Page 19 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

“The only thing worse than being bonded to a chick is beingcondedby a chick.”

Tara snorted. “That was just bad. Like, cheesy bad, not even funny bad.”

The water elementalist didn’t seem offended in the least. He simply grinned and winked at her.

“You are correct, Liam,” Kiari said, interrupting Elias and Liam’s banter. “It is the soul bonded who are safe from ever going dark.”

“Am I the only one who feels like we are starring in a dystopian TV miniseries?” Tara muttered. “Going dark, soul bonded, dark forces trying to bring about the end of mankind as we know it.”

“Don’t forget being conded. That one is the real kicker,” Liam added in a completely serious tone.

Elias wondered, not for the first time, why on earth they hadn’t pushed Liam off a cliff by now.

“What else can you tell us?” Nasima asked, clearly not interested in anything the students had to say, which Elias completely understood because once Liam got started, it was hard to shut him down.

“I’m not exactly sure how the spell worked,” Dhara explained. “I just saw it as a memory from Alaric’s point of view. The only reason I know it took all of the dark elementals to concoct the magic is because I could feel each of their magic within the mass of smoke. The dark fire king had disguised himself so that Alaric could not tell who it was.”

“I still don’t see how their magic would have stripped us of knowledge … or whatever it is they did.” Aviur growled. “There has to be something we’re missing.”

Tara didn’t knowif she should say anything or not, considering she’d been in this world less than a day. But she’d never been particularly good at holding her tongue when she should. “Aren’t there other magical beings in the world besides the elementals?”

Every head in the room turned to look at her, and she wondered if she looked like a cartoon character as she silently blinked, staring back at them.

“I mean… It seems, you know, that there would be other things that had magic, too,” she said, stumbling along under the scrutiny of so many people who knew much more than she did.

It was Alaric who finally answered her. “There are,” he said as he wrung his hands nervously. After watching how jittery the guy was, Tara decided he needed something more than retirement because it had done nothing to make him stress-free. And wasn’t that what retirement was for?

“There is power beyond what the elementals hold,” he continued. “I guess some might call it magic, but it is really spiritual power from ancient demons that are summoned by those who think to control them and use their power as their own.”

“Are we talkingLord of the Ringsdemons as in ‘You shall not pass’?” Tara asked. She started to chew on her bottom lip. For some reason,ancient demonsseemed much more ominous thandark elementals.

“Why do you get the cool chick as your soul bonded?” Liam whined. “She knows fantasy movies, dude. That’s not even your kind of thing.”

Tara’s eyes widened as she looked up at Elias, the whole ancient demon thing momentarily forgotten. “You don’t likeLord of the Rings?”

Elias glared at Liam over her shoulder. “Thanks, you git.” He looked back down at her. “I like it just fine. I’m just more of aStar Warskind of nerd and not so much of a hobbit nerd. The point is, we are obviously both nerds in some way. Isn’t that what matters?”

“I think it was the ancient demons and unknown spells that matter,” Aston said without an ounce of sarcasm.

The dude was serious about staying on task, Tara thought as she turned back to Alaric. She and Elias would revisit his lack of hobbit love later. “My question stands,” she said to the retired Master.

“I have read the books, so I know of the demon you speak of. Yes, this is similar to that, only the demon here uses the one who summons it as a conduit.”

“So they become a puppet for the demon?” Tara asked.

“In a way. The demon can actually inhabit the body, or it can simply control the mind without invading the body,” Alaric explained.

“The dark elementals wouldn’t have been able to use demon power unless they used a human,” Aston said.

“Why?” Tara asked.

“Because elementals can’t summon demons,” he said. “Only humans can summon the evil ones from the underworld.”

“But elementals can travel to the underworld?” Tara asked.

Aston nodded. “Only fire elementals or elementalists. Though their fire is different than that of hell’s, they are much more resilient to hell’s heat and fire than the rest of us.”

Tara tilted her head slightly as she took in the air elementalist. His eyes showed sharp intelligence, and it was obvious he was very knowledgeable. “How do you know so much?” she asked.

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