elemental 04 - cyclone (3 page)

“There has been some discussion about the possibility of you becoming the ruler for your element—the Regina Sylphaea. I’m sure you’re aware the elders have never been quite…confident of your ability to remain a stable elemental, which is of vital importance for such a role in our world. As a result, one of the elders wanted me to advise you that your testing, your trials, will be much more rigorous than the average.” Aira sipped at her tea, considering the importance of what the man was saying. She forced herself to count to five slowly before she reacted.

“I can appreciate the doubts. I know my grandmother had her own concerns about my stability.” She met the man’s gaze steadily.

“There is also a bit of concern that has arisen over the fact that they are on the verge of making a decision as to who should rule your element. There are several families—and individuals from families—that have a vested interest in either your ascension to the position, or your removal from consideration.” Aira heard the oblique warning in the man’s voice. “It’s good that you have Aiden and Dylan for the purpose of your protection. But be advised, you will need to remain alert, especially if you are away from your grandmother’s property.” 

“I am actually planning on leaving and returning to my other home within a few days. Would you advise me against it?” 

Daley shrugged slightly, sipping his own tea. “Even staying here, you would need to remain alert. There’s a great deal of protective magic here, but I’m afraid the elders feel you’re not even safe on this property.” 

Aira set her jaw. 

“The shift in the balance of power puts many of the top elemental families on edge—they’ve become comfortable in their influence. A new ruler of the air element will quite likely change the kind of authority they have.” 

Aira nodded, even though she didn’t quite understand. 

“Please be careful in your travels. And keep the other advisory about your trials and testing in mind as well. It’s nothing personal, Aira.” 

She raised an eyebrow. “Generally when someone feels the need to tell me it’s nothing personal, that’s an indication that something very personal indeed is intended.” 

Daley chuckled slightly. “To answer the question you haven’t let yourself ask yet, I am a water elemental,” Daley said, standing abruptly. “The next messenger you receive from the elders—and every one after that—will be an air elemental.” He glanced at the two brothers. “Regardless of Aira’s ultimate fate—whether she will become the ruler of her element or not—the elders appreciate the care you’ve taken in protecting her.” 

Aira felt a sharp, sudden suspicion. They were her bodyguards, but were Aiden and Dylan also there to monitor her? To help make the decision as to whether she was an unstable elemental—irredeemably so? She suppressed the idea, standing to shake Daley’s hand before he left. She had a great deal of food for thought.

C
HAPTER
3

WITHIN A FEW DAYS, AIRA, Aiden and Dylan were ready to leave the house. There had been details to take care of regarding her grandmother’s estate and there would be ongoing details related to it, but the attorney assured Aira as long as she was reachable by phone or email, she didn’t need to actually be present. It was a relief. With the looming threat of her trials and testing hanging over her head, there was something mildly oppressive about her grandmother’s house. She would feel more comfortable in her own apartment. 

Aira had made certain the items each of her family members were supposed to have from the house were in their hands by the evening before she planned to leave. The morning of her departure was spent making sure the house was properly shut down for a long absence. While she would have to return later in the year, probably more than once, she didn’t know when that would be. So she, Aiden, and Dylan went around making sure that the garden was in a stable state—though Aira thought with a stab of guilty conscience, it would likely be overrun with weeds by the time she returned. They set everything to vacation mode, adjusting the thermostat, unplugging things that wouldn’t need to be used, and programming the water heater. Aiden had purchased timers for the electrical sockets from the hardware store to program some of the lights inside of the house to come on for several hours in the evening, shutting of automatically, to make some indication of life for any would-be burglars. The security lights outside were on automatic as well. 

The house was fairly weather-proofed, so with a few cleaning chores, they finished closing down the house for the several months Aira would be away. In the early afternoon, Aira found herself in a position that was becoming all too familiar: having to choose which of the two brothers she would ride with first. It seemed to Aira that it didn’t matter if one of the cars was hers; Aiden always took up his position in her car, leaving the vehicle he and Dylan both owned to his brother. Aira was feeling restless. 

“Look, let’s just flip a coin and I’ll go with whoever wins,” she said, feeling her irritation rise. She wanted to ride with Dylan—he was a more pleasant companion for the trip—but she didn’t enjoy the idea of being out of her own car. 

Dylan produced a quarter and flipped it; Aiden called heads and lost. Aira loaded the last of her luggage into the other car, feeling irritated in spite of the fact that the coin toss had been her idea. She knew it was perverse of her to want to be in her own car no matter what, but that didn’t stop her from commenting on the issue to Dylan. 

“Why is it always Aiden who gets my car?” she asked as she buckled herself into the passenger seat. “Doesn’t it ever bother you?” 

Dylan shrugged, buckling in and starting the car. “Your car would be more likely to be attacked. Aiden’s more solid in his abilities than I am, so he can handle an attack a little better. Also, this is our car—it’s kind of nice to be the one who drives it most. That’s not usually the case when he and I have to share something.” 

Aira rolled her eyes. “Sometimes the degree to which you’re willing to go along with Aiden is annoying.” 

Dylan chuckled. “Oh trust me, when it comes to things that are important to me, I’m fully aware that water beats fire every time.” 

Aira plugged in her phone and scrolled through her music. “At least you have the decency to enjoy the same music I do,” she said, selecting a slightly melancholy Elliott Smith album and turning it on. A memory flitted through her mind—Aiden, in the moments before they had had sex together, telling her that she could listen to whatever she wanted except for Elliott Smith. Aira blushed and shook the image from her mind. As they pulled away from her grandmother’s house, Aira was almost surprised to realize how much she was going to miss the place. Even if it had begun to become slightly oppressive to her, reminding her of her grief and uncertainty, it had a homelike feel to it Aira knew she would never find anywhere else. It was comforting to know she could come back to it whenever she wanted.

At the first rest stop they came to, Dylan and Aiden informed Aira she would be switching cars; it was no longer a request or an option, it was a necessity. Aira’s temper flared at both men. 

“What do you mean, I have to switch cars? If I want to take over driving from Dylan, I can do that.” She looked from Aiden to Dylan, deciding that in spite of knowing both men were responsible for the demand, it was Aiden she was more irritated at—even if it was for no other reason than she was generally frustrated with him. Her feelings towards him were a confusing welter of affection and resentment, fear and lust. 

“It’s not the same situation as before,” Aiden said firmly. “People aren’t just going to be wanting you to marry into their families; they’re going to want you dead. And more of them now than before you became a contender for the elemental throne. Now you’re going to have air elementals after you too.” 

Aira clenched her teeth, her annoyance at the situation rising. The air began to churn around them, swirling through the rest stop parking lot. 

“Just how am I going to be in any different a situation in my own car? Which, by the way, you two have both told me is more likely to be attacked than the other car?” 

Dylan glanced at his brother.

“By switching up at every rest stop, we’re hoping if someone is pursuing, they might not know which car you’re in.” 

Aira growled lowly in her throat. “If someone is pursuing, they’re going to be watching us at every stop—they’ll know which car I’m in.” 

Aiden scowled. “They might be pursuing at a distance. If you didn’t find it necessary to argue with every idea we come up with, we could switch you between cars quickly enough that someone not directly behind us wouldn’t know.” 

The wind picked up as she stood there, losing control of her temper. She knew instinctively Aiden was too experienced with her persuasive wiles to be an easy target, particularly when he was in the obstinate state of mind he was currently in. She turned her attention to Dylan. He’d trained himself to resist her, but if she caught him off-guard, she might succeed in getting around the mental barrier. 

“You should take my side,” she said to Dylan, pressing her will against his mind as she spoke. She heard the words leaving her lips, the slight twist of her voice that signaled the instinctive spell she was using. For a moment—an instant—Dylan’s resolve flickered. She saw the uncertainty in his eyes, and Aira was on the point of reinforcing the command when he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. 

“That was beneath you, Aira,” Dylan said, opening his eyes once more. 

Aira felt a flash of shame. 

“I can understand why you’re annoyed, but it’s more important to keep you safe. Aiden and I made promises to your grandmother—we intend to keep them.” 

Aira sighed and walked stiffly to the car she had been sharing with Dylan, opening the passenger side door and extracting her book bag and phone. 

“I hate both of you!” she said, taking her spare keys out of her purse and unlocking the door to her own car before climbing in. The wind howled, barely within her control, and Aira suppressed her intense annoyance with effort, re-establishing her dominion over her element and bringing the wind back down. She closed her eyes, feeling the pressure of her abilities welling inside of her. She had heard stories about unstable, over-powered elementals from the past, the level of destruction they had wrought. Fire and air elementals tended to cause the most damage when they went unhinged. It was part of why the elders had been established. There needed to be a group of utterly stable, completely uninvolved elementals, removed from the world and its demands, who could oversee matters for all of those still in a position to interact with regular humans. It was not a position a person could be elected to. Elders were born into the position and given years of special education, training, and responsibility starting at a very young age, leading to their eventual appointment as presiding elders died. 

All elementals were at least slightly afraid of the elders. The elders weren’t particularly powerful in terms of the amount of elemental energy they had at their command, but their laws and decisions were absolute. Once the elders came to a decision about an elemental—that he or she was irredeemably unstable, that they posed a threat to the community as a whole—that elemental was as good as gone. If Aira became the ruler of her element, she would have to work closely with the elders. They made their decisions based on the input from the rulers, and any decision to put an elemental to death was technically the province of the rulers, though the elders made the decree itself, and carried it out. Other decisions would come under her jurisdiction if she became the Regina Sylphaea—matters both major and minor. Her life would be completely different if she rose to the role.

But she couldn’t simply decline it. She was too powerful, had too much elemental energy for the elders to let her simply live her life. She would have to be constrained either by becoming a leader for her own element, or by some other resort. If she were more powerful than the person chosen to rule, her life would become much more complicated. She would be under constant watch, and her propensity for instability could be just the excuse a wary ruler of the element needed to decree that she should be put to death. While Aira resented her grandmother’s constant harping on the subject of her finding a mate, Aira realized it was from a legitimate wisdom that the only way she could preserve her safety would be to ally herself with another powerful family. That way, she could potentially avoid both the necessity of becoming a ruler and the treachery of another elemental family that saw her as a threat. Without a marriage, she would have to go through the testing process, and if she was found too unstable or too powerful, too much of anything other than the right things, then she would be in danger indeed.

C
HAPTER
4

WHEN AIRA ARRIVED AT HER apartment, the first thing she did was throw herself onto the comfortable old couch and shout in relief. The wind rose outside but was not causing any danger of destroying anything, so she didn’t restrain it. It was glorious to be in her own space once more. Even her own bed didn’t call to her like her own precious couch did. 

“Just a few weeks ago, you were interested in nothing more than leaving this place,” Aiden commented, sinking down into one of the comfortable chairs across from her. 

Aira opened her eyes and scowled at him. “I don’t enjoy being kept prisoner anywhere,” she said, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest. 

“You’re not a prisoner,” Dylan said, dropping his bags by his bedroom door and joining them. “It’s more like witness protection.” 

Aira rolled her eyes, stood and moved to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. It was already after sunset, but she knew she was unlikely to sleep. Just in case, she decided to compromise and make decaf, even though the small amount of residual caffeine would probably keep her wired for several hours.