He wondered if whoever Leigh and Dylan had gotten in to help Aira had managed; if he should try and find her once he escaped. He could feel Aira’s presence in the building with him, but he wasn’t certain he knew where she was—he didn’t even really know where he was. Aiden put the bracelets on his wrists and the necklace around his neck and lay back on the bed. He groaned out as he felt the materials begin to take effect, obliterating the miasma of fatigue and weakness that the water-aligned materials in the room had inspired in him. It was almost—not quite—as good a feeling as sex with Aira, feeling his power coming back to him.
Aiden checked the watch every few moments, waiting for the time to finish his preparations. He eyed the potion; that was certainly Dylan’s handiwork. The jewelry, he thought, had probably been Leigh—the earth elementals were hoarders when it came to fine metals and gemstones, even ones not aligned with their element, though they were careful when it came to water or air-aligned gems.
Again and again while he waited, Aiden wondered what was happening with Aira; he thought to himself that he could feel her energy more strongly—but whether that was because of his own recovery or because Aira was regaining her power, he had no idea. Surely, he thought, someone had gotten to Aira. It would have to be someone with a much greater rating from the elementals in charge, but Dylan would have specified if he thought Aiden would need to take care of getting Aira out of her prison—which meant that they’d planned to help her bust out too.
Fifteen minutes before the hour mark, Aiden uncorked the bottle of potion and took a deep breath. He knocked it back, barely even letting himself taste it, draining the contents in a few fast gulps. The aftertaste wasn’t as horrible as some of the potions he had consumed in his life—he could detect basil, cinnamon, tangerine, and clove—but it certainly wasn’t the kind of thing that he would want to sip. As the last fifteen minutes dragged past, Aiden felt his vitality not only returning but growing. Heat coursed through him, crackling like fire along his nerves, through his veins. His hands glowed, his body was on fire in a way he hadn’t experienced since the power surges that came along with reaching his full inheritance into his elemental abilities.
Finally—finally, it was time. Aiden smiled to himself, imagining the surprise on the faces of the people set to watch him at what he had planned to do. The water-aligned materials wouldn’t succumb to his attack—but the door itself would. Aiden focused his energies, pouring some of the heat that flowed through him into his hands, slowly but surely shaping and creating a fireball. He threw it at the door, and then sent another to accompany it. He could feel the strength growing and growing inside of him. The fire caught—racing up the lines of the frame, engulfing the door.
Aiden kicked at the burning door, his enhanced strength giving him the ability to shatter the weakened wood in two sharp shocks. Striding through it, Aiden called out, “Seraphina! Annaliese! How does it feel to be surprised?” he strode through the hall, following an instinct to find the way out, to regroup with his brother, his wife, and Leigh.
Shrieks met him as he strode into the common area of the safe house. Aiden smirked. The earth elementals couldn’t do much to him on their own; the fire elementals could do nothing at all. He launched several more fireballs as he made his way towards the door, using them not to attack individuals, but to distract everyone—lighting the floor and the furniture on fire as he passed through. Aira would be able to get through behind him, if she hadn’t already started her escape. The dozen or so elementals descended into frenzied panic, running around; those with a fire alignment struggling to recapture the fire that Aiden set as quickly as he threw it, the earth elementals trying to figure out how to contribute.
He walked past the guards at the door, pressing his fiery hands against the frame and giving them more to worry about than an escaped kidnap victim. “Aira!” he called out. “Dylan! Leigh! Let’s finish this!” The wind began to howl, and Aiden staggered as he made his way across the patio and towards the ramparts that guarded the safe house, the ground suddenly moving under his feet. But he managed to stay upright, dodging a crumbling edifice of rock and dirt, shooting fireballs over his shoulder without really looking to see where they landed.
All at once, the ramparts came down decisively, and there Aiden saw Aira, standing to the side next to Dylan and Leigh; it was unquestionable that his brother had found his mate, and Aiden spared himself a moment to be happy for his younger brother.
“Finally sealed the deal, eh?” Aiden asked as he took up his position next to the woman he loved.
“Couldn’t have saved your ass otherwise,” Dylan pointed out.
Aiden turned to face the safe house holding the last two masterminds of the elemental revolt, along with their minions. Confusion reigned; Aiden watched as people rushed out, intent on getting him and Aira back, distracted by the shifting ground and then the rushing rain, the howling wind.
“Let’s give them a storm they won’t forget,” Aiden suggested, looking from his brother and his brother’s mate to Aira.
Aira smiled slowly. “You know what happens with earth and water, right?”
Aiden nodded, his grin growing on his face. Everything briefly became a blur as the elementals who had captured him and the woman he loved decided to turn their attention entirely on the four elementals in front of them. Bolts of fire raced towards them and Aiden deflected, captured, sent them back; Dylan sent torrents of water, Leigh grabbed at the ground and made it tremble underneath their attackers, Aira sent howling gusts of gale-force wind to careen anyone preparing to attack.
“Okay,” Aira said, and Aiden looked up. “This is it—they’re losing, they’re desperate. Last bit.” She reached out and Aiden grabbed at her hand. He poured his energy into her, feeling her shaping and molding it; next to him, Dylan took Leigh’s hand, and he watched the peculiar bond between the other two elementals come to life as well—the temperature dropped rapidly around them. In an instant, the house and all of the elementals in it were subjected to a storm of lightning and hail, thunder tearing the air around them, sonic booms knocking them to their feet, balls of ice the size of oranges raining down on them. In a matter of moments, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who would win the battle.
Aiden watched as each and every one of the elementals who had caused them so much trouble tumbled to the ground, unable to move, lashed by electricity and ice. He laughed, watching the safe house itself fall to a shambles. It was, finally, over. And in a day or two, he would be alone with his mate, his wife, the woman he loved, confident that he wouldn’t have to worry about his brother.
CHAPTER TEN
“THEY’RE COMING BACK TODAY; DON’T you think we should clean up a bit?” Leigh asked.
Dylan turned over in bed to look at Leigh, smiling softly. At first it had seemed strange to him that Aira would offer him her grandmother’s house to stay at while she was out of town on her honeymoon with Aiden. Lorene’s home was significant to the entire elemental community; it was a wellspring, a touchstone particularly for water-aligned elementals—and it was Aira’s other home, a safe place and a refuge from the stresses of her life as the ruler of her element.
“They’ll be late,” Dylan told Leigh, reaching out to wrap his arms around her waist. Aiden and Aira had left on their honeymoon almost a month before; he had used the time without them and without the work that always seemed to accompany his brother and his sister-in-law to develop and reinforce the bond he had created with Leigh. They were all going to be one big team together once the newlyweds returned, and Dylan had every intention of their work together being as seamless as humanly possible. “I’m surprised they’re coming back at all, really.”
“You know how Aira is,” Leigh said, curling in towards him. Dylan trailed his hands over the curves of her body, feeling the resonance of her energy, feeling her solid, steady essence mingling with his restless one. “She and your brother both can’t manage to stay still. If you’re surprised they’re coming
back, I’m surprised we haven’t heard from them yet.”
Dylan laughed. He had a sneaking suspicion that their workload—densely packed before Aira’s wedding, full of constant movement and travel, tracking down rogue or unstable elementals—would see a slow-down. When he had checked his scrying bowl the day before, checking for impediments, obstacles, anything that might endanger the “royal couple,” as Leigh jokingly called them, he had seen the image of something—the impression, a fleeting sensation that he had never experienced before. There was a child in the watery picture, tiny—with blue eyes that reminded him of his brother, and dark hair that looked like Aira’s. In spite of the novelty, Dylan had known fairly well how to interpret it.
Dylan pulled Leigh around and on top of him in the bed, trailing his hands over her body slowly. “I think … we’ll find that things are slowing down a bit.” Leigh’s thighs moved to straddle his hips, and Dylan moaned low in his throat, brushing his lips along Leigh’s neck as they began to move together—not quite making love yet, but close to it, their bodies rubbing, sweat beginning to rise on their skin. He reached down and found her hand, twining his fingers with hers.
“What makes you say that?” Leigh let her auburn hair fall around her shoulders to surround him and Dylan thrust up into her slowly, closing his eyes for a moment as he pushed past the initial resistance of her body. He paused for a long moment as his hips went flush with hers, holding Leigh tightly, breathing in her scent and feeling her cool, comforting energy flowing through him. Leigh was beautiful, she was kind, and she was delicious from her lips to her toes. Dylan regretted the fact that they would no longer have the full run of Lorene’s home, and the fact that they would of necessity have to spend some time apart, or at least not making love—but it had been a good month, and he was grateful for it.
“Aira’s going to come back with a baby,” he told her, beginning to move in a slow, steady rhythm. Leigh met his thrusts, pushing her hips down in counterpoint, her fingers tightening on his, her free hand trailing over his chest.
“Is that … so?” Leigh kissed him lightly on the lips and Dylan felt her pleasure rising, felt her lust increasing every moment right alongside his own. She felt so good—so hot, in contrast to the cold of her energy, wet and tightly wrapped around him as if her body itself wanted for him to never leave. In an echo, Dylan was able to feel their coupling from Leigh’s perspective, feel the penetration, the heat and hardness pushing up deeper and deeper. Dylan clung to Leigh tightly, kissing everywhere his lips could reach, impervious to the cold that descended upon the room to cloak their sweaty bodies.
They reached their respective orgasms quickly, and Leigh sagged against him, resting her head against his shoulder, panting as she struggled to catch her breath. “So Aiden’s going to be a dad, is he?” she asked. Dylan felt her lips against his skin, curving in a slow smile.
“It seems he is,” Dylan said. “I’m not sure that she’s conceived yet—but I definitely saw a child in my bowl.”
“Should’ve returned the soup,” Leigh joked lightly. She pulled herself onto her elbows. “I’m so glad we had this time.”
“Me too.” Dylan brought her face up to his and kissed her on the lips—lightly, but lingering over the honey-apple taste of her tongue. “I’m even—a little bit—grateful for how we ended up together. I mean, how else would we have even met?” “I could have done without the mini-war. Just being a spy and checking out your brother’s wedding would have been enough.” Dylan nodded. “At least we know it’s over.”
Dylan and Leigh had put together the plan for their final attack on the renegade elementals as soon as they had both recovered from the cataclysm of their initial bonding. Leigh, her powers magnified by Dylan’s energy coursing through her, had finally been able to find the safe house; once they knew where they needed to be, it was a matter of putting together the plan itself—figuring out how to counteract the magic that bound Aiden and Aira, calling for backup, infiltrating the safe house. One of the earth elementals who had joined in the first flush of discontent with Aira’s accession to the elemental rule had been a friend of Leigh’s; since she was trusted, Elise was the only one who would be able to get to the Regina Sylphaea. Elise had fallen out of love with the movement she had joined up with, horrified with what she had seen. Tobin, one of Dylan’s friends and another earth elemental, had worked his way in to get to Aiden.
All of the members of the insurrection had been rounded up; Dylan was confident that between the four of them, he, Leigh, Aiden, and Aira had taught the community as a whole a valuable lesson about going against them—though that did not by any stretch mean that they were entirely safe. Dylan knew that there were still people who envied and hated Aira—and those who disagreed with her choice of mate. Her having a child would complicate matters; in some respects, it would solidify her position on the rulers’ council, and among the elders. In other ways, it would make her an even greater target.
The members of the failed insurrection were all decided against in a series of trials that Dylan hadn’t been able to stomach attending. Aira had been forced to go—postponing her honeymoon a few more days to put in her verdict. The majority were sentenced to be executed. The people in charge—the elementals who had masterminded all of the attacks, who had done the most to try and force Aira to abdicate—were starting punishments that would be much more intense and less forgiving than execution. Aira had bartered Oriel’s probation for a steeper sentence for those who had killed. Seraphina might not be dead, but Dylan was fairly confident that she would spend the next ten years ardently wishing for death every day of her life. The elders, not constrained by the Constitution or the UN, looked upon people who decided to wage war and try and bring elementals out into the glaring light of human knowledge the way that most people looked at a ravaging virus.
“Come on,” Dylan said, stirring from his reflections. “They’ll be hungry when they get here. Might as well have food ready for them.” He slipped out from underneath Leigh and took a deep, satisfied breath. They were as safe as they would ever be—and he knew that their life as a team, as a family, would be complicated, but he was happy; and Dylan knew that Aiden, Aira, and Leigh were all happy too.
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OTHER SERIES BY LARISSA LADD
An Elemental Series
Cavern of Light Series
The Witch’s Love Spell Series
A Psychic Romance Series
Eye of the Coven Series
Oakshade Manor Series
ABOUT LARISSA LADD
Larissa Ladd is a dreamer with insights fresh as the frost newly formed on the twig whose snap echoes through the moonlit forest. Since as a child she discovered the storybook world of ghouls and goblins, she's been a devotee of the eerie, the supernatural, and all that raises the hairs on the back of the neck. Her spine still shivers with delight when she huddles fearfully in a darkling corner, enthralled in suspenseful tales from her favorite authors Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and John Saul. Feast your eyes on the scintillating flashes of garish color dabbed forth from her pen.
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