“You should take my side,” she said to Dylan, pressing her will against his mind as she spoke. She heard the words leaving her lips, the slight twist of her voice that signaled the instinctive spell she was using. For a moment—an instant—Dylan’s resolve flickered. She saw the uncertainty in his eyes, and Aira was on the point of reinforcing the command when he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
“That was beneath you, Aira,” Dylan said, opening his eyes once more.
Aira felt a flash of shame.
“I can understand why you’re annoyed, but it’s more important to keep you safe. Aiden and I made promises to your grandmother—we intend to keep them.”
Aira sighed and walked stiffly to the car she had been sharing with Dylan, opening the passenger side door and extracting her book bag and phone.
“I hate both of you!” she said, taking her spare keys out of her purse and unlocking the door to her own car before climbing in. The wind howled, barely within her control, and Aira suppressed her intense annoyance with effort, re-establishing her dominion over her element and bringing the wind back down. She closed her eyes, feeling the pressure of her abilities welling inside of her. She had heard stories about unstable, over-powered elementals from the past, the level of destruction they had wrought. Fire and air elementals tended to cause the most damage when they went unhinged. It was part of why the elders had been established. There needed to be a group of utterly stable, completely uninvolved elementals, removed from the world and its demands, who could oversee matters for all of those still in a position to interact with regular humans. It was not a position a person could be elected to. Elders were born into the position and given years of special education, training, and responsibility starting at a very young age, leading to their eventual appointment as presiding elders died.
All elementals were at least slightly afraid of the elders. The elders weren’t particularly powerful in terms of the amount of elemental energy they had at their command, but their laws and decisions were absolute. Once the elders came to a decision about an elemental—that he or she was irredeemably unstable, that they posed a threat to the community as a whole—that elemental was as good as gone. If Aira became the ruler of her element, she would have to work closely with the elders. They made their decisions based on the input from the rulers, and any decision to put an elemental to death was technically the province of the rulers, though the elders made the decree itself, and carried it out. Other decisions would come under her jurisdiction if she became the Regina Sylphaea—matters both major and minor. Her life would be completely different if she rose to the role.
But she couldn’t simply decline it. She was too powerful, had too much elemental energy for the elders to let her simply live her life. She would have to be constrained either by becoming a leader for her own element, or by some other resort. If she were more powerful than the person chosen to rule, her life would become much more complicated. She would be under constant watch, and her propensity for instability could be just the excuse a wary ruler of the element needed to decree that she should be put to death. While Aira resented her grandmother’s constant harping on the subject of her finding a mate, Aira realized it was from a legitimate wisdom that the only way she could preserve her safety would be to ally herself with another powerful family. That way, she could potentially avoid both the necessity of becoming a ruler and the treachery of another elemental family that saw her as a threat. Without a marriage, she would have to go through the testing process, and if she was found too unstable or too powerful, too much of anything other than the right things, then she would be in danger indeed.
CHAPTER 4
WHEN AIRA ARRIVED AT HER apartment, the first thing she did was throw herself onto the comfortable old couch and shout in relief. The wind rose outside but was not causing any danger of destroying anything, so she didn’t restrain it. It was glorious to be in her own space once more. Even her own bed didn’t call to her like her own precious couch did.
“Just a few weeks ago, you were interested in nothing more than leaving this place,” Aiden commented, sinking down into one of the comfortable chairs across from her.
Aira opened her eyes and scowled at him. “I don’t enjoy being kept prisoner anywhere,” she said, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest.
“You’re not a prisoner,” Dylan said, dropping his bags by his bedroom door and joining them. “It’s more like witness protection.”
Aira rolled her eyes, stood and moved to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. It was already after sunset, but she knew she was unlikely to sleep. Just in case, she decided to compromise and make decaf, even though the small amount of residual caffeine would probably keep her wired for several hours.
“Most of the people in witness protection are criminals,” she said tartly. “If you’re likening my situation to people who have to give up their entire lives to avoid being killed by mobsters, I fail to see how that’s proof I’m not a prisoner.”
“Well…at least you get to stay in your own place,” Aiden replied. “And you have charming protection agents.”
Aira raised an eyebrow, looking from Dylan to Aiden.
“One of you is charming. The other one is annoying.” She saw Aiden bristle as she turned toward the sink.
“Hey, I was charming enough for you to have sex with!” Aira blushed a bright red, turning on the faucet savagely.
“Doesn’t make you not annoying!” she called over her shoulder. “I also had sex with Alex and look what a jerk he was!”
“How is it my fault if you have sex with jerks?”
Aira heard Dylan snorting as she turned off the water.
“You just admitted you’re a jerk, dude.” Aira looked over to where the two men were standing at the edge of the kitchen and laughed out loud at the sight of Aiden trying to think of a way to rebut the statement without admitting his own mistake.
“Yeah, well… That’s not the point,” he said, crossing his arms and casting a haughty look at both Aira and his brother.
“Actually, I think it kind of is,” Dylan quipped.
Aira started the coffee maker. “So we’ve established that you’re annoying,” she said, leaning against the counter lazily. “Yep, sounds like I won this argument.”
Aiden sputtered and turned to go back into the living room. Dylan chuckled at his brother’s retreat, walking into the kitchen and taking up a perch opposite Aira.
“It won’t be forever, you know that,” he said quietly. “Only until things get decided. If you find someone to marry, or become the ruler of your element, Aiden and I will happily go on our way.”
Aira nodded slowly, feeling slightly ashamed at herself for how she was acting. She knew it was no easier on Aiden and Dylan to be guarding her than it was for her to be under constant watch.
“I need to ask you a question, and I have to just hope you’re going to be honest with me,” she said, considering her suspicions from when Daley had left her grandmother’s—her—house.
Dylan looked at her for a long moment before nodding.
“Is part of your assignment to watch me for signs of incurable instability? To tell the elders if I’m beyond help?”
Dylan took a deep breath and sighed. “When our grandmother got the request from your grandmother, she mentioned that you were under suspicion. Lorene wanted us to watch out for you, too. We don’t have any explicit instructions from the elders. We’re not reporting to them, but before Aiden found you, Daley asked me a lot of pointed questions about your level of stability.” He shrugged. “We’ve been asked by the elders to monitor people before, so I would hope if they expected us to in your case, they’d ask us outright. But your situation is complex. Aiden and I might get called on to testify as to your adjustment.” The coffee maker beeped, announcing that it had finished brewing, and Aira poured a cup for herself and another for Dylan.
“Have you ever seen the testing they put elementals through?” she asked
.
Dylan shook his head to indicate he had not. “It’s a pretty rare event, and pretty private. I don’t know much about it except that it’s brutal.” His level of knowledge was on par with Aira’s. She sipped her coffee and decided as a peace offering to bring some to Aiden.
“We all need to talk,” she said, sitting down on the couch and gesturing for Dylan to sit down as well. Aira took a deep breath, staring down into her cup for a moment while she composed her thoughts. “I don’t see any other real choice but to go for the title of Regina Sylphaea. It’s the only thing at this point that will ensure my safety.” Aira looked up to see Dylan nodding. “I’m going to have to train constantly between now and whenever they decide to test me. I don’t think any of us knows what form that test will take, but I have to be ready for anything.”
Aiden put his coffee cup down. “There will probably be a fighting component,” he offered. “The leader of any element has to prove that he or she is strong enough to defeat anyone else of that alignment—so the strongest of the strong are probably pitted against each other.”
“It’s not just about strength though,” Dylan countered. “It’s about ability to rule. So there will probably be difficult decisions you’ll be forced to make.”
Aira considered both points and nodded. “They could throw anything at me, ultimately,” she said with a sigh. “Difficult decisions, battles, tests of my stability…I think that’s just as likely. They’re going to try and see how much I can take before I become unhinged.”
Aiden’s eyes widened. “You think they’re going to risk you going berserk?” he asked her.
Aira shrugged. “They’re looking for me to become irredeemably unstable either way. It would help them make a decision.”
Dylan made a face. “She’s right, Aiden. The worst part of this isn’t going to be the battles or the decisions—it’s going to be their methods of ensuring that she’s not going to go insane.”
Aiden looked as though he was about to protest—to argue the point—for just a moment before he subsided. “You’re right. Okay, how can Dylan and I help you?”
Aira considered the question. “I’ll need you to help me with battles. Dylan can help me with decisions and the like.” She chewed her bottom lip. “I’ll need you both to help keep me sane. I don’t know how hard they’re going to push me. I’d like to think I can withstand most trickery, but if the elders are determined to make me go crazy, it’s going to be difficult not to give in.”
Both men agreed to the plan.
Aira went to bed that night plagued with frustration and uncertainty. Turning onto her side, instead of worrying about what she was sure to face in the days ahead, her thoughts went back to Aiden. If she had just kept a lid on her libido, if she had refused to give in to her lust and need for comfort, things wouldn’t be so uncomfortable with him. She groaned, burying her face in her pillow. Ever since the moment she had come out of her lust-driven haze, when she had decided she couldn’t let anything else happen between her and the other elemental, it had been tense. They had both studiously avoided each other. Aira wasn’t sure of Aiden’s feelings towards her one way or the other—if he blamed her for leading him on the way she had, if he felt resentful towards her, or even if he didn’t care at all and was simply avoiding being alone with her because he suspected that it bothered her. She knew she was avoiding him because the prospect of the topic even coming up was too much for her to deal with.
She was aware enough to know that she was having a great deal of difficulty maintaining any sense of balance. The temptation to use her abilities for less-than-noble means was constant, particularly her ability to persuade or compel someone’s will. Aira was slightly ashamed of the way she had been acting since her grandmother’s death. She knew the last act the older woman had committed as an elemental, the transfer of her energy into Aira, had been a last-ditch effort to enforce a kind of internal balance that would be less shakable than what Aira had on her own. But her basic nature rebelled against the stabilizing effect of the water energy her grandmother had suffused her with. She was finding it impossible—so far—to unite the two forces within her core. She couldn’t give up her own willfulness, her own sense of self-determination, to plunge into the depths of security that the water energy could provide.
Aira climbed out of bed and grabbed her phone, opening her music library and picking a song at random. “Tonight I’m tangled in my blanket of clouds/ dreaming aloud…” the lyrics played out, painting the air with blue and green as Aira tried to relax in her bed. “If you’d accept surrender, give up some more/ weren’t you adored? I cannot be without you, matter of fact/ I’m on your back… if you walk out on me, I’m walking after you…” The song hit too close to home, but Aira couldn’t make herself change it or turn it off. She felt hot tears forming in her eyes and let them fall without caring, feeling the intense grief at the loss of her grandmother and all of the older woman’s advice and support, the frustration of knowing that she had never had a sexual partner who satisfied her like Aiden, but she couldn’t risk the danger to them both that giving into her impulses would bring. Another song came on and the knife-point of grief and loneliness twisted inside of her. “One day I’ll have enough to gamble/ I’ll wait to hear your final call/ bet it all…You ask for walls, I’ll build them higher/ We’ll lie in shadows of them all/ I’d stand but they’re much too tall/ and I fall…” Aira shuddered, curling in on herself and listening to the wind’s howl beginning to overtake the meager volume of her phone’s speaker. She sobbed, giving in to her grief, uncaring of whether or not there were consequences to her lack of control over her own element for the moment. All she wanted was to have a normal life, to be able to make choices that weren’t life-or-death, to be able to go about her normal routine without having to worry about someone trying to kill her or force her to marry them. To have her grandmother back.
CHAPTER 5
THE NEXT DAY, AIRA BEGAN training for the testing she would have to endure. She, Aiden, and Dylan went to a deserted park Aira knew of—one where there was almost never anyone around—and hiked to the most secluded area. “Okay,” Aiden said, looking at her sternly. “How should we start?”
“You could attack and Aira could counter, and then switch.”
Aiden looked at Aira for a long moment before nodding. Aira shrugged her acceptance of the idea.
“Ten paces apart,” Aiden said, walking away from her. Dylan stepped back from the potential line of fire, and Aira moved back several paces, aware of her heart starting to beat faster. She remembered the first altercation she’d had with Aiden, just a short time after they had met. Smiling to herself, Aira thought she was much more in possession of her abilities than she had been then—she would be more than capable of surprising him. She had a few maneuvers she had practiced with her grandmother alone, things she had studied in the short time before the older woman had died, that Aiden didn’t know about.
Aira watched Aiden square off, bringing his hands close together and beginning to focus his energy. She was supposed to be countering—not attacking this time. Aira focused her mind on the wind, bringing it under her control. She didn’t want to cause a wind storm, but instead call it directly to her will, to be able to manipulate it in gusts and blows. She inhaled and exhaled, visualizing the wind as an almost tangible thing, a force she could wield and manipulate. The fireball formed in Aiden’s hands and he hefted it, watching for Aira’s readiness. She smiled faintly and he pitched it at her, giving it a twist so that it spiraled in the air, taking an indirect path. Aira lifted a hand, calling the wind in a gust to knock the flame aside. Aiden called it back and immediately threw it again, trying to catch her off-guard. Aira directed another gust at it, knocking it in a different direction. “Come on, Andy,” Aira called out, knowing that the older elemental hated that particular nickname. “I’m not going to get a warm-up when someone who wants to kill me!”
Aira saw Aiden’s eyes narrow, and he began throwing mul
tiple fireballs at her at once, sending them on wild and spiraling courses towards her. She hesitated only a moment, catching the trajectory of each one and repelling it as efficiently as she could, using her command of the wind to knock as many aside as possible with one swipe of her hand. She was beginning to use both hands, commanding the gusts of wind independently, weaving a shield in front of her as Aiden pressed the attack. She realized he was moving closer slightly and forming something in his hands that was not a fireball. In a moment, Aira recognized it as a sword—made of crackling fire, longer than his arm. Aiden held onto the energy that formed the sword in yellow, orange, and red, wielding it with confidence. Aira stepped back, bringing the wind up in a vortex aimed at Aiden, to push him away from her. He ducked around it, darting to enter her guarded area. Aira switched the direction of the wind at her command, following his dashing, darting movements.
Somehow, Aiden managed to evade the gusts and blows of wind she directed at him at every step, and he was only a few feet away, the sword burning the air between them. In spite of her focus, Aira felt her lust spike—she fought down the instinctive reaction. She couldn’t let herself be distracted by a pretty face. She jumped back and directed a high-speed gust of wind at Aiden, letting out a cry for the hawks in the area; she knew there were several of them. The large, predatory birds emerged from their hiding spots at her command, converging on the area where she and Aiden were fighting, Aira dodged his attacks and directed the wind to knock aside his fire-blade like a shield. She let out another call and the hawks dove in toward Aiden, only missing him by inches as they wheeled away from his defensive swats with the sword. Aira felt the power building inside of her, the elemental energy demanding her next move. She called out and the birds left; Aiden, relieved for the moment of having to look over his shoulder and around his head, turned his attention fully onto Aira. She saw her opening.
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