Page 19 of Tamed By Air (The Nature Hunters Academy 4)

“What am I supposed to do?” Aston asked out loud.Perhaps a squirrel will answer me because I’m clueless.“That’s just dumb, dude,” he muttered to himself. “A squirrel? Really?” He was starting to believe that, along with his soul bonded, he had also left some brain cells behind in the dragon realm.

Aston ran a hand through his hair as his frustration rose.Am I losing my grip on reality? Who the hell thinks a squirrel will answer a question? Or even speak, for that matter?“Elias would say a ‘nutter,’ that’s who,” he answered his unspoken question out loud. Aston was hungry, thirsty, and had no idea what to do. He could leave. He could open a portal and return to the academy and his friends. But then he’d be far from Rory. At least if Aston was here, he was as near to her as he could get in this realm. But trudging through the woods in circles wasn’t accomplishing anything. If he went back to Tempest Academy, then he could get his brothers to help him figure out what he needed to do.

He walked back to where the portal had been and stared at the empty space. “Dammit,” Aston growled, his hands fisting at his sides. He knew he couldn’t stay here. He had to figure out a way to get her back. Kimba had essentially kicked him out of the realm and didn’t seem inclined to let him back in. But maybe one of the headmasters or elementals would help him. There had to be a way. Ra had gone through hell for his soul bonded, for goodness’ sakes. Surely Aston could get into the damn dragon realm.

He didn’t feel any better despite having made a decision, but it was all he could do at the moment. Aston turned and held out his hand. A portal opened, and he put one leg through. He glanced over his shoulder one last time. “I’ll be back.” He shoved every ounce of determination he could muster into those words. Then Aston stepped through the portal and onto the lawn of Tempest Academy.

As soon as the portal closed behind him, a gust of wind hit his stomach like a fist and knocked the air out of him. He hit the ground, landing on his knees and then fell forward onto his hands. Aston dug his fingers into the soil, attempting to gain control of his own power. The force that had struck him was his own magic, literally fighting against him. Then he heard a wailing cry in his mind and realized the sound was his soul, once again crying out for his bonded. He was pretty sure there could be nothing more agonizing than being separated from the one who completed him. Take a limb, rip out his heart, break every bone in his body. All of them sounded more appealing than this relentless barrage of blows to his stomach, daggers through his chest, and what felt like hammers pounding in his brain. He thought the pain had been bad when he’d been in the Devil's Heart forest. That was a cakewalk compared to this.

“Please,” Aston muttered as his forehead pressed to the ground. He pulled a breeze to himself and sent his words through the air, focusing his power on Elias. Aston had sent messages to his brothers using the wind before but didn’t know if it would work this time. He felt so weak, and his power wasn’t exactly being cooperative. “Elias. Tempest.” It was all he could say because once again the air was knocked from his lungs, and he fell over onto his side. Pulling his knees up to his chest, Aston imagined he looked like a child attempting to hide from a monster in his closet. And perhaps he was trying to hide. But he couldn’t hide from his own soul. He pictured Rory in his mind and wished she was there so he could hold her, so he could take comfort in just having her near. “There should be a support group for soul bonded,” he said to the empty field. “There’s no way we’re going to come out on the other side of this and be sane, rational, functioning elementalists.”

“If a support meeting is what you need, then we will do that.”

Okay, so he’d thought there was no one around to answer him. He rolled over and found Elias, Tara, Liam, and Gabby standing next to an open portal.

“Although I imagine it wouldn’t do a lot of good,” Tara said. “I’ve experienced what it’s like to be separated from your soul bonded, Aston. I get it. We will help you in any way we can.”

“We’ve been working on a plan to get you two out of the dragon realm,” Liam said, his lips turning up in one of his cheeky smiles. “Looks like at least half of our problem is solved. Though Gabs was convinced that your dragon woman was holding you captive and doing wicked things to you.”

“I wish.” Aston coughed as he tried to breathe through another wave of pain.

They walked over to him, and Elias held out his hand. Aston grabbed it and let Elias help him to his feet. He put his hands on Aston’s shoulder, pulling him into a tight hug. “Bloody hell, mate. It’s good to see you.” His British brother’s accent was thick with emotion, and Aston couldn’t help choking up as he hugged Elias back.

He didn’t know when he’d started crying, but Aston didn’t care if everyone saw the tears streaking down his face. He’d missed his family. He knew they’d support him and be willing to help him. Aston had just needed to see them again to be reminded of that.

When Elias released him, Liam was there next and also drew him into a hug, giving him a hard pat on the back. “You scared the shit out of us. Don’t do that again.”

“I’d give anything to be snatched up by a dragon at the moment,” Aston told him as he released Liam and then looked to both the females. He didn’t offer to hug them. There was only one female’s touch he wanted.

“It’s good to see you, Aston.” Tara’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. Elias took her hand and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. No doubt his need to comfort his mate was an overwhelming need. Aston couldn’t stop the jealousy he felt.

“I’m glad you didn’t become ash,” Gabby added, though her eyes held a softness he’d only seen a few times since knowing her. She wasn’t one to give out her emotions freely, but he could see she cared.

“Where is Ra?” Aston asked. Keeping his mind busy was going to be the only thing that would keep Aston from doing what his soul had warned against—curling up on the ground like a pile of crap.

“He’s working on figuring out a way to get Shelly back,” Elias answered.

“Shelly’s gone?” Aston frowned. What had he missed after Rory had taken him?

“We have some catching up to do,” Liam said. “But I think we can do it somewhere other than the grounds of Tempest Academy.”

Elias nodded and opened a portal. Aston could see it was Elias’s room. “We will do everything we can to help you get your female. You’re not the only one who needs her.”

Aston’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

Elias motioned toward the portal. “Let’s talk, brother.”

ChapterSix

“There’s a saying: evil never rests. And for the most part, I agree. However, they might add to the saying that some evil never rests because it is so dumb that it continually makes mistakes. Evil cannot rest because it is constantly trying to fix its own screwups. Otherwise, it would be easily destroyed by its enemies. Being dumb takes up a lot of time. Unfortunately that saying, though more accurate, doesn’t sound quite so sinister … which is a pity.” ~Viscious

“You all are acting like a bunch of whipped pups.” Viscious, the dark fire king, snarled as he stared out of the window. Hundreds of feet above the city of sin, he stared down at the humans that scuttled about as if they had somewhere important to be. Their lives were pathetic. He couldn’t understand why they’d be in such a rush to perform such insignificant tasks. He turned his gaze back to the other royals in his office, dark ones hethoughtwere powerful. Looking at them now, he didn’t see power. He saw defeat.

“What would you like us to do?” Lamia, the dark air queen, asked. “We had our asses handed to us by the light ones. And we had a powerful demon, a coven of witches, and all our acolytes working with us.”

“Viscious is right,” Nimue said. The dark earth queen, Viscious noted, was looking especially irritated since the battle. Her brow was constantly furrowed, and her lips were drawn tightly across her face, giving her features a harsh quality.

Radagast, the dark water king, leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on the mahogany table. His hands steepled in front of him as he chewed on his bottom lip. It was an annoyingly human behavior that Viscious wanted to burn out of him. But, alas, he had to play nice … for now.

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