Page 16 of Tamed By Air (The Nature Hunters Academy 4)

“Do you have any idea which of these books I should consult?” Ra took in the sheer number of manuscripts that filled the room.

“No, but I can cast a spell that will help. It will illuminate the titles of any books predominantly dealing with demons.” Penny walked to the center of the room. “After that, it’s good old-fashioned trial and error.” Standing in front of a black velvet couch, the witch closed her eyes and began to chant silently. Ra saw her lips moving but didn’t hear any of the words. A rush of wind filled the room, and it felt cool against Ra’s hot skin. He tried to step away from it, uneasy at being touched by anyone else’s magic, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

When he glanced around the room again, he saw the words on the spines of various books now glowed a light gold, making them stand out against the others. A few others resting on the tables had the same effect. Ra ran his eyes over the room again and guesstimated there to be at least twenty-five books that contained something related to demons.

Penny opened her eyes and swiveled around until her gaze stopped on him. “Guess you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

Ra swallowed his frustration and walked to the nearest table. With a grumble, he took a seat. A few of the glowing books rested on it, and they seemed as good a place to start as any.

“I’ll retrieve the others so you don’t have to waste time with the ladder,” Penny offered.

Ra looked over at her and frowned. “That’s considerate of you.” He wondered at the witch’s change in demeanor. Much of her initial hostility seemed to have evaporated.

Penny grinned and moved to a ladder that was attached to one of the tall bookshelves. “I’m a sucker for a good love story. This girl of yours is lucky to have someone willing to go to hell for her.”

Ra clenched his teeth as he thought about Shelly. He missed her. They’d only been together a short time, and yet it seemed as if they’d been together always. He knew he could never live without her. Ra reached for the first book, and the pain he’d felt earlier returned. He used it to fuel his determination. Ra would read every book in the damn room cover to cover, if that’s what it took to get his female back. “I’m lucky to have her,” he told Penny. “And it’ll be my second trip.”

“Where did the runes come from?” Penny held up her hand, and a book flew from the shelves into it. She began flipping through the pages.

“Aviur, the light royal fire king.”

The book suddenly snapped closed, and Penny looked up. “I got nothing for those runes.”

Ra frowned. “I thought you said you might.”

“I did. But that was before I knew who put them on you.” She set the book down on the table beside her. “If a fire elemental, a royal one at that, put those on you, then only a fire elemental can take them off. And he or she might also have to be a royal. I’m not even sure it could just be any old fire elemental.”

Ra slowly turned the pages of the book he held as his eyes ran over the words. “How do you know that?”

“Because knowing things about magical beings is what keeps me safe. If my coven members had sought knowledge instead of power, then they wouldn’t be roasting their asses off in hell.”

“Can’t argue with that,” he said absentmindedly as he continued to scan the pages. Page after page he searched for anything that might tell him about demon summoning, but the book he currently held only discussedtypesof demons, not how to actually get them here. He closed it, set it aside, and picked up the next book in the stack. Ra’s muscles tensed. He realized he was going to have to call on all his patience to sit and read book after book, instead of fighting something or someone, which is what he wanted to be doing.

He had no idea what the witch was up to, nor did he really care. Ra just wanted to find what he needed and then move on to the next step, whatever that was.I’m going to kill you for taking her, Osiris. His grip tightened on the book.I’m going to kill you and accept that my place in the next life is in hell with my ancestors.Ra never thought he’d be able to come to the realization that no matter what he did, all roads still led to his ancestors. But here he was. To keep Shelly out of Osiris’s hands, it would be worth it.

ChapterFive

“There’s something wrong with me. Rage consumes my insides. It constantly gnaws at me, eating me away bit by bit. I don’t know why I’m so angry. I don’t know why or when it started. And I don’t know how to stop it. What will happen when the rage eats all of me, and it still hasn’t had its fill?” ~Rory

“Iwould say I’ve lost my reason for being, but wow. I mean, wow. That makes me sound like I’m singing one of those stupid love songs.” Rory stomped around in the cave that she had shared with Aston until a few short hours ago. Already she felt the emptiness building within her. Aston’s shining soul had chased away the emptiness. Now, it returned with a vengeance, bringing darkness in its wake. Like flesh becoming necrotic, the light within her began to perish. Rory had only thought her life had been bleak before she’d known Aston. After experiencing his presence in her life, and then having it ripped away… She was left with no hope. Despair was closing in, and Rory had no idea how to hold it off.

“Do you believe me now when I say he’s your soul bonded?” Kimba asked, her dragon lips pulled tightly across her large muzzle.

Rory glared at the dragon. “If we are soul bonded, then why couldn’t we get along? Why couldn’t we seem to connect somehow? Other than feeling the soul bond when we first met, there was just a … just a … just amessbetween us.” She flung out her hands in front of her. “It was like a rope, full of knots and kinks that we couldn’t undo.”

Kimba snorted, and smoke billowed from her snout. She’d managed to wedge her sizeable form into the entrance of the cave so that her neck and shoulders were within the opening and her rump and tail hung out over the cliff edge. Her scales currently had a brown hue to them as she sat close to the dark cave walls, and it gave her a somewhat sinister appearance. “Did you seriously think that just because you were fated for one another by the royals that it wouldn’t take work?”

“I don’t know.” Rory huffed, and her shoulders rolled forward. “I mean, I’ve hadsomany good relationships in my life you’d think I would know exactly what to expect.”

Kimba rolled her pale blue eyes the size of cantaloupes. “Sarcasm is not becoming. You have a brain, Rory. You’re far from dumb. What was really going on?”

Rory dropped to the ground, hitting her butt hard and blowing out a whoosh of air. She pulled her knees up and rested her elbows on them. Her mind drifted back to the past two weeks and how she and Aston had interacted. Then she thought about the fight they’d had.

They’d both said some very unfair and unkind things. And though she knew she shouldn’t have said them, there was a part of her that still wanted to attack him even more. Rory wanted to feel justified for her feelings, whether they were legitimate or not.

“What iswrongwith me?” She rested her forehead against her arms. “I don’t understand why a part of me wants him so badly, but another part of me is so furious with him. And the part of me that’s furious with him is winning.”

“Hmm.” Kimba appeared to ponder Rory’s words. “When you brought Aston here,” the dragon began, “how did you feel?”

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