Page 66 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

I’m happy for you. Be safe, brother.

You too.

Aston slipped his phone back into his pocket and then pressed his hand to his chest. He’d been experiencing a throbbing in his chest ever since they’d arrived in Transylvania.

When they’d heard about the attack on the team who’d been in Michigan, Jax and Professor Fernis had decided it was pertinent they check on the portal to the dragon realm. Located in a haunted forest in Transylvania, it was the only location on earth that would take an elemental to the land of the legendary flying lizards.

Aston had done loads of research on the dragons when he’d started his Creatures of Legend class at the academy. Though he probably should have been scared to face the huge beasts, he was excited.

They had been walking in the forest for over an hour and still had not reached the supposedly haunted clearing. The farther they walked, the worse the pain in his chest became.

“Aston,” Professor Fernis said, his voice low as he leaned toward the wind elementalist, “are you all right?”

Aston couldn't speak. He was pretty sure if he opened his mouth, he was going to vomit. He nodded his head instead.

“The grimace and profuse perspiration on your forehead indicate otherwise,” the Crimson Academy professor pointed out.

Aston swallowed several times until he was sure he wouldn’t throw up all over Fernis and then spoke. “It appears that something in this forest doesn’t agree with me,” Aston admitted. “I did not want to bother anyone with it, considering the threat of dragons that will soon be staring us in the face.”

“You can’t face dragons if you are growing ill,” Professor Fernis said.

“Maybe they have an aversion to human vomit,” Aston said. “Though none of my research has indicated such a disinclination, that could simply be because the beasts have yet to come in contact with the projectile variety.”

Fernis chuckled. “Dragon death by human emesis. That would, no doubt, be a first.”

Jax stopped abruptly, and that caused the rest of the team to halt. “Let’s take a quick water break.” Everyone pulled out the water bottles they carried in their packs, and Ender, the water elementalist warrior, walked around to each of them.

Jax had explained at the beginning of their journey that having full bottles of water would simply add weight to their packs. Since Ender could pull moisture from the air to fill them, there was no reason to add to their burden by carrying full bottles.

Aston took a small sip from his bottle after Ender had filled it. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep it down and didn’t want to push his luck by drinking too much.

“You okay?” Jax asked as he stepped up in front of him.

Aston told him the same thing he’d told Professor Fernis.

“Let me know if it gets worse,” Jax told him.

“I will,” Aston said. Worst-case scenario, Aston would be sent back to Tempest Academy, but that would mean his team had one less person to help them. He didn’t want to leave them, so unless he couldn’t stand any longer, he wasn’t about to be sent home.

After a few minutes more of resting, they started off again. About thirty minutes later, the trees opened up into a circular clearing.

“Welcome to the Devil’s Heart,” Jax said as they stepped out of the cover of the forest.

“I thought you said this portal had not been accessed in a few centuries,” said Rush, one of the air elementalist warriors and soul bonded mate to Brianna, another warrior on Aston’s team.

“As far as I knew, it hadn’t been,” Professor Fernis answered.

“Well, it clearly has,” Brianna said. “The magic here is strong. Someone has used this portal recently.

Jax nodded. “Very recently.”

Aston’s eyes automatically looked up as if a dragon were going to fly overhead at any moment. Dread and excitement filled him all at once. The part of him that craved knowledge wanted to take the risk of being fried like a chicken leg dropped in a hot pot of oil, but the warrior in him recognized that a dragon wasn’t an opponent anyone should be eager to face in battle.

“What do we do now?” Colt, the other Tempest Academy student asked.

Jax took off his pack, set it down, and rested his hands on his hips. “We stand guard and wait to see if whoever opened this portal comes back.”

Aston took a seat on the ground before his exhaustion made him take one involuntarily. He felt a hand on his shoulder before a burst of power flowed into him. Aston looked up and saw Rush, holding hands with his mate, Brianna. They’d both offered him some of their power. “Thank you,” Aston said as he held out his hand to the older warrior. Rush clasped his hand around Aston’s wrist and held it for a heartbeat.

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