Page 53 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

Finally the dark fire king stopped pacing and looked at Tucker. “Let’s say I allow this plan of yours. How are you going to find them?” he asked.

Tucker tried not to smirk. It annoyed him that Viscious considered him an idiot. And he knew this because the king had called him one, among other things, when Tucker had failed in keeping Tara out of her soul bonded’s grasp. “As it so happens,” he began, “there has been talk of a battle between several light elementalists and some mountain trolls in Michigan. Apparently, there was a soul-bonded couple there that wielded the power of earth.”

“How do you know this?” Viscious asked.

“Dark elementals are worse than teenagers about gossip, and word travels fast through them,” Tucker answered. “I was working with two other acolytes yesterday and heard about it.”

Something that looked like interest suddenly flared in the king’s eyes. “I will allow you to pursue this endeavor until it appears it is not going to end in our favor.”

Tucker forced himself not to do something stupid like gloat, but on the inside, he was practically jumping for joy at the chance to get Tara back. He wouldn’t admit it to another being on earth, but he’d become obsessed with her. She fascinated him, and over the years, he had come to realize he wanted her for himself. He would move every obstacle out of his way to make that happen.

“I suggest you travel to the location of the battle. There was a reason the elementalists were that far north. There's no doubt it has something to do with the dropping temperatures,” Viscious said.

“Do you know anything about that?” Tucker asked before he could censor himself.

Viscious's eyes snapped to him. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. That’s none of your concern, boy. Never question me.”

Tucker held up his hands and took a step back. “I meant no disrespect,” he said quickly. He really wasn’t in the mood to get burned.

“You are dismissed,” Viscious said with a wave of his hand.

Tucker turned and left without another word. He let out a quick breath once the door to the dark fire king’s office was closed. He really hadn’t expected anything to come of his inquiry, except maybe some berating and possibly some bodily harm.

His day was suddenly looking up, and with any luck, he would see Tara again very soon.

Chapter 12

It had been three days since Gabby and Liam had halfway bonded on the side of a volcano. She had to admit that one day, when or if she wasn’t freaking out about it, it would be a fantastic story to tell. But at the moment, all she could think about was how the hell she was supposed to handle being soul bonded to someone.

She’d worked so hard over the years not to build any attachments. Attachments were bad. Attachments meant she could be hurt, and she was done being hurt. She’d had enough of that in the short years she’d been with her parents to last a lifetime.

Gabby had also managed to successfully avoid being alone with Liam by strategically placing herself away from him when they weren’t on an assignment. This meant when they went back to the academy each evening, she continually found other places to sleep than her dorm room.

Was she being a chicken? Absolutely. Would she probably look back and be embarrassed by her evasiveness? No. It took a lot to embarrass Gabby, and she wasn’t about to let Liam change that.

It was late when they finally got back to the academy. They’d spent the day in England, which was amazing, except for the fact she didn’t get to go sightseeing. Apparently, trying to keep the world from falling apart meant there was no time for the tourist thing. Go figure.

Despite that, Gabby found it surreal to travel to a country she’d never been to before. The past three years, she’d been nowhere other than Crimson Academy. Though it was in Indonesia, she rarely left the academy, so she wasn’t really even aware that she wasn’t actually located in the United States. Not that she missed her birth country or the slums of Chicago. There were no good memories there.

Gabby shook her head and attempted to refocus so she wouldn’t be caught unawares by Liam. Letting her mind drift back to her past would do her no good.

She took a quick shower, washing away the leftover smells of smoke from the fire they had battled all day. Dark fire elementals had decided to wreak havoc on a small village, and there had been no way the volunteer firefighters would have been able to take care of it, even if they would have had the manpower. The fire had been imbued with dark magic, and that took a little more than a thirty-year-old pumper truck to extinguish. Professor Frost mentioned the presence of dark magic meant Viscious, the dark fire king, had likely been there.

Gabby had been mesmerized by the way the fire had moved. It wasn’t some random flame that just ate up everything in its path. It moved with purpose, as if something was guiding it, which was exactly the case.

Professor Frost contacted Aviur, and he’d helped contain the blaze. Gabby had been worried the entire village was going to be burned down before they were able to stop it. Thankfully, they’d saved most of the buildings.

Now, the hot water felt good on her skin, and the familiarity of her favored tried-and-true vanilla bath products warmed the cold inside of her.

By the time she’d climbed out of the shower, toweled off, and slipped on her sleep clothes, Gabby felt like she was going to drop. She knew it would be smarter to find somewhere else to sleep, lest her soul bonded find her, but she was too tired to search out another temporary bed.

She flipped off the light and then practically crawled into her bed.

Gabby sighed and a small smile formed on her lips. “Man, I’d forgotten how comfortable sleeping in an actual bed was,” she muttered. The places she’d managed to sleep the past few nights had been much less comfortable. But what did she expect from a cupboard, behind the bleachers in the gym, and her personal favorite, a janitor's closet? At least there she’d been able to pillow her head on some packages of paper towels.

Her eyes fell closed and immediately her mind was filled with the handsome face of Liam Nash.

Gabby had to admit, he’d actually gotten less annoying over the past few days. But then, she didn’t know how much she could trust her opinion. Maybe she just thought he was less annoying because he was her soul bonded, and somehow that was skewing her view of him.

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