Page 2 of Tamed By Air (The Nature Hunters Academy 4)

Shelly couldn’t help herself. It was as if someone else had taken over her body. All reason left her. She felt as if she was watching someone else lean into Osiris. Her lips moved closer, a hair’s breadth from his ear. “Ra,” she whispered, breathing out her mate’s name like a prayer, but also a dare to the devil himself. Perhaps it wasn’t her brightest moment.

He pulled back to look into her eyes. His jaw clenched. Shelly could practically feel his body vibrating as his eyes danced with the flames of his rage. She’d gone too far. She knew at any minute he would whip out a knife and slash it across her throat, just as he had done to Zuri. Then he’d drop her to the ground and laugh while she bled out onto the hardwood floors of his immaculate home. The last thing Shelly would see would be Osiris’s mocking face. Her chest barely rose and fell as she struggled to breathe. Shelly’s body suddenly felt heavy, as if any attempt at movement would be futile. She waited. One heartbeat, two, three. But the knife never came. Nor did any other expression of rage she expected.

The heat of Osiris’s breath fanned across her face when he finally spoke, the words coming with a calm determination that scared her more than any scream of rage he could have issued. “If it is the last thing I ever do in my great existence, I will convince you tochooseme.” Then his hand gripped her arm, firmly but not painfully. In an instant, she materialized in her own room—her prison. But Osiris wasn’t there. He’d released her and disappeared. To where? Shelly couldn’t even guess.

Her eyes roamed over the room, and she sighed. A bed, covered in black and white pillows and a soft black comforter, dominated the center of the room. Rich, black tapestries hung from the walls. Black—are you beginning to see a pattern here?—silky curtains hung over the windows, which weren’t actually windows at all, but illusions of some kind.Thank goodness.The last thing Shelly wanted was a view of the fire and brimstone outside. Instead, Shelly had discovered, the landscape beyond the windows showed whatever the person looking outward wanted to see at that moment. The first time Shelly had peered through the window, she’d seen the grounds of Terra Academy. Upon seeing the school, she’d fallen to the floor and cried for an hour. Shelly knew the image hadn’t been real, but she’d so desperately wanted it to be. When Osiris came to fetch her the next morning, she’d asked about the windows. After a mirthless chuckle, he’d explained why she’d seen the image. Since then, she’d kept the curtains closed. She didn’t want to sit and stare longingly at what she couldn’t have. Self-torture wasn’t exactly her thing. Unless it was Ra doing the torturing, and he was deliciously teasing her body. That was a kind of torture she could happily endure forever. “Don’t go there, Shelly,” she said out loud. Every time she thought about the man she loved, the headache or the chest pain increased.

Not thinking about Ra was next to impossible. Thankfully, her room contained a large bookshelf, made of black wood, of course, filled with books that helped distract her. But the respite was never for very long. No matter what she tried to read, from romance novels to self-help books—why in the world did the devil have self-help books?—her mind would eventually drift back to Ra.

Shelly’s room connected to a lavish bathroom, which contained a bathtub the size of a small swimming pool. She’d used the tub on the first day of her arrival and realized it never ran out of hot water. She’d rolled her eyes. Of course, hellwouldhave an endless supply of hot water. Running out of heated water here would be like Antarctica running out of ice.

Shelly walked to the bed and sat. “What would Ra do?” It wasn’t lost on her that she’d begun to talk out loud even when she was alone. “He’d unleash a tornado of ass-whipping all over these demons.” She sighed. “But he has all sorts of power, both the fire and pharaoh kind.” Shelly flopped back on the bed, gritting her teeth as she growled. She stared up at the ceiling as agony filled her head. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it was trying to escape the confines of her body.

She turned her thoughts toward Tara and Gabby, wondering what her friends were doing. Shelly knew Tara would be going out of her mind. Even though Tara showed little emotion toward her, Shelly knew her best-freaky-friend-forever (BFFF) loved her. Tara would have kicked her to the curb a long time ago if she didn’t care about Shelly. Then her mind turned down a new alley. She thought about Aston, who had been kidnapped by some tough-ass looking chick riding a dragon. Shelly had to admit the woman looked cool as hell riding the beast, and Shelly would be lying if she said she wasn’t just a little jealous. Who doesn’t want to ride a dragon? She wondered if Aston was okay and if “dragon chick” was holding him as a prisoner, too. During the battle at the Devil’s Heart, she remembered the girl saying something about Aston being hers. Did that mean they were … soul bonded?Weird.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” she told the ceiling. “But how?” The ceiling did not help. She wished some magic writing would appear there, telling her what to do. But the ceiling remained frustratingly blank.

Shelly rolled to her side and propped herself up on an elbow. She wondered how long Osiris would be pissed this time. It had become a hobby of hers to push his buttons, and each time she thought he’d kill her, he simply took her back to her room and left her. Her stomach growled. Moments later, as if on cue, a tray full of food appeared on her bed. It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Whenever she felt hungry, food would appear. Somehow Osiris knew when she needed to eat. She’d come to expect it, though the first time it had happened, she’d almost fallen off the bed. Of course, the offered meal wasn’t merely a sandwich and a glass of water. The food Osiris provided looked and tasted as if it had been cooked in a five-star restaurant. The exquisite aromas filled the air, and her mouth watered as she stared at the deliciousness before her.

She reached for a buttery roll and inwardly berated herself. She felt guilty for eating the food, as if it was a sign of acceptance of her circumstances. But it wasn’t. Shelly ate because starving herself would be stupid. An awesome escape plan was sure to pop into her mind any day now. And she couldn’t escape if she was weak from hunger. With that conviction running through her, Shelly ate until her stomach couldn’t take anymore. Then she grabbed the book she’d been reading—a shifter romance that made her blush a bit at times. She’d let herself escape into a different kind of supernatural world, one where she wasn’t the bride-to-be of the devil, and hell wasn’t her home.

ChapterOne

“So, how did you two meet?”

Oh, you know, just like everyone else does, I guess. She flew over me while riding a dragon that snatched me up in its talons … and the rest is history … said absolutely no one ever. Until me.” ~Aston Spence

“Is he your captive or your mate?” Kimba asked. The surrounding air was chilly, so Rory leaned against the dragon, soaking in the warmth emanating from the beast’s body. The iridescent scales seemed to take on the same hue as whatever colors Kimba was near. They radiated heat like a perfect campfire, just enough to warm Rory, but not enough that she had to keep rotating like a rotisserie chicken.

“What kind of question is that?” Rory replied. The dragon had become her best friend, not that she’d had many options to choose from. There were no other humans in the dragon realm, and Rory wouldn’t have befriended them anyway. Unlike humans, dragons were trustworthy. Their actions and words could contain no deceit. Kimba had explained that honesty was simply woven into their DNA. Much like Rory was born with magic, Kimba had been born with truthfulness.

Rory gazed at the landscape below. The view from the mountain took her breath away, just as it had done all the months ago when she’d first arrived. This had become one of her favorite spots of contemplation. Mostly she thought about the task she’d been given by Danni, the high priestess of the Cornwall coven. Until recently, Rory had thought the woman was her mother.

Rory and Danni had traveled to the dragon realm. For what purpose, Danni had refused to say until they arrived. The truth, when it was finally revealed, was so repulsive Rory had fled. She’d found the exit from the dragon realm blocked by Danni’s magic. It wasn’t the first time the Cornwall high priestess had done something questionable as a mother, but Rory wanted Danni’s approval so badly that she’d once again blindly followed the woman.

“It’s a legitimate question,” Kimba answered. “Two weeks has passed since you abducted him.”

“Relocatedhim,” Rory interjected. “I relocated Aston. And then I introduced myself. I didn’t abduct him. Abducted just sounds dirty. And for the record, you were the one who said he needed to be saved, and you were the one who took your wicked claws and snatched him up.”

The dragon made a noise in her snout, which sounded to Rory like a human guffawing. “By saved, I didn’t mean hold hostage for a day or even a week. And you are one to complain about being dirty. I know you completed the bond. And the human mating ritual isn’t exactly acleanactivity. ”

“Ugh.” Rory groaned. “I should never have told you that. And what do you know about human mating, anyway?”

“I know enough. And you didn’t have to tell me. I could smell him on you from a mile away. He smells like clean air, unpolluted by any unnatural chemicals. He also smells like lust. Pheromones and all that.”

Rory glanced at the dragon and pursed her lips. “That’s just wrong. Sometimes I wonder why we’re friends.”

Kimba’s lips turned up into what Rory had come to recognize as a smile, though it was an expression that would likely make those unfamiliar with the dragon flee in terror. “Because I’m the only one that didn’t immediately threaten to eat you when you first arrived.”

Rory shrugged. “You’re not wrong.”

Kimba shifted her large body and lightly bumped Rory’s shoulder. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“He’s my mate, obviously.” Rory said finally. “If Aston was my captive, then that would mean he’s too weak to break free. I don’t go for weak males.” She felt a sharp pain in her chest and rubbed at the place over her heart. She’d noticed when she was away from Aston, especially for long stretches of time during the day, that her body ached and something inside of her prodded her to return to him. The impulse only made her want to stay away longer. Giving into the pull meant that the sensation—thathe—controlled her. After Danni’s deceit, Rory had vowed that nothing and no one would control her again.

Kimba’s warm breath fanned over Rory. “If he’s not your prisoner, then why are you two still here?”

Rory climbed to her feet, careful to push herself back so that when she stood, she wouldn’t topple forward and plunge to her death. Even if she fell, Rory was pretty sure Kimba would save her.Maybe. Judging by the irritation that laced the dragon’s voice, Rory didn’t want to bet on it. “I asked him to stay.” Rory crossed her arms over her chest as if she could somehow hold herself together. Ever since she and Aston had completed the bond, she felt as if she was coming apart at the seams.Shouldn’t I be feeling better, not worse?Rory felt like a raggedy stuffed bear being pulled in two directions by equally determined toddlers. She fought back the urge to either scream at the sky or burst into tears. Rory wasn’t exactly sure which she wanted to do more.

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