Page 24 of Tamed By Air (The Nature Hunters Academy 4)

Rory rolled her eyes. “Dragons are much nicer than people. They’re honest. If they want to eat you, they don’t lie about it.”

Tucker nodded, his lips pressed tightly together. “Sounds very comforting.”

“Are we almost there?”

Tucker pointed to a stop sign at the end of the sidewalk. “Just around the corner.”

The closer they got to the stop sign, the more ominous the feeling in Rory’s gut grew. But the longer she was in Tucker’s presence, the more she felt a weird familiarity—a familiarity with something she couldn’t describe. Rory didn’t like it … at all. Then, just as quickly as that thought hit her, something else collided with her. The feeling in her chest shook her to the marrow of her bones.What the…? Rory straightened her spine and tried desperately to look like her entire world wasn’t being turned upside down. It was Aston. She could feel him as if he was right beside her with his hands on her face, forcing her to focus on him. Rory couldfeelhis soul reaching out to hers.

She wanted to scream, “I’m here.” Rory didn’t have a clue why she could feel him and, frankly, she didn’t care. All she knew was that she had to get away from Tucker and the darkness inside of him. It was drawing her in. Rory needed to be reunited with her soul bonded … now. She longed to make things right between them.

“You said Aston is staying here because he knew the Academy wouldn’t have let him leave?” Rory hoped the conversation might help her focus and keep her from doing something stupid, like running away when she had no clue where she was or where Aston was. She was sure of one thing, though. Wherever Tucker was taking her, it wasn’t to Aston.

“He’s still a student, despite also being a warrior,” Tucker explained. “And they keep tight tabs on their students, especially after the battle at Devil's Heart.”

Rory wracked her brain for something else to ask, but she was having a hard time focusing. She was battling the part of her that craved the power. She feared if she hesitated for a mere moment, the darkness in Tucker would reach out and grab her. At the same time, she was trying to focus on her soul bonded. Rory worried that if Tucker captured her, or did whatever he planned to do, she wouldn’t be able to fight the darkness for long.

“Here we are.” Tucker motioned to one of the identical houses.

She followed him up the walkway, unsure of what she should or could do. Rory figured she could put a spell on him, but she noticed that when she’d used her magic on him moments ago, it had caused the darkness within to grow.

Think Rory.

Tucker unlocked the door and pushed it open. “After you.” Tucker’s smile looked more like a leer.

Why do I feel like the dumb blonde chick in one of those horror flicks that goes outside to search for the source of a mysterious sound? No offense to blonde chicks.

* * *

“Let me get this straight.Osiris is planning to make Shelly his underworld bride, but then what is she supposed to do, rule legions of tortured souls for all eternity?” Aston sat across from Elias and Tara at Terra Academy. His leg bounced up and down relentlessly. He fought to sit still, but all he wanted to do was take action. He needed to move. Being separated from Rory and feeling like his damn soul was being ripped from his body confirmed what an idiot he’d been.

Tara nodded. “Pretty much.”

“Hanging around in hell must negatively affect the brain cells,” Gabby said. “Dude is not right in the head.”

“And Ra, I imagine, is about to lose his mind?” Aston asked.

“Well, he tried to kill a professor, set some forests on fire hoping to gain the royals’ attention, and has basically caused as much chaos as he could in his attempt to get answers,” Elias said. “So far, the powers-that-be have been very evasive as to what they are actually trying to do to get his mate back.”

“Maybe they do not know how to get her back,” Aston offered. “Osiris has complete control over the underworld. It’s not like they can just storm the gates of hell.”

“Perhaps not,” Liam said. “But there must be some way in.” He raised his eyebrows up and down. “Instead of making a grand entrance, we could be sneaky about it.”

“And by ‘we’, you mean Ra?” Aston leaned forward and attempted to keep his leg still. He felt like a junkie needing his next fix. “Since only fire elementals or elementalists can go into the underworld without becoming fried crispy.”

Gabby raised her hand. “I can go.”

“No,” Liam blurted out and slapped her hand down. “You have to remain topside and make sure I don’t do anything rash. It’s in the soul-bonded instruction manual.”

“There’s not a soul-bonded instruction manual,” Gabby said, rolling her eyes.

“Not yet.” Liam grinned. “I’m working on it.”

“You guys were supposed to be figuring out how to get me out of the dragon realm, and here I am, so what now?” Aston really didn’t care what their answer was because, no matter what, he was going after Rory.

“No.” Tara shook her head and scooted to the edge of the bed where she sat. “We were supposed to figure out how to get youandyour woman out. Only half of our mission has been accomplished.” She smiled, and he liked the determination he saw in her eyes. “Now, we complete said mission and get Rory back to you.”

Aston dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “I just hope she wants to be back with me. After the things I said, I want to kick my own ass.”

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