elemental 05 - inferno (2 page)

Aiden followed his brother’s gaze and looked down at the woman who both frustrated and enchanted him. Aiden started, seeing that Aira not only wasn’t shivering anymore—but there was more color in her face. 

“Whatever you’re doing, man, it’s clearly helping.” 

Aiden smiled slightly, feeling a small measure of relief at the fact that Aira wasn’t looking quite so much like she might die at any moment. Listening carefully, Aiden heard the wind howling steadily and the leaves of nearby trees rustling. 

“I was so tired,” Aiden said, slipping away from Aira carefully so he wouldn’t disturb her—though he wasn’t sure she could actually be disturbed in her current state. She twitched slightly, making a sound between a whimper and a moan, but the wind didn’t stop and Aira didn’t resume her shivering. Aiden kept his hand on Aira’s shoulder as he slipped down onto the floor next to the couch, yawning as he looked at his brother. “What have you got?” 

Dylan picked up the bags and yawned in an echo of Aiden’s reaction. 

“That’s because you’re not sleeping,” Dylan said flatly, raising an eyebrow at him. 

Aiden shrugged, smiling again. He was still so tired that he felt almost drunk—but he was feeling better than he had before laying with Aira in the depths of his concern and fatigue. Dylan took one item after another out of the bags; some of them familiar herbs and spices and some of them rare. Aiden wondered how long he’d been asleep for Dylan to have tracked down so many things. He looked them over. 

“This potion should, if I make it right,  strengthen Aira’s energies—her natural, elemental energies.” Dylan made a face Aiden recognized as evidence of his brother’s self-doubt. “I don’t know how to get rid of the poison residue in her system yet, but I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, this should at least bring her back to the land of the living.” 

Aiden knew Dylan was, in his own way, just as concerned about Aira as he was. While they had been keeping their vigil over her, their conversations had been hushed and held with low voices. Dylan admired Aira, and certainly respected her strength, but he didn’t have any romantic feelings towards her at all—and he didn’t think he ever would. He viewed her as he would a sister. Aiden and Dylan had two other siblings—both brothers. Dylan had never known what it was like to have a sister until Aira. But Aiden, even though he had once suspected Dylan of being interested in Aira, found that his brother’s feelings toward Aira made perfect sense. Aira’s easygoing confidence in Aiden’s brother wasn’t the kind of relationship that made for lovers—it was the kind that subsisted between the closest of platonic friends. Aiden may have thought at one time if he couldn’t have Aira that Dylan would be a good match for her, but Dylan himself had corrected him of that notion.

“How long is it going to take you to whip it up?” Aiden asked him. He wished he could be of more use than simply guarding Aira, but the kinds of magic Aiden possessed, the things he could do, were not geared towards healing. If they could get Aira back on her feet, he could possibly be of help to her by finding out what the hell Alex’s thinking had been. Aiden’s fiery nature flared up at the thought of Alex. It was bad enough that Dolores had been involved in Alex’s trickery, but the man who had poisoned Aira wasn’t worth the dirt under his feet anymore as far as Aiden was concerned. He was almost looking forward to the possibility of interrogating him—in private, away from the prying eyes of any advocate. The rules of elemental justice were not quite the same as those of regular justice; no one would really think too much of Aiden roughing Alex up when he was scheduled to die anyway. But the kinds of things Aiden found himself wanting to do to the evil, unstable elemental were not ones he wanted just anybody to witness.

“It’ll take a couple of hours. She’s doing better right now so she can afford the time.” Dylan stood and gathered his ingredients: anise, lavender, lemongrass, lemon, and several potent medicinal and resinous smelling items Aiden didn’t recognize at all. It reminded him of the tiny street markets he’d walked through once on the other side of the world. 

Dylan went into the kitchen and started whistling lowly to himself, and Aiden turned his attention back to Aira.

Dylan was right; she had improved though Aiden didn’t understand how or why. She looked more like she was sleeping normally, her breath steady, her body still gaunt but not tense and twisting and shivering as it had been before. Aiden let out a sigh of relief as he watched her. They needed to help her clear the poison out of her system so she could fulfill the task she was set to do by the elders. Once that was complete, they would have to help her in whatever way they could to finish her trials and hopefully become the ruler of her element. Then, would come the task of helping her find a mate. Once she had achieved the high state of ruler, there would be a certain immune quality to Aira—no one would dare assassinate the elemental ruler. That would mean absolute and certain death—not just for them, but their family and any associates they might have. It just wasn’t worth it. The entire world of elementals would be against them, no matter what imagined provocation there was. 

So when Aira managed to reach the honor of Regina Sylphaea, she would be safe; potential mates would flock to her, and she could have her choice from any of the eligible elementals in the world. Aiden tried not to resent the fact there would be powerful elementals vying for her hand. It was the end goal that her grandmother had been seeking for her all along. He couldn’t begrudge Aira her happiness, and he had always known it was his job all along to make sure she found someone. Even still, Aiden couldn’t help wishing deeply that there was some other way.

C
HAPTER
2

AIRA CAME BACK TO HERSELF slowly; she was aware of aches and pains in her body before she was fully aware of her mind. Her eyes remained closed, but gradually she picked up the sound of the wind blowing hard outside, the slight shuffling of two people moving around close to her, and the smells of fragrant herbs. She realized the mildly acidic, bittersweet flavor in her mouth had to be some kind of potion. As her awareness returned, in a flash everything that had preceded her long time in the dark came flooding back: the trial she had been given to determine Alex’s fate, the fight with Aiden, falling into Alex’s tempting arms, and finding herself poisoned. The memory of being put before the elders to render her verdict was slightly less clear but still present, and the command of the elders—that she would have to kill Alex herself to prove she could follow through on the decision she had made—hit the front of her mind with a shock, accompanied by the realization that she had no idea how long she had been out.

Aira opened her eyes to fing Dylan and Aiden hovering over her; Dylan with an oral syringe in his hand—he had clearly been using it to shoot whatever potion he had whipped up into her mouth slowly, rather than pouring the liquid and risking the possibility of accidentally choking her or having it spit out violently. Dylan looked tired but as his dark eyes widened and filled with the realization that she was awake and alert—for the moment at least—he looked satisfied. 

Aira groaned, aware of the lingering ache in every joint of her body, the weakness in her limbs. She looked at Aiden as she reached up feebly to rub her face. Aiden did not look as well as Dylan; his face was covered in days-old stubble, his hair was highly unkempt in snarls and tufts around his head, and his eyes were bloodshot. “The hell is wrong with you?” Aira asked him gruffly, struggling to sit up. Every movement sent waves of pain through her body. Dylan snorted, putting the syringe aside and disappearing from Aira’s field of vision.

“I was making sure you didn’t die in your sleep, woman,” Aiden replied testily. Aira yawned and finally managed to pull herself up, looking at Aiden skeptically.

“How exactly were you preventing my death?” she asked him, feeling irritated in general and knowing that, whether or not he deserved it, Aiden made an excellent target for her bad mood.

“Oh, you know,” Dylan said from behind her, coming around to shoot her a grin as he took the spot on the couch vacated by her feet. “Staring at you, mostly. Though you didn’t die while I was trying to figure out how to help you, so maybe it helped.” There was amusement in Dylan’s eyes as he glanced at his older brother. Aira wondered if there was some subtext she wasn’t getting from the comment. Aira scrubbed at her face and hair with her hands, feeling as though she’d been asleep for a year—there was a sensation of grime against her skin, a greasiness to her hair that she didn’t like. 

“How long have I been out?” she asked. She imagined she didn’t look much better than Aiden did. 

“You mean since the elders decreed that you have to kill Alex?” 

Aira nodded. Aiden glanced at his phone. “Three days. You’ve got another three days until you either kill him or you’re out of the running for elemental ruler.” 

Aira took a deep breath and exhaled with a gusty sigh, closing her eyes a moment and rubbing them with her palms.

“Why does my mouth taste like flowers?” she asked Dylan testily. 

Dylan chuckled. “It’s a potion I whipped up. I guess the lavender lingers.” 

Aira made a face. “Well, if it’s going to make me better, I guess it’s not that bad.” 

Dylan’s amused expression turned solemn and Aira raised an eyebrow at him. 

“It’s not actually going to make you better. Not really.” 

Aira glanced from Dylan to Aiden and back. 

Dylan took a deep breath. “It’s strengthening, but the poison is still in your system, and we don’t know why. Until we can find out why, you’re going to be weak.” Aira ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it back and cringing.

“So, I won’t be able to actually kill Alex the way they want me to,” she said, making a face as she looked down at her legs. “They didn’t actually say I couldn’t just shoot him,” she mused, half-joking. She knew shooting Alex wasn’t the solution. It was an elemental matter, she would have to execute him using her elemental abilities somehow. Aira heard the wind howling outside and tried to reach out with her mind to control it, to calm it to normal proportions. She found that, in spite of the potion Dylan had given her, she couldn’t—the wind was blowing through her, the energy coming from her, but her ability to actually control it, to bring it down, was weakened still. Aira clenched her teeth and focused with her mind, struggling against the weakness that flowed through her. She had been controlling the wind since she was a child, she should be able to do this, but the wind was out of her conscious control. Aira sighed and hoped that it wasn’t going to escalate to destructive speeds, hurt someone, or destroy their home while she tried to figure out how she was going to regain control of her abilities.

“We’ll figure it out,” Aiden said. “We’ve got three days. Dylan made up a metric ton of that potion. You’re going to have to keep taking it between now and then and now that you’re not in danger of actually dying, I can start investigating what the hell Alex was really up to.” 

Aira nodded, thinking that before she tried to figure anything out, she wanted a bath… badly.

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and exhaling firmly. “Here’s my thinking: first, I want to get clean, because the grunge look is not for me.” Aiden and Dylan both smiled faintly. “Next, we need to get information on what the hell Alex did to me with that poison, so we can find out how to counteract it. I think it’s going to take all three of us to get anything out of Alex.” Aiden started to protest, to interrupt her. “Shut up for a second. Yes, you’re a very formidable fire elemental, but Dylan and I took care of Alex on our own once—and Dolores too. Between the three of us, we should be able to get the information out of him.” 

“She’s got a point,” Dylan said, glancing from Aira to his brother. “You can bring the pain as needed, I can do a few things to him, and Aira might be able to get together enough power to use her persuasive ability.” 

Aira chewed on her bottom lip, if she couldn’t manage something as elementary to her elemental nature as controlling the wind, compelling a mind would be much more difficult. But she didn’t correct Dylan. She would have to see what they could do. 

“And then we fix me, and then I kill that asshole and order the rest of his family killed after him. Then we’ll face whatever the elders decide to do to me next.” 

Aiden and Dylan exchanged glances that Aira couldn’t quite read, but they both nodded slowly, agreeing to her proposal. 

Aira wasn’t sure whether she was more pleased or disappointed that Aiden convinced Dylan to help her into the bath, rather than taking the job himself. “It’s not like he hasn’t seen me naked,” Aira grumbled slightly as Dylan helped her up the stairs to her bedroom. She hated feeling weak, being in pain from head to toe. Aira had only rarely been ill in the course of her life—whatever poison Alex had used on her was a wicked thing indeed if she’d been incapacitated by it for five days altogether. Dylan chuckled, opening the door for her and leading her through the bedroom and into the bathroom.

“He has seen you naked, I’ve seen you naked… but he’s the one who’s had sex with you.” 

Aira rolled her eyes. “Is everyone always going to hold that against me?” she asked critically. 

Dylan moved to start the water for a bath and Aira closed the cover on the toilet and sat down as Dylan adjusted the water temperature, fully aware that she was going to need as much of the potion as possible. On some level she was glad Dylan was in the bathroom with her instead of Aiden; there was a valid point in what he’d said. There was just too much temptation between her and the fire elemental, even if she knew it was a bad idea. Aira was in no state to want sex with anyone—considering what she’d opened herself up to with her last tryst. She thought she might take a year of being abstinent as penance for her stupidity—but if she was naked around Aiden, there would be inevitable tension. 

Aira unsteadily stood as Dylan backed away from the bathtub, letting it fill after determining the temperature was right. More than anything she wanted to sink into the water and let it pull the pain out of her body; soak in it for a good hour. But she didn’t have that kind of time to work with; in three days, she would have to execute a man, and she was barely capable of standing up. Dylan helped her out of the pajamas that someone had managed to put her in—Aira didn’t quite have the gumption to ask who it had been—and Aira staggered slightly as she stepped over the lip of the tub, plunging her foot into the warm water. She managed to climb into the tub and slide into the water, closing her eyes and sighing with relief. Dylan sat down nearby, watching her absently without staring. He turned off the water when the tub was full.