by Larissa Ladd
Aiden nodded slowly.
“Then you’ll be able to keep it suppressed.”
Aiden wasn’t so certain of that. They were already very close—their energies intertwining twice—if he succumbed to the temptation to try and have Aira again, even if they didn’t get to the sex, Aiden knew that he was a goner. There would be nothing, absolutely nothing he could do to fight the need to be around her, to merge his energy with hers completely. He’d have to convince her to be his mate. The bond grew stronger every time they connected on that level.
Aira came down the stairs, looking at them with an expression that Aiden realized was not quite as angry as the one she had worn last night, but was still resentful. “I have a wine hangover,” she told them, coming to sit a few places down from Aiden. “Thanks, by the way,” she said to Dylan, not looking at Aiden at all.
“For what?” Dylan asked her, and Aiden shared his confusion.
“Apparently the plan you and your asshole brother came up with pretty much cured me. I can kind of control the wind—though not fully.” She glanced out through one of the windows and Aiden could see her eyes losing focus as she brought her will to bear on her element. The wind decreased slightly, but not fully.
“I’m sorry for how it went down, Aira,” Dylan said.
Aiden was trying to fight the compulsion that Aira’s proximity to him set off, and he saw her squirming, fidgeting as if she was struggling against one equally strong. “We should have told you. But you might have resisted if you were expecting it, and we didn’t know if it would even work.” Aira glanced at Aiden—barely—and he felt his heart beating faster with a mixture of anxiety and desire.
“You’re still jerks for doing it that way,” she said quietly.
Dylan poured her a cup of coffee and doctored it the way Aiden knew she preferred—lots of milk, only a little bit of sugar—and handed it to her before serving him.
“What’s next on the agenda?” Aiden asked, taking a long sip of coffee and wishing it would work faster to dispel the pain in his head.
“We need to get Aira up to normal strength, and I know how.” Dylan smiled brightly, and Aiden felt grateful that his younger brother was able to turn the situation—any situation—so cleanly away from uncomfortable topics.
They discussed what Dylan wanted to do in detail; there was still a residual amount of the poison in Aira’s system, even after the purge and purification Aiden had done, thanks to the lingering water energy her grandmother had given her. Dylan had found a potion and spell that, when combined, should remove the last of the energy, leaving Aira once more fully aligned with her element and freed of all poison and any lingering effects of her grandmother’s generosity. The best part of the cure—at least, as much as Aiden could perceive Aira’s feelings on the matter—was that Aiden wasn’t involved in it at all. He hoped against hope that at some point before Aira had to face her trial, he could finally have the much-needed conversation with her and clear the air. But he knew he would have to wait.
Aiden watched as his brother mixed the potion carefully, consulting a book every few moments that he had taken from Aira’s grandmother’s house. Potions were not at all Aiden’s specialty—being closely aligned with water magic, Aiden had never remotely given them a thought, other than to memorize poisons that could be used against elementals. He considered the information they had gotten from Alex the day before; there was clearly another elemental who was interested in destroying Aira’s bid to be the ruler of her element, if not killing her outright. Of course, removing her from contention would have the same ultimate effect. Who could it have been?
Aiden stepped away, moving up to his room for privacy. He would have to make some phone calls. He was relieved that he wasn’t needed for what Dylan was going to do. Aiden was hopeful that once Aira had the last of the poison and her grandmother’s energy out of her body, she would be a little more psychologically sound.
He decided to call an old friend, Thomas—another fire elemental, in the same line of work as he was. Thomas mostly worked as a bodyguard, though he occasionally functioned as an elemental bounty hunter.
“Yo, Tom,” Aiden said, sitting down on his bed and trying to pull his thoughts away from the infuriating, intoxicating woman downstairs. “I need information.”
Thomas chuckled on the other end. “I heard you were on some basic bodyguard duty. What’s the situation?”
Aiden gave Thomas a brief sketch of the details, omitting as much information as he could. Thomas would have to know it was Aira—but he didn’t need to know how close Aira had come to being utterly defeated by the poison she’d been given. He also didn’t need to know that he and Aira had been intimate. Just that she was in contention for the rule of her element, that Alex had poisoned her, and that he was under the control of another fire elemental. Thomas was a much more brutal elemental than Aiden—while he was not quite as powerful, he used his ability to its fullest extent, which was why the elders tended to call on him to deal with other fire elementals, when a strong water elemental wasn’t available.
“Ahh, that’s who you’re guarding. Hope you’re getting paid well,” Thomas said on the other end of the line.
Aiden chuckled. “Well enough. What do you know about it?” Aiden could picture Thomas shrugging. There was the sound of movement coming through the phone, wind rushing over the microphone. Aiden wondered briefly what his friend was doing.
“I’d heard that someone was out to poison her, but not who. It’d need to be someone pretty high up in the families, though, to be able to get the poison in Alex’s hands without interference.”
That was about what Aiden had suspected.
“Who would be on your list?” Aiden asked—thinking that with months more ‘on the ground’ as it were, not locked down into one assignment, Thomas might have some insight.
“Jeff Willis would be a likely suspect,” Thomas said musingly. “He had no love for Lorene; he wouldn’t be thrilled with her granddaughter taking up a position of power. Brigette wouldn’t balk at putting poison in someone’s hand if she was motivated and had another person in mind for the position. There’s also Oriel to consider—her grandfather is our ruler—and last but not least Ethan. He’s linked by family to earth elementals, and I understand they are, as a group, kind of upset at the idea of Aira even existing. They always hate the strong air-aligned ones.”
Aiden nodded. He added the names to his mental list.
“Thanks for the tips, man,” Aiden said.
“No problem. Hey, you get off of knight duty, come out and grab a beer with me.” Aiden agreed to the prospect and ended the call. Jeff Willis, Brigette Laurent, Oriel Dylans, Ethan Haversham; Aiden thought that Paytah Jaunt and Seraphina Williams would also be likely sources for the poison. Paytah would want his cousin, another air elemental, to get a chance at the rule of the element, while Seraphina was in a position not dissimilar to Alex’s—so unstable that she could be decided against at any moment.
Aiden made a few more calls, asking about the people in question among his connections—it wasn’t easy to get information about them without raising alarm and the last thing he wanted was to cause a hue-and-cry—or to inspire someone to take more drastic measures. He knew Oriel would likely be with the elders when Aira went to put Alex to death; he wondered who else was planning to be there.
CHAPTER 7
AIRA WAS FIDGETING. SHE TRUSTED Dylan—in spite of the part he’d played in Aiden’s trick to purge and purify her of the poison in her system. Aira knew objectively that she had much more reason to trust Dylan than instances where he had warranted her distrust. But he was doing magic that was beyond his comfort zone, a kind of esoteric weaving of potion and spell that her grandmother had done well, but which Dylan had barely practiced. She sat on the couch, thinking that after all the time she had spent on it—and all the bad memories she now had associated with it, thanks to Alex—she would get rid of it as soon as possible. A good couch shouldn’t be that
hard to find, or that expensive.
Dylan brought the potion, cooled and at its fullest potency, into the living room along with the book. He set the tall, thin mug on the table and read the spell one last time. Aira turned her attention outside. After the purging Aiden had given her, she had slight control over that part of her abilities, but the wind would only die down or increase in speed slightly from her influence—it was mostly still just reflecting her state. She took a deep breath, glancing into the mug to see the brackish-looking solution. Dylan had explained the components to her and how the particular mix was designed to strengthen her air capabilities. After he had performed the spell to drive out the last of her grandmother’s water energy Aira would have to drink down the entire mug.
“It’s not going to taste that great,” Dylan admitted ruefully. “But it should do the job.”
Finally, Dylan put down the book and gestured for Aira to lie down. “Are you ready?” he asked, rubbing his hands together. Aira shrugged as she tried to relax on her back, looking up at him.
“It doesn’t really matter, does it?” she said wryly. “We have to get this done either way.” Dylan’s dark eyes were full of sympathy. He took a deep breath and began a low, steady chant, whispering the words full of soft consonants. Aira had always admired the language of water elementals, the way their spells sounded like the gushing babble of a river or the steady rhythmic lapping of the tides. Because it was an element associated language, Aira wasn’t able to learn it—in spite of being around it constantly with her grandmother. It was as much a language that was intuited as spoken, words shifting meaning constantly, dependent entirely on context and emotional intent.
Aira took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She felt the coolness of Dylan’s hands running along her body slowly in a way that was more clinical than sensual. As his hands traveled from her head to her shoulders, across her chest and down her arms, following through along her legs and ending at her feet. She felt the sensation of something tugging inside of her—a pulling, drawing feeling. She instinctively fought against it, in spite of knowing it was exactly the point of the spell—for Dylan to pull her grandmother’s lingering elementally-aligned energy out of her. Some part of Aira didn’t want to let go of that last scrap of her grandmother, even if it was damaging her with the poison that infected it. She reminded herself that she had her grandmother’s house—she had her grandmother’s legacy. She had a thousand little pieces of her grandmother to cherish; she didn’t need the part that was living inside of her. Slowly, Aira felt the energy ebbing away from her, seeping out of her in a gradually growing torrent, being pulled into Dylan. He would be a better keeper of that energy anyway, she thought—he was of the same alignment.
“Okay,” Dylan said after several long moments, running his hands over her body one last time. “Drink the potion right now.” Aira sat up, feeling oddly light, and reached out for the mug. She took a deep breath and exhaled it all at once, gulping down the room-temperature contents of the container as quickly as possible and avoiding tasting it as much as she could. There was a bitter edge to the brew, which almost made her throat close up in protest, but Aira forced herself to continue swallowing until there was nothing left. The last bit of it went down her throat, and Aira felt her body tingling all over, electrical impulses dancing along her nerve endings, up and down along her veins. It was similar to the feelings she’d had waking up and during the days leading up to the birthday where she’d come into her abilities as an elemental—a kind of body-wide power-surge that wasn’t quite as uncontrolled and wild but was just as distracting for the moments it lasted.
She opened her eyes to see that Aiden had joined them. Her anger at him was starting to evaporate, but Aira wasn’t ready to let him off the hook just yet. “Did you find anything out?” she asked him curtly, putting the mug down and making a face at the aftertaste of the potion.
“I’ve got a few people in mind. It’s really going to come down to what happens at the execution tomorrow.”
Aira sighed and nodded. “Yeah, it all is pretty much going to depend on that, isn’t it?” She stood, feeling as if she wanted to run—no, fly. She was filled with a nervous energy, a constant internal locomotion that she needed to satisfy somehow. She made the mistake of looking at Aiden and felt the full force of his attractiveness, nearly blinding her with sudden lust. Aira left the room quickly—she barely had control of herself, she certainly wasn’t going to engage in a sudden impulse to throw Aiden onto the floor and strip him naked and have him. She rushed up the stairs to her room and made her way for the shower. A cold deluge would have to do.
The next day, Aira was not at all surprised to be called on by Saoirse. The younger elemental was surprised to see her answer the door, looking completely alert. Aira had been testing herself all morning; bringing the wind up to an almost dangerous speed and then bringing it back down to a gentle zephyr, just to reassure herself that her abilities were fully in place once more. She wasn’t sure how she was going to go about completing her mission from the elders, but Aira was determined to see it through, to show that even a plot to poison her wouldn’t bring her down. She hoped the elders would at least appreciate that fact.
Saoirse recovered her composure in a moment, and Aira told the other woman that no matter what the rules stated, Dylan and Aiden were coming with her. “Someone tried to kill me, outside of the rules. I am not above flouting them in response.” She reached out with her will, forestalling Aiden’s bristling defense with a gesture, and stared Saoirse in the eyes. “You will take me to the elders, and you will allow Aiden and Dylan to follow you.” Saoirse’s dark eyes flickered a moment in confusion, and she agreed.
Aira thought with a weariness that she didn’t expect to feel that she would be glad when the whole situation was over—whatever the outcome. If she was taken out of contention for ruling the element she belonged to, then she would go renegade. And she thought, or at least hoped, that she would have help from Aiden and Dylan in doing so. Aira watched the scenery flash by through the window of Saoirse’s car and hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. Her grandmother had done a lot to try to keep her alive, to keep her safe. The best that Aira could do would be to honor her wishes and try her best.
When they arrived, Alex was in chains at the base of the balcony where the elders were assembled. Aira looked around the gallery at the curious faces among the observers; she knew they were startled by the fact that she was so well. In fact, she hadn’t slept at all the previous night. The potion that Dylan had given her, infusing her with as much air-aligned energy as her body could possibly bear, had kept her awake. A slightly less magical excuse for her restlessness was in the bedroom next to hers. Aira knew instinctively that there had been more than just a purification and purging that had gone on with Aiden. Things had to be settled between them. She took a deep breath as she stepped into the center of the vaulting room, trying to decide how best to complete the task she was set. She focused her mind on Alex, on the fact that he had done things that were inexcusable among their kind—poisoned her, manipulated people in a tawdry, evil way. He had even tried to manipulate her.
“Aira, are you able and willing to proceed?” The spokesperson for the elders asked in sonorous tones.
Aira nodded shortly. “Before I execute this elemental, I want to make it known—and on the record—that he poisoned me under the direction of another elemental.” Aira heard the hiss of consternation from the gathered observers. “He was given an offer to preserve his family if he got me out of contention. The poison that he gave me was designed to kill me, although you can clearly see that it has not.” Aira looked around the room, her mind gauging the expressions on faces, reading the moods. She hadn’t discussed her plan with Aiden or Dylan; she had come up with it shortly before Saoirse’s arrival. In her current hyper-aware state, Aira thought that she would have an edge on determining who it could be—provided they were there. She thought that Aiden was right; whoever had been behind he poi
soning would surely come to see her, to make sure she was near death, or at least incapable of performing her set task.
Half-hidden among the observers, Aira spotted her. The woman was tall and thin, with intense green eyes and blonde hair. She displayed an expression of abject dismay, her emotions completely unguarded in her surprise. “You,” Aira said, reaching out with her will. The woman tried to look away, but couldn’t do it fast enough. Aira brought her focus on the woman, brought her will to bear on her as she held her gaze irresistibly. “Come down here, now.” The elders began to protest. Aira repeated the command, gaining the woman’s compliance to her persuasion before she turned her attention to the men and women who had come to judge whether she was fit to be the ruler of her element. “You allowed Alex to have poison that would kill almost any air elemental. You released him into my custody with that poison. Your job amongst our kind is to make judgments, to pass decisions. If you have a problem with a ruler making a decision, you can try and see if you can face off against the rulers who exist.” The woman had finally made her way down onto the floor, coming to Aira’s side, her green eyes clouded over.
“Aira! This is unstable behavior.” The spokesperson for the elders was red in the face, furious with her.
“You caused this situation. I am finishing it.” She turned her attention back on the woman. “Tell me your name,” she said, reinforcing the order with her will.
“Oriel Dylans,” the woman said. Aira barely spared a glance at Aiden’s direction, caught the sight of him nodding in the corner of her vision.
“Why did you put Alex up to poisoning me?” Oriel reeled slightly under the onslaught of Aira’s will. “Tell me everything.” Oriel’s eyes clouded over once more, and she began to speak quickly, the words rushing out of her.
“I sent my brother with the poison for Alex. My grandfather is the ruler of Fire—with the seat for air in contention, he would lose power. Without you in place, he could keep his power because someone less powerful would be the ruler of air.” Aira turned and looked at the elders.
