Free The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) by Nicola Claire Page A

up in a dream on a windswept hillside, my hair floating around me in a magical breeze, as my eyes met the sad blue of Gramps'.
    "Casey, sweetheart," he said in that familiar gruff voice. "My poor, sweet girl."
    There was no stopping the tears. Like the rain that poured down in the real world, but was strangely absent in this dreamscape, they kept coming, and coming, and coming, and coming.
    Until I was sure I would flood the world with my resounding grief.

Chapter 6
I Couldn't Stay
    The wind whipped his words away.
    "What?" I shouted.
    "Here," Gramps yelled back, indicating a natural shelter formed from the edge of a cliff that I hadn't noticed before. I was sure it had appeared out of nowhere.
    I followed behind him, noting how sprightly he was, how his blond hair only had a smattering of grey. How at sixty, the age he was when I thought he'd died, he'd appeared fifteen years younger. And now he appeared even younger than that. I couldn't get my head around it. If this was a just a dream, then he could appear in any fashion.
    But I knew better now. I wasn't the naive granddaughter he left behind with a library full of books obscurely related to the Elements, and a memory full of stories to guide me like bread crumbs through a dangerous forest. I wasn't that girl anymore.
    I'd been through a bucket load of crap, which I sincerely thought might be because of this man. I felt my fists clench as we made it to the relative quiet of the sheltered cave. He turned slowly to look at me, a knowledge he'd always had present in those pale blue eyes. Eyes the exact same shade as mine.
    I'd grown to hate him recently. For all the lies. For faking his freaking death. But most of all, I'd begun to hate him because he'd clearly known what was going to happen to me and hadn't said a word before he left.
    "You've got some explaining to do," I said softly, my throat felt raw from all the crying. My skin too tight on my face. My heart too weary by far.
    "Yes," he agreed. "It's time."
    I sucked in a fortifying breath of air and sat myself down on the dirt floor beside the cliff face. My grandfather followed, making the move seem more simple than a sixty year old man should.
    "We've already established you're an Alchemist," I said, swallowing past the lump of betrayal in my throat. "And that you groomed me for what I now am. Tell me," I whispered, the wind still moaning out on the moor, but not reaching our little piece of solitude, "why?"
    "They are not who you think they are, sweetheart," he said. "There are good Athanatos and bad, like humans. But those at the top, those closest in age to the ancients, have become corrupt. Imagine the length of time they have existed. Imagine what that does to a mind."
    All quite reasonable, when you think about it. But then, one look at Aktor and I could refute that claim. Twenty-five thousand years old and he was more sharp minded and level headed than the rest of us.
    The Rigas on the other hand? Hmm.
    "Why me?"
    Gramps shrugged. "We just knew it would be."
    I frowned. The wind picked up and started howling. Gramps glanced out onto the grassy hillside, then looked up at the skittering clouds.
    "You need training," he declared.
    "Well, you did dump this on me," I snapped.
    He shook his head as the wind became a mournful howl.
    "Sweetheart, we may know things, we may even be able to manipulate things, but we cannot create an Aether ."
    A chill invaded my body. I'd assumed. Hell, we'd all assumed, even the Ekmetalleftis had assumed. We'd all thought I was an Alchemist creation. What did he mean?
    "Listen," he urged. "Clearly we're never to have long enough in these visits to converse, perhaps he wills it this way." Who? "Perhaps it's a by-product of your lack of training. But things are moving faster than expected."
    "What things?" I demanded, having to raise my voice again, despite the protection of our alcove.
    "Disasters," he shouted. "Everywhere. Watch the news, Casey."
    The news? The man was losing me, or