Sealed by Fire: The Nature Hunters Academy Series, Book 2

by Quinn Loftis

  “You probably shouldn’t poke the angry Brit,” Tara pointed out as she folded her arms in front of her and glared at Liam. “And you…” She said pointedly. “Mention my petals or any male’s junk again, and I will decide to retaliate, and it will make Elias’s threats look like child’s play.”

  Liam grinned. “You realize that’s foreplay to me, right?”

  That’s it! The straw that broke the water elementalist’s, or whatever the hell they called themselves, back. Tara stomped over to him, reared her leg back, and nailed him in the junk with her booted foot. Aston’s laughter filled the room, which must have broken his concentration over the power he was using on the guys since Liam dropped to the floor like a rock. He doubled over, coughing and groaning.

  Tara felt a strong arm wrap around her waist and tug her backward several feet until she was a good distance away from the injured male, with her back pressed tightly to Elias’s chest. His lips were by her ear, and she felt goosebumps rise on her skin as he spoke. “That was hot as hell.”

  She patted the hand resting on her stomach. “Down, boy. I still have questions, and they have nothing to do with anatomy or petals or junk.”

  “Fair enough, but later, you’re mine,” he said and pressed a kiss to her neck, just below her ear.

  He released her, and Tara walked over to the chair Liam had been lounging in before Aston had forced the guys apart. She waited until all three of them moved closer to join her. Liam crawled over, which made her laugh. Aston rolled his chair over, and Elias lowered his tall frame onto the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him as he leaned back with his arms behind him, resting his weight on his palms.

  “Before we go to this gathering thing today, I need to know the rules of this world,” Tara began. She’d been feeling at a distinct disadvantage with her ignorance. “There are too many terms that sound alike but mean different things. So, start with the elementals and go from there.”

  Aston began, which didn’t surprise her in the least. “God created humans and Mother Gaia,” he began. “Mother Gaia created the—”

  “Wait,” interrupted Tara, “who is this Mother Gaia you all keep going on about anyway?”

  “She is Mother Earth, essentially. She’s like the living embodiment of the spirit of the planet itself,” said Aston. “If that makes sense.”

  Tara nodded. “Kind of. Continue.”

  “So, Mother Gaia created the elementals, the ones who tend to God’s creation. The royal elementals are the…” He scrunched up his face, apparently looking for the best word to describe them. “They’re like shepherds to the other elementals. They guide, protect, and care for them.”

  “Okay.” That was clearer than what she’d thought before. “And the elementalists?”

  “An elementalist,” Aston continued, “is a human who has an affinity for magic. As you already know, they can be attuned to any of the four types of elemental power. Generally, they receive the blessing of elemental power because a dark elemental has somehow brought them into the supernatural world. Nine times out of ten, it is a kid whose parents have been killed by a dark elemental or acolyte.”

  “And the tenth time?” she asked, not having been told that there was another way to become an elementalist, other than the loss of one's parents.

  “It is, again, a human who has an affinity for magic and has been exposed to the supernatural world in a traumatic way. Something that the elementals could not influence the human to reason away. For instance, witnessing a fight between two elementals. Unfortunately, sometimes in the heat of battle, strange things happen and humans take notice.”

  “And where do these elementals live?”

  “The world, in its creation, has been given layers.” Aston paused and glanced at Liam.

  Tara’s eyes snapped to the water elementalist. “If you say like petals, I’ll kick you again.”

  Liam held up his hands in surrender. “You taught the lesson. I learned it. Though I’d have much preferred it if you’d been wearing a naughty-schoolgirl outfit.”

  Elias sighed. “I’m going to have to kill you, and that sucks because that means we’ll have to find a new hydro student to keep the balance in our group.”

  “Be patient,” Aston said as he looked at Elias. “Eventually he’ll find his match, and then he’ll focus all his sexual innuendos on her. Most likely, she’ll kill him and you won’t have to.”

  “Excellent point,” Elias said with a wicked grin.

  “Moving on,” Tara said, not wanting them to get completely off track. They were like freaking squirrels with their attention spans.

  “Yes,” Aston agreed. “So, there are layers, which are called realms. The human realm is the only one all humans can see. But then there are supernatural realms. Each royal elemental has its own realm where their respective elementals reside. Though some elementals do choose to live in the human realm, even though humans, for the most part, can’t see them.”

  “What do you mean for the most part?” Tara asked.

  “Elemental beings do occasionally get seen. Then all sorts of myths and legends spring up around the sighting. Do you think someone simply dreamed up a fairy or a gnome from their imagination? No. They ran across one accidentally. Probably, the elemental was careless and somehow allowed themselves to be seen. Or perhaps they were playing a prank on a human. Whatever the reason, the elemental gets seen. Then the creature disappears. And the poor human spends the rest of his or her life trying to convince everyone that tiny fantasy creatures with wings really do exist.”

  “So, what types of elemental creatures do actually exist, then?” she asked.

  Aston titled his head and looked to the ceiling. “Hmm, there are many. For instance, earth elementals include forest sprites, dwarves, gnomes, certain types of fairies, ogres, and trolls, to name a few. And water elementals include sirens, merpeople, selkies, and kraken. Again, those are just some. Air elementals include sylphs, zephyrs, and certain types of fae. Fire elementals include the phoenix, salamanders, and dragons.”

  “Wait. Stop. Dragons? Like, real-life dragons?”

  “Hmm, yes and no,” said Aston. “They probably aren’t the dragons you’re thinking of. They don’t have scales, and they don’t sit atop a horde of treasure or breathe fire. It’s more like they are made of fire. There are water and air dragons as well.

  “Good to know.” Tara furrowed her brow.

  “The important thing to know is that some elementals are good. We call those light elementals. And some are bad. We call those dark elementals.”

  Tara’s mind was officially blown. She hadn’t given any thought to the fact that the elementals were actually the beings humans believed to be made up. Was that not super bright of her? Yes. But then her bulb had been burning on dim for a while now. She was tired and worried and the soul bond was messing with … well … everything. “And do dark elementals have their own realms?”

  “No, dark elementals have territories in the human realm.” Elias took over as some sort of alert on Aston’s laptop had taken his attention, and he’d quickly rolled himself back over. He’d probably just been notified that he’d managed to break into Gringotts and the goblins hadn’t caught on yet.

  “They’ve been booted out of their respective realms because they drank the Kool-Aid that made them power-hungry,” Liam added.

  Tara snorted. “Nice. Okay, so that brings me to acolytes. What’s their story?”

  “Acolytes are the dark version of us,” Liam said. “They found out that the dark side has cookies and don’t care if it rots their teeth. A lot of times those who go to the dark elementals are those who lost a part—a big part—of their soul when their parents died.”

  Tara glanced at Elias, feeling his eyes on her. She knew that could have been her fate. It’s why he was her soul bonded. He’d saved her from possibly becoming a dark cookie eater. Jeez, she was weird. Elias winked at her, and she shook her head with a small smile.

  Liam was sti
ll talking, and she turned her attention back to him. “Or it could be that they had some other encounter with the supernatural world, and they already had darkness inside of them. If the devil on their shoulder was stronger than the angel on the other side, then it wouldn’t be hard for the dark elementals to collect them.”

  She nodded when he finished and then considered everything they’d told her. Tara tried to sift through her mind and see if there was anything else she felt like she needed to know right then. She knew more questions would come as she continued to fall deeper into the rabbit hole, but some of it was “need to know” information. Then she remembered a term Elias had used. “Natura Venatori,” she said looking back at Elias. “You said something about that, but I’ve slept since then, lost my best friend, and turned into a walking hormone. Please, if you don’t mind, could you indulge me again?”

  Elias’s eyelids lowered dangerously over his beautiful aquamarine eyes as he purred, “I’ll indulge you in anything you want, love.”

  “Focus, squirrel,” she told him, forcing herself to not get on the floor and crawl to him like a cat in heat.

  “Natura Venatori means Nature Hunter in Latin,” he said. “It’s what we will become when we graduate from the academies. Elements are the ingredients that make up nature.”

  “Why didn’t they call themselves elemental hunters?” Tara asked.

  “Because we don’t hunt all elementals,” Elias said.

  “Just the cookie eaters,” Liam said with a grin.

  Tara rolled her eyes. “You’re so strange.”

  “Everything sorted?” Aston asked as he rolled back over. “We’ve got five minutes to get to the training field.”

  “I guess that’s enough for now,” she said.

  Liam stood and rubbed his hands together. “Alright, let’s go show these dumbasses why we should have been working together all along.”

  “It would be a good idea not to call the profs dumbasses,” Aston advised. “People in authority usually don’t take kindly to being insulted.”

  “Thanks, Einstein,” Liam said as he ruffled Aston’s hair and walked past him.

  “Could you kick him again later?” Aston asked Tara.

  She grinned at him and nodded. “My leg tends to fly up at will. I’ll just make it a habit to be standing near him when it does.”

  12

  Tara tried not to fidget, but it was difficult when she was so excited and scared. Mostly scared, but the excitement ran a close second.

  It had been five days since the heads of the academies and the royal elementals met. Like earlier that day, she’d spent some of that time with Elias, Liam, and Aston, as they showed her their magic and tried to get her to tap into the supposed magic that was inside of her. Other times it was just her and Elias. The more she was near him, the harder it was to be apart from him. Nighttime had become one of her least favorite parts of the day. Most evenings, she laid in bed arguing with herself about why she should not go to his room and beg him to let her sleep on his floor just so she could be close to him. Because that wouldn’t be pathetic at all.

  She hadn’t brought up how difficult it was to be separated from him because he hadn’t said anything and seemed to be fine with or without her. Tara didn’t want to come off as some needy, pathetic girlfriend. She never wanted to be the clingy girl who drove a guy crazy. And, yet, she felt like she was the one going crazy.

  “Are you ready for this, Buffalo?” Liam asked as he bounced on the balls of his feet. He’d taken to calling her Buffalo occasionally. Apparently, he thought the name of her hometown was humorous, which Tara couldn’t begin to understand. She’d given up trying to make him stop. It only encouraged him to do it more.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she muttered. Her eyes wandered over the large open field the Terra Academy students used for battle training. The top students who had been chosen to represent each of the other academies were gathered together. They kept to their own particular elements.

  There were four distinct sections where students congregated. Each group eyeballed the others with wary suspicion as they talked quietly amongst themselves.

  Liam, Aston, and Elias were the only ones from different academies who spoke to one another.

  Elias was currently meeting with Jax, Zuri, and a group of other professors. He’d pressed a quick kiss to her lips and then jogged off, leaving her in Liam and Aston’s care.

  Aston seemed content to observe the new people while Liam jumped around like a boxer getting himself worked up for a fight.

  “Are you ever still?” Tara asked him.

  “When I sleep,” Liam answered.

  “You know they make meds for that.” She motioned to his whole body.

  He waggled his eyebrows at her as he said, “Pretty sure there’s no pill to treat sexiness.”

  Aston chuckled as he shook his head. “There’s no point in trying to corral him in any way. Liam is a force of nature.”

  “So you’re saying he’s a natural disaster?” Tara asked as she raised her brow at the bouncing water elementalist.

  “That’s an excellent description,” Aston agreed.

  “You two are just jealous,” Liam said. “Although, Buffalo, you’re pretty damn sexy yourself. Cut yourself some slack and don’t feel the need to make jabs at my hotness.”

  “Why the bloody hell are you talking about how sexy Tara is?” Elias asked as he appeared out of nowhere.

  “Dude, you’ve got to turn that down a notch.” Liam pointed to the ground that had begun to shake beneath their feet.

  Tara walked over to Elias and placed her hand in his. She’d noticed that skin-to-skin contact often calmed him down when he got testy, which usually only happened around Liam.

  “Everything okay?” she asked, trying to draw his attention from the water elementalist who was too stupid to live.

  Elias finally took his eyes off Liam and looked down at her. “Yes. You?”

  Tara put on her happy face and gave him a thumbs up. “I’m peachy.”

  He gave her a curious look, but she was saved from any question he was about to ask her by Jax’s booming voice.

  “Attention students.” Jax waited until the murmuring voices died down. Standing alongside him were other professors, some Tara recognized and some she didn’t. All of them wore cargo pants, boots, and sleeveless vests in different colors.

  “We realize this is an unprecedented event,” Jax continued once the field was quiet. “And your headmasters and mistresses have informed you of what is going on. I will try and fill in some of the blanks, just so we are all on the same page.” One of the professors in blue cargos whispered something to Jax. The earth elementalist nodded and then gave his attention back to the students.

  “We have chosen the top students at each of the academies from each grade to gather here. One of the reasons we did this was simply because of the sheer number of students. If all the academies were combined, there would simply be too many students to try and teach at one time. Instead, we will teach you all how to work together, how to use your powers together, and then you all will be divided amongst the academies to go and work with the remaining students.”

  There was a collective murmuring and uncomfortable shifting throughout the group, and even Tara could tell the students didn’t know how to feel about what Jax was telling them.

  A sudden pulse of power shot through the air, blowing Tara’s hair back, and the field went completely silent.

  “Please give Professor Jax your full attention,” a woman in white cargos said, her voice full of a power that made it clear you did not want to tangle with her.

  “There will also be a professor from each academy working with the groups of four. If we find that a student's prejudice against another academy is getting in the way of learning, they will be sent back to their school and another student will be selected to take their place.”

  Tara could hear in his voice that being sent back to your school because of
your inability to get over yourself would be a very bad thing.

  “With that said,” Jax continued, “we will now divide you up. Please wait where you are for your professors to assign you to your groups.”

  The excitement in the air was palpable and contagious. Tara suddenly understood why Liam couldn’t stand still. She was having a hard time herself.

  As she glanced at the three guys around her and remembered what Jax had said, her excitement turned to anxiousness. He’d said one student from each school would make up a group. Before she had time to properly consider that revelation, Zuri motioned for her attention.

  “Let’s go, Tara,” the female earth elementalist said. Her tone was all business and practically dared anyone to disobey her orders. “This is Ace,” she pointed to a tall guy standing beside her. “He’s a fire elementalist. Same age as you three,” she pointed to Elias, Liam, and Aston. “He’ll complete your group of four.”

  Elias’s hand tightened on Tara’s, and she knew he wasn’t going to just let her leave with Zuri. Was she going to deny the fact that her stomach had filled up with drunk butterflies? Nope. Would she ever admit that to anyone? Hell nope.

  “Where are you taking Tara?” Elias asked Zuri, and Tara heard a challenge in his voice.

  Zuri let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Elias, I am only going to take time to explain this because of your unique situation. But in the future, if you question my orders, I will put you on your ass. Are we clear?”

  Elias’s jaw clenched as he gave a sharp nod. “Good.” Zuri snapped. “Tara is going to be put in another group because you are both earth elementalists, obviously. You’ve got to give her room to grow into her abilities.”

  Elias glanced down at her, and she could see the battle in his eyes. Why hadn’t she seen that the past few days?

  “What’s wrong?” she asked him softly.

  “Can you give us a minute?” he asked as he glanced back at Zuri.

  “Hurry up,” Zuri said.

  Elias pulled her to the side and closed his eyes.