my spirits up as I walked cautiously toward Seth. He moved forward to meet me and suddenly wrapped me in his arms. The exact arms I’d just been having a two second day dream about. Damn, it felt like eating a too-hot cookie fresh out of the oven. It burned all the way down but tasted divine.
“Welcome to the tribe, babe.” He smelt like musk and something almost animal. I tried to pull away as he held me in what was fast becoming an inappropriately close embrace for several more seconds. When he released me, his girlfriend drew closer with a bright smile on her face.
“Hey girl, just so you know, my bae is in charge. So long as you get that, we're totally cool.”
I shrugged, not giving one damn about taking power from her bae.
She linked her arm through mine as Nova dismissed us all and the rest of the Air Element freshmen joined us.
This has gotta be better than being in Caleb's House.
“Let's show the newbies how Aer House works,” Seth said, throwing me a wink as he led the way out of The Orb. Many more older students stood up, joining our ranks as we filed out of the building.
As I glanced over at Max's new recruits in Aqua, I was overly relieved that I wasn't in his House. He had them standing on their heads and was in the process of pouring water all over them. I shook my head in disbelief as the teachers continued to chat away as if that was entirely acceptable even when one of them started choking.
I spotted Tory in a tense-looking conversation with Darius, but I knew she could handle herself. My sister was as tough as nails. But I was going to miss her.
We headed east away from The Orb and Kylie parted from me, moving to join a girl with large eyes and raven hair.
We passed by big stone buildings which seemed to ring The Orb and a huge, crescent-shaped structure which resembled the moon. Seth had an excited prance in his stride as we followed the winding path toward a thick group of trees in the distance.
My heart hammered and I looked around me for a friendly face as the group jostled me along, but no one met my eye.
We headed into the thick forest and the amber glow of lanterns lit the path, the trees grouping close together on either side of the track and arching overhead. A chill brushed across my skin accompanied by a lick of adrenaline.
I half expected to wake up tomorrow and find that all of this was a dream. Despite the fear the Heirs had struck in me, this place called to me. It was beautiful and a deep vibration in my soul told me I belonged here. Like the stars themselves had been waiting for me to arrive at this very spot.
We emerged from the trees and found ourselves on a sprawling clifftop where the crash of waves sounded from below. A huge tower stretched up high above us, the dark grey bricks ancient and weathered. Vertical windows were built into the walls and at the very top was an enormous rotating wooden turbine which moved in a breeze I couldn't feel.
Seth turned back to face us, standing before the arching doorway made of black iron. Above it, carved into the stone, was a large symbol of a triangle with a horizontal line intersecting the top half of it. Seth raised a palm and the symbol glowed with an intense white light, the sight making my heart thrum excitedly. The iron door clunked heavily, sounding it unlocking.
“Freshmen, get your asses in front of me because I'm only gonna say this once,” Seth announced.
Me and the fifty or so other newbies headed toward the front of the group. I moved to Kylie's side, stepping between her and a guy with a beanie hat on and an excited look on his face.
Seth devoured the attention, his gaze flitting across all of us as several of the older students grouped around him. Many rubbed shoulders with him or brushed their hands over his back and arms. It was totally weird but he let them continue as if it was a regular occurrence.
“You don't get into Aer unless you use your power on that symbol.” He pointed to the triangle above the door. “As it's your first day, I've already opened it but as of tomorrow if you can't conjure air, you don't get a bed in my House.”
I rubbed my fingers together, hoping I'd be able to use my power again but I wasn't entirely sure how I'd done it before. Power coiled inside me in anticipation but I couldn’t will it into my hands.