Page 95 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

“I’ve never cried over my parents’ deaths.” He spoke a truth to her that no one knew. And as he held her hand, staring into her eyes, he pictured the bond between them wide open, giving her access to every corner of himself. “I’ve slept with three women. I’ve never lied to my grandparents. When I was a child, I found an injured skunk and nursed it back to health. My mom found me feeding it one day and told me I couldn’t have a skunk for a pet. She made me promise to take it deep into the woods and let it go. I told her I did.” When he was done talking, he simply stared at her andwaited.

“You never cried?” she asked, her eyes filled with sadness andunderstanding.

He shook hishead.

She pursed her lips and then said, “Three women is alie.”

His lips twitched slightly as he fought the desire to smile. “You’reright.”

“So what’s the truth? Howmany?”

Elias made sure she was looking him straight in the eyes when he answered. “None.”

“I wouldn’t believe you if I couldn’t feel your sincerity,” she admitted. “No guy who looks like you is still a virgin at twenty. And you really did keep the skunk as apet.”

Henodded.

“How is this possible? How can I feel what you’refeeling?”

“It’s part of the soul bond between us, Tara. I didn’t have anything to do with the death of your parents. None of us did.” He made sure she could feel his honesty. “They were killed by dark acolytes who served a dark earthelemental.”

“Why did they kill them?” she asked. The turmoil and pain coming through the bond was guttinghim.

He pulled her closer. “The dark elementals crave power. They want a war against the light elementals. For a very long time, the number of light elementals exceeded that of the dark. But that has been changing lately. More and more elementalists are being swayed by the promise of power. One of the ways they add numbers to their army is through recruiting humans. They do it when they’re young and impressionable. They look for dark auras and an affinity for magic. They kill the child's family so that they are left an orphan. When someone becomes an orphan, they are gifted by Mother Gaia with the power to control one of the four elements. Then, if the acolytes get to them before we can, they groomthem.”

“What do you mean ‘if the acolytes get to them before we can’?” she asked as she leaned toward him. Elias didn’t think she was aware that she was doingit.

“The light elementalists are charged with helping protect these children who have been targeted by the dark. There are four types of elements: earth, fire, wind, and water. And there are four corresponding elemental academies that train young elementalists: Terra, Crimson, Tempest, and Hydro. Each academy is responsible for battling the dark elements of their specific elemental bent. Here at Terra Academy, we are charged with hunting and killing dark earth elementals.” Elias saw Tara shudder, but he pressedon.

“Whichever type of elemental has caused the deaths of a child’s family, that academy then Marks the child and is responsible for protecting them until they come of age. Then, when the child comes of age, which is generally when they turn eighteen or when they graduate high school, representatives from the academy come and recruitthem.”

Tara frowned. “TGTE. That’s what you were doing? You were recruitingme?”

“Yes. No matter what you would have answered, you would have been accepted. TGTE is just a front for TerraAcademy.”

“What if someone who is ‘Marked’”—she held up finger quotes—“doesn’t want to go? What if they want a normallife?”

Elias tried not to read into her questions. The idea of Tara not wanting to be a part of his world—his life—left him feeling empty. “They will always be in danger. If they refuse the dark elementals and don’t have the protection of the academy, they will probably be killed by a darkelemental.”

“So there isn’t really achoice.”

Elias shook his head. “Only between light and dark. Once you are exposed to our world, you must pick aside.”

“Why can’t the academy protect them even if they don’t want to go there?” Taraasked.

“We don’t have those kinds of numbers. When a recruit graduates from the academy, they are immediately assigned a region, and their job is to protect that region from the dark ones. Their numbers have been steadily rising, and we couldn’t figure out why. But we think we know now. You and I seem to have solved that mystery without even knowingit.”

* * *

Tara’s head was throbbing,and her heart was still trying to beat in a normal rhythm after Elias kissed her. It was her first kiss.Ever. She would probably freak out about that later, but at the moment, she was trying really hard to hold herself together as he basically ripped her world wide open. Now, he was reconstructing it into something she didn’trecognize.

“It wasJax.”

“What?” askedElias.

“Jax. He was the one that Markedme?”

“Yes.”

---