Page 63 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

“I was trying to make it easier for you,” he told her. “I knew you were having a hard time. I could feel it here.” He pressed his hand to his chest. “Every step I took away from your door made it harder to breathe. So, as soon as you were in your room, I just came back and sat on the floor and slept there. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have slept at all.”

“I didn’t know,” she said, feeling stupid that she hadn’t paid attention to the weird bond between them. They couldn’t hear each other's thoughts, at least not unless they were doing the whole “sharing their magic and touching stuff,” and, wow, that sounded dirty. But it was something close to that. When she paid attention, Tara could get a good idea of what he was thinking. But when her emotions were all over the place, it was hard for her to pay attention to him. “I thought you were fine. I was a freaking wreck, and it seemed like you were having no trouble at all.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me about it?” he asked.

“Because I didn’t want to bethatgirl.”

“What girl?”

“Thatgirl,” she huffed. “You know, the one who clings to her guy like a baby monkey on its mom’s back and screams when he walks away.”

He grinned. “That’s quite the description.”

She hit his arm. “Shut up.”

“Promise me you’ll talk to me. Don’t make assumptions about me or yourself. Okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Elias,” Zuri called out. Tara could tell Zuri was done waiting.

“I’ll be okay,” Tara tried to reassure him although she was nervous about being around any elementalists other than the three guys she’d been around for a week.

“If at any point you are uncomfortable, you let Zuri know.” His grin was gone and his eyes were narrowed, still swirling with his inner storm.

“I will.”

He took her face in his hands and, without hesitation, pressed his lips to hers. Tara figured it would be a quick kiss, but Elias had other plans. He kissed her so thoroughly that she completely forgot they had an audience. Her arms rose of their own accord and wrapped around his neck so she could pull him closer. Tara heard a soft groan from him and nearly smiled, but then he moved his hand to grip her hair, and all thoughts of smiling left.

“Is he trying to eat her face?” a voice Tara didn’t recognize asked.

She pulled away with a gasp as heat rushed to her face.

“You just had to open your mouth,” Liam said, sounding like a child who’d just dropped his ice cream.

“What?” the other voice asked. “Youlikewatching that?”

“It’s better if you don’t ask questions you really don’t want the answers to,” Aston spoke up.

“Tara, let’s go. Now,” Zuri practically growled.

She backed out of Elias’s arms and gave him a reassuring smile as she walked toward Zuri. “Have fun,” Tara said to him and then looked at Aston. “Take care of him, yeah?”

Aston nodded. “I got him.”

“Don’t I get a kiss?” Liam called out. She heard a grunt and knew Elias had probably slugged his water elementalist friend.

“Liam has a death wish,” Zuri muttered.

“Pretty much,” she agreed.

“We’re not doing this to punish you two or torture you,” Zuri told her.

“I know,” Tara said.

“It’s not just that we think you need to learn how to work with others besides the three stooges. We need to see how you both respond to being apart as well. We need to know how far apart you can be before things get too intense for one or both of you.”

Tara didn’t say anything because she didn’t know what to say. She understood the professors were trying to learn more about the soul bonding because, apparently, what they had known was gone, thanks to some demon and meddling witches.

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