Six

God, she was so stupid. How could she let this happen? Gabe was going to kill Maia, he wouldn't even pause to consider the consequences for him.

Adara put the second knuckle of her index finger into her mouth and bit down to try and stop herself from crying again. Even if Maia lived, she'd never want anything to do with Adara again.

Just as she was about to drag herself to bed, a knock resounded through her tiny dorm. It wasn't incessant, only three quick knocks every minute or so. But she didn't want them there. She just wanted to be alone.

After the next knocks, she yelled, "Go away!" Her voice felt raw. They probably heard her all the way in the next building.

Just as she was thinking that she had shut them up, that they had gone away, the insufferable knocks sounded again.

She screamed again. They were not words, only vague sounds. Regardless, she got up to answer the door.

She pulled it open roughly, took one look at the person on the other side, and shut it in their face. Three more knocks, again and again, the groups now coming in quicker succession.

She couldn't ignore it forever. What could he possibly want?

She heaved a sigh and opened the door a crack. "What-" sigh- "do you want?"

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"You're talking, congratulations."

"I have a question." Adara's heart began to pound just a bit harder. What did he want from her? Did he know about what she did? Would she have another ransom on her hands?

"What is it?" she asked, trying for the life of her to seem unaffected. Unstirred. "And hurry up. I want to take a nap."

"Did you do it?" he inquired. No, she thought. He seems too nonchalant to be asking about that. He can't be.

Despite her internal reassurance, fear still spiked through her. The battle in her mind remained unwon. Adara couldn't decide whether or not he was innocent in asking the question.

In her head, it felt like she was debating for years, but in all actuality, it was probably only a few seconds.

In the end, she decided to act normal. Like she didn't know. After all, he had just come and asked a very vague question. He couldn't possibly expect her to know what he was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

Great, he probably thinks that I'm stupid. The thing that Adara couldn't figure out is why it mattered what he thought. He was some random guy that just showed up at her door twice! If anything, he should've been worried about what she thought.

The stranger took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak. That was when she realized that she didn't even know his name.

Before he could speak another word, she said, "Wait, who are you? I never caught your name."

"I never gave it," he said. He looked around suspiciously, like he thought there was a spy around every corner. "Did you start that fire? In the science wing?"

Her heart stopped. He knew. Oh god, he knew. She would never be free again. He was going to take someone else- her mother or her father. She was putting them in danger because of her stupid "Ability".

But no. He was questioning it. She could deny it still.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, faking incredulity. "You're not making any sense. Why would you think that?"

He blew a breath out of his nose. "So you're telling me," he said slowly, "that you have no idea what I'm talking about?"

She realized that it would be bad if she said she wasn't there at all. "No, I mean, I saw it happen, but I didn't do it. Why would I do that?"

He ignored her sad attempt at lying. "If you're going to pretend that you aren't an Elemental, you're going to want to hide that." He was pointing at her birthmark. God, he was infuriating. As if on cue, it began to burn. And so did her fingers. Light flared from below her waist and they both looked down to see fire dancing on her fingertips. Her anger at him was partially replaced with the fear that someone would see it.

"Oh, my god," he whispered. He looked around frantically, his usually calm and unbothered exterior finally ruffled. "Go, go, go." He pushed her into her room and slammed the door shut.

Through her foggy mind, she realized that it was against campus rules to have a guy in her room. Though that never stopped Gabe.

Great thing to think about at that moment.

The blue-eyed mystery sat her down on the couch and crouched in front of her. "Give me your hand," he demanded. When she hesitated for fear of burning him, he pressed, "Now!"

She jumped a bit from where she was sitting but gave him her burning hand. He cradled her left hand gently in his right and lifted his left hand. She had no idea what to expect.

Whatever it was, she most certainly did not predict the water. It dripped from his finger in perfectly spherical droplets, landing on her fire and effectively dousing it.

She wanted to ask about it, ask him how. He maintained perfect control over the water, never letting it stray from where he intended.

Adara's temper continued to flare, uncontrollable and untamable, and she imagined that her fire would remain that way, too. It just made her angrier. How dare anyone- let alone this complete stranger- come and put out her fire?

In the little time that she's had then, her flames were the one thing that seemed to feel the same as she did; they were always there, always angry.

She supposed that his water was the same. That, because of his calm persona, he got the only element that went with the flow of things just as well as he did.

He seemed so at home with his Element, and it actually looked like it belonged to him. Adara didn't know why that bothered her so much.

Once her mini-inferno was taken care of, the stranger walked toward the kitchen.

She was sick of thinking of him as "the stranger", she decided. "What's your name?"

He eyed her, then said, "Beck." Adara couldn't for the life of her understand why, but it seemed to fit so well. "I never caught yours, either."

"I never gave it," she said sarcastically, mocking the words he had said to her earlier.

"But it's Adara. If you really need to know."

"Adara. Hmm." She couldn't possibly explain it, but no one had ever made that feeling spike through her just by saying her name. He said it like her name was special. Sacred, even. "So who else knows, Adara?" he asked. It was like he could read her thoughts and was purposely messing with her. If he kept saying it like that, she felt like she might punch him.

Adara was so focused on that thought that the question Beck asked didn't register in her brain. He must have realized that because, in three long strides, he was in front of her again, her shoulders in his grasp. "I need you to focus," he stressed. "Who else knows about you?"

Not wanting to explain her messy situation, she paused before telling him. She didn't have to tell him all of it, she supposed. "My..." she began but trailed off. What was he to her now? Boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend? Yeah, that would work. "My newly-made ex-boyfriend. Gabe."

Beck looked at her as if she were the most stupid person on the planet. "I'm going to need to know who that is."

She blushed. Did she really need to relive their history? "His name is Gabe Edwards. He grew up in Florida. And...well what else do you need to know?" She felt like a child being reprimanded for stealing a toy. Adara I herself had no idea what was going on, but Beck certainly seemed to have it all figured out. Better than her, at least.

Beck looked at her, nothing but seriousness in his eyes. "I just need to know if he's a threat, and then that's it."

She was going to have to tell him. "Well, there is this one issue," she explained. Adara waited for him to stop her, and when he didn't, she silently cursed him. She told him about Gabe knowing and taking Maia, the ransom, and the ultimatum. She reiterated the excruciating details, like hearing Maia scream in the background of the call that foretold her eventual- and possibly quickly approaching- death.

Beck had become more and more still as her story went on. He was looking away from her while she was going through it all, but looked back to her when she had finished.

When he spoke, his voice was low and incredulous. He shook his head slowly, as if refusing the idea. Beck looked her dead in the eye, unblinking.

"What have you done?"