A Time to Die (Elemental Rage Book 2) by Jeanette Raleigh Page A

proof that the Void’s claws were deep inside Raven and
that every act would be suspect.
    Raven had another
idea. “ What if you and Mindy share a room. I’ll share with Claire. I’m done
sneaking out, so I won’t bother her in the middle of the night…” Raven said.
    Jade interrupted,
“Or be a bad influence?”
    “Or be a bad
influence,” Raven agreed. She watched the popcorn rise inside the popper.
    Jade frowned,
“Why? How would it make a difference if I’m in there instead of Claire?”
    Raven twisted a
strand of black hair around her finger.  It was something she did when she didn’t
want to talk or when she was bored at school.  She was quiet for so long that
at first Jade thought she might not answer.  Finally Raven said, “The Void
didn’t want you in that room. I was to slip quietly into their room and pull
down the protections.  The only reason they woke up was that I fought so hard
against it.  I tried to wake them up.  If I hadn’t fought so much, I’m afraid
that the Void would have gotten her.”
    “Mindy was safe.
You couldn’t have gotten to her,” Jade said.  She didn’t say how, didn’t say
why.  Raven was compromised.
    “Earth can only
hold Mindy for so long.  She gets tired, too. Like all Elements, eventually
Earth would have released Mindy. The Void servant was planning to freeze Claire
and wait out any Elemental tricks Mindy had up her sleeve,”  Raven rubbed her
hands in her face, mostly to hide the tears that were starting to fill her eyes
again.
    “I don’t
understand.  Why would the Void care about me?  Fire is not the most useful
Element ever,” Jade said, which was true.  Fire was too volatile for daily
play.  Raven and Claire could interact hourly with their elements and not worry
that something would get out of control. Fire was a different Element entirely.
    Jade poured the
margarine heating on the top of one of the burners over the popcorn.  She never
used the top of the popper.  It never quite melted far enough. Then she salted
it.
    Raven watched all
of this with the feeling that somehow Jade was trying to normalize the crazy
situation they were in.  She didn’t want to admit her weakness.  She was the
wild child who rode the wind.  She mumbled when she said, “Air and Water are
closer to the Void than Fire and Earth.  The Void draws cold.  Fire is a bitter
enemy.”
    Fire again.
    Jade’s laugh was
bitter, “So, you’re telling me that I get to be the warrior who fights the
Void?  I’m the biggest pacifist out of all of us.  Claire would have been a
better choice for Fire.”
    Raven rolled her
eyes, “Are you kidding me? Claire would have us all in flames.  I would have
killed us before my eighth birthday.  Mindy, well, I don’t even know about
Mindy.  If anyone is right for Fire, it’s you.”
    Jade stirred the
chocolate, a worried frown on her face.  She didn’t know anything about
defeating anybody.  She just wanted to go to college for a forestry degree and
find a nice quiet place in the middle of nowhere to live. She felt Raven’s eyes
on her and looked up.  Raven’s haunted look was so far removed from the normal
smart-aleck, sarcastic sister Jade knew that she wondered if she’d ever get her
sister back.
    “Do you know
anything about why they’re afraid of me? Anything at all?  I don’t feel strong
enough for this,” Jade glanced at the clock.  Almost midnight.  The witching
hour.  But she was no witch.
    Raven shrugged, “I
don’t.  I just think you need to stick close to Mindy.”
    Jade didn’t always
listen to her sisters, but Raven was so certain that Jade said, “We’ll switch rooms
tomorrow.”
    Raven fell asleep
before the opening credits of the movie even started, the popcorn untouched on
the coffee table, her hot chocolate sipped to a safe level.  Jade turned down
the volume and left the living room, feeling the slightest twinge of guilt at
her lack of sisterly solidarity, but Raven didn’t