Page 87 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

“You have my soul. Isn’t that enough?” she asked as she turned to look at him.

“It is here, but I cannot feel it because it doesn’t belong here,” he said. “So, no, it is not enough. But evenIhave to follow certain rules. Unless I want to deal with the consequences. For you, I just might.”

Ra didn’t wait for Shelly to respond. He walked through the portal practically carrying Shelly along with him, leaving hell and its lord behind them.

16

“Shelly,” Ra said gently as he pushed her back a little so he could look at her face. “I know you want to speak with your parents, but tonight, all I can offer is for you to see them from afar. There will be too many questions that we can’t answer right now. We need one of the heads of the academies to talk to them with us. Do you understand?”

She nodded even as tears streamed down her face. “I do. I get it. I just miss them.”

“I know you do,Mery, and I would give you this if we weren’t on a deadline.”

Her eyes met his, and he saw mixed emotions there: fear, desire, insecurity, and hesitancy. For a moment, he even felt them through their shared soul. He didn’t blame her. She’d been thrown into this against her will, and it wasn’t fair to her.

“I’m sorry,” he said again because he didn’t know what else to say.

She cupped his face in her hand and shook her head. “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. You saved me.” She inhaled deeply and then took his hand. “Let’s do this, and then can we go to Tara?”

“Of course,” Ra said without pause. He would lay the world at her feet if that was what she needed. He followed her to her house. There was a small gap in the curtains of the front window, and they could see into her living room.

Shelly’s mother, who looked very much like her daughter, sat on the sofa. She was holding her phone, staring at the screen as if willing it to ring. Her eyes were tortured, her body slumped forward as if all the air had been sucked out of it.

Shelly covered her mouth as she stared at her mom.

A man came up behind the couch and placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder. She reached up and covered his hand with her own. The couple held onto one another as if they were the only thing keeping the other from falling apart.

“I need to go,” Shelly said as she turned to him.

Ra wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tucked her close as he realized how cold she was. In fact, he realized that it wasn’t just her that was cold. The air was cold, too cold for late May in Kentucky. He walked her to the trees next to her house. He opened a portal that would take them to Terra Academy.

She stopped him before he could place his hand on the stone and knock, causing doors in the mountain to open. “Ra.” Her voice was small as she looked down at her feet.

“Yes,Mery,” he said as he lifted her face so he could see her eyes.

“I’m okay, with us,” she said, her face turning a soft shade of red. “I mean, with what has to happen, um, between, I mean the thing, the…” She stammered, and Ra forced himself not to smile because he didn’t want to embarrass her.

“If the cost wasn’t you being soulless, I would have courted you as you deserve. I would… have asked you to marry me once I’d made you fall in love with me, and only then would I have joined with you.”

“I guess we sort of did it backward,” she said with a small smile.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, when two people marry, they become one, right? So, I guess we’re married because we share a soul. Now we date. Backward, but then I never have done anything normal.”

Ra leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead. He wanted to kiss her lips, but he didn’t want to have to rush their first kiss. “I’m honored to be married to you, to be one with you, and share my soul with you.”

Before Shelly could respond, there was a loud crack. Ra pulled Shelly back a few steps as they watched the mountain split, and then two stone doors opened.

“What the hell do you mean you’re honored to be married to my best friend, Ra? I told you to bring her back, not marry her. And if you tell me it’s because she’s knocked up, I might just open up a sinkhole and dump you in it,” Tara said as she glared at him. “I can do that, you know. Or at least I will be able to do it soon.” She looked Shelly up and down. “What on earth are you wearing?”

Ra glanced at Shelly and realized she was still in the gown and black robe. He wanted to know why on earth she was wearing it as well.

“I missed you, too, BFFF,” Shelly said as a smile lit up her face. “Hell’s kind of hot, so wearing flannel pj’s isn’t conducive to being comfortable.”

“I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but I’ll let it slide.” Tara pushed Ra aside and wrapped her arms tightly around Shelly.

Elias, Liam, and Aston stepped out and behind them was Terrick and Iterra.

---