Forgotten Elements

I knew there was fire or lava up ahead from how the temperature kept increasing the further we went. Allowing myself a few seconds to connect to the elements, I felt the chaotic and destructive energy I usually associated with lava.

Great.

Dealing with lava in a normal realm wasn’t ideal for me. But with how off the elements already were from the drain, the prospect of dealing with it here was less than appealing. As long as we could walk around it and not over it, we should be fine.

The heat continued to grow as we neared the lava, making sweat bead up on my forehead. When we broke through the tree line, I ground to a halt. “Fuck.” I jinxed us with my previous thoughts. This was some serious bullshit.

In front of us was a wide chasm, and when I looked over the edge, I found the lava less than a mile down.

“Not to state the obvious, but we need to stay far away from that shit,” I murmured as I stepped back from the edge, wiping the sweat from my brow. I wasn’t a fan of the way the lava churned and bubbled. As if to prove my point, a wave of lava crashed into the wall on the other side of the chasm, coming up halfway.

This boiling heat made me wish I hadn’t left my bag behind at the library so I could change into my warm-weather clothes.

“You don’t say?” Parker’s lips twitched as he used the bottom of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, showing off his glistening abs that I stared at unabashedly. “Can you tell if the lava has always been here or if it’s a result of the realm being drained?”

I pursed my lips as I probed the energy of the lava with my own. “I suspect it’s a result of the imbalance, but I can’t be too sure. The lava could have always been here, but the imbalance has made it rise and ramp up in potency.”

I scanned the half-mile-wide chasm until I found a bridge several hundred feet away. A groan built in my throat, but I swallowed it down. I’d been secretly hoping I wouldn’t be able to find one. It was a stupid thing to hope. We had to go across the chasm; it was as simple as that. There was a chance we could find a way around it, but it was best not to waste time and remain in this realm longer than necessary.

The groan I’d been holding back slipped free as we neared the bridge, and I realized it was a rickety rope bridge. Why did it always have to be a rope bridge? I wasn’t the type to be afraid of heights, but even so, anticipation built in the pit of my stomach. If I was wrong and the lava hadn’t always been here, using the bridge would be more dangerous than normal. The heat and untamed magic from the lava could weaken the rope or the wooden planks. Even if the lava had always been here, it was still risky. The churning and bubbling surface was out of control as another wave crashed into the wall.

“Can you portal us across?” I asked, even though I wasn’t confident he could, not because I doubted his abilities but because of how unstable the magic was in this realm. The ramping energy of the lava was potent—so potent that Parker had to be able to feel it.

Parker narrowed his eyes at the lava for a few seconds before heading over to the trees and grabbing a fallen branch. I took it from him as he created the portal, and once it was formed, I tossed the small branch through.

Rather than land safely on the other side, the branch appeared over the middle of the chasm before dropping.

“I’ll take that as a no,” I muttered as I stared at the bridge in resignation.

Deciding it was best to get this over with, I brushed my hand over the rope railing, sensing it had been woven from durable material, but I wasn’t reassured. The energy from the bridge was weakening, as it too, was being drained. With how the magic was actively being sucked from it, I shouldn’t funnel any magic into it unless necessary. I still wasn’t one hundred percent in the energy department. It had taken until almost twenty minutes ago for my legs to stop feeling shaky.

Taking a deep breath, I took a test step on the first wooden plank, and when it held my weight, I took another step.

Parker followed behind me, keeping a couple of feet between us. It probably would’ve been better for us to go one at a time, especially with how much the bridge swayed side to side from the smallest of movements, but neither of us wanted to risk being separated.

While I was hesitant to use my magic and was saving it for only life-or-death emergencies, at least we had Parker’s magic to help get us out of any possible situations we might face. He infused his magic into the bridge, stabilizing it and preventing it from swaying, which helped ease some of my worries. I was still nervous about the lava that was way hotter than it should’ve been, but hopefully, we’d make it across the chasm before any problems arose.

We were halfway across the bridge when my stupid thoughts jinxed us once again as another wave of lava slammed against the wall, and this time, it came within two hundred feet of the bridge. There was something different about the wave this time—or maybe it only seemed different because we were now over it—I could’ve sworn I felt something swimming in the depths of the lava, disturbing it.

The time between each wave of lava was decreasing, as was the distance between us and the lava as it got higher and higher.

As the lava wave came within fifty feet of the bridge, something dove out of the lava, but thankfully, it wasn’t able to reach us—yet. The thing was shaped like a massive whale, only it was made up of gigantic rocks, looking like they had been pieced together like a puzzle, with lava glowing between the chunks, almost like it was the glue holding the pieces together. Large spikes ran down its spine, each of them bigger than me.

Neither Parker nor I needed to say anything; we began running across the bridge, which thankfully remained somewhat steady due to Parker’s magic. But even if it hadn’t been steady, we still would’ve run: lava-rock-whale beat rickety bridge any day of the week.

Even with Parker’s magic infused into the bridge, one of the boards broke beneath my foot and would’ve had me falling face first if it weren’t for Parker. He was still a few feet away, but his magic caught me and helped place me on my feet.

The lava kept nearing the bridge, which meant so did the creature. It gave off the same destructive and chaotic magic as the lava, and when I wasn’t running for my life, I would consider what the hell this thing was and how it could connect to the lava. Whatever the case, this thing was aiming for us, and we wouldn’t be safe until we made it to the other side of the chasm.

My hands were raw and blistered from sliding them along the coarse rope of the railing, and my clothes were like a second skin with how they clung to my body with sweat. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it seemed like the lava was getting even hotter. I felt like I was on the verge of being cooked alive. The temperature here put the lava region of the creature’s realm to shame and made it seem like a cool vacation destination. I wasn’t one to usually mind warm weather, but this was fucking ridiculous.

Since this was a life or death situation, I allowed myself to connect to the lava—not that I had any hope of controlling it, but at least it gave me forewarning when the lava built into another wave. Based on the pattern it seemed to follow, this time, it would be within twenty feet of the bridge.

It was a risk to use the elements with how chaotic they were, but I saw no other choice. As the creature dove at us, I connected to the air, feeling it fight against me as I used it to form a barrier between us and the whale. It slammed into the barrier with a force that had me gasping and losing my tenuous hold on the air. My shield screwed up its trajectory, but it was still coming toward us. I formed another air barrier, but it was even weaker than the one before with how the element fought against me. As it broke through my second shield, Parker made the bridge rock hard to the left, sending me into the rope railing. My hands bled and ached as I held onto it for dear life, a scream building in my throat.

The combination of my air shields and the swaying bridge made it so the creature missed us by only ten feet. Which didn’t fill me with comfort. The only thing that gave me hope was how we were nearing the other side of the chasm.

It took Parker several long seconds to stop the swaying of the bridge, especially with how he was busy creating a spell. I could feel his building magic behind me. He was really carrying the team so to speak, with how he made it easier to run across the bridge, stopped me from face-planting, and saved us from the whale creature.

I warned him when I felt the energy of the lava ramp up again, and he released the spell he’d been creating. A gold web of energy sat twenty feet under the bridge and conformed to the body of the whale, attempting to hold it back. Even though I was oh for two on air shields, I formed another to aid in his attempt at holding it back.

The whale didn’t break through the barriers, but I could sense the weakness in Parker’s spell and knew it wouldn’t be able to hold back the creature a second time. Either he created a new spell to strengthen it, or we needed to be off this fucking bridge before it could make another attempt.

This stupid fucking bridge had it out for me: another board broke under my foot and sent me careening to the side. I hadn’t realized Parker moved closer to me, but I was thankful for it when he scooped me up in his arms, preventing me from falling over the edge. Using his magic to enhance his strength, he threw me the remaining thirty feet to the solid ground where I rolled awkwardly across the hard-packed dirt.

Panic flooded my body as I looked up and found Parker nearly twenty-five feet away from the edge.

To make matters worse, the chaotic energy of the lava increased with an oncoming wave.