Page 35 of The Lost Elemental

“Don’t they get jealous? The guys, I mean. It would be hard for me to share a partner with someone else.”

Phoenix shrugged. “When it’s meant to be, the jealousy doesn’t take root. Not in a real way. There may be moments of frustration, of wanting your Ela to yourself, but there’s never true animosity.”

“Ela?”

“What we call the female bonded. If there is a true mate bond, that jealousy is much less because some part of you feels the destiny of it.”

I looked over at him. “Those are pretty rare now though, right?”

Phoenix nodded. “When the aethers disappeared, the true mate bonds became less frequent as well. But there are still those who experience it.” He stared out at the surrounding forests. “It’s supposed to be a high unlike any other. A gift from the heavens.”

My mouth curved. “My friend, Lainey, was really hoping she’d turn out to be an elemental so she could have one of those destined bonds.”

Phoenix’s lips twitched. “Not everyone in our world is so crazy about the bonds anymore.”

“They’re like me? Not good at sharing?”

He chuckled, but the sound quickly died away. “They’re not good at sharing the power maybe.”

“Power?”

“Not everyone wants to see the kingdoms united.”

I thought back to my history class earlier that day. How the professor had spoken about wars between the kingdoms before the aethers came into existence. “You’ve managed to stay united now. Even without the aethers.”

“Those ties are tenuous at best.”

“Should you be telling me this?”

Phoenix was a prince from the Kingdom of Ash. I didn’t think his rulers would be too happy with him spreading their political intelligence around.

The corner of his mouth kicked up. “People know, they just don’t speak of it.”

“But you don’t like pretty lies.” I wasn’t sure why, but I knew it was true down to my bones. Phoenix craved authenticity and knowing where he stood.

He stared across the space at me, those darker-than-night eyes probing into everything I tried to keep hidden from the world. “I don’t. So why don’t you tell me an ugly truth?”

My heart beat in a rapid rhythm against my ribs, but I couldn’t look away. “I have nightmares. It’s why I don’t sleep well.”

“What are they about?”

“Fire.”

His eyes flared for a moment. “You’re afraid of it.”

“Petrified.” I wasn’t sure why, but the truths just kept coming. It didn’t matter that I was ashamed and embarrassed of them, I kept spilling. As if Phoenix had some sort of hypnotic hold over me.

“You’ll have to let it swallow you whole.”

Blood roared in my ears. “That seems like a poor life choice.”

That husky chuckle was back, but it slipped away in the night. “If you let it consume you, then you become the fire.”

Except fire was the last thing I wanted to become. I didn’t want to torment and destroy. I forced the image from my mind. “What about you? What’s your ugly truth?”

He stared out at the horizon. “My sister’s dead because of me.”

And then he was gone.