My Sister, The Chosen One

Thirty

Green Day- Brain Stew

Elias:

It's just before dawn. Aurora finally finished packing her things up and left what used to be her private club. She was talking about how Sasha is so unreasonable and while I completely agree with her all things considered. Aurora got off easy. Sage could have killed her over what she did. She could have done something terrifying to her. I'm glad I mean something to her. Enough for her to hold back at the very least.

The more I think over what Sage is putting together, the more I realize how damaged she is. I have no idea how everything around us fell on her lap or why she's taken it upon herself to do it. A small part of me is worried about the outcome, however, I am more than honored to be on this ride with her. Despite our differences, I realize that Sage is one of the few people I completely trust. She makes me question it at times but then I feel like an i***t when she proves me wrong. I respect her more than I respect my sister.

I was headed over to Breeze's laboratory when I spotted Sage by the waterfalls. The guards in that entire section of the territory were cleared out. I didn't get any closer. I stayed back and listened. She's crying. I was about to go to her when she stepped into the water until the falls were beating down on her head. She cried out and hit the wall behind it repeatedly. I stayed back knowing that feeling all too well. I take it she and Ericson got into an argument and she had to walk away so she wouldn't say anything she'd regret later. I've been there a few times myself. She's always given me space until I'm ready to talk about it. I figure I should do the same thing for her.

The water began to steam. It was only then that I realized what she was doing. I set down my things and texted Rey to come down so we could get her out of there when she was done. It didn't take long for him to come out to meet me. We sat on the grass and watched as she released the void. The black smoke hovered over the water as it leaked from her wings.

"There's more of it than before," Rey whispered.

"Yeah," I agreed.

The smoke surrounded her and the water began to turn into hot steam. Whatever went down between her and the Elder rattled her. For the next few days, she's going to be organized, quiet, and straightforward. She just hit her emotional reset button. Goodbye, pretty colors. Farewell to all the self-care routines she started up since we've returned.

"What happened?" Rey asked.

"I don't know. I just got here and I found her like this,"

"I heard her and Eric arguing last night,"

"About?"

"I don't know. I didn't want to pry but she was already in a mood when she walked in. She didn't greet anyone and when I stopped her she was being snarky. He didn't say much when he came down either. Just answered a few questions out of courtesy. We ate dinner and he went up to his room,"

"What did you find on him?" I asked.

"His name is Ericson Thunderstorm. He's the heir to the lightning Realm's throne. He's supposed to be dead. They all are," he handed me a hologram sphere.

"She's not planning on staying here," I handed it back when I went through the files on Redwood and his supposed deceased family.

"Looks like it," he put it in his pocket. "It's not like she can stay here with Breeze. It would be too much power for the Realm,"

"So, what? He's her contingency plan?"

"No, look at her. I'm worried. She's never let anyone in like that. I think it snuck up on her. She's always taking care of everyone. It caught her off guard. He's been taking care of her and since we got back. He was watching Bre when we were gone. Had Airstrike watching our place. He probably asked her about something she wants to keep hidden. Fight or flight for who tells him she's going to be mean as hell for a few days?"

"Okay," I groaned. "One to five. No less,"

"Deal," he nodded.

We both shut our eyes and put out our hands, palms up. The one with the least magik count wins. I opened my eyes to see his air sphere is bigger than mine. I scoffed wondering what would make him choose a two percent increase. Then again, Sage was one of his favorite toys to play with. He's not looking into him out of the kindness of his heart. He wants to find dirt in him so he could throw it in Sage's face later. I know him and her. They're basically the same person.

"Dammit," he groaned. "Fine, I'll tell him,"

The black smoke began to disappear. The water is gone. It's going to be hot out here for a few hours. There's nothing left. We both got up and cleared the steam away with a little breeze. She's lying in the middle of the fountain unconscious. Rey got to her first and picked her up. All of the color in her cheeks is gone. Her hair is darker than before. The noir look is back. Her eyes are probably going to be pitch black for a while.

"I forget how impressive that is," I admitted.

"I forget how unnaturally beautiful she is," he sighed. "The thorn is longer,"

I reached for her and turned her head so she was leaning against his shoulder. The black rose on the back of her ear has a swirl of black thorned vines. Six of them. They're longer now. They're almost to her jaw bone. We both smiled knowing she's improving. We took her back inside and laid her down on her bed. This room gives me the creeps. Everything is white. Now that she's no longer in a mood, she's probably going to be adding a little gray to the mix. She always does. The only vibrant color she's going to be using for a while is red. I looked around to find a list of names on her vanity. I left it there knowing she's going to have to Redwood about them later. We both walked out to see Elder Redwood coming out of his room. I bet she regretted putting him across her room last night. Rey groaned when I laughed.

"Good morning," he greeted us.

"Redwood," I greeted him before smacking Rey on his back for encouragement. "You're up,"

"Get out of here, Coventree," Rey sneered at me.

"With pleasure, my King. Elder Redwood," I bowed to them politely.

I finally walked into the lab thinking about how I'm going to explain this to Breeze. She's laying on the table asleep. Falcon is across from her. His leaning against the office chair with his arms crossed over his chest. I went over to the two of them and shook him awake.

"I didn't fall asleep. I was just resting my eyes," he mumbled jumping up. I laughed.

"She fell asleep too," I looked over at her.

"What are the odds of us falling asleep at the same exact time?" he yawned.

"That is a question for her. She did the math for the odds of us ending up living across from one another,"

"I know. She showed me," he smiled. "Romantic this one,"

"I'll get her inside. You staying here?"

"No, I need to get out of here for a bit. As soon as Sage has those six people here, I doubt we're going to be leaving for a while. I am not excited about that," he stood up.

"Neither am I," I agreed. I tucked my arms under her legs and picked her up.

"You smell nice," she mumbled before tucking her face into my neck. The three of us went over to the elevator. I waited for him to shut everything down before we went up.

"Ugh, it's hot," he complained.

"Sage blew off some steam. Literally," I pointed at the empty waterfalls.

"Oh, s**t. Is she okay? Did she steam all the water in that? It was over four thousand gallons of water,"

"She will be," I nodded. I took Breeze up to her room and set her down. I'm glad he didn't follow. She tightened her hold on me when I tried to pull away from her.

"Stay," she pulled on me a little.

"I need to shower, baby. I'm sweaty," I kissed her cheek.

"Fine," she reluctantly let go.

"I will be right back. I promise,"

A burst of energy burst out of her. Butterflies fluttered all over us before they settled back onto her skin. I think that means she's okay with me going. That is going to take some time to get used to. Ever since Sasha told me that she suspected that Breeze might be a light fairy, I've been trying to figure out what that meant for us.

Surprisingly, my elements are compatible with hers. In fact, they're a little binding. Now that her wings have awakened, if we were to take what we have further, our bodies have to accept our magik first. Should we ever go up in smoke, it's going to be painful to unbind us. I don't mind that. It's intimate, a lot more intimate than s*x. To share magik this way for our kind is sacred. What bugs me is that she's going to have access to my memories and emotions. I don't know if she's prepared to see what I'm hiding in there. We're going to have to talk about that and I am going to have to confess to a few things she's not going to like.

"Dude," I covered myself with my towel when I found Rey sitting on my bed.

"Redwood thinks it was a good idea for Sage to burn out," he stood up. "You are a lot more tattooed than I thought you were,"

"Why does he think that?" I asked going over to my closet. He better not follow me in here.

"He said that she needs help. Emotionally," he sounded out emotionally the way someone who's never seen the word written on paper before would.

"Good luck with that. Sage is all emotions. Even after burning out. It's what drives her,"

"He doesn't think it's healthy for her to be that way," he added. I finished getting dressed and walked out to see him leaning against the wall next to my closet.

"We've always known that but she's not going to listen to him. She's letting him take lead because she needs to concentrate on other s**t right now. She needs that anger to finish this job. Sage without that pain and anger will hesitate. You forget how she was before her parents died,"

"I don't think she will. Sage is all instinct when it comes to our work. He's right, Elias. Sage has needed help for a while and I think we need to help him help her get there. What she saw in the loop has her shaken up. She saw what we did but we weren't the ones who got out of there. I didn't even know I was under the spell until she showed up,"

"Me either," I agreed. "So, what? We dose her, take her to a shrink?"

"His strategy is to isolate her. That's not going to work for us,"

"So, overwhelm her?" I offered.

"That can be dangerous and also, it's Sage. I don't ever remember a time when she wasn't thriving under pressure,"

"That's because there are only two of us. She has the Aces and Aurora trying to work together. I can talk to Lilly to get Airington in on this. He's going to want to get her back for f*****g them all over with those contracts. Not to mention Redwood bitched him at the meeting,"

"Really?" he laughed. "Good. f**k that guy. I'm starting to like Redwood more and more but he's not off the suspect list just yet. So she saved him one time. If all the guys we've saved fell in love with her we'd be f****d,"

"You're still jealous? Aren't you messing around with Fal-" he covered my mouth before I could finish that sentence.

"Shut up," he growled. I pushed him away.

"You're not going to be able to hide that from anyone. You don't know how to lie to us. He does. Hiding this is going to blow up in your face. How did that even happen?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"He's a f*****g ass hole," he shrugged. Vague but straight to the point.

"Okay, so?"

"I was in love with Sage without wings,"

"Oh, yeah. She was a f*****g ass hole," I laughed. "Do you like being slapped around?"

"It's a nice change in pace considering I'm always doing the slapping," he shrugged. "What's your excuse? Breeze is not a walk in the park either,"

"Breeze doesn't slap me around. She's kind and considerate and she makes us cool toys to kill people with. What more is there?"

"She has a temper. Her tantrums include ghosting, silent treatments, and passive aggression. You completely fall apart when she doesn't want to see you or talk to you. Sure, Sage liked to bite hard when we were tearing each other's clothes off but at least she never had me guessing what the hell was wrong between us. We'd sit down and talk about it. Like adults,"

"It's different for is. We grew up together. We know almost everything about one another. We have a level of intimacy you and Sage can never have because you both refuse to let anyone in. It was just about the s*x with her.

"Falcon isn't like you. You're going to hurt him if you don't plan on opening up to him, Rey. Really think about what you're doing here. I'm in on helping Sage. We owe her that. You're not like her either. You know there's something wrong and you want to fix it, man. Get it together before he gets serious. Talk to him if that's what you want but don't lead him on. There's a reason why Breeze is friends with him,"

"We are way too involved in our personal lives," he sighed.

"Agreed. Now, get the f**k out of my room. The next time you come in here without knocking I'm swinging first," I pushed him towards the door.

"I feel like we have our greatest conversations in this room,"

"Don't make it a thing,"

"Sorry, it's too late," he laughed as he walked down the hall towards his room. He didn't go left he went right. Towards Falcon's room. I thought back at what Falcon said in the Lab and laughed. He is a lot better at lying than Rey is.

I opened the door to Breeze's room. It's dark in here except for her glowing under the blanket I had covered her with before walking out of here. She scooted closer to me as soon as I was under the blanket with her. She rested her head on my chest and wrapped herself around me. She's a lot warmer now. She smells like cherry blossoms. The scent is subtle and intoxicating. We're going to have to have that talk a lot sooner than I expected if she keeps touching me like this.