“No, Dylan,” she said, pressing her lips together. “But I am damn sure going to make sure she lands in prison until Maralah gets the hell on board with taking care of the mess her own people are behind.”
The atmosphere in the car was different—not quite strained—as Aiden drove towards the council meeting place for the elemental rulers. Dylan sat in the back seat, next to Leigh, thinking about how the fight had escalated so quickly. It had been less than a month and almost 20 elementals had been killed and capturing several of the leaders of the group had seemingly had no effect on their mobility, their dedication to bringing his sister-in-law down. Dylan was savvy enough to know as well that they wouldn’t rest at just bringing Aira down. If they wanted to get Aira, they would have to kill his brother too—there was no way that Aiden would rest until he’d avenged his mate’s death, which was as it should be.
He glanced at Leigh, whose face had every appearance of utter calm. Something about her presence in the car with them worked to suppress the natural volatility that both his brother and his sister-in-law possessed, and Dylan smiled to himself, thinking idly of the fact that between the four of them they represented the spectrum of elemental alignments. If they were to decide to go rogue, there would be very few people who could stop them. He leaned in closer to Leigh, feeling the tingling cold of her energy wash through him from the proximity.
“It scares me to think of it,” Dylan whispered, “but I’m pretty sure that if she had to, Aira would actually hunt each and every one of them down, and Aiden would be with her every step of the way.”
Leigh’s green gaze met his and she smiled slightly.
“I’m not sure I’d oppose them, unless they started harming innocents.” It was strange to Dylan to think that the woman he was steadily falling in love with, that he was coming to trust beyond all reason or proof, could be as ruthless as his brother, as his new sister.
He remembered events of the past two years since he had met Aira where he had been firmer, harder—crueler than he would have imagined himself capable of being. It wasn’t that difficult when he really thought about it, he supposed. He knew that Aira carried the pain of having put someone to death with her every day. Having to condemn unstable elementals in her role as the ruler of her element wasn’t quite as difficult for her to bear as the direct action she’d been forced to take to end Alex’s life. Even if Alex had poisoned her, even though he had fully intended to kill her, she had struggled with the necessity of actually killing him.
He wondered if he was capable of the same depth of conviction. If the elders had told him that he had to personally execute someone, in cold blood, would he do it? Aiden had had to kill more than one elemental in their work as bounty hunters; his life had been at stake. Dylan couldn’t possibly blame his brother for keeping himself alive, or for saving the lives of others—but he wondered if it weighed on Aiden the same way that it did on Aira.
“Would you help them?” Dylan asked Leigh. The earth elemental considered for a long moment.
“I don’t know that I could actually kill someone,” she said slowly, quietly, her voice a whisper. “But if they needed my help tracking anyone involved in this? I wouldn’t hesitate.” In the front seat, Aira stirred, turning around to look at the two of them.
“You might be all right, Leigh,” she said with a faint smile curving her lips.
Dylan snorted. “You’ve been spending entirely too much time around my brother. You’re blood-thirsty.”
Aira turned back towards the front. “At least I’ve brought up his general IQ,” she retorted, reaching over to run her fingers through Aiden’s hair in a playful caress. “It occurs to me that the four of us together would be a pretty formidable team.”
“I’m not a great spy, but I’d make a good bounty hunter?” Leigh’s grin was impossible to resist; Dylan found himself echoing it.
“Hey—you’ve got the tracking ability, and if you and Dylan bond and become mates, you’ll have to join the family business to get any time with him.”
“We can teach you some martial arts, you’ve got your own elemental magic, it could work.” Dylan offered.
“Are we seriously talking about becoming a four-person crime fighting team?” Aira said, laughing. “Well, there are worse ideas,” she continued. “As long as Leigh isn’t secretly going to turn us over to her cousins or someone, I don’t see a problem with it.”
“We don’t even know if Leigh wants to become a bounty hunter,” Dylan insisted.
Next to him, Leigh laughed. “Sounds rather romantic, you know,” she said, looking at him with a glimmer in her brilliant green eyes. “Fighting bad guys, bringing them to justice, plenty of time with comrades? What’s not to love?”
Dylan pressed his lips together firmly.
“Danger, the possibility of being killed by insane and unstable elementals, the guilt of knowing that people might be put to death…”
Leigh rolled her eyes.
“I thought water elementals were more adventurous than us earth-aligned types,” she pointed out, sticking out her tongue at him.
“We are. I just … I don’t want you to feel like you have to do something you don’t want to in order to be with me.”
“You met me when I was spying on your brother and sister-in-law. If I weren’t at least a little bit more adventurous than some of my kin, we might never have met.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Dylan said. “After we figure this all out.”
“I need to get on the top of my game again,” Aira said from the front passenger seat. “Stop making me smile, you two. I need to be able to harness the power of righteous indignation and petty rage.”
CHAPTER FOUR
DYLAN, LEIGH, AND AIDEN STOOD outside of the council room, waiting for Aira to reappear. Every so often—true to form—Dylan heard her voice through the thick door and walls, raised to a breaking pitch as she castigated the other two rulers.
“She has leverage over Maralah,” Aiden pointed out, murmuring just loud enough for Leigh and Dylan to hear. “With Oriel still in custody, she might be able to get Connor on board as well; but word on the street is that Connor wants to stay out of it as long as it’s just air elementals the group is going after.”
“Well it’s clearly not just air elementals anymore,” Dylan argued, feeling the rankling frustration of knowing that his own kind was being killed. It had only been three of the 12 in the most recent attacks—but Dylan had known two of the elementals personally.
“Until the earth elementals turn on fire elementals it’s not going to be high priority for Connor,” Aiden said. Aira’s voice rose once more, though her words weren’t audible through the door. Dylan grinned slightly.
“Clearly she’s working on making it high priority for Connor,” Leigh said. Dylan could hear the respect in her voice.
“What do we do if she can’t get the other two on board? Maralah has a reputation for being stubborn, and obviously she isn’t going to want to come after her own people any more than Aira wants to put air elementals on trial if she can help it.” Dylan said, as he glanced around the quiet, empty hallway.
“We’ve already got the authority from the elders to hunt down the people involved. She can keep tracking them with our help no matter what.” Aiden replied and nodded.
“She’s taking it hard—but of course she is. Right before she left, the calls started coming in from the families of the people who were killed.” Dylan said and groaned in sympathy.
“A lot of pressure on her,” Leigh said, her lips twisting in an expression that was neither a smile nor a frown. “I have to admit, I’m surprised at how well she’s handling it.”
“Do you know about the trials they subjected her to?” Aiden looked almost—not quite—offended at Leigh’s implication.
“Only in the vaguest terms; that sort of information is strictly need-to-know, and few of my family were present.” Leigh glanced at Dylan and then at Aiden. “But I would have susp
ected with the elder’s doubts, they’d put her through the wringer.”
“And then some,” Dylan said, shaking his head in memory. “She nearly died when someone poisoned her, she had to personally execute her poisoner, and she was forced to take my brother as a mate…” Leigh’s eyes widened.
“You were arranged?” she stared at Aiden in undisguised shock. Aiden shook his head, smiling in the way that Dylan recognized so well—the ‘gone’ smile that always came over his brother when he thought of Aira.
“They gave her an impossible deadline to find a mate, and we were partially bonded, so …” Aiden shrugged.
“How did you two end up partially bonded?” Leigh asked.
Dylan shook his head. “You don’t want to ask that question. He’ll give you details.” Leigh chuckled lowly.
Interrupted by the sound of the opening door creaking on its hinges, Dylan, Leigh, and Aiden stood at attention, presenting a united front to the emerging elemental rulers. Aira was still in high form, Dylan noticed; she seemed to never meet with her two counterparts without becoming riled, her skin glowing with the energy that flowed through her.
“It has been decided,” one of the elders said, following them out of the tight confines of the council room. “These attacks are to be treated as an act of war on the air elementals in general and the Regina Sylphaea in particular.” Dylan exhaled with relief; so the elders had done something useful for once.
“Surely not all of the people involved deserve the maximum sentence,” Maralah said. Dylan saw the older earth elemental glance at Leigh and frown in distaste for a moment. “Some are just misguided.”
Aira crossed her arms over her chest and Dylan suppressed the smile that threatened to destroy his composure at the sight of her defiant attitude.
“They are killing innocent people, Maralah. You might be able to shield a few unstable talents, but repeated murders are another thing entirely. My people are coming to me interested in returning fire on your people; if you don’t want our presence to be revealed to regular humans, you’re going to have to agree to the need to nip this in the bud.”
“Oriel should be kept out of consideration,” Connor said firmly. “She wasn’t involved in either of these attacks.”
“She’s part of the group. We just happened to catch her early. Frankly, I don’t care if she’s your granddaughter, she’s overdue for justice,” Aira replied.
“All of the participants will be tried fairly, Connor, but you can’t deny that Oriel was part of the group. Any more than Aira can deny that some of her own people have been involved, even if for petty reasons. Everything air elementals do is for petty reasons,” Maralah said in a grumble.
Dylan wondered how Maralah had ever attained her seat of power; he knew that she was one of the most powerful earth-aligned elementals in the world, but she was short on reasoning skills. Maybe she’d gotten in on brute strength? Or double-dealing?
“It seems petty to kill a bunch of innocent people just because you don’t like their ruler,” Aira countered. “Or to put our entire community at risk because you think you should be in charge of the world.”
“They should be dealt with fairly. The Regina Sylphaea should not be involved,” Connor said.
Dylan could see that Maralah had already lost her position amongst the elders; while they didn’t entirely trust Aira, they knew that she had a proven track record of bringing in even powerful, volatile elementals—with help from Aiden and Dylan—with a minimum of fuss, and a maximum of efficiency. With Leigh on their team, Dylan thought, their efficiency would only increase. They would have the combined power of all four elements—that had to be a major help.
“The Regina Sylphaea is already involved. We will not change our minds on that score, Maralah. Focus your efforts where they belong: on making sure that the people in your own family aren’t being seduced by this group.” Connor’s eyes met Maralah’s as he spoke.
Maralah stalked off, head low in an ox-like posture as she left the building. Connor lingered a moment longer and Dylan could tell that the older fire elemental wished he could do something more substantive than simply shouting Aira down—that the old man wished his powers were not so easy for Aira to avoid. The elder that had escorted the three rulers out of the room turned back in, apparently dismissing them all as he closed the door behind him.
“You’re tied to our people through your husband,” Connor said. “But do not assume that that means we have any particular allegiance to you. I agree with you that many of my people need to be put to death for killing innocents—but I expect you to do your best for Oriel.” He turned on his heel and gave Aiden a scathing look before he followed Maralah out of the building.
Dylan took a deep breath and exhaled. “So what did you hold over their heads?” he asked. Aira’s glowing energy began to subside and she smiled.
“Maralah is definitely angry,” Aira said with an indolent shrug. “I took Leigh’s advice and dangled the carrot and showed her the stick as well. We need to track down your cousin, Leigh.”
“She’s pretty easy to find. I know the method she’s using to avoid detection.”
Aiden nodded at Leigh and gestured for them to all head out of the building.
Dylan considered the problems they were facing as the four of them walked towards the car. They needed to track down the remaining members of the group committed to bringing Aira down, and they needed to specifically snatch up Orleanna Price, Leigh’s distant cousin who was attached to Maralah’s family. And most of all, Dylan thought wryly, they all needed to get Aiden and Aira off on their honeymoon. He glanced at his brother; there was a seething tension in Aiden, that had persisted since they had been interrupted in their first night together as man and wife. Even absorbed in his own need to rescue Leigh, Dylan had been concerned about his brother’s well-being. The three of them were living on caffeine, potions, and alcohol—it wasn’t a sustainable lifestyle, and before long, they’d have to rest for real.
He realized, smiling to himself as he climbed into the back seat, that he’d felt more rested than ever since he’d been with Leigh. Dylan glanced at the earth elemental. They hadn’t achieved a full bond—it would take more time, particularly if he didn’t wait until he came into his full powers as an elemental, but he was starting to think that he very much wanted to.
“So what do we do first?” Leigh asked, reaching out and taking Dylan by the hand. Dylan could feel the solid, cool force of her energy flowing steadily through him, reinforcing his own watery strength.
“First thing we do is to figure out where the others are, how many of them are in the group,” Aira said, glancing at Aiden to see if he agreed. Dylan couldn’t imagine why his brother wouldn’t—it only made sense. “We track them down, we get some of the other bounty hunters to help us round them up, and we get them all locked up—Orleanna included.”
“And then?” Leigh shot a dazed glance at Dylan. “I mean, that seems like it’s the entirety of the plan.”
Aiden laughed. “First we figure out how many we’re up against and where they are. Second we round them up. Third we take a very long vacation while they’re in custody and waiting to be tried for their crimes.”
“A vacation?” Leigh glanced at Dylan again, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
“Well, Aiden and I haven’t exactly had our honeymoon. We were going to be at least a month.”
“No wonder you’re so tense,” Leigh said.
Dylan shook his head. “Nah, they’re definitely taking plenty of opportunity even if they aren’t completely alone. Remember hearing thunder last night?”
Leigh laughed. “So then it’s true,” she said, her voice not quite questioning, looking at the other three in the car with her. “What they say about the mingling of elementals.”
“Fire and air become lightning when the energies combine,” Dylan said, reciting from the snippet he had found in one of Lorene’s books. “It’s the secret weapon that Aiden and
Aira have together—and what they used to help free you and round up the people at the compound.”
“What do earth and water energies combine to form?” Leigh asked.
Aira chuckled. “Apparently neither of you noticed how flipping cold it was last night.” She glanced over the back of the seat at them. “Earth and water combine to form ice.”
Dylan smiled slightly; he had felt the temperatures dip—and he realized that Aira had known exactly what had happened when he and Leigh had kissed in the compound where she’d been kept a prisoner.
“What are the other combinations then?” Leigh wanted to know.
Dylan dropped into his lecture mode, reciting what he remembered from his readings. Earth elementals had their own lore—but they had a tendency to mostly keep within their own kind when mating, and pairings of two strongly-aligned elementals were fairly rare. Usually, a stronger elemental was paired with a less potent one of any alignment in order to keep strong elementals rare within the community. Elementals with less potent energy didn’t produce the drastic effects in their pairings that stronger elementals did—though Dylan had to admit that as far as air elementals went, there weren’t many in history to rival Aira, and Aiden was not at nearly her strength.
“When very strong fire and earth elementals bond, their energies combine to form molten metal—lava, though volcanos aren’t usually a danger,” Dylan explained. “Water and air elemental energies combine to form tornados, hurricanes, those kinds of weather phenomena, though they usually don’t have thunder and lightning. Earth and air—though that’s a really rare pairing—make sandstorms together. Water and fire combine—almost as rarely—to form fog, or in some cases, the energies produce floods.”
“It’s a wonder they ever let any elementals cross-breed,” Leigh said, her eyes widening.
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