elemental 04 - cyclone (7 page)

In her second battle, against two other strong elementals, Aiden and Dylan had again insisted on going with her. Saoirse had been adamant against it—right up until Aiden produced a fire-blade in his hands and threatened her with it. Dylan had calmed the energetic, and slightly annoying, elemental’s energies with his own magic while Aira bent the woman’s mind to her will. He knew Aira felt ambivalent about that particular ability, but she was becoming more and more adept at it, more capable of getting the result she wanted without expending very much energy.

That was part of the reason Dylan was so concerned about her. It was more important than ever that he and Aiden maintain their ability to resist her persuasive capabilities. As Aira grew better at wielding the ability, it would become a greater temptation for her to use it regularly—a temptation that had brought many elementals to the brink of sanity, particularly those who possessed the ability as strongly as Aira. Dylan knew if a person could manipulate almost anyone—could bend them to their will with minimum effort—the power often went to their head, making them question their trust in any person or relationship. As it came more easily, it could become difficult to even be aware when they were using it and when they were not. By staying firmly un-persuadable, he and Aiden would be doing the best possible thing for keeping Aira rooted in reality.

There were other troubling signs of her increased instability as well. Dylan knew Lorene had transferred her vital energy into her granddaughter in part as an attempt to stabilize her, but water energy was not always constant. Being a mutable element, it was very easy under the wrong circumstances for water elementals, or those bearing water energy, to become very unstable. In his dreams, Dylan saw a possibility of Aira becoming worse under the influences of not only her own flighty, mercurial energy as she gained better control over it, but also the infusion of her grandmother’s energy. He saw Aira in the midst of a maelstrom, a raging tempest she couldn’t escape. He was troubled by the thoughts. There had to be something he could do to help her, but whenever he thought of Aira and her precarious position he didn’t know what that could be.

When Dylan had told his brother about his dream, Aiden had suggested that the only way Aira could possibly stabilize—and remain stable—would be with a mate. It was the solution Aira’s own grandmother had pointed out, and it certainly made sense in most cases. For elementals, part of the mating process involved combining and mingling energies. If Aira found a mate whose energy was more stable than hers and mingled her energy together with his, then she would receive a stabilizing influence, an anchor for her flightiness. But if she mingled her energies with a mate who was less stable—or at the very least no more stable—then it could spell disaster for her. It was part of the reason her grandmother had tried to convince Aira to submit to an arranged marriage. Lorene would have been able to select an appropriate mate whose energies would complement rather than reinforce Aira’s. 

Dylan knew Aiden’s idea was sound, but the timing was wrong. There was no realistic way for Aira to find a mate in her current situation. Anyone remotely interested in her right now would very likely have ulterior motives and could be dangerous. If Aira had found a mate before her grandmother had died it might have been of benefit to her, but for the moment, the only thing he and Aiden could hope was that Aira would manage to hold herself together and remain sufficiently stable throughout the trials and testing, so that she could find a mate afterwards. 

There would still be some danger of ulterior motives even if she became the ruler of her element, but she would at least have a wide variety of potential mates to choose from. There was a secondary reason for Aiden suggesting Aira find a mate, which Dylan would have understood even if his watery essence hadn’t gifted him with empathy – Aiden was still hung up on Aira, and he thought if she found a mate, he could move on from her more readily. Dylan was partially amused and partially concerned for both his brother and the woman who had been their charge and become his friend. He knew something about the two of them that he didn’t think either of them realized—but he couldn’t tell them. If he told them outright, neither of them would believe it.

Dylan’s concern had increased because of the way Aira had conducted herself in her second battle. She had been all power—not as much finesse, not as much strategy. He had watched her bowl over her other two opponents who had, as in the first battle, decided to both throw everything they had at her at the same time. Dylan had put a damper on Aiden’s energy as his older brother’s protective instincts began to take over. He began to heat up the atmosphere around him and they could not interfere with the battle going on in the arena. They were strictly observers, and not even official ones at that. But the show of power Aira had produced had been absolutely unequivocal. Using a wind vortex to shield herself, she had risen off of the floor in flight, hovering above the two combatants. She didn’t use her persuasive ability in the second battle the way she had in the first, instead sending volleys and gusts of wind at her opponents that knocked them down time and again. She knocked aside the spells they’d cast and the energy weapons they’d formed as easily as if they were toys; casting spells of her own, murmuring them while the wind guarded her in flight. She had even created a distracting and dangerous aurora borealis in the middle of the room, charged with energy that expanded to threaten both of her opponents. 

The most concerning thing about the situation was not the display of sheer power, but the fact that, for a very brief moment, after the elders called for the end of the fight Aira had almost resisted their command. She had nearly continued fighting in spite of the rules, and in spite of the fact that Dylan knew she legitimately didn’t want to kill anyone she was fighting against. The aurora she had created would injure, and if the other combatants had become stuck inside of its charged confines it might have damaged them severely, but it wouldn’t have killed either of them. It was a spell that was mostly defensive, one Dylan had seen Lorene teaching her but had never truly seen in action until that moment. It had been a heart-stopping moment when Aira had hesitated at the instant the elders called a halt to the fight; he had seen the flicker across his friend’s face, the look of self-will, of determination—his heart had begun pounding even after he had seen Aira subside. 

Aira was in a final pool of four elementals, those who had passed the initial battle stage of the trials to go onto other forms of being tested by the elders. There were no real guidelines for how the next stage—or stages—would go, at least none that were clearly understood. Dylan knew when the elders selected an elemental ruler, they tended to prize the ability to make clear, informed decisions and to follow through on information to pass a judgment. Part of the ruler’s role in the elemental hierarchy was to judge whether a family or elemental was a risk to the community as a whole. If they were, they had to decide whether that level of risk was tolerable, or whether that elemental—or even the whole family of elementals—should be executed. 

Elementals lived in a precarious situation. They lived among regular humans, and most of them had “regular” lives but they were caretakers of an energy and magic that regular humans could never know about. If there were too few elementals there would be an imbalance among the forces; the inheritance of elemental power was uncertain, as well. Two elementals could have five children, who were all born with the particular powers and abilities, or they could have none at all, and variations thereof existed as well. The attorney who managed Aira’s grandmother’s estate had been born into an elemental family, but had very few if any of the abilities beyond a general ability for financial affairs. Aira’s own family was a mixture of varying abilities. Her mother had latent water abilities that were not at the same strength or stability as Aira’s grandmother. 

Aira’s level of strength, her sheer raw power, mingled with her flighty nature—a common feature of air elementals—was reason to give the entire community pause and no group more so than the elders. Dylan was concerned for his friend’s fate if she was not found to have the right combination of skills and abilities it took to be a ruler of the element. Whoever was decided in her place might, judging her power to be too much of a threat, decide that she should be put to death because she was incurably unstable and a risk. Even acquiring a mate would not necessarily make Aira safe, if she didn’t gain the throne. 

A few days after her second trial, Aira was sleeping deeply one night when Dylan texted his brother. He knew Aiden wouldn’t be sleeping. Dylan had given Aira a tea to encourage deep and restful sleep. As she continued to struggle with her grief over her grandmother’s passing, in addition to the stress of the position she was in, Aira was getting less and less sleep—waking several times each night, the wind rising as she awoke out of agitated stress-dreams. Dylan wished on more than one occasion that her grandmother had lived long enough to give him more training on such kitchen magic—a kind of magic the older woman had excelled in not only out of her alignment with the element of water, but because she had been genuinely interested in it. 

“What’s up, bro?” Aiden asked as he stepped into Dylan’s room without knocking. Dylan looked sincerely at his brother.

“I’m starting to get really worried,” Dylan said with a sigh. “I think the elders are going to force a crisis for Aira—and I don’t know how she’ll handle it.” 

Aiden sat down, making a face. “I know. After her displays of power, they’ve got to be worried about her. If she can’t hold it together, they’re going to put her to death even before they make their decision on who should rule.” 

Dylan groaned. He had made promises to Aira’s grandmother that he and Aiden would stay on to protect her after the older woman’s death. He had promised he would make sure she wasn’t alone. He didn’t regret easing the woman’s mind—and somehow she’d had the foresight to provide instructions to her attorney, separate of her will, to continue paying Aiden and himself for their services as bodyguards for Aira. He appreciated the gesture, since it meant that in the couple of months since the woman’s passing, he and Aiden were not without income—but it almost seemed unfair of them to continue taking money, when they couldn’t guarantee Aira’s safety.

“I don’t think the watery energy inside of Aira is helping her. I think it’s making things worse.” 

Aiden looked at his brother quizzically. Dylan explained what had happened, and his thoughts behind why the old woman had done what she had. 

“No wonder she’s been the way she has; the water energy’s making her moody, the air energy is making her irritable and anxious. Not a good combination.” Aiden shook his head. “Have you noticed she seems to be leaning on people more and more often? I’m scared for her, Dylan. Not just that they’ll decide to put her to death, but the way she’ll unravel before they do, if she goes that way.” 

Dylan paused. He could see that in spite of the way Aiden played off his attachment to Aira, that there was a depth of emotion he hadn’t seen in his older brother before. A true concern for her—the same level of concern that Aiden would have for his own brother. He filed that away in his mind without addressing it.

“If she loses her mind, she could be incredibly destructive. I mean, you saw what she was like when she first came into her full abilities. It wouldn’t be hard to justify the elders putting her to death.” 

Dylan watched Aiden start to argue the point—the look of defiance on his older brother’s face—before his bright eyes dimmed and he nodded.

“So what can we do for her?” Dylan chewed his bottom lip in thought.

“We have to get the water energy out of her. I think she’s holding onto it not…not just because it gives her an edge against her competitors who can’t manipulate water energy at all, but because it’s a part of her grandmother, and Aira doesn’t want to give that up.” 

Aiden’s eyes widened. “How are we going to do that?” he asked. 

Dylan shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know that she’s got to get back to normal energy levels if she’s going to have even a remote chance of survival and holding on to her sanity.” 

C
HAPTER
9

AIRA WAS APPREHENSIVE AS SHE walked into the building of the elders. Energy swirled inside of her, power flowed along her arms and legs, her mind ran at a million miles per hour. She took a deep breath and heard her grandmother’s voice, a litany of a lesson that she had received on multiple occasions as a child.
“Your mind knows the difference between excitement and anxiety—your body does not. You have to bring your mind and body together in order to be able to control either.”
Aira felt decidedly anxious at the prospect of her continued testing. The two battles that she had been involved in had been challenging in their own way, but Aira was much more concerned about the testing that would determine her stability—and her fitness to rule psychologically and intellectually. 

The elders hadn’t given her any indication in the message they had delivered via Saoirse that actual testing would be going on or any kind of particular trial would be happening. The younger woman had arrived at Aira’s apartment and said simply that the elders wanted to speak with her—not that it was time for the next phase. Aira’s fast-moving mind, trapped in speculation for the entire drive to the temporary headquarters of the elemental elders, had filled with scenarios that might play out. She wished she had brought her tarot cards with her. She was finding it harder and harder to get real answers from the cards—but they might provide her with some guidance for the situation she was about to face. 

Aira knew Dylan and Aiden were worried about her. Dylan had suggested the day before that the energy Aira had been given by her grandmother was not helping her as much as the older woman had hoped. Aira could sense the truth in Dylan’s words—she felt increasingly unsteady. The water energy her grandmother had imparted to her had initially helped suppress the wilder aspects of her air energy, but over time she had sensed the stronger energy of her alignment overruling the steady calm of the water energy. She felt as though she was spawning a hurricane inside of herself, an unstoppable force of nature she couldn’t quite control. However, she didn’t know how to release the water energy within her. She had thought that her creation of the storm at the first of her trials would accomplish it, bleeding the energy out of her, sending it into the world once more, but it had not.