Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Gwen

I wake and for a moment everything seems normal. I think that Anya, Derek and Oliver are going to be in bed with me or in my bathroom or sprawled out in my lounge room. I feel comfortable. Then it all comes crashing back to me. Andrew’s memories and my midnight visit from Derek rush through my mind. I remember that I’ve been betrayed and I feel myself break all over again. I look to my clock and see that it’s only 4:00am. I need to get out before Derek comes knocking, but where do I go? My training has been cancelled for a while so that this traitor can be flushed out by my instructors. I suppose that means that the only place I’m least likely to run into someone is my arena. I’ve made my decision and now I desperately need a shower. The hot water feels amazing as my tense muscles relax but, no matter how hard I scrub, the anxiety just won’t go away. Not that I ever expected it to but I get points for trying, right? Maybe I just need to get out of the apartment, into a more open area. I dress quickly in black jeans, boots and a Black Widow tank, grab a jacket for good measure and almost run out the door. I feel like I need to hide as I run through the corridors but it is only 4:45am so there aren’t too many people around. Still, I go with my gut, sticking to the shadows and moving quickly. The sooner I get to my arena the sooner this feeling of being followed will go away. At least I hope it will. I’m almost there when a door opens further down the corridor and I watch as Hank and Jasper step out into the hallway. I jump straight into a nearby alcove that’s shrouded in darkness, hope they didn’t see me and take the opportunity to eavesdrop on their conversation.

“…cleared a few people, but we still have a long way to go before we figure all of this out and find our mystery guest,” says Hank.

Cleared a few people? Find the mystery guest? They’re looking for the traitor. That’s all good and well but who clears Hank, huh? Who clears Jasper? How do we know that the traitor isn’t in charge of searching for the traitor?

“That’s an understatement,” replies Jasper. “We could really use Gwen’s help.”

Hank comes to a stop only a few metres from where I’m hidden and Jasper stops right beside him.

“We’ve already talked about this,” he says with an exasperated sigh.

“Yeah, we talked about it, but we need to talk about it again! It’s her that they’re after and if she just goes off on her own she’s going to make is so much easier for them to get to her!”

“Keep your voice down!” Hank hushes Jasper. “Unless you’d prefer to just put up a neon sign announcing the presence of a Recruiter Spy in the refuge.”

He used his quiet-but-pissed voice and it seemed pretty effective at shutting Jasper up.

“She doesn’t trust anyone,” Hank continues. “And rightly so. We’re better off waiting for her to figure out that none of us are the spy. She’ll work with us again after that, when she feels like it’s safe for her to work with us. We can’t force her to trust us.”

Damn right you can’t.

“She’s acting like a child. There is no intelligence or strategy in running away. She hasn’t even chosen her weapon yet!”

Right, because standing in a room surrounded by weapons and potential traitors and waiting for one of them to magically float towards me is really the top of my list of priorities. Sounds more like an effective way to get stabbed.

“No, Jasper, she’s acting like someone who’s afraid for her life and knows that she’s more powerful and more capable than anyone we could task with her protection.”

Hank sounds pissed as he turns to walk away, and for a moment I think he’s going to find me, but Jasper grabs hold of his forearm and turns him around again.

“I’m going to talk to her. Someone needs to make her see sense and it’s clearly not going to be you,” he sneers.

Before I even know it, I’ve stepped out into the corridor. I can’t stand here and listen to this crap anymore.

“I’d like to see you try,” I say. The anger and challenge in my voice is surprising even to my own ears. I get the satisfaction of watching Hank and Jasper jump out of their skin.

“Jesus Christ!” shouts Jasper.

“Nope, just me, but I understand the confusion,” I reply dryly as I shove past them.

And to think the plan was to remain unseen and make sure that no one knew where I was going. My annoyance with Hank and Jasper rapidly transforms into discomfort and paranoia. What if they figure out where I’m going? They’ll know where to find me. Shit! I should have stayed in the shadows, damn my temper! I barely take two steps before Hank stops me.

“Gwen, wait,” he says, trying to grab my wrist. I pull my arm away and he puts his hands up, something I’ve come to recognise as a placating gesture most often used when these people know they’ve pissed someone off. I stop, reluctantly, and turn to face them.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

I could tell him the truth. I could simply tell him that I’m going to my arena and that I don’t want to be disturbed and that if he wanted me to trust him that he would respect that and leave me alone. But I can’t bring myself to do it.

“For a walk,” I respond, hoping he doesn’t see straight through me.

“Mind if I come with you?”

The hope in his expression is surprising and is almost enough for me let him tag along. Almost.

“Yes, actually, I do.”

His face falls and I feel a twinge of guilt…until Jasper steps forward with exasperation written all over his face.

“You need to stop this, now. You’re be-”

“Stop it!” Hank interrupts what was bound to be an angry tirade, judging by Jasper’s tone.

“No, don’t worry about me. I’m actually curious to hear what he has to say,” I respond, staring daggers at Jasper.

“Fine,” he starts. And his new, angrier tone tells me that this is going to be interesting. “Your behaviour is going to get you killed and avoiding everyone like you have since yesterday afternoon is simply ridiculous. You have a better chance of survival if you suck it up and work with us.”

I was right, that was interesting. I decide to deploy my best weapon: Intense Sarcasm.

“I’ll take your word for it, shall I? Now, if you gents don’t mind, I’m going to go off on my own, where I’m alone and know for a fact that there isn’t anyone around to kill me, and get myself killed.”

I turn to walk away and Hank stops me, again!

“Gwen?” I turn back, once more, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. “Please don’t shut us out. We’re doing everything we can to find out who has infiltrated the refuge. You’re safe here. We’ll make sure that you’re safe here.”

I’ve heard that before though, haven’t I? From Derek after the Recruiters attacked me outside my house.

“Isn’t that the whole point of me being here Hank? I’m here so that I can learn and train in a safe environment, right? So I have a place where Recruiters can’t get to me?” I can feel my temper rising as I speak. “Let’s recap, shall we? After little over a month I’ve been attacked by Carrie and her heard of sheep, I’ve been attacked by Howard at Jasper’s direction, I’ve had someone fuck with my mind, apparently I’ve been stalked and to top it all off I’ve found out that I’m some sort of mythical and magical creature of legend to these bastards. All of this has happened under your noses and you’re expecting me to just trust that I’m safe simply because you say so?!”

Okay, apparently I’m a lot angrier about all of this than I thought I was. Not to mention more paranoid. If Hank and Jasper’s expressions are anything to go by than I’m angrier than they thought too.

“When you put it like that it does sound pretty bad,” says Hank in a small voice. Hard to think that Hank, 7ft-tall-and-built-like-a-tank-Hank, could sound so small, but he does.

“No it doesn’t. The central issue in all of those statements is you. YOU made the decision to come here. Did you think this would just be one big party? You are here to train, not float about like a delicate little flower that needs to be protected.”

Jasper is almost yelling by the time he finishes his tirade and the walls and floor have begun to shake. In the back of my mind I know that it’s me causing the earthquake, that my magic is reacting to my anger, but I don’t care to stop it.

“I came here to learn how to control my magic and, even then, only because I was assured that I would be safe. I’ve learnt control and apparently in the process I’ve over-stayed my welcome. It appears I’m not actually safe here anyway so I guess it’s time that I move on. I’ll be gone in a few days, until then, I suggest you keep your distance.”

I allow the earth to swallow me up and transport me somewhere safe. Derek, Oliver and Anya come running around the corner as the rock embraces me and I feel myself moving through the earth towards the arena where, hopefully, I’ll be left alone. My plan to stick to the shadows and avoid people has failed miserably. Only one positive can be taken from this morning’s misadventures: I can apparently use rock as a form of transportation.

Who knew?

I rise from the earth in the cavern behind the waterfall in my arena. It’s silent and lonely in here. I suppose I’ll have to accept that, until I can flush the traitor out of hiding, I’ll need to get used to being a bit lonely. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t think this far ahead. What am I supposed to do now? I sit down in the cavern and…that’s the end of my immediate plan. I just sit there. I could go home. I could head back and try to live a normal life again? I scratch that plan immediately. For a start, they already know where to find me there. Both the Elementals and the Recruiters would be able to track me easily. Second of all, I’d be kidding myself if I thought, even for just a moment, that I’d be able to live a normal life. This is all too amazing. I love being able to use magic. Hasn’t this been what I’ve always wished for? In all my dreams and daydreams, all of my art, even my choices in books and movies; hasn’t everything I’ve ever been interested in shown me that I couldn’t leave this behind? Even if I wanted to, I’d never be able to let any of this go. So there goes my first plan. No going home. That leaves me with only two options:

- Leave and try to make it on my own. Try to build a new life for myself. Change my name from Guinevere Faye to something more mundane like Sarah Smith or Jessica Johnson. Move somewhere completely unexpected like Alaska or Russia. Work as a farmer or librarian. Blend as much as possible and keep my head down.

But what sort of life would this be? I’d be constantly looking over my shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop. That’s without even mentioning that I’ve never been the type to run away, ever.

This only leaves me with one course of action: Find the traitor and eliminate the threat.

Sounds simple enough, right? It would be if I had any idea how to do that. Where do I even start?

I don’t know how long I remain sitting on the floor of the cavern but I finally come up with a plan and it’s the cavern itself that I can thank for that. The caves act as an amplifier for all the vibrations inside and outside the refuge. Somehow Elijah was able to set up the perfect set of circumstances for me to be able to follow the vibrations back to their source and interpret them with pinpoint accuracy. It’s a small win, but it’s still a win and right now I’ll take what I can get. I’ll start with numbers. How many people are actually living in the refuge? After some extensive and painful counting of individual people, the number comes to 2,468. Of those people there are 872 children and people who have yet to activate their powers. This leaves 1,596 potential suspects. Of those people, 1,084 are still in training. I’ll look at them last. If they are in training here then the odds are that they were brought here by Guardians after their powers made their first appearance and are therefore least likely to have been brainwashed by Recruiter nonsense. This leaves me with 512 potential traitors to investigate, all of whom are either Guardians, Warriors, Healers, Protectors, Trainers or people who just live here. I’ll start with the people I’ve already met and the vibrations I’ve already felt. They should all be easy enough to find. The vibrations are easy enough to recognise. It’s like how you never truly forget a face. I never truly forget any one individual frequency, it’s even more distinctive than a fingerprint and I can tune in whenever I like. Now that I think about it, that seems kind of invasive and just a tad creepy, but I don’t have time to dwell on the issues of people’s privacy. It’s time for me to get started.