I evaded the girl with amber eyes that looked like two golden rings of fire burning through me. Oriel, that’s what the chatty, fiery redhead had called herself. Of all the things I had expected to happen when meeting one of the Lumini, talking and talking, and muttering about how we would be best friends, was not one of them. To make matters worse, throughout the onslaught of her conversation, all that escaped me were small growling noises, noises of pure discomfort that I’d never heard before today. Probably because I’ve never had to spend this much time amongst other fae.

  “Urgh, no wonder she compared me to a dog,” I muttered.

  I followed the stone path back to the Hiems, passing dozens of students hovering across the school grounds. Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing I was, exploring their new surroundings.

  The academy campus at night looked magical, the green lawn, and stone pathways lit up, tall trees, and perfectly trimmed shrubs lining walkways and entrances. Small signs showed which direction everything was, from food halls to something called the Lake of a Thousand Waterfalls. Note to self, check that out.

  When I finally made my way back into the main Hiems building, there were three distinct groups of fae; the Lumini, Mesial, and Tartarean clustered into their separate corners in the common room. There were many new faces, which meant many introductions to be made. A part of me wanted to get to know everyone, maybe even make friends. But the larger part of me needed to avoid anything that would upset my father. The Tartarean glared at me, reminding me of what Paxton said – ninety percent of the Tartarean hated my family, but the question was why? I knew that being a Vygros meant that no one was good enough, strong enough, or powerful enough for our family, but my parents never shared any information with me that would translate to this dislike, hatred even. I shook the thought of getting to know anyone away. I wasn’t here to make friends, I was here to learn and get stronger, to make my father proud, to make my family proud.

  I entered the cold outside air, leaving the beautiful stone building behind me. A stab of familiarity pierced me as the snow-covered area reminded me of home. Taking a deep breath, I descended the stairs, following the direction of a small arrow saying ‘bonfire pit’. After a few twists and turns walking down various pathways, I reached the stairs that led down to the community area. The bonfire area wasn't exactly what I had pictured when Eros mentioned it earlier. A large square area had been dug into the stone, the edges lined with seating as a huge, round bonfire danced in the center.

  “Ms. Vygros… do you think it’s a good idea to be roaming around campus grounds alone this time of the night?” Rafe asked, stepping into the light from the far side of the area.

  His chiseled jaw and cheekbones were highlighted in the dim lighting. My eyes scanned over his broad shoulders, noticing that he had switched to a white t-shirt since I’d last seen him.

  “Firstly, it's not that late,” I stated, trying not to be captivated by his frosty eyes. “But probably not, if I'm going to run into Tartarean fae, like yourself.”

  “You mean the riff-raff?” he said, eyes twinkling with amusement.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You don’t have to, Vygros, everyone knows about your family.”

  “I don’t understand, can someone just tell me what the deal is with everyone and my family?”

  “You really don’t know, do you?” Rafe asked, his eyes full of surprise.

  “No, I don’t understand why every Tartarean glares at me, I don’t understand any of it,” I barked.

  “My family would have my head for talking to a fae from a family that looked down on other Tartarean like your family does.” Rafe shrugged. “Your father runs most of the resource allocation within Tenebrous, and everyone knows that if you aren’t in his circle, you’re left fighting for the scraps, or he’ll start talking shit about us on the front page of the Tenebrous Inquisitor.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face, before getting defensive. “I…I didn’t know, but then why waste your time talking to someone you have so little respect for?”

  Rafe’s head tilted to the side, a puzzled expression filling his face. “Calm down, that’s not what I said, Aries. I said, ‘my family’.”

  My shoulders tensed up.

  “The Soren name isn’t much better. My family has a lineage of pure ice elementals,” Rafe confessed.

  “You mean there’s never been another elemental born into your family?” I asked.

  “Not exactly, for over seven hundred years my family has ensured that only ice elementals hold the Soren name.” Rafe shrugged, running his fingers through his jet-black hair, pushing it to one side to reveal his face. “Any other elemental born into our family gets exiled and stripped of the Soren name.”

  “What?”

  “Everyone has their secrets.” Rafe laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if my mother has another pure elemental lined up for me to marry.”

  “You don’t get to choose whom you marry?”

  “I do, and I don’t.” Rafe frowned. “Whomever I pick, they just have to be an ice elemental like me.”

  I shifted uncomfortably, unsure how to respond to his comment. In the last five minutes, I had learned more about my family than I had in eighteen years. The fact that I wasn’t allowed to read the news or mix with anyone unless approved by my parents was making more and more sense.

  “Did you know the snow is enchanted?” Rafe asked, walking towards where I was standing.

  “Yeah, Eros told me.”

  “Hmm, socializing with Mesial. What would your father say, Vygros?” Rafe lifted his eyebrow scoldingly.

  “He was the one who greeted us through the portal,” I defended.

  Rafe scoffed, and then looked up into the sky. “You want to see a neat trick?”

  “Sure.”

  Rafe stretched his left hand out towards me, opening his palm. A small flurry of snow spiraled in the middle of his hand, circling around faster, forming a tiny vortex.

  “A snow tornado?” I asked.

  “Hmm, she's not impressed…”

  Rafe smirked before we were suddenly engulfed in what felt like a blizzard spiraling around us. Snowflakes danced wildly, a soft blanket of ice wrapping around me. I shuddered as the wet flakes rested against my skin.

  “Now that’s what I call real snow,” Rafe said proudly, rubbing his palms together for warmth as the snow instantly evaporated.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “You would think ice elementals wouldn’t get cold,” I teased.

  “You would think water elementals didn’t get wet,” he jibed back, looking at my soaked hair. My shirt clung to my body, the chill from the ice firmly embedded into my skin.

  “Pretty cool though, right?”

  “It was okay,” I said, smirking coyly.

  “Aries, please stop being so complimentary,” Rafe teased, lifting his hands to gesture for me to calm down. “You must have some pretty neat water tricks up your sleeve?”

  “I can do basic magic like folding my clothes and detangling my hair.”

  “No elemental magic?”

  “I’ll only be ascending tonight…”

  “Shit, first year, I forgot.” Rafe frowned. “Both my parents ascended at seventeen, but I ascended the night I turned eighteen at the Ria Cove School of Elemental Magic.”

  “How was it?” I asked.

  “Some fae have gone blind, some have screamed in pain until their element reaches their body, it’s different for everyone,” Mara interrupted, stepping down the stairs towards us, frowning as she gestured for Rafe to get a move on. “Rafe, we’ve been waiting for you.”

  Rafe shot me an apologetic look. “You want me to walk you back to your dorm building?”

  “I think I’ll be okay.”

  “So that’s a no?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wait, it’s a yes?” he asked again, making Mara huff.

  “Goodnight Rafe,” I sighed.

  “Night, Vygros.”

  As Mara and Rafe walked up the stairs, I heard her mutter my name angrily. I stalled, waiting to put some distance between us before heading up the cobblestone stairs towards the first-year dorm. I felt uncomfortable just thinking about what Rafe said about my family, but also realized that maybe my family wasn’t so different from other powerful elemental families around Tenebrous.

  “Aries Vygros,” I whispered, leaning into the door.

  My room door flung open, and I wasted no time showering and changing into new clothes for my ascension. My 10th Element smartwatch started beeping frantically notifying me of a text, stirring Guinebugs in my stomach.

  Trigon Academy: Dear First-year student, please ensure you check in at the Angela? Temple at exactly 11:55 PM for ascension to start on time. Students who are late, or miss the school-assigned ascension will be sent home for personal ceremonies to take place, and not be allowed back to Trigon.

  I sat staring at the text for a few seconds, letting my mind wonder about ascension. Mara’s words rang in my head; pain, blindness? I shuddered at the thought.

  Heading towards the temple, I could feel the nerves bubbling up in my stomach. The quiet school grounds engulfed me in their dark beauty. Following directions on the map, I knew that the Angela? temple should be right next to the Scientia Building, but everything was still so new it was easy to get lost.

  When I spotted the cathedral-like temple, I was immediately struck by its beauty. Taking in the gothic architecture that flowed across the dark stone, I made my way up the stairs and through the large oak doors. I spotted other first-year students crowded beneath a large dome that seemed to be the center of the building. The students gazed around the circular room where nine large marble statues of our elemental gods stood. Each god sat on a chair with their hands facing upwards, the element which they represented spiraling magically in their right hand.

  “Welcome students,” an older man with glasses announced. “I am Chancellor Udos, your headmaster and History of the Arcane Arts professor.”

  “Evening Sir,” students chimed all at once.

  “In about ten minutes we will start the ascension process.”

  As he spoke, I followed his eyes, familiarizing myself with the temple and the students standing around the room.

  “There are nine marble pathways, each one representing a different elemental god.” Chancellor Udos said, pointing in various directions. “All students will divide into their elemental groups, and make their way down their respective paths. Any questions thus far?”

  “Sir, some of the older students said ascension would be painful, is it true?” A blonde girl asked, making the rest of the students look panicked.

  “No, not at all.” Chancellor Udos laughed. “Each student will enter the sacred chamber one at a time. There you will be guided by your god towards ascension. Some have said that it's different for each element, and some have said it’s the same. What I do know is that once you leave this temple tonight, you would have awoken your elemental magic and joined the lineage of thousands of elemental fae of the three realms.”

  The crowd of students cheered excitedly, anticipation filling all of us as we waited for the next steps.

  “It's time. Please divide into groups and make your way down your respective pathway,” Chancellor Udos announced.

  We did as we were told, forming small groups all over the room. The water elementals immediately started walking down the white and blue marble hall filled with water designs. Waterfalls, fountains, raindrops, and ponds of heavenly water all engraved up to the ceiling. It was clear some of the water elementals already knew each other, talking among themselves as they made their way towards large blue and white stone doors where professor Gaduna was standing. The large doors were made of marble, as well as moving water, flowing through the door as it swirled around.

  “I heard it’s the door that calls your name,” a student uttered.

  I wanted to ask questions, but no one even glanced my way or tried to talk to me, leaving me feeling alone amongst my own elemental kind.

  “I wonder who will be called first?” another student whispered.

  “Welcome water elementals, I am professor Gaduna and I will be overseeing your ascension tonight.” Gaduna smiled as she spoke, seeming warmer than when I first met her at the portal in Tenebrous. “Tonight you will ascend into your element, and uncover what you are truly made of as a fae.”

  Cheers erupted and I could feel the energy circling the crowd.

  “Let's begin,” Gaduna said, clearing her throat. “Aries Vygros.”

  Whispers exploded around me as students turned to get a look at me.

  “Aries, please step forward.”

  I did as I was told, my hands shaking from the nerves.

  “Aries, there is nothing to fear when you step through those doors, this is your god, this is your element, this is who you are.”

  “Yes, professor.”

  The large doors opened, immediately stilling the crowd of students behind me.

  “It's time,” Gaduna said, encouraging me to step through the doors.

  As soon as I did, the room was quiet, drowning out the chattering of the other students.

  “Hello?” I whispered.

  But there was no answer, just a faint wind moaning quietly through the room. A light sprung to life, illuminating an arch of swirling water, glowing a vibrant blue.

  “Aries, daughter of Leros and Atris Vygros, step forward,” a deep voice bellowed, instilling fear into my body. “Do not fear me, my child, for I am you, and you are me.”

  I moved towards the arch, assessing the swirling current of water.

  “It is time for you to join me, Aries,” the voice bellowed again, and instinctively I knew I had to step through the arch.

  As soon as I did, I hit the floor in a dark room, water chains locking me to the ground by my hands and feet. Fear made my breath hitch as I tried not to panic.

  “Aries, daughter of water, do not be afraid, for I am Seiche, god of water.”

  “Why am I in chains?”

  “You have been chained for eighteen years my child, today we will break the chains you have been bound to, unleashing my element within you, allowing you to rise into your power.”

  My fear started to subside as the calmness of the water rose within me.

  “Daughter of Seiche, do you vow to uphold your element of water?”

  “I do.”

  “Daughter of Seiche, repeat the vow,” the voice bellowed. “Me edat aqua, consumit mundum, per me ruens ut vult.”

  “Me edat aqua, consumit mundum, per me ruens ut vult.”

  “Do you understand the vow, Aries Vygros, daughter of Seiche?”

  “Let the water consume me as it consumes the world, rushing through me as it wills,” I answered.

  “Sic erit,” the voice boomed.

  The chains around my hands and ankles broke free, and my body was engulfed in a large bubble of swirling dark water, floating a few inches from the ground. I could feel the power of the water rush through me each time I tried to take a breath. There was no fear, no nervousness, just the tingling sensation as I watched the water coursing through my veins.

  Seiche spoke again. “Factum est.”

  As my feet hit the floor, the water bubble around me exploded into a million droplets, leaving me standing on the other side of the arch as if nothing had happened. I glanced down at my arms and legs – the water in my veins was still visibly moving, circulating in a motion that made me feel whole. It was done, I had ascended into my water element.