Page 93 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

The deadly tone sent chills running down her spine. Tara kept moving forward, allowing the pull inside of her to direct her. There were three hallways to the left of the stairs they’d just descended. She reached the last one and turned to walk down it. Her gaze immediately found Jax. He was at the very end of the corridor. Iron-barred cells lined thehallway.

Jax’s head turned at the sound of her footsteps, and he let out a sigh of relief. “Thank the Mother,” he breathed out. Tara saw hands reach out and grab the bars, only to instantly release them with a snarl of pain. She gasped as she looked down at her own hands. She’d felt something the instant Elias’s had touched the cell bars. It wasn’t full-blown pain, but it wasuncomfortable.

“Tara!” His voice was a demand and a plea at the sametime.

She nearly ran the last twenty feet and stopped inches from the bars. Elias was in front of her, so close to the bars his face nearly touchedthem.

“Open the door,” he rumbled without taking his eyes off ofher.

“Elias,” Terrick’s voice was filled with warning. “I understand what you are feeling, because I would feel the same if I was separated from Itterra. But I am still your Headmaster, and you will respectthat.”

“Open the door,” Elias said again and then added through clenched teeth, “please,Professor.”

Jax swore under hisbreath.

“Tara,” Itterra said. Tara turned and looked atHeadmistress.

Elias growled, like an honest-to-goodness growl. It nearly made Tara laugh because he didn’t seem to want her attention on anyone buthim.

“Do you feel safe with him?” the Headmistressasked.

“Tucker said a lot of things to you,” Zuri added. “Stuff that probably made you doubt Elias and Jax. I heard most of it. If you don’t feel safe, we won’t let you in there with him. He can talk to your through thebars.”

Tara gasped when her hands throbbed and didn’t stop. She turned and saw that Elias had his hands wrapped around the bars, and there was smoke coming from underneath hispalms.

“What are you doing?” she shrieked. “Stop! You’re hurting yourself.” He didn’t stop. The bars started to shake, as did the ground. She stepped forward and looked straight in his unusual sea green eyes. “It hurts me, too,” she whispered and looked down at her hands. They were becomingred.

Elias immediately released the bars and reached through them. She noticed he was very careful not to let his arm brush up againstthem.

He gently took one of her hands and held it. “Keep it there,” he said softly. When he released it, he ran his finger slowly across her palm, and warmth enveloped her hand. A second later, the throbbing was gone. Tara’s heart sped up as he did the same thing to the other hand. He’d healed her. Somehow, some way, Elias had healed the pain he hadcaused.

“I’m sorry, luv,” he said in a much different tone than he’d used when he’d spoken to Jax or Terrick. “I would never hurt you. Notintentionally.”

He was holding her now-uninjured hand in his. His thumb rubbed absently over the pulse in her wrist. “Will you please come in here? I just—” He bit his bottom lip as he seemed to try and gain control of his emotions, but Tara could feel his rage and fear and need inside of her as if she were feeling the emotions herself. “I just need to hold you,” hefinished.

And she needed to be held by him, though she didn’t say it out loud. He must have felt it because his eyes bored into hers, and she felt the tug in her chest again, much more insistent thistime.

“I feel safe with him,” Tara finallysaid.

Terrick stepped forward and raised his hand toward the bars. The first four bars swung open as one, a door disguised to appear like a seamless front. Elias released her hand, and Tara walked over to the opening, though she didn’t step into the cell. Instead, she turned and looked at the people watchingthem.

“Could you all please give us some privacy?” she asked, trying to sound respectful and not tell them that she and Elias weren’t a damn circus side show to be gawkedat.

Jax started to speak, but Itterra held up a hand to stop him. His mouth immediately snappedclosed.

“Of course,” the Headmistress said. “Someone will be back in a little while to check on you both. We can move forward from there.” Tara knew she meant they would decide if it was safe to let Elias out of thecell.

The door closed behind her with a quiet click, and in the next breath, her back was pressed to the stone wall and Elias’s lips were onhers.

* * *

Elias pressedhis hands to the stone wall on either side of Tara’s head as he pressed his lips to hers. An inner voice told him to back off. It said he was coming on way too strong. But no amount of telling himself that was having an effect. Elias pressed even closer as he felt the magic inside of him reaching for her. He’d told her that he needed to hold her, but now that she was within his reach, he didn’t trust himself not to be too rough or push too far. So, he forced himself to keep his hands on the stone wall and off ofher.

He tilted his head and sank his teeth into her bottom lip. As soon as her mouth opened in a small gasp, he slipped his tongue inside. Tara’s own moan was drowned out by Elias’s guttural growl. He ran his tongue along her own and across the roof of her mouth. She tasted like the sweetest nectar, and he drank her down as if he had every right to. Something inside of him whispered that he did. She was his. Her soul needed to be joined with his, was meant to be joined withhis.

As those thoughts wrapped around him like a comfortable blanket, he slowed the urgent kiss and savored her. The long, deep kiss turned into short kisses, gentle bites, and tentative touches of her tongue againsthis.

“I didn’t know what was wrong,” Elias said in between kisses. “I could feel your fear.” His lips left hers only to leave a trail of kisses from her chin to her cheek and down to her neck. “I could feel your confusion,” he said against her ear. “And then I felt your doubt. You doubted me.” Elias bit her neck hard enough to leave amark.

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