Page 25 of Tamed By Air (The Nature Hunters Academy 4)

“Would you feel better if Elias and I kicked it for you?” Liam smirked “Because we’re totally willing to help you out, brother. We always got your back.”

Aston halfway smiled. “Thanks, but I think I’ll give my soul bonded the privilege of setting me straight.”

“What I don’t understand,” Elias cut in, “is how could you guys say those things? They weren’t true, and soul bonded cannot lie to one another.”

Aston shook his head and looked back up at the group. They were watching him closely. “Honestly, it felt like there was something pushing us. I’m not using it as an excuse for what I said, but seriously, guys, we weren’t ourselves. Either of us. There was a heaviness attempting to drown me. My blood boiled inside of me despite the fact that I didn’t want rage to consume me.” Aston blew out a sharp breath. “I knew what I said was irrational, but I couldn’t keep my damn mouth shut.”

“While you were there, did you learn anything about her past?” Gabby asked. “There’s a reason you two are soul bonded. And it’s not because of some romantic story about singing animals and an enchanted forest.”

Aston thought back to the research he’d done on the soul bonded when Elias had met Tara. Gabby was right. Soul bonds happened because of a deep tragedy that tore, or shattered, the soul of one of the individuals. “To be honest”—he dropped his eyes—“we didn’t spend all that much time talking.”

“My boy!” Liam held his fist in the air.

Aston’s eyes widened. Gabby went from sitting neutrally next to her mate to moving so fast he barely saw that she grabbed a dagger from her thigh and pressed it to Liam’s throat. It happened in a matter of seconds. Liam’s eyes, however, didn’t betray the least bit of surprise. He lowered his fist and batted his eyelashes at Gabby.

“You know how much I like it when you whip out the sharp objects, baby.” Liam gave her a flirty smile.

“Are you done being a perverted tween boy with no self-control?” The hand clutching the blade didn’t move.

Liam leaned forward into the sharp dagger and nodded. “I’ll behave.” A trickle of blood ran down his throat, and Aston noted several other scabbed-over marks. Apparently this was a regular occurrence for the couple. Gabby snatched the blade away just as fast as she’d pulled it out. “For now,” Liam added as Gabby wiped the blood from his neck, glaring at him all the while.

Aston cleared his throat, trying not to think too hard about the peculiar scene he’d just witnessed. “It’s not like that,” he told Liam. “When I say we didn’t talk much, I mean we didn’t interact much at all … in any way.”

Tara threw out her hands. “Then what in the world have you been doing for the past two weeks? And please don’t tell me you were interviewing dragons or gathering some sort of data about the dragon realm.”

Aston shook his head. “I mean, sure, there was a bit of that. It was a fascinating place. But I’m more fascinated by Rory. I just…” He shrugged his shoulders, and it felt as if the weight of the world settled there. “I didn’t know what to do.” Aston explained how he and Rory had only seen each other at night and even then they rarely spoke about anything. If they did, their conversations were surface level at best. He shared more than Rory, telling her about his friends and the academies, but she was closed off. And she never went into detail about her past.

“Aston,” Tara said gently. A small piece of him resented the pity in her voice.

“I know I was a fool, Tara,” he began.

“No.” She sliced her hand through the air as if she could wipe his words. “That’s not what I was going to say. Not even close to it.” She leaned toward him. “You’re beating yourself up about not knowing how to manage a soul-bonded relationship. But you’re forgetting that plain ol’ human dating relationships are hard enough.”

“What would you know about human dating relationships?” Elias tugged a piece of her hair.

“Hush, Neanderthal.” She pushed away his hand. “You were put in an impossible situation, Aston, under extremely stressful conditions. You need to cut yourself some slack.”

“Besides,” Gabby added, “did either of you die?” She waited, but no one responded. “No, no one died. So, see? Nothing that can’t be fixed.”

“I think we need to talk about why the ‘did anyone die’ argument isn’t always the best way to go.” Liam rubbed a hand down Gabby’s thigh.

“It’s effective,” Gabby said. “Because it’s true. If no one is dead, then the problem can be fixed. Dead is the only thing you can’t fix.”

“She’s nottechnicallywrong,” Tara said.

Liam pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t encourage her.”

“Getting back to the matter at hand,” Elias huffed. “When you left the dragon realm, you said Kimba, Rory’s dragon friend, helped you?”

“Yes. We lived in a cave on a mountainside. Rory was attempting to bring down the mountain,” he explained.

“Wow. Witch has got some power. We totally need her on our side,” Gabby said.

Tara nodded. “Agreed.”

Elias ignored the girls and kept his eyes focused on Aston’s. “If she was trying to bring down the mountain, was she trying to kill you or just prevent you from leaving?”

“The former would accomplish both,” Gabby said. “And seeing as how the chick is riding dragons and snatching up hot elementalists at the same time, she strikes me as the type of girl who likes to kill two birds with one stone.”

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